Their only Hexagonal result came on March 24 when they edged Panama 1-0 at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo, with goalkeeper Jan-Michael Williams registering a clean sheet. Despite their difficulties, the 32-yearold shot-stopper remains positive about the team’s chances of qualifying for Russia 2018.

“It’s been challenging, to say the least,” Williams told FIFA.

com. “We struggled a bit to get some form of stability because we changed coaches, and it’s obviously tough when you change coaches at a crucial stage, like this one. In saying that, we’ve had some good performances under the new coach, Dennis Lawrence. It’s for us now to buckle down and get some points because we really need some points to stay alive in this World Cup qualifying campaign.”

The Lawrence factor Trinidad and Tobago’s recent struggles were not helped by a period of instability in the team’s coaching position. Stephen Hart’s reign on the bench ended after opening Hexagonal defeats to Costa Rica and Honduras last November. The well-travelled Belgian Tom Saintfiet succeeded Hart, but stayed a little over a month in the role before resigning after the team’s failure to qualify for this year’s CONCACAF Gold Cup.

It prompted the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association to turn to Lawrence to steady the ship. A member of the Soca Warriors side that qualified for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Lawrence’s knowledge of trying to qualify from CONCACAF has been invaluable to Williams and his team-mates.

“Throughout all the troubles that we had in such a short period of time, I think Dennis’ experience of having played in the Hexagonal and helping the national team qualify for the World Cup, plus his experience of coaching in England, has allowed him to come in with all the right experience,” Williams said.

“He has all the right people around him as well – the likes of Sol Campbell, Stern John, Stuart Charles-Fevrier – these guys have really put their heads together and they are really able to pass across the relevant information that we need to be able to really transform us quickly and as smoothly as possible.”

Crucial September As they look ahead to their next set of qualifiers, the scenario for Trinidad and Tobago is a clear one.

They effectively need maximum points from their home clash with Honduras on September 1 and their visit to Panama four days later to have any realistic chance of earning automatic qualification for Russia 2018. Williams believes his side have the ability to deliver when needed.

“The mood around the camp and the team is one of great optimism,” he said. “I think culturally as a society in Trinidad and Tobago, we tend to produce our best when our backs are against the wall. These games against Honduras and Panama are very important for us, but knowing we can compete and can actually ruffle the feathers of the best in CONCACAF, I think it’s now for us to transfer this into winning performances and get three points in each of the next two encounters.”

It is critical to note that there are sectors of our society who will find nothing good about anything proposed or done by this PNM administration. That sector will only be happy if the Prime Minister resigns and calls a new election. For them, it does not matter what the Mouttet investigations discover, nothing short of the firing of the board of the Port Authority and the Minister of Works would satisfy the thirst of those seeking to replace PNM administration.

In this land of wonderful people of many races, different faces and a callaloo of cultures we have no choice but to work together if we wish to overcome the global economic, social and political challenges that confront us. We must overcome the management inefficiencies that led to the embarrassing effort to acquire a boat to service our sea bridge. We must find a way to rise above the agenda of those who seeks to divide us into percentages of class, race, wealth, religion, and political affiliation for self-interest. Moreover, we must start working on moving forward.

For too long we have stood by as politicians wasted our national wealth on investments with minimal return. The insatiable appetite of those that thrived on government programmes like GATE, CEPEP, URP, food cards and contract labour can never be filled. While we still have the ability to access international credit and our foreign exchange reserves is still healthy, we need to make a concerted effort to prepare for the future.

We need to stimulate the economy by partnering with our business community. We need to inject investment into a carefully planned approach to agriculture and tourism. WASA must no longer be allowed to be an economic black hole where water wastage and management inefficiencies are common. A new network of roads needs to be accelerated rather than placed on hold. Government must change from being a burden to taxpayers to a source of hope. Efforts must be made to make government services easily assessable and less punitive.

These decisions will entail making choices like that of asking Mr.Mouttet, a member of our business community to investigate our management practices. The Prime Minister must reach out beyond his political base, outside of his traditional pool of political support and embrace all our citizens from Blanchisseuse in the north to Moruga in the south, from Claxton Bay in the west to Mayaro in the east, from Scarborough to Charlottesville in Tobago. All of us must be red, white, black and ready to rebuild our Nation. At this time, only one-man PM Dr. K. C. Rowley, can do that. He need to go where no one has gone before. If he fails to take the initiative, we will do it under new leadership at the next general election. The historical unhealthy divisiveness of our politics must end.

God Bless Our Nation.

Steve Alvarez via email

Governments of the future will need to adapt and continuously evolve to create value. They need to stay relevant by being responsive to rapidly changing conditions and citizens’ expectations. Citizens are demanding more visibility on the allocation of public resources and challenging governments to be more efficient and equitable through accountability and transparency.

What is needed today is a flatter, agile, streamlined and tech-enabled government.

One of the ways in which governments can become flatter is through citizen engagement, which means decreasing the distance between government and the people using social media, mobile devices and other tools, increasing participation through consultations, surveys and other communication modes and committing to open data that provide citizens and businesses with access to information. Members of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Government devoted particular attention to the impact of new networks on democratic processes, focusing on citizen engagement. While this issue remains centrally important, the focus has broadened to encompass how the strategies, structures and practices of governments must change in the coming years, and how new information and communication technologies and networks can be leveraged to transform government capacity.

Agility and adaptability are also critical to effective and innovative governments. Successful governments can organize themselves to consolidate public and private resources quickly to address challenges. Governments must also be able to easily transform themselves when specific structures and processes are no longer needed.

This requires an agile workforce made up primarily of highly skilled knowledge workers with broad problem-solving capabilities and equipped with real time data and business intelligence – working in teams and networks, often with private sector partners. Adaptive governments that share services, labour and resources can deliver on their mission in more effective and innovative ways.

Consequently, governments of the future must be fully tech-enabled with a tech-savvy workforce. Policy, legal and regulatory frameworks and processes must be redesigned to align with the dynamics of the networked world. Information infrastructures must support new modes of collaboration, information and intensive governance. Even in the poorest regions, brilliant examples of service innovation have been driven using cheap mobile and wireless technologies.

Now there are tools and systems that allow citizens to examine government activities and expenditures. At the same time, citizen engagement allows governments to reach out and incorporate the perspectives and ideas of citizens in decision-making and policy-making. Still other governments are building networked relationships between the public and private sectors to solve challenging problems that cannot be addressed by either sector working alone.

An increasing number of countries are building transparency and accountability and driving public and private innovation by information and communication technologies, including social media. It is hoped that our government will also follow this forward-thinking path into the future.

Algorithmic trading, also known as “algo” trading and “black box” trading, involves the use of fast computer programmes and complex algorithms to create and determine trading strategies for optimal returns.

Powell said that by 2015 he had lost everything and was trying to find a way of getting back into investing when he came into contact with Forbes 2015 Billionaire’s List and contacted Forbes to ask them to work with the Billionaires’ League to build an application which would empower people who had invested and lost money. He said Forbes agreed but more than that offered to provide content on the billionaires.

He said the Billionaires’ League uses five principles to highlight billionaires in the US and the app tracks their portfolios to see what they invest in, which sectors they believe in and how much of their nett worth they invest in each sector and stocks. “So you, as an individual downloading our app can have that first world exposure where you can invest through our app. You’re buying and selling stocks, currencies, bonds on the international market from your mobile with virtual funds.” Those who download the app get US$10,000 in free virtual money to practice their investing skills. “From replicating the billionaires, they could now go to a broker/dealer either locally or internationally and apply it.” He said the application is intended for potential investors who do not have the confidence in their ability to make the right investment choices; people who are uncertain about where the financial markets are going as well as seasoned investors. “We get them started because it’s a journey.

So to get them started we provide them with data where they are comfortable to act and with that data they could go to their broker/dealers and execute those trades. We are targetting the mellenials, investment bankers; broker dealers and users who don’t have the experience to invest.” Powell said the Billionaires’ League was nominated by the World Bank Group; the European Central Bank and the European Investment Bank to represent the Caribbean in a global competition to compete against Singapore and Europe. Based on the novelty of the technology which powered the application, the Billionaires’ League app was chosen Best Portfolio Management Application 2017 by Capital Finance International magazine. “So Trinidad and Tobago should be proud that a product was born here, represented the Caribbean internationally and won. So the award gives us a lot of exposure globally. It gives us credibility and it gives us that edge that we have a disruptive technology that will change the traditional way of how people invest and it also adds credibility by opening up doors for broker dealers and partners to come on board.” He said the application competed against some key stakeholders to win the competition, “so it’s definitely a confidence booster and we have something to show for the Caribbean people that we too could build technology from the Caribbean and compete globally and be disruptive.” The app was launched on July 26, 2017, at the Hyatt Regency, Wrightson Road, Port of Spain, with an audience of high rollers at a function at which Powell said the idea was to demonstrate their credibility and get users started on a journey to become successful investors. He said their success in the competition should make Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean proud to know that the region is recognised on a global scale where technology is concerned and that change is coming “and we have something that we could go global with and compete with some of the most prominent technologies in the investment era” because no one in the investment universe has that technology like Billionaires’ League that could reveal the strategies of today’s leading bankers, billionaires and pension funds, all in real time. No one does that. So we as Caribbean people should be proud.” He credited the World Bank Group and its “Pitch IT Caribbean Challenge” a competition funded by the World Bank Group via info/Dev with the aim of finding and developing young talent in app development in the Caribbean. He said the competition is not just looking for a product, “they look at the person in the driver’s seat, the person who they think could take that idea from an idea stage, an implementation stage, and to a product stage, and when you have the product it should be in a position where it can scale globally so you have to be a global changer, you have to be a global thinker. So in order to do that you have to be in a network that could give you that opportunity where you could open doors for yourself. After that, you will need governance and you will need a structure in place because having a product without a structure doesn’t make sense. So you need to be strategic with your approach.

You need to have that agility to know how and when to release the product. He said with the different entrepreneurial programmes which are being launched for the Caribbean there is a need for more unity among entrepreneurs throughout the Caribbean region that they too could come up with a disruptive technology.” He said the Pitch IT Caribbean Challenge brings together IT entrepreneurs from several Caribbean countries to compete to go global.

Powell said the local Caribbean Industrial Relations Institute (CARIRI) was an incubator and encouraged the Billionaires’ League to compete in the competition to represent Trinidad and Tobago. The application won Best Mobile Application last year which gave it automatic entry into the Pitch IT Competition.

He’s got a lot of talent. So, if he gets the right support, there’s nothing he can’t do.” “I want the authorities and the Government to understand,” Solomon continued, “that we put out our blood, sweat and tears for the country.

When they support, it’s not a waste of money.” This statement is one that characterises the burden of those whom we exalt in victory, and lambaste in defeat.

Athletes, or for that matter, anyone who has taken the step to choose to represent their country in whatever discipline, are driven and inspired to achieve for a greater good. This greater good does not reside in ‘things’, or ‘objects’ or platitudes. This greater good resides in a feeling that cannot be easily described, but that surely represents a form of inspiration. An inspired dream to do more and be more.

This motivated choice to represent your country comes with many unnecessary challenges, one of the foremost being the significant levels of an evaporation of inspiration by those who may never appreciate the significant amount of literal blood sweat and tears that goes into preparing oneself physically, psychologically and spiritually for the role as an Ambassador to your land.

We are yet to appreciate the value attached to the preparation required for the development of persons destined to adequately represent a nation in any discipline, and further, we seem also to have little idea on capitalising and building upon those that have surmounted and secured victory in which ever endeavour, despite all the hurdles, hurt, lack of adequate funding, and other areas of support. We must share a grander vision than fleeting accolades, which are as quickly forgotten.

The development of our human capital must become a priority if we are to even begin to look at a diversification and develop agenda for this Nation. It is completely unacceptable and indeed absurd, that our athletes are still clamouring for us to appreciate that performing on a global stage requires cutting edge development, and investment not only in terms of resources to match the best, but most certainly an injection of inspiration to become the best.

I represented Trinidad and Tobago on a global stage in another discipline and the story is very similar. Were it not for many pockets of those who appreciated that others were supporting their own, every step of way without fear or favour, I may have succumbed to that evaporation of inspiration. We are a Nation privileged with talent that abounds in every single sphere. It is high time we begin to appreciate that we love winners, and in so doing, we must be prepared to put out what is required to provide the platform to continue creating the conditions and supportive networks to keep inspiring this generation of winners.

Former national 200m and 400m runner, Alvin Daniel, in a telephone interview, expressed his joy at their victory. “It’s a real enjoyable feeling,” he said, “One of the greatest I’ve seen in a long time.” While the four athletes were victorious, Daniel said that he was proud of the TT female athletes as well.

He wants to remind Trinidad and Tobago that, “while they did not make a win, that their efforts were commendable.” Daniel stated, “Trinidadians need to take note that their participation in the World Championships, is a great feat.

“It is something of which Trinidadians should be proud,” he said.

With regards to rewarding the men’s 4x400m relay team, Daniel did not specify what should be given to the champions, but agreed that they should be rewarded.

He stated, “The Government should implement a policy where rewards are granted to the successful athletes.” He continued, “Winning is a high achievement comparable to studying for a degree, therefore they should be rewarded financially like any other university graduate.” The 1992 Olympic representative said, “Sports is a job. Therefore, athletes should be treated as employees and be appropriately rewarded for their hard work.” He noted that Trinidad and Tobago is blessed with many talented athletes.

Nevertheless, he stated, “Their potential cannot be reached if there are no programmes within the communities to encourage these athletes.” Daniel said that the up-and-coming athletes need support and encouragement from their communities and, by extension, the Government.

“The Government should implement programmes where the athletes are motivated to train industriously and the communities become involved in their activities.” Daniel said that playing sports are the dreams of many athletes. Therefore, the programmes implemented should assist in them “exploring their dreams”.

Daniel went on to congratulate the entire Trinidad and Tobago team who participated in the World Championships, reiterating that their participation is, in itself, a great accomplishment.

GML is a subsidiary of the ANSA McAL Group of Companies (ANSA McAL).

The union was responding yesterday to a report published in Newsday last Saturday, in which ANSA McAl’s Group Human Resource Director and Media Sector Head, Teresa White, said, “The union has been informed of the names. We’ve agreed with the union (on) the process, the selection criteria. We’re doing it strictly on a LIFO (last in, first out) basis; as is deemed best practice.” White was responding to a question about the planned GML job cuts while addressing an August 10 press conference on the Group`s results for the six months ended June 30, 2017.

According to BIGWU, “While Ms White is correct in stating that the selection criteria of Last In, First Out (LIFO) was agreed on, Ms White who is not even directly involved in the consultation process but perhaps is pulling the strings behind the scenes, neglected to mention a few key points.” These are, “In the first phase of this restructuring exercise when 16 workers were retrenched, there was never any agreement on criteria and (GML) failed to follow the LIFO principle; No scientific evidence was ever produced to support surplus labour; No rationale or justification has been provided with respect to the second phase to support any proposed retrenchment; and the consultation process was scuttled by the Company on both occasions as evidenced by a letter to the Union dated August 7, 2017 indicating that the Company had compiled its list of employees “deemed surplus to its operations”.” Citing an article published in the Trinidad Guardian last Saturday, BIGWU said GML was quoted as saying “we remain committed to positive and fruitful dialogue with the union in search for the best possible long term outcome”.

“Similar sentiments were echoed by (GML’s) Managing Director (Lucio Mesquita) in an email to staff dated August 7, 2017, where he is quoted as saying: “We are continuing the consultation process with the union regarding the latest phase of our restructuring.

The consultation is going well, with both parties working in good faith and maintaining a spirit of open and honest dialogue”.

“These statements belies what has taken place by virtue of the (GML’s) calculated abortion of the consultation process,” BIGWU argued.

The Caribbean Examinations Council issued the results to the ministry on Monday night.

“The results will be release later on this week. Many of the students who have written the exam are anxiously awaiting these results so that they could decide whether they want to pursue tertiary education, or in some instances these students are waiting on formal acceptance at some of our regional institutions, in particular at our universities.” Garcia spoke to the media after a signing ceremony for five students who received Cuban scholarships at the Ministry of Education’s Towers, Edward Street, Port of Spain.

He continued, “I have not yet had the opportunity to look at it but as we speak the director of examination and other senior officials are looking at it.

The CEO (chief education officer) and the director also have a copy of it and they are looking at it, so we can have a proper analysis later on this week.”

The charges read to the trio alleged that on Monday, they had in their possession a protected animal namely the Scarlet Ibis. They have also been charged with entering the Caroni Bird Sanctuary, a prohibited area, without acquiring permission. The men pleaded not guilty. They were charged under the Wild Life Conservation Act of 1958. It is alleged they were caught with bird parts in a boat near the bird sanctuary by a team of game wardens.

The wardens said they were conducting surveillance in the area when they spotted the men.

They attempted to escape in a boat but were held shortly after.

The men were granted bail and the case was adjourned to September 5.

According to Haddaway, her husband was first arrested following a raid on their home in March 2013 and in spite of paying the required immigration bond, he was held in custody for another 16 months without explanation. After his release in July 2014, Haddaway tried to get her husband regularised, writing to then Minister of National Security, Gary Griffith and meeting with Junior Minister, Embau Moheni who promised to look into her problem with no apparent follow through.

After his release into his wife’s custody, Kings was in and out of the hospital for head injuries sustained following an alleged beating by six officers with batons while held at the Immigration Detention Centre.

As a result of these hospital visits, Kings was forced to miss a few of his weekly supervision appointments and though his wife presented a doctor’s letter, he was branded a fugitive in December 2014. Kings surrendered wilfully with the presence of a lawyer and has been in custody ever since. Since then, Haddaway said she has consistently pleaded to various outlets inclusive of the media and the previous and current government to no avail and has only received empty, unfulfilled promises.