I am not surprised by this debacle involving the Chief Justice, former Chief Magistrate and the irrelevant Law Association because I have consistently spoken out about the level of ineptitude and quasi-intelligence in Trinidad and Tobago’s legal profession. I am also not surprised by the motion of no confidence against the CJ because for almost a decade there has been zero progress in the administration of justice, while he jets around the world in style. I have had no confidence in him for years; everyone else is just now waking up to his disastrous tenure.

But my real concern in all of this is the prisoners who continue to languish without voices. My view on how we treat prisoners will never be a popular view in this country where a person is always guilty until proven innocent, but it is the gravest injustice to have men sit around in prison for almost a decade while still legally innocent. And now some of the men who are defendants in the 53 matters that former Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar has left behind, are on the verge of having that time reset as their trials may be heard de novo. This now means that after already burdening the public purse with the expense of incarceration, we have to now turn around and do it a second time.

I know that it is probably the majority of the population who thinks these men deserve to be incarcerated despite not being proven guilty, but how can anyone with a conscience think that it is fair, right, or just to have a man spend a decade in prison without a conviction, only to be eventually released as a result of negligence and incompetence by the police and state prosecutors. And not only spend a decade in prison as a legally innocent man, but actually live in conditions that are much worse than a convict… or even a dog.

Prison was never intended to be a hotel, but the remand prison on the Golden Grove compound and Remand Yard in Port-of- Spain Prison are home to some of the worst human rights violating living conditions on this side of the globe; yet here is where other human beings are being detained until their day in court, whenever that may be.

The remand to convicted ratio in our local prisons is approximately 65:35, while at the same time, there is less housing available for the larger population of remandees. Inevitably, this results in severely overcrowded cells with five to nine (always odd numbers, never even) men crammed into them, along with a couple mattresses and some sheets (most sleep on the cold hard concrete), their thoughts, their belongings, their bucket of excrement (emptied maybe twice a day, but usually once) and the little remaining dignity they may still have.

Still legally innocent, but cut off from the outside world and their families for years; leaving single mothers and distraught children to cope the best way they could…

until the wife/girlfriend moves on after waiting for a year, and who can blame her? But now there’s a man behind bars still legally innocent because he may have been wrongfully arrested or set up by corrupt police officers, yet now he has been abandoned by family, can’t see his children and growing frustrated with “the system” every single day.

Then when there is no access to legal material whatsoever, it is impossible to represent oneself from prison or at the very least have an opportunity to educate oneself enough to decide whether an attorney is providing competent representation.

These prisoners are vulnerable to injustice because they are left to rely solely on whatever information, and in some cases, lies they receive from their legal counsel concerning the delays in their matters.

In any organisation, I determine who gets my respect just by observing whether or not they greet the cleaner in the morning. Similarly, when it comes to government, only those who genuinely show concern for the most disadvantaged members of society get my respect, which explains why I will alw a y s t r e a t e ver yone on e i t he r side of the aisle in our parliam e n t w i t h c o n – tempt.

In an open letter to the pair yesterday, Khan said they should tender their resignations on the sole ground that the membership of the Lawyers Association has lost confidence in their ability and integrity to perform their, “Onerous duty as independent and responsible members of the JLSC.” “I politely remind their Lordships,” Khan says, “That they owe it to the legal profession and by extension the people and most of all their respective families and ancestors, to demonstrate that they still possess the intrinsic virtue of decency not to cling to status and power in the face of the overwhelming vote of no confidence against them.” Khan says that Hamel Smith and Stollmeyer personally need to protect and maintain the reputation and good names of their ancestors, “Who were the pillars of the ruling class of our young nation. The Hamel-Smiths during the period of slavery and colonialism; the Stollmeyers during the post slavery and colonial periods.” Khan reminded Hamel-Smith that he acted on several occasions as Chief Justice and was recommended to then President, ANR Robinson, by former Chief Justice Michael de la Bastide to replace him as Chief Justice upon his retirement.

The Hamel-Smiths, according to Khan, have established over a 100- year period their merit, ability and integrity in rendering legal services to the country.

To Stollmeyer, Khan says that even though he emerged from the entrenched ruling class where his ancestors demonstrated that they were hard-working, industrious, fair-minded and just inhabitants of our country, there exists a personal cultural blot against him when he ruled in his capacity as a judge of the Supreme Court of Trinidad and Tobago that the Nehru suit does not befit the dignity and majesty of the Magistrates’ Court as a decent mode of dress for attorneys.

Justice Stollmeyer, Sir, Khan writes, “I have documented this cultural slur/blot against you in order to politely remind you that if perhaps you are subconsciously Eurocentric, that you take stock of yourself and demonstrate to the citizens of this country that you are not of the ilk as those who still hold the view that massa day must not done in this country and thus cling on to status and power by virtue of being a member of the JLSC.” Khan tells Stollmeyer further that he and his ancestors’ good name do(es) not need this false pride. Addressing Hamel-Smith and Stollmeyer as “Sahibs”, Khan says he knows that they possess the inner strength and courage to do what is morally right and decent and resign now,” telling them also not to allow “the apologists for the Chief Justice to mamaguy you to cling to false status and power.” Khan says it is his considered opinion that at this juncture the issue of due diligence is not sufficient in law to ground a legal removal of Hamel-Smith and Stollmeyer by the President.

He says the issue is one of morality in public affairs.

Khan feels that any proper investigation will reveal misbehaviour in public office which he says carries a penalty of 15 years imprisonment for anyone convicted of such an offence.

Why? Once again there were heavy grief, family sorrow, and the unexpected and terrible bloody deaths of innocent persons. Why? If these killings were rituals of terror, what was the motive, the mind behind it? I then looked at a documentary (Clover Films) that separately covered the daily lives of Isis and Taliban soldiers and the residents of the mountainous villages around Kabul. An Isis group leader told two reporters they are all aware, as one example, of the “massive murders committed by Russia, France and America against their brothers.” Some left Taliban to join Isis, founded by Al Zarqawi in 2004 who violently exploited the broken-down Iraq left behind by US military. Suicide bombers and public beheading, a most frightening ritual, quickly attracted international attention. Isis surrealistic mission, the motivating idea and “God’s wish,” is an Islamic world (Caliphate). Killing such an idea is not easy.

It seemingly attracts youthful recruits. Why? Simonson and Spindlove (Terrorism Today) explained that “secular terrorists” view indiscriminate violence as “’immoral and counterproductive,” while “religious terrorists” view their violence as both “morally justified and necessary.” They use the language of religion, not so much the religion, to justify terrorism and a guilt-free mind. This lifted language preaches purity and order in a “disordered and vulgar world,” justifying violence. Simonson and Spindlove suggested that while secular terrorists seek to appeal to a constituency of their sympathisers and the aggrieved people they claim to speak for, religious terrorists act for no audience but themselves.

They added: “The absence of a constituency, combined with an extreme sense of alienation, means that such terrorists can logically justify almost limitless violence against virtually any target who is not a member of their own religious belief or sect.” For them, violence becomes a “religious duty.” In other words, briskly branding Abedi or other bombers as “crazy, irrational” or even “criminals” do not fit. They see their violence as “a holy mission,” leaving the rest of the world to wonder at Isis “impossible mission.” Both Isis and Taliban speak proudly of the revenge-bombings they inflicted from Russia’s St Petersburg to London and Europe.

Their relationship with Al Qaeda is hot and cold. “We have Mujahideen all over the world now,” said the Isis soldier. The documentary showed a Taliban attack on a barricaded camp of the Afghanistan National Army (ANA). Returning to their base and worried villagers, the Taliban leader announced two of their soldiers got killed but praised them as holy martyrs. They killed two but we killed seven, he said. Mainstream Muslims across the world have publicly expressed embarrassment over Isis and the Taliban, especially since terrorist victims include thousands of Muslims too.

Then there is the “Sunnis killing Shiites” and vice versa. Geopolitical differences and a fractured Middle East add to the complexity. There is growing consensus that a political, not a military, solution could help dampen a lot of terrorism. The flaw in this exists, for example, in Palestine which, facing Israel, contains sharp political divisions within Palestine itself. Quite a complex challenge.

In the occupied villages near Kabul, the locals express comfort with the Taliban’s presence. In another documentary (Clover Films) with a Danish journalist, the locals said since the Taliban appeared, there has been “no stealing, no adultery, few outstanding debts.” There is the panchayat ritual. Taliban leaders hold court and deliver sentences – chopped arms for stealing, execution for murder. In the documentary, US Ambassador to NATO, Kurt Volker noted how, before Taliban, the Afghan judicial system was very inefficient, very slow and corrupt.

No formal education for girls beyond puberty, advocates the Taliban.

In “Khalid Groups,” children five to twelve are taught how to hold guns and shoot. – a rite of passage.

They are reminded of how “the infidels k i l l e d t h e i r f a m i – lies.” The r i t u a l s b e g i n early.

“Trinidad and Tobago has awakened to work which has been going on for a considerable amount of time,” Al Rawi said, adding, “We have been telling the population on a continuous basis that action is being taken, there is a lot more action to come to the fore.” Speaking at the San Fernando City Hall prior to a tour of the San Fernando West constituency with Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan, Al Rawi noted that the previous People’s Partnership Administration spent $1.2 billion in legal fees without any success in court.

“This government is taking a very quiet and dedicated approach in dealing with corruption, you will see that we have passed over certain information to the police and you are beginning to see some of that work coming into the public domain. What I can tell you is that you will see in the civil courts, fruits which would have been ripened very shortly,” he said.

“So that we assure you that we are taking a very dedicated but measured approach to how we deal with corruption and the allegation of corruption and I want to tell you that this is not confined to the past Administration only, wherever corruption raises its head, including under a PNM government, you will see that we will take action with transparency,” Al Rawi said.

Asked about the ongoing controversy regarding the Chief Justice and whether he should tender his resignation as being requested by the Law Association, Al Rawi said he did think the executive arm of government should become involved with the judicial arm.

“The executive has no role in the judiciary, we simply take note of developments. There is an active democracy in this country, certain quarters have come out and been very democratic in their purpose, but government has no role in the positioning between the judiciary and certain elements that are questioning it,” Al Rawi said.

My ears perked up.

“What’s the pokhari? Why do they call it that?” ‘I’m not sure. We grew up knowing it as the pokhari,’ the speaker replied.

Off I went to dig up the meaning of the word, for a crude, galvanised structure that functioned as a temple, had also piqued my interest.

It was, I was told, dedicated to the god Shiva. Searching ‘Shiva Temple Pokhari’ on Google, the Ranipokhari in Nepal came up, a historic landmark outfitted with a Shiva temple. Might be coincidence, pending further investigation.

Nevertheless, a ‘pokhari’ is a small lake or pond. A former resident recalled the presence of a pond where a house now stands.

The entire area however, came to be known as ‘the pokhari’.

Today, there is not much to identify the area as swampland, as it has been developed. Most people now refer to it by the official street name or identify it by the bar on the corner.

My interest in human movement has to do with a preoccupation with physical and cultural movement along with the way in which language becomes important in relation to this. Where does the term jangee come from? Or who put that signboard along the Manzanilla stretch that says ‘Humjailah’, that is directed out to sea? A visit to Laventille, with its low walls, and narrow lanes in some neighbourhoods where cars can’t pass and one depends mainly on one’s feet, was another point of interest. It is an ideal layout for escaping the law if need be. Then there are the hills and boundaries which no doubt condition how people will think about boundaries and feel the space. The name Laventille itself was born of a description of this area where the breeze passes through. But the name suggests more than just a mild breeze, thus providing not only a sense of place, but, an impression of its past – a landscape through which the breeze flowed freely.

In 2015 Oxford University Press published a new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary. It provoked an outcry from such writers like Margaret Atwood, Robert Macfarlane and others. The crime: the omission of a large number of words related to nature. Some of the words gone missing: ‘heron, acorn, buttercup and dandelion’ to be replaced by ‘cut-and-paste, blog and broadband,’ to name a few.

In an open letter to the Oxford University Press, Margaret Atwood, lamented the deletion of the words as further contributing to the problem of children’s lives becoming more insulated and losing a connection with natural play and a relationship with nature.

While she acknowledged that the dictionary had the right to update in order to keep up with changes in language and culture, she also noted that, “The Oxford Dictionaries have a rightful authority and a leading place in cultural life.

We believe the OJD should address these issues and that it should seek to help shape children’s understanding of the world, not just to mirror its trends.” A spokesperson for OUP explained that, “When you look back at older versions of dictionaries, there were lots of examples of flowers for instance. That was because many children lived in semi-rural environments and saw the seasons.

Nowadays, the environment has changed.” Writer and academic Robert Macfarlane is quoted in the UK Guardian as responding to this statement by saying that while the spokesperson’s response was based in reality, it also shows “an alarming acceptance of the ideas that children might no longer see the seasons, that all childhoods are urban, that all cities are denatured, and that what exists beyond the city fringe or the edge of the computer screen need not be named…” Though most news reports focused on the omission of nature words, an article in the New Yorker magazine also identified some religious words that had disappeared – ‘saint’ and ‘chapel’ among them.

As of this writing, we are faced with the US threat to pull out of the Paris climate agreement. What does that mean for us locally? I have no specific answers except the observation that our relationship to landscape is a lot deeper than we care to think.

The naming of things, like the way in which we name children for instance, establishes meaning. We also cultivate a physical and emotional relationship with that thing or place so named.

One wonders, with the continuing climate change issues facing nations worldwide, how soon will it be before much of the vocabulary related to our local natural environment is lost or rather, further l o s t ? And so too, how m u c h of the vocabulary related to cultural practices and daily activities?

After the shooting stopped, residents cautiously checked and saw Blackette’s body on the steps.

A report was made to the Western Division police.

His body was viewed by the district medical officer and later removed to the Forensic Science Centre in St James where an autopsy is expected to be done tomorrow. Police said that it is believed that a gang from the Dibe area was responsible for the shooting. Up to press time, no arrest was made.

Police said Blackette lived in the area but moved to Arima.

This is the 222nd murder for the year, up to press time, as against 197 murders recorded for the corresponding period last year.

Investigations are continuing.

Speaking prior to a tour of the San Fernando West constituency yesterday, Sinanan while commenting on the water-taxi’s reduced sailing on Friday, also expressed surprise that two of the four water taxis had not been operational for some time. “We had a challenge yesterday,” Sinanan said, adding, “The boat went down the night before so we had to pull one of the water taxi out so we had to cut short two of the sailings from San Fernando and we used the PTSC service to supplement.” “However, we have four water taxis in Trinidad and for some reason or the other, two were not working, we have sorted that problem out, we’ll soon have the four water taxis working so even if we lose one or two, we will still have two water taxis,” he said. “There is a problem in Trinidad with maintenance and we intend to fix that.” Regarding the much maligned seabridge, he said, “We are going through some challenges and I am fairly certain between the next week or two, we should no longer have these problems. I just want to wait until the I’s are dotted, the t’s crossed and this problem will be a thing of the past. Just bear with me about two weeks again and we will solve this problem going forward,” he said.

Sinanan continued: “We will have another ferry here within the next two weeks I expect, so once that is sorted out, we’ll have two ferries working, we should not have this problem going forward.

I just ask the population, just bear with us a little while again, we will solve the cargo problem and we will solve the passenger ferry problem,” he said.

Flanked by both San Fernando West MP Faris Al Rawi and San Fernando Mayor Junia Regrello, Sinanan said the Ministry presently has an ongoing “road maintenance program” to rehabilitate roads before they fall into a state of disrepair.

“What we are trying to do is avoid letting the road get to the position where we have to spend significant amounts of money, we trying to implement in the Ministry of Works more maintenance and road rehabilitation, if we can get that right, the country will save a lot of money trying to just pave all the roads just before elections, we want to start now to rehabilitate the roads so that we can at least save going forward,” he said.

He said the Ministry was also addressing damage done to secondary roads by trucks saying the Licensing Department and traffic wardens would soon be enforcing the law regarding the use of these vehicles. “We intend to put our foot down on that one because trucks are licensed for certain roads but what we find happening because of the traffic congestion and everybody want to get to and from, and in local parlance, pull the most trip for the day, they pass in all the back roads and once they pass twice, they damage the roads,” Sinanan said.

“We going to utilise the traffic wardens with the proper signage and the Licensing department will be definitely cracking down on this. When you license a vehicle, especially those vehicles you see sometimes with the S on it, those vehicles were licensed for specific roads and if they are found on roads they are not supposed to be on, then that is a violation,” he said.

He also touched on the flooding along Mosquito Creek saying he had instructed NIDCO to place personnel at the pumps given the advent of the rainy season.

Meanwhile, Al Rawi, who also holds the portfolio of Attorney General, said the Works and Transport Ministry had been able to secure one billion dollars from the OAS contract through the courts and this money would be used to continue the San Fernando to Point Fortin highway.

And with the tour expected to visit kings Wharf, Al Rawi said public transportation was another significant issues in San Fernando as the city was plagued with “traffic congestion and circulation.”

In a media statement yesterday, the Caroni East MP noted that Piggott’s resignation had come in the wake of, “Serious allegations of corruption, big rigging, abuse of office, squander and worker victimisation.” “Details of these include the fixing of million-dollar contracts to favour cronies of the PNM; disbarring certain previous contractors, re-opening closed tenders, misuse of funds, awarding a deal in excess of $50 million to a contractor who scored the lowest in the evaluation process and overall abuse of the public’s trust,” Gopeesingh claimed.

He said the remaining directors had, “No moral authority to continue to cling onto public office in the face of these extensive and shocking revelations which, if substantiated by the audit that is currently being undertaken by the Ministry of Finance and Attorney General, point to misconduct, illegal activities and gross misbehaviour in public life.” “As such, to preserve the integrity of the aforementioned Government-commissioned investigations, as well as the ongoing viability of the EFCL, the directors must immediately step down or be summarily fired,” he stated.

He said Education Minister Anthony Garcia and Junior Education Minister Dr Lovell Francis, to whom the EFCL Board of Directors reports, should also be held responsible.

“As the public officers with ministerial responsibility for EFCL, the buck stops with Mr Garcia and Dr Francis,” he stated.

The brilliant flowering trees are the visible signals of the annual change of season, from hot, dry, dusty weather, to cooling showers of rain. Rain which washes the scorched black hillsides and flat country sides, causing grasses to spring back through the baked earth, and on the hillsides, in addition to the brilliant flowers, new green leaves bursting out again.

That before December we may be cursing the rain is not important now. We will have to deal with the damp and the flooding and the landslips when they come, but for now the rains are welcome, cooling, ripening events. And while it has always been so, the fact is that we are developing and sharing a deeper awareness and appreciation for it, and maybe many of us who, when we saw the beauty in our trees, could not exult and share the ways we do today, so all admiration tended to be suppressed? I mean, just a few years ago how could you share the beauty of a Yellow Pouis in full bloom? By the time you took the film to be developed, and printed, and then published or shared it with anyone, all the flowers would have gone, fallen, faded and turning to mulch.

Today, what we see, we share— now for now! We share our experiences “live”, and this means that many of us, too busy sometimes to have seen the beauty around our lives, are awakened by others sharing of the Nature’s Delights which surround us—and have always surrounded us.

I firmly believe that the new media, the instant information, is awakening the reality of beauty surrounding us, the beauty which we were too busy to absorb, or too cynical to acknowledge because we were not sure how others felt about it.

And as we awaken to these feelings, a sort of latent discovery of great beauty all around us, we learn to love our land, just a little bit more than before. When we hear outsiders exclaim in wonder over a sight we had always seen, but accepted at less than face value, our self esteem and pride grow too, even if just a little. These are our trees, our flowers, our joys to share with the whole world, and the world looks in wonder and we become proud that they grow right here, in our land.

But the blooming is so brief, that our joy and wellbeing often passes too quickly, leaving no sustained emotion. Suddenly the blooms are a thick carpet—gold or pink— below the naked branches of the tree, and joyous are the May or June Brides who can have their photographs taken on one of these carpets! But within a day or two, the flowers all dry up, lose their colour and disappear. This annual event, the blooming and the shedding of the flowers, embraces a period when our young people, even our young children, are called upon to blossom forth and show what their education has done for them, so far in their lives.

Whole families stress to get their children—from little ones right through university—successfully through the exams they must sit at this time of the year.

This is where our children are taught stress. And most survive and grow in their new schools, new settings that may not have been their choices. But some, those who excelled in the exams, like flowers bursting forth, are publicly acknowledged. And they will grow to flower again at the new school until it is time for more exams, more stress and choices. Some will repeat this process, into universities, but many will seek work after completing secondary school.

But where have all these Flowers gone? Do we know how our scholarship winners have done, or are doing, over the years? There would have been careers built, approaching retirement now, over scholarship awards since Independence.

Do the scholarship winners at “eleven plus” win the University Scholarships, or do different flowers bloom? And how many who go abroad to study return home? This is not to question the motives of anyone, for truth be told, coming back home is a sacrifice right now, especially for bright, forward-looking graduates.

Looking at the state of our society, it seems clear that most of our f l o w – ers are blowing away, to b e t t e r lives in different l a n d s ? How can we call t h e m back?

In the contemporary confusion of our country and indeed of the world, can this feast that celebrates the coming of the Spirit of Truth into a world left bereft by the departure o the hoped-for Messiah over two thousand years ago shed a ray of light? Viewed narrowly as a ‘Church’ reality, can a conscious celebration of this event believers out of fearful avoidance into a convincing and dynamic proclamation of the Message that will point the day to the new thing that God is doing in our midst? For that to happen we need to move beyond apathy and hysteria towards an attitude of prayerful attention to what the Spirit is saying to the Churches and to the world.

Follow the pattern of the first disciples – gathered in community in prayer, and responsive to the impetus of the Spirit outpoured, courageous to proclaim the reality of the Good News. This will demand silence and sustained prayer ‘with Mary, the mother of Jesus’, deep familiarity with the Scriptures so that we can truly speak the Word of God and not a personal selection of it, and the support of a community of believers to sustain us when the affliction of the world threatens our will to sere.

All the baptised already have received the Spirit so it remains a question of stirring up the grace lying dormant in our lives. In a memorably sermon a parish priest asked the class what they would do if their coffee were not sweet enough. As the class responded, ‘put more sugar’ each time he posed the question, in exasperation, he finally said, “Stir up the coffee!” The message is the same for us brackish Catholics: stir up the grace of the Spirit that has been given to you. Stop waiting for a god who waves a magic wand to erase sickness and suffering and the effects of our unjust structures and our greed and act on the power of the Spirit.

That is the only way to open our country to the new Pentecost, that the Holy Spirit is hovering over our chaos to bring out of it order and beauty once again.