The Manicou Report

The Attempted Coup of 1990

Winston Dookeran & Jones P Madiera on C’s First Up

Today marks 17 years since the attempted coup and the media is doing its part to keep us from forgetting – coincidentally it’s a Friday too. I don’t remember it all like it was yesterday. It’s all pretty blurry actually. I do remember that that day my sisters and I went to my uncle’s house in D’Abadie to spend the week. It was all riotous fun till my my mother called to tell us what had just happened. I don’t even know if we knew at that moment what was a “coup” really was but we knew something big had happened.

So of course we turn on the TV and see Imam Yasin Abu Bakr on the television telling us that he and his men have overtaken the country. From what it looked like on TTT’s end, our country was in some kind of war. We had no idea what that was going to mean for us so we were terrified.

Yasin Abu Bakr informing the Nation

That cut our D’Abadie vacation short and my uncle drove us home the very next day where I think we (our family) stayed indoors till well after Abu Bakr and his men were arrested.

The stories around the coup itself were incredible – bombs, looting, fires, decaying bodies, a dead MP, a Prime Minister who yelled “Attack with full force”, an amnesty and then the arrest.

The terrifying thing for me was wondering what Town was going to look like. I went to school in Town and I spent a lot of that August vacation wondering what I was going to meet. Was I going to have to walk down a smoky Frederick Street? Was I going to have to avoid rubble and sidestep corpses? Was the stench of decaying bodies at the Red House going to fill our classrooms? Obviously these thoughts were all irrational, but then so was the coup.

It turned out none of these things happened. Port of Spain was burnt and battered, but it wasn’t completely unrecognizable. The only good thing was that it was perfect conversation fodder for a new term. (Did school start on time that year or was the new term delayed? I can’t remember.) We traded stories about what we were doing at the time, what we see, what we hear. Thank God my parents did not get me new sneakers for the new term because everyone who sported new footwear got tagged as a looter.

What I want to ask you is where were you during the attempted coup of 1990?

Posted in Miscellaneous | 28 Comments »

Tech Tuesday

I know, it’s been months. And if you give me a few more months I’m sure I can come up with a good enough excuse.

First on the menu, a Firefox extension called RefreshBlocker. Two of the sites that I visit most frequently are the Newsday and Google News. Both of these sites however have a most annoying quality – they auto refresh. The auto refresh feature on the Google News website isn’t such a bad idea since it helps to supply fresh news to the visitors, but I still don’t like it because I can refresh my own browser when I feel like it. But auto refresh on the Newsday? Why? The Newsday like all other news websites in Trinidad and Tobago does not update their stories or publish new stories during the day. So in their case, the auto renew feature is completely useless. On top of it being useless, it sucks up my bandwidth if I have quite a few pages open )which is often the case).

Obviously I’m not the only person who feels that way about auto refreshing because someone came up with a Firefox extension to stop it from happening.

There are two drawbacks of using RefreshBlocker: (1) It creates a large yellow, blue-fonted banner at the top of the page (which I have learnt to ignore)

RefreshBlocker Screenshot: Ugly Yellow Banner

and (2) Many pages that naturally redirect are also inadvertently blocked. There is a whitelist/blacklist feature in the options to change the blocker settings per site, but it gives mixed results. However if the RefreshBlocker does prevent a site from redirecting, you can click on the link in the ugly yellow banner at the top to help it along its way.

RefreshBlocker Screenshot: Whitelist/Blacklist

I’ve read reviews of RefreshBlocker that state that the extension works only with auto-refresh pages that use a Meta tag element and won’t work with pages that use Javascript to refresh the page. However I haven’t yet encountered that problem.

By the way I’m aware that it is no longer Tuesday, but I began this post on Tuesday and I reserve the right to make up the rules as I go.

<!–
google_ad_client = “pub-3697702736433773″;
google_ad_output = “textlink”;
google_ad_format = “ref_text”;
google_cpa_choice = “CAAQwaT2_gEaCK4YeWxdsHieKLGsuIEBMAA”;
//–>

Posted in Tech Tip | No Comments »

The UNC Alliance

1. The Alliance is a farce. Surely Mr. Stephen Cadiz and YESTT/The Keith Noel Committee has had a large following, but I assume that most people who support Mr. Cadiz will decide to keep their political day jobs which will transcribe into few votes for the UNC Alliance. What about NAR, DPTT etc? Negligible.

2. I think it’s impossible for the UNC or COP to win without each other. The Congress has stolen a lot of UNC votes, but those votes most likely are not concentrated enough to win a seat. The UNC “Alliance” will lose a lot of marginal ground to the PNM.
3. I think that the one thing that has to happen for the UNC/COP alliance to take place is for Mr. Panday to step aside. However, Mr. Panday fails to realize that he is not bigger or more important that Trinbago itself. Surely in his time he did a lot of good. But the perception about Mr. Panday is that he is a corrupt politician. Whether or not that is true is irrelevant. As others have stated before me, all that matters is the perception. And if Mr. Panday is perceived as being corrupt, he will stand to alienate more voters than he will attract. Let’s face it, in the same way that PNMites will vote for the PNM despite what happens, the people still clinging on the UNC will vote for the UNC no matter what. They are not going to run away if Mr. Panday steps aside for a bit.
4. The UNC needs to tone down its “Corpse”, “PNM b-team”, “duck and run” rhetoric. If you really want unity then act like it. Don’t say you want the Congress of the People to unite with you out of one corner of your mouth and then lambaste them from the other because:

   (a) If you think you look like an idiot now, you are going to look like an even bigger idiot when you have to stand next to them on a political platform when the alliance does take place. Imagine how fake you will look trying to smile with Duck and Run standing next to you.

   (b) All that rhetoric is incredibly useless. It’s not getting you any closer to your goal, unless your goal is to alienate voters and create even more bad blood between the members of the UNC and the COP. On a side note, why is it that some people seem so divisive regardless of how many times they say the word “unity”, and why is it that some people seem to destroy everything they lay hands on?

   (c) You need them. Don’t act like you don’t. Not a single pole that has been conducted thus far has named the UNC as winners. You are not winning this thing.

5. I’m already tired of this election and it hasn’t even started yet.

Posted in COP, Politics, UNC | 7 Comments »

Alcoa’s CEC Declined?

Guardian 25/12/2006

I want you all to listen to this. Remember last Christmas Eve when Santa Manning came on TV and in his Christmas message to the nation he declared to us that he had a change of heart about the smelter in Chatham? Apparently is not so. The truth is that the Environmental Management Authority denied a certificate of Environmental Clearance not only for the Smelter but for the entire industrial estate in Chatham. But that’s not the story we were told, now was it?

We were led to believe that it was a gift from der Führer, that he after much thought and deliberation, decided that he would never subject the Chathamites to a smelter. Even long after that Christmas Eve message he stated that the Government may well have to reconsider its decision to move the smelter project from Chatham. How could the reconsider it if was entirely out of their control? Furthermore in the day after the address to the nation when speculation was rife about the reason for the change of heart, why didn’t those in power just tell the nation that the CEC was declined? In fact they never gave any reason at all. Does anyone else understand this?

Here’s a recording I made of Power 102 a few nights ago when Anil, Chris and Sprang were discussing these new developments along with some other smelter issues. By the way, did you know that the head of the Environmental Authority, Dr John Agard, is against the smelter, but presided over a board that approved the smelter in La Brea, yet didn’t resign in indignation? Who would have thought?

Tomorrow: The UNC Alliance

Posted in Corporate, Development, Environment, PNM, Politics | 2 Comments »

Dotish Talk – Dr. Fuad Khan

Dr. Fuad Khan

One time UNC MP and current independent MP Dr. Fuad Khan is calling for Lawrence Achong to join him on the Parliament’s back bench as an Independent member for the last few months of Parliament.

Says he, “I make the offer fully cognisant of the fact that Achong belongs to a political movement opposite to mine.

“However, it has become clear that the member is the victim of a concerted effort to eliminate him from the political process. And victimisation in all its forms must be exposed and ended.

“Consequently, I invite him as an MP to exercise temerity (sic) by joining me in a signal of opposition to autocracy, maximum leadership and a lack of consideration for true democratic principles.

“Together we can champion a new design, one that adheres to the people’s desires through representation. It is our responsibility as leaders today to be pioneers in our journey towards good governance and a better nation.”

Victimization? Larry Achong? Is this same man yuh talking ’bout breds?

Larry Achong at the Chatham Town Meeting

Fuad like yuh not even making sense. The authorities have percieved of Lawrence Achong as having broken a law and as such he has been prosecuted for it. How in the world is that victimization? Come on Dr. Khan.

Posted in PNM, Politics, UNC | 3 Comments »

Good Manicou Vs. Bad Manicou

Sometimes with news stories like these I am torn between saying the right thing and reverting to my old Trini mentality. I honestly to try to think 1st world, but 3rd world thinking is so familiar and comfortable. Below is proof of the dichotomy.

Posted in Uncategorized | 18 Comments »

Security Detail on the Nestum

Photo from today’s Newsday: Where we going?

Looking at this Newsday photo it occurred to me that things could still be worse. When the Securicor guards with the shotguns start delivering the milk, that’s when you know inflation is out of control. When I was in the Midwest stores it was the firearms and Sudafed they kept under lock and key, here it’s the baby milk.

Posted in Development, Social Issues | 14 Comments »

First Up from C

Channel surfing this morning I came across a programme on C that sparked my interest. C (formerly CNMG) is broadcasting a breakfast show called First Up which is actually a radio/TV simulcast – a kind of Don Imus/Mike & Mike in the Morning type show which introduces C’s cameras into the Talk City 91.1 FM studio. I don’t think I’ve ever before seen something like that here in Trinbago on a regular basis. Of course the simulcast has always been around in the forms of sports and event coverage, but I don’t believe that any media house has every employed it as a regular gimmick.

First Up is competing against CNC3’s Early Morning Show and the more established Morning Edition on TV6 so trust me when I say that C will need all the help they can get – especially after coming off a two-year $20 million loss. Whether they can sustain interest in the show will be the real crux of the matter.

Obviously the format of the “First Up” sets it apart from the rest and in so doing attracts some gawkers. After all, don’t we all wish sometimes that we could see behind the scenes at our favourite radio programmes? Whether the personalities and antics of Fazeer Mohammed and Jessie May Ventour is enough to sustain that interest is what will make or break the show. A dull morning talk show is still a dull morning talk show even if the cameras are rolling. I’ve seen Fazeer sit in for Andy Johnson on occasion on the TV6 Morning Edition and while he’s an excellent sports commentator, he’s a little subdued and I can’t see him setting the town on fire. If I had a choice, I’d want to see antics of Anil, Chris and Sprangalang in the studio of Power 102.1 during their Powerdrive show. Now that would make for good TV. But that’s a different organization altogether.

Overall C is a nice looking channel with well-designed sets and attractive presenters. Everything from the newscast to the weather has a professional look to it mainly because the state has pumped and continues to pump millions of dollars into its operations. In fact I believe they may be outfitted better than any other news house in Trinidad and probably the Caribbean for that matter.

But C’s issues aren’t likely to be how cool their sets are or how hot their babes are. Their hurdles are going to be along the lines of “does anyone care to watch after all this time”. I have to admit that I don’t watch C at all. There’s really no reason for me to switch as C hasn’t given me one. Without a doubt advertisers know it too as a lot of C’s commercial breaks advertise their programme lineups. I applaud C on their First Up simulcast, but they are going to have to do some pretty radical stuff to spark viewers’ interest.

Posted in Media | 4 Comments »