Friends, family and loved ones gathered yesterday afternoon at the Bethel World Outreach Ministries located in Malabar, Arima to say farewell to the two men who were killed on Tuesday by an unknown gunman.

During their eulogies, the two men were both described as hard-working and fun loving. Speaking on behalf of Leon, one relative said, “His morals were quite simple: work very hard and play very hard. He had a signature smile, and when he smiled his eyes smiled along with him.

At this time my heart aches because I did not only lose my brother but I lost my nephew as well.” The relative said Leon was given the name “Big Bird” by friends at school.

During Shavaughn’s eulogy, the congregation was told of his work ethic and his humility.

A relative who spoke on his behalf told the gathering that he began his contracting company at 28, and faced every situation with the temperament of a true leader.

“His strong desire for success did not make him arrogant, disdainful or full of himself.

Instead, he maintained his integrity and humble view of himself as the owner of a business,” said one relative who went on to say, “His success spilled over to the community since anyone could have approached him for a job.” Just as important as his role of boss, was his role as a father.

The congregation was told of his patience and love, which he expressed profusely to his two children. The congregation was also told of Shavaughn’s willingness to help anyone in need. Shavaughn was given the nickname “blacks” by his family members who teased him about his complexion.

The incident which saw the deaths of Leon and Shavaughn Sobers actually claimed the lives of three persons on Tuesday last. Newsday understands the two Sobers, were in their yard on Harper Circular, D’abadie, when, shortly after 7 pm, an unknown assailant approached them on a bicycle, hopped off with firearm in hand, and fired on the group of men. Leon Sobers died instantly, as did Joel Alexander, a truck driver who had been working with the Sobers family. However, Shavaughn who was rushed to hospital after being shot in the eye later succumbed to his injuries.

The girl and the two females were taken into custody and the teen was later handed over to her mother Kim Flit and Sgt Martin of Community Policing. She was expected to be taken to a doctor to be medically examined to ascertain if she was physically harmed. The same team of officers then went to Charlotte Street where they arrested four persons for firearm offences and seven others for robberies, woundings, break-ins and outstanding warrants.

When are we as citizens going to start putting our country, our families and our lives first? We see nothing being done in our beautiful country without politics being involved.

Let us remove the political blinders from our eyes and truly put our country’s best interests first.

I want a country where I can afford to put food on my table, send my children to school in comfortable classrooms, with teachers present daily.

I want to visit a health facility and be attended to speedily, without the fear of leaving in worse condition than when I arrived.

I want to not have to live in fear of being robbed (or worse) of what my family and I have worked so hard to achieve.

I want to seek assistance from the police and not be verbally abused or ignored.

As a citizen born and raised here, this is where I want to enjoy the fruits of my labour.

How many of us can jump on a plane and migrate, as so many politicians can afford to do? We always want to take pattern from the US, but we are mice in comparison, for if we did not see before, we see now how they do not tolerate being taken for fools.

When they do not agree with something, they come out in their numbers and let their voices be heard.

Let us stop being used and hoodwinked at election time.

We have the power.

We put those people into office to make life easier and more bearable for us, not to constantly frustrate, demean, ridicule and take us for fools.

I call on citizens to unite and show the politicians that it’s not only Carnival we care about, but our country on the whole.

Let’s make TT great.

K DOUGLAS-ALEXIS Port-of-Spain

For over ten years residents have been fighting, through the “proper” Government offices, ie, Town and Country Planning Division, to put an end to this madness.

No one with decision-making power is doing their job or considering the residents who have been very vocal about these issues for a long time. Up to today, these new businesses are advertising for commercial tenants with no permission for this change of use. Renters beware, ask to see the actual permission to change documentation, do not trust their word because we are fighting all illegal businesses in the area. Government has changed, promises were made, meetings with officials and a litany of letter writing to Town and Country, yet the new minister apparently can’t do her job either.

No one has the backbone to make the law-abiding decisions nor use their power to enforce the policies for residential areas which already exist.

And before you say “this is Trinidad, this is normal etc,” just think how you would like it if a business, school or gym opened up directly across from, or right beside, your lovely, comfortable, quiet home right now. The noise at all hours, the liming, the lack of parking for your home. Just seriously think about it before you judge us because this too can happen to you, unless we/you stop it now.

Where does it all end? Do we the residents have to file an injunction citing the minister and the division for dereliction of duty? This is not happening to just Maraval, this is happening all over our country.

We the people have voted the Government into power.

Time for the ministers to do their jobs. Time for them to start showing their worth. And we wonder why people like Donald Trump become President? People, stand up for your communities.

DEBORAH CROOKS via email

On November 12, I called Digicel Play to report that the TV remote control was not functioning.

I was told I needed to go into Port-of-Spain to get a new remote. I explained I was unable to do so, to which I was advised that a technician would drop off a remote for me.

Up to the time of writing on Thursday, no one had come to drop off the remote. I have no way of changing channels on the television set and I am stuck on one channel.

Digicel has no office in San Fernando that one can go to for service or assistance with matters like cable boxes, remote controls etc. Imagine to just exchange a remote you have to go to Port-of- Spain. This is unacceptable.

LORRAINE JOSEPH via email

It has been the most culturally dominant nation in the history of the world.

In less than 200 years, American culture, values, business, ideology have found their way to every nook and cranny of the Earth. The vanguard of Western civilization.

Indeed, those countries whose values and cultures were substantially different from the American culture were viewed as something less than acceptable.

In particular, Asian, African, and Middle Eastern cultures were seen as retrograde, having to develop further.

The great schism between the developing world and developed world is seen beyond mere economics but to also include other intangibles.

One measuring stick that is often used to hold the mighty US above the rest of the world is how it treats its women. The rest of the world is told how repressive they are towards women, and gender equality is measured against the American standard.

Women in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other nations often are the subject of this American pontification.

In France recently, for example, the repressed Oriental woman in her head scarf was juxtaposed with French, aka Western, aka American, values of the liberal woman.

Ironically, when the occasion arose for the great American masses to show the world how progressive they were by electing their first woman President, they failed once again.

Hillary Clinton was the first woman of a major political party to be nominated as a presidential candidate.

In 1872, Victoria Woodhull ran for President of the US, and in 1984 and 2008 Geraldine Ferraro of the Democratic Party and Sarah Palin of the Republican Party were vice presidential candidates. This year the glass ceiling was seriously poised to be shattered. But after the results came out America was found wanting as Clinton failed to get the votes required to capture the Oval Office.

Protesters have taken to the streets of various American cities denouncing President- elect Donald J Trump. Unfortunately, Trump is only reflective of the deep-seated values embedded in America. Clinton supporters claim she won the popular vote, but this victory is only a marginal one of about two million.

So clearly America is in conflict with itself, being torn apart internally by its conflicted vision of itself. What appears to be the most regressive and base elements of American values have “trumped” over the progressive image America sells to the rest of the world.

Now the so-called repressive societies still have on the surface a greater commitment to their own advancement, willing to painfully challenge themselves and their cultural norms. So an Islamic country like Pakistan elected a female Prime Minister in Benazir Bhutto, India elected Indira Gandhi, Lu?sa Dias Diogo was Prime Minister of Mozambique, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga was President of Sri Lanka, Saara Kuugongelwa- Amadhila was Prime Minister of Namibia, Ciss? Mariam Ka?dama Sidib? was Prime Minister of Mali, Mame Madior Boye Prime Minister of Senegal, Elisabeth Domitien was Prime Minister of the Central African Republic, Sheikh Hasina Wazed was Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Han Myeong- sook was Prime Minister of South Korea, Sylvie Kinigi (born 1953) was Prime Minister of Burundi, and Agathe Uwilingiyimana was Prime Minister of Rwanda.

This list is not exhaustive by any means nor does it include European, Caribbean, or South American women leaders.

The countries, some may argue, are close to the orbit of American influence of norms and values. Yet the source of progressiveness remains alien to this example of gender equality.

These societies which have been labelled as repressing women managed to rise above themselves and elect women as leaders, contrasting sharply with the US which prides itself on being at the tip of the spear of gender equality but has failed repeatedly to go beyond its sexual prejudice.

The country that spawned the Salem witch trials appears to be still trying women by medieval western civilization standards.

DEVANT MAHARAJ via email

All schoolchildren wore poppies as they were readily available to buy for 25 cents throughout Trinidad.

I wonder if children even know what Remembrance Day signifies? The recent television news showed scenes of Remembrance Day all over the world and everyone, young and old, wore a poppy. Why not the people of TT ? J KNAGGS St Ann’s

Speaking at the official opening of the $18 Million Freeport to Couva Parallel Access road, Solomon Hochoy Highway, yesterday, Sinanan said changes to the country’s governing structure could have halted construction of the access road.

“Two years ago when this project was first initiated till now, many major changes in our nation transpired that could have thwarted all of these improvements,” Sinanan said, and noted that the former People’s Partnership administration had designed and begun construction on the project.

“But I am proud to say that under this current political leadership, we are pleased to continue any work we deem as beneficial for the people of Trinidad and Tobago and it was for this reason, we never halted works,” he said, adding, “it was not the intention of government to end improvement efforts on a whim merely because they were conceived or initiated by a previous regime,” Sinanan said Sinanan, who also toured road rehabilitation works at Beaucarro Road, Freeport, Mosquito Creek and South Oropouche which experienced flooding of the roadway due to the high tides which were caused by last week’s Supermoon, identified three measures to halt flooding along the Creek.

“A lot of the water that was flooding the area came over the [sea] wall, it wasn’t that the wall was going way, no, it was just that we had a surge of water coming out and most of it came over the wall,” Sinanan said, and pointed to the gravel-clogged drains which did not permit water run off to occur.

“I have asked NBIDCO to immediately de-silt all the drains, we expecting that to happen one more time for the year, what happened here over the last couple of days is normal for what happened here over the past few years,” he said, adding additional pumps would also be brought into service while all of the cracks on the sea wall are expected to be sealed from next week.

He said the cost of the remedial works would be done “inhouse” by NIDCO and the Ministry of Works and reiterated his pledge to “do more with less.” Sinanan also pointed out that flooding along the Creek would be eliminated as soon as the Mosquito Creek segment of the San Fernando to Point Fortin highway was completed. “The solution here is when this project is finished so what we are trying to do now is mitigate the problems that we have, seal the wall, desilt the drains and put in more pumps as required,” he said, adding the Mosquito Creek segment should be restarted next year.

He impressed the judges with the film song “Oh Re Piya”, beating nine other contestants in this contest.

Jaikaran became the 46th winner of this long standing television series, produced by Khayal Mohammed.

“Music is happiness, music is sadness, music is love and music is life,” Jaikaran said on winning this title. At this time he wants to pursue a BA degree in classical music in India while continuing to singing film songs.

He took home $25,000 from Sos Furniture and Appliances.

Satnarine Ramdeo placed second doing the song “Tumhi Ho”.

Ramdeo won $15,000 sponsored by Trinity Insurance Brokers.

Ishani Maharaj placed third with the song, “Sunhara hai Tu”.

She took home a prize package of $12,000 from Extra Foods.

UWI student, Reshma Roopnarine won the first prize of $10,000 from Indus Merchants for the pageant section.

Reshma thanked her parents Hemawatie and Rajindra Roopnarine for supporting her through Mastana Bahar.

“This was my first time in a pageant and as a model and I felt nervous competing with beautiful and brilliant finalists of this pageant,” Reshma said, adding that she is yet to come to terms with this win.

Second place went to Kailash Kallipersad and third place went to Shalini Soochit Mohammed who said it was a hard task finding sponsors for the talent show since the Ministry of Culture did not offer any prizes in 2016.

“Although we had to cut down on the prize money, we saw an increased amount of yong people coming forward and auditioning for this annual contest,” Mohammed said, adding that he plans to continue promoting culture through this series.

In a release to remind employers of “the importance of following established legislation with regard to time-off for employees on official holidays” the ECA said, public holidays are authorised by law and limits work or official business on those dates.

As such all government offices, banks and most businesses are closed on public holidays in Trinidad and Tobago.

With regard to the upcoming Christmas Day which falls on Sunday, December 25, 2016 and Boxing Day which falls on Monday, December 26, 2016 the ECA said, it should be noted that according to the Public Holidays and Festivals Act Chapter 19:05, Act 10 of 1872, Amended by 104/2002, Section 3 (2): “where a public holiday falls on a Sunday or where two (2) holidays fall on the same day, the next following day that (apart from this subsection) is not a public holiday, shall be a public holiday”.

As a consequence, the ECA said, since official holidays fall on Sunday, December 25 and on Monday, December 26, it should be noted that Tuesday, December 27 will also be a public holiday.

Following this legislation, and as a result of the New Year’s Day holiday being on Sunday, January 1, 2017, employers should note that Monday January 2, 2017 will be a public holiday.

Apart from this, any unscheduled absences or time-off taken by employees should be treated in accordance with existing company policies and established practices.