“Health services at the San Fernando General Hospital have unquestionably deteriorated under your watch and your stewardship as Minister of Health,” Chattergoon told Minister of Health Terrance Deyalsingh during the question and answer segment of a public consultation held on Thursday evening in the auditorium of the Naparima Boys College. “There is no question about that in my mind. And the patients are undergoing trials and tribulations, terrors and horrors, such as they have never gone through before.” Chattergoon, who served as the hospital’s medical director for five years before being replaced last July, said the hospital’s demise was the result of “two serious blunders” made by the health minister. “The first was, the revolutionary initiative which your predecessor had put at the San Fernando Gen (sic), which was to have a number on the walls of the hospital that patients can call when they have a problem, that initiative has been shut down.” Though not directly stated by Chattergoon, it was later revealed in the response from the South West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) Chairman, Dr Alexander Sinanan, that the phone number which used to be on the hospital walls was Chattergoon’s. Sinanan explained that having the number of a single person on the hospital walls was impractical because patients would have been left without service should Chattergoon have been unavailable.

The number, said Sinanan, was replaced with a customer service line, but Chattergoon said the replacement number does not work.

Chattergoon said the second reason for the hospital’s deterioration was the appointment of an unsuitable medical director. The doctor had raised this point in a letter sent via email to Deyalsingh and SWRHA deputy chairman, Valerie Rawlins in July 2016, in which he questioned whether SWRHA CEO Anil Gosine was biased in the appointment of Dr Pravinde Ramoutar as Ag Medical Director.

“You made a bad choice,” Chattergoon thundered. “You put the wrong person in the position of medical director of the Sando General Hospital sir. And I can tell you for a fact, sir, in this situation you need a medical director who cares about the people.” Sinanan responded to the criticism of Deyalsingh, saying that the minister was not responsible for the hiring of medical directors.

Attorneys representing Kadisha Romeo of Bethesda Road, Plymouth, have initiated legal proceedings against the State over the continued failure by the police to release over $30,000 in assorted currency seized from her since November 2015.

In a pre-action protocol letter sent on Thursday, attorneys Kelvin Ramkissoon and Sonya Gyan claim that Sgt Joel Forbes breached her rights when he failed to follow the order of a magistrate, who ordered that the money be returned to her in December, last year.

According to the letter, the money- TT$15,001, US$ 2,003 and a small quantity of other currency – was seized on November 20, 2015, under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Senior Magistrate Lucina Cardenas-Ragoonanan ordered that the cash be released on December 14, last year, as there was no justification for the continued detention, but this was not done by Forbes.

Romeo is claiming that she had already spent $37,000 for legal representation to try to recover her money.

She is also seeking repayment of the legal fees as well as declarations that her constitutional right to enjoyment of her property has been infringed.

The Office of the Attorney General has two weeks in which to respond to Romeo’s letter.

In the Boys Under-15 contest, Belmont Boys edged Fatima by a 23-22 margin.

Donte Hazard delivered a game-high 14 points for Belmont Boys, while Nkosi Corbin contributed seven.

Fatima, who trailed 11-9 at the half, relied on Jahmai Smith’s seven points while Jordan Mukerji had six and Ethan Smith five.

However, Fatima did not go home empty-handed, as they relied on a 30-21 run in the second half to defeat International School of Port of Spain 41-38.

They include all attorneys employed at State departments, including the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Attorney General’s Office as well as the Solicitor General’s department, among others.

Their request was made in a letter to Law Association president, Douglas Mendes,SC, in which they have asked to attend the special general meeting carded for June 1.

They said although they cannot, as law officers, go up for election to the council as they do not pay annual subscription fees, they should be permitted to attend and participate in discussions.

On Thursday of next week, lawyers will vote on a motion which calls for the resignation of Chief Justice Ivor Archie and the JLSC’s members for the imbroglio surrounding the appointment of former Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar as a judge and her subsequent resignation.

The request is expected to be considered by the association.

Just two weeks into her appointment as a judge on April 12, Ayers-Caesar resigned her judgeship, admitting she failed to inform the JLSC about the part-heard matters.

In a simultaneous statement, the Judiciary indicated that the JLSC had met and agreed to restore Ayers-Caesar to the magisterial bench but that position later changed and on Wednesday last it was decided that the 53 cases left unresolved will be restarted from the beginning.

Already there has been strong condemnation of this move, with many attorneys, including those whose clients’ are affected.

Several leading senior counsel have also repeated their calls for Archie and the JLSC’s resignation.

On Thursday, criminal attorney Criston J Williams, who last week wrote to the DPP asking that he either discontinue the matters against six of his clients or immediately file indictments in the High Court, bypassing the preliminary inquiry, criticised the decision.

It was his clients whose near riot at the Port of Spain Magistrates’ Court led to Ayers-Caesar’s resignation.

“This is the least palatable option for persons most affected by the decision taken. I want to know if the accused were consulted on their ability to hire attorneys or would they be subjected to Legal Aid. Do defence attorneys have to start over these cases for free? What about the ability of the accused to pay for justice to be done when they already expended so much?” he said.

Newsday understands that the Legal Aid and Advisory Board’s tenure came to an end on May 15 and a new board is yet to be appointed by Government.

As a result, the Legal Aid and Advisory Authority cannot appoint attorneys to represent accused persons nor can they approve legal fees.

Opposition Senator, attorney Wayne Sturge also said, “This was the obvious way forward there was literally no other option. Sadly, in Trinidad and Tobago paper committals don’t work the way they are meant to work and with the criminal bar being so small delay is inevitable. The other obvious issue is the hardship which would be occasioned by the accused who will have to find money to pay for the new proceedings.” “I am sure that legal proceedings will be brought to reimburse them for the cost incurred which has been wasted by no fault of their own. Don’t be surprised if there is mayhem. You can’t expect a man to lose seven years of his life in custody and simply accept that the administration of justice made a mistake. We are all enjoying our liberty while they are suffering,” Sturge said.

The elections took place at the Board Room of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA), located at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo.

Also re-elected on the TT WOLF executive was Claire George, who will continue as the assistant secretary (competitions).

Sharon Warrick, mother of ex-national player Jonelle Warrick, will serve as vice-president with Jamiyla Muhammad taking the role as general secretary and Beverly Ambris-Bateau holding the mantle of treasurer.

Other members of the executive are ex-Trinidad and Tobago goalkeeper Lisa-Jo Ramkissoon (assistant secretary – operations), Harvey Jack (assistant secretary – administrations), Rayana Boswell (public relations officer), Annalise Collette and Brandon Williams (ordinary members).

Martinez said the launch of the Rio Sport was significant as it would contribute to stimulating the economy.

He also praised the directors for allowing Paralympic Akeem Stewart to pursue his dreams of performing in the Paralympics where he returned as a gold medallist from the Rio Paralympic Games.

Stewart is the holder of three world records in the javelin, discus, and shot put. He would participate later this year in the World Para Athletic Championships in London. “This is possible because of the love, respect and support from the directors and chief executive officer of Southern Sales. This act truly represents the golden rule, ‘treat others the way you want to be treated’.

Responding to a question in the House of Representatives, Khan said most of these people were, “connected to the aborted Beetham Wastewater Treatment Project” under the former People’s Partnership (PP) government.

He reminded MPs that the project was terminated after the People’s National Movement (PNM) assumed office in September 2015. Khan said some of these people were administrative assistants while others were, “displaced by offshore workers who were successfully re-deployed in 2016.” Reiterating that none of these people were permanent employees, Khan said, “NGC had followed best practice with this exercise, treating them as permanent workers under the Industrial Relations Act by affording them severance benefits.” He added, “No other company in this country has ever done that.” Khan said these people will be provided with counselling and the move is important as NGC seeks to streamline its operations for greater efficiency.

Later in the sitting, Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George rejected respective requests from Couva North MP Ramona Ramdial and Caroni Central MP Dr Bhoe Tewarie to have the domestic seabridge and the closure of the Preysal Government Primary School, raised as matters on the adjournment of the House.

Speaking with Newsday via phone yesterday, founder and organiser, Sheldon Monderoy said in addition to the bill received by the protective services, there was an additional expense which brought the total up to $500,000 to be paid in a 24-hour period. “We are going to do it again…The fact that I just lost $2 million in an attempt to do something good for this country and this country needs a festival like this,” he said. The festival was supposed to fund a national sporting database.

Monderoy said the festival could have gone for bigger names in the industry but instead chose to, “go for the artistes who don’t have visibility in this country.” It was admittedly difficult to get sponsorship for the event, he said, saying, “we had gone to everyone you could think of…

and we did not get a red cent from everyone to support this.

In a release, the organisers said refunds would be given from May 31 by going to the outlets where tickets were purchased.

The reception highlighted the work being done by both agencies in the fight against the Zika virus in the Caribbean region.

Participants from across the Caribbean attended the workshop, which concluded on May 23.

The British High Commission said, “A key part to addressing the spread of Zika is clear messaging to the public on its precautions against transmission, debunking myths and how to reduce the breeding ground for the specific mosquito that carries the virus.” “The diverse range of cleavages in the Caribbean audiences; economic, cultural, religious, geographical, politically, et cetera, makes getting these key messages across challenging.

Therefore, the Public Health Marketing and Behavioural Change Workshop is a key component in ensuring this is achieved,” the British High Commission stated.

Addressing workshop participants during the May 22 reception at his Maraval residence, Stew said, “In Britain we’re clear that the only way we can operate effectively, to face down challenges like Zika in our globalised world, is to work together.” “That’s why, for the past year, we have supported Public Health England and CARPHA working in partnership through this project to tackle Zika in this region.

Spanning 26 countries it’s the largest project funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the Caribbean.”

For years, the elder Abraham had carved a niche for himself as a master showman, known primarily for his comedic antics, famously declaring in an insecticide commercial, “Det kill dem dead.” But up until his death on May 16, reportedly from complications relating to Alzheimer’s disease, the clergyman’s connection to the endearing calypsonian remained largely, a little-known fact.

And for those who did know that he was Brigo’s son, it seemed a remote possibility, Abraham, 46, said in a Sunday Newsday interview at the Regional Seminary, Mount St Benedict, on Thursday.

“A lot of people were not aware,” he said of the response of many mourners to the news that Brigo was his father, after last Monday’s funeral at the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception, Portof- Spain.

“Some people knew but I realised on that day that a lot of people did not know. They were coming up to me and asking, ‘You are Brigo’s son.’” Abraham said, though, his father never missed a beat in telling people that one of his sons was a priest.

He said members of the Catholic community also knew of his journey into the religious life after it was publicised in the print media about a decade ago.

“It was in the newspapers in 2007 when I was ordained a deacon and in 2008 when I was ordained a priest,” Abraham said.

Abraham recalled that years before, in 1999, late Archbishop Anthony Pantin also told a Catholic conference in Miami about his decision to enter the priesthood.

“There was a special conference every year in Miami and that year, he knew that I was going to enter the Regional Seminary, and at the conference, he said, ‘Just imagine, even Brigo’s son is going to become a priest.’ Trinidadians there were in uproar.” Days after administering final rites on his father, Abraham said he was shocked by reports which claimed that Brigo had fathered 36 children. “That is not accurate,” he declared, laughing. “He has ten children, seven with my mother and then he had three with Lynette Huggins (deceased). So, I don’t know where they got that 36 from.

“In his life, I don’t know if he had other children. My hope is that if there are 36, the others will come forward at some point.” Abraham said although his father told them about the three children he shared with Huggins, they only got to meet them late in their lives.

A priest at Our Lady of Mount Carmel on the island of St John, Virgin Islands, with responsibility for Catholic renewal and youth, Abraham grew up in Freedom Street, Pinto Road, Arima.

He described his father as the greatest storyteller.

“He was big on these sayings, ‘If crab know his back not strong he should not go below rock’ and ‘What sweet in goat mouth does sour in the bam bam.’ As a child, you always were excited to hear the stories that daddy will tell,” he said, adding his father also brought gifts for them from his many travels abroad.

Abraham said many people also did not know the late calypsonian was an excellent cook. “I don’t think the nation knows but some of his close calypsonian friends who travelled with him knew and we always looked forward to daddy’s cooking, even more than mummy’s. He had that sweet hand.” Blessed with a big heart, Abraham said his father always exhibited unconditional love for people from all walks of life, especially the poor man.

He recalled that one time, during a performance in Guyana, Brigo befriended a man named Wilbert Williams, who expressed an interest in visiting Trinidad.

“My dad simply said, ‘Fine, I am going to help you.’ He came for two weeks and spent about 15 years living at our home. That was the kind of man Brigo was.” His father, he said, also was a disciplinarian “I didn’t like it one bit but he was big on respect,” Abraham joked.

“One of the stories he would always tell us is about this mother and son. The mother did not discipline the child who was Death Row for a series of crimes.” “The child called the mother and said he had something to tell her and when she came, the child bit her on the ear, saying, ‘Mummy, if you had disciplined me, I would have never been here.’ “Daddy used that to say, ‘I am not sparing the rod and spoiling the child.” Although he had kept in touch with Brigo during his many years of ministering in the Virgin Islands, Abraham it was only when he returned for a month-long visit, last October, that he witnessed, first hand, the extent of his father’s physical deterioration.

In fact, during the funeral, he called on calypsonians to look out for one-another, suggesting the offering be used to assist the artform’s ailing exponents.

Abraham said he learnt at the funeral that another well-known calypsonian, Black Stalin (Leroy Caliste), would have been at the service, if he was not ill.

“He would have loved to be there.” Abraham said he had planned to make a special presentation to Stalin’s wife, Patsy, at the Trinbago Unified Calypsonian’s Organisation’s (TUCO) tribute to his father, last Thursday night at Kaiso Blues Caf?, Woodford Street, Newtown The presentation, he said, would have been a symbolic gesture to celebrate artistes who have contributed to the development of the artform but would have fallen on hard times in one form or another.

Saying he told TUCO president Lutola Masimba (Brother Resistance) that his father had sacrificed his family for calypso, Abraham said he was deeply pained by the treatment that was meted out to him within the last few years.

“My mother sacrificed so much to raise us when daddy was not there and then to be treated like that. I spent a month with my father in October and only one man came to see him – Funny (Donrick Williamson),” he said. “TUCO also looked out for him. But there was so much that was needed.” Saying the experience was an eye-opener, Abraham has since resolved to move steadfastly in preserving his father’s legacy, a process which began years ago.

He told Sunday Newsday that while studying for the priesthood, he had done a thesis celebrating Brigo’s work.

“I think getting into my father’s music really helped me appreciate him and that was a real eye-opener because sometimes in the Christian eye people see calypso as evil,” he said.

“But when I really entered his songs, I realised that my father was very spiritual and that he was the one who taught me about spirituality. That, for me, was very important.” The priest said he learnt that his father also was a prophet.

“As I listen more and more to his music, the man was a prophet in the artform.” He said one of the judges who spoke at the tribute also had seen his father in this light.

“He apologised, saying that when daddy sang Green Lime in the tent, they did not understand the depth with which he was singing,” Abraham said of the judge.

“I also learnt that every night when he sang that song, daddy wept because I guess he was seeing the direction in which the nation was headed and he was feeling it. So, that made it very powerful.” Abraham began studying for the priesthood at age 19 but his journey to the religious life started years before, through a series of turbulent experiences which culminated in him trying to commit suicide.

“In my early years, with the brunt of life and daddy not being there, at the age of 16, I attempted suicide,” he recalled.

Abraham said although his father and relatives had visited him at the Port-of- Spain General Hospital, the response of two nurses to his suicide attempt touched him deeply.

“One of them looked very frightened and she came to me and said, ‘Mr Abraham, there is someone who loves you and his name is Jesus.’” The other nurse, he remembered, spoke to him about how God was able to see her through a personal crisis.

“That stirred my heart.” After his ordeal, Abraham said he left school and went to Grenada for some time “but when I came back, I knew that something was missing.” Abraham said a visit to the Word of Life Ministries, Green Street, Arima, transformed his life phenomenally.

“I did a Life In the Spirit seminar there and that changed my entire life.” Drawing parallels between his life and the problems young people often encounter, Abraham told Sunday Newsday: “I am not ashamed to share my testimony.

I understand what people go through in a really deep way.” He later recalled walking into the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception to find out more about the priesthood.

“(The priest) gave me the qualifications, which were five O’Levels. But I had three at the time. And I began doing the work that was necessary to the point where I eventually entered. But before I entered, I had a youth group in the Santa Rosa RC Church in Arima and attended a mission to St Croix and Martinique.” He said while in St Croix, a priest invited him to return to do missionary work there. Abraham said he left local shores some 18 years ago for the Virgin Islands “because at that time I felt I was more needed there.” “I remember in my journey recognising that I am loved by God and created for a purpose.” Moving ahead, Abraham has decided to preserve his father’s legacy and support ailing artistes through the establishment of the Brigo Cultural Theatre.

“Helping artistes who are sick, I want to be instrumental in doing that because of my experience with my dad and the aloneness that I have seen him experience.

It has fired me up to really help. That is the work that I do in the Virgin Islands – helping those in need.” Asked about his greatest challenge as a priest, Abraham said: There is a scarcity of priests now. There is serious work to be done because priests now are overworked.” He said many people also do not realise that priests are human beings.

“There is a selfishness in us as human beings that it is always about me and we are not thinking about other persons.

“In Brigo’s calypsoes, he highlighted that, love for God, love for neighbour, because that is what Jesus preached.

“You take nothing with you when you die. In spite of that big dream house that one might have, at the end of the day, you stand before God alone.” In the interim, Abraham said he will be in Trinidad until the end of the month.

He said the family will meet in New Jersey within the ensuing months to discuss other ways to celebrate Brigo’s legacy.