Making that line the theme of her presentation, Tam told the women, “We all know that our expectations frame our lives, our expectations frame our future.” She said that each person has an average of six careers in their lifetime and if they were still working on their first one they needed to consider if that was what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives.

“Are you satisfied with your life that you have right now and if you’re not, are you doing anything about it? Because your life is really what you expect. You are going to show up and you are going to receive based on your expectations, not what other people told you, what society tells you, what is in social media but what you really expected.”

Tam told the audience that she was the second daughter in her traditional Chinese family in Hong Kong. There were three brothers after her and because she was a girl her parents didn’t want her and gave her away to an aunt who did not have any children. She said she became a child labourer in a fishing village and did task work, an experience that was not good for her self-esteem. In time, the aunt became pregnant and had her own child, a boy, and promptly returned her to her parents, further damaging the way she thought about herself. She asked the women in the audience to examine what negative things they learned in their childhood which were still determining the outcome of their lives today and urged them to put those thoughts away. Despite her low self-esteem and the damage caused by all the negative things she was told because she was female, Tam said she developed a life mission – to do humanitarian work in Africa. After returning to her parents, she was sent to a private school where she got a quite good education. However, she dropped out early and applied to a college in the US where she was accepted. As she advanced through her career she faced many questions about her background, Tam said she decided to write a book, “How to use what you got to get what you want,” explaining that, “Truthfully, it’s all inside of us. Everything you are going to achieve is already there in bud form, like a flower before it opens or a seed before it germinates. It’s up to us to nurture that part of it. It’s not waiting for somebody else to tell us that we are going to be great.”

Tam shared four principles which she uses in her life and work. The first was to always tell the truth because it frees up the mind to concentrate on more important things. The second principle was to make partners, something she said women were good at because they like to collaborate and work together. The third principle was to make big mistakes because if they only made small mistakes it showed that they were just being careless while making no mistakes showed that they were not taking any risks. The fourth principle was to “die by your own sword,” which she said, meant that they should stand by their convictions.

Another speaker at the conference was Maja Djikic, PhD Director of the Self- Development Laboratory at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. She said that women needed to beware of such internal obstacles as low self-confidence which manifests itself in not applying for positions even if the positions are available and they are qualified for them. She said another obstacle to the success of women was not having their voices heard in the companies in which they work.

Djikic also warned of the imposter syndrome which she described as the inability to internalise success and the problem of guilt which women feel about work.

In her welcome remarks, Jo-Anne Boodoosingh, Director, Executive Education at the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business, said resilience is one of the greatest attributes of women, in addition to the ability to overcome obstacles with grace and humility. “Each of us has a story. Obstacles we’ve faced whether personally or professionally, tears shed, pains but we also have a song of victory, a lesson of learning and a heart of gratitude.”

She said while the “wonder women” in the audience may see what they do in ordinary terms whether as mother, teacher, company director, entrepreneur, the many roles they played each day made an impact, whether it was shaping lives, raising kids, running companies, building homes and supporting families, leading teams, creating wealth, holding huge corporate portfolios, volunteering and pushing the NGOs they were associated with to perform better and help the community.

Wendy-Fae Thompson, Managing Counsel at bpTT told conference participants statistics collected at bp showed that women represented 33 percent of the workforce and 22 percent of group leaders, the company’s most senior managers. She said that by 2020 the company’s ambition was that 25 percent of its group leaders and 30 percent of its senior level leaders would be women. She said the company had set internal goals for gender representation and is holding its leaders responsible for taking all reasonable steps to be inclusive.

Karen Darbasie, Group Chief Executive Officer of First Citizens, and speaker partner, said that in just a few generations the roles of working mothers had changed in the country and working women continue to work to define their roles in society with many of them trying to achieve the “ever shifting” balance as working mothers. “The realities are that in our country many women are given the mammoth task of raising the children, cleaning the house, working a full day and at the end of the day the ritual of preparing the family meals.”

She said women had made progress but still had a way to go. “Are women getting equal pay for equal work? How do we make sexual harassment a thing of the past? Those are questions that we all need to find the answers to. As parents are we raising sons and daughters that respect each other’s differences and commonalities?” She said that research had shown that women have made progress in leadership positions but the gender gap continues to be a prevalent issue.

“Women bring different perspectives and approaches to business resulting in a more inclusive workplace and often better performance for the company, yet today the helm of Fortune 500 companies is held by only about 21 women.” She added that of the eight commercial banks in Trinidad and Tobago, three are run by women, an indication of how far this country has advanced as a society. Darbasie said that although roles are changing and improving there remain many pressures for women in this country. She referred to the statistics on domestic violence, observing that the Victim and Witness Support Unit of the Police Service had reported last year that between 2005 and 2015 almost 300 women were killed in incidents of domestic violence and more than 7,000 cases of domestic abuse were reported between 2008 and 2015. However, she said it was not only a local issue because the World Health Organisation had estimated that one in three women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner violence in their lifetime.

She said factors associated with this include low education, exposure to violence between parents, abuse during childhood and attitudes which are accepting of violence and gender inequality. She said these statistics can be changed: in low income settings by strategies to enhance women’s social and economic empowerment including micro-financing combined with gender-equality training and community-based initiatives can make a difference while school-based programmes and initiatives had also proven effective in preventing relationship or dating violence among young people in high income settings.

The West Indies will play England in three Tests – August 17-21 at Edgbaston, Birmingham; August 25-29 at Headingley, Leeds and September 7-11 at Lord’s, London.

In a recent interview, Davis stated, “I don’t believe in five bowlers in my cricket team. I believe in four main bowlers.

“I’m not talking bout these (current crop of WI) bowlers; we’re weak in that department,” he continued.

“A main bowler is somebody who is capable or have the ability to get five wickets in a match, or in an innings; somebody who can win a match for you. If you have four capable bowlers, and then you have a backup bowler, who is usually a steady bowler, even if it’s just to give a (frontline) bowler a rest or to make a change, but a back-up bowler.

“That’s how I view my team when I’m selecting my team.

When you pick five main bowlers, you end up quite weak in batting.

So that is where the problem comes in.

We have no all-rounders like (Sir) Garry Sobers, our all-rounders are very weak all-rounders.” Looking at the state of affairs within the regional squad, Davis pointed out, “The thing is we don’t have that type of ability. We don’t have the wherewithal, meaning the right coaching. I hope now that Stuart Law might be different.

I thought Phil Simmons was definitely first-class and he would have built it up nicely within two or three years but (Cricket West Indies) just got rid of him.

We struggled in that department for a long time.

“We had (Richard) Pybus but now we have Jimmy Adams (as director of cricket).

We have a CEO (Johnny Grave) who sounds more sensible than the rest we had before; he knows more cricket anyway.

Actually they’re getting things moving now, all these administrative changes that are coming is through them. You can read between the lines and see that.” About the regional cricket administrators, Davis stressed, “They must put cricket first, and the playing of the game of cricket. That is what comes first, and no favouritism and using personal animosities against cricketers. If you put that first, that means any sort of mistakes people make, you bring them in and you talk to them.

You don’t put them out of cricket, like what they did with (Nicholas) Pooran and (Darren) Bravo.

You don’t put them out to pasture without a chance of coming back.

So now that we have proper thinking people in Adams and Grave, cricket has to come first.

Davis also made a call for limited-overs opening batsman Evin Lewis to get a look-in, as far as the Test squad is concerned.

Last week Thursday, the Defence Force issued an apology to Maharaj for wrongly ascribing blame to him for civilians, namely children of Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi, being allowed onto off-limit areas at Camp Cumuto and to hold Defence Force owned and commissioned machineguns last October.

This inaccurate finding was contained in a report issued by a Board of Inquiry which was constituted to investigate the breach of military rules after Opposition MP Roodal Moonilal waved photos of the AG’s children posing with the weapons during a sitting of the Lower House last October.

Maharaj, who from day one, has strenuously denied ever giving any permission to the AG or anyone else to have civilians enter Camp Cumuto sought under the Freedom of Information Act, to get a copy of the Board of Inquiry’s report.

On April 25, then Chief of Defence Staff Brigadier General Rodney Smart, by letter, stated, “It was established that the former Chief of Defence Staff Major General Kenrick Maharaj, acting on his own volition, authorised the range practice.” The TTDF subsequently set up a Board of Inquiry to investigate.

Maharaj last week Thursday, received a response from Lt Col Sheldon Ramnanan, which stated, “The record of proceedings of the Board of Inquiry did not name you, Major General Kenrick Maharaj, nor did it state that you had any knowledge of the subject range practice and or that you granted approval for same to be conducted.

The Defence Force sincerely apologises for any inconvenience and or embarrassment caused to you by the aforementioned.” Contacted for comment last week, Maharaj said, “the responses did not meet my expectations and I have chosen to reserve comment until I decide my next move.” Newsday understands that over the weekend, Captain Pritchard reached out to Maharaj on his return from Miami and agreed to provide a more comprehensive response to his (Maharaj) request for a copy of the report of proceedings of the Board of Enquiry.

Sources revealed that Captain Pritchard apologised verbally to Maharaj.

The 18 players selected are captain Akim Toussaint, Jabari Perez, Kwandwayne Browne, Shaquille Daniel, Dylan Francis, Kristien Emmanuel, Tariq Marcano, Teague Marcano, Andrey Rocke, Kwasi Emmanuel, Daniel Byer, Lyndell Byer, Jordan Vieira, Che Modeste, Marcus Pascall, Michael II O’Connor, Brian Garcia and Arielle Bowen.

Glenn Francis will be the coach, while Dwain Quan Chan will serve as his deputy.

Denise Scanterbury will serve as manager, with Karielle De Bique (physiotherapist ) , Derek Ashby (massage therapist/trainer), Liza Mohan-Watts (psychologist) and Nicholas Baldeosingh (videographer) completing the technical staff.

Francis will hold a training session today from 6 pm at the National Hockey Centre, Tacarigua before the team leaves for Lancaster on Saturday.

TT will play a practice match against Chile before their first match on August 4 against Canada.

However, he said shareholders are “starved for information” and are being suppressed.

“All our investors want to come in but in order for that to happen, due diligence must take place,” Reis said. He added that for the eight years Government has been in control of CLF, they have not produced any audited statements.

Reis spoke to reporters at the Hall of Justice in Port of Spain after the hearing of Government’s winding up petition was adjourned to September. On Tuesday, the appellate court gave Government permission to hire two provisional liquidators to preserve the assets of CLF until the winding up petition is granted by the court.

PRIVY COUNCIL LOOMS Reis said yesterday the shareholders are willing to take their fight to the Privy Council in London.

At yesterday’s hearing, Justice Kevin Ramcharan, who last week denied the State’s application for the appointment of the liquidators, gave directions for attorneys representing the CLF shareholders to put forward their opposition to the winding up action.

They have until August 4 to do so. The judge said it was not in the interest of the company, its shareholders and creditors to have the matter go on for too long. Government’s decision to seek to hire liquidators and have CLF wound up is based on a move by shareholders to regain control of the company.

As the principal creditor by virtue of the $23 billion bailout of CLF and its subsidiaries in 2009, Government has the majority of the directors on the board. The government claims the company’s level of insolvency still poses a systemic risk to the country’s financial system and after eight years, it will not recover to a satisfactory state of solvency.

But Reis said this was nonsense.

He said the accounts are wrong but it will be up to the courts to decide whether the company should be liquidated.

He said liquidating CLF will lead to a systemic financial collapse since CLF was spread throughout the country and the Caribbean.

GOVT FEASTING ON CLF “They (Government) do not want to let go. They are feasting on the company,” he said, adding CLF has turned into a state company where its chairman and directors are being paid exorbitant fees.

According to the appellate court’s orders, provisional liquidators Hugh Dickson and Marcus Wide of international accounting firm Grant Thornton will have the powers to protect and conserve the assets of CLF and curtail wasteful expenditure and liabilities pending the determination of the winding up petition.

They will also have the power to take possession and collect the assets to what CLF is entitled and do all things necessary to protect assets in this country and any other jurisdiction.

They will also have the power to investigate the affairs of CLF and bring, continue or defend any legal action brought on behalf of CLF.

They will also have the power to retain and operate the existing bank accounts of CLF and open and operate new accounts, pay any necessary expenses incurred and the power to enter or terminate any contracts relating to the company.

The court’s order also gives the liquidators the power to sell, distribute or part with the assets of CLF with the court’s approval, retain or dismiss employees, maintain insurances or make a proposal under the Bankruptcy or Insolvency act on behalf of the company.

The company also has 21 days in which to submit to Dickson and Wide a statement of affairs, showing the company’s assets, debts and liabilities, a list of its creditors and the securities held. The two are also required to present to the court and the shareholders’ accounts of costs and expenses incurred every three months, beginning from November.

At the card’s launch on Monday at the Hyatt Regency, RBC’s managing director Darryl White said the card has been around for many years but they felt the need to improve on it.

“We are a bank that prides ourselves in challenging the status quo, trying to give more to our clients and it was a product that we’ve had for a while and people loved it and people will keep asking for the miles card,” White said.

“What we have discovered is, even when we launched other cards, nobody wanted to give up their CAL card.” He said earlier this year, RBC and CAL renewed their partnership and commitment to their clients.

He said as a business, they have to challenge themselves and deliver the right products and service day in and day out and a differentiated experience that gives clients the convenience, choice and freedom they want.

“As consumers when we use our cards, we want that confidence that the transaction will be protected and the new RBC visa card ensures our clients have the highest level of safety and protection of their assets and their purchases. This speaks to who we are as a bank. We imagine what is possible for our clients and we work hard to turn those possibilities into realities.

“At RBC we strive to be innovative because we know our clients want the freedom and the convenience to do the things that are important to them.” Vice president of maintenance and engineering at CAL, Colville Carrington said the launch of the card was another milestone in their relationship.

“Our brands are all committed to delivering improved products and services that cater to the evolving needs of the market place.

This commitment is central to Caribbean Airlines’ strategy and to our strategic plan and is expressed in our new mission connecting people, realising dreams,” he said.

The card offers its users purchase protection benefits, emergency medical services, auto rental and travel accident insurance, travel information services, exclusive offers and concierge service.

One such opportunity is the Costa Rican market. Sheri Joseph, business development executive in the TT Trade Promotion Office at Procomer, the Costa Rican export promotion agency, said last year Costa Rica exported $60 million worth of products to this country while local businesses sent a mere $16 million worth of goods to the Central American country.

This despite the fact CARICOM and Costa Rica signed a Free Trade Agreement in 2005.

Joseph said the reason the trade between the two countries is so lopsided is lack of information among local businesses. To correct this shortcoming, Procomer and Essential Costa Rica, another Government agency in that country, joined exporTT to host a forum “Why Costa Rica?” at the Westmoorings office of the TT Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

The forum was held in conjunction with JMMB and the Guardian Group and chief executive officer of the chamber Gabriel Faria said in his welcome remarks it will form part of the chamber’s BusinessInsights series.

Joseph said in a couple of months there will be another workshop attended by an official from the Caricom Secretariat, another joint effort between the Chamber, Procomer and exporTT.

She said at that workshop they will look at companies which, based on yesterday’s workshop, have determined what opportunities they want to explore, look deeper into the process required to get products into Costa Rica or get products from Costa Rica to Trinidad; examine different areas of the Free Trade Agreement such as rules of origin and even look more at the expansion of trade in services. She said the area of services has not been explored at all and there were very few companies doing it but there are a lot of advantages for companies in that area.

“We have a Free Trade Agreement but it’s not being used.

People tend to look at other markets but Costa Rica is going to be a natural market for us. In fact, Costa Rica looks at CARICOM as a natural market for their products which is why Costa Rica opened a trade promotion office here because they saw how important it was. So we want to see if that can be done reciprocally.” Joseph runs the Procomer office in Trinidad and Tobago which was opened 14 years ago. “We are very proud now that 90 per cent of the carrots on the local market are Costa Rican carrots and if you look in the supermarket you will see pasta, sauces and jams and construction products. She said a lot of the pepper sauce on the market is being made from pepper mash imported from Costa Rica because some local companies went to Costa Rica and showed the farmers how to grow the peppers they needed and to produce it in the required quantities and ship it here and they used that as the raw material to produce the pepper sauce.”

A single murder was sensational news. Villages and communities alike interacted. Now you don’t dare cross that invisible line.

So we gained some wealth and lost our humanity. I will always recall the advice of my father, Enzo Fortune: “We love things and use people, when we should love people and use things.” Today a man is measured by his material worth, regardless of how it is acquired. There has been a shift from when a man’s worth was his character and word. This development only indicated a loss of values.

Our personal values exist in relation to cultural values, either in agreement with or divergence from prevailing norms.

Social values form an important part of the culture of a society. Values account for the stability of social order. They provide the general guidelines for social conduct.

Any attempt at progress will be doomed if we do not address societal tendencies towards criminality and criminal clientelism as being the norm.

COLIN FORTUNE Arima

While some may challenge the activity as being unnecessary, there is a point to note that it served us quite well as children; if not just to slow us down and give us cause for reflection. Back then it didn’t matter how much you protested, our mothers knew best.

Today, I am of the view that our nation is in need of a purge. As we enter this period of our national history, we are pained by the constrictions to our progress, the serious financial constipation, moral decadence and stomach-churning murders.

We have tried so many diets from the experts and naysayers, but there is some merit in applying the tried and tested occasional purge of our system, burdened as it is with a history of largesse and overindulgence.

I speak not of the routine call for a change in diet as administered by our political nutritionists, but a good doze of senna for the country, accompanied by a time for rest and reflection. This will definitely force us to sit down and contemplate our state.

We must challenge ourselves as a nation to do what is necessary, to reduce the harmful concoction of crime and moral decay, which are harmful to our consumption. Indeed, we must go deeper, beyond the dialogue and conversations to address the source of our malady and expel those elements that restrict us from operating efficiently.

We need to come clean with the reality of our situation before God and country and set ourselves the task, though painful, to cleanse ourselves in body, soul and spirit.

Although some among us have performed our religious duty of fasting and prayer, there is the urgent need for a national coordinated effort as a people to address the present state of our country.

I appeal to the Christian community not to be content with a few days of prayer and fast, but to improve their regimen in addressing the spirits of crime, violence and corruption, among others.

So my call is for the “Christian collective” to join the rest of the nation in a special 40-day holy fast that would culminate with the expected freedoms on Independence Day and beyond.

At the beginning of this Government’s term of office, I had called for a day of prayer and thanksgiving.

Now I am calling for a 40-day fast for the nation, a time of cleansing and a time when we can administer a “spiritual purge” to get rid of the undesirable elements that plague us. We have tried everything else, why not try the biblical method of securing guidance for a nation… “that the people would fast and pray, turn from their wicked ways and seek God” …so that “a remnant will be blessed and a nation will be purged of its sins.” Time for our nation to take a “spiritual purge,” Mr PM.

APOSTLE TERRENCE HONORE via email

At the launch of two programmes at SITAL College of Tertiary Education Limited in Tacarigua yesterday, Richards said the standard has deteriorated drastically.

He hopes the broadcasting course go a long way in improving the skills of communicators.

Also launched in commemoration of SITAL’S 25th anniversary was a programme in eco tourism.

Richards, an Independent Senator, will be one of the lecturers in the broadcasting programme.

“I have no problem with colloquial language but,” he said.

“I have always said colloquial language and local parlance must be an option, not because you cannot speak standard English, it should be used in addition to your ‘mysterious’ standard English.

Very often we turn on the radio or look at the television we hear the mispronunciation of words. It is confusing to me.” Richards said the course aims to look at youth and also improve communication skills, not only in media but across the board.

He said to be successful in any sector, being an effective communicator is key in service industry.

“In politics, in education, in medicine, in law, you can have all the knowledge you want inside of yourself and if you cannot communicate that knowledge or information effectively, you are not going to be as effective in your field.” Richards said media and communication services for the period 2014 to 2015 accounts for $5.6 billion in business and has increased despite the economic challenge.

“It tells you of the scope of the sector of media and communication services in Trinidad and Tobago, inclusive of radio, television, and that is not counting advertising and other service industries.” SITAL’S executive director Ann Marina White said they are excited to introduce the programmes in keeping with their vision to contribute to national development by offering a curriculum that meets the needs of the industry and is in alignment with the country’s goals.

“We do not only want to respond to market needs, but to look ahead to the creation of new or expanded markets which are suitable for our student base.”