Many years ago, under the Basdeo Panday government, an embankment was constructed in the area close to the mangrove, eliminating the flooding of the road. Then came the highway.

While work was ongoing, the embankment was condemned and a water pump was used by the construction firm to pump out salt water from the drain created, which would otherwise overflow onto the road. This was done on a daily basis.

However, after the 2015 general election, all work was stopped.

A new contractor installed a pump at the same location. However, it is not use daily. When the tide is high, the drains become full and with a heavy shower of rain, the road floods and is sometimes impassable. It is only after the flooding the contractor would engage the pump. But by that time traffic has come to a standstill for long hours and sometimes the whole day.

I am asking the Minister of Works and Transport to ensure that the contractor does a better job by pumping out the water daily and not waiting until the roadway is flooded.

Another problem is the bridge located close to Paria Suites Hotel which has a serious drop on either side, bringing traffic crossing the bridge to a slow crawl. A little hot mix on either side of the bridge could bring much needed relief, as was done in the past by the ministry.

GOVIND ORIE Fyzabad

I recently came across an American actress called Aunjanue Ellis, and it took a few seconds of brain contortions to work out that this was a misspelling (or the parents might call it an alternative spelling) of the French word Ingenue, meaning an innocent or naive girl.

Like those tattoos in Arabic that no one else knows the meaning of, there is an air of mystery about this lady’s name, even though I bet she’s sick to death of having to spell it for people.

The giving of wacky names is one of the irresponsible (as opposed to dangerous) abuses of parental power. Any parent knows that thinking of a good name for a baby is often very difficult: you can think of a thousand you don’t want, but not a single one that you really like.

Perhaps that is why, after a few beers, people think it would be acceptable, or even a good idea, to call the poor unborn mite something ridiculous.

Clearly in California, where Aunjanue was born (and it also seems to be the case in the Caribbean) you can name a baby what you like.

In other parts of the world, though, the registrars would have put their foot down.

For instance, there’s a British TV miniseries called Doctor Foster (which is brilliant, by the way; only about six episodes but well worth a look), the star of which is Suranne Jones. She’s not Suranne on her birth certificate, though, because the registrar was of the opinion that it wasn’t a real name, so her parents were persuaded to make it officially Sarah Anne, and if they wanted to call her Suranne as soon as they left his office, that was okay with him.

Well, we all have our foibles, and this guy obviously took his job quite seriously. He’d have had a fit, though, if he’d worked around here, where making names up is not unusual. Mum has three friends called Camille, Cordelia and Esther? We’ll use bits of each: we’ll call the kid Camcorder.

The friends are Dilys, Sandra and Margery? Why, Disandry, of course. A name isn’t going to kill you, even if the disease might.

And anyway, it’s not common in this part of the world and no one knows how to spell it, so where’s the harm? You might think Bob Marley would have gone down the silly- name route, particularly as he had so many to christen – at least 15 “acknowledged” offspring, plus, we are led to believe, a number of unacknowledged ones. But no, the Marley tribe includes a Karen, a Stephanie and a Julian, while even eldest son Ziggy was actually christened David, but called himself after the David Bowie alter ego Ziggy Stardust, and everyone else went along with it.

My digital encounter with Aunjanue Ellis came at the same time as George Clooney and his wife Amal introduced their newborns, Ella and Alexander, to a quiet round of applause by traditionalists the world over.

What, no Moony Junie Clooney? No Goliath Hairy Greek-looking Smoothguy? After all, even if the registrar objected, they’re a rich and famous couple – and she’s a lawyer – so they could have found a more understanding official.

But how are poor little Ella and Alex going to feel when they meet other celebrity kids such as Gwyneth Paltrow’s daughter Apple, let alone North and Saint, children of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian? You can hear the Clooney twins whining when they get home: “Moooom! How could you? I sound so boring!” The world title holders of the parent-imposed name are the children of Live Aid organiser and professional agitator Bob Geldof and his late wife Paula Yates, who gave us Peaches, Pixie and Fifi Trixiebelle, and when Yates went off with singer Michael Hutchence, she quickly produced Heavenly Hirani Tiger Lily.

Interestingly, it didn’t take David Bowie’s son Zowie long to ditch that millstone, plus his dad’s self-chosen surname, and become plain old Duncan Jones.

Perhaps when this generation of hilariously-labelled children are running the world they will introduce new naming regulations whereby aggrieved youngsters are entitled, at the age of 18, to rename their parents.

Were that to happen, there could well be a split between the complimentary and the insulting. There might also be a 10-year cooling-off period to allow for age-induced understanding and mellowing, because names given in the heat of the moment could be regretted later.

For every King, Hero and Legend Smith there would be a Grumpy, Tyrant and Knowall, while the mothers would be split between Angel, Bestfriend or Precious and Jailer, Prude and That issounfair.

For the past 35 years, I have enjoyed a close relationship as a journalist with the members of the Syrian Lebanese Women’s Association (SLWA). A group of women who with a spirit of civic mindedness and a love of charity, quietly work to benefit those who often have nowhere else to turn.

Having been around them in their homes, businesses and club activities too numerous to mention, I have only seen humility in these women, whose community, for the past week, has been subjected to endless media-bashing for the remark made during an interview with internationally famous Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown television show, that “while the Syrian/Lebanese community is the smallest ethnic group in the country, it is the most powerful.” Mario Sabga-Aboud has apologised in every which way, for what poet and artiste Muhammed Muwakil so rightly says: “The man spoke his truth, he spoke plainly.” But in true Trini fashion we are ready to crucify Sabga-Aboud. Which one of us has never uttered a spoken word, one of the things we were taught in kindergarten, that “never comes back.” Gary Aboud’s comments are the most accurate. “To call someone Syrian is to question their nationality….Our forefathers came here as penniless immigrants who worked hard, saved and invested….So when I saw the outpouring of hatred on social media, the association of my community with drugs and guns, with being some type of mafia, I realized something. Regardless of what arrant nonsense was said some people naturally hate us.” I suddenly realised that the most repeated derogatory remark concerning the Syrian community, not only in this instance, but so many other times has been: “Do you know how they ALL make their money?” This from people who do not have any communication at all with this community.

My association with the Syrian/ Lebanese dates from childhood when one of the most friendly and polite gentlemen I have ever met was Joseph, a Syrian gentleman who walked through Greenhill Village where I was born and raised, carrying a small suitcase of samples of dress materials he had for sale. Never heard his last name but I can still see him in my mind’s eye, rain or shine, coming up the front steps to show his wares to my grandmother.

We moved to Newtown when I was nine and Joseph was still plying his trade, and he was still doing so when I became a wife and mother, by which time he was driving a small car. Joseph took his orders, returned with the quantity of material, and on top of all that hard work, offered credit, writing names and amounts in his copybook and coming back to collect payments.

In later years, I met Adam Aboud, the Trinibaker, when he opened his bagel outlet in Maraval. There is no kinder individual as my children will attest. The very proud former student of Trinity at Moka, without any publicity, gave delicious snacks to my daughter for the Trinity football team some years ago. For years, he has been a donor to their junior Carnival band Spoilt Rotten Kids and he is clear, “No publicity, not even a public thank you.” One of my dearest friends is Venus Sabga (senior) of the SLWA. A kind, thoughtful woman whose daughter is married to the much pilloried Mario Saga-Aboud. Her son Howard, the outgoing president of Rotary Port of Spain, and wife Dr Jackie Sabga, head of the Cancer Society and Vitas House Hospice, devote so much time to the critically and terminally ill.

I will end with the women of the SLWA, whose annual Christmas hamper packing event and distribution continues – recession, economic downturn or not. Last December 6, 70 SLWA volunteers, inclusive of children and grandchildren, packed 1,500 Christmas hampers at St Anthony’s College hall, for delivery far and wide throughout the country.

There was a time in the not too distant past when it was done at the late Anthony Sabga’s Wainwright Street home.

One of the most noticeable traits about these women is their succession planning. The older members do not hold on endlessly to the power trip of running the SLWA. They ensure that the younger members are trained to capably take over the leadership of their 67 year old club.

A historical antipathy has always existed between the two major ethnic groups, African and Indian, in the society. With emancipation freed blacks regarded incoming indentured Indians from India with suspicion, out of a perception that as substitute workers they negatively affected their bargaining power with their former masters. And over time, this initial historical distancing became reinforced by divergences in culture, profession, demographics, inter alia.

The ensuing politics would exacerbate the problem by feeding on this division, with our history marked by the formation of ethnic-based entities/political parties, such as the DLP/ UNC which is Indian based, and the long-standing PNM, African based, and this pattern has underpinned the electoral process into the present.

The continuing failure of attempts to bridge this racial divide, as with the COP, indicates how strongly entrenched is racial affiliation in the politics and that sense of “we” against “them” is ever present, manifesting itself whenever the occasion warrants it.

Thankfully, to our credit as a people, such division has never degenerated to a point as to be alarming as in other countries, as the now intensifying black/ white dichotomy in the US, or the ethnic-based violence among some tribes in Africa, or the perennial Shia/Sunni conflict in the Middle East countries like Saudi Arabia, inter alia.

In fact, there is much cross-cultural exchange in this country between the two major groups in the food, the music and the general social interaction.

Granted this, however, there cannot be any naivete about the potential for racial conflagration if our accustomed moderation eludes us, as in the Parliament recently. And it is in the politics where this otherwise sedate division between the two groups is exploited by both sides.

The call for constitutional reform by the old Bas will never be heeded because any constitutional framework which neutralises the appeal to this racial division is a no-no for politicians on both sides, for there is little to appeal to beyond racial affiliation, and this is manifested in the politics in all forms, as in attention to particular demographies, or in the award of contracts or in political appointments, depending on which race-based party is in power.

And there is a vicious cycle here, for on both sides of the divide the expectation of reward for political support is a given, and the fallout from this is that the idea of the national good, of principle, of the right against the wrong, is of null and no effect, and so too with our leaders who see no need to be accountable.

Will this ever change? I think not, for politics here, as elsewhere, is about manipulation for self-aggrandisement with little care for the common good or, as in this instance, for national unity between the two major races. In this respect, the most we can hope for is that the people do not follow the poor example set by our leaders in Parliament recently.

DR ERROL BENJAMIN via email

This is a cricketer speaking of a cricket match using such repugnant language to seek to explain what needs to be done.

There is no further explanation of why our cricket team now ranks at the bottom of the standings.

KARAN MAHABIRSINGH Carapichaima

Obviously I won’t divulge their identities or even their parties, but I was asked to meet them, and although I distrust every single person sitting in our Parliament, I was more than happy to meet to talk.

I must admit that the conversation with one member of Parliament in particular was quite refreshing; we spoke about several salient issues, but what struck me the most was a comment expressing absolute frustration at the lack of cooperation between parties towards dealing with the problems plaguing our people.

This MP then said to me in no uncertain terms, that the only way forward for Trinidad and Tobago is fresh blood – neither the corrupt UNC nor the clueless PNM have the formula for taking our beloved country from 1962 into 2020. The MP seemed genuine because the person openly spoke to me about the incompetence of fellow party members and the abject lack of love for country by the people who have sworn to serve us without fear, favour or ill-will. I listened intently and I asked my questions, all the while asking myself why a person so fed up of their party would remain loyal… is it just for power? These conversations confirmed in my mind that anything divided against itself cannot stand, succeed or progress. Regardless of what we choose to apply those words to, it remains one of the most accurate adages known to man. A country with parties that are unable to conjure up even an ounce of bi-partisanship to pass good laws and implement policies to fix issues will ultimately become a failed state.

The political division promoted by politicians and fuelled by race, socio-economic status, religion, address, and education is sickening.

The citizens of this country who are so mentally warped by their political affiliation and beliefs will exploit every event for political points. I was amused by the public discourse after storm Bret when the Prime Minister, for whatever reason, did not immediately find his way to south Trinidad.

In my view, unless God had endowed Dr Keith Rowley with the power to part water the way Moses did in the Bible, the tour of flooded areas would only provide solace, not the much needed assistance.

The residents of those flooded communities lambasted the PM for not visiting them, comparing his inaction to the former PM who made it her duty to visit every flooded community. But had they put aside their obvious UNC bias, they would have realised that after all those visits by Kamla Persad- Bissessar, every rainy season they are still left desperately trying to salvage their belongings from flood waters and save their limbs from agile caimans. The real problem is that being fair and independent is much more difficult than being partisan sheep.

So whilst the division blinds us to the truth, people continue to suffer. Even in a time of disaster too many people only saw the need to compete, not collaborate; we could not leave politics behind to bring our country together because, of course, the storm and subsequent flooding “is de PNM fault.” The political division is eating out the heart of our country. Unfortunately, many citizens are either unaware of, or choose to ignore this imminent reality, to the detriment of our country. Honestly, if some people fail to understand that the division will keep us stagnant and they choose instead to play partisan politics with everything, then they don’t deserve to be a citizen of our country. This is especially so for those who prefer to identify as East Indians and Africans when the closest they’ve been to either region is a BBC documentary.

Quite simply, if you don’t identify as Trinbagonian first and foremost, then you can never be dedicated to fixing Trinidad and Tobago, and for that reason alone you need to get the hell out and leave the rest of us to unite and do it ourselves. If there is one thing I believe, above all else, is that we will eventually get the right leadership to bring us together as a people to do what is necessary to fix Trinidad and Tobago once and for all.

It is clear as day that the only way the PNM and the UNC can win elections is by keeping us divided along racial lines; hate is the only thing they have to offer. For the benefit of your children, grandchildren and all the other generations to come, all I ask is that we reject hate and remember our national motto: To ge the r We Aspire, Together We Ac h i e v e .
Namaste…
Jamille85@msn.com

So said William Wallace, recently- installed president of the SSFL, during a telephone interview on Thursday.

The 2017 season is expected to begin in early September and Wallace pointed out that the upgrading of SSFL coaches has been a major priority so far, under his tenure.

“At the moment, the biggest thing for us is that we are doing some coaching courses,” said Wallace, the former Trinidad and Tobago men’s football team manager. “We’re doing three courses, a C Prep course, a C Licence and a B Licence going on at the moment.

“It started (on Wednesday). To note, it is the first time that B Licence is being done in Trinidad and Tobago. Right now we have about 33 coaches doing a B Licence.” The courses will be conducted by ex-national youth team coach Anton Corneal.

Wallace added, “Those are coaches attached to the secondary schools, the majority of them. We took a couple in from the community coaching (programme).” Asked if the coaches will be primarily from the SSFL Premier Division or from various age groups in the SSFL, Wallace replied, “All through the system of secondary schools. We did not limit it. The schools made their choices. They’re not limited to Premier Division or anything like that.” The Premier Division, which was initiated in 2014, will have 16 teams, and not 15 teams as has been the case, as San Juan North Secondary, who were initially relegated due to a change in the points standings, were reinstated at an extraordinary meeting of the SSFL general council in May.

San Juan North were the 2016 Intercol champions, while Shiva Boys copped the 2016 Premier Division crown.

Regional television sporting network Sportsmax will continue to air matches of the top local schools football tournament.

“Sportsmax will still be on board,” said Wallace. “We met with them earlier in the season.

They’ve signed off a five-year deal with us anyway.” The SSFL boss noted that First Citizens and Coca Cola will remain on board for the 2017 season.

And he added, “We’re yet to meet with Shell, that meeting should be coming off very soon.

And that should be about it.” Concerning the state of the grounds, which will be used during the forthcoming season, Wallace stated, “Once there is an issue with a ground we usually have persons going to the school grounds.

What the zones would do is, if there is a concern with a particular ground, the zone would be asked to send persons in to look at (it).

No main issues came up last season in terms of the quality or state of grounds.”

My whole life was a pleasure.

Honesty, integrity and determination to succeed — these values have served me very well. I was never afraid to make any decision, whether right or wrong.

Very often, however a decision is made it has to be shaped into success. So the determination to succeed is a key factor” — Anthony N Sabga.

If the dream of some young people is to have greater wealth than some people they know, then it’s a wake-up call to start working harder and smarter on their own goals, their own visions, and stop pondering about what is fair and what is not fair.

Instead of being upset and offended by what may seem to be boasting on behalf of the wealthy, it’s time they start examining what’s keeping them back instead of what’s keeping the wealthy ahead. The youths must start looking at what they are doing.

The nation’s schools must use every tool at their disposal to ensure that young people are conditioned at a very early age to contribute positively to society and turn away from a life of crime.

Changing the way that youths have been conditioned to think in this crime-infested world is not easy to do. They are who they are, and conditioning them to think positive and about solutions to difficult problems is not a part of their nature. It’s something that’s difficult to imagine, let alone do.

The key to shifting the youths’ perspective and developing in them the habit of dreaming big involves teaching them the importance of stepping outside themselves and into another persona.

Youths must dare to dream like a world-renowned musician or artist who has an uncanny ability of creating something out of nothing. Youths must dream and think like a professional athlete who has the will to persist and overcome any obstacle standing in their way. Youths must dare to dream like a Noble Prize-winning scientist who meticulously works through big problems in small way. Or youths must be taught to dream like a billionaire entrepreneur who knows no limitations in thought or action.

I am pleading to the youths of this nation to step into any of these people’s shoes and they will immediately gain a different perspective about their lives and the circumstances confronting their reality. They will immediately begin to think and dream bigger, more clearly, creatively and problematically, which will help them break down the walls preventing them from living their dreams.

In order to dream big they must think from the perspective of having no limitations and no fears — as though life is designed to go in their favour, breaking down all walls and obstacles standing in their way, thus releasing the unlimited potential to develop the habit of thinking big, acting big, and doing bigger things than they ever thought were possible.

It’s time to dream big like the Syrian-Lebanese community.

SIMON WRIGHT Chaguanas

It could be a reflection of the restlessness and alienation we feel in our hyper-connected but lonely world where we can count ‘friends’ by the hundreds and still contemplate suicide out of sheer loneliness. It could also be a consequence of the casual pattern of mating and procreation that so often substitutes for intimacy and self-giving. If I am an accident or an accessory, to whom do I belong? Whom can I call Father? In this void we in Trinbago insert Papa God – God continues to be a Trini, rushing to our rescue, selectively, in time of natural disaster.

This God is a strange mixture however–he visited a tropical storm on us because “they attack the priest” but he didn’t wreak complete havoc on the land because he is a Trini, and maybe he has real estate interests in some part of the island state? And then there is the assurance that because there are so many “praying people” in the land, God has to spare us. This of course leaves open the uncomfortable question of those parts of the land that experienced flooding and damage, those other countries in the region that suffered more from the storm – is God a local deity who can only attend to one small area at a time? There were also those commentators who angrily challenged our panic praying in the face of impending danger, only to revert to business as usual once the danger was past. Is God to be used for our convenience as we tend to use any agency that can help us? This is perhaps a key to understanding our strange relationship with our local god. God made us in His own image and likeness, but we have returned the compliment, refashioning God in our own image and likeness, cutting Him down to our size.

Anything else would demand profound change on our part and that may be too painful to contemplate.

We would have to factor in free will and the responsibility of choice into the conduct of our daily business so that so-called “acts of God” would have to reference our dealings with the environment and our systems of oppression and economic justice. God would no longer be pressed into service to explain away uncomfortable consequences of our flawed and self-seeking structures.

And most challenging, if we accept God as a Trini, we would have to undertake the transformations necessary to act like our Father, to resemble this God who describes Himself as full of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger and very ready to forgive.

Maybe we prefer to remain “outside children” with a “visiting relationship” with our Father for occasional handouts with no obligations.

Criminal activity is on the rise in Arima. There are several reports of houses broken into, cars stolen, robberies, aggravated assaults and now front page horror murders, and heartless killers in our midst.

It was not that long ago Arima was more like one big extended family, but the proliferation on the periphery of illegal settlements have been a heaven for the plotting miscreants with their vile murderous intent.

Recently the office of the mayor provided self-defence classes. The initiative speaks for itself. Are we clueless? We withdrew the Community Comfort Patrols, abandoned community policing and deployed fewer patrols in residential areas.

Who could forget the brutal beating of an elderly Chinese man into unconsciousness in Santa Rosa Heights, one house from the police post during the day.

The distinct instruction from former commissioner of police Dwayne Gibbs was for the police to make themselves more visible and interact with citizens. As for our ministers of national security and heads of the Security Council, they should all hang their heads in shame, for they were sworn to protect the people of this country. And note that “a man without honour is worse than dead” (Miguel Cervantes).

COLIN FORTUNE Arima