Trinidad Express
Sunday, July 1st 2007
In a strongly-worded letter to Minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education and copied to the Prime Minister, Patrick Manning; John Rahael, Minister of Health; and the Dean of the Medical Faculty, Dr Phyllis Pitt-Miller; Prof Courtenay Bartholomew, Emeritus Professor Medicine (UWI), has criticised the admissions policy of students for entry into medical school in Mt Hope.
Continue reading Prof hits admission policy of Mt. Hope medical school
A few weeks ago I wrote a two-part article for the Business Express magazine in which I pronounced “cheap food a thing of the past”. The headline and contents must have infuriated both my comrades in FITUN, which has mounted a campaign against high food prices, and consumers generally, who, once they remain uninformed, blame greedy grocers and government for their high food bills. I admire David Abdulah’s and FITUN’s tenacity in highlighting the issue of high prices, and trying to do something about it. But I think their focus needs to shift from the blame game to addressing the means by which consumers can empower themselves.
The Judicial and Legal Service Commission (JLSC) is drafting two disciplinary charges of misconduct to be served on Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls no less than 12 days from now. 
The alleged rape is reported to have taken place sometime between April and October 2006. Last week, doctors delivered the baby by Caesarean section because of the teenage mother’s age, health and the size of the baby. 
Contrary to Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s public identification, “the most intractable problem facing Trinidad and Tobago at this time is (not) race relations” but ethnic relations.
Like the runaway crime situation, the carnage on the streets of T&T makes me wonder if anyone is in charge. Is there a ministry responsible for transportation or a police department responsible for road safety? If so, why are people being mangled daily and lives being lost unnecessarily, when tried and proven measures can be enforced to stop vehicular terrorism? How difficult is it to clamp down heavily on speedsters, inebriated and otherwise reckless drivers, street racers and all the madness that passes for driving in T&T? With the death toll in excess of 115 so far, these are no longer accidents; this is murder and should be prosecuted as such.
After overcoming the initial shock of television networks across the world featuring this country in an alleged plot to “blow up the JFK airport” in New York, I could not help but break into peals of laughter. The first giggle came when the US networks featured the sorry picture of the alleged mastermind, Russell De Freitas. This “Sad Sack”, as The New York Times dubbed him, looked incapable of blowing hot air with any force, far less deal the US a “blow more devastating than 9/11”, as a State Department spokeswoman insisted.
We hear about people dying in Africa because of civil wars, or because they didn’t have a few dollars for medicine or malaria nets. We regret that their corrupt governments cause these problems and make our aid ineffective. On the surface this is indeed the reason for their problems. But if we look more deeply at the effects of our need for oil and minerals, we arrive at a different conclusion. We find the existence of ‘rentier’ states such as the Republic of Congo, Chad, and Nigeria, where once-healthy and self-sustaining agricultural countries have effectively rented themselves out to a demanding western world by focusing on the sale of one valuable commodity that doesn’t offer any benefits to the masses.