Archive for November, 2006
Thursday, November 30th, 2006
News coming out of London this morning is that the Privy Council has ruled against Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma. The Privy Council who heard the case over two days in early October delivered the judgment only this morning sometime after 6am T&T time.
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| Sat Sharma |
In their ruling they confirm the decision of the Court of Appeal that paved the way for Sharma to be arrested on criminal charges alleging that he attempted to sway the decision of Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls in the case against former prime minister Basdeo Panday. They even went as far as to say that the Judicial review that Sat Sharma applied for should not have been permitted as Judicial Reviews are not granted for cases such as those.
However the Privy Council Added that they cast no aspersions on the character of the man who is to be presumed innocent till proven guilty.
Now I don’t know what any of this means, but it doesn’t sound too good for the Chief Justice. In fact it sounds like this clears the way for the Chief Justice to be charged.
However you may feel about the CJ’s guilt or innocence, or the PNM or UNC for that matter, it’s still a sad day in T&T - not because I don’t think he should be charged, but because it’s just another sign that our Judiciary is in trouble. And surely by the time this trial is over, our legal system would have already taken a massive hit.
This blasted news just brings me down from my 10% inflation euphoria.
*Addendum
(1:47pm) - Reports are that in the company of his wife, lawyer and two plainclothes fraud squad officers, the Chief Justice has surrendered to the Fraud Squad. Details are still a little sketchy though.
(4:00pm) - The CJ appeared before a magistrate charged with attempting to pervert the course of public justice. He was in court for about 10 minutes and was granted $250,000 bail.
Posted in Justice, PNM, Politics, UNC | 21 Comments »
Wednesday, November 29th, 2006
I got this skit from Sesame Street in my head last night and I’m still singing it today. Geez. It still makes me laugh.
Mom: (in doorway, to Gerald, who is in bed) Goodnight, dear.
Dad: (in doorway, too, to Gerald) Goodnight, Gerald. (and to the dog, on the floor beside the bed) Goodnight, Sparky.
Mom: (to Sparky) Goodnight, Sparky.
Gerald: Goodnight, Mom. Goodnight, Dad. Goodnight, Sparky.
(Door closes and lights go out. Sparky jumps up and runs to the foot of the bed where he makes a huge shadow of an alligator on the wall)
Sparky: (singing) Imagine me an alligator! (chorus in background sings “Alligator!”)
Gerald: MOM! There’s an alligator in my room!
Mom: (coming in; Sparky dashes back beside the bed) I don’t see an alligator.
Gerald: Sure, it’s not there now, but when you turn out the light, it’s there!
Mom: Go to sleep, Gerald. It’s just your imagination.
(Door closes and lights go out. Up jumps Sparky.)
Sparky: (singing) Sweet potato! (chorus: “Alligator!”) I was lookin’ –
Gerald: MOM!!!!!
Mom & Dad: (opening door; Sparky of course returns to spot) What is it?!
Gerald: The alligator! It’s back!
Mom: (leaving) Go to sleep, Gerald.
(Sparky resumes his song)
Sparky: (singing) And you came by for me to munch ya!
I’m afraid of gettin’ thinner
Won’t you please become my dinner –
Gerald: (peeking over the end of the bed) Sparky!!! It was you all the time!
(Sparky blushes and goes to sleep)
Mom: (from hallway) What is that singing?
Gerald: Oh, nothing, Mom. Just your imagination. (grins)
I found these lyrics
here. But does he say “Sweet Potato” or “I eat Potato”? I always thought he said “I eat potato”.
Posted in Humour, Media, Miscellaneous | 23 Comments »
Wednesday, November 29th, 2006
So get this allyuh. The $10 man ketch meh outside. Really and truly I try to avoid this man. Because I know anytime he sees me he’ll want to give me a set of bad excuses. But last night I was standing by my gate talking to my cousin and I saw him coming down the road, but it was already too late. So he come up to me and smile and pointed his figer at me and admonished me, “Doh vex with meh. OK? Doh vex with meh.” I said, “OK, yeah doh frighten”. And with that he walked off.
He really feel I losing sleep over he? And is not about the $10 yuh know. Is the fact that he is a big hard back man and I find he shouldn’t be borrowing money from me.
Posted in Miscellaneous | 7 Comments »
Wednesday, November 29th, 2006
In season:
Pommecythere, Grapefruits.
Hot Song:
What I Want - Fireball
(Definitely one of the strangest soca songs I’ve ever heard. I don’t know if Fireball is blending soca with opera or indian music, but it’s still sounds good even though I’m a little worried that a man could sing such high notes.
Weather:
very nice, cool and breezy and sometimes rainy. Nights are cold by Trinidadian standards so it’s time for the blankets to come out and the fans to be turned off.
Hot topic:
Whey we holin’ de mass. It’s basically weeks to go before Carnicak 2kz and we are yet to learn where it will be and even more importantly why is the Savannah completely off limits.
Why does Patos want an office in the Red House? What is wrong with the building named “Office of the Prime Minister”?
In the Air:
Christmas galore. I was beginning to get worried if Trinidad was skipping Christmas this year because it was already late October before I was to see an ad for a Christmas sale or competition. But Christmas is now in full swing. I actually got to see some old videos on NCC Channel 4 including Marcia Miranda’s Bring out the Ham and that song whose name I don’t know that goes “I give him bread and ham together with a Pastel…” Who sings that song anyway?
Controversy:
Charges of UTT impropriety. So, even more corruption.
Sports:
WI playing Pakistan in the last test in Karachi. We’re not doing too good.
Posted in Cricket, Miscellaneous, Sports | 19 Comments »
Friday, November 24th, 2006
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| Of course it looks bad when the Guardian puts it in black and white like that. |
Now 10% doesn’t seem so bad, does it?
And it’s just in time for Christmas.
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Yay! Finally! I don’t know why Ewart Williams and everybody at the Central Bank getting all in a tizic for. 10 means we perfect! Tell dem we reach! Ent this is what Vision 2020 all about? We are now a perfect 10. Bring out the Eva wine and the split channa, time to celebrate.
Oh gosh allyuh ah so happy eh. I mean 10 is a great number. Some people saying how 10% inflation real bad. And how ‘merica is only 5%, but who care. 10 is a great number. 10 associated with some great things and people. Look we have 10 finger and 10 toe. Any ah allyuh want only 5 finger? Then haul allyuh so and so.
Look Pelé uses to wear 10 and now all them hot boy and them like Maradona, Zidanne and Ronaldinho want to wear 10 now.
Look at how Bo Derek star in ah whole movie what name 10. And is that what make she popular. Look in de Olympics, yuh does get 10 if yuh Perfect. Look how Nadia Comaneci is the fus person to ever score 10 in gymnastics.
And that is not all. Think about 10% off, $10 stores, $10 DVDs and my favourite of all - ah 10 days.
Look TriniOne did e-mail meh the other day and say how Manning talking like a man for whom everything is paid for. I doh know what happen to TriniOne. Why it is he have to be bad-talking my Prime Minister so? Manning have a wife to mine and chirren to raise. He try to help she out my giving she a lil education post, but Manning is a hard worker like de res ah we. I sure when he dining on Fillet Mignon (cuz he eh really not too hot up on de chicken) he does be thinking of all ah we.
Thank yuh Fadder Manning for this wonderful gift!
Posted in PNM, Politics | 14 Comments »
Friday, November 24th, 2006
This time, it was someone from Florida wanting to know “which ethic group do indian woman date?” I’m sorry I didn’t have an answer for this question either. Maybe he can help me out by defining what he (or she) means by “Indian”. East Indian or Native American? Not that that will make a difference…I still won’t know.
Posted in Miscellaneous | 6 Comments »
Thursday, November 23rd, 2006
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| Brian Lara |
I don’t know what it was about Brian Lara over the past few days but the man was just on fire scoring 216 in the West Indies’ first innings of the second Test against Pakistan. We all know that Lara has his ups and downs, but when Lara is on, Lara is on.
The thing is I love to watch Tendulkar bat almost as much as I like to watch Lara and I can easily see why critics are unwilling to say outright which is better. A friend asked me the other day who I would prefer to have on my team if I had one - Lara or Tendulkar? Ouch, talk about a tough question. Despite my WI pride, I might lean towards Tendulkar if I had no idea what kind of form either of them was in, but if I had to choose between an in form Lara and an in form Tendulkar, I’d choose an in from Lara any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Because when Lara is in his zone he is untouchable.
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This especially after the mauling he handed down to the Pakistani bowlers over the past few days. I’m not sure if it was that he needed to answer his critics, or if he had that much a desire in him to win that game or if Lara had downed a couple gallons of Haterade, but there must be some reason for an innings of 216 including a 77-ball century (the 9th fastest in Test history) and an extremely brutal 26 from one over off Danish Kaneria.
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| Danish Kaneria |
Kaneria isn’t such a bad bowler himself and in fact for this stage of his career, he’s taken more test wickets (132) than both Shane Warne (125) and Muttiah Muralitharan (107). Interesting also to note, although it’s just trivia, is that he’s only the second Hindu to ever represent Pakistan. The first was his very own uncle. So by no means is he a slouch.
With Gayle finally leaving the crease after posting 93, Kaneria must have thought that Pakistan’s fortunes were about to change but as Cricinfo.com puts it:
…Pakistan had seemingly found a crack in the door from which they could barge in, but behind that door lay a guard dog - ravenous, fierce, and not about to let the intruders get in. A 77-ball century, before lunch, was testament to that.
Danish Kaneria took it all in stride though remarking that he didn’t mind being hit around by Lara, after all Lara is a great batsman and he does learn a lot by bowling to him.
“He is such a great batsman that it is an exciting challenge for me to bowl to him. I don’t think getting hit by the world’s number one batsman is a failure on my part. I am actually happy that a player as great as Lara hits me around. I learn from that but he has hit everyone from around the world.”
But you can understand the sheer frustration it must be to bowl to someone all afternoon into the next morning and have them not out. If as a child you’ve ever bowled to a brother, cousin or friend and not have him out, you know exactly what I mean. You can only play for so long without wanting to give up and go home in frustration. Unfortunately Kaneria couldn’t pick up and go home. He said:
“I was just thinking I wanted to block him and stop his scoring. He is a fantastic timer of the ball. He sees the ball from my hand and reads it so well which is the sign of a great player. I wanted to trap him but he was thinking ahead of me.
“I changed my action every now and then, used the crease a bit more. I tried different angles and variations and you have to give batsmen boundaries to buy their wickets. It just didn’t work this time.”
Sadly Lara’s heroic 216 came to an end after he held one out to Shoaib Malik off Kaneira’s bowling. The 591 scored by the team as a whole didn’t matter much as at the end of today’s play as the match ended in a predictable draw. (When last did we even score 591 in an innings?) But maybe in the third and final test starting on Monday we can draw this series with a win.
Yuh know, I should ah really eat the man mangoes and stop making style. Ah really bounce meh head dey.
P.S. I really need to revamp my Dotish Talk and Due Respect sections. There are just so many candidates nowadays.
Posted in Cricket, Sports | 7 Comments »
Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006
Happy Turkey Day tomorrow to all my American peeps. Have me some dark meat with some mashed potatoes and green bean casserole on the side. And I like my yams without any nasty marshmallow on it….you lucky bastards.
Posted in Miscellaneous | 15 Comments »
Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006
Speaking at the Waterloo High School on Saturday Prime Minister Patrick Manning has stated that the Caroni Lands programme will be expanded to 18,000
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| Basdeo Panday |
lots with the intention of creating mixed communities in Caroni so as to avoid ethnic confrontations that plague other countries around the world.
Now I am all for integration, but I have to worry about a man who proposes a measure that seems so incredibly childish - just make people live together and they’ll start liking each other.
If this government really wanted to avoid ethnic confrontation they could start by avoiding some of the blatant instances of prejudice that have plagued them in the past. For example, how could Mr. Manning reconcile the fact Maha Sabha radio licence debacle with their new stance on integrated communities? I don’t think the Maha Sabha was discriminated against particularly because of race, but because of the character of Sat Maharaj. However, if at all this government is to foster a spirit of integration it must begin by treating all fairly - no matter how retarded their views may be.
Of course this has reignited the topic of race in T&T (like it ever went away) and since race is one of Basdeo Panday’s favourite subject’s hes’ been running with it ever since Manning broached the topic. I do agree with him where he said that although a mixed community is a great idea, it is not something that “should be forced” upon people. You just can’t force people to get along no matter what you try.
But then here comes Bas to inform the world of the racism and discrimination that he and other Indo-Trinidadians experience everyday under the hands of an oppressive government. Citing Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Gandhi as examples he remarked that when these gentlemen cried out about the discrimination taking place in their countries no one told them they were wrong or crazy.
This is one of the areas where I have a problem with Bas. Pre-Independence India, 1950s Deep South USA and Apartheid-era South Africa in my view are all completely different to T&T today. Are there really parallels to be drawn between our society and theirs? In those countries and at those times racism was a very tangible thing. There were signs telling you what washrooms you could use, where to sit in a bus and what lines to stand in. You didn’t dare ask for a job in some companies. You didn’t dare go into certain neighbourhoods at any time of the day. Is that anything like Trinbago today?
I’m not stupid. I know that discrimination takes place in every country on the face of the earth and Trinidad is no exception. But can T&T really be compared to these countries the way Kamla and Bas would have us?
I would especially like some of my Indo-Trini readers to help me out on that one.
Posted in PNM, Race, Social Issues, UNC | 10 Comments »
Sunday, November 19th, 2006
Someone got to my blog by searching the words “are smelly armpits a sign of trouble in a child”. Bizarre. How is that even a question? Of course my blog comes up number one in the search results. Thanks Google. Unfortunately, the searcher wasn’t able to find an answer to their question, since I don’t have one. I’ll tell them this though. Smelly armpits are a sign of trouble in anyone.
Here’s the search:
www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=are smelly armpits a sign of trouble in a child%3F
Posted in Humour, Miscellaneous | 7 Comments »
