One moment I was approaching the traffic lights at the corner of Golden Grove Road and the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway. 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 onsite 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

The PTS C, established in 1965, is governed by the Public Transport Service Act which mandates PTS C to provide “a safe, adequate, economic and efficient public transportation system, adapted to the needs of the country.” However, during 2010-2014, PTS C has experienced a 23 percent decrease in income generated, a decrease in ticket sales and a 39 percent decrease in passengers transported on its buses.

Over the past years PTS C has been receiving the majority of its funding from the Government.

In 2014 PTS C received a 94 percent increase in government funding, moving from $149 million in 2010 to $289 in 2014.

Its generated income has declined from $105 million in 2010 to $81 million in 2014.

With majority of PTS C’s funding being provided by the Government, management has failed to optimise resources to improve PTS C’s performance and to support this claim there is evidence in the decline of passengers, income generated and ticket sales.

While many people are happy that bus tickets are cheap, PTS C makes its income from the sale of bus tickets and has not had a bus fare increase since the 1990s.

The PTS C lacks numerous policies. Apart from a bus fare policy, it also lacks a bus replacement policy. It has 548 buses which span between three and 24 years old.

According to the Federal Transit Administration of the US, the lifespan of a bus is eight and a half years.

However, in TT we have buses in operation that are clearly over the 8.5 years lifespan. This also brings up the topic of the safety of passengers and maintenance costs of certain buses which should have been replaced instead of repaired.

The PTS C has the resources to improve its performance and it has been providing a service to this country for many years. Yet it has not been quite able to provide that efficient public transportation system that it is mandated to do.

In Port-of-Spain’s City Gate, lines can be seen bending corners as people await buses that are usually late in performing their daily service on the majority of its routes.

So, has PTS C been mismanaged? My answer is “to some extent, yes”, taking into consideration its lack of policies and management of funds.

PTS C needs to be modified and a new approved strategic plan needs to be done, since the only approved National Transportation Plan was done in 1967 and the Comprehensive National Transportation Study undertaken in 2005 was rejected by the then government.

TENISHA SYLVESTER via email

“We continue to appeal to drivers and road users to practice safe responsible road use by firstly obeying the laws governing the roads and this should be regardless of the police being present, and secondly always be safe, alert and defensive in your approach to driving,” Rampath said yesterday at the weekly police press briefing at Police Administration Building in Port-of- Spain.

“It is in this context and against the back drop of the recent road traffic accident which resulted in multiple deaths. The TTPS is again taking this opportunity to remind all road users of the importance of their roles in road safety.” Rampath said that from yesterday, the Traffic and Highway Patrol Branch had commenced its traffic law enforcement plan for the Christmas into Carnival period and any breach of the Motor Vehicle and Road Traffic Act, as well as the Highways and Motor Vehicle Insurance Act, will be dealt with.

He said the DUI Task Force and Speed Teams will be out in full force and have been given a mandate of zero tolerance; and a special roving operational unit working with officers’ from the Licensing Division will be conducting vehicle checks across the nation’s roadways with a special focus on large trucks and trailer units.

“For the year 2016, 10,233 tickets for speeding have been issued and 2,605 Driving Under Influence (DUI) arrests have been made.

Please have your driving documents in order including your valid driver’s permit, valid vehicle insurance and where applicable, ensure your vehicle has been inspected.

We will also take this opportunity to remind parents, especially, that children under five years must be secured in child safety seats and that it is an offence, not to have children safely secured, and this will be targeted by our officers,” Rampath said.

Shafeeza Ali, 51, made a report to the Fyzabad Police Station that one of the schoolmates of her daughter, Jewel Precious Ali, even threatened to, “open Jewel’s brains and sit down and watch her blood drain”. That was one of several incidents of bullying, violence and discrimination, Ali said, which occuured while Jewel was a pupil of the Fyzabad Presbyterian School.

In a pre-action protocol letter sent by her attorney Stephen Boodram who is instructing attorney Jeevan Andrew Rampersad, Ali outlined a series of abusive incidents involving her daughter while she was a Standard Five pupil.

She stated last month, a teacher asked Jewel, “The virus eat out your brains.” And on another day, the teacher shouted to her, “You are an idiot!” and, “You are stupid and dumb.” In the letter, which was also sent to Minister of Education Anthony Garcia and the Presbyterian Board of Trinidad and Tobago, the attorneys stated on Ali’s behalf that on several days in November, a certain teacher did not attend school but was seen campaigning for a political party in the recent local government election.

And, on those occasions the teacher was absent, the class was left unattended.

Toward the end of October, the pre-action letter continued, a classmate struck Jewel across one of her eyes with a ruler. She had to seek medical attention.

It also alleges that while Jewel was a Standard 11 pupil, the classmate struck Jewel with a sharpened pencil on the palm of her hand. Jewel was taken to the Fyzabad Health centre where a doctor had to surgically remove the piece of lead pencil from the child’s hand. Jewel is due to write the Secondary Assessment examination next year, but Ali stated in the pre-action letter that her daughter is the only student in Standard Five, who writes with pencil while other classmates write in pen.

Jewel is not allowed, the mother stated, to participate in school activities although her daughter, she aded, is a prolific dancer. And furthermore, Jewel was also prevented from taking part in the inter-school’s Spelling Bee competition.

Boodram called for a stop to the bullying and assault on Jewel and threatens that if within 28 days the ministry does not respond to the pre-action letter, he would file an action in the High Court against the Ministry of Education and the Attorney-General, for damages on Jewel’s behalf.

The letter was copied to the Children’s Authority of Trinidad and Tobago, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, the National Parent Teachers’ Association, the school’s principal Patricia Beepath and the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association

The charges alleged that on Monday last at Figarie Trace, Basse Terre Village, Moruga, he threw a certain corrosive fluid called hydrochloric acid at four persons with intent to do them grievous bodily harm. The victims were Juliet Mollineau, Carlene Mollineau, Peter Goddard and another person. The offences are contrary to Section 23 of the Offences Against the Person Act, Chapter 11:08.

All four charges, laid by Cpl Rosan of the Moruga Police Station, were indictably therefore, the accused man was not called upon to plead.

Senior Magistrate Maria Busby Earle- Caddle, before whom Johnson appeared yesterday, denied bail and remanded him into custody to reappear tomorrow when his criminal record will be produced to the court.

Johnson was unrepresented by counsel while Sgt Roger Richardson prosecuted.

The charge against Johnson alleged that he committed the act in one of his homes located at Figarie Trace following a domestic dispute

She was ailing for some time with cancer.

Cowie- Chootoolal last served as a Best Village Officer 1. She was responsible for going into the various villages around the country and monitored the development of the cultural groups that were registered under the Prime Minister’s Best Village Trophy Competition. She worked with the Ministry of Community Development and Culture for over 30 years and established good relations with community groups in Princes Town, San Fernando, Point Fortin, Siparia and Port-of- Spain. She devoted a lot of her own time lecturing and counselling the groups during their preparations for competition.

She was also deeply involved with the people of Mon Diablo and Vistabella and often went beyond the call of duty to find materials that these villages needed.

In 2005, while based in Princes Town, she established a friendship with the people of St Croix and The Princes Town Theatre Workshop of Realise Road. She was a regular invitee to social events organised by these groups.

She was the daughter of Elva Cowie Warner (deceased), an alderman for the San Fernando Borough Corporation.

He said that report showed a “finite end” in terms of the proven natural gas reserves within TT’s borders and in its waters. “We were seeing the end right over the horizon,” the minister added “We have gone across the border into Venezuelan waters and negotiated with them to get a supply of gas from them.” Noting that discussions for monetisation of natural gas reserves in the Loran/Manatee fields which straddle the TT-Venezuela maritime border have been ongoing since the former Patrick Manning administration, Young explained that while this initiative remains on the table, “the agreement that has been signed is an agreement where we now have a project…it is no longer talk.” The minister said, “We are now into the implementation of getting gas to Trinidad.

That’s where our focus is.” Young, who was part of the Government’s delegation to Venezuela, explained, “At the end of a live video broadcast between President Maduro and Prime Ministe Rowley in Venezuela, the President arranged a cultural event which he asked the Prime Minister to participate in.” Young continued, “Both the President and the Prime Minister participated in it. It was a very joyous occasion.” Young said he had faith and confidence that the media would recognise the significance of this gas agreement leading to the “continuation of TT’s oil and gas economy” going into the future.

He said the Dragon gas field (which the agreement involves) has proven natural gas reserves of approximately 12 to 13 trillion cubic feet (TCF) compared to this country’s proven gas reserves of about ten TCF. Young said the agreement allows Venezuela, “access to inernational market prices for the first time for their gas.” Saying there are also discussions between TT and Venezuela regarding access to reserves in the Mariscal Sucre field in the latter’s jurisdiction.

Addressing a forum, “Doing Business in Latin America” at the Hyatt Regency, Wrightson Road, Port of Spain, organised by the American Chamber of Commerce of Trinidad and Tobago (AMCHAM), Acting Chief Executive Officer of ExporTT, Dwight Brown, said 90 percent of this country’s non-energy exports are to Caricom countries and other regional markets. The forum was held on Tuesday.

He added that in August this year the ExporTT did a Market Interest Survey of 145 local manufacturers and found that 61 percent of them were selling their products to Caricom markets and another 12 percent to other islands in the Caribbean, meaning that 73 percent of this country’s manufacturers are focussed on Caricom and the Caribbean markets. He said the country has to develop strategies to push manufacturers beyond the Caricom/ Caribbean market.

He said that at Government and ministerial level there is significant interest in negotiating trade agreements but wondered what was the point of trade agreements if they were not being used by the local manufacturers.

He said that next year, ExporTT will hold a number of seminars to explain to manufacturers the contents of the trade agreements and what challenges still exist in these markets with which Trinidad and Tobago has reached trade agreements.

Brown said significant challenges still exist: telling businessmen that in the Dominican Republic, for instance, there is a rule that if the exporter gets a distributor that the company is bound to keep that distributor for life or pay to break the arrangement.

Brown added that in Cuba, there is a registration process which mandates a company wishing to export to that island to register its products with two main state agencies.

Brown said the registration process can take a year and payment terms can take up to a year and a quarter.

However, he said this country has had a Trade Facilitation Office in Cuba since the 1990’s and that office has developed an excellent business relationship with the Cuban government.

He said the office has had a lot of success stories and has been able to have business to business meetings with high level Cuban Government officials.

However, Brown said that in these modern times, some companies do not even have a website or a company profile and asked what was the point of looking to engage Latin America without a company profile in Spanish. He added that there was a bigger problem among local businesses, asking how many senior officials in local companies and even in large companies are bi-lingual or tri-lingual.

Brown also said that the Latin American culture is a very warm culture, telling the audience that the business persons they would meet in Latin American countries like to hug and shake hands. “You have to kiss twice on each cheek,” he said, adding that their business counterparts in Latin America would even want to know what school their children attended. He said local businesses cannot simply send a representative to any Latin American country “and tell them to go and get some orders.” He said the higher the level of company official who goes on the trip the better.

He said that just having trade agreements with the countries of Latin America will not significantly boost trade because those countries also have trade agreements with all the countries of the world, including China.

He said the trade agreements only level the playing field.

Joshua Ramkissoon of Hillview College copped the award for the most outstanding performance in Mathematics.

Raquel Leblanc of St.

Joseph’s convent Port-of- Spain, received the award for the Most Outstanding Candidate in Business Studies. Shabanah Mohammed of the Anjuman Sunnat-Ul-Jamaat (ASJA) Girls High School San Fernando was announced as the top student in Environmental Science, while Saajida Baksh and Ilisha Manerikar, both of Naparima Girls High School were given the awards for Hodder Education, CAPE Humanities and Language Studies respectively.

Also featured at the ceremony was Jamaican student, Varna Thomas, who copped the prestigous Dennis Irvine Award and Larissa Wiltshire of Queen’s College, Guyana who was presented the award for the Most Outstanding Candidate in Natural Sciences.

The event which was funded by the Barbados government, involved visits to the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) and attended the unveiling of the 50th Anniversary Monument at the Garrison Savannah.

Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), Registrar, Glenroy Cumberbatch, lauded the students for their performance and relentless pursuit of excellence in their studies, adding that CXC qualifications are internationally recognised and that students from the Caribbean have entered prestigious Universities and perform just as well as others.

In a separate meeting also in Barbados, the School Examinations Committee (SE C), also gave the approval for the introduction of two new generation products for the CAPE syllabus, Financial Services Studies and Green Engineering, with first examinations for both subjects scheduled for May-June 2017.

In announcing the agreement, the TTAA said it would provide road safety courses to as wide a cross section of the country’s population as possible, especially to the country’s youth and would try to get into schools to provide the courses, catching potential drivers as early as possible.

As a token of appreciation and to mark the partnership between the two organisations, Rawle Mahabir, President of the TTAA, presented a token to Borde.

Gerald Mendes, Vice President of the Association, said that through its relationship with the Federation Internationale Association (FIA) with responsibility for Mobility, the TTAA gets information from time to time on the FIA’s latest road safety initiatives around the world and it will share this information with all its members including those who become members by buying ANSA Automotive vehicles.

Mahabir said the FIA has an initiative called “a decade of action for road safety” and the FIA has said that if all countries change the way its drivers operate they would be able to reduce road deaths by five million persons. He said that road deaths is the highest killer worldwide.

Mendes said that all TTAA members will get ANSA McAL Premium Cards. In the event the TTAA member was involved in an accident or experienced a breakdown in a “crime hotspot” or a dangerous area, a security vehicle would come to the scene and take the driver and any passengers to a safe location while the crew worked on the vehicle or if necessary provide a wrecker to take the vehicle to the driver’s home or a garage.

The responding crew would also be able to deal with a failed battery by providing a battery boost; delivering fuel if the problem is that the driver ran out of gas or reflate a flat tyre if that is the problem.

The service also includes additional benefits such as free legal representation in the traffic courts; personal injury benefits in the event of an accident and a ten percent discount on motor vehicle insurance.

The TTAA said that once it is provided with information on the member’s driver’s permit and insurance it would send renewal reminders to the member via email about one month before the expiration of the driver’s permit or insurance.