“I know there has been a lot of miscommunication,” Carlyle Holder told reporters after his sister’s farewell service at Allen’s Funeral Chapel, Broadway, Arima. “Basically, I don’t want to get into details.” Holder, who has lived in the United States since the 1970s, claimed neither he nor his elder sister were apprised of the details concerning Holder-Alvarez’s funeral arrangements.

“I wasn’t contacted and my sister was not contacted and we were travelling. So, it (funeral) just could not happen.

There were still family members that were travelling. I see that it became a big feud and it shouldn’t have been.

“I got a call the morning that the service was going on and one of my family members, right when it began, said it was out of order. And really, that’s it. “Is not about what I want or what nobody else wants.

So, that is really what happened. So, we would have missed everything if it had continued on Thursday.” During Holder-Alvarez’s funeral service on Thursday, a woman, believed to be her aunt, walked into the church and, in full view of mourners, announced the funeral could not take place.

Her declaration elicited shock among members of the congregation, including officiating priest Fr Emmanuel Pierre.

After the announcement, Holder-Alvarez’ casket was quickly placed in a hearse and taken to a funeral home as mourners remained baffled by the unfortunate development.

Holder-Alvarez, 46, a popular host at Synergy TV, lost her battle with lupus on July 15.

Yesterday, Holder described the controversy surrounding Thursday’s funeral service as sad.

“In a time of grieving, it was sad that it had this type of thing transpiring. Everything should be in order and if I was here that would not have happened. Had they called me, we would have accommodated everybody’s wishes because we know that everybody wanted to give her a good sending-off.” Holder joked his sister had always told friends her death would bring “bacchanal.” “So, everything happened for a reason.

While we can blame, that is life and death. Unfortunately that transpired but at the end of the day, she got the wishes that she wanted. Because I tell everybody, I’m just her brother.” Holder-Alvarez, who converted to Islam in her latter years, became known in some circles as Carlet Muhummad.

And although Islam does not subscribe to cremation but burial, the media worker was cremated at Allen’s Funeral Home after the service in a marked departure from the tenets of the faith.

Holder explained the reason behind the decision to cremate her remains.

“Carlet had asked that she be cremated but we knew she was a Muslim.

So we asked her teacher, Mr (David) Muhummad if there could be compromise without violating the true principles of what she requested. In death, we want to make sure that Carlet’s wishes are honoured and that is really what it was.” Earlier, in his eulogy, Nation of Islam local representative and radio talk show host David Muhummad, one of Holder-Alvarez’s childhood friends, revealed they converted to Islam within a year of each-other. He assumed his Islamic name on February 26, 1996 while she did so on February 26, 1997.

He said she occasionally co-hosted his radio talk show The Black Agenda whenever he went abroad. He told a small gathering Holder- Alvarez will be remembered for her joyful, infectious personality.

“One thing that we could say Carlet has over most of us, if not all of us, is that she would have brought more joy to you who knew her, more than anyone else probably who you know,” he said.

He criticised those who delight in other people’s pain.

“Some of us are toxic, bitter, and cannot communicate with anyone unless we deliver poison.

Some of us feel we uplift ourselves by dragging down others,” he said.

But the passage of Brett and then isolated days of heavy rain twice since then have brought early flooding, landslips and tree falls to most neighbourhoods. The heavy rain in north Trinidad last Tuesday saw raging waters closing roads, flooding homes and trapping persons in their cars, workplaces and out by rivers in the Northern Range.

It could be said that the difficulties were generally not the faults of those trapped or inconvenienced.

The causes of flooding are not always the faults of the victims of flooding. But the causes are due to much more than heavy rain or “Acts of God”.

Most flooding incidents which we suffer have been caused or grossly aggravated by acts of man—cutting forests, bulldozing hills, blocking rivers and drains— and usually the people who have caused the problems are not affected by them.

However, for the group of “curry duck limers” on the bank of the Caura River, they need to accept responsibility for the predicament into which they had placed themselves.

Firstly the Meteorological Office had issued heavy rain warnings from the night before, and people should have postponed or cancelled their outing.

But since we refuse to acknowledge that dangers do exist during the rainy season, we do not check the weather or the warnings before we set out. The group set up their cookout across the river from where they had parked their cars.

Notwithstanding the bad weather warnings on radio they obviously were not monitoring the river flow until it was too late. And they were stuck on the far side of the eventually raging stream. There are warning signs of the river beginning to rise, if one knows to look for them. And on a day when warnings have been issued, it is the responsibility of leaders of the group to look out for these signs.

I, with two other hikers, were once lunching at Macajuel Pool on the Madamas River when we noticed the water rising. We were able to collect everything and scramble up a very steep bank to safety just as the torrent arrived. We clung precariously to trees on the steep bank before the flow subsided enough for us to begin trekking back along the river bank. On that day there were no clouds, no signs of rain, nothing until the water began rising. And it was not the Madamas River, but a tributary, the Miguel River which had collected a heavy but localised shower far up on Cerro del Aripo, and brought the torrent down.

We should all remember an incident a few years ago when a group of hikers in the Guanapo River were ill-advised to cross the raging river, holding on to a rope, and two were swept away to their deaths. It was not just a flooded river they were trying to cross; it was a deadly flow of water with huge stones and tree trunks which could break your legs even as you clung to the rope.

The Caura group was wise enough to stay put and suffer on the far side of the river, but they all survived that discomfort.

But while it should be easy to avoid flooded rivers out in the hills, it is not so easy in our built up areas. “Rivers” like the Diego Martin, Maraval and St. Anns (these are now large concrete drains) flowing through deforested valleys, cannot be controlled or restrained within the concrete canals. These rivers will overflow more and more often as the hillsides continue to be stripped, bulldozed and “galvanised”, pouring more and more water into drains which cannot be enlarged.

As the rivers overflow onto roads, there is a danger that cars can be swept away, and yet we see people try to drive through deeply flooded streets. When a vehicle with children is swept into the river and out to sea, maybe we will then start to respect flood waters.

We have a long rainy season ahead. We all need to be aware of the real dangers of flash flooding, and the longer term deep nuisance of rising water due to constant rain. The truth is that we are not prepared to cope with what will come. We have about six weeks before schools reopen, when rains and floods will aggravate the logistics of children’s travel and the concerns of parents who cannot get their children home.

Two imperatives arise: the ongoing clearing and dredging of all rivers and drains, especially at their outfalls; and the publication of a plan—if one exists— which i n s t ruc t s the population on the means of evacuation of population centres and floodprone areas.

Samuel, who is being treated at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex for second and third degree burns over 70 percent of his body, is said to be in a satisfactory condition and is resting comfortably.

Relatives told Sunday Newsday the combination of worrying over Samuel’s condition and having to seek alternative accommodation for the family members whose homes were burnt during the incident has taken a toll on them all. They said they have been applying to several organisations for assistance.

Last Wednesday afternoon, residents of Eighth Street East, Arouca heard arguing and scuffling in a house in a small yard on the street. Moments later, an explosion was heard and Samuel and his female companion Anika La Rosa, 37, were heard screaming.

Samuel ran out of the back of the house with his body on fire.

He fell in a nearby drain and people came to his assistance.

When asked what happened, Samuel said La Rosa was trying to kill him. La Rosa died in the fire.

Homicide detectives are continuing investigations.

Even the most fortunate get clobbered eventually, as this country is discovering this year as regards weather. That applies whether you believe in God or you’re of the opinion that everything is controlled by something else — as a friend noted recently “the Universe has me right where I should be”, as if the universe had the capacity to think. Tropical storms are extending their reach, and places which normally peep out from behind descriptions that declare them to be “outside the hurricane belt” have had their feathers ruffled. After all, if countries on the other side of the Atlantic can be hit by extreme weather that started 4,000 miles away, it is only to be expected in Trinidad and Tobago.

Having moved here from the Turks & Caicos Islands, which are well and truly within the hurricane belt — right below the hurricane navel, in fact — I can tell you it was a relief not to have to look every morning at the websites that chart the progress of whichever delinquent patch of wind and rain was lurching around the Caribbean, looking for trouble.

When you’re in a designated danger zone you find yourself getting ready for something you’re desperately hoping will never happen.

Thus, we had bought a little gas stove, a huge torch and spare batteries, and rather than spending a fortune on bottled drinking water I would fill each newly-emptied one with tap water. You’re advised to stock up on tinned food, so you end up with cupboards full of corned beef, baked beans and fruit cocktail that will keep you going for weeks if you finally decide to move away from the trouble spot.

I also found myself checking out the windows, because you’re supposed to have some sort of protection for them. When it’s a rented house, though, you have neither the right to bang nails into planks and improvise, nor the inclination to pay a builder to do something more professional.

Calling them something less dramatic than hurricanes might keep the specialists happy, but having experienced the “remnants” of a “tropical storm” in the Channel Islands in 1987, I can tell you that terminology isn’t much of a comfort when you can see the 4ft x 4ft panes of glass in your windows actually bending with the invisible but all too audible force outside.

That one struck overnight, which was probably a blessing — or a random decision by whoever this Universe character is — and my next door neighbour went off to work at eight the next morning with a chainsaw in his car to make his way like a modern-day Tarzan through the fallen trees that blocked the lanes of our quiet, leafy area.

That “weather event” didn’t have a name, because apparently such storms don’t. I’m not exactly sure how this works, because the one menacing this part of the world this week was called Don. Not Donald, mind you, but Don. When did we get so familiar with weather systems that we started addressing them as if they were friends? They don’t make up these names on the spur of the moment, though; there are lists of them, and they are reused every six years unless one actually gets famous, in which case it is immortalised and no young pretender may confuse the issue.

The names that appear in our local history books include Flora (1963) and Bret (1993).

The lists are from A to Z, a mix of male and female, and perhaps because it is unlikely we will get through 26 in one season, there are only two beginning with Z: Zeke and Zelda, and they appear at the bottom of every year’s list. There aren’t that many names beginning with z anyway.

A friend in Grand Turk lost his house in 2008’s Hurricane Ike, which also did for parts of Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi, and has now been retired. He literally lost some of it: being a wooden frame faced with corrugated iron sheets, much of it just took off and blew away. He now lives in a new house, right on the beach, and I asked him how much the insurance was. It’s not insured, he told me.

That was so expensive that he had decided to spend the money on extra steel within the construction, so that if disaster did strike him again, at least his bedroom wasn’t going to take off this time.

Hurricanes (or cyclones or whatever else you want to call them) are mysterious phenomena that seem like the devil’s response to the Caribbean idyll.

Yes, you can bask in the sun 365 days a year, it seems to imply, but you’re not having everything your own way.

In a letter yesterday, Maharaj said there were reports in the media on Friday that the Judiciary has moved to seal all the documents filed.

“It is to be noted that the President under the law can only be sued in the name of the Attorney General. This is made clear by the State Liability and Proceedings Act.” Maharaj said he was contacted by reporters who asked whether it was true the proceedings were sealed since some of them went to the Registry in the Port of Spain High Court to ask about the claim and were told by officials at the counter those proceedings were sealed.

“I informed the media that no application to seal these proceedings were served on me or my law firm and the procedure required to seal the proceedings required an application to be made to a judge.” He said he sent a letter to the Registrar of the Supreme Court on Friday.

“I wanted her to inform me if the proceedings were sealed, and if so, what was the process used for such an order to be have been made.” Maharaj said he has not received any response to his letter.

“It must be presumed therefore that no application was made to a judge for these proceedings to be sealed and no judge has made any order for these proceedings to be sealed.” Maharaj said “sealed” may have been a wrong term used to members of the media in describing restrictions.

“Using the term that the proceedings were sealed could have given the impression that there was a court order with the consequence that the hearing of the proceedings would be conducted in private.

There is a distinction for non-parties to proceedings to be denied access to documents filed in court…

“The Islamic Front would not stand idly by in the face of an act which is bound to erode public trust in our security forces, Abdullah said.

“This approach to battling the challenges of crime and corruption in our nation must be reviewed.

Those responsible for this behaviour must be brought to account and pay a heavy price,” Abdullah said.

Conflicting reports surrounds the shooting death of Martins said to be a member of the Unruly ISIS gang (now referred to as the Masjid of Peace) which is based in Enterprise, Chaguanas. Police said shortly before 4 pm on Friday, Martins opened fire at their members who returned fire at Caroni Savannah Road, Chaguanas, near a car dealership.

However there is a claim that Martins, formerly of Diego Martin, was unarmed and police simply shot and killed him while speaking to a businessman. Martins, police said, was wanted for a series of capital offences including murder. Police investigators said Martins had gone to the businessplace to collect tax (a form of payment businessmen make to criminals to forego being robbed and kidnapped).

However, Martins’ associates claimed he had gone there with over $20,000 to purchase a car.

Yesterday Abdullah said he contacted head of the Police Complaints Authority David West about the issue. In a media release yesterday, he said West is awaiting an official complaint tomorrow.

The Imam called for the immediate suspension of the police involved and added witnesses and video footage would be made available.

“From the information received, we are of the firm belief that officer (name called) and his men should be investigated for the homicide of Jelani Martins and the unaccounted $21,500 which he had on his person. (Name of businessman) was taken into custody.

A story, we understand, is now being concocted to say Jelani went to rob and shoot him.” Abdullah said Martins’ killing is not sitting well with Islamic Front.

“This act by the TTPS (TT Police Service) is going to tarnish and deliver a heavy blow to an already ugly image and will further degrade the public perception of the entire service.” He accused the police of showing its inability to act positively and appropriately to curb the exploding crime rate and the inherent social and economic challenges.

The TTPS seems to be evolving into a “plague with a purpose” to destroy the poor family structure which is the basic building block of society, Abdullah added.

After the shooting on Friday, Martins was taken to the Chaguanas Health Facility where he died.

But tension erupted with relatives and friends expressing anger over the killing. Members of the Defence Force and police had to be called in to quell the angry mob.

Up to yesterday the businessman was assisting police with the investigations.

Efforts to contact Williams yesterday proved futile as calls to his phone went unanswered yesterday

A spokesman for The Falls at West Mall explained the two-month promotion started in May and ended on July 16. Customers were given an entry form after spending $100 or more at any store at the mall.

“We want to make sure the mall is a leading shopping destination in Trinidad and so we are always trying to generate traffic and business for our tenants.

So we decided to do it this way. A car is always very attractive.” Cumberbatch won after shopping at Nigel R Khan but he was not present for the draw.

A release from the Coast Guard said one of its interceptors was on patrol at about 11.43 pm when it saw a 28-foot white pirogue with two men.

As the interceptor approached, the pirogue sped up and the interceptor chased it.

Coast Guard members managed to catch up with the boat and boarded it.

During a search, they allegedly found 52 packages of marijuana with an estimated street value of $375,000 in two bags.

The men were said to be a Venezuelan who was previously held for brining an undocumented Egyptian into the country, and a Trinidadian.

They were detained and handed over to the Organised Crime Narcotics and Firearms Bureau.

All will welcome last week’s launch of a test programme involving sixty cameras. In theory these items can assist the Police Service in assessing: the quality of hotspot patrols; the use of force by police officers whilst out on duty; firearm discharge by police officers; injuries caused to police officers during police civilian interactions; and injuries caused to civilians during police civilian interactions. All of these are matters which, as noted by Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams, go to the integrity and credibility of the force itself.

For too long the service has been dogged by instances of civilian deaths, complaints about corruption as well as the actions of rogue cops. Body cameras, if properly used, will not only catch the bad apples that spoil the bunch, but they will demonstrate how people are interacting with the police. They shield civilians and officers alike.

However, this is only the case if these cameras are consistently and universally used. While we welcome the test pilot involving sixty cameras, we hope the Police Service will be able to roll-out a far more comprehensive program eventually. A “national level study” is something that sounds good. But we know enough to know that the Service must go further. It should not and cannot use the notion of conducting research as a fig leaf to delay universal implementation.

Furthermore, a policy must be developed with regard to the use of these cameras during joint police/army patrols. Will soldiers also have to wear these cameras when accompanying police officers? If not, is this not a large gap in coverage? Joint police/army patrols are used for serious threats to peace and order and therefore it would seem the need for an objective record of events is even more urgent in these circumstances.

A rule and procedure must also be developed making use of the cameras compulsory and forbidding arbitrary cut-off and/or tampering. At the launch event last week, Williams addressed the issue of police officers turning the cameras on and off saying the Police Service is trying to allow their experiment to run with the cameras being on all the time with the exception of an officer going to the restroom.

It is essential that these cameras are operational at all times during all official police duties and operations. While it stands to reason that an officer is entitled to some degree of bodily privacy, great care must be taken in formulating rules governing when and how a police officer should disengage.

Many will agree that an officer should be allowed privacy in a bathroom inside a police station.

But if an officer apprehends a suspect in a public restroom, then the situation calls for more thought. Every rule has the potential to be abused.

Internationally, the experience thus far has shown the perils of allowing cameras to be switched off. The recent police shooting of Australian national Justine Damond has caused outrage in the US and beyond (the Minneapolis police chief has resigned) due to the lack of body-camera footage.

In that incident, Damond had reported suspicious activity and then ended up dead.

At stake is the credibility of our national Police Service, still reeling from a spate of civilian killings and unanswered questions surrounding the infamous day of Total Policing in 2015.

For now, we welcome the arrival of these cameras on the scene and express the hope that their implementation will be a success and will, in the long-run, make a big difference

Some 1367 students to enter high school not being able to read, write and count; and 807 will repeat the SEA examination.

Status review taken by the leadership according to the Editorial in the Guardian newspaper of July 7, 2017 disclosed that Dr. Lovell Francis, Minister, Tertiary Education and Skills Training, is of the view that “it ‘s at the bottom where the Ministry should be focussing more on”, while Anthony Garcia, Minister of Education, plans to summon the Student Support Services to the rescue.

The ex-Minister, Dr Gopeesingh announced loudly and clearly of the great successes in education that were driven by the specialist team of psychologists, diagnosticians, special educators, not excluding the social workers and guidance officers who often persevere to fix the damage.

Have we seen any success? It’s now public knowledge that there is indeed an Inclusive Education Policy that was endorsed in 2009 with a structure of personnel that ranged from executive management to support staff.

The existence of an Inclusive Education Policy was disclosed in the Draft National Policy on Persons with Disabilities.

The truth is that “Inclusive education” was introduced before its time, obviously without a mandate, without policy guidelines or policy definition.

The outcome witnessed a group of young energetic persons who will enter high school in September 2017 labelled generally as slow, retarded, ill behaved, illiterate, innumerate — generally lacking motivation.

By 2020, these students will constitute the numbers of high school drop-outs, labelled now as “the bane of society”, the fearless, the aimless, marginalised, without future, without physiological, emotional support.

Several will attract social welfare, others become recipients of ill — gotten gains.

Few will enter their own small businesses or enroll in a skills programmes. There will not be any sustainable jobs for them.

Do we care? Where are the churches, the NGO s, the civil societies which preach everyday about helping the downtrodden and hold out so much promise for the future? The former President of the Chamber of Commerce suggested that Trinidad and Tobago would have to import labour. I wonder if that suggestion still holds? There are hundreds of university graduates who have acquired degrees in education.

Several have acquired master’s degrees, but there are still no jobs for them.

These are the abled bodied individuals who, for want of “betterment” settle for positions in the Ministry of Education that require less than a high school certificate.

When are we going to utilise smartly the resources we have so that we can alleviate our problems with literacy and numeracy? Thankfully, we are now seeking to enact legislation for persons with disabilities following ratification of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (June,2015).

Thus, our disabled population may have equal rights to education, employment, respect and recognition.

Perhaps the scales may fall from the eyes of many, so that they may see the problems clearly and most importantly do something about them.

While legislation carries transparency, accountability, and sanctions, policy requires reviews and feedback, collaboration and consultation.

As an advocate for social integration, the journey uphill is tireless and seemingly without end.

Nevertheless, we must embrace the vision that rises in the horizon of change.