Ali also made a call for better role models in the nation. He said the persons calling themselves role models have influenced the majority of the nation’s youth in a negative way.

“People call themselves ‘Muslim’ and ‘Rasta’ because they want to appear to have a certain level of rank where others would look at them and say they want to be like them,” Ali said.

“These people who call themselves Muslims really have no basis behind calling themselves such.” We lack a lot of discipline today.

There is no humility any more, and people are very arrogant. But that does not mean that the persons have to remain arrogant. The companions of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) were known as the worst of people. The background that they had, no one in history could have consumed more alcohol than them. They used to kill their girl children because they thought they were blights. Yet when Islam came to them, they became so pleased with Allah, that even Allah himself became pleased with them.”

Free entry to the North Stand for the traditional mas on Carnival Monday and a most sensible fee of $50 on Carnival Tuesday will considerably recoup some of the money spent each year on this expensively constructed venue.

Vendors stand to make a profit by selling delicacies to both locals and tourists and I expect the North Stand will be filled to capacity on Carnival Tuesday.

No mention was made of the entrance fee for the Grand Stand which, because of obscene overpricing, has been practically empty for the Kings and Queens of the Carnival shows.

This fee needs to be cut by 50 percent or more. These past few years we have seen judges, the media, and revellers but very few spectators.

Many spectators have taken to the streets, making it slow moving for bands navigating downtown Port-of-Spain. If De Silva can guarantee adequate and well policed parking at the Queen’s Park Savannah, things could start looking like long ago.

And please, De Silva, toilets, toilets everywhere so the visitors can see that TT exists in the 21st century.

This Carnival presents the opportunity for the entire Police Service to step up to the plate and make 2017 the safest Carnival ever.

Our police are in dire need of a political facelift in this country where “image” is everything.

Lynette Joseph Diego Martin

While firearm offences are common and seem to be increasing as more and more guns are reported to be taken off the streets, there has also been a noticeable increase in non-firearm-related violence and murders.

Added to this, there seems to be an alarming increase in irrational and spontaneous violence — murder by “road rage.” Random acts of extreme violence are reported almost daily by the media.

One forensic pathologist was moved to report on the sheer brutality of a murder-suicide where a woman’s throat was slit “from ear to ear” and the incision extended to the “back of the neck.” Abductions and rape are occurring far more often than before.

Police shootings have increased. It is as if a curse has descended upon the nation.

And in true Trinidadian fashion, we have been treated to a plethora of thoughts regarding the likely explanation for the nearly palpable upsurge in societal violence and murderous rage.

Blame has been directed to the security services, to existing corruption within these institutions; an audit into the Police Service has been initiated (yet again); senior police officers have been fired, and Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley in capitulation has suggested that “we are a violent society.” Many factors have been advanced as contributing to this rise in violence that has everyone frantically searching for solutions so that we can as a nation return to some semblance of normalcy.

We do indeed as a people have a short memory. The very same sequence of events was at play during the ANR Robinson administration.

In fact, it had started during the George Chambers regime around 1984 and peaked when Robinson and the NAR government of which he was the leader began to implement IMF austerity measures (1987).

This Rowley Government has been traversing the same road while protesting that the austerity programme he has embarked upon has nothing to do with the IMF — an agency that the Government admits it invited as adviser since coming into power.

Randolph Virchow (1848) has been credited with the wise observation that “politics is nothing but medicine on a grand scale.” To her credit, Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s leadership embraced this axiom as she insightfully created a novel ministry, the first of its kind in this country — the Ministry of the People.

This ministry’s focus remained fixed on the people. By any description, it was a “new public health” ministry, the object of which was social protection.

There will always be a debate on whether, with economic contraction, governments should increase spending so as to stimulate the economy or reduce spending through austerity.

We are being taught our second lesson today: austerity kills.

Like other unwise governments, Rowley’s PNM has set its focus on reducing spending so as to reduce our deficit. To this end, he has made drastic and unstudied cuts in social protection programmes in the face of increasing job cuts, rising unemployment, creeping currency devaluation, and a significant increase in the cost of living, precisely when people can least afford it.

It is the austerity — the hardship and deprivation — that are the cause of our present escalating violence and increasing mortality.

Violence in society is a response to the violence of “austerity” from the Rowley Government.

Steve Smith via email

Of course, all murders are not the same. Can we really be expected to regret the deaths of two criminals, shot by two other criminals outside the St Joseph Police Station, to the same extent as the murder of a 73-year-old woman in Arima during a robbery at her home? I do have a problem with the story on page 18, “Bar owner shoots three bandits, one dead”.

This is the kind of good news we want to see on the front page. If it cannot be accommodated on the front page, at least on page 3 please. The response of the bar owner and the residents of Paramin, who worked together to prevent the bandits escaping from the area, is something to be praised, not hidden away on page 18.

Ann Whittaker via email

While the authorities — police and the Traffic Management Branch of the Ministry of Works and Transport — have been urging motorists to obey traffic regulations, these entreats appear, to even the most casual observer, to be having, at most, minimum effect or no effect at all, and it is now clear that radical solutions are required.

Some citizens (and especially those motorists who are, in any event, prone to disobeying traffic laws and regulations) will howl at what is but the short-term solution which I am proffering, ie, the erection of humps, of the deterring height required, and numbering two in both directions) — along the C-R Highway itself extending from Pasea Road to the Demerara Road intersections, as well as on adjoining roads which form the intersections with the C-R Highway.

There will, of course, be objections to the effect that implementing a policy such as this does not constitute “highway driving”.

However, what is more important, the prevention of lawlessness or the saving of innocent lives? In any event, we are thinking of a portion of highway which, for the most part, is clogged with crawling traffic.

How much time would be lost? For several years, there have been “promises” that flyovers are to be erected along this stretch of roadway. May I suggest the Government rethinks its plans for further highway extension somewhat and give greater consideration to remedying some of the obvious areas which require urgent attention.

Cannot the gestation period for completing some of these relatively less urgent projects be lengthened? I have noticed that the Highways Division has been busy erecting humps along roads of relative non-importance within built-up neighbourhoods.

The experience is therefore at hand.

Errol OC Cupid Trincity, Tacarigua

The steelband body over the years has moved from being the “national” association of TT steelbandsmen to Pan Trinbago, the “world” governing body for pan.

How could an organisation which relies mainly on Government subventions and which has no money and does not seem to be able to raise any money be the world governing body for anything? Can someone tell me where in the world are the governing body for piano, for guitar, saxophone and trumpet? Notwithstanding there are more of those instruments throughout the world than there are steel pans.

This Pan Trinbago overreach merely serves to inflate the ego of some people. The steel pan was spread mainly by touring steel orchestras and nationals who settled one way or another in foreign lands. For many years steel orchestras were the ones travelling abroad, now it’s the officials who travel more than the bands.

The relationship between the Government and organisations such as Pan Trinbago is like that of parents whose financial support of their children did not encourage them to leave their parents’ home so now the parents are condemned to support those children for life, even in spite of alleged misbehaviour.

It should be viewed as shameful that the collection of the gate receipts for the biggest paying event in the home of the steelband has been removed from this world governing body.

David Maunday Belmont, PoS

The nation’s CPI score, which measures perceptions of corruption within the public service by polling the opinions of business leaders and country experts and ranks 176 countries on a scale of one to 100, has slipped four points, from 39 in 2015, to 35 in 2016.

The lower the score, the more corrupt the country is perceived as being.

The country has also declined from its place at 72 in 2015, to a current ranking of 101 out of the 176 countries.

And commenting on the decline, Chaguanas Chamber of Industry and Commerce (CCIC) president, Richie Sookhai, said changes in both the mentality of the population as well as the enacting of anti-corruption legislation by government had to be expedited and not allowed to languish.

“It is unfortunate that we have actually dropped by a couple points down in the corruption perception index and this is exactly how the world is perceiving us currently, but we hope the measures that the current government have in place, which is like the anti-corruption legislation and the Whistle Blower Act, could be implemented soon and not held back because this will definitely not improve our perception index,” Sookhai said in a telephone interview last week.

“For a society with all our natural resources we should have progressed via infrastructure.

Instead, we have not used our resources to improve the society, we still have a lot of bureaucracy within the system and it is still about who you know before you can get something done,” he said.

“And this type of mentality needs to change. In some institutions that you go to, is all about who you know and whether or not a bribe is passed and allegations of bribes have been brought before the courts in the past and this is where the Whistle Blower Act and the anti-corruption legislation could, once in place, help stymie this whole process of corruption or bribe passing in Trinidad and Tobago.” Asked whether he believed that T&T’s society has a high tolerance for corruption, Sookhai said, “I think it has grown in our society for so long that it has become the norm, and the norm in the sense in the way we do business and this is unfortunate because when you have people who really want to do the right thing and walk the straight and narrow path, you have those who, to get anything done, sometimes you have to bend the rules and that is unfair.” In full agreement was Penal/Debe Chamber of Commerce (PDCC) president, Shiva Roopnarine, who noted that Trinidad and Tobago’s decline was part of a trend which had been taking place over the past few years and represented a lack of political will to deal with corruption by successive governments.

“This is a trend that we are seeing over the last couple of years and it is a sign of the government’s lack of will to correct a troubling situation, this is something that stems not only from the point of view of the government but State agencies as well, and it doesn’t augur well for our nation,” Roopnarine said.

“It’s the mentality of the society and what type of investors would we be attracting, whether we would be attracting ethical investors or unethical investors, serious business minded investors who want to develop the country, or investors who know they have to pass some money to get things done so as a country we have to understand and appreciate the type of people who would be willing to invest here in the perceived way to do business in Trinidad,” he said.

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“It is a landmark decision for this country; a commendable move by the local courts, to arrest a Nigerian vessel for whatever breach it was,” said Lucky who is based in Hamburg, Germany where he presides as a judge in cases relating to the conflicts between countries on sea matters.

The MT Tumini has been docked off the Trinidad Cement Limited’s Claxton Bay jetty for the past four years, apparently abandoned by its owners in Nigeria.

The crew, who are all Guyanese nationals, decided to stay on board until they are paid their wages and for securing the ship for its owners. It is not the first time a ship was arrested by the court.

Lucky reminded that in 1996, while presiding as a judge of the High Court, he made an order in an Admirality action filed by the officers and crew of the foreign tanker “Duchess” which was docked off the Port of Spain jetty. Lucky granted leave to arrest the ship so that the officers and crew could be paid.

Lucky, in commenting on the order of Justice Devendra Rampersad, told Newsday that if and when the MV Tumini is sold, the money would be paid into the court and the obligation in disbursing payments, would be first, to the crew members on board.

Under Admirality Law, Lucky said, the first obligation is for the crew to be paid their wages.

The International Law of the Sea judge said that had the ship not been arrested via the action taken by the agent and the crew, the matter could have become one for consideration by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Lucky said, “I must commend the judge and the local courts for taking a step in the right direction.

It will enhance our development in dealing with such matters.” In the judge’s order, the MT Tumini is to be sold in the next nine months, failing which, the court will sell the vessel by private auction.

In the first round last Tuesday, Barrackpore West defeated fellow southerners Naparima by three wickets, while Hillview crushed Trinity College East by eight wickets. Hillview will make the journey south to face Barrackpore West at the latter’s school ground.

Defending champions Fatima, which won its opening encounter by one wicket over Carapichaima East, will play Trinity College East at the Squadron Ground in Arouca.

Carapichaima East and Shiva Boys will square off at Beaucarro Recreation Ground in an effort to bounce back after suffering first round defeats. With only seven rounds of action, both teams will aim to avoid back-to-back defeats to stay in contention for the title.

Shiva Boys lost by 57 runs to Presentation College, Chaguanas in round one.

In the last match of the round Naparima will visit Presentation Chaguanas. The tournament is being played in a round robin format.

TODAY’S FIXTURES Presentation Chaguanas vs Naparima, Presentation College Ground Carapichaima East vs Shiva Boys Hindu, Beaucarro Recreation Ground Barrackpore West vs Hillview, Barrackpore West Ground Trinity College East vs Fatima, Squadron Ground, Arouca.

Police, which whipped Defence Force 3-1 on Saturday, maintained seventh-position and will face cellar- placed Civic in qualifier one from 6 pm at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva today.

Two hours later at the same venue, eight-placed St Ann’s Rangers coming off Saturday’s 6-0 mauling by Central FC, will clash with ninth-positioned Morvant Caledonia.

The winners will advance into the main draw (quarterfinals) in which matchups will be determined tomorrow in a seeded draw.

Caledonia was also in losers row over the weekend. The Morvant side conceded first half goals to go down 2-0 against fourth-positioned Ma Pau Stars on Sunday at the Larry Gomes Stadium.

Former Europe-based forward and Trinidad and Tobago 2006 World Cup player Jason Scotland, netted his eighth league goal for Ma Pau on 25 minutes, before an own goal made it 2-0.

The win improved Ma Pau’s fourth position on 28 points—one point behind third-placed San Juan Jabloteh—ahead of their final league game of the season against second-positioned W Connection (43 points) next weekend. Jabloteh will face league leaders and twotime defending champions Central FC (44 points) in their final game.

RESULTS Sunday Morvant Caledonia United 0 vs Ma Pau Stars 2 (Jason Scotland 25’, Own Goal 38’) at Larry Gomes Stadium

Saturday St. Ann’s Rangers 0 vs Central FC 6 (Kishun Seecharan 12’, 63’, Jason Marcano 75’, Mickaeel Jem Gordon 79’, Darren Mitchell 80’, 90’+3), at Larry Gomes Stadium Police FC 3 (Jameel Perry 36’, 71’, Own Goal 43’) vs Defence Force 1 (Jamille Boatswain 73’), at Mannie Ramjohn Stadium

Friday Club Sando 3 (Kevon Piper 23’, Akeem Roach 25’, 65’) vs Point Fortin Civic 2 (Nicholas Thomas 33’ Own Goal, Darnell Hospidales 45’), at Ato Boldon Stadium W Connection 1 (Hughtun Hector 56’) vs San Juan Jabloteh 0 – at Ato Boldon Stadium

TODAY’S FIXTURES Ato Boldon Stadium Police FC vs Point Fortin Civic – 6 pm St. Ann’s Rangers vs Morvant Caledonia United –