Contributing to debate on the Miscellaneous Provisions (Marriage) Bill on Friday in the House of Representatives, Cudjoe noted that child brides often do not have the education, resources or courage to seek a divorce and as such, must be covered in the legislation.

Further, she said many of them were abused repeatedly with nowhere to turn for comfort or assistance.

“A young woman, or a child bride, a young wife, 13, 14, 15, 16, who didn’t have the opportunity to attain a full education to get a proper job, to be financially stable and economically empowered, how does that young woman who is not being treated properly, who is being abused by her husband, find the courage and the confidence or even the support systems to get up and go out there to ask for as divorce?” she asked.

“These are some of the scenarios that we have to take into consideration,” Cudjoe continued. “As a divorced person, myself, I like to say marriage is easy to get into and difficult to get out of. Imagine that for a 14-year-old or a 15-year-old who needs the necessary finances and support and resources to get out of a marriage in which she is not comfortable.We need to hear the cries of these young people.” Saying that the issue had not been raised by members in the Senate or in the Lower House, The Tobago West MP said such scenarios should never exist in Trinidad and Tobago in 2017.

“In 2017, this cannot be our truth. As a leading light in the Caribbean, as one of the most advanced societies in the English-speaking Caribbean, this cannot be our truth. Children in our society cannot be suffering like that,” Cudjoe said. “Many other countries look at Trinidad and Tobago as an example as it relates to development.

This cannot be our truth in 2017.” Saying that the Bahamas, Belize, Jamaica have already ended child marriages, Cudjoe said countries outside of the region such as Egypt, India, Sweden, Vietnam and countries of the African Union also have done away with it.

“And the world looks on as Trinidad and Tobago grapples with a decision as to whether or not to protect our children,” she said.

Addressing those who expressed scepticism about the Government’s timing in debating the legislation during the week of the Arrival Day observance, Cudjoe said: “Let me place on the record that this is not an attack on the Muslim faith.

This is not an attack on the Hindu faith. This is not an attack on Indian people, this is not an attack on African people.

This is in fact an attempt to protect the rights of our children, our people.

As a matter of fact, this debate transcends race, religion, colour, creed, gender, class, political affiliation, geographical location.

“This is about their rights, the freedom, the welfare of our nation’s children. This is an attempt to put the right legislation in place.”

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.

“What are you going to do with the people who find themselves in that difficulty?” he asked on Friday while contributing to debate on the Miscellaneous Provisions (Marriages) Bill in the Lower House.

“Are you going to jail them? Society must accommodate. Society also has to act with compassion. As adults, parents and leaders in society, we have an obligation to groom people with the right values so that they can make the right choices and not make those mistakes.” Rambachan argued that human beings were not infallible.

“If they do make mistakes, then we must have the space where we can help them rise again. I think this is what the Hindu Women’s Organisation and the other groups are trying to say to this country and we cannot just ignore them,” he said.

“What do you do with a young woman at 14 years or 16 years, who gets pregnant as a result of a relationship with a person under the age of 18 and it is not rape? “Are we in denial that there may be dozens, maybe hundreds of young people in this position. We cannot ignore the problem and we have to find a way to deal with it.” Rambachan lamented that in the run up to the debate, the focus appeared to be solely on child brides in the Hindu and Muslim faiths.

In this regard, he took issue with National Calypso Monarch Dr Hollis Liverpool’s (Chalkdust’s) winning 2017 composition, Arithmetic, which examined the child marriage issue.

“In my humble view, the very venerable calypsonian, Chalkdust made it out to be in the minds of many, many people in this country, Hindus and non-Hindus alike – that Hindus are guilty of some crime and he viciously attacked not only Sat Maharaj but in my view, Hindus in general, without looking carefully at the position being articulated by Hindus who are in support of the age 18 but who want a window because there is none in this world who are infallible,” he said.

“There are none in this world who don’t make errors and the society must always make space and the society must always prepare for those who fall through the cracks so, they are not allowed to fall deeper, and for them the laws must have that level of protection for those who are going to make errors.” The Opposition MP said the fact that so many organisations have called for the legislation to be revisited reflected an evolution in the country’s political maturity.

“That was demonstrated yesterday ( Thursday) in this country where the democracy matured in a way by the position that people took with respect to people who hold senior positions in this country,” Rambachan said in an allusion to the overwhelming no-confidence vote against Chief Justice Ivor Archie and the Judicial and Legal Services Commission over the Marcia Ayers-Caesar d?b?cle at the Hall of Justice, Portof- Spain..

“That was a good thing and, therefore, people are evolving in the society and people are running faster than the leaders and the leaders must now stop listen and catch up with where they are.” Rambachan, in his contribution, also took Attorney General Faris Al Rawi to task for removing the initial three-majority criteria for passage of the legislation and replacing it with a simple majority.

“I do not believe that the Attorney General is in a position to make the kind of determination.

You say you are asking for a simple majority. I think that is very dangerous.”

Yet, we see the call for the resignation of Chief Justice Ivor Archie and the members of the Judicial and Legal Service Commission as woefully disproportionate to the issues under consideration – a position we have taken since the start of this controversy and which we maintain. What motives are at play? Whether we think the matter vexatious or not, a vote is still a vote and 285 to 150 is a clear enough result. However, the resolution itself already being well out of proportion to the offences alleged (which amount to: a lack of perfect vetting by a non-recruiting, judicially-oriented constitutional body with limited resources, and critiques of press releases) it would also be a grave error to place undue weight on the resolution of no-confidence itself. There are about 2,186 persons on the roll of attorneys. And more may also be non-practising members of the association. Which means it can hardly be said there is consensus in the legal fraternity on this issue.

However, this is a democracy and it should not matter whether the view adopted is a minority one. Nor should it matter that the turnout of the meeting was not 100 per cent. What does matter are the issues and the realities facing the criminal justice system right now.

Should a Chief Justice and the JLSC resign due to problems with regard to the ability of a post-holder to take up a judgeship? The police officer who killed Tamir Rice (12-year old African American boy in Cleveland Ohio almost four years ago) was last week fired because it was discovered, years later, that he did not give adequate disclosure upon recruitment. Are we to then expect the city of Cleveland to resign too for hiring him? Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, having already gone on record to say he will not trigger proceedings to remove the Chief Justice, the resolution of no-confidence amounted to an attempt to exert pressure on the judge at the head of the Judiciary as well as the jurists and public servants who sit on the JLSC. They have begun to see their reputations been dragged around in this unhealthy mire, as if it were never their intention to serve their country with dignity.

The dangers of this very public game to law and order cannot be overstated.

The one good thing from all of the discourse over judicial appointments in recent years has been the gradual reform of the process. We have seen unprecedented advertising of job vacancies in the Judiciary; that light has been shed on the normally totally secretive process by which judges are appointed under the workings of the Constitutional offices that govern it.

Make no mistake. Removal of the Chief Justice would not only be disproportionate, it would be reckless. It would be a recipe for disaster. There would be a vacancy in the key independent institution of the Judiciary at the moment when it is needed now more than ever as we battle the scourge of crime amid an economic downturn.

Such a state of affairs would also amount to a troubling repeat of history: it would be the second imbroglio in a row for a sitting Chief Justice after the Sharma affair.

The damage to the idea of our legal system in the public imagination would be irreparable.

Lawyers have said this is not a Constitutional matter. That the issue is accountability. But that is precisely what we are seeing in this instance. The Chief Justice should take charge and all stakeholders should work to improve the system of law and order – inclusive of appointments – with him. Not bring the Hall of Justice down

Sunday Newsday was told that shortly after midday, two gunmen entered a Chinese restaurant at Cocorite Road and announced a hold-up. The bandits targeted an area of the restaurant where several electronic roulette machines, used for gambling purposes, were positioned. Customers of both the restaurant and those at the roulette machines were forced to lie on the floor.

The gunmen began to relieve them of their valuables including watches, cellular phones, wallets and jewellery. On hearing shouts, the owner Ling Lum Ma, 45, came to the front of the restaurant to see what was going on. On seeing his customers on the floor, Lum Ma confronted the bandits and was shot once in the chest.

As the businessman slumped to the floor, the bandits ran out of the restaurant and escaped in a car parked nearby. A report was made to the Arima police and the badly bleeding, semi-conscious man was rushed to the nearby district hospital and later transferred to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope where up to press time, he remained warded at the High Dependency Unit in a critical condition.

Police officers, on being alerted to the robbery and shooting, cordoned off several roads in the Borough in an ultimately futile attempt at intercepting the getaway car and arresting the bandits. Up to press time, officers were trying to secure closed-circuit tv (CCTV) images from cameras mounted on walls and near the ceilings of surrounding buildings outside the restaurant in an effort to identify the gunmen.

Investigations are ongoing.

It was not known if the roulette machines were broken into at the time of the robbery. Police were yesterday cautioning businessmen especially owners of bars and restaurants which have these electronic gambling machines to have proper security in place including CCTV cameras as bandits are specifically targeting establishments with these machines which are magnets for gamblers who spend big money hoping to win money.

A source said that a robbery at a bar in Toco several months ago, in which bandits broke open six electronic slot machines located inside the bar led to bandits making off with over $80,000 from the slot machines.

According to reports, at about 9 pm Leandra Alexander of Crown Trace in Enterprise, Chaguanas was liming with friends at Building 7 in Maloney with her son Liam, 11, and daughter Lael, nine. Without warning, two gunmen approached the building opened fire. They ran into the building and continued shooting randomly. When they ran out of bullets, the men ran to a nearby car which sped off.

When the shooting ended, both Lael and Liam were lying on the ground scraming in pain.

They were shot in the left and right arms respectively.

A report was made to the Maloney Police and the children were rushed to the Children’s Hospital at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complec in Mt Hope where they remain warded in stable condition.

When Sunday Newsday visited Building 7 yesterday, bullet holes — some from Friday night and others from recent attacks — were clearly visible on the walls, a grim reminder that death from a bullet is a daily reality for those living there and those visiting.

Bloodstains from where Lael and Liam lay, were still on the ground outside Building 7.

Police sources said that an ongoing war between thugs and gangsters from Building 9 and Building 7 is believed to be behind the shooting incident on Friday night as Building 9 gunmen mistook the people liming at Building 7 to be rivals. A manhunt for th gunmen on Friday night and into yesterday morning proved futile.

BULLET IN BEDROOM Claire White, 54 and a Maloney resident for 21 years, said that she was almost killed during the incident as a bullet went into her bedroom.

“Thank God I was not in that bedroom,” she exclaimed. White said that during the time of the shooting she was in her home and heard the gunshots. She heard a neighbour shouting that, “dem fellas shooting up yuh window.” When White came out of the bedroom she found a bullet on her bed; the bullet had gone through her window, hit her bed, then the roof and landed on her bed.

During Sunday Newsday’s visit yesterday police officers arrived to collect spent shells and to speak to residents in an effort to get a clearer picture of the shooting on Friday night when innocent blood was shed.

She said that last week, there were shootings for three days straight. Things cooled off on Thursday and on Friday night, little Liam and Lael were shot.

She lamented that there are elderly and ailing people in Building 7, who can at any time, collect a bullet. Another resident said that in Maloney, it pays to drop the ground when gunshots are fired.

“In here is a war zone,” the resident said.

For White, she has had enough.

“I don’t want to live here. I cannot sleep in a prison. I cannot live like that,” she cried. She called for round the clock police patrols in the area. She reported that presently, police drive around but do not come out to check that things are ok. Almost all the Maloney residents interviewed yesterday asked that their names be withheld due to safety concerns.

DUCK AND RUN A man said he was liming outside the building when the shooting occurred and had to duck then run to avoid being shot. “Two gunmen run out a car and start to shoot up the place just so like mad men.” He continued: “It have war going on in the place but the targets of the gunmen were not there Friday night. They had no reason to shoot. It is almost like they decided, ‘we here already let us just shoot up the place’. Theu have their target, they have their enemies…but the enemies were not around,” he said.

“War ain’t making no sense in Maloney. If you sit down and ask them ‘what they warring for? What they warring about?’ They can’t give you a proper answer.

They just warring because they say they have gun and they just warring one another.” He said that “a couple of building warring a couple of building.” He called for more police foot patrols which they used to have under previous senior police.

A female resident reported that during the shooting there were little children as young as five and “they had to dive on the ground for their life”. She said that if she had been outside at the time she could have been “blown away”.

She lamented that innocent people were “getting take down” in the shootouts and Building 7 had hard working, respectable people.

She reported that things had been quiet for a year but in early 2017 the shootings had “picked back up”. She recalled a recent incident when a gunman walked into the building and started shooting. “I had to run and throw my frame.” She said that children and old people, like her father, now fear for their life.

Mango-based products including soaps and skin cream were also on show.

This as the San Fernando City Corporation partnered with the Network of Rural Women Producers of Trinidad and Tobago to host the tenth annual Mango Festival on Friday.

Mayor Junia Regrello opened the festival saying he plans to host this festival on a continuous basis in the south land.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries Avinash Singh said events such as this, serve as viable opportunities in which the cultivation and reaping of agricultural produce can be celebrated both as a lucrative and rewarding vocation.

He noted that the network comprises a membership of over 60 small businesses and is one of the shining examples of government’s commitment to stimulate sustainable growth through entrepreneurial activity and self-sufficiency.

“Each year the network of rural women celebrates the diversity and economic potential of mangoes by staging the Mango Festival,” Singh said, adding that this year promises to see an array of fun-filled themes through the presentation of a plethora of mango varieties and mango-inspired products which is geared towards a range of competitions which include: ‘D Mango Chutney Championship’, ‘D Mango Chow Down’, ‘Who’s Curry Mango Licking’ and ‘D Best Mango Sucker’.

He outlined the main objectives of this project as being to encourage the growth of the Mango Industry in T&T and to raise awareness of the health benefits and creative uses of the mango fruit in local cuisine. He noted that the government supports the women in rural communities by creating opportunities for them to showcase their products and services through this festival and other outreach programmes similar to mango-fest.

“This event will also serve to educate the public on the mango industry, its growth, its variety and marketing potential and it also sustains the culture of mango consumption,” he said, adding that on the heels of celebrating Indian Arrival Day, one must remember that this fruit was brought here by the indentured labourers from India.

He noted that this fruit can be made into many dishes when it is both in the green and ripened stage. “I am sure you know that for Hindu prayers we must have mango-amchar and we also have kutchela, and chutney,” he said, adding that it forms part of our cultural fabric in this land.

The ripened mangoes, he says, are eaten raw for dessert and they are now being made into drinks.

He praised the network saying it was established in 1995 as an umbrella body geared toward promoting issues that affect rural women. This organisation, he says, empowers rural women to enhance their own economic and social well-being.

Under the theme: “Mango in Sando”, this year’s festival embarked on a series of activities which included a mango-meal activity which solicited the collective participation of several restaurants within San Fernando.

Also a health and cultural education exercise on mangoes as well as a practical culinary activity involving mangoes.

Singh brought greetings on behalf of Minister of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries, Clarence Rambharat.

He also said the 2016 festival took place at the Macoya Market courtesy one of our Ministry’s State agencies – the National Agricultural Marketing Development Corporation (Namdevco) – who like the Ministry, is also exhibiting at this year’s festival.

The competition is known for the involvement of all Presbyterian schools across the country and showcases the talents and abilities of students in the area of choral speaking, art, creative writing, singing and story telling. Speaking to Newsday via a telephone interview, Penal Presbyterian Primary School principal Lynda Nandlal said all students who participated in and supported the students in the competition did the school very proud.

“They have worked really hard toward the competition and I must thank all the parents and teachers especially Mrs Annette Poliah and Ms Ingrid Kokaram who went beyond the call of duty to prepare the students for the competition.” She said, “Analysa Singh was placed first in the creative writing competition, in the under nine category of the art competition Ginnord Applewhite was placed third, and in the over nine category Adrian Lall was placed fourth. In the story telling competition Faith Babwah was placed first.” Second place in the story telling competition went to Grant Memorial Presbyterian Primary School, while third place went to Tacarigua Presbyterian Primary School.

In the singing competition San Francique Presbyterian Primary School was place first, Exchange Presbyterian Primary School was placed second and Guaico Presbyterian Primary School was placed third. Grant Memorial Presbyterian Primary School took first place in the choral speaking category, while Rochard Douglas took second place and Tacarigua Presbyterian Primary School was placed third.

He said the most important thing dealing with the food import bill is individual consumers.

He also said the more time citizens spend in the farmers’ markets the more we can understand food we consume and where it comes from.

Rambharat said people take a risk buying food that we are not familiar and sometimes with packaging that is not even in English. He pointed out that foreign franchises were closing down – Denny’s and Pollo Tropical have recently announced closures – and he said that it would be difficult for food related foreign franchises in this economic time.

Asked about the ratio of local to foreign eateries Rambharat said there is a free market and people are entitled to spend their money and take their risk.

He expressed hope that there will be more interest in local sellers and franchises. On tackling the food import bill from a policy level he reported that they are looking at ramping up production in a number of areas including fruit which has a variety of purposes including consumption and feed for wild animals and flowers for honey production. He said that over a period of time there has been the removal of trees for development and the ministry has been encouraging the replanting of trees. He reported that breadfruit, for example, sells for $10 a pound and there was “no reason for that to happen”.

“And the only way we could avoid things like that is if make the investment now to get production.” He reported that this they have hit their target of 1.2 million of plants available for planting this year. He said these plants have been mainly forestry but fruit as well, and over the next four years they plan to continue hitting that target.

Rambharat said that for large scale planting it had been previously announced that they will move some of the CEPEP workers into programmes to help replant the Northern Range. He explained that wherever they plant it will be a combination of hard wood, soft wood and fruits.

At the plant and garden show yesterday representatives from the Agriculture Ministry hosted a plant clinic. University of the West Indies department of food production instructors and students put up a display.

There were about 35 outdoor vendors as well as indoor vendors selling a variety of plants, crafts and other products

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.