Category: government
"Politics has it's own Morality..." - Basdeo Panday In many regards this statement is true, for to be a Politician in Trinidad and Tobago, one must give up independent thought in favour of the greater "good".
Colm Imbert in an interview published Aug 15, 2010 in the Trinidad Guardian admitted he was unhappy with the property tax but never publically stated his objection because he "...was part of a group" {Read more}
In case you missed it, there's a big leak in the Gulf of Mexico that has begun to cause a lot of problems for wildlife and the American economy - and American lives. We view it at a distance here, almost certain that the leak could never actually hit Trinidad or Tobago. CARICOM has warned of the danger to Jamaica and the Bahamas - but to people in Trinidad and Tobago, it might as well be happening in Antarctica. It's not that we don't care. It's that it's not right under our own noses. Let one flying fish get oil on it and Barbados and T&T will likely fight over it. And Chavez will likely say that the fish was stealing his oil, and he wants it back. {Read more}
My perspective shifted when I realized I was a year older than the appointed Attorney General. There's a line from John Mayer's 'Waiting On The World To Change' that sprang to mind:
...One day our generation Is gonna rule the population ...
Reality sets in. It's only the Attorney General. The majority of them are still the generation or two before me, including the Prime Minister herself. The Attorney General is the warning light, though. It means people of my generation are going to be governing Trinidad and Tobago - even Barack Obama is 10 years older than me. But it has started. Soon, very soon, it's going to be people of my generation.
Like the generation before me who went to school with Patrick Manning and his sisters and who remember the one who died, a sad story. The generation that used to drink with Bas. My father's generation knew these people in a way that was intimate. But people of my generation and younger never shared that intimacy. To many of us, these faces became like the characters on Sesame Street1: sometimes as amusing, sometimes seemingly close but in reality always very distant. They don't look at our generations as equals, they view us as children. And maybe, at least for some, the reverse is true. How we view that generation before might vary from person to person but no one can deny that it is different than viewing a peer.
These people influenced how we saw their generation.
Soon enough, there will be more peers there. And how our generation behaves will determine how the next generations will view us.
And the reason I write this: {Read more}
UNC candidate, Mr Jack Warner, has questioned the late withdrawal by the management of the National Library and Information System Authority (NALIS) of its permission to use NALIS’s Port-of-Spain branch for the People's Partnership manifesto launch today at 10:30 a.m. He claimed that the permission was withdrawn after NALIS accepted the UNC's formal application for the use of its facilities, and after NALIS accepted the UNC's (or Mr Warner's) cheque for the full rental fee of $3,500.
According to NALIS's press release, issued after 4:00 p.m. yesterday by its public relations officer Debbie Goodman:
"... the withdrawal of the use of the Audio Visual Room is in keeping with the established principle on the use of government buildings, during an election period (between nomination day and election day). [The time indicated for the event would] severely disrupt the normal functioning of the library and the offices in the National Library building. We wish to inform you that your request to host a media conference to launch the manifesto of the People’s Partnership cannot be accommodated at this time. Any inconvenience caused is regretted in the circumstances."
I have several questions.
Firstly, I need to know what's the definition of a 'government building'. Is it a building owned by the government? Is it one leased by the government? The importance of this definition unfolds below. {Read more}
The revelation in Trinidad and Tobago Newspapers that Calder Hart had was part of a criminal investigation as of September, 2009, casts some question as to whether the man holding the office of Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Patrick Manning, is indeed an honest man as his pastor alleges.
Why would I write that? There's a problem with the data. Both articles referencing the investigation (linked above) say that the Prime Minister was aware of the investigation that started in September of 2009. Yet in Patrick Manning's 45 documented defenses of Calder Hart, he defended Calder Hart after the investigation was underway:
Then, in Parliament on October 21, 2009, Manning defended Hart, casting him as a public official caught up in a battle between the Prime Minister and his detractors during debate on a bill to validate the proceedings of the Uff Commission of Inquiry.
Hitting out at what he called the “tyranny of the lynch mob” he said, “They want to get Calder Hart but let me tell you it is not Calder Hart. It is not Udecott. It is the Prime Minister and the Government that is what they are after!” While the ex-husband of Hart’s wife Sherrine, Carl Khan, had come forward five months earlier to corroborate Maharaj’s allegations, Manning said of those who took Khan’s allegations seriously, “They are not interested in the truth, they prefer to rely on the evidence of a jilted lover.” {Read more}
The happenings here in Trinidad and Tobago, now with (or without) Hart and with (or without) Property Tax Reform and with (or without) a true change in Opposition, amongst the happenings in my personal life, have me in the frame of mind where I am compelled to write about the elephant - or in T&T, the Manicou - in the middle of the room.
Inertia.
If there is a tone of displeasure here, it is warranted from this writer's perspective. How is it that the face of the country has changed so little for me over the decades? In speaking with one journalist a few weeks ago, my observations were echoed by someone who had more insight into what has been happening over the decades here than I. The faces rarely change, the problems remain the same, and the sliding scale of what is celebrated has slid below mediocrity.
I may sound negative, but isn't it somewhat odd that the country takes the day off when the national football team comes back from the World Cup after being eliminated, having scored only one goal - against themselves? I used to say that was celebrating mediocrity, but it isn't. It's celebrating less than mediocrity. It's a celebration of stagnation; a simple wave of enthusiasm was what was celebrated - a simple hope that something would change. Maybe I am become old and jaded. I am unimpressed with the idiocies tossed around like a dead shuttlecock in Parliament and in the rumshops. I have shaken my head over the years as I have seen more and more money poured into bad ideas - ideas that were so patently bad that even John Q. Mediocrity shook his head with the next nip of puncheon. {Read more}
Yesterday, I took some people down to the Siparia District Revenue Office to get part of their form required for water connection filled out. And the office was closed. A sign on the door said that the Siparia District Revenue Office we were at would be closed as of December 31st, 2009 and told people to go visit the Siparia District Revenue Office - without any form of direction. It ends up that the office wasn't closed, but the sign is there to confuse people.
We met others who wanted to get things done at the District Revenue Office. Tired of no answers, I walked to the building behind and talked to the security who - in their infinite wisdom - told people that they should listen to the news since the people employed by the District Revenue Office were 'on strike'. If you want any information in Trinidad and Tobago, talk to the security guards. It seems that they know everything, and for a little power to demean others they will willingly disburse information.
The day was lost. But I did recall hearing something about the strike - thankfully abbreviated from the 'industrial action' used way too often. I came across this video this morning (hat tip to Margaret Rose), and it gives an interesting - and in my opinion, correct - perspective of what Trinidad and Tobago government has been doing as a whole. That it's on the Internet is inspiring, that Om Lalla and P.S.A President Watson Duke hit the issue so well should become viral.
{Read more}
How do the creatures - I hesitate to call them human - who do this to people sleep at night?
To the state representatives responsible for delivery of such housing, you may not have done such poor work directly, but if you fail to get it repaired and penalise the contractors who did, then you will be equally guilty. It's despicable.
In response, Housing Minister Tina Gronlund-Nunez, stated that the new tenants have only six months to identify all problems they had with HDC homes. Why? For insurance purposes, buildings are ascribed a life of several decades. If over the course of these years a fault develops that can be attributed to poor workmanship by the builders, then they should be liable for it. Is she saying that a state house has a shorter warranty - six months - than the appliances that their tenants would buy? Surely not!
{Read more}
When I got an email this morning with the title of 'Unacceptable' from Raul Bermudez, through the main computing email list of Trinidad and Tobago, I wondered what it could be this time. There are plenty of things that I believe should be considered unacceptable in Trinidad and Tobago. Rather than list those, I'll get to the meat of the email.
The content of the email was a simple link to Andy Johnson's article, Standard of living 'generally acceptable'.
I read. It's about information that has just been released from the 2000 census. 2000. A primary school student would be able to surmise that the information is 9 years old, but that isn't Andy's fault. 9 years. And there are many people who I know that claim that no one approached them about the census, so there is a question of how thorough the census actually has been.
But it took them 9 years to release the information. 9 years. Likely, the report has only now been released - and that means for the last 9 years, the government has been doing planning for infrastructure and the future without data to substantiate it. And those plans have been enacted in the form of annual budgets that make as much sense as the lack of hard data behind them. {Read more}
Delicious
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
Technorati
Icerocket
Recent comments
15 hours 26 min ago
1 day 6 hours ago
3 days 4 hours ago
3 days 4 hours ago
3 days 9 hours ago
4 days 20 hours ago
4 days 20 hours ago
4 days 20 hours ago
4 days 20 hours ago
6 days 8 hours ago