THE EDITOR: Please publish this letter addressed to the general manager, British West Indian Airways. On Monday August 4, 2003, my brother and I travelled nonstop on BW484 to Miami. The flight was great and your service was commendable; but there was a serious problem! Upon arrival at Miami International Airport and on reaching our destination, I opened my locked suitcase, and to my great surprise my CD burner was missing. My brother, on the other hand, opened his locked suitcase and found his DELL laptop missing. Please note that when our suitcases were opened and checked by the clerk in Trinidad, these “missing” items were there for everyone to see. Where are they now?
Did a staff member of BWIA remove them? Do you know that the very same way our suitcases were opened and the items taken out and closed back, is the very same way that drugs could have been placed there? I am pleading to the relevant authorities to please investigate this matter, as we are University students and there is important school information stored in the computer and a very valuable CD burner. I await an early and favourable reply.
VIKAASH MOOSAI
North Miami
THE EDITOR: I refer to the letter entitled “My sins are worse than yours” penned by Ethan G, and published in the Newsday of Wednesday September 3, 2003. I do not believe that Ethan has read “all those anti-gay Biblical excerpts” over a thousand times. Yet if he did then something must be wrong with his reading! I would like to point out the following to him as well as others who attack what the Holy Scripture has to say about homosexuality without studying it properly. Firstly, with reference to the title of his piece “My sins are not worse than yours,” I observed how curious it is of us sinners (1 Kings 8:46; 2 Chr. 6:36 Eccel. 7:20 KJV) to be comparing our sins with other people’s and finding comfort in the fact that we think ours are not as great as theirs. When the Lord said “the soul that sinneth shall surely die,” (Eze. 18:4) He did not give details of the magnitude or multitude of the sins in question; but we do know that the gay man as well as the straight man will perish if he does not repent of his sins! (Luke 13:1-3 KJV).
Secondly, Ethan asks; “Tell me this, do you believe those infamous cities (Sodom and Gomorrah) would have remained intact if the men were sleeping with each other’s wives rather than each other? Don’t you think that plain reckless adultery would have been enough for fire and brimstone?” The answer to the first question is most certainly yes they would have remained intact along with all the other cities that were not destroyed for this reason! Men have always slept with other men’s wives and nowhere is it recorded that God destroyed them or their cities! While the Bible does not condone adultery, this definitely is not the reason why Sodom was destroyed. The reason why Sodom and its inhabitants were destroyed was that its men were practicing homosexuality! Lot was saved because he was not. The men of Sodom were not bisexuals, “male sluts,” they were emphatically homosexuals.
A careful reading of Genesis 19 will show that Lot’s daughters were virgins (verse 8) although they were married! (verse 14) If Lot’s sons-in-law were bisexual men, they certainly would have slept with them! Neither did the men of Sodom sleep with their wives nor with other men’s wives! Lot’s eldest daughter, having lived in Sodom all her life and being married to a Sodomite, came to the conclusion that “…there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth..” The men of Sodom did not treat women in the same manner as other men “in all the earth”. Oh, the trauma this young lady was put through! Because of her husband’s homosexuality she raped her father! (verse 31). Thirdly, all biblical commands such as Lev. 18:22 and 20:13 are addressed to all men, gay or straight. It must be admitted that God created the “gay man” and also forbids him to have sex with other men. Genesis 1:27 tells us He made “male and female”; there is no “third sex.” Hormonal imbalances in men may cause them to be attracted to other men but it does not create a new sex. This imbalance can be corrected in this modern age of medical science. Therefore if you are going to argue in support your homosexual lifestyle, you can’t do so on the basis of the Bible. The Bible is totally against this manner of living.
Finally I would like to point out that the Bible says that it is not just the homosexual act that is sinful, but the “effeminate” man shall not inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Cor 6:9 KJV).
SYLVAN JAMES
Debe
THE SCENARIO is now a familiar one. While members of the World Trade Organisation meet to expand free trade agreements, a motley band of protestors meet outside to vehemently condemn the globalisation movement as designed to benefit rich countries at the expense of the poor. The WTO meeting which opened yesterday at the Mexican beach resort of Cancun has attracted the same mixed bag of demonstrators, only this time the authorities have confined them to areas from which they cannot disturb or disrupt the proceedings. However, the question remains, who has it right about free trade? Is it, as the protestors claim, a devilish device created by First World countries to exploit the backwardness and vulnerability of the Third World? Or is it an arrangement by which all countries, rich and poor, will benefit, creating an economic sea change, so to speak, in which all boats will rise?
If we look for a consensus among the world’s leading economists we will find most of them in favour of, at least, the ideal or rather the concept of free trade, since it is an established fact that nations create wealth by trading among themselves, and the freer and more extensive the process becomes then, clearly, the greater the wealth created by the participating countries. But while we may not quarrel with that theory and while we may even accept the fact that the world economy has grown significantly since the start of the movement, it is obvious to us that the free trade deck is still heavily stacked against the poor and developing countries. We may even find cause to be cynical in the fact that some of the First World countries, who are the most ardent advocates of free trade, still indulge in a range of protectionist measures, granting huge subsidies to farmers and other producers together with export incentives as a result of which they are able to dump their products on the world market at such cheap prices that local Third World farmers cannot compete.
This is a dishonest and hypocritical travesty of the whole concept of free trade. If the banana and sugar producers of the West Indies must lose the concessions they traditionally enjoyed in Europe and elsewhere, why should farmers in the developed world continue to benefit from such massive subsidies and incentives, robbing farmers in poor countries of competing on a level playing field? It is estimated that the United States and European Union countries subsidise their farmers to the tune of US$350 bllion every year, a large chunk of which farmers in Third World countries could be earning if they were able to compete according to the same free trade rules. The stage then has been set for one of the most significant meetings of the World Trade Organisation, a virtual showdown between rich and poor countries over the most vexing issue of the free trade movement. The First World nations cannot expect to play it both ways, to have their cake and eat it too. The WTO must have the courage to tell them so and demand the appropriate changes.
Many years ago I attended a meeting of a social club where we were all invited to introduce ourselves by name and occupation. A very well spoken, handsome looking man stood up smartly, and stated: “I am So and So. I am a poet.” His simple statement was greeted by silence in a group that considered itself “intellectual.” No one believed him. His name had never been heard of as being associated with poetry. Was he really a poet and why had they never read anything by him? Of course he could have been a closet poet, one who poured out his feelings and heart to himself and himself alone. But he considered himself a poet and who were we to say otherwise.
One woman did have something to say. She quite openly challenged him to the point of suggesting that the man had a nerve to call himself a poet. She considered it an unforgivable devaluation of the word, and she might have been right but who could tell. But she hotly castigated people for what she determined was the sin of devaluing the meaning of words. I am reminded of this incident very frequently these days when I read or hear the way in which we devalue words. It is now almost a national pastime. Consider the word “icon.” It is used today without pause to describe every Tom, Dick and Harry who may have achieved some success as a dancer, singer, calypsonian, drummer, swimmer, footballer, cricketer. The only category not yet included is politician but as certain as night follows day it won’t be long before we have one of those, who sit in Parliament and bore us to death, being referred to in such reverent terms.
What does the word “icon” mean? The Oxford dictionary defines it as a representation of Christ or a saint, especially one painted in oil on a wooden panel in a traditional Byzantine style and venerated in the Eastern Church. Or it could be an image, a picture, a person regarded as a sex symbol Who in this country among the categories listed above qualifies either as a representation of Christ or as a sex symbol? Let’s get real for heaven’s sake and stop all this icon foolishness. Let’s honour people by all means but stop devaluing the word. Another word that has entered our daily vocabulary without much thought since the Iraq war is “embedded.” In the old days to be embedded meant something fixed firmly and deeply in a surrounding solid mass, to fix or retain a thought, idea in the mind. Since the US government “embedded” the media in its troops in the Iraq war we have latched on to word, even to the point where a silly television reporter who was invited to go along on a police road block exercise in Laventille proudly declared himself “embedded” with the Police. Does he realise the totally subjective reports of the Iraq invasion the world got from the “embedded” US reporters? But here was this Trinidadian reporter standing on a Laventille Road surrounded by bemused and bewildered Laventillians telling viewers that he was embedded with the Police! Did he realise how silly he looked? Did he even pause for even a second to consider the image he presented? Was journalistic integrity was being scuttled by such nonsense? I doubt it.
I remember the days when a showcase was a shop or store window through which passersby could see what the store had to offer. A showcase at the corner parlour was for displaying bread or cakes or sandwiches. Today we “showcase” everything, a steelband performance, a concert, a flower show, a collection of dresses. Since when have we stopped holding flower shows or staging concerts? Let’s stop “showcasing” ourselves and get on with life. But since we so like to copy others, we should follow the example of a recent artiste to this country from India, I believe. She was repeatedly being described as a “Diva.” She objected strenuously stating that she was not a “diva” but a singer. There is nothing to beat simplicity as the great philosopher Russel once pointed out. He was reading a book about monkeys and the way they behave. The book “showcased” a photograph of a monkey, under which the caption read: “Monkey with object.” Why, Russel irritability asked, did the writer use the word “object” when it was perfectly simple and clear for all to see that the monkey was eating a “banana.”
jstarr@newsday.co.tt
AN UNPAID debt is believed to be the motive behind the brutal murder of a 38-year-old Gaspa-rillo bottle-recycling contractor, who police say was ambushed and hacked to death at the back of his home, sometime between Tuesday night and yesterday morning. The bloodstained body of Soodesh Sawh, a bottle supplier to Carib Brewery, was discovered by relatives around 6 am yesterday at his Light Bourne Road, Bonne Aventure, Gasparillo home. The body bore multiple deep chops to the head and face. Also seriously wounded in the attack was Sawh’s employee, Ansari Karim, 49, a father of two, of Morne Wash, Gasparillo, who was beaten on his head with glass bottles and planassed about the body until he slipped into unconsciousness. Believing Karim to be dead, the killers fled the scene.
When he regained consciousness, the bloody, injured man made his way next door to Sawh’s sister’s house where he called out for help and then collapsed. Karim was rushed to the San Fernando General Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery and is now warded in a serious condition under police guard. Police sources told Newsday they believed the killing was the fatal sequel to an altercation Sawh had with three men on Tuesday, who accused him of owing them a sum of money after a business transaction went sour. Sawh was beaten by the men who threatened to kill him if he did not come up with the money. Later that day, he went to the bank and withdrew between $5,000 to $10,000. Investigators also believe Sawh threw the bag of money in the bushes when he was accosted by the men yesterday.
Investigators believe Sawh’s killers knew what time he usually left home to go to work and waited in ambush for him to come out of the house. Sawh’s common-law wife Margaret Mohammed was not home at the time of the killing. When Newsday visited the scene yesterday, Sawh’s sister Savitri Bholaramsingh, who lives next door to her brother, said a bleeding Karim came to her home and said Sawh had been chopped and needed help. Bholaramsingh said she alerted other relatives and went to the back of the house where they found an unconscious Sawh lying on his back with gaping wounds in the middle of his head, behind the neck and on his face. There was blood everywhere. Bholaramsingh said she believed her brother had put up a struggle because there was mud splashed all over his body. She said she had no knowledge of her brother owing money to anyone or that he had had an altercation with a group of men on Tuesday.
Describing Sawh as a hard worker and friendly person, Bholaramsingh said, “His death was brutal…real brutal.” She also called on police to provide 24-hour protection for Karim since he had witnessed the murder. Karim’s relatives, including his mother Hazrah, were told of the incident by reporters who went to her home. “My son is a friendly boy and I do not know who do this to him,” the worried woman said. Visiting the scene of the murder yesterday was a party of officers led by Southern Division Head, Snr Supt Desmond Lambert and including Insp Brereton, Sgt Santana and Cpl Parson. Up to late yesterday efforts were being made to have an autopsy carried out on Sawh’s body at the Forensic Sciences Centre, Federation Park, St James. Also up to late yesterday, no arrests had been made and Cpl Parson is continuing investigations.
WESTERN Division police and officers of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad (AKS) said yesterday they are working on several theories that will lead them to the arrest of the person or persons who kidnapped and murdered businessman Vernon Roopnarine. However, up to late evening, no arrests had been made. Cpl Dennison Henry of the Maraval Criminal Investigations Department (CID) is continuing enquiries, spearheaded by Sr Supt Stephen Quashie. A post mortem performed yesterday by pathologist Dr Eastlyn McDonald-Burris revealed that the businessman was beaten to death. The autopsy report said Roopnarine died as a result of blunt trauma to the head and body. It also said that there was a possibility of ligature strangulation. The ligature strangulation, according to police, means that Roopnarine was not strangled by one’s hands, but by a piece of cloth or something close.
The autopsy report also revealed that six of the businessman’s ribs and right arm were broken. The autopsy was performed at the Forensic Sciences Complex and police said Roopnarine had been dead in excess of 36 hours. The autopsy was witnessed by investigator Cpl Henry and Roopnarine’s son, Darryl, and brother, Boysie. Roopnarine, 56, owner of Refinery and Industrial Fabrication Limited, was kidnapped from outside his Sum Sum Hill, Claxton Bay home last Thursday night. He was reportedly beaten before he was bundled into the back of a silver Honda Civic vehicle. Last Saturday morning the kidnappers contacted Roopnarine’s relatives and demanded a $3 million for his safe release. However, Roopnarine’s decomposed body was found early Tuesday morning in some bushes some 20 feet over a cliff on Morne Coco Road, Petit Valley. The businessman was gagged, blind-folded, hogtied with a piece of rope around his neck and was bareback. Roopnarine will be cremated tomorrow at Mosquito Creek following a funeral service at the house of mourning, Sum Sum Hill, Claxton Bay.
THE ALLEGED failure by the Anti-Kidnapping Squad (AKS) to take seriously the threatened kidnapping of Barataria businessman John Sam Chee led to Sam Chee’s son being shot three times in a melee Tuesday night at the Eastern Main Road, San Juan. The kidnap attempt failed but Sean Sam Chee, 31, was shot three times and police were up to late evening trying to determine if he was shot by his father’s gun, or from the kidnappers’ firearms. Sean is in critical condition at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Mount Hope Medical Sciences Centre. He needs ten pints of AB positive blood. He was shot in the hand, foot and back.
The family claims to have had a tip-off that an attempt was going to be made to kidnap Sam Chee, 58, owner of Tenth Avenue Drugs, Eastern Main Road, San Juan. As a consequence, Sam Chee’s sister, Mildred, claimed she contacted the AKS on Tuesday. However, acting head of the AKS, ASP Henry Millington told Newsday as far as he knew they weren’t contacted, but that he would check on it. Investigators said a man came to the drugstore Monday night and warned a worker about the kidnap plot. Police sources said the man told the worker that the Sam Chees were good people, and he overheard that Sam Chee was going to be kidnapped.
When contacted, Sam Chee told Newsday his sister called the AKS: “They told her to go and talk to the police (in the area). But I heard they (AKS) are only helping bigshot people,” Sam Chee stated. Mildred confirmed yesterday that she called the AKS on Tuesday. She said she spoke to a male officer, but said she could not remember his name. She said she told the officer of the tip off they received and sought advice. “He told me to contact my area police,” Mildred said, adding the officer also told her that the AKS only help the police if they need help. “My brother did not take on the information, but I took it on, so I called the AKS,” she said. She added they were going to lodge a report to the station district just before the attempted kidnapping incident. North Eastern Division officers said they weren’t told of the planned kidnap either by the AKS, or by the businessman. Investigators told Newsday if they had been aware they would have put measures in place to prevent the attempted kidnapping.
“We would have caught them red-handed,” a police source said, adding the people who tried to grab Sam Chee may be working for notorious kidnappers. Reports on the attempted kidnapping are that the elder Sam Chee closed his businessplace around 9.30 pm and was about to leave through a door on the eastern side. Sam Chee was in company with a worker. As the two were about to leave, police sources said three armed men came out of a red vehicle and approached Sam Chee. On seeing the men, police said Sam Chee tried to run through the gate from where he had left. The worker had already fled the scene. However, the kidnappers grabbed Sam Chee and dragged him to their red vehicle. Police said Sam Chee, whose left elbow was badly bruised, reached for his licenced firearm which he kept in a black pouch.
The businessman, who had screamed for help, reportedly fired 11 shots, during which time the three men also returned fire. Investigators said Sean heard the melee and came outside from the family’s nearby home on Fourth Street. He was shot three times. Police sources said Army and police officers under Insp Ancil Coa and Cpl Patrick Thomas of the Morvant CID were on roadblock duty at the time and heard the transmission on the wireless and responded. Sean was taken to the Mount Hope institution, where he remained warded up to late evening. “They tried to kidnap me, but my son got shot instead. We were warned about it, but it done happen already,” Sam Chee said from his businessplace.
Persons wishing to enter the University of the West Indies (UWI) but who are unable to due to financial difficulty may soon find a solution to their problems thanks to collaborative efforts between UWI management and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education. Campus Principal Dr Bhoe Tewarie noted that he had held meetings with Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education Senator Danny Montano to find a formula to ensure that anyone who is qualified, but financially unable to enter the university, will be funded.
He was speaking to members of the media yesterday after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the University and Caribbean Money Market Brokers (CMMB) for the provision of $1 million to go towards the furthering of specific research projects in areas related to finance. Remarking that although the University had recorded its highest intake of students — 3,500 persons for the new academic year — Dr Tewarie revealed that it had actually accepted 5,000 students. However, he said a number of factors cut this number down, specifically the decision of some to wait a year before starting university; the acquisition of jobs; lack of adequate funding and migration, among other reasons.
“We actually expected to get about 4,000,” he maintained, “and if we get this, we can handle it because our commitment is to carry the undergraduate population to 12,000 and hold it there. This would mean an intake of about 4,000 per year.” Dr Tewarie further currently revealed that the university was undergoing majour construction work to accommodate its growing student population. In particular, he stated, the Humanities building was being extended to provide significant space for offices, as well as for teaching and learning spaces. They are also about to commission a new education building which will provide facilities for lectures, seminars and video conferences.
“In addition to that,” he continued, “we are expanding the Engineering department, and we have plans on the drawing board for the construction of a six-storey building which would house only teaching spaces and labs.” “We do have plans as well for the construction of housing spaces for the very high demand of students.” He said, “over the next two years or so, we will have significant construction taking place in and around Campus to better serve the student population and the community at large.”
The Government will soon ban cigarette advertising, announced Minister of Health Colm Imbert in the Senate on Tuesday evening, wrapping up debate on the Pharmacy Board (Amendment) Bill 2003. He promised legislation to effect an anti-tobacco agreement — the International Convention on the Control and Regulation of Tobacco, which the Government had signed in May at the World Health Assembly of the World Health Organisation (WHO). The new law he said, would prohibit the advertising of tobacco, control its sale to minors, and impose a strict control on its use and sale.
On the issue of tissue transplant legislation, Imbert disclosed that the law currently only allowed organ transplants between relatives and promised to soon legalise organ donations between other persons. He said that while the former UNC government had passed the Tissue Transplant Act, it could not be effected without attendant Regulations. Imbert trumpeted that he had worked hard with his staff and would lay the regulations in Parliament within a month. On a legislative roll, Imbert pledged to bring to Parliament by December a “landmark” Health Services Quality Act to set out pressumable standards of patient healthcare. The Minister promised to expand the Chronic Disease Assistance Programme which currently supplies some free medicines to geriatrics, to also cover children under age 16 years, and eventually to cover the whole population.
Imbert hit back at criticisms from Opposition Senator Wade Mark who claimed the Government had run down a fleet of Emergency Health Service (EHS) ambulances supplied by the former adminstration from about 55 to 60 to five to eight. Imbert said the UNC regime had supplied second-hand, left-hand drive ambulances with a limited life-span, which the PNM Government was now trying its best to keep running. He said 17 ambulances were in service, responding to 200 calls per day, each within 10 to 15 minutes. Imbert responded to Mark’s accusations that the Government had unfairly treated both EHS workers and East Indian doctors, saying that it was this Government which had first given contracts to the EHS workers and that the Principal Medical Officer and the several Chief Medical Officers were all of East Indian descent. The Senate unanimously passed the Pharmacy Board (Amendment) Bill 2003.
CANCER. The very term is like a death sentence to not only the persons afflicted, but also to their families, some of whom have to endure the agony of watching a loved one suffer through their final moments. Or, if the family can afford, look on helplessly as their loved one is forced to endure an equally horrendous form of treatment: radiation. In Trinidad and Tobago, the scourge that is cancer, in all of its different manifestations, is the second leading cause of death. While treatment varies with the type of cancer diagnosed, at least one group of dedicated Trinidadian women — most of whom have had at least one family member struck down by the deadly disease — are determined to lead a fightback against the disease. The South/Central Group of the Associates of the Radiotherapy Centre (ARC), made up mostly of professional women is led by president Caroline Chankersingh who lost a close aunt to breast cancer.
Chankersingh, a financial consultant for one of the nation’s leading insurance firms, said that for most persons, just the news that someone has been diagnosed with cancer was similar to receiving “a death sentence.” “I remember when my aunt got the news, her entire demeanour changed,” Chankersingh said. “And it was not only her, but the entire family that was affected.” She pointed out that, according to statistics from the National Radiotherapy Centre, almost every household in this country has had a family member afflicted with cancer. “We are trying, in our own small way, to make a difference here in Trinidad and Tobago,” she said, pointing out that one of the objectives of the group was to assist the National Radiotherapy Centre. In full agreement was ARC (North) president Janet Worrell-Hicks, who said that the Organisation had three fully functional working committees: a fund-raising committee, a patient-care committee and an in-house committee.
Worrell-Hicks said the Organisation had, through its fund-raising events, already performed remedial work at the Centre including replacing all of its ceiling tiles, purchasing 25 chairs for patients’ use, repainting the clinic, ward and treatment areas and purchasing a video and television for “patient education.” The Group has also hosted a workshop for cancer survivors and their families. Hicks, who lost her step-father to cancer, said that the establishment of a volunteer system to provide physical and emotional support to patients and their families was among the Group’s top priorities. “However, one of our long-term goals is the establishment of a resource library,” she said. She added that, one of the most underutilised weapons in the war against cancer, “was education.” “Listen to your body, because early treatment can often times mean the difference between an extended life or an early death,” she said. The ARC-South Central group, will be holding its Annual Charity Dinner and Dance at the Gulf City Auditorium this Saturday from 7.15 pm. The event is being held under the patronage of former First Lady, Mrs Zalayhar Hassanali. Expected to attend are San Fernando West MP Diane Seukeran and San Fernando Mayor Ian Atherly. Tickets can be purchased from any member of ARC.
