When the PNM first took office last year, their victory coincided in an upsurge of "gang activity" that was attributed to the honeymoon period granted to new administrations. As time went by however, it was clear that a single Minister was not sufficient to deal with the situation and assistance was provided to him in the form of a Junior Minister and Parliamentary Secretary, who were each assigned specific functions to ensure maximum effectiveness. 

Needless to say however, this move did nothing to curb the escalation of crime, and in fact the rates of all forms of criminal activity have been steadily climbing. And that's the part of this equation that the government have not noticed. 

During the People's Partnership term in government, they were often chastised and derided for publishing statistics on criminal activity. But despite a nominal but discernible reduction in the murder rate during their tenure, it was the shrinkage of other serious crimes that was most noteworthy, and this is the reversal that we are witnessing today. Between 2009 to 2013, instances of serious crime reportedly decreased by forty-two percent, which included incidents of theft, kidnappings, rape and drug-related offences. Since the PNM took office however, and especially since the beginning of 2016, there has been an evident turn-around of these cases resulting in an increase of these types of crimes.

What's more, is that despite the PNM's initial declaration that the spike in the murder rate and other criminal activity was a result of gang warfare, it is clear to us now that the influx in crime is being caused by its attraction to persons who find themselves in desperate positions, who feel that they have no other alternatives to survive. 

While the criminal enterprise has long preyed on the forlorn to fill their ranks, the increasing number of these persons that are now available for recruitment means that the industry finds itself with enough human capital to flourish and expand unrestricted. As such, and with the coinciding of several recent suicides as well, it seems that the only competition that these criminal operations have for their forces is the angel of death, who offers them release them from their misery and suffering. 

Ravi Maharaj

Paradoxically, we have become accustomed to government subsidised or sponsored everything without the high taxes that usually come with it. Taxes are meant to raise money for the State to provide certain public services. The more services you expect, the more taxation you should expect. 

This is evident in the UK where the National Health Service and billion-pound welfare system are paid for by a fuel duty and a top rate of tax of 45 per cent among others. The story is similar in countries like Denmark which had a top rate of 60.2 per cent in 2012 while providing unparalleled results in education, healthcare, transport and criminal justice.

So where does this leave us? Trinidad has enjoyed relatively low taxation with a rates of income tax at 25 per cent-30 per cent though the 25 per cent bracket is non-existent as it is currently below the personal allowance. The lowest paid are exempt from income tax completely and VAT is now 12.5 per cent. Yet, for ages, our government has provided free healthcare, free education up to secondary school, two meals a day at school for every child who needs it, a myriad of social welfare grants, subsidised fuel, electricity and water, and countless other arbitrary expenses. All this while our hospitals are under performing, the education system is Byzantine and those most in need of government assistance cannot access it because of bureaucracy or corruption or a combination of both.

This was not a problem in the boom years but now that the cash cow is gasping her last breaths and the clean energy revolution is eager to bury her, the country is left with a system of earning that doesn’t meet our long expenditure wish list. Who cared about collecting gambling tax or settling arrears when oil was $100 a barrel? We could afford to let one slide but now the government is forced to shake down the couch and all who sit on it for every last cent.

The fact is that if we want to maintain a large welfare budget and the government funded work programmes (which many Nordic countries have) we have to raise more revenue. Where State enterprises are not doing that, the taxpayer must step up and shell out. There is no need to hit the poorest in this exercise. A simple reform like grading the tax system further so that the wealthiest pay more of their income in tax than the poorest would be a start. Those who can pay more should be made to up to a point. Improving the tax collection system is vital as this government needs to ensure that every cent owed to it is received. 

Tax increases will not solve any problems and in the long term could stifle the economy but making the tax system fairer and targeting taxes at those who can pay (like gamblers!) may just help close the revenue gap and get us started towards recovery and growth.

Nathan Boynes

Medical myths? We are full of them. “Vaccines cause autism”. “Teething causes fits.” “Worms!” “You need milk to build strong bones!”

“Once she make the baby, she mus feel good.” So girls grow up believing they must immediately feel a certain way toward their first baby or they might be categorized by friends and family as not “maternal”. People believe strongly in the “instinctive mother”.

In reality there is no such human being. The only instinctive mother I have ever known was my dog, Jazz, and even she looked a bit puzzled as she brought the first pup to me.

Mothers need to learn mothering skills just as they learn any other important life skill. It takes time and patience. It takes reading child care books, talking with experienced mothers, watching experienced child care givers and above all helping experienced mothers take care of their babies.

Girls from large families have an advantage. They have to care for their younger brothers and sisters and they learn from that experience.

All of this can be dreadfully discouraging to the first-time mom. Instead of feeling contented, as society says she should, she wakes up the morning after birth, uncertain and afraid. Most new mothers are surprised at how fragile, alone and overwhelmed they feel after the birth of a child. Their feelings don’t seem to match their expectations. Some wonder, “Why am I feeling uneasy?” “Am I a bad mother?”

In addition to these normal feelings, about three out of four women have the “baby blues” after childbirth. Having the baby blues is another entirely normal process. These feelings of sadness, anxiety and anger usually begin about one or two days after birth.

It’s quite unlike the previous feeling of shock or the feelings that the new father may feel. He usually is euphoric and walks around for a few days on a natural “high”.

That vanishes after the first week of no sleep. But new mothers may feel sad and weepy, anxious, and moody. For no clear reason, they may feel angry at the new baby or at their partners. They cry for no reason.

Sometimes they have trouble sleeping, eating, and making decisions.

These feelings come and go without rhyme or reason. As bewildering and scary as they seem at the time, the “baby blues” usually last only briefly, a few hours a day or so, and usually go away after a fortnight without the need for treatment.

Baby blues are not only about sadness but about emotions. As someone said, “you may cry because you are feeling sad, but you may also just look at the baby and cry because you are full of emotion.” About 10% of women who give birth develop a more severe problem: postpartum depression. In contrast to the baby blues, postpartum depression is characterised by much more intense feelings of sadness, anxiety, or despair that disrupts the new mother’s ability to function day in and day out. And it continues and continues. Although common, postpartum depression is not normal and some women are at higher risk for its development. Pregnancies that come to term in winter have a higher risk of depression.

Recent stressful events, such as loss of a loved one or family illness appear to increase the risk. In particular, the lack of a supportive partner is a major risk factor.

Well like winter, that is not a problem here, is it? If not recognised and treated, postpartum depression may become worse or may last longer thanit need to.

What is the reason for the baby blues? The immediate postpartum period is a time of great changes in the body. Levels of the hormones oestrogen and progesterone drop sharply in the hours after childbirth.

These decreases may trigger severe mood changes, just as much smaller but similar hormonal changes can trigger moodiness and tension beforemenstrual periods. Because some women are more sensitive to these changes than others, they may be more prone to having postpartum blues or even depression.

Two other hormones, prolactin and oxytocin, which are secreted in large amounts by mothers who breastfeed, have the opposite effect.

They relax mothers and generate feelings of warmth and calmness. One wonders if this is evolution’s way of helping mothers get through a difficult situation.

In addition to all this, most women feel exhausted after labour and delivery. It can take months for a woman to regain her normal strength and stamina.

Our modern habit of not allowing new mothers to get the kind of rest they need after birth may also contribute.

At home, mothers are expected to rapidly settle back into the routine of cooking, cleaning, washing and looking glamorous for their husbands, not to mention having to look forward to returning too soon to work, what with out meager maternity leave law.

The fatigue and loss of sleep resulting from attempting to be the perfect mother and wife, whilst taking care of an ungrateful appearing but normal baby, who is not behaving the way Hollywood and Trini maccos say she should, may be the decisive factor in the appearance of the “baby blues”.

KEVIN RAMNARINE

Recently another media house reported in sensational fashion that Petrotrin had lost a billion dollars in 2015. The story painted a bleak picture of a company on the ropes.

Such a story would have been a source of concern for the bondholders who invested their money in two bonds that were issued in 2007 and 2009 for US$ 750 million and US$ 850 million respectively.

The reality is however far from this. Petrotrin has its challenges but it is far from death’s door. The news report was based on the publication of the company's financials for 2015. What the reporter did not explain is the basic accounting behind the numbers. What is even more alarming is the fact that some officials seemed to be none the wiser.

What are the facts behind this billion dollar loss?t

First, The billion dollar loss is an accounting loss. It is drivenargely by the write down of inventory. Inventory in this case means the stock of crude oil and refined products stored in tanks the valuation of which fluctuates with the price of crude oil.

Secondly, if one examines the balance sheet of the companyone sees a write down of inventory from TT$ 4.1 billion in 2014 to TT $ 2.2 billion in 2015. This write down finds its way into the Profit and Loss Statement in the “cost of sales”. If the price of oil increases the opposite will happen and the company might declare a profit based only on the upward adjustment of inventory value.

Third, the accounting loss comes after the company paid $TT 3.1 billion in 2015 to the Government by way of taxes,royalties, petroleum impost, petroleum levy, unemployment levy, green fund levy. In oil companies a lot of what is paid to the Government comes out from the top line or as a charge against the gross revenue line.

Fourth, the accounting loss also includes the application of “Depreciation, Depletion, Amortization” or DD&A charge of TT $ 2.1 billion.

Petrotrin is not alone in its pain. In 2015, companies within the sector from ConocoPhillips to Shell posted losses.

BP also reported a loss of US$ 6.5 billion. However, what is important in running any company is cash flow management. The old adage “Cash is King” holds true.

A look at Petrotrin’s Cash Flow Statement would show that at the end of the 2015 financial year, the company was cash positive. This means that theinflows of cash exceeded the outflows of cash.

The saving grace for the company has been its structure. Petrotrin is an integrated oil company which means it produces its own crude oil (about 43,000 barrels per day) and operates a refinery with a current throughput of around 140,000 barrels of oil per day and imports the balance of approximately 100,000 barrels per day.

The integrated structure means that it is possible to optimize the two arms of the company to get the optimal economic outcome. The performance of the refinery is therefore fundamental to the generation of cash. Petrotrin does not export crude oil. It exports refined products (gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, fuel oil etc.)

The performance of the refinery in the last 15 months has been an untold success story. For a few years prior the refinery experienced interruptions to its operations as a consequence of lack of aintenance and problems associated with the Gasoline Optimization Programme (GOP). In 2013 and 2014 there was a significant level of process unit maintenance overhauls including overdue preventive maintenance. By April of 2015 the performance of the refinery improved when throughput reached 138,688 barrels of oil per day.

On average, refinery throughput in 2015 was 20% higher than in 2014. Credit must be given to all the workers of the Pointe-a-Pierre Refinery.

In recent years it has become fashionable to bash Petrotrin. We are always quick to pull down institutions and people (see Naipaul’s Middle Passage). Petrotrin has had its share of problems some of which come out of its history as an amalgam of the assets of Tesoro, Shell and Texaco and some of which are clearly self-inflicted. The company however remains a strategic national asset, a net earner of foreign exchange and the guarantor of our energy security.

The messaging about the company needs to reflect the facts and a better appreciation and understanding of the details behind the numbers.

Public statements by government officials need to considerthe impact on the confidence of bondholders. Unnecessary negative statements and sensational publications can damage the company’s eputation with local and international lenders.

This is a difficult time not just for Petrotrin but for every oil company in the world. In the face of this situation, Petrotrinhas demonstrated resilience. Looking forward, the involvement of private capital is inevitable. To this end, there can be no economic rationale for halting the Lease and Farmout Operator programme.

In fact, it is in times such as these that Petrotrin must be creative, innovative and bold in its commercial and operational functions in order to position itself to emerge from this worldwide industry challenge.

T&T’s Soca Warriors will have a third international match added to its slate of international fixtures scheduled to start on May 23 after confirming a friendly with China on June 3 in the City of Qin Huang Dao.

TTFA president David John-Williams disclosed yesterday that the game, which falls inside the international window, has been confirmed and the Warriors will travel to China following its match against Uruguay on May 27. 

T&T will also face Peru in Lima on May 23.

T&T has faced China only once before at the senior international level, losing 3-0 during a four-nation tournament on September 5 2001, at the Shanghai Stadium under then head coach Rene Simoes.

Looking ahead to the encounter, T&T coach Stephen Hart described the fixture as one which will be a “telling” experience for the team. 

“China has shown that they want to be an international powerhouse in the game”. 

They have secured some high profile games just like we have and coming on the back of the Uruguay game, this will be a telling experience for us,” Hart said yesterday. 

“We are grateful for the opportunity and this is one that may open new footballing doors to Asia for us in the future,” he added.

“Our line up of games is quite healthy and we now have a busy schedule beginning later this month as we continue our focus on the two World Cup qualifying games in September against Guatemala and the United States,” Hart said.

China has qualified for the final phase of Asian World Cup qualifying for the first time since 2001 when they went on to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. 

They defeated Qatar 2-0 in a World Cup qualifier on March 29 and are also preparing for a June 7 friendly against Andorra. 

Their next World Cup assignment is against South Korea on September 1, and Iran five days later.

China’s National Development and Reform Commission released a plan a few weeks ago to have one of the world’s leading national teams by 2050. 

The first stage, already underway, is to introduce soccer in 20,000 schools, with 30 million children playing the game regularly by the end of the decade. 

The midterm stage, to take place from 2021 to 2030, is for the men’s national team to become one of the standout teams in Asia.

There has been a lot of action and progress in the Chinese Super League. 

After five years of rising spending, the league as a whole spent around $300 million over the winter to acquire players like Alex Teixeira of Brazil and Jackson Martínez of Colombia. 

Other names that have joined the Chinese Super League in the past include Didier Drogba, Nicolas Anelka and Frederic Kanoute. 

The League has several players from Brazil and Latin America. 

Among the managers who have had former jobs there include ex-Argentina coach Sergio Batista and Italian Marcello Lippi.

Discarded West Indies pacer Ravi Rampaul continued his good form for Surrey, grabbing 5-85 against Somerset in the County Championship Division One yesterday.

Two collapses - one top-order, one lower - ensured that the novelty of a snow delay in late-April did not dominate proceedings at The Oval, as Rampaul and Somerset's Marcus Trescothick who hit 127, ensured they added something valuable to their own personal collections.

 Trescothick completed his 59th first-class century as Somerset made 353, without which his side might well have been padding up for the follow-on after Rampaul, with his ninth five-wicket haul in first-class cricket, had pushed them close to it.

They were well short of Surrey’s 463 on the back of Kumar Sangakkara’s brilliant 171, on the previous day. 

Trescothick was unscathed in the first collapse, which saw Chris Rogers, James Hildreth and Roelof van der Merwe dismissed with just 45 runs added. Peter Trego came to the crease and, as well as fighting back with 41 in a fifth-wicket stand of 75, did the honours in congratulating Trescothick after he reached three figures off his 144th delivery. Trescothick had resumed his innings on 68 in the morning and played Surrey's attack with the same equal parts respect and malice. He now has three centuries in his last six Championship innings, having helped stave off relegation worries last season.

But both he and Trego were unable to avoid getting swept up in a second collapse of 3 for 8, which was instigated by Rampaul. The West Indian is regarded as a somewhat controversial acquisition by Surrey - a Kolpak signing brought in at the expense of younger, homegrown bowlers such as Matt Dunn, who had to make do with a bowl on a practice wicket during the lunch break. Match figures of 8 for 150 against Nottinghamshire, including 5 for 93 in the first innings, brought Rampaul some vindication. Here, he got the ball to move late and jump up off a length - no other seamer had managed either on this docile pitch.

After getting Rogers to play on to his off stump, he got one to climb on Hildreth, who gloved down the leg side where Ben Foakes took a brilliant diving catch. The wicket of Trego was perhaps the most impressive: the ball drawing the right-hander forward, before getting big on him. Unable to pull out of the shot, Trego continued on and the edge of his bat was found.

Surrey skipper Gareth Batty then removed Trescothick with the ball of the match. Coming around the wicket, the offspinner went wide and drifted the ball in, before it straightened enough to beat the left-hander's outside edge but still strike middle and off.

Once Ryan Davies had found Zafar Ansari at cover to give Rampaul his fourth and leave Somerset on 239 for 7, a sizeable first-innings lead and a Surrey win looked a sure thing. It perhaps should have come to fruition.

Somerset had not added to their score when Lewis Gregory, batting at No. 8, edged Batty to Jason Roy at first slip, where the chance went down. The reprieve allowed Gregory to bat through, unbeaten on 47, and help his side to 353.

It was Gregory's eighth-wicket partnership with Craig Overton that steered Somerset out of the gloom, putting on 78 at more than four an over and picking up two more batting points for their side in the process. Overton fell on 44 to give Rampaul his second five-wicket haul of the season, thanks to a stunning one-handed catch at cover by Ansari. And while Batty cleaned up the tail to give him three in the innings, Surrey will look back on a good day's work with some regrets.

More adverse weather meant the hosts were unable to start their second innings before the close. With a lead of 110, Surrey could yet force this game in their favour on the final day today with quick runs.

The feature match on Monday in the Port-of-Spain Netball League between Defence Force Y and Laventille United boiled down to a 34-34 draw after an intense 40 minutes at the Jean Pierre Complex in Mucurapo.

Laventille had the better chances of both teams to seal the win in their First Division match in group X play, leading by four (25-21) entering the final quarter but a fightback led by Akeela Rodriguez saw Defence Force hold on for the draw.

Rodriguez, the goal-shooter, was good for 24 goals off 35 attempts as her team Defence Force claimed the first quarter, 9-7. 

Laventille did not stay down for long and rallied back to take a six-goal (17-11) advantage at the halfway mark, thanks to shooters Veronica Baptiste (6/11) and Cheryelle McIntosh (26/31), who opened in the circle.

On the start of the second half, Defence Force made a run and managed to lessen its deficit to four (25-21) heading into the final session.

The soldier/sailor combination team stayed aggressive and Rodriguez with assistance from goal-attack Makeda Pierre (10/17) went on to outscore their opponents, 13-9, to level the scores at 34 when time expired.

Laventille used one more shooter Jillisa Allen, who connected two of her six tries.

In the Second Division “Y”, Malta Carib Senators was held to a 26-26 draw by Horizon while Aaliyah Mulrain led with 27 of 40 to put Malvern past Police 39-12. In the division’s “X” group, Carla Victor was in good shooting form, netting 33 in 42 to direct Marvellites’ easy 38-11 win over Chips.

Horizon and Mucurapo emerged winners in their Kiwi Division matches, against CS Jets (5-4) and Hill Girls (10-4), respectively.

RESULTS

First Div X

Defence Force Y 34 (Akeela Rodriguez 24/35, Makeda Pierre 10/17) vs Laventille 34 (Veronica Baptiste 6/11, Cheryelle McIntosh 26/31, Jillisa Allen 2/6). Quarters: 9-7 (Defence Force), 17-11 (Laventille), 25-21 (Laventille).

Second Div X

Malvern 39 (Patrina Ashby 12/19, Aaliyah Mulrain 27/40) vs Police 12 (Kayshanna Duncan 2/3, Kathrina La Rimpe 7/12, Rayshenelle Rouff 3/4). Quarters: 9-2, 21-7, 31-9 (Malvern).

Marvellites 38 (Carla Victor 33/42, Chantel Emmanuel 5/7) vs Chips 11 (Abigail Boswell 4/11, Dyese Sylvester 7/12). Quarters: 12-3, 20-4, 30-6 (Marvellites).

Second Div Y 

Malta Carib 26 (Teshannda Figuera 4/12, Zakiya MCKenna 21/37, Natalie Jeffers 1/5) vs Horizon 26 (Makini Tyson 10/15, Sherry Thomas 16/22). Quarters: 6-1 (Malta), 14-9 (Malta), 19-16 (Horizon).

Kiwi Div

Horizon Y 5 (Karena Lewis 5/9, Kayandra Paul 0/1) vs CS Jets 4 (Abia Williams 0/7, Rebecca Beggs 4/6). Halftime 3-1 (Horizon).

Mucurapo 10 (Jashelle Williams 5/17, Nikeisha Charles 5/13) vs Hill Girls 4 (Precious Des Vignes 2/4, Destiny Ward 2/3). Halftime 4-0 (Mucurapo).

MATCHES​

Today’s matches Start at 5.30 pm

Third Div: Hill Girls vs Marvellites

Kiwi Div: Transcend vs Horizon X; Chips vs Hill Girls

Second Div Y: Defence Force vs Harlem

First Div Y: Chips vs Hill Girls

First Div X: Jabloteh vs Fire

An amazing batting feat was achieved last weekend, as Tobago batsman Iraq Thomas slammed a century of just 21 balls in the Tobago Cricket Association ‘s (TCA) T20 tournament at Louis D’or.

The 23-year old Thomas turned out on Sunday to play two matches for his club Scarborough/Mason Hall in the top flight of the TCA competition. In the first match he slammed 97 of 53 balls against Charlotteville but the action was really in the second encounter of the afternoon, when he slammed what is surely a record in domestic cricket.

Batting first Speyside made 151/7 of 20 overs. This looked a good score until Thomas and F Tyson took to the crease to chase the target. After eight overs, the fans were leaving the venue, as the match was over. 

In an amazing display of powerhitting, Thomas reached his century of just 21 balls and ended with an unbeaten 131 of 31 balls with 15 sixes and five fours. 

“Speaking about the feat, the former T&T U-13 player said: “I was just very happy to reach my first T20 century. I have played cricket for a while and to get this century in the shortest format left me very happy. I played for Queen’s Park in Trinidad, so coming into this tournament I had some good experience having played at that level in Trinidad.”

Thomas said the ground was not the biggest and this gave him the confidence to go after the bowlers. “You can even chase down 180 on this ground because it is not the biggest and it gave me real confidence to go after the bowlers. I never thought I would get the runs as quickly as I did but after hitting a few, I realised that something special can happen out there and it came through.”

Thomas played for T&T U-13 and also attended trials for the national U-19 team as well. He also went to England to play in the Leagues courtesy a scholarship from Atlantic LNG and this experience according to him was a major boost to his cricket. 

Simmons records ton against QPCC 2

National youth player Keagan Simmons was in sparking form on the weekend hitting an unbeaten century,as his team Cane Farm drew their TTCB Championship match against QPCC 2, at the Savannah.

Batting first, QPCC 2 got runs from former West Indies U-19 player Jonathan Augustus 77 and current West Indies Under-19 player Kirstan Kallicharan. They totalled 356 with Augustus hitting 77 and Kallicharan 56. Cane Farm responded with 293 all out as Keagan’s cousin Kerron Simmons slapped 56 and Brandon Ramdial 68. Batting a second time Queen’s Park declared at 249/4 - setting Cane Farm 312 runs for victory. Keagan then took charge and scored a solid unbeaten 102, as Cane Farm saved the game at 179 for four.

Regal performance by Browne  for Evergreen

Regal Browne scored his maiden century for Rahamut’s Evergreen to put the club in a commanding position against Cedros Progressive Sports Club at the end of the opening day in the fifth round of the T&T South Championship Three-Day League at the Evergreen Grounds in San Francique, on Sunday.

Browne scored 132 to guide Evergreen to 388 all out batting first. He was ably supported by Mark Johnson’s unbeaten 70 and Ato Rockcliffe’s 63. Earlier after being sent in to bat by Cedros, Evergreen got a strong start from the opening pair of Rockcliffe and Sachin Ramkhelawan. At the end of play, Cedros closed on 17 without loss.

Evergreen, which led the standings by five points at the start of the round, is captained by Travis Blyden. The match is scheduled to continue on Sunday.

SSCL Intercol finals May 6

The finals of the Secondary Schools Intercol tournament will take place on Friday, May 6 at the National Cricket Centre (NCC) in Couva.

President of the SSCL, Surudath Mahabir said that both the Girls and Boys finals will take place on the same day and on Tuesday of next week, the captains from the various schools will square up at the official press briefing for the finals at the Marriot Hotel, Port of Spain.

The teams to contest the finals are yet to be determined, as they Intercol has now reached the semi-final stages. On Thursday Naparima College will battle Carapichaima East at the NCC, while  Barrackpore West will play Presentation Chaguanas on Friday at the NCC from 6 pm. 

Two weeks ago, the headlines in the daily newspapers revealed that the impending day’s races was intended for the lowest class of horses in T&T.  The most remarkable aspect of that headline is that it was unremarkable.  

The lowest class of horses in Trinidad has been the focus of the Arima Race Club for the longest while and it seems, based on their approach to the framing of races and the cancellation of framed races, that they are quite comfortable in the sport settling down at a level that might, one day if not already today, be considered to be even lower than that of our neighbour Guyana. 

Let us look at some statistics. Based on the ratings as at April 15, the upper rating bands contained the following number of horses. (See box)

Over the three months, 13 races have been framed for horses in these categories though the imported three-year -old maidens had another five races for which they were eligible going against 70 to 55 West Indian bred. Of the 13 framed races, the first two have already been cancelled, allegedly as a result of receiving insufficient entries.  Going forward, for transparency, it is suggested that the Arima Race Club (as done by their counterparts in Jamaica) disclose the names/details of all of the horses entered for the races that have been cancelled.

At the same time, the club needs to decide whether it wants owners to invest in imported quality animals or restrict themselves to locally or Jamaican bred horses and run off races in the favoured 0 to 20 and 0 to 25 classes, which are the races that tend to be most filled. It is an ironic twist of fate that the higher quality horses tend to get injured with a greater degree of frequency than the lower quality horses. 

As such, even though we have 43 horses rated 71 and over, most, if not all of these horses would have some sort of niggling injury that limits their ability to compete for various swaths of time. This makes it all the more important that when these horses are ready to race, and a race has been framed (as irregularly as it currently is) that those races not be cancelled because it does not afford the club a sufficient betting opportunity. This is a very myopic thinking by the club since they have not factored in the crowd appear associated with an appearance by those horses which would increase the turnover in the other races. Can one imagine the appeal of an 1100 metres sprint event featuring Control Unit and Indian Medicine?  Throw in Danube Waltz and Holy Man and a lot of interest would be generated by a four horse field. The race itself may not be much of a betting proposition but it would be a crowd puller and that is what the Club is currently failing to appreciate. A 15 horse field does not necessarily make for a great betting proposition.

Then there is the obvious lack of thought that would frame two races of the same ilk for the higher rated horses.  Imagine on April 23, a 1750 metres race for 70 and over and a 1600 metres turf race for 80 to 50 are framed. Either one of those races, if framed alone, would have difficulty in meeting the ARC’s undeclared criteria of eight horses to run off, let alone, both on the same race day.  

Then on May 30, you have the ARC Cup over 1800 metres and a 1600 metres turf race for the 80 to 50. On the June 20, you have the Santa Rosa Dash (1200 metres) and a 1350 metres event for the 80 to 50. Can anyone decipher the logic in that? If the intention was sincere in having a separate event on the turf for the 80 to 50 group, place it over a different distance for heaven’s sake. On the 23, it should have been an 1100 metres turf race, likewise on May 30, while on June 20, it should have been a 1750 metres event for the 80 to 50. Any decent 70+ stayer or sprinter will target the ARC Cup and Santa Rosa Dash respectively, limiting the 80 to 50 races to really 70 to 50, but maybe that was the intention? Who knows?

Underlying all of this is the fact that in the absence of a Racing Authority, which is the only body authorised to approve a racing programme in this country, all of the races being run off from April 1 (when the secretary to the TTRA retired) are ultra vires. Maybe this lack of oversight and authorisation is what we are really paying the price for? Or perhaps it is just the way, we like it so!

Statistics

100+: Two including Bigman In Town whose status remains unknown

90s: Six

80s: Eight including Clermont County who has not raced in almost 12 months

76–79: Four including Indian Medicine who is a known turf specialist

71-75: 23 including nine USA three year olds, seven of which are maidens

In total, we have 43 horses rated 71 and above of which eleven are West Indian bred who would have been promoted into those categories over time.

Races framed for these horses over the three-month period 

April to June 2016:

April Final Index

April 9: 1200 metres for 80 to 50—cancelled

April 16: 1100 metres (turf) for 100 to 70: cancelled

April 23: 1750 metres for 70 and over and 1600 metres (turf) for 80 to 50 and Sugar Mike Stakes (1100 metres (turf) for imported and west indian bred three year olds)

May Final Index

May 7: 1350 metres for 100 to 70

May 14: 1200 metres for 80 to 50

May 21: 1100 metres (turf) for 90 to 60

May 30: 1800 metres (ARC Cup) and 1600 metres (turf) for 80 to 50

June Final Index

June 4: none

June 11: 1200 metres for 90 to 60

June 20: 1200 metres (Santa Rosa Dash) and 1350 metres for 80 to 50.

Minister of Sports of Youth Affairs Darryl Smith has agreed to be the patron when the T&T Sambo and Combat Sambo Federation host an International Mixed Martial Arts ‘Ruff N Tuff’ Championship at the Jean Pierre Complex on Saturday from 7 pm. 

The event will be used to promote sports tourism as well as initiative the process of diversification, which has become a necessity in the midst of the current economic recession. 

A release yesterday confirmed that athletes and dignitaries from 14 countries have been confirmed for the tournament, including Jamaica, United States, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Venezuela, Barbados, United Kingdom, Russia, Aruba and Curacao. 

Joash Walkins, who only recently received his title for winning the King’s Land MMA Championship in Curacao last year and was second at the World Championship for the same period, will lead the charge for the local contingent. He will face a number of international opponents such as Sky ‘El Chivo Loco’ Moiseichik of the United States in the bantamweight division. 

Martin Joseph, another T&T fighter will be in action on the night as well as Terron Diaz, who will come up against Jesus Guaido of Venezuela in the welterweight division, Keron Bourne, Jeremy Rudolpho, Earland Maloney, Leyland Gomez, Rudo Colthrust, Adrian Navarro, Andre Preddie, Anthony Joseph, Kwashawn Mc Lean and Micah Espinet.  

The bouts will be among 15 on the night of action and will include a clash between Matthew Colquhoun of Jamaica and Barbados’ Reynold Smart in the welterweight division and another between Josue Cordoba of Venezuela and T&T’s Jeremy Rudolpho in the heavyweight division. Two Ruff N Tuff title will also be up for grabs.  

Event organiser Jason Fraser told the Guardian the event will cost T&T approximately $940, 000 which will include airfare and accommodation, prize monies, marketing and promotion, cost for equipment, venue operations and sanctioning fees among others. Apart from the Ministry of Sports, First Citizens, Toyota, Aria Launch and Kyle Graphics have also agreed to support the event. 

Fraser is calling on corporate T&T to come on board and partner with him for the event as he claimed there is still a short-fall of $300,000. He praised Minister Smith for his interest towards sambo and mixed martial arts. According to Fraser “It is the first sports minister to have shown an interest in all sports in the past five years, and for this I am grateful.”  

Meanwhile, a number of top dignitaries will be here such as Kerrith Brown, president of the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation, James Lee—a renown international coach and official and Herb Dean—the well-known referee who has officiated at many international events.  

Organisers of the event will hold the weigh-in process during a press conference at the Aria Lounge on Ariapita Avenue on Friday at 2 pm. 

It took time to get to my inner (self) validation but it was worth every single experience getting here. The delight I feel in my independence of thought and being is incomparable. The peace I experience in my ability not to defer to what others may think (or perhaps say) about me is an amazing triumph. 

That singularity that does not require anyone’s approval,that aplomb with which I own my successes and failures, that outspokenness that does not allow anyone to take me for granted, that shrewdness that resists the putdown that others may think necessary, all blow people into a weird kind of reality. I would let no one tell me who I am—never again. I define me. 

A long time ago, I realised that I only fear God. I am not what the Bible calls a “respecter of persons.” For some reason—it may be a gift—I’m able to look at people and only see human beings—beautifully flawed creatures, none worth more or less than the other. A person’s status does not move me—neither does his/her wealth, house, car, job, title or wardrobe. I am moved by actions of love—kindness, generosity, respect, and the like. 

I learned Desiderata and performed it for a graduating class at secondary school and while I’ve ignored the principles of speaking my truth quietly and other instructions therein, I remember the line that says, “If you compare yourself with others you may become vain or bitter, for always there would be greater and lesser persons than yourself.” 

I believed that then and still hold to it. 

Earlier, I submitted to gossip but I also learned King Solomon wrote, if you listen to (eavesdrop on) your servant, you will hear them speak ill of you, so I abandoned gossiping or listening. 

Once when I listened, I found it damaging, but it was important to hear what was said. It was that very “talk” that sharpened my resolve to work on me, despite the negativity others crafted around me. 

I used the bad talk to improve myself. And it was tough, because when the criticisms came, I had not yet begun to understand principles like not blaming myself for stuff beyond my control. I was a distance from appreciating that a disorder like depression is no lesser or greater an illness than what others bear, even while they heap derision on those with disorders of the mind. 

The irony was immortalised while visiting an ill person one day and being privy to that individual speaking of another person’s illness in such a condescending manner. There I was visiting someone who was diagnosed with hypertension and diabetes, with death sentences hovering ominously, yet he was casually heaping shame on the mental wellbeing of another. 

I remembered thinking it was probably the former’s own mental health issues (work stress) that had brought him to diabetic and hypertensive chronicity. And that it may have been the same stress that got the other person to a diagnosis of mental illness since they worked together. I suffered quietly. 

I didn’t always have that sensibility though, nor compassion. 

Some people tell me now that I show a lot of compassion and understanding in their situations. People I’ve never met but whose souls, hearts and minds have benefitted from the balm that my interventions have become for them and their loved ones. 

Previously, I succumbed to a lot of terrors that came with the diagnosis—irritability, fits of rage, protracted silence, overindulgence in speech and spend, and so many other things that had injurious effects on others, too. 

Then one day I was spending time with a young woman and the quiet, gentle soul wanted to tell me something, so I allowed her. She said with some distress, “They say a whole set of bad things about you behind your back.” And it really cut to the heart to hear what people thought of me. It especially hurt because I thought that those people liked me and had my interest at heart—I had only seen their “good” face. 

I was wrong. Rude awakening. I discovered that there was no compassion for what I had been going through from a teenager presenting with symptoms I did not understand. I realised then I was on my own. I would now have to craft a way for me in this world minus the consideration of others and it may well have been a place alone or among strangers. 

I withdrew and ploughed deep inside the cardinals of self-love, self-worth, and self-understanding and came out declaring I am “the” beautiful bounty. I decided then to pour myself out wholly, hoping to help someone’s journey of/for inner validation. 

Prince Rogers Nelson is quoted as saying, “You have to live a life to understand it.” I understand mine. I am not expecting anyone else to grasp it, but if I find someone who does, I would add the love that would’ve informed their compassion to my crucible of blessings. And I would love them all the more. 

• Caroline Ravello is a strategic communications and media practitioner with over 30 years of proficiency. She holds an MA in Mass Communications and is pursuing the MSc in Public Health (MPH) from the UWI. Write to: mindful.tt@gmail.com

Jacqueline Bishop is an award-winning writer and visual artist, born and raised in Jamaica, who now lives and works in New York City. Educated in psychology, creative writing and art, she writes poetry, fiction and non-fiction, as well as doing multimedia visual arts projects. She recently won the non-fiction genre prize in the 2016 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for her 2015 book The Gymnast and Other Positions. 

Bishop has twice been awarded Fulbright Fellowships and currently teaches in the Liberal Studies programme at New York University. The Bocas judges said of The Gymnast: “...Bishop’s mosaic of fragmented narratives is as original as it is insightful. Modern, spontaneous and formally innovative, it blurs the boundaries between the real and the imagined in a journey of self-discovery through the arts of the imagination in the Caribbean and elsewhere.”

The T&T Guardian here interviews Jacqueline Bishop about some of the ideas behind The Gymnast.

Several of the short stories in The Gymnast explore female sexuality—whether it’s the sexual awakening of young women, intimate betrayals, sexual liberation, or the life-affirming, brave earthiness of your mother in the essay Stories of a Birth about her experiences as a young expectant mother. Do you find some of these themes still taboo?  

I do still find some of these themes very much taboo. Even here in the United States… I often felt my writing life was very different from my visual art life, but your question shows me that it’s not; because right now I’m in the midst of completing a huge visual art project on female sexual desires. 

My whole thinking about female sexuality is that it is very hidden. And it tends to be quite distorted. We tend to see it through the lens of men. 

I’ve often times wondered: what do women say and think about their own sexuality? And some of that is being explored there (in The Gymnast,) as well as in the female sexual desires art project. 

I think that there’s not been enough focus on what is pleasurable, joyful, and joyous. I’d like to see more of the work that is celebratory.

How closely do you think female sexuality is tied to a girl’s or woman’s identity?

Very much so. I have to admit that in Jamaica…this is repressed. It is certainly repressed here in the United States. When I was working on the female sexual desires project, what I did was collect 150 sexual desires from women all over the place. There were women saying: O my God, I am trembling to answer these questions on sexual desires, I am so afraid.

Was the project a visual one or a story-gathering one?

Well, apparently it’s both! (laughing) It started out being a visual project...and your very question makes me realise how it was feeding over into my writing as well...Women have had to develop all sorts of strategies to deny or hide aspects of their sexuality, and I think it’s time we as women reclaimed our sexuality.

Why do you think some of that hiddenness exists?

I think it’s a combination of things. Speaking about Jamaica and the US, religion definitely plays a role in this. But patriarchy plays a role as well. And culture plays a role. So if you even look at Jamaican dancehall music, you might think: “O my God this is a celebration of female sexuality”—but it’s always from a male lens.

Jamaica comes so alive in your book The Gymnast, whether through observed details or through indirect social commentary via characters (eg the terrible Kingston murder/hospital/morgue situation in the story Soliloquy). Would you say the Jamaican part of yourself is a touchstone in your literature?

You mentioned Soliloquy, and yes it’s entirely fictionalised in my book, but that story was based in fact. I did have a friend whose father died, and nobody (in the hospital in Jamaica) could find the body, nobody had told the families that he had died. They found him hours before he was to be buried in a pauper’s grave…It’s sad. It’s also a fact that somebody saw his obituary and wrote to my friend’s mother trying to date her! (laughing) Right? So a lot of that story is based in fact. 

With regard to home, I think that the definition of home has expanded for me quite a bit. Of course I was born in Jamaica and always see Jamaica as home, but I have lived in the States longer. But in New York I wasn’t only Jamaican anymore—I became Caribbean, because it was the first time I interacted with a lot of people from Grenada, from Montserrat, from Trinidad, and I started a magazine called Calabash: A Journal of Caribbean Arts & Letters, and it really reinforced that Caribbean identity. Home is Jamaica, that’s true, but there is a Caribbean identity forged from living in New York, and of course there’s an American identity.

In the story of Effigy, you evoke the importance of rememory—memorialising a passed loved one as a form of both tribute and healing. How important is memory and personal myth-making—the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of our lives—in defining ourselves? 

Your questions are making me see connections between my writing and my visual art. My first serious visual art project was called Childhood Memories, in which I looked back, trying to reinhabit a place which no longer exists. I wanted to reinhabit my childhood in Jamaica. I think that is what you’re sensing in the work The Gymnast. 

It so happens that last night I was watching a programme on dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. What is the most confounding thing about this disease, and what we struggle with the most, is the loss of memory. It’s as though we need memories to gird us, to move us forward. And how will we learn, for better or worse, if not by processing memories? So I think that memory, “rememory”... is super-important.

Can memory lie? Can memory recreate?

Memory absolutely lies. And memory absolutely recreates. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it. This is a fact. In psychology we call it denial...and so we really have to interrogate these memories that we put forward.

What is some of the best advice you ever received as a writer?

The best advice I ever received came from Paule Marshall, and she said: “Jacqueline, you have to write whether you win awards or not. You have to do it for yourself.” 

In what kinds of ways do you think your visual and literary imaginations influence each other?

I’ve realised that my art medium is “ahead” of my writing. And so I will make an art work, and I’m not sure why, but the reason will become clearer eventually...I did my first collection of poems—Fauna (2006), all about a childhood in Jamaica—without realising that I had also done this in a childhood memory art series. 

I’d like to mention that we in the Caribbean have art forms that we do not pay enough attention to. My grandmother and my great-grandmother made “patchworks”—here in the US they’re called quilts—but no-one paid attention to patchworks in Jamaica. Now some of these patchworks have travelled the world in art exhibits. Now I understand that in my own work as a writer and as a visual artist, I’ve been pulling from the tradition of patchwork making in Jamaica without realising it.

Congratulations on winning the non-fiction genre prize in the 2016 OCM Bocas Prize. How do you feel about that—was it a surprise?

It was a total surprise! (laughing)... I was at home, one Saturday night, and started getting these texts on Facebook saying “Congrats”—then I saw I was on the long list, which to me just blew my mind. ...Paule Marshall is right—we should not look to prizes to affirm us, but I have to tell you something: I cried, because I felt I was being affirmed by the place where I most wanted to be affirmed, the Caribbean.

Despite the downturn in the T&T economy and the low energy prices that the country depends on, Tomas Bermudez, country manager, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), believes that all is not lost and there is hope for the economy.

“It is obvious that T&T is going through a recession because of the fall in oil prices. The advantage of this is that T&T still has a strong balance sheet, it still has strong reserves to weather the storm. The reality imposed on the country gives a new opportunity for change. The recession gives the opportunity for T&T to do things differently,” he told the Business Guardian last week Tuesday at the his office, St Clair.

He believes the Government is taking the right action to deal with the current state of the economy.

“A lot of things mentioned in the mid-year review are meant to deal with the fiscal situation. It is what the recipe will tell you to do, which is to look at your expenditure and find new sources of revenue. In that part, they are doing the right thing.” 

However, he said, that T&T still has to “walk the talk” in terms of diversification.

“Looking at the diversification from a risk management perspective, I think this economy will be energy-based for many years to come. That is a reality. But I think you should not be subject to this cycle as you were in the past. T&T has to strategically plan how it is going to mitigate the effects. The Government has to implement a diversification strategy and look for new sources of income.”

He said T&T’s eras of high economic growth has historically been linked to high oil prices but that was broken after the 2008 global crisis.

“Prices recovered after 2008 but T&T’s economy did not recover fully. So, is it just the price of oil or is it something else that is structural in the economy that hampers that growth? These are the questions that the country needs to address to make the economy more efficient.”

IDB’s role

Bermudez pointed out that in energy economies like T&T, the Government is in control over large parts of the economy.

“The country needs to look at how it takes less oxygen from the private sector. The Government has to create an enabling environment and create conditions for the private sector to start doing business and finding new market.”

He said there are other small countries—like Uruguay in Latin America—where the private sector is large. 

“They have been able to build a strong private sector. The private sector has to be productive in finding new markets.”

He said the IDB has been studying T&T’s private sector and there are areas that companies can compete in.

“One sector is the services sector for high-tech companies. For about 15 years we worked with Uruguay to develop this sector and there were some companies that wanted to outsource in areas like programming and accounting elements. In that 15 years they have been able to build an industry.”

He also said T&T has the right geography and educated workforce to build a similar industry.

“We have a new programme that we are launching with the Ministry of Planning to do the same. We have companies that have shown interest. There are companies that do projects in Web design and they want to employ people in this area. They come to Trinidad and look for the people here with those skills.”

He said service in the oil and gas sector is also another area local companies can capitalise on.

“T&T has built world-class knowledge in this area and there are many local companies that can compete effectively.”

He said the IDB wants to help finance private companies and they have the Inter-American Investment (IIC) unit which is a private sector vehicle of the IDB Group.

“We will use this to help finance viable companies in this country. The IDB will target medium- to large-sized companies or they will directly come to us. We do only a small number of transactions a year. The IDB is open to financing US$2 million to US$250 million. So, US $250 million will be for a big infrastructure project like an airport but, for medium-sized projects, we have different ranges we cove.” 

For smaller businesses, he said, the IDB wants to partner with local banks to target this range as they tend to be more vulnerable and traditionally the banks have not been able provide  the kind of financing they need.

“The Government could also intervene and have some programme of guarantees that could help the SME’s. So the IDB will look at all options.”

Moody’s downgrade

Two weeks ago, Moody’s Investor Services downgraded T&T from Baa2 to Baa3 and assigned the country a negative outlook.

Bermudez said, this again, shows why T&T needs to act quickly to begin diversifying the economy.

“Moody’s is saying that T&T has been hit hard by the drop in oil prices. That is why diversification is important so a country does not have to rely exclusively on one source of income. Moody’s also spoke specifically about the availability of credible data in the country.”

He said the data that T&T has at the moment is “not credible” and more has to be done to strengthen the Central Statistical Office.

“That is an issue highlighted by us, by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and that rating agency for some time. The CSO has to find its place and give credible, meaningful data.”

Despite the difficult economic situation of the country, Bermudez believes the Government has begun to address the problems.

“The Government is taking the right measures to deal with the current fiscal situation. Look at the speech of the Minister of Finance in the mid-year review. The Government is taking the right steps in terms of revenue and expenditure.”

He said if T&T is to become competitive and place higher on the annual international competitiveness index, it has to reform its port procedures, make it easier for businesses to be opened, cut the bureaucracy in buying and selling property and, in general, make life easier for businesses to operate and export.

“The Government has to make processes shorter and more simple and this makes doing business easier. The obstacles need to removed to make the country more competitive.”

The mission chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to T&T, Elie Canetti, says the biggest problem with the government’s decision to use mainly higher taxes and lower spending to reduce aggregate demand in the economy is that it is “less growth friendly” than depending on an exchange rate depreciation.

Canetti was speaking to the Business Guardian in an interview in Washington DC during the spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank earlier this month.

Asked what were the downsides of attempting to deal with a terms of trade shock by mainly fiscal means, Canetti said: “The biggest problem is that it is less growth friendly. If you do a fiscal adjustment it is all about contracting demand domestically. But, if you do a depreciation, it is really about reducing demand for foreign goods.”

The IMF staffer said engineering a successful depreciation requires that inflation be held in check, so the positive benefits of the measure are not eroded.

“But the contraction in demand, as a result of a depreciation, falls on foreign goods and foreign services and so, in that sense, it is not as damaging to domestic growth.”

Canetti referred to the statement in the IMF’s press release following its March Article IV visit that T&T had undersaved and underinvested, which means that the country does not have the savings necessary to adjust by drawing on those.

He said it is hard to estimate the extent to which the fiscal measures announced by Finance Minister Colm Imbert on April 8 will impact on the country’s growth—called the fiscal multiplier—because the data is “just so weak.”

Asked to outline the IMF’s thinking about the use of exchange rates in countries that suffered dramatic terms of trade shocks—meaning a collapse in the prices of their main export and foreign exchange earners—Canetti said T&T has experienced what is being treated by the Central Bank as a more or less permanent wealth shock.

Given the global energy picture, and the fact that oil prices began to collapse almost two years ago, Canetti said that it was “pretty unlikely” that the global price of oil would return to US$80 a barrel any time soon.

The IMF staffer said there are three main adjustments that countries have used when they experience sharp terms of trade shocks: fiscal, monetary and exchange rate depreciation.

“In terms of countries that are significant energy exporters, and have some parallel to T&T’s situation, essentially there are several thing that have been done. 

“The worry is that you have much less US dollar inflows coming in and, to balance that, countries either need to generate more export revenues to substitute for the loss of US dollars from the previous revenue earner or to contain demand for US dollars.

“Generating more exports is a long-term process that requires a great deal of investment and this is something that T&T has had as a goal, although there has not been much success.

“The challenge is how to address the problem of the dramatic decline in export earnings in the short term and that probably come down to finding ways to curb the demand for foreign exchange. 

“The first policy lever, and the one that most countries have pursued, is that they have to do fiscal adjustment.

“There are times when countries can get by without much fiscal adjustment, but given the scale of the shock and given T&T’s starting position, I don’t think that is an option for the Government. If the country had been running a fiscal surplus of three to four per cent before the shock, then it would have built up enough fiscal space or fiscal cushions to let the shock be absorbed by running s small deficit. But the country came in with a small deficit and is now faced with a very large deficit.

“Fiscal adjustment is the first line of defence. But the problem with fiscal adjustment is that it is very pro-cyclical. It is difficult to take demand out of the economy by increasing taxes and cutting expenditure if the country is slowing down.

“The second tool is to attempt to contract demand through monetary policy by increasing interest rates. That was done proactively by the T&T authorities as the Central Bank tightened monetary policy substantially in late 2014 and throughout 2015. The motive was not so much to adjust to the balance of payment shock, but to get ahead of the US Federal Reserve and to address concerns about the flow of capital out of the country.

“I am not even sure you would call it capital flight, because that connotes people escaping their countries out of fear that their capital could be confiscated. That certainly is not the case with T&T. The vast majority of the capital outflows have been motivated by some combination of better return and more investment opportunities outside the country.

“Monetary policy can work to contract demand but there is so much excess liquidity in T&T’s banking system that I don’t think raising interest rates has had much effect on how monetary policy is transmitted to the economy. So some monetary policy action was taken and the IMF mission team thought it was appropriate to pause in January because the Central Bank had done a great deal of tightening in a short space of time and it was appropriate, in the context of a slowing economy, to pause to establish the impact of the higher interest rates.

The third channel of adjustment is the exchange rate. Many countries, in T&T’s situation, have depreciated their currencies quite substantially. Energy-producing countries like Russia, Mexico, Norway, Colombia and Angola have all used exchange rate depreciation as a tool of adjustment. 

“People in T&T told me that the country has really used the exchange rate and it is a significant depreciation. 

But for a country that has had a defacto fixed exchange rate for a long time against the US dollar, it is within one or two per cent of $6.40, which may seem like a large move, but relative to other energy exporters, it’s been a relatively small move.

“The main way exchange rate depreciation work is on the import-contraction side, which might sound like it is not a great thing but the country has much less wealth and fewer US dollars to spend, so it really needs to find a way to contract its imports. Raising the price of imports across the board—which is what a depreciating exchange rate does—is probably a quite effective way to do that. It tends to work.

“And then, over time, the nice thing about an exchange rate depreciation is that it makes Trinidadian products cheaper for the rest of the world, so it does help stimulate exports and, ultimately, stimulate non-energy jobs.

“Some economists have been guilty of being over-optimistic about the impact of an exchange rate depreciation on exports, but there are many other factors that go into increasing exports, such as making it easier to start a business and clearing customs. There are some big reforms that are coming, such as the reform to the procurement legislation and we have said many times that the labour market is distorted and not as effective as it could be. That’s an area that businesspeople see constraints.

“There are many things that have to happen to allow the country to diversify its export base, but a depreciating exchange rate would help that.”

He added that apart from constraining demand for foreign exchange, a depreciating currency also helps in the fiscal situation “because any revenues received in US dollars get converted into TT dollars at a higher rate, so it actually helps the fiscal adjustment itself by bringing in more revenue, but it also reduces the burden on fiscal measures in terms of carrying the weight of the overall adjustment.”

Canetti noted out that the current administration has opted to do “more action on the fiscal side” by raising taxes and cutting subsidies, compared to other countries that have used exchange rate adjustments “as a significant element in the strategy.”

Responding to the arguments made by some local economists that because T&T is a small, open and import-dependent economy, exchange rate depreciation increases the cost of imported manufacturing inputs, Canetti said the argument was a correct one.

“But I think the question is how far it goes. Over time what you would like to happen is that you generate local businesses so you get some import substitution. Other things being equal, a more open economy has less of a positive growth impact from a depreciation.

But, the other way to argue it is, a more open economy means that a depreciation should also reduce total imports. It all depends on whether the imports are consumption goods or inputs into production. If it’s the latter, it is going to help your competitiveness less than if the production inputs were produced domestically.

“Part of the answer is that a depreciation in the exchange rate helps provide more incentives for inputs to be produced domestically, within certain limits.”

Canetti argued that the food production sector could be stimulated if more of the value-added is produced domestically. 

He said it is hard for people in T&T to envisage how a depreciating exchange rate works because the country has had a fixed exchange rate for so long and been so dependent on the energy sector as the source of foreign exchange. 

“People have seen agriculture dry up over the years and while it is hard to imagine the counterfactual, if you set the right price environment and incentives, clever people will seek profit in production for export. But you also need to remove the obstacles in the way of developing businesses.”

He said the government’s strategy of depending on higher taxes and reduced spending with an additional 3.5 per cent depreciation can work. 

Asked where have such measures worked, Canetti said that it was too early in this chapter of an unfolding story to say where a preference to using fiscal measures rather than exchange rate has worked. He cited Latvia, Estonia and Saudi Arabia as countries that have done serious fiscal adjustments. He agreed that Barbados was an example of a country that had used fiscal adjustment to the exclusion of exchange rate adjustments.

The disclosure in the last Sunday Express that Italian alcohol company Gruppo Campari paid a “success fee (of US$2.5 million) for advisory services provided during the tender offer for Lascelles deMercado,” the then CL Financial-owned Jamaican conglomerate, makes it imperative that the Government report in full detail on the State’s stewardship of the group founded by Lawrence Duprey, as soon as possible.

It is not my intention to opine on the probity of this payment, but it does seem strange given the fact that there was never an issue about whether Campari would get to 90 per cent, given the offer that was made to both CL Financial and the minority shareholders and the fact that CL Financial owned 87 per cent of Lascelles deMercado.

It is a totally unacceptable state of affairs that in terms of accounting to Parliament, T&T is in its seventh year, on its third government and fourth finance minister, in dealing with this matter.

It is disgraceful that none of the previous finance ministers who have had stewardship over this matter—Karen Tesheira, Winston Dookeran or Larry Howai—was able during their periods in office to provide a comprehensive and transparent parliamentary accounting for the billions of taxpayers’ dollars that have been spent on the CL Financial group since January 2009.

This task, which will be lengthy and will involve a great deal of research, now falls to the current Finance Minister Colm Imbert, who has an obligation to disclose the “true facts” of the following to Parliament:

• A breakdown of all of the money spent by the State and any state-owned enterprises on the bailout of CL Financial since the signing of the memorandum of understanding on January 30, 2009; 

• All the income earned by CL Financial and its subsidiaries, including Clico, since the signing of the memorandum of understanding on January 30, 2009;

• A breakdown of all the monies generated by the group from the sale of assets and the interest earned on the funds that are being held in escrow accounts;

• A breakdown of all the monies that have been disbursed by the group and its subsidiaries; the names of the recipients and the reasons for the disbursals. Included in this list should be a full disclosure of the recipients of monies as a result of the Government’s arrangements to ensure that investors in the executive flexible premium annuities were repaid;

• The names of all of the firms—accounting, legal and other—and individuals that have provided advice to the Government in the sale of CL Financial assets and in the management of the group of companies, as well as the amounts that have been paid;

The Government should also provide full details of the valuations, paid for by the State of Angostura Holdings Ltd, CL World Brands, Home Construction, the insurance portfolio of Clico and Oman-based Methanol Holdings (International) Ltd. 

The Government should also give an update on Minister Imbert’s request to the Central Bank that it complete the transfer of the shares in Angostura, CL World Brands and Home Construction Ltd. 

There should be more information on the minister’s proposal, outlined in his mid-term review, that the Government intended to acquire the lands owned by Angostura and Home Construction “for public purposes such as housing, tourism and infrastructure development.” 

It should not be too much for the minister of disclose where these lands are located, how much the properties have been valued at and what are the specific public purposes to which the Government intends to put these lands.

There should also be information on what is to become of the mall properties owned by Home Construction, which include Long Circular Mall and Trincity Mall, as well as the plan for One Woodbrook Place, the billion-dollar property on the edge of Woodbrook, that is owned by HCL. 

In addition, I feel that the Government has an obligation to provide an update on the financial health of CL Financial and its subsidiaries, especially the insurance company Clico and the investment bank, Clico Investment Bank.

The current People’s National Movement administration, as well, has a responsibility to ensure that full accountability and transparency be brought to bear on the statutory fund of Clico, which I am told has been in positive territory since the payment in October 2014 of US$1.175 billion by the minority shareholders of Methanol Holdings (Trinidad) Ltd to Clico for the 56.53 per cent stake in the Point Lisas-based methanol company.

The Minister of Finance, as well, has a responsibility to ensure that the national community is updated with regard to Clico Investment Bank, which was ordered to be wound up by an order of the High Court on October 17, 2011 with the Deposit Insurance Corporation being appointed as the liquidator. CIB is important in its own right, but it is particularly important because it owns 29,388,545 Republic Bank shares between itself and a St Lucia offshore company called First Company Ltd. CIB owns over 18 per cent of Republic Bank, which was worth $3.2 billion at the close of yesterday’s trading.

As a minority shareholder of Angostura Holdings Ltd, I am also personally interested in what is to become of the $984 million receivable that CL Financial owes to the Laventille-based rum and bitters company. As far as I could discern, the previous administration’s intention was to leave this receivable unsatisfied and for the minority shareholders of Angostura to fend for themselves. I do not believe that such an approach is ethical and it may not be legal. There certainly should be some clarity on this issue at the annual general meeting of Angostura or before.

As a general principle, I retain the position that the Government, on behalf of the taxpayers of T&T, should be pari passu (on the same or equal footing) as all other policyholders of Clico, especially as the State is standing in the shoes of many policyholders.

Disclosure: The author of this piece is a shareholder of Angostura, which is part of the settlement of CL Financial and Clico.

Review by Kevin Baldeosingh

Although we have officially been in a recession for six months now (and unofficially for a few years), it has been difficult, if not impossible, to get any clear policy analysis or recommendations from economists, politicians or, of course, media commentators. In particular regard to the last group, Harford (whose first book The Undercover Economist is one of the best introductions to the discipline) says, “Anyone who insists that running a modern economy is a matter of plain common sense frankly doesn’t understand much about running a modern economy.”

This book can provide a clear idea of the straits T&T is in, although no clear policy prescriptions. Whereas Harford’s first book dealt with microeconomics (individuals and firms) this book, his fourth, deals with macroeconomics, which is how an economy operates as a system from resources to monetary policy. In line with this, nearly two-thirds of the book is devoted to recession-related issues: which brings me to the worst news.

Harford notes that a recession is when a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) gets smaller for a few months; a depression is when GDP keeps falling or stagnates for years. And economist Terrence Farrell, who heads the Government’s Economic Advisory Board, has been insisting that T&T is not in a recession but is going through a structural adjustment or what he calls a “commodity cycle.” This, however, may just be a diplomatic way of avoiding the “D” word.

The discipline of macroeconomics, in fact, was invented after the Great Depression of the 1930s, and Harford gives a good brief history of this. The central figure was British economist John Maynard Keynes, whom Harford quotes as writing: “the master-economist must possess a rare combination of gifts…He must be mathematician, historian, statesman, philosopher—in some degree…No part of man’s nature or his institutions must lie entirely outside his regard.”

This in itself explains why commentary on T&T’s present recession has been so lacking. But Harford also deals with Keynes’s highly counter-intuitive prescription, in which he advised that governments should spend money during a depression to stimulate economic activity. But, notes Harford, this prescription is only effective during extreme economic downturns. When the decline is not so bad, such “stimulus packages” have the expected effect of wasting resources.

Moreover, this finding is useless for T&T, since it applies to large economies with a fixed exchange rate and, more importantly, economists only discovered this by econometric and historical analyses. But little such work has been done in the Caribbean or T&T. So we do not know if spending or austerity is the most effective policy response, although Harford’s thesis suggests the latter.

Austerity, however, means fewer jobs, and Harford devotes some attention to this since it is not a purely economic issue. “Unemployment hurts people far more than mere loss of income would suggest,” he writes “…being unemployed is one of the single most depressing situations any of us is likely to experience.” (Although he cites psychology research for this point, what he omits is rather telling: these findings apply far more intensely to men than to women.) 

As the recession (or commodity cycle or depression) drags on, commentary will continue. Harford’s book is useful for putting such local analyses into a wider perspective.

Global Warming, Human Health and the Environment is the theme for this year’s bpTT Schools’ Environmental Awareness Competition, to start in May. 

More than 20 teachers met to hear more details about it recently at the Mayaro Resource centre on April 20. The teachers were all from the North-Eastern and South-Eastern Education districts. The Black Deer Foundation, a Mayaro-based non-governmental organisation, administers the competition with help from bpTT.

The competition has essay writing, art and debating categories.

Last year, 65 schools took submitted essays and art, while six schools debated.

“This competition provides a vantage point where students get to see themselves as part of the global community and understand their role in environmental preservation,” said Cecelia George, former Schools Supervisor II of the North Eastern Education District, who has helped judge the contest’s essay-writing. She said the contest applies both academic and life skills to encourage better youth citizenship.

Ronda Francis, corporate responsibility manager, bpTT, said: “This competition...incorporates important academic skills like research, writing, presentation and communication, while also serving to create well-rounded and environmentally conscious citizens.”

The April 20 orientation session was guided by Arvolon Wilson-Smith, president and founder of the Black Deer Foundation with input from Matthew Pierre, Community Liaison Officer, bpTT, Chris Metivier, Schools Supervisor I, Ministry of Education and retired Schools Supervisor II, Cecelia George.

English Language teacher at Rio Claro West Secondary, Mindy Beekhee, said: “The students get to interact with peers from many other schools and this exposure lends to the building of stronger and more tolerant communities.” 

The annual competition is now in its tenth year.