The public is watching and listening carefully re the deafening silence of the business sector as employees are being retrenched almost on a daily basis.

Why haven’t the various chambers of commerce and industry and this and that association said something by now?

They are quick to jump up and cry that crime is affecting them etc, but when their employees are being placed on the breadline by they themselves it is like cat bite their tongue.

We all read them quite well. They don’t care about the employees. Employees are just dispensable items.

But it is the same employees that slave for them and the same employees that purchase from them. One hand don’t clap, the saying goes.

If employees have no money to buy from them, how will they get their sales?

When they rake in all amounts of excess profit, most employees don’t benefit from it. Now we are in some rough waters, they are throwing us out the boat rather than letting us sail through with them as well.

They are hypocrites with no moral or spiritual values, just greedy, selfish people who don’t care about the ordinary man. 

Shirley Bhimsingh

Another day, another death of a prisons officer. And still no slackening of the dangerous elastic that is holding the Remand Yard together. Waiting for any length of time to get your charges heard, be it three days, three months or three years, is psychological murder. 

If you are poor, if you are innocent and you are waiting longer than that, then we are looking at eventual mayhem in T&T. We are now looking at “twine,” which has become a lot longer than time. 

Prisoners without charges of assault with deadly weapons or murder, have to be dealt with in a more expeditious and humane manner. 

Where are the security ankle bracelets that were supposed to be a good idea? Where is the parallel training of parole officers to keep a strict eye on people wearing the bracelets who are awaiting trial but who are deemed safe enough to be sent home? 

Why not start to ease the tension by allowing a free pass for non-violent prisoners to spend one weekend every three months at home? Just easing the tension is the way to start to diffuse the prisons’ time bomb. 

The prisons system is clogged with people on minor offences and there is no space and not enough staff to contain the bubbling cauldron that is the Remand Yard situation.

What is so difficult about rewarding good behaviour with the odd weekend at home with friends and family, especially their children? A glimmer of hope is enough. Prisoners so rewarded will have the strength to wait it out while the entire legal framework is upgraded. 

We have to stop treating both the prisons officers and the prisoners themselves, as if they are only animals. Neither prisons officers or the prisoners will run away from their responsibilities if we make a serious effort to take sensible control of the madness of the Remand Yard.

Lynette Joseph

Do we have the desire to face up to reality? At one time we made a positive move and brought in experienced foreign police officers to assist. These two gentlemen attempted to instill discipline within the protective services and were met with protests from the very people who they were trying to assist. And what did our Government do? They caved in and fired the two men! 

It’s time we faced up to the reality that the selection of men and women to solve our ever-increasing problem of indiscipline in the protective services must not be based on colour, creed, size or race but purely on a basis of who wants to work for the good of T&T. 

There is so much talk about “the state” without our citizens recognising that we are all the state.

Chris Knaggs, 

Bayshore

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s recent rift with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has left uncertainty surrounding the staging of the third Test match against India at the Queen’s Park Oval.

The Indians are carded to tour the West Indies from July 14 to August 11 for a series of four Tests with the third scheduled for T&T from July 28 to August 1. 

However, officials at the WICB believe that Dr Rowley’s recent calls for the dissolution of the organistion, could signal that his government will not be supporting the Test being played in Trinidad.

Following the Caricom Heads of government meeting in Belize three weeks ago, Dr Rowley noted the deterioration of West Indies cricket and its lack of proper management. He said this was discussed by Caricom Heads and based on these discussions, it was felt that there was nothing more to gain from talks with the WICB.

WICB officials say that this statement is certain to be on Dr Rowley’s mind when the local T&T Cricket Board attempts to hold negotiations with the government to stage the Test.

“Given all that the prime minister has said, it seems impossible to believe that he will support the match being staged at the Queen’s Park Oval. Once they do not support it, there is no way that a Test can be staged in T&T,” one official explained.

Last week, president of the WICB, Dave Cameron communicated with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and it was agreed that four Test matches will be played. The WICB wanted three Test matches and three ODIs but the BCCI insisted on keeping it to Test matches.

The WICB asked for the One-dayers since they felt this would attract big crowds and bring out the fans.

Unofficially, the first Test match will be played in St Lucia, while the second is scheduled for Antigua the third in Trinidad with the fourth in Jamaica.

“The WICB felt that some ODIs would have been a great investment to attract large crowds, but the BCCI rejected those discussions.”

President of the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB) Azim Bassarath said that he is confident that government will support the cricket coming to T&T, so that fans can look forward to seeing the Indians play here. 

India, with its cadre of young talent led by Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma is currently second on ther ICC rankings for Test crickert behind Australia.

The National League Committee (NLC) has written to the secretary of the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB), Arjoon Ramlal calling on him to convene a meeting to set up a committee to investigate what they see as attacks on West Indies off-spinner Sunil Narine by the local board.

In a letter sent by former West Indies Players Association (WIPA) president Dinanath Ramnarine yesterday, the group which includes Daren Ganga, Giles Antoine, Anil Kamal, Clint Pamphille and Andre Lawrence  has called for a meeting on Friday March 4.

The group claimed that they received a request from Narine requesting  intervention in a matter involving him, with specific reference to the president,  Azim Bassarath, and an email with Bassarath’s address which mocked Narine at a time when he needed the total support of all the TTCB’s members and stakeholders. 

 Following a meeting yesterday, the members are of the view that they have a  serious responsibility to ensure that the issue is fully investigated with objectivity and transparency. “Additionally, we do not wish our pursuit of the truth to be tainted by any appearance or allegations of impropriety, witch-hunting or personal vendettas. This is an extremely sensitive matter and we do not wish to impose any further emotional burden on Mr. Narine. He is going through a difficult and traumatic period in his life and career and we all need to deal with this issue with the utmost discretion and fairness.”

The members claim that they are not seeking to change the past but to ensure the right precedent is set. “Mr. Narine as well as any other player, should not be subject to what seems on the surface to be a personal attack by the President of the TTCB and other members of the TTCB Executives.”

  Narine also claimed he was denied entry to the Players’ Enclosure during the Nagico Tournament after having been allowed on two previous occasions to enter.

And attempts were made to change the rules regarding his eligibility to bowl in national tournaments organized by the TTCB. “The NLR views these matters seriously as they have the potential to bring the TTCB into disrepute, an organization which is sacrosanct in its own right having been constituted by an Act of Parliament Act No. 34 of 1989. 

As elected members of the TTCB we strive to uphold the principles of good governance and measure success based on the benchmark of what is considered best practice in sport administration. In this particular matter, we must fulfill our fiduciary duty and recommend a course of action which is fair, credible, transparent and equitable to both parties. This is in keeping with request conveyed to us by Mr Narine for an independent investigation into this matter.

“In light of the above, we are seeking an opportunity to discuss a suitable list of persons or panel acceptable to all who will conduct, with our support (for both the NLR and the TTCB) an investigation of the matters raised and make pronouncements on same for the greater good of the TTCB and the sport of cricket in general. We also hope that the outcomes of said investigations will allow for any breach/es to be dealt with in accordance with the constitution of the TTCB and the laws of Trinidad and Tobago.”

WALTER ALIBEY

It is unsure whether the T&T Pro League will survive the coming 2017 football season. Four of the eight clubs in the top flight league- Point Fortin Civic Football Club, North East Stars, Club Sando and Morvant Caledonia United have painted a bleak picture of this reality, saying they will not survive if government, through the Sport Company of T&T, does not give back the $83,000 subvention to clubs to help with paying salaries. Minister of Sports Darryl Smith reduced the subventions from $83,000 to $50,000 due to the recession being experienced. 

He told the media clubs were illegally receiving the $83,000 grant after a previous minister in the People’s Partnership government increase the subventions from $50,000 to $83,000 without the approval of the Cabinet. 

Chairman of Point Fortin Garthorne Craig said they have already closed down their entire youth programme which comprises an Under-14, u-16 and under-18 team and the club will not be able to last through to the end of the current season which will be the end of May. Having a youth programmes is a major requirement for entry into the pro league. 

Craig pointed out the recent cut in the subvention from $83,000 to $50,000 came as a thief in the night for his club and it has been posing a major challenge for his team presently. Government has been their main source of income although they receive financial assistance from Aaron Bakery in Point Fortin, Lift Boats- a drilling company in the southland, gate receipts during home matches and additional help from the Point Fortin Borough Corporation. 

They are yet to receive subventions for January and February though salaries for this period were paid. The Point Fortin football boss is expressing concerns his team will now have to renege on contractual agreements made with players which he fears has opened his team up to lawsuits. “We built our expectations on a certain amount for the year, but now that this amount has been cut by a massive $33,000, it has put us in a very uncomfortable situation” Craig told Guardian. 

Their survival in the league now depends on the club’s ability to come up with innovative ideas of raising revenue and how it will be managed. 

Meanwhile, North East Stars manager Maurice Eligon said it’s a battle for survival, but his team will make it through the season. “It has been a real battle for us since the cut. I can tell you that we will make it to the end of the season but next year the club will definitely be in local football but maybe not the pro league. I think we may be heading back to the Eastern Counties Football Union (ECFU) next year” Eligon explained. 

Hardest hit by the cut in subventions are the Stars’ senior players who are all under contract. Eligon believes his club has not been given a fair opportunity at being self sustainable as his they are consistently blanked from using the Sangre Grande Recreation Ground as their home, as the facility belongs to the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation. “We cannot even build a partnership with the corporation for the use of the ground. This means government must pass legislation for community teams to gert access to corporation grounds for home matches” Eligon explained. 

Newcomers to the pro league Club Sando have been trying its best. Contractor Eddison Dean said he has always encouraged players to work and play football. The highest paid player at the club receives a monthly fee of $4,000. 

Morvant Caledonia United manager Ricarda Nelson said they are struggling to stay alive in the sport. Nelson has agreed to put half her salary towards funding their youth programme, saying when she wonders what young players will do without football, she and her club continue to stay afloat in local football. She said senior players were forced to take a cut in their salary until the club can pay them the remaining amount in the future. 

She is pleading with minister Smith to continue with the $83,000 grant until the season ends in May.

A haven for nature lovers, the Nariva Swamp on the east coast, just inland from Manzanilla Bay, is one of T&T’s national treasures. Some of our most interesting wildlife make their home in Nariva, from the shy West Indian manatees to the raucous, beautiful Blue and Gold Macaws (locally extinct but recently reintroduced). Anteaters, agouti and porcupines live here, as do monkeys, reptiles, fish and a wealth of bird species.

None of these animals, however, live in a vacuum. They depend on a unique diversity of smaller ecosystems which exist in this wetland, where you can find huge, heart-shaped Elephant’s Ear plants, tall and stately Moriche Palm forests, wild nutmegs, Swamp Immortelles and six of Trinidad’s seven mangrove species. The rich diversity of plant life, and its relationship to the swamp’s water patterns and the land, provide homes and sustenance for the animal life.

The Nariva Swamp was recently in the spotlight when the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) handed over 200 copies of its photo book—Replanting Nariva—to the National Library last month. The pictorial book chronicles an important replanting project at the swamp, part of ongoing efforts to restore ecological balance to areas of the swamp badly damaged by rice farmers 30 years ago.

Destruction by rice farmers

Although for decades, surrounding communities of Biche, Cascadoux, Kernahan and Plum Mitan had peacefully coexisted with the swamp, fishing, hunting and farming in small-scale ways which didn’t significantly threaten swamp life, the larger-scale rice farmers were more destructive. Commercial rice farmers stripped the swamp of some 1,500 hectares of its natural vegetation in the 1980s and 1990s—about 15 per cent of the swamp’s total area, according to the EMA. 

Rice farming excessively disrupted the balance of life in these places, radically changing water courses, removing feeding and breeding zones for many species, and badly affecting or killing wildlife there. 

As Gayatri Badri Maharaj, acting managing director of the EMA, noted at the book handover ceremony on February 1 in Port-of-Spain: “This activity resulted in the removal of significant natural tree cover and modification to the swamp’s hydrology. The end result of rice farming was substantial change to the swamp’s ecosystem, leaving it susceptible to forest or bush fires, and alteration to the swamp’s biodiversity, with animals and insects that naturally thrived in the environment being adversely affected.”

Often, when such damage happens, it becomes permanent. And indeed, for many years, T&T did not actively fix the damage, despite talk of the need to diversify the economy, the potential for ecotourism revenues, and the benefits of protecting globally unique places of natural richness and beauty such as the Nariva Swamp.

Although the Nariva Swamp was declared a Wetland of International Importance in 1992 under the Ramsar Convention, and although in 2006, the EMA made it into an Environmentally Sensitive Area, legislation did not necessarily confer actual protection for wildlife on the ground, in the air or in the waters, nor did it automatically mean that damaged areas would be replanted. For this to happen, funding, policies and plans had to be put in place.

IMA Nariva Management Plan

The Institute of Marine Affairs back in 1999 had already completed a wildlife management plan for Nariva Swamp, reports Rahanna Juman in her 2010 book Wetlands of T&T. This was in response to an earlier Ramsar advisory mission, which had recommended three things: an environmental impact assessment of the damaged areas, a management plan for the area and a hydrological and aquatic vegetation restoration programme. 

By 1999, the T&T Government had commissioned a swamp restoration programme, following collaboration between the T&T Government, Ducks Unlimited USA, the United States Agriculture Department Forest Service, and local experts, reports Juman. 

The programme would cover two main segments: restoring hydrology and aquatic plant life in badly affected areas of the swamp, and creating a firefighting capability. Both of these were being done, Juman writes in her 2010 book. The project was funded by the World Bank as a Clean Development Mechanism project in which carbon credits from the restoration work would be bought by the World Bank, Juman reports.

The NRCSWLP project: 2010-2017

The more recent EMA-led Nariva replanting restoration project began in 2010, paid for by the Green Fund and managed by the EMA, with partners including the Forestry Division and the University of the West Indies. 

The project—officially called the National Restoration, Carbon Sequestration, Wildlife and Livelihoods Project (NRCSWLP)—aims to ultimately restore 1,300 hectares of damaged swamp habitat by March 2017. 

Earlier EMA pilot studies in 2008 planted six experimental hectares of different plant species. Lessons learned from that pilot study then helped shape the main project, said Dayne Lewis, who is the Communications, Education and Public Awareness Coordinator for the NRCSWLP project, based at the EMA Valencia office.

Lewis said 12 plant species have so far been planted in restoration efforts—Angelin (Andira inermis), Blood Wood (Pterocarpus officinalis), Cajuca (Virola surinamensis), Hog Plum (Spondias mombin), Junniper (Genipa americana), Milk Wood (Sapium aucuparium), Moriche Palm (Mauritia flexuosa), Royal Palm (Roystonea oleracea), Savonette (Lonchocarpus latifolius), Toporite (Hernandia sonora), Water Immortelle (Erythrina fusca), and Wild Chataigne (Pachira insignis).

Local communities involved

Significantly, Nariva communities have been a key stakeholder in the NRCSWLP project's early success. Local villagers have helped to grow seedlings, re-plant parts of the swamp, and have received some conservation education, some training and some employment in the process. 

To date, 300 people from five surrounding communities have helped to replant and maintain 215 hectares of swamp land, said Badri Maharaj at the library book handover last month.

The EMA has said its involvement in these Nariva communities will go beyond the life of the project—it would like to help communities improve their lives through enabling sustainable opportunities after the project’s end in March 2017. 

The EMA is doing this though the outreach arm of the Nariva NRCSWLP project — its Communication, Education and Public Awareness Programmes — which aims to “develop capacity of Community Based Organisations in organisational and entrepreneurial skills to facilitate livelihood sustainability.” 

Nariva residents have already received training in planting, tending, firefighting, land preparation, survey techniques, nursery maintenance, first aid, basic project management and some financial training. Future training, the EMA said, will focus on educating and empowering Nariva entrepreneurs, including a much-needed adult literacy programme in two of the communities there.

The admirable community development initiatives are going hand in hand with plans for improving tourism facilities at Nariva Swamp, to make it into a top national ecotourism destination, says the EMA. 

A National Wildlife Survey on game animals is also in progress at several locations throughout T&T (2014-2017), and Nariva Swamp has been included in this. Survey data are intended to guide sustainable future use of wildlife game species in the swamp, says the EMA.

The Nariva replanting project is a welcome, hopeful step towards restoring valuable natural heritage and habitat that belongs to all of us—not least of all, the creatures who live there.

MORE INFO

The Replanting Nariva book, through NALIS, is being made available in libraries nationwide. For more information on Nariva Swamp, see the EMA's website at www.ema.co.tt, or visit the EMA's Information Centre at 8 Elizabeth Street, St Clair, Port-of-Spain. There are also several YouTube videos which dramatise Nariva Swamp wildlife, ecosystems, and threats, including the EMA's own biodiversity series.

Threats to Nariva Swamp wildlife

The Nariva Swamp faces many threats, all human. These have included: illegal squatting; burning of woodlands for agriculture; the conversion of land to cannabis and rice farming; destruction of natural drainage systems by channels cut for agricultural irrigation; illegal grazing of livestock in the game sanctuary; overfishing; illegal timber harvesting; illegal hunting; and excessive trapping of birds for the pet trade. 

Her love affair with breast care and health all started when she needed a bra at nine. Some decades later, that love has driven Nicole Joseph-Chin passionately toward her calling. And now this author, blogger and female empowerment guru is not just touching lives, she is changing them one bra at a time. 

At Ms Brafit, breast health and wellness is taken seriously. Whether a client is full figured, has sensitive skin, spinal issues or a mastectomy, director/founder Joseph-Chin ensures comfort and optimum service. So extensive is her research in the field of breast health that research material and academic papers in her organisation’s studies on breast care were delivered at Oklahoma University, where soon she will be a feature speaker at an international medical conference. 

Joseph-Chin is as busy-bodied as she is charming. Throughout her interview with the T&T Guardian, the Caribbean’s expert in bra and mastectomy fitting darted back and forth to check up on her clients, who came for either a bra fitting or to purchase one. 

Her establishment at 10 Queen’s Park West, Port-of-Spain, is frequented by clients ranging from the woman in the boardroom to the housewife. The former bank manager is US board-certified, with training in post-mastectomy care and prosthetic fittings from reputable post-surgical care corporations in the US and Europe. Her products are attractive as well as clinically designed for breast health and wellness. 

These custom-made bras have been a woman’s best friend since Joseph-Chin started the business out of her Santa Cruz home 14 years ago. It is no wonder she has attained many accolades over the years from various institutions that support women’s health. She is almost like family to the T&T, American and St Lucian cancer societies, and other support groups with whom she has volunteered. 

Among the many certificates that embellish the wall behind her desk is a little love note from former CNN Early Start co-anchor Zoraida Sambolin, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013 and had a double mastectomy. She thanked Joseph-Chin for creating the Treatment Companion Book which she believes every woman should invest in to track her health and medical status. 

Last year, Joseph-Chin was chosen by international women’s advocacy group Vital Voices Global to be its lead flag bearer for T&T. The NGO—founded in 1997 by former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright and then First Lady Hilary Clinton—trains and empowers women leaders and social entrepreneurs around the globe. 

“I was one of 330 participants of the Global Fellowship 2015. I was nominated by Vital Voices to participate in the leadership fellowship programme. I was the only Trinidadian on that fellowship,” she said. 

The fellowship programme was funded by the UK Government in collaboration with Vital Voices out of Washington DC. It was because of her work in women’s health and in bra fitting, breast and mastectomy care for women that Joseph-Chin was selected. 

Joseph-Chin, as the CEO of her company, was granted a full one-year fellowship which included studies on developing educational programming. While there, she provided services as well as shared best practices, and enjoyed activities which included a seminar in Argentina involving a peer exchange (seven out of 330 were chosen to go to that exchange). 

But above all this, she noted the sisterhood that was formed among these women leaders at the fellowship. 

“You know how we always talk about women bashing each other? But meeting all those women—I cannot begin to tell you about the sisterhood and the bonds that we have developed. I can pick up the phone at any time and talk to one of my sisters,” said Joseph-Chin in a cheerful tone. 

She added: “I often laugh about it because I tell myself while it’s daylight in their country, I have to switch on my light to talk to them, but the light is so prophetic and much bigger than we are. It is a big something. I cannot really explain it, but that light is more than just a physical light or daylight. It is what we bring to each other’s lives. And what I have been really excited about doing is sharing that same light with women in my own country.” 

She said as social entrepreneurs, these women in leadership roles run their enterprises on the premise that they serve people—but they also give back, in money, time, and also as an expression of what they have developed. 

Joseph-Chin, as the local face of Vital Voices Global through her company Ms Brafit, collaborated with Vital Voices Global and the US Embassy T&T last year to stage the first Vital Voices Global Mentoring Walk in T&T. The walk was also supported by the Soroptomist Club of Port-of-Spain. 

The annual event comes around just in time to commemorate International Women’s Day, which is celebrated three days later on March 8. Happening in 52 countries, the concept for the Vital Voices Global Mentoring Walk came from American media icon, founder and former CEO of Oxygen Media, Geraldine Laybourne, who wanted to empower young women professionals in New York City and across the US. 

Since the walk began in 2008, it has reached thousands of women in over a dozen countries. Last year alone, it brought together 7,200 women at 73 walks worldwide. 

Joseph-Chin said the first walk here was a success.

“It was a lovely experience last year, (although) we planned the walk in literally three weeks...We really saw a lovely outpouring of women interested in mentoring...the walk is really about mentorship, sharing good advice and good stories.” Joseph-Chin praised US Embassy head of cultural affairs Stephen Weekes for being good masculine support last year, as he came with his daughter for the walk. 

She said the aim is to always have no more than 20 mentors and mentees for the walk, and general supporters and people who can share discussions. The walk in 2015 attracted 60 to 70 people, she said, and began with a mini-symposium at her office on leadership, mentorship and women’s issues. 

This year it will begin the same. But new this year is international women’s advocacy entertainment group, Girl Be Heard. 

According to its website www.girlbeheard.org, Girl Be Heard creates a world for young women to find strength, realise their potential, and rise above their circumstances and society’s expectations of them. It uses theatre as its vehicle to empower young women to become brave, confident, socially conscious leaders and explore their own challenging circumstances. 

Girl Be Heard will be conducting a dialogue at Ms Brafit with stakeholders on March 5, before joining in the Vital Voices Global Mentoring Walk around the Queen’s Park Savannah, to begin at 4 pm. 

• MORE INFO: For more information on the Vital Voices Global Mentoring Walk, visit Facebook.com and search: Ms Brafit. Or call 689-3083. You can also send emails to info@msbrafit.com.

Kevin Baldeosingh 

Nearly everyone in T&T who is concerned about crime will disagree with Felson’s and Eckert’s crime analyses. This includes both the armchair theorists like media commentators and the professionals, like police commissioners and Ministry of National Security consultants, even though Felson, 68, is considered one of the world’s leading experts in this field.

“Crime seems to march to its own drummer, largely ignoring social injustice, inequality, government social policy, welfare systems, poverty, unemployment, and the like,” Felson and Eckert write. This list alone dismissed 99 per cent of the hobby horses of T&T commentators. 

The authors also mash the favourite crime corn of the average Trinidadian or Tobagonian: “Moral attitudes do not simply produce moral behaviour...Many parents and leaders think you can teach children what’s right, then they will simply do it...if the school has kids pray and promise to be good, they will keep that promise. Very wishful thinking.” 

So what do they offer as a crime prevention approach? “Opportunity is a root cause of crime,” they say. This is Felson’s key contribution to crime analysis (which is different from criminology). 

He holds that nearly everyone is a potential or actual criminal, and opportunity determines how people act in that context. 

“This book emphasises modus operandi—who, what, when, where, and how each specific type of crime occurs,” he and Eckert write. 

“We always ask, ‘What can be done HERE and NOW to prevent crime from happening?’ The answer requires learning how the offender thinks and what the offender wants. Even violent offenders respond to practical changes in the settings where violent acts occur.” 

In order to avoid muddled thinking on crime, Felson and Eckert warn against eight fundamental fallacies: (1) Dramatic fallacy; (2) Cops-and-court fallacy; (3) Not-me fallacy; (4) Innocent-youth fallacy; (5) Ingenuity fallacy; (6) Organised crime fallacy; (7) Big gang fallacy; (8) Agenda fallacy. 

The Not-Me fallacy is the one which denies that we are all capable of criminal acts and views criminals as separate from mainstream society. The Agenda Fallacy is the one in which people assume that their particular ideology, whether religion or socialism or feminism, holds the key to reducing crime. The Big Gang Fallacy, which we experienced in T&T a few weeks ago, “greatly exaggerates the span and role of juvenile gangs.” And the Cops-and-Courts fallacy “warns us against overrating the power of criminal justice agencies, including police, prosecutors, and courts.” 

This last point is especially interesting, since Felson and Eckert make it seem as though the police in the United States are really not very different from police officers here. Indeed, the system itself seems much more similar to T&T’s than popular perception says. “The US criminal justice system does everything wrong—it punishes bad rather than rewarding good, it penalises people rarely and sporadically, it delivers its decisions and penalties after long delays,” they write. 

But not everything they write will be applicable to T&T. Still, it is hard to see how the authorities can formulate any effective crime prevention programme without reference to Felson. And this book will help ordinary citizens see through crime programmes which have more to do with politics than policing.

BOOK INFO 

Crime and Everyday Life 

Marcus K Felson and Mary A Eckert 

Sage Publications, 2016.

ISBN 978-1-4833-8468-9; 185 pages. 

On February 23, award-winning filmmaker Mariel Brown launched a fund-raising campaign on popular crowd-funding website Indiegogo, to raise money towards the completion of her film Unfinished Sentences. 

Fund-raising for the film began in late 2014 attracting several investors and sponsor Republic Bank, enabling completion of the pre-production and production phases of the project. The Indiegogo campaign goal is set at US$12,500, and all funds raised will go towards finalising post-production on the film. Some great perks are being offered to people who get involved, a release said. 

To make a contribution to the campaign via credit card, visit www.indiegogo.com/projects/unfinished-sentences/.

Indiegogo is an international crowd-funding website enabling people to fund-raise for different projects. Funders receive gifts or “perks” based on their monetary investment in the idea. The Unfinished Sentences campaign welcomes contributions starting at US$15, which can be made by credit card or PayPal. 

The perks include beautiful Unfinished Sentences branded merchandise, such as notebooks and bags, and literary ephemera, such as sets of postcards with quotations from Wayne Brown’s poetry, all designed by Trinidadian Richard Mark Rawlins. 

The campaign will run for 35 days, and all proceeds go towards post-production costs on the film. 

In the wake of writer and columnist Wayne Brown’s death in 2009, his filmmaker daughter, Mariel, examines his legacy in her time of grief. In Unfinished Sentences, Mariel examines the nature of family, love, loss and art, and in so doing, learns that, through his writing, her father can transcend space and time to connect with her. 

Unfinished Sentences features interviews with Caribbean writers Mervyn Morris and Rachel Manley, as well as close friends and family of Wayne Brown. Different visual approaches to the documentary are realised by directors of photography Sean Edghill and Nadia Huggins, with Edghill focusing on reenactments (which were filmed on Super 8 film) and Huggins creating a poetic visual aesthetic. 

The film is carded for release later in 2016.

Alta/Rotary partnerships are a natural fit. The core skill of literacy has been high on Rotary International’s agenda since their adoption of a Decade for Literacy in 1990, the year designated by the UN as International Literacy Year. 

Alta’s launch in 1992 created a convergence of interest that has continued to this day. 

Rotary’s purpose is to bring business and professional leaders together with the aim of providing humanitarian services and encouraging high ethical standards in all vocations to advance goodwill and peace around the world. The Rotarian’s primary motto is Service Above Self. 

Rotary Clubs in Trinidad have put action behind their stated purpose, donating time and treasure to this mutual cause. Throughout the course of Alta’s existence, Rotary Clubs across Trinidad have welcomed Alta’s representatives to talk to members at club meetings. This has engendered a greater understanding of the issues surrounding literacy and a debunking of the myth that reading is easy. 

Rotary Clubs have contributed to Alta in a number of ways. Within the last decade, this includes funding to publish student workbooks and materials from the Port-of-Spain Rotary Club, as well as the Club in Port-of-Spain Central. For two years (2006–2007), the St Augustine Rotary Club provided funding for a teen literacy project at St Augustine Senior Comprehensive. 

Most recently in late 2015, the Rotary Club of Maracas, St Joseph, paid a visit and made a class sponsorship donation to the Curepe Holy Saviour Church venue. Other clubs who have supported neighbouring Alta classes are the Rotary Clubs of Port-of-Spain West, Maraval, Chaguanas, Princes Town and Penal. 

• Contact Alta at 624-2582 for more information on how to make this happen for your Rotary Club.

The philosophy of the Scotiabank-sponsored 31st Biennial T&T Music Festival is based on a famous quote by late British music adjudicator Sir H Walford Davies: “The object is not to gain a prize or defeat a rival, but to pace one another on the road to excellence.” 

Monday’s morning session of the festival’s Championship Week held at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s, Port-of-Spain, saw these qualities in there richest form when young saxophonist Jdani Williams from Tobago found himself in difficulty. 

Appearing in Class JR-D9 Woodwind Solo for competitor 15 years and under, playing the test piece Air, Suite No 3 by JS Bach, it quickly became evident that the contestant and festival accompanist Enrique Ali were not together. That’s when co-adjudicator Bryan Husband called out to Williams to cut the performance. 

By this time flautist Khai Alcantara had already taken the stage and delivered his interpretation of the test piece Le Cygne from Carnival of the Animals. Alcantara and Williams were vying for the Marion Osborne Memorial Trophy. 

Husband and co-adjudicator Prof David Hoult began to confer. Husband asked the accompanist to compare his score with the performers as they seemed to be playing in different musical keys. But on realising that the exchanges were too open, Hoult rose to his feet, trotted down the stairs onto the stage to try and work it out. 

On chatting with Williams and Ali, Hoult returned to the performer and could be heard asking if he was willing to transpose the piece while in the spotlight. 

Seemingly confused by the happenings at centre-stage, the expression of the young entertainer suggested he did not favour that option having rehearsed his version of the song to perfection. 

Hoult returned to Ali and asked him to transpose the accompaniment in the musical key Williams might have grown accustomed to. The talented pianist had no objection to this. 

Hoult then communicated to the audience that they were working on, a solution to the on-stage dilemma and believing they had arrived at one, said, “Let’s give it a try and hope it works.”

It turned out that when Williams rendered his performance during the qualifying round in Tobago, he did the piece unaccompanied. 

When the performance began, it was impossible to recall all that went before. Williams played the melody that he had worked on so diligently with his music teacher, while Ali, sat at the piano transposing, yet playing as though what was unfolding in the spotlight was planned.

Students from 20 secondary schools will compete tomorrow for a place in the finals of this year’s Courts Bocas Speak Out Intercol.

Only 12 competitors will go through to the final next week, March 11. The winner will be the Courts Bocas 2016 Secondary Schools Spoken Word champion.

A release said the exciting championship comes after a three-part nationwide touring season of workshops, performance and competitions, sponsored by Courts, that started last September and has involved over 25,000 secondary schoolchildren in over 50 schools.

The students have been exposed to this popular style of self-expression through visiting performance poets of the 2 Cents Movement as part of an on-going Bocas Lit Fest project to help young people acquire personal developmental and creative language skills that contribute to realising their overall human potential. 

“We are trying to engender an appreciation of all forms of self-expression through the written and spoken words, among people of all ages. And people come to realise that they can have great fun doing it,” says Marina Salandy-Brown, founder of T&T’s literary festival, the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, which takes place April 27 to May 1 and is now in its sixth year. 

Nicole Loney Mills, speaking on behalf of Courts, sponsors of the project for the last three years, asserts: “We believe in supporting the work of Bocas and the dynamic young poets of the 2 Cents Movement who are fine exponents of this genre of performance that allows young people to articulate their thoughts creatively.”

“The arts have great power to heal and shape,” adds Bocas Youth Outreach Coordinator and founder of the 2 Cents Movement Jean Claude Cournand. 

“We are very excited that, working with Bocas, we have initiated projects to build youth engagement. The objective is to see that translate into all areas of young people’s lives,” he said.

MORE INFO

Both semifinals and finals are open to the public and free. 

Semis: 9 am – 11 am 

& 12.30 pm – 2.30 pm, tomorrow. 

Finals: 10 am – 12 pm, 

11 March. 

Venue: Daaga Hall, 

UWI, St Augustine.

For further info check www.bocaslitfest.com

Trinidadian Kashma Maharaj made headline news all over the world yesterday, as the woman who tried to go through an international airport checkpoint with gun-themed shoes and two bracelets lined with realistic-looking bullet figurines.

Maharaj is a partner at Fashionista Trinidad, owner-operator at kashmamaharaj.com and owner at Supernova Sports Ltd. She is also a fitness instructor and personal trainer.

According to international reports, Maharaj was stopped at the Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall Airport on Saturday by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents, after they found the shoes and bracelets in her carry-on bag.

In a New York Post article, TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein tweeted: “Shoes and bracelets that are less than ideal to wear or bring to a @TSA checkpoint. These delayed a traveller at BWI.”

Farbstein later told the Baltimore Sun that Maharaj was ordered to put the items in her checked luggage, but refused and chose to leave them with the TSA because she was running late for her flight.

The report stated the stilettos Maharaj had in her possession, described as a Bondgirl-701-3 Gun Heel Platform Sandals, are made by exotic footwear manufacturer Pleaser USA and are said to be one of their most popular items.

“They look authentic, but the 7.5 inch gun-barrel heels are plastic, and finished with a chrome coating in order to make them look more realistic,” according to Pleaser USA spokeswoman Elody Romero.

Romero was quoted as saying that in her nine years at the company, she had never heard of an incident where heels were confiscated.

“She brought them in her carry-on luggage? That probably wasn’t the smartest decision,” Romero told the Baltimore Sun in a report.

Maharaj, who found the entire incident very hilarious, subsequently posted links to the various news articles on her Facebook page. On one post, Maharaj said: “I normally drive or just check all bags, but it was just a tiny overnight bag...can’t win...funny thing is I ended up checking the bag cause of limited overhead space.”

Efforts to reach Maharaj for further comment were unsuccessful.

Prime Minister Keith Rowley yesterday conceded that the government owed money to many contractors but he challenged the circumstances in which some of that debt was incurred and said there was a problem with “the Government’s financial ability to pay some of the debt.”

Speaking at the post-Cabinet news conference at the Magdalena Grand Hotel, Lowlands, Tobago, Rowley answered questions on a wide range of subjects including a possible investment in Tobago by the region’s top hotelier, Jamaican Gordon “Butch” Stewart, and implementation of the death penalty.

“The bottom line is the Government is taking responsibility for valid debts and will discharge them but we have to examine the circumstances to ensure that it is not paying what’s left of taxpayers’ potential in circumstances that ought never to have seen taxpayers’ support,” said Rowley.

Describing Government as a continuum, the Prime Minister made it clear that when an administration changed, the responsibility of the State to settle debts undertaken by previous administrations remained.

On the issue of the nature of the debt to contractors, Rowley said: “One of the things that happened in the previous period of time — I do not want to say the previous administration because I do not want to pass the problem of today onto the last administration — is that many people were let loose on the Treasury to spend money that they did not have in their portfolios.”

He gave an example of a small state company in which the chairman, without going through the tenders committee, awarded $400 million in contracts during the election season last year.

The contracts were to rehabilitate 37 kilometres of rural roads, said the Prime Minister.

“The point I am making is that kind of money could have been incurred when there was no money known to pay it,” said Rowley.

He cited another example of what he described as the removal of money from the Treasury, involving the 

construction of a head office for $180 million and the 

payment of ten per cent of 

the contract sum, $18 million, to a contractor.

He said while the contractor was expecting money to advance the project, the State company did not have the money, “except that they found $18 million to pay the contractor, which was the original objective. And since they cannot progress the project, the contractor is attempting to walk away under the guise of delay.”

The Prime Minister explained that under binding international building law (FDIC rules), if a client could not fund a contractor going forward, the contractor could terminate the contract.

“But we found out that the bond that covered the $18 million expired two days after he got the contract,” the Prime Minister said, saying that circumstances like that meant Government cannot “run out and pay contractors willy nilly.”

Rowley cited a third example of a contractor who was saying that Government owed him $1 billion.

“That might well be so but the question you have to ask yourself: This contractor was really a benefactor of the national community because to run up $1 billion of work with no money coming to you, we must say thank you very much for being so kind to us.”

Prime Minister Rowley yesterday defended the decision by Government to discontinue a lawsuit brought by the previous administration against former Petrotrin chairman Malcolm Jones for the ill-fated Gas-to-Liquids project.

Speaking in Tobago, Rowley said Petrotrin authorised the Attorney General to begin legal action against Jones (in 2011), based on legal advice that the former chairman of the state-owned oil company had committed some infraction of the law that exposed him to liability for $2 billion.

The Prime Minister said as part of his defence, Jones demanded that evidence from the arbitration hearings that preceded the lawsuit should be tendered into evidence in the court case.

He said the previous administration suppressed information from the arbitration hearing, which meant that Petrotrin’s lawyers did not have certain information when they advised the company to begin the lawsuit against Jones.

Rowley said: “Eventually in getting the evidence from the arbitration, it was seen for the first time that evidence in the arbitration makes the case against Malcolm Jones virtually a nullity.

“When that evidence came forward, Petrotrin’s lawyers advising Petrotrin that you no longer have a case that has a good chance in court.

He said that was a case of Petrotrin’s lawyers receiving evidence that caused them to advise their client that the case against Jones was weakened to the point of not having a good case to proceed.

The Prime Minister argued that the current board of Petrotrin could be held liable if it proceeded with the case against Jones after receiving advice from the company’s lawyers about the weakness of that case.

“What would the current board face if their lawyers tell them you have no case and they proceed to run up another $50 million in legal fees, who is going to hold them accountable?” the Prime Minister asked, pointing out that Petrotrin had spent $41 million on the case before the matter was argued in court. (AW) — See Page A11

Students from some crime hotspots risk their lives just to get to school and are also faced with gang culture at school.

So said the principal of Barataria South Secondary School, Sharlene Hicks-Raeburn, who added it was not realistic to expect some of her students to report to school on time.

She classified that as a “life or death situation for some just to leave their home to come here.”

Hicks-Raeburn was speaking yesterday at a symposium, titled Women Managing Education in Vulnerable Communities, at the School of Education, St Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies.  

Hicks-Raeburn said many children today viewed school as a safe haven from the dangers that lurk outside the school walls and a place where they could seek refuge from home without participating in classes.

This view was strongly supported by principal of the Success/Laventille Secondary School, Hamida Baksh, who acknowledged the loss of several students within the last two years.

Yesterday’s discussion was dedicated to the memories of students—Mark Richards and Deneilson Smith—who were both dragged from a taxi and shot dead on January 21 as they made their way home. 

Another student, Salim Dalzell was also gunned down outside the school gate in November 2014. The three had been students of the Success/Laventille Secondary School.

Referring to the “gang elements” which the two officials agreed had crept into school halls, Hicks-Raeburn said the safety concerns by students interested in learning were yet another problem they had to grapple with daily.

She revealed that last week, a student was caught with a knife and cutlass in his bag, which he claimed he had to use for his own protection in school.

Remembering the students whose lives were lost in violent circumstances during the past two years, principal of Success/Laventille Secondary School, Hamida Baksh revealed the personal and professional transformation she had undergone as a result.

Commenting on the role of the parent, Baksh said that schools along the East/West Corridor were under “pressure.” 

She said as many parents struggled to survive daily, there was often little time or interest paid to the child’s school progress and even slimmer attention towards homework and revision.

Referring to gang violence as the most urgent “real problem” facing the authorities now, Baksh said students were constantly battling peer pressure, violence and gang leaders.

She said teachers were finding it increasingly difficult to “sell” the education in the face of these factors and that some parents seized the opportunity to send their children to school so they could remain “safe.”

Presenting her changed mindset and how she interacted with her students, Baksh said she was grateful everyday when students turned up at school.

However, officials from secondary schools in Port-of-Spain, Barataria and Cunupia yesterday said that it was an uphill task as the “curriculum of the street” seemed to be wielding more influence among their students.

Traffic came to a standstill in the busy Claxton Bay area yesterday as frustrated students, accompanied by their parents, blocked the Sum Sum Hill Main Road to complain once again about the closure of their school due to a recurring sewerage problem.

For a few moments the situation became tense as the driver of a dump truck jumped out of his vehicle and squared off with the protesters, mainly women and infant students, including one in a wheelchair, demanding they clear the road.

The intervention of a more-robust villager, who dragged a blue plastic drum in the middle of the road and ordered the protesters to continue, quelled the confrontation, but the driver then turned on the T&T Guardian photographer who was recording the situation.

The placard-bearing protesters marched from their school, Mt Pleasant Government Primary School, to the main road about a quarter of a mile away, chanting: “Fix the sewer right now. It’s too stink to think.” 

President of the Mt Pleasant Parent Teachers Association (PTA) Denise Kamal thanked the drivers for their patience and for allowing them the opportunity to highlight their plight.

She also appealed to Education Minister Anthony Garcia to intervene and stop denying the children the right to an education.

Kamal said the school was closed on February 19 after officials of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) unit were called in to view overflowing sewer.

Two weeks later, she said, there had been no visible attempts to have the pump repaired. 

Kamal said that was unacceptable as in the last term a similar problem kept students out of the classroom for six weeks resulting in their being unable to sit their end of term exams. 

She said in an effort to resolve the situation, letters highlighting the problem had been sent to the National Parent Teacher Association (NPTA), the Ministry of Education, the Education Facilities Company Ltd (EFCL), the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) and their Member of Parliament, David Lee.

Lee also wrote to Garcia on February 26 seeking his intervention to have the problem rectified and over 200 students back in school.

Parents have also taken to the Ministry of Education’s Facebook page which evoked the response that the EFCL was handling the matter.

However, Kamal said when they called the EFCL, “the clerks responsible for our school were unaware of the school’s closure and had no information on the reports and quotations submitted.”

She demanded the immediate servicing and repair of the sewer pump so classes could resume next Monday as well as ongoing dialogue between the PTA and the principal towards a long-term solution.

“We refuse to deal with this situation every three months. 

“Parents are unwilling to accept that a job that can take half-of-an-hour to repair has now stretched into 12 days,” Kamal added.