In September, Shammi Motisingh was jailed for six months for driving after he was previously disqualified from doing so by a magistrate.

But when he was arrested for that offence, the 46-year-old father of a teenaged daughter from Quinam Road, Siparia, had been awaiting sentence for a similar offence he committed in August.

Yesterday, Motisingh was brought from the Maximum Security Prison to be sentenced for the August offence and a magistrate imposed a nine-year jail sentence on him in the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court.

He told Magistrate Natalie Diop, “Your Worship, inside jail is called lock-down; outside here is the free world.

In jail we learn how to overcome the bad habits of the free world.” Motisingh’s troubles began in March when he was arrested and charged for driving under the influence of alcohol. On March 22, he appeared in the Siparia Magistrates’ Court and was fined and disqualified from holding a driver’s permit for three years.

However, Police Constable Shiva Roopchand, in August, arrested Motisingh during a roadblock exercise in Debe and charged him for contraveing the order of the court.

On August 22, Motisingh appeared before Magistrate Taramatee Ramdass in the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court to answer to that charge and he also pleaded guilty. T he magistrate placed him on his own bond and postponed the matter to yesterday for facts and sentencing. However, in September, Police Constable Joel Paul stopped Motisingh in another roadblock along Wellington Road, Debe. He had no driver’s permit, and when taken before Ramdass in October, he pleaded guilty.

On September 30, he was sentenced to serve six months in jail for the offence.

Yesterday, Motisingh was taken to court from prison to answer the charge Roopchand laid against him in August.

Before Diop in the San Fernando Traffic Court, he pleaded guilty to two charges __ driving whilst being disqualified and driving without insurance. Police prosecutor Sgt Kasieram Luctchman read the facts.

He said that on August 19, Roopchand had stopped motor vehicle PCN 3477 and questioned Motisingh about his driving documents.

Motisingh replied, “Officer, ah don’t have one; my permit taken away by the court.” Kasieram told Diop that the policeman also observed that the insurance certificate Motisingh had presented to him, had expired.

Diop asked him why the court should not impose another jail term on him, he having committed the same offence twice.

Motisingh said that being in jail was of great help to him in ridding his dependency on alcohol.

He said, “This is like rehab. It really helping.”

Ramadhar was ordered to pay specific sums to his brother Kishore Ramadhar, Rudy Hanamji and Satu Ann Ramcharan.

Also ordered to pay the three former COP members are the party’s former chairman Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan and founding member, Iqbal Hydal. Neither Seepersad-Bachan or Iqbal Hydal appealed Justice Vasheist Kokaram ruling in December of last year.

In his assessment for damages for slander and libel, Justice Kokaram said the sum must compensate for the damage done to a person’s reputation; vindicate their good name and take into account the distress, hurt and humiliation.

He added however, it was not a road to untaxed riches.

He said in the case of the three, there was no evidence of serious damage to their reputation.

Ramadhar was ordered to pay his brother $90,000; the same amount to Hanamji and $75,000 to Ramcharan. Judgement has been reserved in the appeal which was heard on Monday by Chief Justice Ivor Archie and Justices of Appeal Gregory Smith and Prakash Moosai.

The defamation claim filed by the three arose out of statements allegedly made by the COP leader and the party’s chairman at a COP National Council meeting on November 10, 2013, regarding a letter dated October 1, 2013, in which the three were accused of sending to the then Opposition PNM information about the COP’s membership.

Kishore, Hanamji and Ramcharan were suspended from the party’s national executive and national council. The allegation against them was contained in a letter, which purportedly provided information on the status of several COP candidates who contested the 2013 local government elections and which was allegedly sent to PNM general secretary Ashton Ford.

The PNM subsequently wrote to the EBC challenging the membership of the candidates. The three (Kishore, Hanamji and Ramcharan) maintained they neither wrote nor signed any such letter and signatures appearing on the document were “lifted” from other party documents legitimately signed by them.

Ramadhar, represented by Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj SC, Larry Lalla and Michael Rooplal, has argued that Kokaram erred in law when he found that his statements at the November 10, 2013, press conference, held after the COP’s National Council meeting, were defamatory.

He insisted that his words were not defamatory and that there was uncontroverted evidence that the three had publicly attacked, abused and defamed him prior to the national council meeting.

Kokaram had found that Ramadhar’s statements to the media were not a legitimate reply to the attacks to his leadership, and hat the defences of reply to attack, fair comment and qualified privilege were unavailable to him. Representing (K) Ramadhar and Ramcharan were Fred Gilkes while Hanamji was represented by Mervyn Campbell instructed by Yuri Saunders.

President of the Zoological Society, Gupte Lutchmedial, told Newsday the melon-headed whale, which is common in tropical waters, prefers deep waters and often does not survive after being stranded on a beach.

Described as a member of the Oceanic Dolphin family, the melon-headed whale grows to about ten feet long and weights about 400 pounds.

They live in large groups ranging from about 100 to 1,000 and they swim in small groups of ten to 15.

“If it is that the school is not safe for our children, how are they going to conduct polling come the 28th of November?” School was suspended indefinitely yesterday after the TT Unified Teachers Association advised teachers to steer clear of the compound’s unsafe working conditions.

According to PTA president Larry Dilchan, students, staff and parents have reported being bitten by something they cannot see. These bites then develop into rashes and he estimated that about 25 percent of the school’s 520 students have since been affected.

They are calling for the school to either be relocated to the National Enrichment Centre in Carlsen Field, or for prefabricated buildings to be constructed in the school’s car park until a solution to the problem is found.

Dilchan said the school experienced a similar situation before with a flea infestation about three years ago.

However, around October last year, they continued to be bitten, except now by micro-organisms that they cannot see. He said the PTA raised its concerns with the Ministry of Education last October and school was suspended for about six weeks to facilitate testing by the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (Cariri). To date, said Dilchan, the report has not been produced.

“We decided to find out about it ourselves, but when we asked Cariri for the report, we learned that the Government hired Cariri but did not pay Cariri,” Dilchan said, adding that the PTA offered to pay Cariri for the report but it said the PTA was not the entity with which Cariri made the contract.

Isahak said the PTA then raised around $11,000 to pay for independent tests to be done by Rose Environmental Ltd in April. However, the results were “inconclusive.” Among the students suffering from the mysterious rash is eightyear- old Naima Lucas whose picture is plastered on the school’s outer walls to celebrate her winning gold in the 2016 Atlantic National Primary School Track and Field Championships in May. Inside the walls, however, something is irritating her skin.

Lucas showed Newsday two dense patches of red buttons that appeared on both her arms.

“She has been a student of the school for the last four years,” said Michelle Mendez, Lucas’ mother.

“I always heard other parents talk about this issue but this is the first time she is experiencing it.” Ashika Kalicharan, whose seven-year-old daughter also bore rashes on her body, said, “Our children are suffering too long now. Something needs to be done soon, because we have National Test coming up. And what about the Standard Fives who are preparing for SE A?” Michael Mason said the rash has spread to the rest of his family after first appearing on his seven-year-old daughter’s skin.

The PTA said it intends to continue its protest for the rest of the week until something is done. Attempts to reach Education Minister Anthony Garcia were unsuccessful, but Minister in the Ministry of Education, Dr Lovell Francis, said the ministry was aware of the situation and was working on a solution.

Following the result of the US presidential election, one might be inclined to fall into an abyss of despair for the so-called “death of democracy”.

Indeed, as anti-Donald Trump protesters continue to mobilise, as spray-painted graffiti taint the walls and lives of endangered religious and ethnic minorities, and as EU leaders frantically convene to discuss how a President Trump can affect global ties, it may be easy lose faith in the future of world politics.

Trump ran a divisive campaign built on bigotry, exclusion of “others”, and a rebellion against the status-quo. In the same way that the world tried to wrap its head around the result of the Brexit vote, it must do so again in order to come to terms with the reality that a man with a penchant for twitter rants and no political experience could become the leader of one of the world’s superpowers.

The aftermath of the presidential election brought a range of racial slurs, proving that the US still remains a divided nation.

Still, there is reason for hope.

While Clinton may have lost the Electoral College vote, she was able to capture the popular vote, in a sense vindicating the belief that the majority of Americans wanted her as their President.

Additionally, the age demographics of the election result will show that younger people voted for Clinton while Trump’s support increased significantly with the older population. This is reminiscent of the Brexit referendum where 75 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds voted to remain in the European Union.

The future of far-right radicalism, then, is at least impeded by Clinton’s securing the majority vote, and a generation gap where young adults still believe and see the value in international unions.

To quote the late Leonard Cohen, “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”

JARREL DE MATAS via email

Although church and State exist separately, they must act alongside each other to ensure that righteousness is applied to the national decision-making process. We are not asking religious leaders to be politicians but society would benefit from them acting in a stronger advisory capacity. Our religious leaders must come forward and transcend the message of God from the walls surrounding the pulpit to the open public space.

We have a famous local saying that “God is a Trini” yet our leaders and our society seek to govern and work without including His wisdom. It is worrisome to know that religious leaders don’t play a front-line role in our country’s governance.

While we have a few religious leaders who credibly voice their concerns in the public domain, we need more proactive and wide-ranging social, political and economic involvement by our various religious leaders.

Our State is established based on belief in God and our government ministries should function in a way that carries this belief and leads to the benefit of all members of our society. The Bible says the poor will always be with us, therefore our commitment to the most vulnerable is a never-ending journey.

The wisdom of teaching a man to fish so he will always have food is a biblical strategy that we need to put additional focus towards as we seek to empower others and reduce the burden on the State.

Why is our society so corrupt? The answer lies in closely examining the historical patterns of corruption developed among our politicians. Politicians are the most widely publicised group of leaders.

The compounded problem is that most of our accused never answer to the justice system and live lavishly within our societal space.

The Bible proclaims that righteousness exhalts a nation and therefore if we fail to pay attention to our religious leaders, bodies and organisations, our nation will not prosper. Governments should consciously work towards endorsing the principles of the State’s belief in a creator and guiding the population towards living a life that reflects that belief.

A society that cannot control its crime in turn cannot protect its citizens.

Our leaders must take an active role in reminding citizens how they should behave as a means of positive reinforcement. If as a nation we strive towards developing a culture of righteousness then we are on the right path to creating an environment for positive behaviour patterns.

When we put the Creator first, criminal acts become strange behaviour as opposed to our current state where crime is unacceptably becoming normal.

This is a calling for greater recognition of the Creator in our society by our political leaders and for our religious leaders and organisations to step up and be a part of the governance of our country.

RONALD HUGGINS St Joseph

The politicians, like the brigadiers, have no solution to the crime problem, or at least no solution that they want to implement.

This year we will have around 400 plus murders and next year we will have the same or more.

It is time that some kind of drastic action be implemented and something be done about the Minister of National Security.

GORDON DALLA COSTA via email

Was the vehicle causing an obstruction or simply badly parked? Even if it was causing an obstruction, are there not other ways of dealing with such an offence without inflicting brutality on a citizen? Why the need for such heavy-handed action? Has our society become so callous that every breach of the law necessitates an extreme response? This calls to mind an incident some time ago when a citizen was dragged by a police officer who was seeking to wreck her car and the woman was trying to comply with the law by removing her vehicle.

It would be interesting to know what happened in that matter, as the driver appears to have been a person of means and would have been able to set a precedent which could have helped define the limits of police authority in these matters.

It appears antithetical that the police call on the civilian population to provide support and assistance to them while on the other hand visiting violence on the very population.

KARAN MAHABIRSINGH Carapicha

Speaking at the official launch of the WAND-Price Philanthropic Foundation Educational Project, Jan Bocass Ryan, president of WAND said they got involved in the programme because of news of delinquency in various communities triggered by crime and drugs.

“These computers are only to be used for learning. We have been advised that any deviation from this will result in the equipment being confiscated by the donor. Village Council members monitoring of activities on the computer is also part of your remit,” she emphasised.

Ryan said she hoped children will take their homework assignments seriously and use the computers to do their research projects.

“We are asking the Ministry of Community Development Officers of various communities to be a part of that responsibility and feed us data. Each will receive six computers with Microsoft software, six UPS Units, and one printer. We are very proud for the first time Wand is able to execute a project in our sister isle of Tobago,” she said.

She encouraged the Village Council members to take responsibility to ensure that the programme is successful and sustained.

Also addressing the gathering, Sharon Rowley described the women of Wand as the “Fairy God Mothers of Trinidad and Tobago.” She acknowledged the good deeds of Wand foundation and indicated that their good deeds will not go unnoticed.

“We are here today( yesterday) to celebrate another one of Wand’s achievements.

We are here to celebrate the steps taken by the ladies of Wand to assists in transforming the lives of persons in 14 communities in Trinidad and Tobago with the provision of computers.

This marks the hard work and dedication of the fairy god mothers.” She continued, “They realised that many of these communities there are persons who come from low income families and are unable to acquire home computers, because they struggle to make ends meet, but they realise that the bulk of them are future leaders, doctors, teachers, persons with so much potential.” She said some of these communities are designated as “hot spots” where crime has become a way of life for a few persons who have determined that their jobs involved the taking of lives of innocent victims for a fee.

“We all know that the persons who commit these crimes are in the minority.

Wand and its partners realised that the majority of persons in these communities do not condone criminality.

The majority are hard working and God-fearing individuals who want a better life for themselves and their children,” she said.

She said by outfitting these 14 communities with computers, it is the intention of Wand and its partners to empower persons in these communities as active citizens in a technology driven world.

“Wand realises that the economy is rapidly shifting and that computer literacy is necessary for economic opportunity and social inability for all. In today’s world everyone needs basic computer skills to function in the job market,” she said.

The 14 community centres include Upper El Dorado, Samaroo Village, Jerningham, Springvale, L’anse Norie, Ortorie/ Mayaro, Palo Seco settlement, Embacadere, 6th Avenue Malick, Upper Ninth Avenue, second Caledonia, Upper 7th Avenue Malick, Barataria, Gasparillo/Santa Cruz and Mt Grace Tobago.

In a congratulatory message to Trump, on behalf of the governments and peoples of the 15-member regional grouping, Skerrit said he would “welcome the opportunity to engage at the earliest opportunity.” Skerrit noted, “The community enjoys a long-standing friendly and mutually beneficial relationship with the United States of America, a relationship which has endured over the years despite the various changes of administration that are part and parcel of the democratic process.” The Heads of Government and the people of Caricom, he said, look forward to the continuation of the friendly relations under the incoming administration.

Meanwhile, individual heads of governments have sent congratulatory messages to Trump with similar sentiments of preserving and building on longstanding relationships.