The bodies of Salvary-Doyle– the first Trinidadian confirmed dead in the wake of Hurricane Irma’s onslaught on St Martin, more than one week ago–and her three-year-old grandson, Oliver Robert-Gedio, are currently in Guadeloupe where autopsies where scheduled to be performed.

After the autopsy, her remains are expected to be flown to Trinidad for burial.

However, it is unclear as to whether her grandson, who was born in St Martin, will also be buried in this country.

Salvary-Doyle and her grandson were swept away in raging waters while trying to seek shelter from the storm which slammed into St Martin as a category five hurricane on September 6.

The mother of six was taking care of the toddler at the home of her daughter, Daphne, when the tragedy occured. Daphne was not at her Rue Round The Pond French Quarters at the time of the incident as she was reportedly taking care of a newborn grand-daughter some distance away.

Yesterday, Salvary-Doyle’s sister, Emily Pasqual, told Sunday Newsday the family still had not received any word from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about when her body would be returned to Trinidad.

“We have not heard anything new but we were told that the autopsy would take about one week.

The body was only flown to Guadeloupe on Thursday,” she said.

In the interim, Pasqual said a wake for Salvary-Doyle has been planned for tonight at her daughter, Jane Meyers’ home in Cunupia.

She said they were also planning a celebration of life for her on Friday but this will be dependent on confirmation of when her remains would arrive in Trinidad

This, according to Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat after the 2017 International Coastal Cleanup on the island yesterday.

The clean up was organised by the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries, the Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA), Environmental Management Authority (EMA), and the TT Coast Guard.

Last year, the Ministry of Planning and Development recorded 1,714 pounds of garbage collected on the island while the total amount collected across the country was 4,029 pounds. This year, 1,083 pounds were collected and divided into plastic, glass, and general waste in 108 bags.

Rambharat said“Compared to March 2017 when we came down to clean Chacachacare, I found there was about half the amount of trash this time around. Maybe people have reduced how much they leave on Chacachacare, maybe the CDA is doing more in terms of cleaning up or ensuring that the party boats do the clean up. It was a good sign.” Despite the positive step, Rambharat said the organisations still had a long way to go to change the culture of the people visiting the island.

He said after the 2016 clean-up, the ministry decided to partner with EMA, CDA, and a number of other groups to keep Chacachacare clean. Therefore, he said the ministry would return in six months to check on the state of the island.

“We have taken responsibility alongside the CDA and EMA for Chacachacare, and other parts of the country. But we want to make sure that the communities are there to participate and once the communities are engaged the ministry would make sure that it works with other partners to assist.” Rambharat said as part of the International Coastal Clean-up, the ministry also had clean-up activities at the beach at Church Road, Mayaro with the TT Electricity Commission.

Approximately 100 volunteers participated in the event including Senator Avinash Singh and EMA director John Julien. Children and the elderly were also present, making a positive contribution to the environment.

Lisa Mitchell of Arima, an employee with the EMA, was present with her three children aged 9, 11 and 21. She said she had been attending the clean-up for years and was glad to do her part in the improvement of TT.

Her 11-year-old daughter, Samantha Wanliss, worked hard picking up plastic bottles, collecting more than five large garbage bags of the litter in less than an hour. She said she was part of the Environment Club at her school, Bishop Anstey East, which she joined because she heard about the “amazing stuff” the club did, such as participating in the Green Leaf competition.

Although she did not appreciate being woken up at 5 am on a Saturday, Wanliss said she cared about the environment and wanted to make a difference.

However, he again gave no indication as to the size of the fiscal package.

Speaking to reporters during a health fair at Diego Martin Boys’ RC School, in his constituency, Rowley said the country’s dire economic circumstances demanded that the Government be prudent and disciplined in its approach.

“There has to be discipline. As much as we would like to do a lot of things, we have to do the things that must be done,” he said.

Finance Minister Colm Imbert announced shortly before the proroguing of Parliament on Friday that the fiscal package, the third of the Rowley administration, will be delivered on October 2 at the International Waterfront Complex, Port-of-Spain.

Last year, the Ministries of National Security and Education received the heftiest allocations.

Turning his attention to the health fair, the Prime Minister said an individual’s health was important to their well-being.

“Health, in general, is so important.

It is natural wealth,” he said. “This fair is important because, firstly it awakens people to pay attention to their health and, also, not just to pay attention but to manage their health.” Urging citizens to pay close attention to their health, Rowley said similar events have already been held in Carenage and other parts of his constituency.

He said a fair also was being planned for La Puerta in the nottoo- distant future.

“So, it is bringing health care to the communities, adding to what is already there. But, in this case, we get to bring in a number of specialists and health care givers and have lectures to encourage them to take care of their health.” Rowley said preventive arrangements in dealing with one’s health can be of tremendous economic benefit “not just only to yourself but the nation as a whole.” “If you manage to intervene and preserve your health, there are only benefits to be had.” Yesterday’s event featured a walkathon from the Merrytones Panyard, Bagatelle Corner to Diego Martin Boys’ RC School.

Constituents were able to access blood pressure and glucose tests, pap smears, prostate examinations, ear, nose and throat check-ups, eye tests and mental health evaluations.

Several health organisations, including the Advanced Cardiovascular Institute, Trinidad and Tobago Cancer Society, Newtown Medical Centre, Ministry of Health, AA Laquis, Family Planning Association and the North West Regional Health Authority, participated in the event.

The incidents occurred in the same location as the journalists sought to take pictures of the Penal premises of a lease operator who has been named in a major audit report that pointed to fraud in the delivery of oil to state-owned Petrotrin. The company, according to the report was billed some $100 million for oil it never received.

Newsday’s photographer Jeff Mayers was warned on Tuesday by one man who pursued him in a vehicle that he would shoot him the next time he saw him in the area. On Friday, Guardian Media photographer Kristian De Silva sustained injuries to his face after being cursed and cuffed by several men, one of whom attempted to run over him in a black Toyota Hilux.

Two days before, TV6 cameraman Phil Britton and a female co-worker went to the same location to cover the story, and while filming from the roadway, someone pelted beer bottles at them from the direction of a nearby house, smashing the back window of his car. Britton and his co-worker shielded themselves behind the car.

De Silva was accused of being on private property. His camera was smashed against a security booth.

De Silva, who sought medical care at Siparia Health Facility, reported the matter to Sgt Taitt at the Penal Police Station.

Reporter Sascha Wilson, who was with De Silva, also gave statements to the police. As they made their reports, an acting sergeant who was recognised of one of the men who assaulted De Silva, arrived at the station. The officer, according to the journalists, instructed a constable who was taking their report to omit certain details.

The sergeant and two constables then returned with the TV6 team to where they were attacked and Britton pointed out where his car was parked, but the senior officer insisted the incident occurred in the driveway of a house.

According to the journalists, they (police) never called out to see if anyone was in the house, and the officers repeatedly tried to have the cameraman say he was in the driveway which was not true.

Sunday Newsday learnt police claimed the broken bottle retrieved from the wagon had no “viable” fingerprints.

Sources said Britton became even more traumatised at about 9.45 am yesterday when two policemen in plainclothes arrived at his home to question him about a traffic ticket, but they left when he produced a receipt as proof of payment.

Mayers reported to Newsday that the driver of a Toyota Land Cruiser accosted him after he took photographs of the compound from the road. After identifying himself to the unknown man who accused him of trespassing, Mayers went to his vehicle and drove off. But the man returned to his vehicle and followed Mayers, while taking pictures with his cellphone.

Eventually the man drove in front of Mayer’s vehicle blocking his pathway. He then said: “Next time I see you on the street I will shoot you.” A Penal sergeant in a marked vehicle subsequently intercepted Mayers to inform him that an all-points bulletin had been issued on his vehicle after residents reported that “a Rasta man” was stalking people on the street where the lease operator’s business is located.

Police allowed Mayers to drive off without taken further action a senior policeman said he was unaware of attacks on Britton and Mayers.

“The incident on Friday is being investigated

This is not just a political thing, like who is in or out of office while failures and disasters drift along our social landscape; this is an accepted form of existence, in business, labour, policing, judiciary, everything. The condition has become, over the past 55 years, so all-encompassing that we no longer understand that we spend our lives suffocating from the stultifying hand of incompetence and corruption.

From the collapse of the Clico empire ten years ago to the current inability to pay student nurses their stipends for over a year, from massive dishonesty and fraud to wilful petty incompetence, we the people accept our fates without even the bleating of a single lamb. The student nurses protested this past week, and brought to shameful light an issue which might seem petty compared to what is not happening at Clico, what is not happening regarding transport to and from Tobago and how Petrotrin is allegedly paying party hacks for non-existent oil.

It is easier to understand the massive corruption and frauds which drive the upper ends of our corruption and feigned incompetence than to understand the motives—other than gross, uncaring, cruel slackness—that denies young people the pittances due them as they study nursing.

This slackness would hardly have been conceived in the large homes of Goodwood Park or Palmiste. These venues and their inhabitants discuss how to get paid millions for oil never produced, how to re-acquire one’s insurance conglomerate without policyholders getting paid, and how to totally destroy the Tobago shipping arrangements so that some friend could make money supplying unseaworthy ships.

It would take a whole column or more to try to discuss any of the crimes plotted and hatched in the homes of our rich and powerful, but it makes little sense doing so. Whether we discuss these here in the media, over drinks on a Friday lime, or through a formal commission of enquiry, nothing—absolutely nothing— will ever be resolved.

The “missing” oil would have been presumed to have leaked out of Petrotrin’s porous tanks, or its broken pipes. The money paid for the missing oil would never return to Petrotrin. Any inquiry will, like the inquiry into the collapse of Clico, will be declared secret, in order to prosecute someone someday… maybe.

Will we ever again find suitable ships to serve Tobago? We are seeking ships which we want to manage when we should be seeking shippers who know their business, and let them run the service. That is what shipping people do—that is how goods come to Trinidad. If the costs of travel or shipping do exceed what people are paying now, then we can consider a subsidy to the shipper.

Do you know that there is nothing magical about shipping and ferries? Do you know that ferry services operate between tiny St Kitts and Nevis? And that people and goods get shipped up and down the Caribbean island chain? It is only us… the crooked and wilfully incompetent governments of TT who cannot operate a shipping service between our islands.

But let us leave those and other major issues to the “Big People” so that lawyers can rake in a few more unworthy millions of dollars while nothing gets resolved and the guilty get richer.

Let us return to something which should be easier to resolve: the non-payment of stipends to student nurses. Let us try to imagine how this sort of cruel failure occurs. And remember, this sort of thing—payments of allowances to trainees and students—occurs fairly regularly. Why? Monies are being paid, and then payments apparently just stop! No reasons are given and months are allowed to pass with no one held responsible. What happens in these matters? Does the person responsible go on leave, quit the job, or die? And there are no systems for anyone else to pick up the slack? Listen, someone is responsible, and they just abdicated that responsibility, and people suffer, but the person or persons responsible just carry on—they go to work (or to their jobs—not necessarily to work) and they get paid, while others suffer.

If this was your business, would you allow this ongoing failure to pay your employees to continue? Then why, as a government minister, a permanent secretary, a department head, whatever, do you allow this to continue? When the people who are paid to manage our affairs begin to do their jobs from the ground up, then the major corruption will have less manure to feed upon.

But that is not going to happen in a society where no one is ever to blame for anything.

For as we all know, “This is not my fault!”

However, businessman Christian Mouttet’s presentation of his report to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley must not be the end of the matter.

Earlier this year, when asked whether Mouttet’s report would be released to the public, Rowley said he had no doubt that it would be. But in Parliament on Friday, Rowley said he would, “make it available to the committee that is taking a specific view on this matter.” The national community deserves to know what happened in relation to this fiasco and so this report should be made available to the members of the public who – in both Trinidad and Tobago – have had to contend with the malaise surrounding the seabridge day in and day out.

Transparency will allow persons against whom adverse findings may have been made to respond.

Given that the Prime Minister has already concurred that there may be something “crooked,” it will be for the Parliament’s committee and several State agencies to determine what lessons can be gleaned in the long-run from any specific findings.

One thing is clear, however. The report serves as only one part of the overall deliberations by MPs –and possibly other institutions.

The Parliament committee system must be allowed to continue its deliberations thoroughly and in a manner commensurate with the principles of fairness.

Already, the proceedings before the Parliament’s Joint Select Committee which is examining this issue have been revelatory.

While those proceedings remain ongoing and while it is for the committee to make findings and come to its own determinations, the evidence heard thus far has painted a picture that leaves a lot to be desired. We have been left with the impression of constant tension and in-fighting at the Port Authority, a key State body which has oversight for a range of crucial matters that affect commerce, security and infrastructure.

This is an authority that affects the lives of thousands daily.

Within any organisation, there is expected to be a certain degree of politics; of tension; of disagreement.

If such were absent, then serious questions would have to be asked as to whether the organisation is healthy.

However, things take on a different tenor when the normal hustle and bustle of an organisation becomes tumultuous. Such a breakdown is rarely the action of one individual but rather a sign of deeper dynamics.

Whatever the source, internal problems should not be allowed to undermine the ability of state enterprises to function efficiently and above board.

And furthermore, the precincts of Parliament should not be used simply as a sounding-board for a continuation of boardroom banter and disagreement. A Parliament committee is a place regulated by the rules of fairness in which persons are made to comply with orders but are also allowed to reply to adverse matters raised.

This has long been our Parliament’s tradition.

In this regard, we look forward to continued hearings of this Parliament committee which is due to have further witnesses this week. One scheduled to appear is Dr Rowley himself.

But other probes into this matter persist and whatever Parliament concludes, it will be for the Port Authority, investigating agencies, the Public Service and the Cabinet to act.

One report has been submitted, yes. But let us continue to get the facts.

“What makes the incident even more disgusting is that a senior police officer is alleged to have been a part of this assault. MATT takes this opportunity to remind citizens that freedom of the press is a right guaranteed in the Constitution of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago,” the release stated.

MATT added it was unacceptable for any member of the media to be attacked while doing his or her job.

MATT hopes that police thoroughly investigate the matter as well as the allegations that a senior police officer may have been involved.

Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal yesterday “roundly” condemned the “vicious attack” on De Silva and called on the acting Commissioner of Police to launch an investigation. He said the incident was a “frontal attack on freedom of the press”.

He noted that the attack on reveals the dark side of the alleged use of the State police to oppress citizens and the free press.

“The attack on the media practitioner likens Trinidad and Tobago to rogue dictatorial countries under authoritarian rule, in which journalists are routinely assaulted, and even murdered, while at work,” Moonilal stated.

He also called on Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to denounce the attack on the free press.

The opposition MP urged journalists as well as MATT to stand in defence of a colleague who has been physically assaulted while pursuing a news story.

“Media practitioners must assert that they will not be intimidated in the course of their professional duties, no matter how politically connected their assailants may be,” Moonilal noted.

In this regard I am to point out that the constitutional imperatives in TT calls into question the veracity and, indeed, the usefulness of these polls which tend to single out the Prime Minister as being the “be all and the end all” of a government. He is not! First let me point out that the statistical measurement in these polls (however designed) are subjective, not being an indication of contribution to a production line, for example, but rather the assumed outcome of pressures and counter-pressures in the political and economic spectrum.

Our Prime Minister, in the Westminster tradition, is chairman of the Cabinet — the policy-making entity — and, while his is vested with the duty to select its members, he is “primus inter pares” with this power to appoint being subject to such political realities as may exist even within his own political party.

Further, it is important to note that for a person to be appointed a minister in TT , he or she must be a member of the House of Representatives or of the Senate. Indeed, here is where the veracity of the polls which focus on the Prime Minister must be called into question for while our Prime Minister is vested with the power to nominate members of the Senate and have them appointed as ministers (as the case may be) he is constrained by being “saddled” with those people (whether or not they are appointed ministers) who had been elected to membership of the House at the last general election.

From the above, therefore, it must be clear that a poll which seeks to measure the performance of a prime minister, as prime minister, is of limited veracity and is seriously flawed, considering that: (a) It fails to take into account and to measure the competence of Cabinet ministers with whose services the Prime Minister may wish to dispense but his being unable so to do perhaps not until the next general election. What this does is to demonstrate the importance of selection of candidates for a general election, an act which may nevertheless not guarantee the “throwing up” of people of the ilk originally expected.

(b) In any event, the result of the recent poll itself should take cognisance of the “vicissitudes” at its timing, especially those involving the inter-island ferry service. I need only direct attention to the fact that the Prime Minister is a Tobagonian.

(c) Why has a corresponding poll not been taken in respect of the Leader of the Opposition? The upshot is that the taking of a poll which concentrates on the assumed performance of a prime minister of TT is of very little intrinsic value. Rather, it will be more meaningful if it were taken in respect of the Government as a complete entity.

ERROL OC CUPID Trincity

On Friday, the prime minister told the Parliament he had received the report and said he review its contents over the weekend.

But yesterday, Rowley said: “I have read it and I am very disturbed by what I have read and I would make it available to the investigation in the Parliament and the AG’s office.” He further said the report contained “some matters of concern.” “So, I am going to the JSC (Joint Select Committee) on Monday and I will make my comments there.” One month ago, the Government appointed a sole investigator, businessman Christian Mouttet, to conduct an independent investigation into the contracts for the Cabo Star and Ocean Flower 2, both of which were procured by the Canadian- based Bridgeman’s Services Group.

Mouttet was given a time frame of 30 days to produce a report.

Investigations into the procurement of the vessels also are being carried out by the Port Authority of Trinidad & Tobago, Integrity Commission and Parliament’s JSC.

Many were surprised by the recent, simultaneous appearance of three hurricanes along the North Atlantic Basin, especially so shortly after Hurricane Harvey.

Then there was the unexpected strength of Hurricane Irma which was among the strongest Atlantic hurricanes ever observed.

Arlene Aaron-Morrison, climatologist with the Trinidad and Tobago Meteorological Service (TTMS), explained to Sunday Newsday that many different factors, including ocean warming and rising sea levels (symptoms of climate change), contribute to the increase in the strength of some of the storms the Atlantic had been experiencing.

“For years researchers have been speaking to changes such as extreme precipitation events over most of the mid-latitude land masses and over wet tropical regions will very likely become more intense and more frequent by the end of this century as global mean surface temperature increases.” She also noted that Irma, Jose and Katia were not the first hurricanes to appear simultaneously, but that in September 2010, Igor, Julia and Karl followed similar paths although they were not as strong as the recent three.

TTMS climatologist Kenneth Kerr also told Sunday Newsday that Irma, Jose and Katia were not in the Atlantic Ocean at the same time but in the North Atlantic Basin, the hurricane developing region.

He stressed that one could not say climate change was the cause of Irma’s strength as the evidence was not conclusive. “We can’t say for sure that Irma was a direct result of climate change because it was one event. But if we have this thing occurring for a number of years consecutively then we could argue it is climate change.” However he said, in general, climate change had contributed to stronger storms since there was a direct relation between sea surface temperatures and the intensity of tropical cyclones.

“When you look at other basins and the other side of the Caribbean Sea, then the argument holds because there is evidence that suggests that these intense systems have been more frequent in recent times.” “What the research and all the evidence is pointing to is that we expect the intense tropical cyclones to become more intense, and that there would be more frequent intense cyclones, not the general cyclones.” Kerr explained that there were two main reasons why TT was usually spared from tropical storms. The first was because storms did not usually form very close to the equator and TT was approximately ten degrees north of the equator. That meant storms usually formed north of the country. “For a storm to start you need some spin, and that increases the further away from the equator… It requires storms to form further south in order for us to be impacted.” The second reason TT was so rarely disturbed by tropical storms was because of the direction in which they usually travel.

The direction of travel was dictated by a few forces – the spin or Coriolis force, the subtropical high pressure system, and weaknesses around the subtropical high pressure system.

He said the Coriolis force allowed weather systems moving in the atmosphere to deviate to the right. Therefore, if the weather system was flowing from east to west, it would curve to the right and away from TT.

Kerr said the subtropical high pressure system in the Atlantic, which generally steers the direction of tropical cyclones, also had a major part to play. One website explained these “subtropical highs” stating: As the air aloft moves poleward, it cools and bunches up. The bunching up, or convergence, is because the circumference of the Earth gets smaller at higher latitudes. Eventually, around 30 degrees latitude, the air sinks. The sinking air is dry and warm and results in a band of high surface pressure, called the subtropical highs.

“If the system is particularly strong and located further south than usual during the wet season, and the winds in that system might just cause the storm to travel strictly on an east to west path. If the systems is further north then there is usually a turning just east of us. Depending on where the turning takes place, TT may get away from it,” Kerr said. A weakness (a low pressure system) in or close to the edge of the subtropical highs could also weaken the cell of the subtropical highs and cause the system to turn earlier than usual.

However, that did not mean that the people of TT should be lax in their preparation for storms in terms of emergency plans, supplies, and even building codes. As the experts observes, tropical cyclones can be unpredictable.