Christopher Philip, whose body was found on the grounds of the Port-of-Spain General Hospital on Wednesday, was treated at the institution twice and asked to remain - but he disappeared twice, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh has said.

Deyalsingh delivered a preliminary report on the issue in the Senate yesterday in response to Opposition queries.

UNC Senator Wade Mark had asked about the elderly citizen, who reportedly died on the hospital’s compound after receiving treatment there. His body was found there Wednesday.

Deyalsingh expressed deep condolences to Phillip’s family.

“He was in my thoughts and prayers last night,” he added.

Yesterday prior to the Senate, Deyalsingh’s ministry assured the matter was being treated with “extreme priority” and a comprehensive investigation was being done and findings would inform any critical operational changes which may be required immediately.

Deyalsingh told the Senate he had a preliminary report which he had commissioned on Wednesday and which was supplied by PoSGH’s Dr Anthony Parkinson.

Deyalsingh said around 10.09 am on Tuesday, Phillip, 62, and not 82 as reported, was brought by ambulance to the Accident and Emergency Department.

He added, “His vitals were taken and he was sent for an x-ray. His major complaint was that he was suffering at home and had nobody to take care of him. He received the x-ray results at 2.30pm.

“Mr Philip was then medically discharged and instructed not to leave the A&E department because it now became a social case due to his living conditions at home. He complained he had no one at home to take care of him, he had no meals, he was hungry and he had no money for transport. He then disappeared. That was his first disappearance after being told to wait.

“At 3 pm the same day, he was observed by the MTS guard. He was then taken back to the A&E. At 5.16 pm that same Tuesday — where his vitals were taken and he was put in a wheelchair to be taken to an examination cubicle. Mr Philip then disappeared for the second time in the same day; the assumption was then he discharged himself against medical advice, which as a patient in T&T you are entitled to do.”

Deyalsingh’s speaking time then ended before he could complete delivery of the report. Mark probed further, asking about measures to be taken following the incident.

Deyalsingh said, “Officials cannot detain and constrain someone and treat them against their own wishes or their own consent. The health authorities — doctors and nurses — treated Mr Phillip twice on the same day. He disappeared of his own volition.

“There is no guilt here, no process to be fixed. Protocols were followed and unfortunately something happened in the intervening period between Tuesday evening and Wednesday when he then came back and presented (himself) on the lawn.”

He added, “We have no idea what happened in that intervening 12 hours, but all protocols were followed and he received the best of treatment and he disappeared twice after being told to wait.”

The T&T Guardian understands social workers are liaising with police to try to locate Phillip’s relatives.

Mark remarked, “That’s an alien - he ‘disappeared.’”

On another query - on shortage of chemical reagents at the Scarborough General Hospital - Deyalsingh confirmed the hospital did “have some challenges” in providing laboratory services. As of yesterday, he said all routine tests were being done and the institution will have three month’s supply on hand by today (Friday), he added. The hospital is increasing reagent supply from three to six months to prevent shortages and will out-source if supply isn’t available in-house.

In reflecting on recent decisions of the Court of Appeal in cases involving the appointment of judges and the submission of property tax forms, Prime Minister Keith Rowley on Wednesday accused members of Opposition of identifying the courts as a place to go to “create mayhem and disturbance.”

And he also accused the Opposition, the United National Congress (UNC) of using the courts “to create chaos,” while vowing that the Government would fight all the way to T&T’s final court, the Privy Council, “if it’s a challenge to Government’s authority to govern T&T or to protect the public interest.”

As the leader of the party that forms the Government in T&T, Prime Minister Rowley has an absolute right to argue that the Opposition has transferred the political contestation of Parliament to the courts.

The prime minister also has a right, even a responsibility, to use the resources of the State, to defend his administration’s ability to collect the property tax in a way that allows the population to have an input in advancing what they believe is an appropriate rental value for their properties.

But, in accusing the UNC of intending to create “mayhem and disturbance,” Dr Rowley may have used language that is excessively robust as his political supporters may perceive that he is challenging the Opposition’s right to use the courts to get judicial interpretations of Government’s actions.

On reflection, and as one of T&T’s longest serving parliamentarians, the prime minister would acknowledge that each and every citizen of this country has the right to challenge government’s actions through the courts of the land.

That right to seek legal redress is enshrined in T&T’s Republican Constitution as one of the fundamental human rights and freedoms that “have existed and shall continue to exist, without discrimination by reason of race, origin, colour, religion or sex.”

The right to seek legal redress is encapsulated in the Constitution as “the right of the individual to equality before the law and the protection of the law.”

The ability of the individual to challenge governmental action is one of the ways in which democracies ensure that the people who are elected for a five-year period to manage the affairs of the country remain answerable and accountable to the people on issues, large and small.

Any government that is sensitive to the need for transparency and accountability in the exercise of its powers should welcome the judicial interpretations that come from the legal challenges brought by individuals—even if those individuals have a clearly expressed political objective—once those challenges do not unduly fetter the government’s execution of its policies.

And clearly that is the outcome in the property tax matter.

Moving with unusual alacrity, the Court of Appeal settled that the Valuation Return Forms the Government is using to collect information on residential properties across the country must be entirely voluntary and would not attract sanctions or penalties for non-compliance.

The Court of Appeal also directed that the Commissioner of Valuations must publish notices in all three daily newspapers outlining the voluntary nature of the submission of information in the Valuation Return Forms.

In a real sense, the ruling of the Court of Appeal provides a victory for both the Government and the Opposition. The administration gets to resume the collection and processing of the Valuation Return Forms while the Opposition would perceive that removing the penalty for non-submission of the forms is a victory.

It is also clear that the legal system, in and of itself, has the ability to provide checks and balances against abuse by overly zealous individuals or parties. If the matters brought by the Opposition have absolutely no merit—if the cases are frivolous and vexatious—they will get thrown out in short order either by the high court or on appeal.

And then the Opposition can be accused of wasting the courts’ time or attempting to grind its political axes by hiding behind judicial coat-tails.

In a real sense, the ruling of the Court of Appeal provides a victory for both the Government and the Opposition. The administration gets to resume the collection and processing of the Valuation Return Forms while the Opposition would perceive that removing the penalty for non-submission of the forms is a victory.

Stormy ongoings in the teacup that is Trinidad and Tobago are both an indicator of and distraction from the major hitch facing us today. That hitch is lack of institutional accountability in state and corporate governance of our planet.

Such accountability cannot be secured by either technological or technical fixes, though they may counter crises. Such accountability is totally a matter of politics, meaning political will and public power driven by a fearless demand for human responsibility, justice and truth.

Elections are of little relevance here, for the damage is ground into our bodies and our generations, while being both hidden and denied, in the years between voting a party in and then voting them out. As we all know, we pay the costs with debt and blood.

How can we persuade the young that what the report, Global Catastrophic Risks 2017, calls “striking exponential developments” such as species extinction and carbon dioxide poisoning of the earth will not be solved simply by invention when the challenge is to quicken care, conviction and collective action?

Nuclear warfare risk, for example, is best contained by controlling proliferation, creating decision-making paths that slow the chance of use, and replacing a deterrence model with one banning all nuclear weapons. “Seems utopian,” said my students, when I read them the Bandung position that world peace required disarmament, made in April 1955 when ex-colonies came together to declare their vision for a world other than that dictated to them.

Nonetheless, the fact is that planetary movements of ordinary people can insist we reduce warfare risk, even as it has expanded into chemical and biological weapons, as used in Syria up to this year. The threat isn’t just from rebel terrorists, but from states’ use of non-deadly chemical weapons for “domestic riot control purposes, counter-terrorism operations, international peacekeeping operations…and standby offensive chemical weapons capability.” People somewhere fought for the Biological Weapons Convention of 1975, which has not yet been empowered sufficiently.

The climate change crisis is much the same with solutions widely proposed to keep global temperature increases below 2 degrees Celsius through a Carbon Law that aims to halve emissions every decade to around zero by 2050. We saw what happened when Trump’s “America First” policy led to his pull out of the 2015 Paris agreement. This means we can’t simply be a world watching to see whether political leaders will commit to fossil fuel phase out and renewable energy.

Indeed, states have “consistently disregarded the high-end scenarios that could lead to abrupt, irreversible or runaway climate change” despite evidence of a tipping point, the likelihood of a four degree rise, and effects such as starvation, displacement and ecological collapse. Sweet T&T has historically had a fossil fuel phase in combined with a what-else-we-go-do approach, that is not only short-term and short-sighted, but lethal, and on which all political parties agree.

Such is the Anthropocene, a geological era when we are impacting the habitability of the planet at an accelerating pace. The current situation is one where nine planetary boundaries that underpin the stability of the global ecosystem were identified. These included ozone depletion, fresh water use, ocean acidification, and biosphere integrity which includes species diversity.

We’ve exceeded safe limits for four of the nine, which means it’s past time, as the Global Catastrophic Risks 2017 report recommends, to integrate the valuation of ecosystems into economic decision-making, reduce pollution, change consumption patterns, monitor national and corporate reporting, and co-operate globally in recognition of the fact that these risks cross national boundaries. Who can make this happen? Only you and me, with our insistence multiplied by millions.

Within the university, I’m struck that students don’t seem to realise the fate in front their eyes, nor the urgency required of them to overthrow business as usual, nor the fact that they will be the first global generation in history whose parents have robbed them of a secure future.

Innovation won’t drive change without a sense of will, care, capacity, anger, commitment and immediacy. Yet, I struggle to successfully and sustainably teach these or even to connect our small-island, headline squabbles with irresponsible elites and institutions to similar governance catastrophes whose unjust implications are now planetary.

Diary of a mothering worker Entry 245

motheringworker@gmail.com

The article in yesterday’s issue of the T&T Guardian “400 students on suicide watch” makes this piece relevant. The article highlights the statistics and speaks to the pressure of the CXC examinations.

Do not forget us—we are the children who are witnesses and victims in domestic violence relationships.

Children who witness domestic abuse/violence in relationships are victims as well. We are here and need a stronger voice.

We feel the devastating effects for the rest of our lives. Some of us have survived the unbridled trauma and through our resilient efforts, are able to overcome the challenges that attend such exposure. We are able to function as productive citizens and contribute to breaking the cycle within our own families. We are your friends and neighbours. We grow up to be lawyers, scientists, teachers, administrators, politicians, social workers, engineers, doctors, priests, nuns, students, etc. We are represented in all professions and in all aspects of life.

We are not defined by social status. We are not limited by economic class and we are certainly not stratified by educational levels. All of us have been affected and all bear the tragic scars of this public health epidemic.

Unfortunately, some of us have taken other paths to ease our pain as we search for a safe place to put our grief and suffering. We are very well represented in jail, among gangs, among the homeless and among those inflicted with substance abuse disease etc. Some of us are continuing the vicious cycle of domestic abuse/violence as we push down our empathy and compassion. Our bitterness at being traumatised and abused gives rise to a coldness that gives us permission to inflict our pain on others.

We are struggling! Suicides are up among us and the much-needed therapies are either in short supply and/or are generally overshadowed by the prevailing norms of the culture. We are burdened by the helpless feelings that torment us. We sometimes feel that the violence is our fault. We agonise when we hear the harsh degrading names that our mothers are called. We feel every slap, punch and kick that our mothers feel. We experience the pain of the stabs and the bullets as they enter our mothers’ flesh. We bleed internally when we see the warm red blood oozing or gushing from the wounds that our mothers endure.

Some of us cry ourselves to sleep and we are bombarded by the inevitable nightmares that haunt our very existence. These horrific dreams cause us (depending on stage of development) to wet our beds at night and carry the shame of it on a daily basis. This is the burden that we are forced to bear. This is the burden that we take to school on a daily basis. This is the burden that compels us into reticence and silence. This is the burden that we take into our respective professions, that limit our achievements and makes us afraid to take the next steps in life.

This is the burden that we take into our friendships and our relationships. This is the burden that amplifies every perceived disappointment or slight from friend or foe. This is the burden that, left untreated and without introspection, impels us to irrational thoughts and actions. This is the burden that causes us to feel the afflictions of our mothers in multi-dimensional ways millions of times over.

Our continuing development is ruptured by the incessant violence in our homes and communities and We are unable to complete our respective developmental milestones effectively and on time. We the children become lost in various somatic and mental health challenges. Among other afflictions, We are anxious, anti-social, angry, and aggressive, suffer low self-esteem, and depressed.

Our respective families are burdened by shame and secrets. Those of us who are more aware, are sometimes the scapegoat of our families depending on what we know and the level of fear that constrains the family. Family members are afraid that we would divulge the family secrets to other people. They understand that violent repercussions may result if the perpetrators discover that information is shared.

Anna Freud and other psychologists have explained that personality traits in young children are formed and set as early as age three. It is no accident then that if we the children are fed daily criminal doses of domestic violence trauma, our opportunities for achievement and self-actualisation become severely diminished.

It is appropriate that in this time of awareness, in this time of media exposure, in this time of education, in this time of action, that we the children are not subordinated to the back burner. We are primary victims given that we are affected at such early delicate stages in our development. As we gain our voices and we put names and faces to our stories, I hope that we will maintain a prominent place in the dialogue for change.

Regardless of our respective ages the damage that is done to the child in all of us remains permanent.

Social Services and Child Welfare Agencies (Govt and NGOs) must not address domestic and other types of violence against women in isolation. They must do so always in the familial context giving major consideration to the physical and mental healthcare of the affected children. Otherwise they are contributing to the continuing public health crisis that is domestic violence, (ie, violence against women and children and intimate partner abuse).

Raymond McPhie

We are struggling! Suicides are up among us and the much-needed therapies are either in short supply and/or are generally overshadowed by the prevailing norms of the culture. We are burdened by the helpless feelings that torment us.

T&T Chamber of Industry and Commerce has launched an online platform called Business Insights that allows easier access to the business expertise of its members to the wider community.

Business Insights is a collaboration between the T&T Chamber and the JMMB Group and Guardian Group. It is an initiative developed to add value to the business community by creating a forum for sharing the knowledge and insights of successful businesses and business people, with T&T Chamber members, the wider business community, tertiary level students and business incubator participants.

There are two distinct, yet complementary dimensions to the initiative – The BI Series & BI Consultancy & Mentorship.

The Business Insights Series, comprises live and on-demand content delivered by real business experts with real-world business experience. The Business Insights Series or The BI Series is specifically designed to offer training for business by business via the Chamber’s capability and competency-building sessions. This is meant to provide guidance, solutions and insights to the Chamber’s members, as well as established and emerging businesses, tertiary level institutions, business incubator participants and the wider business community.

Hinds spoke on Wednesday at the launch of T&T Chamber’s an online platform at its office in Westmoorings.

Speaking at the launch on Wednesday Chamber president Ronald Hinds said that the launch the Business Insights Series was one of several initiatives that the T&T Chamber is carrying out in playing its part in those urgent transformation efforts.

In this case, efforts that the Chamber expect will help in the transformation of the business sector, and the country’s young and emergent businesses in particular.

Hinds warned the country not to lose sight of the need for long term diversification of the economy.

Last week, bpTT reported two significant gas discoveries in the Savannah and Macadamia exploration wells, offshore Trinidad.

“On Monday, the T&T Chamber in a release referring to BP’s announcements, warned against becoming preoccupied with short-term successes that may provide mere transitory relief. We hold firmly to the view that on this occasion and going forward, nothing must distract us from our long-term commitment to a transformed economy,” he said.

Hinds repeated some of his remarks he made in his inaugural address as Chamber President earlier in 2017.

“Waiting for energy prices to rebound or Venezuelan gas to come ashore is not enough of a recovery strategy. Neither provides anything more that wriggle room and a little space, God forbid that either would allow us to defer doing what we must, we must today change the status quo. It is easy when calling for change to make that call first to others when in fact we need to summon up the courage to first embrace change ourselves.”

In the 50 years that bpTT has been operating in T&T, it has made US$52 billion in operationing profits with 15 per cent or just over US$7.8 billion being paid out to its shareholders. This is according to the company’s regional director of procurement and supply chain management, Paul Evans.

Speaking yesterday at The University of the West Indies 2nd Oil and Gas Law Conference at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre on Maximising Local Content, Evans said bpTT has returned significant amounts of its profits to Trinidad and Tobago.

He noted that the company paid in excess of US$26 billion in taxes to the government, about 50 per cent of its operationing profits, while reinvesting 34 per cent of its total operating profits into the business .

Evans said bpTT believes that they still have a bright future in oil and gas in T&T and acknowledged while the world was moving towards greater green energy, it was still likely to depend heavily on fossil fuel for a long time, especially natural gas.

The conference also heard about this country’s lessons in maximising local content with head of the government’s task Force on local content, Tony Paul, explaining that the country has had for decades a framework in place for the maximisation of local content.

He said the country has in the past had a transparent and accountable regulator who was charged with enforcing the laws that speak to local content.

Paul said the oil and gas was owned by the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago and as a result they need to get a reasonable return for their resources.

The issue of a capital gains tax for the transfer of assets from one company to another if the company being purchased has already made a return on its investment was discussed and it was also revealed by lawyers at the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries that the new production sharing contracts have a provision to allow the Minister of Energy to exact a charge on companies in such a situation.

However it was noted these new PSCs do not apply to the recently announced agreement by Shell in which it agreed to purchase Chevron’s assets in Trinidad and Tobago for US $250 million.

The deal includes Chevron’s holdings in East Coast Marine Area Blocks 6, 5a, and E.

The deal includes Chevron Trinidad and Tobago’s interest in the massive 10-tcf Loran Manatee cross-border gas field shared between the Caribbean twin-island nation and neighbouring Venezuela. Chevron however retains its interest in the block but on the Venezuela side of the border.

Although T&T’s economy is energy based now, the “ocean economy” is an untapped economic sphere that the country can tap into said Rosemarie Cadogan, Legal Advisor, Commonwealth Secretariat.

“A lot has been said about T&T being an oil and gas economy, but I also want to add it is an ocean economy because a lot of activities are in the ocean sphere. The ocean is looked at as the next economic development frontier as a lot of talk has come out about natural capital such as coastal resources. Those present opportunities as well as challenges,” she said.

Cadogan was speaking yesterday on the final day of the 2nd Oil and Gas Law Conference, Hilton Hotel and Conference Centre, St. Ann’s.

According to the United Nations Trade and Development arm, the ocean covers two thirds of the earth’s surface and is now regarded as a source of potential wealth which countries can exploit.

The value of the global ocean economy is estimated at US$3 to US$6 trillion annually and over 3 billion people depend on it for their livelihood.

She said for a country like T&T some of the challenges for sustainable development in “buffer zones” would be the oil and gas industry versus the fisherfolk.

“There have been objections about the exclusion of trawler vessels off the south-eastern coast due to the concentration of pipelines and it is seen as a negative thing for the industry. The underlying issue here is displacement, the impact on fisheries and coastal communities is something that should be covered in environmental impact assessments. There are also questions of consultations, compensation for displacement are key things to be considered in addressing sector conflicts.”

She also said some of the factors worldwide that are causing movement to the ocean sphere include population growth, increasing industrialisation, the search for food security.

“Right now, we are taking a look at the economic activity that happens in this sphere where economic actors receive outputs from the ocean and they put back inputs into the ocean. The Caribbean ocean economy has been dominated by cargo, ships in the Caribbean sea, together with tourism and oil and gas,” she said.

She added that while exploration of the ocean is important it must be done in a sustainable way.

“We are looking at a sustainable ocean economy where there is a balance between the economic activity and the long-term capacity of the ocean to sustain this activity and remain healthy.”

Prime Minister Keith Rowley met yesterday with US State Department official Francisco Palmieri at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s, to discuss T&T’s stance on the position taken by the Organisation of American States (OAS) in relation to Venezuela.

Rowley, on his return to T&T last week Tuesday from his state visit to Chile, slammed OAS secretary general Luis Almagro for the “very derogatory manner” in which he engaged Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and called for the OAS official to be changed “so that the institution can return to having the potential of being an honest broker to intervene and to provide a pathway for peace and progress in situations as they exist in Venezuela now.”

Accompanying Prime Minister Rowley at the meeting were Foreign Minister Dennis Moses, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi and Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, Stuart Young.

Accompanying Palmieri, who is assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, were his chief of staff Stephanie Powers, and Charge d’Affaires, John McIntyre.

The talks also addressed ongoing collaboration on security initiatives and the importance of T&T as a partner of the United States.

Overall market activity resulted from trading in 13 securities of which two advanced, three declined and eight traded firm.

Trading activity on the first tier market registered a volume of 312,519 shares crossing the floor of the Exchange valued at $13,109,346.53.

TTNGL was the volume leader with 72,404 shares changing hands for a value of $1,521,208.04, followed by Republic Financial Holdings Ltd with a volume of 59,396 shares being traded for $6,052,229.09. ANSA

McAL contributed 40,748 shares with a value of $2,689,368.00, while GraceKennedy added 35,092 shares valued at $98,257.60.

Guardian Holdings Ltd registered the day’s largest gain, increasing $0.05 to end the day at $16.20. Conversely, GraceKennedy registered the day’s largest decline, falling $0.05 to close at $2.80.

The mutual fund market did not record any activity.

The Second Tier Market did not witness any activity.

Many people in T&T who followed the vote count for Thursday’s snap general election in the United Kingdom would have felt a strong sense of déjà vu. The surprising parallels in the outcome of that election with the two occasions in T&T’s recent political history when early polls turned out badly for the incumbent, can serve as important lessons for local politicians.

Now left with a hung Parliament due to the razor thin margin of her party’s election win—if it can even be called a win—UK Prime Minister Theresa May faces the daunting task of putting together and keeping in place a government to steer that country through tough Brexit negotiations in the coming months.

Although the Conservatives managed to hold on to 318 seats, the party fell frustratingly short of the 326 needed for an outright majority. Going into the election, the ruling party had 330 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, while their closest rivals, the Labour Party, had 229 seats. So severe was the party’s losses that it was eclipsed only by those suffered by the Scottish National Party which lost about 21 of its 54 seats and UKIP which managed only 593,852 votes—down from 3,881,099 in 2015.

Possibly still reeling from the amount of political ground she has lost, Ms May has refused to resign. She is struggling to regain credibility after an election gamble that backfired so spectacularly it gave significant momentum to former left-wing underdog, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who wasted no time in calling on Ms May to quit as prime minister.

It was quite a dramatic reversal for Ms May and the Conservatives who had gambled on a campaign dominated by Brexit but were confronted by a sudden shift in the political climate after deadly terrorists attacks in Manchester and London.

Suddenly security became the key election issue and Ms May’s political opponents seized the opportunity to remind voters that as interior minister between 2010 and 2016 she had slashed the police force by 20,000 officers. That, combined with fundamental strategic errors, including failure to offer a positive vision to voters, saw the prime minister’s lead in the polls rapidly evaporate just days before the election.

Herein lies some important lessons, not only for Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and his administration but also for Oppsition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar and members of the United National Congress (UNC) whose biggest election successes came in the snap elections called by the late Patrick Manning on two occasions during his terms as prime minister.

The first was in 1995 when Mr Manning called a general election a full year before it was constitutionally due. The result was the People’s National Movement (PNM) deadlocked with the UNC at 17 seats each and the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) holding valuable bargaining chips with two seats. The UNC and the NAR united in a coalition and then UNC political leader Basdeo Panday replaced Mr Manning as Prime Minister.

On April 9, 2010, Mr Manning took another election gamble when he advised President George Maxwell Richards to dissolve Parliament, triggering an election two years early. For those polls on May 24, 2010, the UNC joined forces with other opposition parties to form the People’s Partnership, and won.

The biggest lesson from Ms May’s recent experience is how politically risky it can be to pin election fortunes on polls. It is easy to forget that polls are at best a snapshot of opinions at a particular time and place. The Conservatives had no warning in those opinion polls about the groundswell of young people who turned out in unprecedented numbers to vote for Labour on Thursday.

The other lesson is the danger of losing touch with one’s base. Ms May often seemed out of touch and never managed to connect with the electorate in her campaign. Isolating herself, even within her own Cabinet, by relying on the advice of a handful of advisers and largely ignoring most of her ministers was also costly.

These are very real dangers that can face the leaders of T&T’s two main political parties. Never underestimate the power of the vote.

This past week there was a minor kerfuffle surrounding an online video about Trini roti. The central contention of the video hinged, not on the culinary merits of the roti, but the copious calorie count of the dish. Also surfacing this week, a profile of a typical Jamaican dish at a popular restaurant in Toronto. Albert’s Real Jamaican Foods came under scrutiny for its jerk chicken with signature peas and rice. This serving, according to the article weighed in at just about two pounds and registered a calorie count of almost 2000 with 85 grams of fat and nearly 3000 milligrams of sodium; this portion is meant for one human.

A dietician consulted for the article expressed surprise at the results, remarking that even for the amount of food involved, the calorie and sodium count was peculiarly high. This, she suggested, raises questions about what else went into the preparation of that meal. That point is going to come up again in this column.

While gluttony and mammoth food servings aren’t exclusive to Caribbean culture, it’s becoming an entrenched lifestyle with grave repercussions for our health. With our health institutions barely capable of shouldering the weight of maladies in the population, an increase in chronic diseases brought on by feasting like lords isn’t ideal. Today it seems a decent meal must be of button-popping proportions. If you don’t crawl away from the table with a distended stomach you ain’t doing it right.

Years ago I was introduced to the Double-Up roti, which was essentially a roti assembled with two skins and as big as a bloody sandbag. It obviously catered for consumers believing the conventional roti to be far too thin-skinned. It could only be eaten in the company of someone versed in the Heimlich manoeuvre. All that flour with dry split peas was enough to choke a horse, among varieties of equines known to eat roti at any rate.

When Trinis eat out, it’s almost as though we feel cheated if the box of food is a bit on the lighter side. If the box feels heavy, then perhaps that’s a small victory in a world of scarce wins, except you really lose. Increasingly, we’re following the lead of countries like the US, losing control over portion control.

It isn’t simply a matter of how much we are eating, but what’s goes into those foods. Recently I picked up my nephew from school and as he climbed into the vehicle there was something attached to his face. It was a “sucker-bag”, apparently ubiquitous in school tuck shops. Now any product attracting the appellation Sucker Bag you wouldn’t imagine could get near anyone’s face. Yet, here he was, sucking numbly on this teat of sugar and nutritional nothingness. At the very least, the product made no attempt at suggesting any actual fruits were harmed in the manufacture of this insidious concoction.

The sucker bag isn’t new, in my childhood it was basically the poor man’s pennacool, frozen juice in a flimsy plastic bag. The one my nephew hauled into the vehicle looked more like a long-term commitment.

What’s interesting is that many pre-schools don’t permit children to bring unhealthy snacks to school nor are they made available to the children.

Parents are instead encouraged to pack their children’s lunch kits with fresh fruit and other healthy comestibles. When they enter primary school, that all seems to go out the window. Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh earlier this year indicated soft drinks would be banned from government and government assisted schools; a move some condemned as state overreach. The sucker bag, though, seems to have come in under the radar.

The problem confronting our society today ravages many countries; unbridled consumption. Cheaper, unhealthy processed foods have birthed a culture of eating as entertainment. Purchasing food by the pound is all the rage as we pack on the pounds. For those rejoicing over the recent shuttering of just a few foreign fast food franchises, such outlets are only part of the trend of overeating. We have our own local fast food industry ready to step up to the plate... and fill it with gut busting portions of blood pressure-spiking, artery-hardening culinary delights.

We need to be more conscious of what and how much we are putting into our bodies every day. Having doubles occasionally is fine, but if you are hunched over a drain eating four doubles every morning you are likely destined for that very drain. A Sunday meal of stewed chicken with rice, potato salad and macaroni pie is a superfluity of starches.

Somewhere along the way people seem to have forgotten that eating is meant to satisfy hunger, not to make you feel full. Overindulgence is a path to obesity, hypertension, diabetes and many other chronic disease menu items. While it seems the wisdom on what constitutes the best foods for healthy living changes by the minute, the easiest place to start is by simply eating less. Not every meal has to be an event, sometimes it’s just food.

After months of debate on the Marriage (Act) legislation, Opposition MP Ganga Singh, in yet another round in Parliament yesterday, voiced what some might have been thinking.

“...This debate going on longer than some marriages have lasted,” Singh opined, adding the legislation to a list of processes he said Government has fumbled on.

One on which the Finance Ministry did—confirmed by no less than Prime Minister Keith Rowley on Wednesday—was the property tax form submission issue, regarding which Government recently scored legal success against an Opposition challenge.

This and other legal successes this week against the Opposition won Government a much needed filip after juggling increasing Opposition challenges, economic issues and its own management misses (as Rowley’s admitted) on matters from property tax to recent Sports Ministry, Tobago “excesses.”

Yesterday, Rowley warned he has high standards, difficult to satisfy and the Sports issue, “may not be the only one that doesn’t meet my satisfaction.”

Alongside him yesterday, Finance Minister Colm Imbert seemed none the worse for his boss’ critique on Wednesday that Finance hadn’t done its public education best on property tax form processes.

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi appeared unperturbed he wasn’t part of his boss’ media briefing that day on Government’s legal successes. OPM Minister Stuart Young seemed well past the briefing’s odd moments when—despite his presence—Rowley was prompted by Al-Rawi offscreen.

And nobody was saying why Public Utilities Minister Fitzgerald Hinds appeared alongside Young and the PM at the briefing, rather than Imbert or the AG. Whether the staging was meant to give Rowley optimum spotlight minus queries Finance and the AG might have fielded. (Or optics were designed to counter viral social media pictures of a yellow Balisier).

After Wednesday’s property tax form ruling, Government must now ensure the security of voluntarily submitted information. With the Opposition’s legal challenge to the property tax law arising in September, it however remains to unfold how many forms will be submitted before the September matter is decided.

Government considered this week’s legal matters important enough to call a special cabinet meeting on Wednesday after rulings. Rowley’s subsequent comments signalled how serious the consequences concerning PNM’s credibility and stocks could have been if the Opposition had triumphed, and his view of UNC-caused “mayhem” might have more applied to his party in event of loss.

His ire illustrated just how he felt about the Opposition’s enterprising challenge to Government on a matter which though was of great public interest—he and the UNC would understand how this could aid UNC’s bid for political legs, if supported by legal success.

Court losses haven’t fazed the Opposition, currently consolidating thrust after a season of rising stocks due largely to Government’s own misdeeds and stagnant landscapes.

UNC’s Devant Maharaj and Anand Ramlogan are now the “faces” of UNC’s legal footwork.

Replies received by UNC’s Wayne Sturge about AG Al-Rawi’s family posing with weapons revealed conflict between the army’s former and current chiefs. Ex-chief Kenrick Maharaj using Freedom of Information regulations to seek the army’s full report on it—due by July 8—will decide by then on legal action. Unanswered queries include if a military officer gave the weapons to the children, if normal safety precautions were done and if weapons held live ammunition.

MP Roodal Moonilal, centrestage of Estate Management Business Development Company allegations, attempted resurgence querying if OPM’s Stuart Young was at the army range also. Young says he made it public since the issue arose in 2016, he was present, on Defence Force invitation.

UNC’s Barry Padarath’s networking pursued Sports Ministry’s Darryl Smith. Christlyn Moore revealed Shamfa Cudjoe’s $59,000 phone bill. MP Fuad Khan revealed Minister Ayanna Webster-Roy’s recent Jamaican mishap.

UNC’s retreat involving MPs, Senator and councillors is the first post-general election. A UNC official said the party undertook leadership, internal and local government polls “fraying of the edges” occurred.

“There’s been bickering surrounding these events creating friction. The retreat allows airing, including from MPs who feel they’re not being heard. A united platform’s necessary since we’ve become more motivated following PNM flubbing. UNC’s viewed as Government-potential again,” they added.

There’s no plan (currently) for relink with the COP whose July 9 leadership elections may hold implications for UNC and PNM.

Former COP-er/Alliance of Independents founder Nicole Dyer-Griffith says she’s been approached. COP frontlines said there’s strong lobby for her as a female black leader to re-shape COP into an alternative to bigger parties.

Opposition Senator Rodger Samuel said he’s been approached to contest and is “considering. Ex-leader Prakash Ramadhar who resigned in 2016, says many asked him to contest again. “I’ll decide shortly. Government’s bungling makes it necessary for everyone to retool and prepare for government.”

On Sunday, June 4, the Prime Minister made an historic trip on the ferry, T&T Express, to Tobago, from the port of Port-of-Spain, without the fanfare and press coverage that such an occurrence would have normally attracted. But, I wonder...

I wonder if the Prime Minister noticed the deplorable conditions of the terminal buildings, where people have to wait to board the ferry and the kind of seating arrangements they have to endure doing so.

I understand the trip was delayed by 45 minutes, and I wonder if he had to sit there not knowing what was going on, since no one bothered to inform the travellers about the delay, or did so at some point later than the scheduled departure.

I wonder if he received a complimentary bottle of water, at least. I wonder if he could relate to three and more hours of this situation as we have now become accustomed to.I understand that it may have been raining in Port-of-Spain.

Did he have the unpleasant task of walking to the ferry in the downpour since there is no sheltered walkway to the vessel, or negotiating the slippery gangway to get on board as so many of our older folk have to do.

I understand also that he mingled with the passengers, getting their views on the ferry service and no doubt catching up on some good Tobago ole talk.

But I wonder if he noticed the cramped conditions of the seating arrangements and the unhealthy conditions of the washrooms on the vessel, in spite of the tremendous work done by the crew to keep these in good condition.

Certainly he experienced the crawl of the fast ferry, which we are advised was operating on only three of its four engines, one of which “blew out” on the way. That meant that the usual three-hour journey would have gone to five, giving the Prime Minister enough time to fully experience the gut-wrenching rocking of the boat making its slow way through the bocas, and to observe the many people vomiting their guts out, trying desperately to reach the washrooms in safety.

I tip my hat to Dr Rowley as I cannot recall, in my limited knowledge, any Prime Minister of this Republic being brave enough to travel on the ferry service between Trinidad and Tobago.

We know of course of those who did the helicopter on a regular basis. That he made the decision to make this journey at the height of all the controversy surrounding the sea bridge and to do so mingling with the irate travelling public, suggests to me that Dr Rowley wanted to have first-hand, experiential knowledge of the woes of the sea bridge, hopefully so that he can take appropriate action to eradicate these issues once and for all.

So, like the rest of T&T, I sit in anticipation of a swift solution to the problems of the sea bridge. Clearly, based on his actions on landing in Tobago, the Prime Minister must have been terribly disappointed, angered even, at the state of affairs. I empathise with the truckers who felt snubbed by his response, but recuperation from the ordeal must have been uppermost in his mind.

Once again Dr Rowley, you have broken ground and have demonstrated that indeed you are a man of the people. But I sit and I wonder, Dr Rowley, you are not superman. You are not a magician.

So I know that you will once more have to depend on the Port Authority, to perform the Herculean task of fixing this ongoing, overbearing situation, which is costing and hurting Tobagonians in so many ways. Yes sir, I wonder...would your trip be in vain?

GARVIN COLE,

TOBAGO

With all due respect to Hollis Chalkdust Liverpool, his column entitled: “Who controls the Chief Justice?”, is purely a pedantic piece. Many would agree that Liverpool is ordinarily a pedantic type of person, who exhibits those traits in some of his lyrics over the years. So, for him, writing that column was like writing the lyrics for his next calypso.

It is clear to the reader that Liverpool’s column was written in defence of Ivor Archie. Nothing is wrong with that, but at the very least, there should have been some semblance of balance.

Whether the fault lies with the Chief Justice, the JLSC or with Marcia Ayers-Caesar herself, the fact remains that a terrible injustice has been inflicted on the hundreds of people who have been in remand for an already unduly long period.

They are facing the consequences for whatever crime with which they have been accused, and some could very well be innocent. So, in other words, an already acute problem that seriously infringes on the constitutional rights of every citizen, has been exacerbated by this one incident.

The whole mess was totally and absolutely avoidable, which means that accountability should be placed where it belongs, and it should result in consequences.

But, like many aspects of life in T&T, whenever there is no accountability, it means that consequently, there are no consequences.

MICHAEL PRINCE

There is an old lawyer joke which goes like this: you know when a lawyers is lying when his lips are moving. And two weeks later the judiciary and the whole legal system is still in a mess and the high courts seemingly preoccupied with a bevy of lawyers for whom the courts represent a respite whilst in opposition.

God help us from lawyers who are politicians, because they are obfuscators. It is their training as lawyers which, when applied to the practice of law, make them partisan, biased and ethically compromised.

T&T needs to look no further than the flurry of cases being brought to the courts by politician-lawyers for whom a stint in opposition clearly gives them time to run amok and make a travesty and a mockery of the law and the courts.

To say that the ethics applied to the law are not the same ethics that should be applied in the practice of politics, may even be an understatement because the politician–lawyer serves his own interest, he is his own client. The political gamesmanship and grandstanding during these forays make the justice system the real casualty.

Just recently the lawyers sought to cast blame on the JLSC for presumably bringing the judiciary into disrepute, but sinners do not get to cast stones and the Law Association must first bring their errant lawyers in line even if it means disbarring a few.

There has been enough evidence of corrupt dealing by lawyers, wholly unjustified fees and unethical conduct. A motion of no confidence does not, nor will it address the fact that the system of justice needs an intervention to make it more effective and efficient.

Incompetence by the JLSC is not a reason for impeachment and the Law Association may serve the country well if they were to put their heads together to create a justice system that will serve the interest of T&T as opposed to themselves.

SATU-ANN I RAMCHARAN,

MARAVAL

I wish to commend the effort of M Jeffers of Computer and Security Enterprises, for initiating a series of national beach clean-up campaigns.

On June 10, the first successful clean-up activity was held at King’s Wharf, San Fernando. The intention was to raise environmental and national consciousness and to encourage our citizens to be proactive rather than reactive.

Keeping our country clean is not the duty of city corporations, Cepep or any arm of the State. Rather, it is everybody’s business and is in fact, one of the greatest demonstrations of patriotism.

The company recognised the need for citizens to exercise greater individual and collective responsibility with regard to littering. The deplorable condition of our beaches and roadways indicate a dire need for a cultural shift in understanding how our own acts of littering have wider environmental and social implications.

We can all create change, all it takes is a start.

VIJAIYA RAMKISSOON

WILLIAMSVILLE

I write in response to our Minister of Foreign Affairs Dennis Moses’ statements in Parliament.

First he says that there are 15,042 illegals in the country. He then tells us where 2,265 came from. What about the other 12,777 Mr Moses?

He then goes on to state that the extraordinary amount of 30,200 people were granted permanent residency status in the first five months of this year!

Mr Moses, that is 72,480 people a year. Amazing!

In ten years that would amount to almost half our population being added. This is madness of the highest order if this is correct. Trinidad and Tobago cannot afford this.

Mr Moses needs to give an explanation to the citizens at large.

DR DAVID SALINGER

MARAVAL

Climate change is a clear and present threat facing all of us today. So we must ask ourselves what kind of world we will leave for our children if we do not take decisive actions now.

In order to squarely answer this question, the global community jointly formulated an historic accord, the Paris Agreement, which went into force in November 2016. This agreement aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C.

Following this unprecedented agreement, we now have to ask ourselves what we can do to enforce the Paris Agreement.

Island nations are vulnerable to climate change by nature. Since Caribbean islands’ economies heavily rely on the tourism industry, they are particularly sensitive to global warming and the resulting sea-level rise. Throughout my travels in the Caribbean, I have noted the grave concern about the threats caused by climate change such as coastal erosion caused by sea-level rise, increase in hurricane disasters, worsening drought, outbreaks of sargassum, and the decrease in fish catches in coastal waters.

I visited the Commonwealth of Dominica in September 2015 and witnessed, first-hand, the devastation brought by the torrential rains of Tropical Storm Erica. I also saw a completely dried-up reservoir in Antigua and some sargassum-dotted beaches in neighbouring countries. Last year, Trinidad experienced torrential rainfalls resulting in severe landslides, and damages to infrastructure and properties.

Japan is a mountainous country made up of numerous islands and therefore shares grave concerns about climate change with Caribbean nations. It has also experienced meteorological disasters on many occasions. To cope with the threats of these disasters, Japan has developed various countermeasures over the years, including dykes, dams, slope stabilisation, advanced radars, and rainfall-data sharing systems. We also have advanced technology in the area of energy efficiency. In fact, Japan’s economy is one of the most energy-efficient in the world, and we are quite happy to share our expertise and the lessons we have learned with Caribbean countries.

In order to fulfil our duty as a global citizen, Japan announced, in 2015, an ambitious initiative, “Actions for Cool Earth (ACE) 2.0” for supporting actions in developing countries and the advancement of innovative technologies to address climate change, such as the development of renewable energy and improvement in energy efficiency. Under Ace 2.0, Japan will provide 1.3 trillion yen (approximately US$12 billion) in climate finance to developing countries in 2020.

Since the historic Japan-Caricom summit meeting in 2014, Japan has been fulfilling its commitment to support the sustainable development of Caricom countries through various projects, including the donation of disaster prevention equipment, delivery of emergency supplies to the Commonwealth of Dominica, and technology transfer relative to climate change.

Climate change is a long-term global agenda that needs the concerted efforts of the entire international community. Now is the time for every country and every individual to be engaged in the enforcement of the Paris Agreement. The costs of inaction will be too high.

MITSUHIKO OKADA

AMBASSADOR OF JAPAN TO T&T