A signed letter by attorney Gitanjali Gopeesingh was delivered by hand, email and fax to the Express yesterday. The letter was delivered hours after Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bisssesar made further allegations regarding the subject matter of that story at a United National Congress (UNC) political meeting in Chaguanas on Monday night.

Directed specifically to Singh, the letter was headed, “Re: Libel of Colm Imbert.” Gopeesingh said Imbert has given her instructions to demand from Singh “a written and public apology within seven days of this letter in terms to be settled by counsel; and compensation in the form of $500,000, within 14 days of the date of this letter (November 22).” The attorney said “my client (Imbert) did not instruct, or cause, payment of the sum of $7.5M.” She observed that in yesterday’s Express there was an advertisement from the HDC (Housing Development Corporation) which said, “Only the sum of $102,486.75 was paid to Bolt (Trinidad) in April 2016, not the sum alleged by you (Singh.)” The ad also said the payment was made from the HDC’s recurrent expenditure funds and those payments did not require approval of the Finance Ministry. Gopeesingh said Imbert advised her that he “received no text messages from you seeking confirmation of any aspect of the article which inferentially referred to him.” The attorney said the story was calculated to cause Imbert to suffer widespread odium among the public, to discredit him in the eyes of the public and to cause members of the public to lose confidence in his leadership of the Finance Ministry. She told Singh that as a result of her statements, Imbert has suffered much inconvenience, embarrassment, emotional hurt, distress and damage to his reputation.

In a response Imbert told Newsday on Sunday, “It is not true. I have checked with the Budget’s Division of the Ministry of Finance and that allegation that the ministry released funds to be paid to that particular company, that is not true and that never happened.” Newsday understands that Bolt will also be sending a pre-action protocol letter to the Express.

The HDC also said on Sunday, it was considering its legal options against the Express on this matter.

Speaking at the construction site of a bridge at Sister’s Road in Hardbargain yesterday, Sinanan said he is implementing a new multipronged approach to bridge design which will integrate the infrastructural requirements with the needs of the communities which rely on these bridges.

This design will include landscaping to enhance the natural beauty of the riverside while creating recreational spaces for residents and visitors. He also spoke of the energy efficient lighting concepts which will serve to illuminate the structure when visibility is poor.

The bridge at Sisters Road, being constructed by Kall Company, spans 12.9 metres and is costing government $18.4 million.

Five miles from Sisters Road, the minister visited Torrib-Tabaquite Road where there are three major landslides. On arriving at the construction site of a bridge there, he told reporters that he has seen the landslides and he wanted to assure the public that these landslides have been earmarked for repair – something he will be following up on in due course.

“As you can see, the work is being done by this administration to better the roadways for the people of this area,” he said, adding as the Minister of Works he intends to keep a keen eye on these projects.

He spoke to contractor, Partap Lutchmeesingh who said it took just over one year to complete the given project and this was due to slow payments by the government. He noted that most of the work is done and by December the bridge will be opened. This bridge spans 12.8 metres and is costing $28.6 million. At Papourie Road, Debe the minister was approached on the condition of the roads and incessant flooding in this area. Sinanan said he is taking a closer look at the drainage and sidewalks on the major roads in these southern areas. The bridge on Papourie Road, Debe is estimated to cost $20.8 million to complete. The final stop for Sinanan was at Camden Road, Couva, this being the largest bridge spanning 31.7 metres.

The construction of this bridge is expected to cost $43.3 million under SIV Construction Services Limited

The Plant, owned by the Desalination Company of Trinidad and Tobago (Desalcott), provides 40 million gallons of water daily to the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) for purposes of the Point Lisas Industrial Estate and to improve the water supply to the central and south regions of the country.

According to the release, “The Water and Sewerage Authority (the Authority) wishes to remind customers in parts of Central and South Trinidad, of the temporary shutdown of the Point Lisas Desalination Plant from 8th to 11th November 2016, in order to facilitate planned maintenance works.

In order to mitigate the effects of this shortfall in supply, the Authority has implemented the following: re-distribution of supply from the Caroni and Navet Water Treatment Plants; implementation of temporary supply schedules; ensure capacity storage at critical service reservoirs; increased water trucking capacity; special emphasis and arrangements to supply schools, health institutions, homes for aged and other special needs organisations; accelerate response to leak repair, the release added.

Furthermore, the release advised customers to visit WASA’s website at www.wasa.gov.tt and its facebook page, WASA Trinidad & Tobago, to view the temporary supply schedules for the period of disruption.

Also, to request a truck borne delivery, customers may call WASA’s Customer Call Centre too free at 800-4420/26.

Executive Chairman of Desalcott, Yashmid Karamath, explained that the shutdown normally occurs “twice a year for maintenance works.” Therefore, there is nothing out of the ordinary with this upcoming shutdown which, according to Karamath, is in preparation for the upcoming dry season.

Speaking on Saturday at a function to formally open Republic Bank’s new branch in Rio Claro, Rambharat said he knew of two students who had been placed in secondary schools despite achieving low scores in Mathematics and English respectively in this year’s Secondary Entrance Assessment (SE A). He said one of the students had scored 19 percent in Mathematics and the other 29 percent in English but were still placed in secondary schools. He added that he was “absolutely shocked” that students could get into secondary school with such low marks and said he did not think that some of the students in the country’s primary schools were being prepared for life in secondary school.

Asked about this following a function yesterday hosted by the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) in Port of Spain to announce the names of eleven citizens of this country who would receive honorary degrees at UTT’s graduation ceremony today and tomorrow, Garcia initially responded by saying only that Trinidad and Tobago has a system of universal secondary education and this meant “a gradual transition from primary school to secondary school.

“Some educators feel that secondary school is just another stage in the education of a student so there should be an orderly transition from primary school to secondary school.” Pressed to respond more directly to Rambharat’s criticism of the system of moving children into secondary school, Garcia said he would not contradict a fellow Cabinet member and hustled off to what his aides said was “a meeting.” Rambharat said he believed that some youths in rural communities are inadequately prepared to enter secondary school and appealed to Republic Bank, as a good corporate citizen, to help in the development of the young people in the Rio Claro community by helping ‘weak’ pupils in standard one and two in primary schools.

Hadeed, an alderman at the corporation for the 2013-2016 period, was not included in the list of PNM aldermen for the corporation.

On Monday (Nomination Day), the candidates of political parties contesting the November 28 local government election filed their nomination papers at Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) offices in their respective electoral districts.

The PNM and the Opposition United National Congress (UNC), which are contesting all 137 electoral districts in Trinidad, also submitted the names of their respective 137 aldermen nominees for the 14 local government corporations.

Hadeed is one of four heads of local government bodies who will not be returning to office after November 28.

Already out is Keron Valentine at the Portof- Spain City Corporation who was not selected by the party’s screen screening committee which is chaired by Prime Minister and PNM political leader Dr Keith Rowley.

Valentine was the councillor for Northern Port-of-Spain.

Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation (TPRC) Chairman Edwing Gooding, an alderman, was not selected this time among the 16 aldermen at the TPRC.

Former San Fernando Mayor Kazim Hosein, who was appointed Rural Development and Local Government Minister on November 1 when Rowley reshuffled the Cabinet, is excluded from the nine aldermen for the San Fernando City Corporation.

Returning, however, to once again be possible heads of their respective corporations are Clyde Paul (Point Fortin), Anthony Roberts (San Juan/Laventille) and Terry Rondon (Sangre Grande). Rondon is an elected councillor.

Anthony Agu, a 34-year-old certified embalmer with JE Guide Funeral Home in San Fernando, has been given two weeks in which to leave this country and may reapply through the company for permission to return to resume work. The decision was handed down yesterday during his immigration tribunal at the Immigration Division’s office in Port-of- Spain yesterday. The tribunal was chaired by special immigration investigator Allan Sookram. Testifying at the tribunal was Beverly Guide-Williams, managing director of the funeral home who said Agu was an employee for over three years.

“Anthony has proven himself to be hard working, honest and has a great work ethic,” she noted, adding that there was a shortage of persons in the field.

She recommended that immigration policies be amended so that employers can recruit specialist foreign workers where there is a shortage in certain fields.

“To be a professional embalmer you have to be training. You don’t have people leaving school wanting to do embalming, you have to have that love,” she said. She also noted that Agu’s experience in facial reconstruction was extremely helpful to relatives who lost loved ones, particularly in car accidents.

“He has the skill to make someone look like they did 10 years before their illness and to do that is very difficult.

It gives closure in the sense that relatives are allowed to see their loved ones for one last time in the way that you know and remember them before their illness,” she said.

Agu arrived in T&T in 2012, after securing a work permit and received five extensions from the Immigration Department.

His last extension on his permit expired in January, last year and he was arrested months later when he sought a renewal of his work permit.

Agu was represented by attorneys Ricky Pandohee and Michael Coppin.

Justice Frank Seepersad yesterday fixed February 6, 2017 for hearing of the trial in the Port-of-Spain High Court.

Bakr had also filed a parallel challenge in which he claimed his right to a fair trial was infringed when he was charged with a 1998 murder as a result of a Coroner’s decision.

Seepersad held that Bakr’s constitutional motion was an abuse and any challenge against the magistrate’s decision as Coroner should have been done by way of a judicial review application.

On September 29, 2010, Magistrate Nalini Singh, acting in the capacity of a coroner, ruled that there was sufficient evidence for both Bakr and Brent “Big Brent” Miller to be charged with the murder of Israel Sammy, 22, who was killed on May 20, 1998.

Bakr and Miller were the subjects of an inquest into Sammy’s death at the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court.

Three weeks after Singh gave her ruling, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard, SC, discontinued the preliminary enquiry, saying there was insufficient evidence to proceed.

Before I venture an opinion on the matter it is clear to see that if you want citizens who may think differently on a matter to consider your point of view, you have to get your historical and other facts correct, while demonstrating a deep understanding of our culture.

You see, most of our motivations are derived from our culture and true, positive, proactive type motivation must have the following three elements: 1. Autonomy or the desire to take control of our own lives.

2. Consummate skill or the longing to master something important.

3. Meaning or the urge to serve a larger purpose.

Now to arrive at a place where one is imbued with the key elements of positive motivation generally means that the individual has gone through a lot of early and thorough preparation in a stable, loving and reasonably well financed home. It is just so difficult to do otherwise.

So, citizens who are well fed, well housed, well schooled and well on the road to success should be very careful about how they criticise the habits of those who have only benefitted from a fraction of the resources bestowed on the development of the well-off.

GREGORY WIGHT Maraval

He and the whole PP should keep quiet. That is the only reason they were in government.

I had female friends who swore to me for years that they never voted in any election and they never would. Until they realised that they had a chance of voting a female into the Prime Minister’s office. They all voted in 2010.

Now, those same females are saying to me that it was the biggest mistake they ever made and that they will never again vote.

PP people like Fuad Khan should keep quiet.

GLEN PROVIDENCE via email

Trump has transmitted this same ideology, that America has lost its place as a world power and that the nation needed to reclaim something lost. Look no further than his campaign slogan repeated endlessly, “Make America Great Again”.

* Partisan politics is alive and kicking: When Trump announced his candidacy, most people shrugged it off. There was no way a reality TV host and real estate mogul could actually become the President of the US. However, when Trump won the Republican primaries, then the nomination at the Republican Convention, it showed that irrespective of his nonconformist political demeanour, Republicans had no choice but to endorse him, showing that in the end, partisan politics will always reign supreme no matter how radical their candidate might be.

* America is more fragmented than it realises: It is no surprise that Trump’s popularity was co-related to the racist and exclusionary values held by contemporary America.

Trump showed that America is a truly divided nation yet to come to terms with issues of race relations and immigration policies.

* Beware of far-right populist fervour: The rise of “Trumpism” on a much broader level is a manifestation of far-right conservatism intended to protect core conservative values. This was already seen in the Brexit vote and in a general feeling of Euro-scepticism.

Such values are becoming normative as more nations seek to safeguard their own national and state interests.

* But everyone still loves an anti- hero: Trump was the epitome of an unconventional hero. He was the self-declared saviour of the contemporary American nation and therefore defined his campaign as a break with the status-quo, or, as he said, one that sought to “drain the swamp of Washington.” Trump established himself as everything Clinton was not and in so doing rode a wave of ascendancy to a point where he had a legitimate path to being the 45th US President.

The 2016 US presidential race will go down in world history as one that defied the conventional.

It has the rise of Trump to thank for that as he has forever changed the political landscape of not just the US but in fact that of the entire world, and for the reasons listed above, one should be wary of the implications of such a future for world politics.

JARREL DE MATAS