The Manicou Report

Trinidad at a Glance 4

Here is the fourth issue of Trinidad at a glance.

In season:

Lots of Citrus, Lots of Pommerac (And I still haven’t gotten around to making a good hot pommerac chow. By the weekend I will. Just coincidentally, do you know a Pommerac is also called an Otaheite apple? Well Wikipedia says it is anyway.

Hot Songs:

Sugar Boy - Patrice Roberts (who’s really become a big soca star. She’s one of my favourite nowadays with a nice voice and good lyrics and music.)

Cold Sweat - Crazy (Probably his biggest song since “Nani Wine”. This one is a monster hit so far. It’s all over the radio.)

Weather:

Very Cool….with cold nights (yes, this is by Trinidadian standards)

Hot topic:

New Kidnapping, Carnival Venues, Doctors - greedy or justified?

Car Series:

PCB PCC.

In the Air:

Carnival - What else is there, honestly?

Controversy:

Doctors and the Minister of Health fight to the death. (OK maybe not to the death, but harsh words were exchanged. They swear it’s all cool now though.)

Name of New Virus going around:

Smelter - of course. Reminds me of the days of viruses named Six Percent and Hulsie. Does anyone else remember having Six Percent?

Sports:

The Trinidad & Tobago cricket team was (how do I put this?) treated very badly by some Bajans over the weekend.

Posted in Miscellaneous | 15 Comments »

UNC - the Back in Times party

I wish I could take credit for this headline, but I can’t. I took it from a Letter to the Editor in one of the dailies. Regardless, it’s wickedly funny. If I were Dooks, I’d take that and run with it, especially after all the Duck and Run jokes.

So the Bas is back as the “interim” political leader. We’re not surprised. Are you surprised? You might as well be surprised that childbirth is painful or the moon isn’t made out of cheese.

Everyone has a scab to pick

So the UNC claimed that they were leaderless. Sure they had Kamla Persad-Bissessar as opposition leader, but it’s a political leader they had a tabanca for. They were lost in the political forest with no one to tie them up and leave them for dead. They were standing over the precipice with no one to pull them down. They were treading water with no one to drag them under. It was a desperate time and they needed desperate measures - they needed Bas. And then there was Bas - sent to rescue help them.

For a man who could “drop dead at any moment”, it’s a wonder he took the job. Hold on, this is a suicide attempt isn’t it? This is Bas’ final attempt at martyrdom. The things that escape us….

So why didn’t the UNC executive install KPB as interim political leader? Sure she’s vile, but what they don’t know won’t hurt them. Is the UNC deathly afraid of change and allergic to common sense at the same time?

Posted in Politics, UNC | 12 Comments »

Carlos Edwards off to Sunderland

Back when Carlos Edwards was named in the top 6 talents coming out of the 2006 World Cup, who knew it would have taken him this long for the man to catch a break. Well later rather than sooner Edwards has received his promotion leaving Luton Town for Sunderland.

Before I go any further, we all know that since Yorke also plays at Sunderland, he must have had a hand in convincing Roy Keane that Carlos Edwards was a good buy. However, Keane doesn’t owe Yorke anything and I’m sure Sunderland wouldn’t be buying Edwards unless they knew he was worth it. So they must have seen something in him.

Sunderland is not in the English Premiership but it’s nine spots ahead of 19th ranked Luton Town in the English Championship. Reports are that there were bigger and better teams interested in him, but the boy said he didn’t want to go to one only to have to warm the bench. So who can blame him?

For a long while I couldn’t help thinking it was only going to be Dwight Yorke and Christoper Birchall who attracted any attention at all following T&T’s World Cup appearance. Since Chris Birchall is an Englishman and Dwight’s name has been out there for years (and he’s practically an Englishman), it was hard to feel satisfied at their promotions.

But with Carlos Edwards’ £1.5m move to Sunderland I’m finally able to feel happy that the world is aware that Trinidad and Tobago has a lot more to offer than just Dwight Yorke.

Posted in Football, Sports | 4 Comments »

Trinidad Tobago Murder Toll 2000 - 2006

I‘m giving you here the Trinidad and Tobago Murder Rates for 2000 up till 2006. In 2000 there were 120 murders. Even then we were ranting and raving about how bad crime was then. From 2001 till 2005 it’s been a steady increase to where we are now with last year’s murder rate clocking in at 368.

The stats are as follows:

2000 - 120
2001 - 151
2002 - 172
2003 - 269
2004 - 261
2005 - 386
2006 - 368

Today the UNC is flying in former Homeland Security Chief nominee Bernard Kerik for crime talks. I hope that something does come out of it. Meanwhile the Congress of the People says that it will deliver its crime plan in a couple of weeks. (See stories here)

Is 2007 going to be better or worse? Only time will tell.

Source of stats: here, here and here.

Posted in COP, Crime, UNC | 6 Comments »

Happy New Year 2007

Happy New Year 2007 to everyone. When I started this thing in June I didn’t know if anyone was going to ever want to read it let alone come back. But thanks to all of you, it’s been a very good 6 months.

So I thanks you all for your comments and e-mails during the past few months and I look forward to hearing from you again throughout this year (even though I am slow when it comes to responding. Lord knows I have at least half a dozen e-mails to reply to). I also look forward to hearing from those of you who read all the time but hardly ever comment. (Who is it from Belfast, Ireland and Charleston SC who’ve read my blog almost from the beginning?)

Anyway, I wish you all a happy and blessed New Year filled with health, wealth and lots of other good stuff.

Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Comments »