Cuffie has expressed serious concern about this hazard and knows firsthand the suffering it had caused to his constituent, Sally- Ann Cuffie (no relative) who was severely burnt and injured by a scratch bomb during Divali observances, said a Ministry statement yesterday. Sally-Ann Cuffie, a grandmother, was driving her car when a scratch-bomb was thrown through her window and, in order to save her grandchild, she grabbed the device which blew up in her hand leaving her severely injured.

Minister Cuffie, in his efforts to reduce and eventually eliminate the use of scratch bombs across the country, will host media houses at today’s launch of his Scratch Bomb Awareness Campaign

“Don’t become upset with anyone, people will call you and try to abuse you, but do not become upset with anyone.

Don’t allow yourself to be vex at them,”Hosein warned the team of nine newly-sworn in councillors of the People’s National Movement (PNM). At the time, Hosein was speaking at the swearing in ceremony hosted at the SFCC. Hosein, addressed council members from the chair in which he once sat while holding the position as the San Fernando Mayor. “I used to be the fist servant in San Fernando and now I would be the servant in this ministry, you need to set an example,” he told the councillors.

He further told councillor members that they should not think of themselves as superior to anyone.

The nine councillors were elected in the recent local government polls and took the oath of office shortly after 3pm yesterday. Hosein continued, “The positions you hold are temporary, so do not ever once feel that you are superior to anyone, consider yourself to be a normal person,”he said. He further told the councillors that when attending functions they should never allow anyone to serve them, but instead , “Stand up and serve them, send a message and let people follow you, we need more of this. These positions you hold are temporary. The only lasting position is in heaven,” Hosein said.

Member of Parliament for San Fernando West, Attorney General Faris Al Rawi said the city of San Fernando has been united in every single electoral seat.

“This is the first time in 24 years this has occurred and it signals a very special obligation on the part of all councillors and all members present to represent all the people of San Fernando,” Al Rawi said.

He stated that San Fernando represents something all of TT should aspire to be.

Also speaking at the swearing- in ceremony was Member of Parliament for San Fernando East and Housing Development Minister Randall Mitchell who reminded the new councillors to put the people first.

Reminding reporters that the Treasury asked Government to submit a detailed action plan for implementation of FATCA requirements, Imbert said this involved passing the legislation and putting the necessary systems in place to allow the Board of Inland Revene (BIR) to report to the Treasury on US citizens and corporations doing business in TT.

He explained the BIR has a discretion right now and, “the whole point about FATCA is that discretion is taken away.” Imbert said Government told the Treasury the legislation should be passed by the end of February 2017.

“We put a self imposed deadline on ourselves. Then between then and September we will have to implement the legislation,” Imbert added. Newsday understands that the bill may be referred to a joint select committee at today’s sitting.

Alexander said he showed up at the swearing in ceremony at the Siparia Regional Corporation primed and ready to be sworn in, but was informed by the Corporation’s Chief Executive Officer, Paula Ferguson, that the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) ordered that his swearing in be put on hold.

“Well obviously to me it is embarrassing,” said Alexander in a telephone interview with Newsday. “I am disappointed about the timing of things and the manner in which things were done.” After learning of the new developments, Alexander and the other PNM Councillors- elect met to decide whether or not to go through with the ceremony. “At first, my colleagues were all willing for all of us to be sworn in together as a team after the recount was done. But after careful consideration and consultation with the party, it was decided that they would go through with the ceremony.” After an hour-long meeting, Alexander promptly left the vicinity and the ceremony began and continued as otherwise planned.

According to the EBC official results for the election, Alexander won the electoral district with 1,912 votes to the UNC candidate, Avenesh Seetaram’s 1,824, a difference of 90 votes.

The Siparia West/Fyzabad district was one of six districts where a recount was requested last Tuesday. Alexander said the results from the first recount were the same as the original.

Putting his embarrassment aside, however, Alexander said he is not threatened by the recount. “If they are within their right to request a recount, I have nothing against the recount. It would have to be a miracle for a second recount to come back different from the first two counts.” The recount is set to be held on Monday.

Because the Chairman of the Corporation is chosen by the votes of a full council comprising of elected councillors and aldermen, that appointment has also been delayed pending the results of the recount.

Leo Doodnath, who remains the Chairman of the Corporation until the next one is elected, said he expects that the entire process would be completed by next Thursday.

But such reports, in accordance with the Interception of the Communications Act, in which the minister must also disclose the number of persons arrested arising out of SSA’s wire-tapping into citizens’ conversion, have not been filed since 21012 and yesterday a High Court judge granted leave to former Transport Minister Devant Maharaj to seek judicial review of the failure to lay the reports in both houses of Parliament.

Justice Frank Seepersad granted leave as well to Maharaj, to seek a declaration from the High Court that the minister breached the statutory duty mandated under Section 24 of the Act, to prepare such annual reports for 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015.

The 2016 report is due in March next year.

The Act was made law in 2010 and the 2011 report was the only one filed by the National Security minister, in which it was revealed that there were 267 instances of wire tapping interception based on warrants obtained from a judge, which are required under Section 8 of the Act. However, Section Six (2) (b) of the Act permits an “authorised officer” to intercept communication for intelligence gathering in the interest of national security, for the prevention of detection of an offence (the penalty for which on conviction is ten years imprisonment), and includes an offence which death or imprisonment for the reaminder of a person’s natural life, is the penalty fixed by law. The section stipulates the Chief of Defence Staff, the Commissioner of Police and the director of the SSA, as the sole persons authorised to make interceptions for such prescribed intelligence- gathering purposes.

The Act mandates that reports must be laid in both houses of Parliament yearly. The 2011 report that was laid in Parliament disclosed that there were 52 arrests and detentions made as a consequence of wire-tapping and telephone interceptions.

As a basis for his application for judicial review, Maharaj contended that there has been 418 murders in the country as of last week Friday. The Police Service, he stated, believes the majority of such murders were gang and drug related. The objective of the Act, he stated, was intended to allow some intrusion into citizens’ right to privacy, so as to protect the overall national security.

The refusal to lay in Parliament the annual reports as to the outcome of all forms of phone and wire-tapping which Section 6 (2) (b) allows, in which the Chief of Defence Staff and the Commissioner of Police have the sole right without obtaining a court Order, to tap into citizens’ conversations, is in violation of the minister statutory duty. Attorney and former Industrial Court Judge Dinesh Rambally ,leading the arguments for Maharaj, submitted to Justice Seepersad yesterday that the failure of the minister to lay the annual reports before both Houses of Parliament, is against the spirit of the Act. Whoever is the minister responsible for national security, he added, is therefore accountable to the courts for his or her inaction.

Justice Seepersad asked Rambally, who also appeared with attorneys Jagdeo Singh, Larry Lalla, Criston Williams, Kei Taklalsingh and Karina Singh, for Maharaj, why, in the light of four years of such reports having not been laid in Parliament, Maharaj was so late in filing given the nature of judicial review? Rambally submitted that the breach is a continuing one and Section Six (2) (b) of the Act encroaches on personal and private rights of citizens.

Justice Seepersad granted the leave for a declaration that the minister responsible for national security, failed to prepare the reports, in breach of his statutory duty. And, that the minister failed to cause a copy of such annual reports to be laid in both houses of Parliament.

The judge fixed a case management conference for January 17 at the Hall of Justice.

Councillor Terry Rondon doesn’t know how to make these things happen so he’s on a mission of distraction and personal benevolence, networking to create a toy bank to appease the distressed children in that remote part of the country.

I say forget toys, gift the children with tools that will transform their lives and generations to come. Gift the children with durable roads, not the usual mediocre garbage roads that pride-deficit local contractors build as north-east access roads.

Gift the children with reliable electrical and fuel power. Gift them with reliable, clean, plentiful water. Gift them with reliable communication services. This will connect them to the rest of the country so they can then support themselves on their own feet with their own resources.

Don’t do north-east Trinidad the disservice of gifting them with more mediocre infrastructure and services. They’re fed up with State mediocrity.Anyone awaiting a socio- economic paradigm shift away from party financier development and prosperity to wide national development, focused on the whole nation, led by government, is living in a fantasy world.

Government’s (PNM, UNC) concern is not improving all parts of this country. Government’s concern is lording it over citizens. Political parties are concerned with which of them is landlord of TT to gather its wealth and store it in the bank accounts of the merchant class — the ownership class.

Government’s concern is serving party financiers.

If the country was pro-people, all parts of TT would steadily see improvement. The national motto would be “improve on perfection”.

For every effort, every expenditure would be strategic to get the greatest value and to spend on improving quality rather than patching up mediocrity or replacing mediocrity with more mediocrity.

Where there’s relative improvement, egocentric price-gouged improvement, in tall buildings in Portof- Spain, just next door are concentrations of over 1,000 people living in slums. The irony is it’s manual labour of the concentration of slum dwellers who yearly improve Port-of-Spain, while the wider nation is left behind, the further they are from urban “greedism”.

MIKE LESTER via email

Little did I imagine that the day would come when I would question my loyalty to this hallowed tradition. Sadly, on the night of December 6, that is precisely what occurred.

I watched Michelle Ann-Awai as she excitedly announced a new segment — the TV6 Viewers’ Choice Sporting Personality of the Year — which allows viewers to vote for their favourite athlete of 2016.

What a wonderful initiative to increase our patriotic spirit, to inspire our nation’s youth and to reward the hard work and sacrifice of those who proudly represent our country on the national and international stage.

I waited with eager anticipation to see which athletes made the cut, silently compiling my own list in my head. As the names were announced I sat staring at my screen in utter disbelief. I could have sworn that our country won Olympic gold this year in Rio at the Paralympic Games.

For those who may have forgotten, allow me to refresh your memory. On September 9, Akeem Stewart won Olympic gold in the men’s javelin, breaking the world record twice in the process. This impressive performance was to be followed shortly by a silver medal in the men’s discus.

One year earlier, Stewart did our country proud in the Pan American Games, capturing gold in these same two events.

Perhaps the reason why Stewart’s accomplishments seem to have been erased from our national consciousness is that there was no live television coverage of the Paralympic Games.

While we all sat glued to our television screens to watch Usain Bolt make history in Rio, just one week later we were back to our regularly scheduled programming.

To compound matters, now comes this glaring oversight of the TV6 newsroom.

Were these isolated incidents, they would not be so alarming, so insulting, so saddening, so disappointing.

They are symptomatic of a wider problem, namely our scant regard for people with disabilities.

Marginalisation, exclusion, pity, discrimination, frustration, unemployment, abuse — this is the lived reality of the disabled in this country.

This from a country whose first Prime Minister, the revered Eric Eustace Williams, had a hearing impairment.

This from a country which in 2015 ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; the first human rights treaty dealing with disability as a human rights issue.

This from a country which just last month sent out a Draft National Policy on Persons with Disabilities for targeted stakeholder consultation and review.

Stewart, I want you to know that you are my hero and my choice for the Sports Personality of the Year. I can do no better than to borrow the tagline of TV6 itself — “The choice is clear”.

RIA MOHAMMEDDAVIDSON via email

The solution to stopping this, since the government is not interested in this revenue stream, would be for the minister in charge of roadways to build “speed bumps” on the shoulders.

High ones.

This way the errant drivers would have to come to a stop regularly, the one thing they don’t want to do.

GORDON DALLA COSTA via email

GREGORY COCKBURN via email

The next, after a bang and rattle, I was being helped out of the over-turned vehicle, coaxed by the reassuring, solicitous voices of a cadre of concerned Trinis. The roadway was busy last Saturday evening around 8 pm and I was fortunate. A few minutes earlier or later, the fast-moving, converging traffic would have made life much more unpleasant than dented ego and bruised knee.

Thanks to those caring, helpful hands who remained around to ensure that I was okay before almost apologetically taking their leave. This was another instance of good news, confirming that circumstances in TT are not always as bad as made out. We save our best for when fellow citizens are in jeopardy. A word of thanks too to the crew of the ambulance unit of Global Medical Response of Trinidad and Tobago Ltd (GMRTT ) which was on the scene within minutes of the accident. Their words of advice and caution, together with the on-site checks, provided comfort.

Key learnings from the experience include the never-too-frequently- provided warning about the need for complete vigilance on the roads. Secondly, the responsiveness and attentiveness of GMRTT prove that there are organisations in the country that operate efficiently.

But above all, we need to more widely acclaim and diligently explore for the national good, the spirit of compassion and decency residing in us all, which seem to find scarce opportunity for expression these days.

WINSTON R RUDDER Petit Valley