She made the call while speaking at the TT Chamber of Industry and Commerce’s Breakfast Seminar last week, which had as its theme “Maximizing Export Potential to the European Union (EU) through the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)”.

The seminar saw a number of private sector stakeholders seeking information on the Economic Partnership Agreement and accessing the EU market.

Minister Gopee-Scoon informed those present that for TT, ‘one of the main objectives of the Agreement is to encourage exports of non-energy goods to the EU market.’ The Agreement allows domestic manufacturers to import raw materials and intermediate products at reduced duties, from the European Union.

Thus, manufacturers have the assurance that they can obtain their raw materials without delay and at competitive costs without the imposition of high customs duties.

In addition, it is the only Agreement that Trinidad and Tobago has signed, which contains enhanced provisions related to the services sector.

This augurs well for domestic service providers, she said, who now have access to the European Union – a vast market with limitless possibilities that also serves as an alternative to the traditional markets of the USA, Canada and Great Britain’.

Minister Gopee- Scoon also emphasized the importance of the EU as Trinidad and Tobago’s trading partner. She said, “For the period January to September 2015, the EU was our second- ranked export market, accounting for 12 percent of TT’s exports, behind the USA at 34 percent of total exports but ahead of CARICOM which stood at 11 percent of total exports.” However, it is notable that only three countries namely Spain, France and the UK, accounted for 63 percent of TT’s total trade with the EU. It is therefore necessary, the Minister said, for local exporters to consider new markets outside of the traditional Western European economies and underscore the opportunities for Trinidad and Tobago’s goods and services to penetrate new markets in Eastern and Southern Europe.

Gopee-Scoon gave the commitment of the Ministry of Trade and Industry to continue to embark on regional and international initiatives that will allow Trinidad and Tobago to leverage its strengths and effectively compete in any market, including the EU. Aad Biesebroek, Head of the European Union Delegation to TT and Gabriel Faria, TT Chamber Chief Executive Officer, in their remarks both endorsed the Trade and Industry Minister’s call for greater utilization and implementation of the Economic Partnership Agreement.

TRINIDAD-BORN Alfred H Mendes (1897-1991) may not be widely popular but his importance to West Indian literature is undeniable.

That is work is now being revisited is only fitting.

Mendes is an able story-teller; the consummate griot. West Indian? Yes, but hardly in the folklore kind of way. Capsuled in a time when shadism, colour and class defined the islands, we are served with tales that are disturbing and even revolting.

Using multiple characters to unearth his pain and inner conflicts Short Stories, Letters and Articles becomes a psychoanalytic narrative that reveals secrets of the heart. Indeed, the upper echelon of society is victim of its own racial prejudice.

With jaundiced eyes, race is the measurement of a man’s standing, his morality and his station.

For society’s cr?me de la cr?me, whiteness is privilege, a blessing that opens doors but those very doors never bring genuine happiness.

In their arrogance their soul is restless and theirs is never an easy journeying. But not every fair folk is privileged. There is poverty, wanton poverty. This we encounter in The Larsons at Home, a circa 1930s political tale that unearths the economic devastation unleashed by The Great Depression. “D’you know that we have nothing, no money for dinner tonight?” Mrs Larson throws at her husband. And she continues the tirade, “You’ve got children with appetites to feed, I’d have you know, Mr Larson.” There is a wanting, a deprivation in the heart of every protagonist; and some are prey to their own devices.

From the horrors of madness they cannot escape as one doyenne discovers in The Cat, a karma-laden occult drama, not unlike Without Snow that bleeds mystery, psychosis and murder.

Surely, these tales are but a reflection of Mendes’ troubled upbringing marked by his continual search for identity and happiness. And seething beneath a racial cesspool is his aversion to religion. In Young Da Costa and The Larsons at Home, religion is scorned. In the latter, Mrs Larson repudiates her husband’s faith. “You and your Christian Science, huh! Has it ever brought you anything?” And in Young Da Costa, Catholicism is assailed. Of his girlfriend’s religious belief, Joe complains, “…I was making her realize how absurd is her God, her immortality, her Bible. I was making her see how cruel, how dangerous her confessional box is….She listened to me attentively when I spoke to her and tried to show her the futility of all organized forms of religion.” The Larsons at Home, though, is multilayered and is arguably the most engaging of the lot. Tinged with anti-Semitic diatribe and lively exchanges on communism, Hitler and Roosevelt’s New Deal, it is a politically rich narrative.

But race never lets up seemingly shadowing every character. Young Da Costa risks being shunned by his family for courting a coloured girl.

“There was a hell of a row at home, because Irene’s father happened to be a slightly coloured man,” the young suitor laments. “It’s a damn shame that a girl should suffer for her father’s drop of negro blood; just as if it is syphilitic blood.” The racial refrain gets more ghastly in Tropic Town. Through the eyes of a British couple settling on the island for the first time, we confront the pathology of racism.

“The island, we know, Betty, doesn’t look half bad,” her husband states.

She rejoins, “But d’you think there are many snakes and scorpions and things?” And later, she adds, “A lot of n*****, though.” When her husband calls for restraint, she responds, “…but don’t they come from Africa originally – where the savages are?” In When Mother was left Alone, we hark back to a time, a dark time when one risked a grievous penalty by daring to socialise outside one’s race. Young Elizabeth is duly warned during a vacation in a Mayaro beach house. “I soon discovered that Sambo, the old caretaker, had a lot of children,” she recalls, “but because they were black …I was not to play with them.” But there is spattering of levity, albeit dark and wry. In Caribbean Scare, the threat of a German invasion of the Caribbean in 1915 overwhelms a panic-stricken barber. His plan to avoid the bombardment and save his family is farcical. He plans to escape to Cascade hills with his family. His customer responds derisively, “German shells won’t want to bother about that peaceful spot.” His sarcasm continues, “Well don’t go spitting it out to everybody who comes into the shop this morning, or else you might have Cascade road blocked with traffic.” The denouement of this short, intriguing tale leaves us with mouths agape.

Deliberate, nuanced and equally bold, Mendes injects a provocative spirit to his every word. He can be dry, void of colour, a mirror of a pained being. Still, he is mesmeric and compelling.

Short stories, Articles and Letters is a revealing drama that appeals to the dark chamber within us. Of Mendes’ work, editor Michele Levy’s aptly writes, “What makes [him] especially significant was that his fiction was always strongly autobiographical.

He wrote about people he knew or met and situations which he encountered frequently in his life…He was both recorder and interpreter of his own times…” Feedback: glenvilleashby@gmail.

com or follow him on Twitter@glenvilleashby Glenville Ashby is the author of The Believers: Faith and Spiritism in the Caribbean Diaspora.

Commissioner Stewart told Newsday yesterday that he became suspicious after discovering several discrepancies with payments to suppliers.

“I decided to call in the police because I was asking certain questions and was uncomfortable with certain answers I was getting about irregularities,” he said in an interview.

Stewart further confirmed, “There are some irregularities and I called in the police. Only civilians and some officers run the canteen.

The civilians do the books as well, they control the accounts for the canteens.

There are three canteens, all three are in question, the whole canteen system is under question, and we are trying to ascertain where the irregularities stem from and there is to be a comprehensive investigation”. He said the issue was brought to his attention by the direct management of the canteens, a Prisons Superintendent, and this prompted the police investigation.

The Commissioner said he could not give the exact dollar figure involved but sources within the prison system said the amount unaccounted for was over $2 million.

Stewart said it is not certain which of the canteens the discrepancies emerged, and for that reason the books of all three canteens will be audited as part of the investigation.

As Prisons Commissioner, the Prison Sports Club and the three canteens at the Maximum Security Prison and the Golden Grove Prison in Arouca and the Port of Spain Prison were under his purview.

He said civilian staff is responsible for the operations of the canteens and the person entrusted with the accounting was also a civilian.

Prison officers assist in some aspect of the management of the canteens, Newsday was informed.

Stewart also confirmed what sources told Newsday that over a certain period, creditors were not paid and when they began demanding payment, it was brought to the attention of the Superintendent who oversees the canteens who then informed the Commissioner.

Assistant Superintendent of Police, Ajith Persad, of the Port-of- Spain CID, along with a team of officers, were mandated to carry out the investigation which began last week.

According to Stewart, all civilian staff employed at the three prisons canteen as well as prison officers, who also assist in the canteens, are to be interviewed as part of the ongoing probe.

On Friday, relatives of prisoners who purchase items from the canteens complained of the shortage of important items.

They also complained of the high prices of basic items and called on the Minister of National Security to bring in persons from the Consumer Affairs Division to look into what they called an unfair practice of price gouging.

President of the Prisons Officers Association Ceron Richards said he was not aware of the police investigation but intends to look into the issue.

“Today I do believe that Angelo lives on through all the works that he did,” she said, recommending that his books be used in schools throughout the country.

“In that way we can continue to enjoy and we can continue to learn more about ourselves and our history,” she said at Bissessarsingh’s funeral service at Belgrove’s Crematorium, Coffee Street, San Fernando, yesterday. Bissessarsingh was her nephew-in-law.

Also speaking at the funeral service, where hundreds turned out to say their final goodbyes, was Rural Development and Local Government Minister, Kazim Hosein, who noted that Prime Minister, Dr Keith Rowley, has spoken to Bissessarsingh’s father, Rudolph and given him the assurance that the government would “do what is necessary’ to ensure his son’s legacy continued long after his death.

Hosein said if he was still San Fernando Mayor, he would rename the San Fernando Library after the late historian. Bissessarsingh died of terminal pancreatic cancer at the age of 34 on February 2.

Also eulogising Bissessarsingh, President Anthony Carmona described him as a “burning bright light in our national darkness.” “For the past few weeks, it has been a rough time for us in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago…

The human tragedies that have occurred of man’s inhumanity to man…From the murder of young student Rachel Ramkissoon, to Keston Collins, of the Coast Guard, losing everyone, two young sons and his living wife, and now Angelo, a burning bright light in our national darkness,’ he said.

“He was a national treasure, a searching intellect, touching the hearts of this Republic and the wider world. We are gathering here to mourn, to grieve, because to grieve and mourn we must, but Angelo left us something, that someone can make a real difference,’ Carmona added.

“That cherub smile of his that would warm up and light up a room, we will never forget, he taught us all that in an exceptional short life that you can do exceptional things, to make that difference,” Carmona said, adding, “Life is not about the quantity of years one lives but of the quality of life you live in those years.” He said the Office of the President bought scores of Bissessarsingh’s books to present as gifts to foreign diplomats and schoolchildren. “We have quietly bought scores and scores of his books and I have been presenting those books for the last year and a half to diplomats and to school children,’ he said.

Bissessarsingh’s father, Rudolph said his viewed his son’s funeral as very solemn and historic.

“I do not share laughter at this point in my heart, for which of you have asked of the Father a bread and have been given a stone, I have been given a stone,’ he said.

Reports are that two men left the Scarborough Port in Tobago on a pirogue around midday Saturday, when they encountered some difficulties at about 3 pm in the waters off Rockley Vale. The men have been identified as Onesha Haye and Marvin Taylor. Taylor was able to make it to shore, but Haye remains missing. A statement from the TT Coast Guard yesterday said a joint search operation between the TTCG, the Air Guard and the Tobago Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) was underway for Haynes.

Public Affairs officer for the TTCG, Lieutenant Sherron Manswell said Haye reportedly abandoned his vessel and he and Taylor attempted to swim to shore on a cooler after their pirogue lost its engine. The Tobago seafearing public is being asked to be on the look out for Haye and to contact TTCG Operations at the following numbers 634-1476, 634-8824, the TTPS at 639-2512 or TEMA at 660-7489 if he is located.

Al Rawi made this announcement at last Thursday’s post Cabinet briefing. He said this was all part of Government’s thrust to combat terrorism inside and outside of this country’s borders.

The organisation’s public relations officer, Imtiaz Mohammed, yesterday said by passing such a bill the AG was labelling all Muslims as terrorists. He said the proposed bill was draconian and questioned who or which countries were influencing him and the Government to introduce and implement such laws.

The bill would place restrictions on Muslims travelling to certain countries which which were viewed as being “terrorist countries”, where one would require to have a travel permit from the National Security Ministry.

During a meeting, yesterday, at the Islamic Centre, Kelly Village, Caroni, Mohammed questioned what was the process, how long the process would take, the cost, and whether persons would be monitored upon receiving a permit.

“There is always a chance that people can get this permit and join ISIS and still return to TT. Muslims who wish to join ISIS can do so without applying for a permit, so why inconvenience 120,000 Muslims because 130 Muslims joined ISIS?” Mohammed asked.

This lack of engagement is even more striking given the fact that TT has a thriving Syrian-Lebanese community.

The absence of Syrian refugees in TT becomes darkly ironic when contrasted to the exit of 130 TT nationals to go to the Middle East to fight for Islamic State/ISIS.

The Syrian Civil War since its early rumblings in 2011 to present has seen four million persons flee Syria, while six million are internally displaced. The total death toll – civilians, soldiers and rebels – is estimated at 400,000 persons – of whom about half were civilians, including an estimated 11,000 Syrian children and 15,000 Syrian women.

Of those fortunate to survive the conflagration, millions have sought asylum. Turkey has taken 2.7 million, Lebanon 1.5 million, Jordan 1.2 million and Germany one million, and even hard-up Venezuela promising to take 20,000.

Many such refugees scrape by exiled in camps which are the sad reality of anyone fleeing for their life from vicious acts of beheading, rape, enslavement and forced combat service (done by both rebels and army).

It’s all a veritable hell of earth that few TT nationals can imagine.

We in the comfort of our homes have nightly watched world news reports on all aspects of the ongoing crisis. We saw a dead infant washed up on a Greek shore – a sadly iconic image that largely turned the tide of public opinion in Europe which then relented to let in refugees, for a while.

We saw the Old Year’s Night celebrations in Germany turn nasty when local women complained of sexual groping and assault by assorted immigrants. We saw a handful of ISIS terrorists pose as refugees to infiltrate the West and carry out individual terror attacks. We saw the tide of public opinion in the West turn very swiftly indeed against allowing in Syrian refugees, with anti-migrant sentiment likely very central to both the Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s surprise win in the United States Presidential Elections. We saw Trump’s 90-day ban on immigrants from seven nations, prompting protestors to allege of Islamophobia and a display of banners “Refugees welcome!”.

Amid this ebb and flow of world public opinion, we ourselves have done nothing to admit refugees.

Some may argue that TT is so engulfed in its own social woes such as high crime that we could not offer much to Syrian refugees. Others might say, why Syria and why not Haiti, or Guyana or Ghana, many of whose citizens would also like to come here? To both questions the answer is simple – the Syrian conflagration is not about mere economic migration but is a holocaust, a large scale destruction, which in Greek means “a whole burning”.

Trinidad and Tobago must admit some Syrian refugees.

TT is a nation of immigrants, and promotes human rights domestically and on the world stage.

Any immigrants must be fully screened.

If refugees lack identification documents, surely their bona fides could be established by online archives of registration and/or by witness evidence.

It might be argued that TT’s infrastructure such as housing is already stretched. However, we’d say that however humble the help that is offered to persons fleeing such horrors it will surely be gratefully accepted and fully utilised, by persons simply seeking a chance to make a new life for their loved ones, and ready to work hard to do so.

Who knows, might these migrants bring us a future industrialist, academician or statesman to save TT, similar to how their influx started in the first place when back in 1908 one enterprising woman saw the potential of a productive life in TT and chose to remain here.

It is not often that you see someone with a getaway donkey. (Presumably there have been instances when a getaway donkey was used.) You see someone with a getaway car, so you have to deal with this as an integral part of your anti-crime manoeuvres.” What does he propose? Sweeping amendments…on the vehicles side of the law — red light enforcement, fixed penalty offences, the ability to pay fines online etc (Express 23/1/17). What is needed are not more laws. The urgent requirement is to upgrade the capacity of the Police Service in the use of relevant technology in controlling crime at the vehicular level and bring it into the 21st century.

In my column 11 years ago, I stated: “Policemen and women need to be supported by the deployment of useful modern technology and trained in their use. A most urgent imperative is timely access to information and data. The police should have ready access to computers with capacity for storage and instant retrieval of all kinds of crime-fighting information from the bio-data and background of criminals to the registration particulars of motor vehicles and the detailed description of localities.

“An adequate supply of reliable communication equipment and serviceable vehicles outfitted with appropriate computers and communication devices should also be made available, together with helicopter support for surveillance, detection and pursuit activity. Thus a policeman in a vehicle or in a station should be able instantly to access relevant information on a vehicle, its owner and driver as well as on likely suspects and the specifics of localities and roadways.

“It is in these areas that priority expenditure on hardware should be incurred instead of purchasing useless aerial surveillance gizmos and non-functional surface surveillance cameras.” Limited access to and training in the use of modern crime-fighting technology is certainly not the only or major problem which afflicts the Police Service.

In the first instance there is the issue of a flawed system of recruitment which sees many recruits unsuited for the job being taken on board. Since such people continue to form a significant proportion of the Police Service, it is obvious that the Commissioner of Police has been delinquent in implementing effective measures to deal with the problem. After recruitment, I presume that there is a sufficient period of probation and training at the end of which an evaluation is conducted by means of which unsuitable recruits are discharged. But how effective is this process? The next problem to be addressed is that of discipline in the Police Service. If the disciplinary process is functional, why does it take ages to bring disciplinary matters to conclusion and how does this affect morale in the service.

If an unacceptably large percentage of the complement of the Police Service is either corrupt or is in collusion with criminals or engages in subversion of justice or is guilty of violent behaviour or is in dereliction of duty, the service cannot be improved without an effective disciplinary regime and the purging of these unsavoury elements.

Another problem is the attitude of policemen to their duties and their relation with members of the public. If this does not change and if the overall performance of the service does not improve, then the confidence and trust of the public cannot be attracted and, without this element, the effectiveness of the service will continue to be wanting.

Nor will community policing or collaboration of the communities with the police bear results. And c e r t a i n l y the intelligence- gathering capability of the service cannot be improved.

Boodoo, of John Street, Montrose, Chaguanas, was reported missing on January 30, and his body was found hanging from a tree by hikers in the Blanchisseuse forests on Saturday.

Hazra Boodoo, 79, said there was no other reason anyone would want to kill her grandson.

“Why is it that some people are so anxious to take other people’s things? Steven was such a nice boy. I mind that child from a baby. People tell me that they never heard me, not for one day, shout at that child,” Boodoo said.

Hikers on Saturday came upon a white body bag hanging from a tree over a precipice and immediately called the police.

When the body bag was opened, it was discovered that Boodoo’s feet were bound and a rope was tied around his neck.

Boodoo recently returned to Trinidad after living for several months in the Bahamas with his father, Andy, and other relatives. He was once a clerk at Republic Bank, his grandmother, a retired teacher, said.

She recalled that her grandson, at a tender age, survived a tragic vehicular accident in which his mother, Carmela Mokool, 25, was killed.

“When he left home Sunday morning, he said he was going out. I asked what he had in his bag and he said he had his birth certificate. I asked why he did not go with his new car and he said he would get trouble for parking,” the elder Boodoo added.

Boodoo’s aunt, Sharon Fouche, who lives in the United States, said her nephew lived with her briefly in Miami but loved Trinidad so much he decided to return home.

“Steven lived in Trinidad because he loved his island. On Monday, I think, he took a taxi to Port of Spain to see an attorney in regards to his Chaguanas property. Steven was happy about the prospect of training to work on a cruise ship. He was excited to be back in Trinidad,” Fouche said. She said Steven was killed like an animal.

In a post to her Facebook page, she wrote that Steven was never engaged in drinking or smoking or wild partying or anything that could have put him with the “wrong crowd”.

“I know that bad things happen because of the world we live in. But I know that we serve a compassionate God who advocates for the powerless and defenseless – and who fights for justice – and who arms us with strength to do the same.” An autopsy is expected to be performed today at the Forensic Science Centre to determine the cause of death. Investigations are continuing.

According to information reaching Newsday, a report was sent to acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams by head of the Western Division Senior Supt Basdeo Ramdhanie last week recommending the dismissal of the two constables.

Newsday understands that the investigating officer in the matter involving the two SRPs also sent a report to the acting Commissioner.

The two SRP constables assigned to the St James Police station were detained in a a ‘sting’ operation by police after it was discovered they made arrangements with someone to collect $4,000 to forego prosecution for a traffic offence.

However, after the witness failed to cooperate with investigators, the SRPs were released from custody.

The two were on mobile patrol in the Diego Martin area when they stopped a 19-yearold man who allegedly committed a traffic offence.

It is alleged the constables demanded $4,000 from the teenager, to avoid being charged.

The teen made arrangements with a male relative to pay the money and on Friday night the constables were told to meet the person with the money at a certain location in Diego Martin.

Newsday reported that the police were contacted and told of the transaction that was about to take place.

The man was told to place specific, identifiable markings on the money before giving it to the two SRPs.

When the two officers arrived and were handed the money, police officers who were in hiding, moved in and arrested the officers.

On following afternoon, the witnesses __ the teen and the man who handed over the money to the SRPs __ both filed a statement saying they wanted no further police action against the SRPs.

This led to the SRPs being released from custody.