Munro, who contributed valuable runs for the Knight Riders last season, led the Knight Riders to 214 runs for eight wickets.

The left-handed Kiwi struck seven fours and nine sixes in his 46-ball knock.

Darren Bravo also showed some form leading up to the tournament.

Darren, who will be available for the entire 2017 CPL, struck 48 retired, slamming three fours and four sixes in a 21-ball innings. Darren only played four matches last year because of West Indies duty. Ex- West Indies captain and wicket-keeper Denesh Ramdin pitched in with 19. TKR pace bowler Javon Searles, playing for the TT CB XI snatched two wickets for 21 runs, while Philton Williams took 3/12 in two overs.

In reply, TKR player Hamza Tariq slammed 68 off 36 balls as the Board XI posted 199/5 in 20 overs. The Canadian Tariq, who struck four fours and six sixes, was ably supported by Amir Jangoo who scored 51. Jangoo struck nine fours and one six in his 30-ball knock. TKR captain Dwayne Bravo grabbed 2/47 in four overs.

TKR will play the opening match of the 2017 CPL against the St Lucia Stars at 9 pm on Friday in St Lucia.

SUMMAR I S E D SCOR ES – TRINBAGO KNIGHT RIDERS 214/8 (Colin Munro 100, Darren Bravo 48 retired, Denesh Ramdin 19; Javon Searles 2/21, Philton Williams 3/12) vs TT CB XI 199/5 (Hamza Tariq 68, Amir Jangoo 51; Dwayne Bravo 2/47). TKR won by 15 runs.

In his Emancipation Day message, Carmona said TT should support the efforts of Caricom governments as expressed by Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies and Chairman of the Caricom Reparations Commission, in an address to the British House of Commons on July 16, 2014.

Carmona quoted Sir Hilary’s address, saying, “That the Government of Great Britain and other European States that were the beneficiaries of enrichment from the enslavement of African people, the genocide of the indigenous communities and the deceptive breach of contract and trust in respect of East Indians and other Asians brought to the plantations under indenture, have a case to answer in respect of reparatory justice.” “As a former judge and a firm believer in reparatory justice, I am of the view that as we celebrate Emancipation Day 2017, we must examine affirmatively the case for reparations as adopted by Caricom Governments and advocated by Sir Hilary and other spokespersons.

“We in TT must view the call for reparations in the context of the duty we owe to our forefathers who made the ultimate sacrifice and whose contribution to our present well-being must be recognized in a world which now accepts that compensation and reparation are prerequisites in the dispensation of justice.” Carmona recalled that the United Nations in 2007, declared March 25 as the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

“I wish to call on all citizens to take time out during the Emancipation Holiday to focus on their life’s journey: from whence they started, where they consider themselves to have reached and what is to be their life’s achievement.” Carmona said, “Emancipation Day must therefore, be a moment of regeneration, to renew in our lives a purposefulness to lead a life of quality, of sustainable ambition, independence, personal self-worth and vision.” He hailed those who laboured for Emancipation Day to be named a public holiday, as he referred to the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) and the Emancipation Support Committee (ESC).

Set in an almost post-apocalyptic Trinidad, the play tells the story of four gun-toting strangers trapped in a bar during curfew. A murderous conspiracy follows one of them, teaching them all the hard way that nowhere is safe where crime and corruption is the law of the land.

Brendon O’Brien is a young Spoken Word poet, playwright and director. Since 2010, he’s written five original plays, and has directed both commercially, in partnership with the local NGO ParentingTT , and for festivals such as the National Drama Festival 2013 and the New Play Festival 2016. His desire is to create smart theatrical work with interesting ways of seeing characters and situations, and to challenge both performers and audiences with those perspectives.

Everyone’s Got A Gun is the fifth of O’ Brien’s works to be read at the Playwrights Workshop; one he is especially excited to have read because it is one of his favourite pieces.

“It is always an eye opening experience to hear what other writers and performers liked, expected and were caught off guard by. I am looking forward to hearing what the folks who get a chance to read, think about the work,” O’Brien told TT Performing Arts Network. One of Playwrights Workshop Trinbago’s aims is to foster the development of original storytelling through drama and playmaking.

On the first Wednesday of every month, actors, as well as other theatre practitioners and the general public are invited to read new stage plays and screenplays, by TT playwrights and screenwriters.

For further information call (868) 351- 6293.

Appearing before Senior Magistrate Cheryl-Anne Antoine were Mahadeo, 23; her common-law husband Nicholas Hosein, 26; Jason Balkaran, 26, and his common-law wife Veronica Mohammed, 20, all of Picton Settlement.

The charge read to the couples alleged that they broke and entered the Divine Life Society Shiv Mandir in Diamond Village and stole three speaker boxes, two sound barrier speakers, two fans and a box containing 3,500 in cash – altogether amounting to $24,550.

The four were arrested over the weekend and charged by PC Adam Andre under Section 26 of the Larceny Act. The break in occurred between June 15 and June 21. The charge carries a maximum sentence, on conviction, of ten years’ in prison.

Court prosecutor Cleyon Seedan told Magistrate Antoine that the charge was laid indictably and as a result, none of the accused were called on to enter a plea as the case has to be determined before a judge and jury, if so ordered, at the end of a preliminary inquiry.

The magistrate granted Hosein and Balkaran bail in the sum of $50,000 with a surety or the alternative of 15,000 cash deposit. Mahadeo and Mohammed were granted $25,000 bail with a surety with a cash alternative of $10,000.

The matter was postponed to August 28.

GOSSIPING is one of the most toxic activities that one can engage in.

Engaging in unhealthy chatter about others, signals weaknesses in the minds and personas of those who do; unfortunately, we co-exist in an environment where gossiping appears to be a new normal and this is based on reports that come into the International Women’s Resource Network on a daily basis, particularly from women in the workplace. Psychological research shows that some human beings have an insatiable appetite to know what’s going on in people lives.

However, though there may be some truth in this, the habit of gossiping, like other characteristics, is deemed to be learnt behaviour adapted through one’s social orientation.

As for me I am not interested in what’s going in other people’s lives, unless I can add more value to what already exists in a positive manner.

I have witnessed instances where gossiping has become so chronic that people look you in your eyes and gossip about you; when one has reached to that point, introspection must step in.

According to Elena Martinescu of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, who lead a recent study on gossiping, “Gossip recipients tend to use positive and negative group information to improve, promote and protect the self.” They added, “Individuals need evaluative information about others to evaluate themselves.” Research also shows that people who use gossip as a way of life usually have high levels of anxiety and cannot be trusted.

Reasons for gossiping include but are not limited to, the need to feel superior, out of boredom with little or nothing to do, envious about the achievements of others, seeking attention and out of anger and/ or unhappiness.

Responding to gossip requires a bit of tact which would also assist in understanding the root cause. For example if someone continuously encourages you to gossip about Jenny Doe….it is highly recommended that you change the subject, but not before seeking responses to questions and/or concerns such as, “I notice that you speak about Jenny quite a lot and I am eager to find out why”; “Let’s talk about some more positive things that can help us both”; “I feel uncomfortable listening to negative comments about others unless we are willing to help them improve.” These are just some of the comments that can jolt someone into understanding that gossiping is not welcomed and that they should desist from it.

Gossip is likened to poison and should be avoided at all costs. It destroys your trustworthiness… as if you are caught, those affected would not trust you again, your reputation can be ruined as rumours of your gossip-like tendencies would spread throughout various business circles; you look ugly in the eyes of others because they see the fault before they see you; depending on who is affected, gossip can land you into legal troubles and it is also prohibited in the Bible.

If you can’t speak good about others, say nothing.

Sandrine Rattan is a communications/ branding consultant/ author and president of the International Women’s Resource Network (IWRN) Contact: thecorporatesuitett@ gmail.

com or intlwomensresourcenetwork@ gmail.com or con

The pattern is largely similar, globally and in TT , local psychologist Marisa Morgan told Newsday. Although, she said, perceptions, generally, toward counselling and mental health are changing in TT , men were still less inclined to seek help for mental health problems.

Website, the goodtherapy.org says, “Men’s issues can refer to a number of concerns that may affect mental or physical health and well-being and lead men to seek therapy. Statistically, men do not typically seek therapy in high numbers, but when they do, they generally report the same types of concerns that might lead anyone to seek therapy, such as depression, stress, anxiety, and relationship concerns.” The UK counselling website said , it was difficult to assess whether mental figures, especially with men, represented what was true as many cases went unreported and undiagnosed.

Morgan told Newsday she recognised, from her own practice, a difference in males and females seeking counselling, in terms of women being more likely to seek help.

She said this pattern was not only seen in TT but also in the rest of the world. Men, she added, were less likely to admit distress because of how they were socialised.

For men, she added, not admitting stress, problems and negative emotions to others was perceived as strong.

Morgan said women were more likely to seek out counselling since women were more likely to talk to and communicate with others. Men might use other methods like turning to alcohol, she said.

She said people responded to stress in two ways, by internalising or externalising their issues. When people internalised issues they were more likely to have negative thoughts, experience depressive symptoms and anxiety.

“We have some clients who would come to the clinic and it is because they have been internalising.

That pain that they have been experiencing, they turn it toward themselves.

Some people may even have suicidal thoughts; thoughts of harming themselves in different ways. You have other individuals now who, under stress and pressure, tend to externalise.

They act out. They become disruptive and maybe more aggressive. Things like that. What you will find more often, with men, is that they will externalise,” she said.

When asked if there was still a societal stigma attached to counselling, Morgan said there was still a stigma attached to mental health. “For example, the clinic where I work many clients would tell you they feel ashamed even dropping out of a maxi to come into the clinic because there is a big sign which says mental health. Unfortunately many persons associate mental health issues with being mad or crazy.

What they don’t recognise is that we all deal with problems in different ways.”

“This projects is to be started in August,” he said.

Sinanan addressed members of the Arima Business Association who applauded the announcement at the Arima Fest “Corporate Breakfast” held yesterday in Arima.

Among those present were MP for Arima, Education Minister Anthony Garcia and MP for D’Abadie/ O’Meara Ancil Antoine, both of whom made brief remarks.

Sinanan said that the works on the new port and on the extension of the Churchill Roosevelt Highway to Manzanilla will provide thousands of jobs for citizens with residents of Arima and Sangre Grande to benefit the most.

Describing them as “the two biggest projects that ever started on the eastern seaboard of Trinidad,” he said, “We expect more infrastructure and land development, more residences and more businesses in the area.” Noting that Arima and Sangre Grande are the closest towns to Tobago, he said, with the completion and operationalisation of the port, they can expect trade with Tobago to develop. If he had spoken about this project two years ago or even five or ten years ago, he said, people would have thought it was just pie in the sky.

When he took office, he said, the construction of the port was one of the mandates Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley gave him. Meanwhile the Toco first class road, another major project, he said, is due to start in early 2018.

“The Arima business community has a lot to look forward to,” he said.

Some of the other major projects that his ministry is undertaking includes the extension of the Solomon Hochoy Highway from San Fernando to Point Fortin which is expected to completed by 2019. The Moruga Road upgrade, another major project, he said, is due to start by August month end.

A consultant is in place making recommendations for the Diego Martin overpass, and tender documents are to be advertised in another two months. While the Maracas Bay Project is due for completion by year end, Sinanan said, by the end of August the facilities at the popular bay would have been much improved.

The incident, which was recorded on closed-circuit television (CCTV), was uploaded to social media and has since gone viral. The suspect who is 20 and lives in the Beetham Estate, was arrested on Saturday morning at his home during a police exercise. He was handed over to detectives of the Homicide Investigations Bureau.

Police sources confirmed that after intense interrogation of the suspect, investigators now know the identity of the second suspect who was also captured in the video footage. A search is now underway for him.

Police say the victim Akino Thomas, 33, of Lackpat Road in El Dorado was killed over a drug deal which went sour.

In the CCTV footage, Thomas is seen running and then falling into a drain at the side of Pentecostal Road in El Dorado. A man runs after Thomas, firing shots at him. The gun appears to malfunction and while the gunman stand watching, another man enters the fray and begins to kick Thomas on his head even as he tries to scramble out of the drain.

As Thomas collapses, the man jumps on top of his chest and repeat this action until Thomas stops moving.

The two then run off.

Residents who heard the gunshots, later telephoned the Tunapuna police and an unconscious Thomas is taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope where he died on Saturday.

Armed with a four-year National Craftsman Certificate course – 1992-1996 – at John Donaldson Technical Institute, in bookbinding and printfinishing, I opened a publishing company. It was devoted to writing, designing, printing and publishing beautiful books for children.

A call came from the Ministry of Education. It had gotten a grant from Europe to buy books for children in our local schools. I submitted two copies of my books. I had to argue tooth and nail to get past a wall: established publishers, established importers of foreign books, and the technocrats had established a solid wall, a coterie of interests, and so sidelined the local, the ital, the small-fry, the ones less invested in the system.

2. Caroni carpetbaggers. When I heard that Caroni (1975) Ltd was about to be closed in 2002, I instantly interceded. I visited the human resources manager, the workers. I called a symposium at UWI to discuss the fate of 77,000 acres of land and a wealth of assets: lands, labour, expertise, buildings, projects, stocks, enterprises.

I wrote, with the assistance of two undergraduate students, a paper called the Caroni Position Paper.

It was a developmental manifesto, showing how these powerful assets could be levered to create an altered social and financial economy.

No go. This was dissed, after I presented 12 copies to government.

Little by little many of these stocks were sold cheap, giveaways; via a scheming between officials, public servants, contractors and big business.

Cannibalised.

3. Consultant-ocracy. Around 2003, I visited the most senior minister involved in the Caroni closure.

I took with me two consultants, experts, university lecturers, whose expertise I relied on. The meeting was called to discuss our proposals for the Caroni lands.

When I left the meeting, one of my student researchers asked: “Did you see that?” “What?” I asked.

“One of the lecturers just pushed his calling card towards the minister across the table.” It was done so furtively, I did not see. I was aghast.

Why was he there? To serve the public interest? Or to eat ah food? I have seen some professionals, academic heads, throw science out of the window to eat ah food.

4. Oil and gas technocracy. Disregarding the Caroni Position Paper, the Government went on with its own plan for saving the economy: the Master Gas Plan, written by British and US consultants Gaffney and Cline. Its ambition was to monetise the gas economy. Two smelters. A mega steel mill. Large chemical and plastic plants. Four industrial estates. A mega highway through the Oropouche wetland. A network of gas and pipeline infrastructure.

Gaffney and Cline lamented that the technocrats and bureaucrats in the energy sector were a law unto themselves, reliant on “a handful of industry professionals. This would be a cause for concern in any private sector company and should be of considerable concern to the GORTT … it is recommended the GORTT move to protect this vital artery of the economy by a regulatory and control structure.” Members of boards, ministers, consultants, technocrats: all one.

5. Public servant-ocracy. In its bid to enforce its Master Gas Plan, against resistance in Cedros, Chatham, La Brea, Otaheite, Claxton Bay, Savonetta, the government sent a storm of officials against the people. Lobbyists from foreign corporations; technocrats and bureaucrats from state corporations; the sons and relatives of the techno- bureaucrats; technical experts from the ministries; party hacks, and constituency chiefs. If this confederacy had succeeded, where would we have gotten the gas to support these megalomaniac heavy gas-based projects? 6. Parliamentary hood. The hood refers to a cabal of interests in Parliament which scratch each other’s backs. They drink from the same parliamentary teacup. They have friends in the contract-ocracy, private corporations, among the ministries, permanent public servants, who vie for projects, for lobbyists, funders, friends, regardless of merits. How could an audit of the wasteful, destructive and fragmenting Debe to Mon Desir highway be commissioned, when both sides of the aisle could be implicated? 7. Closing ranks. In order to protect itself from its act of recklessness, lack of probity, and downright criminality, public officials, across governments, misrepresent the major cause of the flooding east of the collapsed highway embankment in Debe, and at Silverstream in Mon Desir. Garbage and old fridge they say. Rivers need cleaning they protest.

Y e s , very true.

But the m a j o r structural cause of the d a m – ming of water in this area is denied.

In the present PNM administration, there are many who think that it’s their time to access lucrative government contracts and senior management positions in State enterprises. The same can be said when the UNC administration took over the governance of TT .

The dilemma for the political leaders occurs when they are confronted with the reality that many seeking these positions are not qualified or equipped to deliver the results which will determine the success or failure of the government.

One can conclude that Eric Williams in the early 60s felt that the dearth of qualified blacks was a lack of education and attempted to address this conundrum by ensuring that free education was available to all.

When that failed to make the kind of impact he anticipated, he apparently felt that the solution was economic and so introduced shortterm employment with wages that were much better than was available through agriculture.

That too did not solve the problem.

One may wish to suggest that the problem within the black community has very little to do with race and a lot to do with culture. The culture of poverty.

Anthropologist Oscar Lewis in his 1959 book, Five Families: Mexican Case Studies in the Culture of Poverty, states that this culture is characterised by pervasive feelings of helplessness, dependency, marginality, and powerlessness.

Furthermore, Lewis described individuals living within a culture of poverty as having little or no sense of history and therefore lacking the knowledge to alleviate their own conditions through collective action, instead focusing solely on their own troubles.

He further suggested that attitudes developed within a culture of poverty get passed down to subsequent generations through socialisation processes.

In 1965 USA, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, in a report titled “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action,” suggested that poor blacks in the US were caught in a “tangle of pathology,” the core reason for which was the breakdown of the black family.

His report conceived the family breakdown was responsible for the failure of black males to succeed, both in school and later in jobs, and that this failure was transmitted down generations.

As the people of TT enter a period of economic decline, political organisations will find it increasingly difficult to satisfy their core supporters who live within a culture of poverty. Many have tried with the failed response of handouts and welfare.

The solution may simply be to change the environment that supports such a culture.

It is almost impossible to change the minds of individuals with legislation.

There are reports that suggest that cancer cannot survive in conditions that do not support its growth. Similarly, the attributes of a culture of poverty cannot prevail in an environment that is not conducive to its growth.

If Rowley really wants to deal effectively with the issues facing the black community, he may be well advised to consider building better roads, offering access to better housing, ensuring that the communities have a reliable water supply, early childhood education, healthcare and access to affordable business space for factories, services and manufacturing.

This issue needs more discussion and I look forward to a national discussion on addressing our economic and social challenges in a rapidly changing economy.

STEVE ALVAREZ via email