A murder suspect on the run for 13 months was arrested by police on his way to Machel Monday (February 20).

The suspect, Ricardo James, 26, appeared before a Sangre Grande magistrate yesterday.

Police officers attached to Homicide Bureau Region 11, based at the Arouca Police Station, arrested James and subsequently charged with murder of Javel Pierre.

James, also known as ‘Doodie Scrunter’, of Rampersad Trace, Vega de Oropouche, Toco Main Road, appeared before Senior Magistrate Debra Quintyne in the Sangre Grande First Magistrates Court.

He is accused of January 2016 shooting death of Pierre.

The victim’s body was found in a grave at Pine Road along the Toco Road.

He was charged by PC Chatar of Homicide Region 11, Arouca. James was arrested outside the Hasely Crawford Stadium. Pierre, of Manzanilla, was reported missing on January 20, 2016.

On February 29, 2016, police went to Pine Road, where Pierre’s body was found. An autopsy revealed that Pierre died from gun shot wound to head.

James was remanded into to reappear on March 29.

RALPH BANWARIE 

The Emperor Valley Zoo has taken the decision to forgo the necropsy of one of its longest kept residents — an American male crocodile popularly known as Crocky, who died on Carnival Sunday.

Instead, the estimated 1,000 pound reptile was buried yesterday in a secluded area of the zoo by five employees.

A release issued yesterday by the Zoological Society of T&T (ZSTT) stated that the decision to bury Crocky was made by its board based on consultations with its international partners and literature review.

“Crocky for all intent and purposes would have achieved the average life span for these species of crocodile. As an icon for the zoo the decision was also based on preserving the dignity of Crocky,” the release stated.

President of ZSTT Narine Gupte Lutchmedial admitted that they had recorded Crocky’s age wrong, as checks now revealed that he was around 70 years old when he passed away in his enclosure. Initially, the zoo had estimated Crocky to be age 55.

The ZSTT had stated that Crocky joined the zoo in the 1970’s at age ten.

Lutchmedial said there are people who would be willing to purchase the head of a crocodile in the United States for US$10,000 as a collector’s item.

“We felt it made no sense doing the necropsy and that we should do the honourable thing and bury him immediately, given his age. We are not in the trading of animal, but there are collectors in the US who would buy a frozen crocodile head for US$10,000. Also people who read about Crocky’s death in the Trinidad Guardian called the zoo this morning and expressed an interest to obtain his body,” Lutchmedial said.

But Lucthmedial said they opted to bury the reptile at sunrise instead of giving away the carcass.

Crocky’s body was placed in a sealed chamber before he was buried.

“The chamber was used so we could retrieve his bones if we need it later on. But I don’t think that would be necessary,” Lutchmedial said.

He said people keep the skin and bones of a crocodile for numerous reasons.

“They would want to gut the animal, dry the skin and hang it up in their living room as a show piece. It is kind of morbid for me that an animal who you have grown to love that you would want people to carve it up.”

Yesterday, Lutchmedial said the zoo had an “unusual number of visitors” as news of Crocky’s death circulated.

Lutchmedial said the zoo will get another crocodile in a few months since animal lovers had grown to love the solitary reptile.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) is calling on the Telecommunications Services of T&T (TSTT) to come clean about the company’s two existing pension plan funds and to pay $36,000,000 in outstanding monies owed to retirees.

Promising to keep the pressure on yesterday during what he has promised will become a weekly protest outside TSTT House, Edward Street, Port-of-Spain - CWU President Joseph Remy confirmed that as much as 900 retirees were owed an average of $40,000 each.

Explaining the burning issues relating to the pension plans, Remy said they came about from the previous merger in 1991, between Trinidad and Tobago Telephone Company Limited (TELCO) and TSTT.

Revealing that hundreds of TELCO employees had contributed 6.5 per cent of their monthly salaries towards the pension plan as per the former agreement, Remy said when the merger was completed and TSTT was recognised as the new telecoms giant - it was agreed that everyone would pay five per cent towards the TSTT Pension Fund Plan.

However, he said even though there were employees in the same company, doing the same work - some persons were contributing differently towards the pension plans.

Remy said for 11 years between 1995 and 2006, hundreds of TELCO employees continued to contribute 6.5 per cent, when they should have been paying five per cent.

Although the issue was raised in the past and the company’s actuaries recommended these persons be reimbursed the “extra” 1.5 per cent they had paid over 11 years, Remy said this was never done.

Claiming that several retirees had since passed away without receiving the benefits owed to them while others continue to live on a small fixed monthly pension from TSTT, Remy said the issue remained relevant as more persons were approaching the retirement age and needed to be assured of a comfortable income when they go home.

He added that the reimbursement would, “Not add any value to their pensions at the end of the day.”

Remy went on, “The company was wrongfully deducting that additional percentage from their salaries. Up to now, after numerous efforts to address the issue, we have not had any agreement by the company to reimburse the 1.5 per cent.”

With TSTT having sole control over the management committees for the two pension plans, Remy said it was incumbent on TSTT to repay the monies.

Claiming that bi-lateral talks and other approaches had failed to stir the company into action, Remy demanded that TSTT summon the management committees to a meeting to resolve the issue.

He said one plan was in a deficit while the other was in a surplus.

Recommending that RBC Royal Bank be removed as the trustee of both pension plans, Remy said, “Based on RBC’s callous decision to jack up interest rates and place locals in a disadvantageous position, they are not fit and proper to be trustees to pension fund plans that we are contributing to on a monthly basis and as such, in the absence of the management committees’ meeting, no decision can be taken relative to RBC’s role as trustees.”

Hoping that yesterday’s protest would force a meeting, Remy said, “We are not comfortable with RBC managing our money because we are not sure where that money is going to end up and whether our retirees would be paid when they are supposed to be paid.”

Two religious organisations, representing the Muslim and Hindu faiths, are in strong support of the suggestion that the week of Carnival be declared a holiday week for the nation’s schools.

But the caveat is that the week be taken out of existing school vacation periods and not affect any more school days.

Statistics released on Ash Wednesday by the Education Ministry revealed that 82 per cent of secondary school stayed home and 74 per cent of primary school students were absent.

Chief Education Officer Harrilal Seecharan said the idea of no school during the week of Carnival will have to be revisited given the continued decline in student attendance after Carnival.

Seecharan said even if that is done they will “maintain the 39 weeks for the school year but not have school during the Carnival week.”

As the debate rages for yet another year in light of declining attendance at schools on Ash Wednesday, both the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) and Anjuman Sunnat-Ul-Jamaat (ASJA) are saying yes to the proposal.

But Seventh Day Adventist pastor Clive Dottin says absolutely not. All three religious organisations manage primary and secondary schools in T&T.

The initiative was first implemented under the Basdeo Panday administration in the 1995-2000 period when Dr Adesh Nanan sat in the chair as Education Minister.

Nanan said Anthony Garcia, who was then president of the T&T Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) supported the initiative.

But it was only done once because of the public outcry, including criticisms from the then Opposition PNM.

Speaking to the T&T Guardian ASJA president Yacoob Ali said “my position is that it is a commendable recommendation,” and Secretary General of the SDMS Sat Maharaj said the proposal has “my full support.”

Both men agreed that children and their parents are “exhausted” after the Carnival period.

Maharaj said students are now such an “integral part” of Carnival that many of them are exhausted after the actual two days and are unable to attend school. He said “so much emphasis is placed on children participating in Carnival and even the Minister pushing for children to participate in Carnival events.”

Maharaj said “it used to be that the children will just stay home on Ash Wednesday but now is the entire week many of them not coming to school.”

This impacts teaching in the classroom and as a result he said he would give his support to calls for the schools to be given the week off, “but only if it is taken from another holiday period, so they could readjust without sacrificing any more school days.”

He suggested that one of the main vacation periods Easter, July/August or Christmas could be shortened.

The ASJA president said he saw nothing wrong with the suggestion since “many other countries give short breaks.”

He said the week could simply be taken out of the “summer break, shorten the July/August vacation period.”

Ali said the break will allow the children “to look at mas, not to take part in it, but to look at it.”

He said many parents are “tired after Carnival and would not be burdened with having to drop and pick up their children at school.”

But Dottin said “I despise the suggestion.”

Dottin said he could not support the idea because “there is too much indiscipline in this country and all of this is adding to the indiscipline. We need more discipline in society not less,” he said.

According to Dottin several schools suffer weeks before the actual Carnival Monday and Tuesday.

“You know how much time is lost to Carnival?” He said many students participate in many carnival school competitions.

Dottin said even the church camps need to get their act together as many of them wait until Ash Wednesday to break their camps “but they need to break their camps on Tuesday to ensure that children are back in school on Wednesday.”

President of the National Parent Teachers Association Zena Ramatali said there has been an annual discussion on the issue “and nothing changes, every year we talking about the same thing. The bottom line is that this is a very unproductive week and some solution must be found to this absenteeism after Carnival.”

The technology that has simplified so many areas of life is the same technology being exploited by criminals for easier access to victims. This is particularly true for offenders who prey on children. Indeed, the social networks and mobile device which have made communication that much easier, also makes it for sex predators to more easily procure child abuse images and actual victims.

Hopefully, this frightening reality is not lost on T&T’s legislators and law enforcement authorities, who should be moving with some urgency to address the glaring deficiencies in laws and systems relating to the safety of children.

While the Children’s Authority has been making a significant impact, in the areas of enforcement as well as in raising awareness, in the short time it has existed, it is just one agency dealing with a problem that requires multi-faceted approaches and solutions.

Also needed in a properly functioning sex offender registry to keep track of the residence and activities of sex offenders, particularly those who have completed their criminal sentences and are once again at large.

Much of what we know about the system comes from the United States where in some jurisdictions, registered sex offenders are subject to additional restrictions, including not being allowed in the presence of minors, living nears schools, day care centres, playgrounds and other areas frequented by children. Some are even banned from using the Internet.

In this country, The Sexual Offences Act Chapter 11:28 Part III provides for notification requirements for sex offenders but the registry is only accessible to the T&T Police Service and other branches of government. This system is deficient in many areas, including the fact that it only deals with offences committed in this country.

It is entirely possible for sex offenders from other countries to come into T&T undetected, as sex tourists, immigrants and even deportee.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, because there is no public disclosure of sex offender information, it is entirely possible for child rapists to infiltrate communities and get free and easy access to spaces where they can prey on children.

More needs to be done to assist parents and care givers in safeguarding children. There have been too many incidents in recent months where children have been victims to continue with a system that puts the public at a disadvantage.

Improving the system should not be that hard. After all, sex offender registries have been around for the last two decades and surely it is possible to find a model and get technical and legal support to implement a system that will be more efficient in this jurisdiction than the one that currently exists.

If not in the United States, then certainly somewhere in the Commonwealth, or even further afield, experts and programmes can be found to more closely monitor sex predators and safeguard their potential victims. Built into the system should be way to provide the public with information on released sex offenders and ensure they do not remain undetected, within our very small population.

It is not easy to identify the sex offenders in our midst. They are very skilled at operating under the radar, come from all areas of society and have different motivations. For example, there are paedophiles who prefer to have sex with children and those who will have sex with children because of the particular situation they find themselves in.

Also, there is no particular type of child who is more vulnerable than another—they can come from different types of families and not just broken homes.

The proliferation of smartphones and tablets has made it easier for predators to get access of victims but more difficult for parents to know who their children are communicating with.

This is an area in which the authorities must take swift action.

The music has faded away, the torrent of colour has leeched from the capital city, the euphoria of revelry is now a tabanca that can only be cured with the next band launch; oh how we miss carnival already! The only reminders we have are Instagram pics and the bracing odour of the territorial markings of masqueraders.

Dark clouds that hovered over the Northern range made good on their menacing and dropped their payload on mas players. If it was Mother Nature’s intention to dampen the spirits of revellers, she obviously underestimated the average Trini’s commitment to party. Not even the plagues of Egypt could have stopped women from wining on each other.

Ladies playing wet chicken mas, told television reporters that, notwithstanding the downpour they had a wonderful time. And what else could they say? After having spent thousands of dollars on a costume and getting their hair did, after having sat in a chair for upwards of an hour getting their make-up applied by a mandrill, and having shod their feet in ill-suited heels, risking a lifetime of painful bunions, how could they allow the forces of nature unravel all that sacrifice?

Carnival was a either a resounding success or a dismal failure depending on who reporters talked to. Some people complained bitterly that there was nothing to see, while revellers said it was a rip-roaring affair. I just wish that people would stop saying carnival is dying. It isn’t dying, it is just evolving.

The television coverage conveyed a bleak showing on Monday. Up to midday spectator stands were empty and there wasn’t much reason for them to be occupied anyway. There were some traditional mas portrayals like the Dame Lorraine. There was also a troupe of gorilla mas players who went all out with their simian antics for a largely indifferent crowd of Rubbermaid chairs. For the most part though, what was, in the past, an awe inspiring parade of bands looked like occasional spurts of stragglers during the course of the day.

Indifference at the Savannah is nothing new. If reports are to be believed, attendance has been in decline for years. It’s a popular argument that people are staying away because of a lack of creativity in the costumes. I’m not convinced that this is true. Looking at some of the designs worn by today’s female revellers, they are incredibly intricate and enlivened with kaleidoscopic colour. It’s not better than the mas of yesteryear and it’s not worse, it’s just different. A famous man once said, “A thing isn’t beautiful because it’s unique.” No wait, that was The Vision from Avengers: Age of Ultron. Just because our Carnival is no longer a one-of-kind artistic expression doesn’t make it any less legitimate or appealing. So I don’t believe spectators are put off by the bikini, beads and bamsee brigade. And as a human man, I quite enjoy seeing beautiful women adorned with pretty costumes.

Among the more likely deterrents to attendance are difficulties of access to and egress from the capital city, horrific traffic congestion, a scarcity of safe parking facilities, crime and an overall feeling of insecurity.

So the metamorphosis of carnival is an ongoing process. Those who complain that it has become too “commercialized”, should know that commercialization is what will ensure there will be something resembling carnival in the foreseeable future. To a large extent, market forces determine what carnival looks like. If the government pulled its subventions for pan, traditional mas, regional carnival and calypso what we would be left with are the few sustainable elements of the festival: all-inclusive fetes and a costumed street parade that has absolutely no interest in catering to spectators. That is what Trinis are prepared to pay for so this is what will survive of “the mas”.

The Calypso Monarch competition is like the appendix of the human body. It is an evolutionary dead end that seems to exist only to cause us pain. Dimanche Gras calypso dirges are compounded by amateurish props, sketches and a horn section that sounds like deflating elephants. I enjoy calypso. What I cannot abide are those odious odes to nationhood and party sycophancy masquerading as social commentary. If carnival is evolving, Dimanche Gras is Neanderthal man. It’s too long, boring, and unimaginative. Bam bam…Bada Dam…”well de guvament tryin’ dee-stroy meh sweet lil corntry”.

The soca monarch competition isn’t any better. Production values have scarcely improved and many of the performances are, for the most part, quite forgettable. Artistes furiously pace the stage, breathlessly forcing their out lyrics like they’ve misplaced their inhalers.

Carnival is not dead, it has evolved. Calypso has been replaced with techno soca has filled. Not all masqueraders want to be part of a Minshall-esque artistic opus. Most just want to wine on a non-threatening pole and call it a day. Nothing stays the same, nor should it. Carnival isn’t the sum total of who we are, but only a fraction of our national identity. Yet, there are still flashes of brilliance and beauty in carnival today for generations now making it their own.

It could only have come from Opposition MP Fuad Khan.

The question Khan wanted Finance Minister Colm Imbert to answer in Parliament yesterday was whether T&T’s foreign exchange issues could be alleviated by making the US dollar this country’s official currency. Apparently he hadn’t been impressed with Imbert’s previous answers on steps Government might be taking to assume a leadership role in forex disbursement. Imbert said the matter was Central Bank’s responsibility subject to conversations with him. But he assured that Government “was examining its role in the matter currently.”

Khan clearly wanted want something more concrete (or exciting), hence query about adoption of the US dollar

“Even with all my power, I can’t see how that question is related,” Imbert replied with a grin.

The question of US dollars and revenue on the whole will likely remain topical for some time where Carnival 2017’s profit and loss margins are concerned. Many sectors owe MX Prime and the Ultimate Rejects more than a debt of gratitude for ensuring Carnival 2017 bore a semblence of the Annual Fete. A year after T&T’s economic downturn kicked in (harder for many), the group acurately gauged public sentiment and timing for Full Extreme , whose combined rhythm, relevance and offer of respite guaranteed success. That and little other competition.

The excitement generated, however, may not have lent the expected lift-off breeze to T&T’s economic doldrums even though Government has clearly chosen to view the Carnival mug half full, rather than half empty—as some public viewing locations were.

Judging from participants, the Carnival spirit was clearly willing, but assorted Carnival bodies apparently weren’t able, lacking the requisite energies and synergies.

If, as National Carnival Development Foundation chairman Mahindra Satram Maharaj said, masquerader numbers have been dropping in recent years, the perfect storm trio of challenges which hit Carnival 2017—crime, T&T’s economic downturn and uncertainties over US immigration issues—brought the situation front and centre, sans filter.

Thanks to the late arrivals, die-hards and other participants who kept Carnival alive—and the fact the festival rolls around annually—T&T has another upcoming chance to save global and local face as the home of Carnival and pan.

The window is small. Carnival 2018 is very early next February. But the interest and intent on the part of band leaders and other artistes for instance, is there.

Caught in the spirit of Carnival Tuesday, even with rain and lack of big crowds, one US-based Synergy TV viewer, Steve Paul, posted at 6.09 pm: “If I get deported, I playing for sure next year!”

US issues apart, upcoming analysis of the event must factor in how much Government’s measures and the economic downturn have contributed to the mas slump and how linkages between Government agencies and other sectors could be reforged, redirected or reinforced to prevent further deterioration of the festival.

In January, Culture Minister Nyan Gadsby-Dolly said declining visitor arrivals and dwindling audience figures had caused Government to intervene in this year’s Carnival. Whether the intervention was enough to counter all negative effects on the season—including from Government’s own austerity measures—would have largely been seen on Monday and Tuesday.

In the same way sailors know powder can’t be avoided in the band, the assorted hard issues to consider cannot be ducked: packaging and pitching the product, streamlining organisation into edgier events, preserving the culture and keeping it (all) affordable and attractive to locals as well as foreigners.

Also significant in making it attractive is how Government’s anti-crime strategies play out this year.

National Security Minister Edmund Dillon was forthright in admitting to an errant press release on “crime-free Carnival” and that the festival definitely wasn’t wasn’t, with 78 serious crimes, including seven murders, not the least of which was the murder of Siparia mother and daughter Ambrosina and Kathy Ann Bernard. The incident, occurring almost two weeks before next Wednesday’s International Women’s Day, puts a particularly sour shading on the prime Minister’s recent revelation that attacks on women are increasing.

To ease Government’s weight on the issue—including the “stick” the PM received after his advice to females—the ruling PNM todays holds a prayer session, When Women Worship.

US immigration issues had a spin-off effect on Carnival 2017, on Tuesday US President Donald Trump’s first address to the US Congress signalled other developments—trade , security, immigration— which could impact T&T.

Whether Trump’s attempt at reset via a unity message flies, remains to unfold, especially globally after the European Parliament yesterday halted visa-free travel to EU states for Americans.

But at home, with last week’s festivities over—and hopefully not out—it’s back to business, including ensuring that T&T ‘s national fete will be “jamming” still next year.

Ready to ravage and wound the public to the full extreme, the unions are preparing to agitate for the usual money from a Treasury that done burn down. They want money from an economy that is fallen down. It cannot be my imagination that thousands of union workers must have played themselves in expensive mas costumes.

It is only government employees who could guarantee being able to wine right down to the ground. Costumes paid for with back pay money that can be gotten from a beleaguered government. Suddenly, it is a case of ‘We doh business’ with the unions.

Well, I business. I business that the knock on effect of paying out excessive amounts of money in this guava season will send the food prices up even further. The Supermarkets Association is always ready to wound the public. At the very whiff of news that wage negotiations are even in the pipeline, immediately it is a mark up of a ten cents here and a twenty five cents there. The usual whine is that they will have to pay more for transport.

As Ash Wednesday follows Carnival Tuesday, the union placards come out and the marching in circles begins. I agree whole heartedly that workers should get a fair days pay for working diligently. But, who answers a telephone within the first five rings? Who stops having conversations with colleagues while the public is lined up waiting? Who goes to lunch regardless of how many customers remain groaning? Who goes shopping in their extra long, lunch hours? Who must, absolutely must leave the office early because they have children to pick up from the nursery? Who more vexed than you if you grumble when they leave you feeling raped and wounded?

This is 2017 and my message to the unions is one per cent for everybody, even for Petrotrin workers who suddenly find, out of the blue, that they can increase productivity by over 1,000,000 barrels. This is the year that the taxpayers will be doing the raping and wounding.

“We doh business.”

Lynette Joseph

Diego Martin

Listening to Parliament radio recently, a programme was on recalling the arguments put forward against granting independence to Trinidad and Tobago. The two major ethnic groups were said to not be ready and unable to get along for a common purpose which would lead to constant tribal infighting if left in charge of the country.

In The Middle Passage, based on 1960s Trinidad commissioned by then Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams, V S Naipaul described the brutality and self-centeredness that characterizes life in T&T and offered probable origins and solutions.

Fast forward to 2017 and it becomes clear that one of the biggest impediments to T&T’s development is our culture. Somewhere along the line, both educated and uneducated alike have preserved and nurtured a deeply violent everyday approach to life brought with us as migrant labourers.

Recently our Carnival festivities would have seen fire breathing or eating with indifference to the health implications of pouring fuel in the entertainer’s mouth. Stick fighting is promoted as another display of blood and violence as our culture. The words to our music appeal to aggression against women, infidelity and alcohol. At ‘jump-ups’ for our children, the lyrics that ‘the city could burn down but we jammin still’ indoctrinates young ears with bass levels designed to elicit wining and deafness.

At other times of year, beating of bobolees, corporal punishment, burning of effigies and calls for hanging all form part of what is considered normal and right.

Social media are filled with shared photos of mangled bodies and gore from the country’s rumblings which seem to be shared as if to bring pleasure to online users.

A BBC radio programme recently interviewed a young Jamaican lady who spoke of 7 out of 10 of her female friends having been raped in Jamaica. The dance form of “daggering” suggests that they also suffer from this violent culture which hangs over us from our past.

Culture is a difficult thing to change. But what is even harder is to convince governments and other groups that measures are needed to gradually move us away from these babarisms that we have inherited. So many things can be done which, in time and in collaboration with other measures, could reform us into a more civilized community with a sense of compassion for those around us. But we first have to admit that we have a problem.

Rishi-Nirvan Balroop

Diego Martin

Carnival fetes averaging $1,000 price of admission. Calypso tents had poor attendance. Why? Because patrons has been robbed walking to their car and their cars being broken into.

Children are being told to mash up the place. Nice eh?

Visitor arrivals declining for Carnival because all the major countries’ have their own Carnival now, ie New Orleans, London, Hamburg, Toronto, etc.

NCC shows at the Savannah—same old each year and the quality poor nothing new. Starts late in the PM and finishes late in the AM. Bandleaders’ ripping off masqueraders’ with prices ranging from $2,000 to upwards $7,000. Visitors’ being attacked and robbed on the streets with police saying crime is down.

It is rumoured (if accurate) that the trucks carrying the portable toilets emptied their sewerage in the Queen’s Park Savannah on Tuesday before exiting the Savannah. Apart from the health risk are we to assume that certain members of the public have reached a base level of humanity which defies all reasoning?

Further Woodbrook residents now have to endure the strong smell of urine left by masqueraders on the walls of their homes.

These two situations reveal an unbelievable lack of conscience and much more.

The authorities should have been aware of these possibilities unless they continue to live in a different world to the rest of us concerned citizens.

The indiscipline of our youth today, unchecked by uncaring and indifferent parents, continues to release into society dysfunctional individuals unwilling to be productive in order to integrate into society.

Our leaders must take responsibility for the failed state status which is widely recognized as the present situation in T&T.

No more excuses by our representatives. We put you there to do a job. We are fed up with excuses.

Gordon Laughlin

Westmoorings

West Indies chances of making an automatic appearance at the 2019 ICC World Cup took another blow yesterday, as needing valuable points to climb into the top eight, the Caribbean team lost its opening match of their three-series to England by 45 runs at the Sir Vivian Richards Ground in Antigua.

England captain Eoin Morgan slammed a superb century to lead his side to 296 for six in their 50 overs and the West Indies could muster only 251 all out in reply, despite an excellent 72 from T&T’s batsman Jason Mohammed.

England pacers Chris Woakes and Liam Plunkett each scalped four wickets to star on the day for their country. However, the Man of The Match honours was went to their captain Morgan.

Set a testing 297 for victory in 50 overs, the West Indies set about the task in a hurry through the efforts of openers Evin Lewis and Kraigg Brathwaite. However they lost the match when they lost their top three batsmen for the addition of three runs and England was all over the hometeam. Lewis who threatened much more left for a typically belligerent 21 and the returning Keiran Powell left for one both falling to Chris Woakes. Liam Plunkett then removed the obdurate Kraigg Brathwaite for 14 and the West Indies were reeling.

Mohammed and wicketkeeper Shai Hope then steadied the ship without taking any risks. They took the score along to 108 when Hope was caught at backward point of a short ball from leg-spinner Adil Rashid. The Barbadian made 31 of 38 balls with two fours.

Mohammed was a picture of calmness throughout, maximising his tremendous experience to the benefit of his team. The little right hander was able to work through a difficult patch with Carter and then both blossomed to play some wonderful strokes. Mohammed favouring square on both sides of the wicket, was able to bring up his half century of 63 balls with six fours.

Carter was very positive and tried playing a reverse sweep of the second ball he faced. The left hander took the attack to the English and also slammed a half century getting to 52 before giving his hand away. The faced 47 balls hitting four fours and two sixes in a partnership with Mohammed worth 82 in 13.5 overs.

When Carter left Mohammed continued but was unfortunately run out for 72 of 91 balls with seven fours.

Earlier, Morgan continued his impressive form from the Pakistan Super League (PSL) to rescue his team after two sets of stumps fell to the ground in the first eight overs. The visitors sent in to bat lost opener Jason Roy bowled by Shannon Gabriel for 13. The big Trinidadian then followed up with the crucial scalp of Joe Root who looked back to see his timbers in tatters. At 29 for two in the eighth over the West Indies were in control and England needed their skipper.

The left hander who signed off he PSL with unbeaten 80 for Peshawar Zalmi worked nicely with Sam Billings to rebuild the innings. Billings took the fight to the local bowlers using his feet nicely to spinner Ashley Nurse to register a half century that came of 53 balls with seven fours.

Morgan slowly came into his own and the two was able to take the score along to 96 before Billings fell to Nurse for 52. The Barbadian Nurse would then give the West Indies a further cheer when he sent back Jos Butler for 14.

At 129 for four the West Indies were back in control however Ben Stokes a man everyone knows in the Caribbean was up next with a point to prove. And prove he did, as he added 110 runs for the fifth wicket with Morgan of 17.4 overs.

While Stokes and Morgan batted, West Indies skipper Jason Holder ran out of options, as the white ball was flying all over the place. Stokes finally fell to an out of sorts Devendra Bishoo for 55 to give the home team a breather. Stokes faced 61 balls and struck three sixes. Up next was Moin Ali who was the perfect foil for Morgan, nerdling the ball nicely and giving his skipper the strike. Morgan brought up his 10th ODI century of 112 balls with 10 fours and two sixes. It was his 5th as captain, going past Aliaster Cook and Andy Struass with four each as captain. Ali finished unbeaten on 31 of 22 balls with two hits to the fence.

To date, the finals of the Twenty20 tournament have never been staged outside of the Caribbean but CPL chief executive officer, Damien O’Donohue, said the government of the glitzy Asian city-state had put forward a bid to host the play-off matches.

“We have an approach from the government of Singapore to look at possibly hosting the finals there. It will be a huge step and one that I would only want to look at as a last resort,” the Irishman told the Nation newspaper here.

“They have a new cricket facility that is absolutely world class and they saw that we took the game successfully to the US, and made an approach to see if we could consider taking the games, especially the finals to Singapore.

“That’s the thing about these franchise leagues. You can take the games and move them around.”

The CPL is in its fifth year following its debut season in 2013, and has morphed into one of the most exciting T20 tournaments on the global calendar.

So far, it has managed to attract superstars like South Africans AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn, along with Sri Lankans Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara.

However, O’Donohue said the tournament was yet to turn a real profit and staging the finals in Singapore could be a huge step towards monetising the entity.

“For us the Indian market is hugely important. For Singapore, it would open us up to the Indian market,” O’Donohue explained.

“Taking the finals there would be a big step and negative step for CPL because it is a Caribbean tournament and it is the Caribbean that makes it so special.”

He continued: “At the end of the day, we have invested a massive amount of money into the CPL. It continues to require more investment. We thought we’d break even last year. We haven’t done so yet.

“We need to look at other options if Caribbean countries cannot come up with the deals that are required to hold some of these games.”

The CPL is set to be staged from August 1 to September 9 and will once again feature six franchises – Barbados Tridents, Guyana Amazon Warriors, reigning champions Jamaica Tallawahs, Trinbago Knight Riders, St Kitts and Nevis Patriots and St Lucia Zouks.

For the first time last year, matches were staged outside of the Caribbean when Central Broward Regional Park in Florida, United States was used as a venue for some preliminary games.

CMC

Stern John, assistant national football coach believes the T&T team under new coach Dennis Lawrence, is right on track ahead of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers against Panama and Mexico on March 24th and 28th respectively.

He praised Lawrence for the work done to date and called on the public to give its full support in a drive that has the potential to see another World Cup qualification for the twin-island republic.

John, a former national goalscorer who has been an assistant coach to Dale Saunders at T&T Pro League outfit Central FC, the three-ime reigning national champion team, said both players and staff members have been working really hard with the team daily and pointed out that Lawrence has returned home with a lot of good and different ideas that will benefit the country as a whole once the players can buy into it.

“Dennis is doing a fantastic job so far. The players are really taking everything on board so far, and hopefully we can continue doing that and get a result next couple of weeks”, John said. He noted “He (Dennis) knows exactly what he wants to do with the staff and players and as long as we could get the players to buy into what he is trying to do, I think his philosophy is fantastic, so hopefully we can continue. The guys have been working extremely hard in and around the field, off the field, they have been working really hard, so hopefully we can continue.”

Lawrence’s sessions have been embraced by not only John, but other members of the coaching staff, including Stuart Charles-Fevrier, another assistant coach, as it involves briefing coaches and players on what will be done and what they intend to achieve each day.

Due to this approach John said they are always totally involved in what’s happening and also get more respect from the players.

Fevrier, the headcoach of former TT Pro L:eague champion tyeam W Connection, described the quality of the sessions as being very good and professionally run, noting that the players are all very enthusiastic.

Meanwhile, apart from the qualifiers later this month, the ‘Soca Warriors’ will face regional neighbours Barbados in an international friendly encounter on March 10 at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva where most of the players for the qualifiers will be chosen from.

According to Fevrier, “The foreign based players, a few of them, will be starting their league season from this weekend and we will definitely be keeping a close eye on them. For us now we would like to see who are the players showing the form to fit in to the national squad for the coming qualifying games. The Barbados game is one of the games we will be looking at to see who are the players that could contribute to the team for the World Cup Qualifiers, come March 24th and 28th.”

Carnival in Trinidad has its origins in the pre-Lenten masquerade balls staged by French emigrants who began arriving in the island in 1783 under the Cedula of Population.

Slaves mimicked the masked finery of their masters and, after Emancipation, took the celebration to the streets of Port-of-Spain in what soon became known as Canboulay (Cannes brulees or burnt canes, since the festival occurred during the sugar harvest when canes were fired to get rid of sharp leaves and vermin).

The Canboulay was strictly the preserve of the lower classes and its wild revelry was frowned upon by the upper and middle classes who looked upon the pleasures of the masses as sheer barbarism. This cultural conflict resulted in the Canboulay Riots of 1881.

Although the Canboulay clashes tempered the zeal of downtown masqueraders for fighting, they cast no cold water on the events of Carnival Monday and Tuesday.

In the early days of downtown mas, popular chantwells (calypsonians) were the organisers of the bands. The chantwells composed songs around popular themes and this in turn developed the costume design of the band. The compositions were often in patois and thus became the first road march jingles.

This is the era in which formal bands began to be organised, echoing the pretty mas of the upper classes. The planter and merchant classes, primarily the French Creoles, kept their own Carnival festivities in their grand houses and at public venues like the Princes Building (erected in 1871, now the site of the National Academy for Performing Arts), the grounds of the Governor’s (now President’s) House and from 1895, the ballroom of the Queen’s Park Hotel (the site of what is now the bpTT building).

These upper-crust festivities were more restrained than the Canboulay, but were great fun all the same. The music would be supplied by orchestras, and revellers would spend enormous sums to create fantastic costumes.

Elaborate portrayals of Ancient Egypt, Rome and the Court of the Sun King, Louis XIV, were popular themes, as were characters from Shakespeare. Children were not left out and miniature Don Quixotes, Robin Hoods and Queen Victorias played in the gardens of the great houses while their parents waltzed.

With the advent of the automobile in 1900 and the motor truck in 1910, this pretty mas took to the Queen’s Park Savannah, where gaily decorated floats were constructed, depicting everything from The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe to a mock-up of a World War I tank.

The pretty mas evolved into bands which were sponsored by major business entities like Neal and Massy and Bonanza Stores, and featured the creativity of many great Carnival artists who later inspired the likes of the late Wayne Berkeley.

The eventual blurring of class and culture lines in a post-emancipation Trinidad and the exodus of many of the white natives in the face of the Black Power Movement of 1970 saw an amalgamation of pretty mas and downtown mas into the great melting pot which is Trinidad Carnival.

Keith Anderson 

There was a time when I looked forward to Carnival as a child. The excitement was in the air, and you felt it. I was thrilled with the music of the steel bands as they prepared for the Panorama competition. I made grapefruit tins bawl for mercy. That was my early adventure into the pan world.

I loved the Pan Am North Stars, Gay Desperadoes, and Solo Harmonites. I also liked the rivalry that existed between the south bands and the north bands.

As a boy, my loyalty was with the north bands. I could never understand why south bands came to town in the early years with so much bands and pans, only to carry them back up the Solomon Hochoy Highway. South bands were beaten so badly, they were nearly disfigured...musically of course.

It took 19-year-old Lennox “Bobby” Mohammed of Guinness Cavaliers fame to dent northern pride. It was a musical scatter shot that sent the pan world reeling when the Cavaliers won an early Panorama. Later, flag bearers Steve Achaiba of Hatters fame and Ken “Professor” Philmore took the fight to northerners showing that South was not only famous for oil and gas. I still wonder how “Professor” Pan By Storm was beaten out of first place throwing southerners into a depression which still exists today.

I remember seeing the pans of the Guinness Cavaliers punctured in Port-of-Spain, and knew there were “haters” of south bands, especially the Cavaliers.

Today, I feel sorry about the decline of the great south bands, and pray like Pastor Cuffie for a revival.

I loved to hear the Forsyth Highlanders with their “Chinee Pan” music, but I didn’t appreciate the label “Bobolee Band” when they were given a bottle bath by the Fascinators. The great Bertie Marshall had to run for his life. Town say Bertie could have made our Olympic Team easily as a sprinter. I, myself, could have made our Olympic team when Tokyo rained bottles and stones on Casablanca at the corner of Duke and Frederick streets.

Holy Moses! Tokyo had some of the best pelters as shown by the early salvo, I did not wait to find out more. When I reached home, I hid under a bed for days. Since that time, I have remained in panic mode. It has affected my psyche so badly that I often sleep under the bed as a retired pan jumbie. I now suffer from Post Traumatic Bottle Disorder (PTBD). With this condition you don’t know if rain is falling on the roof or bottle pelting.

I have seen mas bands part like Moses parting the Red Sea when the San Juan All Stars were on the move. Shades of go your way big horse. In those days, you didn’t mess with the San Juan All Stars. The only messing you did was in your pants.

In my early years, Casablanca was the band where I gained experience in muscle building through pushing pan. The most brutal experience of child labour came when I was stuck with a six bass on a Carnival Tuesday, after revellers fled the band. Only God knows how I escaped a hernia.

As the years rolled by, my opportunity to play on the big stage came when Casablanca played calypsonian King Fighter’s Pyjama Suit in the sixties. I heard the Solo Harmonites version of the song arranged by Earl “Barney” Rodney and was blown to smithereens. I felt we were playing gobar.

Instantly, my love for the Solo Harmonites increased, and one of my joyous memories as a teenager was witnessing the Harmonites coming down Frederick Street on the J’Ouvert morning of 1968 with, you guessed it, The Wrecker by Lord Kitchener. Holy Moses! It was pan in they ‘rookung’. I never throw waist so in my life. I surprised myself. Today, it is just a half wine, and a half jook. Uncle Ellis better than me. Nothing, yes nothing, could beat sweet pan in the cool breeze of dawn. The Harmonites were the largest band I have ever seen on the road after winning a Panorama competition. People like lentil peas. Remember, too, Solo Harmonites had a “tonload” of pans and some of the best players in the land.

Later, when Rodney left the band, I felt sad for the Harmonites and retired as a pan jumbie. I still cannot come to terms with the decline of the Harmonites and the troubles of the band. I often wonder how such a good thing could go so bad. I gone!

Keith Anderson was a former cartoonist with the T&T Guardian. He is now on retirement.

George “Skipper” Rampersad continues to fly the T&T flag high in far-off Denmark. He promotes T&T through culture by teaching the steelpan and introducing Trini cuisine to the Nordic palate. As a humanitarian, he works with refugees from war-torn countries as a member of the Red Cross.

The pannist, composer, and arranger returned to Trinidad for Carnival where he did an arrangement for his beloved Tunapuna All Stars which played a “bomb tune,” Amazing Grace for Tunapuna Carnival on Monday.

Speaking to the Sunday Guardian from the family home in Pasea Road, Rampersad said he went to Denmark in 1984 and married a Danish girl.

“I started to teach pan in these adult evening classes, then started to teach some children to play pan in a music school on evenings in the city of Hadsund and we eventually formed a band called Sweet Pans.

“Many of them went on to university in my hometown city of Aarhus and we reformed the band renaming it Denmark All Stars and represented Denmark in the first European Steelband Festival in Paris, on May 2000.

“Teaching adults and kids to play pan in limited hours a week, you can’t make a living off it. On the side, I play music with another Trinidadian Roy Pascal from Boissiere and we play original music in our band On Purpose.”

Since 2001, he has been a consultant with the Red Cross developing teaching material for refugees whose first language is not Danish and helping them integrate into society.

Rampersad, 61, said many of the refugees come form conflict zones such as Syria, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, Uganda, Nigeria, Palestine, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar.

He said it was serendipity when his catering career took off when his wife invited some friends over to their house and he cooked some traditional Trini food.

Rampersad said his wife’s friends loved his fry bake, curry, chicken, shrimp, beef, goat, bhagi, channa, aloo, tomato choka, tamarind and mango chutney, and avocado choka.

He said he adapted when he could not get the original ingredients such as using spinach to make callaloo and even made different strengths of pepper sauce, including Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, separate from the food.

‘Music art form more

Rampersad said since returning to Trinidad two weeks ago, he had observed that the music art form was more in danger than pan.

He said the future of pan was in good hands with the wealth of talent from young pan players and arrangers on display at Junior Panorama.

Rampersad said the music had become poorer and the structure of the song had changed; long ago there was a verse and and chorus and now people can’t differentiate the two.

He said actual music had disappeared, now it was all about the beat.

people were using music software programmes such as Pro Tools and Logic Pro X to generate electronic music but the discerning audience cannot hear a base line in those tunes anymore.

Rampersad said there were not as many instruments used anymore, “real” brass music was absent and was being replaced by synthesizer riffs. Many people would be disappointed if they heard a live band, he said.

He said soca was originally an improvement to calypso when pioneers like Shorty and Maestro experimented with the music but they still kept the content and lyrics which were now lost in today’s music.

Rampersad said there was no danger of T&T’s pan being lost to the world, it had been out there for approximately 40 years, just like reggae had spread all over the world and Jamaica had not been eclipsed.

He said, however, Trinidad had lost the opportunity to capitalise on the economic aspect of the pan.

Rampersad said the pans used in European countries were not manufactured in T&T because the country never had the idea to sell or produce pan for them.

He said countries were producing their own pan tuners. The Finnish band that participated in the World Steelband Festival 2000 in Trinidad, the tuner was also Finnish Ari Viitanen.

Rampersad said if the rules for Panorama are changed, similar to what was done with the International Soca Monarch, many foreign bands will keep the local bands on their toes.

Rampersad is currently making a CD in Denmark to follow up his 2010 release “The Power of Words.”

American jazz pianist and composer Arturo O'Farrill, rotund and bespectacled with greying curly dark hair, is earnest and eloquent. Watching him interact with 15 or so young musicians during a workshop in Port-of-Spain just before Carnival brought to mind the “inspiring teacher” character from countless films and television shows.

“I started believing that your art is not your art until you speak out on behalf of those who fight for justice and against those who fight to infringe justice,” he said, discussing a turning point in his career.

“Every time you pick up your horn you're doing something subversive. You're speaking out for good. You're speaking out for people unable to speak out for themselves,” he continued.

“You're trying the make the world a better place to live, and that's the most beautiful thing a human being can do.”

And using his place as a musician to send a message is exactly what O'Farrill has been doing, particularly since the rise and subsequent election to the US presidency of billionaire Donald Trump.

“I'm very outspoken politically. I think you have to be,” O'Farrill said in an interview after the workshop. “I think this is a really frightening, horrible president. I think he's a despicable man. He's a small, petty, vicious man with no humour and no love. I don't know how this happened: a minority of Americans elected a fascist demagogue.”

O'Farrill's compositions have often been influenced by social issues. During a 2013 appearance with his octet on the NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert series he introduced a piece called Mass Incarceration Blues.

In May last year, he and his band appeared for one night only at the famed Apollo Theatre in Harlem with counter-culture hero Dr Cornel West performing spoken word over a concerto O'Farrill wrote for him.

O'Farrill joined other jazz artists in New York, where he's based, for a Musicians Against Fascism Concert the day before Trump's inauguration.

His outspokenness can rub some folks the wrong way. During the course of the election campaign last year he performed a piece called Trump? F--k Trump that caused listeners to walk out. But he doesn't intend to stop.

“I'm advocating doing more concerts, doing more civil disobedience,” he said. “Right now I'm trying to figure out if I can get a pro-bono tax lawyer to advise us on how Americans can refuse to pay taxes and declare April 'don't pay your taxes month'—just like the president.

“The United States was founded as a result of a tax revolt by the people, who refused to pay the British government their taxes. So we know it can work,” he explained.

O'Farrill's attitude isn't surprising considering his background. His mother was Mexican and he was born in that country in 1960. Trump famously said of Mexican immigrants to America: “They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists.”

O'Farrill's father, jazz musician and composer Chico O'Farrill, was Cuban. O'Farrill visits the island regularly. He recorded his Grammy-nominated album Cuba: The Conversation Continues there. He's spoken in the past of the suffering the American embargo has caused average Cubans. He welcomed previous US President Barack Obama's steps to thaw the relationship between the US and Cuba.

Now...

“It's inevitable this idiot will go backwards with Cuba,” he said of Trump, “and that my people will suffer further pain and economic starvation.”

O'Farrill tries to challenge listeners' perceptions of jazz. Besides his collaboration with West, he teamed up with hip hop artist/spoken word poet Chilo and turntablist DJ Logic for the pro-immigrant screed They Came, a track on The Offense of the Drum, which earned O'Farrill and his Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra the 2015 Grammy for best Latin jazz album.

“Some of the earliest examples of jazz were protest songs,” said O'Farrill.

“Some of the greatest jazz—A Love Supreme, John Coltrane; Fables of Faubus, Charles Mingus; Strange Fruit, Billie Holliday-those were statements of revolt.

“What happened is that jazz has been co-opted by very powerful individuals to engorge themselves and to engorge the institutions that they come from,” he said.

“Most people want to be cajoled. They want to be affirmed. Most people want to treat music like wallpaper,” he continued.

“They don't want it to challenge them or distract them.

“I don't think art should sooth. Wallpaper should sooth. A drink should sooth. Art should not sooth. Art should challenge and enrage and demand from you a response,” he said.

“Too many people hear music, whether it's jazz or otherwise, as a way to affirm what they already think about how great they are, and that's a problem,” he said. “And jazz musicians have bought into it.”

O'Farrill is carrying on the Afro Latin legacy of his father. The genre came out of the teaming of African-American and Latino jazz artists in the 1940s and 50s.

There's an intensity to O'Farrill's music that makes it stand out, as well as the occasional unexpected touch, like DJ Logic's scratching on Vaca Frita, a track on the Cuba album.

“Jazz without the hand drums is barbaric,” he said flatly, discussing what distinguishes Afro Latin jazz. “Without the conga, without the djembe, without the bongo-all this music comes from Africa. We should get on our knees every day and thank the music of Africa for making our lives liveable.”

O'Farrill founded the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance in 2007 to promote the music and support the orchestra. That year Trinidadian percussionist Sean Thomas also founded the Jazz Alliance of T&T, which organised the recent workshop and concert at Queen's Hall featuring O'Farrill.

“They provide an alternative to the jazz institutions that normally rule,” O'Farrill said of the jazz NGOs.

“The big institutions, the big competitions, the big festivals, the big record companies-they're all run by the same people and they're not privy to letting us have a voice or power or share in it.

“Organisations like the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance and the alliance that Sean created is about letting others have a chance to shape culture and thought. So I think they're vital,” he said.

While he was here, O'Farrill experienced pan for the first time.

“I sat in the midst of Desperados while they were performing and it was one of the most sacred experiences of my life,” he said.

“That sound is so powerful,” he added. “It's a lot of people playing very fast, but it's like being in an airplane. You don't feel the speed. All you feel is the grace, the beauty, the movement.”

He believes the influence of the region is what will keep moving jazz forward.

“The best and most wonderful things done in jazz are done by Caribbean and Latin artists,” he said, mentioning Miguel Zenón, Pedrito Martinez and Emilio Solla.

“These are people that are doing really interesting music, and I think mainstream jazz has really kind of stayed the same,” he said. “I'm not worried about the future of jazz because it's in the hands of Afro Latinos.”

Art should not sooth. Art should challenge and enrage and demand from you a response.