During the company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), held at Radisson Hotel, Port-of-Spain last Thursday, shareholders voted in favour of a proposal by the board that, having declared an interim dividend of $0.15 in December 2016, to pay a final dividend of $0.20 to shareholders on the register as of July 21, 2017.

In its Annual Report 2017, NEL Chairman, Ingrid Lashley, said the board was pleased to report that with its portfolio of local investee companies, NEL “continues to provide shareholders with competitive dividends despite the challenges of the economic downturn.” “The share of profit of equity accounted investments, which will include shareholdings in Trinidad Nitrogen Company Limited (TRINGEN), NGC NGL Company Limited (NGC NGL), Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (TSTT) and Pan West Engineers and Constructors LLC (Pan West), is $145.9 million, an increase of $80.5 million or 123 percent over the corresponding period last year,” Lashley stated.

She explained that this was due largely to improvement in the results of TSTT, as the company moved from a loss position to profitability over the period, “as well as marked improvement in the performance of Phoenix Park Gas Processors Limited (PPGPL). Dividends from the Power Generation Company of Trinidad and Tobago (Powergen) were also noteworthy.” Lashley said the result of these increases was a net profit after tax of $200.8 million, almost 100 percent increase from the previous year’s figure of $109.6 million. The net profit for the year is reflected in an increase in earnings per share that doubled to $0.30 from $0.15 in 2016.

Addressing shareholders partway through the proceedings was NEL’s General Manager, Terrence Clarke; whose appointment became effective on September 5, 2016.

Over the last week, several test flights were conducted, zooming in on the birds’ roosting and nesting sites as well as the several rivers channels in the swamp which are commonly used as boat transport routes.

Minister of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries, Clarence Rambharat, who has fully supported the initiative, said:“For several months I have been exploring the use of drones and other technology in law enforcement areas in the Ministry. Some are already in use by agencies that we work with.

More recently I have seen what drones and other technology can do for us in managing the Caroni Bird Sanctuary, the Queen’s Park Savannah, the Zoo and other public and environmentally sensitive spaces. I have also seen how the big budgets proposed by the Ministry can be significantly reduced and how better selection of Human Resources and contractors can improve what we do. This is happening and I am pleased with where we are headed.” The project is supported by the Zoologi cal Society of Trinidad and Tobago Inc and the Serpentarium in collaboration with the Wildlife Section, Forestry Division, Ministries of Planning and Development, Rural Development and Local Government, National Security, Works and Transport and Tourism, The Environmental Management Authority (EMA), Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA), Institute of Marine Affairs (IMA), The San Juan Laventille Regional Corporation, CEPEP, URP and the Solid Waste Management Company.

This step forward is safeguarding the swamp would not only protect the scarlet ibis but provide added protection for the many other species of wildlife including mammals, reptiles and other birds inhabiting the ecosystem.

Chief Game Warden and Conservator of Forests, Courtenay Park, is happy the Ministry will use modern technological methods to protect the swamp.

The information gathered from the flying drones will be immediately transferred to officers stationed on the ground at several locations throughout the area.

Any illegal activity sighted will rapidly attended to by these officers.

Our national bird. We celebrate independence, Republic Day, holidays.

Do we know, understand, care what it all means? In the US if you are caught with one feather of their national bird, you can be jailed and fined heavily. Have we no pride at all in ourselves, our country, in what we are supposed to stand for? Years ago, the Pointea- Pierre Wildfowl Trust, together with other NGOs, spearheaded a drive to have our national bird made a protected species. We succeeded.

We appealed then, as we appeal now, for help for the Forestry/Wildlife Division for more licensed and properly armed game wardens to patrol and protect our valuable wetlands, forests and their species.

There are just 11 men, if so many now, to patrol and protect all of TT .

Are we joking? Let us stop this abomination now. Let us take more pride in ourselves. Stop the killing of our scarlet ibis. Stop the killing of our national bird.

MOLLY R GASKIN
president P-a-P Wildfowl Trust

The president of the Point-a-Pierre Wild Fowl Trust in a strongly-worded letter called for more game wardens to stop what she described as this “abomination”.

From as early as May this year there were reports of poachers haunting the country’s national bird. After a number of reports, three men were arrested on August 14 by game wardens after they were found in possession of the dismembered national bird. They were subsequently charged with hunting at the protected site (the Caroni Bird Sanctuary) and being in possession of the protected/prohibited animal.

In the letter issued to the media, Gaskin said, “We hunt, we kill and we eat! Our National Bird! We celebrate Independence, Republic Day, Holidays!!Do we know, understand, care what it all means? In the U S of A if you are caught with one ‘feather’ of their National Bird, you can be jailed and fined heavily. Have we no pride at all in ourselves, our country in what we are supposed to stand for?!” She added that years ago the Wild Fowl Trust along with other NGOs spearheaded a drive to have the country’s national bird made a protected species.

“We succeeded.

We appealed then, as we appeal now for help for the Forestry/ Wildlife Division for more licensed and properly armed game wardens to patrol and protect our valuable wetlands, forests and their species.

There are just 11 men, if so many now, to patrol and protect all of Trinidad and Tobago.

Are we joking?!Let us stop this abomination now.’ Let us take more pride in ourselves. Stop the killing of our Scarlet Ibis. Stop the killing of our ‘National Bird’.” The Environmental Management Authority (EMA) has since started the process of appointing the National Bird an environmentally sensitive species.

Gaskin is the 1987 recipient of the Hummingbird Medal Gold for “loyal and devoted service” to the country.

David-Swain and Moffett were presented with beautiful artwork during the committee’s 15th annual Five-Kilometre Freedom Run on Emancipation Day.

The event, titled Cleansing the Mind, featured close to 150 participants, including runners and fitness enthusiasts from throughout the country and the wider Caribbean.

Among them were members of the popular Sweaters Club in Sangre Grande. The committee’s founder, Montsho Masimba, in an address at the start of the run, said the organisation was established some 22 years ago, to assist in the development of the region through lectures, seminars and other community-building events.

Masimba told the participants their ancestors fought for the freedoms they continue to enjoy.

“There was a time when our people could not take part in sports. What is going on here, we could not have done that. Many of our fathers and mothers died for for that opportunity,” he said of the run.

Masimba, a well-known community activist, recalled that when American athlete Jesse Owens had won the gold medal in the 1940s, Adolf Hitler had refused to put the medal around his neck simply because he (Owens) was black.

“That is in the 20th century I am talking about. So, we have the opportunity to run and be part of any sporting exercise we wish to be.” Masimba said the annual run was also a way of paying homage to our ancestors “who have done all of this hard work for us.” Masimba urged competitors to use the occasion to reflect on the symbolism of the Emancipation observance, which, he believes, is an ongoing process.

“Make it a spiritual day. Do not make it a day for bacchanal and partying down and spending money on ten thousand dollars clothes,” he said.

“Take Emancipation into your home, beat a drum, say a prayer, light a candle. Take this day and make it sacred for your parents sake. Without them we would not be here.” Placing first in the race was Guyanese national Kelvin Johnson in a time of 14:25: 32 while the second spot went to Jamaican Jossette Bromfield, who ran 14:57:33.

Johnson’s Guyanese compatriot Lionel Dandrad came in third in a time of 14: 57: 33 while Trinidadian Kriston Charles landed fourth place in 15:03:69 Among the women, April Francis emerged victorious with an impressive showing of 19:30:19.

Chantel Lemaitre and Melisa Lockhart Poliah placed second and third, respectively.

After the event, guests and participants were entertained by lively steelpan music and drumming.

Officially opening at 6.30 am today, specially invited guests were treated to a sneak peak of the newest Starbucks TT location this past Saturday.

Addressing those gathered at the store, Charles Pashley, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of local franchise holder, Prestige Holdings Limited, said, “It is a huge achievement to recruit and open five stores in different communities across Trinidad in one year and our baristas and the entire team have done well.” Starbucks officials spoke of their having hired continuously since opening their first store at South Park, San Fernando last August, as well as continuously recruiting and train baristas.

Starbucks Human Resources Partner Resources Manager, Nesha Malchan, said, “Our recruitment process is very well thought out, as we select and train those with the right key attributes and positive traits to interact well with customers and equally, their fellow colleagues.” Malchan has led the training and development of the local Starbucks team since inception.

Two months ago, in July, baristas celebrated their first Barista Championships where they demonstrated their ability to showcase their skills.

The competition encourages fellow baristas to practice and build team spirit. Their celebrations continued at the August 26 event, where presentations were made to those who have been with the local franchise since inception.

Starbucks said the “celebrations will continue” from 2 pm this Saturday, September 2, with special appearances from the Kaisokah Moko Jumbies, pannist, Jabari Lander and the Autora Sursati Dance Group.

“Customers can ask for a job application form at any one of the five stores and store managers can receive direct customer feedback at starbucks@phl-tt.com,” Starbucks stated.

However, the role of the trade unions is governed by the laws of the country and in particular there is an Industrial Court to settle disputes among labour, unions and the various employers. This tends to suggest that there are formal limits on the trade unions’ interactions in the socioeconomic life of the country.

However, the Constitution allows any person or groups to seek to be part of the political discussion by seeking parliamentary representation. Hence there is nothing to prevent the labour unions from forming their own political party to seek the role they desire in the political management of the country.

The Constitution does not allow the union any special privileges in our politics. Maybe this is why Mr Panday sees constitutional reform as the absolute solution to our problems, to their threat to mash up the place.

The major problem facing us today is the diversification of our exports. The trade unions are totally out of their depth in finding a solution to this. Further, the fall in rents earned by the energy sector demands a decrease in the onshore economic activity which can mean loss of jobs, reduction in make-work projects and social services which the unions will naturally oppose — not a man must go or we go shut down the place.

The model of the economy is what it is. It cannot support the required onshore activity if the foreign exchange is not forthcoming, especially given that export diversification is not an immediate affair nor can we continue to borrow from abroad and surely not print money.

Still we see the Opposition members of Parliament calling for the distribution of land and houses by the Government so as to improve living conditions for the middle class. The intent is that if our farmers are given land there will be more produce available for local consumption and export.

Unfortunately, this simplicity has no currency in the real world of technology and global competition.

One only has to look at how Brazil was able to emerge from being unable to feed itself into one of the largest exporters of food in the world via a tripartite of government, private sector and the research and development (R&D) institutions via the formation of a national agricultural innovation system.

Starting with Etzkowitz’s Triple Helix, our pathway out of this plantation economy is a similar helix which I called the “innovation diamond” consisting of government involvement that supplies the initial funding and the leadership, the R&D institutions via centres of excellence that provide the ideas and intellectual property, which could warrant global competitiveness, and a private sector, new or the current one augmented, to build export companies.

Given the history of the present private sector it is not expected that it would take the lead in the tripartite group. Yet we hear the Government continually mouthing its aim to diversify the economy via information and communications technology (ICT), tourism financial services and marine and maritime services, with little to show except the gallant attempt by the Economic Development Advisory Board.

Economic diversification will impose a demand on government for financial resources, on the demand for foreign exchange, which in this deepening recession is indeed a burden. Yet we hear of building a port in Toco and a highway to the port to facilitate the journey to Tobago, the completion of the highway to Pt Fortin, all of which will impose demands on government spending but will contribute nothing to economic diversification.

The population is supposed to be pacified since these projects could provide short-term jobs and halt the retrenchment taking place in this recession.

The recent announcement that bpTT has started to produce gas from its Juniper facility and the prospect of gas from Venezuela raise our hopes that the energy sector may again come rushing in to the rescue. However, it is important to recognise that this does not herald the return of the good times.

The Business Guardian of July 13 published a graph of past and projected gas production, which shows that even with the expected projects, then in the development phase, with one from bppTT now in production, production cannot reach the 4.4 bcfd required to keep our gas industries fully productive. The chart shows a further steady decline after 2009.

If gas prices improve, we will still see decreasing revenues, gas shortages; there will still be a drop in foreign exchange earned by the energy sector.

The fundamental deficiency in our country is the lack of a national innovation system, though we have many poor models of its components — courses in entrepreneurship and innovation, business incubators, conferences on innovation, talk from UWI about its entrepreneurship push, and the plans of the Ministry of Planning supported by the Ministry of Trade about, you guessed it, ICT, financial services, tourism, marine and maritime services.

The energy sector may simply give us the time to get on with our diversification if we get our act together, if we get our tripar t ite to perform.

I can only make a reasonable inference that the shores of our country must be a strong contender as a new horizon for our next-door neighbours.

I certainly envision and agree to reasonable measures of humanitarian immigration being extended to what may be a Venezuelan exodus.

However, it may be prudent to reflect on the infamous Mariel boat lift of 1980, when over 125,000 Cubans fled to Florida as Fidel Castro “opened the doors” from the Port of Mariel in Cuba to anyone having transport to take them across the 90-mile stretch to the US. The impact of this mass migration was unprecedented and overwhelming for the US Coast Guard, with over 35,000 immigrants from Cuba having arrived in one week in south Florida.

Then US president Jimmy Carter was caught with his proverbial pants down and had to make speedy arrangements to quell this influx of Cubans by signing a “stopgap” agreement with Castro.

I hope the relevant local authorities are giving close consideration to strategising with these circumstances in mind, especially as the distance to cover is only six miles at the nearest point. Things can happen very quickly.

Over the past 10 years or so, we have seen a much larger population of Venezuelans residing in TT . Currently, and as has been the case in the past, most of them continue to add significant value to our social and economic growth and development.

However, if we are to be good hosts and extend the necessary courtesies to our neighbours in their time of need, we must be able to cater for a flood of immigrants rather than a trickle.

To accomplish this may require more astute planning and management if we are to be part of this worthy humanitarian effort.

To effectively accomplish this, it would be necessary to work quickly towards reinforcing or expanding some of our already limited resources. This is what would be necessary if we are to be successful in providing for large numbers of men, women and children.

ARNOLD CORNEAL via email

Trinidad and Tobago coach Dennis Lawrence will lead a training session at the Ato Boldon Stadium today. He is expected to have his full contingent of players by tomorrow.

The Honduran team is expected here on Wednesday.

Defender Carlyle Mitchell is among the overseas-based players selected by Lawrence for the fixture and he is anticipating a sold-out venue on Friday.

“It’s not often we get to take such a big game outside of Port of Spain. I think the last time we played in Couva was against Panama couple years ago and then we had the warm up against Barbados.

But this match is very big one as it’s a World Cup qualifier with both teams needed points to stay alive,” Mitchell said after his arrival on Saturday.

“I expect to see the Stadium rammed to capacity and a sea of red because we need that extra support. When we played in Honduras it was a sea of blue from two hours before kick off and their fans lined the streets hours before the game. It is something that players take note of when we are in the bus heading to the match. This time we are at home and we need to make it count,” Mitchell said.

“I think that with the right approach and putting in the hard work and staying focused this week is what will make the difference on Friday. Honduras are coming to win because they always feel they have an edge over us but we need to show them that as a football country and as a team we are not a walk over,” said the India-based player.

“At the moment my form is good. I’m really happy to be back in the mix because I missed the last couple games with injury.

I know Dennis (Lawrence) has been focusing heavily on getting the team to a level that will make us competitive but now we need to demonstrate that on the field by taking chances, avoiding soft goals and putting points on the board,” he ended.

Entering yesterday’s game against neighbours Club Sando Moruga, Guaya had a tally of 29 points from 11 matches – nine victories and two drawn results .

Asked how he feels about the team’s form thus far, La Forest, in a recent interview, responded, “Good. The reason being the people who are around (the club) right now are people who I enjoy working with. And they also enjoy working with me too .

“I’m taking some of the kudos because the players are responding to me.” The former national striker and men’s team assistant coach (under Bertille St Clair) pointed out, “It’s a community team and you know when a community is behind you, the players have to play for them also. I could do my part as the coach but when the players go out there, they have to play also for the community.” La Forest resides in Diego Martin, but he stated that the regular commute to Guayaguayare is something he has no problems with .

“It’s something I enjoy,” he said. “It’s 150 miles, it’s something I get immune to. I take my time and go down .

“(The club management) present me with a nice vehicle with diesel, and comfort, so it’s not a problem with me going down there because I enjoy that. In terms of the teaching, I enjoy teaching.” He went on to add, “I believe in challenges because my football knowledge is (like) a gospel .

And I enjoy saying it .

“When they did call upon me, I wanted to work. In Trinidad, no place is too far for me .

This wasn’t no challenge for me. It’s something I wanted to do also .

With Glenton Wolfe, Carlon Hughes and Kevin Jagdeosingh in the team’s ranks, how have their experience factored into proceedings? “We have a unit,” La Forest replied. “Seniority is a big part. The experience, with the youth, I think we blended it up as quick as possible. And the youths (are) responding to it.” As far as the remainder of the 2017 local football season is concerned, La Forest said, “We’re trying to win this League. If the FA (Trophy) comes by, whatever Cups come by, we’re taking it one step at a time .

“But the main objective that we’re trying to fulfil is to win the League for the community.” He is also high in praise for the response the team have gained from their fans .

“It’s the most supportive community you can expect in football,” said La Forest. “Anywhere the team goes they go with them, even to Tobago too .

They take the boat, they take the plane, they come up and support the team.”