Nanan was hospitalised after complaining of feeling unwell on Wednesday last. A blood clot was discovered in his head and he died at the San Fernando General Hospital on Thursday, two weeks after celebrating his 59th birthday on May 5.

His funeral service was held at his home in Exchange Lots, Couva, yesterday morning after which his body was cremated at the Mosquito Creek Cremation site in La Romaine.

He was given a military funeral and among those at his home and the ceremation site were those officers who graduated with him from the Police Training Academy at the St James Barracks.

His son Andre remembered him as a bird lover, a hard worker, and the co-ordinator of all of their family gatherings.

Nanan’s legacy culminated in his latest promotion to being Senior Superintendent, the most decorated responsibility of his being the lead investigator into the “emailgate” scandal of 2013.

Speaking briefly during the service, Commissioner Williams said “During his last few years in the service, he (Nanan) would have been the main investigator in one of the highest profile investigations seen in the country over recent times.” Williams celebrated Nanan as a model example of the police service.

And so did National Security Minister Dillon. “I remember some time ago he reminded me, when he was an honour guard, I was a young officer then. At one of the inspections, because we had to inspect guards before the Prime Minister came out, I remember giving him a good turnout. A good turnout, ladies and gentlemen, is one where you couldn’t be checked for anything because you were dressed so impeccably.

There was nothing the inspecting officer could have checked you for.” Dillon said Nanan lived the values of the service and he did so with pride before extending his condolences to Nanan’s family. Nanan is survived by his wife, Lystra Nanan, a police sergeant, and his son Andre.

Can you imagine a teenager being dropped off at school witnessing his father slapping and cussing his mother in the presence of other parents and classmates? This scene will leave anyone shocked and hurt, both for the mother and that teenager. Think what about is happening in that home and the psychological effect on the victim and those who see this abuse.

Why can’t we settle our disagreements in a civilized manner? People with anger issues need to seek help instead of taking it out on someone else. It is wrong to abuse anyone. No one has the right to be slapping and kicking another human being.

I believe those who abuse others must be dealt with seriously by our justice system. I urge law-abiding citizens to continue the fight against abuse of not only females but also males.

ARNOLD GOPEESINGH via email

In February, I wrote to the managing director of this bank advising that the closure of the Chaguaramas branch in March would have brought undue hardship to the many clients who use its services. To date, I am yet to receive a response.

However, in speaking with several bank representatives, I was assured by one that my concerns would be addressed as the bank would be increasing the number of tellers operating out of the West Mall branch to accommodate the anticipated influx of clients from the western peninsula.

The Chaguaramas branch accommodated clients from the coast guard, regiment and many businesses in the West.

However, on every occasion, regardless of the time of day that I have visited the West Mall branch, there has been a long line of customers waiting to be attended to by four-five tellers.

A simple transaction there could take two hours plus, depending on the type of business being conducted by people ahead of you.

Speaking to a supervisor was also an exercise in futility, particularly when I enquired if every client had to wait in the same line, whether it was to cash a cheque or to conduct a longer transaction. The supervisor said everyone had to wait in the same line to be served as the bank only had four tellers. She said the bank is encouraging its clients to use the online and drop-box services that were being provided.

I informed her the online service was also limited.

I also found out the bank’s services for senior citizens at the West Mall branch is only offered on certain days.

So a senior citizen is limited to particular days. On all other days, they too must join the long line.

We Trinidadians and Tobagonians are known for our very high levels of tolerance and patience, as well as our capacity to accept less than adequate service.

But there must be a limit when it reaches to the bank where people go to conduct business that is of mutual benefit to both parties.

It is time to draw a line and to say enough is enough. I say this against the backdrop of rate increases for bank services. I think it is time for all customers to stop the grumbling and collectively send a message that we deserve better.

There is an old-people saying, “It is hard to take licks when it is your own whip beating you.”

JOAN DE CHABERT Carenage

President of the Trinidad and Tobago Road Safety Council, Stan Huggins, explained that there were two Traffic Management Branches – one with the TT Police Service and the other with the Ministry of Works and Transport.

He complained that no one was synchronising the two branches and suggested that the Branch be handed over to the police as they were the ones “on the ground.” The branch at the Ministry, he added, should be converted to a road safety department. “We are duplicating this thing, we are not getting any where with it, and it is not working because the traffic is in a mess in this country. Traffic brings headaches to our drivers and increases our road carnage situation. We need to streamline this situation to put less stress on our drivers, passengers, and pedestrians… It makes no sense that the people in the Ministry are telling the police what to do when the police are the ones manning the streets.” Huggins called on Transport Minister, Rohan Sinanan, to help the organisation establish good road safety practices through education.

Part of this assistance would be to help the Road Safety Council to set up a home office from which to run road safety programmes.

At the new location, Road Safety Council hopes to install a library so that children could learn proper road safety, arrange to teach road safety programmes in schools, and run programmes at all driving schools so that instructors would be certified under the Road Safety Council. These plans, he said, would require funding from the government. However he stressed that it was important for Government to assist as there had been an average of 200 road fatalities a year since 2000.

He said road safety included education, enforcement and engineering so it was necessary to start with youths as many young people were being killed or damaged in vehicular accidents. In addition, he said, the public was spending too much money on medical bills, traffic tickets, or fixing vehicles, which could have been avoided by obeying road safety guidelines.

“We are saying you can not punish people on the road if you don’t teach them proper road safety.

Doing that is like ripping off the public.” Huggins also requested that “zebra crossing” sings to be changed to “pedestrian crossing” and the slogan “safety first” be placed at each one; that proper signage and pedestrian crossing be installed at all major intersections on the bus route; and that speed limits around schools be drastically reduced.

Cyber police estimate that over 200,000 organisations and 150 countries were affected.

Today this news item has disappeared from our traditional sources of information.

But the threat remains.

The philosopher Jean Baudrillard several decades ago warned that the virtual shapes our existence in this postmodern world.

We fashion our lives on images gleaned from the media and the Web. In fact, what he calls “the simulacrum,” which is an image created by the media, dictates our reality. In today’s world, the waves of information that assail us on a daily basis determine our actions, our priorities and our lifestyles.

Nothing has value in and of itself.

The attack last week brought home how completely tied we are to this virtual world. Even the ransom demanded by the hijackers was virtual.

The cyber criminals, who froze data worldwide, demanded a ransom in the digital currency bitcoin for its release.

The origin of the virus WannaCry that created fear and confusion worldwide only ten days ago, is not known. It is, as most of us know, almost impossible to find the origin of any computer virus. Last week a file purportedly sent by a financial institution in St Augustine infected my Gmail. The individual from whose account the email was apparently sent, was not at work on the day.

The use of ransomware, which enabled the virus called WannaCry, is not a new form of terrorism, oddly enough.

There have been cyberattacks in the past.

According to experts, global ransomware costs businesses approximately US$1 billion a year at the present time and this has been increasing over the past few years.

Much of this is unknown to the public at large. Institutions and corporate business pay up quietly and have their data released.

This last attack was different in that so many public institutions were the victims.

According to experts, the effects were not as horrific as it might have been, and comparatively small sums were paid out in ransom, apparently totalling only about $60,000.

What is different in this instance is the fear voiced by many that this attack was only a reconnaissance and that there are more virulent attacks to come.

The attackers use very comprehensive and sophisticated cyber technology developed by American intelligence and stolen from them. Cyber experts fear that this latest act of terrorism is a testing of the waters for a much more serious attack using a worm that spreads itself, since new cyber-weaponised malware may not need any human intervention.

In another story last week, the EU fined Facebook 110 million euro for telling lies. FB had said after their purchase of WhatsApp in 2014 “that it was not technically possible to automatically link WhatsApp user data with Facebook profiles but this later transpired to be incorrect.” Given the scale of users, the opportunity to sell personal information to advertisers is truly awesome.

So what exactly can we keep from being stolen, sold or hijacked or disseminated? How does one fully stop the real threat of one’s personal information or contact details going places one does not want them to go? After all, we shop online, bank online, and we put out so much of our personal lives on Facebook and Twitter and through emails.

In the face of a possible, even more comprehensive attack on our virtual existence, experts will obviously think of ways of securing our information. But suppose Baudrillard to be right and that our daily lives and values have become so irrevocably i n t e r – t w i n e d with this v i r t u a l w o r l d that we c a n n o t d i s e n – t a n g l e ourselves — what then?

“Why? Why? Why?” he asked repeatedly.

Savitri Mohammed, 54, was found by her husband last week with her throat slit at their home at Bonne Adventure, Gasparillo.

He told police he went to the bank and returned home to find his wife’s body. Robbery was ruled out as police said nothing was taken from the house. Investigators also said the house was not ransacked.

At the family’s home yesterday, Savitri’s cousins Terry Gabin and Visham Goberdhan delivered the eulogy.

Gabin said at an early age Savitri began her career in cosmetology.

He said she began working at a hair saloon and later started working a cosmetics store for 20 years. It was there she met her husband.

“They courted and then got married on April 4, 2004,” he said.

Savitri he said was also passionate about cooking and planting.

Goberdhan said that he remembered how loving and kind Savitri was to everyone she met. “She had a good relationship with family and community.

She loved nephews and nieces so much and they loved her also. I remember for Mother’s Day how she spent the day with her mom. It was her last Mother’s Day,” the cousin said.

Bhajans were also sung by family members at the funeral service which was conducted under Hindu rites. Savitri was later cremated at the Mosquito Shore of Peace. An autopsy showed the mother of two died as result of a single chop wound to her neck which almost decapitated her. No one has been arrested for her killing and Homicide Region Three are continuing investigations.

In September 2013, I was told that two of the President’s nominees for membership of the Police Service Commission did not satisfy the constitutional criteria for such nomination. Section 122(3) of the Constitution states that the President, after consultation with the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader, is to nominate people “who are qualified and experienced in the disciplines of law, finance, sociology or management…” Section 122(4) says that notifications in respect of the nominees “shall be subject to affirmative resolution of the House of Representatives.” After such resolution, the President makes the appointments under section 122(5).

I was persuaded, after examination, that one of the two nominees did not fit the criteria at all, the other only partially so. On my behalf, the late Karl Hudson-Phillips wrote the Attorney-General on the matter, copying his letter of September 26, 2013, to the President, among others. Inter alia, he said that, should the nominations be approved by the House, I would “take such steps as (I might) be advised to ensure compliance with section 122(3)…” On November 13, the House, with the Opposition abstaining, approved the nominations; appointments followed.

A few days later, I requested Hudson-Phillips to commence action against the Attorney- General (the relevant officeholder in such circumstances), seeking an interpretation from the court of section 122(3) in relation to the two appointments.

In my statement to the High Court I said that my concern was not personal. “Nor,” I continued, “did I judge that I would be directly affected in my individual capacity by any possible consequences of the notifications, if approved by the House…Rather, I was and am concerned as a citizen who has for many years written and spoken publicly about the need for good governance in this society, particularly including respect for our institutions such as our Constitution, which is the highest law of the land. I am therefore acting in what I consider to be the public interest of Trinidad and Tobago…It is in the public interest that the Police Service Commission be properly constituted under the Constitution.” On July 22, 2014, the High Court dismissed my application on procedural grounds, saying that “any interpretation of the Constitution can only be carried out by the court where the claimant alleges a fundamental breach of his or her fundamental rights and freedoms. This has not been alleged by the claimant.” In addition to his interpretation of the Civil Proceedings Rules, the judge was referring to section 14(1) of the Constitution, which allows a person to apply to the High Court for redress if he “alleges that any of the provisions (of Chapter 1 of the Constitution) has been, is being, or is likely to be contravened in relation to him…” And I, of course, had acted as a citizen, not in my personal interest.

I was therefore deemed to have no standing before the court.

To me, the distinction was a serious challenge to the rights of the citizenry as a whole in a society said to be democratic.

Were we to keep silent even when we had good reason to believe that a President or a Parliament or a Cabinet had acted unlawfully, simply because we might not be directly affected as individuals? I knew I had to take up the gauntlet. I appealed.

They have since been sent to the St Jude’s Home and were handed over to Matron Elizabeth Thomas, police reported yesterday.

A third girl was found in Belmont and another in the Sangre Grande area.

They have all since been sent to the St Jude’s Home.

According to reports, a party of officers acting on an anonymous tip visited a house in Phase 5 Beetham Gardens at around 11.45 pm on Saturday night when upon entering they saw the two girls asleep on a bed.

The children when awoken by the officers identified themselves as Niana Farrell, 14 and Nicole Farrell, 16.

The two were among four who were reported missing from the St Dominic’s Home in Belmont last week.

The girls were taken to the Port of Spain General Hospital for medical examination and according to police reports, a man from the Beetham area was taken into custody for questioning.

Police said while being interviewed, the two found at the house in Beetham gave them the location of the other two missing teenagers who were eventually found and also taken for medical examination.

The four missing girls were identified by police as 16-year-old Angel Farrel, 15-year-old Niana Farrel, 15-year-old Parbatie Ragbir and 16-year-old Sumintra Jaikaran.

The teenagers were last seen in Belmont, around 11:30 am on Wednesday last.

They were reported missing to the Belmont Police Station around 4 pm on that same day, by Crystal Hospedales, an employee of the St Dominic’s Children home.

In a statement yesterday, Sr Arlene Greenidge, manager of the St Dominic’s Home, said they were relieved that all the girls were found. She said the girls did not run away because they were victims at the Home but chose to do so as an act of rebellion. She also noted that the day before they went missing, a cellphone was taken from one of the girls.

She also insisted that they were neither assisted or aided by staff in their escape and their caregivers were still trying to understand why they would make the ‘reckless choice’ of running away.

Sr Arlene said their action came at a time when they were closer to being reunified with their families at the end of the school term in July and two of the girls were awaiting SE A results while another was expected to graduate from a hairdressing couse which she began one year ago.

“Even as we give thanks to God for the safe return of the girls we are mindful that there is much that must now be addressed,” Sr Arlene said, as they also thaked the police for their prompt action in locating the girls.

In an interview with Newsday, Khan said when People’s Partnership Government commissioned the hospital, everything was in place for the facility to be opened.

He disputed claims by the present Government that the hospital was not ready to be opened.

“The hospital was ready for commissioning when we left office, so now I am not sure what is the keep back, I really don’t know,” Khan said.

Khan was among the hundreds of United National Congress supporters who protested on Friday outside the facility.

“I have no idea what is keeping back the opening but a public/ private partnership is a very lovely set of words, it gives you the feeling that the private sector would work with the public sector to deliver but one does not realise that the private sector does not deliver for nothing, whereas the public sector could take a loss,” he said.

Khan said that if that is in fact the arrangement by government, one would have to ask themselves how is it going to be paid for who is going to pay.

“Is it going to be the private patients or what is the mechanism of approach?” he asked.

Khan also said if the government was looking at a public/private partnership, there was no need to hand over a working facility.

He noted that the former government planned to start with the opening of the radiology department, then move to the medical wards, clinic and then the Accident and Emergency Department and Surgical Theatres.

The minister yesterday reiterated the third vessel being sought, will ensure that there are always two passenger vessels operating on the seabridge. Sinanan said once Cabinet gives the Authority permission, the tender process for this passenger vessel should take between a month to six weeks to complete. He said this would not affect the schedule for drydocking either the Spirit or the Express.

Sinanan added that if this vessel is late in arriving, the ferry scheduled to drydock in June would be kept in service until the vessel is in TT.

On the search for a vessel to replace the Atlantic Provider and the Trinity Transporter, both of which were brought in when the Super Fast Galicia was pulled from the seabridge in April, Sinanan said no decision has been made as yet on three options being considered by the Authority.

He explained that while the Authority got permission to rent the Provider and the Transporter for three months, allowance has been made for the acquisition of a vessel within that period. Sinanan said daily rental fees for the Provider and the Transporter are US$14,000 and US$8,000 respectively.

The minister said all of the cargo vessels being considered have to undergo a series of tests and technical analyses before a decision is made to acquire one.

He said the Venezuelan vessel, La Caracola, is one of the three vessels. This vessel is reported to be 32 years old. Another option is a 19-year old cargo vessel from Europe. The third option is a Canadian vessel which can transport passengers and cargo. Responding to a question in the House of Representatives last Friday, Sinanan said a pre-action protocol letter had been sent to the charter of the Galicia.

He previously said the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs is examining the arrangement under which the Galicia was brought in under the former People’s Partnership government.