Child marriage is an issue that does not affect just one religion or race. The law allows these marriages for the Hindu, Muslim and Orisha faiths. In relation to the Christian faiths, the Marriage Act permits a judge to marry somebody who does not consent. Up until 1929 the Church of England permitted ministers to marry 12-yearolds.

Under the 1983 Code of Canon Law, priests in the Catholic Church have been allowed to marry girls of 14 and boys of 16.

Statistics provided by the Ministry of the Attorney General indicate the practice has been alive and well. But with the passage of the law raising the marriageable age to 18, that is about to end. We must congratulate both the Government and the Opposition for coming together to pass this legislation.

We also note the key role played by Chief Justice Ivor Archie, whose call last year at a forum of the Bocas Lit Fest triggered the deep and far-ranging debate on the issue which culminated in the tabling of the reform law. In its own way, the passing of the law is a vindication for the Chief Justice who was brave enough to openly make his call. Were it not for Archie’s intervention, it is hard to imagine this reform happening as politicians on both sides of the aisle have been hesitant to appear as though they are riding roughshod over religious practices.

But as we have said before, in a democracy law should be based on secular facts and policy, not on the spiritual beliefs of segments of the population. There is undoubtedly a right to religion, but that right cannot trump the right of children and girls to be free from a practice that amounts to a form of chattel ownership.

The laws have a history that politicians are undoubtedly aware of.

When the Hindu Marriage Act was being passed in November 1944 the Legislative Council was of the view that it was doing something noble. The law was meant to address inequality. It sought to tackle the injustice created whenever the State seized the assets of Hindu families because Hindu marriages were deemed illegitimate.

T M Kelshall, a Council member, said on the first day of debate, “I congratulate the Government on bringing this measure. It is indeed a great step forward.” However, the Legislative Council sensed it was taking one step forward, two steps back. H Wilcox Wilson, the then Attorney General, felt the need to justify the 12-year age limit. The best he could do was point out that Muslims had been allowed the same since 1936. E V Wharton said, “I think that Government should undertake some educational propaganda amongst these people.” Kelshall added, “Perhaps later we shall see what can be done about this question of raising the age.” The limit stayed for half a century.

Out of a deep history, then, comes this practice. But that context is no longer relevant in the age we find ourselves in today when we know so much about the human being: her personality, biology and development. No child should be forced to enter a marriage contract.

No child is in a position to make such a commitment. We note both the Government and the Opposition came out in support of raising the marriageable age to 18 since last year. We commend all parties for allowing all sides to exercise their right to express their views.

This was a rare instance where Parliament has been responsive to social debate, where the politicians have held extensive consultation (including with children) and where the decision in the end was for the benefit of Trinidad and Tobago as a whole. An overdue reform.

Well done!

The world looks like a perfectly edited photograph with them over my eyes.

It filters just enough light to allow me to see colours, which I am otherwise unable to see with my bare eyes.

Although I have had them for at least five years, I still forget that what I see isn’t what someone else, who is not wearing this particular pair, sees. So, while I admire the turquoise water on a clear day, and exclaim, “Gosh! Look at how gorgeous that water looks. The colour is so rich!” “Uh hmm” comes the reply.

I then remember that I’m wearing these glasses, so the green I’m seeing isn’t what friend A is seeing.

So, I hand over the pair for the individual to look through.

Initially I would be puzzled by the difference in colour. It was so stark that I would keep taking off the glasses, looking, and then putting them back on again.

So I turned to a friend one day, a science major, who has a similar pair and asked, “Which one is the real world? How do I know that what I’m seeing through these sunglasses is real? What’s real? Why don’t my bare eyes give me the real picture? So what, does everyone have to wear this brand of sunglasses to get this view?” She shrugged.

“I don’t know. Just enjoy it.” I stared out the window.

This week the National Geographic Channel aired quite a disturbing yet interesting documentary on the metaverse in a series called Year Million. The Year Million series imagines life, as it would be, a million years from now and the metaverse is basically a virtual world that is built to look like the real world.

While this might be a projection of the future, the process has already started. With new technologies that are now available to provide people with an immersive experience, from games to 3D cinema, there is a constant shifting back and forth between what we know as the real world and the virtual world. To an increasing number of people, the virtual world is home, their own real world, a place where, as some of the interviewees say, they can be whoever they want.

One of the central focal points of the metaverse episode is the nature of reality, a theme that films and literature have been exploring for some time – The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, Inception and The Matrix to name a few.

Soon enough, the documentary posits, we will be living online.

From 3D cinema and gaming, the next step is, what if, you can plug yourself into a world where you can live virtually? The brain is fooled into believing that it is inside a real world based on the illusory world’s ability to engage all five senses. Essentially the technology blocks out all external reference points, such as with the use of 3D glasses. So in a 3D world where you can traverse countries and cultures, you can live within any space without having to leave your chair.

And best of all, before you die, you can remain alive because although you leave your body, your consciousness – your memories and everything else that made you – can be uploaded into a giant computer.

With this looming possibility of life in a virtual world, (after all submarines and smart watches were science fiction until they did become our reality), it is a space where science and philosophy will have to come together to question the uses and misuses of such ‘progress’. While technology will most certainly open up the world further, how open is open? As I see it this is the proposition: we sit in a chair belonging to the embodied world, disembodied.

What then, is the meaning of life? A series of questions were raised in the Nat Geo episode, deeply philosophical ones, which should be at the centre of such innovations. What does it mean to be human? Am I my mind or my body? “Who am I” essentially, seems to be a central question, one with which many of us haven’t even come to grips as yet, where wars are still being fought over such things like natural resources and cultural supremacy.

One is afraid to think of the possibilities of one’s consciousness uploaded into a giant computer brain where everyone else’s brains are hooked in when we haven’t even solved our basic wars in these “progressive” times. It begs the question, exactly where is progress located? And how does the idea of progress affect the way in w h i c h we will, y e t a g a i n , conceptual i ze life and the act of living?

In advertisements, the division apologised to the public for any inconvenience caused when the data collection exercise was suspended.

Legal challenges by the Opposition halted the exercise until the Appeal Court last week overturned Justice Frank Seepersad’s orders on the process, advising Government to properly inform the public that the procedure is voluntary and that there are no penalties.

The division complied yesterday assuring submission was voluntary.

It also said, “Failure to submit the valuation return forms and or supporting documents and the choice not to supply all the information requested during the period of this data collection exercise will not attract any sanctions.” The division said forms can be collected at any of its offices, head office at the Ministry of Finance or downloaded from the website www.finance.gov.tt/propertytax. And also listed the documents which may be handed in

So said Khafra Kambon, chairman of the Emancipation Support Committee at the Yoruba Village Drum Festival at the Yoruba Village in Port-of-Spain yesterday.

Speaking to Sunday Newsday, Kambon said the celebration was psychologically important to African descendants, and it had made an impact on their everyday lives.

“All those things in your environment – whether it’s your built environment, the things you hear, the things you see – all that has an affect on your mind and how you see yourself, which is critical to the development of any people. A lot of things can contribute to your sense of self so wherever you can make an input in the things that can affect the mindset of Africans, affect our sense of self, it is very important.” For example, he said when he was younger, Nigerians would wear their African clothes and they would be laughed at because if it. Now, thousands of people wear their African clothes proudly on Emancipation Day and special occasions. Also, he said black women began to be proud of their natural hair and dark complexions in the 1970s and “what has been sustained has been sustained a lot by the Emancipation festival.” Kambon said the Emancipation Support Committee also got involved in the formal education system by hosting and providing literature for an African history quiz in secondary schools and a spoken word competition in primary schools. He said when the children learned the contributions past and current people of African decent made to the world, they were surprised and encouraged to do more themselves.

Therefore, he said, such information needed to be part of the curriculum but did not expect that to be the case anytime soon.

“I would be pleasantly surprised if there is a radical change in how the curriculum addresses information that affects how we think about ourselves as a people so we have to do, in our small ways, what we can.” MP for Laventille East/Morvant Adrian Leonce said the Yoruba Village Drum Festival was a way to “promote a level of consciousness” for people of the area to develop themselves as he felt that consciousness was dwindling.

“I think the reasons people gravitate to things that may be negative and have a negative impact on the community is because they do not have a proper understanding of what the community is about and where it came from. I think that knowledge, and developing that strength inside, would not allow some of the weaknesses that make them gravitate to negativity.” Noting the Yoruba Village once encompassed parts of Port of Spain including Laventille and Belmont, Leonce said more people needed to support and contribute to the Yoruba Village Drum Festival. He said that contribution could include just listening to and understanding the history of the Yoruba Village, or through the giving of resources like time, experience or money.

He is also recommending a system where mental health officers could be called to help calm a mentally ill person with a sedative, taking them down with “ a needle” instead of bullets.

Deyalsingh was responding to reports of a soldier shooting Edison Thompson, 45, of Princes Town on Friday.

Thompson, who was aboard a bus on Henry Street, Port-of-Spain, attacked a soldier with a hammer and was shot in the buttocks. He was taken to Port of Spain General Hospital where he died. He was the forth mentally ill man to be shot and killed by a member of the protective services.

Speaking to Sunday Newsday, Deyalsingh said global reports state that with every successive generation, not only did the number of cases of depression increase, but the people who suffer from the illness were younger. In fact, he said the second highest cause of death in people ages 16 to 29 was suicide.

“We know mental illness is going to increase.

Different factors are bringing on mental illness in terms of poverty, unemployment and other societal issues… If it’s increasing, our encounters with people who are mentally ill will be more.

Meaning, we as normal people who are walking, as well as the police officers will have to deal with it.” He said police and soldiers who have to deal with the public should be trained to assess the risk of a mentally ill person, the level of danger that person poses to themselves and to the public.

He said psychological assessment was a part of training at the Police Academy but after a year or two that knowledge could fade. He suggested continual training, especially as that section of the population was increasing.

In the meantime, he advised the police not to rush in but step back; get a plain-clothes officer if possible because the uniform could frighten them; speak to the person slowly, in a non-confrontational manner; if they are rambling, repeat what they say so they know you are listening to them. He said these things could help calm the person and lessen their aggression enough to apprehend the person.

He said people suffering from mental illnesses were “ten time more likely to be a victim of crime” so non-lethal ways of subduing someone was important – possibly by shooting the person in the foot or with the use of rubber bullets or tasers.

However he stressed that, “In the case of life and death situations, you have no choice but to defend yourself because it is either you or them.” Deyalsingh also suggested making a crisis intervention team of mental health officers available to the police.

Therefore, if the police encountered someone with a problem, a team member could be called to the scene.

He said the mental health officers would be better trained on how to talk to the person. The patient may know the mental health officer if they attended a psychiatric clinic in the area and it would be easier for the officer to deal with the person.

In addition, he said the mental health officer would carry a Haldol injection, a drug used to calm an agitated person.

“We could take them down with needles instead of bullets.” To the average person, if a person seemed to be mentally ill because of their speech or behaviour, it was best not to look the person in the eye. In fact, he suggested avoiding all contact as they could be paranoid or have delusions and react aggressively.

If the mentally ill person approached in an aggressive manner, show your hands and back off and tell them that you were leaving. If they still approach in a confrontational manner, then run.

Last month’s parliamentary motion by my friend, Senator Wade Mark, on “parliamentary autonomy” attracted my interest for a number of reasons, one of course, being my own experience as Independent Senator for over 12 years.

This column does not necessarily disagree with the motion, but uses the opportunity to briefly raise a few issues over Mark’s subsequent proposition for “administrative autonomy, financial autonomy and institutional autonomy.”( Hansard) Mark argued for a parliament with stronger powers so as to control and check cabinet policy- making powers as well. “A strong parliament represents a strong democracy, a strong legislature means a very powerful and independent body that can hold the executive to account and, if necessary, dismiss a prime minister.

We must have that power,” he declared, and with “Markian passion,” exceeding the motion’s “financial and administrative autonomy.” He also spoke about full-time MP.s. He added: “Parliament cannot continue to be the plaything of the executive.” “Institutional autonomy” has political implications.

As Minister Gopee-Scoon replied, her government has some sympathy for “financial autonomy,” but pending further clarification, especially on institutional autonomy, it’s not a matter that should be “rushed to a joint select committee,” and further, the population should also have a say, etc.

This debate, as I said, reminds me of the executive president debate a few years ago. The proposal was for an elected MP to be nominated and approved by majority vote to be executive president who will then choose the 25 member cabinet – nine MPs, 16 outside. A half-way US model.

Note: As long as the prime minister appoints the cabinet, as long as the cabinet is drawn from the majority party in parliament and the Westminster controls applied, there would be great difficulty in having a parliament so strong so as to control or even over-ride the cabinet and government.

More precisely, our Constitution states: “There shall be a Cabinet for Trinidad and Tobago which the Cabinet shall have the general direction and control of the government and shall be collectively responsible therefore to Parliament.”(Section 7(1)) What does “collectively responsible” mean? If it means the executive is accountable, as I think it does, such accountability is in effect limited even when the Constitution states: “Parliament may make laws for the peace, order and good government of Trinidad and Tobago.”(Section 53) The Constitution further states: “The Cabinet shall consist of the Prime Minister and such number of other Ministers (of whom one shall be the Attorney General)…as the Prime Minister considers appropriate.” Section 75(2) This is the executive whose party and government are directly accountable to the population.

So the question now is really this: Who should control parliament? And if “independence” and parallel executive powers are to be given to a multi-party parliament, how much recalibration and political adjustments would be necessary? Especially in a multi-party parliament with political alliances.

Some constitutional and electoral changes would be required.

Senator Mark’s intervention encourages us to re-visit constitution reform.

In its reference to having a president as both “Head of State and Head of Government,” the Wooding Constitution Commission (1974) stated: “The overwhelming majority of people (consulted) advocated a largely ceremonial Head of State who would have some powers in the appointment to offices of a national character. If the President were to be both Head of State and Head of Government, he would have to be elected by all the people.” Sixteen years later, also struggling to find a presidential balance between government and parliament, the Hyatali Constitution Commission argued for “joint agreement between the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader,” then through the Speaker, put the nomination before the Electoral College. Like Mark’s motion, and as we look back, democ r a c y is always a work in progress.

Rather, he said the plan had always been to state its general objectives and get citizens concerns and suggestions for improving police performance and the country’s public safety .

The meeting, which was poorly attended, was eventually postponed .

Saying the postponement was indeed regrettable, Deosaran gave several explanations for the poor turnout .

He said the committee does not have its own budget for timely media advertisement and the request for advertisements faced bureaucratic challenges .

Deosaran added that active planning for the event should also have started earlier .

He said since the committee comprises six members, all of whom have fulltime jobs elsewhere, government hired a five-member implementation team “who would no doubt treat last Friday’s experience as a learning experience.” “The audit committee reassures the public that it will continue as hard as possible to achieve its important objectives .

“Deosaran said the committee has planned two more town meetings, one of which is scheduled to take place tomorrow at the Chaguanas Borough Corporation at 6.30 pm .

The other takes place on Tuesday at the Siparia Plaza, Siparia, at the same time .

“Again citizens are invited to attend to present their police and safety concerns and where possible, make recommendations to the Committee for improvement .

Their views are important,” he said .

Before the Lower House passed the legislation which amended the country’s marriage acts, Singh said there are increasing numbers of female-headed households with three times more females under 19 who are heads of households than males. Singh also said the country had to look at the effect of Carnival on sexuality and the availability of legal abortions and sex education in schools, suggesting these were all of greater importance than the legislation of early or forced marriages.

However, Minister of Arts and Culture Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly challenged Singh’s association of Carnival with sex, saying many people enjoy the season in ways that enhance their cultural expression. She questioned what she said was his fixation with Carnival and sex while she thought Carnival was equated with culture.

According to Singh, family life experts estimate that about 15 per cent of all live births are to adolescent parents with the average age of first sexual intercourse being 14. He said there were about 3,000 pregnancies a year in schools and wondered how the legislation would deal with that situation. He added that when the last census was conducted by the Central Statistical Office in 2011 more than 40,000 children were born to persons under 19 and 6,000 children were born to persons under 14, which he said was a high indicator of teenage pregnancies.

He said, “These statistics demonstrate that only a fraction of those were in the context of marriage and related to such social scourges as incest, rape, and generally early cohabitation as a socio-cultural norm.” He said statistics prove that girls have almost equal access to educational opportunities as boys – 97 per cent – and have been excelling through to tertiary levels where they have been outnumbering and outperforming boys. He said gender equality in education has seen this country ranked higher than many developed countries and these statistics make the legislation virtually obsolete. He said the study also showed his country had fewer females out of schools than some developed countries, meaning more girls were making use of the education system, so there was no evidence of forced marriages of those who were 12 to 16-yearsold.

“With higher levels of education, girls are delaying marriage and also because of the advice of parents, religious leaders and elders.”

At every turn, on every corner, and in all of our institutions, there is a palpable sense of failure .

And the real tragedy about this is that our foundations still surprisingly remain secure .

But as the top teeters into collapse, eventually our foundations will begin to fail too, as they become exposed to the ongoing rot and decay of neglect, mismanagement, corruption and the allencompassing lack of any sense of national responsibility in any area of governance or management .

What can be wrong with us? So blessed by location and a range of natural and human resources, most of which we have squandered more than once, we seem blissfully unaware of the current true state of our plight .

Somehow, twice in the past, the mechanisms of world oil prices have intervened to snatch us from bankruptcy and revolution, after we had wasted a heritage we were just lucky to have accessed. And we do not engage in this ongoing neglect just from indifference and laziness—although these two qualities are ever present in all of our pathetic endeavours—, we do it to facilitate a chronic flow of corruption. From petty corruption in face-to-face encounters with supposedly “free” government services, all the way up to multi-million dollar schemes of failed insurance companies where the principals enjoy poor peoples’ money to continue astonishing life styles. And all the way in between these are the massive, never- to-be-completed construction contracts within our petroleum sector, for our infrastructure development, and like icing on the side, the multi-million dollar attorneys’ fees as the two sides sue and counter sue each other as they circle in and out of government .

The ongoing physical deterioration of the whole of the refinery at Pointe-a-Pierre is an ongoing feature of our ownership and care of this “flagship” asset we took over .

Ruptured oil lines on the shipping pier caused an environmental disaster a couple of years ago, and while we tried to forget or dismiss that, a large tank at the refinery compound was leaking at its base for years, noted but ignored by highly paid operatives .

The “just a few barrels” from that tank, which conveniently had also lost its required earthen “bund wall”, has drifted on to beaches in Venezuela and to Venezuela’s offshore Caribbean islands, and now to Aruba. Do you really think it is only one tank in the refinery that is in a state of imminent failure? Or just the one pipeline which is at failure point? The total and apparently deliberately contrived failure of our shipping service to Tobago is no surprise to anyone. All efforts are being made to hide the facts from the public as to who and when and why decisions were taken not to ensure that a suitable cargo vessel was retained until replacements were in place. Or that the fast ferries did not undergo scheduled maintenance when required, by experienced and competent service providers .

But that could never happen, not in a land where “maintenance” means paying money to the courts for where you left your sperm .

The utter fiasco of the Tobago ferry service could not have been planned to be more unbelievable if we tried. But of course, just as at Petrotrin, nobody is at fault about any of this, these things, as we now know “just happen” .

And please do not think that it is just our physical assets that we destroy through neglect and rapacious mismanagement .

Our Judiciary and our lawyers are working feverishly and acrimoniously to tear down this pillar of our Constitution. You mean that none of these “learned” people could even seek to establish some dialogue within their profession to resolve the dispute surrounding the appointment of an apparently overworked magistrate to the High Court? What egos are driving these people? And from where do we now seek reason and justice when we have disputes? Them? And wondering if things could get worse, we have the apparent dispute between two very senior army officers (one now retired) as to how the children of the Attorney General (whom the AG has apparently not acknowledged as his children?) were allowed into a secure military base and given high-powered guns to play with. What is the “real truth” with this situation? And finally for this week, we had the sordid and shameful episode of an elderly man dying on the lawn of the Port of Spain General Hospital, where he was literally dumped by hospital security .

According to “the rules” only an ambulance could pick him up and bring him back inside? The foundations of our independence are being sorely tested by our criminal neglect of all of our infrastruct u r e and our institut i o n s .

But no one is responsible!

“These men robbed me of my only son and they robbed two young girls of their father and now to know just in a few years time they will be able to walk free. Is this the justice system?” Grace Ruiz, 57, cried in an interview with Sunday Newsday in San Fernando yesterday.

On June 14, 2005, which was Mother’s Day, the decomposed body of Collin Ruiz, 29, was found in a shallow grave off Roopsingh Road, Waterloo near Carapichaima.

An autopsy revealed the young man was stabbed 17 times before he was strangled.

Shaheed Dalia, Surujlal and Ishmael Khan were jointly charged for his murder. They later confessed to the killing. Last Friday, the men who pleaded guilty to felony murder each received a 30-year sentence.

However, Justice Devan Rampersad ruled that because of their guilty pleas, the men were granted a one-third discount on their sentencing.

Also, because they men spent the last 12 years awaiting trial, an additional amount of time was deducted from their sentence. Therefore, they will serve eight more years in prison.

The case was heard in the Port-of Spain First Criminal Court.

Ruiz recalled sitting disbelief until she burst into tears and left the courtroom.

“I could not believe it and I still can’t believe it, after all these years of going to court every month and face these monsters who took my son’s life. I still did not get the justice I deserve, my family did not get justice. His two daughters did not get the justice they deserve.” Collin was a security system specialist.

Ruiz believes if the case had been called in a timely manner, justice would have been “surely served”.

“Families don’t get the closure and the ones who are happy in the end are the families of the accused. This is not right.

“I have had to sit and listen in detail how these three men stabbed my son over and over, 17 times before dumping his body in a grave. I don’t have any forgiveness in my heart for them and I don’t know if I will ever reach to that point. Everyday I cry, I have relived the moments when police took away my son’s body in a bag over and over and especially on Mother’s Day.” Ruiz has fought to become a beacon of strength for her granddaughters who are now 19 and 21. They were seven and nine when their father was killed, and have had counselling to cope over the years.

Collin’s sister Abi, 35, said her greatest fear is that the men who took her brother’s life would be re-integrated into society.

“In a few years these men could be standing next to me in lines in the bank, supermarket or any other organization.

The society is small and this is what we have to live with for the rest of our lives,”Abi said.

She felt the justice system serves the accused and their families and not the victim and their families.