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Trinidad Express:  I Am Mon $8M Man FORMER San Fernando Mayor Ian Atherly is the “mysterious man” who was approached to fight the San Fernando West seat for the People's Partnership. Read More

Newsday:  Jack Pays Up  FACED with bankruptcy proceedings being filed against him and a similar application to the courts for a levy, Independent Liberal Party leader Jack Warner yesterday delivered a cheque for a little over quarter of a million dollars to Chaguanas councillor Faaiq Mohammed -  Read More

 Guardian:  Man in Center of Enterprise Violence Flees.
The reign of terror in Central is being linked to one man who is well known to San Fernando police. The 31-year-old man has a long rap sheet in the South area but has never been charged for any crime in the Central Division  Read More

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Jouvert Carnival 2015

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TRINIDAD Y TOBAGO: International Panorama Championships in August

n what is shaping up to be as fiery a battle as any post-war steelband clash, 12 foreign steelbands will challenge the world's best when they come against 12 local steel orchestras for the title of International Panorama Champions. This competition, which offers a lucrative prize of US$250,000 takes place at the Queen's Park Savannah, Port of Spain on August 9. Read More

TnT PP Government Has Begun Its Slippery Slide From Grace

Yuh Hatta Think It, Before Yuh Do It

Trinbagonians Thinking Now

Trinidad and Tobago had 2 elections since my last post.  Time flies.

The local election results saw a strong return by the PNM.  You can read the resultshere.   

My predictions were all correct.  Love it when you could read the writing on the wall while other believe differently even in the face of facts.

First - The PNM walked away with 9 of the 14 available seats, gaining some inroads into the Chaguanas constituency.  The PP government saw it as a win for them, I'm not going to touch that, maybe you could figure it out.  

The ILP also was able to grab a couple of council seats in Chaguanas but in the end one of the Councilor cross over and voted for the UNC nomination for Mayor and control of the Chaguanas Corporation.  You can read about that here if you wish.   

St Joseph By-Election

UNC beaten again in the St Joseph Constituency By-elections.  The candidates and the results were as follows;

The winner:  PNM, Terrance Deyalsingh, previously a Senetor, calm low keyed.  He is the one who wondered why his opponents came to register as a candidate with tassa drums and a huge entourage of supporters. He won by 779 votes, see here.

Second  -: The UNC , Ian Alleyne:  Mr. Alleyne was a local talk show host who labeled himself as a one man crime fighter  whose favorite saying was “I’m not for sale”.  He surprised everyone by taking the UNC platform and lamblasting Jack Warner for lying about a phone call he got from the AG, Anand Ramlogan, offering him the candidacy for St. Joseph.   Then there were rumors that alleged that “He did not sell out because he was bi”  His promise was to help the security minister fight crime.  Now that he lost, he ent helping nobody. Makes you say hmmm ,

Third - ILP, Om Lalla, Om Lalla is Mr. Warner personal local lawyer and anyone would think that he had to know that he did not stand a chance of winning or even beating the PNM or the UNC in St. Joseph.  He maybe was thinking that the ILP would do what they did in Chaguanas where they won every district.  OK so if he knew, why did he do it?  It is my opinion that people have hidden agendas, things they don’t share with the public.  That would be the only plausible answer, and he is not sharing.

Independent Candidate Errol Fabian:  Local TV station owner and comedian, Errol is well intentioned and I could see why, like me, he did not align himself with any particular party and like me he should not have wasted his time and energy contesting the election.  His loss was too predictable.  

The fact is that an independent don’t stand a chance in this political climate.  People are looking for representation that could make a difference, if not now, at least in the next election which is due in 2015.  Errol offered no hope for people to access these services.  

He did however beat the last candidate, Mr. Lopez resoundingly; he got 300 votes.  From memory I believe that Mr. Lopez got one vote. Agenda again, the hidden agenda we may never read or hear about. 

The writing is really on the wall when a government that won a mandate in 2010 finds itself losing every election that is called during it’s reign.  In fact, few governments have had to face the embarrassing situation of having to conduct so many elections during its term of office. As we speakthe plot unfolds.

 The writing on the wall is saying that the government is about to change again.  In 2010, with Patrick Manning at the head of the PNM the government had to change.  Now we find ourselves at the same crossroads with no viable alternative but the PNM.

Do you see any other conclusion to this?

Is Jack Warner Afraid of The Truth? (unplanned post)

Using Copy Write Laws To Harass

Jack Warner or somebody working for him have decided that one of my posts made few months ago infringed on his rights.  

On two occasions a cease & desist complaint was submitted to Google as a violation of his rights.  Automatically. Google disables the post so that it could be resolved with a warning that if it is re-published it will be a violation.  So I removed his picture and republished the content.

What's stupid about it is that if someone had contacted me and said that they wanted the content removed,  I probably would have done it.  To report a violation for a photo just is not the right thing to do.  Google provided a link to check on the specific violation reported.  Unfortunately the site associated with the link said that the search feature was disabled.  

The fact is though there was nothing that violated anyone's rights.  It must have been the picture because everything else is in the public domain.  

Reporting a violation once was not significant but twice makes it worth mentioning.  

Below you can read the post as it was originally published.  This post is minus the stunningly handsome picture of Mr. Warner. 

Does the post below violate anyone rights?  If you think it does, let me know.  

It was titled: 

 Why is Jack Warner Not Helping These Chinese People?

Trinidad and Tobago Crime Buster

  You just would not believe how stupid some people can be.  For those of you who don’t keep up with the crimes in Trinidad and Tobago, two Chinese nationals were shot to death in a recent robbery.  Sad, but everyone is being targeted by youths who want to get rich on other peoples’ sweat. 

Jack Warner in his capacity as National Security Minister in his eagerness to show the nation how conscientious he is about his job visited the relatives of the murdered victims.  Of course, as has been his political style and habit he made a media pronouncement; he will help.   

He must have been referring to the death stipends paid to locals who are entitled to benefits.  He also offered them protection which as Minister of National Security it must not have been such an outlandish promise. 

OK, so big surprise today’s Express front page head line “No Help from Jack” (link below)

 

You can read the story from the link below but what's confusing is what were the relatives thinking when they opened up to reporters.  Why would they attempt to bite the hand that promised to feed them?  If anyone know people and especially government officials it would be the Chinese. Something is wrong here.  

Are they thinking that the story would embarrass Jack and by extension the government into getting tickets for 3 to China?  Actually no price could be put on the loss of a mother and father so it must not have been the funds for the tickets they wanted.  Just wanted the population to know not to believe promises by government officials.

Or maybe the reporters led them to believe that what they said would not be reported.  Sometimes these things are not what they appear to be but whatever the reason, I’m sure of one thing.

Jack Warner will not help them now.  

He has weather bigger storms than this. He reminds me of the Teflon Don of the New York crime family.  Nothing sticks on him.  Jack has something to prove with this new job. He will not allow something like that to get in his way of proving that he is the right man for the job.  

 In my opinion, by putting their concerns in the public domain they have ensured their fate.  Not openly but silently and behind the scenes.  All he has to do is nothing but now maybe he will do a little bit more than nothing.

OK, I may be wrong but I would bet that this is the way it will play out.  Read the article and share what you think.   

 Would you help them?

The link NO HELP FROM JACK

Why is Jack Warner Not Helping These Chinese People?

Trinidad and Tobago Crime Buster

You just would not believe how stupid some people can be.  For those of you who don’t keep up with the crimes in Trinidad and Tobago, two Chinese nationals were shot to death in a recent robbery.  Sad, but everyone is being targeted by youths who want to get rich on other peoples’ sweat. 

Jack Warner in his capacity as National Security Minister in his eagerness to show the nation how conscientious he is about his job visited the relatives of the murdered victims.  Of course, as has been his political style and habit he made a media pronouncement; he will help.   

He must have been referring to the death stipends paid to locals who are entitled to benefits.  He also offered them protection which as Minister of National Security it must not have been such an outlandish promise. 

OK, so big surprise today’s Express front page head line “No Help from Jack”

 

You can read the story from the link below but what's confusing is what were the relatives thinking when they opened up to reporters.  Why would they attempt to bite the hand that promised to feed them?  If anyone know people and especially government officials it would be the Chinese. Something is wrong here.  

Are they thinking that the story would embarrass Jack and by extension the government into getting tickets for 3 to China?  Actually no price could be put on the loss of a mother and father so it must not have been the funds for the tickets they wanted.  Just wanted the population to know not to believe promises by government officials.

Or maybe the reporters led them to believe that what they said would not be reported.  Sometimes these things are not what they appear to be but whatever the reason, I’m sure of one thing.

Jack Warner will not help them now.  

He has weather bigger storms than this. He reminds me of the Teflon Don of the New York crime family.  Nothing sticks on him.  Jack has something to prove with this new job. He will not allow something like that to get in his way of proving that he is the right man for the job.  

 In my opinion, by putting their concerns in the public domain they have ensured their fate.  Not openly but silently and behind the scenes.  All he has to do is nothing but now maybe he will do a little bit more than nothing.

OK, I may be wrong but I would bet that this is the way it will play out.  Read the article and share what you think.   

 Would you help them?

The link NO HELP FROM JACK

Drama in Trinidad and Tobago Medical Profession

Spin With Circles, Not Blocks

As the muck thickens on the issue reported in my last post "Commonwealth Day Observance for Women, A blessing for Trinidad".

Since that post, the head of the union representing the nurses, the president of the Public Services Association PSA, Watson Duke, demanded an apology from the un-elected Health Minister Cornelius Baptist.  

 According to Mr. Duke, not one of the nurses had received a suspension letter.  He charged that the Minister’s announcement had traumatized all the nurses involved.

The Minister responded by instructing the Chairman of the Board of the Health Authority to fire the CEO of the hospital.  The Chairman, held a press conference to let the “dum-dum” people of Trinidad and Tobago know that the termination was effective immediately and the reason was “change in strategic direction”.    What a bunch of crap. 

Let us not mince words. Is it not obvious that when an organization  concocts a far fetched reason for termination it hurts the organization credibility?  These people shot themselves in the foot before they cut their noses to save face. .   

Apparently the Board was backed into a corner, their options limited.  How could they announce that; "she was fired her immediately because we were told to do it." or in other words "we are puppets for the government"   Instaed they opted to feed the public with nonesense. .  

There were many other options available but the action was harsh and intended to produce the greatest extent of hurt.   

"Hang them",  says Mr. Ramlogan and Jack Warner, "we can determine later if they are guilty"

Such a harsh, poorly scripted response reflects badly on the Board and has tarnished the government’s image.  Quite the opposite of what they would have preferred.   The dumbest child in school knows that the board acted on instructions from the government. No amount of “strategic lies” will change that.  But who is really listening? 

The general population’s concern revolves around proper care and attention at the hospital.  The hospital authority and by extension the government is more focused on how the minister looks to the public. 

The union, Medical Professionals Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MPATT), is coordinating a march today.  Is it that they are validating the dues they collect?  

 Their position is that the proper procedures were not followed prior to the suspensions.  They do readily admit that the proper procedures were not followed in the case of the deceased patient.  Please spare us the stupidity.   

Very few people will sympathize with highly paid doctors who almost all have private practices or are employed by for profit private medical institutions. Bringing down to the level of laborers by marching for their rights degrades the profession. 

 

They are protesting the suspensions of the doctors.  Who they think they are; the police?  It’s only the police in this country who can be caught in possession of controlled substance and be transferred to another station. 

   

Whether the right people were suspended is questionable.  The fact is somebody had to answer for the death of the young lady and the many others that have been in question.  

Everybody has an opinion and that’s mine. 

Stay blessed

3 Things I Disagreed With In The 2009 Trinidad & Tobago National Awards Ceremony

"Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment."

As happens on every Independence day, outstanding Trinidad and Tobago nationals are recognized for their unintended contributions to the improvement of our small but great nation.

This year's 2009 Awards ceremony was funny but not laughable. I totally disagreed with a couple of the Excellence Awards handed out. Ok maybe, I should let it rest because there is nothing to be done about it now. And I know some would think that I'm not patriotic but it's exactly why I take my position. I'm not squeamish about an unpopular positions.

First, I don’t think that a fighter, a boxing champion, should have been awarded the highest award in the land. Don’t get me wrong, I loved her, and shedded a little tear when she met her untimely demise but what message does it send to our youths? Ah, is it suggesting that our youths take example and maybe box or fight their way to the pinnacle of our society's recognition? Maybe not but...

Her posthumous award did nothing more than provide an example of another bureaucratic insensitive decision. There are more than one living sports personality who could have been honored. Of course, she should have been recognized but…

My second disagreement was with the awards was the one given to a mature housewife who single handedly reversed a potentially violent situation by overpowering an armed perpetrator. I think that what she did was very courageous, reactive and in my opinion she did a very stupid thing.

It may have saved her life and she was extremely fortunate that she survived that attack. However, in the interest of her own safety and the safety of the hundreds of potential victims her "heroic "act should not have been held up as an example for anyone to follow. Her attacker has not yet been convicted of a crime and with our criminal justice system the way it is who knows.

Maybe, I’m wrong, and maybe she did something that anyone in the same situation should think of doing?

My final observation and perhaps the most controversial is that there were too very few awards to people of East Indian descent, (3 out of 21 is not enough).

Frankly, this is the only reason I paid attention to the National Awards Ceremony. Jack Warner, a local magnate and politician had made a public request before the ceremony, that more attention be paid to the contributions of the East Indian community.

Now, let me go on record by saying that I hardly ever agree with him but this one time I did. East Indians have contributed and are still contributing in every sphere of life in Trinidad and Tobago and should be recognized for their contributions. Awards are not cash, it's a token that could mean the world not only to the recipient but to the people that person represents, 60 seconds of national attention. Nothing would have been lost by sharing the accolades.

Now if I was an East Indian, I could be accused of being selfish and maybe even racist but fortunately, I'm only human and innately sensitive to institutionalized "stupidness".

Thanks to blogging I'm able to say; I disagree.


How about you, do you agree or disagree?

Do you feel passionate about what's happening with crime in this country? Go here and sign the petition. here