Over the past five years, $63 million worth of drugs had to be dumped because they had expired. That’s an average of $12 million a year down the drain at taxpayers’ expense. Patients never got the opportunity to use those drugs. This means Nipdec is importing drugs which are very close to their expiry date.

So I get angry when I see in a newspaper Nipdec officials laughing in the J Hamilton Maurice Room in Parliament. They are laughing as though it’s business as usual after throwing away $63 million in expired pharmaceuticals.

What I am livid about is Nipdec has put no system in place to arrest this gross wastage. So more wastage is expected in the future.

Another area of wastage in this country is the construction industry.

If Habitat for Humanity together with the National Gas Company can build three homes with $1 million and supply building material to ten families, why are we spending hundreds of millions to construct a couple houses? Where is all of this money going? Habitat for Humanity ought to be given the contract.

I have said this on many occasions: the Government should not be constructing multimillion homes, only low-cost housing. If a citizen wants a million-dollar home, they should seek out the support of the private sector.

I see newly minted Minister of Works Rohan Sinanan is in support of increased costs for projects. The national bridges programme of 2010 was originally targeted to cost $650 million.

This could increase if the minister has his way. Do we need to spend a billion dollars on bridges? Or should we spread this work over the entire term of the PNM Government? How can we stimulate the construction sector with the Government alone spending all that money? Can’t the private sector also stimulate the economy? Taxpayers’ money is not to spend willy-nilly. We need value for money.

We cannot afford wastage in the building of bridges.

JOHN JESSAMY Fyzabad

This is worrisome, given the state of our country — collapsing institutions, debilitating social decay and continuing political and economic uncertainty. It emphasises the need for enlightened leadership. But, do people really know what they want of their leaders? We human beings are often unpredictable and quite contrarian in behaviour: in part due to our multiple identities. We extol the virtues of honesty and compromise in Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela today, yet uncritically support deception and intransigence in political leaders and village council presidents tomorrow.

Is leadership then situational? What fundamental principles can we learn from the way successful leaders perform? Leadership is sometimes described as “a privilege to better the lives of others …” It is also defined as being about action, not position; a matter of enduring trust based on emotional connection and understanding between leader and follower. True leadership so earned has lasting influence.

Extensive research provides insights about the attributes of successful leaders. Above all, they must be trustworthy: possessing the character to hold true to commonly accepted, identifiable values and principles; and the competence to guide, knowing what talent to recruit for a given task.

Further, they must be committed to build deep, caring connections with people: appreciating that leadership is ineffectual unless underpinned by strong relationships.

Leaders must also trust their intuition, understanding what people feel. People buy into leaders who are interested in and willing to draw upon their experience.

Exemplary leadership is about lifting people up, to perform beyond their perceived limitations: focusing on their potential, not their weakness. Ultimately, successful leaders are followed not for their power, but their ability to motivate and inspire.

Importantly, these attributes must all cohere in the service of people. For leadership is really never about the leaders themselves, but rather about the people they serve. This holds true for organisations as well as countries.

Both should demand nothing less of their leaders than the exceptional.

A leader missing any of these attributes is a leader-in-training.

Inevitably, this begs the question: what can we honestly say about leadership of our institutions and country today? Academia, business and professional bodies, churches, cooperatives, non-government organisations, Pan Trinbago, Parent-Teacher Associations, Public Service, sports clubs, trade unions, West Indies Cricket Board. Do we find exceptional leaders here? We vent a lot about the parlous state of political leadership in the country.

And rightly so. But we are reminded that many aspirants to political office serve apprenticeship in these community-based, non-governmental and special interest organisations, operating under the radar. These agencies are often stepping stones to the national political stage.

To address the overall issue of leadership in the country, therefore, we need to call out the leaders of such groups, and assess their integrity. Limiting our scrutiny to political parties demonstrates understandable but pitiable neglect of our civic duty.

WINSTON R RUDDER Petit Valley

I don’t believe that the authorities don’t know this structure was built on State lands. It’s there for the Coast Guard to see on their regular visits in and out of all the popular bays.

The Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA) is on a drive to extract as much money as possible from businesses and individuals using their land so this could not have gone unnoticed by them either.

Numerous people have shared on social media photographs and videos of a particular party boat anchoring at the said site and using the area for various forms of entertainment including water sports. Is the plan now to expand the operation when they realise that no one is stopping them? Several concerned citizens have penned letters to the relevant institutions, but as usual there is deafening silence from them. If this is not nipped in the bud, there will be an entire village there in years to come. What are the CDA, the Environmental Management Authority and the Coast Guard doing about this? What is really going on in this country?

STEVEN VALDEZ via email

On the contrary he was probably given a promotion.

Is it any wonder the public has no confidence in the police? What about police officers arriving, dressed in their uniforms, in a police vehicle and robbing a businessman? Are they still getting salaries? You bet they are. There are no consequences to this kind of behaviour, which is one of the reasons crime is where it is. The police are part of the problem and not part of the solution.

Generally, what happens in a case like this is that it goes to court and it takes five years to complete, if you’re lucky.

All the while the policeman is getting his salary.

It’s like he is on holiday and with the help of his buddies they might have it delayed even longer.

The situation in “sweet TT ” has reached the point where the murder rate will be close to 450 for 2016.

And even the police are committing crimes — in uniform and in marked police vehicles. I wonder if “we reach” or if there is more to come.

I hope National Security Minister Edmund Dillon is working “assiduously” and not leaving any “stone unturned” to solve these crimes. I know it will blow over until the next disaster and nothing will change.

GORDON DALLA COSTA via email

It has been suggested by one of the parties that reform is imminent with the Tobago House of Assembly being the model for regional corporations in Trinidad.

However, I am not fully convinced that much will change for the better since on my last visit to Tobago, while walking along Milford Road, I saw a manhole across the width of the pavement covered by a piece of weather-beaten plywood, half the length of which had succumbed to the weight of a pedestrian.

In the Bon Accord area, there were canals filled with effluent from the villas located there as a result of poor drainage — an invitation for a Zika outbreak.

Across the road from the airport terminal, vendors were selling their wares in a sweltering hothouse unfit for human habitation.

While awaiting a bus to L’Anse Fourmi, I was told it was not working on that day and no proper information could be had since the temporary bus terminus had been removed to another temporary location. Temporary after all these years.

Even if all these observations were to be considered trite in the scheme of things, will local government reform bring real change in the way we operate or will it be business as usual? In view of this I ask these questions: * Are we going to see mounds of rubbish/silt heaped on pavements, especially on Fridays, only to be washed back into the drains over the weekend? * Are we going to see the Community-based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme and regional corporation workers competing in a least-performance contest? * Will councillors be answerable to regional corporations or community leaders? * Will the approach to the paving of roads be to dump asphalt in a pothole and have it pressed into place by passing vehicles? * Are we still going to see garbage dumped in full view of CCTV cameras and no prosecutions? Instead of the hype of “Let’s make it real”, I suggest let’s be accountable, especially to the taxpaying public.

MAHABIR TELOKA St Ann’s

This after Cuffie visited Talparo resident, Sally-Ann Cuffie, 48, at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EW MSC), Mt Hope last Sunday.

Sally-Ann and her family were driving through Las Lomas, looking at the lights on Divali night, October 29, when a scratch bomb flew through the back window and landed near her six-month old granddaughter.

Cuffie grabbed for the bomb to throw it out the window but it exploded in her hands which resulted in severe burns, broken finger bones, and the loss of the tips of some of her digits.

Cuffie told Newsday he spoke to Attorney General Faris Al Rawi and Trade Minister, Senator Paula Gopee- Scoon after a Cabinet Sub-Committee Meeting on Monday and they explained that explosives such as scratch bombs were against the law, but there was a large illegal trade of the items.

“I am seeking to inform the public on the dangers of it, how to report it to the police, and to get people aware that purchasing them is illegal,” he said.

He added that he spoke to Minister of Social Development, Cherrie-Ann Crichlow- Cockburn, and she promised to arrange for a Ministry officer to visit Sally-Ann in order to determine what options were available to assist her.

Meanwhile, Sally- Ann noted that she underwent surgery on her hands last week Thursday. On her left hand, she received skin grafts on two of her fingers, and implanted steel in her index finger, which was broken.

On her right hand, she said the doctors removed some bone splinters from her fingers as well as the bone exposed when the flesh of her thumb was blown off.

She said after a week, her hands still looked “raw” and that the doctors were not very pleased at the slow rate of healing.

She added that because she was diabetic, the doctors want to wait and see how she heals before they do any further medical procedures.

Cuffie was hoping, but not expecting that someone would be willing to send her abroad to a plastic surgeon who would restore her fingers to their full use.

According to reports officers were on duty when they observed the lights flickering and TTEC was alerted. Shortly after 3 pm TTEC went to the container and removed their meter, and promised to have the problem rectified shortly. Up until yesterday officers were using a generator so that light restored, and other electrical equipment could be utilised. Officers complained that they have been clamouring for better working conditions, claiming that the container is not comfortable.

Officers have asked to be redeployed to neighbouring stations while the Manzanilla Police Station is being constructed.

According to reports, officers under the supervision of Senior Superintendent Radcliffe Boxhill and led by ASP Ajith Persad, and including Acting Sergeant Anthony Williams, executed search warrants at Bamboo #1 and 2 and then proceeded to the Caroni River at about 3pm where the items were found.

The event was part of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW ) currently celebrated in 160 countries around the world where young people are inspired by local, regional and international entrepreneurial activities, designed to assist them in exploring their own potential as self-starters and innovators. Hosted by Youth Business Trinidad and Tobago (YBTT), its General Manager Shedron Collins told the youths the event was to motivate them and to show them that entrepreneurship is really an option, and at the same time, and how a change of their mind-set where starting a business is concerned can help them.

Kerron Sealy, aka ‘Sunny Bling’ truly captured their imaginations after giving his story to success. He told them after attend Rosary Boys, then Woodbrook Secondary Schools he enrolled at the T&T Hospitality and Tourism Institute (TTHTI) to pursue Culinary Management. He opened the youngsters’ eyes when he told them that he interned at the kitchen of the late Prime Minister Patrick Manning. Then standing proudly before them he added that he was also president of the students guild at TTHTI as popularity to him was a big thing, but more important to him was his own branding.

But while he stated that he was a good cook he found comedy was his passion. And so, 14 years ago he auditioned for a comedy show, was successful and to date has done countless shows, worked at Synergy TV and for the last 11 years has been on prime time radio. He is currently on Slam 100.5 FM.

Thirty-one-year old ‘Bling’ told them: “I had no degree but I never settled for less than what I wanted.

I started pushing suits to push my brand. There is no such thing as overdressed but there is something as under dressed. Wear the right shoes, socks and dandy them up and secure your own brand.” He also told them to focus on their dreams and goals and be true to themselves. “Don’t pretend to be anybody else,” he said to them before adding: “There can never be another Sunny Bling,” leaving the children laughing.

He had one more piece of advice for them and that was to be mindful about what they posted on their social media pages since it is now a norm that employers get to know potential employees through the latter pages. Therefore it is important to keep it above board. YBTT entrepreneur Joshua Mangroo was also convincing while sharing his entrepreneurial experience. He said to the children he started off as a legal secretary but that just was not for him.

He decided he wanted his own business and through the YBTT got into the designing and printing of business cards but got stumped after his business was burglarised in 2014.

He said the people around him at the time supported him tremendously and that enabled him to move forward.

Mangroo, 27, then got into animation and is not an animation instructor with the Ministry of National Security working with youths in the YTEPP programme. He and his team of Kevin Bhall, Sheliya Nandlal and Mathew Hudson actually won the Animae Caribe Bootcamp – Best Animated Idea Animae Caribe Animation Award just last week.

He told the youths that the passion inside of him is what drove him forward especially during his challenging times. Keynote speaker David Thomas, former banker who resigned to start his own business, spoke to the youngsters on understanding their entrepreneurial destiny.

The Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winner, went into farming and now owns Market Movers Ltd, an online business, where fresh produce from his farms are sold throughout T&T, and paid for with credit cards upon delivery. This story fascinated the young adults.

He said there are a lot of challenges in building relationships between the difference parts of the industry and a lot more dialoguing and relationship building is needed within the industry to create an environment in which it can flourish. He said industry stakehlders encountered a lot of challenges when trying to develop products or get access to capital or even in recruiting suitable candidates for their firms.

No one has any pretentions of establishing a Silicon Valley in Trinidad and Tobago, “but we are trying to develop and industry that is really sustainable and viable and that supports economic diversification.” He added that while Trinidad and Tobago does not have the amount of factories in high tech information technology to take over the world, “there were countries including Costa Rica and Ireland which are quite small and quiet but are important players in the industry and that is where we see ourselves.”

Martinez went on to say that working in a culture of innovation means that those working in the industry have to think beyond the “9-5” and recognise that it is a field that requires commitment and our markets are not protected in the same way that it would be for manufactured goods which can be protected by tariffs and different trade barriers “so what it means is that we are competing with people from all over the world and we really need the drive, the commitment, the entrepreneurial spirit and really, the passion for the industry, to really build and be part of competitive and innovative companies.”

He said that many of the challenges that foreign companies looking to recruit IT experts in Trinidad and Tobago would have faced up to two years ago still remain, the aim of his study was to get an understanding of the industry as a whole which was why in the course of his survey he made contact with as many as forty information technology entities of various sizes and age in business and to identify the players in the industry.