A police source told Sunday Newsday investigators wanted the baby’s father to come forward.

“He is important to this investigation,” the source said. “The person knows himself and should step forward.” Investigators also want to find a relative who may have kept three teenaged children who lived in the house but were sent away for five months during which time it is believed baby Mercy died.

“The children had been away from the house and found it strange when they returned and were not hearing the baby. Our investigations revealed that when they questioned the mother, they were told that the baby was asleep and should ask no further questions.

It was then it was told to a relative,” the source said.

For five months single mother Natalie Richins, 40, was left alone with the baby who was born on February 8. When her older children returned, one of them questioned why the house was quiet and why there were no cries from the baby.

The teenager also observed a baby blanket with bones in a crib and told a relative who made a report to the police.

On November 10, Richins, er eldest daughter Nicolette Harry, 18, and two other children a girl, 16, and a boy, 13, were detained by officers of the La Brea Police Station and interrogated. The family was released on November 15 and the minors were placed in the care of their grandfather.

No charges were laid against Richins nor Harry.

Richins has since claimed she gave birth to baby Mercy and not Nicolette as has been reported. She denied the baby had died and insisted Mercy remains alive and well and will be eventually seen by the public. Claiming she could not have lived in a house for five months with the foul stench of a rotting corpse, Richins also denied that police officers ever found skeletal remains in her home.

Police are working on the theory that Mercy died some eight months ago after her birth and her death was never reported to the authorities.

Sunday Newsday was told the family is being supported by the police service’s Victim and Support Unit, Children’s Authority, Child Protection Unit and other agencies. Officers were expected to visit the family yesterday as investigations continued.

Their escape was shortlived as police intercepted the getaway car in Chaguanas and recovered all of the stolen items.

Police also seized a Pietro Beretta pistol fitted with a magazine containing seven live rounds of .40 calibre ammunition which they believe was used during the robbery. The driver of the silver Nissan B 15 car, identified as a 52-year-old man of Lower Hillside, San Fernando, and his younger accomplices, aged 34, 22 and 20, all of Picton Road, Laventille were detained and are expected to be charged.

Ten cartoons of cigarettes and six cell phones which were also recovered.

According to a police report, at about 2.10 pm on Friday, Lystra Persad was in her supermarket at Ramai Trace, Debe when two men, one with a firearm, entered and announced a hold-up. They fled in the waiting vehicle.

Sgt Mohammed along with PCs Khan, Rajnath of the Chaguanas CID responded to a report. Twenty minutes later the vehicle was spotted by officers of the Highway Patrol Division proceeding north along the Solomon Hochoy Highway and was intercepted in the vicinity of the Chase Village Flyover. The vehicle was searched and the loaded weapon and stolen items retrieved. Once charged, the men will appear before a magistrate in the Chaguanas Court tomorrow.

On November 8, at a breakfast media meeting held at the NA PA restaurant, Port-of-Spain, the names of persons on whom the titles Master Artist-in-Residence, Honorary Doctorate and Honorary Distinguished Fellow were to be conferred, were announced. It is in my own estimation a valuable initiative for a national university, especially one in such early stages of its development.

These names will stand, as models for younger generations for, we would also like to alter VS Naipaul’s vision by saying that, there are people who have been made in Trinidad, and who have produced new traditions of value.

Among the names identified for this year are people, who have, through their work, exemplified how given knowledge can be used in creative ways. I focus here in particular on those honoured in the sphere of arts and literature.

Many of our debates on national culture very often centre around questions like, who is more Trinidadian than whom, who destroying ‘we’ ting versus who isn’t (early reactions to soca comes to mind), who is using knowledge to build nation versus who is destroying it (as in the most recent mas furore) and a host of other questions that create tensions within the creative sphere and among the public. These tensions drive creative work, as much as they can also stifle potential. At their core, however, is the question of relevance.

The honouring of stalwarts makes it possible for us to see alternatives.

Such people usually challenge the accepted norms and create new spaces for dialogue. They work simultaneously within and against traditions.

And there comes a point, when the pioneers’ works become the accepted, and a new generation emerges to further challenge it even while working with it. This process of adaptation and rejection is at the heart of most, if not all creative endeavour.

The central question: how do we make accepted knowledge relevant to our experience within this space and time? Each of the individuals selected have in some way exemplified the answer. David Boothman’s (Master Artist-in-Residence, Visual Arts), Transcendental Caribbean style of music for instance, by its very name suggests the search for something that moves beyond the conventional sounds of Trinidad yet remains rooted in the spirit of the Caribbean.

Mungal Patasar’s (Master-Artist- In-Residence) Pantar music too comes from his Classical Indian heritage and aims to cross boundaries even while being rooted in the classical.

Masking ragas within a Caribbean and world music idiom, it too transcends. Ray Holman (Master Artist-in-Residence, Steelpan) as his bio reads, ‘challenged in the 1970s the status quo by composing his own tune for Panorama at a time when everyone played tunes composed by calypsonians’.

Dr Peter Minshall (Master Artist- in-Residence, Carnival) offers us innovative ways of re-thinking conventional narratives through his mas designs. Honorary Doctor of the Arts, Kelvin Pope (The Mighty Duke), who was given the posthumous place at UTT , is remembered for his calypsos that cover all genres. As Professor Hollis Liverpool (Chalkdust) noted, ‘no one has sung so much on Africans and Africanism as Duke has…and he shows that not all memorable quotes must come from Europe.’ Winford Devine (Honorary Distinguished Fellow, The Arts) was honoured for his calypso lyrics.

Among the popular ones are ‘Progress’, ‘Marajhin’, and ’Capitalism Gone Mad’. Dr Earl Lovelace (Master Artist-in-Residence, Literature) and Dr Michael Anthony (Honorary Distinguished Fellow, The Arts) are writers who have shown, through their writing, a command of the English Creole and a deep understanding of the Trinidadian space. Such historians like Anthony have laid the foundations for younger ones like Angelo Bissessarsingh (Honorary Distinguished Fellow, The Arts).

Bissessarsingh is known for his Virtual Museum of History that utilizes social media to promote the knowledge of history. He has condensed a large body of research into accessible material for a general reading public.

The other honourees were Errol Mahabir (Honorary Doctor of Energy, Posthumous) and Justice Anthony Lucky (Honorary Doctor of Law).

The single quality that each honouree shares is his commitment to nation. The list of individuals selected, represent Trinidad in different ways, through their vehicle of choice and the mastery of the vocabulary and mechanics of that vehicle.

Through their work, they have all engaged with this space and the world at large, creating for us a body of work which is now a part of the larger Caribbean canon, and which younger generations may use as models for their own creative and intellectual work.

Admittedly, my knowledge in the field is nowhere close to the likes of Professor Ramesh Deosaran and Renee Cummings, but I know enough to appreciate the fact that these two people have the understanding, expertise and ideas to help cure Trinidad and Tobago’s crime epidemic.

Unfortunately, the aloof, vote-seeking, self-serving political parties have yet to realise this, to the country’s demise. So, instead, the cavalier approach has been to ignore the advice of the experts in the field and appoint successive charlatans to serve as Ministers of National Security (MoNS). In case you’re not familiar with the term, a charlatan is a ‘quack’, or if you want the extended version: it’s a person who claims to have more knowledge or skill than s/he actually possesses.

And if you’re thinking what I’m thinking, you probably just accurately identified several others in government and very high-profile positions all across the country who fit snuggly into that definition.

Nevertheless, we continue the same failed trend of military men who rose through the ranks based, not on performance, but years of service and age. Suffice it to say, the only thing any former military person in Trinbago could bring to the table of crime fighting is stripes on a shirt, nothing else.

When we gained independence in 1962, the Ministry of Home Affairs was created with the mandate for the national security of the country. An intelligent medical doctor by the name of Patrick Solomon – a close confidante of Dr Eric Williams and possibly his right-hand man leading up to independence – was appointed as the first Minister of that Ministry.

After a scandal involving a family member’s arrest and detention at the Woodbrook Police Station, Dr Solomon ‘resigned’ and was replaced by a well-known businessman who later retired in 1970. That same year, ‘Home Affairs’ became ‘National Security’ and Prime Minister Williams became the country’s first MoNS, a role he shared with his eventual successor, George Chambers.

MoNS appointments after this were businessmen, lawyers and an economist. Then, when former Attorney General, Selwyn Richardson jumped ship, and after the PNM lost the 1981 general election, he became the first MoNS with an actual background in the field. However, after his assassination and the PNM regaining control of the government, MoNS appointments were back to what they were in Williams’ days. It was not until Basdeo Panday became Prime Minister did the government look to the defence force for a MoNS. At the time, the appointment of Brigadier General Joseph Theodore seemed to be quite perceptive because there was a steady decline of a murder rate that had escalated after the attempted coup in 1990.

Needless to say, Theodore was the last of the Mohicans, or dare I say, the last of a dying breed of a few good men – all puns and movie references intended.

After the UNC was ousted, the PNM stuck to its guns in regards to MoNS appointments with the same failed results, and then when the UNC ’s PP came into power in 2010, we had five MoNS in as many years. It was a like five-a-side football team with five players on the bench and a mentality that everyone had to “geh ah sweat”. True to form, the UNC ’s PP also followed party precedent and selected Brigadier John Sandy. Next, it was Jack Warner’s turn until Emmanuel George got his ‘corbeau-sweat’ (pronounced ‘cobo’).

Then the King of Charlatans took centre stage. Despite being fired for his evident incompetence (murders were over 400), Gary Griffith has remained front and centre, becoming everyone’s go-to guy on national security matters. I see him at every football match and I have even heard people like my own “PNM-‘tilah- dead” mother talk about Dr Rowley giving him a second chance to serve as MoNS, but I’ve already relegated that misguided opinion to too much ponche-decr?me.

Brigadier Carl Alfonso didn’t have much time to really make a mark, but from what we saw, it was going to be more of the same.

Surely, we’ve learnt from our mistakes. Well, kind of. Prime Minister Rowley realised that the PNM’s appointment of lawyers and businessmen weren’t MoNS quality, so he took a page out of the UNC playbook and brought in retired Major General Edmund Dillon, the highest ranking of them all. With a murder rate that could hit 450 by the end of the year, and not a single sensible crime-fighting plan on the table, the curse of the MoNS charlatan is upon us once again. And when Dillon eventually gets fired, the media will n o – d o u b t bring us the King’s wisdom: “joining us now via telephone is former MoNS…”

It depends where you’re living, of course. As a Briton living in the relentless heat of the tropics, I look at the BBC world news and see that back in the UK they’re all wearing coats and bracing themselves against the cold, while I’m wearing as little as possible and sometimes changing my shirt three times a day.

I occasionally meet others from the chilly countries and we inevitably swap stories. Once I talked to a couple who were from the south of Canada, and so sick were they of the heat in this part of the world that when they went home for a holiday, they found Vancouver too mild and went up north because they wanted to be really cold for a while.

There’s an expression in the UK, often prefaced by something like: ‘my Dad used to tell me…’: ‘You’ve got to have a winter to have a summer,’ and while it would take a bit of research and interpretation to prove or disprove that, the thought is a pleasant enough one. How about a couple of feet of snow – the steady, thick, peaceful, Disney type – that lasts for weeks and forces us all to re-evaluate our need to leave the house (and certainly our need to use a car). Put another log on the fire, or turn the heating up a notch, and read the whole of the weekend papers, rather than wasting half a tree by only looking at one section.

Perhaps for some people life really is like a Christmas card scene, a winter idyll spent cracking walnuts in their elbows, roasting chestnuts for loved ones and peeling tangerines.

In an ideal world there would be a seamless transition from the snowdrifts into a balmy spring and a blazing summer. No slush or clearing up and certainly no March winds.

It may be futile to wonder why anyone should put up with coldish, damp days in exchange for warmish, overcast ones later on – but there is nothing wrong with a bit of November daydreaming.

If you have always lived in Trinidad and Tobago, you probably won’t understand this sort of thinking, because you’ve had heat thrown at you every day of your life. And it has to be said that art and language tell us that hot is good and cold is bad. What quality do we seek above all in a lover or a friend? Warmth.

We speak of being left out in the cold. An attractive girl is said to be “hot”.

But how about a bit of variety? Bring on the blizzard if it comes with a free heatwave next year.

Let’s have the steady, cool rain that heralds a hot, dry spell from May to September. Fair exchange is no robbery, to use a blindingly obvious saying for which I can find noone to accept responsibility.

We’re all very wise these days, if the expressions we use are any guide. A popular choice is the carousel- inspired ‘What goes around comes around’, ie if you do something (usually bad), the same will happen to you later.

Perhaps the only saving grace of bad weather is the safe, snug feeling caused by the sound of rain on the roof and windows when we’re not out in it. It’s a strange feeling to analyse, though, and I’m not entirely sure it is all about being grateful for the invention of slates and tiles. It is more to do with the sound and possibly the vibrations.

As for thunder and lightning, the world seems to be split into those who love it and those who are terrified.

Even normally logical people who know that sleet and hail were not sent to chastise us for eating chocolate will be quite happy to credit the sudden occurrence of a loud storm as being significant if they have just made a particularly weighty decision. It’s the incidental music of nature, the equivalent of the excited piece of orchestration that tells us during a film that something especially dramatic is happening.

Modern science can’t be too far away from regulating the weather, and I’m sure I’ve heard of planes being sent up to disperse clouds.

When it becomes possible to programme the climate there will be an outcry against the idea by those who don’t want to meddle with nature, and as far as I’m concerned, they can go and live in Antarctica, where no one is going to turn up the heat for fear of drowning the planet. Me? I’ll be in a tree house in Castara, enjoying the sight of icicles on the boats before the climate reverts to the setting on the dial marked “Tobago standard.”

Even in the USA, the ‘land of opportunity’, whole towns and communities have crumbled as joblessness has increased. This, according to political analysts, was one of the decisive factors which determined the outcome of recent USA presidential elections.

While a number of factors contribute to local unemployment levels, there is one major issue that we must acknowledge, one ill which we ourselves can remedy. It is our attitude to our work and our rate of productivity – in short, our work ethic. Citizens complain ceaselessly about the slowness of state agencies to implement strategies that will result in efficient and timely delivery of service.

There can be no denying that there are communities which suffer from a shortage of water or from uncertain water schedules; roads which continue to deteriorate because of poor maintenance; healthcare institutions where shortages and long delays are the norm; schools which do not afford the most vulnerable of our children the opportunities to which every child should have a right; politicians who make grandiose promises to improve the lives of the citizenry but whose promise never materialise after elections are over; highways which continue to be killing strips for want of consistent and effective policing and which breed a proliferation of irresponsible drivers who glorify in their ability to ‘beat the system’.

The debate over the wisdom of the establishment of a Sandals resort in Tobago must take into consideration our perceptions of what tourism as a vibrant industry entails. The fact is that our neighbours in Jamaica, St Lucia, Grenada, Barbados, Antigua and the Bahamas have understood that tourism is an industry where excellence is the required norm and that a successful tourist industry impacts upon, and indeed depends upon, several other sectors of the population.

Agricultural production underpins the availability of top quality, fresh, wholesome food upon which resorts like Sandals depend. They cannot flourish without island-wide safe and efficient transportation and qualified, knowledgeable guides.

Host countries must ensure well-maintained sites and facilities and must be constantly alert to the possibility of providing creative and innovative attractions unique to the Caribbean environment and culture. At the heart of all of these, however, is an attitude of dedication to and pride in the service offered by providers, at all levels and in all sectors of this industry. There can be no shortcuts in the training and regular upgrading of staff and in the provision of decent and just wages to them.

If we as a nation are to survive the perils of sliding global economies, we must, like the honest thief of today’s Gospel, look deeply into our national soul. It is up to each of us to ensure that true productivity becomes our business and that in serving others, we also serve the Lord of all creation.

It is almost as if there is hope that it will magically fix itself.

Since the infamous Section 34 legislation not much has been done to reduce the backlog of cases in our courts.

Despite the acquisition of several new yellow and blue patrols cars, police patrols remain for the most part unregulated and unstructured.

Vehicle identification continues to be archaic and the public continues to lose trust in the Police Service.

What is required is innovative immediate action to make our nation safe again.

The following are steps that, if taken, will immediately change the security climate in TT : * Enact legislation to dismiss or plea-bargain all cases in the system over five years.

* Enact legislation making it a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment to tamper with or destroy State electronic surveillance hardware.

* Build and staff area surveillance centres strategically positioned throughout the country to monitor communities via drone technology from the air.

* Invest in the acquisition of several high-quality, long-range drones equipped with appropriate electronic recording equipment to immediately respond to calls of robbery, kidnapping and shooting incidents and record the activities of the criminals while giving real- time information to the police patrols.

* Use drones to patrol our marine borders.

* Enact legislation to make electronic data acceptable evidence in our court.

* Immediately change the vehicular identification and transfer system to less complicated but more effective registration, similar to that of the developed world.

* Start a drive to remove all illegal guns from the State through a gun amnesty for two months and thereafter enacting legislation that allows for imprisonment of not less than six months for illegal possession of a firearm.

* Enact new firearm laws to allow for a special court for firearm offences and to allow the heads of police districts to issue firearm permits to citizens who pass the required background checks and show reasonable need for a firearm.

These are just some of the many changes required to make our nation safe again.

A major input must be economic development. That must be done not by State grants but by State facilitation.

There is more than enough demand for restaurants, car repair centres, construction workshops, light manufacturing, food processing and nature exploration. The State must facilitate these economic activities by offering appropriate real estate with supporting facilities and very reduced rates to entrepreneurs.

Groups must be encouraged to get involved in sustainable, rewarding economic activities rather than crime.

STEVE ALVAREZ via email

I will certainly heed the advice given by a senior officer that if someone shows up at your home claiming to be a police officer, call the nearest police station and verify.

It is a sad day in our country when citizens cannot trust those whose duty it is to protect and serve. Please continue rooting out the rogue elements in the service that are creating a bad name for our country and for the Police Service.

ARNOLD GOPEESINGH via email

While the intention of this ad might have been genuine, the message would have come across just as clear without the use of the photo. Trinidad is a multi-ethnic country and to single out a particular race raises some interesting topics for discussion.

Our national anthem says “every creed and race finds an equal place”, but yet still it is becoming more and more prevalent that the African community continues to be stereotyped.

I am hoping that the organisation does the right thing and removes the photo from the advertisement.

CRYSTAL ROJAS via email

Some of them extend that behaviour to the campaign trail as in the case of Kamla Persad-Bissessar recently when she attacked the wives of two Cabinet members.

Is it that she condemns success of women in business or is she just seeking headlines? The fact that Suzanne Williams- Imbert, wife of Finance Minister Colm Imbert and Laura Khan, wife of Energy Minister Franklin Khan, have not replied to the attacks, as none is deserved, make them upright.

Having had Khan as a teacher under my principalship for about seven years, I was able to detect her business mind and acumen which she transferred to her company Vidara Enterprises Ltd. Hansard would show MP Roodal Moonilal repeatedly calling that company’s name between 2010 and 2015 at each Budget debate.

It seems he is worn out or has passed the stick to his leader to continue the attack on an honest citizen. If we had more workers as committed and productive as Mrs Khan, our country would be much better off.

I thought this is a case of “enough is too much” as the Opposition seems to be relentlessly going after Mrs Khan. We must admire her for not falling into the trap of replying to her detractors but I warn, she is most capable of a stinging reply.

Imagine the Leader of the Opposition addressing her supporters at a local government election campaign meeting but unable to say anything about services and even stewardship or proposals of her candidates in a regional corporation she controls. Nothing to improve the lives of the constituents was proposed.

Instead, she attacks individuals, confirming that “small minds discuss individuals, medium minds discuss issues, and large minds discuss ideas.” The Opposition would never get to large minds as it seems devoid of ideas.

I extend my admiration to both Mrs Imbert and Mrs Khan and my best wishes for further success in their business ventures.

LENNOX SIRJUESINGH via email