Archive for September, 2007
Friday, September 28th, 2007
Clang, clang! The bell has rung. November 5th is our election day Prime Minister Patrick Manning announced today. Let the madness begin. More at the top of the hour when I get confirmation.
Update: It’s confirmed. Also, October 22nd is nomination day.
Update 2: The exact statement from the Prime Minister was:
Mr. Speaker I’d just like to state for the benefit of our honourable members and the national community, that I have today advised His Excellency the President to dissolve Parliament with effect from midnight tonight. General Elections will be held in Trinidad and Tobago on Monday, November the 5th and nomination day is Monday, October the 22nd.
Posted in Politics | 12 Comments »
Friday, September 28th, 2007
Good comment from Gospelspy in A Letter to John:
gospelspy said…
If the COP of Winston Dookeran is the Corpse, then Red Beret must be the living dead. Something is definitely wrong in the head under the red beret, it has gone beyond loose screws, and it is outright madness. The logic under the red beret is flawed. How can one call for unity but at the same time spit the oil of vitriol on those with whom you propose to unite? Even worse, is the threat that if you don’t unite I will expose you as some sort of evil person with cocoa in the sun. So why do you want to unite with this person in the first place?
One major tragedy of the present scenario is not so much the fact that Red Beret’s political game plan makes sense to him, (one expects that he makes sense of his delusions), however it is the scattered remnant of supporters who actually applaud his illogical repertoire of hate and love in the same breadth. The majority of this remnant are East Indians who for some reason believe that they owe Red Beret wholesome gratitude for his work as a trade unionist or politician. Some may not like the way he was hounded and persecuted by The Emperor and want him to have a chance to get even. Whatever the reason, these sweet people seem unable to break from the spell of the red beret because they refuse to consider the larger picture.
This larger picture is the fact that the UNC Alliance is unattractive to the majority of those who oppose the PNM in Trinidad and Tobago, the major unattraction being Red Beret himself. Hence, because it’s popularity is zoned into the traditional “sugar cane” seats, the best that the UNC Alliance can do is form part of the opposition. They cannot win any marginal seat. It is only the COP, which has the broad based appeal across all ethnic and other divides of the society that provides the best umbrella under which to capture the government from the PNM to the benefit of all the people of our country.
This is the reason why the unity for which so many desire (including Red Beret) can only bear fruit under the banner of the COP with Winston Dookeran as leader. The irony of Red Beret is that for one who has said that his life struggle has been to unite the people of T&T, is that he can accomplish his life long goal by simply doing nothing, yes simply get out of the way and “Voila” unity. The problem with Red Beret is that the only unity he will accept is the one that he leads and he will smash up anybody who tries to take away the title of Mr. Unity from him.
Nevertheless, despite the efforts of the Red Beret, unity is happening on the ground as there is a quickening momentum of support for the COP coming from all sections of the society. What may well happen is that Red Beret’s party will be reduced to Team UNC Alliance and suffer the same ignorance by the electorate as Ramesh Maharaj’s Team Unity. Now by the way, unless Ramesh Maharaj can explain how he knew to fly his family to Grenada on the eve of the Muslimeem coup of July 1990, he will always be a man I distrust.
For those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, “Winston is de man!”
Posted in COP, PNM, Politics, UNC | 2 Comments »
Thursday, September 27th, 2007
Hi, I wanted to share with you a comment I received today on my post “Indecent Proposal“. It’s from John. And by the way, all spelling, grammatical, logical, punctuation, number/letter confusion, factual and glaring errors are his. My response to John follows.
John said…
How cuould anyone sensible enough could actually vote for COP. This party has no vision and direction.That party has a set of political rejects and persons older than Panday eg. Alloy Lequay, Humphery just to name a few. Why don’t all the top ranking members of COP resigned there seats because they are there because of the UNC. When Dookeran was in the UNC , just imagine he was forming his own party,isn’t that betrayal to its highest level?They have absolutely no shame. What have Panday done to these people? Or I see, he is the bad one because he started all of them with political life after taking them from the gutter.Everyone knows that he is the best Prime Minister Trinidad ever had during 1995-2001. Just imagine with $9.oo dollars a barrel, he done so much for this country.What have this man done to deseve this sort of hate and malice by most people who are supporting COP. I will tell eveyone who is voting for COP count your vote as a waste of time because they are not going to win a single seat. I am so sorry for them.I wish them and who are supporting them GOOD LUCK in the General Elections.
John, I consider myself very sensible which is why I choose to vote for the Congress of the People, I’m sorry if you have concluded that the two are mutually exclusive. No vision and no direction - that’s a sentiment I’ve heard being bandied about before. What do you consider to be a vision? Because I have listened extensively to the COP’s Tuesday night meetings and I can say that I have heard lots of vision coming from them. And not only visions, but plans and tactics in everything from National Security to Agriculture. Seriously, did you check on that before you wrote it?
Dookeran forming his own party while he was being kicked in the teeth was betrayal? Are you trying to say that a man planning his political survival when he was he was being kicked to the ground over and over again is betrayal? Then I must have a little traitor in me also because I would have done the exact same thing.
People older than Panday are bad? OK. I agree, lets take them all on a train somewhere and exterminate them.
Dookeran was in a gutter when Panday called him? Was he really? In any case, why is it that you feel like people owe their souls to Mr. Panday despite what he does or says?
John I am sorry to say that you have been misled. Oil averaged $9 a barrel for only three months. From December 1998 - February 1999 the price of oil progressed from $8.64 to $9.86 to $9.30. In March of that year the price of oil rose to $12.05 and the yearly average for that year was $16.55. While these are not the great prices we enjoy today (thanks to the war in Iraq), it would be misleading for you to keep saying that oil was $9.00 a barrel. I wouldn’t expect you to know this however as people who tend to utter slogans, rarely check on their validity.
Why don’t all the top ranking members of COP resigned there seats because they are there because of the UNC.[sic] Well John, you see, to get to the top echelons of the UNC, you have to accomplish a certain amount of butt kissing - butt kissing isn’t easy and after you’ve done it for so many years you really don’t want to throw it all away because of conscience. So you stay and grit your teeth. And when Panday says jump, you ask “how high?”.
Ed agreed with you when you said that Panday was the best Prime Minister Trinidad ever had during 1995-2001. Let me say that I agree with you too. No other Trinidadian Prime Minister at that time could compete with him. It was almost like no one else existed.
You mentioned shame. Remember politics has a morality of its own. It’s that same lack of shame that has the UNC pleading to unite with “the Corpse” and the leader of the Corpse, the Duck. Where’s the shame in that?
Have you ever realized the level of stupidity coming out of the UNC these days? Have you? I want to sit here and walk you through it piece by piece, but I think I will be wasting my time, because if you haven’t seen it yet, you never will. Where was the sense in mistreating Mr. Dookeran and effectively kicking him out of the party? Where was the sense in electing him political leader only for the party hierarchy to appoint Kamla as Opposition Leader? You may want to label those who want to vote for the COP as insensible, but if voting for the UNC is being bright, I want to remain a dunce.
By the way bredda, the UNC is not winning this election. The only party with a chance is the COP. So who is wasting their time now?
Posted in COP, Miscellaneous, UNC | 30 Comments »
Thursday, September 27th, 2007
I am becoming increasingly worried about the things I’m hearing coming out of this impeachment tribunal against Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma.
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| Attorney General John Jeremie |
The thing that worries me the most right now is the refusal of the Attorney General John Jeremie to allow himself to be cross examined by the tribunal. The reason for his decision being that he doesn’t think that he needs too.
The tribunal invited John Jeremie to testify in order to clear up allegations that he conspired to get Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls out of a financial problem and that he also conspired with the Chief Magistrate to “wreck” the Basdeo Panday integrity trial.
“I have not seen any evidence, even remotely, supporting the imputations which counsel for the Chief Justice has made. Indeed, the evidence before the tribunal contradicts any such imputations”, said Mr. Jeremie.
He added that, since he perceived that there was no evidence of the alleged conspiracies to which he could reply, he was unable to discern any way in which he could usefully assist the tribunal.
Who’s in charge here? Is it the members of the tribunal or the AG? I don’t know that it’s up to John Jeremie to decide which evidence trumps which. Obviously the chairman of the tribunal feels that he will be useful to the tribunal and is disturbed by the AG’s unwillingness to testify.
I have never before seen a man, self-admittedly standing in the right, accused of so many unethical actions refuse to be cross examined, choosing instead to rely on what he perceives to be the strength of a previous testimony. My experience has been that people who are wrongfully accused are very vociferous in their indignation.
Obviously chairman of the tribunal Lord Mustill smells a rat. Said he, “We’re not naive by his attitude…we’re not completely own-headed over here…his absence and attitude will be taken into account.”
After all this Chief Justice matter is no joke. The integrity of the entire judiciary rests upon it. And a matter of this nature is unparalleled in our system of justice and accordingly the outcome will serve as a precedent to other countries for years to come.
Now I am not making an assumption of guilt or innocence of either the Chief Justice, the Chief Magistrate or whoever else. After all the only two people who know for sure what happened in that room that day are the Satnarine Sharma and Sherman McNicolls. But I don’t understand how a person genuinely interested in seeing this matter resolved and having the power to help it along throws up their hands and proclaims, “I good dey”.
Posted in Justice | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007
Yesterday a girl pissed me off. Here I am walking down sidewalk on my street, minding my own business when she (a twentysomething) comes walking towards me. She’s walking for exercise and is dressed in black spandex with a pink iPod Shuffle dangling around her neck.
As she comes gets nearer, she raises her arm and very loosely places her hand around her Shuffle apparently to protect it from me ripping it off her neck. Me! And no, she wasn’t fiddling with it, she was protecting it. When I saw this I looked her directly in the eye to see if I could glean a little of what she was thinking, but she was lost in her music and never looked at me once.
Well I was a little taken aback. Part of me understands why she did it. Crime in Trinidad is outrageous, and even though it was only 4 in the afternoon, crime can happen at any time. At the same time, me a bandit? I’m on my street in front of my own house and I get profiled like that? The whole thing actually demoralized me more than it made me angry.
But who she feel she is, boy? First of all, I have my own mp3 player thank you very much. Secondly if she was really that worried about her Shuffle being stolen, she probably wouldn’t display it to the world like that. Thirdly, if I wanted to steal an iPod, I’d steal a real iPod, not a crappy Shuffle and it would be black, not pink.
Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments »
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007
Winston Dookeran, I call upon you once more to meet with me in the public glare to decide how we should unite the forces of the opposition and remove this dictatorial regime of the PNM. I await your answer.
I am prepared to meet at any time, in any place, I ask only one condition: that this meeting be held under the full glare of the media, the reporters, the television cameras recording every word we say to one another….No one will therefore be able to deny what he said. No more lies! The public has a right to witness such a meeting so that they may judge for themselves what are the concerns and objections of the Corpse to this question of unity.
- Basdeo Panday
I’ll tell you tonight, I give Mr. Dookeran and the Corpse 21 days….And if after 21 days they eh unite, I Jack Warner go after Dookeran. I’ll give him 21 days! Because at the end of it all, if we don’t unite, is unity or death.” - Jack Warner
I prefer the original version of this song from the 70’s when Player sang it. Back then it was called “Baby Come Back” and singer Ronn Moss was not yet portraying Ridge Forrester on the Bold and the Beautiful. The original lyrics went like this (feel free to sing along if you know the tune):
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| Player |
Spending all my nights, all my money going out on the town
Doing anything just to get you off of my mind
But when the morning comes
I’m right back where I started again
Trying to forget you is just a waste of time
Baby come back, any kind of fool could see
There was something in everything about you
Baby come back, you can blame it all on me
I was wrong, and I just can’t live without you
All day long, wearing a mask of false bravado
Trying to keep up the smile that hides a tear
But as the sun goes down, I get that empty feeling again
How I wish to God that you were here
Baby come back, any kind of fool could see
There was something in everything about you
Baby come back, you can blame it all on me
I was wrong, and I just can’t live without you
Now that I put it all together
Give me the chance to make you see
Have you used up all the love in your heart?
Nothing left for me, ain’t there nothing left for me
Baby come back, any kind of fool could see (oh darlin’)
There was something in everything about you
Baby come back (listen baby), you can blame it all on me
I was wrong, and I just can’t live without you
I was wrong, and I just can’t live
The truth is that I don’t know what it will take for the Congress of the People to win this election. It probably depends on which poll you’re listening to. Some say that the Congress can win it alone and yet others say that they are lost without the UNC. That having been said, if the UNC and the COP do unite, what kind of unity could this be? How can the UNC call on the Congress of the people for unity and insult them in the same sentence? I think that an alliance between the UNC and the COP will be a marriage doomed from the very start.
There may be no ‘i” in “team”, but there’s definitely an “i” in “unity” and Basdeo Panday’s predicament is that he is much too aware of it. You see, the problem with Basdeo Panday is that Basdeo Panday thinks that it’s all still about Basdeo Panday, when in fact it hasn’t been about Basdeo Panday for a long time now. And being amongst his croonies hasn’t helped him let go of himself.
For me at least it has been bewildering to watch the UNC as they try to get ready for this election. No political leader, a questionable “alliance” and now calls for unity to a party that the UNC has repeatedly dismissed. Where exactly is this bus headed? Pretty soon all UNC followers are going to have to come to the realization that Mr. Panday cannot win this election — wishing so won’t make a bit of difference.
Why this call for unity now anyway? Before he was known to the UNC as Mr. Dookeran, he was “the duck”, “duck and run”. Said Mr. Panday, “He (Mr. Dookeran) is a harmless, useless duck. You ever see a duck fight? Chicken does fight. Duck doh fight.” Said Mr. Jack Warner, “Take your jahaji bundle and go, bhaio aur baino.”
Now listen to the pleading and the ultimatums that border on threats and guess who’s popular again
I have to say that even though I’m a little relieved at Mr. Dookeran’s declaration that there will be no unity between the UNC and the COP, I have to say that I’m worried, nervous and anxious all rolled into one. It’s kind of like that first time you move out of your parents’ house. You know that you and only you are responsible for your successes and failures. The Congress of the People has stepped out on its own and now more than ever before, will have itself and only itself to blame for its own successes or failures. That is a pretty big responsibility to shoulder especially when the future of the nation is at stake.
Posted in COP, PNM, Politics, UNC | 10 Comments »
Monday, September 17th, 2007
Tis man name Mustapha Abdul-Hamid they need to put he on a stage and ah not even joking about that. The man have rel jokes. From today’s Express:
He wasn’t the feature speaker, but Tertiary Education Minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid did provide the crowd with some good picong at the PNM public meeting at the weekend in Sangre Grande.
He first took a jab at the Congress of the People (COP) theme of “new politics”, saying it had something to do with the “afterlife”. He explained that at the recent COP rally at Woodford Square, Port of Spain, they had converted it into a cemetery as “they parade ah set ah dead people all over the place”.
“When I was watching the TV, I see Selby Wilson. Well he dead since 1989,” he joked.
“And see ah fellar called Michael J Williams.They had to bring a paleontologist to dig him up and put him back together.”
On his list of “dead” COP members he included: Clive Pantin, who was a losing candidate in 1981, 1990 and 1991 and therefore has died three times; Trevor Sudama, who was politically suffocated; and John Humphrey, who is dead, but thinks he is still alive. Abdul-Hamid also made fun of the COP political logo as a “big set of circles”.
“Well you know what? They thief that from Royal Bank. That was Royal Bank old logo. It was blue, they paint it red,” he said, cracking up the audience.
The UNC was not left unscathed.
Abdul-Hamid took a jab at Fyzabad MP Chandresh Sharma. He noted that of those who have benefited from a “great PNM education” he listed Tabaquite MP Adesh Nanan, attorney Anand Ramlogan and Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, but not Sharma.
“Nah nah nah, he eh have no education at all. Education pass he straight. Yuh cyar catch meh deh,” he said.
To borrow a line from Larry the Cable Guy, “I don’t care who you are, that right there is funny!”
Posted in COP, PNM, Politics, UNC | 13 Comments »
Wednesday, September 12th, 2007
We’re all going to die sometime. - Independent Senator Dana Setahal
- The reason, she says, why witness should stop fussing about the probability of being killed and why we should all come forward to give testimony.
Nice to know she still cares.
Posted in Crime | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 11th, 2007
The top brass of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service held their weekly media briefing session at Police Headquarters and released some interesting stats on car thefts in T&T. For one, car thefts are up almost 20% from last year. And secondly, the top pick of car thieves nationwide appears to be Nissan (B11, B12, B13…actually the whole range of B vitamins) with a 47% approval rating beating Mitsubishi into second place with 9% and Mazda and Toyota into third and forth with 7% and 11% respectively.
Explaining the motive behind the rise in auto thefts, Acting ASP Glenn Hackett uttered this gem: “…it [is] cheaper to steal the vehicles for parts rather than to import them“. Officer, are you alleging that some people in this world prefer stealing to buying because of…..cost? So what you’re saying is that getting something for free costs LESS than paying? Scandalous!
Thank you Captain Obvious for your valuable insight. Nothing gets past our Police Service anymore.
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| The Trinidad & Tobago Police Service’s new logo |
Meanwhile the Police Service of Trinidad and Tobago has taken care of a problem that has been plaguing them for years. Just when tempers were about to boil over and just before people took to the streets with placards and pitchforks, the TTPS finally got around to changing their logo and their slogan. At last. As far as I am concerned the new logo looks like a cross between Poison and Vegas Showgirl costumes. Is that a feather boa?
The new slogan (the image for which I have so graciously borrowed from The Newsday), is “To Protect and Serve with Pride”. Is the problem with the TTPS really due to a lack of pride or is there way too much of it? How about serving with humility instead? Maybe it’s just the TTPS finally owning up to their bad ways.
Nalis gives a nice little piece of history recounting how the TTPS began using the Star of David as its official symbol, so I’am glad that it wasn’t totally discarded, but I’m not a fan of the new symbol which I will place just above London 2012 Olympics logo (don’t stare at it too long by the way or you’ll get a seizure and then die…at least that’s what I heard). It kind of reminds me of a headless Frosty the Snowman.
By the way I never realized that the logo and the slogan of the TTPS was such a contentious issue among us Trinbagonians that the TTPS had to take such proactive steps to change it. To date I have not heard of a single protest demonstration against the old logo. Neither have I heard of a single protest demonstration against the old slogan.
What I do hear is opposition to police brutality and inaction, and opposition to the hostility of our officers. And while I think it’s great that the TTPS is adopting a transformation initiative drive, the logo and the slogan are merely cosmetic.
While I am on the topic of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, oh gosh, ACP Reyes, agreement of subject and verb brother, subject and verb. And while I am on the topic of subject and verb, Samuel McKnight from CNC3 oh gosh bredda, honestly.
Posted in Crime, The Police | 3 Comments »
