According to reports, officers acting on a tip-off went to Mayo Road and began digging in a forested area where three barrels containing marijuana were found.

The barrels bore Spanish markings prompting police to believe that the barrels originated from Venezuela and were for local sale and distribution.

Following a fourhour operation on Tuesday, officers returned yesterday and unearthed another four barrels containing the same quantity of marijuana.

Although no one was arrested in connection with the ganja find, police believe they may be able to trace the persons who may have concealed the drugs underground.

Officers said this is a new method being used by drug pushers to conceal illicit drugs.

Following the discovery, officers said they were working on information that some drugs were also concealed in the Freeport area and that information is being checked out.

The two-day exercise was under the supervision of Assistant Commissioner of Police, Surujdeen Persad and led by Senior Superintendent Kenny Mc Intyre, Superintendent Corbett and others.

In another exercise at about 1 pm yesterday, members of the Inter Agency Task Force (IATF) under Senior Superintendent Rajkumar went to Dusty Road, El Socorro in an area close to a river- bank where a group of men were gathered. When officers arrived on the scene, the men fled in all directions leaving behind a quantity of cocaine under a tree with a street value of over $20,000.

Investigations are continuing.

Chukwanoso Fabian Chigata, appeared in the First Court and pleaded guilty to the charge.

Court prosecutor Cleydon Seedan told the court that on October 26, at about 3 pm, officers of the Fyzabad Police Station detained the foreigner during a roadblock exercise. They subsequently handed him over to the Immigration Department and investigations revealed that Chigata entered Trinidad illegally in August at an unknown beach.

WPC Hema Singh of the Immigration Department, San Fernando laid the charge.

Unrepresented by counsel yesterday, Chigata told the court only that his “family needs help” and admitted that he entered Trinidad illegally.

“You cannot come into a country just so. That is not how it works,” Forde-John said.

Forde-John fined Chigata $8,000 to be paid in 30 days, failing which he will serve 30 months in jail.

Williams reappeared in the Second Court before Magistrate Brahmanand Dubay who fined him $10,000 for the offence committed.

PC Maraj, formerly of the Gasparillo Police Station, together with other officers, arrested Williams on July 29, at Harmony Hall Road, Gasparillo.

Court prosecutor, Sgt Dianath Harricharan, told the court that the officers observed Williams, in the driver’s seat of a car, showing the weapon to another occupant.

Police intercepted the vehicle, searched it and found the illegal weapon (without ammunition) under the driver’s seat.

Maraj jointly charged Williams and the occupant for the offence. The occupant is currently on bail, having pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Williams claimed to have found the gun and was thinking about what to do with it.

The magistrate yesterday fined Williams $10,000 or in default serve 18 months with hard labour in jail.

Attorney Annalee Girwar represented Williams.

The advice comes from Vivian Schiller, Editor-in-Chief and (at left) Maria Cooper Newsday Ag CEO, chats with Vivian Schiller Editor in Chief & Head of Mediaco, alongside Ian Chinapoo UTC Executive Director, during the Business Media Luncheon — The rise of Digital Media and its Impact on Mainstream Journalism, which was hosted by Unit Trust Corporation, UTC Head Office, PoS.

Tuesday, November 11, 2016. PHOTO BY ROGER JACOB head of North America for Weber Shandwick’s Mediaco practice; Weber Shandwick is a global reputation management firm.

“People are going to be reluctant to pay for digitial subscriptions, mobile ads are going to be the victim of ad-blocking.

So how do you pay for your journalism? Good journalism costs money.

Certainly, there is no one singular answer.

I don’t know what the answer is, nobody does but the savviest thing you could do with your news organisation is to experiment with different forms of revenue.” Schiller was addressing local media managers, editors, reporters and the owners/operators of independent news sites during a workshop on “The Rise of Digital Media and it’s Impact on Mainstream Journalism”, hosted by the Unit Trust Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UTC) at its Independence Square, Portof- Spain head office yesterday (Tuesday).

Advising media managers to “try different things”, Schiller said a lot of organisations are experimenting with community events that someone pays for or that “a sponsor wants to participate in — it doesn’t control the content but can participate in terms of the branding of (event).” She noted that others are “experimenting with creating branding content newsroom, where an organisation, separate from the journalism newsroom, is creating content that is very compelling for brands.

Who better than a news organisation at telling stories? You can tell stories with careful labelling to make sure that people don’t confuse what you’ve done for an advertiser with your proper journalism.” Schiller also said donations or pledges, while not necessarily a big revenue source, can “add up to some money.

So diversifying your revenue stream is very, very important.”

However, up to press time – at midnight – Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump battled fiercely in a handful of exceptionally tight battleground states across the country as an ugly and unpredictable presidential election lurched to an uncertain finish. The contest in Florida, the night’s biggest swing state prize, was especially close. In North Carolina and Virginia, Clinton’s campaign was banking on a surge in major urban areas where the vote count was still trickling in.

The uncertainty sent markets tumbling across Asia, reflecting investor concern over what a Trump presidency might mean for the economy and trade. (See Page 5A) Clinton, a fixture in American politics for decades, was hoping to become the first woman to serve as commander in chief. She faced stiff competition from Trump, the billionaire businessman who tapped into a searing strain of economic populism. Trump picked up a number of reliably Republican states, while Clinton won in Democratic territory. But the race was to be determined by fewer than a dozen competitive states where the candidates spent millions of dollars and much of the fall wooing voters.

Exit polls underscored the deep divisions that have defined the 2016 contest. Women nationwide supported Clinton by a double-digit margin, while men were significantly more likely to back Trump.

More than half of white voters backed the Republican, while nearly 9 in 10 blacks and two-thirds of Hispanics voted for the Democrat.

At midnight, Trump had 168 electoral votes to Clinton’s 122 votes in a race to the 270 electoral votes needed to be declared President of the United States and leader of the free world.

SENATE AT STAKE Control of the Senate was also at stake, with Democrats needing to net four states if Clinton wins the White House. In Illinois, Democratic Rep. Tammy Duckworth defeated the Republican incumbent, but in neighboring Indiana, GOP Rep. Todd Young snatched away a prime pickup opportunity for Democrats. The 45th president will inherit an anxious nation, deeply divided by economic and educational opportunities, race and culture.

The economy has rebounded from the depths of recession, though many Americans have yet to benefit. New terror threats from home and abroad have raised security fears.

Clinton asked voters to keep the White House in her party’s hands for a third straight term. She cast herself as heir to President Barack Obama’s legacy and pledged to make good on his unfinished agenda, including passing immigration legislation, tightening restrictions on guns and tweaking his signature health care law. “I know how much responsibility goes with this,” Clinton said after voting Tuesday at her local polling station in Chappaqua, New York, with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, at her side. “So many people are counting on the outcome of this election, what it means for our country, and I will do the very best I can if I’m fortunate enough to win today.” Trump, the New York real estate developer who lives in a gold-plated Manhattan penthouse, forged a striking connection with white, working-class Americans who feel left behind in the changing economy and diversifying country. He cast immigration, both from Latin America and the Middle East, as the root of many problems plaguing the nation and called for building a wall along the US-Mexico border.

“I see so many hopes and so many dreams out there that didn’t happen, that could have happened, with leadership, with proper leadership,” he said by telephone on Fox News before casting his own ballot in Manhattan. “And people are hurt so badly.” Seven in ten Americans who went to the polls Tuesday said immigrants now in the country illegally should be allowed to stay, while just a quarter said they should be deported. More than half oppose building a border wall, according to the exit polls, which were conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research.

The Republican Party’s tortured relationship with its nominee was evident right up to the end. Former President George W. Bush and wife Laura Bush declined to back Trump, instead selecting “none of the above” when they voted for president, according to spokesman Freddy Ford.

WILL HE ACCEPT RESULT? Trump set both parties on edge when he refused to say in the third and final debate whether he would accept the election’s results, citing with no evidence the possibility of a rigged outcome. His statement threatened to undermine a fundamental pillar of American democracy and raised the prospect that his fervent supporters would not view Clinton as a legitimate president if she won. Asked yesterday in an interview with Fox News if he would accept the election results, Trump continued to demur, saying “We’re going to see how things play out.” Most problems that did pop up at polling places Tuesday appeared to be routine — the kinds of snags that come every four years, including long lines, machines not working properly and issues with ballots or voter rolls. Even before Tuesday, almost 45 million people had cast ballots for president. Many expressed relief the end was in sight after an election season in which personal attacks often drowned out the issues.

Clinton has denounced Trump for calling Mexican immigrants “rapists” and promoting a ban on Muslims entering the U.S., and for his long line of remarks about women that culminated in an audio in which he bragged about grabbing their genitals.

Her campaign was hoping high turnout among Hispanics push her over the top in states like Florida and Nevada. “I grew up in a Hispanic family, and the way that Donald Trump has referred to illegal immigrants — being from illegal immigrants, I took that to heart,” said Angel Salazar, a 22-year-old sanitation associate from Oklahoma City. “I don’t like anything that he said. I don’t like his views. So I voted for Hillary Clinton because she supports us.” Trump called his opponent “Crooked Hillary” for her use of a private email server as secretary of state and her complicated ties to the family’s Clinton Foundation.

Officers of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service along with their colleagues from the Customs and Excise Bureau raided the San Fernando home of the businessman, and the homes of two other businessmen in Malabar and D’Abadie overnight Sunday.

The searches took place between 10 pm on Sunday and 10 am on Monday. A quantity of cash and documents were seized from the home of the San Fernando businessman which police believe may lead to a breakthrough in the investigation.

Nothing was found at the houses in Malabar and D’Abadie.

Sources revealed that the businessman has been questioned but is expected to be taken into custody at a later date. According to well-placed sources, the money and documents seized from the San Fernando businessman were taken to the Customs and Excise Division in Portof- Spain and on Monday those documents were being perused by a team of investigators who are also expected to be assisted by persons from the US Virgin Islands. According to reports, following the discovery of the US$2 million last Friday, officers received information that another container with a similar amount of US currency had arrived in the country last week and was cleared at the Point Lisas port by persons using false documents.

Officers believe the cash recovered last Friday originated from the US Virgin Islands and is part of a major money laundering and drug smuggling operation between operators here and in the American territory. Last Friday, at 3.30 pm, a party of Customs and Excise officers along with the police went to the Port Lisas port where a freight container was identified. Officers searched the container and found hidden among a quantity of plywood, bogus documents and the cash.

Speaking at a Port-of-Spain Rotary luncheon at Fitzblackman Drive, Woodbrook, yesterday, Deosaran made reference to Terrence Prince, a man who spent nine years in prison even though the offence that he had committed the maximum sentence was five years.

“The broken institutions, the injustices they unwittingly commit had him waiting nine for a trial.

There are many others like him waiting nine, ten years for their case to be heard in court and they cannot see their lawyers, they cannot have their trial duly executed.

The focus is on the Police Service naturally and inevitably. Is the Police Service capable of doing a better job? Yes, but you have a tangled web of institutions bearing themselves upon the poor Police Service.

“I wonder where the Police Commissioner, active or not, gets the time to supervise and execute his fundamental objectives within and for the Police Service? He is answerable to the Police Complaints Authority, the Police Service Commission, the National Security Council, the Ministry of National Security in terms of resources and Government policy…

now you want to bring in a Police Management Board and a Police Inspectorate. If that is done in the current infrastructure, I feel sorry for the Police Commissioner,” he said.

Deosaran said because of the complexity of appointing a Police Commissioner , the Prime Minister should be given back the veto power in terms of appointing a commissioner or deputy commissioner.

“Cut out some of the bureaucracy because in any case the Prime Minister has a veto already in the existing circumstances. He has a back door veto. The veto request does not come to him directly.

Before you could appoint a Commissioner of Police or deputy Commissioner, that nomination has to come from a private firm through the Service Commission, goes to the President, comes to Parliament and majority vote where that appointment has to be approved or not.

“Who controls the majority in Parliament? The Cabinet, and who controls the Cabinet? The Prime Minister, so whatever the Prime Minister chooses that is how the Cabinet and the majority will have to vote, so the veto is still there. Revoke that and make it clearer now and simplify the process. As far as I can see, it can be done and that would provide the extent of civilian control you want because you can expect a Prime Minister to exercise good judgement, no prejudice, no discrimination, but satisfy himself with the competence, the ability and the experience of the person put before him,” Deosaran said.

He said former police commissioner Dwayne Gibbs was an outstanding gentleman, but he complained bitterly about how many people he had to account to especially when the interests and requests upon him happened to be in competition with one another.

However, Deosaran said many of them were constitutional bodies too, and questioned which master would be served because the commissioner was in a position of having an obligation to serve too many masters.

“I thought the last government and this current one would have shown a greater sense of urgency in cleaning up this complicated system in which the Police Service has to operate. My view now is to simplify the process without losing the substance of oversight and control.

“You want the Police Service to feel free and confident to investigate without fear or favour. The other principle is that in a democracy you must have some extent of civilian control over your National Security services and your Police Service. The legislation so far in trying to bind those two principles have resulted in a tangled web of complexity to the questionable performance of the Police Service,” Deosaran claimed.

“Companies are seeing what they see, seeing how it affected fishermen, seeing how it killed fish, seeing oil in the mangroves and crabs laced with petroleum, and they say they are not sure where it coming from,” he said.

Delivering the keynote address at the American Chamber of Commerce of TT’s HSSE 20th Anniversary Conference at the Hyatt Regency, Port-of- Spain, Khan said it was largely the average man, in this case fishermen and their families, who felt the negative effects of the failure of aging and neglected infrastructure.

Khan told those gathered that oil pollution to inland and marine areas had sharply increased from a low of 843 barrels in 2011 to 18,960 barrels in 2014.

The Energy Minister said there could only be a limited number of sources of this pollution and that “hiding behind the goalpost” whenever an incident occurred was no longer acceptable.

“We have to take responsibility because it affects the lives of the common man. It is something we cannot tolerate because the fishermen are affected and their families are affected.

They could not buy books for their children because no one was buying fish in Otaheite,” said the minister, referring to the spill in that community.

He also lamented that, to this day, fishermen have not been paid their claims. However, Khan said the ministry was taking steps to combat the problem, ensuring that energy companies complied with the revised National Oil Spill Contingency Plan, which mandates that equipment and personnel are on hand to deal with land and marine oil spills. The minister also said the ministry had been conducting audits of operators to ensure they can meet their obligations in the event of a spill.

Speaking with reporters after his presentation, Khan revealed that he was in fact referring to Petrotrin.

“The specific leaks in the Gulf of Paria obviously pointed to Petrotrin and I think Petrotrin has been rather slow in their response to the various communities that have been affected and I will tell them so,” he said. He also compared, unfavourably, this country’s service station industry to the one in Barbados, saying TT had a right to be doing better in this arena, given its long presence in the energy sector.

Addressing increased margins for service stations, the Energy Minister said both he and the Minister of Finance were considering the issue. In recent weeks, service stations have been complaining about fixed margins, saying their profits are reduced as fuel prices rise.

“They have articulated their case on retail margins. I think there may be some substance to what they are saying,” said Khan.

However, the minister could not say whether this issue would be settled before further price increases at the pump. He indicated though that he planned to meet with the Finance Minister soon and they would objectively review the data.

The young man had come from his hurricane-stricken homeland and had begun a three-month programme of studies at Cipriani Labour College while awaiting a student visa. His stay was questioned by immigration officers, whose hand was stayed by his legal team winning an injunction last Friday from Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh.

Eventually, on Monday, the Office of the Attorney General (AG) stepped in to assure that the Chief Immigration Officer would issue him a student permit, thereby freeing up the High Court to issue a consent order, effectively allowing him to stay.

This whole episode would surely have been a very harrowing experience for Saint-Herve who, from all accounts, had followed the proper avenues of application to the college, including provision of proof of funding and prior certification, all with the stated intent to eventually return to his homeland and apply what he has learned to the development of Haiti.

While Saint-Herve was fortunate to get the support of the Emancipation Support Committee (ESC) and attorney Gregory Delzin, one can only wonder what might have been the outcome for this stranger in a strange land if such help had not come his way.

This demonstrates once again how imperative it is for the Immigration Division of the Ministry of National Security — as perhaps to be advised by the AG’s Office — to quickly unclog the obstacles to the timely granting of student visas to overseas applicants.

Indeed, one rationale for doing so will surely be ESC president Kafra Kambon’s plea for humanitarian conduct from the Immigration Division.

But it is not just due to notions of charitableness that this must be done, but for reasons including the economic opportunities such as “educational tourism” in this instance to be grasped by this country.

Yet as a prerequisite to any such marketing thrust, this country must ensure its student visa policy is clearly stated and is reasonably accessible by the target group.

Alternatively, if the Immigration Division indeed has a big backlog of applications for such visas — as has been suggested to Newsday by key sources — and if this body is tardy in processing these documents, such a situation would make losers of us all.

Students such as Saint-Herve will most obviously be on the sharp end of such a situation, but so too educational institutes and employers who will also lose out by the uncertainty of the status of an overseas student’s paperwork.

As shown by the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom and the Donald Trump controversy in yesterday’s United States presidential election, immigration can be an emotive issue in many jurisdictions.

A key part of alleviating the risk of rows over immigration is to ensure an unclogging of any blockages in the machinery of the Immigration Division, so as to expedite decision-making on whether or not to grant visas.

For too long this department has been characterised by delays even in the processing and delivery of passports to our own nationals.

Something in the system is not

In 1946, the Springhill Estate, a 173-acre cocoa and coffee plantation situated in the Arima Valley, seven and a quarter miles from Arima along the Blanchisseuse Road, was purchased by Newcome Wright, a retired English attorney and his Icelandic-born wife Asa, and became their home.

Then in 1950, Dr William Beebe, the internationally acclaimed explorer, naturalist, ornithologist, marine biologist, entomologist, and author, purchased a parcel of land in the Arima Valley which he named “Simla”.

With Beebe in residence, Simla became the Tropical Research Station of the New York Zoological Society. The facility was used as residence and laboratory by many scientists studying various aspects of tropical wildlife.

The rich wildlife of the Arima Valley was highlighted in articles written and published by Beebe and his fellow scientists. These attracted the attention of naturalists and birdwatchers to the area and Beebe persuaded the Wrights to offer accommodation to people wishing to visit.

Among the early visitors were Don Eckelberry, an internationally acclaimed bird artist and his wife Virginia, who became frequent visitors to Springhill. A strong relationship developed between the Eckelberrys and the Wrights.

Newcome died in 1955 and Asa continued to live on the premises.

Advancing age and failing health made friends concerned that with her passing the property may fall into disrepair.

Eckelberry, Russ Mason, Joseph Copeland, and Erma “Jonny” Fisk persuaded Asa to sell Springhill to a group of concerned naturalists to establish a conservation and study area for the preservation of Springhill and its wildlife.

The agreed price of US$75,000 was raised by public donations and the deed of transfer from Asa Wright to the Royal Bank of Canada Trust Company was signed in October 1967. The Asa Wright Nature Centre was officially opened by Sir Hugh Wooding, the Chief Justice of Trinidad and Tobago, on November 5, 1967.

Asa continued to live on the premises, a condition of the sale, until her death on February 6,1971.

There was no mail or telephone service to Springhill and communication with prospective guests was difficult, and as a result the occupancy level of the guest facility, the centre’s only source of income, was very low and the doors were kept open through “interest-free loans” from some of the US board members. In 1974 the New York Zoological Society donated its Simla property to the centre.

In 1974,with the appointment of Wonder Bird Tours of Manhattan, New York, as the nature centre’s booking agent, guest arrivals increased and so did revenue. In 1984 Caligo Ventures of Armonk, New York, replaced Wonder Bird Tours and after 34 years continues as the booking agent. The centre is recognised internationally as an ideal destination for birdwatchers and naturalists and enjoys a high level of repeat visitors.

Operating surplus is used to purchase forested lands and abandoned cocoa estates for the protection of the watershed and wildlife habitat. Today the nature centre owns 1,400 acres of forested lands in the Arima and Aripo Valleys.

In keeping with its mandate it conducts various environmental education programmes and provides the opportunity for its guide/ interpreters to obtain working experience at nature centres in the US.

Mention must be made of the contributions of its dedicated staff and especially that of Lawrence Calderon and Jogie Ramlal, both residents of the Arima Valley who over the years developed into knowledgeable “birding guides”.

Increasing quarrying activities in the Arima Valley are destroying the environment and threatening the existence of the centre.

This destruction must cease.

Happy 49th birthday to the Asa Wright Nature Centre