Chairman of the JSC, Fitzgerald Hinds at Friday’s meeting to look at staffing issues that affected the DPP’s office questioned why it was that only two of eight photocopiers were working and professional staff had to spend much time copying files.

The JSC, he said, wrote the Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs on the issue. The Port-of-Spain office usually works with six photocopiers while the San Fernando office, two.

To correct the situation, PS Ingrid Seerattan said the ministry has been working assiduously to deal with the issue and has repaired two photocopiers and four are now in working condition.

“We have sourced from one of the providers four new machines to supplement the others. As of Tuesday (tomorrow) the Office of the DPP should have four new machines,” she said.

DPP Roger Gaspard said he was happy to hear that “we would be having four additional, and perhaps, new machines.” Seerattan said she could understand why Gaspard said “perhaps.” Following the missive from the JSC, she said, the ministry decided to reevaluate all of its machines.

“We have recognised that a number of machines have aged,” she said.

Meanwhile, JSC member Paul Richards said that if he was a member of the public listening to the hearing, he would be flabbergasted to hear the JSC spending time on basic office maintenance and procedures.

“It is unfortunate that it takes this sort of forum to get elucidation to get the job done,” he said.

Archbishop Harris said: “We all know of the murders in the country, we read of the spiraling gang warfare in our hot spots, we read of the rampant corruption and the many other ills of our society. We can either choose to continue in the direction which we are going, or we can choose to follow the ‘King of Peace’, who as we all know stood for justice, peace and love. Let’s not forget our principles and let us be the change that we want.” Earlier, the Mass began outside the church with the blessing of the palms, the recognised symbol of peace and victory, by Monsignor, Father Christian Pereira, after which there was a gospel reading (Matthew: 21.1- 11) of the triumphant entry of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, days before he was crucified.

After Archbishop Harris led members of the clergy all dressed in red and white, symbolising the redemption in blood that Christ paid for the world, and worshipers into the Cathedral, the Archbishop opened the Mass, followed by the readings of The Passion of Our Lord, the narrative of Jesus’ capture, sufferings and death, as recounted in Matthew 26:14- 27:66.

Then came the homily, where Archbishop Harris harped on the message of peace, love and justice, and the denouncing of greed and selfishness, as well as the lack of concern for the poor.

Jesus was not a warrior king, but a King of peace, said the Archbishop who added that the Palm Sunday Mass reminds us that we do have choices before us, then urged the congregation to make that choice that would best suit themselves in the eyes of the Lord, and in the best interest of our country.

After the Mass, worshippers joined counterparts outside their church on Charlotte Street, for the start of the procession, after which they met with others from the Anglican and Moravian churches, all of whom returned to the Roman Catholic Cathedral later in the afternoon

Who is telling tales? Former Port Authority (PATT ) board member and proclaimed People’s National Movement stalwart Ferdie Ferreira has laid the blame for the ferry dilemma at the feet of Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan.

Ferreira says the board had no powers with regard to the contractual agreements of the Super Fast Galicia cargo vessel.

The minister has since declared that the contractual arrangements for the Galicia were made before his time.

There are questions regarding why such a critical means of trade and commerce would be at the mercy of a month-to-month contract since April 30, 2016.

What is also curious is the Cabinet approving a 36-month lease for a new ferry cargo vessel. There have not been any complaints about the Galicia’s capacity and functionality from its end users or the Tobago Chamber of Commerce.

Added to these circumstances is the statement from Sinanan that the current provider was not interested in an 18-month contract. The minister however did not speak to offering the provider the 36-month contract approved by the Cabinet. While the public understands that the five-year request may have been too long, where is the relevance and consistency in offering the provider 18 months as opposed to 36 months? The Opposition has launched questions at the Government about the resignation of the PATT Board.

Secondly, the Opposition asked for a response on an accusation that former chairman Christine Sahadeo “blocked” any agreement on the matter. The minister had no information on the accusation.

Tobago House of Assembly Minority Leader Watson Duke has also given his perspective on the dilemma. His view is that the situation is a result of incompetence by central government and believes Tobago should own its own vessel to avoid Trinidad determining Tobago’s economic trade abilities.

The Tobago Chamber has also stated its disapproval with the way this inter-island ferry service is being handled, especially in the current circumstances of economic decline. The Chamber says this could mean the difference between Tobago businessmen staying in business or closing their doors.

The ferry service has been a contentious issue for some time in the media and therefore it has become a football with no conclusive direction.

Citizens need to know the truth about this dilemma and not have to try deciphering who is telling ferry tales.

Ronald Huggins St Joseph

A half-filled Queen’s Park oval for three T20 matches — something we have never witnessed in the history of T20 matches in Trinidad — is ample proof that the once proud cricket-loving public is becoming fed up with the inept, bungling and useless administration of both the WICB and TT CB.

Having been the proud winners of the first two cricket World Cups we face the humiliation of not qualifying for next year’s World Cup. Yet we retain the same administration and selectors who seem to have neither a plan nor innovative idea to rebuild and revitalise our beloved cricket team.

Small wonder that our political leaders (present and previous) remain in power as disquiet and unease persist because of rampant crime and an economy that’s falling apart. Maybe the same people are also in charge of our cricket.

Shiraz Ramjohn La Romain

The ECA, in a media release, was commenting on the decision by bpTT to construct its Angelin platform outside of Trinidad and Tobago.

“As we continue to navigate this period of economic uncertainty and the resultant declines in Government revenue and availability of jobs, the Employers Consultative Association of Trinidad and Tobago (ECA) finds it unfortunate, at the very least, that Trinidad and Tobago will not be benefitting from the local construction of bpTT’s Angelin platform,” the ECA stated.

The Association noted that a project of that magnitude was worth approximately two billion US dollars and was “exactly what is needed to inject the necessary boost into an otherwise relatively stagnant economy.” “More importantly, the loss of income to potential workers and their families, contractors, manufacturers, other service providers, the resultant ripple effect on the economy, and income to the Government’s coffers represents a significant loss for which there seems to be no apparent alternative,” the ECA stated.

However the ECA said bpTT’s decision was “not surprising and understandable” given the “regularity of industrial action, work stoppages, and other social unrest” the company would have experienced during construction of the Juniper platform.

“It should therefore come as no surprise that this company, or any company for that matter, would implement strategies to mitigate reoccurrence of these very real risks,” the ECA stated.

“The ECA has repeatedly and publicly shared its concerns relating to productivity and how much our inability to realise productivity is impeding business growth, foreign investment, our ability to compete in a global market, and our overall standard of living,” the ECA stated.

“Until and unless parties are willing to commit to placing country first through the process of honest conversations, the ECA is of the view that the antagonistic industrial relations climate will continue,” the ECA stated, adding the country could not afford the “cost of this continued hostility and non-cooperation among labour and employers in industrial relations matters as it is severely hurting our country and our future!”

Breast-feeding is being promoted as a major way in feeding infants and protecting them against diseases because of the immunity they receive from their mother’s natural breast milk.

Trinidad and Tobago is one of over 150 countries to subscribe to the Baby- Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI), which was launched by the World Health Organisaton (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in 1991.

The initiative is a global effort to ensure that all maternity departments protected, promoted, supported and maintained breastfeeding.

The Health Ministry’s mandate is to address and help reverse the nation’s existing breastfeeding trend and encourage mothers to breastfeed.

In 2013, the NWRHA introduced the BFHI at the PoSGH to prioritise and promote breastfeeding with the aim of increasing breastfeeding rates within the region.

In TT, exclusive breastfeeding rates as of 2007 was 13 percent (UNICEF, 2009) ,which was well below the global average.

The WHO and UNICEF recommended that babies were to be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life. Unfortunately, less than 50 percent of children globally suckle at their mother’s breast for a minimum four months (WHO, 2003).

The NWRHA hoped to achieve Baby- Friendly Status for the hospital by the end of 2018, as it has successfully completed the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, and continued to adopt best practices in the field.

These steps were the required international framework under which all Baby- Friendly hospitals operated.

The framework required co-ordinated efforts between several of the region’s departments to educate and provide support for clients.

This included activities such as antenatal clinic lectures, health promotion activities, health fairs, childbirth education classes specific to breastfeeding, Annual Breastfeeding Week Celebrations which is held from August 1 -7th every year, Breastfeeding Training for Healthcare personnel at the POSGH and in the community, breastfeeding consultations and breastfeeding support group meetings.

Recently, the NWRHA established a support group BLISS (Breastfeeding Lifelong Investment So Simple) to support breastfeeding mothers. The support group utilises WhatsApp as the core communications method for its support.

BLISS is a 24-hour support group which provided advice on dietary needs, positioning and attachment for breastfeeding and other information to mothers.

Recent statistics at the PoSGH have shown that breastfeeding has grown from 27.78 percent in December 2014, to 51.69 percent in December 2016 based on an average of 290 live births. This was a 24 percent increase in just two years, it noted.

Those performing in the festival will be selected from auditions in the various instrumental categories at the Bowl on April 19 and 20. Auditions begin at 9 am and end at 4 pm.

The National String Festival, a venture by the Court Street Chamber Orchestra, is held biannually as to encourage string instrumentalists to showcase their talent and encourage each other in friendly competition.

Court Street Chamber Orchestra is a non-profit organisation that has been helping youths and adults learn instrumental music since 1992.

Adjudicators are LaToya Patterson, music educator in Charleston, South Carolina USA, herself a former member of the Court Street Chamber Orchestra and also a graduate of Berkeley College of Music; and John Wineglass, an Emmy Award composer, conductor, multi-instrumentalist and educator.

Wineglass will perform at the Winners’ Concert.

Among those registered to compete are representatives from the following music schools or ensembles:- Court Street Chamber Orchestra, San Fernando Zimrah Music Academy, Gasparillo Seraphic Strings, Chaguanas Gospel Strings, San Fernando TT YP (Trinidad & Tobago Youth Philharmonic Orchestra), St Augustine Gloria Barry Music School, Couva Martinez School of Music, D’Abadie, Naparima Girls’ High School String Orchestra, San Fernando; Holistic School, St Anne’s, UTT (University of Trinidad and Tobago), Port-of- Spain Pat Joseph Music School, Mt Lambert; Anthony Walter’s Music School, San Fernando; and Rebecca’s House of Musical Arts, San Fernando.

Several other soloists, duos, trios, quartets and large ensembles have registered to compete in this year’s festival.

Auditions to the preliminaries are free but admission to the Winners’ Concert is $150. Tickets are available from the Court Street Chamber Orchestra at 25 Court Street, San Fernando and at the venue on the day of the event. For more info: 492-8407.

The Red Force have Bajan Roshon Primus to thank for their position after he took four for 21 from 10 overs that gave TT a first innings advantage of 28 runs after they were dismissed for 196 on Friday. Spinner Bryan Charles (3/32) and pacer Sheldon Cottrell (2/29) were among the wickets.

On Friday, the 21-year-old Primus truck an entertaining top score of 60 as bottom placed Red Force, opting to bat first, struggled against the Bajan bowling. Primus rallied the Red Force innings after it collapsed to 122 for five, just before the tea interval .

The right-hander, in his first first-class game since last December, struck eight fours and two sixes in an 80-ball knock before he was last out, bowled by seamer Justin Greaves an hour before tea.

Isaiah Rajah chipped in with 38 and opener Amir Jangoo, 32, the two left-handers posting 53 for the second wicket.

Medium pacer Kevin Stoute was Pride’s best bowler with four for 51 while Greaves finished with three for 29.

Summarised Scores: RED FORCE 196 all out (Roshon Primus 60, Isaiah Rajah 38, Amir Jangoo 32; Kevin Stoute 4-51, Justin Greaves 3-29) and 50/3 vs BARBADOS PRIDE 168 all out K Williams 46, (Roshon Primus 4-21, Bryan Charles 3/32, Sheldon Cottrell 2-29).

Also on the agenda is a football match between a FIFA/ TTFA team and a Government/ SporTT outfit at the Ato Boldon Stadium following the press conference at the Couva venue during the afternoon period.

There are some well known personalities that will line up for both teams. TTFA boss David John-Williams is expected to lead out a well balanced outfit consisting of Infantino and his entourage, national coach Dennis Lawrence, ex-TT forward and current TT assistant coach Stern John, Russell Latapy, Jamaal Shabazz, TT women’s coach Carolina Morace, Jinelle James, TTFA General Secretary Justin Latapy-George, Brian Williams, Stuart Charles Fevrier, Richard Piper, Muhammad Isa, Ross Russell and Clayton Ince.

The Sport Company/Government team will include the likes of Minister of Sport Darryl Smith, Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon, Esmond Forde, Anthony Blake, Joel Gibbons, Dwayne Richardson, Tyrone Marcus, Cindy Cupid, Richard Smith, Garvin Warrick, Dexter Skeene, Omar Hadeed, Francis Lovell, Maylee Attin-Johnson, Leonson Lewis, Jomo Pitt and Jason Williams among others.

The game will comprise of two 15-minute halves. Shortly after being elected as FIFA president last year, Infantino spent part of his first day at the office hosting a football match at FIFA headquarters for staff and several greats of his generation.

“A great day,” Infantino said later.

“The hard works starts now, we are ready for that.” In January, Infantino and Diego Maradona played on ‘Team One’ of a four-team competition, lining up alongside the likes of Argentina legend Gabriel Batistuta, French World Cup winner Macel Desailly, Lucas Radabe and Francesco Toldo in Zurich.

They took on other star-studded teams with Dwight Yorke, Carles Puyol, Walter Zenga, Pablo Aimar, Eric Abidal and Michel Salgado who all turned out for the light-hearted event.

Infantino will arrive here tomorrow after attending the CONCACAF Congress in Aruba over the past two days which was also attended by John-Williams and Latapy-George.

The FIFA boss is also scheduled to visit Grenada and Guyana prior to his arrival at Piarco for a day of activities which includes official visits and meetings with President Anthony Carmona, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and TTFA officials.

Yet, the plague continues and seems to be growing worse. Everyone has an offering to make and again, if one listens to the conversations on the ground we can take each reason offered by the common man and easily create a summary of all the factors accounting for school violence.

One gets the impression that the Minister of Education is surrounded by advisers who sit in little rooms without windows or social media or anything of the sort that allows them to connect with the world. Nothing is wrong with such a group of people if they were, let’s say fiction writers, whose career can be based on living in their heads. They are free to have imaginary little friends speaking to them. We are entertained by it and we are all the better for it, for we do need to escape this crazy world from time to time.

But when it comes to matters of state and furthermore children’s education, one would like to assume that the office responsible for the proper governing of the system has capable personnel.

But alas! Again we are in a fix.

This Tuesday’s Express newspaper carried some very entertaining answers to the question of whether people agreed with the Minister of Education that school violence had lessened. To sum it up, the answers amounted to “the man must be dreaming”.

Well I won’t say that it’s too farfetched given many of my friends’ experiences at high schools and my own experience in the service (Thankfully I resigned before the upsurge in violence).

Some school supervisors and retired teachers noted that “the man must be approaching senility” when he commented a few weeks ago that he hardly thinks that an 11-year-old can terrorize any teacher (this, in relation to the issue of the 11-year-old allegedly terrorizing teachers as well as making inappropriate sexual comments towards female students. This led to parents staging a protest calling for the child’s removal from the school).

Life moves in cycles and so we are at this point again where one of our national topics of discussion is school violence. I can’t imagine it becoming any better.

And it is a fatal flaw when we keep pigeon-holing a problem as if we are unable to think on a broader spectrum.

It’s the parents’ fault. It’s the absentee teacher. It’s the breakdown in family values. It’s the abolition of corporal punishment. It’s cable TV. Why is it that nobody says it’s the lack of poor leadership in the country? Why not the loss of jobs and the high cost of living? Why not the lack of security that has citizens on edge and anxious (I’m just providing you with some alternative reasons so you can talk more and appear intelligent to others).

As Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” I leave this for you to ponder upon but just as a starter, what does that sentence really mean? Let’s assume for example, that it’s the parents’ fault. But why? What’s the difference between the parent of today versus the parent of yesterday? What are the factors affecting good parenting today? What are some of the challenges that people face as parents? What does the family structure look like today versus in our parents’ time? What does the social structure look like within which parents live and work? These are just some questions I would assume we ask when we decide that it’s the parents’ fault.

Because from the stories we hear of schools in my parents’ time for instance, it seemed to be a societal affair. You didn’t show up for school, a police officer sees you at home and you are questioned as to why you were not in school. Or a teacher comes over to your home to find out why you were absent.

But now it’s the parent’s fault and we fail to realize that parents don’t exist in a vacuum. They also fill other roles – like office worker, two-hour long journey-to work commuter, single parent trying to work two jobs to make ends meet.

But it’s the parents fault because you look at it through the lens of 1980 versus 2017.

For every reason proffered, there are a host of factors impacting on it. School violence is not a one-reason affair. It’s a web of factors including undisciplined leaders and lack of national security.

Adults talk and children are very good listeners. So, from Prime Minister to rum drinker, we should a l l c h e c k o u r – s e l v e s first before we w r e c k some of the potent i a l we have here.