Kevin Baldeosingh

For 2016, I plan to stop being a bigot.

Now this resolution may surprise those readers who are familiar with my work, my values, and my naturally curly hair. After all, for more than two decades I have written against racism, homophobia and white chocolate. I have continually argued in favour of legalising abortion, decriminalising weed and freeing willy. So you might have thought that I was the kind of writer whose work was centred around tolerance, and indeed I myself had this image of myself.

In 2015, though, a series of social interactions made me realise that I was a bigot. And not only a bigot, but the worse kind of bigot, even worse than the kind of man who doesn’t like lychee. Because I recently found out that I am strongly prejudiced against people without a good cerebrum.

Now let me hasten to add that I am not biased against all four lobes. I have nothing against the occipital lobe, which is associated with visual processing, although I admit I get irritated at people who can’t see what is right in front their faces, like PNM hacks who thinks it’s okay for a PNM Government minister to pull string to get an HDC house for their spouse but corruption if a UNC minister does the same thing for their outside woman.

I am also pretty okay with the temporal lobe which is associated with perception and recognition of auditory stimuli, memory and speech, even those political commentators who can’t remember how they praised President Anthony Thomas Aquinas Carmona when he declared that he has powers we don’t think he has but now can’t hear him not say whether he’s getting a monthly $28,000 rent allowance for his rent-free accommodations.

As for the parietal lobe, which is associated with movement and orientation and recognition and perception of stimuli, I actually like it when a heterosexual woman comes up to me and says she reads me and my prose turns her on. Not that that has ever actually happened.

So my real bias is directed at the frontal lobe which is associated with reasoning, planning, grammar, emotions and problem solving. In other words, by nearly every measure of intelligence, I am a bigot. Yes, I admit it: my name is Kevin Baldeosingh and I don’t like stupid people. And, if you didn’t figure that out several paragraphs ago, please move on to the other columnists who require less intellectual capacity and more bhaji.

In 2016, though, I will stop mocking morons. I won’t even get offended by reporters who interview “psychics” and list their three accurate predictions but leave out the 25 ones they got wrong, even though their grammar is usually as bad as their reasoning. I’ll even stop bad talking religious leaders who assure us that God has a plan and organise days of prayers to solve the nation’s woes, without saying whether the prayers are intended to make God change His plan and, if not, what they’re praying for.

After all, it’s not their fault that they are so deficient at solving problems that they have to turn to an imaginary friend: by believers’ own standards, their stupidity must be God’s fault.

Similarly, just because a local feminist writes “One in three of us is raped or sexually assaulted in our lifetime” doesn’t mean I should blame her for being overly emotional and lacking in reason. She probably has a damaged amygdala.

After all, feminist rape statistics typically come from surveys which categorise 73 per cent of the women interviewed as having been raped even if the women themselves didn’t see their experience that way (Koss, 1985), or which avoid using the term “rape” in interviews yet still find raped women, or which lump physical and sexual assault to come up with a one in three rate (European Union, 2014). And I have to learn to tolerate such innumeracy, as well as the halitosis which often accompanies it.

I admit that I have been the kind of bigot who mocks socialists who say that Venezuela has toilet paper; and Catholics who think Mother Teresa was a saint even though she got millions of dollars in donations for dying patients but didn’t spend one cent on pain-killers; and people who go for colon cleansing when their tootoo is really in their cerebellum. 

But for this New Year I resolve not to be biased against such fools: bearing in mind, however, that 90 per cent of people who make resolutions fail to keep them.

Email: kevin.baldeosingh@zoho.com
Kevin Baldeosingh is a professional writer, author of three novels, and co-author of a Caribbean history textbook.

I can’t say that I disagree with the decision to cut free textbooks to schools. This was nothing more than a buy-vote scheme that has run its course and must now be culled.  

I say this, not because I didn’t appreciate it, but the ministry always took too long to deliver the books to the children. In addition, I saw parents who you know didn’t need the books quarreling for free books and then quarreling that the books were not up to standard. It was like a wonton free for all. I saw a lot of parents buy the books when it was taking too long.

Now the next step is the computers and tablet giveaway. This annual freeco, which cost the Government something like $94 million dollars has got to stop.  The former administration wanted to give tablets to first year university students as well as infants. This is total madness. It must have been that Kamla Persad-Bissessar thought the money would never run out; and now it has.   

Let’s face it, everybody has a computer. People did not want the Government computers—they took it because it was free. They behaved like their children could not live unless they had a computer to play games, to go on Facebook and play the fool.  

Nowadays the littlest child has a smart phone, a tablet. This is where we have reached. The Government is quite right to restore this country to its sobriety. It shouldn’t only be raising gas, land tax and wage freezes which impact heavily on the working class. One way or the other, the social security net must be adjusted downwards. And parents must tell their children that schoolbooks are a priority and not the 42-inch TV, not the new galaxy phone and so on.

Next on the chopping block is the baby milk nonsense and the $500 baby grant. The private sector has been making enough money to be able to fill this gap.

God bless this nation

Lystra Marajh,
Glencoe

I sympathise comprehensively with the education minister—he must be excruciatingly anguished over having to greenlight directives which virtually torch the very fabric of the noble cause he did fervently and consistently champion from his youthful days: ensuring the wherewithal’s in place so the children of T&T may receive the best education money can buy, no matter what it cost. 

In that regard, Garcia’s track record as a guiding light is under threat.

Therefore, it’d be hollow and callous of me not to provide him with a balm, a way to escape the agony—the force field which insulates the President, judiciary and Ombudsman ought to be extended to cover the children of T&T: the constitution has to be amended urgently so the terms and conditions of State policies regarding children and the underprivileged can never be altered to their disadvantage. 

For the children’s sake, don’t let Garcia’s track record suffer!

Richard Wm Thomas,
Five Rivers, Arouca

We are stewards of our nation. Each morning, waking to a fresh opportunity to refuse a dark time for now or the future. The alternative to boom and bust cycles may not feed our glittering fantasy of El Dorado, but it can fire hope amidst an oncoming bruising and battering for self-preservation.

The question of where to cut and to invest are ours, not the Government or the Prime Minister, but we citizen’s own. We must look around our communities, at ourselves and with our representatives, and insist on our own budgetary priorities. For this reason, I appreciated the Prime Minister’s address, particularly the presentation of numbers and his direct challenge to the business community to share profits.

All of us have to find more ways to go local and spend wisely. In the last decade when even workers were only drinking Johnny Walker, we were clearly living beyond our means.

My first choice for investment is the environment and renewable energy. Our natural resources will sustain wealth for generations, even centuries. And, when it comes to our air, seas and rivers, we will not get a second chance. Trinidad is full of permaculture and environmental management specialists who can tell us how our environment produces food, community and profit. Planning should anticipate how cost saving, health and wealth generation could look in seven generations. For such sustainability, now is the time to invest.

Culture is also on my priority list. Not the millions won in a night by soca stars, but investment in the yards of pan and mas making. Over years of doctoral ethnographic research with mas camps, I came to understand the incredible way that they sustain traditions to land, language, life lessons, and making a living. Going for wide dispersion of available funds to create community around the families and schools of jab jab, or blue devil, moko jumbies or Indian mas can also help with tackling issues of boys and masculinities.

On the supply side, the Governments’ plan to stimulate jobs through the construction sector, eg plumbers, masons and joiners, will disproportionately benefit men. This has social costs, and reproduces women’s economic dependence, and their clustering in low waged sectors. Such explicitly gendered effects have to be empirically understood if this is pursued, along with strategies to equalise access of qualified individuals of both sexes to a construction boom. 

The location of a Gender Division under the Office of the PM should provide exactly such cross-sectoral policy analysis and direction. Also, keep in mind that while taxes, particularly on land, are necessary, sales tax always affects women more because of their greater responsibility for food provision and purchasing groceries.

Beyond economic policy, the government’s primary focus should be on containing corruption through measured change in effective public service monitoring and evaluation, passage of whistleblower legislation, and successful prosecution of cases. 

Sheer waste and mismanagement of money account for billions bled from schools, hospitals and NGOs. Governments like to say that people don’t show up to town hall and regional corporation meetings, but people know the consultation process can also be both insult and joke. 

Still, even if it is only through a media that powerfully tackles fiscal scandals, we must insist on government for the people, which means suturing waste and corruption in 2016.

Wherever you are when the year begins, may you experience it with safety and joy, and carry a sense of togetherness in your heart in the days ahead. May we remain pensive, grateful and blessed, drawing on our best sources for long term sustainability. Let us be guided by ground-up lessons on opportunities for our islands to navigate predicted rough seas.

 “Who are the magnificent here? Not I with this torn shirt,” you may say. Even with scars upon our soul, wounds on our bodies, fury in our hands and scorn for ourselves, to quote Martin Carter, it is possible to turn to the world of tomorrow with strength. The sources of such strength are all around us to recognise.

My New Year tune is Nina Simone’s song, Feeling Good. There is a new dawn. There is always a new day. Tomorrow when you awake, look it up and press play.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley made a stirring plea to the nation for fiscal responsibility in the next few years. His speech was angled more towards moral suasion than anything else. It is doubtful whether the population understood what he was really saying.

He pleaded with businesses to rethink how they use our foreign exchange. It is clear that much foreign exchange is wasted on the importation of luxury and unnecessary goods. 

He asked conglomerates to rethink the idea of huge profits and make do with less. Good luck with that one, Dr Rowley. The very nature of business in a capitalist society is to make profits. I do not know of one CEO of any bank or large business who would think otherwise. Even in a recession!
Globalisation has opened us up to the vicissitudes of spending.  

A citizen of T&T, armed with a credit card, can buy goods online for personal use. Even after paying foreign taxes, freight, insurance, fuel, VAT and customs duties, the cost of the item, landed in T&T, is way less than what an importer charges in a store.

This has empowered thousands of citizens to source products online. This has also meant that more foreign exchange leaves the country. How does this compare with the repatriation of profits in US$ by transnational corporations? Or the alleged US$ capital flight under the PP government?

How does a government manage in such a situation? Does it allow the local currency to depreciate against the US$ and so make imports more expensive? This seems to be a last resort move but one that was made mutely clear by the Prime Minister.

Unfortunately, our history has always been one where we learn the hard way. Moral suasion does not work in T&T. Just look at the carnage on our roads and the ineffective pleas from the police for safer driving. One citizen spending around $65,000 on fireworks says it all!

The Prime Minister has given the warning. It is up to us to take heed. If we don’t, April 2016 will be a very difficult month indeed.

Linus F Didier
Mt Hope

As crazy as it may sound I honestly believe we have the perfect combination of players to do it. Cricket has been transformed by the success of the 20/20 version and it will continue to evolve. We are, by nature, attacking and flamboyant batsmen, bowlers and fielders, even our lifestyle in the Caribbean is demonstrative of this. So why don’t we give our players permission to do exactly that?

We now have to adapt the same strategy in Test cricket and I guarantee you that we will succeed. The following is the formula for the team to be selected. Select three bowlers, one genuine keeper/batsman and the rest should be seven genuine all rounders. 

This would be my top 20: 1) Chris Gayle, 2) Lendl Simmons, 3) Darren Bravo, 4) Marlon Samuels, 5) Shivnarine Chanderpaul, (yes bring him back, if only, to score runs and give him a proper send-off!) 6) Denesh Ramdin, 7) Darren Sammy, 8) Kieron Polard, 9) Dwayne Bravo, 10) Andre Russell, 11) Carlos Brathwaite, 12) Jeremy Taylor, 13) Kemar Roach, 14) Devindra Bishoo, 15) Dwayne Smith, 16)  Jason Holder, 17-20) four promising youths. 

How can we say that Kieron Pollard is not a Test cricketer if he has not been given a chance to play Test cricket? That is illogical and dead wrong!

This way you have solid batting right down to number eight batsmen, men who can hit the ball and stay at the wicket when the need arises and a wider variety of bowlers to choose from. And better yet if the three bowlers a can bat a little..well it is batting down to eleven. 

If you think our bowling will be weak, just remember Sir Richard Hadlee, Kapil Dev and Angus Fraser were gentle military medium pacers who excelled in the eloquent art of perilous swing bowling.

At present, there is no one in the team to apply mental or psychological pressure on opposing teams. With the names above, teams will be fearful even before the toss is taken. From my experience, as a past cricket captain and Level 1 WICB Coach, batsmen 6,7,8,9 even 10 can be very crucial after the top order has failed. 

We got a glimpse of my point when Darren Bravo and Carlos Brathwaite (an impressive debutant) were batting in the first innings of the Second Test and even the positive batting of our captain Jason Holder and Denesh Ramdin in the second innings of the second Test. Proof that the ability is there, it just needs authenticity and fruition.

Our entire psyche for Test cricket needs to re-modeled to suit this new and innovative demand for excitement. With proper management and strategic planning this formula is definitely workable and will bring back success to our team. We have had legendary batsmen, world class bowlers and fielders so there is no shortage in the pool of talent. 

We now have players who can walk into any T20/One-Day team in the world! It is time to give this present group of players official, licensed freedom to operate and begin the long overdue resurgence of WI cricket. 

Our present players are caught between having to worry of playing too safe to save their place thereby not playing freely and stifling their natural ability to “wack” the ball. 

Let our players know upfront that they will be given a 10-20 match run. It is time to take our T20 success into the Test arena and just extend our batting to 90-100 overs. We will pass 400 runs easily. Sri Lanka did it with their One-Day revolution in the nineties—Jayasuriya et al and company. 

It is now our time to do it in the Test arena. Hey, at our present level/stage we have nothing to lose and nowhere else to go but upwards. Try it now before another team does. 

Isaac Junior Ramoutar
Williamsville

The December 23 termination of the appointment of Jwala Rambarran as the Governor of the Central Bank has been criticised by many commentators, among whom are those who justify his disclosure of confidential information on the sale of foreign exchange by T&T’s commercial banks on the basis that “the country’s foreign exchange holdings are a vital national resource” that are on the same level as its mineral deposits

That notion, expressed by Michael Harris on December 14, is partly based on a concept that the former governor himself placed into the public space when, in his December 8 statement, he attempted to rationalise his disclosure of confidential information by arguing that he did so after weighing competing interests.

“This balancing exercise involved the weighing of the public’s right to be duly informed of the use of a limited national financial resource against private sector interests, desirous of privacy in such matters.”

Later in the statement, the former governor argues: “The Central Bank is of the considered view that the use of the country’s precious foreign exchange reserves, which come from finite and non-renewable oil and gas resources, is an issue of public concern and justifies the dissemination of the identity of the main recipients to whom such reserves are distributed.”

The former governor is arguing here that T&T’s foreign reserves are “limited,” “precious,” and constitute a “national financial resource,” and that the use of those reserves is “an issue of public concern” that “justifies the dissemination of the identity of the main recipients to whom such reserves are distributed.”

The former governor’s statement leads to the following question: Are the country’s foreign reserves a national financial resource?

 To answer that question the following facts need to be understood:       

• Most of the country’s foreign reserves come from the payment of taxes by T&T’s energy companies

• The taxes are paid in US dollars and are deposited into a government account at the Central Bank

• The Government sells the Central Bank its US-dollar energy taxes and uses the TT-dollar equivalent to run the country: pay public servants; fund transfers and subsidies; buy goods and services etc

• The Central Bank is the agent of the Government and therefore makes all of the central government’s foreign payments, including debt service, acquisition of foreign assets etc by debiting government accounts

• The US dollars held by the Central Bank constitute T&T’s foreign reserves.

It can be argued, therefore, that the stock of foreign reserves held by the Central Bank constitute part of the nation’s savings and that how those savings are used is generally a matter of the public concern, as are other national savings such as the Government’s Treasury deposits at the Central Bank, the Green Fund, the Unemployment Fund, the overdraft at the Central Bank that constitutes 15 per cent of government annual revenue etc.

But only about one-quarter of the foreign exchange sold by commercial banks to the population of T&T in the last three years comes from the Central Bank selling foreign exchange to commercial bank:

• According to a Republic Bank statement issued on December 7, between January 2013 and December 2015, the Central Bank sold US$5.575 billion to the banking system, which would be the authorised dealers of foreign exchange

• Between January 2013 and December 2015, the T&T public sold US$15.826 billion to the banking system.

There are four important points that need to be made about the information in the two bullet points above:

1) That between January 2013 and December 2015, the banking system purchased at least US$21.401 billion from the Central Bank and the public of T&T

2) Of the US$21.401 billion purchased by the banking system, only 26 per cent (some US$5.575 billion) came from the Central Bank with 74 per cent coming from the public

3) The banking system (or authorised forex dealers) PURCHASES foreign exchange from the Central Bank in commercial transactions, with the Central Bank depositing mostly US dollars into the accounts of commercial banks and receiving TT dollars from them

4) If commercial banks PURCHASE foreign exchange from the Central Bank, the ownership of that money is transferred from the Central Bank to the commercial banks

Therefore, it seems to me, the public’s right to know ends the second that foreign exchange is sold to the commercial banks. The foreign exchange then becomes the property of the commercial banks, for them to decide who they sell it to, but not, as yet, at what price they sell it.

If the authorised forex dealers take possession of foreign exchange in a legal transaction, it is for them to decide whether they choose to disclose their customers’ information—not the Central Bank. 

To argue otherwise would be akin to saying that someone named Michael Harris, Hamid Ghany, Bhoe Tewarie or Ralph Maraj can sell an asset such as a house, car, land, painting, shares in a company or a company itself for due consideration, but retain some kind of ownership right in the asset.

Surely, logic would dictate that once the asset has legally changed hands, the property rights of the seller have come to an end.

I know of no special provision underlying the sale of foreign exchange by the Central Bank to commercial banks and it is therefore absurd, in my opinion, to attempt to sustain an argument that the public has an interest in an asset that has been sold.

Of course, the Central Bank has an absolute right to disclose that it is selling US$50 million to the authorised dealers and Bank A received US$12.5 million, Bank B US$5 million and so on. The sale of foreign exchange to authorised dealers is governed by a formula that has been in place since April 1993.

But, it seems to me, once the foreign exchange leaves the Central Bank account, it would be a breach of the confidentiality provisions of the Central Bank Act and the Financial Institutions Act to disclose to whom the authorised dealers are selling the foreign exchange.

What transpired in this case is that the Central Bank imposed its regulatory right to collect information on foreign exchange sales from the commercial banks but then breached the confidentiality laws that govern that relationship.

The above points only refer to 26 per cent of the total foreign exchange purchased by commercial banks in the last three years.

Some 74 per cent of the foreign exchange purchased by T&T’s commercial banks, some US$15.826  billion, is bought from the public, which refers mostly to energy companies selling US dollars to the banking system and using the TT dollars to pay their wages and salaries, leases and rentals, equipment purchases etc.

But the public refers as well to T&T exporting companies that need to pay local commitments such as wages and salaries, leases and rentals, equipment purchases and debt servicing.

The public also refers to visitors and tourists who may wish to convert their US dollars, euro and pounds to TT dollars.

If the public’s right to be informed about what transpires with foreign reserves ends when those reserves are sold to the commercial banks, one wonders what those who argue that the former governor was right to disclose the main users of T&T’s foreign exchange would say about foreign exchange that does not even pass through the Central Bank.

Maybe the argument is that those energy companies are exploiting assets that “belong” to the people of T&T and therefore that public has a right to know how those companies spend every dollar they earn by exploiting T&T assets.

Or maybe those who seek to challenge the property rights argument would claim that energy companies are exploiting depleting resources, which somehow elevates public’s right to know to some special place.

We’ll see.

Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat says Community-based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP) and Unemployment Relief Programme (URP) workers who fall under his ministry will be utilised in defined areas to support the nation’s farmers.

Speaking to the GML Enterprise Desk on the role of his Ministry in light of the Prime Minister’s address to the nation on the state of the economy, Minister Rambharat said he was looking at “restarting the Mon Jaloux Grass Project, to grow grass for farmers across the country.”

He said where there was a particular need from farmers and CEPEP and URP workers can assist then he would utilise them but “it has to be a defined project, that would be the state’s contribution to support farmers.”

In addition he said CEPEP workers can be utilised productively along the 17 miles of coastline in Mayaro “which we have to clean on a daily basis.”

He said they can’t “simply take a CEPEP group and put them into agriculture. The people who will be recruited to work in agriculture are those with the capability to do the work required.”

In his address to the nation on Tuesday the Prime Minister said that CEPEP and URP cost the country $1b annually, but he said he would not cut the programmes, but would instead move to “eliminate corruption and make those programmes more efficient and effective.”

Rambharat said, “CEPEP functions in a limited scope they may do something on the road, but they can’t do minor road maintenance. We have to widen the scope and give them additional resources to do more on site.”

He told the GML Enterprise Desk that on Tuesday both he and Trade Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon toured the Arawak Poultry Plant. The company has 1,600 employees but require more workers. He said the company pays between “$16 to $22 dollars an hour, and a lot of women are employed at the plant, but they need more workers.” 

There is, he said, employment outside of CEPEP.

In an effort to meet the demands of the agricultural sector, he said, his ministry plans to revamp Youth Apprenticeship Programme in Agriculture (YAPA) and Agriculture Now —the two programmes for young people to train them in a wide range of skills to make them employable on private farms. We see the opportunity for a two-year apprenticeship for them to learn skills to prepare them for jobs inside and outside the ministry,” he said.

As to the age old cry to “buy local” well Rambharat said “we are doing the research and my approach to it is to identify opportunities for import substitution and to develop some sectors.”

He said “we have to develop the local product not just to grow hot peppers, it has to be a lot more structured approach, timing, packaging, a wide range of issues.” Rambharat said he has put “this responsibility into the hands of the National Agricultural Marketing and Development Co (NAMDEVCO) which is now headed by Dennis Ramdeen.” He said “we have the farms to table concept moving the food from farm to table reducing the middlemen.”

But he has some ongoing concerns about the sector, these include the handling and labelling of food. Issues which he said he intends to address. He told us “in livestock we have food fraud, that is food which is imported in a way that it should not be. Chicken that comes into the country we don’t know how long it was frozen. In the US after 180 days the chicken must come off the shelf, we believe it is dumped in T&T.” He also believes imported pork which competes with the local pig farmers in Wallerfield and Carlsen Field “gets here in breach of conditions under which it is imported.”

He said “we have to level the playing field to make sure the local industry has the opportunity to compete fairly with imported food. We have taken a hard line especially on the imports, we have revisited import of duck meat from Suriname because we not satisfied with the production facilities in Suriname.”

Rambharat said both he and the Minister of Trade intend to meet with the Minister of Health to ensure that the Food and Drug Division enforces the law on importation of meat and other products. He said “it is illegal to import honey but yet all the supermarkets have foreign honey for sale.”

He also wants to meet with the Education Minister to discuss the school feeding programme, because “we have announced that we must approach 100 per cent local foods in the school feeding programme.” The local content in lunch boxes under the programme he said is currently “negligible, it is a lot of imported stuff.”

DE GANNES, GEORGE KENNETH (Bowen) of 33 Saddle Road, Maraval died on 29th December, 2015Son of Leon and Beatrice de Gannes (dec d). Husband of Nora de Gannes. Father of Brent, Juliet (Julie) and Andy . Grandfather of Ricardo, Christian, Renee, Ashlee, Aidan, Dana Lee and Joshua. Brother of Sonny, Edgar (dec d), Carl (dec d), Janet (dec d), Ferdinard (dec d), Lennox (dec d), Inez (dec d) and Monica. Brother-in-law of Gwen, Lorna and Roma. Father-in-law of Lucy Balgaroo and Fiona de Gannes. Uncle of many: de Gannnes, Sayers, Dos Santos, Kurbanali, Mc Donald. Relative of Diffentala, Medford and Assing. Friend of many.

Funeral mass at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday 5th January, 2016 at Church of the Assumption followed by a private interment. For enquiries; call C&B: 625- 1170. To Send Condolences please visit www.clarkandbattoo. com  

BLAND OLGA daughter of Marie Gabriel Bland and George Bland. Sister of Reginald Bland (deceased), Bertram Bland (deceased), Beulah Bland (Canada). Aunt of Jennifer Bland & Merle Bland (USA), Nicole Bland. Cousin of Sarah Rabanit (deceased), Irma Bhagwatsingh (deceased), Yvette Rabanit (USA), Alcide Rabanit (deceased), Lucille Birmingham, Laverne Bhagwatsingh, Kevin Rabanit, Kern Birmingham, Terrance Bhagwatsingh, Kordel Fermin, Wynell Gregorio, Ramon Gregorio, Ian Rabanit, Janil Birmingham, Maria Rabanit and many more.

Sister in Law of Irma Bland (USA), Carmen Bland. Cousin in law of Roderick Bhagwatsingh (deceased), Antilles Rabanit. Relative of The Ifill family. Great Friends Muriel Green (deceased), Lucille De Boulet, Dora Tannis, Patsy John, Evelyn Ansari.

Funeral service at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday 2nd December, 2015 at Holy Rosary Church, Cor. Park & Henry Streets, Port of Spain, thence to the Crematorium, Long Circular Road, St. James. For enquiries; call C&B: 625-1170. To Send Condolences please visit www.clarkandbattoo.- com  

Local contractors are welcoming the decision by Prime Minister Keith Rowley to encourage private capital into the housing market to service a sector which forms the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) client base.

The initiative was announced by the Prime Minister in his address to the nation on Tuesday on the State of the Economy.

President of the Contractors Association Mikey Joseph told the GML Enterprise Desk that the Association had “hinted to the Prime Minister at our dinner earlier this year that the housing construction sector could be used to stimulate the industry.” 

He said “in constructing homes we tend to use much of the national resources, local paints, local blocks, local materials that assist in keeping the industry alive and we also utilise local financing.”

Joseph said they had long complained about the carte blanche use of foreign contractors in particular the Chinese whom he said “leak the foreign exchange because they have to repatriate the money to their homeland.”

He said while it had been late in coming, he still believed that the local industry would benefit.

“It will make a difference instead of people having to go out of business, retool and re-establish.”

In making the announcement on Tuesday Rowley admitted that because of the current situation there may be “some slowdown in economic activity.” 

He said the objective was to “stimulate economic growth by selecting what is available in the most innovative way.”

To this end, he said, the Government intended to “ramp up housing construction as a major driver of the economy, but there would be a comprehensive overhaul of the funding arrangements of the programme. There will be new initiatives which would encourage private capital to accelerate construction on private or state land for pre-arranged priced units which upon completion the state through the HDC will receive and direct these units quickly to mortgagees who will access and service facilities which will be readied at the T&T Mortgage Finance (TTMF) etc.”

The Prime Minister said the objective was to “quickly move private capital into the housing market to service a sector which forms the HDC client base without initial state cash outlay.”

Joseph said that is all well and good. But he believes that before the initiative can get off the ground “the banking act will need to be changed so that banks become a partner of the project, providing the finance.” 

Joseph explained that in the past the government financed such projects through Fincor but he said “there must be a level playing field all local banks and financial institutions should be able to provide finance.”

He said that the contractors would design and build and “the bank would go through the process, hold the mortgage and transfer to the government who would pay once they are in a position to do so.”

As to the cost of the units, he said: “I am also one who does not subscribe to subsidised housing for those who can help themselves.” 

Joseph said he told the Minister of Housing Marlene McDonald that there was “a need to provide facilitation in terms of a home guarantee, because a lot of middle class persons cannot access loans easily.” He said: “If there is a loan guarantee facility the TTMF can go around and finance the homes.”

But he had another concern—“building houses and roads is not enough.” He said the industry was bigger than that.

“Some of our guys doing civil works and roads, the government needs to have these people go out and work regionally and internationally to earn foreign exchange,” he said.

He said trade agreements should be looked at to “try and implement legislative changes to allow local contractors to go out and compete. It will not cut it if we just have buildings and road infrastructure. We need to go out.”

Another issue the Government needed to look at urgently, he said, was licensing of contractors.

He said it would be a waste of money if the houses were not built well. 

He said: “As it is now, it is a free for all. Any Joe who could buy a backhoe is now a contractor. There is urgent need for standards in the industry.”

Once the banking issues and the legislation governing contractors are in place he believes that the stage would be set for a successful partnership. 

He does not believe that getting things done the right way would delay the initiative announced by the Prime Minister. 

“We have been calling for it for years and we believe the time is right to get it done now,” he said.

Another contractor Winston Riley agreed that the initiative was a good one, but he was of the view that “it is crucial to get the procurement legislation in place, which is absolutely important to ensure there is transparency.”

He said when in Opposition, Rowley had said the legislation was a priority and he had also proposed to meet with the Joint Consultative Council, civil society groups and the private sector, but that had not yet happened.

It is now an unavoidable fact that 2016 brings with it the bitter reality of austerity. However, all indicators are that Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and his administration do not want T&T to go the route of Caribbean neighbours Jamaica and Grenada which are already several months into their latest IMF programmes.

The dawning of the new year has found the T&T economy in a situation of decline that is frighteningly reminiscent of the lean years of the 1980s when consecutive years of negative growth took a toll.

As is the case now, declining oil prices hit the country’s energy-based economy, starting in 1981 but at first no one paid attention because in the preceding eight years, T&T had enjoyed a significant windfall from a rise in global oil prices. Awash with current account surpluses and increases in foreign exchange reserves, the population luxuriated in the energy riches of those oil boom years. The public service expanded rapidly and the Government embarked on major capital expenditure projects, resulting in significant increases in recurrent expenditure. 

It did not help that high and unsustainable levels of consumption and expenditure by the Government and even average citizens continued long after falling oil prices should have triggered alarms. The country’s stock of foreign reserves rapidly depleted and as energy sector earnings declined, the rate of unemployment more than doubled from ten per cent to 22 per cent between 1982 and 1987. The resulting balance of payment difficulties led the then National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) administration to sign a stand-by agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and T&T embarked on a long, painful period of structural adjustment.

That is why the announcement a few weeks ago by former Central Bank Governor Jwala Rambarran that the country is once again in a recession triggered so many expressions of worry. Among the concerns is a possible return to the IMF and a period of enduring strict conditionalities from that international lending agency.

It is now an unavoidable fact that 2016 brings with it the bitter reality of austerity. However, all indicators are that Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and his administration do not want T&T to go the route of Caribbean neighbours Jamaica and Grenada which are already several months into their latest IMF programmes.

Only time will tell whether his proposed remedies will be effective in reviving an economy that has been buffeted over the past 18 months by plummeting energy prices. The volatility in energy markets, which is at the core of T&T’s economic woes, showed no signs of easing and in the last trading hours of 2015 West Texas Intermediate (WTI), was trading at around US$36.28 a barrel. The immediate outlook for oil prices is bleak, with some analysts forecasting prices plunging as low as US$20 per barrel.

The measures proposed on Tuesday, as tough as they are, are seen as healthier option than the IMF which, although it has done away some of its stringent harmful conditionalities, is last resort for a developing country like T&T.

Dr Rowley, whose political career as an Opposition Senator, then MP, in the People’s National Movement (PNM) began during those challenging years, is fully aware of how socially and politically debilitating the IMF option can be for the country. 

With an adjustment of the budget expected within the first quarter and a range of cost cutting measures and adjustments to be implemented, the coming months will be crucial. Whether T&T moves into economic recovery, or a more painful level of decline, depends on how willing the population is to finally heed the difficult lessons of the 1980s.

First day of the year and Y’Boy remembering when he did first go away to the Cold and find out that white people’ country doesn’t have Old Year’s Night, them does have New Year’s Eve. That-self is one of the answers Y’Boy would give, if he ever had was to ask himself, like he does ask other people every week, “What is a Trini?”: “A Trini is somebody who celebrates Old Year’s Night, not New Year’s Eve.” Some people wouldn’t see no difference, but Y’Boy—and, Y’Boy suspect, most Trinis—would nod they head, and chuckle to theyself, and winks at one another: Y’Boy done know he never had as good a time at the best New Year’s Eve party in Foreign than he had at the worst Old Year’s Night in Trinidad.

Given the option of looking forward to undamaged, unformed time ahead, it does just make a Trini happy to deliberately choose to focus, instead, on the time he already bite off, and chew up, and about to spit out; everywhere else in the world, perhaps, they thinks about what they might do in the future; here, in their heart of hearts, and in the heart of the homeland they watching disintegrate before they very eyes, Trinis look back at what they had.

And dance. And make a joyful noise.

And the same thought that run through Y’Boy head this time last year walk through slow and steady again: what it is about we people that make we stay so? Is like the Trini cannot extricate himself from a situation that he could plainly see bound to harm him; look a next definition of a Trini right there.

But the thing that make him doesn’t can make up his mind if Old Year’s Night better than New Year’s Eve, is that Y’Boy can’t figure out if the Trini better off looking back than looking forward.

In all these old slave societies, it have a muck of history and a mire of pain dragging down every step anybody try to take forward. In barely three months, eg, the PNM done make it clear that, five years from now, we will be as relieved to toss them out as we was to be rid of the UNC. Y’Boy want to bawl, no lie, when he study that. Ask yourself how many opportunity to correct ourselves we, as a people, totally firetrucking squander and, if you honest, you have to say, “Every one of them.” To write down the names of our past prime ministers is to make a chain of disappointment as well as of causation: is we put them there; is them put we here.

Is not a boast—if anything, is more of a embarrassment—but Y’Boy have real friends, not Facebook or cocktails party one, in the present government, just like in past ones, UNC and NAR alike, and Y’Boy well know that, no matter how smart you was when you went een, you does end up or come out dunce. You does do, or allow to be done, the same thing you cry down the government you replace for, whether is hire somebody you shouldn’t hire or fire somebody you shouldn’t fire, or fly with somebody you shouldn’t fly with, whether is Cabinet brother or flesh-and-blood sister; and the thing that does make the whole tragicomedy more jokey-sad is that, eef you out of government, you could see the mistakes plain-plain-plain but, eef you in government, you feels everything you do is the right thing to do, or you wouldn’t be doing it; no matter if all on Sunday could see you doing tata.

Excepting you.

First day of the year and, through this self-same New Year’s public holiday, Y’Boy deadline fall before the PM address to the nation two days ago that might already have brought distress to the nation. Y’Boy asking he-self what the Pee Em would say, or woulda say—but then Y’Boy realise it really don’t matter: oil price could rise or stabilisation fund could collapse, it make no difference what the challenge is, we wouldn’t rise to it. The test could be temporary and trifling and our capitulation would still be spectacular and total.

Y’Boy tired saying West Indies cricket is not a barometer for, but a thermometer of, the West Indies nation—to the extent that it have a West Indian nation; or, for that matter, a West Indies cricket team. West Indies cricket doesn’t show where the nation heading in the immediate future, but where the nation is at right now; and we in trouble.

And now Y’Boy studying that he really doesn’t know if, in Jamaica and Antigua, they does have Old Year’s Night; but Y’Boy don’t need a Aussie to tell him is New Year’s Eve them does celebrate New Year’s Eve. All them what beat us so bad in the past and will beat us even more efficiently, all them cultures and countries we would like to be better than, them all looks forward; and we looks back.

And, under that level of manners, Y’Boy would deny himself and say to firetruck with Old Year’s Night, excepting Y’Boy understand that the problem is not that we looks back, but that we doesn’t look back far enough. All our problems lie in an unacknowledged past and a pretend present, complete with false African pride (and French Creole one) and a shipload of Brahmin by boat instead of birth.

We has the instinct to look at ourselves; we just doesn’t have the stones.

Happy New Year, yes, but is the same old, same old.

BC Pires is stuck in the 

Seventies, where at least the music was good

Gripping our minds now should be, will the recessionary period ahead lead to an increase in crime and insecurity? While many people will want to say yes, a review of the criminology literature gives mixed results. That is, some scholars have shown that for some economies, crimes increased during a recession; for others they decreased. 

If we go with the former set of findings, many economists suggest that in a recession many companies and individuals as well as the state cut expenditure to weather the stormy days by having reductions in staff, investments and in other areas of activities. 

Generally, the theory proposes that with unemployment, some turn to crime to cope. Do we have an adequate unemployment social welfare system for such people and their families to clog this opening? 

In the United Kingdom in 2014 and the United States of America in 2009, as they experienced their recessions, there were increases in shoplifting, muggings, robberies, burglaries, theft from vehicles and even domestic abuse—even though social safety systems exist. Writers refer to these as “recession-related crimes.”

In a recession, companies, people and the state may want to cut on their security and safety systems to reduce costs. However, given what we know is coming, should they still make these cuts? No. In fact, the opposite should take place. That is, companies, individuals and the state should be beefing-up their security and safety systems to counter-attack any attack on their property and person. And, critical, staff should be trained and re-tooled for the days ahead.   

Companies, people and the state can opt for more efficient security and safety measures during a recession but not a reduction in measures. There are many cutting edge systems that can be used and personnel should be quickly and professionally trained to handle these. 

Strategically, people in organisations who are not currently directly involved in security and safety may now position themselves to take advantage of additional responsibilities and be trained to do so. Having additional skill-sets can play a key role in being “kept on” by employers for the times ahead. A good way to start is by being able to secure the assets and people. 

Further, given that many street crimes like muggings, petty theft, robberies etc, may be on the cards, companies, the state and individuals on their own may also wish to be trained in personal safety and self defence techniques so that they may be able to counter many recession-related crimes.

Some companies may unwisely wish to tamper with their Occupational Health, Safety and Environment systems in a recessionary period to cut costs. This should not be done. You do not want injuries and hazards to occur in your workplaces in a recession that may eventually cost your company much more in the long run if you have to take corrective and compensatory action. As the saying goes, “you don’t want the candle to cost more than the funeral.” You can strive for more efficient ways of doing things without compromising safety and security of property and people. And, adequate and appropriate training will certainly contribute to this.

In a recession, the police and by extension the Government, for example, have to be very careful to manage crime levels. A little spike in crime can lead to an increase in the fear of crime especially in communities that once had low levels of such fear. This psychological balancing of actual crimes and fear of crime is such a delicate affair that serious consideration should be placed here.

A recession may lead some to engage in drug trafficking and gang-related crimes. Further, white-collar crimes and corruption may be other criminal spin-offs of a recession period. A strong focus should be placed here as well. Cybercrime can become more pronounced.  

The big question now is: if we know all of this is on the cards, what can the various authorities do? We have to put things in place to reduce the impact of a recession on crime potentials. The entire public and private security and safety apparatus should be getting into gear now. 

We also know that the Carnival season also produces a spike in certain crimes. This phenomenon is now coinciding with a recession. Should we expect a further increase in crimes for this period? 

Citizens have to more vigilant on the safety and security of their homes and person. They must have plans not to the point of being paranoid though, but to have a peace of mind that things are in place. 

Person-related crimes like domestic violence and other forms of abuse may accompany a recession as people become frustrated. Unfortunately, it is a reality as to how some people react to bad situations. Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) as well as free and confidential state counselling should be in place. A national campaign to reduce the stigma of seeking guidance and assistance should be instituted. Religious groups and NGOs should also assist in keeping citizens on the right track. 

In a recession, cuts are necessary. We need to be very careful where they are made. 

The Miami Dade College School of Justice and the CISPS are hosting an international practical training on Surveillance and Counter-Surveillance from January 13-15, 2016. Contact us for further information on this and other courses at 223-6999, 223-6968; mailto:info@caribbeansecurityinstitute.com

The end of 2015 was a far cry from the beginning.

The year started with what remained of the People’s Partnership in government and ended with the Keith Rowley-led People’s National Movement.

It began with promises of a causeway to Chaguaramas, houses for everyone  and a bridge to Toco from Tobago.

It ended with promises to pay wages, implement taxes and to steer clear of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by dipping into the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund.

A year which started with promises of more, ended with revelations that the country was less sturdy economically than citizens could have imagined.

 Tobago suffered a natural disaster in August when the shorelines were invaded by the sargassum seaweed, which cost the island about $3 million to clean up.

While beachgoers there were held hostage by seaweeds, both islands were immobilised by a traffic nightmare on March 23, during the Police Service’s “day of total policing.”

Police denied that the day of policing was a response to delayed salary negotiations.

The action by officers saw thousands of commuters stuck in hours of traffic while police checked everything from vehicle tint to smooth tyres.

In March, Tobago East MP Vernella Alleyne-Toppin suggested Rowley was born as a result of rape and that these circumstances made him “aggressive” and “arrogant”. 

Alleyne-Toppin shocking statement came durin­g her debate on the Government’s no-confidence motion against Rowley.

The motion of no-confidence was passed and Rowley was suspended from the House of Representatives for the remainder of the parliamentary term.

Trinidad’s Soca Warriors also advanced to the second round of World Cup qualifiers after playing to a draw with USA on November 19.

T&T also ended up on two international lists, making both one of the happiest countries in the world and one of the most obese.

In December, T&T doctors successfully removed the world’s second largest tumour, weighing a total of eight pounds, from a patient in San Fernando.

Goodbyes and hellos

After facing criticism from several sectors of society regarding exorbitant legal fees being paid for by the state in 2014, former Attorney General Anand Ramlogan’s downfall came in February as a result of allegations of witness tampering from head of the Police Complaints Authority David West.

West reported Ramlogan to the police in January for alleged witness tampering. 

Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams immediately launched a probe.

Ramlogan denied the allegation that six days before West was appointed PCA director, Ramlogan asked him to withdraw his witness statement in a defamation lawsuit filed against Rowley relating to the failed extradition of Section 34 applicants Steve Ferguson and Ishwar Galbaransingh in exchange for him being selected for the job.    

West stated that his recollection of what had transpired was “diametrically opposed to the Hon Attorney General’s denial.”  

Ramlogan was replaced by Garvin Nicholas, a former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. 

Ramlogan wasn’t the only minister caught in the crossfire of that police investigation.

That same night, Persad-Bissessar also fired then National Security Minister Gary Griffith, and called for West’s resignation.

She also removed then Senate President Timothy Hamel-Smith, and Minister in the National Security Ministry Embau Moheni, and Justice Minister Emmanuel George. West did not resign.

While Griffith was speedily replaced by Retired Brigadier General Carl Alfonso, Hamel-Smith was replaced by Senator Raziah Ahmed and former national footballer Brent Sancho took up the post of Sport Minister.

NJAC's leader Kwasi Mutema was named a minister in the Works and Infrastructure Ministry.

In September, Persad-Bissessar was fired from office by voters which saw the PNM gaining 23 seats and the Opposition 18.

After a lengthy campaign marred by violence in constituencies and buoyed by a number of independent candidates, the country hired a new Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley.

With the change of government, the revocation of appointments continued when Jwala Rambarran as fired as Central Bank governor.

His appointment was revoked amid concern from the business community that he had breached confidentiality laws by revealing the names of major users of foreign exchange.

Rambarran has stated his intention to challenge the decision.

A new Central Bank Governor, Alvin Hilaire was appointed. 

The country is now bracing for more cases of the potentially deadly swine flu diseases, with four confirmed deaths, and over 40 reported cases.

High profile cases

The results of the 

general election, which Caricom and Commonwealth observers described as well-executed by the Election and Boundaries Commission was given a legal challenge by Persad-Bissessar in September.

 The court granted the Opposition all clear to proceed with election promises to challenge the results in six marginal constituencies.

The Opposition based its challenge on the decision of EBC to extend the voting time in Trinidad by one hour due to inclement weather. 

Persad-Bissessar’s next victory would be her convincing win in the UNC internal elections in December.

Her one-time ally, now foe, Jack Warner also saw himself before the courts this year as the United States issued warrants for the arrest of several high profile FIFA officials, in an international football scandal.

 An extradition request made by the US Government was signed by Attorney General Faris Al Rawi in September, but Warner immediately appealed the decision.

High Court Justice James Aboud said will give his ruling on whether or not Warner, a former FIFA vice president, can challenge his extradition in the courts later this month.

The Judiciary made a unique, landmark ruling in a case of revenge porn. National cricketer Lendl Simmons was ordered to pay his former lover $150,000 in compensation for disseminating a series of photographs of them engaged in sexual acts.

Delivering a landmark ruling in the Port-of-Spain High Court Justice Frank Seepersad ruled that Simmons had breached the confidentiality of his relationship with 24-year-old mother of two, Therese Ho, by sending the photos to her friends after their relationship ended in 2013.

Seepersad admitted that local laws had not developed to address issue of revenge porn, the court had a duty to develop and interpret existing laws to protect citizens such as Ho from the pain and suffering which resulted from the unregulated practice popularised with the increased use of social media.

He also called on Parliament to seriously consider introducing legislation to address the issue and other forms of cyber harassment including racism in online posts, examples of which followed the general election in September. 

In July, the most high profile murder case of 2014 saw progress as 11 members of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen appeared in the Port-of-Spain Magistrate's Court charged with assassinating former Independent Senator Dana Seetahal, SC. 

Alleged gang leader Rajaee Ali, and 10 members of the Jamaat's Carapo outpost, appeared before Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar.

Viral violence

On January 2, a viral video of Special Reserve Police (SRP) Officers abusing a wheelchair bound man in the middle of High Street, San Fernando, saw two SRPs facing criminal charges.

Though the incident happened days before, the actual arrest stemming from the publishing of the video would be a familiar theme throughout the year.

The incidents of violence, recorded and shared across social media for public’s consumption was prevalent throughout the year.

In April, police were again called to investigate violent video which depicted a woman, beating her 12-year-old daughter, in what many online viewers described as “excessive.”

The video of the beating, which took place over the long Easter weekend, went viral hours after it was posted on the popular social media website and had been shared over 10,000 times and generated hundreds of comments both in support of the mother and condemnation of her action. 

The child was beaten for posting photos of herself clad only in her underwear on her Facebook page.

The woman later said she was not sorry for what she did and was prepared to go to jail for her actions.

In July, a video of a dog being skinned by a man in a location suspected to be Carenage was published online.

Then health minister Fuad Khan was quick to place blame with the Chinese community and cautioned citizens that there may have been cases of dogs being served in “chinese restaurants.

He apologised later after condemnation from the Chinese community.

In October, a caregiver was recorded standing on an elderly man at a geriatric home in St James.

The woman was arrested by the police.

Police began investigating the case after a short video of the abuse was posted on social media, showing the woman standing on the belly of a frail man, said to be 89-years-old.

Three days later another video surfaced showing a man beating a toddler because she refused to drink from a bottle of milk.

The man and his wife were arrested after the video was shared hundreds of times on social media sites.

While all the attacks were gruesome, none received as much public condemnation as an incident in November when a man was video-taped kicking a woman and beating her with a metal pipe at a bar in Arima.

The incident led to public outrage and the man later he turned himself in to officers the following day.

The victim of the beating refused to cooperate with police and the man was charged with three summary offences and sent to remand while awaiting bail.

He was eventually released and petitioned the magistrate to be allowed to spend Christmas with the victim, whom he had been barred from seeing.

The petition was granted.

Police manhunts

A manhunt was launched by police officers in February for a wheelchair-bound man who was said to be the main suspect in the murder of 19-year-old Salma Chadee.

It was later revealed that the man was a suspect in the murder of another woman, Sherlene Mahangoo-Charles.

The body of a man believed to be the suspect was found after a week of police searches near the unfinished Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba.

In July, three men shot their way out of the Port-of-Spain prison on Frederick Street in broad daylight resulting in the death of young policeman PC Sherman Maynard.

In the police efforts to recapture the trio, Allan “Scanny” Martin, one of the accused in the Vindra Naipaul-Coolman murder, was killed immediately following the escape.  

Apart from the guns the prisoners were armed with, police found a grenade outside the jail following the escape.

One day later, one of the escapees Hassan Atwell was found murdered by police in East Port-of-Spain.

The last escapee, Christopher “Monster” Selby, surrendered to police saying he feared for his life and is now back behind bars.

Economy

At the beginning of the year, on January 8, Persad-Bissessar addressed the nation with the following words;

“Today the economy is strong and in good shape.”

 At the time she said her government had used the past four years to “reverse economic decline, to bring stability, to restore confidence, and to return to a path of growth.”

She said government had delivered opportunities for the country to truly rise to its vast potential for real growth and advancement.

In September, five days before general elections, at a luncheon with business leaders, Persad-Bissessar again reiterated that the economy was stable.

In December 4, the Central Bank revealed the country was “officially in a recession” after it failed to post any economic growth for the third quarter of 2015.

Rambarran said the country was “facing austere economic circumstances.

“The economic priorities in 2016 must be aimed at supporting a firm enough recovery through appropriate monetary and fiscal policies, setting forth a medium-term framework which balances consuming, saving and investing energy wealth.”

During that same week, steel and mining company ArcelorMittal fired 600 workers.

Three days before the end of the year, Rowley told the nation tough times were ahead as the country faced a period of financial instability.

The year was filled with social media scandals, elections sour grapes and international corruption charges and revelations that the country was “running on fumes.” 

The sombre ending of 2015 was a far cry from the optimism being pushed into the atmosphere at the beginning of the year.

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh says his ministry will revert to Nipdec (National Insurance Property Development Company Limited) to procure medication and pharmaceuticals and will return to doing so on an annual contract basis.

Deyalsingh was speaking with members of the media after viewing the birth of newborn babies at the Mt Hope Women’s Hospital, yesterday.

“We inherited a messy situation when it came to the procurement of pharmaceuticals. Traditionally, Nipdec is the procurement agency with the Ministry of Health and has been for many years,” he said. 

He said the last administration went to Parliament and gave the regional health authorities the authority to purchase their own drugs.

Deyalsingh said Nipdec was then placed on a monthly contract to procure pharmaceuticals. 

“That is not good policy. National Health Services never got off the ground. We are going to revert to the old system and put Nipdec back on a yearly contract,” he said.

He said that he would go to Cabinet soon with the request.

“It has been already rectified to a certain extent and we have gone to suppliers on the private market and took pharmaceuticals from them,” he said.

Concerning other health issues, Deyalsingh said the major concern right now was the H1N1 virus, as well as dengue, chikungunya and mosquito-borne Zika which was coming to T&T, he said.

He said Zika was in other parts of the Caribbean and was probably already here.

“The best line of defence is the individual home owners, the community, to eradicate the breeding sites,” he said of the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

Deyalsingh said there had been no increase in the number of fatalities due to H1N1. (CC)

The Year 2015 saw CNC3’s Crime Watch host Ian Alleyne breaking some of the country’s top stories, some of which became the talk-of-the-town, while others proved to be exclusives that showcased Alleyne’s ability to bring justice to victims of crime.

Alleyne described the past year as one brimming with success, since he covered approximately 700 stories and initiated investigations in most of them.

He expressed much pride at being able to carry his live one-hour prime time reality show to that next level.

This week, Alleyne dug deep into his 2015 archives and highlighted some of his top stories of the year.

One of the biggest stories was when he single-handedly wrestled with gunmen in an attempt to foil a carjacking and robbery of a taxi driver, along the Southern Main Road, Frederick Settlement, Caroni. That incident occurred on August 18.

Two teenagers, ages 17 and 18 from Trou Macaque, Laventille, were subsequently apprehended.

Subsequent to the deadly prison break which occurred on July 24, Alleyne showed a video that dominated social media of guns being fired off during the Islamic funeral of one of the escapees, Allan “Scanny” Martin, at the Munroe Road Public Cemetery.

Scanny was one of three prisoners who shot his way to freedom from the Port-of-Spain Prison, Frederick Street.

Scanny was cornered on the compound of the Port-of-Spain General Hospital by tactical officers, who opened fire on him, killing him instantly. A firearm and a cellphone were found near his body.

Scanny’s funeral took place on July 27, 2015, which was also the 25th anniversary of the 1990 Attempted Coup. Ironically, the person who led that coup, Jamaat-al-Muslimeen leader, Imam Yasin Abu Bakr, and his son, Fuad, attended Scanny’s funeral.

Alleyne, this week, revisited that story by showing a video where he was escorted out of the Jamaat’s Mucurapo compound when he attempted to meet with the Imam. There was an exchange of words between Alleyne and a group of Jamaat-al-Muslimeen members. Alleyne said he was not afraid of them and their intimidatory tactics towards him.

Alleyne also launched his own investigation into the alleged hanging death of security guard, Meggan Mohammed, 22. She was found hanging from a shoelace tied around a rafter of the dormitory of Amalgamated Security Services Limited, Prince of Wales Street, San Fernando, at about 3 pm on June 7, 2015.

Alleyne managed to make contact with senior forensic pathologist Hubert Daisley and a second autopsy was conducted at Guide’s Funeral Home in Couva.

In that independent autopsy, Daisley showed there were fractures to the neck bone, haemorrhaging to one of the eyes, injuries to the hands and other marks of violence inconsistent with the results of the first autopsy which stated that death was due to hanging. That autopsy was done at the Forensic Science Centre in St James earlier this month.

Subsequent to the findings, Alleyne got in contact with one of Mohammed’s close male friends where he interviewed him along with a female friend.

In similar circumstances, Alleyne was called to the Bamboo No 3 area where resident Reynold “Freddie” Williams, 41, was allegedly found hanging from the rafter of his bedroom on June 12, 2015.

Working on certain information received, Alleyne subsequently met with the last two people who were seen liming with Williams before his death.

Alleyne carried out extensive and intensive discussions with both men and was subsequently taken to a bridge near the highway where Williams’ wallet was found. The men were then taken back to Williams’ house where one of them allegedly disclosed certain information to Alleyne.

The police were subsequently called in and both men were taken into custody.

Alleyne’s compassionate side was also shown on live television in a case where a desperate mother, Marilyn Adams, had appeared on Crime Watch on September 17 pleading with him to help her get back her silver AD wagon PDH4363, which was stolen sometime between September 16 and September 17.

Adams told Alleyne that her critically ill daughter was warded at the Intensive Care Unit at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mount Hope.

Adams’ daughter’s wheelchair and oxygen tank were in the vehicle which the thieves stole.

Alleyne was able to get another car for the family with a wheelchair and oxygen tank.

On September 30, Alleyne gave maximum performance when he kept to his word and recovered a stolen vehicle in less than nine hours after highlighting it on his show.

The vehicle belonged to a visually impaired/dialysis patient Aarti Mohammed, 28, and her husband, Adris.

Adris, guiding his wife, Aarti, on set along with their young son, pleaded desperately for Alleyne to help him find their white C33 Medalist PBE 6474, which was stolen at about 10.30 am that same day at Atlantic Plaza, Point Lisas. The vehicle sported green fluorescent rims.

At about 4 am the following day, Alleyne received information that the vehicle was dropped off in St Joseph near a roti shop. Alleyne made his way there and contacted Adris, who positively identified the vehicle as his via customised items in the vehicle. It was also discovered that the fluorescent green rims had been spray-painted in black on the outer parts.