N Touch

Small fire put out at Petrotrin

UP TO yesterday evening, firemen were still at the scene of a small fire at one of the cooling towers on the compound of State-owned Petrotrin in Pointe-a-Pierre. The origin of the fire is yet to be determined.

Petrotrin’s Corporate Communication’s Manager, Arnold Corneal, told Newsday that around 5.15 pm, he received a phone call informing him that Cooling Tower 17, located on the eastern side of the refinery, was on fire. He said the company’s fire service responded and was able to extinquish the flames. Up to late yesterday, fire officials were still at the scene ensuring that the fire did not re-ignite. Corneal said he could not determine the cost of damage incurred. “No lives were at any time in jeapordy. Everything is under control and in fact, we have people at the tower right now ensuring that the fire is well and truly doused,” Corneal said. Investigations are continuing.

Scotiabank reports $145.2M increase in profits

Scotiabank Trinidad and Tobago Limited and its subsidiaries have reported an after tax profit of $145.2 million for the period ended July 31, 2003, an increase of 11.2 percent over the comparative period one year ago.

Total revenue, comprising net interest income and other revenue, was $393.6 million, an increase of 6.5 percent or $24 million over the similar period last year. Net interest income stood at $285.3 million, up $24 million or 9.2 percent from the 2002 figure, during a period of continually declining interest rates and high liquidity across the banking sector. Other revenue, which includes commissions and fees, was recorded at $108.3 million, and remained in line with the same period of 2002. Total assets, as at July 31, 2003, were $7.781 billion. This was an increase of $544 million or 7.5 percent over the same period last year. Cash resources, for the quarter, increased by $275 million, while the continued soft credit demand has resulted in a marginal decline in net loans outstanding. Investments have grown by $288 million or 71 percent over the period last year, while deposits are recorded at $5.3 billion, basically flat over the same period.

Earnings per share (EPS) for the same period was 123.5 cents, compared to 111.0 cents over the similar period last year. Return on Average Equity (ROE) for the period was 23.07 percent and the Productivity Ratio of 42.27 percent remains one of the strongest in the sector. The group continued to strengthen its capital through growth in earnings. Total shareholders equity grew to $884 million, $136 million or 18.2 percent higher than the previous year. The Board of Directors has resolved that the bank pay a third interim dividend of 17 cents per ordinary share payable on October 1, 2003 to shareholders on record at September 8, 2003.

Beware of the computer virus

THE EDITOR: There are many very intelligent discussions about viruses and worms etc that “attack” computer systems. Unfortunately, many of these discussions do not adequately address the “down to earth” prevention/hazards that are caused by such events.

Most computer systems in use today operate using a Microsoft based operating system. There are several other “brands” of operating systems, UNIX, LINUX, MAC OS X etc that are not susceptible to many of the virus/worm attacks that target Microsoft operating systems. There are destructive viruses/worms and many that are merely nuisances. Most of the viruses/worms today exploit “holes” in operating systems that render them vulnerable. It is analogous to having your house perfectly “burglar proofed” with the exception of one side door that is left ajar. So what does the average computer user do? The first necessity is the use of a suitable “anti-virus” software package, which is regularly updated (daily). Let me emphasise that once you install the anti-virus software, you must keep it updated. Next, you must do all operating system updates; sometimes you can set them to do so automatically, or sometimes manually.

If like most computer users, you connect occasionally to the Internet, it is important that you do these updates as a matter of course, just before you check your e-mail. For those users who do not use the Internet, you can get a friend to download updates on a CDR for you and run them on your computer. Bear in mind that all viruses/worms enter your computer from “outside” media or connections, namely the Internet, diskettes and CDs. Anything that is opened or run on your computer needs to be scanned and checked for viruses/worms. When a computer system is affected by a virus/worm, there is no telling what will happen depending on the actual threat and how many users share your computer. A disk taken from your office to work on at home, going back and forth, may compromise both your home and office systems. The corruption of data that may be impossible to recreate or restore. The value of damage can be very high. Indeed, many organisations are so ashamed or embarrassed that their systems have been attacked, that they will never report or admit that their systems are not secure.


PRADEEP LATCHMAN
IT Consultant

Each TT citizen owns 3m barrels

THE EDITOR: Trinidad and Tobago, as a matter of national pride should move to fill the ICC penalty imposed on us for standing up as a nation in support of the International Criminal Court. Cabinet should find the money at home to keep our army equipped, trained and proud.

We must not act like a woman who, having been divorced by a husband for asserting her independence, like getting a job, for example, advertises for a new husband or goes begging some other man to marry her to cover her costs. She then leaves herself open to abuse verbally and otherwise from the man who rescued her from poverty; Instead such a woman should get some job training and find a job. So too with our republic now forty-one years old. I have just come home from Emceeing the 41st anniversary Gala and Scholarship banquet of the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Texas. Our featured speaker Dr Owen Johnson, formerly of San Fernando pointed out that by virtue of the oil finds in and around TT, each citizen owns about three million barrels!

Well, government should re-negotiate the oil agreements that enrich others and leave us poor. Part of the new revenues should provide training and equipment for the army. We must not be a nation of beggars and supplicants. If we are to be truly free, we must be prepared to pay our way. Get trained personnel from other places to upgrade our military skills, yes, and we can train their people to truly dwell together in unity. We have the master plan on religious tolerance, they have better military equipment and skills. Let’s trade, not beg please. The “divorce” based on our independent mindedness concerning the ICC must never happen again. Aid creates dependence. Let us be truly free.


LINDA EDWARDS
Port-of-Spain

Cuban doctors must learn Trini English

THE EDITOR: I was very happy indeed when I read on Monday August 18, headlined in a Newsday column that the Government had warned against complacency in the issue of the Cuban doctors. I took it to mean that serious business was intended and we had moved from the realms of speculation and possibility to actuality. I predict unconditional success in the venture. I will wait and see if others will do the same.

I know of some patients of Trinidad origin, who were successfully treated in Cuba for various ailments. The perception is that Cuban professionals are good practitioners. While the orientation of our friends is being given top priority, I advise that Trinidadian English, its jargon and colloquialisms, be taught with urgency. Perhaps a look at their medical curriculum and syllabus could be an advantage in making assessments. I would like to make the point that communication between doctor and patient is of maximum importance, if not vital. In this question, I have unbounded experience. The doctor who understands the patient’s problem via the medium of dialogue will treat that patient successfully. If the doctor is unable to grasp the intricacies of the complaint, he may have to resort to deeper means within his reach.

I have, on many occasions, left the doctor’s clinic happy and elated. This joyous feeling always having been attained by the pleasant disposition and humour dispensed by the physician. I hope the patients will receive the same pleasure and satisfaction from their conversations with our Cuban friends. I will certainly advise patients to endeavour as much as possible to appreciate the doctors’ good temperament and leave the clinic in a pleasant mood. It is my hope and prayer that our Cuban friends can, by patient understanding, provide some relief which will be improved by prescription and treatment. At the end of three years, their contracts will expire. Some will return home while others may obtain extensions. At any rate, if Trinidad and Tobago does not want to ever again find itself in the predicament which gave rise to the hiring of the Cuban doctors, we will have to take responsibility by offering more scholarships to nationals and by reducing the overall expense of those who have to provide their own means of support at university, thereby making the sum affordable.

Simultaneously, we may invite private firms, including banks, insurance companies, Petrotrin etc to help by offering scholarships. The medical field seems to possess a bright future. At the moment, the Minister of Health should give some consideration to the aged by adding newer medicines to the list of free medications. In this light I hasten to add “Alphagan,” popularly used by glaucoma patients, to the list. It is currently being sold on the market at seventy dollars for a five ml vial. We need help and ask for urgent considerations.


SALER AMEERALI
Chaguanas

President cannot walk the talk

THE EDITOR: Both Mr Subash Ramkhalawan and Pundit Ramesh Tewarie made an impassioned plea in the presence of President George Richards during celebrations marking the anniversary of the Edinburgh Temple on behalf of Caroni workers on Wednesday night (20.8.03).

But to what avail. First, these two respected gentlemen spoke out eight months too late. They should have made their voices heard since January. They should have joined forces with All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Trade Union in advising sugar workers not to sign the VSEP but take to the streets with the union to influence the PNM not to implement that destructive policy decision. Why so late, Mr Ramkhalawan and Pundit Tewarie? Secondly, President Richards is a ceremonial President with no powers to force Prime Minister Manning to change his mind. President Richards can talk. He cannot walk the talk. And, most important, he is Manning’s man in President’s House! Therefore gallerying before him is for the media. It will not help the sugar workers. Joining the union in solidarity marches and public demonstrations way back in December/January would have been more worthwhile and more serious. I am surprised that Mayor Surujattan Rambachan was so impressed with both gentlemen that he even had Mr Ramkhalawan making an intervention on his radio morning programme today. Indeed, indeed! And some have the gall to say that Basdeo Panday did nothing for sugar workers and even blame him for the PNM sin of closing down the industry? Lord, those who have eyes to see, pray let them see!


HORACE MORRISON
Poole

What ‘Sugar Boys’ did for Central

THE EDITOR: It does seem that more hard times are in store for the Wanderers Cricket Team. Already relegated to National Division II, the forecast is that a final death blow is to be delivered with the dismantling and restructuring of the sugar industry. It would be a tragedy if this great outfit, once dubbed the “Sugar Boys,” were to become a casualty of the restructuring exercise.

Even so, Mr Editor, please permit me to place Wanderers’ contribution to the development of Trinidad and Tobago in perspective. In the early 1960’s, the geography of Trinidad was spoken in terms of North and South only. And fed by the popular media, the general perception was that Northerners were of a superior breed. So when Moses Gill (Wanderers/South) shattered Kenny Furlonge’s (Harvard/North) stumps for Wanderers to emerge as National Champs at Gilbert Park in 1961, for all the youngsters watching, the myth of a northern superiority was blown forever. More than that, this victory over the middle class Harvard brought respectability to the lowly-paid working class cane cutter, helping in no small way, to build the self-esteem of the sons and daughters of the sugar industry. More than that, Wanderer’ victory over Queen’s Park in 1959 at Guaracara Park and later over Harvard in 1961 meant that a new definition was being brought to the physical landscape of Trinidad and Tobago.

As an instrument of PR for the sugar industry, slowly but surely, this club was carving out a space, an area, a niche — which in time came to the called Central Trinidad. After this, it was relatively easy to locate East and West in the social geography of Trinidad and Tobago. Still more, it was that club which struck a blow — albeit under the belt — for the democratisation of cricket in Trinidad and Tobago (remember the walk off against Queen’s Park in 1974). This was the catalyst for the Commission of Inquiry into cricket which led to the stripping of Queen’s Park power and eventual formation of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board of Control which, in fact, passed control of the administration of cricket to the people of Trinidad and Tobago. Mr Editor, there is more but I intend to end by saying that this club, nay, this institution has served as an instrument of PR, a provider of psychological nourishment and a vehicle of social change for the people of Central Trinidad in particular, and the country of Trinidad and Tobago in general. Before Basdeo Panday there was only Wanderers. The people of Central Trinidad — ex-players, supporters et al — should ensure that this institution never suffer from neglect and lack of attention. Any restructuring exercise must view Wanderers Cricket as an asset. We must insist that those who are in charge of disposing the assets of Caroni (1975) Ltd know that the successful bidder for Gilbert Park must take the Wanderers Cricket Club with him. For Wanderers Cricket Club and Gilbert Park are inextricably linked.


BERNARD HART
Ex-Wanderers

Sprinting into history

IT IS a credit to the Caricom region that we have again produced a clutch of world-class sprinters. Previously, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica were predominant in this regard but yesterday little St Kitts-Nevis joined the big league when Kim Collins sped to victory in the 100 metre finals at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Paris. The results emphasised the fresh predominance of the region’s sprinters as Collins edged out TT’s 18-year-old star Darryl Brown by a mere one tenth of a second. Both West Indian “pacemen” in fact made history at these championship games. Collins, already the Commonwealth sprint king, yesterday took the world title from Maurice Greene who pulled up lame in the semis.

The tall slim Kittitian, benefiting from an excellent start on the inside lane, led from start to finish. Brown, who didn’t come off the blocks as quickly, showed his class by getting ahead of the rest of the field. The 100m finals, in fact, demonstrated once more the vital importance of getting a good start and it seems to us that Darryl will have to concentrate some more on improving this aspect of his performance. It seemed to us that had Darryl gotten a better start, the results of the race may well have been different. In any case, our contratulations go to the two sprinters who made the people of our region proud by beating the rest of the world yesterday. Apart from his Silver Medal in this premier event, Darryl made history in Paris in two impressive ways. At 18, he is the first World Junior Sprint Champion to reach the 100m finals at the world open championships. And in winning the quarter finals on Sunday he clocked the spectacular time of 10.01 seconds which was not only the fastest run at the Paris championships but also smashed the world junior record for the distance, 10.06, held by Englishman Dwain Chambers.

Yesterday’s finals, seen by millions across the globe, sets the stage for a fascinating rivalry between the world’s two leading sprinters who happen to come from the Caribbean. Also, Darryl’s performance in Paris proved a continuing fulfilment of the promise that TT’s world class teenaged sprinter has shown since he began winning medals at home and the region. His 10.01 now places him second on TT’s list of all-time great sprinting achievements, behind the 9.86 of Ato Boldon who failed to make the Paris finals and ahead of 1976 Olympic gold medallist Hasely Crawford’s 10.06. We may have another reason to be particularly proud of Darryl’s achievement in the French capital yesterday. He achieved his world class status as a sprinter based largely on his training at home where the facilities and level of professional coaching can hardly be considered of the highest standard. So we can safely hail him as a home-grown hero. Earlier this year, Darryl entered Auburn University in the USA where he will now have some of the world’s best coaches to help him. At 18, his achievements are already remarkable. In his new competitive environment and assisted by top class coaching and facilities, the young TT sprinter can only get better. The absolute conquest of the athletic world is virtually at his feet, beginning, hopefully, with the Athens Olympics next year.

Cudjoe’s CEPEP University


 


Dr Selwyn Cudjoe’s campaign in the media is that too many Indian students are excelling in exams and gaining admission to UWI and TTIT and that Afro-Trinidadians are under-represented (Newsday August. 22, 2003). He therefore contends that race should be used as a criterion in the selection of students. Cudjoe sees Trinidad only from one ethnocentric perspective, however the issues he looks at are very selective. It is interesting to note Cudjoe’s relationship with the Coordinator of the Foundation Courses at UWI. Ms Merle Hodge plays an influential role in hiring lecturers of these courses, which are on Academic Writing for Different Disciplines. Her book “Knots in English” is required reading for all students taking these courses. [Interestingly Cudjoe’s Calaloux Publications is the publisher and distributor of this book]. The point in this example is that the university’s gate-keepers that have allowed this Indian admission at UWI are chiefly Africans. It is the grades and merit that have allowed Indians entry not race. 

Cudjoe’s racial admission recommendation however must equally apply to employment in all state enterprises. Accordingly, race must also be a criterion in the recruitment of workers at TSTT, Central Bank, Unit Trust, Port Authority, NALIS, etc. etc. Cudjoe argues that UWI and TTIT must “reflect the multi-racial nature of our society.” This too is the Maha Sabha’s and indeed all Indo-Trinidadians’ position.  We must not look after our own at the expense of the national community therefore on this issue Dr Cudjoe should be supported. But the rules must apply to all, at all times, and everywhere. If the issue is education, then let us also campaign for parity at COSTAATT.  This is a new Government Community College much like Wellesley College where Dr Cudjoe teaches Black Studies. The COSTAATT multi-campus colleges include NIHERST schools, San Fernando Technical Institute, John S. Donaldson Technical Institute, Government Technical Institute, Police Joint Services Staff College,and the Eastern Caribbean Farm Institute. Cudjoe does not care to reveal to the public that more than 80 percent of the staff and students at COSTAATT are non-Indians. 

There is the speculation that when Government opens its new University of Trinidad, given Cudjoe’s influence on the government, it is likely that U of T would be like another CPEPP, filled with party supporters with a degenerate standard like the Afro-Guyanaese Dictator Burnham’s University of Guyana. When Cudjoe writes that “a university education cannot be reduced to grades” one wonders what alternative measurements will be employed. Or is it that ethnicity will be the new matriculation. The real problem that Cudjoe does not want to address lies within himself and the community which he claims to represent. Cudjoe should desist from blaming everyone else for the problem. He cannot blame Indians for the underachievement of Afro-Trinboganians in education. After all, Africans have been, and still are, in control of the Ministry of Education since the birth of the PNM. The problem with African and education is essentially one of culture. In the United States, where Cudjoe lives and teaches, Africans tend to lag behind in schools, colleges and universities. Indians and Asians excel, moreso in medicine, computing and engineering. Africans are to be found in History, Sociology, Literature and Political Science. The UK-based Office of National Statistics recently stated “among men, Black Caribbeans were the least likely to have degrees (eight percent)” while Indians “are the highest performing among students of all groups in Britain”. [Indo-Asian News Service, London, August 13 2003] 

Superintendent Eugene White in Washington Township in the USA chastised Africans for their poor performance in school. The Boston Globe (March 28, 2003) reported him saying to black boys that they worry too much about clothes, jobs, and partying. Is this different in Trinidad? White, who is African-American, said that the statistics spoke for themselves. Only about 43 percent of black male students at North Central passed language arts and math in Indiana’s statewide testing for sophomores, compared with 88 percent of white students in 2001. And black males started last fall with an average grade of C or C-minus compared with the average for white students of B or B-plus. Cudjoe should perhaps turn his attention to the years African students spend before reaching University level. An analysis should be done on students who failed English and Maths in this year CXC. Cudjoe lauds the decision of Grutter v. Bollinger 288 F.3d 732 (6th Cir. 2002). Ironically a 1994 study by the University of Michigan reveals that its policy of achieving racial diversity through the use of racial preferences significantly increases racial tension, isolation, and conflict on campus. The study was recently brought to public attention by Chetly Zarko’s article in the Wall Street Journal (May 16, 2003). The study’s findings and conclusions are at sharp variance with documents prepared by the University after its race-based admissions policies were challenged in 1997 in two cases now before the US  Supreme Court.

These widely promoted documents include UM Professor Patricia Gurin’s expert report, which Michigan submitted as evidence and relied on heavily in both cases.   Recenlty however the US Supreme Court struck down [June 23, 2003] Michigan’s undergraduate admissions system, which awarded 20 points to minority applicants in the admissions process — out of a possible 150 — based solely on their skin color. The court, however, upheld the University of Michigan’s law school admissions policy, which assigns no numerical value to an application based on his or her race, but weighs race significantly in the admissions process. Those opposing Michigan’s race-based admission policies include a long list of prominent US organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League. Clearly the legal and moral debate on this issue is not closed as Cudjoe implies. The real agenda of social engineering for political purposes includes an assault on UWI’s Indo-Trinidadian Principal — Dr Bhoe Tewari. The recent impasse between the doctors and the government has been labelled as political in nature merely because Indians have dominated the medical profession. Cudjoe hopes by imposing these ethnic standards there will be a shifting in the demographics of lawyers, doctors, engineers and other professionals.

Woodbrook suffering from putrid water

THE EDITOR: Please publish this letter to WASA on behalf of the residents of Woodbrook.


TO:The Chief Executive Officer, WASA


Over the past few years, Woodbrook has been afflicted  with the curse of having to use a filthy brown liquid  that is supposed to pass for water, but which, as far as I  am concerned, is more akin to the water that you pass. Frequent complaints to WASA and letters to the press have fallen on deaf ears and we residents have resorted to filtering and boiling the water — others coming to terms with this daily tribulation by saying that there are entire areas in Trinidad and Tobago that would be glad for this abomination because they either do not have any coming through their pipes, or if it does, it is an infrequent supply. I feel really sorry for the people of these communities, but that must not and will not temper the injustice and rage I feel at being denied a proper supply of this essential commodity.  

In despair, my family and I installed a filter near to the source  entry line, but about two years ago, this had to be abandoned because, after two weeks, it became so clogged that absolutely no water could pass through to the pipes. God knows that I, who have inhabited the First World — where  never a single day of those 12 years have I experienced any water problem whatsoever — have tried to make this terrible mental and physical readjustment to the fact that this primary and fundamental necessity is a luxury in this land of ours!  But it is impossible for me to accept this intolerable reality! I read in the press recently that there might be financial redress for those who pay their bills and get no water, but what compensation can ever be given for the havoc wreaked on our bodies, internally and externally, by this travesty of H2O? How can we ever be compensated for the many white and light-coloured clothes and sheets that have become dingy and useless on being washed in unclean water, the numerous  washing machines, water  heaters and tanks, appliances like kettles, taps and the many household surfaces that have, respectively, become dysfunctional and/or  permanently discoloured because of this inferior liquid? The inordinate amount of time and money spent trying to sanitise this ‘water’ which is certainly slowly killing all of us, and for which — Oh supreme irony! — we are handsomely paying you, WASA, is totally counter productive.

According to a policy of the past UNC government, water was intended for all within a very short time frame. The present PNM is aiming at First-world status for this country by 2020.
Whenever I turned on my taps in the past few years and now, the foul flow  belied the first, and makes the prediction of the second, “pie-in-the-sky,” since the water given, under these two regimes, is just good for flushing your toilet — and even that is not good enough since it will eventually discolour your toilet bowl if you do not keep putting Javex in it constantly. I and many people have not forgotten that you WASA were not even competent enough to secure our water resources — I refer to that incident, a few years ago, when a dead body was found in one of your dams. Your incompetence has increased since then, because this  dirty water seems to be steadily deteriorating. We, the residents of Woodbrook and all the people who are suffering from having to use putrid water, or getting no water at all, have to organise a crusade against this infringement of our basic human rights. You, WASA, and the government of Trinidad and Tobago, have been allowed to get away with this criminal behaviour for too long.

I have no doubt that all the people in authority have expensive filter systems and can afford to buy those huge bottles of purified water in the supermarkets. With regard to the latter, our rights to clean water and water, period, are being infringed and abused when the water we should be getting is being used by these industries which the government has permitted to purify and bottle, to sell it to the very people to whom it belongs. A true case of adding insult to injury! I am going to get some legal advice as to what can be done about this criminal negligence of WASA and the government, and start some serious community networking, so that we can bring to bear the force of our collective will. WASA, we demand water for all and clean water for everybody — not that murky mess!!


DIANNE NICHOLLS
Woodbrook resident