AMMAN, Jordan: US Secretary of State Colin Powell will seek to rejuvenate Middle East peace efforts through meetings today with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. He said yesterday in advance that both sides had made a good start toward fulfilling a US-backed peace plan despite continuing violence. Speaking to reporters while flying to Jordan, Powell said there were hopeful signs after violent attacks that claimed lives on both sides after the US-Israeli-Palestinian summit meeting in Aqaba on June 5. As evidence, Powell cited talks between the parties about transferring responsibility for security in northern Gaza from Israeli to Palestinian forces. “They are talking seriously and not talking past one another,” Powell said. “I think that’s progress.” Powell, who arrived here late last night after a brief visit to Bangladesh, had tentative plans for a meeting this morning in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and an afternoon encounter with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. “It’s not anything special,” Powell said. “It’s an opportunity to go in the region since I am in Jordan and get a status report.” Powell’s main purpose for being in the region was to attend a meeting of the World Economic Conference in Jordan on Sunday. He said it was unrealistic to expect that US President George W Bush’s “road map” peace plan would have achieved significant results by now since special envoy John Wolf has only been in the region five or six days. “By Middle East standards, not a lot of time has passed since Aqaba,” Powell said.
If the two sides manage to create “a few footholds” and start to build confidence and trust, “then we should be able to move rather quickly,” Powell said. Key to the whole process, he said, is building up the capability of the Palestinian Authority security forces as quickly as possible. As a first step toward curbing violence against Israelis, militant Palestinian groups must agree to a truce and then their terrorist capabilities must be eliminated, steps that should be carried out in sequence, he said. “If you’re going to start a train going in the other direction, the first thing you have to do is stop it,” Powell said. On the issue of targetted killings, Powell defended Israel’s right to go after “ticking bombs” — situations in which “they know something is coming and can do something about and keep a bomb from going off.” But, he added, “if you expand that circle out to targets that are not ticking bombs, then I think you’re in a different judgment call. You can take somebody out but have you improved chances to get away from this whole environment of strike and counter-strike?” Abbas has been encouraging Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups to halt all attacks against Israel. Hamas official Abu Shanab has insisted the group has a right to target Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank. But he also said the group’s leaders did not rule out the possibility of stopping the attacks. “We are examining the idea,” he said. Powell began his day yesterday by winding up a 36-hour visit to Cambodia, where he attended a meeting of Asia Pacific leaders. He then made a three-hour visit to Bangladesh to show support for one of the few countries that has a Muslim majority population and is committed to democracy.
THE EDITOR: It is unfortunate for NIPDEC that neither Mr Hamel-Smith nor Mr Guerra Attorneys-at-Law were present at the Friday June 13 hearing of the Piarco Airport Inquiry when John Humphrey had the public believe that the Project Management Company (NIPDEC) was responsible for the delays and the increase in cost of the project. With the absence of these key legal personnel this statement could not have been refuted. The fast track method of managing the project which he (JH) claimed to have been used by OBHC on their own recommendation was refuted by Mr Garcia the former NIPDEC General Manager as the method contracted for use on this project. By the application of this method of management BHC took full control of the project making the service of NIPDEC redundant and of no effect. John Humphrey seems to have had complete confidence in BHC in their ability to mange the project in the Fast Track method, a system John Humphrey had no personal experience in implementing. John Humphrey was not professionally qualified to advise and was doing so apparently without Cabinet intervention. Mr Hamel-Smith need now to address these statements with a view to have the public better enlightened.
SHELDON PAUL
Arouca
THE EDITOR: ASPIRE continues to use cartoons to make strong social commentaries about women’s health. Its early picture of a woman in a hospital bed with three men, one each covering his ear or his eyes or his mouth has already been reproduced in South Africa and The Netherlands. Their recent cartoon depicting the government as an ostrich is likely to have similar resonance beyond our shores. The government is depicted as a heavy, flightless bird with its head buried in the sand, determined to ignore the problem of unsafe abortion. Hovering in the clouds above the government is a minister of religion with a smile so radiant it beams through the clouds. If the PNM would like to ‘out-wait’ social action, it seems that the forces are not cooperating. The recent actions by AYSHR, the demonstrations by the disabled and the sustained work by ASPIRE all suggest that they will not go away quietly. We may well be on the cusp of a new face of politics. If the challenges to ‘doctor politics’ is ineffective within the party, it could well be that some transformation could be pushed from the outside. Too many groups are sick and tired of being ignored. The strategy of denial will no longer work.
ASHELLE VOISIN
Maraval
THE EDITOR: Trinidad has become a war zone with all kinds of sophisticated guns that we see on the battlefield, and our lives are more at risk every day with these criminals and their so-called gang wars. Why should Venezuela be used as a scapegoat for the inefficiencies of the Minister in charge and this present government? The Prime Minister found it wise to blame our neighbour Venezuela, shameful isn’t it? They cannot solve the crime situation although they seem to have knowledge of the criminals, and link with them for political reasons and also to win elections. The Minister of National Security says that the assassination attempt was of a known criminal, so they know exactly who the criminals are yet they do nothing to curb the crime situation. Are these people governing or are they a liability to the country? Many people could have been killed at this entertainment centre that fateful night, yet they speak of gang war. The Minister says that the police are concerned with the spate of murders in the country, but all citizens are concerned because we have a government who is incapable of governing yet they want to rule.
People’s lives are in danger all the time with kidnappers and criminal activity plaguing the country. Even a foreigner was kidnapped when he came to this country to shop, what a shame! The government places all our lives in danger when they link themselves with the criminals. The whole country is in danger when these criminals have a field day, running rampant in a way that we have never seen in this country before, even policemen are murdered. Now that the date for the local election has been announced, the ‘mauvais langue’ has started in Trinidad and Tobago. I feel sorry for Trinidad and Tobago. If nothing is done soon, it would be the end of this beautiful country.
HORACE DESORMEAUX
Maraval
THE EDITOR: Please permit me a space in your newspaper to express my gratitude to all those kind souls who helped my mother after her fall on the escalator at Caribbean Cinemas Eight on Sunday. Special thanks to Dr Sampath who was in the right place at the right time, thankfully, and rendered his assistance.
RIA RAMLAKHAN
Valsayn
THE EDITOR: Has a certain trade union leader taken a vow of silence or has cat got her tongue? We have not heard a sound out of this goodly lady for the longest while, in fact since a certain government came into power. Imagine there are public servants out here still awaiting our promised back pay and not one peep out of this lady. I await a sign from this goodly lady that she is still alive and seeking the interests of all her members. If she is, why isn’t she demanding our money for us? Or has she too fallen for the Prime Minister’s lame excuse of “bureaucracy” as the reason for the non-payment of our arrears? I await the lady’s response with interest.
ANITA SINGH
Chaguanas
THE EDITOR: Isn’t it strange how quickly the European Union has taken issue with Cuba on its actions against persons convicted of treason? Such treasonous activities have been engineered by the government of the United States for years using the Cuban mafia operating out of Florida. The United States actively encourages and supports such activities against a small Third World country struggling to create its own political system based on what is best for the vast majority of its people. In any event, the matter is a purely domestic one an action by a government in defence of its sovereignty in keeping with its laws. How strange that the European Union does not contemplate any sanctions against the United States for invading another country, using a lie as a pretext. What sanctions are the European Union going to impose on the United States and Great Britain for the unjustified murder of thousands of Iraqis? The war against Saddam Hussein was not a domestic matter nor was it sanctioned by the United Nations, as is required by international law. What right does the United States or any other country have to invade another sovereign nation, bringing death and destruction and leaving devastation in its wake? The lie is now coming to the fore. There are no weapons of mass destruction, and therefore the war had no justification. But there was no denying George “Dubya” Bush who has now earned his place in history alongside Adolph Hitler as the man who waged war based on a lie.
KARAN MAHABIRSIHGN
Carapichaima
THE EDITOR: Quite often we hear members of the public stating that the youths have nothing to do, and have a lot of time to lime and get themselves in a lot of trouble, and that the government should create employment to give them something to occupy themselves. How ridiculous! Here I am bursting my brain night and day trying to pass my term test and eventually my CXC exams. I have very little time to lime or spend my time idly with nothing to do. Of course I am guided by my parents of the importance of knowledge and to study the wonderful world that exists around us. So who are these youths who have nothing to do? Are these the children who squandered the opportunity of learning when it mattered the most? Are these children born, unwanted by their parents? Do these children aim to get everything free from society? Someone has to take the responsibility for having these children and not guiding them in a proper direction. That is for sure. I am also sure that the 20/20 vision that the government has for this country is a big joke as the morals and spiritual values continue to deteriorate rapidly. Maybe it is time to look at places like China and Japan who are able to streamline their dense population into a profitable, working society in harmony with their environment.
MICKELL GUNNESLAL
Student of Iere High School
THE EDITOR: So another child has been killed. I wonder what the corporal punishment advocates are saying now. There was such an outcry when corporal punishment was to be abolished in schools, from teachers, principals, parents, politicians and columnists, all claiming that they themselves had been hit in the name of education and look how well they turned out. Why isn’t there the same outcry for little Isaac, who didn’t reach two years old because someone’s fist split his belly open? Dr David Bratt made a very good point a few weeks ago when he wrote that so many of us in this country have been abused so routinely that we have all become numb to it and no longer recognise when it is happening. Like it or not, our continued over-reliance on corporal punishment as a form of discipline, the ingrained belief that it is all right to be violent to children for the right reasons, is part of that abuse. There is an illusion that there is a “right” way and a “right” reason to hit a child as opposed to a “wrong” way and a “wrong” reason. The Ministry of Education subscribes to this illusion with its regulation, which states that corporal punishment in schools is to be approved by the Principal and administered by a designated member of staff. The truth is that that regulation was never followed and even if it was, it’s simply an attempt to disguise violence by saying that it was appropriately done.
Safe violence — what a contradiction in terms. The double-speak never fooled the children’s bodies, on which the violence was, and continues to be perpetrated. Violence on a child’s body is violence, and the truth is that most teachers hitting a child hit as the first resort, not the last. They hit in anger to hurt, not to “correct” or “discipline” or any of those other words for officially sanctioned abuse. I can hear the corporal punishment apologists swiftly saying, Oh, but that was an extreme case, this is definitely not discipline, this was abuse! Would it have been abuse if Isaac had been damaged but had lived and it had never gotten into the newspapers? What kind of human being would have been produced by that treatment over time? Maybe the kind of human being who can shoot a policeman for his gun at age sixteen and ride off on his bike. Maybe the kind of human being who thinks it’s wrong to leave the scene of a crime without leaving a corpse behind. Maybe the kind of human being who can stab somebody over a dollar or a disagreement or a “cut-eye.” Maybe the kind of human being who has been terrorising our lives through criminal activity for the past several years. Maybe this is one of the answers to the big mystery about where these heartless violent young criminals could possibly have come from.
Did most of you out there know that corporal punishment of children by all caretakers, including parents, was banned in Sweden in 1979? A Save the Children study done in 2000 found that youth crime rates did not rise overall and actually dropped for some crimes, that the proportion of young people using drugs and alcohol dropped significantly and that the suicide rate for the young also decreased. Most importantly, only one child had died at the hands of a parent because of physical abuse since the ban came into effect. So the society didn’t break down. Young people didn’t go crazy when they were no longer being battered. Some types of crime actually decreased. And parents stopped killing their children. So if there are some of you out there who still feel that it’s worth a few children’s lives to continue the violence in the name of “discipline”, here’s to you, and God help all the other little Isaac Thomases.
KAREN MOORE
Champs Fleurs
THE EDITOR: Before there is a mad rush it would be nice if NEMA would tell the population where and when sandbags could be purchased. Numerous strong storms are expected and people would like to be prepared for flooding, flash and otherwise. If on the other hand sandbags are not made and sold in TT perhaps NEMA could tell us how they are made so concerned citizens could attempt to make them. As a matter of fact, either DEWD or CEPEP personnel could make these sandbags and put them up for sale. If people are asked to be prepared, all efforts should be made to attract those who live in flood prone areas and should be told via the media (TV) how to apply sandbags and all other devices which could be used to prevent one’s house from being flooded.
THOMAS METCAFFE
Pt Cumana
