Government, which has only used 40 per cent of the funds available under the IDB Loan for health sector reform, has applied for a three-year extension, which would bring in substantial funds. This was announced by Health Minister Colm Imbert, who incidentelly, also advised that he would not be travelling to Cuba or any other place for the remainder of this year. The Health Minister also said that the Cuban health personnel who had been assigned to the district health offices were settling in very well. And, he added, the Principal Medical Officer reported that there was much cooperation between the Trinidadian and Cuban doctors, some of whom had already begun to perform surgery. He said “very soon” the second batch of Cuban doctors would be placed into key community health facilities in heavily populated areas such as Couva, Diego Martin, Laventille and Pleasantville.
Noting that the first batch of UN doctors had arrived this week, he said they would be put in “strategic” locations. He said two doctors from Africa had tremendous experience with HIV Aids — one would go to San Fernando and the other to the Queen’s Park Counselling Centre. He said the programme was going exceedingly well. He said while there was still a vocal minority in the local medical fraternity, which was opposed to the programme, the majority of local doctors, like the nurses, had wholeheartedly embraced the initiative to bring in foreign doctors. On their proficiency in English language, Imbert said there was only one Cuban doctor so far who had been asked to do additional training in English. He said the UN doctors all spoke English very well. On the IDB loan, he said the Ministry of Health had signed this agreement with the IDB for US $138 million in 1996 and the agreement officially came to an end on July 12, 2003. But the total expenditure at that point was $500 million or 40 per cent of the programme budget. He noted that the RHAs had failed to implement the health sector reforms required because of frequent changes in the boards and the absence of strong management over the last seven years. Noting that Government agreed to approach the IDB for a 3-year extension from July 2003 to 2006, Imbert Government would be injecting an additional $500 million into the health sector over the next few years.
THE EDITOR: Ram Leela is now open theatre and Divali is soon to be here. What lessons can the world of humanity and Trinidadians and Tobagonians learn from that great model king, ruler, husband, mighty Lord of all worlds —Lord Rama. Firstly AIDS is rampant in this country — tens of thousands of people are in a living-rotting condition, for that is the disease of HIV. When Lord Rama married Seeta, he promised her that unlike other kings, he Rama, will have only Seeta as his wife. This vow of monogamy could, and would, save millions of people from the dreadful disease of AIDS. Certainly one may get AIDS otherwise, but sexual promiscuity, licence and general laxity in morals is the main cause for the spread of AIDS. Secondly, a great war in Iraq has taken place and daily, poor Iraqis and Americans are dying with no sign of peace, indeed, omens of a wider, more dirty guerilla war and terrorism exist.
President Bush could have followed Lord Rama, by appointing or anointing a new Iraqi as ruler of Iraq before he started the war, thereby legitimising in the eyes of Iraqis the new government, immediately. Lord Rama, indeed, crowned Bhibheeshan, the brother of the demon king, Rawan, before he invaded Lanka, the territory of Rawan, and so the government of Lanka was immediately accepted by the people in that conquered state. Thirdly, in the time of Rama’s rule, there was liberty, security and prosperity and peace during his reign. Ajodhya, the capital of India, produced the best of goods — cloth, food, architecture, government justice, public institutions, commerce and diplomacy. Excellence and quality on the one hand, and virtue or dharma on the other are the two legs of civilisation, the peak of which was attained during Rama Rajya — the Royal Rule of Lord Rama. Long live Rama!
ROOPNARINE SINGH, MD
Chaguanas
THE EDITOR: But seriously, the doctors were right to demand contracts of employment before working! In January 2003, doctors demanded contracts of employment before working. Instead, verbal promises were given. This was changed to month-to-month contracts. Eventually, a one year contract was offered with a promise “in good faith” to complete negotiations as soon as possible. Promises! Promises! In May 2003, certain items were agreed upon and certain items were referred to the Ministry of Labour. The RHAs’ have since refused to meet with MPATT to sign off the agreed items. The RHAs position, after seeking advice, is that a public holiday is the same as a normal working day, excessive overtime is the same as overtime and that basic salary is the same as gross salary. The Ministry of Labour rightly sent the RHAs back to their advisors. And the authorities played the media asking that poor patients not be used as pawns.
Now we saw where private secondary and primary schools have not been paid since November 2002. The school administrators had no choice but to send the kids home. One ministry official was quoted as saying he “don’t know why they want to have confrontation.” Does the Ministry of Education make late payments with an allowance for overdraft penalties? The answer is no. The reason for the late payments is said to be problems of finalisation of a memorandum of understanding and preparation of contracts. In other words, no contracts, no payments. And the authorities played the media asking that the poor students not be used as pawns. Now we saw where State Attorneys have stayed away from courts to highlight the shortage of personnel as well as their poor remuneration package. In 2001 and before, the then Attorney General Ramesh Maharaj met the State Attorneys to discuss the same matters. Today, more than two years later, the present Attorney General Glenda Morean claims not to know of the demands of the State Attorneys. The Office of the DPP has always been poorly staffed and underpaid. And the lawyers, like the doctors are given promises. Promises! Promises!
And the authorities played the media asking that the accused not be used as pawns. The Differently-Abled Peoples International (DPI) was given promises of jobs by top Cabinet members. To date, many are still waiting; Promises! Promises! Were the doctors wrong to demand employment contracts before working? After ten months, and no signed agreement, where is the negotiation “in good faith?” But seriously, State Attorneys must learn from the mistakes of the doctors, private schools and Differently-Abled Peoples International, when the government promises “in good faith,” sign your contracts first.
PHILIP AYOUNG-CHEE FRCS
THE EDITOR: While I applaud the efforts of Crime Stoppers, there is the need to clear the air on an advertisement run by this organisation; an ad this writer finds to be at least misleading, or worse, insulting to our collective intelligence. This writer is not clear whether the ad in question is intentionally designed to mislead or whether the persons who prepared the ad were not adequately informed. To boldly state that “12 murders have been cleared and solved” is quite misleading. A word of advice for this organisation; a crime is not “cleared and solved” until there is a clear conviction for the said crime. A more appropriate statement would be that several (and here the organisation can provide numbers) arrests have been made relative to murders.
As anyone could attest, the conviction rate in TT is quite low, less than ten percent. Hence, it follows of the 12 arrests for murders, no more than two persons would be convicted. This means that approximately ten of the 12 murders referred to would remain unsolved. This is a sad indictment against a police service whose job it is to gather information to secure a conviction. It is even worse when numbers are thrown at us on a daily basis as to how many crimes were committed for the year, especially murders, and as the new year rolls in the numbers just start over from scratch. Makes one wonder about the methodologies employed by members of the police service to secure convictions. Yet members of the police service somehow manage to believe they are above criticisms; that “they are the law” as we so often hear. To further aggravate a situation, we have three CXC passes-police officers, who know little or nothing about the law playing prosecutors, coming up against lawyers who, by definition, have made a study of the law, passed bar exams etc; and whose profession it is to practise law. Then again, we have magistrates who pass out illegal sentences. Do we honestly expect a greater conviction rate? But I have long deviated from my original point, namely that Crime Stoppers should not intentionally or unintentionally mislead the public. Crime is a serious issue confronting us all. To mislead the public to gain our confidence is unto itself a crime.
RUDY CHATO PAUL, Sr
D’Abadie
THE EDITOR: With the spate of kidnapping continuing unabated, each and every Trinidadian (I have not included Tobagonians because they have escaped this ridiculous state of affairs) must be going about their daily business but thinking at the back of their minds: will I or one of my family or friends be next? This is where we have now reached… I was not one of those people who thought that when an alleged kidnap kingpin was apprehended that the kidnappings would have stopped. Yuh ever spray the whole house for cockroaches and figure: Ah-ha! Ah get dem (when yuh see about two or three lying dead aroun’ de house) an’ nex ting — de followin’ week, yuh see about five run out of de kitchen cupboard all alive and well and yuh say to yuhself: But eh-eh, wey dey come from?
My solution is for the laws to be changed and hanging to be introduced for convicted kidnappers. This is the only way we can put the fear of God and the hangman’s noose into the minds of those despicable criminals who create such fear, terror and upheaval for the victims, their families and friends. They should be punished harshly for their cruel and unconscionable acts. It would be very interesting to get feedback from your readers to my suggestion that kidnapping should be a crime punishable by death.
B SANDY
Maraval
THE EDITOR: The Press and Public Affairs Department of the British High Commission would like to congratulate Newsday on reaching its tenth anniversary. We appreciate the relationship that currently exists between Newsday and the British High Commission and look forward to future works.
Congratulations!
Yours sincerely
SHARON BALROOP
Press and Public Affairs
BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION
THE EDITOR: This is a letter to my people. Allyuh really good yes!!! If you read the Tuesday edition of the large “size” newspaper on page six you will see an advertisement for “Fall-Winter 2003 for a certain store at a mall in Long Circular. I thought Poui season dun gorn already!!! Just when I thought I had enuf of the “Summer” sales, that is what allyuh coming with? Have we lost all sense of identity? Allyuh ain’t realise McDonald’s come and gorn? Allyuh is ah stew chicken and calalloo eating people!!!
Even while the US embassy still have Marli street kidnapped, allyuh preparing all yuh costume for Halloween in October, an doh forget tuh fatten de turkey for Thanksgiving in November eh… Ah wonder how cold it go be on Boxing day??? It might affect horse racing up in Arima, also Mardi Gras next year is on February 23 and 24 which is still winter time!!! My good people, take stock of what allyuh copying nuh. We don’t have to be a carbon copy of a society which does not really like us anyway. We have our own ting, our own problems, leh we sort dat out fuss, before becoming Mimic Men who are taught to dislike ourselves, our women and our children.
DAVID SPICER
Santa Cruz
THE EDITOR: I am writing this letter in the hope that it will cause the powers that be to ensure that I receive my payments of arrears of increments before the fiscal year end in a few weeks time. I am very disappointed with the effort of the Ministry of Public Utilities in taking almost one year to complete this mandate of Prime Minister Manning’s election promise. I know that many of these payments have been made under sometimes painstaking and tedious process of cheques and certification of correctness but still what is the reason for this delay? At this late hour I appeal to the powers that be that you make an urgent and earnest effort to ensure that the remaining officers be paid, remembering that we (Public Servants) are the ones who bore the brunt of the structural adjustment measures taken in the past by a previous government and are only justified now in receiving our due even though belatedly and as an election carrot yet I thank God for small blessings.
FIMBER
BONNERPARTH
Karl Hudson-Phillips QC yesterday suggested that former Government Minister Dhanraj Singh was framed for the murder of Hansraj Sumairsingh for political reasons. Hudson-Phillips, who leads the defence team, described the alleged frame-up as “scandalous,” claiming that police had information that their key witness Elliot Hypolite was lying, yet they continued with the prosecution of Dhanraj. He questioned whether the prosecution would go to any lengths to secure a conviction. Following an objection by the State’s lead prosecutor Sir Timothy Cassel QC, Hudson-Phillips echoed: “I am making certain motives about the police prosecution and I will not be deterred.”
Dhanraj is before Justice Paula Mae Weekes in the Port-of-Spain Second Criminal Court charged with the December 30, 1999, murder of Sumairsingh, then Chairman of the Mayaro/Rio Claro Regional Corporation. Sumairsingh was found shot to death at his Eccles Road beach house in Mayaro. Hudson-Phillips’ allegations and suggestions were put to Sgt Fitzgerald George, the police complainant in the case, who denied them, except, to admit that there were some material inconsistencies between the evidence of Hypolite and Fazard Ali. It was on Ali’s statement and statutory declaration that the police had initially charged Hypolite with Sumairsingh’s murder. But while Hypolite’s preliminary inquiry was in progress at the Mayaro Magistrates’ Court with his attorney Ian Brooks, sometime during the night, senior police officers, attorney Ronald Boynes and a Justice of the Peace, got a statement from Hypolite implicating Dhanraj as the man who had hired Hypolite to kill Sumairsingh. Hypolite was granted immunity from further prosecution of the Sumairsingh murder and largely as a result of his statement, among other things, Dhanraj was charged with the murder. Hudson-Phillips’ questioned yesterday how at one moment the police believed Ali to such an extent that on his evidence they charged Hypolite with Sumairsingh’s murder and only later, based on Hypolite’s statement, they dropped the case against him and charged Dhanraj.
During Hudson-Phillips’ cross-examination of Sgt George, he alluded to a conspiracy by asking questions about the political atmosphere after the 2001 General Elections which resulted in a 19/17 loss for PNM. Hudson-Phillips observed that of 800- plus attorneys practising, the only attorney found to accompany the police when taking the statement from Hypolite was Ronald Boynes, brother of PNM Member of Parlia-ment, Roger Boynes. And all this time, he noted, Brooks was still Hypolite’s attorney. Hudson-Phillips also questioned why Sgt George did not accompany the others when they took the statement from Hypolite,since he was the complainant. After Dhanraj was charged, Stg George admitted he heard allegations made by Dhanraj that the police were constantly trying to induce and encourage him to squeal on the big boy (in his part) and say all who were involved in the alleged corruption and voter padding.
But George denied that the police would do something like that. Hudson-Phillips concluded his cross-examination by noting Dhanraj’s portfolio, describing him as a jovial man, and one for whom a calypso was even penned — “Wine Dhanraj Wine.” Cassel, who leads Assistant DPP Devan Rampersad and prosecutors Angelica Teelucksingh and Cheron Raphael, closed the State’s case yesterday. When hearing resumes today, Hudson-Phillips, who leads Ravi Rajcoomar, Prakash Ramadhar and Jennifer Hudson-Phillips, will decide whether Dhanraj will use his option to testify.
A MAN accused of being a serial rapist in Miami has left behind a wife and children in Trinidad, according to a report in the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel. Reynaldo Elias Ra-palo made his first appearance before a Miami judge last week and was formally charged with attacking a number of women and children in Miami-Dade County in the past year. Police charged Ra-palo, 32, originally from Honduras, with five counts of sexual battery on a minor and adult, one count of burglary with assault and battery, one count of aggravated stalking, one count of criminal mischief and also with making a threatening phone call. Eleventh Circuit Judge Manny Crespo denied bail on the sexual battery and assault charges. The other charges pertain to an incident four months ago in which Rapalo allegedly smashed the car window of former landlady, Ara-minta Rodriguez. Rodriguez bailed Rapalo out of jail in 2002 after he was charged with aggravated assault but later asked him to leave, prompting him to get violent, Rodriguez said. If convicted, he could get life in prison.
Rapalo, 32, was arrested last week by Miami police investigators conducting surveillance in Little Havana on a different suspect. Rapalo drove through the area, and one of the officers, Sgt Will Golding, noticed Rapalo’s vehicle was similar to one previously described in the rape cases. He also noticed Rapalo acting suspiciously, police said. During last week’s hearing, Rapalo told the judge through an interpreter that he earned about $450 a week at his construction job, and used the money to support three children in Trinidad. He said his children are 11, nine and six years old. Rapalo said he had no savings, and owned only a 1993 Mazda Protege, which is the make and model in which he was arrested. Crespo ordered a public defender to be appointed for Rapalo. Rapalo, a construction worker, has numerous addresses and has been living in Miami on an expired visa, police said. “We had no tips about (Rapalo), and he was not a suspect,” said Angel Calzadilla, executive assistant to Miami police chief, John Timoney.
Orfelia and Julio Cesar Martinez, former landlords of Rapalo, said they have known him three years and saw him just last month. The Martinezes met Rapalo in 2000, when he rented an apartment in a building they managed along the 1500 block of Southwest Sixth Street in Miami. Orfelia Martinez said she also is from Honduras and often cooked for him. “He always treated me with respect,” she said. “I don’t think he would have hurt me.” However, Martinez’s husband, Julio Cesar Martinez, told a different story. He said when the men were alone together, Rapalo said crude sexual things about women and hollered vulgarities at them on the street. “He never talked about problems, never complained. But with women he was disrespectful,” he said. The rapist’s victims ranged in age from 11 years old to 79. He attacked at random, raped at least seven women and attempted to rape three more, police say.
