He was speaking on Saturday at the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Commerce Champions of Business Award Ceremony held at the Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain. Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley had approached Sandals founder and chairman Gordon “Butch” Stewart about establishing a Sandals Resort in Tobago.

The elder Stewart reported that he is eyeing No Man’s Land for a 750 room resort.

On Saturday night Stewart reported that his father, was unable to attend as he was recovering from minor surgery.

In his feature address he said that this country has been relying on the certainty of the oil.

“Like I am sure many of you, I have been shocked to read about the impact plummeting oil prices have had on the sector’s contribution to Trinidad and Tobago’s GDP, a 50 percent reduction — and if that were not startling enough, with production down and only the most highly skilled workers necessary, it seems as there will be people, good people — looking for work,” he added.

“Now, oil is not where my business expertise lies, but I do believe Prime Minister Rowley may be onto something because everything I do know something about — hospitality, is telling me that Trinidad and Tobago is a gold mine just waiting to be discovered.

As you consider new paths to economic growth, I believe now is the time for Trinidad and Tobago to make way for tourism, ‘Sandals style’.” He explained that “Sandals style” means as a Caribbean-based company, understanding this region, and knowing the critical role of tourism as an economic engine across all sectors “and the responsibility we accept for the success of any endeavor we pursue”.

Stewart also stressed that without destination demand Trinidad will not be able to encourage airlift but where Sandals “plants it flag – the airlines follow”. He pointed that these planes will deliver guests to other hotels as well.

“And we never work in a silo. Sandals Resorts become part and parcel of the place where we operate. Our success trickles down and up and sideways and all ways… Whenever and as much as we can, we buy local.

In Jamaica, for example, a country like your own with a strong agricultural sector – Sandals Resorts purchased US $1.5 million in melons, lettuce, pineapples and potatoes last year alone… We provide local farmers with consistent demand, creating a robust market for their produce that simply would not exist without full hotel rooms,” he explained.

He reported that their guests consume in one year at a single resort of 750 rooms, “about the size we’re proposing here in Trinidad and Tobago”, nearly: 350,000 bottles of water; 215,000 bottles of beer; 925,000 eggs.

Altogether, the economic foot print of a resort the size we propose for Tobago, when you take into account payroll, taxes, local services and more, would be in the region of US$80 million annually. In the construction phase alone we anticipate to employ between 2500 to 3000 persons. Beyond that there will be some 1800 sustainable jobs for persons employed by the resort itself,” he reported.

He continued: “Trinidad and Tobago is on the brink of a great opportunity, a break- through in its quest to become a vibrant and relevant member of the Caribbean tourism community. I applaud Prime Minister Rowley’s efforts to realise Trinidad and Tobago’s potential and appreciate his thoughtful approach in considering the sizeable investment this will require. After all, so much is on the line.”

But we draw special attention to it as an apt time to mull those dreadful periods, and how their legacies in Europe could be affected by two recent geo-political earthquakes – the Brexit vote in which the British voted their country out of formal European affiliation, and the rise of United States President-elect, Donald Trump, whose campaign sent some worrying signals to traditional allies on whether America will be just as strong a partner in the preservation of global peace.

Lest we forget, WWI, the Great War, was supposedly “the war to end all wars” because of the belief that the horrors of newly-mechanised warfare would deter anyone from ever repeating such acts.

Calvary lancers charged in futility against steel tanks, even as rows of attacking infantrymen were literally mowed down by enemy machine-gun fire. Men hopelessly entangled in huge reels of barbed wire – like flies caught on flypaper – languished for days with wounds so agonising that they pleaded with their own troops to put them out of their misery with a wellaimed bullet.

Men cowered in water-logged dugouts in the mud, fending off the disease, trench foot, and the threat of lice and rats. Poison chlorine gas corroded away men’s lungs, leaving them “guttering, choking, drowning” in their own fluids as related in poet Wilfred Owen’s Dulce Et Decorum.

Sadly, the lessons of WWI were not learnt as national humiliation led to festering resentments which were stoked to lead to WWII. Industrialised warfare evolved further in WWII.

Nazi engineers calculated how to most efficiently kill concentration camp inmates on an industrial scale. The lot of the ordinary soldier pitched against WWII’s deadly weaponry is vividly shown in the movie, “Enemy at the Gate”, where masses of Russian soldiers in futility charged the Nazi machine- guns at the Battle of Stalingrad.

At the end of WWII, the Allied Powers prevailed but not before unleashing two atomic bombs on two cities of the Axis Power, Japan.

Again, WWII despite its horrors did not put an end to warfare, even as it is suggested that unresolved issues from WWII may have led to the atrocities of 1990 at the break up of former Yugoslavia, and in other areas.

The end of WWII saw attempts to prevent any recurrence by establishing a common-trade area, the European Union. Further, amid Cold War tensions between the capitalist West and communist East, the division of Europe into North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the Warsaw Pact respectively maintained a stability of sorts in Europe.

All of this is not just of historical interest to TT, some of whose citizens signed up for service in each wart, including aviator, the late Justice Ulric Cross.

Further, at present the occasion of Remembrance Day invites us all to mull the changes to the map of Europe that could result from Brexit and a Trump Presidency.

If other nations were to each have their own Brexit, the EU could implode on itself. This ironically, even as the Ukraine seeks to join the EU, literally fighting to leave the Russian sphere of influence.

A re-drawn map of Europe could heighten instability.

Secondly, Trump is seen as resentful of American funding of NATO and as being a personal and mutual admirer of Russian leader, Vladimir Putin.

Will a Trump Presidency be a further destabilising force in Europe? Remembrance Day, therefore, must be not only an opportunity to remember The Fallen, but also to pay them the greatest tribute of showing our constant vigilance so as to avoid any other such major breakout of war on a world-scale.

THE SOLUTION to the problem of inadequate and indeed inequitable funding is one of the critical areas to be addressed in any serious agenda for reform. The situation as exists at the moment is that local government bodies are almost totally dependent on central government for funds to carry out their functions.

However, the quantum for each corporation is not based on any transparent and equitable formula but on the whim and fancy of the current Ministers of Local Government and Finance. Given that some corporations are controlled by the ruling party and others by the Opposition party, the charge of discrimination in allocation based on partisan consideration remains a perennial issue.

Moreover, the timely release of funds to the corporations has also been subject to the charge of deliberate manipulation by the Minister of Finance to favour some corporations over others. There is also currently the nonsensical practice of releasing funds a week or two before the end of the financial year with the proviso that unspent balances be returned to the Treasury.

Such a practice and regulation obliges corporations to be involved in all sorts of manoeuvres to commit the monies released in order to ensure that there are no unspent balances. Clearly, these practices are untenable from the view of project planning and execution and proper accountability. How then is the issue of funding for local government bodies to be resolved in the reform exercise? The Ministry of Rural Development and Local Government merely states under the heading “Vision” and sub-heading “Security of Funding” in its pamphlet in the local government reform consultation exercise as follows: “Local government bodies will be allowed to keep certain taxes and revenues collected within their boundaries to use for their own development.” Such a proposal is clearly inadequate and can entail a great deal of inequity. An example will suffice.

The level of business activity and property values in regional corporations such as Sangre Grande, Mayaro/ Rio Claro or Penal/Debe will be insignificant when compared to municipal corporations such as Port-of- Spain, San Fernando and Arima or even regional corporations such as Diego Martin and San Juan/Laventille.

If it is proposed that both sets of corporations will retain a certain percentage of taxes internally generated, then obviously the amounts to be so retained by the Mayaro, Sangre Grande or Penal/Debe Corporations will be miniscule when compared with what can be retained by the municipal corporations and Diego Martin and San Juan/Laventille.

However, the needs of the former set of corporations may be much greater than those of the latter given the former’s large geographical areas, huge networks of secondary roads, drainage and sanitation systems and inadequate facilities such as markets, recreational grounds etc. Thus, equity demands that a large proportion of their funding requirements will have to be met by subventions from central government.

I had proposed both in the columns of December 2003 and May 2013 that a transparent formula for funding be devised and publicised which takes into account size of population, geographical area, income level of residents, state of existing infrastructure and facilities etc (with appropriate weighting).

When the formula is agreed and implemented there will be little room for the manipulation of funding by the Ministry of Finance and there will also be relative certainty of amounts to be received by the corporations which will enable them to engage in better financial and project planning. A schedule of release of funds should also be pre-determined and conveyed to the corporations in order to reduce uncertainties and extraneous considerations in the issue of such funds.

In the next column the very significant issue of accountability in its various aspects will be addressed.

A Special Reserve Officer (SRP), who is said to be a Tobagonian and assigned to the San Juan Sub Station, was detained hours after the robbery and is assisting investigators with their inquries.

Sources revealed that the SRP was transferred to the San Juan Sub Station recently.

On Friday, three armed men went to the home of Wei Hui Zhu, 31, at Soledad Road, Claxton Bay, in a marked police vehicle, wearing police tactcal uniform. Three others later arrived in a black Sport Utility Vehicle, telling the businessman they had instructions to search his home.

The men found and took $400,000 as well as two iPhones.

Officers who raided the SRP’s home on Friday night recovered a high powered weapon, along with a quantity of cash.

Initially the SRP refused to cooperate with the police, but early Saturday he began confessing which led to five other officers being called in for questioning.

Sources revelead that camera footage obtained from the premises of the victim has proven to be very useful to investigators.

Sources also revealed that an iPhone stolen fronm the Chinese businessman was traced and found at the home of one of the five suspects.

Investigators are expected to approach the Director of Public Prosecutions today for instructions.

Political Leader of the United National Congress (UNC) Kamla Persad-Bissessar made the prediction yesterday during a campaign motorcade in the Chaguanas region, where she urged supporters to translate their support into votes.

“In the borough of Chaguanas is zero, zero, zero seats for the PMN.

No seats for the PNM.

Tell the PNM and ILP, it is zero, zero, zero seats from the Borough,” Opposition Leader Persad- Bissessar said while addressing supporters at Pepper Sauce Village Junction, Endeavor.

Referring to a newspaper report that the murder toll was 400 for this year, the Opposition Leader charged that the real figure is “over 438 murders in this year alone”.

“Crimes are not only in the hotspots areas but nowhere are you safe in any community, in any village. The bandits are everywhere. It is like since the PNM came into power , the criminals feel they have open free season for all. We must tell the PNM that enough is enough,” she said.

In addition to the “spiraling crime under ( Dr Keith) Rowley” there continues to be an increase in the unemployment figures, Persad-Bissessar noted.

She added: “When we came into office, we had bills to pay . We came into the end of a recession, but we were able to stabilise our country and our economy . When we were there we were able to create over 57,00 new jobs.” The campaign tour commenced at Price Plaza and ended at Jubilee Recreation Ground.

Speaking on Saturday as he spoke at a People’s National Movement election campaign at Charlie King Junction, Fyzabad, Rowley said the People’s Partnership ‘run off ’ proposals were a failure and did not impress the people.

“On the verge of election they tried with something that was not part of this process.

Kamla and the ‘cabal’ saw a defeat coming so they went to the parliament and spent night and day trying to pass the ‘run-off ’ bill,” he said.

He said 12 months after entering office, his government embarked on a national consultation process to find out what the people wanted, at a cost of $2 million and not the $15 million spent by the PP administration under the chairmanship of former Legal Affairs minister Prakash Ramadhar.

“We came to you as a people and we asked you…We listened, we documented and now we distill that and we will convert that into law,” he said.

“After you vote us in on November 28, we will ensure that the next three years be the most exciting in the local government,” he added.

Governance by township, he said, will bring to the people great accountability, greater responsibility and a greater quality of life to people.

Local Government, he added, was not an election ploy for the government.

Some of you would recall the pleasure of buying your Sunday Newsday and pulling out those BINGO cards for a chance to win.

Well for six weeks you can have that chance to win again when you buy your Newsday. Starting on November 13 two cards per week will be inserted in the Sunday Newsday. The BINGO numbers will be published daily for the daily and weekly prizes. From Monday to Friday, there will be a daily draw of special predetermined BINGO Patterns such as Postage Stamp, Telephone Pole, Railroad tracks among 18 other patterns. Then listen to your radio, check out FaceBook or other social media spaces and Newsday’s website. If your numbers are in the correct pattern you stand the chance of winning TT$500, each day. The weekly BINGO pattern, a blackout with the card completely covered, will see the lucky person winning $2500.

All of your entries will be entered into a big draw for the lucky winner of the Suzuki Grand Vitara.

The numbers will be chosen using the online number service from random.org.

Police investigators made the comments yesterday in response to the cries of La Brea residents for psychiatric help for a 40 year-old grandmother in whose house the decaying baby girl was kept snug under a blanket in a crib for months.

“Investigations are ongoing in this matter. We do not have the authority to take anybody for psychiatric evaluation. Only if a person is charged and a court makes such an order will a person be taken for such an evaluation,” a senior police officer said.

It is believed the baby girl named “Mercy” died eight months ago.

An autopsy performed on Friday at the Forensic Sciences Centre, St James, to determine the cause of death was inconclusive.

Up to yesterday, the grandmother and three of six children – an 18-year-old young woman who is also the baby’s mother, a boy, 15, and a 13-year-old girlremained in police custody.

Woman Sgt Taitt of the La Brea Police Station is spearheading investigations.

“I pledge to displace the UNC in Fyzabad and this will be my gift to you,” he said as he addressed a meeting of the PNM at Charlie King Junction on Saturday.

He also said he would continue the highway from Bamboo Junction to St Marys Junction in 2017, as well as the Point Fortin Highway.

The PNM’s Mon Desir candidate Eileen Applwhite Steel said she will ensure that residents receive better roads, better drainage and better recreational facilities.

MP for Point Fortin and Minister of Trade Paula Gopee-Scoon called on the women to go out and vote. She said the previous government spent millions and had little to show for it in Fyzabad.

Historian and genealogist Shamshu Deen yesterday reported that ‘jahajin’ (one who came on the boat from India) Samundarie died on Saturday night at the San Fernando General Hospital, where she was being treated after she fell ill at her home in St Charles Village, Princes Town.

She died of pneumonia and heart failure.

Her grand-daughter Lola Joseph, 65, took care of her during her last days.

“I miss hearing her voice,” she said.

She said her grandmother was a strong and independent woman. Samundarie’s grandson Raymond Joseph, 62, said she worked extremely hard during her life. “She never stayed home from the estate nor did she stayed away from her vending job,” he said. Deen said his research shows that Samundarie came here in 1912.

“The historic passing of the last indentured survivor jahajin has truly a tremendous impact.” Deen said. He noted that this represents the last chapter of a book of 147,592 pages of Indian ancestors to Trinidad and perhaps in the whole diaspora. Samundarie arrived in Trinidad aboard the SS Mutlah of 1912 as a baby with her mother Makhani.

She worked hard to raise her children after being a widow in her 30s. She had two daughters and a son.

They produced 10 grand-children and 16 great-grand. She was a cane cutter in Caroni and when she retired she started selling market produce at the San Fernando market.

She later became a vendor at the Jordan Hill Presbyterian school.

Her funeral is expected to take place later this week.