PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning has advised citizens to be prepared for “a full-fledged onslaught on the criminal elements that are plaguing the nation” in the coming months. This advice was given in his address to mark today’s 27th anniversary of our Republic status.
In the address, Manning said reduction of crime was a key focus of his government, having recognised that citizens have “entrusted us with the responsibility of creating a safe environment and that Independence and Republicanism can only be truly celebrated in a peaceful context.” He also noted that together with modernisation of our crime management system, the social services delivery systems must also be strengthened together with the education system. He, said however, all those things must take place in the context of sustainable development. He also said the occasion was a special opportunity to “unite as we acknowledge our past accomplishments, seize our present potential and plan for our promising future.” He told citizens the “complete power to decide the direction of this nation lies with you,” but that came with the responsibility of “firmly and finally setting aside our partisan interests and our differences to move this nation forward.” Manning said the essence of Republican status was “progress that touches and enlarges the lives of every citizen.”
HIGH COURT Judge Mark Mohammed yesterday ordered legal clerk Dorean Dyall to pay costs to Dr Earl Brewster and Stanley’s Medical Clinic after an application to amend the $85,000 lawsuit of medical negligence brought against the doctor and the St Clair-based clinic was denied.
The decision followed an application made by Dyall’s attorney Odai Ramischand to have the medical negligence claim amended to include that on July 14, 1995, Dr Brewster caused a splint retriever to be lodged in Dyall. Dyall, 45, stated that she suffered special and aggravated damages amounting to $85,000 as a result of surgeries performed on her by Brewster. On July 6, 1995, Brewster performed a surgery to remove Dyall’s fibroid and clear the blockage of her fallopian tubes while in 1998, a hysterectomy was performed on Brewster at Stanley’s Medical Clinic in St Clair. After the surgery, in 1995, Dyall was informed that a splint, which had been placed in her fallopian tubes to protect them from blockage, had to be removed within one week. When Dyall returned, Brewster inserted a steel instrument into her to remove the splint. The procedure became too painful, and Dyall told Brewster to stop.
In passing judgment yesterday, Justice Mohammed explained that the application, which was filed in February 1995, had been filed too late according to Section 27 of the Medical Board Act. He explained that the professional services had been terminated with the removal of the splint and the splint remover, and pointed out that there was no connection between the surgery performed in 1995 and the surgery in 1998. As a result of these findings, Mohammed denied the application and ordered that Dyall pay Brewster’s and Stanley’s Medical Clinic’s cost in any event. Brewster was represented in the matter by attorney Douglas Mendes and Shabiki Cazabon, while Stanley’s Medical Clinic was represented by Simeon de la Bastide, instructed by Lisa Fulchan. Ramischand and Nisha Persad appeared on behalf of Dyall.
NEWLY installed president of the South Trinidad Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Dr Jim Lee Young, has said that Government’s 2020 vision is little more than a “pie in the sky.”
Lee Young, who assumed the presidency of the powerful southern business organisation, lamented that after 40-odd years of Independence, the country was still plagued by “high unemployment, rising crime, no effective social security system and a backward health care system.” The tough talking businessman also slammed Government’s inability to revise the tax regime for on-shore oil production saying the reasons given were “not acceptable.” “Only through commerce and business can we reach developed-nation status, and the State must realise that it is not the engine of growth or national development. It is the businesses. They are just the drivers,” he said. Lee Young is the general manager of Venture Production Limited, and was the Chamber’s vice-president of energy under outgoing president, Wayne Moze.
The newly-formed Miss Trinidad and Tobago/World committee went all out in fine style on Monday night, to present to the media and public, the new Miss Trinidad and Tobago/World 2003 Magdalene Walcott. Walcott, 21-year-old, 5’11” beauty will leave later this year for the December 6 International Pageant which will be held for the first time in China.
In accepting the title, Walcott said she felt very privileged and honoured to be chosen to represent the country and carried out her first duty when she presented a token gift to her predecessor Janelle Rajnath. Earlier at the launch, held at the Trotters Sports Bar on Maraval Road, National Director Peter Elias said: “I acknowledge that to meet the challenge ahead, a team of knowledgeable professionals, experts in their field, needed to be established.” In this regard, Elias has sourced the talents of Allyson Brown, Michelle Khan, Kama Maharaj, Jacqueline Elias-Hadeed and Adrian Raymond, along with other sub-committee members. The committee itself has already succeeded in getting a number of sponsors including Sacha Cosmetics, American Airlines, Trotters, La Tropicale, Islandevents.com, Ate Logo, Zero Gravity, Long Circular Club, Peter Elias Boutiques, Inn Collection and Sagicor, the company at which the new Miss TT/World is employed.
Elias also said it was the commitment of their team to bring greater national pride to Trinidad and Tobago. They will be dedicated in the battle against cancer. In conjunction with the Cancer Society. The team is also responsible for training representatives to participate in the Queen of the World Pageant to be held in Germany next year, and in the Miss Caribe Hibiscus Pageant in St Maarten in November. On Monday, Maria Stewart and Renee Sloane-Seale were presented as the representatives for those respective competitions. After remarks from some of the key members of the team, Miss World 1986 Giselle Laronde-West gave her endorsement, which she ended by saying: “Anything you would like to achieve and you are a woman, talk to Peter.” The stylish reception that followed the formal proceedings saw a number of high profile personalities including Olympic medalist Ato Boldon, Jamaican High Commission Lorne Mc Donnough, Minister John Rahael, Boscoe and Sheila Holder, William Aguiton, Jenny Basdeo of Jenny’s on the Boulevard, beautician Yvonne Popperwell and other former Miss TTs.
President George Maxwell Richards has queried Trinidad and Tobago’s image as a rainbow country, and has warned of applying “irrelevant imports” to our ethnic situation, in his Republic Day message today.
He noted the hardships suffered by our indigenous peoples, and immigrants like African slaves, East Indian indentured labourers, and the Chinese immigrants of 1802. Saying “divide and rule” had historically caused some fear, competition and suspicion to our detriment, he noted that generally in reality people had made accommodations and lived harmoniously especially in non-urban areas. But Richards alerted: “Nevertheless confrontational attitudes based on race and inevitably religion have been rising to the surface, and there is no gain saying that the image of Trinidad and Tobago as a ‘rainbow country’ in which all our people live in harmony is seriously threatened…Moreover from the evidence of acrimony and misunderstanding that is coming forth, we seem not to have taken the trouble to work consciously and seriously at forging a truly cohesive nation. It now seems that we have been flying a flag of unity for the world to see, but we have not been checking beneath the ground on which that flag is planted.”
Richards suggested that now was a good time to ask whether we wanted to maintain a melting of peoples or to preserve our varied cultures intact, although noting that the two positions may not be mutually exclusive. The President then warned: “There is too much evidence of internecine conflict all over the world for us to be complacent about ourselves. We must know that we are not victims of race, skin colour or circumstance and we should guard against adopting solutions to our challenges that are irrelevant imports.” He urged that we make Trinidad and Tobago one of the best countries in the world by using qualities derived from our various ancestors such as discipline, frugality, tenacity, hard work, respect, order and God-given talent. Saying it was our own task to build this country, Richards observed: “We must require of our leaders no more commitment to duty than we are prepared to make ourselves.”
Trainee fireman, Dave Jackson, 26, died yesterday under mysterious circumstances at the Chaguaramas Fire Service Training College, and firemen’s representatives are calling for an immediate evacuation of the facility.
Reports are that Jackson may have died from Leptospirosis and/or Dengue Fever. President of the Fire Services Association (Second Division) Lennox London urged that the 30 or so fire officers located at Chaguaramas be immediately relocated for the while. He said that for the past two months, trainees had complained of high mosquito infestation around the college. A few trainees had been diagnosed as infected with dengue fever. One even had to be hospitalised, he added. London said that despite his complaints to the Ministry of Health, “nobody is taking us on.” It is understood that Ministry officials have since visited to spray for mosquitos, but did not lay bait for rats which are the vector for Leptospirosis.
A WOMAN testified in the San Fernando High Court yesterday that when she went to clean a house in Syne Village she found “two human feet” in a bath tub.
State witness Denise Rousseau, said she ran to the living room and called out to Benedict Innis, who burst into tears and started screaming when he went to the bathroom and viewed the human remains, which belonged to Innis’ 70-year-old grandmother Ursula. Under a water tank outside the house was the decomposing body of Ursula’s common-law husband Selwyn Grant. Mookesh Chandardath, 35, and Zanna Andrews, 26, are on trial for the double-murder, before Justice Herbert Volney and a 12-member mixed jury in the First Criminal Assizes of the San Fernando High Court. Attorney Chateram Sinanan is representing Chandardath while Ian Gray, instructed by Faraaz Mohammed, is representing Andrews. Rousseau also of Syne Village, testified that on September 16, 1999 around 5 pm, Innis took her to his grandparents’ home at No 1 Allen Drive. On entering the back door, Rousseau said she saw the house ransacked and detected a foul stench. Rousseau said she started to clean the kitchen area, while Innis was switching on lights in the house. She added that after a few minutes, Innis went into the living room and called out to her, telling her to take the lights off in the bathroom. Rousseau said as she was about to switch the lights off, she saw “two human feet covered with clothes” in the bath tub, with the toes upwards and the soles facing her.
Rousseau said she and Innis made a report at the Siparia CID and a party of officers accompanied them back to the house. Another State witness Lawrence Callendar, who was a neighbour and friend of Grant, told the court he noticed Grant missing around the middle to the end of July, 1999. Callendar, who tended a garden opposite Grant’s house, said he later saw “an Indian fella” whom he pointed out in court as being Chandardath, driving Grant’s Commodore car. “I asked him (Chandardath), ‘I ain’t see the two old people for a few days. Where are they?’ He told me they were somewhere in La Romaine by their family,’” Callendar said. Also testifying yesterday was Chandardath’s mother-in-law Maureen Charles who said while her daughter Maria was married to Chandardath, she (Maria) returned home to Penal Rock Road, Penal, after experiencing problems with Chandardath’s mother. Charles said on August 8, 1999 — Chandardath’s birthday — he took Maria to live with him at an apartment at Allen Drive. Some nine days later, Charles testified, she went to visit Maria at the apartment. “When I walked in, I got a very stink smell and I asked them what was smelling. They said it was some dead rat or something about the place.” The case continues on Thursday.
DIRECTOR of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Geoffrey Henderson has sent back the file in which at least three police officers have been implicated in a car switching scam, sources said yesterday.
However, sources said there were no instructions. Newsday learnt that DPP Henderson has two concerns which need to be cleared up. After this is done, sources said, investigators will re-submit the bulky file to the DPP for directions. The file was sent to the DPP’s office early September after Sunday Newsday published a special report on the alleged incident which involved the switching of a black Nissan Sunny, registration number, PAS 2455. The vehicle was reportedly stolen from the Santa Cruz Police Station on a Sunday night (August 26, 2001) on the pretext that it was going to the Forensic Science Centre for testing. This has proven to be an untruth, since Yolanda Thompson Director of the Forensic Science Centre, said the car in question never came to the station in the year 2001.
The sister of murder victim Jamal Jerome wept while giving evidence before Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls in the Port of Spain Magistrates’ Court yesterday. Farlan Jerome, 20, and five months pregnant, testified along with Corporal Clevon Brown of the Port-of-Spain CID, and a 13-year-old girl. They were cross-examined by State attorney Marissa Gomez and defence attorney, Wayne Sturge. To date, 13 people have testified in the inquiry.
Jamal was shot dead at his Gonzales Terrace, Gonzales home by gunmen pretending to be police officers. His sister Sheriffa was also shot in her chest but survived the attack. Shondelle Riley, 26, of Maloney Trace, East Dry River, is charged with the murder. The charge was laid by Acting Inspector Glenn Sylvester of the Belmont Police Station. Riley was reportedly stabbed in the leg and head while in prison. When he appeared before Magistrate Mc Nicolls in June, he was bleeding from the stab wounds and was ordered to be taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital for treatment. He was then allegedly attacked again in prison and his foot was injured a second time. His attorney Wayne Sturge told Mc Nicolls yesterday that his client was not receiving any medical attention for injuries sustained while in prison. “Mr Sturge you said your client had not received any medical attention, yet I see a fresh bandage around his foot,” Mc Nicolls said, after he saw Riley’s foot. Sturge then explained that his client had only changed the bandage, but did not get any pills or pain killers for the injury. The Chief Magistrate made an application for Riley to be admitted to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital for medical attention. The matter was adjourned to September 30.
A 45-page report — compiled by the Trinidad and Tobago Citizens Agenda Network (TT Can) highlighting citizens views and action plans on ways to “Transform Local Government…Create Comm-unity Well Being” — will be distributed to Prime Minister Patrick Manning, Ministers and Members of Parliament.
One of the plans in the report suggests that Government implement stiffer penalties for all crimes, reform the education system and Police Service and strengthen Local Government. TT Can’s Coordinator, Sheilah Solomon, at the launch of the report yesterday at DOMA’s Henry Street offices, said the report arose out of a two-day National citizens consultation held earlier this year at the Centre of Excellence.
She explained that while some of the over 400 individuals and groups which participated felt there should be stiffer penalties. There was also the view that the penalties should apply to all offenders, irrespective of the criminal’s social status. She said participants, like the rest of the country, expressed the opinion that “crime was unacceptable” and there should not only be reactive, but proactive measures to deal with the issue.
In the report, participants further suggested more community policing, the use of community leaders and human resources to develop skills training, educational and career programmes, the need for literacy skills programmes and even the expansion of programmes like the Best Village competition, national sports and counselling services. Solomon said citizens identified as positive elements to tackle crime, the Crime Stoppers programme, more community policing, persons speaking out against crime and untapped willing human resources with varied experiences and skills. Among the constraints identified included fear of corruption at all levels, breakdown in the education system and illiteracy, unemployment and gang affiliation. The consultation was a collaborative effort between TT Can and the Ministry of Local Gove-rnment. The State financed the consultation while a number of corporate citizens financed the publication of the report.
Solomon said the conference allowed citizens to understand that they had the responsibility to establish an agenda for society to ensure a better way of life for all. She said the present reality was such that, “Governance arrangements do not provide for the voices of citizens to be heard consistently.” An examination of several issues, including crime prevention, sustainable livelihoods and differently abled citizens under the heading “Create Community Well-being”, as well as the citizens’ agenda, human resources and relations with Central Government under the heading “Transform Local Government” were discussed. At yesterday’s launch, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government, Terrance Jurawan, accepted copies of the report on behalf of Minister Jarrette Narine and Prime Minister Patrick Manning. TT Can will soon issue a brochure with what action citizens can take to “save TT”.
