THE HANDLERS of Siparia teenaged boxer Giselle Salandy have failed to negotiate with the franchise holders of the Ibero welterweight title causing her to be stripped of the regional championship. And any move to have her defend the title against an opponent not sanctioned by the partnership of top Trinidad and Tobago and Curacao promoters will result in legal action.
This veiled threat was delivered yesterday by leading international match-maker Buxo Potts who insists that Salandy’s manager Curtis Joseph has no authority to enter into any agreement for a defence of the crown. “This was due three months ago and we have been trying unsuccessfully to get him to come to terms in order to have Salandy make a successful defence of her crown,” said Potts yesterday. Failing this, the Women’s International Boxing Association (WIBA), aware of the contractual obligations of the champion and failure to comform to the requirements of a mandatory defence within a stipulated time declared the title vacant, said Potts. “I was then invited to put in a first bid to stage a fight for the vacant crown and it was accepted. It’s as simple as that,” said Potts. He said he knows Salandy well and wishes her all the best for the future. However he charged that she has aligned herself with persons who cannot move her career forward. “They are trying to buy time. Well they have run out of time. We are going ahead with the contest at the end of April with Trinidadian Giselle Martin booked to fight an opponent picked by the WIBA for the championship in Curacao,” said Potts. He said Salandy’s handlers have come to this position because they have failed to understand and observe the laws and rules of the promotion game. “In my opinion they have not paid their dues to boxing having just recently entered the fray. Now they are trying to disenfranchise the promoters who put Salandy where she is. That can’t happen,” said Potts.
The former jockey also cast scorn on Joseph’s claim that a Colombian promoter was interested in putting on Giselle for a defence against a hometown opponent. “There is no one in Colombia to give Gisele a good fight. So it is not an attractive card for any Colombian. In fact we have been hearing these offers for many months. It is another gimmick to buy time,” said Potts. He said if Salandy’s handlers were serious in getting her to fight they will now have to enter into negotiations with him and his associates to purchase the franchise. “There is the cost factor involved and we are willing to talk if there is an attractive offer,’ said Potts. He said he believed the ruse was to stall any promotion of Giselle until she reaches the age of 17 when she can he given a professional licence to fight in Trinidad and Tobago. “But we can’t go that way. He has run out of time,” said Potts.
TRINIDAD and Tobago’s unique Carnival needs all the international media coverage it can get, since the national festival attracts hundreds of visitors to our shores every year, also making it an important economic asset. However, we expect that foreign media people who are invited here to cover the celebrations would at least be true to the essential nature of the event, interested in capturing the heart of the spectacle which reveals the creativity and joie de vivre of our pluralistic society. However, the programme producers of E!TV, the satellite entertainment channel, who did an hour-long feature on TT’s last Carnival, clearly had no such honest concern or intention and what they aired on the channel on Tuesday night was such a dreadfully superficial caricature of our Carnival that we are compelled to express our outrage and to demand that TIDCO seek from them an apology for such an insult to our country and its culture.
It is true that E!TV is an entertainment channel but entertainment should not always be regarded as a totally mindless affair having no intellectual content or no historical and social significance. We find it quite unbelievable that an E!TV production crew can come here, experience the explosion of colourful costumes, infectious music and the all-embracing merriment of our rainbow people and then produce for viewing the utter rubbish that was shown on Tuesday night. At the end of the show, the name of TIDCO appeared among the credits, so we must assume that the tourist promotion agency had some connection with, at least, the conception or genesis of this ridiculous programme. We hope that they would now see the need to explain the extent of their role in it. If TIDCO is responsible for inviting the E!TV people here, did the company pay any of the expenses of the American television crew during their visit? If it did, were the agency’s officials concerned about what was being produced, the need for consultation, to offer guidance, advice, historical and cultural information? Or were the E!TV producers left to do their own ridiculous thing?
Instead of presenting a truthful portrait of TT’s multi-faceted festival, the E!TV people aired a show that depicted our country as having a preponderantly white population with yachties dancing on our beaches with a few “natives” as part of the national celebrations. No serious attempt was made to explain the festival historically, no prominent bandleader or TT expert on the celebrations were interviewed, none of the essential ingredients of our Carnival – the steelband, calypso and soca – were featured. The insults became intolerable when a Barbadian entertainer and a woman with a Latin accent were seen pontificating on the meaning of our national celebrations. While E!TV may have wanted to “pitch” the programme – which was slotted in their “Wild On” series – to an American audience, it was grossly dishonest of them to portray our country as if its population was largely Caucasian. As far as we are concerned, this was the unkindest cut of all since our Carnival is essentially a merry melting pot of our multi-ethnic society, a festival that brings together as nothing else, the many diverse elements of our population. This piece of nonsensical froth produced by E!TV must be seen as a lesson for us, particularly for those entrusted with the international promotion of the national celebrations. Yes, our Carnival needs as much foreign media exposure as it can get, but certainly not at this kind of depreciated and distorted price. The “greatest show on earth” is not just a shallow “Wild On” caper. Its unique annual flowering, responsible for the germination of Trini-style festivals in several foreign cities, is born out of the creative expression of our people with their own history, personality and character. Those who come from abroad to cover it must be made to understand that.
As the poet said, “Things are not always what they seem” – and I might add, “especially in politics.” Someone else observed, “In politics, never believe anything you hear or half of what you see.”
I seem to recall reading recently in a local newspaper that newspaper columnist Reginald Dumas – A Trinbagonian of African descent – said, at some seminar on “ethnicity” or some such, that, “he was not an African” and he either said or implied that there were, “no local Indians or local Africans in Trinidad and Tobago” and that he anticipated receiving some flak for saying this, especially as she made the statements at a conference sponsored by some local “Indian” organisation. It’s important to note that Reginald Dumas was brought up in “a local Indian environment.” was much travelled in both Africa and India and, I believe held diplomatic posts there. One can therefore assume that he knows whereof he speaks when he implies that our affinity to ancestral homes and cousins – understandable as it must be – does not even make us honourary “Africans” or honourary “Indians.”
I’ve only chosen some aspect of what Dumas is reported to have said and, I might add, at the very real risk of misrepresenting the drift of his total contribution to the debate. It’s however curious that Mr Dumas should dare to suggest that in a little country where there appears to be “more Africans per square foot than in Africa and more Indians per square foot than in India” you can’t find a single “homegrown African or Indian.” How perplexing! Given his background and the breadth of his exposure to the two ancestral continents, it’s not surprising that Mr Dumas has found that the artificially created imbroglio over the revisiting of the “Trinity Cross” to enable anyone in our much touted “inter-religious society” to accept with equanimity and an easy conscience is just so much humbug. Common sense suggests that one’s highest honour in a secular state should be religiously and ethnically neutral and otherwise outside the realm of justifiable controversy. However, for reasons about which we can only speculate, Dr Eric Williams temporised on this issue. Under the Basdeo Panday administration, a committee was appointed to look into the matter and make recommendations. The committee reported and that report was studiously ignored.
Inevitably, the Trinity Cross issue arose again under Patrick Manning’s watch and, unbelievably, Manning averred that he “was taking his time to look at the problem until he finds out why Panday didn’t deal with it,” or some such nonsense. Yuh think it easy with “Bim and Bam” (those two comical characters towards the lower end of our folklore) I am now more confirmed in my assessment of the two political party operatives when I classify them, in my own mind, as “saucers and bamboos.” Why? “What a stupid question! Saucers are shallow and bamboos are hollow, of course. But having said that, if I might steal a calypso line afrom Chalkie, the “Ship of State” sometimes referred to as “the Ship of fools” appears to be overcrowded, “not so much with so much political quacks and invalids” but, if you take seriously the rantings and frothings of some Chief Crazy Horse or some consummate political ass, the ship is dangerously listing due to a multitude of “Afro-Trini-Germans” in hot pursuit of “Indo-Trini-Jews” to have them encamped in “Concentration camps” before being consigned to some “homegrown Hitler’s gas ovens.” Wanna bet that local and international swindlers are already licking their chops at the prospect of fast tracking those gas ovens?
When Buzz Butler was asked where was “home rule” and where was his manifesto, Butler replied that “home rule” was in his back pocket and his manifesto was six inches below his navel. When another politician was told about the necessity of having buoys placed in the harbour in the interest of navigational safety, he demurred on the ground that “men” should be placed there instead, as the sea in the harbour was too dangerous for “boys.” On another occasion, another politician failed to support a measure to have public urinals placed at strategic points in the capital city, because he did not know the meaning of the word “urinals.” However, he made an about turn when the word was explained to him. He not only supported the measure but declared himself in enthusiastic support of “arsenals” as well. If I’ve laboured the point a bit it is simply to show that our politicians have been in the habit of talking utter rubbish, but they did not always have a national and international audience, with radio, television internet and all that jazz. Compared to Manning and Panday (especially Panday) the politicians of the past are really “small potatoes.” Put another way, Manning has stolen the cake and Panday has gone away with the whole goddamned bakery. Basdeo Panday has now apparently set his sights on imposing his miserable political self on the “Pan-Indian movement.”
Well, God help the Indian Diaspora! One can only hope that a Manning Pan-African initiative is not in the offing. That might probably provide some respite for the lower courts and our Red House. Watch out, Nelson Mandela! You will need whatever little strength you have left. To be forewarned is to be forearmed, Sir. The late Dr Eric Williams – no mean fighter – lost his “Father of the nation” title without a fight. All hail, our would-be Mahatma Gandhis and Nelson Mandelas! You think it easy?
THE EDITOR: The former President of Trinidad and Tobago, Mr ANR Robinson, said “Trinidadians and Tobago-nians need to return to spirituality.” He made this statement before leaving office. I could not agree more. With crime spiralling out of control, one wonders what values are being taught in homes and in schools.
The capitalist American values seem to point the way to the future. Are these values the best? Materialism appears to have taken the place of spiritual values. A consciousness of God is critical towards building a strong society. The get rich mentality forces people to sell their souls for the mighty dollar. A few days ago a 14-year-old boy was shot for a few dollars in Morvant. Criminals with guns are seeking to get rich by stealing and killing others. The death of a society begins when the law of the jungle supercedes the rule of law and order. The present murder rate in TT is great cause for concern
Mahatma Ghandi said, “There is enough food for the world’s need but not for the world’s greed.” Ghandi got rid of his made-in-Britain suit and in India spun his own “dhoti.” He taught the philosophy of self-sufficiency. For those who are in the lower strata of society, this philosophy is worth adopting. Ghandi did not have a lot of food or clothing. He worked and provided enough for himself and his family. The grab for money and a higher lifestyle is forcing young people into a life of crime. It is good to seek a better standard of living but not at the cost of casting aside spiritual and moral values. Advertising seems to be the chief culprit, designed to create needs in the lives of people when there really isn’t any need. The cowboy smoking a cigarette paints a picture of strength and independence. The image of a man dying from cancer is never seen. Advertisers present these images to create an unnecessary need for material things. Children should be aware of these things. Expensive designers’ clothing and other items are just that, expensive.
The education system needs to focus on developing citizens, not just giving information. Homes need to become a wellspring of love. The present Russian President Putin was being interviewed by a reporter from CNN. She inquired about the material things that Putin did not have during his childhood days, then she asked him “how did you survive on so little?” The expression on her face seem to indicate to the Russian president that this woman felt that he grew up in a very destitute environment. President Putin looked at her and smiled, he said, “I remember growing up with very little, but in our home what I remember most was the love I felt from my parents, they loved me unconditionally.” Do children feel the love of their parents? Sometimes in homes the future criminals are bred. Again, I encourage Trinis to return to spiritual values, before it’s too late.
KHEM HARRINARINE
Port-of-Spain
THE EDITORS: It is amazing how members of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service deal with the public nowadays. On Friday, I had a most unpleasant encounter with two officers on Independence Square. I had turned onto Independence Square South from Chacon Street without stopping. Despite the fact that there was no oncoming traffic, I concede that I was wrong. I was immediately pulled over by a squad car. However the treatment that I received can be described as nothing but unprofessional.
For starters, the abusive language was quite intolerable. And when I say abusive I mean the kind of stuff that neither TV6 nor NBC can air at any hour of the day. I’m not sure if that type of language is acceptable in the Police Service, but I’m pretty sure that if I had responded in a similar manner I would have been immediately arrested. The insinuations that I had “bought my licence” were a bit disturbing, however I tried my best to remain calm and listen to the logic that I figured must have been somewhere in the words coming out of the officer’s mouth. Refusing to grovel, I stood my ground to which one of the officers warned, “I notice you are very cocky. Don’t think because of your skin you can get away with anything.”
I view this comment as brutally insulting and due to the fact that I was not issued a ticket (in fact there were no grounds for me to be given a ticket), the only thing that I can come up with is that this was a plain case of discrimination. It is one thing to be pulled aside and shown right from wrong, but when that is coupled with verbal abuse, allegations of fraud and discriminatory remarks, something is definitely wrong. If it is that possession of a gun gives police officers the right to act and speak as they please, then it is no wonder that people have complained of being severely brutalised by members of the police and army recently. I hope that the public does not accept such unprofessional treatment from any member of the Police Service and that anyone encountering such treatment reports it to the Police Complaints Authority.
JASON NATHU
St James
THE EDITOR: Please print this timely appeal in your newspaper, “Awake God’s clarion call to righteousness.” The divine fiat is resounding through the earth. “If my people who are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14.
1) Healing of our land can only take place when we become conscious of sin’s offensiveness to God, recognise our true condition before Him, then cling helplessly for repentance and forgiveness with a desire for change.
2) Confession — when we confess our faults to each other, seeking forgiveness from those we have wronged and who have wronged us. Matthew 5.23. 3) Consecration — We study God’s word for the solution to remedy our sinfulness, practising his commands in our daily life until we reflect Christ’s lifestyle. By beholding Him daily we become like Him.
Fear God and keep His commandments is our whole duty. Ecclesiastes 12: 13, 14. We are to love Him with our whole being, heart, mind and strength and love others as we love ourselves. Deuteronomy chapter 11.13. The Clarion call keeps singing, awake one and all, it is imperative, urgent and important. Reverence God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment is come and worship him who made the heaven, earth, sea, fountain of waters. Revelation 14:7.
Families should rebuild the prayer and Bible Study altar in their homes for saving their children from the paths of degradation and sin which are stalking headlong through our land. Deuteronomy 6: 5-8. Our leaders and ministers need to cry out between the porch and the altar for our nation’s repentance and themselves, so that God will heal our land. Joel 2:12. Now is the available opportunity to make a decision for Jesus Christ, our Creator, Sustainer who has redeemed us with his precious blood. Tune our ears to hear and respond to his pleading, reach out in faith, claim his promises and demonstrate through obedience his principles of righteousness.
ELEANOR WILSON
Mason Hall
Tobago
THE EDITOR: Please print this letter, as we have no one else to turn to. We the people of Erin, and surrounding districts would like the relevant authority to look into the conduct of a nurse at the Erin Health Centre. This is a matter of great urgency as she needs to be given a crash course in public relations, and also problem solving within the circles of her staff.
To think that you belong to an area and no one wants to have anything to do with you leaves much to be desired. Please take a page from the book of your Nursing Assistant; you may learn a thing or two. Not because we the people of these rural districts are very poor, you can treat us in this disrespectful manner. Four months is enough, don’t let us have to close down Erin. We have waited long enough for what we have to allow you to spoil it.
JONATHON MUNGAL
Erin
THE EDITOR: Gasparillo’s quiet urbanisation over the last five years has become overwhelming. This burgeoning southern community parallels today development seen in Marabella especially, as in any other part of the country. Compelling evidence of this growth and the need for immediate attention to all that is happening though is paramount to Gasparillo’s future.
Housing developments in the last few years at Springlands, Ragoobar Lands, Caratal, Charles Street, Reform Village, Bonne Aventure, Johnson Street, Poona, Whiteland, Ben Lomond, Harmony Hall and Williamsville have drastically altered Gasparillo’s once sleepy rural landscape. In addition, a host of commercial undertakings and entrepreneurial ventures on the Bonne Aventure Main Road, at Harmony Hall and on the Guaracara- Tabaquite Road have brought stout, if not vexing, challenges to authorities alike. For example, traffic congestion at peak times (6.30 am – 9.30 am and 2.30 pm – 7 pm) into and out of Gasparillo is any motorist or commuter’s nightmare. This fact can be appreciated if only because of the half-hour head start required now to get out of Gasparillo especially on mornings. Yet, just think of a life-threatening emergency or anything similar during these periods which requires one to get to a hospital! Sorry, we have no 911 nor do we have helicopters here!
An exercise conducted two years ago by students of the Gasparillo Composite School revealed that well over a thousand vehicles traffic through Gasparillo Junction every morning between 6 am and 9.30 am. This statistic excludes traffic destined for Marabella via the Gasparillo Highway turnoff and traffic similarly bound for Marabella on the Guaracara-Tabaquite Road. However, this traffic, both on mornings and on evenings has become perennially challenging and understandably infuriating. Limited, or to be more precise, non existent alternate routes compound this shortcoming. The answer though, is definitely not in the installation of traffic lights as this will only exacerbate the problem. To wit, on any given day that security personnel at the Petrotrin Entrance North (at the Pointe-a-Pierre highway turnoff) choose to undertake diligent vehicular searches, traffic backs up for miles on every roadway nearest to Gasparillo Junction, including the northbound and southbound Pointe-a-Pierre exits of the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway.
Newspaper, fish, doubles and fruit vending around this busy intersection, an inconsistent Police presence at peak intervals and those known indiscretions of many PH and taxi drivers are factors which also lend to this daily commuting ordeal. But the patience of the Gasparillo community, motorists and commuters alike has become threadbare. It is only a matter of time before protest action, as suggested and prescribed by a former distinguished government official, becomes a reality. However, this and all other forms of retaliatory, negative redress measures can be alleviated if only wisdom can be seen in the provision of two exit ramps, one off the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway onto the Guaracara-Tabaquite Road at the Harmony Hall overpass and the other, from the Guaracara-Tabaquite Road onto the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway (south). This will effectively address and solve the vexing, daily congestion where all traffic amalgamate at present in Gasparillo. Let’s not wait, Mr Franklin Khan, until the situation erupts into a frenzy of protest demonstrations.
JAHMADAR CASSIE
Gasparillo
THE EDITOR: It is very difficult at times to make an honest living in this country, and this is one reason for the prevalence of so much crime and the drug trade.
Many people put out their heart and soul to do a job, but they are not compensated properly for their efforts. The cost of living is very high in this country with housing having a detrimental effect on poor people’s pocket. The average worker who has to pay a rent is devastated in many ways, when the month-end comes to meet the landlord. The government build houses not because they are really interested in giving poor people a shelter, but for political reasons, and so we have people who go out and squat leaving themselves vulnerable to the authorities who at times are not sympathetic, and would destroy their humble homes leaving them in grief and frustration. Most of the times, these poor people have children and nowhere to go for shelter. There is the talk about eradicating poverty, but that is only a farce. There are people who work nightly under adverse conditions, but not properly compensated financially especially where there is so much danger lurking in the darkness, and the apparent criminal element that exists almost everywhere.
The talk of eradicating poverty is a big joke especially when the government is not setting the right example, just passing around money without trying to change certain people’s attitude. This is not showing the true values of success, but money to be spent wildly, so the talk of eradicating poverty is negated by this gesture. We have “the haves and the have nots,” and this will continue because a true sense of love and charity doesn’t exist. There is the attitude of “Dog eat Dog” but this is not the way of God in his teachings. Many people have strayed from His teachings of charity and a good day’s pay for a good day’s work. The world authorities speak about eradicating poverty, but this could be realised if companies operate in a humane manner with the thought of God in what they do, while treating workers justly. Then the slavery bogie would be non-existent in this country of ours.
HORACE DESORMEAUX
Maraval
THE EDITOR: I wish to express concern over the horde of school children who congregate at the corner of St James Street and Pointe-a-Pierre Road on a daily basis.
My business, a medical lab, is located at the point where school children and their peers gather twice a day, around noon and at 3 pm every week day. There are no clear purposes to the gathering except to “lime,” engage in public display of sexual activities, vandalise the premises, obstruct the passageway for my customers, staff and the general public and cause damage to my vehicles. Apart from these menaces, they are known to habitually break out into obscene and violent confrontations amongst themselves or one “gang” against another. We have on many occasions called on the E999 service, the Marabella police station and the Community Police to mitigate the situation. These measures however are short term and do not address the problem on a permanent basis. Our most recent action has been to write to the police pleading with them to alleviate this threat by performing daily patrols at the time when these crowds are prone to appear. Unquestionably there is need for crowd control measures to be implemented at this location at the specified times. It is my intention that daily dispersal of the crowd will act as a deterrent and serve over time to eliminate it completely.
RICHARD RAMREKHA
Medical Technologist
