Monthly Archives: October 2009

Complaints, Law, Media, PNM, Politics

Case against PM thrown out

4 Comments

October 15, 2009
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com

PM Patrick ManningComplainant against PM in wrong courtroom

A PRIVATE criminal charge against Prime Minister Patrick Manning was thrown out by Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls yesterday, because the woman who filed the charge was absent from the courtroom.

Manning, who appeared through his attorney Michael Quamina, later waved to reporters as his convoy stopped for a moment outside the St Vincent Street, Port of Spain courthouse, moments after the dismissal.
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Complaints, General T&T, International, Politics, UDeCOTT

‘Chinese work like slaves’

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By Richardson Dhalai
October 14, 2009 – newsday.co.tt
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Chinese labourersThe camp at Chatee Trace, Cunupia where Chinese labourers of Beijing Liujian Construction Corporation is tucked away on a lonely stretch of road.

The living quarters are shielded by sheets of galvanise which line the length of the compound.
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Finance, General T&T, Law, PNM, Politics

Dark Clouds From the Property Tax Overshadowing Divali

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By Stephen Kangal
October 13, 2009
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

HouseThe acquisition of profit-yielding immoveable property especially of land is alternatively referred to in divine terms as Dharti Mata. The accumulation of wealth (arth) that is regarded as a boon derived from and conferred by Lakshmi Mata consistent with the laws of good karma is pivotal to all the tenets underlying the practice of Hinduism. The home is a mandir to Hindus. Any attempt or perception of potential desecration or diminution of its sanctity of the shrine will be resisted by Bala (strength). There is a most powerful bonding and almost religious nexus existing between an owner-built home and its Hindu owner/occupants. That explains why land-based Indians generally are not on the move or highly migratory in habits.
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Complaints, Crime in T&T, Finance, Law, PNM, Politics, UDeCOTT

On today, Uff tomorrow

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By Raffique Shah
October 11, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Prof John UffSOMEONE determined many moons ago that there are three sides to every story-yours, mine, and the truth. Maybe that person lived in Norway, a country long seen as heaven-on-earth, which has consistently ranked at the top of the world in human development. He (or she) obviously knew nothing of faraway Trinidad where there are 100 sides to every rumour, and maybe more to every truth, if the latter at all exists in this country.
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Finance, General T&T, International, Law, PNM, Politics

Questions over Financial Intelligence Unit Bill

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Neswday Editorial
Thursday, October 8 2009
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) Bill 2009WE congratulate the Independent and Opposition Senators for exposing the potential pitfalls of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) Bill 2009 debated in the Senate on Tuesday, but we wonder whether the Government made sufficient concessions to their concerns.

This stringent Bill sets up the FIU with sweeping powers to investigate any business activity deemed “suspicious,” with hefty fines of up to $1 million and imprisonment for up to three years for someone refusing to disclose information.
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Complaints, Finance, General T&T, PNM, Politics

Proliferation of Fact and Fiction in the Property Tax Debacle

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By Stephen Kangal – Caroni
October 07, 2009
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

HouseThis ill-conceived, thief-in-the night and fiscally obscene property tax is being driven and confused by a conflicting and contradictory interplay of the contending forces of fact and fiction. In one fell swoop all proud resident home-owners of T&T have been reduced to fictitious renters paying fictitiously high rents way beyond their (f)actual salaries in order to arrive at an artificial and fictitious annual taxable value (ATV) for one’s fictitiously rented home. They have even thrown in the factual two-month compensatory renting hiatus period to arrive at the fictitious, unreal ATV.
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Complaints, General T&T, PNM, Politics, UDeCOTT

Time to replace the PNM

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By George Alleyne
October 7 2009 – newsday.co.tt
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com

PNMIt is time for a multi-racial and multi-economic group political party to emerge which will effectively challenge and replace the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) at the next General Election. The country should be prepared to accept that the PNM today is but a simulacrum of the party which the late Dr Eric Williams created.
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Law, Media, PNM, Politics, UDeCOTT

Derailing Uff

Newsday’s Editorial
Tuesday, October 6 2009

Calder HartLAST Friday’s freezing of the Commission of Inquiry into Udecott until the High Court hears Udecott’s case for judicial review on February 8, 2010 may look like a bolt out of the blue, but to seasoned observers it should come as no surprise. While on the surface there is a lot of confusion as to how lawyers for the Commission could possibly have ended up agreeing to such a draconian consent-order with Udecott’s lawyers, we dryly note that it comes on the heels of a long list of past efforts to throw the spotlight of public accountability away from Udecott.
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Complaints, COP, Finance, General T&T, PNM, Politics

Getting our priorities right

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By Raffique Shah
October 04, 2009
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

HouseTHE battle over Government’s proposed property tax has intensified. On the one hand, the vast majority of citizens, civic organisations and NGOs have been very vocal in their bid to have government reverse “this oppressive new tax that will pauperise the working and middle classes.” On the other side, the Government has undertaken a media campaign to convince people that the tax is not a new imposition, nor will it be harsh and oppressive.
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