Tag Archives: T&T Govt

Trade Union Leaders Need to Chill

By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
November 01, 2010

PSA ProtestLess than one year has elapsed and now one sees that trade union leaders and others are pointing their acerbic artillery at the newly-elected People’s Partnership (PP) government. Indeed, such action is totally unwarranted, unwise and un-Trinbagonian, to say the least.

The powers that be in these unions/associations need to realize and understand very clearly that the mammoth, outstanding sums of money owed to them are the wicked/vindictive legacy of the former PNM government under Patrick Manning.
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Riding into the valley of death

By Raffique Shah
October 31, 2010

Raffique ShahTHERE are few reasons why the People’s Partnership Government should portray itself as a victim of circumstances the way the NAR did in 1986. Back then, Ray Robinson and his “party of parties” inherited an almost empty treasury. The George Chambers government had faced declining oil prices from OPEC-driven “highs” in 1973-77 to “lows” by the time Chambers assumed power in 1981.
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Wage Rage

Newsday Editorial
October 28 2010 – newsday.co.tt

President of the PSA Watson DukeANY responsible person is likely to be torn in his sentiment towards the wage talks between the Government and the Public Services Association (PSA) for members of the Public Service.

On one hand the Government’s offer of 0-0-1 percent for the past three years respectively is quite startling, alarming and really impractical for workers who have seen no freeze in the prices they daily face over the same three-year period.
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Making UTT a National University

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 27, 2010

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI am sure that Sat Maharaj’s would say that ah follow fashion. However, the truth is that his recent discussion of UTT, its academic standards and it place in the society reminded me of questions I raised two years ago when Ghana’s former President John Kufoor visited Trinidad and I made an address in his presence. Just for the record, my speech can be found on trinicenter.com on August 6 2008. My interest in this matter goes back a long way. This contribution only adds to Sat’s concerns. At least, there are some things on which we agree.
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Wanted: A ghost whisperer

By Michael Harris
October 25, 2010 – trinidadexpress.com

Patrick ManningA spectre is haunting the PNM and unless that party can discover within its ranks a person, or persons, versed in the rites and rituals of political exorcism, it is likely to stay in its present state of limbo for a long time to come, incapable of undertaking the vital task of critical self-assessment without which it could never begin the task of reconstruction. The spectre has a name. Its name is Patrick Manning.
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Clico Policyholders: Pay Us 40% Upfront

By Lara Pickford-Gordon
October 25 2010 – newsday.co.tt

CLICO BailoutClico policyholders want 40 percent of their investment in the Colonial Life Insurance Company Ltd “up front” and the balance paid off in government bonds. Persons who wish to liquidate their bonds should be free to do so and there will be no “middle man.”

This proposal has been put to the Government and was yesterday endorsed by scores of policyholders attending a meeting at Woodford Square, Port-of-Spain to get an update on negotiations between their representatives and the government inter-ministerial team headed by Agriculture Minister Vasant Bharath.
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Hold parents responsible

By Sean Douglas
October 22, 2010 – newsday.co.tt

ViolenceTHE Rape Crisis Society yesterday called on Government to pass laws to hold parents responsible for sexual offences done by their children. “Some of the perpetrators of these heinous sexual assaults are teenagers and thus are not liable for prosecution.”

The Society wrote to media houses to support the Evidence (Amendment) Bill 2010, under debate in the Senate, which makes it easier for victims of sexual abuse to testify in law-courts.
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Connecting our Foreign Policy with the Diaspora

By Stephen Kangal
October 21, 2010

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-BissessarPrime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar and her itinerant Foreign Minister Suruj Rambachan have both been extolling the important benefits of establishing closer functional links with our diaspora based in metropolitan Caribbean enclaves in North America and Europe as the rationale for radically reforming the priorities of our foreign policy. In fact both now have a shared political/administrative responsibility for the conceptualization and conduct of our foreign policy.
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Partnership leaders must smoke ‘peace pipe’ now

By Raffique Shah
October 16, 2010

Raffique ShahA brief story in the Express last week caught my attention. The report spoke of serious differences between two organisations purporting to represent nationals of this country who have indigenous blood flowing in their arteries.

The first contentious issue is a claim that one group represents only Amerindian descendants who are Catholics. The other was the timing of the “smoke ceremony to the spirits”. One group swears it should be before dawn. The other went ahead “smoking” at 7 a.m.
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Leveraging Incompetence

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 14, 2010

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI am sure that People’s Partnership took a long time to select the three hundred persons they elected to the various state enterprises, statutory bodies, regional health authorities and key ambassadorial positions. In making her selection, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar enunciated two broad principles: a determination to make the correct choices and no one could sit on more than one board.
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