De Nu Pub was one of several establishments visited by customs officials on Friday night along the popular liming spot of Ariapita Avenue, Woodbrook.

Nu Pub licensee Roderick Ward informed Sunday Newsday in a telephone interview that the officials visited a little before 12 am and left about 1.30 am. He reported that to his surprise he was not able to produce the liquor licence and they were “within their rights” to remove the liquor.

“They were quite professional and very courteous. They gave me time to find the document,” he added.

Ward said De Nu Pub remained open this weekend but they would only be able to sell soft drinks. “It is a major loss not being able to sell (alcohol),” he pointed out.

He planned to search for the licence yesterday and to produce it on Monday. Ward said that customs officials searched “the whole of the avenue” on Friday night and he heard two other places were also discovered to be without liquor licences and banned from selling, though this could not be confirmed.

A nightclub manager, who asked not to be named, reported that customs officials visited his establishment at about 10pm but, unlike De Nu Pub, they were able to produce the requested documents.

“They were very cooperative and understanding,” he said. He reported that the officials began from the top of the Avenue and came all the way down and he had not seen such an inspection in his two years at the nightclub.

“You need to keep your house in order when operating and you have rules and regulations to follow,” he commented. He recalled that the Trinidad And Tobago Copyright Collection Organisation had done a similar exercise checking licences to play music

Police investigators said that at about 5.20 am yesterday, Anthony Hamilton, 23, and another man were engaged in a heated argument along Cipero Street near Singh’s Locksmith. During the argument, the man shot Hamilton and ran off. Hamilton, police said, sustained a gunshot wound to his left leg and was subsequently rushed to the San Fernando General Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery.

Up to yesterday, Hamilton remained warded at the hospital in a serious condition while the suspect remained on the run from police.

Cpl Bacchus of the San Fernando Police Station is investigating.

In a post on its Facebook the SRC reported that the Earthquake occurred at 11.34 pm at latitude 10.97 North and longitude 62.08 West and was at a depth of 10km.

It was felt in the West, East and parts of South Trinidad. There were no reports on the post of injuries or property damage. The SRC stressed that the event was not reviewed by an analyst but was automatically located by a seismological computational system and was therefore a preliminary result. On January 8, this country experienced two earthquakes within 12 hours, a 4.4 magnitude at around 5.51 am and 4.3 magnitude at 2.01 pm.

The homeless issue, however, will require talks with the line minister.

He was speaking to Sunday Newsday on the Brian Lara Promenade, Independence Square, Port-of- Spain. He pointed out that the Local Government Minister Kazim Hosein launched the National Clean Up Campaign yesterday at the Foreshore, Audrey Jeffers Highway.

He noted that Diego Martin Regional Corporation is this weekend and Portof- Spain City Corporation next weekend “but we didn’t wait for next weekend to start, we decided let’s start now”.

He said they started last week with the Promenade and there has been painting and power washing “and we are trying to start the objective of keeping the city clean.

Martinez commented on two of the issues in keeping the city clean, namely littering and the socially displaced.

“People are naturally litterers and we have put bins here for them. We going to encourage them to use the bins.

We going to have programs on the radio and television and through the media and as a matter of fact I would like the media to assist us in calling the population and asking the population to…utilise the bin to help us to keep the city clean and not just you eat something you drop it here because you feel you don’t want to get up and walk to the bin.

The bins are provided for that,” he said.

He reported that they have a lot of bins in the city and more to come “and we want to encourage that”.

On the litter wardens Martinez reported that the cadre is about 10 for the whole city “which really and truly is not enough”.

He said they want to increase the cadre so they can man the city a lot better and this will create employment.

He added that they plan to train the personnel so they can encourage and not be antagonistic.

Martinez pointed out that it is a ticketed offence and he noted the increase from $50 to $500 which occurred in 2013.

“Hopefully that will add some traction and that will encourage people to be mindful that if you litter it will cost you just as much of a fine as if they wreck your car,” he said.

He said the homeless is another issue and pointed out that he was chatting with the people who clean the Promenade “and they were telling me basically how difficult it is for them to do it because they using the Promenade as a bathroom and…there is faeces all over the place and when you have to clean up. And that is a deterrent.” He stressed the homeless has been a situation in the capital city for some time now.

“What we are trying to do is find a way to resolve it,” he added.

He reported that this week he would be meeting with Minister of Social Development Cherrie-Ann Crichlow- Cockburn to discuss the way forward.

“It is all part of the clean up process and if we can find a way to humanely deal with the homeless in the streets that would be a plus for us and a plus for the nation,” he said

The four suspects, who are between the ages of 25 and 30, were to be jointly charged last evening with robbery with violence. They were also expected to be charged with the possession of marijuana by Cpl Ramlal and PC Toney, both of the Fyzabad CID. Police reports state that at about 2.30 pm on Tuesday, officers of the South Oropouche Police Station received a tip-off about a robbery in progress at Singh’s Mini-mart located on Massahood Junction.

Under the supervision of Sgt Gookool, a party of officers sprung into action and went to the location where they saw two of the males leaving the mini-mart.

The female suspect, of Corinth located on the outskirts of San Fernando, and another male, were seated nearby in a vehicle awaiting the others.

The officers arrested all four and recovered a quantity of cigarettes and cash (US, Canadian and TT currencies) stolen from the owners of the mini-mart. Police also recovered knives and cutlasses used to commit the crime as well as a quantity of marijuana. A fifth accomplice managed to evade police but yesterday investigators confirmed that an arrest is imminent.

Police investigators said that under the pretext of wanting to purchase a tank of LPG (cooking gas), the female suspect first went into the mini-mart.

The operators opened a door for her to enter but instead her accomplices entered and

He was speaking yesterday at the Laventille Community Empowerment Symposium held at the Laventille Technology and Continuing Education Centre, Eastern Main Road, Laventille.

“You know that there are people chased out of their homes for years having worked hard, having struggled, having inherited it. Somebody just decide ‘I want your home’. In fact right now we are dealing with a situation where it is suggested that two young me lost their lives because somebody wanted their home,” he said.

Hinds was likely referring to the murder of brothers Dexter Williams and Lloyd Johnson who were shot dead near their La Pena, Laventille home early Friday morning.

Relatives have said the two brothers may have been murdered by persons who wanted to gain access to their house which was located in an area of Laventille being fought over by two rival criminal gangs.

Yesterday Hinds said he has seen people chased from their homes “time and time and time again” and described it as a “grievous act of indiscipline and a grievous act of selfishness”.

Continuing on the theme of selfishness in Laventille, he reported that he knew of two groups “that used the plight of the people of Laventille, going all over the place, including internationally, and talking about ‘poor people in Laventille and downtrodden and all of that and gaining benefits, material benefits, which Laventille never saw and if Laventille saw it, it saw minuscule amounts”.

He told the gathering that he would like to see a greater sense of community in the area.

Hinds said Laventille’s issues are not so much about infrastructure but culture, and by culture he meant the things we do and the way in which we do them. He explained he spends a lot of his time and energy on intangible issues, while he understood the importance of improved roads, schools and water access, these things do not make a community.

He said since starting public service in 1995 his theme has always been improving minds and hearts. “So that we can find a softer Laventille because this a tough place. Sometimes I think that there is no sense of community at all rather it’s about individuals and individualism and personal pursuits,” he added. He said in this country when people have issues they to come together and lobby government and they are heard but he has found over the years that “Laventille does not speak with voice”.

He added that because of this they are not respected as other groups and this was the real reason why more than 55 NGOs were invited to attend the forum. He said they want to hear their concerns but also called on them to organise into one representative group.

On the symposium, he said there were many government and non-government services and opportunities available to the people of Laventille which they were either not aware of or did not pursue with “robustness”.

Constituency coordinator Clay Thomas said the event featured a wide cross section of participating individuals and organisations as well as representatives from the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts and the Ministry of Labour and Small Enterprise Development

In the letter dated January 3, 2017 from Acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams and addressed to Bharath’s attorney Justin Phelps, Williams acknowledged receipt of her letter dated November 28.

“Please be advised that the report made by Ms Bharath was forwarded to the office of the Senior Superintendent Anti-Corruption Investigations Bureau where it is being diligently investigated by a team of officers. On completion, you will be informed of the findings,” Williams stated.

During a media conference in October last year Bharath reported that “I caused my attorney to write the Commissioner of Police enclosing the advice of Queen’s Counsel (QC) and requesting than an investigation into the President, the relevant CPO (Chief Personnel Officer) and the relevant AO (administrative officer) be undertaken.” She had revealed she had received a legal opinion from Cathryn Mc Gahey QC that a probe can be justified into the award of a housing allowance to the President.

Bharath had questioned the alleged payment of housing allowance between July 2013 to May 2015 whilst the President was in occupation of housing at the State’s expense.

In a brief interview yesterday Bharath told Sunday Newsday, “I am relieved and now I am hopeful that the investigation will be open and transparent.” Senior Counsel Martin Daly and former head of the Public Service Reginald Dumas have also publicly questioned the payment of the tax-free $28,000 housing allowance for President Carmona while living in State-provided accommodation.

In September last year, Bharath also questioned spending at the Office of the President and a $2 million discrepancy contained in the Auditor General’s report. One specific item of concern was wine procured from Italy which bore the seal of the Office of the President.

It was as if everyone knew that this was just grandcharge to give our lame government an appearance of rescuing us, themselves and the Oilfield Workers Trade Union from a crisis which was never going to happen. The population treated the impending crisis with all the indifference reserved for storm or hurricane warnings. On the Friday before the threatened OWTU “shutdown” bars were full, the Christmas ‘flu was being named “Trump”, not “Strike”, and commentary on Facebook was exposing the whole farce as “grandcharge”.

And quite rightly, the population took the phalanx of pseudo- angry blue shirted OWTU officials with more than a grain of salt. Pantomime poseurs, engaging in a rare work opportunity starred on TV as erectors of “strike camps” which they, we and the government knew would never be needed. This government, “Red and Ready” before we voted out the UNC last September, are still shuffling, like the lame and the blind, hoping to take a footstep one day, and unashamedly telling us that they are still groping.

This dance of the lame seems to have not been noticed by the media in general.

But for all the government’s continuing retreat, recently formalized by “going to the mattresses” (to borrow a mafia term) and holing up in the still un-named Prime Minister’s Residence for two days, they emerged with nothing to offer us in terms of hope, far less salvation.

The sense that our nation is adrift is palpable. Under siege from street gang gun crime fuelled by the cocaine trade, the mounting evidence of some of our citizens’ complicity with and participation in the ISIS atrocities in the Middle East and elsewhere and our crumbling infrastructure, there is no leadership from any quarter to give us Hope. By now we know that Red and Ready was a sick joke, as there is absolutely no competence from any quarter of government.

Prime Minister Rowley seeks to justify, but not apologize for his incompetence by claiming they “now reach” into office, so give them a chance! We have tried, and rightfully discarded the UNC for their corruption, and they now sit, as the ineffective PNM had been, and will be again, hurling empty insults and threats at each other.

Two “oil booms” have come and gone, each leaving us bankrupt in financial and in terms of ideas, far less solutions. And none of the other Estates have any idea on formulating, far less the competence to undertake, the initiatives and projects needed to get our country moving again. Other Caribbean states struggle to keep their economies afloat, this because of rising commodity prices, particularly oil, gas and petrol. We produce and sell these products, at artificially created excessive prices, and yet we go broke twice within thirty five years. We are the laughing stock of our poorer neighbours, and we carry no sense of shame about the state we have brought upon ourselves and our children. Fat businessmen, fat politicians and fat trade union leaders spar at each other with abusive grandcharge, and we are stupid enough to take one side, two sides or whatever.

A huge sector of our economy, indeed the very heights of the economy, is owned by the State.

Please do not tell me it is we the People who own it, for we have no say whatever in managing or controlling the corruption, mismanagement, over-staffing and laziness that are all endemic in our State enterprises.

How many directors and managers can we find every five years? The storage tanks at Petrotrin are rusting away before our eyes. When will one of these rupture before our eyes and bring dreadful calamity upon Marabella? But we do not even notice this, although the tanks are displayed nightly upon our television. The incompetent managements we recycle with each election apparently do not notice such things. When the dreadful and exploitive TLL and Texaco owned these facilities, the refinery was rustfree with shiny paint and pipelines colour-coded to show the products which flowed through them. But “is all we own now”! “We own” to leave to rust away, “we own” to ignore into collapse.

We have become a nation where “maintenance” is the money ignorant errant men pay to the courts for where they left their sperm.

Come on, Peter! You spoiling the fete. Is Mas’ time now! Check out the fetes: See how sophisticated we are becoming? You could wine and jam with the proletariat, or flaunt your style at the All-Inclusives (Doh mash meh new shoes!).

We playing Grandcharge for Jouvert this year, sponsored by European Liqueurs and complete with wee-wee trucks and other accessories.

And Rowley says the oilfield workers will work to earn their nice new increase. Preme d i t a t e d Grandcharge is the Mas! Get in your sec

We have been in the petroleum business for over a century and we now see that with the depletion of both oil and gas and the challenge of climate change’s impact on the global petroleum industry, our economic growth is severely threatened, simply because we ignored the fundamental role that knowledge, its acquisition, use and creation play in economic development.

The quandary we face with respect to what to do with respect to Petrotrin is only one case in point.

Still, recently the Trade Minister said that some 21 lots are now ready in the Tamana InTEch Park, which is expected to play a key role in diversifying TT’s economy away from oil and gas. The idea of this TT$2.2 billion investment in infrastructure (not knowledge, its use of creation, innovation) is to provide an industrial park to attract investors, hopefully, to establish businesses, to earn foreign exchange and provide jobs. There is one client already for the park, a call centre and the plan is to invite others in ICT, business process outsourcing, high value manufacturing, clean technologies, business services and agro processing.

The immediate question is why should anyone come to Tamana? What are at least the comparative advantages offered by the Park? The fundamental question is whether our investing in a park, in infrastructure, with no thought of creating a very highly skilled human resource, is the best way to maximise returns on both our human and capital resources? Many years ago one of my colleagues said that such a park is the best we can do– if we can populate it– since our local comparative advantages are that we can provide accommodation, food, transportation, entertainment and the like. Innovation and competing in the global product and services markets are outwith our skill sets.

The Minister of Trade lamented the fact that under the People’s Partnership (PP) government the Tamana project lapsed and it is now being revived by the current government. After the PP won the last but one general election in 2010, I was requested to help the new government diversify the economy and was offered the task as Minister of Planning. Though the Tamana Park did not fall directly in my portfolio, in my view for the reasons already articulated, it was an incomplete, if not an unnecessary, vehicle to give any hope for economic diversification, for economic development. It ignored the fundamental requirement of creation of an innovation system and depended on serendipity; maybe some investors will come and create a centre of innovation, science and technology and global entrepreneurship; surely a call centre is nothing like what was hoped for.

The staff at the Ministry of Planning and I finalised a draft plan for such an innovation system which we took to the people in a series of “panchayats” for their comment, modifications and acceptance; the process of legitimation, without which no plan would succeed. This was completed in December 2011 and the next process of fore-sighting commenced.

The outcome of this fore-sighting process was to be the selection of technological and industrial areas/ clusters given the emerging global demands in which TT could develop the required human and capital resources to build globally competitive products/services.

My task was abruptly brought to a close and indeed the process of economic diversification under the PP lapsed.

If what the current Minister of Trade tells us, Tamana, is the flagship of government’s thrust into diversification (since building highways and ports is not), then the process of diversification remains lapsed.

Voice has found an ingenious way to interweave our typical “wine and wave” soca songs with positively inspirational lyrics. Now, after becoming the youngest Soca Monarch winner in 2016, he has returned to defend his title in 2017 with a vocal, visual and lyrical masterpiece entitled “Far from Finished”.

Although Voice has written many hit songs for other artistes, he spent a couple years singing his own lyrics without major success, but with persistence, he eventually found the right formula when his breakthrough came in 2016 with “Cheers to Life”, which reminded us that we wake up every morning as winners for the mere fact that we have life. And some of us need to remember that we must be thankful for every little thing that we have and that chasing after brands, bling and other material possessions is never the way to live a happy life. The message in 2016 was about love, life and vibes and it had us all belting out the lyrics at the top of our lungs, but as we’re hearing from his 2017 catalogue of music, Voice is no one-hit-wonder.

“Far from Finished” is not just a soca song, it is a seriously positive message that many Trinbagonians have experienced, and it is that relatability that makes it a certain winner. Many of us did not have it easy as our parents sacrificed everything to ensure that we had food, clothes, shelter and an education.

For many people, the most valuable thing our parents gave us was advice and knowledge; and as Voice said, his piece of advice was to work hard enough to achieve goals and bring dreams to reality.

At age 23, Voice accomplished something that many great consistent soca artistes have failed to do and that is not because of a lack of ability, but really due to strong competition. Maybe now with Voice’s success, more artistes may incorporate new positive vibes into their lyrics because we need more inspiration and God knows there are many people out there who are desperate to hear something positive while still enjoying great soca music.

Voice’s journey should inspire everyone, especially the youths in our country, to continue working hard because success is not an accident.

With that being said, I have always been conscious of the fact that opportunities vary and the prospects for a young man from San Juan can be very different for a young person from rural south areas like Barrackpore and Penal, or crime-ridden communities of Port-of-Spain and environs, and because of that, a lot of talent is overlooked and wasted. For example, I recently saw a rap music video of a young man who was murdered in Laventille and although I really despise rap music, I had to admit that he was very talented lyrically and the production of the music video was of such high quality that it could rival many BET and MTV rap videos, notwithstanding the clothes hanging on lines in the background. We must be able to find these hidden gems and provide opportunities for them to get that chance to succeed.

Calypso, soca and chutney are all our music as a people, but each genre has its own message; whether it is political commentary, wining and waving or plenty rum, none are intrinsically inspirational.

Soca music is evolving and I am extremely happy to see what it’s becoming. Rodney “Benjai” Le Blanc, back in 2002 sang about being tired of hearing the same songs “over and over”, and many soca lovers will admit that the recycling of ‘riddims’ and lyrics have become overbearing.

In all fairness, Voice is not the first to attempt the positivity in his lyrics because Edghill “Maximus Dan” Thomas has dedicated his musical career to sensible lyrics, and 2016 also saw St Lucia’s Teddyson John’s “Allez” dominate the airwaves, while his 2017 collaboration with Kerwin Du Bois called “New Day” is gaining traction. But despite the others plying the same trade, Voice has been able to inspire us a little more than the rest and now he is in a league of his own. So, let us use our music for the betterment of society because at this stage, it seems like it is the only thing we have remaining.

This is my 100th column milestone and I cannot begin to thank the Newsday for this incredible opportunity to be the youngest recurring columnist in Trinbago.

Thanks to God and cheers to life because I am far from finished! Signed: Dr J.

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