THE EDITOR: The parcel of land on which the Chaguanas North Government Primary School has been built was acquired by compulsory acquisition by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, Ministry of Education. This land had to be allocated by the developers of the Orchard Gardens Housing Development before approval was given to them to build the housing settlement. The developers got permission by the Town and Country Planning Division to develop the settlement provided that land was allocated for a primary school and a playground. When I decided to buy a home in Orchard Garden North, assurance was given to me by the developers that a primary school will be built on the allocated parcel of land to accommodate the children from the housing settlement. There are over 300 home owners in the Orchard Gardens North Housing Settlement.

On more than one occasion, the developers tried to build additional houses on the land that was allocated for the primary school. The residents have always informed the Ministry when any attempt was made to re-acquire the parcel of land that was allocated for a primary school. The residents of Orchard Gardens North waited several years before the Ministry decided to build the primary school. Now that the school has been completed, residents are hearing through the media that the Minister of Education has seen it fit to relocate an entire primary school in the school that was built to accommodate the children of Orchard Gardens North. This was done without informing the residents. This highhandedness by the Minister of Education is a blunder on her part and the residents of Orchard Gardens North await an explanation from her as to where the children of Orchard Gardens North will be housed.

L RAMPERSAD
Orchard Gardens North

THE EDITOR: I wholeheartedly agree with your opinion on the posture that Dr Hari Maharaj has taken about the suitability of the Cuban doctors, ability to treat the people of Trinidad. If Dr Maharaj or one of his family were to be diagnosed with some serious condition which required more advanced diagnostic evaluation, he would not hesitate to rush off to the Mayo clinic or some other equally renowned institution in the US. I suspect that this position is more of a political construct than a medical one.

RAWLE RAMDWAR
Canada

THE EDITOR: I was reviewing some newspaper clippings in search of information to support my view that anyone replacing Howard Chin Lee as Minister of National Security can only hope to do a better job with public relations, when I saw the headline: “Daily-paid workers march for better deal.” What interested me most in the details of the report was the statement made by the President of NUGFW Robert Giuseppi that “the main issue of protest was the lack of collective bargaining by employers in both the public and private sectors. They are showing total disrespect and disregard for collective bargaining.” It caught my attention because Mr Giuseppi has it all wrong. It is not disrespect for collective bargaining, it is all about the old policy of discrimination and disrespect for blue collar workers generally and moreso, government daily-paid (GDP) workers, by successive Governments since 1976 with the collaboration of the politically tainted leadership of NUGFW from 1976 to 1986. Had fate been kinder to GDP workers, the news report headline would have read: “Daily-paid public servants march for better deal.” Whatever disrespect GDP workers are experiencing today is the result of betrayal and poor leadership that destroyed the dream of former GDP workers to be recognised, respected and treated as daily-rated public servants with job security and a pension plan.

The dream was pursued in 1957 with the formation of the National Union of Government Employees (NUGE) to represent “only” Government workers. NUGE was built on the principle of merging with other unions representing GDP workers and the union’s policy was to build self-esteem among the workers, show respect and demand the same from Government representatives. The performance of the General Council was evidence of a new dawn for trade unionism in TT. In 1960, however, fate dealt GDP workers and their organisation a fatal blow when its first President General Stephenson Sargeant Snr, father of a former Mayor of Port-of-Spain, a monthly paid employee with TTEC, was forced to resign the post. It was a tragic loss to the leadership of NUGE as he had the right image and commitment to the cause of GDP workers. Following the election of a new President General, it was evident that the internal stability of the union was taking a new direction and, early in 1962, the arteries of democracy were slowly becoming clogged. The first assault on the union’s democracy was the systematic dismantling of the structure and autonomy of Divisions and Sectional Unions upon which the national body was built, reducing them to the status of glorified ordinary branches with little influence.

To cut a very long history short, by the year 1967 the culture of maximum leadership was present in the union and the “yes-men” took NUGE into a merger with a dying Federated Workers Trade Union (FWTU) that was organising Tom, Dick and Mary. The merger delivered a caesarian birth of the National Union of Government and Federated Workers (NUGFW) with a false birth certificate — date the union was established — that makes it 30 years older than the date it was born in the year 1967. It is interesting to see what GDP workers benefitted from the ill conceived merger between the NUGE and the FTWU: (1) The workers are still waiting on a pension plan after 37 years of negotiations. (2) Over the years, GDP workers have traded substantial wage increases and other benefits for “job security” that never materialised. (3) They were denied the opportunity to gain respect and to lift themselves above the similarities of URP.(4) They have learnt the hard way that it is bad business for trade unions to hold on to the shirt tail of Governments in power. The 37 years of discrimination and neglect perpetrated against GDP workers by successive Governments, as their employer, is a living proof that politicians had lost their moral and spiritual values many years ago as far back as 1961, when the first proposal for a pension plan was made at the Joint Industrial Council (JIL).

WYCLIFFE MORRIS
Former Director of Education
NUGFW

THE EDITOR: I find it distressing that Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj should now seek to further impose harsh and unusual punishment on the psyche of retrenched sugar workers by creating an expectation that will not come to pass. Mr Maharaj knows that his rhetoric is more than nine months too late. He is, in the proverbial expression, closing the stable door after the horses have bolted. If, indeed, Mr Maharaj was serious about fighting for sugar workers to retain their jobs, or receive an enhanced Voluntary Separation Employment Plan, he would have told them nine months ago, like the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers did, not to sign up for the PNM’s VSEP. He didn’t. Or, Mr Maharaj could have joined with the union and argued against the PNM action when the union took the matter before the Industrial Court. And, of course, he could have enlisted the support of the same international Human Rights organisations and the US Congress in that struggle for sugar workers.

It would have been legitimate then, for Mr Maharaj to organise the so-called massive day of solidarity to make an intervention that would have forced the PNM to re-think their inhumane plan against sugar workers. But Mr Maharaj chose to remain silent and instead kept a hands off approach. You are very late, Mr Maharaj. And I ask whether you had a specific agenda for this policy of silence. Is it because you did not want to interfere with the mistaken PNM strategy that by destroying the sugar industry you destroy the UNC’s base. Or is it that you reckon that the time is now appropriate for you to advance that PNM strategy. On both counts you are wrong! Taking the Caroni issue to the courts, the Human Rights organisations and the US Congress now is a lot of misguided foolishness. It is rubbish and a waste of time. My question to Mr Maharaj is, do you reasonably believe that the Manning Admini-stration will listen to any objections lodged by Human Rights organisations or the US Congress. Or, do you reasonably believe that the US Ambassador in Port-of-Spain will intervene on behalf of sugar workers? Come on, Mr Maharaj, get real man! What I find sad about Mr Maharaj’s ranting and raving with a miniscule of retrenched workers was that when ATSGWTU made the point that the severance calculations were incorrect, he said nothing.

Some of those same workers in Mr Maharaj’s audience ignored the union’s advice and proceeded to sign up for the same incorrect VSEP calculations. For the records, the union did take up the matter with the company. Then, why today is Mr Maharaj blaming the union for not raising the matter. Surely it amounts to political mischief. The fact is the union did raise these red flags long before Mr Maharaj did. The point must be made that the union was forced to capitulate on its stand to hold out on the VSEP after workers went ahead and signed up. Clearly the union had no alternative but to go along to ensure that all workers benefitted from the enhanced offer. I have no problem if Mr Maharaj wants to develop a political base in central Trinidad. That’s his democratic right. But, please do so with honesty and truth. Don’t prey on the distress of others for personal and selfish gains. At this stage, the retrenched sugar workers don’t need any pie-in-the-sky hope that they will get back their jobs or that their VSEP packages will be further enhanced by the PNM. That will not happen! What the retrenched workers need is advice on how best to invest the severance payments and how best they can re-tool and re-train themselves to enter the labour market. Indeed, both ATSGWTU and the Hindu Credit Union have developed strategies that would ease these retrenched Caroni workers into a life after the destruction of the sugar industry. They must be applauded because, really, that is what matters now!

HARRY PARTAP
MP Nariva

THE EDITOR: Whatever is said of our Art, there is never the realisation that there is a disparity between the Christian and the practice of Art. It has been found that few artists may be considered deeply interested in religion. There has been a moral decadence in sacred art that has resulted in men who may be religious to despise art. The art of the Christian is the art of the European civilisation. Ancient Greece and Renaissance Italy belong to the world and the art of all people. It is the public that must provide the environment to make of men artists, even geniuses especially by those inspired by the Creative Spirit. We cannot cause men of genius to be born but we can provide a public ie ourselves for the artist, to encourage him to be an artist.

The source of our energy comes from the spirits within us. Art owes its origin in part to the influences revealed in figures found in caves when crude sketches of religious ceremonies conveyed the thought that artists hoped to acquire power over the spiritual forces to secure temporal blessings. That this has given way to spiritual powers is real and abiding. Sculpture as pagan art was declining when Christianity arose. Art of the naturalist is fully developed in the sacred art of China and Japan in which rivers, plants and animals are represented with delight and interest. Buddhism which adopted the teaching of Greek Art of Alexander the Great was introduced into China and India as religious art. It centered on the representation of the founder of Buddhism narrating his life and previous stages of existence.

In China and Japan there are two religions, one of nature worship and the other of the ascetic religion of Buddhism which was imported from India in the beginning of the era. In the early art of Egypt the monumental art was solemn, stately and religious in character. They were devoted to the gods and kings. However in the painting on the walls and tombs the artist showed material object, perhaps meant for the pleasure and enjoyment of the dead. When Christianity was re-established by Saint Augustine in the sixth century AD its ideals began to irrigate the minds of the Saxon conquerors; a revival of interest in building began. It was religion that demanded a setting appropriate to its pomp and mystery. What came out of our Roman Catholic Churches is a reflection of this. The powerful impression of the mosaic and glass walls, the solemnity of its beauty, the way it belongs to the grandeur of the great churches, there is something deep in us that answers to the vibration of it.

That solemn embrace one feels within the magnificent structures is attributed to their scale and the form of their structural members. They are, in addition to lending support, making a statement for spiritual upliftment. The evolution of art was created by men of genius who were inspired by the creative spirit. The love of beauty is itself religious since beauty is one of the forms in which the divine element in the world is revealed. Chinese architecture was basically secular because  Chinese civilisation was not based on or dominated by any typical religious form. The pagoda, originally a Buddhist form in building was built to house the sutras of some sacred object and painting. It was the patronage of the princely house of the Italian cities that created the Renaissance Art, just as it was the patronage of the great ecclesiastical function which brought Gothic Architecture into being. Architects are constantly making statements by their work and it is the responsibility of society to recognise this in evaluating the efforts they are making in creating an environment worthy for living. It is the art that gives value to our lives by the space created for pleasurable and productive past time and for this, we must encourage and respect them for their efforts.

W H BENJAMIN
Reg Chartered Architect
Valsayn

THE EDITOR: Pope John Paul in September 1987 said:  “If you want equal justice for all, and true freedom, and lasting peace, then defend life….. respect every human person, especially the weakest and most defenseless ones, those as yet unborn.” This I believe. Calling for the legalisation of abortion in our nation is calling for our government to give its approval to the child killing industry.  Yes, I know the problem of abortion is huge, but so also is murder, drug pushing, theft, kidnapping and banditry (by very young adults). Should we not seek ways to eliminate all of the ills of society, rather than seek an unjust law? Dr Martin Luther King, Jr writing from a Birmingham jail noted: “There are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.  I would agree also with St Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.’  Now, what is the difference between the two? … A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God.

An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St Thomas Aquinas: “an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.” And that is the crux of the matter. The real casualty of abortion, besides the babies who die, the women who suffer and the doctors who do the killing, is our own humanity. Every society is judged by the way it treats its defenseless and dependent. If we continue on this path toward inhumanity, our society, will certainly perish. The process of guilt and dehumanization, already begun, will devour us in time. We must feel some pain for the families that are destroyed, the fathers who are thrust aside and the mothers who are deceived into becoming infanticidal accomplices, then brutally (though medically) raped and discarded on the dung heap of their own confusion, sorrow and despair. But the heart of our effort is compassion for the most helpless ones of all: the babies. Can any one deny this most pure arena for compassion — the grisly abortion procedure: the cold sharpness of the instruments, the undeniable physical and psychological development of the victim’s body, and the pain. This we have seen, and I challenge the production managers at TTT and TV6 to place before your audience any of the films — “Eclipse of Reason”, “Massacre of Innocence”, or “Hard Truth.” I know that Trinidadians and Tobagonians will cry in horror for the lives of these children as I have witnessed. Is it too graphic? Not really, when compared with much of what is shown on any night on our local television stations. But it is utterly gruesome, because it is real, it is devastating to the human person to see a baby ripped from its mother’s womb, limb by limb and its skull crushed.

The world did nothing to stop the holocaust in Germany until the brave men of the media smuggled out of that country pictures of the mangled human bodies. I remember seeing these pictures in the cinemas and I was not yet eight. Yet it was very vivid to me and I still remember those bodies. The next time I saw such images was many decades after, in our present time. The pictures of aborted babies. At present we put figures where human bodies should be, and that suits the pro-abortionists, for as Josef Stalin observed —“One death is a tragedy: a million deaths is a statistic.” Yes, generalisation is a buffer against both guilt and sorrow. True Christianity, unconditional love, speaks of dying for the beloved of God — and who can be more beloved of God than innocent children? Let us not forget that the last words of Jesus were spoken to women, even as he absorbed all evil — even unto death: “Do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves, and for your children….”  The echo  of those words can still be heard loud and clear. Be still and listen.

Maria Annette Dopwell
Port-of-Spain

THE EDITOR: On occasions, I am deeply amazed at the behaviour and orientation of some police officers at varying levels. The fundamental purpose of this letter is a result of a personal encounter with police officers during a “road block” exercise. Whilst I applaud the government and by extension, the police service on their new crime initiatives, I need clarity on the process, because a “road block” as I understand it to be, should be holistic in terms of the search. However, it appears that only your driver’s permit and insurance are necessary (as was requested from my husband.)

Surely, if this is the process, then drivers would be allowed to escape with illegal items both on their person as well as in their car trunks. But apparently, instead of using a holistic approach in their search, these police officers prefer to use “intimidatory and pedestrian” language to make their point to drivers. My own observation tells me, that the behaviour of some police officers, is a clear manifestation of their own insecurities, anxieties, inhibitions, lack of self-confidence as well as their limited educational attainments. My own view is that the Police Service should arrange for selected officers (at both junior and senior levels) to attend training sessions in “Customer relations” and “Basic Literacy and Numeracy.” This training can only be value-added to the individual officers, and by extension the Police Service. In closing, I wish to reiterate that the philosophy of “Vision 2020” will never be successful unless attitudinal change occur, and I refer specifically here to law enforcement officers. I was privileged to interact with law enforcement officers in the United States of America, Canada and England and, there is definitely a huge gap in attitude and approach between international and local officers. The change must begin now!

MARY LOU BROWN
Port-of-Spain