PASSENGERS arriving at airports and seaports in Trinidad and Tobago will now have to fill out a “SARS Declaration Form” as well as the usual Customs and Immigration forms. The forms have already been distributed to the Port-of-Spain docks and to airlines personnel who are expected to hand out the forms to incoming aircraft.

This is the latest precautionary effort by the Ministry of Health to try to prevent the deadly virus from entering our shores. The form requires the passenger to give detailed personal information, their points of departure over the past 14 days and their intended address while in Trinidad and Tobago. Information on the medical condition of the passenger is also required. The form asks passengers if they had experienced a high fever, respiratory symptoms including coughing and shortness of breath and difficulty in breathing to report to major health facilities in the country, a listing of which is provided on the form.

The Port Authority received the forms late yesterday evening, and has already put their own measures in place to deal with the threat. According to Margaret Birch-Thompson, Public Relations Officer at the Port Authority, all updates from the Ministry of Health and CAREC are being treated earnestly. The Port Authority said that all employees have been thoroughly educated and a competent Health Unit is prepared to deal with any related occurrence. The Port Authority does not expect to have any cruise ships arriving at the port before October. Marcelle Joseph, Trinidad and Tobago District Manager of British Airways, stated that the airline had begun distributing a similar form more than a week ago. “We had received these documents over a week ago, and they have been distributed to all arriving passengers,” said Joseph.

The airline services passengers coming out of infected areas through connection in the UK, but Joseph said that the airline has been vigilant in ensuring that all passengers are uninfected. Up to late yesterday evening, officials at the Airport Authority had not received the forms. The Ministry of Health has offered assurance that adequate stocks of drugs are available, and necessary conditions for treatment have been set up at the major hospitals. Attempts to find out whether BWIA had received the forms provided futile. BWIA flies in and out of Toronto where several cases of SARS have been reported. The virus which started in Hong Kong and China is now spreading rapidly around the world and has to date caused many deaths. There is no vaccine nor known cure.

A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD boy was burnt to death in a house at Endeavour, Chaguanas, on Wednesday night. The fire occurred after his parents had left him and his four siblings at home while they went out to buy  hamburgers for the family.

Jason Lawrence became afraid when he saw smoke and fire around him and he hid under a bed. Not even coaxing from his elder brother could persuade him to come out and in the end the other children had to run out of the house and leave him. Jason, a 2nd Year pupil of Orange Valley Government School, did not usually stay at his family’s home at Endeavour Road, Chaguanas, but stayed with his half sister, Sherena Jokhan, at Orange Valley, Carapichaima. He was spending the Easter school vacation with his parents, Fabien and Rohanie Lawrence and his siblings, Bryan, 13, Ryan, 10, Adreal, 9 and Joanna, 5.

Recalling the tragedy yesterday at his aunt’s home at Coconut Drive, Brian, a pupil of Endeavor Hindu School, recalled that around 10.30 pm his mother and father told him that they were going for burgers and would be back shortly. He said his home was not supplied with electricity and his parents left a lighted candle on a table in the bedroom. “I was sleeping and the smoke woke me up. The candle fell on the table and a box with candles and a blanket caught fire. The plastic was burning too. I woke up everybody (brothers and sister) and I got water and tried to put out the fire, but nothing was happening,” he said. By this time, he recalled, the curtains were already burning. He said Jason became afraid and hid under the bed. “I could not get him out. I feel really bad. I miss my brother,” the teenager said, as he bowed his head. Around 10.50 pm, Geeta Agostini, 42, who lived next door saw the fire and she called her 25-year-old son, Richard. The two of them ran inside the burning house to help save the children.

Agostini said Bryan was already out of the house, but the four other children were still inside. After ensuring the three children were safely out, Agostini said, she called out to Jason and got a glimpse of his head, under the bed. “But the house was surrounded in fire and I could not get to him,” she said. Agostini said she even tried throwing water to put out the fire to get to the child but it did not work. Jason had to be left alone inside the burning building. By the time the fire fighters arrived at the scene and brought the fire under control, Jason, also known as “Marcus” or “Marky” was burnt beyond recognition.

When the children’s parents returned home, Agostini told Newsday, the mother fainted and the father broke down in tears. Another neighbour, Shamti Sooknanan, 27, who lived next door, said she and her husband soaked their own house with water as a precautionary measure. “Some of the windows were shattered because of the heat and the wall was scorched,” she said of her home. When Newsday visited Jason’s home yesterday at Orange Valley, his half-sister Sherena Jokhan and other relatives were in grief at the boy’s death. Describing him as a loving and willing child who was loved by everyone who knew him, Sherena said Jason was expected to return home on Sunday for school the following day. “This is his home. We all loved him. We took him when he was a baby because he was so cute and we were lonely here by ourselves. Marky loved to go to church. This is so sad,” she sobbed.

Trying to hold back the tears, Sherena said she would be arranging to have the funeral service at her home. Investigators said value of the house and household articles was estimated at $50,000. Visiting the scene was a party of officers of the Chaguanas Fire Service, Chaguanas CID and Homicide Bureau, led by Snr Supt Kamona and Fire officer, Ag SSO Remy, including Sgt Clarke, Cpl Sylvester, WPC Rodeny Neptune and PC Reed.

JOYCE Augustus, 32, the maid who on Wednesday burnt her boss, 60-year-old Cynthia Weilung to death inside her (Weilung’s) Diego Martin home, died at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital yesterday morning.

Police investigating the incident which is now classified as a murder/suicide, said that the case would be sent for a Court Inquest, since the only person who could have been charged for Weilung’s murder, committed suicide. Autopsies carried out on Weilung and Augustus’ bodies at the Forensic Sciences Centre yesterday confirmed that Weilung died of asphyxia due to inhalation of toxic smoke fumes while Augustus died of organ failure due to ingestion of a toxic substance. The autopsies were carried out by Pathologist Dr McDonald Burris.

Neighbours who spoke to Newsday said that the deceased elderly woman had confided in them that for the past few months Augustus had “grown out of control”. However, when Newsday spoke to Mrs Weilung’s son Peter Anthony, he said he was “not aware” of any problems his mother had with Augustus. An autopsy was carried out yesterday on Mrs Weilung’s body at the Forensic Sciences Centre, but up to late yesterday evening, investigating officers had not returned to the West End police station and as such, the results of the autopsy could not be released to the media.

According to reports, around 4 pm on Wednesday, Weilung  was locked in her home at Team Drive, Majuba Cross Road, Diego Martin while watching television, and the building set ablaze. Moments later Augustus, who five months ago was taken off the street by Weilung and offered the job, drank  poison and collapsed at the front of the burning house. Weilung’s granddaughter Tiffany, on seeing smoke billowing at the back of the house telephoned the police. West End police arrived on the scene along with fire officers who had to cut down the front iron gate to gain access to the burning house.

Weilung’s home, which is an annexe at the back of the house was completely destroyed while the front of the house, where her only son, Peter Anthony, lives with his wife Simone and their daughter Tiffany, was untouched by the blaze. When firemen extinguished the blaze, they came across the charred, unrecognisable and smoking remains of Mrs Weilung, among the ruins. Cpl Rivas of West End police station is continuing investigations.

BWIA unions are claiming the airline’s decision to cut wages is illegal. At a media conference at the headquarters of the Aviation Communication and Allied Workers Union (ACAWU) yesterday, union leaders said they would have to wait until workers receive their pay packages before they go to the Industrial Court.

Airline management told union leaders Wednesday that it would be cutting salaries by five to 20 percent. The union leaders say they the workers are being held to ransom since management is claiming that if salaries are not cut, the airline will not get money from Government to pay severance to workers retrenched in January. President of the Superintendents Association Theo Oliver said according to the association’s collective bargaining agreement management must “consult and agree” with unions before any change is made.

The union leaders renewed their call for president Conrad Aleong to resign, saying that the airline’s problems are being caused by mismanagement. Management mistakes include the $300 million used to acquire Dash 8s, crew training and spares and the inability to properly plan for the war in Iraq. Oliver said while Aleong has said the airline spends US$35,000 a day more for every US$0.01 increase in the price of fuel, the figure is really US$14,000 a day. Salary reviews were one of the conditions for the $116.8 million bailout by Government. Union leaders were part of last week Thursday’s Cabinet meeting at which the bailout decision was made and conditions set.

Jagdeo Jagroop, president of the Communication and Transport Workers Union (CATTU) said at the time the unions thought salary cuts would only be for executive management. “Are you now saying that workers have to dip into their pockets to help pay severance?” Oliver asked. At yesterday’s post Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Patrick Manning said the order to cut salaries did not come from Government. “We didn’t tell them what to do. We told them that they need to bring expenditure into line,” he said. He said the Government did not force BWIA to break the law.

“Is that breaking the law? If the Government is saying that’s all it is prepared to fund what do you want them to do?” he said. Manning added that salary cuts are not the only option open to the airline’s management. “They have options. They can go into liquidation if they can’t bring expenditure in line with revenues. If they are insolvent they can go into liquidation. We said to BWIA this is an IMF style arrangement.” Oliver said BWIA management’s survival plan presented to Government does not say how the airline will increase its revenue. He said BWIA needs to focus on its cargo operations and BWIA Express service and the airbridge to increase its revenue.

Commenting on the issue of rising salary levels for executives in the State Enterprise sector in general and the controversy over the salary of WASA CEO Errol Grimes in particular, Prime Minister Patrick Manning noted yesterday that there were people in this country “who were so well qualified that they just attract very attractive salaries”.

“Private sector, state sector we are competing for the same group of people,” the Prime Minister stated. Reminded that WASA as a loss-making entity, he stressed that it was when an enterprise was  losing money that the  demands for management were greatest. “It is when a company is in difficulty that it requires the best expertise that is available,” he said. But he deflected a question on why Government was asking BWIA’s Executives to take a salary cut. Manning said he had received the letter from WASA’s Chairman, Roland Baptiste, explaining that the Authority had rescinded the $50,000 salary for Grimes, as soon as the instructions were given by the Government, through the line minister, Rennie Dumas.

But the Prime Minister stressed that the country had to get accustomed to this reality: “Good managers are not easy to come by and that is why in the private sector they pay them very well,” he said. He  said some people in the private sector in Trinidad and Tobago were getting as much as US $50,000 a month. And added jokingly: “Regrettably the Prime Minister is not one of them”. But the Prime Minister also emphasised that Government was determined that all workers get a better deal. He said Government was committing to ensuring that the basic wage level was one on which the ordinary person could live, take care of their families and put aside something for a rainy day. That was why Government raised the minimum wage and is committed to carrying it to $10 before the end of its term of office, he said.

Citing the law of demand and supply, he said it was because Government realised that it required a greater reservoir of skilled managers, that it decided to establish the University of Trinidad and Tobago. He said WASA and its future development was currently before the Standing Committee on Energy. He said while government recognised that as a public utility it could not operate solely on the basis of economic criteria, it was not prepared to sit idly by and allow WASA to be a huge loss. He said the losses of water produced still exceeded 50 percent of water production.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning continued to take a hard line on BWIA, stressing yesterday that if the national airline did not meet the conditionalities set by government for its financing, Government would allow it to go into liquidation.

“Let me made it clear, there are no sacred cows…We have said to BWIA ‘$116 million would be available to you under certain conditions, if you meet the conditions, you get the money’,” he stated. He added that Government admitted to BWIA that it was employing an “IMF-type arrangement”. He went on to say that it was before of the IMF conditions of the 1986-1991 period that the country was eventually put on a economically viable footing.

He was speaking at a post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall. On statements by the unions that government was encouraging BWIA to break the law, Manning said he was not aware that the company was breaking the law if it reduced salaries. The Prime Minister recalled that the NAR Government cut salaries by 10 percent and removed cost of living allowances unilaterally. “Not that we agreed with it, but the Government of the day felt that was what it had to do,” he said.

Manning said as emotional as BWIA was to many Trinidadians and Tobagonians, including himself (“I love to fly with it”), “if you can’t afford it, you just can’t afford it”. He said government believed that the terms and conditions of employees of BWIA must be sustainable. He added that the viable plan which BWIA presented to the government contained the very proposals which government subsequently laid down as conditions as its funding.

The Trinity Cross will remain, at least for this year. Prime Minister Patrick Manning said yesterday that while Government was committed to changing the name of the Trinity Cross, it did not plan to  precipitate. “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,” he told a post-conference news conference at Whitehall.

Manning said he was very interested in the fact that while Basdeo Panday was very vocal as Opposition Leader about the issue of the Trinity Cross, he (Panday) never touched it. “One of the things I would like to do before touching it myself is to find out why (he didn’t change the name)”, Manning said. He added that Government had to be sensitive to public opinion on the issue.

Within four to six weeks more foreign doctors — this time 100 UN volunteers — are due in Trinidad and Tobago to work in public hospitals, Health Minister Colm Imbert announced yesterday.

Speaking at a post-Cabinet news briefing, Imbert said  Government had agreed to accept the offer of technical assistance from the United Nations Development Programme to help the Ministry with some of its critical human resource needs. He said it would deal with the current shortage of health professionals, including health managers, which was “a serious deficiency that exists in the health sector right now”. The programme, which is titled the UN Volunteer Programme, will see a number of specialised doctors coming to work here for a monthly stipend, not exceeding what is paid to local doctors. In fact, for the very specialised it might even be less, Imbert said. The doctors, who will come from Commonwealth countries and countries approved by the WHO, will be on three year contracts. Imbert said because the UN would have oversight responsibility for these persons, government believed that they would conform to the highest standard of medical training and medical expertise.

Imbert also revealed that everything was in place to meet the one month time frame for the arrival of Cuba doctors and nurses. He said the the draft of the Agreement which is to be signed between the Governments of Cuba and Trinidad and Tobago was due to be vetted by the Attorney General yesterday. So it is quite possible that “tomorrow” the document can be executed by representatives of the governments of both countries. In fact, Imbert said it was likely that both the Cubans and the UNVs (UN volunteers) would arrive at the same time which is “in four weeks time”. He stressed that government’s efforts to fill vacancies and deal with the shortage of staff had nothing to do “putting pressure” on local doctors who are key players in the current industrial impasse. Any attempt to link the two was “shortsighted” and “superficial”. Saying that Government had no choice but to look overseas to deal with the shortage of some 200 doctors, Imbert said it was seeking to balance the countries from which the foreign doctors were coming.

On the issue of SARS and the steps being taken in the light of the close relationship between Trinidad and Tobago and Toronto, the Prime Minister announced that the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Rampersad Parasram would address the nation over the weekend “comprehensively” on the plan of action which is to be instituted. Imbert also announced that Cabinet agreed to provide the Ministry of Health with $210 million to deal with a number of shortfalls such as arrears of increment and clear the outstanding debts of the Regional Health Authorities. He said $104 will supplement the budgetary allocation of the Ministry, while $106 million will deal with outstanding liabilities in the RHAs. The North West Regional Health Authority has a debt of $77 million, while the Eastern Regional Health Authority has a $10 million debt and the South West Regional Health Authority has an $8 million debt. The money would also be used to reduce the backlog of cataract surgery and for the “long awaited” Motor Vehicle Loan Fund for the doctors.