Tomas Leaves Caribbean Destruction and Misunderstanding

It;s Either Aid Or It's Business<; Not Both


Our Honorable Prime Minister’s recent pronouncement on giving aid to our Caribbean neighbors who were victims of hurricane Tomas was indeed unfortunate. It is the only disagreement

I have had with a statement… nah, did not like the “take it or leave it” statement either. Well I guess this is the second time that I disagreed with a statement uttered by our Honorable Prime Minister. Here’s why.

In time of need, it is an instinctive nature of man to reach out and help. The story of the good Samaritan is ample reference. If the Samaritan had said: “I will give you lodging if you work for me tomorrow” that entire biblical lesson would have been lost.

But I trust that the PM knows the teachings of the Gita and she demonstrated this when she assumed this position. According to the Trinidad Express


The fact is that there is no reason to put conditions on any aid even if the country decides to source their construction services and material from another partner who could not help. I think it was wrong but it is I who could be too quick to judge…
I’m not privy to a lot of information our Honorable Prime Minister has.

But here is one response many of the haters in the other Caribbean islands may not have thought of...

It could be possible that what she was actually saying is that “we broke”. It would be a serious shock, that instead of saying what she said she decided to “buss the mark”.

Just let everyone know that Trinidad and Tobago is on the brink of declaring bankruptcy and we need all the money we have or could get. Could you imagine the run on banks, especially when people know what happen to CLICO depositors? Nah, that would be madness.

But the signs are there. The Governor of the Central Bank comes out of the blues and says we lost over 24,000 jobs in the last fiscal year. Jack Warner saying that the government wants to offer the contractors bonds instead of cash. All yuh blind or wah.

The government is offering and standing firm on a one percent increase for the PSA and offering to pay off CLICO depositors in 20 years. If those are not signs to what we do not know then… Oh yeah, they cancel the OPV even after the British government beg them to buy just one. OK, you decide for yourself.

Here is my position, the problem is politics and governance. The government cannot tell the people what is really going on because it will literally turn this country on its ass. It is for the wise to see and hear. Look at the signs, they there.
The government may be in a rather tricky position.

They cannot say what they know because of the potential to hurt the people. And because they cannot communicate to the people the people keep the demands high.

The PSA want 100% increase for their lowest worker from $3,300 to $6000. CLICO depositors want all their money now; HCU too. Everywhere you turn government is being asked to pay, pay, pay. Now think of this.

If you knew what the Honorable Prime Minister may know and then you hear that Tomas beat up St Lucia.

What would you say?


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Talk Eh Cheap - A Look At Your TSTT Phone Charges

Did you know that "our" local telephone company (TSTT) charges landlines for calls from a cell phone?

That may not be the only thing that you don’t know about "our” local telephone company. "Our” because according to the corporate documents, 51 percent of TSTT is owned by “our” government. The other 49 percent is owned by Cable and Wireless International.

Let’s examine the fees "we" charge ourselves but before we do I would like to share a forum post with you. An excerpt where the poster shared an experience while standing in line at a TSTT store, she relates:

“I remember entering a queue at a BMobile branch, to pay my telephone and cellular phone bills. I saw an old lady who spoke loudly but politely, when she was attended to by the BMobile cashier. She was querying about a cellular phone charge was on her land line telephone bill. She explained to the cashier that she never calls anyone on their cellular phone, only land line telephones.

The cashier quietly inquired if anyone contacted her from their cellular phone. She proudly confessed that, her son stays in touch with her, by calling her from his cellular phone. The cashier then confirmed that this was the charge reflected on her land line bill. Poor lady! She seemed so confused and my heart went out to her when I heard her say:

"TSTT charges for receiving cellular phone calls on a land line telephone? I thought TSTT only charged the client for calling a cellular phone and not receiving the call!"

You can read the rest of that post here.

The fact is that the telephone service TSTT has used it position of trust and the fact that we "own" the company to leverage it's profit generating potential at the expense of the citizens of this country.


When TSTT was the only cell phone carrier, their charges by today’s standards were astronomical.

Things may appear to have changed since then but even with a competitor in the cellular market TSTT is still charging ridiculous fees. We now have one in the land line the Flow Cable company and Digicel is the only competitor in the cellular market.

In the next couple of posts we will look at all three companies to assess which is the best of the limited options.

Let's start with the giant in terms of local phone companies. Below is a screen shot of the rate page of the TSTT site it is illegible but go here to see the actual page TSTT page.

Click here to read more...

Why Blog?

"The only thing you take with you when you're gone is what you leave behind." John Alliston

I think this is explaining time. Time to explain to you more than myself why I continue to write and publish this blog. You do not know but when I started this blog the intentions was not what it is today. In fact, I just started it because it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. I did my first post on November 08 it was Caribbean Blogging from Trinidad

Here was my thinking. I needed an outlet for my writing, one of the worst things anyone could do is to keep writing without the hope of it ever being read. This reminds me of a neighbor, an 82 year old man who lives a very really secluded, almost eccentric lifestyle.

Read more here...

Are You Cold Yet?

Reading reports out of Europe and the US shivers my imagination with memories of many harsh winters spent in New England. I know that professional weather men can miscalculate and instead of light snow whiteout blizzards hit.

I recollect my initial amazement at the attention everyone paid to the weather reports. That amazement quickly turned to appreciation when I experienced the quick changes in the weather.

Before I left Trinidad, maybe because I did not pay attention, the weather and the temperature was not important. In this region there is a rainy season and dry season; that’s it.

Two months ago the Commonwealth Head Of Government met here to discuss climate change. Maybe that had something to do with it but suddenly...

It’s cold here now. Most locals would agree the nights and early mornings are a lot colder than it has ever been. Cold for the natives here is anywhere near or around 70 degree F., mormally it like this.

Even people who know the cold feel it here. A family member who is visiting from Boston and staying in Santa Cruz was complaining to me about how cold Trinidad had become. This from a man who had to shovel his car to catch the plane here.

Point is climate change is beginning to happen, Caribbean people must pay attention.

30-SECOND SURVEY WAS A MARKETING TEST

Imagine asking me that?

The survey is over and here are the results. In a group of 48 members, at the time, 20%, responded to the 30-second survey. That 20% spoke for everyone because they represented a significant enough sample size to draw some conclusions. If you are here to learn, this was a marketing lesson.

Think about it, the first thing you should try to do is understand your market. Find out what they want and what they are doing. In fact, find out as much about them as possible. So, was the survey a success? Here is what I found out from the short 30-second survey.

I was impressed with the results and the yield. But, what must be going through your mind right now is well if only 20% of the population responded, that could not have been very successful.

Well there is a proposition advanced by neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) that questions cannot be “not answered” . Sometime we may not want to face it but the answer is always there. Think on it for a moment. When a question is not answered, is that not an answer in itself? That’s the reason why the subject of the email announcing the survey was very specific on the time it would take. This was a marketing test. I learned…

That 80% of the group members, at that point in time, thought that 30 seconds would slow them down. Too busy, don’t think it mattered or had too many emails on FB that they are all deleted. Point is that the reason does not matter; it’s the results that counts. I don’t think that there was a possibility that the 80% of the members did not get that email or did not check their FB account for 5 days.

Remember that these members voluntarily opted in to receive tips and marketing strategies delivered into their in box at free. And that it right there,” free”. The internet is about free and joining many programs are free so we stack them up and forget about them. If you don’t like the free stuff you can freely leave. Apparently, our instinctive, almost insatiable desire to learn more exceeds our available time.

I happen to think it’s perfect, because one thing we do know in marketing is that free works. But it must be understood.

Free gets you a crowd of hand raisers and in that population you will find your conversions. Let me share another interesting thought; the member who don’t read these emails are not reading this either. Takes too long and must be digested with the speed of broadband. I think now you can see why a 20% response is considered successful. But that was not the only surprise.

On the first question about the single most important thing you wanted to learn from this group> Most respondents picked strategic planning (54%), how to advertise (45%), writing marketing plans (27%) and selling your own product or service (27%) direct response advertising (2%) and copy writing(2%). Those were very interesting revelations on that question.

On the question of how much you read the majority ended up in the 60-80 percent. So, does that mean I cut down what I write about 20%? There were a few on the lower range in term of how much was read but that only represent 3% of the respondents.

Here is another interesting fact, 90% of the respondents are engaged in some type of marketing. Maybe they look at reading about marketing as work?

I hope that your questions about why we went international was answered in the results of this survey. The lesson to be learned here is that you must know your market, audience, customers or clients. The only way to know is to ask. Ask in a way that it’s easy for them to respond. Don't expect a response from everyone and make decisions based on what they tell you.

As always be well.

THE CARIBBEAN BASIN THINK TANK

Why Blog?

This blog was established to support the growing membership on Plaxo and Linkedin. The group platform on Linkedin leaves much to be desired and although Plaxo is more flexible it's impossible for the members to stay on topic. In my humble opinion, nobody joins a group with the intention of discussing a specific issue and instead must read various topics.

This blog is solely about issues related to the Caribbean.

Here you will get the latest Caribbean news stories making it easier to get a sense of the business climate of the particular island of interest. You also get access to people inside each country so that you can request for information related to your business. There will be no blatant advertising on this blog except with the moderator's approval.

The Linkedin and Plaxo group members now have a place where they can find information relevant to their business and opportunities in which they can become involved. But this blog is open to everyone even if you are not a member of those groups.

Thank you for visiting and feel free to introduce yourself and let everyone know why you have become a member of this group.

We love you for being here, Stay Blessed