Monthly Archives: March 2010

Crime in T&T, General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC, Violence

Geezers’ promoting rage and war

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By Raffique Shah
March 21, 2010

Basdeo Panday and Patrick ManningA seething rage has gripped this country in a manner we have never before seen. It’s frightening. Ever since I was a boy, I learned that the vast majority of our people have what I can only describe as a delightful sense of humour. But for a few ‘sourpusses’, we laugh at everything-from ourselves to pranks people play on us to remarks made by others that we find hilarious. For all our shortcomings, our weaknesses, Trinidadians and Tobagonians are generally a fun people.
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corruption, Crime in T&T, Law, PNM, Politics

PM and Bakr Land Deal

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By Andre Bagoo
Friday, March 19 2010

Yasin Abu BakrWORKS and Transport Minister Colm Imbert, who yesterday denied being interviewed by the Anti-Corruption Investigations Bureau (ACIB) in relation to Udecott, was in fact also interviewed by the ACIB in relation to an alleged land deal between Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Jamaat leader Yasin Abu Bakr which was disclosed in an affidavit sworn by Bakr in 2006.
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corruption, Crime in T&T, Finance, General T&T, Media, PNM, Politics

How to save the PNM

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By Dr Selwyn Cudjoe
March 18, 2010

Part I

Prime Minister Patrick ManningOver the last two weeks the media have been merciless in their attacks against the PNM, the Prime Minister and the Government. When it was not about the Prime Minister’s ‘Prophetess’ it was about Calder Hart’s presumed deception and alleged financial indiscretions. When it was not about the vindication of Keith Rowley, it was about the wonders of a revivified Kamla and prediction of UNC’s inevitable victory in the 2012 election, without the faintest acknowledgment that in politics, a week is like a year, and a year is like a decade. In political terms, 2012 might be 20 years in the future.
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Complaints, Entertainment, Finance, PNM, Politics, UDeCOTT

National Academy for the Performing Arts tragedy

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National Academy for the Performing Arts
National Academy for the Performing Arts

By Andre Bagoo
March 14, 2010 – newsday.co.tt

IT COULD TAKE as much as $80 million to correct flaws in the design of the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA), Port-of-Spain, the interim President of the Artists Coalition of Trinidad and Tobago (ACTT) Rubadiri Victor, estimated yesterday.

While Prime Minister Patrick Manning last week praised the NAPA as being “world class,” Victor yesterday begged to differ, saying the facility is plagued with technical problems and argued that it does not compare in any form with Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s.
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corruption, Finance, PNM, Politics, UDeCOTT

Hart-aches by the numbers

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By Raffique Shah
March 14, 2010

PM Patrick Manning and Calder HartIF I were Prime Minister Patrick Manning, I would fire my ‘spiritual adviser’ forthwith. I would instead hire a futuristic, 2020 model ‘secular consultant’, someone like, say, Raffique Shah. Before the howling starts, with every Tom, Dick and Harrilal shouting, ‘Shah looking for PNM wuk!’ or ‘We always knew Shah was PNM!’, let me explain why I offer the PM this advice.
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COP, corruption, Finance, General T&T, Law, Media, Parliament, PNM, Politics, UDeCOTT, UNC

Hart has case to answer

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LEFT: Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira, Attorney General John Jeremie, Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Works Minister Colm Imbert in parliament on March 12, 2010
LEFT: Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira, Attorney General John Jeremie, Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Works Minister Colm Imbert in parliament on March 12, 2010
Hart has case to answer
FOR THE first time, Prime Minister Patrick Manning yesterday admitted that former Udecott executive chairman Calder Hart has “a case to answer”, even as fresh questions emerged over the role Manning played in the circumstances surrounding Hart’s departure from Trinidad last Saturday in the midst of an ongoing criminal investigation.

PM: Hart not guilty
Minutes after saying former executive chairman of the Urban Development Corporation (Udecott) Calder Hart was not guilty of anything, Prime Minister Patrick Manning announced the appointment of Chief Executive Officer at the Housing Development Corporation, Jearlean John as the new chairman of Udecott, replacing Hart, who resigned last week.
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Finance, General T&T, Law, PNM, Politics, UDeCOTT

Criminal probe of Udecott

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Former executive chairman of Udecott, Calder Hart
Former executive chairman of Udecott, Calder Hart
COP BETTER THAN CoP
SINCE LAST year, Acting Commissioner of Police James Philbert was asked by two successive Acting Directors of Public Prosecutions to investigate Prime Minister Patrick Manning, Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira and former Udecott executive chairman Calder Hart, yet to date Philbert’s probes into all of these matters have not been completed.

PM returns home quietly, flies out again today

Criminal probe launched in September—Jeremie
Some 24-hours after new Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard ordered a police probe into allegations of wrongdoing by former executive chairman of the Urban Development Corporation of T&T (Udecott) Calder Hart, Attorney General John Jeremie said a criminal investigation into Hart began since last year.
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