The Manicou Report

Esther Ducks and Runs

No man can write decently who is distrustful of the reader’s intelligence or whose attitude is patronizing. – E. B. White.

I am not a journalist. I have no training in journalism and quite frankly I don’t know very much about writing a news story. That having been said, sometimes news stories worry me.

Back in 2002 Nicholas Laughlintook umbrage with the Express headline “Humphrey, Jearlean accused of meddling” which referred to John Humphrey by his first name and Jearlean John by her last. Laughlin noted, “The Express style rules clearly state, in bold type, that “Women are to be referred to by their last names” (p. 28). Why does John Humphrey get the dignity of a surname when Jearlean John doesn’t?” Today’s headline begs the same question. How does Esther Legendre not get the dignity of a last name?

When I read Nicholas Laughlin’s piece, I wondered at the time if it was because John Humphrey is better identified by his last name whereas the opposite is true for Jearlean John. After all I had seen the same thing happen quite recently with Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj whose first name is used extensively. Whatever the reason for the Express’s decison back in 2002, if the rule for the Express is true for all daily newspapers and if my theory at the time was correct, neither can be used to explain the reason for this headline in the Guardian today: “ESTHER DUCKS AND RUNS”. Something about that seems a little disrespectful. There is no one else in the public’s attention at the moment who goes by the name Le Gendre and so couldn’t she be referred to by her last name for that reason if not for the sake of decency?

This in itself, however, is not what I came to talk about.

NEWLY-appointed Education Minister Esther Le Gendre stormed past reporters at Crowne Plaza Hotel in Port-of-Spain, yesterday, in an effort to evade answering how 103 pupils at Cap-de-Ville Government Primary School were hospitalised for food poisoning on Wednesday.

Le Gendre, a communications professional, refused to field questions from the media attending the People’s National Movement’s (PNM) Women’s League breakfast meeting at the Wrightson Road hotel.

Rather than apply her oratory skills to indicate likely measures her ministry would effect to prevent a recurrence, Le Gendre showed the benefits of her early morning walks last week at Salybia—where the Patrick Manning-led Cabinet held a retreat.

She bowed her head, crashed through a line of reporters on the first floor of the hotel, trotted down the staircase and hustled her way into the lobby, without even uttering “no comment.”

She was on her way to a Cabinet meeting.

However, her dress code for yesterday’s early morning sprint, to avoid the media, was nothing compared to the sports gear in which media photographers captured her at Salybia.

At yesterday’s PNM Women’s League function, she was elegant in a cream designer suit with matching stocking and shoes, which did not impede her athletic ability.

There is something about this story that bothers me a little especially when I consider the fact that it is a cover story. I don’t know about you, but when I am reading a straight news piece, which is what this story appears, to be, I would prefer that the writer told me the facts of the story and allowed me to draw my own conclusion. I would prefer if he or she didn’t colour it with his or her own impressions and I would hope that the writers think of their readers (and in some case viewers) as intelligent and that they would allow us to connect the dots ourselves. When a journalist deviates from this it affect the quality of the work and makes the reporting sound like street corner gossip.

NEWLY-appointed Education Minister Esther Le Gendre stormed past reporters at Crowne Plaza Hotel in Port-of-Spain, yesterday, in an effort to evade answering how 103 pupils at Cap-de-Ville Government Primary School were hospitalised for food poisoning on Wednesday.

Le Gendre, a communications professional, refused to field questions from the media attending the People’s National Movement’s (PNM) Women’s League breakfast meeting at the Wrightson Road hotel.

This part is ok. The only part I don’t quite like is where he says she leaves “in an effort to evade answering how 103 pupils at Cap-de-Ville Government Primary School were hospitalised for food poisoning on Wednesday.” How does he know that is why she left? Did she say that? If questions about the incident were fired at her and she didn’t answer them, then say that. Don’t tell us why you think she left. Allow us then to connect the dots for ourselves, Mr. Reporter.

Le Gendre, a communications professional, refused to field questions from the media attending the People’s National Movement’s (PNM) Women’s League breakfast meeting at the Wrightson Road hotel.

This is also fine since it helps us connect the dots. She is a a communications professional who didn’t take any questions. Good. The next part is where the news story goes downhill.

Rather than apply her oratory skills to indicate likely measures her ministry would effect to prevent a recurrence, Le Gendre showed the benefits of her early morning walks last week at Salybia—where the Patrick Manning-led Cabinet held a retreat.

She bowed her head, crashed through a line of reporters on the first floor of the hotel, trotted down the staircase and hustled her way into the lobby, without even uttering “no comment.”

She was on her way to a Cabinet meeting.

However, her dress code for yesterday’s early morning sprint, to avoid the media, was nothing compared to the sports gear in which media photographers captured her at Salybia.

At yesterday’s PNM Women’s League function, she was elegant in a cream designer suit with matching stocking and shoes, which did not impede her athletic ability.

What is that? We already know she is a communications professional, allow us to see the rest for ourselves. If she said nothing then report that she said noting, don’t tell me she eh even say “no comment”. Additionally, is all the description of her attire really necessary? Is this comedy hour at the Guardian?

All I want is a straight story, don’t tell me how she does talk for a living and look at she shy cyah talk now, or how she walk fast in the retreat, and watch she she come with the same bad behaviour here and she eh even wearin’ exercise clothes.

Goodness gracious man, don’t patronize me and don’t spoon-feed me.

This is nearly the same issue I had with the C Evening News a few weeks ago. Where is the quality of the journalism and where are the poop detectors?

The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof, shit detector. This is the writer’s radar and all great writers have it. – Earnest Hemingway.

If given the choice, I will almost always buy a Guardian over any other paper – no disrespect to the other papers, I’m just set in my ways. So it disappoints me greatly when I read this.

As I said before I am not a journalist and I know very little about the profession. I accept that I have the capacity to overreact so I’m open to criticism.

Posted in Media | 22 Comments »

A Tale of Two Hardwares

Bhagwansingh’s Hardware:

Not to be confused with Lowe’s Hardware:

…just so you know.

THE END

Posted in Miscellaneous | 7 Comments »

Blimp Pics

A second round of blimp pics to all you blimp groupies out there. Here’s a pic of our airship patrolling the evening sky. In case you were wondering, the rag hanging out of its butt is your national flag, ladies and gentlemen.

Posted in Miscellaneous | 10 Comments »

The Internet Sexpress

I know that the world works on advertising and the vast majority of things that we enjoy to day would not exist or would not be free if it weren’t for advertising. But sometimes I have to question the ad selection going on over at Express House. Ads on the TrinidadExpress.com website leave a lot to be desired. Obviously the people over there at Express House aren’t too concerned with the user experience since the vast majority of ads on the site are the incredibly intrusive, seizure-inducing, blinking type.

Not too long ago the Internet Express displayed ads with sound. Thank God they don’t have any now. One of them beeped repeatedly like the sonar of a submarine and the second made a huffing sound that just beat out the first one on the annoying scale. Exactly who is screening these things?

Now for the past few days we’ve seen the “sex” ads. The following is three different vies of the same ad on the right sidebar:

Maybe these aren’t so bad, but considering it’s a reputable news website, I wonder if they aren’t a little out of place.

The next one’s the kicker:

The Spanish reads “The most beautiful girls” (I think). I clicked on the first ad which turned out to be an ad for lingerie and “toys” (by the way they have a fab array of Christmas teddies starting at just $26). The second one I didn’t click on and I’m not sure why. I think I may have seen enough at that point. A woman in a thong? Are you serious?

As I said, I know that advertising is the lifeblood of most businesses, but can’t the Express be a little more selective? Ads like help can quickly cheapen the look of a website although I’m not sure if the Express website could be cheapened any further.

Also, there must be a number of children who use the Internet Express on any given day for research. God knows the kind of education they are receiving.

Posted in Media | 12 Comments »

Crossing Guard

So hear what happen to me yesterday morning nah. I was walking down the street and I saw this schoolboy trying to cross the road. He probably wasn’t over six years old. So this boy is trying to cross the road and from looking at him, it’s hard to tell if anyone has ever taught him how. Mr. Man was was making repeated attempts to dart across the road without ever looking left. The entire time traffic is coming in a steady stream from the left and he is totally oblivious to it. So I shout out, “Aye boy, hol’ on, hol’ on!”

So he stops and I go stand up next to him. I tell him. “Hold on, eh, I will tell you when it safe to cross”.

Now Mr. Man is tiny and with me standing next to him and looking at the traffic, I can’t see him standing all the way down there. The only thing I didn’t do, which I should have done, was to hold him still. So he’s standing to my left and my head is turned to the right looking at the stream of traffic coming. All of a sudden I hear people yelling and tire squealing. I whip my head around to see a two-tonne truck and a maxi taxi screeching to a halt with a little school boy in the center of the road. So I was like, “Wait nah? That is not the same little boy I was helping?” I look down to my left and no schoolboy. I look up again to see the little school boy jump onto the sidewalk unharmed. Meanwhile there is still yelling going on and I realize it’s coming from the six or so men sitting in the tray of the two-tonne truck. The only audible words I hear comes from an angry-looking dougla man who stands up in the tray, points accusingly at me and shouts, “AND HE FADA STAND UP RIGHT DEY!”.

I’m thinking, “He fada? Me?”

I didn’t say anything to him partly because of the shock, partly because he looked like he wanted to beat me and partly because I looked and felt guilty. Any excuse coming from me would have sounded like a lie.

So the tuck starts moving again and angry dougla man sits back down and continues to glare at me. I turn and continue along my way and it dawns on me that they very thing I was trying to avoid almost happened and I got blamed for it.

Posted in Personal Story | 14 Comments »

It’s Finally Over

Thank God for we PNM yes gyul. Dem Indian and dem talking too much schupidness. – My aunt to my mother.

From her statement some of you might guess that my aunt is some kind of under-educated, swearing, rum-drinking bacchanalist. She is none of these things. My aunt is an educated woman who left her Canadian university one dissertation short of a PhD. She is also a devoutly religious woman.

My point in highlighting this is not to condemn my aunt (although I do condemn her statements), I want to ask you where are we going? When I sit back and look at it all, it’s disheartening. My aunt is by no means an isolated case either in my extended family or the whole of Trinidad and Tobago for that matter. I have an uncle even more educated than his sister there who is guilty of saying things that are just as negative. And I am sure that many of you have been put off by things your near and dear family members have said – things you might not have expected from them. I did not expect this from her after all. A lot of us have come to expect statements like this from wider society, but it’s always more disheartening to hear this coming from our own.

Part of me thinks that we are doomed as a society if we continue to vote on race and religion the way we did on November 5th. I scoff at the people who tell me that the majority of people voted on issues. The way I see it is that the majority people to this day still vote for a party based on skin colour and hair texture.

That having been said, I am proud to have made up that 148,000 that voted for the COP. I would not have voted had it not been for the them and I feel the same is true for many others. Despite what Mr. Panday says, the COP did no “wrong” to the country. We who voted for them did not believe in either the UNC or the PNM. I don’t subscribe to the thought that we should have voted for the UNC-A in order to not “split the vote”. I don’t understand the UNC-A’s notion that if you’ve voted for the UNC in the past, votes are by default theirs and you shouldn’t ever vote for anyone else. Votes are earned on a voter by voter basis and in the minds of COP voters, the UNC-A did not earn their votes. We did what we did, not because it was popular, but because it was right. I would do it all over again if I had to because sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe in regardless of the outcome if only to sleep well at night.

So what we go do people?

P.S. – Contrary to what my aunt thinks, my mother voted COP as did the rest of my immediate family.

Posted in COP, PNM, Politics, UNC | 26 Comments »

I Voted

Did you?

Posted in PNM, Politics | 25 Comments »

On the 11th Day of Elections

On the 11th Day of Elections My Emperor gave to me:

11 Sprangers Spranging
10 Percent Inflation
9 Tall buildings building
8 Killers killing
7 Weekly floods
6 Cdap drugs
5 Brushcutters
4 Breakfastses
3 Smelters Smelting
2 Blimp what need fixing
And a Cepep wuk down in Caroni.

Posted in PNM, Politics | 2 Comments »

5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th Days of Elections

Yes, this is a ratch, but I prefer to call it “fast-tracking”.

On the 9th Day of Elections My Emperor gave to me:

9 Tall buildings building
8 Killers killing
7 Weekly floods
6 Cdap drugs
5 Brushcutters
4 Breakfastses
3 Smelters Smelting
2 Blimp what need fixing
And a Cepep wuk down in Caroni.

Posted in PNM, Politics | No Comments »

The Date Draweth Nigh

Roadside Plea

Oh gosh allyuh, no ah hear. No Toronto Trini, ah not busy on any “campain” trail (as Afro Chic put it). (1) I’m a little busy (2) I fed up of this elections (3) I fed up of politicians (3) My internet has been acting up. So in all I was a little busy and I wasn’t trying that hard to make time to blog.

As I said I’m tired of all the politics and I can’t wait for this election to be over. I also tired of the constant noise I have to undergo on what seems to be an hourly basis (that Afro Chic also mentioned). I’m tired of dodgy, evasive politicians and disingenuous talk show hosts. And Dr. Amery Brown’s grin and ugly moustache to that list – “I’m so overwhelmed by the response I’ve received from the people of Diego Martin Central. Everyone has been so warm towards me. I am so happy that Ken Valley has fully embraced my candidacy.” Oh give me a chance Dr. Brown, you are fighting a safe seat.

In other election news, guess what came in the mail for me 2 days ago?

The Manicou’s Poll Card

Sorry I can’t bring you photos from inside the booth – phones are illegal on the premises.

Who knows what’s going to happen on Monday? I’m trying not to be too concerned with what the polls say. I know what I have to do, and I plan on doing it. Whatever happens, happens. If the Congress of the People win, then great, if they lose, then at least I did what I thought was right.

Posted in Politics | 9 Comments »