Category: Trinidad and Tobago
A man is using a grinder and blacks out, because his blood sugar is
low. He gashes his leg with a four inch dig that is bleeding profusely.
His father rushes him to Casualty at around 8 pm.
When he arrives he is bleeding but he is concious. A nurse administers
a gauze dressing as he is still bleeding. He is then told to sit and
wait, which he does FOR THE NEXT 5 HOURS.
During this time, he sees heart cases being seen to, a gunshot wound is
rushed in and 12 pregnant women are brought in. Apparently, pregnant
women must be first processed by CASUALTY before sending foward.
He continues to leak blood on the floor, through the bandage till just after
1 AM, when he is seen by an Attending. The Doctor at that point removes
the dressing and is shocked at the damage, asking how it occured.
He then proceeds to probe into the open wound with his fingers, to FINALLY
see if any stray metal fragments have been left THEN administers anesthesia
(local) and antiseptic, indicating he should be warded.
The wound is deep and open so around 25 stiches are required to pull together
the flesh and tighten together. This is very excruciating and time consuming act,
during which local stopped working.
After that, he is passed to a nurse, who DISCHARGES him and he goes home.
The reason for his accident, the blackout apparently forgotten in the process. He
leaves around 3AM to return home. This is health "care".
On the other side of this equation Drs Kerryn Brahim & Safeeya Mohammed-Bhagan
and the team at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the same hospital took time and
effort to personally champion the cause of premature babies. {Read more}
The Hon. Minister of Education and the Hon. Prime Minister have both attempted to allay concerns expressed through media questions following reports of Hewlett Packard's (HP's) US$55 million settlement with the US Department of Justice (DoJ) yesterday. The fears seems to arise from HP being accused of being involved in kickbacks, which in T&T parlance is most often indicative of some Minister or Party-in-Power representative getting undue state funding.
On analysing publicly available information, it appears that the US case differs from the T&T contract in key elements, enough to suggest that the risk of similar kickback charges in T&T is low or non-existent. However, there are some questions relevant to T&T. First though, a summary of what happened in the US.
What are the charges that led to the HP/DoJ settlement? {Read more}
We often use foreign quotations but occasionally someone in T&T creates a gem worthy of praise.
Of the many responses to the question posed in this article's title, the most touching to me for fluency, rhythm and meaning that surpasses and belies its brevity has been:
'Take the image of a maypole. Everyone in T&T is holding a string with his name on it. What we're trying to do is make the perfect weave. That is what Independence is about.' - renowned T&T artist LeRoy Clarke
So poignant, I almost paused breathing to think about it. If you understand his words, you'd wonder at the immense power they contain. Make it happen.
At the risk of it falling on ears that have become spectacularly deaf since 25 May 2010, somebody needs to go to the Ministry of Education (MoE) at 18 Alexandra Street, St Clair, and screech loudly to the folks in there: 'MoE, we have a problem!'
If that shocks the senior technocrats there, and the Hon. Minister of Education or his Permanent Secretary, into pausing just long enough to consider what folks, like me, have been writing for the past few months on this issue, then it would be worth it. The issue: the Laptops for SEA Graduates give-away. We can analyse this in many ways, but I wish to focus on just a few concerns.
(1) What's the full, itemised cost for this project?
The Hon. Education Minister, Tim Gopeesingh, has claimed that the TT$83 million price of the laptops represents value for money. He claims this was done by cutting out the middle-man and going directly to the laptop vendor, HP. That may give some initial comfort to folks who're wondering, since one or both of the local agents for HP is part of the Gillette Group, if the decision to buy HP laptops is a reward for an alleged UNC financier. However, having worked in the industry, I doubt any US vendor would undermine their local retail and support agents by selling directly to local customers (and thus preventing the local agent from earning a commission), so there must be something in it for the local agents: what is it, and what does it cost the taxpayers? A further rebuttal of this value for money statement may be found here. {Read more}
Those of you on facebook can see my tags which illustrate the story
If not, read names and pictures should speak for themselves...
Essentially after 2 hours rain this is what we pedestrians traverse
in San Fernando, on main roads that lies the Caribbeans premier
mall Gulf City ( I said that with a straight face = ) and the future
SAPA site by Skinners park...
Pics highlight problems we have faced, not with construction and
thinking of new ideas and schemes to spend money, but with the
idea that we have TO MAINTAIN what we already have, use and
own... Deal with basics of crime, maintainance and education first.
Time for us to champion a new ideal, fix first, whether it be problems
routine maintainance or simply ideas that NEVER worked and then
think about great new ways to spend money. Pass this on to Trinidadians
and lets see if Common sense dictates...
wP
Yes, someone outside of Trinidad and Tobago said it:
...He believes that there is a difference between developing a product and developing a service. “A product is easier to develop; it’s technical so it’s more defined. It either works or it does not work. The minute you put a service out there, it gets consumed by the market place, it gets used and very hard to change.” Whether it may be a service or a product, it’s about reducing the risk of failure. McNulty suggested that T&T should be looking to determine whether there can be growth in sectors such as the beverage and other sectors...
Expand that to the Information Technology and related sectors within Trinidad and Tobago, and you have what so many people from Trinidad and Tobago have been saying. It just doesn't seem to mean as much when that happens. But pay a foreign consultant to say it and...
It seems that the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago has decided to spend $83 million dollars (TT) on laptops for children when they don't have a proper plan for implementation within the present Trinidad and Tobago education system. It's not that children shouldn't have laptops. It's that adults should have a plan for educating children with laptops. They don't have one, or if they do it cannot stand up to a slight breeze of common sense.
But first, what we know. We know the specifications for the laptops (they can be found in this post). We know that the curriculum for subjects has not been adapted to technology use. We can infer that the majority of teachers in Trinidad and Tobago don't know how to use technology in the classroom effectively.
We should know that leveraging open source software such as Linux, Open Office and educational software could well have lowered the costs substantially. We should know that since the Ministry of Education doesn't know what educational software they are going to use because they let the vendor choose the software as shown in in the specifications for the tender in this post. We know that the original budget for these systems was around $45m and that the Trinidad and Tobago government has decided to spend $38 million more on something that they have no effective plan for. We know that the laptops will be outdated in less than 2 years by Moore's Law. {Read more}
I am listening to the current calls from all sections of society that a resumption of hangings is part of the answer to crime.
I believe that examples should be made but not by a few deaths. It is time to review our laws and let the punishments fit the crime.
It must begin with detection and with enforcement. People break laws and are getting away. Why should criminals have fear? How do we make criminals pay?
If you rob someone, that means you take something tangible from them. Imprisonment takes their freedom but reinforces the need not to get caught not that its WRONG!
The old adage "who does not hear must feel" can be applied here. If you wish to rob a man, then be prepared to WORK as punishment. Not hard labour but REAL labour.
Make farming compounds and let inmates get up each day and work until end of sentence. No time off for good behaviour. Simply work for the time alloted by sentence.
If you wish to rape, then be prepared to be sentenced to PUBLIC hard labour, capital punishment and psychological sessions. They must suffer humiliation and scarring of victims.
Want to steal, as white collar criminals are wont to do? Work for a public service, at a standard wage, reporting to police each day, until you have repaid EVERYTHING you stole.
If you choose to litter, then clean the street that you chose to litter on. Punishment should be more than an IDLE or THEORETICAL THREAT but a real concequence for wrong behaviours.
This will also reinforce and reimpower a Police service that suffers from the incompetencies of a beleaguered system, where criminals are out and walking a day after they are caught.
I know that it may seem harsh to some but punishment MUST not just fit the crime, it must be WORSE! Having a death penalty is only a beginning, it is not the complete answer. {Read more}
As reported in today's Trinidad Guardian, the Hon. Minister of Labour, Small and Micro Enterprises Errol Mc Leod says the minimum wage will not be increased to $20 an hour. He was made to respond to widespread claims that this was a People's Partnership campaign promise.
I have searched the Trinidad Guardian and Newsday websites - couldn't search the Trinidad Express because they don't appear to have loaded their articles prior to their recent website crash/refresh.
I could not find any story which quoted a PP rep saying that they support a $20 minimum wage policy.
Instead I found the following: {Read more}
"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}
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