All ah we is one, right?
By Reginald Dumas – March 31, 2015
In April 2014 Jaishima Leladharsingh said in an insensitive Facebook comment said that he was “glad (ANR) Robinson (had) gone forever.” Soon after, he launched a racial assault on Anthony McLeod, whom he didn’t know but who he obviously thought was black. McLeod’s photo in fact shows him a mixed race person. Leladharsingh was clearly misled by the name: he must have assumed that Anthony looked like Errol. The Minister should take note.
For Leladharsingh, McLeod was a “stinking, low-class nigger” who should “f…” himself, who was a “parasite”, and one of those “bastards (who) never had to fight or work for anything.” As soon as his remarks hit the fan, Leladharsingh offered McLeod what he said was a sincere apology, explaining that he had “acted in rage.” McLeod magnanimously accepted those words. I commend him.
It turns out, however, that months earlier, in September 2013, Leladharsingh, also apparently in a Facebook post, had sneered at “pushy and gullible niggers” who could easily be manipulated into “enhanc(ing) the look of the (Government).” McLeod was not around then.
Full Article : trinidadexpress.com
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Understanding the House Slave
By Theodore Lewis – March 31, 2015
Keith Rowley finds himself a black man in this society, and he has the ambition to be Prime Minister. We would think that here in the Caribbean blackness would be a somewhat normative expectation for what a Prime Minister embodies. African slaves after all had been brought to the region since the 15th century. Their descendants should find it commonplace that they would number among the region’s leaders.
There is some fear mongering and unnecessary ethnocentric thinkers at the top of the food chain determine to keep those in the lower rung under mental and social bondage. This is the PNM way that saw the emergence of getthoes in areas where their support remain strong. It is an easy sell in those areas simply tell them you must support your tribe and they will frantically wave the balisier. This election will be the beginning of the liberation of those areas because mental slavery is falling like a chain once tied around the slave neck. People in those areas are seeing progress under the Partnership. I predict that the Opposition Leader seat will suffer a massive blow.
The historical document shows all ship rise under the UNC. I was shocked to enter the state of art airport at Piarco a symbol of the economic power house of the Caribbean TnT. Built and functioning unlike the Toruba stadium that reeks of disquieting corruption that remains a monumental disaster. Yes the airport has paid for itself but Toruba remains wanting.The symbols of progress written in the UNC/PP DNA.
So what exactly PNM apologist Reginald Dumas is obsessed about. Historically diaspora indians have felt the heavy hand of the racist. In Fiji when Mahenhra Chaudry assumed power he experience a 56 day standoff that lead to the collapse of his government and the flood gates of rapist entered the villages to rape indian women and children. India did not intervene it was the Aussies who welcome many who fled to that nation. In Guyana under Linden Forbes Burnham the Wissima massacre saw 48 hours of hell as 900 indian families were attacked. Little indian boys were skinned alive and women raped, “kill the coolie” was their motivational theme song. That was the spring board that saw over 150,000 Indo Guyanese fled, rapes, robbery, land stolen in a shameless act of brutality. In Trinidad it was institutional racism that saw 75% of the civil service filled with non-indians by the PNM. When Manning assumed power true to the PNM DNA over 300 indian businessmen where kidnaped, killed or money extorted by men in long white robes. The PNM did nothing but establish a known bed of terror by entering into a contract with Abu our local terrorist.
Given PNM history back then why would it be any diffrent under Keith Rowley PNM? The current Prime Minister has intentionally address ethnocentric beliefs by ensuring she manages a very diversified cabinet all with equal voice as is evident in decisions taken for the nation. Trinidad will achieve genuine equality under the partnership, it is in their DNA to do right. A vote for the PNM will see a rise in tribalism unprecedented.
“There is some fear mongering and unnecessary ethnocentric thinkers at the top of the food chain determine to keep those in the lower rung under mental and social bondage. This is the PNM way that saw the emergence of getthoes in areas where their support remain strong”…….Mamoo
How can such foolish arrogant, stupid and tribilastic statement further the cause of a civic conversation, about very important issues, emanating from the equally stupid and tribalistic statement by a UNC operator in the name of Jaisima Lezladharsingh? To add insult to injury, the even more historical degradation of parliamentary process of respectful debate of these issues? Stupidity reins supreme under this administration and the sooner they are removed from the better for our future. Lezladharsingh, Mamoo and others as the supporting cast of dysfunctionality leading otherwise intelligent people is driving down apparent talent in a people nurtured by a guided past. We face a future of dotishness (if I am to burrow this phrase from Colm Imbert). We need to display a better sense of civic mindedness where apparent differences can be viewed, discussed and debated to arrive at an amicable conclusion. But paganism has taken over and we need the blessings of magnanimous proportions to endure and confront this tasteless kind of discourse. Those like Mamoo, who engage in it has no idea how destructive their continued antagonism eats at the core of civilized thinking. Newspapers such as Newday and the Guardian are no better of understanding these core principles either. We are all in an “eat ah food” moment where the trough of inducement and tribalism takes centre stage of civilized discourse. Only thing is, most affected will be the down trodden, used by those holding the powers of office to further downgrade the upliftment of their ambitions.
The PNM has always depended on tribalism to win elections but the world has changed we are in a more enlightened century. The black man has not been subjected to racism in the Caribbean except for a few instance of name calling. Where you live in the US Kian I am sure you are treated as a third class citizen. Hence you extrapolation into neo colonial thinking.
If anyone should be screaming racism it should be Indian people but we are not like that we love all regardless of how they look or think. And that is reflected in the current administration ability to reach all citizens with programs that help to alleviate poverty. Racism is built on fear an unusual fear of others.
With that kind of thinking, it is exactly what I am talking about, you do not invite intelligent conversation.
Mamoo-
Check your privilege before you open your mouth (or peck at your keyboard).
African Trinidadians are members of an oppressed group and their words and actions against their oppressors cannot be construed as racism.
Indo-Trinidadians are members of a wealthy, privileged group that oppresses Africans and has a culture of racism and rape.
Mamoo, you have a right to your opinions but can stick to writing them on a long strip of paper, rolling it up and putting it to good use in the bathroom.
Your racist opinions, aired in public as you habitually do, will trigger reactions that you may not expect, both online and in real life.
That is a falsehood propagated by the PNM. It is an ethnocentric base ideology. Let us examine your false propositions. Trinidad will be 53 years old this year. The PNM had full access to the treasury for over 40 years. Even when the PNM is out of power they still control the nation because of their hiring practices which was extremely exclusionary. The PNM had 2 oil booms, where at one time the leader of the nation said “money is no problem” incidentally is daughter is a multi millionaire. So much money the PNM had that Minister OHallaran buildings remain as a monument to Thiefry in Scarborough ON. The PNM administration saw millions disappear as a thief in the night. Just getting the auditor to examine let’s say WASA books shows millions unaccounted for during the Manning years..
I would say the richest people in TnT are PNM supporters. Anyone who doubt that need to have their head examined.
What you people don’t realize is that you are all stupid. It appears from past and current posting that you all have a way of using the British English to oppress each other…from the Nigerian, Liberian, and other corrupt dictatorships in Africa to the imperialistic view that white is best. What morons you all are…A bunch of arrogant fools. How many of you so called Afrikans would like to move to Nigeria, or any part of Africa and enjoy the doubles and roti, the asian chicken, chow ming, the souz (sorry for the typo), the blood pudding (Trini Style), the bake and fish, the old oak rum and straight up…with a chase of water or solo (I want to keep pepsi and coke out of this…too capitalistic), and the fish..the fish and we all love…Good luck in your travel back to Africa and India. You all can’t even stand having the poor people of Guyana or St. Lucia in your land…prejudice rue you..
I lived in Trinidad (for a short time and had the best upbringing). My father was a judge and I had the best life that would make any nigger and coolie kid cry with envy..But even at that age I saw how greed, corruption and protecting family inherited land and gentry seem to be the norm. Look, we have such a rich island but our government both PNM and ANC, PPM, NAR, INS, EIC..and whatever…They divide us..
Trinidad has more than an overflow of revenue to support the entire West Indies!! But our politicians on both sides are greedy. They have collected millions of dollars that they have intentionally stashed away in private untraceable accounts that could have been pumped into foreign collected taxes… that could have been pumped into infrastructure, education, and job creation. We already have the land and resources, but greed, hate and prejudice takes precedence. This PPM loves to travel, have great photo sessions and etc…no different than the PNM that collected billions…literally (I should know my father was a judge in T&T during Williams’ tenure and I attended MIT, had a paid for home in Cambridge, MA and I married a British guy..I’m of African heritage). I never worried about money because it just always magically appeared. When Williams died, my dad relocated to Canada and taught at the University..and I just had a great life. I traveled all over Europe and even own a home in England. I had the luxury of music and art lessons, and I got to travel all over the world.
Now that I am elderly, I know about inequities and greed and I have given away most of my money. I get on this site to read and learn if T&T have made much progress but to my dismay..you are still primitive. You are not pioneers creating new roads for the future of your children. You are robbing your future and good luck. China and the US already have you in their apron and soon they will take that apron off and launder it and wash you off.
We need a new generation of young people who have experienced poverty, education, and growth and bring them to the front line to battle this evolving corruption that divide you all..
Trinidad is the richest island in the West Indies but we are F$#@&(&g things up for the future of T&T. We have the best resources as far as oil, palm oil, coconut oil, cane, and so many resources that we are loosing sight of what is in our own yard. We have intelligent people but because of politics and racial bias we are divided. There are no niggers, coolies, chics, or honkeys…we are one people. We celebrate all religions and respect each other’s holidays…
After 38 years you have not made much progress…
So sad
Ask the PNM supporters about corruption, they would say Reshmi Ramnarine, section 34 and Lifesportt. In other words they expect the PP to be much, much better than the party they vote for. Here is a tiny example of PNM corruption something they willfully ignore.
Small example of massive PNM corruption.
Chaguanas Corporation Administrative Complex—$10 million over-budget and 24 months’ delay; Chancery Lane—$300 million overrun, 24 months’ delay; Government campus, Legal Affairs Towers—$300 million over-budget and 18 months’ delay; International Waterfront—$1.3 billion over-budget and six months’ delay; Minister of Education Towers—$300 million over budget, 20 months’ delay; NAPA (PoS)—$234 million over-budget and 12 months overdue; NAPA (San Fernando)—$238 million over-budget and 30 months overdue; Beverly Hills—$106 million over-budget and 65 months’ delay; Brian Lara Stadium—$275 million final cost $1.1 billion. the Diplomatic Centre at the Prime Minister’s residence—$700 million over-budget and 5 months overdue. The last official figure given for the Diplomatic Centre was, however, $200 million.
“I never worried about money because it just always magically appeared”
How are you expected to know where the money was coming from. You had a secret PNM scholarship, arranged by the judge. It was common practice.
This is a man who was at the top of his game once upon a long time ago and when he had to make a decision years ago to take our oil and gas industry away from the foreigner ….as head of the Central Bank then we drilled in the wrong place despite the options of our qualified engineers back then. He and Julien were only interested in what they could get. And people like Jones and company made trillions. From back then we never got another opportunity as APETT and BOETT were taken over by people with shear greed in mind and self preservation. But GREED AND SELF SERVING ATTITUDES does filter down with time.
So here goes on what he now says;-
Following is the text of an address delivered at the Anti-Corruption conference held by the Trinidad and Tobago Transparency Institute by former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Terrence Farrell.
The conference was held at the Hilton hotel on March 20.
Principled Leadership to fix our broken institutions
Our Institutions Are Breaking Down.
A few weeks ago, Justice Gillian Lucky sentenced two men to jail terms, one for 10 months for drug trafficking and the other for five months for shooting with intent to do grievous bodily harm and robbery. The thing was that the two men who eventually pleaded guilty had already spent seven years and eight months and 10 years and two months, respectively, in the remand yard awaiting trial! This is by no means an unusual story. The remand yard which accommodates prisoners awaiting trial is overflowing. The prisons are overflowing.
A murder trial by jury can last six months to a year, occupying the time of one judge and several lawyers. There is a large backlog of persons awaiting trial for murder. Criminal Proceedings Rules still being worked on. The abolition of the preliminary enquiry had to reset after the Section 34 scandal.
This country is yet to record a conviction for serious white collar crime. The Piarco accused are yet to see the high court for trial of their matter and it is now almost 20 years since the offences were allegedly committed!
The criminal justice system is probably not dispensing justice given the delays that are common and the prison system is helping to foster criminality.
The criminal justice system is broken.
A few weeks ago, the chairman of the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) all but threw his hands up in the air when he testified before a parliamentary committee that there were several hundred cases of complaints against teachers to be adjudicated and each had to be given ‘due process’. Two years ago the Education Minister complained to the President about the failure of the TSC to appoint a Chief Education Officer and two years ago Sat Maharaj said the Hindu board would not wait on the TSC to discipline errant teachers. The Express in a recent editorial commented on the fact that it had taken the TSC two years to adjudicate the complaint against the teacher now barred by irate parents from a Muslim school. Complaints have been made under UNC, PNM, NAR about the TSC and the other service commissions.
Every government has sought to circumvent the Public Service Commission by using contract workers, a practice which had the downside of opening the worker to exploitation and injustice.!
The Police Service Commission is near powerless to appoint a Police Commissioner, so convoluted is the process with which nobody is happy,
not the government in power, not the opposition, and not the Acting CoP. So why is this so?
The service commissions are broken institutions.
The IPLA of 2000 was a well-intentioned piece of legislation but it was not focused on the right objectives. In my view, the IC should be heavily focused on detection, investigation and prosecution of serious wrongdoing. It should be an institution which is feared and respected. Our IC is neither feared nor respected. It is now a political joke to say you are reporting X or Y to the IC to score cheap political points and as a form of political mud-slinging, knowing full well that the investigation will take at least three months or more likely more and will come to nought.
The IC claims that the declarations it extracts from persons in public life are of some forensic or other value. I still don’t see how. And the definition of persons in public life is drawn too wide, including as it does persons substantively in the private sector whose entire financial affairs become subject to IC scrutiny because they elect to serve on some state board or other. The IC has now proposed some amendments to the IPLA to give it some teeth, but it still seems to want to stop short of becoming the fearsome pit bull that it should be.
The Integrity Commission is a congenitally deformed institution.
Frustrated with the Report of the Salaries Review Commission, Parliament attempted to use the legitimate concern of long retired judges about their pensions to introduce poorly conceived, but very generous adjustments to the pension benefits of parliamentarians. The frustration was understandable. The SRC has taken much too long to do the research and make recommendations for senior public sector salaries resulting in justified annoyance. But the SRC says it has no resources to do its work and must depend on the CPO. The CPO is busy with negotiations and in turn requires the government to provide the resources to get the studies done.
The Salaries Review Commission is a broken institution.
Commissions of inquiry sit for months and years at great cost to the taxpayers, during which witnesses who are summoned thumb their noses at the summons and do not show up, and the reports are written and presented and promptly shelved and forgotten. Piarco Airport, Uff, 1990 Coup, now Las Alturas. But the list can go back a couple centuries!
But not only commissions of inquiry. Forensic reports, from which people like Bob Lindquist made lots of money, reports to the Securities and
Exchange Commission on corporate wrong doing, police investigations into missing files, all end up amounting to nought. And we all know that it will
end up to nought and the people who initiate the investigations know they will end up to nought but launch them because they look good and they feel that form equates to substance, that planning equates to performance! We make a great show of appearing to do something when things go egregiously wrong, and then do nothing!
The Education system is broken. With an unstated focus on throughput, many children pass through the system, primary to secondary, and emerge unable to read and write. And they emerge angry and disaffected and beaten down! Tertiary level graduates, even Law School graduates cannot write proper English, much less use language with skill, subtlety and creativity.
All around us, our institutions are broken, limping, pretending to function — the Media, Carnival, the Central Bank, the Central Statistical Office, the Universities, the Licensing Office, the Police Service.
Broken institutions deliver mediocrity, and we then ratchet down our expectations and our standards to suit what they deliver. Think about that when you cross a bridge designed by one of our engineers, or lie on the operating table with one of our Medical School graduates over you or your child with his scalpel.
Broken Institutions Foster Corruption
But we must understand that broken institutions also foster corruption. Helen Drayton made the insightful observation, when examining an Ansa McAL poll on crime. She said: “Only last week, in the results of an Ansa McAL poll, citizens identified crime as more urgent than public corruption and poor leadership. What is ironic is the way public corruption is compartmentalized from other crimes when it is the worst of crimes, including blood crimes.” In fact the pollsters themselves framed corruption as an issue different from crime, as if corruption is not a real crime!
I have argued that corruption is endemic in this country because our systems and processes, that is, our institutions, do not work. They don’t work because we view them with suspicion, worried that the outcome it produces for us will not be fair, that it will be influenced by our ethnicity, our class position, our gender, our complexion or the straightness or crinkliness of our hair. And our suspicion leads us to subvert the said institutions by bribery, contact, grease hand, bobol. And our very acts of subversion contribute to the failure of the institutions to function properly, and hence
confirm our suspicions. Who among us believes that it was innocent mistake or the naïveté of a Judicial Support Officer which caused files from
the Judiciary to end up in the law offices of a private attorney? Whether it was or not, the Judiciary has been dealt a grievous blow!
Why Are Our Institutions Failing?
In the last few years, my mind has been exercised with the question: What accounts for our broken institutions, or as Lloyd Best used to say, institutions in a state of “pre-collapse”?
First, I am convinced that the problem lies with the society’s elite. It is we, after all, who are in charge and who are responsible. Not the ordinary man in the street! Not the bandits with the guns!
Not the unproductive CEPEP workers! Not the teachers and policemen and public servants who don’t work or are indifferent! It is we, those who lead in the private sector and the public sector, in the judiciary, in the trades unions, and in the professions – it is we who are responsible for the place.
But there are things that we, the elite, need to understand about ourselves. It is these things which deeply influence our leadership, which perpetuate broken institutions and which perpetuate corruption. Some people have challenged the idea that our society has an elite at all! In a sense those critics are right. The key characteristic of an elite is that, individually and collectively, it takes responsibility for the place and seek to defend its institutions from attack, even against members of the elite themselves! Our elite are not invested in the place. We always have one eye on a route of escape in case the whole thing comes tumbling down. We have one foot here and one foot there; a Trini passport plus a green card, or Canadian or British passport.
Second, from inception of this society, elite status was obtained by ascription, not by merit or even by wealth. Upward mobility has always been hard because of the barriers of colour and gender. We don’t encourage celebrity. Celebrities are to be brought down to earth quick, quick!
Third, we are as Lloyd Best described us, ‘unresponsible’. That is, because while we may get where we are by ascription or even with false qualifications, we may not know what responsibility requires of us. It is what my brother, Trevor Farrell, used to call ‘two-storey’ ignorance — people do not know that they do not know. And being Trini, it does not take long before they begin to act and pretend that they really do know and always knew! Newly-appointed government ministers seem particularly prone to this affliction. Unresponsibility and the ignorance that is at its base fosters
corruption. We can see that syndrome in the Las Alturas fiasco – a poorly conceived housing policy (which promotes dependency), an ill-conceived
target, given by vaps, to the HDC, the use of a Chinese contractor and Chinese labour under questionable circumstances, and professionals who skirt their duty.
So we populate the leadership of key institutions with persons who are unqualified, or unresponsible, and who do not embrace the ethos of institution-preservation and institutionbuilding, because they just don’t know. They focus on the ‘hardware’ but don’t understand the ‘software’ of the institutions they are put to run, and when that happens, you begin to get bent and broken institutions. I remind us that it takes years or decades to build an institution, but it may take months to break it down!
What Do We Do?
So what do we do? How do we halt the slide into anarchy or duendom as Leroy Clarke might describe it? The first thing we have to recognise is that ethnic competition is a major challenge to any agenda focused on repairing and restoring our institutions. An important element of the competition is the control of key institutions of state — the intelligence services, the Police, the Army, the Judiciary, the DPP, the universities and of course, the Treasury. One of the effects of ethnic competition is that it is seen to be preferred to have control, even of a broken institution, once there is assurance that it serves one’s purposes. The gaze is never lifted above one’s ethnic navel. But such a gaze, such a focus, is myopic and ultimately will be self-defeating. We have to rise above, lift our gaze, our focus to what is really important and enduring. This is not easy, because we have to escape from ourselves, our socialization and upbringing and deny the instinctive, visceral responses we have to people who are not like us. We have to embrace human respect as a fundamental personal value, and see worth and dignity and potential in every face we encounter.
Second, Equity. Equity is not an easy concept. It is not coterminous with ‘equality of opportunity’
because ‘equality of opportunity’ assumes that everyone starts the race from the same place and with the same capabilities. Sometimes some competitors need to be handicapped in order to produce equity. That is a form of ‘affirmative action’. Equity is doing right by the individual. It is to take the individual’s situation fully into account. In the legal profession, lawyers know that courts of equity may produce outcomes that vary with the length of the ‘Chancellor’s foot’. That is as it should be as morality and conscience are fundamental to Equity. Leaders of institutions must develop
and train their consciences so that our institutions invariably produce equitable outcomes.
Third, Humility. I am no expert on humility! But I try to be sensitive to what I do not know. And when I do not know, or know enough, I seek the counsel of those who do know. One of the fatal flaws of leadership here is that we are encouraged to believe that we are supposed to know everything. In developed countries, knowledgeable and accomplished businessmen employ consultants to advise them. Here our businessmen counsel themselves on every aspect of their business and will probably seek only the services of a lawyer when they get into trouble. This is one of the key aspects of the concept of “servant leadership” as articulated by Robert Greenleaf.
Leaders don’t always lead from in front. Sometimes they are prepared to follow those who know better than they do what needs to be done in particular circumstances.
Fourth, Courage. I have come to understand that ours is a society that was founded and maintained by violence and fear and intimidation. We are a traumatized people. Our politicians seek to intimidate us. Everyone is wary, because the government is so large and so intrusive that everybody depends on the government and hence politicians for their livelihood and their business success.
Business leaders, university academics, lawyers, public servants all perceive themselves to be dependent on the government and must succumb to the fear of victimization. So they tread warily.
They voice support for the PIP — party in power — whether that party in power is principled or not.
Power must be feared and obeyed, until at least we can escape. So we need Courage to stand up and do what is right. We do have courageous people here — Reggie Dumas, Sunity Maharaj, Emile Elias, Fr Clyde Harvey, Douglas Mendes, Martin Daly, and I will name only one politician, David Abdulah — exemplars to be followed and I think, emulated. I do not mean to suggest that they are always right, but it is clear to me that they are motivated by their convictions about what is right and they are not afraid to speak out and to act. To preserve and build our institutions, leaders must have Courage.
Fifth, “Mindfulness”. I am grateful to an old friend, Nazeer Sultan, for articulating this concept, which encapsulates the others. It means that we always engage our cognitive brain and suppress our primitive, instinctive brain. Our primitive instinctive brain is programmed for survival. It is selfish;
it is tribal; it is disposed to violence. Mindfulness means that we take everything into consideration when confronted with an issue, not just our own selfish interests. It means we respect and value every human person
we encounter, especially those who work with us. It means that we pause and bring our ethical training to the fore when confronted with ethical issues. We need mindful leadership.
These all add up to Principled Leadership, the kind of leadership on the part of our elite that will ensure the preservation and growth of our institutions and thereby minimize the scourge of corruption that has stalked our land for centuries! Yes we need laws, and we have them! But it is really principled leadership of our institutions, including those responsible for enforcing the laws, that will make a difference to the problem of corruption in our society.
JCH-Jerry, your comments were on spot and you touched on almost everything that is currently going on in this country. You have also mentioned the past, which is is no commendation but all we can say it was better than what we have today. I have deep respect for your experience, knowledge and intelligence so don’t expect me to challenge you in any ways on those qualities. My question to you however, is having touched on all this is wrong with our society and given the realities with which we have to work with, how do we move forward, showing that we have learnt from our mistakes and at the same time creating a new environment from which to draw and maintain talent? One of my observations is that of the constitution. Christians use the bible as their book of truth and can quote chapter and verse on how they to conduct themselves. Muslims use the quoran for essentially the same reason.
As a democracy, we are guided by principles that envelopes all aspects of our lives, so in order to maintain and sustain order and coherence our only guide is that of respect and conformance with the principles as laid out in the constitution. Where do we start and how do we maintain a sustained goal in getting the population and politicians to do that? Your thoughts!
My gut as is, tells me we have the experience here in Trinidad to stop the floods and improve our water supply by leaps and bounds. we can use solar panel roof tops to bring electricity to poor house holders who are held to ransom by a natural gas fueling the electricity system in NGC that was ill conceived and destroys many household appliances each year and only serves places like COURTS and others who make millions every year by their North America type credit system. We have to stop employing scam systems from America to our beloved country where white collar crime has placed corrupted untouchable Ministers and even judges making millions every day with deals. We are quietly creating anarchy in our country and in times to come will see 1990 as kids stuff. We have to wake up and smell the coffee and get APETT and BOETT (must be funded by government and made accountable) to do plenty more than they are doing and stop their presidents from jump starting their own businesses by using these organizations corruptly. We are paid up members of these organizations for many years and when the foreign concerns target us for death they turn to the other side and look the other way. OSHA as it is, in Trinidad is a complete waste of time and money. EOC and the Ministry of Justice were political gimmicks that served no purpose to the citizenry of T&T. NIS was never intended to serve the workers of T&T. The IRA bred unions and in particular leaders like the current Minister of Labour who never gave a damn for the worker. Errol was always all about self even in the Fedchem days when he told union money to buy a black laurel for his own use. There are plenty things in Trinidad we can do for our selves. We can fix our own country woos but we must respect every creed and race. We must learn to recognize the abilities amongst our own. We do not need foreign input anywhere in our countries. We need leaders. We need patriots. We need attitude, honesty, ethical people. We need to bring the true religion back to Trinidad. We need to get the youths back in church singing their hearts out. We need to have more pan competitions throughout year. We need to support the calypsonians,the mass makers, the brass men etc back to the work benches and bring back our Carnival top where it was – it is no longer a tourist seller. We can do it – yes we can. We need to have our hotels employ the credit card use and stop the money laundering and corruption. We need to have conversations that mean well to build our country and take our country out of the ashes it is in. If we cannot do this cannot not expect a foreigner to do so. They will come to our land to outsmart, rip us off and leave us totally scarred and poor. We need to drop out of the Commomwealth – The queen is a waste of time and only comesto our country to enjoy herself. Need I go on….
At least you are honest enough to say you benefitted from it.
Hey Oca,you and your one time judge dad ,can go jump off the CN Towers,or better yet,dive naked, into the icy Niagara Falls, for all we care!
If you ain’t part of the solution, then you are part of the problem.
No one cares about your accomplishments, your fake heritage, or adoration for European fiefdoms.
How do you propose helping your country, get itself out of the social quagmire, it appears to be stuck in,is all we on This here. Trini Center Nation, wish to know?
In the interim,spare us ,this your putrid ,condescending ,psycho babble!
Unpatriotic,ungrateful, self loathing bum,as an apt description of this creature,ain’t it, folks?
Make me PM in de morning, and the 2nd law,I’ll pass is to put a micro chip at our port of entry ,that would ring each time country haters like you ,or National ingrate in Chief, VS NAIPAUL, tries to enter T&T.
I would then proceed to quarantine you morally repugnant miscreants ,in a jail ,specifically constructed on the Beetham La Basse ,for at least a month ,and only feed you guys ,3 days old Doubles ,and foul smelling ,roach infested ,dry bread,so as to bring ‘you allze,’ back to earth,after your Eurocentric brain washing.
Tell me when again oca,is the next stupid referendum,to keep dem Francophones in Quebec, in Her Majesty Union?
Have you bums in Canada, finally decide, to admit,and or compensate, dem Native American/Redman ,for decades ofu acknowledged genocide ,perpetuated against them ,as yet?
Now that domestic terrorist, are shooting up your Parliament,are you,anti ISIS,NATO blokes ,from the 51st State of America,required to wear bullet proof vest ,as yet ,to go to your malls?
Hey folks ,maybe Yours truly ,is just a psychologically twisted bastard,but I get such sadistic pleasure, in exposing these frauds.
I luv dis land, Y tu?
” We can fix our own country woos but we must respect every creed and race. We must learn to recognize the abilities amongst our own. We do not need foreign input anywhere in our countries. We need leaders. We need patriots. We need attitude, honesty, ethical people. We need to bring the true religion back to Trinidad. We need to get the youths back in church singing their hearts out. We need to have more pan competitions throughout year. We need to support the calypsonians,the mass makers, the brass men etc back to the work benches and bring back our Carnival top where it was – it is no longer a tourist seller. We can do it – yes we can. We need to have our hotels employ the credit card use and stop the money laundering and corruption. We need to have conversations that mean well to build our country and take our country out of the ashes it is in.”……Jerry C. Hussain…… And thank you Jerry.
You have said it all in your summation of what we REALLY need in Trinidad and Tobago today. One of the fallacies of the current politicaL CLIMATE is that we need a third force, we need a third political entity, we need a third ideaL TO GRAVITATE TO and so…
there are those who believe that the way to get there is to form a third political party. I know what we indulge in mostly in this blog is politics. The reason is because we see it as the only avenue by which we can achieve the ‘ideal’. Meaning…. we can get jobs, healthcare, financial security and good infrastructure. Whilst those things are important to our well-being, they only make up a small part of our existence and what makes us whole and viable human beings. The rich believes that the way to salvation is through money. The poor accept life as it relates to their conditions and feel lucky for whatever is thrown their way. It used to be that one could elevate from any condition, no matter how lowly their state in life. But the burden of development rests almost solely on the middle class. And this is where the rules of life and living has to be set. Nationhood has to be built around the mores of the middle class. There are many around us that carry a Trinidadian identity by birth but have no interest in the development in their country. nThey say they love this country but only interested in what it has to offer them, not what they can do for the country. Their only interest is attaining wealth and power not the culture of which you so eloquently describes JCH. Is it attainable, what you describe? Yes, it is. But we cannot sit down and continually accept the mediocrity of services, governance, integrity, morality, and ethical behavior thrown at us from all levels of society. It is the duty of the middle-class to rise above mediocrity. When we accept, it is when they believe that what is being given is what we want. When we resist, they know that we want a better standard of living and we are to set our targets at a higher level of acceptance. On the papers this morning, Moonilal was complaining and gyrating that the Express is against him. What utter nonsense, from one who holds the reins of power?. When we are all in agreement with mediocrity is when we decide by so doing we are signing our deaths warrants.
The very essence of our development MUST be our ability to say and demand that what we are getting is NOT enough. It MUST be our duty to say WE WANT CHANGE. It MUST be our duty to seek a high ground. It MUST be our duty to challenge what is offered to us that does not fulfill the credentials of good governance.
The recently published polls tells us who is ahead, who is behind, who is popular, who is not popular and who don’t give a damn! Are you and I any better by those revelations? Hell No, because the polls does NOT ask questions to our development.
Based on the relevance of what you described at the top of my commentary, whose duty it is to constantly seek and guide us to that promise of democracy? The media of course! Then why are they feeding nonsensical trivialities as polls? We want people at the helm of our development who can navigate the system to safely deliver unto us the meaningful ingredients of services such as education, health care, parks and recreation, a healthy environment, community relations, expand our horizons beyond self and our kith and kin. When government take our lands and willing turn them over to rich individuals, they are in effect depriving us of our potentials. The rich is and always will be about SELF. The lands can be used to build parks, gardens and a natural environment of science for the development of society at large. The rich is given that freely without any debts or credits paid to us. Their use will be to deprive us the opportunity to be a part of that development or deprive us of knowing or learning what we can do collectively with our natural resources. We must feel free to vent our feelings. We are not slaves to the powers that be. We need to state without fear or favor how we feel deep inside of our inner consciousness. When we are denied those freedoms or some one in authority says that we should not be so informed, then we are in serious trouble. Holding a position of authority does not make one any better or smarter than one who knows better. It is true in Trinidad we accept foreign values as being more authoritative and more accepting than our own. It is not that we cannot get a qualified local commissioner of police or there aren’t many qualified individuals who are capable of redirecting the police service in the proper directions. The people who they want to put are people whose interests are narrow and will not result in a better performing police service. So, with governance like that, they would rather see the country as whole suffer than really staff the service with competent personnel. In terms of politics, there is currently a move afoot to creating a third force, most likely one borne with the middle class in mind. The problem I see with the foundational directions is that it appears to have a top-down rather than a down-up dimension. The ideas must first come from the people then develop into policies that would last a lifetime. It is what the COP thought it was doing in 2007. People showed interest in the concept but the concept only lasted as long as it’s leadership allowed the ideas to flourish. Today, while the COP is gasping for breath, the ideals for which it stood no longer is relevant because its leader has selfish motives by which he alone benefits. In building foundations what must be counted and respected most MUST be the constituted policies and practices. Any deviance from that practice will lead to failure. We must nurture good ideas and practices in order to keep and maintain a healthy mind and healthy thoughts.
Yes but we must focus on the root causes on our problems. The selfishness, the lack of knowledge of job requirements, the corrupt methods employed for our own power/success etc. Yes I see what you are saying but in the big picture is the fact that T&T is now consumed by what money can do as in USA which is drowning in their own sins right now. The unresolved problems of yesterday in the USA are coming back to haunt them…the drugs, racism, disregard for veterans from their war machinery (WAR is arguably their biggest and best business), scandal at the top be it stealing from the public purses, sex for favors etc. And of course we copy all that. But more importantly in T&T starting with our Culture as aforementioned it has become an all inclusive everywhere we turn with money as the trumps card. We keep out the poor and hungry as we push more and more the middle class to the lower rung of the ladder where the poor reside. IT is now the Carnival of the rich and it lacks aplenty. Our poor and highly talented are now left out and so our Carnival is totally controlled by the few rich who are squeezing all the money they can out of it while the quality has quietly disappeared and while they hang it out to dry. And we all are losing. But again as a root cause specialist the real problem is the foreigner in T&T who never belonged to our society…had no appreciation for our country but whose only wish was to make endless money over time from its vast resources. We remain enslaved since the 1800s but we do not know that as all the sufferings of our grandfathers and great grandfathers were never even documented or handed down. Where I was forced to live I ask my fellow trinis if they know Haseley Crawford – none knew (He won his gold here). Its so sad that the problems / solutions / successes of the past are forgotten. Hence for now there is no real way forward. Everybody in Trinidad I know wants Baka dead; nobody wants to inquire and learn why he did what he did yet there still are certain groups in T&T still feel they are way above the law and we the ordinary people are subject to them any which way and if they refuse to recognize us for our worth that is their right. And if they can refuse to give us our due it is their right to spin the justice system to suit them. Of course our justice system is all about money now as the 18 million the lady won recently. After winning my expensive Appeal Court matter in 2013 I still await costs by three most important Appeal court judges (its now 3 years since}. My family were targetted for my outspokeness etc. I have been forced to leave the country I loved dearly by outsiders who do not belong. But I say no more on that for I learn your pain is not my pain. But God does not have favourites, MAN does as the boss reminds me all the time. Farrell would not have been spilling his gut if the pain did not reside there today. WE all need to come before the Lord before we die. Some of us I know will freak out then as they will know it was never about self. This is where I leave this conversation. We need to remove the self lovers from our leadership in T&T. There are so many of them holding power in T&T and put there by networking (STRING PULLING). There are so many of them with FALSE PAPERS.
There is absolutely no doubt that there is a serious disconnect between the powers that be and getting things done. Our society was built based on the plantation system, that is to say planter vs worker. Put another way it is the rich/wealthy/upper class vs middle-class/working class. The distribution of wealth and privilege remains only at the top and when convenient (as in the case off elections) the poor is showered with attention. What has to be done is to establish a system of advocacy, emanating from the bottom up (not top down as is currently constituted). Take for example the system of justice, the JLSC and LATT are the power house associations that take care of their own profession and their own people. There is nothing in their by-laws that seeks the interest of the poor and needy. It promotes itself for itself. I was impressed by the efforts by the late George Daniel who, even though physically handicapped fought and gained notoriety for the dis-advantaged physically challenged people. It was sad that after heaped no one took his place. We need a thousand George Daniels for every sector of our development, to help and advocate for the lesser privileged from religion to crime.
The recently passed crime bill for example, came down very hard on the perpetrators of crime but those who supported it, ONLY had their minds on convicting the people from places Like Laventille, Morvant, Diego Martin and Arima.
The effect being more of the same because, what they are ads yet to learn is that when people give up themselves, they don’t give a damn about you. In other words, the criminal mind already convict itself, incarceration only completes the reality of that conviction. Expect recidivism to be a by-product of that endeavour. The churches need to inspire the way they used to as in olden days. If, as a follower of faith, I see my pastor and church clinging to the coattails of politicians for sustenance, then I get no comfort in knowing that my place of worship lacks the confidence in the Almighty and instead seek inspiration and commitment from Caesar.’
I cannot be assured by the crime bill that life would be made safer because the bill only seek to punish the perpetrator and not the enabler of crime (white collar).
I need to be assured that every citizen is afforded a better place to seek medical help, and when they get there they are treated with respect and courtesy. We need to know that we can rely on the police in times of need. Not hearing that they don’t have a vehicle or that they don’t have anyone to attend to our needs now. We need to know that our infrastructure is cognizant of all our needs and safety considerations. Without the help of advocacy we will never see any improvements in those and other areas of importance to our daily lives. Politics will always take care of itself, but even there we need to be mindful of the selfishness in how our resources are being lost to the planters (rich/wealthy/investors/owners/managers/CEOs/businessman/officialdom). Take for example Chaguaramas, Dr. Eric Williams fought his tail off to get it back from the Americans. He was threatened, insulted and treated as a nobody. He persevered and won it back for us. What do we see happening today? A man, not even elected by the people, in the form of Bhoe Tewarie, took it upon himself to give it away (without consultation of the people) to his friends and fellow planters, there lessening the quantity of land that the people can rightfully claim to be their own – it now belong to the planters. There is a serious need to rein in the excesses of people who use power indiscriminately and without the consideration of the country as a whole. There is serious need to start from the bottom in advocating on the issues that are important to us as a nation and to the preservation of the environment. The politician is GREEDY. If allowed to do what he wants and when he wants, the planters will live and the workers will die. If we live, we will end up in a system like apartheid. We all know what happened to that system. But then, why do we have to wait all that time when we already know what the outcome would be? The time is now to start advocating. Frederick Douglas was once asked what should we do to keep the struggle alive and he answered by saying, “Agitate!”, “Agitate!”, “Agitate!”.