Manning: US war in Iraq imperils global trade

PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning commented  “If  the USA sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold”, to warn that the United States’ recent actions including its war in Iraq were likely to harm world economies, especially those of developing countries.

He made the point at the South Chamber of Industry and Commerce’s annual awards function at the Hilton Trinidad before an audience which included US Ambassador Dr Roy Austin. Manning began by urging Chamber members to capitalise on every opportunity for economic growth including electronic commerce (e-commerce), saying: “As optimistic as I am about the economic prospects for Trinidad and Tobago, I do not close my eyes to the fact that a global economic slowdown is already upon us and could continue for some time, aggravated now by the growing SARS epidemic and having its roots in, inter alia, the loss of consumer confidence and the apparently intractable structural problems in some of the largest economies in the international market place.”

In an apparent criticism of the United States-led war in Iraq, Manning elaborated: “Added to this is the threat to the multi-national system caused by the recent conflict over Iraq, which in the view of some pundits, has created a divide which could jeopardise other important items on the global agenda like the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations (ie the latest round of World Trade Organisation talks held in Doha, Qatar).” Explaining that the Doha talks were supposed to help the developing world through fairer competition and greater market access for our products, Manning lamented: “The Round is now stuck, having missed an important target recently due to the apparent intransigence of certain major industrialised nations (ie the European Union and the United States) over agricultural subsidies and tariffs.” Manning said Trinidad and Tobago, its Caricom partners and other like-minded countries would act vigorously at regional and global fora including an upcoming ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, to help regain the Doha momentum.

Warning that the alternative to Doha was the return of protectionism, Manning said: “Protectionism is the recipe for a dangerous decline in global trade, which as we all know furthered the Great Depression of the 1930s and eventually contributed to the tensions and conditions that in part led to the major global conflagration of the last century.” He added: “After September 11, 2001, there is the need more than ever for the international economic system to become all-inclusive, leaving behind once and for all those protectionist, exclusivist barriers that inflict underdevelopment on the majority of mankind. This is the only way to protect the world, including the mightiest and the most powerful, from the terror that poverty and underdevelopment always produce.” Manning said that similarly, locally he had emphasised poverty-eradication and economic-inclusion, which he said would bring economic benefits and more so would help the peace and security of the nation through the social stability and cohesion that are produced.

Apparently defending his employment schemes like CEPEP in helping poverty-eradication, Manning said: “Notwithstanding the criticisms we do it, not through tokenism, make-work schemes or pork  barrel politics. This administration is dealing with the strategic, structural solution involving education, training, and retraining, economic diversification and small business development, all part of an effort at social re-engineering to correct social imbalances and spread opportunity for advancement to every nook and cranny of our society.” Saying this local social reconstruction could be blunted by global economics, Manning said: “This is the reason we are pushing to be the headquarters of the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) process so that Trinidad and Tobago could continue to make a greater contribution to hemispheric trade and investment.”

Don’t blame us for higher prices

HARDWARE DEALERS claim they are being wrongly accused and chastised by customers about increasing prices being imposed by Caribbean Ispat Limited.

President of the Hardware Dealers Co-operative Society Euric Bhagwansingh said dealers had no control over prices which have increased four times in the last 12 months. He said downstream producers were paying more than 20 percent above average world prices. Bhagwansingh said this at a press conference hosted by the Downstream Steel and Wire Rods Association, and the Hardware Dealers Co-Operative Society, at the Normandie Hotel. Bindra Maharaj, a member of the Hardware Dealers Society, emphasised that the dealers were the ones “taking the brunt at the end of the retail trade” and they wanted the public to know the “problem comes from the manufacturers.”

Maharaj said when the prices of basic building products are increased, a spiral effect is created, as other products made out of steel rods would also be subject to a price increase. He warned that government’s bid to build 1,000 housing units in one year, would soon be in trouble as labour costs could not be lowered and “labour and material go hand in hand”. He said the cost of the units, which had already been calculated, would now increase because of the increase in building material. Maharaj appealed to Trade Minister Ken Valley to revisit the monopolies commission since consumers had begun “cutting back on the purchasing” of materials prices. Director of TrinRico Ramdath Ramsubir accused Ispat of increasing their prices on a “whim and fancy with as little as two days notice” and the dealers were subjected to fluctuating pricing mechanisms.

Ramsubir said dealers were being charged the same prices as if they were importing steel which is unfair because local dealers collected their steel at the factory. He revealed that local dealers were required to pay shipping,  handling, port charges and insurance costs and “these charges are built into the burdensome figures applied to the downstream manufacturers”. There is no competition locally, declared Ramsubir, stating that it was “Trinidad against the rest of the world. “As a group we are competing against the rest of the world, and we want a level playing field so that we can compete with the rest of the world,” he said. “A dwelling house costing about $300,000 in January, will now cost about $15,000 more, with the increase in prices over the last couple months,” Ramsubir said. “There is a risk of job losses as the downstream steel industry employed over 3,000 people directly and created indirect employment for others.”

OUR DAILY BREAD

Consumers should be wary of  believing that Thursday’s announcement by National Flour Mills (NFM) that its flour prices would go down on Monday would be followed by a similar decrease in the prices of flour on supermarket shelves.

Or that the decrease in the prices of both flour and bread would match NFM’s decrease. Merchants in Trinidad and Tobago have traditionally disregarded Newton’s Law that what goes up must come down. And this even when the prices at which their goods and services have been purchased have indeed come down, and sometimes dramatically. In January, when National Flour Mills increased flour prices by 22 per cent, following on an increase worldwide in the price of wheat, bread at the supermarkets jumped by more than NFM’s 22 per cent! The argument advanced for the additional increase was that of overheads. Will there be another increase in overheads, which this time around will have to be absorbed by NFM’s announced decrease?

The domestic consumer has a degree of patience seemingly far in excess of that of the Biblical Job. Indeed, many Trinidad and Tobago consumers put forward as their reason for accepting increases in the cost of foodstuff, the altogether odd argument that they “cannot eat the money”. Clearly, what is missing here is a Consumers’ Association, which would sensitise consumers on not only the need to shop wisely, but as to the landed cost of goods, in much the same way that a now defunct Consumers’ Association, founded by the late Vera Braithwaite in the early 1960s, had alerted them. Mrs Braithwaite, in an effort to reach the largest number of housewives and others with data on landed cost in relation to shelf prices, and how to seek positive bargains, had produced a highly informative publication, aptly called “The Consumer”. Since then, the consumer either because he/she is uninformed or not sensitised to issues of concern to him/her, has adopted, in the main, a passive or almost laid back approach or was prepared simply to grumble about the rising cost of living.

In turn, because of the traditional reluctance of the business community to roll back prices either at all or to the extent of the decrease in the landed and/or supplied cost of goods, we are constrained to take with the proverbial pinch of salt the offer by the Supermarket Association of Trinidad and Tobago (SATT) to reduce the retail prices of named goods should Government review duties on certain basic items. SATT, however, has been presented with an excellent opportunity by National Flour Mills to demonstrate to the nation’s consumers that there should be no doubt that it means what it says. It can do this by passing on the full extent of NFM’s decrease in flour prices to the consumers. And should Government partially reduce duties on even some of the items noted by SATT, then should the supermarket owners correspondingly reduce shelf prices, this would be a valid argument for Government to accede to their demands. But we will not hold our proverbial breath. January’s increase on NFM’s increase in flour prices is too fresh in consumers’ minds for them to believe otherwise. 

MERCURY FALLING, TEMPERATURES RISING


When Mercury, the tiny planet that hugs the sun, decides to spin backward, it takes with it communication, intellect, awareness, logic and reasoning.

Mercury retrograde, as the astrologers describe the celestial phenomenon, also has an adverse effect on commerce. Mercury, according to the experts, began one of its topsy-turvy journeys last weekend. In Trinidad and Tobago, it was first sighted over Chaguanas. There, a tiny crowd was gathered to celebrate the 14th anniversary of the birth of the moribund United National Congress. Or, to begin its wake. On its arrival, Mercury rotated in a counter-clockwise direction above the head of the party’s leader cum funeral director, Basdeo Panday. Astrologers were unwilling to predict however, the effect it would have on the already mercurial politician. Would its force prove contrary and make him progressive? Soon though, they conceded that under the planet’s inverted control, Panday remained himself and returned to tales of yesteryear, the old ones about racial discrimination and Ramesh.

The Chaguanas audience could still make little sense of what he was saying. To listen to his story, he and his had been banging on the door of Whitehall for centuries, begging to be let in, to no avail. Yet, the next minute, he was blaming Ramesh for making him lose power he never had. Retrograde Mercury was unable to make Panday spin forward or be coherent. The only thing the people listening to him in Chaguanas understood was that he would refuse to support the Government on any legislation unless there was constitutional reform, so he could return to power. However, to fight for change by establishing a “parallel government”? This was one Panday flight of fancy, which like Mercury, was just a little too close to the sun for them.

By Monday, Mercury, that miniature celestial body, usually never one to waste its time, moved from Panday to one of his fellow, morticians, Senator Robin Montano. Its effects were devastating: the normally boisterous Senator was rendered relatively mute, unable to debate his motion of no confidence in Senate President Dr Linda Baboolal. He simply could not locate the correct words to communicate the “sensitive and potentially explosive information” in his muddled possession. Mercury’s backwardness had also delayed the arrival of the evidence to support his claims. By Tuesday, astrologers were worried. Mercury was behaving quite out of character: it was still suspended over Montano. The UNC Senator, ignorant of his erratic planetary companion, did the unthinkable and entered into a commercial venture with a Port-of-Spain vendor. The result of bargaining during Mercury retrograde: Montano received a six for a nine, that is, bad food for his good money. Half an hour later, he was reportedly unable to mouth more than groans.

Some stargazers argued that Mercury’s reverse orbit was not altogether inimical to the Senator’s interests, though. They noted that its sway over his stomach, saved him from having to rise in the Senate and confess he was not ready to debate a motion he had filed with great fanfare. There was after all, they surmised, a flip side to Mercury’s back slide. Otherwise, he would have had to bluster about not being set to talk, which would have earned him exactly what it got his equally unprepared colleagues on Tuesday, Standing Order 29 (1). This Senate rule is clear: “If a Member other than a Minister does not, when called, move a motion or amendment, which stands in his name, such motion or amendment shall be removed from the Order Paper unless deferred by leave of the Senate or moved by another Member duly authorised by that Member.”

Had he been in the Red House, the inflated Montano would have had to use his full height and girth to beg the Senate to debate his “pressing” motion at another time. As his Senate leader, Wade Mark had attempted to do. And given the nature of the motion, neither the Government nor the  Independents would have agreed to his petition. As they did not concede to Mark’s on Tuesday. Such a situation would have been more upsetting to Montano’s ego than the food poisoning had been to his paunch. Instead, he could wait until Mercury moved on and then cry “PNM injustice!” By Tuesday afternoon, astrologers were relieved to see Mercury twist its way from Montano to Mark. Its converse movement caused the latter to confuse UNC incompetence with PNM conspiracies, hijackings and dictatorship.

The Government had set up the UNC, the motion of no confidence moved surreptitiously up on the Order Paper, Mark proclaimed, after failing to have its discussion postponed. But, wait a minute, hadn’t Montano-when Mercury was direct- asked for the motion to be debated Tuesday?  Wasn’t Mark, as UNC Senate leader, aware of this? Thank God the dizzy planet was its normal impatient self by the next day and decided to hit the back roads again. On Wednesday, Mercury spun regressively on its axis to the PNM  administration, extending its negative aspect to both areas of its starry  domain, communication and commerce. A cacophony over currency, if you will, was the result, when people heard about the $70,000 a month paid to Petrotrin Executive Chairman, Malcolm Jones. Worse, PNM ministers, Eric Williams and Ken Valley, were tugging furious voters in disparate verbal directions. There were two opposing messages from one Government about the procedure used to approve Jones’ salary. Mercury had made its mischief and the population had a split personality Cabinet governing it.

An angry and besieged Prime Minister was left with no alternative. On Thursday at Cabinet he announced that until Mercury started its forward motion, he would expect all his ministers, save Dr Lenny Saith and his wife, Hazel, to keep their fingers on their lips. The first to comply would have to be Valley. The Prime Minister would speak for them. Mercury’s orbit, direct or  retrograde, had no impact on his ability to communicate with his people. Mercury could spin backward or forward, rise or fall, as it pleased; when he, Patrick Manning opened his mouth, the ever-astonished citizens of TT always lost their cool.

Parents, especially fathers, must play their role

THE EDITOR: I wish to use this medium to reinforce the message that short-term remedies are not the answer to the problems of crime, especially amongst young people. The problem of crime involving our youths is to a great extent influenced by environmental factors or conditions.

The family as a social unit in society is a most important part of this environment and plays a pivotal role of providing our society with young persons who possess the potential to build rather than destroy our country. When we speak of family, we are not speaking of just the mother, we are speaking also of the father who must play a crucial role in helping to have a positive influence on the personality of the young adult, so that he or she can meet and deal successfully with life’s challenges. The absence of fathers in homes is perhaps one of the most harmful social problems in our country today. For example, research shows that children who live without fathers are approximately two to three times more likely to use drugs, experience educational, health, emotional and behaviour problems; be victims of abuse, and engage in criminal behaviour, than those who live with their biological parents.

Additionally, research studies have found that there are significant positive effects on the well being of children, where there is active involvement of a father. For example, children with involved, loving fathers are significantly more likely to do well in school, have healthy self-esteem, exhibit empathy and pro-social behaviour and avoid high-risk behaviours such as drug use, truancy, and criminal activity compared to children who have uninvolved fathers. Unfortunately, far too many men delegate the majority of the routine management of the children to the mother, while they labour to support the family in a very different role. They seem to forget that when they fail to assume a more direct and intimate role in the lives of their children, they also fail to help in the nurturing and development of young individuals. Individuals who would be better able to make a more meaningful contribution to the family, as well as to society as a whole.

Admittedly, as a young parent my attempts at being a good father were based on information and observation of my father and others. However, after a few years I discovered that there was much more to be done than just to see to it that my children were well fed, obtained a good education and were given a good start in life. I wish therefore to offer some advice to my fellow men: Tell your children that you love them and that they are important to you. Touch your children affectionately. This communicates love and affection. Spend quality time with your children. This is undoubtedly the most effective way to show them that you love them. Teach your children. Begin when they are young and teach them little things like good manners; how to read; how to pitch marbles or fly a kite. As they get older, keep teaching them little things. Use everyday examples to teach life lessons. Train your children. This refers to discipline. Be involved enough to set limits and enforce consequences. Do not delegate this role to others. Stay together with their mother. In addition, show compassion; respect; and support to their mother. Do not be discouraged if your efforts to not yield immediate results. Remember, real, meaningful change takes time. Finally, Fatherhood is a long-term investment that pays outstanding dividends to you, your children and our society.

COLVIN BLAIZE
Chaguanas

Is fast ferry investment another crisis?

THE EDITOR: It appears that the Government’s well-intentioned plan to introduce a fast ferry may be doomed to failure from the start.

The Minister of Works and Transport, Franklin Khan, and his ministry have chosen an overseas broker, Danoff US, to select the required ferry. It is well-known both locally and abroad in the shipping industry that Danoff US is a freight, cargo, container and tonnage broker. Danoff US is not a fast ferry specialist. One wonders really why local brokers as well as fast ferry specialist brokers were not selected for the job. Again one cannot help but notice that there will be yet another crisis on the Government’s hands very soon. From the crisis in health to the crisis in crime to the BWIA crisis to the WASA and Petrotrin CEO salaries to the CEPEP scandal .. We will be soon reading about the ferry crisis … for our sake we hope not. At a cost of $250,000,000 of taxpayers’ money, one would think that more effort will be made to ensure that the job is done properly. You have the time, Mr Khan, do it right …


NEIL PAIGE
Scarborough

Cruise ships cause jams

THE EDITOR: I wonder whether it has not occurred to the authorities that every time a cruise ship calls at the Port-of-Spain docks, there is a massive slow-moving traffic jam stretching from Wright-son Road to a considerable length of the Beetham Highway. This jam spills over into Independence Square and would last for as long as the ship is in port which averages about twelve hours. The jam disappears completely as soon as one gets past the traffic lights at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. One can only conclude therefore, that the cause is due to the entry and exit of taxis to and from the Port area whenever a tourist ship happens to call.

It is possible that a cost benefit analysis of the lost time, the wear and tear on man and vehicles and the expenditures made by tourists, (whenever they happen to disembark), might show a negative out turn for our country. It seems, therefore that unless measures are put in place to avoid these seemingly unnecessary jams, the country could very well be better off without these visiting erstwhile tourist ships and their human cargo.


ERROL O C CUPID
Trincity

A bomb explodes in tiny hands

THE EDITOR: The famous pack of cards of members of the Iraqi government is now a collector’s item. Additionally, several members of the fallen Iraqi government are now in US/British custody. The serious issues to be determined are: Are these men war criminals? Before what tribunal are they to appear? Does any tribunal have jurisdiction to try these gentlemen as war criminals?

If America and England were to persist with this travesty then Nazi Germany, if they have been successful, would have been entitled to try and, if convicted hang Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt, among others, as war criminals? Let us take a critical look at the events that led up to the recent Iraqi invasion. Iraq invaded Kuwait allegedly for using directional drilling and stealing Iraqi oil. The Iraqi army was repulsed and thousands of Iraqi troops were shot in the back by American and coalition as they were retreating towards Baghdad.

The Coalition force used radio active material to harden their bombs and missiles. Up to today these nuclear materials has been responsible for the high incidence of cancer in Iraq (shades of Hiroshima). Millions of bomblets (droplets) were scattered all over Iraq and thousands were injured as they picked up these mini weapons and they exploded in the little hands of the infants killing many and maiming many more. The “No Fly Zone” was enforced in Iraq and it was only American and British planes that attacked “alleged” hostile sites in Iraq. Victims were many civilians, goats, sheep and other animals. In effect the invasion of Iraq did not take place weeks ago but with the advent of the No Fly Zone.

The embargo against Iraq was responsible for the deaths of over a million Iraqi children. Independent investigations by BBC, Al Jazeera, Amnesty International and several NGO’s confirmed this. The British and Americans invaded a weakened sovereign nation under a false pretext (WMD). No norm of International Law nor the Geneva Convention previously sanctioned or sanctions this type of behaviour. In subduing and occupying Iraq, thousands of innocent civilians were killed/murdered and thousands more will be permanently disabled. The occupying forces allowed the museums the libraries to be looted and destroyed. This is universally accepted as one of the greatest crimes against humanity ever. The occupying forces are set on controlling Iraqi oil for their own personal agendas. This is Grand Theft. Having set out these points I ask you, are not Bush and Blair the war criminals who should be brought before the Bar of International Justice to answer for their crimes and should their “Good German” colleagues not share the same fate?


M HOTIN
St James

Bullets rain on TT

THE EDITOR: Are we indeed a bunch of mimic men? As we sit idly by in a bullet riddled society, it comes as no surprise that Trinidadians would find time to write letters in the daily newspapers and even protest in front of the American Embassy on its war against a merciless Iraqi dictator.

But what about our war! The war against the good for nothing thieves that viciously attack, torture, kidnap our loved ones and rob us of our belongings. The monsters that rape our women and children and slaughter our people. Where’s the protest, where is the outrage! If the people of this country refuse to take action and exorcise itself from the evildoers in society, then dying by natural causes will be a thing of the past. It is the government’s plan to intentionally fail to eradicate violent crimes as a means to gain international recognition by making the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago the first people in the history of the world to be placed on the United Nations list of endangered species? My people, are we cowards or are we to passive in our thinking? Do you not believe that together we can regain our freedom and live free of fear? My friends, bullets see neither creed nor race, it’s time to make a stand for the survival of once a great nation lies in the hands and actions of its people.


ANIL DHANPAUL
Port-of-Spain

Windies face the follow-on

BRIDGETOWN: Australian perseverance and a critical umpire’s error have contrived to leave the West Indies cricketers facing the inevitability of the follow-on heading into the fourth day of the Third Cable and Wireless Test in Bridgetown.

Replying to the tourists’ monumental first innings total of 605 for nine declared, the home team closed the third day yesterday at 291 for eight, still needing 115 more runs just to deny Steve Waugh the luxury of  determining whether or not he wants to put the West Indies in a second time to try and force an innings victory to clinch the four-match series and maintain the quest for a whitewash of the Caribbean side. The Aussies thoroughly deserved to be in control, but their task was made considerably easier when Brian Lara was erroneously adjudged leg-before off medium-pacer Andy Bichel half-an-hour before the close.

The West Indies captain, who spent most of the morning in his hotel bed because of an undisclosed ailment, eventually came to the crease at the fall of the sixth wicket with the total at 245. Though clearly under the weather, he battled on in partnership with Carlton Baugh. The luck seemed to be on his side when an edged drive off Jason Gillespie was floored by Ricky Ponting at second slip. However that good fortune deserted him cruelly when Indian umpire Srinivas Venkataraghavan raised the dreaded index finger to send him on his way for 24. Television replays confirmed instant suspicions that the ball had taken the inside edge of the bat before crashing into his back pad.

Insult was added to injury in the day’s final over, as Baugh, who also had his own slice of luck minutes before when put down by Darren Lehmann at short extra-cover off Bichel, prodded forward to leg-spinner Stuart MacGill and Ponting held a straightforward catch at silly-point. The wicketkeeper-batsman’s dismissal for 24 leaves only Jermaine Lawson and Tino Best to come and it is highly unlikely that Vasbert Drakes (4 not out) will be able to do too much on his own to reduce Australia’s considerable overall advantage. Bichel featured in much of the late drama but it was Gillespie who put the brake on the West Indies openers’ promising effort in the morning session.

The lanky pacer, Australia’s outstanding bowler so far in the series, produced a superb delivery to bowl Chris Gayle for 71 and end a partnership of 139 with Devon Smith. The Jamaican left-hander played with trademark power and timing in reaching a tenth Test half-century, but his dismissal was followed soon after by that of Smith, ruled caught at the wicket driving at Gillespie for 59 although the little Grenadian did not seem happy with English umpire David Shepherd’s verdict. With Lara unavailable at that time, the tempo of the match shifted to one of attrition as vice-captain Ramna-resh Sarwan joined Daren Ganga in battling doggedly to defy the Australian bowlers on a pitch keeping occasionally low and offering sharp turn for MacGill. They added 63 watchful runs before Ganga perished for 26 to an awful shot, hoisting a waist-high full-toss to mid-on to become a victim of Lehman’s occasion left-arm spin for the second time in the series. There was more celebration for the visitors in the next over as Shivnarine Chanderpaul miscued an attempted pull to his first delivery from MacGill and Brett Lee held a good catch  running back from mid-on.

Lara’s continued absence resulted in Omari Banks being pushed up the order with Baugh, and the debutant responded by playing positively, driving fluently for boundaries through the on-side. The second new ball broke the fifth-wicket partnership however as Sarwan, on 40, followed a delivery from Lee and edged it into wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist’s gloves. At the same score, 245, Banks drove once too often and Ponting held a sharp chance at second slip to remove the young Anguillan for 24 and give Gillespie a deserved third wicket. Lara’s arrival at that point offered hope for the suffering masses at the Kensington Oval, only for those dreams of another miraculous innings to be ended by Venkat’s error.