Dr Lorraine Patience, a general practitioner with a special interest in care of the elderly, and recently elected member of the AzATT board, will speak on Dealing with violent behaviour of persons with Alzheimer’s disease.

“We had a very good turnout last Saturday,” says Ann Smith, the new president of the AZATT . “Among the new people attending were two who specifically mentioned that they had read the Newsday article on March 30 which prompted them to come to the meeting. There might have been others….One of the high priorities of the new board is to raise awareness of the association while making ourselves more visible.

“We are currently working on a calendar of events with a view to giving the general public advance notice of upcoming events which will include events hosted by our four support groups: Port-of-Spain, Arima, San Fernando and Tobago.” The meeting is open to the public.

For more info: 292-4387.

Led by Oilfields Workers Trade Union (OWTU) TCL branch president Ahmad Mohammed, workers began assembling at the entrance of the company’s Claxton Bay compound from as early as 6am. To the strains of union staples such as “We shall overcome” and “When workers hold the reins of power,” workers waved blue and red OWTU flags and placards. Several of the placards read, “We want our shares money now”; “TCL/OWTU settle negotiations now” and “The rabbit want to eat my carrots-pension, medical entitlements.” Mohammed told reporters workers had “endured tremendous suffering” to ensure the sustainability and survival of the company. He said workers are being paid at 2011 rates. “So monies we would have already worked for are still owed to us and we are owed back pay. Now that our company is taken over by CEMEX, we see no sense of urgency in repaying this debt owed to workers,” he said.

Mohammed added that workers remain “committed” to working with the company to ensure its profitability.

He said union officials were scheduled to meet with company representatives at the Trinidad Hilton at 1.30 pm today to discuss the non-payment of the shares as well as the company offering a Voluntary Separation of Employment Programme (VSE P) without consulting the union.

“We are still engaged in talks with the management of the company with respect to VSE P packages that have been proposed for workers. Details of these have not been advanced to the union but the company has gone ahead and put forward those offers directly to workers. This is a breach of industrial relations practice because they are attempting to negotiate directly with workers and not their recognised majority union.” Mohammed said over 400 permanent and 200 casual workers at TCL, Trinidad Packaging Limited and Trinidad Ponsa Manufacturing Limited are affected by the non-payment of the back pay.

Asked whether the company’s operations were affected, Mohammed said, “No, operations will be continuing as normal for now.” And as if to underline his statement, workers dispersed shortly after the news conference to pick up the 7am to 3pm work shift.

Asked how long the protest action may take place, Mohammed said this would depend on the outcome of today’s meeting.

Up to press time, TCL had not responded to the union’s allegations.

When she slumped into an unconscious state, the driver drove to a house in the Fort George area.

The standard five schoolgirl later told police when she revived, she found herself naked on a bed inside a house whose walls were painted green. Also on the bed and naked, was the driver. The man began to rub himself on the child and attempted to have intercourse, but she squirmed and fought.

The child later told police that the man told her to open her mouth as he stood over her, but she refused and turning away, begged to be released. He then allowed her to get dressed and took her out of the house and into the car. He took the child to a nearby parlour, bought her some ice cream and then dropped her off at a location near her home.

The child told her mother of the ordeal and a report was made to the police. Officers took the child to District Medical Officer (DMO) Dr Mootoo who confirmed that no sexual penetration had taken place.

The case was then referred to the Child Protection Unit (CPU) and detective PC Green and other officers searched for the taxi driver who was detained on Tuesday.

The man is expected to be placed on an Identification Parade, following which he faces a number of criminal charges. CPU officers yesterday advised parents to teach their children, from an early age, about the dangers of accepting food items, snacks, drinks and toys from strangers.

They added that where possible, students should travel in groups and again if possible, utilize licensed school bus drivers.

Police said that this is the second incident this year in which a schoolgirl has been sexually assaulted by a taxi driver in West Trinidad.

” Young said analyses of white-collar crime show, “there is somebody who sits up in the clouds called a big fish.” He continued, “Down below the big fish, there are some small fish who are critical to the carrying out of crime.”

While the big fish make the collection of evidence to prosecute them difficult, Young explained, “Those small fish are the ones who very frequently have left their fingerprints and their footprints on the scene of the crime.”

The minister said when the small fish are held and presented with the evidence gathered against them, “they can now enter into discussions and give up the big fish because if they agree to plead guilty to lesser offences or not put themselves through a trial, it can be part of the discussion how they provide that evidence, that nexus, that link with the big fish.” Stating that plea discussion has featured in this country’s legislation since 1999, Young said it is a, “very important element in the criminal justice system.” Apart from being a useful tool in curbing white-collar crime and corruption, Young said, “It applies equally of course to crimes which have to do with narcotics, illegal drugs and firearms.” As he assured Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar that there are safeguards in the legislation to prevent a guilty person from going free, Young cited the victim impact statement as an important feature of the bill.

Noting that businesses and children can be victims of crime, Young said this mechanism allows victims to participate in this legal process.

However, St Augustine MP Prakash Ramadhar questioned whether this bill could facilitate the manufacturing of evidence to free a guilty person. “In the prisons today, word has come to me that the boys are salivating for this legislation,” he claimed. Ramadhar further alleged, “They are salivating because the most immediate beneficiaries of this thing, are those who have multiple charges before the courts.” He warned, “This scalpel could turn into a dagger.” However, Ramadhar added this did not mean the Opposition was not supporting the bill.

“We created it. We want it. We need it but we must do it right,” he said. Describing the bill as “so-so law,” Ramadhar told Government MPs, “We are going to help you fix it.” He reiterated, “This thing is subject to incredible mischief and that is the link.

There is no penalty in this legislation to deal with those people.” Ramadhar also said the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has no authority to place a person under witness protection.

Public Utilities Minister Fitzgerald Hinds supported Young’s position that there were sufficient safeguards in the bill.

Making passing reference to former attorney general Anand Ramlogan recently dropping a matter against him, Hinds said he initially wanted to continue the matter but decided against it.

“I did it grudgingly,” Hinds remarked.

Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal later said in February 1999 as an Opposition MP, Hinds opposed the idea of plea discussion legislation because innocent persons could be framed. Claiming Hinds would not be able to deal with what he was going to say, Moonilal invited Hinds to leave the Parliament Chamber before the tea break.

Hinds declined that invitation.

The pump, located near water tanks, is supposed to pump water to the cell blocks. While officials wait for a replacement part to be sourced and sent to the island, prison officers have decided to allow prisoners to bathe in the sea, at 6 am and again at 4 pm, daily.

Inmates are given only one litre of drinking water a day and have not been able to wash their clothes or flush toilets because of the water problem.

Relatives of the inmates, who contacted Newsday, said they (the inmates) are fed-up with the situation and that life in prison is miserable enough with the dry taps making life almost unbearable.

President of the Prison Officers Association Ceran Richards confirmed yesterday that a pump has been down and that officers too have been adversely affected.

He said there was a proposal, some years ago, to run a water line from Nelson Island to Carrera to cut costs, but this never happened, for unexplained reasons. He said information being bandied about is that someone is paid close to $30,000 a week to supply water on a barge to the island prison and he wants the authorities to conduct a feasibility study to ascertain if this cost could be cut by running a line direct from Nelson Island.

“We hope the administrators deal with the problem quickly because water is essential for the overall maintenance of people,” Richards said, adding that Carrera is also badly in need of other repairs. Another problem is that prison officers have no waiting area and no facilities to board the boat that takes them to Carrera.

“We have been asking for that for years,” he said, “And nothing has been done to accommodate officers at Hardscot Bay. The association will be aggressively pursuing this going forward.” Richards said the budget for 2016/2017, has a $1.5 million allocation to deal with Carrera’s water problem, but to date, no remedial action has been done.

The minister’s return to the Senate on Tuesday was yet another milestone in a career which began in 2002 when he was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Ortoire/Mayaro. Since then, he has gone through several ups and downs, to say the least, in a career embodying the complexities of political life in Trinidad and Tobago.

Khan – who was initially appointed Minister of Rural Development and Local Government in 2015 – returns to the energy hot seat. Some of the challenges he faces include: the need for reform of the regulation of the industry in terms of accounting of profits and enforcement of breaches by State entities; chronic environmental issues due to aging infrastructure; declined revenues due to fluctuating prices and the global push to a world without hydrocarbons.

The minister will have to carry through on momentum gained by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley in his recent Houston, Texas, energy talks.

Khan has already signalled an intention to do what seems counter-intuitive in the current climate. Increasing the current oil production from 75,000 barrels a day to 100,000 barrels a day by 2018 will no doubt increase revenues, but will it trickle down to the rest of the economy? The gains yielded could eviscerate if the mechanism for accounting for production – and therefore taxation revenues owed to the State – is not working as it should.

And the evidence which we have seen time and time again in parliamentary committees is that there are serious questions as to whether the Ministry of Energy is functioning as it should in this regard. It would be more useful to not only plug the gaps but to also forge ahead with newer, alternative forms of energy. Green energy sources are more sustainable in the long run. There is much room for development in this regard.

The minister may think if it ain’t broken then don’t fix it.

Unfortunately, we have seen time and time again how our reliance on oil and gas has only hindered our development by generating uncertainty and rendering us at the mercy of global market forces.

Khan will have to play a key role in this country’s dealings with Venezuela and Guyana, especially in the wake of reports of ExxonMobil’s discoveries in the latter country and the key role we potentially will play.

Meanwhile, Khan’s return to service (the Prime Minister granted him an additional two weeks to make absolutely sure he was ready to return to office) underlines the fact that politicians, like all of us, are vulnerable to health issues.

Cardiac illness is one of the leading causes of death in Trinidad and Tobago.

According to a 2014 report, cardiac disease accounted for about 30 per cent of all premature deaths in the male age group between 39 and 60 in 2008. According to the latest World Health Organisation data published in May 2014, coronary heart disease accounted for 1,929 or 17.88 per cent of total deaths. While updated figures are slow in coming, several experts in the years since have reported the figures are still high and possibly rising.

Is it any wonder? Our modern lifestyles are stressful and many are not able to incorporate adequate changes to their habits. Exercise, careful dieting and other holistic measures are easier said than done. Khan’s experience, though, is a reminder that we must all take care of ourselves.

We hope his fellow ministers take note and make provision accordingly, leading by example.

The horrendous killing spree and intense feeling of insecurity in TT have jolted us again into the debate that is as old as the very idea of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth of the Old Testament.

We have become emotional about the savagery and the preying upon women, the gang warfare and the unbelievable uselessness of the police in solving major crimes.

I think it would be fair to say that the only reason why the police do a good job at raking in revenue from drivers — although I am not sure for whom or which department exactly — is that they are assisted by the purely commercial and often over-eager interest of the car-wrecking firms. I state this with little fear of opposition since we all know just how abysmally low the detection rate is for all crimes.

In desperation, people cling to the belief that the threat of hanging might help to stem the growing lawlessness. But logic suggests that cannot be so, since to proceed to trial and secure a conviction requires the police to catch a criminal first, and then put together a watertight case that will stick.

We have too little proof that they can do that, or that our justice system — which is creaking so badly that it promises to implode — could manage increased efficiency from the police. It seems, therefore, that we are clutching at straws.

The criminals no more fear being hanged than killing a person, and it is disingenuous therefore for the politicians to try to convince us otherwise.

There are many reasons why capital punishment needs to be considered carefully and not be a purely emotional reaction. Chief among them is its efficacy as a deterrent. The death penalty cannot be a deterrent if 20 years after abolishing the death penalty, Canada saw a 44 per cent drop in murders. Something it is doing is working, and I do not think it is just its policing or brilliant legal system.

Canada is a very equitable society, which ours is not, nor is the USA which has among the highest rates of legal killings and also the highest rates of serious crime and murder. It is not controversial to assert that a lot of crime is linked to deprivation of all sorts.

Lawyers would argue that proportionality has always been a moral principle of punishment; that the crime and the punishment must fit, that it is not barbaric therefore to deprive someone of their life. We might argue back that the right to life is a very basic human right and that too many people have died in terrible miscarriages of justice.

One study suggests that in the USA, one in 25, or four percent of people sentenced to death are innocent of the crime. Some are exonerated but many more never get freed. Where is the justice in that? If a one percent chance exists that an innocent person could be hanged then that is too high a risk.

I cannot imagine suffering the fate of facing the death penalty knowing the verdict is wrong.

We have all experienced personal outrage when unfairly judged in everyday life, and we know that error is common.

There is the law and there is justice. Consider the effect of the State sanctioning an act of killing on the national psyche. I am told that the Dole Chadee hanging spree left a deep gloom over this l a n d .

Capital punishment is not the quick fix for our complex p r o b – lems.

The victim has been identified as Kendall Trim of Dass Trace, Enterprise in Chaguanas.

According to police, at about 11.30 pm, Trim was plying his Nissan B14 car along the Southern Main Road in Chase Village when he picked up three male passengers. The men asked Trim to transport them to Santa Flora.

Police said that on reaching Robert Trace in Santa Flora, one of the men shot Trim in his abdomen and then threw him out of the vehicle. The men then drove off.Residents who heard the gunshot, checked to see what was going on and rushed to Trim’s assistance. He was rushed to the San Fernando General Hospital where he died while undergoing surgery. An All Points Bulletin (APB) was issued advising officers to be on the lookout for Trim’s vehicle and it was later spotted proceeding north along the Solomon Hochoy Highway.

A chase ensued and police officers attempted to intercept the car in Couva. The occupants fired shots at officers who returned fire, hitting one of the suspects in the knee. Officers later detained three men, one of whom had to be taken to hospital for treatment.

Investigations are ongoing.

Residents told police they heard rapid gunfire and on checking later, found the bullet-riddled body of Isaiah Neptune face up on the road. He was clad in a red t-shirt and three-quarter pants. Police said it appeared that he was shot at least nine times in the chest.

A party of police officers led by Senior Supt Mc Donald Jacob and including Acting Supt Dillon and officers from the Homicide Bureau visited the scene along with the DMO who ordered the body removed.

No motive was established for the murder, the 131st for the year, but police said Neptune was well-known to them and he may have been executed as part of an on-going feud between rival criminal gangs in the area. No arrest has been made.

Police said Deoraj Bedassie, 52, was chopped into pieces, burnt and then stuffed in a black garbage bag and dumped in the cesspit behind his Black Street, Reform Village home. At about 1.30 pm on Tuesday, police officers of the Homicide Region III went to Bedassie’s house and after several hours searching, they made the gruesome discovery.

Bedassie, who lived alone, was last seen alive by relatives at his home on March 26, his birthday.

A missing person’s report was made at Gasparillo Police Station.

Police confirmed that the siblings in custody are residents of Reform Village. DNA (deoxyribonucleic) samples were taken from Bedassie’s brothers Frankie, 72, and Suresh, 61, which investigators said were sent to a forensic lab to confirm the identity of the body.

Bedassie’s niece, Cindy Benjamin yesterday told Newsday the family is still in a state of shock.

She said her uncle did not deserve to die in such a gruesome manner and is hoping justice is served.

Benjamin said the family is awaiting results of the DNA tests, which could take three months.

“We need formal confirmation and after, we will hold a funeral and say our final farewell. All we can do now is wait,” Benjamin said.