Friday, October 6th, 2006
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| Chin |
Well the Play Whe man has gotten his two weeks notice. You know it have to be hard when even the Play Whe man getting retrenched (not even VSEP eh). Not even Chinese Bicentennial could save Chin (I think that’s his name). So in it’s 2006/2007 budget available here, the Government has declared a war on vice on things such as alcohol, tobacco and gambling. The budget detailed that a 15% tax be levied against all rum and beer from local and regional sources, and that non regionally-produced alcohol be taxed 30%. Additionally the Government imposed an immediate 15 per cent increase on excise duty on tobacco products. Which means if any of allyuh smoking a cigarette right now, yuh owe the Government money.
However gambling was the hardest hit with a new anti-casino and anti-online gaming laws. The Budget speech addressed it as follows (page 50):
Mr. Speaker, the emerging trends in casino-type gaming activities are of great concern to the Government, particularly its rapid spread in urban, rural, and semi-rural communities. The Government is totally against the operation of casinos and all casino type establishments.
Global research findings have shown that the gaming industry can destroy the financial security of families, negatively impact marriages, encourage deviant behaviour among children, undermine work ethic, cause increases in crime, including that of money laundering, and give rise to problem gamblers. The Government is strongly against the proliferation of these casino-type establishments in Trinidad and Tobago.
That means no Play Whe, no slots, roulettes or black jack, no Cash Pot, Pick Two, Lotto or any of other 351 games now run by the NLCB. Don’t worry people, yuh sou-sou hand still safe.
As far as the budget makes it sound, legal gambling in Trinidad is all but done. And when I say legal gambling, I mean just that. Every town has a Whe Whe man. I know exactly where ours is - standing in front of bank. However I don’t play Play Whe or Lotto, so I doubt I’ll turn to Whe Whe, even for protest’s sake.
But what about horse racing? I may be wrong, but isn’t the primary purpose of horse racing “bet-taking”? And therefore isn’t it gambling? However horse-racing wasn’t cast in the lake of fire and brimstone with all the other vices. I’m not sure what makes some types of gambling more corrupting than others.
So what about punchboard. Doh play yuh don’t know what punchboard is. If you ever been to a school bazaar, you know what punchboard is. I was such an addict. Punchboard was my bazaar game of choice - that and the one where you’d throw the rings on the items perched on the big blocks of wood. But I’ve moved away from being the 10 year old addict and into a well-adjusted adult.
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| Neighba, wha yuh dream? |
So as I mentioned before, not only are some types of gambling outlawed, but the prices of alcohol and cigarettes have been increased. By the way, has increasing the prices of alcohol and cigarettes ever helped to decrease their use? I know some countries have tried it, but I don’t know of anywhere where it has actually worked.
In any case, whether it works or not, there are thousands of people who’ve had their entire social lives wiped out by the budget.
And it’s fine if the Government wants to go after what it perceives to be the causes of social decay, but in my opinion it’s such an easy target. Why not go directly after crime itself, which is on everyone’s minds? But anyway, that’s the subject of my next post.
Grandma and Grampa took a chance,
Remember how they did that dance,
What I say is truth - no lie,
So come on down and take a try,
If yuh want a chance to live it,
Only lottery classic could give it,
(I can’t remember this line (or lines)…someone help me out)
On any given Saturday!
Just to add to this story, someone talking on Power 102 was just saying that Manning and his Governent in a way was trying to go the George Bush route of morality. Their plan may be cloak himself in moral superiority and in the process have anyone not with him, appear to be against moral values. And if you paid even 1 second of attention to W’s last political campaign, you’ll know how well that worked. So could this be? Are we seeing the emergence of liberal and conservative politics in Trinidad & Tobago?
Just be aware that when it comes to politics, there’s always more in the mortar than the pestle.
Posted in Crime, Development, PNM, Politics, Social Issues | 12 Comments »
Wednesday, October 4th, 2006
Here is my second issue of Trinidad at a glance, which I hope to make into a monthly something. It’s not perfect as yet though. So if you have any ideas for categories. let me know.
- In season:
- Plums, pommecythere, breadfruit, oranges, fat pork, and believe it or not, mangoes still.
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| Prophet Benjamin |
- Hot Songs:
- Isasha & Million Voice - I know Jah
Prophet Benjamin - Delilah
Isaac Blackman - To the Ceiling (being made to die a slow and agonizing death)
- Weather:
- Hot
- Overall Mood:
- Post-earthquake jittery
- Hot topic:
- The earthquakes, Budget day today
- In the Air:
- Ramleela which was opened on last Friday. I’m beginning to see children in their red Ramleela costumes walking to the nearby Ramleela site.
Still not Divali,
Still not Christmas*
Carifesta
- Controversy:
- Knowlson Gift’s Sudden resignation
- Sports:
- W Connection beats North East Stars to win the FCB Cup
T&T Football team take on St Vincent and the Grenadines instead of Nicaragua
- Hot button issue:
- New draft constution
CJ in London
Smelters again
- New restaurant on horizon:
- Domino’s Pizza (cuz that’s what we really need here; more fast food)
- Old company crashing and burning:
- Hooters (not even Hooters could survive in Trinidad. I’m still not 100% sure about this one though)
*I take it back, I hearing Daisy on the radio now…I know sure that means it’s “in the air” though.
Posted in Miscellaneous | 29 Comments »
Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006
I don’t know how many of you listen to Trinbagonian radio online, but to me the best station out there, if you are really a homesick Trini is Power 102. The best time to listen is on evenings from at about 4:00pm till 7:00pm Mondays- Fridays (the show itself may start at about 4:20 or so due to the news and some ads that may precede it). The show is called the Powerdrive, and is hosted by T&T Olympic swim coach Anil Roberts, along with Dennis “Sprangalang” Hall and another presenter named Chris. The best part about it for allyuh homesick Trinis is that you can hear it live over the internet.
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| Dennis “Sprangalang” Hall |
Let meh tell allyuh, the show is a riot. Whatever the hot topic of the day is determines the topic of the show. So sometimes it may be the smelters, other times it could be just plain foolishness. But it’s always a good show. Be prepared for Anil who’s a little on the loud side, but he comes good most of the time. Of course Sprang is always funny and Chris is always there to take either Anil’s or Sprang’s side when they are fighting, which is frequent. By the way, ignore the schedule that Power 102 has on its website - it’s wrong.
So for yesterday’s show (or at least the part I caught) they were conducting a “Poll on Sampson’s Pole”. The question was, “Did Sampson’s pole turn you on or off?” And I just had to let you all in on the madness.
I taped about four minutes of the show using a digital voice recorder, so forgive me if you hear dog barking and thing. Also the quality isn’t tops, so bear with me.
The last time I embedded a sound file on my site, I had the nuisance of my Download Accelerator wanting to download it every time I opened my page. So this time I’ve created another page and this here is the link to it. So if anyone finds it hard to access it, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.
Have a good laugh. I hope you found it as funny as I did.
| Download | Stream|
Posted in Humour, Media, Miscellaneous | 6 Comments »
Monday, October 2nd, 2006
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| Sancho & Larsson |
Granny Rumsfeld |
The TnT Mirror published this photo on September 24th from Trinidad’s World Cup game against Sweden where we drew 0-0. The photo allegedly shows Brent Sancho grabbing the crotch of Swede Henrik Larsson. Well I guess why people would see the irony in it since it’s Sancho’s dreadlock that was pulled when England first scored on us. While footballers do do these kinds of things, a photo just isn’t what it used to be….especially one that surfaces three months after the tournament ended. I’ve seen better Photoshop work before like the picture alongside it that shows Donald Rumsfeld as an old grandmother.
It doesn’t matter now anyway, now does it?
Posted in Football, Media | 6 Comments »
Sunday, October 1st, 2006
It’s old news now that Minister of Foreign affairs Knowlson Gift has resigned from the post giving way to the installation of Arnold Piggott as the new Minister of Foreign Affairs.
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| Arnold Piggott |
Speaking on Mr. Gift’s resignation, Mr. Manning commented that it was entirely voluntary adding that Mr. Gift had told him beforehand that he was going to submit it. Mr. Manning also said that Mr. Gift’s resignation was due to the fact that both he and Mr. Gift failed to see eye-to-eye on matters concerning the Ministry so Mr. Gift thought it best to resign. While we’re on the topic, this is not the first time that Mr. Gift has resigned from office. In 1995 Mr. Gift resigned from exactly the same post of Minister of Foreign Affairs that time over allegations of “financial improprieties”.
I posted earlier this month on Mr. Manning’s scathing remarks directed at the U.S. Government in a speech he delivered at the BGTT Luncheon Series where he accused the United States of abandoning the Caribbean in its war on drugs. Somehow I get the feeling that his resignation this time is part of the backlash from the Prime Minister’s remarks. Of course this is pure speculation on my part.
But who is this Arnold Piggott you ask? Well, let me give you a snippet of a story written when Arnold Piggott was The Trinbagonian High Commissioner to Canada not 6 months ago. The story can be found right here in its entirty.
Impaired envoys continue to be granted immunity
Kathy Tomlinson, CTV News
Updated: Thu. Mar. 30 2006 6:32 AM ET
He’s formally referred to as “His Excellency” — a top diplomat in Ottawa — but last March, police say Arnold Piggott was spotted driving erratically on Ottawa’s Vanier Parkway.
Police pulled him over, suspecting he was driving impaired. Piggott is the High Commissioner for Trinidad and Tobago — so diplomatic immunity protects him from being detained or prosecuted by Canadian authorities. Ottawa police charged him with driving impaired and refusing to provide a breath sample. Because of his diplomatic immunity, though, he hasn’t been prosecuted.
It was something the Canadian government pledged would never happen again — after an impaired Russian diplomat struck and killed Ottawa lawyer Catherine MacLean in 2001. The foreign affairs minister at the time, John Manley, vowed there would be “zero tolerance.”
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So who is Arnold Piggott? A Foreign Affairs Minister who breaks laws in other countries….allegedly. (*long deep sniff* Can you smell the irony? By the way, irony smells almost exactly like balisier. What an absolute coincidence.)
However this wasn’t the first time something like this has happened in Canada, and following suit from the seven other countries with bad-behaving High Commissioners, Trinidad and Tobago opted not to wave his right to diplomatic immunity.
So gather around kids and welcome our new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Arnold Piggott. Please step over the baggage.
Posted in Crime, PNM, Politics | 4 Comments »
