Too Faced Shadow Insurance

Anti-Crease Eyeshadow Primer

If you’re going to wear eyeshadow, this is one of the best primers out there to keep colors bright and free from creasing for hours on end.

Too Faced Chocolate Bar Eyeshadow Collection

This eyeshadow palette is one of my favorite, go-to palettes. It’s versatile enough to do natural, everyday looks, while still giving you options like a pretty purple color and some glittery shades, for sparkly, smokey and night time looks.

Kat Von D Tattoo Liner

This is a great eyeliner, because it’s waterproof and easy to use. The brush tip will allow you to create precise lines, which will make doing winged eyeliner a breeze.

Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara

This is apparently the best selling mascara in the world, and not without reason. I love that it has a curved brush that hugs your lashes, evenly coating, lifting and defining them without creating clumps. If you have watery eyes, there’s a waterproof version!

Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Powder Duo & Brow Gel

I tend to prefer powder brow products over creams, gels or pomades, because I find them to be more versatile. You can create more natural brows, or build them up to be bolder. The clear brow gel is also great for keeping all your brow hairs in one direction. Even if you don’t fill in your eyebrows, brow gel will make your brows look defined, neat and well groomed.

Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer/NYX Angel Veil Skin Perfecting Primer

Veil has been one of my favorite primers for several years now. I know it’s quite pricey, but luckily, I’ve found that NYX Angel Veil is quite similar, if you want a more affordable alternative.

Hourglass Vanish Seamless Finish Foundation Stick

This is not your typical foundation stick. The texture is beautiful; it’s has the fluidity of a liquid, but sets to a natural-dewy finish, which is pretty uncommon for stick foundations. It feels weightless but can easily be built up all the way to full coverage. It offers at least 12 hours of wear, although I recommend pairing it with an oil controlling primer, particularly if your skin is combination to oily.

NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer

This is a great, everyday concealer. It provides enough coverage to hide blemishes and under eye circles, while maintaining a natural, skin-like appearance. If you have particularly dark circles or discoloration, you should pair it with a color corrector, and set it with a loose translucent powder for the best results.

Cover FX Pressed Mineral Foundation

This powder foundation can be used on it’s own for minimal-makeup days, or used lightly to set your cream or liquid makeup. It’s also good for touch ups, since it doesn’t cake up when you build on it. There are 40 shades to choose from, so everyone should be able to find a match.

Too Faced Cocoa Contour Face Contouring and Highlighting Kit

I love this palette for a few reasons. Firstly, it smells like chocolate. If that didn’t already convince you, the shades are also easy to blend, and can create both natural and dramatic looks. The matte highlight shade has a subtle satin finish, so your skin will look dimensional, rather than flat. The shimmery highlight is beautiful for night time looks.

Milani Baked Powder Blush

I enjoy these blushes because they aren’t only affordable, but extremely beautiful. The shades vary from matte, to satin to luminous, so everyone can find a color and finish that they will enjoy.

Becca Shimmering Skin Perfecter Pressed

Whenever I want a luminous finish, my go-to is Shimmering Skin Perfecter. They come in pressed, poured and liquid, but my favorite is pressed since it can work on all skin types.

Milani Moisture Lock Oil Infused Lip Treatment

If you wear liquid lipsticks or matte lipsticks often, you know how dry your lips can get. This conditioning lip oil is excellent for putting back that lost moisture.

Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick

This line of liquid lipstick is one of my favorites, because Kat created really trendy, unique colors that work on a variety of skin tones and personalities. The formula isn’t excessively drying, as most liquid lipsticks are, and they’re richly pigmented, so you can build color intensity easily, without having heavy layers of product on your lips.

Staci: Personally for me 2016 was like any year of high points and low points. I think the year’s just gotten a bad rep because of all the deaths of 80s icons and it snow balled from there. 2016 was also the year of fake friends and people being revealed for the snakes they truly are… dem so I’m leaving in 2016!

Nell: Just so happens like Staci said many of the celebrity deaths were mostly 80’s stars and therefore fast forward 30 plus years all the hard liquor drinking, eating terribly and chronic drug abuse eventually catches up to us all…

Martie: I think a good resolution is maybe we should give our phones a lil ease up in 2017 and get back to connecting with people physically.

Ronz: 2016 hasn’t been the worst year for me but it’s definitely been trying at times and filled with many highs and lows. As for what I’m leaving behind, or at least striving to: body negativity and procrastination. I’m so over them!

Martie: I’ve learned a lot in 2016 and I’m looking forward to the many opportunities that await me in 2017. I’m committed to all that I am setting to achieve in the new year, and ladies I must say, this forum has been a fantastic sounding board for us, and a great support system for other women in TT, who may not find it easy to open up to their own friends, but can read our thoughts and experiences, and hopefully gain some insight or guidance from all of us. I pray we ALL move forward in all our endeavours in the coming year.

Mel: Losing my mum was a low. Becoming the matriarch of my family – the high. And starting my own magazine!

Nell: So instead of new year’s resolutions which we never keep, I say lemme ask you all what is one thing you have decided you are NOT putting up with/tolerating from 2017 onwards?

Mel: Hmm, that list long…

Nell: For me it is not allowing people to take advantage of my kindness anymore. I’m tired showing warmth and support for people who are simply not deserving of it and that goes from family to friends to colleagues to lovers.

Mel: Summary? I eh putting up with nothing other than meh child! I really can’t take fake people, especially when I know everybody business, so I know for sure when yuh fake. Also, I not tolerating women fighting down women, especially people you know that are friends. Cut that shiz out.

Nell: Girllllll that last one is on everybody’s list.

Staci: Things I not tolerating this year, lol, so I know this may be a bit childish but me ain’t care. I’m not allowing people who are “friends” with people I am no longer friends with, too much access to my life. I not tryna be any kind of friendly with people who think it’s fine to be bffs with someone who cannot stand my guts. It ain’t that serious and I really don’t need any more friends.

Nell: Girl that’s actually a pretty interesting one as I’m kinda dealing with that at the moment. Whilst I’m not one to take medicine for other people fever nor do I expect vice versa it is kinda off-putting when ‘your’ fren is still ‘over frenning’ with people who they know you no longer speak to because of said person being a fake-ass-user.

Staci: It actually gets me pretty mad tbh and I understand people are adults and can do what they want but I have a serious thing about loyalty being absolute and if you think it’s cool then hear what take your version of “loyalty” and be friends with the other person, shrugs.

Nell: I know this will sound terrible BUT… the other day right before Christmas we had a big tram accident here with six or so people dead…

Staci: Omg, I didn’t hear bout that!

Nell: Anyway, I immediately thought about all the people I knew in that area and was like let me make sure everyone okay EXCEPT her…I was like universe did you just do me a serious solid?? Did you? Alas it didn’t… Sigh

Staci: Hahahahahahahah, savage!

Nell: Because lo and behold there she was catspraddling with my friend all over Facebook tagging up a storm. Mind you she delete me eh but kept my fren.

Staci: One home girl here have the audacity to send me “HNY” greetings with big pic of she and a next maddening ex-friend (that hallelujah shall remain in 2016), so I had to point that out to her, don’t be playing friend with me one day while you cheesing with my “frenemy”. She wasn’t pleased. I wasted no time in sending a “New Year, Same Me” meme. Seriously though, I am focused. I know how I am. What I am about and who is for me. Plus I tell it like it is, mostly tactfully. I see no reason to change that in 2017. So New Year, same me. In other words, I put her on notice for when next she messages she should understand why her two blue ticks have no reply. Deuces!

Nell: So ladies, it’s my first day back out to work tomorrow (and school for the kiddies) so I will attempt to make the first Monday morning meeting of the year at 7:30am therefore requiring a 5:00am wake up, so today I plan to focus and prep to kick 2017’s butt!

Staci: Have a good day and week ladies and remember legends either go to bed at 5am or wake up at 5am!

The Girlfriends is a group of 15 women between the ages of

26 – 45 who are willing to give an unadulterated look into their own experiences. Some names have been changed for privacy.

They highlight the case of a woman they treated last year who became critically ill after taking herbal remedies and drinking too much water.

The 47-year-old needed intensive care at Milton Keynes hospital.

She recovered with treatment, but her story is a reminder of the dangers of drastic detoxing, the medics say.

While it may be tempting to cleanse yourself of the excesses of Christmas, the concept is not necessarily healthy and is not backed by medical science, they report in the British Medical Journal Case Reports.

The woman they treated had taken a cocktail of herbs and alternative remedies including:

• milk thistle

• molkosan

• I-theanine

• glutamine

• vitamin B compound

• vervain

• valerian root Her partner said she had also been drinking lots of water, green tea and sage tea over the few days before she became ill.

Shortly before being admitted to hospital, the woman collapsed and had a seizure.

Medical tests revealed she had dangerously low levels of salt (sodium) in her body.

Researching the herbal remedies used by the patient, her doctors discovered the case of a man with a history of anxiety, who had had seizures due to a low sodium level.

His symptoms developed after consuming a large amount of a herbal remedy that contained:

• valerian root

• lemon balm

• passion flower

• hops

• chamomile “The complementary medicine market is very popular in the UK and the concept of the newyear ‘detox’ with all-natural products is appealing to those less concerned with evidence-based medicine and more with complementary medicine,” say the medics in their write-up.

“Excessive water intake as a way of ‘purifying and cleansing’ the body is also a popular regime with the belief that harmful waste products can thus be washed from the body.” However, they warn that “despite marketing suggesting otherwise, all-natural products are not without side-effects”.

The British Dietetic Association says the whole idea of detoxing is nonsense.

“There are no pills or specific drinks, patches or lotions that can do a magic job,” a representative said “The body has numerous organs, such as the skin, gut, liver and kidney, that continually ‘detoxify’ the body from head to toe.

“Being well-hydrated is a sensible strategy, but drinking too much water can be as dangerous as not drinking enough.

“It sounds predictable, but for the vast majority of people, a sensible diet and regular physical activity really are the only ways to properly maintain and maximise your health.” (BBC)

We are the first generation of humans to live in a truly interconnected global society, and the Internet now reaches its way to the most rural corners of the planet, but all of this connectivity seems to be revealing something very sinister about who we really are. Every minute of the day we are bombarded with news from both near and far – if a bomb goes off in some war torn corner of the world, we read about it mere minutes later; if some troubled soul picks up a _ rearm and shoots at an unsuspecting crowd in a rural town abroad, our Facebook news feeds are sure to be almost immediately littered with pictures of the tragedy, and right here at home we are exposed on a constant basis to horrific acts of violence. These constant gruesome images of war, violence, and people acting in their own selfish pursuits seem to paint human nature in a pretty dark light. Could there be any room for hope in all of this darkness? We humans are capable of some truly horrific things, but what if, just maybe, we really aren’t as bad as we think? Renowned scholar Steven Pinker wrote an entire book (The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined) statistically proving that global violence has been declining for millennia, and that we are actually living in the most peaceful time in human history. Some of us may feel like this is totally untrue, but feelings cannot be trusted in the face of facts. Statistically speaking, it is not that the world is getting worse, it’s that our connectivity has made us painfully aware of every horrible act that takes place in every far flung corner of the world. If you want to tally up the amount of violent acts taking place, then the world has been becoming a better place for thousands of years.

At the end of the day human beings are innately social creatures, and, believe it or not, we are all hard-wired for co-operation. This actually makes a lot of sense if you think of the way that we all evolved. Unlike solitary creatures such as bears and tigers, we humans have always needed one another to survive. From our very first communities as hunter-gatherers, to the development of cities across the world, we have never been able to survive on our own. We need others for our survival, and that’s why acting altruistically feels so good; we are rewarded by our evolutionary development for behaviours that contribute to the survival of the species, not just to our own selfish preservation.

A recent study conducted by the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany, showed that children as young as 18 months are likely to help a stranger in need, without any expectation of reward. These early signs of altruism point towards a picture of human nature that may be more intrinsically compassionate than many originally thought.

The other good news is that altruism is a quality that can be developed with practice through engaging in activities that are centered on the well-being of others. In our daily lives, we can all find simple, practical ways to cultivate these feelings of altruism, and one easy place to begin being more other-centered is in the kitchen. Cooking for others, after all, can be a great way to show our love and compassion for them, and can help us to develop feelings of kindness for others. As the popular food writer Michael Pollan once wrote, “Is there any practice less selfish, any labor less alienated, any time less wasted, than preparing something delicious and nourishing for people you love?” So how about we forget about ourselves for a while, and head into the kitchen and make something nice for somebody else. It may not be the solution to all the rampant egotism, selfishness, and violence in the world, but hey, it’s a start.

It should be recognised that Food is the most important item that is needed to sustain life…we may possess all that the world has to offer, but it is few of us indeed who can live without being able to eat food. I believe we can survive without a house, however grand or humble; without means of transport, be it airplane or box cart; without clothing, shoes or jewellery, but survival with only air pies and water is near impossible.

Massimo Montari, a culinary historian, in his book Food is Culture, says that everything to do with food represents a cultural act. He points out that the availability, digestibility and nutritional value of the food chosen by our distant ancestors led to the development of social structures and traditions.

In a recent newspaper report, Dr. Wayne Ganpat, a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Food and Agriculture at the St. Augustine campus of UWI, examines new ways to grow food, and his department is engaging schools in a competition to see which one comes up with the most innovative method of producing food. He says, “It is extremely important that we learn to farm smarter.” One smart idea he proposed was peeponics (Bioponica)… using filtered urine to fertilise plants. So no waste is actually wasted, since the dung of animals, and in some cultures even human excrement, is used as a fertiliser for plants from which we reap our food.

Food then should be given the respect it deserves, as the sustenance of the human race. In all cultures hitherto, food has been used during religious observances, acknowledging the importance of food to mankind.

Food, Fasts and Feasts

In any given year, at least four of the religions to which Trinbagonians subscribe observe periods of fasting, followed by feasts. In the first quarter of the year, Christians refrain from eating meats, choosing instead a simpler diet for the 40 days of Lent. Easter is celebrated with feasting on lamb, chicken and ham, as well as lots of specially baked bread. The celebration of Christmas is essentially a celebration of food: turkey, ham, goat and chicken are all prepared in various ways, and breads and cakes are made and consumed in abundance.

During the month of Ramadan, Muslims abstain from all food and drink for a 12 hour period, between sunrise to sunset. At the end of the month, when the moon is sighted, it is an occasion of great joy, and fasting gives way to feasting after prayers are said at the mosque.

The Hindu calendar is replete with days on which it is required to observe a fast, either from solid food, grains, or salt, or to consume only fruits. In all instances, the diet is vegetarian for the period, like during the weeks before Divali, or for the nine nights of “Navratri”. Divali is celebrated with a variety of vegetarian foods, and the number of sweets served is limited only by the constraints of time for making them, or the household budget.

Spiritual Baptists observe periods of fasting, and there are days on which feasts are prepared. Mourning Periods can be as little as three days, or more than seven days, during which the member prays and fasts. For Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Harvests and Baptist Liberation Day, celebration includes great feasting, with offerings of the bounty of the earth beautifully laid out.

Waste Not, Want Not

One of the reasons fasting was important in ancient times was to conserve food when there were droughts, floods and wars. This is how methods of food preservation like dehydration and freezing were developed, to ensure food security during times of scarcity. Even animals are able to store food during times of plenty in order to keep themselves fed during hibernation.

When so much time, energy and resources are devoted to growing food, how is it possible for individuals to waste as much food as is wasted on a regular basis? We have to be cognisant of how food wastage affects us as a nation, and as individuals. If food is eaten, it is not wasted. If there is gluttony, on the other hand, that is wastage. It is said that in the United Stated of America more food is wasted than can feed starving nations. That there is this imbalance in food distribution is disturbing.

In Trinidad, it is the norm to cook a huge Sunday lunch, and for the rest of the day, the food is left out on the stovetop, available to any member of the family to have seconds, or even third helpings. In the evening, any leftover food is then refrigerated. This tradition is a recipe for over eating, and engenders spoilage. There is a better way to handle food, which will be discussed in subsequent articles.

Jassie Singh is chef and author, who has a passion for food preparation and a knack for ensuring that food is never wasted.

Home organisation is that crucial element that keeps a design looking fresh long after you’ve completed the finishing touches. It’s an essential step to creating a look that you’ll love for years to come.

Whether you’re someone who needs to have every aspect of your home in order or you’re the type of person that’s more laid-back, every home should have some type of storage system in place. We’ve compiled a list of reasons why order is key, as well as some tips on how to make it happen. Give them a look. You may just be inspired to give your home an organisational makeover.

It gives a polished look Think about all the professionally-designed rooms that you see when you’re scrolling through websites or flipping through the pages of glossy magazines. There is one feature that sets them apart from real interiors.

Simply, real homes often looked lived in while the staged photos leave nothing out of place.

Organisation is the key to achieving that catalog look. If you look carefully at the pages of those photos, it’s clear that all of the everyday-use items in the room are stored in a specific and predetermined place, which creates a streamlined look.

One of the first steps toward getting your home organised is to find a place for those loose items so they aren’t left lying out and about. Challenge yourself to find spaces for all of your current loose items. Remember, if you can’t find a spot for something, it’s probably time to de-clutter.

Blend form and function When you’re looking to organise your home, try to find storage solutions that also fit into the look of your home.

Dual-purpose furniture, colored baskets, and built-in shelving that you can paint or stain are often the safest bets.

Honesty is key here, too. As you shop for storage solutions, think long and hard about how you’ll use the item before you make your purchase. Even if you have to search out multiple options before finding a solution that works for you, it will be worth the time in the long run because you’ll continually be inspired to put the piece to use once you get it home.

Structure adds resale value It’s true. Proper organisation can add value to your home. Whether you’re currently preparing to enter the real estate market or you want to stay in your home for a long time to come, it’s never to early to start taking the organisational steps that will keep your home in tip-top shape.

Think about it this way, if you were in the market to purchase a new home, would you want to have to wade through someone else’s clutter on a showing? Of course not. By welcoming buyers into an organised property, you not only show your home in its best light, but you also show them how they could potentially use the space.

Even if your not looking to put your home on the market right away, it’s never too early to put organisational systems in place. That way, if you do need to make a move, you’re not struggling to create order at a moment’s notice. (freshome.com)

The camps have been set up at Penal/Barrackpore (two), Santa Flora (two), Forest Reserve (two), Trinmar (four), and Point-a-Pierre refinery (four).

The action comes in the wake of hardened positions by both sides in the impasse: Petrotrin, through its president, Fitzroy Harewood, indicating that the company was not prepared to increase its zero-zero- zero offer to the workers for the period 2011-2014, and 2014-2017, and the union adamant that its workers will go on strike today if there was no movement.

The union also revealed that it was receiving support for their struggle from international affiliates including he Trade Union Congress of the United Kingdom and the World Federation of Trade Unions (UKTUC).

The UKTUC, representing some 5.8 million members including many in the off-shore oil and gas industry, points out that the sixyear pay freeze that Petrotrin members are facing is unacceptable and unfair. They agree that the financial difficulties faced by Petrotrin are the fault of the management rather than the workforce and oil workers should not be made to pay the price for that crisis.

The UKTUC letter to the OWTU states further that it has long-standing links with the trade union movement in TT and in particular the OWTU. The UKTUC wished the OWTU success in its “struggle for justice.” The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) representing 92 million workers in 126 countries worldwide expresses its class solidarity with the workers of Petrotrin, who have decided to go on a strike, defending their right to a wage increase.

WFTU reiterates what the OWTU representatives have pointed out, saying for the past six years, Petrotrin had offered zerozero- zero, denying workers any wage adjustments. The body noted that after 19 hours of negotiations, the employers side didn’t show any spirit of compromise.

The Federation added that Petrotrin workers risk life and limb, working in varying dangerous conditions, to guarantee a reliable supply of fuel to the travelling public. The Trinidad and Tobago people know better than anyone that the country’s economy is based on products made possible by the tireless efforts of these workers, the global workers’ organisation pointed out, calling upon the workers and the simple people of the country to stand by the Petrotrin workers, ignoring the employers appeals to not struggle, pointing out also that “wealth belongs to those who produce it”.

Another international workers’ movement, the Industrial Global Union, also wrote to the OWTU expressing solidarity.

The OWTU and Petrotrin will meet today with the Minister of Labour and the Industrial Court in a final bid to avert a strike by oil workers threatened for tomorrow.

In an earlier report the OWTU said it was prepared to call off the strike if Petrotrin made an offer of ten percent for the period 2011- 2014 when the two sides meet at the Industrial Court. The company and the union are negotiating for two periods, 2011-2014 and 2014-2017. The union’s president Ancel Roget said Friday’s meeting at the Industrial Court was geared at settling matters before any strike actions take place.

However, there was no new offer made and the two sides must meet again today.

Roget said the court should consider settlement at ten percent and if the company offers this amount for the period 2011-2014, then the union will consider that offer and will be prepared to call the strike off. Roget outlined that since the 2014-2017 period is before Minister of Labour Jennifer Baptiste-Primus and is the period for which the union has served strike notice.

Roget emphasized there was no progress at the meeting with the Ministry of Labour, despite the presence of Harewood.

Roget said that at the meeting the Labour Minister advised the company to consider the union’s proposal for settlement of the 2011-2014 period and return to the ministry for another meeting which will take place today.

Roget has said in a settlement for 2014-2017 they will not demand any backpay at this moment. He agrees that the retroactive pay, and backpay, can be paid over a prolonged period of time based on a deferred payment option and plan.

OWTU strike camps:
Penal/Barrackpore – 2:
1. Across the street from the
Main entrance to the
compound.

2. A shed outside the Tank Farm.
Santa Flora – 2:
1. Outside the Main Gate to the
Main Office.

2. Drilling and work over Gate
(Industrial Compound).
Forest Reserve – 2:
1. Forest Reserve East Gate.
2. Point Central.

Trinmar – 4:
1. Main Entrance Car Park.
2. Terminal Entrance.
3. Tank Farm Facility.
4. Main Office Gate.

Pointe-a-Pierre Refinery- 4:
1. Pointe-a-Pierre Roundabout.
2. Avenue Entrance.
3. Gasparillo Gate Entrance.
4. Administration Building
Entrance

Little Jenice sustained injuries to her head and stomach at her home in Morocoy Extension Road, Whiteland on November 24. The child was rushed to San Fernando General Hospital where she died.

An autopsy on the victim, a student of the Whiteland Early Childhood Learning Centre revealed death was due to blunt force trauma and was ruled a homicide.

Female police officers handcuffed McLean and escorted her from the San Fernando Police Station to the nearby courthouse.

The woman, however, was subjected to verbal abuse by onlookers.

McClean, who has two children aged five and eight, stood before Senior Magistrate Nanette Forde-John who read the charge to her that on November 24, at Corosal Road, Gasparillo, she murdered Jenice Figaro. As the charge is a capital offence, the accused was not called upon to plead. Attorney Subhas Panday announced that he, together with attorneys Frank Gittens and Chanthal Paul would be representing McClean.

Panday said there was widespread social media publicity on his client in relation to the alleged incident and expressed concern about pre-trial publicity and how it would affect McClean’s incarceration at the Women’s Prison in Golden Grove, Arouca. Magistrate Forde-John advised Panday that he can send a letter to the Commissioner of Prisons explaining his concerns and request intervention in ensuring Mc- Clean’s stay in prison is safe.

Panday said that he is willing to start the case at the earliest possible time and would like disclosure from the police. Court prosecutor Ramnath Phillip said a file would be prepared and sent to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for a State attorney to be appointed to prosecute McLean. The magistrate then remanded McClean into custody and adjourned the matter to February 23.

Several of the accused woman’s relatives were present in court for the hearing and followed behind her while police officers escorted a handcuffed McClean out of the court. As she stepped onto the pavement to be taken back to a prisoners’ holding bay at the nearby High Court to await transport to prison, onlookers resumed their jeers and taunts. “Smile for the media. Look at you,” a man shouted as the accused woman’s relatives placed a white piece of cloth over her head.

McLean raised her hands to try and shield her face from media photographers causing the piece of cloth to fall from her head.

A stout policewoman held on to the handcuffs which secured McLean’s hands as they walked towards the High Court’s holding bay. Outside the courthouse, attorney Panday reiterated his concern for his client’s safety in prison and said he would immediately write the Prisons Commissioner.

According to reports Kurt Clarke and Angela Burgess were sitting in a car at Orange Hill in Prospect when they were fired upon by an unknown assailant.

Clarke was shot several times while Burgess suffered a single gunshot wound while the four-year-old child was unharmed.

Following the ambush and shooting attack, residents of Prospect who were alerted to the gunshots found Clarke slumped in the driver’s seat and Burgess bleeding but alive in the vehicle.

Police officers were alerted as well as a District Medical officer and the body of Clarke was viewed and ordered removed to the Scarborough mortuary.

Burgess was taken to the Scarborough General Hospital where she remained warded in serious but stable condition. The child is with relatives and officers of the Tobago Homicide Investigations Bureau are continuing investigations.

MORVANT MURDER Meanwhile, a 34-year-old Morvant man was shot dead while asleep at the ground floor apartment of his parents’ home shortly after 7.30 am yesterday in what is the country’s tenth murder for this year. According to reports, Chris Dyer was at the ground floor of his parents’ home when relatives heard several gunshots.

Thinking the noise to be fire crackers, the relative paid no attention.

However, when a check was made for Dyer at 8 am, relatives found him dead at the side of Plover Road in Morvant near the family home.

He had been shot several times in the head. Morvant police were contacted and officers along with the District Medical Officer visited the scene and the body was ordered removed to the Forensic Science Centre for autopsy.

Dyer was not known to the police and investigators are yet to establish a motive for his killing.

Finance Minister Colm Imbert declared the Opposition now has no excuse not to pass legislation when the JSC reports back to the House on February 3.

However, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar maintained that Government had reneged on its promise to send the Tax Information Exchange Agreement Bill 2016 to a JSC.

She reiterated that all special majority provisions in the bill should be removed so it could be passed with a simple majority. Imbert, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi, Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Stuart Young, Port-of- Spain South MP Marlene McDonald, Caroni East MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh and Caroni Central Dr Bhoe Tewarie are the MPs selected to be members of the FATCA JSC.

The Senate is expected to nominate its six members for the JSC when it sits next week. Opposition MPs thumped their desks as Imbert invoked Standing Order 68 (3) to remove the bill from the Committee of the House, which was deliberating on it on December 12, 2016.

On that date, Opposition MPs blanked the sitting. Opposition MPs previously walked out on the FATCA debate on September 23 and December 9, 2016.

As he reminded MPs the JSC will report to the House on February 3, Imbert declared, “I want to signal to the members opposite…

it still has to go to the Senate afterwards..

so in order to meet our February deadline…we will be taking the vote when the report of the JSC returns to this Parliament.” As Government MPs thumped their desks, Imbert quipped, “We are not playing.

You (Opposition) want a joint select (committee)? There is absolutely no reason for it. They want it…They are blackmailing the country and holding the country to ransom…that is how they play politics…

You want your joint select…

You’re getting your joint select!” He added, “We will come back here in the public interest…in the national interest within 21 days…by the 3rd of February and putting the matter to the vote!” IMBERT SLAMS OPP Imbert said the behavior of the Opposition since last September was the reason why the bill was going to a JSC. Referring to a statement issued on Thursday by his ministry explaining all of the amendments to the bill done by the Government in the absence of any offered by the Opposition, Imbert declared, “Every single matter that they have raised has been addressed…comprehensively addressed.” The minister said the only issues needing to be addressed relate to sovereignty and operation of the Executive of TT.

Imbert slammed Persad-Bissessar’s “timerity” to write Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to ask incoming United States President Donald Trump repeal the US FATCA legislation. Saying Persad- Bissessar did not understand that FATCA was passed by the Republican controlled Senate and Congress. “Did you ever hear more absurdity?” Imbert asked. He continued, “You really think that the President of the United States has time with this? What they have time with is to see whether we are going to be compliant. Whether TT is a serious country.

He said if Government acts on this suggestion by Persad-Bissessar, correspondent banks in the US will, “just dump us and sever all communications with TT and plunge our financial situation into chaos.” Declaring the removal of special majority provisions in the bill is not an option for TT, Imbert explained, “The reason why we need a special majority is that FATCA requires automatic transmission to the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) in the United States.” Imbert said the Opposition was well aware that, “if we take that out…we’re right back to square one…we would have achieved nothing…

we would be in breach.”Reminding MPs that both the bill and the inter-governmental agreement (IGA) are the same ones which the former Persad-Bissessar administration had, Imbert said it was an “absurdity” for Persad-Bissessar to be unable to confirm this after three months of both documents being available for the Opposition to scrutinise. Reminding MPs that the Global Forum is also seeking similar tax information sharing arrangements with TT, Imbert said he had to ensure TT dodged that bullet because the former government failed to comply with the Global Forum.

He declared that all stakeholders with an interest in FATCA such as the Bankers Association and the American Chamber of Commerce have spoken “loudly” that the bill did not require a JSC. The Association yesterday said it was pleased to see “a middle ground” has been reached between Government and Opposition. However it reminded Government and Opposition that, “time is not on our side” and the JSC must meet its February 3 reporting deadline, “in order to have the Bill passed to meet the country’s FATCA obligations. The Association said it is available to assist the JSC with any information in its deliberations.