Easter is an important religious event in our national calendar and a time when leaders (religious, political and otherwise) craft messages of inspiration for citizens, as they do with other national events like Divali and Eid.

While ordinary folks tend to see and live in a part of the big picture, enlightened leaders tend to see and live in the big picture with its composite parts. Cuffie chose the big picture.

He used the Easter message of Jesus’ resurrection to bring hope and inspiration to a citizenry reeling under the effects of falling oil and gas prices, violence, missing children and the refusal of so many adults to take personal responsibility, choosing, instead, to blame every imaginable social ill on someone else. The minister saw the resurrection as a “triumph” over the seemingly “impossible.” He exhorted citizens to use their resilience to triumph over the “empty Treasury” much as the early Christians had triumphed over the “empty tomb” of Jesus.

Instead of seeing an “empty tomb,” he asked citizens to see the Easter promise of “new life and rebirth … of growth and recovery,” and wished that all would keep hope alive in their hearts.

PANDITA INDRANI RAMPERSAD

It is passing strange that it has not yet uncovered the role of any former PP official in the Super-Fast Galicia fiasco.

No amount of blame game will absolve the Rowley administration for the suffering and hardship it has inflicted on the people of Tobago.

Even buffoonery has its limit.

SUSAN MILLARD Diego Martin

Working conditions are substandard, wages are inadequate and production is low. This cannot be allowed to continue.

There are laws governing employment and working conditions that determine whether they are acceptable or unacceptable.

Good or bad working conditions cannot be acceptable for part of the day, every day for years.

Our labour laws govern wages and salary negotiations and allow for action by either side to ensure an acceptable agreement is achieved. No government, employer or small business should be at the mercy of unscrupulous labour leaders nor should employers be allowed to exploit the labour sector.

The labour climate in TT is unfair to employers, employees, businesses, investors and government.

It is as if there are no labour regulations. It is not unusual to see labour leaders walk into offices with a megaphone and stop work at will. At any time, workers can take a day of rest and relaxation at the behest of their labour leader.

At many major companies, public and private, there are so many individuals assigned to one task that the entity cannot ever be profitable. For example, a WASA or TTE C utility connection costs much more in personnel time than the cost of the connection. When one adds the cost of equipment and material, the possibility of breaking even is impossible.

In the government sector, regardless of the political entity in service, all the supporting work needed for the implementation of government policy is assigned to an apathetic, demotivated public work force.

It is not unusual therefore for a government to spend five years in service with excellent plans and very little to show in way of completed tasks. Simply completing the paperwork to assign a contract or process a payment can take months or years.

Corruption and bribery have become the norm in accessing basic government services. We are in a competitive world and unless we produce at international standards we will be left behind. The people whom we depend on for our food, clothing and shelter are only here because they can profit from the endeavour. At any time, if we remain uncompetitive they can all take up their platforms, investment dollars, expertise and equipment and go.

There is need for fair wages, improved working conditions and restructuring of job descriptions through up-to-date job evaluation exercises. This will entail voluntary separation of employment packages, closing unproductive sectors of government services, restructuring the management of our nation, and updating our labour legislation. The present structure helps no one.

STEVE ALVAREZ via email

Our local doctors, however, have diagnosed her with “conversion disorder,” a psychological illness.

While the article made no mention of the medication used, one may assume it was the popular Gardasil.

It seems our local doctors are preaching from the same “foreign manual” used by international doctors when negative symptoms manifest in someone who was injected with Gardasil.

I would recommend that Danielle’s mother, Jamie Flavinney, go to http://sanevax.org/norway- force-vaccinated-with-gardasil/ and read the story of the 15-year-old Norwegian girl who was also paralysed but diagnosed with “conversion disorder.” In January 2013, then Minister of Health Dr Fuad Khan and the PP government introduced the HPV vaccine into our primary schools, by targetting our female students ages 11-12 years.

This was done, notwithstanding the words of caution issued to the government at the time.

Much was made about the effectiveness of Gardasil as a guard against cervical cancer. But the risks were downplayed.

Now, it remains to be seen what further testing would reveal for young Flavinney.

LINUS F DIDIER Mt Hope

This is a stupid argument since I know lots of people who smoke marijuana, including me in the past, and it doesn’t affect their motor skills or judgment.

If it has a terrible effect on a minority of people that would be understandable since everyone is different but the majority would dispute his claims.

I don’t know if he has ever tried it or know people who smoke it to verify his ridiculous statements but I would fly with a pilot who smokes marijuana but definitely not with one who drinks alcohol since that is legal but impairs judgment.

Plus marijuana has medicinal properties.

I MAHARAJ St Augustine

So every Monday morning, or Tuesday if the Monday was a holiday, an article comes up full of theories explaining why our children will continue to be potential criminals.

It is usually because some advice given some time ago was not followed.

Never mind that the goodly advice was not followed by the previous minister of education, Dr Tim Gopeesingh.

He is not to be blamed for any of what is happening in our schools today.

In fact, the writer of the articles always finds him and widely quotes his diatribe. He extols his own greatness and boasts about all the measures he had put in place to stem the violence and indiscipline.

No discerning reporter asks him how come then we still have so much of it? Didn’t all these wonderful measures work? Have all those well trained teachers, whose professional approach enabled them to spot difficult students, departed the school system with Gopeesingh? As far as I understand, the current minister did not instruct them to cease and desist from such an important task.

Of course, the whole world knows, and that includes TT , that our resources were not as well handled as they should have been in the past. Therefore we are now “skating” and have to make bread out of stone. Gopeesingh should be ashamed to even utter another word about education.

PAULINE ISIDORE via email

In that area you have a school and there are always a lot of cars parked on the northern side of the street, so cars travelling east and west have to come to almost a standstill to allow one another to pass.

Also, make Findland Street one-way heading east between Ethel and Vidal Streets where you can turn right on Vidale, then turn left on Panka and continue heading east.

I hope the Traffic Management Branch of the Ministry of Works and Transport considers my suggestion.

Gerard Duval Petit Valley

The form four student of the Penal Secondary School has been missing for the past two days and worried relatives are fearful that she may have been abducted. According to police reports at about 1.30 pm on Tuesday, Sanchez left her Anthony Branch Trace, Syne Village home. She told her siblings that she was going to the bakery. Speaking with Newsday yesterday, Sanchez’s mother Anjela Ramlakha said when she did not see her daughter return after a few minutes, she became worried.

“I tried to call her cellphone and the phone just kept ringing.

It is not like her to not answer her phone,” she said.

Ramlakha said she called out to her elder son and asked him to walk to the bakery and look for his sister. Shane, 19, returned within a few minutes.

“He did not find her at the bakery.

This is when I started to panic.

I continued to call her phone and I still got no answer. I know my daughter, this is not like her not to answer her phone.” Ramlakha said she was unable to sleep comfortably on Tuesday night.

“How can I sleep when I know my daughter, a 16-year-old, is out there and some stranger has her against her will? She is just a little girl still going to school. She said that her daughter has never ran away from home.

“Salina is not that type of girl to just run away. I know deep down in my heart someone has my little girl. Please send her home, please don’t hurt her,” the emotional mother said. Yesterday family members searched several areas in Penal and Siparia. Ramlakha said she also contacted her daughter’s friends at school but no one has heard from or seen her. A report was made at the Siparia Police Station.

Sanchez is of mixed descent, five feet four inches tall and light brown in complexion. She has wavy shoulder length hair. She has a long scar on her back and was last seen wearing a black t-shirt and blue short pants.

Anyone with information is asked to call 800-TIPS or contact the police at 555, 999, 911 or any police station.

According to police reports, at about 5.30 pm a bleeding Ramsingh was found at the side of the road a few metres from his home. He was unconscious.

The ambulance was contacted and Ramsingh was rushed to the San Fernando General Hospital where he died while undergoing surgery. Yesterday residents in the area told Newsday that Ramsingh recently moved into the area and lived alone. An autopsy was expected to be performed yesterday at the Forensic Science Centre in St. James.

The fundraising gala, which brings together Canada’s business and academic communities to celebrate the greatness and tireless work of its honorees, provides funds for scholarships, under the theme “Light, Learning and Liberty”.

This year, renowned Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa Desmond Mpilo Tutu was honoured at the event which took place earlier this month. Tutu, represented by his daughter Reverend Canon Mpilo Tutu van Furth, was presented with the Luminary Award, which is given to people of Caribbean heritage, who are outstanding achievers on the international scale, or people who have brought prominence to the Caribbean or to issues which affect the region.

Past honorees have included Stephen Ames, Tessane Chin, Shaggy, Malcolm Gladwell and Dr Jimmy Cliff. Scotiabank’s partnership with UWI spans a 50 year period.

In addition to each Caribbean territories’ support of UWI scholarships locally, Scotiabank has supported this fundraising since its inception in 2010. During this time, 260 scholarships have been awarded to support students and their goals. This year almost CAD$ 500,000 was raised, ensuring that Caribbean students can benefit from a good education.

Anya M. Schnoor – Senior Vice President and head, Caribbean East and South, Scotiabank, in her remarks on the night indicated the Bank’s deep commitment to the Caribbean.

“Scotiabank has deep ties to the Caribbean, dating back to 1889. We have grown from strength to strength and today, we have operations in 21 countries across the Caribbean. We aim to support organizations that are committed to helping young people reach their full potential…

“Helping our young people in our communities become better off remains one of our core focal points and as such we undertake numerous initiatives geared towards this.

From the Bahamas in the North to Guyana & Trinidad in the South, we invest in educational, sporting and cultural programmes, all aimed at helping our young people lead better lives,” Schnoor said.