THE OPPOSITION United National Congress (UNC) yesterday expressed its support for any Government initiative to re-nationalise BWIA. According to UNC chairman, Wade Mark, this has become necessary because of the “shameless” manner that BWIA’s management has treated its workers.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Patrick Manning announced that the Cabinet had agreed in principle to support a merger of BWIA and its equally cash-strapped sister carrier, Liat. The Prime Minister also said the national carrier’s private shareholders were unwilling to put any more funds into BWIA and if Government had to provide the bulk of the finance, then the airline’s management structure would have to change.
Mark told Newsday while the Opposition does not have all the facts about the BWIA-Liat merger, it would support a re-nationalisation of BWIA. The UNC chairman said BWIA’s management has acted callously towards the 471 workers it retrenched by not paying the severance monies owed to them by the legally stated deadline of April 15. He added that the UNC was thoroughly dissatisfied with the manner in which the airline’s management has dealt with its workers. Mark said statements by BWIA officials as to why the payments were not made on time were not “a plausible excuse”.
He said while the airline industry has undoubtedly been affected by the war in Iraq, SARS and other factors, this did not justify the actions taken to date by BWIA’s management. Mark added that if the airline’s management was unable to handle BWIA’s critical role of national transport, Government should have no hesitation in removing them and taking control of the airline’s operations.
THE Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA) said yesterday there is a gang of about eight women thieves operating on Charlotte Street and yesterday appealed to the public to be on the lookout for them.
DOMA president Gregory Aboud said this was pointed out to him yesterday by at least four board members and three business owners on Charlotte Street, which was the scene of a near riot on Tuesday. Aboud told Newsday that the women have cellular phones and relay information to each other, regarding their whereabouts and what they are up to. During the melee on Tuesday, a worker at the Accessory Lady Store on Charlotte Street, said one of the women used a cellular phone to make a call and that in a short time, a group came and converged in front of the businessplace. One of the persons who arrived on the scene reportedly had a firearm in his possession, the worker said, but police said they did not have this information.
Aboud added that the gang of women are also going into the stores and threatening workers in advance to be quiet or suffer the consequences. Further, he said, the women also tell employees that they are going to shoplift. They then pick up the merchandise and calmly leave the businessplace. “They are acting in a very boldfaced manner and in a way to cause serious hardships and it is almost like an underworld grouping,” Aboud said. He added that businessowners on Charlotte Street have indicated that this type of banditry involving women have been occurring before Tuesday.
Aboud said that the incidents were never reported before because business owners on Charlotte Street felt that the area was a forgotten one. “Some of their sales clerks have been threatened with knives,” Aboud said. Accessory Lady manager Denise Gomez said that one of the men who was at the scene Tuesday came to her Wednesday telling her she should not return to work after that same day (Wednesday). She also said that the man, accompanied by two women, kept putting his hand in his pocket, but she formed the opinion that he simply wanted to scare her. Aboud added that the women are also believed to be the same gang that operated at the Maska fete, where a male promoter was stabbed to death.
DOMA held an emergency meeting yesterday during which time the problems were aired. Aboud asked merchants and tenants of Charlotte Street to fear nothing and should immediately report to the police and DOMA, any threats received and incidents of shop lifting and pickpocketing. The DOMA president also said that a follow-up meeting has been planned to come up with strategies to relieve the situation on Charlotte Street. He added that the matter involving the female gang has been reported to the police, whom he emphatically thanked for the way they handled Tuesday’s situation.
PRISONS Commissioner Leo Abraham said yesterday he has no documentation authorising the release of prisoners who are being held illegally in jail.
“Nobody told me anything. All I know is what was reported. No instructions have been given to me. I have nothing in my hand and nothing on my desk. I am in limbo,” the Prisons Chief said in a telephone interview. A report in a daily newspaper yesterday said 61 prisoners are expected to benefit from a Presidential Pardon as Government moves to secure the release of inmates who are being held illegally in jail. The report said 16 of the 61 inmates will be released immediately, while the other 45 will serve reduced sentences.
According to the report, the office of the Attorney General was supposed to forward documents, requesting the presidential decree to National Security Minister Howard Chin Lee, who will then deliver them to President George Maxwell Richards. Minister Chin Lee was unavailable for comment, while Attorney General Glenda Morean-Phillips is out of the country and is due back sometime next week, according to her communications officer, Rodelle Phillips. Rodelle told Newsday the AG did not mention anything to her about the presidential pardons. “All I know is what I heard on the news,” she said.
The controversy over the detention of the prisoners arose following a challenge to the interpretation of Section 72 of the Summary Courts Act, which prohibits magistrates from imposing consecutive jail terms for more than three years in total, where the punishment for each offence exceeds three years. Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls could not be reached for comment up to late evening.
OFFICIALS of the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) dodged queries about industrial action by doctors which has caused major hospitals to be operating in emergency mode, but they could not escape the criticism of their workers.
No sooner had the Public Board meeting, at Amphitheatre A Eric Williams Medical Sci-ences Complex, last Monday evening been declared open to comments from the public, than a steady stream of concerns, criticisms and questions followed. Bernard Bailey, a building supervisor at St Ann’s Hospital, questioned the NWHRA’s silence on the crisis facing health institutions. He also wanted to know what action was being taken to address the salary disparities in which people doing similar jobs are paid different rates. Bailey said he had written complaining about his situation for the past two years, but received no response from the Board or management. Another worker employed in a “similar capacity” was hired, but when the man’s relative was on the Board of the NWRHA, his salary tripled.
Bailey said his own checks revealed that the man was not registered with any engineering body in Trinidad and Tobago, although he is being paid for this service. “How do you expect staff to deliver quality health care and be treated with scant courtesy?” Bailey used the opportunity to describe the terrible conditions at St Ann’s Hospital, saying “depressed” would be an understatement to describe the ward he visited. “It is damp, dark and dismal. It lacks ventilation. It was designed to house 32 patients. At present the population is 67 to 20 beds. There are five toilets on that ward, none are functional; of the five showers one is functional.”
Bailey said better care must be given to the less fortunate in society. He expressed his annoyance that the authorities must be embarrassed into action. He wondered aloud if he must strike to draw attention to his concerns. Patrick Watson, Chairman of the NWRHA, said the human resource project would deal with problems of salary disparity. He said the Board could not deal with individual problems as this is the responsibility of management. The Board is not responsible for hiring workers. “Many problems could be addressed with money, but that is not something the NWRHA comes by easily”, he said
Commenting on the sickout action by doctors, Watson said negotiations were taking place and he hoped for the impasse to end very soon. He described the situation as “delicate” and said he did not want to say anything which would impact on a speedy resolution. The treatment of mental health workers and patients was highlighted in a very impassioned appeal by Cyril Gaulston. He said the closure of Ward One at St Ann’s Hospital had a rippling effect of people being “hustled” in and out without being properly treated. “Community workers, who are so few, have to deal with that and next thing is re-admission to the same ward in the next few days because of one ward that is not repaired.” Gaulston said staff shortages resulted in little rehabilitation of patients. The closure of Ward eight at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital has resulted in community health officers having to “crowd into” Woodbrook Health Centre to conduct the mental health clinic. Some of their clients have to be shifted elsewhere.
The Social Work Department at St Ann’s has been occupying a “temporary” facility for over a year. It is too small and there is no confidentiality for clients. Gaulston invited all in attendance to visit St Ann’s and see the conditions. “The services are so poor, why can’t we make an effort and try to improve one ward, one ambulance, get something going and we would have done something.” Gaulston said officials are only talking, but no action has been taken to implement the Mental Health Plan for Trinidad and Tobago. He expressed skepticism about any changes being made when the Board reports on St Ann’s next year and said, “$6 million is not enough for St Ann’s Hospital”.
David Taitt, who described himself as a tax paying member of the public, wanted to know what action was being taken to deal with doctors who took sick leave, and who approved their sick leave. “What action is being taken to counteract the doctors’ action so taxpayers like me don’t suffer?” Taitt said the Chairman made it seem as if the transfer of Ministry of Health workers to the RHA was easy, “but you have Jennifer Baptiste to deal with,” he added.
A COMBINED police party comprising members of the Anti Corruption Investigations Bureau (ACIB), Crime Suppression Unit (CSU) and Port-of-Spain Criminal Investigations Depart-ment (CID) arrested three people on Wednesday allegedly with a shotgun and a quantity of ammunition and marijuana.
Acting on a tip off, the police party headed by Supt Wayne Boyd and including Insp Joseph Edwards, Insp Maxime, Interpol officer, Sgt Wendell Williams, acting Sgt Bucchan and Cpl Darwin James raided a house in Cunupia and arrested three people, ages 41, 36 and 24 and seized the items. Police sources said the shotgun was stolen from its owner during a robbery on April 2 in the Central Division. Cpl James subsequently charged the trio with possession of marijuana, possession of a firearm, possession of ammunition and receiving a stolen firearm.
CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar: US Special Forces yesterday captured Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, a half-brother of Saddam Hussein and a major catch in the effort to round up members of the former regime, the US Central Command said.
Al-Tikriti was a presidential adviser to Saddam and had “extensive knowledge of the regime’s workings,” Brig Gen Vincent Brooks said at the daily Central Command briefing. He is one of Saddam’s three half-brothers and the second to be captured. On Sunday, coalition forces announced the capture of Watban Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, who once served as Iraq’s interior minister.
Barzan was captured alone in Baghdad, and information from Iraqis led to his arrest, Brooks said. Like his brother Watban, Barzan was seen as a significant catch because of the likelihood he could provide information on Saddam’s suspected weapons of mass destruction programme, one of the major reasons the United States and Great Britain launched the war. So far coalition forces have not found any certain evidence that those weapons exist in Iraq. The third half-brother, Sab’awi Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, has taken refuge in Damascus, Syria, according to a London newspaper report. He is the six of diamonds in the 55-card deck carried by US troops.
THE EDITOR: It seems that for every plus there is a minus and this is now evidenced in the two-party political system in TT. Whereas neither party can legitimately claim the high road, given their “tit-for-tat” history, the perennial lack of legislative accomplishments or the absence of compromise which impede progress, are now epitomised by the UNC’s hierarchy.
In the days of independent politics, when candidates resided in their Parliamentary districts and rubbed shoulders with their constituents, those elected were free to present their programmes according to their consciences and to debate, perhaps “argue vociferously” proposed legislation. Party politics introduced a more surreptitious approach whereby, individuals being rewarded for party loyalty, were presented as candidates for constituencies that were strongholds of their party.
For example, an individual domiciled in Chaguanas might be represented by the PNM to run in San Fernando. Conversely, the DLP might present a candidate who was registered as a voter in San Fernando to run in an electoral district predominated by their supporters. Like visiting doctors, they held office hours in the districts to which they were elected and, like royalty, they granted audiences to those whom their gatekeepers deemed eligible. I do not suggest that there were any racial overtones in those choices but merely strategic moves to capitalise on situations. I thought it was ridiculous then and it is equally absurd today.
Under the party system, they have caucuses to discuss pending Bills. In the natural order of things, some members would be convinced that the party’s position is just, but it is not beyond the realm of possibility that dissenting voices are “made to see the light” in order to present a united front when they convene for public debate. This system emasculates some individuals and renders them impotent as representatives of the people.
The Senate Opposition Leader, Mr Wade Mark, is reported to have declared that the Opposition will not support the Anti-Kidnapping Bill because “Government is part of the crime problem in this country.” I was under the impression that the purpose of debates was to exchange points of view in order to arrive at appropriate legislation. By Mr Mark’s reasoning, if the Government is part of the problem in one Bill it is unlikely that it can present any Bill with clean hands. Mr Mark’s statement that “They seem to be clueless, hopeless and they seem to be direction less in addressing this issue” suggests that he holds himself above the system.
Why in heaven’s name does he think he was made the Leader of the Senate Opposition, if not to attempt by parliamentary process to correct the perceived ills? His failure to recognise or to admit this fact speaks volumes. The leader of the UNC’s protestation that “We are about wholesale Constitution reform and not piecemeal change” is a classic example of brinkmanship. He disregards the needs of those who support him and subjects them to the same oppression from which he promised to extricate them. He continues to tiptoe through the poisonous weeds of anarchy. I refuse to accept that his view is shared by all the ‘talking heads’ but his party seems to have succumbed to vertebral infection.
I have advocated two facets of Constitution amendment through your forum and I remain convinced that if anything will be achieved, changes should be undertaken in stages. The apex of my priorities is that there must be fixed election dates to prevent the indiscriminate call for new elections. As mentioned previously, there were three elections in two years. We are now into the early stages of a new term and the hydra-headed monster has emerged from the depths. Proof positive is the alleged remark attributed to Mr Mark “…if the PNM could not solve crime in Trinidad and Tobago, it must call fresh general elections within the shortest possible time.” It must be the chlorine in the water. If this dementia continues, sooner or later, the people will rise up and find a new group of candidates to represent them. The problems seem not to be with the instruments but with the players.
SELWYN P NIMBLETT
Brooklyn NY
USA
THE EDITOR: Oh what a country? Confusion reigns supreme both at the political and cultural level. No Carnival without bacchanal. You must hear, “We eh make no money or they theif we.” As the visitors, including Trinis in exile, return to their various countries, the locals’ concern is how safe and free they are to travel the country without the fear of being attacked or robbed. We will make our judgment four months from now, crime we are told is on the decline. To date, it is only 52 people murdered, don’t panic yet.
I wonder aloud what will be achieved with the airport inquiry, but then we like bacchanal and “tay lay lay” so like all other inquiries, this one also heading for the shelf. David, Ian and Carl must be congratulated for putting a level of consciousness among the people. Everybody is now Trini to the bone, yet one could not help but observe how we are fast fooding ourselves with KFC and Church (not the Catholic) into cretinism so bewteen Ali’s doubles and the fast food outlets, who or what is really Trini to the bone. Unfortunately Ali’s doubles is losing out.
Mr Chin Lee do not let the kudos you received for Carnival go to your head. Check out our Carnival history, read about camboulay and don’t mess with TT Carnival with that legislation you have in mind. We are not Barbados or Toronto, a bill where kidnappers won’t get bail is more important. Thirty million to stop bobol and corruption and so far not one person in jail. Shades of yesteryear who will forget the cockfight minister, Kenneth Tam, Sam P and most recently our airport, that expensive state of art.
PNM, NAR, UNC are all responsible for the dilemma that is taking place in Caroni and as usual the working class people will suffer in the long run. Quite a large percentage of drivers in TT should have been in Minshall’s “Ship of Fools” but he would have had to rename it “Vehicles of Fools” because our citizens keep getting killed and maimed on the roads due to ignorance and stupidity. I always maintain, a vehicle driven with the hands of a fool is no different to a loaded gun in the hands of an idiot. Chalkdust’s “Somebody In White Hall Mad” comes to mind but then money eh no problem. Mr President, in the interest of culture, next time quote a few lines from “Progress” by King Austin. This is not a hip hop country. We could do without the offensive ‘N’ word, be it Walcott or Naipaul quotations. In conclusion, we are told to pray and trust in the Lord. According to Rudder’s “Somebody say God is a Trini”, sorry fellas my God has no nationality, yet there are times when I wonder if the person in charge (not Mr Manning) is on holidays. I hope not though because we surely need help.
ERNIL COKER
Cascade
THE EDITOR: ASPIRE’s agenda focusses on promoting equitable access to information and services in reproductive health for all members of the national community.
ASPIRE is not in the business of sensationalism. We want to make a difference in maternal health, and would like to contribute to real results. Nobody but a group of committed and concerned nationals have decided that path for ASPIRE. We have issued the call for dialogue as a means to understanding and discovery of ways to accomplish the desired result of safe motherhood, safe fatherhood and secure parenthood. We would like sincere dialogue on all of these issues.
We have done the work and advanced a well-reasoned position on the impact of a law on the health of women in Trinidad and Tobago. That law does not prevent abortions. It does not regulate doctors. It does not require guidance for women considering terminations. It does not prevent back-street abortions. It is a source of great harm to women and families. And it results in substantial costs in our public hospitals. These high costs are almost totally avoidable. We tend to learn of abortion deaths because of the media. But far more pervasive than maternal mortality is maternal morbidity — the complications and pain that drag on, sometimes for a lifetime, because of unsafe abortions. To one degree or another, thousands of our women are affected every year.
Our law should be changed not because of the supposed agenda of some external influence, but because we have lived the experience of its harmful effects on our mothers, sisters and wives for several decades. Our current law is openly ignored by women and doctors. It cannot be enforced. It is not in the best interest of public health. It serves no positive social purpose, and its impact is grossly inequitable. There is no rational reason for keeping that law. However we disagree, let us in good faith try to model respect for each other’s views even as we disagree. Let us together confront the issue, not each other. We trust that leaders in all political parties, as well as our legal and medical public officers will examine the ineffectiveness, the harmfulness and the inequity of our current law and find reason to review it. That is our immediate goal. We continue to hope for reasoned dialogue in which we can find common ground to save women’s lives and to promote responsible sexual behaviour. We hope too that we can work alongside all concerned to find appropriate responses.
DYLIS L MC DONALD
Project Director
ASPIRE
Dear Editor: It’s cricket time again. We might have rain this Easter weekend and Brian Lara will be blamed.
Brian Lara was booed in Guyana (because Carl Hooper was deposed as captain). He was booed in Jamaica in his first match as WI captain, and again in Barbados in that historic match against the Aussies in 1999. West Indian people remain non-progressive and insular. How much more does this man, who is short in physical stature, but a giant in talent, who has done more in one day for the upliftment of the West Indies than ninety-nine percent would do in a lifetime, have to endure? As he grows as a man and a captain, he is making a concerted effort to change the fortunes of his embattled and young team. Let us support him.
We find it so easy to criticise, identify the faults in others, rather than strengthen the positive. Maybe, just maybe, our team would perform better if they had good and positive support, rather than “they go get dey tail bus’ anyway”. It is difficult to overcome hostility, negative vibrations and strange — sometimes frightening umpiring decisions. These are even more difficult to overcome while playing “at home”. So when our team comes to Port-of-Spain, let us fill the Oval, let us cheer our team and captain. Remember they are representing us. Let the air be filled with positive vibrations. If that minor miracle was to occur, we would enjoy a long overdue spectacle at the Queen’s Park Oval. Forward ever, backward never. Let us rally!
Dr Keith Clifford
Diego Martin
PS We must thank Carl Hooper for his efforts and wish him well in his retirement.
