Republic Bank employee Simone Uddenberg died at her Woodbrook home days after undergoing surgery for the removal of a steel pin placed in her leg following a car accident two years ago.

The 24-year-old, a customer services representative at Republic Bank’s Credit Card Centre, Chancery Lane, Port-of-Spain, died on Thursday. Simone, whose family is from St Kitts, sustained a broken leg in the accident and needed to have the pin removed after experiencing nagging pains in her leg. After the surgery was done, reports revealed that blood clotting arose which “travelled” to the lungs and brain resulting in difficulty in breathing.

Speaking with Sunday Newsday, Simone’s mother, Antoinette Uddenberg described her eldest daughter as a “live wire” and one who made others laugh. “She loved to clown around and tell jokes and maybe that was her way of masking her pain, because life hasn’t been easy for her (Simone),” said Uddenberg. “She was a child that when you gave her something to do, she got it done fast, she was really reliable and energetic. She had a big heart and was wonderful with children.”

Uddenberg recalled her daughter’s stay at the hospital following the car accident, where a birthday party had to be taken to her there. Simone, along with her two sisters Pauline and Candice, was a member of the Marionette’s Chorale for many years. Simone also loved writing poems and in her daughter’s remembrance, Uddenberg put together a few letters and poems from friends including one written by Simone entitled “While You Were Gone”. The poem opens with the words: “While you were gone nothing seemed to go just right/ Everything lost all hope, not even the dogs would put up a fight. While you were gone no one spoke or laughed at all/ It was a time for remembering, no one went to the mall.”

The funeral for Simone Uddenberg will take place on Wednesday, April 23 at St Patrick’s RC Church, Maraval Road. The service will be conducted by Fr Kennedy Swaratsingh, who according to Uddenberg “was the reason Simone and the girls wanted to go to church because of his (Swaratsingh’s) vibrant and lively service”.

After being attended to for an injury to the elbow, 53-year-old Veronica Grant was leaving the Port-of-Spain General Hospital when she slipped and injured herself while descending a flight of wet and slippery stairs. For the injuries sustained from that fall she was awarded $120,000.

Assessment for damages was completed last week by Master Brenda Paray Durity. Master Paray-Durity ordered that Grant be paid Special Damages in the sum of $45,831 with interest from 1997; General Damages in the sum of $35,000; loss of pecuniary prospects in the sum of $20,000; costs of future surgery in the sum of $16,000; costs of physiotherapy in the sum of $4,8000 and costs for her advocate attorney.

Grant,  of Main Road, Couva, who worked as a washer at a laundry,  was represented by attorney Ken Sagar, instructed by Yaseen Ahmed. At the trial stage before Justice Alan Mendonca, the State agreed to pay Grant damages and costs. On December 23, 1997, Grant had injured her elbow when she fell off a table and went to the hospital for treatment. After being examined, and no neurological defect was found, save a swollen and tender elbow, she was discharged.

Unaware that a  flight of stairs at the hospital was wet and slippery, Grant began to descend the stairs when she slipped and fell down three flight of stairs. Her injuries were severe. She suffered injuries to the head and right shoulder, neck pain,  fracture of spinous process of C3 and cerebral concussions. These injuries, among other things,  affected Grant’s ability to play her favourite sport —windball cricket.  She also has problems working or doing  her household chores.

LANDSTUHL, Germany: Their ordeal behind them and joyful reunions awaiting them, the seven American POWs rescued in Iraq boarded an Air Force plane and headed home to the United States on Saturday. On Friday, the soldiers greeted well-wishers from a balcony at this military medical facility and said they couldn’t wait to get home.

“We all would like to thank our Americans for the tremendous support we’ve been getting, and we’re looking forward to coming home as soon as we possibly can,” said Chief Warrant Officer David S. Williams, 30, an Apache helicopter pilot who spoke for the group. He urged Americans to pray for US troops still in Iraq. Two of the POWs playfully hoisted up Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson so she could greet the crowd. Johnson, 30, was shot in both ankles during an ambush that led to the capture of five in the group, and remains in a wheelchair. All seven were to board a plane yesterday for a flight to Texas and a reunion with loved ones. The plane is scheduled to land first at Fort Bliss, where the five members of the 507th Maintenance Support Company were based, then fly the two Apache crewmen to their home base of Fort Hood.

Pentagon officials were still finalising the schedule, but indicated that the flight would arrive at Biggs Army Air Field at Fort Bliss at approximately 9 pm. “All of the returnees are in good spirits and are eagerly anticipating their journey home,” hospital commander Col David Rubenstein said. Doctors and psychologists have kept the former POWs sequestered in a kind of transition zone between captivity and public life. Each has an individual room in a special, guarded ward equipped with tvs and videocassette recorders. They have their own table in the dining hall — where Friday they enjoyed an American breakfast of their choice. Psychologists, physicians, nurses and chaplains also are assigned to help with the transition. “It has to do with slowly reintegrating them to the public,” Rubenstein said.

Rubenstein said the soldiers were recovering from their wounds. “None of their injuries appear to be serious,” he said. “Their appetites are very good. They slept very well last night. They are catching up on the latest movies and news.” Besides Johnson, two other soldiers suffered gunshot wounds: Spc. Edgar Hernandez, 21, who was shot in the elbow, and Spc. Joseph Hudson, 23. Rubenstein had no immediate details on Hudson’s wounds, but he said both men had minor injuries. Previously, military officials had only identified Hernandez and Johnson as having been shot. Five of the freed prisoners were comrades of former POW Jessica Lynch from the US Army’s 507th Maintenance Support Company, which was attacked in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah on March 23. All were freed on Sunday by U.S. forces north of Baghdad and arrived in Germany on Wednesday. Pictures of the bruised and scared POWs were beamed around the world by Arab television shortly after their capture. That prompted White House warnings of possible war crimes trials against Iraqi military officials if they were harmed. Landstuhl is the largest U.S. military hospital outside the United States. It has treated more than 545 patients from the Iraq war, of which 223 were combat wounds.

A police constable was stabbed several times while trying to intervene in a fight between two women.

Reports revealed that around 5 pm on Friday, PC Marlon Trotman of the Sangre Grande Police Station was at the Sangre Grande Presbyterian School, attending a cricket match, when he observed two women involved in a fight. PC Trotman intervened and instructed the two women to desist from fighting. Reports revealed that the women pounced on the constable and began beating him about the body. A man who is believed to be the boyfriend of one of the women reportedly pulled out a knife and stabbed PC Trotman on the left side of the chest and upper left shoulder. He was taken to hospital where he was treated and warded. WP Ag Sgt Brebnor visited the scene and issued a warrant for the arrest of the two women and the man.

March 22, 2003 ushered in the 5th anniversary of the inauguration of the Eric Williams Memorial Collection (EWMC), by current US Secretary of State, Colin L Powell, at the Main Library, The University of the West Indies St Augustine campus. In 1999, the Collection was named to UNESCO’s prestigious Memory of the World Register.

The Collection consists of the library and papers of the late Dr Eric Eustace Williams, renowned scholar and first Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, whose sudden death on March 29, 1981, after 25 years in office, marked the end of an important era in TT affairs. Dr Williams was heralded by Gen Powell as a tireless warrior in the battle against colonialism, among his many other achievements as a scholar, politician and international statesman.

Available for consultation by researchers — several articles and at least one book have been published drawing on EWMC research — the Collection amply reflects its former owner’s eclectic interests, comprising some 7,000 volumes, as well as correspondence, speeches, manuscripts, historical writings, research notes, conference documents and a miscellany of reports. A Museum — containing a wealth of emotive memorabilia of the period; copies of the seven translations of Williams’ seminal work, Capitalism and Slavery (Russian and Japanese among them); as well as photographs depicting various aspects of his life and contribution to the development of Trinidad and Tobago — completes this rich archive, as does a three-dimensional re-creation of Dr Williams’ study.

Dr Colin Palmer, Dodge Professor of History, Princeton University, who, like several other scholars both local and international, has conducted considerable research from the Collection, states that “as a model for similar archival collections in the Caribbean … I remain very impressed by its breadth … (it) is a national treasure.” The EWMC is actively involved in the academic and Caribbean communities through Florida International University’s annual Eric Williams Memorial Lecture in Miami. Also in its fifth year, the Lecture has presented: John Hope Franklin, America’s premier black historian, 1999; former President of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda — 2000; Hilary Beckles, Principal and Pro Vice-Chancellor of The University of The West Indies, 2001; and a round-table session entitled, Women, Politics and the Caribbean, with the Deputy Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Cynthia Pratt, the Attorney General of Barbados, Mia Mottley and the former First Lady of Jamaica, Beverley Anderson-Manley, 2002.

Another successful endeavour was the 2002 Eric Williams Conference (the fourth) at the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Centre for Research in Black Studies. Some 1,000 attendees over a two-day period were treated to scholarly analyses by presenters from several of the best-known universities/colleges in the US and the Caribbean. Dr Jiang Shixue of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, China, offered a paper on Eric Williams from the Chinese perspective (four of Dr Williams’ books have been translated into Chinese), There were also observers from Japan and France. With its annual newsletter, Oral History Project, compilation of over 150 calypsos with trenchant social commentary about Williams’ policies and persona, along with many other endeavours, the EWMC is a model for the Caribbean, a means of showing to its younger generation the vital connection to the past — what that means for both the present and for the future.

To date, some 57 high schools in Trinidad and Tobago have visited the EWMC Museum on field trips — along with three from St Lucia, Guadeloupe and the US Virgin Islands. And the young continue to demonstrate their comprehension as they speak, of what the Collection means to the general population at large and, what it will mean to future sons and daughters of Trinidad and Tobago, in particular, and of the Caribbean in general.
Here are some comments of young visitors:
* “Keep this signature. I have been inspired to accomplish even greater heights for TT and the Caribbean”. Keisha Lewis, first year UWI student, 2000.
* “I vow to defend your promise and to honour our people”. Leslie Paul, Trinidad and Tobago student, 2001.
* “Thank you for treasuring what is truly ours”. Kimberley Corriea, Trinidad and Tobago student, 2002.
If, as Frantz Fanon has said, “Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it …,” these three young ladies are well on the way to completing the job admirably. In its continuing effort to engage the attention of the future of our nation, and to mark the 5th anniversary of the EWMC, the UWI Library will be hosting a seminar for 6th form students entitled ‘Preserving Our Cultural Heritage: The UWI Library and the Eric Williams Memorial Collection.

The Commission of Inquiry into the Piarco Airport project has entered its second phase. That is the phase where persons who were implicated by the evidence of witnesses are summoned to appear to challenge the evidence by cross examination, direct evidence or by calling supporting witnesses. The Commission has so far sat for 124 days and will resume on Tuesday at 9.30 am.

Monday
NIPDEC: It was inappropriate to complain at site meetings

ALTHOUGH NIPDEC had concerns about issues on the Piarco Airport project, its representatives chose not to raise those concerns at the inter-ministerial committee meeting because they felt it wasn’t the appropriate place to do so. That was the opinion of NIPDEC’s General Manager Margaret Thompson who said the matters were instead discussed “privately at appropriate levels”. Thompson was on Monday questioned by attorney Sean Cazabon, who represents John Humphrey, the former Minister of Housing and Chairman of the Committee. Thompson agreed NIPDEC had concerns but not all of them were raised at the site meetings. She identified some of those concerns as relating to the second floor, the tug tunnel and the use of American suppliers to provide materials instead of locals.

Thompson disagreed with Cazabon that it was appropriate to raise the concerns at the site meetings, where it could have been recorded. She said at a meeting where senior Cabinet ministers presided it was not right to complain and the matters were instead raised “privately at appropriate levels”. Asked by Cazabon if it was open to NIPDEC to raise the issues at the meeting, Thompson insisted it was not. Asked if she was saying it was not possible for NIPDEC to raise the matter at the meetings, Thompson said it was a choice made by NIPDEC.

Tuesday
Inquiry stopped — Bernard silenced by aching tooth

A TOOTH extraction on Tuesday forced Chairman Clinton Bernard to adjourn the sitting without hearing any evidence.
Bernard, who is usually very vocal in his chairing of the inquiry, was notably quiet and had to prop his right cheek up with his hand throughout the five-minute sitting. He also failed to announce the reason for the adjournment, except to say it couldn’t go on. However, Newsday later was reliably informed that Bernard had had a tooth extracted. When the 122nd day of hearing began just before 10 am, Tyrone Gopee, the former Chairman of the Airports Authority (AA) appeared with his attorney Carol Gobin leading Nicole Mohammed.

They were expected to begin questioning witnesses who had implicated Gopee. But Bernard holding his right cheek, which was swollen and speaking in a somewhat muffled voice, only enquired from Gobin whether she had received transcripts of evidence relating to Gopee. Gobin acknowledged receipt of the transcripts and pointed out that she had learnt Bernard was unwell. Bernard, obviously in pain and trying to mask his discomfort, did not respond to Gobin but simply informed the witnesses that the matter was adjourned to next Tuesday. He said the sitting could not go on, all the while clutching his cheek.

Wednesday
BHC and Cateau pressured NIPDEC

NIPDEC was pressured by both Birk Hillman Consultants Inc (BHC) and the Ministry of Works and Transport (MOWT) client representative, Peter Cateau, to award a contract to Northern Construction Limited (NCL) for construction of the Piarco terminal building. NCL’s managing director is Ish Galbaransingh, who has indicated that he will not participate in the inquiry. The pressure came after NIPDEC refused to award the contract because of the exorbitant tender price of $184 million.  The contract was for CP 9 (the terminal building). It was then that BHC representatives and Cateau told NIPDEC by not awarding the contract, there would be delays. They never addressed the question of the increased cost to the project, especially since NIPDEC did not have the MOWT permission to increase the cost of the project from US$105 million. All this came out on Wednesday when Glen Lezama, NIPDEC’s former Corporate Secretary was questioned by NIPDEC’s attorney Christopher Hamel-Smith, leading Jonathon Walker, at the Inquiry.

Reading several letters into the records, Lezama agreed that three weeks after June 17, 1999,  when BHC recommended NCL be hired as contractors for CP 9, BHC began putting pressure on NIPDEC to award the contract. NIPDEC found the bid price, which was the only one received for the contract, to be exorbitant and requested several documents from BHC  justifying the award. BHC however, according to Lezama, refused to provide the analysis of the tender price, which was critical. Lezama also read a letter from Chairman of the tenders committee, David Hardy, to NIPDEC Director Trevor Romano and NIPDEC Project Manager, Sonnylal Soomai, telling them in blunt terms that he was appalled and disgusted at BHC’s approach. In the letter dated July 29, 1999, Hardy stated it was a case of “putting the cart before the horse” and insisted that no contract should be awarded until BHC had given an analysis of the cost overruns. Hardy said he didn’t care whether the project was delayed but NIPDEC was not to be held responsible for any “foul-up”.

Thursday
No record of Cabinet waiving customs duties

CABINET has no record of any decision giving permission to the Customs Department to waive duties to the Airports Authority (AA) for items to be used for the construction of Piarco Airport.

This was confirmed on Thursday by Secretary to Cabinet, Andrea Woo-Gabriel, when she was recalled to give evidence before the Inquiry. Woo-Gabriel told the Commission’s attorney Margaret Rose that as requested by the Commission she had researched the matter. She said she found no Cabinet record showing approval for Customs to waive or remit duties to the AA for speciality equipment which was part of construction package 13. Former AA Chairman Tyrone Gopee in a March 5, 2001 letter to then Transport Minister Jearlean John, claimed customs duties and VAT charges for speciality equipment in CP13 were waived. Woo-Gabriel was the only person to give evidence on Thursday. NIPDEC’s Project Manager Kenneth Critchlow was also scheduled to be questioned by attorney Sean Cazabon, who represents former Housing Minister John Humphrey. However NIPDEC’s attorney Christopher Hamel-Smith told the Commission Critchlow was involved in a minor accident and was unable to attend.

Several businessmen are complaining that midway through its acquisition of a high-speed Tobago ferry, the Government has switched from inviting tenders for a boat to instead inviting tenders for brokers to acquire the vessel.

Further, businessmen are noting that while the Government intends to spend up to $250 million on the vessel, an auction was recently held where three such vessels were sold for a total price of $82 million, with each vessel costing on average roughly just one-tenth of the cost proposed by the Government. The saga came into focus after a  March 22, Whitehall post-Cabinet media briefing when Minister of Works and Transport Franklyn Khan announced the Government was seeking a broker to source a high-speed ferry which must be able to travel at 35 knots, carry up to 1,200 passengers and 250 cars and 25 trucks and be no older than five years. The Government was willing to spend $200M to $250M on the ferry, added Khan, saying the ferry would be sourced through a broker but the contract would go through the Central Tenders Board.

The first tender, to supply a particular vessel, was announced on May 26, 2002 in Newsday and Express: “Tender for the supply of a passenger/cargo roll-on, roll-off ferry on a 12 month time charter for the Ministry of Works and Transport. Close date; June 13, 2002. [Tenderers are required to pay a Tender Deposit of $3,000. The CTB does not bind itself to accept the lowest or any other tender.” Reports are that some 23 persons attended a tender briefing of whom two eventually made offers. But while the first tender insisted the tenderers’ prices should hold for at least 90 days, some three months later this tender was replaced by a second different tender – for brokerage services to find a vessel.

The second tender was announced on August 31, 2002 in Newsday and Express: “Acquisition of a roll-on, roll-off ferry: Expressions of interest from ship brokers: Expressions of interest are hereby invited from duly qualified ship brokers with specific experience and expertise in the charter and/or purchase of passenger vehicles to the Government towards the acquisition of a roll-on, roll-off ferry. Submission deadline: 19 September 2002.” Businessmen are complaining that the first tender was never formally rescinded before the second, replacement tender was announced. A check at the Central Tenders Board office showed that the daily press never carried any public formal revocation of the first tender before the second tender was announced.

On March 24, 2003,  Ritchie Brothers Auctioneers in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, auctioned three suitable vessels, this auction having been long and widely advertised beforehand on the com-    pany’s Internet website www.rbauction.com. A 122.5 metre PacifiCat Voyager aluminium fast ferry was sold for US$4.5 million. Her sister 122.5 metre PacifiCat Discovery vessel also fetched US$4.5 million, while a third sister ship, a 122.5 metre PacifiCat Explorer went for just US$4.0 million. The initial auction announcement stated: “Unreserved auction: Three near new 122 metre Catamaran Fast Ferries with carrying capacity of 1,000 passengers and 250 vehicles.” The website announcement explained three PacifiCat catamaran fast ferries would be sold to the highest bidder regardless of price with there being no minimum bids or reserve prices.”

A company brochure validated: “Richie Bros Auctioneers is the world’s largest industrial auctioneer conducting more than 140 auctions around the world in 2002 and selling approximately US$1.4 billion worth of assets. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange as RBA…our company has been bringing together buyers and sellers of used and unused assets in unreserved auctions for 40 years. “Designed by Philip Hercus of Incat Designs, Sydney, Australia, over 40 pecent of the world’s current fleet of fast catamaran car ferries are based on successful designs from Incat Designs. In 1999 the Government of British Columbia contracted John J McMullen Associates (JJMA), the largest independent naval architecture consulting firm in North America to conduct an assessment of the design and construction quality of the PacifiCat Explorer and her two sister ships…JJMA concluded that: “The vessels are fine ships and are of good quality throughout”.

Local businessmen were upset by the turn of events. The first businessman to speak to Sunday Newsday believed the CTB had already selected a broker. He criticised the use of a sole, selected broker to source the vessel, saying: “The CTB is holding a ‘closed tender’ not an open tender. This is nonsense because not every broker would know of all boats that are available. The CTB should take all offers to evaluate.”. He added that one reason that a particular broker may not know of all available boats was because a ship-owner might not want to widely publicise that he was selling one of his boats. He said: “The CTB is not doing justice to the country. It seems something else is going on.”

Another businessman said: “We offered a ferry for one-third the price and bigger than what they wanted to buy. If you are not going to give it to locals, how come you put it in the hands of one foreign broker? If you are spending quarter-billion dollars of TT’s money, shouldn’t it be given to several brokers?” He too believed that a broker had already been selected, and asked: “How come two weeks before Cabinet announced it would buy a ferry and get a broker, in local marine circles there was a broker boasting that he had all but signed the deal for a $35M boat? “Who chose that broker? The CTB are not experts. Franklyn Khan said the Government is not involved and that he is going to make it right, but who picked the one broker? Had the Ministry said it wanted foreign brokers we could have put them directly in touch with our foreign broker who has a 150-year history. Why have they left out local bidders who know our sea conditions?”

Claiming that a vessel had already been selected, the second businessman criticised: “The ship can only run in cold waters. In the engine room it is only high-tech computers running the ship — the maintenance is ‘unreal’! Many countries have banned these ships — high-speed catamarans — because they can create a huge wave that threatens fishermen.” The third businessman said the country had missed a golden opportunity in the Vancouver auction of three ferries, saying: “They were ideally-suited to TT’s ferry-run and conformed to the specs. Why didn’t the international broker inform the Ministry of Works and Transport of this sweetheart auction where they could have obtained three ideally-suited ferries for the price of one? Trinidad and Tobago needs at least two fast ferrries, including one in reserve because mechanical things can break down. This would also give you more flexibility. To maximise your revenue, you could even have a trip once a week up the Islands or from Margarita bringing Venezuelans to Tobago for the weekend to go back on Sunday.” He bemoaned: “The CTB increased the fee for the ferry tender documents from a previous $300, up to $3,000. This is effectively cutting off the small man.” He criticised the Government’s change from seeking a ship to seeking a sole broker, alleging: “It could facilitate ‘irregularity’”

He complained that no broker had informed the Ministry of the seasonal ebbs and flows of the ferry industry, saying: “It’s well-known that the best time to purchase ferries is in winter and early spring when the vessels have completed their summer charters. At this time of the year now, the best vessels get chartered first, and only the second-raters are left to be fought over by the late-comers and the uninformed.” He said that when tenders to supply a ferry were first invited under the previous UNC Government, some 23 companies, local and foreign, had attended the initial briefing. Two companies had bid, one offering a brand-new propeller-driven Greek ferry, the “Saos II” at an offer-cost of US$16.8M, and the other company offered a 12-year old Greek propeller-driven ferry, “The Pantocrator”. He remarked: “This tender was rescinded for reasons unknown.” He too believed that a broker had already been selected, based in Miami, USA.

The third businessman said: “The change was announced last year. Then a long silence took place. No one seemed to know what was happening. Then suddenly Frankie Khan bursts out onto a post-Cabinet meeting with this announcement, taking everyone by surprise.” “But now is the first time they are selecting a broker who will single-handedly select all the vessels to be considered and relay them to the Government. This puts too much power in the hands of one man. He could tell the Ministry anything he wants because the Ministry itself has no experts (ie consultants). “The whole process gives too much power to one man. An owner wanting to sell an old vessel can get the broker to ‘talk up’ the ship and they could ‘do a deal’. But irregularity is much harder if you have several brokers offering several vessels, where you get a range of vessels and a range of prices, and you have a team to sit down and select one.

“Under the UNC, tendering for the MF Panorama the Government had a local consultant, Mrs Ina Nicholson, and a foreign consultant, Shipdeco of Oslo, Norway. They shortlisted six shipyards until they selected the shipyard that then built the Panorama. A team left TT comprising people from different marine areas like The Port, ship inspectors, and marine engineers, went up to inspect the vessels and to shortlist them further to two or three. They were surveyed under the waterline by a marine engineer and a decision was made. “In the current instance there are several Trinidadian  local and abroad who are very knowledgeable in marine matters and who could supply very good vessels to ply the route from Trinidad to Tobago. In the Mediterrean there are several Caribbean sea captains who are familiar with fast ferries.” Meanwhile Khan has acknowledged that a broker had been chosen.

From Police Station Street in Roxborough, east Tobago, to the Iraqi battlefields via the United States of America (USA). That  encapsulates life’s journey, at present, for young Quinn Picou. And it is one that does not set well with his mother Derris Daniel. The fact that he is in the communications department does little, in fact, nothing, to dispel her fears for his safety. So much so, that Daniel, who lives in Manhattan, virtually refuses to answer the doorbell; the telephone is even worse. “My life is now a living hell”, she says.

Her prayers, which was already an intrinsical part of her very existence, has now doubled. Like on March 31 when, having not heard from Quinn for a three-week period, she went to the neighbourhood church, as she normally does, but this time putting in extra prayers of supplication and lighting a candle in the hope that she would hear from her son. Later that afternoon, she would hear that familiar voice on the other end of the telephone line asking “Ma, are you okay?” Daniel recalls that she just stood there in disbelief and  kept enquiring of him whether it was really his voice or a recording. What makes the situation even worse for Daniel, is that she does not support the war in Iraq. In fact, she and her three siblings have participated in almost all the anti-war protests in the New York area, going as far as Washington DC in one instance.

Of the current “war”atmosphere in the suburban New York area, she says, “The place is in a mess; a beehive of activity with all the security, and people having to look over their shoulder at every step —- People ought not to live like this”, she reasoned. Her opposition to the war in Iraq is hardly rooted in the fact that her son is out there in the Gulf, although  that is a big reason in itself, but moreso on the abject fear of “reprisals” for the people living in the US, having experienced first-hand 9/11, living as she does in the heart of Manhattan and close to Ground Zero. Hers was a harrowing experience, Daniel recalled. Quinn, who celebrated his 24th birthday on March 23 in the Iraqi war zone, was one-year-old when he joined his mother in the US.

She tells of how she cried bitterly upon his departure for the Gulf, the agony made even worse by the fact that she could not have seen him off. Back here in Tobago, the feeling is the same with his many relatives; all fervently wishing God’s blessings on the Roxborough boy who is in the communications unit of the Sixth Battalion which forms part of the Central Command Team of the US-led Allied Forces in Iraq.