Residents and users of urban areas have simple, common needs, including safety and security, traffic management, convenient public transport, managed public markets and vending, effective health care facilities, connected public spaces and passive recreational facilities, and appropriate walking facilities. Let’s see what the developed world has to say about some of the key activities.

The following extracts were taken from the Project for Public Spaces, Inc (2012) Placemaking and the Future of Cities, UNHABITAT: “Public spaces are a vital ingredient of successful cities. They help build a sense of community, civic identity and culture. Public spaces facilitate social capital, economic development and community revitalization… “Streets, squares, and parks, especially in the informal city, are often chaotic, poorly planned and maintained… Reclaiming streets as places for people can strengthen cities in a variety of ways – economically, environmentally, as well as socially… Sometimes, builders create ‘public’ space that is actually private — behind the walls of gated communities, inside malls that are patrolled by security guards, or within exclusive clublike recreational areas… “Streets are the fundamental public space in every city, the lifeblood of social and economic exchange…if you plan cities for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. If you plan for people and places, you get people and places.

It is not true that more traffic and road capacity are the inevitable results of growth.

They are in fact the products of very deliberate choices that have been made to shape our communities to accommodate the private automobile… Streets that are planned for people, meaning they are not completely auto-centric, add to the social cohesion of communities by ensuring human interaction, and providing safe public spaces that promote cultural expression… “The informal economy thrives in most cities – but often chaotically, clogging streets, competing unfairly with local businesses, and limiting the hope of upward mobility to marginalised members of society. Markets can, however, provide a structure and a regulatory framework that helps small businesses grow, preserves food safety, and makes a more attractive destination for shoppers… “A broad public health agenda can greatly strengthen a public space agenda, and vice versa.

Health care facilities themselves can serve as community centres.

Cultural institutions such as libraries can provide health education and services. Well-run public markets are a source of fresh, affordable, and nutritious food. Transportation systems can encourage walking and reduce car traffic and air pollution… “The important starting point in developing a concept for any public space agenda should be to identify the talents and resources within the community — people who can provide historical perspective, insights into how the area functions, and an understanding of what is truly meaningful to the local people.” The characteristics of traditional transport and of the new paradigm of sustainable transport have been taken from Michael Replogle and Colin Hughes, Chapter 4 – Moving Toward Sustainable Transport, The Worldwatch Institute — State of the World 2012 —Moving Towards Sustainable prosperity, pp 53-65.

Characteristics of traditional transport: (a) Subsidies for motor fuel, parking, and company or government cars; (b) Focus on capacity expansion of roads; neglect of local street and sidewalk maintenance; (c) Motor vehicle traffic and parking displaces cyclists, pedestrians, public transport, parks; (d) Disorganized public transport leaves buses stuck in traffic; (e) Unmanaged sprawl and urbanization; (f) Weak governance structures for transport and land use policy/planning/management; and, (g) Little attention to equality of access among different social and economic groups.

Characteristics of sustainable transport: (a) Subsidies for public transport, cycling, and affordable housing close to public transport; (b) Modernization of roads with real-time traffic management and operations; (c) Road space protected for pedestrians, cyclists, public space; (d) Bus rapid transit or rail in high-demand corridors, with performance-based contracting; (e) Public-transport-oriented development; (f) Stronger governance structures for transport and land use policy, planning, and management; and, (g) More equitable access for the poor, disabled, young, and old.

The Denver [Colorado, USA] Department of Public Works, Denver Strategic Transportation Plan, 2008, gave their vision as “a great city is livable for all of its citizens now and in the future.” Notice the emphasis is on people, not on cars, roads, buses, trains, buildings, etc.; these are to be assessed for provision of suitable mobility and accessibility for people. We seem to be stuck in an anachronistic, unmanaged, auto-pilot approach to urban development. Time for meaningful engagement of relevant talents and resources to correct this.

e-mail: info@ccost.org

D’Oliveira made the statement as he thanked guests attending an end of year cocktail reception held at the Movie Town Conference and Banquet Centre recently.

C&W Business, a division of Cable & Wireless Communications, (C&W) treated its customers to a celebration of food and music at its annual end of year event for customers.

“We have successfully completed our second company integration in two years, with the recent acquisition of C&W Communications by Liberty Global, significant improving our financial strength, operational efficiency, and the depth of managed service portfolio,” D’Oliveira stated.

“In 2016 we added US$60M in new managed service contracts, we enjoyed exponential growth in every major sector and 69 percent of our enterprise customers have continued to deepen their relationship with us by extending the scope of their contracts beyond traditional connectivity services to include a full suite of our IT Managed Services,” D’Oliveira said.

He continued, “In addition we completed our core network buildout in Tobago, launched our regional NOC, SOC, and CSC operations in Trinidad, which will position our company as the leading exporter of ICT Managed Services, creating significant high end employment over the next 18 to 24 months.” The company was recognized by Gartner as a leader in their “Magic Quadrant”, and one of the top five ICT Managed Service providers globally.

C&W Business, D’Oliveira noted, also launched our Cloud Workspace managed service portfolio which simply revolutionizes the delivery of ICT Managed Services for small and medium enterprise customers allowing them to optimize their business and significantly reduce the ICT operating cost.

Guests dined on culinary selections from Chaud, Apsara, Angelos, Joseph’s and Peche Patisserie and were entertained by the Alternative Quartet and Five Miles to Midnight.

The other corporations won by the Opposition are Princes Town Regional; Penal/Debe Regional; Mayaro/Rio Claro Regional Corporation; Siparia Regional and Couva/Tabaquite/ Talparo Regional. The battleground Sangre Grande Regional Corporation was split 4-4 between both parties.

The evening had not started off spectacularly on Monday, as by 7.30 pm, only a handful of supporters had gathered at the UNC’s Southern Main Road, Couva headquarters to listen to the results.

And listen they did as the new headquarters lacked some of the amenities of Rienzi Complex as there was no large blackboard to tally results or television monitors to view results as it were being tallied. And while UNC officials did take to the microphones to inform the small gathering about the results, media personnel were forced to resort to monitoring the results on the internet or from their respective news rooms.

By 8.47 pm, when the UNC declared its control of five corporations and the Chaguanas Borough, the crowd grew as more and more persons made the journey to party headquarters including several Opposition MPs.

When UNC political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar arrived at 10.45 pm, the crowd now numbering in the hundreds, spilled on to the streets and were celebratory and boisterous.

In her address, Persad-Bissessar described the election result as “a victory for the people of Trinidad” who had heeded the party’s call to send the Dr Keith Rowley administration a message that there was, “so much pain and suffering that the time for change had come.” “They have now sent that message to the Rowley government and we trust that the Rowley government receives the message and having received that message from the people, the Rowley government would take the necessary steps to ease the pain and suffering of the ordinary people of Trinidad,” she said.

Persad-Bissessar also pledged to “continue to fight” for the ordinary citizens while monitoring the performance of the government.

“As God is my witness, I pledge that we will hold the Rowley government to account to the people,” she said.

PNM Chairman Franklin Khan, at a press conference at Balisier House in Port-of-Spain, said the PNM is claiming “outright victory” in Sangre Grande which would give it control of three boroughs (Arima, Pt Fortin and San Fernando) and five regional corporations to the UNC’s five regional corporations and one borough (Chaguanas).

Flanked at the press conference by PNM lawyer Michael Quamina and PNM general secretary Ashton Ford, Khan said he knew of the UNC’s penchant for filing lawsuits and said the ruling party is ready for any legal challenge mounted by the Opposition party.

The PNM, which tallied 10,399 votes in Sangre Grande won Toco/ Fishing Pond; Sangre Grande North-East, Sangre Grande North- West and Valencia electoral districts while the UNC, which tallied 9,959 votes, secured Sangre Grande South; Cumuto/Tamana; Manzanilla and Vega De Oropouche.

“We have sought legal advice on this position and we felt that while the law is silent on certain aspects of it (a tied corporation), based on precedent and based on the spirit of the law, we think we are in the right direction,” Khan said as he recalled that ten days before the 2013 local government election, the Partnership brought to Parliament, through an amendment to the Municipal Corporation Act, “a method of using proportional representation for the selection of aldermen.” “They introduced a new system ten days before the election in what I would kind of consider subterfuge. But having said that they had the majority in the Parliament at the time and they devised a system where you will take the total number of votes cast, divide it by four, and the answer to that, you use that as the basis.

You take the number of votes that each party receive, divide it by this common denominator and then it churns out for you how many aldermen you are entitled to,” Khan said.

“Having said that, what the population didn’t realise is that during that amendment to the Municipal Corporations Act which they (the Partnership) felt was the ultimate solution to everything, they eliminated clauses that dealt with how to break a deadlock in the event of a tied corporation.” “Under the current Municipal Corporation Act, the council is dissolved but the chairmen and mayors remain in their position until such time as a new council and a new mayor of chairman is sworn in,” he said. Khan said that in the interim, Rondon who retained the Toco/ Fishing Pond electoral district, will continue to function as Chairman of the corporation, “until such time that the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation could elect a new chairman, if at all.

That is our current position and we feel we will be doing a disservice to the people of Sangre Grande if we take any other position,” he said.

Khan said the PNM scored a resounding victory on four counts.

He said with regard to control of municipal bodies and regional corporations, the PNM won seven out of 14, while the UNC won six, with one corporation ending in a tie. “In any football match that is a win,” Khan said. In relation to the number of electoral districts, Khan said the PNM won 81 electoral districts while the UNC won 56. “That is a resounding victory,” he said. With regard to the popular vote, the chairman said preliminary indicators suggest the PNM will receive no less than 55 percent of the popular vote, “bearing in mind in 2013, as good as we did, we only got 43per cent of the popular vote.” Khan also said that based on the selection of aldermen and the formula that has been revised in the Act, “we will be getting significantly more aldermen that the UNC. So the four measurables in this election, we have won on all counts,” he said.

Police investigators made the confirmation yesterday having obtained the autopsy results which stated that little Jenice, a pupil of the Whiteland Early Childhood Learning Centre, in Gasparillo, died as a result of blunt force trauma to the body. “The autopsy states that she sustained multiple blows to head and stomach area. She was badly beaten,” confirmed police yesterday.

Pathologist Dr Eslyn Mc Donald- Burris performed the autopsy yesterday at the Forensic Science Centre in St James. Jenice, lived with her father, Robert Figaro, 37, and other relatives at Morocoy Extension Road, Whiteland, on the outskirts of Gasparillo. She was the only child for her father and mother Shana Charles, 30, of Gasparillo.

Her parents have been estranged for sometime.

At about 9 pm last Thursday, a female relative found Jenice unresponsive on a mattress at her home. The child was rushed to the San Fernando General Hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival. Police investigators were told that earlier that day, the child “suddenly fell ill”. She had also been complaining of stomach aches.

Jenice’s paternal grandfather Lucien Fabien, 53, had told Newsday that a cast was recently removed from her hand.

A female relative claimed that Jenice broke her hand during a fall.

Newsday learnt that the grandfather and a paternal uncle witnessed yesterday’s autopsy. Relatives yesterday opted not to speak to reporters.

Funeral arrangements are being made and police investigators say an arrest is imminent.

In a strongly worded statement, which came after PNM Chairman Franklin Khan cited the proportional representation rule to claim ownership of this corporation, Persad-Bissessar said Khan’s claim demonstrates the arrogance of the Dr Keith Rowley administration.

“Mr Khan made these arrogant and incredible claims based on a nonsensical legal interpretation about selection of a chairman, viz, incumbency of the PNM’s SG (Sangre Grande) Chairman, the ‘popular vote’ and ‘spirit of the law’,” she said.

“This is patently false and demonstrates wilful ignorance and arrogance on the part of the Rowley PNM.” Persad- Bissessar said the UNC clearly recorded victory in four seats in the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation and there was no recount for those four. She added that the EBC was still to recount votes in two seats claimed by the PNM within this corporation.

Persad-Bissessar said the law also made clear, provision for the manner in which a Chairman of a Corporation was to be elected, “and it is not for Franklin Khan or Stuart Young or any Minister to try to change the law by press conference.” “Any pre-empting of such demonstrates a shameful attempt by the PNM to mitigate its embarrassing showing in yesterday’s (Monday) Local Government polls where the UNC gained at least one and a half corporations and the PNM lost over 70,000 votes from the 2013 Local Government Elections.

The population has expressed dissatisfaction with the Rowley administration and no amount of PNM spin can change that fact,” she charged.

“The Rowley PNM is, therefore, being deliberately arrogant, ignorant and wilfully deceptive in their declaration of victory in the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation demonstrating a continuation of their modus operandi since the beginning of their term in Government.” Describing the PNM’s claim as “reckless and dangerous,” Persad-Bissessar suggested that the overall intention of Government was to confuse the population as to the true outcome of Monday’s poll.

She also regarded as “deliberate” an attempt to ignore the proper democratic procedures governing the Local Government process.

“The fact is that the PNM has significantly lost votes, support and traction in its year long reign in Trinidad and Tobago due to its elitist, arrogant, incompetent and oppressive attitude and measures and its overall lack of any proper policy to serve the interests of the people of Trinidad and Tobago, a fact keenly reflected in yesterday’s election process and results.” Meanwhile, the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) did not immediately respond to the PNM’s claim of an outright victory in the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation despite the 4-4 deadlock with the UNC.

EBC’s communications manager Dominic Hinds would only say that the commission was still collating data from the election.

“Once the information is before the commission, all the relevant data, the commission will make a decision on that,” Hinds said, adding that he could not give a time frame for the EBC to complete its work.

The incident occurred around 7.40 am on the international apron.

There was no fatality and no one was reported injured, director general of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority, Col (retired) Egbert Field, told Newsday yesterday.

The tail cone is the exhaust for the auxiliary power unit, which is a small jet engine used to start the larger engines. It is usually at the very rear of the aircraft below the tail. The crew of both aircraft were also on the ground awaiting interviews, Field said. At the time of the incident, Fly Jamaica’s Boeing 767- 2000 was being prepared for boarding.

Field said both aircraft would not be able to leave Guyana until preliminary investigations were completed, repairs done and they were certified as being air-worthy.

Asked if the Fly Jamaica aircraft was not where it should be, Field said he did not know and investigations were ongoing. Nevertheless, he said, he has asked that the aircraft remain in position so that investigators could carry out their tasks which will include measurements and to see whether the aircraft was properly parked. “All of these will be addressed in the investigations and will come out in the report,” he said.

A CAL release said the Boeing 737-800 aircraft (flight BW 527) from JFK International, New York, to Guyana was involved in an incident on the ramp. “All passengers and crew were safely disembarked.

The aircraft has since been temporarily withdrawn from service and all appropriate inspections and procedures, along with an investigation, are in progress,” CAL said.

Notwithstanding a series of nationwide consultation events and a frenetic election campaign, the population yawned on Monday. If the election results say anything, it is that people did not feel sufficiently motivated to come out and vote in high numbers.

The PNM may disagree with this assessment of the implications, but no leader can comfortably regard an election in which less than 20 percent voted as a compelling “mandate” to do anything.

While local government elections typically have lower turnouts than general elections, it has been said that the turnout this time around was the lowest in history.

It will be for the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) to release official, confirmed results in coming days.

As usual, both major political parties have claimed victory.

And they do have grounds to do so. The PNM won seven corporations and is poised to hold on to an eighth.

At the same time, the UNC made inroads, winning more corporations than when it was in the middle of its term as the main partner in the People’s Partnership (PP). There were actually two local government elections during the PP’s reign.

The first, in 2010, was won convincingly by the PP 10-3. That was only months after the coalition’s convincing victory in that year’s general election. Momentum may have been still in play, especially since the Patrick Manning administration had effectively suspended local government elections for three years prior, ostensibly chasing reform.

This time around, there was more space between the PNM’s 2015 general election victory and this local government poll. The party, while in Opposition, won eight to the UNC’s five.

While both parties have something to cheer, they also have much to be concerned about. The general apathy of the population suggests only grassroots supporters remained engaged in their discourse.

The EBC also has serious questions to answer.

In the wake of the commission’s notorious conduct during the 2015 election and the ensuing Supreme Court ruling against the commission for unilaterally changing the rules on poll day, all eyes were on the body. While no organisation is expected to be 100 percent perfect, the baffling shifting of a polling station on the morning of the election (due to what Chief Election Officer Ramesh Nanan reportedly described as an “administrative error”) is deeply alarming.

If the EBC cannot be trusted to get the matter of the location of polling stations right, how can it be trusted to count votes, to confirm results? Unfortunately, the EBC can also be criticised in relation to the tie in Sangre Grande. Why were the boundaries of that corporation never shifted so as to ensure there was an odd number of seats on the council? PNM chairman Franklin Khan has signalled the possibility of legislative action to devise a tie-breaker mechanism. Yet, some argue that the convention that the incumbent stays in office during a tie should remain.

We agree that democracy should never come down to something as random as the drawing of straws and, therefore, do not agree with those who say that provision should have remained in the reformed law. Rather, it was for those who are charged with drawing up boundaries to do their job to ensure ties are avoided. Indeed, it is baffling that about half of the corporations have even numbers of seats. If the Government wants to reform, that’s one place to start.

Harjit Sajjan was born in India on September 6, 1970, migrated to Canada with his family when he was five years old, and grew up in south Vancouver.

Sajjan joined the British Columbia Regiment in 1989 as a trooper and was commissioned in 1991.

He eventually rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. During his career he was deployed overseas on four occasions: once to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and three times to Afghanistan.

He was wounded during his service in Bosnia and on his return to Canada began an 11-year career as an officer of the Vancouver Police Department. He ended his career there as a detective in the department’s gang crimes unit, specialising in drug trafficking and organised-crime investigations.

In 2006, he returned to the army and was deployed to Afghanistan where he served with the 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group, in Kandahar and as a liaison officer with the Afghan police.

His fluency in Punjabi allowed him to be understood by Urdu- speaking Afghans without translators, especially by village leaders who were invaluable to his intelligence gathering. After reporting his findings to Brigadier General David Fraser, Sajjan was tasked with helping the general plan aspects of Operation Medusa in Afghanistan.

When Sajjan returned to Vancouver, Fraser sent a letter to the police department praising Sajjan as “the best single Canadian intelligence asset in Afghanistan,” revealing that his work had saved “a multitude of coalition lives.” In 2009 Sajjan returned to Afghanistan for another tour of duty and was assigned as a special assistant to then Major-General James L Terry, the commander of American forces there.

In 2011, he was named commander of the British Columbia Regiment, becoming the first Sikh to command a Canadian Army reserve regiment.

In 2012 he was bestowed with the Meritorious Service Medal for diluting the Taliban’s influence in Kandahar Province. He is the recipient of several other awards including the Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal and the Order of Military Merit.

Sajjan has served as an aide-decamp to the lieutenant governor of British Columbia.

On October 19, 2015, Harjit was elected as Member of Parliament for Vancouver South and on November 4, 2015, was appointed by Prime Minister Trudeau as Minister of National Defence.

Since 1990, Sikh policemen in Canada, the UK, Sweden and Norway and Sikh Customs officers in Canada have been permitted to retain their beards, long hair and turbans. Sikhs have served in the British Indian Army since the 1800s and in the US Army since World War I, but in 1981 Sikh soldiers in the US military were ordered to shave, cut their hair and doff their turbans.

Earlier this year US Army Captain Simratpal Singh became the first Sikh in 35 years to be exempted.

Lieutenant-Commander Wafa Dabbagh is the first Islamic woman in the Canadian Armed Forces to wear a hijab while on duty. Dabbagh was born in Egypt in 1962 and migrated to Canada in 1990. She holds BA and MBA degrees and is fluent in English, Arabic and French. In 1996, after training, she joined the Canadian Naval Reserves, rising to the rank of lieutenant-commander.

In Canada, female members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Toronto and Edmonton Police Services are permitted to wear the hijab while on duty.

So too are policewomen in the U K , S c o t – l a n d , Indonesia, I r a n , T u r – k e y and in seven US cities.

The man, of Perseverance Village, Couva, walked into a police station in central and gave himself up on Monday, sources said. Up to yesterday, he remained in police custody assisting with the investigations.

A gunman shot and killed Lewis, originally from Freeport, at about 6.30 pm on Saturday while at Cemetery Extension, off Carli Bay Road in Perseverance Village.

His funeral service takes place today at the Roman Catholic Church at Gran Couva, following a viewing of the body at the house of his aunt at Pepper Village, Gran Couva. Lewis’ twin sister, Elesha, told Newsday yesterday that the family is “trying to cope” with the death.