Kevin Baldeosingh 

In rumshops throughout the region, the recent success of the West Indies men’s and women’s cricket teams has stimulated much discussion and urination. An especially thought-provoking contribution comes from eminent commentator Professor Laughingly Beckons in the Journal of Sports Epistemology, the standby magazine of restrooms everywhere, which has drawn insightful feedback from members of the cricket-loving public.

ISSUE #42, April 2016: The cow shot of WI Captain Darren Sammy sends a clear message about British culpability for reparations, premised not on need, but on the ontological claim of shin pads for dispossessed Africans. When Chris Gayle is unfazed by a bouncer, does this not reveal the intestinal fortitude that is a legacy of the Middle Passage? Bravo often refuses to bat on the backfoot, even when it might be profitable to do so, revealing his rejection of capitalism and its handmaiden, running shoes.

Indeed, cricket philosophers have long held that square leg as an expression of Idealism has been used by the West Indies cricket team as a neo-Platonic critique of the Washington Consensus which, as everyone knows, likes baseball. Silly mid-on concomitantly becomes an assertion of Absurdity, albeit Sartrean rather than Kafkaesque. 

Similarly, Sammy’s criticism of the West Indies Cricket Board, premised on a post-colonial interpretation of Keynesian economics, has forced the WICB to confront its solipsistic approach to management, including mango chow. In this context, whether bird pepper is mandatory or pimento a legitimate alternative remains problematic. Some regionalists would argue that Moruga scorpion pepper would be the mot juste, but I query whether this is viable in the absence of a Federation.

Clearly, the eschatology of Duckworth-Lewis holds sway, but is this Fate or do we have the free will to voop?

The Editor: While I fully support Professor Beckons’ call for reparations, his omission of Marx’s labour theory of value demonstrates the futility of reparations without revolution. Surely, the two go hand in cricket glove, which is manufactured in the capitalist countries, even if outsourced to China. In this context, his swipe at baseball, while heuristically deft, ignores the Cuban model which points the way forward for the Caribbean Revolution.

Fuzzy Smallwick

The Editor:

I must say that I was surprised and not a little disappointed that, in his otherwise excellent polemic, Professor Beckons did not reference the WI women’s team, especially in respect to women’s contribution to pepper sauce. While the patriarchal hegemony has always favoured whole peppers (hence the heterosexist domination of curry duck at river limes) pepper sauce has been typically feminist both in its liquidity and bottling. Indeed, intersectional theory holds that men sideline pepper sauce out of resentment of the crushing of the phallic capsicum, especially bell. 

Mentis Moll (Ms)

The Editor:

Professor Beckons’ argument posits, albeit tacitly, that West Indies cricket is free of the halting problem proven by Godel’s Incompleteness Theorem. While the WICB might try to use Hilbert spaces to bypass this limit, the real challenge is to ensure that the team strives for F (n + 1)/F (n), obviously without cholesterol.

Dr Last Noel

The Editor:

Professor Beckons’ Hegelian interpretation of history—or, as he would put it, History—is usefully epiphenomenal, but ignores the stellar example of Haiti’s early independence in the heyday of chattel slavery. Surely Toussaint’s 18th century glovesmanship on the stickiest of wickets puts forward the possibility, two centuries later, inherent in Sammy’s forward defence, which might be better described as humgrumshious. It is reasonable to query if Professor Beckons would turn up his nose at a woman whose cranial capacity challenges his own, even if she agrees to dress like a nurse.

Lately Brahmin

Professor Beckons replies: My thanks to all who took the time to respond to my little monograph. Mr Smallwick’s argument linking reparations and revolution has merit, though I would argue that Castro retained baseball primarily for propagandistic purposes, despite the shape of the bat which apparently makes Mr Smallwick envious. I sincerely apologise to Ms Moll for my lack of exegesis on the women’s team, but she can rest assured that I fully appreciate women’s contribution, as she will glean from my 1992 paper “Hot hot hot: Pepper Sauce Problematique in Gender Praxis”, in which I also interrogate racial bias against black pepper. Dr Noel’s suggestion is logical but, I would argue, impractical—a more effective formula, I suggest, is (a + b )2. As for Lately Brahmin’s take on History and crude conduct, she should bear in mind that there are still people who recall her former nose.

Email: kevin.baldeosingh@zoho.com

Kevin Baldeosingh is a professional writer, author of three novels, and co-author of a Caribbean history textbook.

As the country painfully seeks solutions to the growing problems within our schools, we seem to be overlooking an already existing significant resource which we need to use to our greater advantage.

I speak of Parent Teachers Associations which, as far as I am aware, exist in almost every school. From time immemorial this group has been a part of the education landscape. In some schools there are strong PTAs, making a significant contribution to the welfare of those school. They are on the frontline fighting for better and improved conditions and are always there in full support. While on the other hand, there are schools where the PTA exists only on paper and there is seldom a meeting held.

Invariably, the schools where the PTAs are vibrant tend to do better. This is because the machinery to negate against matters such as delinquency is in place and the relationship between home and school is stronger. When robust communication between teachers and parents exists, the likelihood of children slipping through the cracks is reduced.

Better performing children are those with solid support from their parents who will actively participate in the affairs of the institution. Such parents form part of various committees and can be relied upon to contribute to the overall functioning of the faculty. 

In contrast, we have parents who merely drop their children to school and expect teachers will do the work of moulding and shaping their characters as well as ensuring their academic development. These parents are seldom seen during the children’s school life and there is little or no interaction between them and teachers. Included in this group are those who will come into the school and be abusive, threatening the well-being of the teachers. We have heard of several of these incidents.

It is time to harness this resource. The PTA can become the single most important investment in the education system. A well organised PTA in our schools can immediately and significantly reduce the level of delinquency. Make them legal entities. This will include compulsory membership with clearly articulated roles and functions for parents within the schools.

Our PTAs will also have a training role for parents, to assist them in developing the required skills to treat with their children more effectively. One of the contributing factors to school delinquency is a deficiency in parenting skills or deficient parenting styles. 

PTAs need to move away from the fund-raising function to take on more active developmental tasks in the lives of the children. Parenting our children is now a national responsibility, a role for the wider society and it is no longer my children, my business. 

The National Parent Teachers Association needs to sit with the Government, and develop a legislative framework within which to operate. As a society we can maximise the potential of this tremendous resource. We now have our Children’s Authority and Child Protection Unit, please don’t leave our PTAs behind.

Garvin Cole,

Tobago

Should we appease our high sense of taste and go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF)? Or should we sacrifice our wants and bear with increase taxes, gas and food prices.

As human beings it is hard to hear the truth about ourselves, however, as citizens of this country we really need to understand that we have been spoiled tremendously. T&T has become a welfare state. The “welfare state” often refers to an ideal model of provision, where the state accepts responsibility for the provision of comprehensive and universal welfare for its citizens (Spicker 2014). 

We have GATE, subsidies, welfare programmes and much more. While this is not really bad, one of the disadvantages is that it encourages people to become dependent and if anything is taken back they will become agitated. 

I believe the citizens of this country have become too dependent, so citizens need to endure pain for a while. We must remember that oil is no longer king and we no longer have the finances to satisfy our wants or our high level of taste. 

Therefore, T&T cannot survive as a welfare state for too long. Failure to cut down on subsidies and welfare programmes means that we’ll have to go back to the IMF. 

Sacrificing for a while is much better than going to IMF. If we go to the IMF, austerity measures such as the devaluing of the currency way more than just US$1 = TT$10 and the termination of welfare programmes and much more will be imposed on T&T. Therefore, if we think that it’s bad now, it will be worse under the IMF. 

Zane Johnson

Dr Roger Hosein of UWI advises that the TT$ should be allowed to slide to say, TT$8 or TT$9 to the US$ as a means of improving the nation’s competitiveness on the global market. What he is recommending is that local costs for our on-shore exports will be reduced making our exports in the global market cheaper and hence more competitive. This in the context of having the economy move away from dependence on the energy sector toward the non-energy sector for its foreign revenue generation.

Indeed we have an example in the region worth examining. Jamaica that has depreciated its currency over the years from J$0.9 to US$1 in 1977, to J$121.7 to US$1 today, a depreciation of some 12,000 per cent, has failed to improve its export position. What is interesting to note is that the production costs in J$s did not remain static as the depreciations took effect; these costs increased in tandem so invalidating the depreciations as fostering competitiveness, and up to today Jamaica is still unable to get out of the clutches of the IMF. 

China at the outset may have had cheaper labour costs than say, the US, but its specialised human resource made its factories competitive, hence the shift in manufacturing there.

What Dr Hosein is ignoring is that the depreciation of the currency in a small open economy does not address the problem, not only of making the limited exports more competitive in the longer term, but more importantly it does not encourage the production of new and innovative products for the global market. 

A depreciation of the TT$ now will make imported goods more expensive which could help to quickly reduce aggregate demand for imports so bringing into balance the demand for foreign exchange (FE) and the reduced earnings of FE of the energy sector. But it does not solve the problem of making the on-shore a major global exporter, creating globally competitive companies to take over from the off-shore. 

Keep in mind that diversification of our economy is much wider than improving the lot of our current exporters. The energy sector earns normally some 90 per cent of our FE. Replacing this needs more than temporarily decreasing the local costs of production. It needs the creation of new companies/clusters that exploit knowledge via innovation and more so changing the business behaviour of our private sector.

Mary K King,

St Augustine

The global economy is in transition from an industrial economy to a knowledge-based economy, where an intangible, ie “knowledge” is used to create goods and services or add value to existing ones. 

This move towards a knowledge economy has created much efficiency for business and disruptive technologies eg: Uber and AirBnB. In the continuous drive for increased production, increased shareholder value/dividends, companies have employed more and more products from the knowledge economy; automated factories and artificial intelligence are two such products. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being employed to conduct analysis, stock trading and Science Technology Engineering Math (STEM) research robotics are being used more and more in the macro, micro and nano scales allowing for more precise execution of tasks. 

Hyper competitiveness is the main driver, to produce more for less and of a higher quality that the competitor. The knowledge economy has provided stimulus to industry and academia as well, to the point where many companies are in joint ventures with academia in the pursuit of technology that will give the company a strategic advantage.

Challenges do exist with the transition, however great we think the products of the knowledge economy are, we are missing a few important points. We ignore the threat that AI could present to mankind, as expressed by Professor Stephen Hawkins. We have not made the connection between the rapidly advancing knowledge economy and logical outcome of job losses. The lagging education system or the unwillingness of students to enter STEM programs leading to reduced productivity.

Populating any economy with low-paid service sector industries/jobs (clothing stores, sales clerks, fast food outlets, franchises, etc) indicates a developing country that intends to remain in stasis. Our economy has experienced an increase in underemployment due to university graduates either being unable to obtain jobs in their field or being ill-advised on what programmes to pursue at university. The inability of our economy to transition has contributed to job losses and the logical social unrest that will manifest itself via increased crime, mental illness and industrial agitation.

During this transition, we must recognise that there will be job losses as technology increases redundancy; reduced employment reduces revenue for the companies in the market and the state. A measured approach forward is required to ensure that our country isn’t left behind or that we leave segments of the society behind in the pursuit of a knowledge economy.

Keegan Denny,

San Fernando

Since the Minister of Finance budget prescription, I have heard two “threats” of a possible increase in prices, the first from a doubles vendor and the other from a Tobago fisherman, both based on the increase in the price of gas, and there may have been many more. 

In both these instances and others, perhaps the threat of price increases may have some merit because of the ensuing spinoff in terms of expenditure, negligible as that may be, but underlying this threats is the presumption that T&T consumers will talk and fuss for a while but will eventually pay the price hike. 

What is the reason for this phenomenon? In the US and other metropolitan countries if the increase of one penny is perceived to be unjust and exploitative consumers will simply not buy, with the inevitable consequence of the product remaining on the shelf to the obvious detriment of the seller. 

Here, however, the tradition reflected in the maxim of a former politician that “money is no problem,” stemming no doubt from a gas and oil economy which brought in huge amounts of money to a population of little over a million, seems to have caught on with the wider population so much so that a peculiar mindset about prices has emerged over time. 

You don’t, for example, query prices in a public place for it is beneath your dignity to do so, and it is a loss of “status” which the average consumer at a stall would hardly want to risk. This status associated with spending is reflected in other ways like the guy earning a modest salary using most of it to purchase an expensive whisky instead of the cheaper ones simply to impress his friends, and ending up beating his wife when he goes home with little or no money and she questions him about it. Or purchasing a huge car or an 80-inch TV when you are renting a one-room apartment. 

It’s the classic Napoleonic syndrome of “small people trying to play big”! The issue of status with regard to spending is integral to our psyche as Third World peoples which is why the principle of the thing in refusing to buy if a price is unfair, or discharging your civic responsibility in protesting against unscrupulous sellers, makes little difference to us, as it does with people in more progressive societies. 

The seller has the right to charge whatever price he chooses but you as the consumer have the equal right not to buy if the price seems exploitative, and if this happens as an overall pattern, out of this would emerge the kind of balance where fairness prevails for all. And this process can begin with you!

Dr Errol Benjamin 

It was recently published that teachers in some primary schools in east Trinidad are scared for their lives. This is also the case in the other geographical regions. Can you imagine this is where we have reached? Think, when these students progress into secondary school, what it will be like? However, the signs were there all along, we ignored them to our detriment now.

The reality is that teachers are trained mainly to deliver academic curricula and some of them in basic classroom management. Classroom management in the 21st century should be a compulsory component that all teachers must undergo.

The critical question now is: why do we expect teachers to be able to adequately deal with these young deviants in and out of the classroom? It is certainly not their forte. Further, if they are forced to deal with such crimes daily, as many of the acts committed can be classified as such, they will spend most of the class time here. And, the other students who want to learn, lose out.

Dealing with deviants is a profession in itself and the deans and other people who may not have to teach should exclusively handle these matters. Of course, teachers will deal with the little problems like not doing homework, talking etc, in class but the crime problems should not be within their remit. 

TTUTA should state its position on this. Conflict resolution techniques should be taught to all teachers and students including school administrative, security and safety staff. 

There must be a clear and fair system where certain deviants are removed from the classrooms and possibly school system and leave the others there who want to learn. This is as simple as it can get. It is unfair for children who want to better themselves via the education route to be robbed of this daily.

Like adult deviants who are separated from the rest of society, we need to consider this approach for young deviants who also want to engage in “adult-like” activities. They should know that there shall be consequences for their actions.

Ian Ramdhanie

The T&T Cadet Boys and Open Girls team both won their first two matches in their respective team competitions when the Caribbean Region Table Tennis Federation (CRTTF) Cadet and Junior Championship hosted by the Dominican Republic served off at the “Pabellon Tenis de Mesa, Parque Del Este” Sport Centre, Santo Domingo, yesterday.

In the Cadet Boys, four-team round-robin competition, T&T came from behind to beat Jamaica 3-1 led by a pair of wins from Jesse Dookie before defeating Aruba/Guyana combined 3-0.

T&T did not started the contest well though, as Derron Douglas went under to Jamaica’s Alessio Tulloch 6-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-6, 8-11.

But that was the only bit of disappointing for T&T as Dookie whipped Jon-Pierre Daley 11-6, 11-3, 11-4 to even the series at 1-1 before Nikoli Barbous-Alexis put T&T ahead when he outplayed Julien Newnham 11-13, 13-11, 11-6, 11-5 before Dookie sealed the tie when he defeated Tulloch in their reverse single clash, 11-9, 14-12, 11-9.

However, against Aruba/Guyana, Dookie overcame Jeandry Mathilda 11-9, 11-7, 8-11, 13-11 while Barbour-Alexis swept past Nicholas Romain 11-1, 13-11, 11-8, and Douglas humbled Jean-Claude Hoek 11-9, 11-7, 8-11, 11-6.

In their remaining match for gold, the second ranked T&T Cadet Boys faced top ranked Dominican Republic, which won both its matches by 3-0 margins over Aruba/Guyana and Jamaica.

For the local Open Girls team, former national senior women’s champion, teenager Brittany Joseph dismissed Dominican Republic’s Anyelis Perez 11-3, 11-9, 11-9 and Jasher De Gannes, making a return to national team play battled past Ashley Reinoso 12-10, 11-8, 11-8 before the T&T girls won the doubles 11-4, 7-11, 11-4, 9-11, 11-4 for a 3-0 triumph.

The T&T girls were much more clinical against French Guiana with Joseph beating Maria Fatal 11-4, 11-8, 13-11 and De Gannes over Maureen Hu-Yen Tack 11-9, 11-6, 11-7 before they combined to take the doubles as well, 11-7, 11-6, 11-2.

Like T&T, Dominican Republic has won its first two matches, 3-0 against Dominican Republic II and Dominican Republic III.

T&T still has to play Dominican Republic I and II as well as a Dominican Republic/T&T, featuring local Chelsea Fong.

And Sweden-based top T&T junior table-tennis player, Aaron Wilson led the Junior Boys team to a 3-0 thumping of Aruba.

Wilson won his opener, 11-4, 11-8, 11-9 over Jean-Pierre Helmeyer; Joshua Maxwell battled past Donald Yarzagaray 12-10, 11-3, 12-10 and Luc O’Young beat Andrew Croes 11-9, 11-5, 11-9.

Benoni Daniel is the other member of the Junior Boys team which still have matches versus French Guiana, Guyana and Dominican Republic to play in their round-robin series.

When the singles competition gets going Wilson will be favoured to repeat his gold medal performance in the Junior Singles

Last year, T&T won eight medals in total, one gold, one silver and six and led by Wilson, who has already represented the senior national team, a better showing is expected this time around.

Dylan Lee is the other T&T player in the tournament and he will compete in the singles events.

The team is being coached by Aaron Edwards and will have the experienced senior national player and top ranked local men’s player Curtis Humphreys as manager/coach whilst Petra Dennis Douglas serves as chaperone.

The tournament is being run by the Technical Director of the CRTTF Vasdev Bob Roopnarine of T&T.

Legislate and consult. These are the two things members of the gaming industry believe are necessary to take the sector forward. They also want Minister of Finance Colm Imbert to meet with them to “clear up erroneous information” the minister has about the industry.

Unofficial statistics indicate that the sector earns between $7 billion and $10 billion annually. However, there are concerns that the State has failed consistently to collect much taxes from the industry.

Imbert, in his mid-term budget review, announced plans for “better collections of taxes due from the gaming and gambling industry under existing legislation.” The Finance Minister told Parliament only three of the estimated 250 private members’ clubs in the country paid the statutory deposit and the tax on the gaming machines is seldom enforced. 

The minister said he was concerned that while the number of gaming machines have increased, tax collections had not and the Government will be launching a concerted effort to improve tax administration of the sector.

Imbert had previously said the Government was hoping a crackdown on gaming houses and members’ clubs that don’t pay taxes would boost the State’s coffers by half a billion dollars. However, stakeholders told the GML Enterprise Desk unless something is done about monitoring of the industry, collections will always be low. 

Secretary of the Union of Members Club and Lottery Workers—Cindy Mohammed (UMCLW)—told the GML Enterprise Desk legislation proposed by the former People’s Partnership Government would have gone a long way in ensuring better monitoring of the industry. She admitted that not everyone in the industry pays taxes.

 “We know the Government could get substantial revenue from the industry but there is no proper monitoring in place.”

According to Mohammed, once a year owners of some establishments go to court to get their licence, but some of them have found a way to get around the system.

“Some of them register ten machines. Someone will come and check the premises and will verify ten machines, but what happens if they add 50 or 100 machines immediately after? No one checks until the next year when the process is repeated.”

Mohammed said sometimes owners remove some of the machines from their premises prior to inspection.

President of the T&T Members Clubs Associations, Sherry Persad, said clubs that do so are not members of the association which has clear rules and guidelines. She has 48 members and they all operate under existing regulations and are FIU compliant.

Although she could not provide figures, Persad dismissed claims that the industry earns between $7 billion to $10 billion a year. She estimates that the association’s members pay $100 million in taxes annually, including taxes on tables and machines, for employees and NIS. Members’ clubs also pay a $500,000 bond to the Treasury.

A major concern for the association and its workers, she said, is the lack of legislation governing their operations. She said this has resulted in a “mushrooming of members’ clubs which we know nothing about; they are not our members.” 

Persad estimates there are now approximately 175 members clubs across the country. Minister Imbert puts the figure at 260, but Persad dismissed that saying, “not all members clubs are casinos so, while all have licences, not all are involved in gaming.”

 In 2015, the former People’s Partnership Government proposed a new Gambling, Gaming and Betting Bill which sought to regulate the industry via a Gambling Control Commission. The legislation would have empowered the commission to check into the licensing of any business, including probing applicants, associates, key employees, place restrictions on gaming by minors under the age of 18 and set up codes of conduct for dealing with patrons.

It also would have introduced a rehabilitation fund to assist gambling addicts and their families and a development fund to channel monies to arts and culture. 

The gaming industry has been in a tenuous situation for several years, in 2006, then Prime Minister Patrick Manning faced the wrath of the workers and their families when he announced plans to shut down the industry. He was faced with a massive protest outside his Whitehall Office and, in a brief meeting with the protesters, told them: “Our decision stands but we are going to have a phase out process. We are going to engage in retraining exercises for all those working in the industry so there will be no job displacement.” 

A decade later, the industry is still in existence and workers are still finding themselves having to protest to protect their jobs. The latest was last Friday when Parliament met for the Finance Minister to unveil the mid-term review. The workers were concerned that the Government was going to increase taxes which, they say, would put their jobs in jeopardy. However, there was no increase and they breathed a collective sigh of relief. 

Persad said the industry—which is 30 years old—is properly regulated but not legislated and this adds to problems. To get a licence, clubs must satisfy the requirements of the Registration of Clubs Act. They are also regulated by the Board of Inland Revenue and audits are randomly done to ensure all taxes are paid.

Private members’ clubs are listed as businesses under the Proceeds of Crime Act and must register with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to be fully compliant. The FIU conducts random audits to ensure clubs are registered and compliance programmes are in place to ensure employees are trained.

In its 2015 report, the FIU said only 69 private members’ clubs were registered with the unit and they were “the least compliant in the implementation of customer due diligence measures training and record keeping.” 

Persad said her association wants the industry to be “regulated by legislation,” but they also want meaningful consultations. 

Mohammed admitted there is urgent need for legislation as there is now a proliferation of gaming establishments and “foreigners are now taking our jobs.” 

“There is nothing we can do about it because we have no job security and no protection.” 

“We have been lobbying for 15 years for legislation. Our compliance is one of the strongest. We know every person who comes through our door. The area for money laundering is very slim, because each member has to fill out a form so we have their information. We have a code of ethics and all members must be registered with the FIU.” 

The Ministry of Finance has set up a committee headed by Phillip Marshall to look at the industry. At a meeting with the Committee in February, Persad said they were told that among the proposals on the table is a “limit on players, meaning he or she should play a certain amount of money and if they want to play more, they should apply to do so.” 

Persad said this is unfair to the players.

She described gaming as entertainment, explaining that it was why people go to Las Vegas.

The committee has also proposed that members’ clubs submit a 66-page due diligence document to get their licences, and that all employees—including security officers—be licenced and their employment approved by the proposed Gaming Commission.

Persad said the economic downturn is already affecting the industry.

“Patrons not coming as before, they cut back.”

She is calling for Imbert to meet with industry stakeholders to get the facts and better understand the industry. 

Just after the Carnival this year, a display advertisement appeared in a weekend newspaper. It was a congratulatory message from Hadco Ltd and Phase II Pan Groove to the new Panorama champions, Desperadoes offering congratulations to the band and “their supporters and the people of Laventille.” Conciliatory. Magnanimous. Positive. In the hurly-burly world of competitive art that is Trinidad Carnival, Panorama foes are friends in life, but on paper, loyalties are disparate. 

The gesture of congratulations could be a sign of the dawning of a new era in corporate relations between rivals or even communities. Hadco and Phase II were big enough to uniquely, from among their own cohort, and publicly congratulate the winning band. One needs to recognise that Hadco recently became the sponsor of legendary steelband, Phase II, who placed third. This was a signal. Are we witnessing a new way sponsors of steelbands interact with the community that is the steelband fraternity? Is this a new paradigm in a time of recession when history has shown that with the tightening of belts comes a “man for himself” mentality? 

Both Hadco and Phase II represent a kind of rebel spirit in their representative industries. The synergy between the two organisations reflect a maverick nature that defines innovation and influence. Hadco, which celebrates 25 years of existence in 2017, was a radical that quarter-century ago when they entered into the local distributive trade marketplace among giants who already had over 50 years experience. They still thrive today with a focused vision that speaks of “enriching the quality of life” of their partners and, importantly, “setting trends.” They operate successfully with a business model that recognises the triple CEOs in the Hadad brothers as a unity. 

Phase II represents the ultimate trendsetters—six young musicians leave an established Woodbrook band to form a new band that sought “to produce a more creative sound on pan,” and to become professional musicians. In so doing, they went against the grain by performing their own compositions and winning before anyone else did, and establishing a revolutionary spirit by surviving for many years as an unsponsored band. Additionally, among its ranks is a savant—some prefer the term “mad genius”—who astounds in his method of composition that draws onlookers and supporters from all over the world. Len “Boogsie” Sharpe’s legend is global. And successful. 

The new partnership between Hadco and Phase II reflects a coming together that has repercussions to how music could be presented all year, and how the business of music and the business of steelband could operate in the 21st century. 

A little history is needed to understand the context of the new partnership. On the cusp of a new century, Phase II entered into a sponsorship agreement—for the first time in the band’s history—with state-owned company Petrotrin that ultimately lasted for 16 years when it “expired.” 

The steelband “opted to continue its work with the support of another sponsor” was the dry language of disengagement presented via a press release from the oil company. At the end of 2016, Hadco, the other sponsor, cemented a relationship that promised to enhance the brand of Phase II, and introduce a new concept in corporate engagement, creating shared value. 

Creating shared value is the new buzz word among the business class and is seen as an extension of corporate social responsibility that has been bandied about for some decades.

The dictionary definition of creating shared value notes that the central premise is “that the competitiveness of a company and the health of the communities around it are mutually dependent.” 

Hadco has embarked on a new and somewhat unique style of steelband sponsorship in T&T. In light of a national recession and general malaise in the economy, Hadco’s sponsorship of Phase II Pan Groove signals that the corporate sector is still alive to the potential possibilities of endorsing the efforts of the national instrument and the national institution of the steelband beyond the limited parameters of the annual Panorama competition. 

For Hadco, this was no fluke, and for Phase II this can only be a win-win. The company has had an informal personal relationship with the steelband and its management going back a couple decades, and their recent conversations showed that going forward, a new vision for how a steelband connects with a community, real and virtual, was needed. 

As a modern company, Hadco efforts recently already point to a tangible transfer of the entrepreneurial spirit said to be lacking in the nation, and more importantly, not very prevalent among the steelband community and large bands beyond a kind of tokenism seen with similar large corporation sponsorships over the years. 

Immediately, one saw a physical and aesthetic revitalisation of the panyard, the locus of creativity, but increasingly, the site for commerce. There was a rejuvenation of the ambience of the space. There was a shedding of the idea of panyard as a space to “just lime and listen.” Hadco was teaching the band capitalism. The idea that profits from its ongoing ventures in trade and merchandise in the panyard can and would be added to potential revenue steams from local events and value-added material has taken hold. There is a shared buy-in as the company’s resources are used to enhance the asset that is Phase II. As Phase II grows, so does the Hadco. 

The company’s efforts outside of the Carnival season to raise the profile of the band among a wider cohort of fans is observed and noted. With a turn-around of just three months after the hectic Carnival and Panorama season, Hadco’s team are assisting the band to present the International Jazz Panyard Jam Session on April 30 at the panyard in Hamilton Street in Woodbrook, featuring trumpeter Etienne Charles along with other Caribbean jazz stars, bassist Ron Reid, and pan jazz recording artist Leon Foster Thomas, who will reprise his role as drummer for Phase II. Joining these three Trinidadians are a cast of jazz musicians; Latin jazz percussion star Luisito Quintero from Venezuela, Haitians Obed Calvaire on drums and Godwin Louis on alto saxophone, and singer Roger George of Charlie’s Roots fame. Hadco brought along other sponsors, Carib and bmobile to share sponsorship duties. 

Of course, the featured performer would be Len “Boogsie” Sharpe and the steelband that will perform alongside Dougie Redon and his band, and Charles’ band. This event is in celebration of International Jazz Day, and points to a recognition by all that the steelpan is not limited to our circumstance as a Carnival instrument, but stand alongside the pantheon of musical instruments that define the music of freedom. International Jazz Day brings together communities all over the world to celebrate and learn about jazz and its roots, future and impact. This event is more than a concert, it is about dialogue among cultures. The jam session is one such a dialogue. T&T and the world. Steelpan and any other musical instrument. 

The steelband and the company both share a relative “new kid on the block” status among their respective industries. Hadco and Phase II are at the dawn of possibilities as they move along side by side into the 21st century. Together, they are creating a new paradigm for the steelband industry. 

• For more information call 675-7628 ext. 1201, 1202 or 1314 or email info@hadcoltd.com

SIDEBAR
ABOUT PHASE II INTERNATIONAL JAZZ PANYARD JAM SESSION
Phase II will be hosting the International Jazz Panyard Jam Session on April 30. 
This one night only event is in celebration of International Jazz Day. Included in the line-up are the reunion Band members Ron Reid and Etienne Charles, along with Caribbean and international artistes Obed Calvaire, Godwin Louis, Brett Williams, Luisito Quintero and guest vocalist, Trinidad’s own Roger George. 
Patrons are promised a truly enjoyable evening of jazz entertainment and the honour of experiencing an all-out jam session when Phase II and Len “Boogsie” Sharpe join forces with some of the most talented jazz players today. 
Opening the show is the Douglas Redon Ensemble along with other guest artistes. 
The International Jazz Panyard Jam Session will be held at Phase II Panyard, Hamilton Street, Woodbrook. 
Gates open at 5.30 pm and the show starts at 7 pm. 
Tickets are $300 each and available at all Häagen Dazs locations nationwide and also available at Hadco Corporate Office, San Juan.​​

Oil: Money, Politics, and Power in 

the 21st Century, Tom Bower.

Grand Central Publishing, 2009.

ISBN 978-0-446-54798-7; 490 pages. 

Kevin Baldeosingh 

Investigative journalist Tom Bower interviewed more than 250 people all over the world for this book which charts the history of the oil industry charting industry from the 1980s to the early 21st century, including the careers of leaders in the field. 

Far from being a dry account, Bower adopts a novelistic style, so that details of oil prices and drilling and technology are continually enlivened by personalities and politics. The first chapter, for example, begins like a typical crime thriller. It’s September 25, 2003, in New York, and the opening lines are: “Lee Raymond did not conceal his impatience. The Russian president was 30 minutes late.”

Within the next five pages, the reader not only learns about the negotiations with Valdimir Putin and Mikhail Khordorkovsky “the billionaire Jewish oligarch”, but also how Raymond, chairman and chief executive of Exxon didn’t want to work with his opposite number at British Petroleum, John Browne, because the latter was gay.

The blurb for the book says that it is “the ultimate story of arrogance, intrigue, and greed”. This purple language is intended to sell the book as a thriller, but it is misleading. Bower’s account is far more balanced and insightful, and it is really a story of business people, albeit ones working in the richest industry in the world. “Many of those employed in the oil industry are remarkably intelligent individuals pursuing their ambitions with expertise and inspiration, rather than being inextricably tangled up, as the alarmists suggest, in corruption, conspiracies and cover-ups,” he writes.

Conspiracy theorists get short shrift. “Experienced traders knew that the stocks in tanks and pipelines were constantly changing, data was always history, forecasts were frivolous, and holding stocks in tankers was hugely expensive. Psychology was crucial, but rumours could only influence prices for hours, perhaps a few days, but no longer,” Bower points out.

Of course, all this will immediately persuade many people that Bower is a shill for the industry. But his book is hardly complimentary to many of the players in it. But it is in the interest, even of politicians who profit from them, to paint oil executives as bandits. “Because the oil-producing countries retain up to 90 per cent of the profits, the Western oil companies have the delicate task of persuading rightly self-interested governments to share their wealth and sell access to their reserves,” Bower notes. “In Africa, Asia and South America, impoverished nations may be ecstatic about the sudden promise of effortless wealth; but it is only realisable with the marketing, organisation and technology invented by Western companies.”

Is this the case for T&T? Ordinary citizens do not know, because all administrations have always kept contract details secret, with the present Prime Minister even having stated that this is how it should be. But he, and every policy-maker in the Energy Ministry, need to read this book, indeed, had they done so seven years ago and heeded its overview, the recession might not now be hitting T&T in quite the same way.

It’s an activity that uses millions of dollars in foreign exchange annually and—with the country’s tight foreign exchange situation—local business groups have been lobbying the Government to crack down on it. When he presented his mid-term budget review on Friday, Finance Minister Colm Imbert announced the imposition of a seven per cent tax on online shopping.

Imbert first hinted at the tax last October during a post-budget discussion with the American Chamber of Industry and Commerce of T&T (AmChamTT) when he revealed that the then newly elected PNM Government had received proposals from the business community to introduce the measure.

In his presentation to Parliament last Friday, the minister said online purchases in US dollars put a strain on the country’s foreign reserves to the tune of “US$1 million a day.” He said there was precedent for a tax on online shopping from the United States and New Zealand. The measure, he said, will not only help manage the country’s foreign reserves but will give local businesses a competitive advantage.

The seven per cent tax will take effect in September following discussions with banks and credit card companies, Imbert said.

Thousands of middle and upper class citizens regularly surf the net to make Internet purchases, enticed by sales and bargains which make items far cheaper than what is sold locally.  

One online shopper Mala said: “The fact is that I can get what I want cheaper. I will pay for it with my credit card, send it to a US address and it will be shipped to Trinidad. I pay taxes and duties but the cost I pay is still less than the cost of the product locally.”

She said she regularly purchases clothing and shoes for her family and, at Christmas time or for birthdays, she makes more high-end purchases, including electronic items.

Another online shopper, Cheryl, felt it was “unfair that the Government would want to tell me how to spend my money.” 

Cheryl said the seven per cent tax “is just being put to satisfy the people who helped them win the election. Is poor people like me who will be affected.” 

But she’s wrong. It’s not just people like Cheryl or Mala who will be affected. Some business people find it cheaper to purchase their stocks online. A spokesman for a local courier company that clear goods purchased online told the Business Guardian some businessmen have been making extensive use of the facility because it is cheaper. Businesses also use courier services to import medicine and other production inputs.

However, this does not mean that they don’t pay taxes. They are charged duties and VAT as well as the cost for shipping. The shipping charge is calculated either by weight or the dimension of the package, which ever is greater.

Cheryl said she will now be paying tax twice.

“The goods I used to buy before I will no longer be able to afford because on top of duties, if I have to pay the additional seven per cent tax, it will be too expensive.”

Courier companies have made it easier for citizens to shop online. They register for free, shop at any US Web site and the package is delivered. The shopper is provided with a US address where the goods are sent when purchased and there is online tracking. Once shipped the goods get to T&T within two to three working days.

TTPost also offers a courier service. EZone is an international private mail box service that allows customers to have their online purchases delivered to a Miami or UK address, air or sea-freighted to T&T, then delivered via TTPost.

In a statement last October, AmChamTT cautioned against an additional tax on online shopping. The business group said imposing additional taxes on online shopping would not deter it but instead “run it underground and damage a thriving industry.”  

AmChamTT acknowledged that “credit card purchases are a first call on our foreign exchange. The banks automatically honour any credit card purchase that is made for online shopping and it is always in a foreign currency.” 

You probably know his pictures, though you may not know his name. Richard Bridgens’ drawings are used constantly to illustrate slavery in the Caribbean in exhibitions, books and films. But who was he, and do his pictures of enslaved people accurately depict their lives? 

Bridgens had an artistically influential—though not financially successful—career as a furniture designer in Regency England. But in 1826 he and his family sailed for Trinidad, where his wife owned part of a sugar estate in Arouca. 

Here Bridgens drew what he saw around him, in particular the cycle of sugar cultivation, and the creole culture being created by enslaved people and their free counterparts. Though a planter himself, in his book West India Scenery he didn’t attempt to disguise the wretched conditions under which enslaved people lived. 

In The Colour of Shadows, Judy Raymond has used Bridgens’s drawings and contemporary documents such as the slave registers and the reports of the Protector of Slaves, to tell the story of slavery in Trinidad in the last years before Emancipation, focusing on the people who lived on Richard and Maria Bridgens’ St Clair estate. 

She has also unearthed previously unknown facts about Bridgens’s life and work, some of his unpublished images, and about what became of his family after his death in Port-of-Spain in 1846. 

Raymond, a former editor-in-chief of the T&T Guardian, has written two previous biographical studies of local artists, jeweller Barbara Jardine and fashion designer Meiling, a release said. 

The Colour of Shadows: Images of Caribbean Slavery is published by the Caribbean Studies Press of Florida. 

It will be launched at the Bocas Lit Fest on May 1 at 3 pm at the Old Fire Station, Hart Street, as part of the OCM Bocas Lit Fest 2016. 

Part 1 

The Alta Reading Circle was created to assist Alta students with their reading in an informal setting. Our Reading Circles are run by volunteer guides who work with students once a week, for two hours in venues across Trinidad. Today, Rosemarie Ollivere, an Alta Reading Circle guide and tutor shares the experience she has had working with students at the St Anthony’s College Reading Circle for almost two years. 

Hidden treasure lies beneath the surface of Reading Circle, certainly a lot more than I anticipated. My experience at St Anthony’s College, on a Wednesday evening, has led me to believe that Reading Circle is integral to the Alta programme. 

At first, I saw Reading Circle as an opportunity to get students to discover the joy of reading. We read books mostly from Alta’s library, newspaper articles and we took turns reading inspirational stories which kept the students motivated. It was a time to learn about the life experiences of different people and broaden their horizons. The classes were stimulating and enjoyable as we would always take a few minutes to talk about triumph over difficulties and the soaring of the human spirit. 

When students did not recognise a word, we would cover and reveal it syllable by syllable, as we had been trained to do to show syllable division in action. Often we would come across phonics they had cards for, so we used the opportunity to reinforce the sound in the word. I observed that the students were more willing to plod through words when the story was interesting. 

We would pause and discuss the reading material. They enjoyed the discussion particularly when they could relate to it. I noticed, too, that while reading they were automatically applying the phonics and internalising other rules. 

On one occasion, without any prompting, a student who had been struggling with suffixing, pointed out the ‘drop e rule’ as the words ‘drive’ and ‘driving’ had appeared in the same paragraph. This alerted me to the value of simply seeing the words in print and within the context of an interesting story. 

In the Alta class, much time was spent on suffixing rules but here the student was able to spot the rule on her own when she discovered it in the passage. Application is a key stage of learning. 

What then are the benefits of the Reading Circle? Reading for enjoyment in a relaxed setting allows students the opportunity to apply the skills acquired in the tutoring classes. They can apply rules and phonics much the same way we speak a language without consciously applying rules. During the reading process they get a chance to internalise the phonics as they listen to themselves. They absorb the sounds of the letters and this helps tremendously in sounding out words. 

Like learning a new language, immersion integrates the skills learnt and makes the words come alive. For example, when the two sounds for ‘ow’ appear in one sentence, the student combines the two skills of using context and phonics to make the right pronunciation reinforcing both skills.

I strongly believe Reading Circle is the missing link for many students who may rattle off the phonic cards during Alta classes but are unable to apply this to read words. 

Join us next week for Part Two of this article. 

• For more information on Alta’s Reading Circle call 624-2582.

blink|bmobile continued its support of local culture by extending support to the Kendra Phagwa Festival. Based on ancient Hindu scriptures which tells of the demise of a demonic king, Hiranyakashipu, the Festival took place on Easter Sunday this year at the Kendra Grounds, Chaguanas, with the usual colourful festivities and Pichakaaree competition. 

Both blink | bmobile and the Kendra Phagwa Festival celebrated their 25th anniversaries this year with chief marketing officer at TSTT, Camille Campbell, noting the positive impact both have had on the local cultural landscape of T&T. 

“Like blink | bmobile, the Kendra Phagwa Festival is a product of the ingenuity of the people of T&T. It is a representation of our culture and is celebrated by many Trinbagonians of varying religious and ethnic backgrounds,” said Campbell. “It belongs to all of us, much like blink | bmobile, and has come to help shape our multicultural existence in T&T.”

Campbell said the company was happy to support the festival and congratulated all the participants of the various traditional competitions for their effort and accomplishments. She also commended the festival organisers for a well-run event and their commitment to ensuring the longevity of local culture. 

Among the winners of the pichakaaree competition, Toolsie Ramdass Singh was adjudged the National Pichakaaree Champion for his song, Damaru Bajawe (Play The Drums), which was composed by Mohip Poonwasie, who was named the top composer this year. 

Festival manager, Geeta Sumarie Ramsingh, said she was pleased with the overall turnout and participation at the event, despite it being held on Easter weekend with a number of other competing activities.

“The organising committee is very pleased with the attendance and participation in all the Kendra Phagwa Festival activities. This was a landmark year for us as we commemorated 25 years of the KPF and the months of planning, rehearsals and hard work was really worth it,” said Ramsingh. “We feel a great sense of accomplishment and already some initial planning is on the way for next year's festival.”

Additionally, Ramsingh thanked blink | bmobile for their continued support and commitment to culture and community building. “We are very appreciative of the support of TSTT, especially over the last few years. This year they have again shown their commitment to community building initiatives and family-oriented events like those organised by the Kendra Phagwa Festival. We laud their support.”

The venue itself had a huge turnout, which included a number of foreigners who were either there to study the festivities, or just enjoy the day with friends. No one was spared the onslaught of colour as participants seemed to have an endless supply of the customary dyes and powder that are the signature feature of Phagwa celebrations.

RESULTS

SONG CATEGORY—The Champion—Toolsie Ramdass Singh (Damaru Bajawe—Play The Drums)

Social Commentary Category

1: Jagdeo Phagoo

2: Kamaldai Ramkissoon 

Festive Category

1: Rikki Khandoo

2: Bindra Bachan 

Theme Category

1: Marva Mckenzie

2: Akshay Khandoo

COMPOSER CATEGORY- The Champion—Mohip Poonwassie (past champion composer) 

Social Commentary Category

1: Jagdeo Phagoo

2: Mukesh Babooram

Festive Category

1: Mohip Poonwassie

2: Mohip Poonwassie

Theme Category

1: Mukesh Babooram

2: Rooknath Lackpat

Most creative & imaginative use of Hindi

1: Jagdeo Phagoo

OTHER CATEGORIES

Best Costume 

1: Toolsie Ramdass Singh 

2: Mohip Poonwassie

Best Props

1: Mohip Poonwassie

2: Jagdeo Phagoo

First, congratulations on all your hard work and your impressive entrepreneurial spirit! You’ve achieved so much at such an early age. You’re building a solid base of experience and connections that will be a great asset in the future. Your work in the finance field is useful training, and your optimism and enthusiasm are shining through.

You’ve asked me three separate questions, but they’re all connected, in that all three are about balancing control over your different ventures with the freedom to take on new ones.

Like you, I’m constantly coming up with ideas for new businesses. Over the past few decades we’ve developed more than 100 brands at Virgin and we’re huge fans of giving new industries and ideas a try. The rush that comes from making an idea into a reality can be hugely absorbing, almost addictive. As difficult as it can be to focus on one idea when you have so many others floating around in your head, it’s important to see it through.

When you start a business, your primary goal in the first year should be to help it survive, rather than to start a second enterprise. To have a fair chance at survival, it needs all your attention, and if you spread yourself too thin, you simply won’t be able to focus. The lessons that you learn over that year of building the business will inform your next effort.

You’ve likely heard that entrepreneurship is a lonely path, but I’ve never found that to be the case: I’ve surrounded myself with partners who are just as invested in building something amazing as I am. Your letter shows that you already know that you can’t do it all, and so you’re working with partners. It’s vital that you pick the right people as your businesses expand.

When you need to choose a new employee or a partner, be careful! Some potential partners may see money as a primary motivator for starting a new business.Ask yourself: What’s truly at the heart of my businesses? Why did I start it? What’s our purpose? Whomever you choose should share your vision and your passion.

When you’ve chosen great people, you don’t have to worry about maintaining control. Instead, reward your colleagues by delegating important responsibilities to them; trust them to help you build your company.

This leads me to your final question, about breaking bad news to your partners. It’s never easy, but it will be much easier if you’ve chosen the right partners. People who joined your enterprise for the long term and who share your vision won’t be panicked by one bad month. Work on developing a culture of resourcefulness at your business that encourages all of your staff to work on fixing what has gone wrong so that you can get the enterprise back on track quickly.

Above all, you need to be honest about what’s going on, not fearful about admitting mistakes — we all make missteps. At Virgin, there have been times where parts of our businesses have teetered on the edge of disaster. (I myself have had many uncomfortable conversations with bank managers, especially in the early days!) When something goes wrong, our approach is to be completely honest; you need to foster a sense of trust and transparency with your colleagues and employees.

Remember, one failure isn’t the end of the world; and you already know this, given that you’ve closed two businesses. But did that stop you? No, it hasn’t, and I can see that any future failures won’t either. The important thing is that you learn from them, and get back up again. Good luck!

(Richard Branson is the founder of the Virgin Group and companies such as Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America, Virgin Mobile and Virgin Active. He maintains a blog at www.virgin.com/richard-branson/blog. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/richardbranson. To learn more about the Virgin Group: www.virgin.com.)

(Questions from readers will be answered in future columns. Please send them to Richard.Branson@nytimes.com. Please include your name, country, email address and the name of the website or publication where you read the column.)

Year One

The first year is crucial for any business, and your primary goal should be to simply survive the first 12 months. To do that, keep these tips in mind:

• Make sure that you’re focused on one enterprise at a time. Spreading yourself too thin can be detrimental to your business.

• Choose partners who share your vision, and make sure that money is not their primary motivation to work with you.

• Foster a sense of trust and transparency with your partners and employees by being honest when something goes wrong.​

Q.: I’m 19 years old, and I feel like I’m on the right path. I work for a business loan centre, where I’m learning a lot. I also manage a fund that invests in small companies, which has been really profitable. I also own a restaurant that serves breakfast and lunch. I have partners, of course, otherwise I would have a major problem managing my time.

Like you, I’m always on the hunt for new business ideas, though not every startup has worked out as I expected (I closed two businesses already). 

My questions to you are:

• After launching one business, how much time should pass before I start working on another?

• What’s the best way to maintain control over a business when you have partners?                                                                                                                                                                      

• If a company sees a loss one month, but you’re sure that it’ll bounce back the next, how should you convey that information to your partners?

— Jaime A Navarro, Nava, Mexico

Last Thursday, students in my Men and Masculinities in the Caribbean course engaged in pro-feminist men’s movement-building on the University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine campus. They created games, posters, pamphlets and popular theatre that tackled issues related to fatherhood, violence, pornography, suicide, health, homophobia and popular culture. This assignment aimed to create peer learning outside of the classroom, challenging students’ real-life capacity to explain patriarchy as a source of both men’s privilege and pain.

There are many kinds of men’s movements, differentiated by their politics regarding race, sexuality, capitalism, militarism, religion and women-led feminist struggles. Pro-feminist men’s movements, which are also called feminist men’s movements, are not motivated by a desire to return women to “traditional” or subordinate roles. 

They are not compelled by competition with women in the struggle for rights nor by an empirically-unfounded position that women now have too much power and men are the “real” victims. Thus, such men’s movements are best for achieving gender justice, which requires us to dismantle and transform the hierarchies created by our ideals of manhood and womanhood.

While masculinity studies seems new, the study of men in the Caribbean emerged in earlier studies on the family. Since at the least the 1930s, anthropologists looked at Afro-Caribbean families, which didn’t fit colonial nuclear-family models, and concluded that men were marginal to them. Later feminist scholarship debunked that, arguing that while Afro-Caribbean fathers may not reside within families, which may therefore end up mother-centred, other men such as sons, uncles, brothers and grandfathers were not marginal to family life at all.

By the 1980s, a new discourse, not of marginality, but of marginalisation was introduced. It argued that women’s gains were a direct consequence of black men being held back from advancement in the teaching profession in Jamaica. Men were being marginalised to keep them subordinated and prevent them from threatening colonial rule, it claimed. 

Despite the inaccuracy of this interpretation, and its denial of women’s own efforts to advance in the labour market, the myth of male marginalisation caught fire across the Anglophone region as those who saw women’s advances in terms of men’s feelings of emasculation found a flag to wave in backlash to Caribbean feminism.

Nonetheless, from Jamaica to Trinidad were experiments with pro-feminist men’s organising. Anyone active in men’s movement-building in 1990s T&T would remember MAVAW, Men Against Violence Against Women. UWI Lecturer Jerome Teelucksingh revived International Men’s Day commemorations on November 19, his dad’s birthday, to mobilise men to improve gender relations and promote gender equality, through a focus on men’s health, positive male role models and men’s contributions to community and family. 

Unfortunately, the turn of the century witnessed an about-face by campus principals, state bureaucrats, politicians, policy makers and fathers’ groups. A language of “balance” began to displace one of equity. A vocal men’s rights movement emerged, increasingly attacking rather than collaborating with feminists. A once visible (pro-)feminist men’s movement shrank, leaving those men who continued to invest in challenging patriarchal relations feeling isolated, and reproducing the fear, shame, silence that Michael Kimmel describes. 

That said, a vibrant gay men’s movement emerged in this very period, but it too gets little love from the men’s rights approach. This is one example of where pro-feminist men’s movements can take responsibility for challenging men’s rights groups as well as discrimination that men still face.

This turn ignored women’s long solidarity with men’s movement-building, and men’s solidarities with women’s rights in the region. In the 1990s, I often worked with young male activists from the YMCA who sought to transform masculinities to create a kinder, gentler world for subordinated boys. 

Women in UN organisations and university departments generated funds and developed curricula for masculinity studies, facilitated workshops for men, established peace-building programmes and supported networking amongst men across the region. Neither the women nor men always got it right, but we were not enemies. Rather, we shared struggles from different, contradictory and shifting sites of power.

In a globally right-wing moment, it remains necessary to mentor men and women to change the nexus of power, privilege, pain and powerlessness in boys and men’s lives. My students engage in pro-feminist movement-building to better understand the project of men’s movements, like women’s movements, to fairly and lovingly value us all simply because we are human. When that pedagogy works, it garlands the bread of solidarity with roses of hope.

Brian Ramsey, MBA, 

Chairman, CISPS

There is a tendency in the Caribbean to view terrorism as something that happens elsewhere. Yet, if one examines regional history, one can clearly see that the Caribbean has not been immune from such. A quick examination of the last 50 years reveals the following:

• 1968, Bahamas, Assassination of Haitian Consul

• 1976, Barbados, Bombing of Cubana Airplane and Bombing of BWIA office

• 1976, Trinidad, Bombing of Guyana Consulate-General

• 1976, Bahamas, Attack on Soviet Ship

• 1980, Guadeloupe, Bombing at airport

• 1985, Guadeloupe, Bombing of Ford dealership

• 1987, Dominican Republic, Bombing of Peace Corp office

• 1988, Dominican Republic, Bombing of US Centre

• 1989, Dominican Republic, Bombing of GTE subsidiary

• 1990, Suriname, Bombing of Alcoa subsidiary

• 2006, Trinidad, Bombings in the streets

• 2007, Trinidad, Guyana, JFK bomb plot

Apart from these direct on-islands terrorist activities, there have been cyber attacks by people linked to ISIS on government computers of Jamaica and St Vincent and the Grenadines. There are also clear indications that people from Trinidad went to the Middle East to fight with ISIS and the production of a recruitment video aimed directly at attracting people from this region to join ISIS. 

One of the aspects of terrorist group operations and particularly noticeable with ISIS is the propensity to expand their affiliations and so join with groups in other territories. In addition, with ISIS fighters being drawn from many countries around the world, there is need to be concerned about ISIS fighters returning to their home countries and terrorist cells beginning operations in new countries.

The impact of terrorism in the Caribbean is, therefore, a valid concern and one which Caribbean businesses should be addressing. 

Terrorism has direct multi-layered implications for Caribbean businesses which include:

• Direct implications for (a) companies as a potential target and (b) for personnel employed in companies

• Collateral damage implications as business may be located near a terrorist target

Companies may become a target because (a) of their name eg British American Tobacco or British American Insurance, (b) of a perceived link to a terrorist enemy and/or (c) if they are seen as symbols eg McDonalds, Citibank, Royal Bank of Canada, etc. Interestingly, it is believed that one of the suicide bombers chose the McDonalds restaurant outside the Stade de France because it is a symbol of America.

Given that Caribbean companies need to be concerned about terrorism, the issue becomes what should businesses do independent of what actions the State should take for dealing with terrorism.

First, every business should conduct a security assessment that specifically incorporates a terrorism assessment. This looks at the risk profile of the company in terms of being a direct target and the possibility of collateral damage implications because of the company’s location. It should identify the risk level and how robust are the company’s arrangements to assist in preventing a terrorist attack. While it is important to do an initial assessment, it’s equally important that the assessments are regularly reviewed, at least every three years and also after any major incident.

Second, companies must make security awareness part of their organisation's culture. Employees are the eyes and ears of a company; they know who is a regular customer and who is not, they know when something is out of place in their environment and so can quickly identify when action needs to be taken. It is also important that when hiring staff or contractors that thorough background checks are conducted.

Third, the control of access in a business is also another vital part of any company’s terrorism prevention actions. This is complicated by the nature of the business and the extent to which the business caters directly to the public. It is easier for an organisation involved in warehousing and distribution to strictly control access when compared to a restaurant or a hotel. 

Nevertheless, regardless of the nature of the business, public areas should be clearly defined and all other areas restricted to staff or authorised visitors only. Businesses must invest in automatically closing doors and electronic access control systems whether card or biometric access control.

Fourth, as a supplement to the protective measures, a CCTV system that enables facial recognition should be considered. There must be proactive use of the system. The objective for every business must be to prevent any terrorism incident occurring on their property. As such, the business should aim to regularly review the footage of activities in and around their property, particularly if staff report that a strange individual was seen either within or in the vicinity of the business. 

Fifth, apart from the overall good public image and enhanced revenues that may arise, maintaining an aesthetically pleasing appearance also has an anti-terrorism benefit. Companies should ensure good basic housekeeping throughout their premises, eg, keep public areas tidy and well-lit, remove unnecessary furniture and keep garden areas clear. Where possible, they should not allow unauthorised vehicles close to their building. Each of these actions makes it easier to see if something is out of place and so requiring immediate action.

There is the tendency in the Caribbean to hurriedly implement measures but then not follow up to ensure that the measures are consistently applied and become part of a consistent ongoing operational methodology. Terrorists do not hurriedly plan their actions but spend time carefully examining a company for weaknesses.

Companies and individuals can train at the Caribbean Institute for Security and Public Safety from 100 courses. Areas include law enforcement, corporate security, security supervision and management, OSH-related areas, etc. Contact us at 223-6999, info@caribbeansecurityinstitute.com or www.caribbeansecurityinstitute.com

There continues to be controversy in respect of the Property Tax much of which, in my view, has its origin in a misconception of the purposes which taxes as these ought to serve within the context of overall general taxation within the country. 

Thus, I have read with interest, a media report that the Minister of Rural Development and Local Government has said that one of the proposals for reforming the system of Local Government is to vest Regional Corporations (and presumably, the Tobago House of Assembly) with the authority to collect property taxes. 

I am wondering, therefore, whether what is implied here is that these bodies would simply continue to be acting as a conduit for the Central Government as now obtains with Warden’s Offices. If so, this would be nothing but a tinkering with the whole matter of Local Government Reform and the devolution of authority.

I am of the view that, in effect, Regional Corporations should be empowered not only to collect property taxes but also to be authorised to themselves set the level of such taxes. In this regard, these bodies would be made answerable to their burgesses and property owners for its administration within the context of the demands of local health perspectives. I shall explain my position by way of a few questions and answers: 

1—What therefore ought to underlie the dictates of any properly-constituted system of property taxation? Is it not that the Property Tax should be imposed on property owners in order to ensure that the environment surrounding their properties is maintained adequately and in a satisfactory manner?

2—Does item 1, above, not imply that property taxes are related to the dictates of the demands of the local health function? In these circumstances, therefore, is it not that property taxes are not really to be but an extension of the general taxing function of the central government, local government bodies being themselves made fully responsible for local health activity within their pre-set boundaries?

3—Is it not clear, therefore, that the principle of a property tax demands that it should be an “Environmental Tax” fixed by Regional Corporations (including the Tobago House of Assembly) with these bodies being answerable and accountable to their burgesses and property owners for its administration?

4—Does it not follow, also, that the matter of property taxes should, in finality, be removed from within the ambit of the Minister of Finance?

I must say, however, that I do not support a line which the Minister of Rural Development and Local Government is reported to have taken, that is, envisaging the “disappearance” of the local government portion of his ministry. What I do envisage is a continuing local government function, the role of which would be reduced from day-to-day “dictation” to general supervision within the context of provisions of revised Local Government Legislation.

Errol OC Cupid

Trincity, Tacarigua