His name synonymous with good local calypso music, Roy Cape and his All Stars have been the conscience of an era, with the likes of Frankie Francis, Fitz Vaughn Bryan, Joey and Boyie Lewis, Sparrow’s Troubadours, Sel Duncan, and Clarence Curvan. Most of these are gone now __ their memories almost buried by an avalanche of computer- generated sounds and digital mixing __ yet Roy Cape and his All Stars have pointed the way to survival with their amazing capacity to accompany any of today’s calypsonians and genres.

While Roy has already won his place in our hearts, his influence can only grow as goes from performer to mentor to inspire a whole barrage of righteous youth. His foundation aims to use music education to bring hope and healing to communities especially in at-risk areas, opening the door to careers in the entertainment and music industry Roy told Newsday, “I have been writing to the Japanese, Germany, British Embassies and UNESCO about the programme. Even some of my friends are helping to donate instruments.

I have also met with the Foundation for the Enhancement and Enrichment of Life (FEEL) and I started to get instruments to them in Sangre Grande, San Fernando, YTC, and the St James Police Youth Club.” His first project will be in Morvant, but will ultimately reach as far as Toco, covering 15 communities in all. For now, he will give children four trumpets, three trombones, four saxophones, four flutes and four clarinets, and in future also supply recorders, guitars, keyboards, violins, electric basses, and cellos. “The intention is to have an orchestra in every community, with their tutors and instruments,” he said. Cape will also work with the NGO Women in Action for the Needy and Destitute (WAND) whose founder Jan Bocas Ryan is coincidentally the wife of Prof Selwyn Ryan whose seminal work, “No time to quit: Engaging youth at risk” urged that music be used to uplift, rather than the social degradation of alcoholism, domestic violence and hyper sexuality promoted by some contemporary party genres.

Further, beyond the pros and cons of the musical “content” received by listeners, we say huge benefits accrue to an individual who is learning music. It’s axiomatic that the discipline, creativity and joy of learning music brings a youngster a better self-esteem, teamwork and life “balance”.

The UK-based Royal Conservatory’s article, “Benefits of Music Education” said music education helps youngsters reach their “full intellectual, social and creative potential”.

It boosts their language skills, emotional resilience, empathy, attention span and self-confidence, the study said. The article cited Albert Einstein as crediting his famous Theory of Relativity to his intuition developed by his childhood violin lessons, saying, “My new discovery is the result of musical perception”.

Music training develops the brain’s frontal cortex, in charge of abstract thought, planning and complex behaviour, so boosting a child’s capacity to perform tasks of sustained attention and careful listening and reading, the article said.

So, we trust that Roy Cape’s thrust into music education will craft good youngsters and overall help mould a better society. From humble beginnings at the Tacarigua Orphanage, to ace performer and now to mentor, Roy Cape is an inspiration and a beacon of hope to today’s youth.

Indeed, he would be well deserving of the title, Roy Cape of good hope.

This discussion in one form or another has engaged us for decades with no meaningful or focused strategy to bring about the desired reconstruction of the economy, let alone any feasible plan for implementation.

As the revenues from the energy sector flowed abundantly, we wallowed in a sense of ease and confidence in our good fortune while making glib statements about using the public savings so generated to develop and diversify the economy.

There was no compelling desire or sense of urgency to change. Thus today, with the oil windfall having been consumed, the economy remains undiversified and, to a large measure, underdeveloped.

Nor have we examined the lessons from countries in similar circumstances which have developed a resilient economy despite an absence of the windfall from resource commodities. Since initiatives should have been taken years ago in order to enjoy the benefits of diversification today, we have lost those opportunities forever.

In view of the volume of statements and pronouncements from all sectors of the society, one could be deluded into thinking that, at long last, plans and programmes will be devised and resolutely implemented.

We are informed that the Economic Development Advisory Board presented “a diversification roadmap document” to a group of current PNM ministers (Newsday 25/3/17). According to the newspaper report, the document identifies “seven industries to drive diversification.” Those listed are certainly not new and have been ritually announced by previous administrations without any visible success in the growth and development of these sectors. It is therefore a matter of great speculation whether the present PNM administration will succeed in this pursuit where all previous administrations have faltered and failed. It must be admitted that the undertaking to diversify the economy is certainly no walk in the park. In our circumstances and given the propensities of the majority, it would be a difficult, arduous and challenging exercise which may take years in order to achieve a reasonable degree of success.

In my view the primary objective of any diversification programme is to foster a new engagement with the outside world in which we competitively produce new or refurbished goods or services located in the non-oil sectors of the economy and market them to other countries in order to earn the foreign funds to pay for our imports.

In a dynamic and changing world there is the need to be resilient and adaptive. It has been said that, thus far, we have lived primarily off the unearned income (rents) derived from the energy sector. The task confronting us now is to support our livelihood from earned income through our own endeavours.

However, such an undertaking requires radical change at all levels and in all sectors of the society.

There is need for the reorientation of perspective and restructuring of the mindset. There is also the requirement to reform our general attitude to work and patient effort, to thrift and savings, to an embrace of the longer view, to patterns of consumption and investment, to enterprise and risk-taking and to relentlessly exploring ways and means of generating value through innovation and creativity.

There is the necessity for commitment, discipline and purposeful effort. A sense of national focus on identified goals for diversifying the economy should be instilled in the population.

Above all, there is the need for enl i g ht e n e d , pu rpo s e ful and forceful leadership in the political, economic and other spheres.

Reports are that at about 7pm, residents ran for cover as gunshots rang out on their relatively quiet street. When they checked, they found Denzel Eccles on the roadway suffering from gunshot wounds.

His relatives told Newsday yesterday that he was sitting outside his apartment near a parlour when a man walked up to him. The man was carrying a box of fried chicken and asked Eccles for a bottle of water. As Eccles got up to get the water, the man pulled out a firearm and shot Eccles several times before running away. Relatives yesterday described Eccles as a “hasty man” who would regularly get into fights.

They said, however, that he was a very loving person to his family.

“We grew up as foster children,” said his adopted sister.

“Denzel liked to go out and take his little drink every now and then.

But he is a little miserable and he would misbehave. He was nice to us though. That is a common thing; people would be nice at home but outside they are something else.

Police officers of the Western Division Police and Homicide Bureau are trying to ascertain a motive behind Eccles’ murder.

And the fish vendor who was also shot dead on Saturday in St Joseph has been identified as Ran Ricardo De Silva. Newsday understands that at about 5.30 pm De Silva was driving his Kia van on Johnny King Street, having just finished selling fish, when gunmen ambushed the vehicle. He tried to escape but he was shot. He died at the scene.

Samaroo was found dead on Tuesday last week in his quarters at Camp Cumuto. He had a single bullet wound to his head and police have determined that his death was as a result of suicide.

However, there have been calls from Opposition Senator, attorney Gerald Ramdeen, his colleague Wayne Sturge and most recently Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh to have an independent inquiry conducted into Samaroo’s death to prove that foul play was not involved.

In a statement to the media yesterday, the TTDF called on members of the public to desist from making false and unsubstantiated remarks and to allow his relatives, friends and co-workers to grieve in peace.

However Ramdeen, admitting that he has not been retained by Samaroo’s family to seek their interest, told Newsday yesterday that the TTDF has failed to address questions which have been raised in the public domain.

“Senator Sturge has already indicated to the Chief of Defence Staff that if an independent inquiry is not carried out it would be pursued in court,” Ramdeen said.

“The TTDF has a duty in law to hold an independent inquiry into the death of any soldier. It seems very curious that the TTDF has not answered any questions that are lingering in the public domain. And while everyone respects the loss of life, there is a duty on the part of the Chief of Defence Staff, the Attorney General and the Ministry of National Security to not only do what is right, but what is lawful in this situation.” It had been suggested by Ramdeen that Samaroo’s body bore bruises, that three of his ribs were broken, and the gun which he is said to have use to kill himself had not been found.

The TTDF denied this saying the autopsy confirmed that Samaroo died as a result of a single gunshot wound to the head and there were no other marks of violence on his body.

The TTDF said the public must be reminded that in similar occasions in the past, the death of any service member which occurs on a military establishment automatically triggers a Board of Inquiry.

“Such an inquiry is a compulsory requirement of the Defence Act and serves as an internal investigation geared towards finding the cause(s) of a serious incident and, by extension, improving the organisation’s systems, processes and procedures.” Samaroo was cremated on Saturday at the Caroni Cremation Site.

That was one of the messages by the Ryu Dan Dojo Youth Empowerment Centre on Saturday evening when members held a peace walk in the streets of crime-ravaged Enterprise, Chaguanas.

“It was awesome,” said Sensei Marva John-Logan.

“It is as though the people were waiting for someone to take an initiative like this. They came out and we showed we are against the crime and we want peace. People were chanting ‘peace and unity’ from their homes.” John-Logan is one of the founders of the centre — a community-based martial arts academy located at Boodram Street, Enterprise.

From 4 pm on Saturday, scores of people gathered at the Bandstand at Railway Road then proceeded through the streets with the hope of promoting positivity in the community.

“We went Enterprise Street, Bhagaloo Street, Crown Trace, Scott Road, we made the full circle.

The public could expect more of this. We are trying to keep the community vibrant with positivity. Our message is, there is hope and one can change his/her life.” The theme of the event was Unity in the Community, We are stronger together against crime and Violence.

The centre partnered with the Enterprise Community Council and other NGOs to host the event.

At the launch of the first TT Neurology Conference held at the Trinidad Hilton Conference Centre yesterday, Deyalsingh said in a population of 1.3 million people, 42 percent of the population is in the public out-patient clinics.

This amounts to approximately 45,937 patients per month. He said the satisfaction level far exceeds the level of dissatisfaction.

“In our out-patient clinics, 551,000 people pass through our public sector. Even if you have a hundred complaints a month, that is .21 percent,” Deyalsingh said.

“Even if you have 200 complaints a month that is .42 per cent. Therefore, the other 99 percent are receiving an acceptable level of care and this is what the data will show.” He continued, “Our Accident and Emergency Department for 2016 saw 370,248 people which is a phenomenal figure. But what is the dissatisfaction rate? Less than one percent. And all of this is being provided free of charge to the patient. We are taking a bad situation and making it better.” Deyalsingh said public health systems around the world are faced with high demands and this country is no different.

He said as Minister of Health, he concerned about the lack of data.

“We have no reliable data on strokes or on epilepsy and what I am doing is focusing on that. I just recently got Cabinet to approve 27 new positions in IT (information technology) just dedicated to data gathering. This bad situation we are confronted with is an opportunity to make it better. The public health system in TT, as elsewhere, suffers from poor brand recognition and poor brand equity.” Deyalsingh said his ministry has been formulating policies and a public health response to things such as stroke and other NCD’s (non-communicable diseases).

“Apart from that, we have been strengthening the NCD and cancer registries. The cancer registry is about 75 percent up and running for the first time. We are going to start the NCD registry very soon on stokes and gathering data on cardiovascular diseases so that with data we can formulate policy. Policies driven by evidence, driven by data.” He said the NCD programme is going to drive a shift in the way citizens think about public health care.

“For far too long we thought about health being the building of hospitals, but if you don’t tackle NCD’s you will have to build a new hospital in every community.” Also in attendance at the conference were program director Avidesh Panday, neurology specialist Dr Anil Ramlackansingh, consultant at the Oxford Centre for Enablement, England, Dr Nicola Paul and Dr Dave Ojar.

Abdullah made the claim on Saturday at a press conference on the hospital construction site, Teschier Village, Point Fortin.

After speaking at the launch of the first TT Neurology Conference held at the Trinidad Hilton Conference Centre yesterday, Deyalsingh told reporters that there was no work to restart as Abdullah was “postulating because work was not stopped.” “I note with sorrow and concern that Mr David Abdullah on April Fools Day would make a totally erroneous statement about the Point Fortin Hospital,” Deyalsingh said.

“The state we have reached is that all the major earth work, which is below ground and which you are not seeing, is now being completed. All the piles have been put down, the piles are being capped, and all the back filling is taking place as we speak.” He continued, “Steel will start to touch the sky in about a month and this is what people want to see. They want to see the physical manifestation above ground and that is going to start in about a month’s time.” Deyalsingh said the steel has been already fabricated and once the construction site was cleaned and prepared to receive steel and erect steel, that is when employment from the Point Fortin area will be ramped up with about 300 to 400 people in that phase of construction.

“I put these facts into the public domain to comfort the people of Point Fortin that the hospital is foremost in the mind of the prime minister and we will bring that hospital to completion. The hospital will be completed within two to two-and-a-half years and it is 27 percent complete.”

Recalling that the motion was successfully passed with full support from both the Government and Opposition, Rambachan said Deyalsingh gave an assurance last April that steps would be taken to implement the decision relevant to the motion.

Rambachan’s motion was entitled the “Initiation of a Programme in schools to meet the needs of children with ADD)/ADHD.” He indicated that recently, in response to a question in the House regarding the behaviour of a child at the Santa Rita RC School, Rambachan said Education Minister Anthony Garcia described the student as having an ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder). He added that, “ODD is one aspect of ADHD.” Rambachan indicated that research done by Douglas Riley, Ph.D, suggested that 40 percent of children with ADHD also develop ODD.

“I am disappointed that despite assurances made, the Minister and the Ministry has been lethargic in implementing the relevant programmes,” Rambachan said. He added, “ I remain convinced that a lot of the behaviours in schools are as a result of children with ADD/ ADHD.”

The 13-year-old Galicia is the only vessel that transports cargo between Trinidad and Tobago daily, however since the charter contract expired, the vessel has been on a month-to-month contract with the port.

In a statement to the media yesterday, Charles said the THA will treat the issue as a “top priority” and will keep the public informed as the situation progresses.

“I do understand that there will be public concern,” Charles said.

“Measures are being put in place to treat with our cargo transport needs in the short term.” Charles said he has spoken with Minister of Works and Transport Rohan Sinanan who has indicated that interim plans are being made to ship bulk cargo to the island once the vessel is removed from the route. A stakeholders meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday to further discuss the issue.

Meanwhile, Minority Leader in the THA Watson Duke said his party, the Progressive Democratic Patriots, has been very vocal on the issue previously.

“We have been complaining incessantly for quite a while,” Duke said.

“We raised this issue publicly in the media, we raised it on the streets, we raised it with the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, we raised it in the House and all we can say is at last the writing is on the wall. Now what will Tobago do come Good Friday? What will Tobago do?” In the interim, Duke said he is calling upon both the Central Government and the THA to meet immediately and deal with the issue with a level of urgency.

“It seems as though every time Tobago has a busy season, the cargo boat is not working and the passenger boat is not working. Why is it that every year we have to treat with this calamity? It is a question of management.

“We are tired of the bad management in Tobago. We are calling upon the THA, we are calling upon the central Government to ensure that the goods coming to Tobago after Good Friday is not hauled on any barge.

We do not want any barge. Let them hire a boat to conduct business in a dignified manner between Trinidad and Tobago.” Chairman of the Tobago Division of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce Demi-John Cruickshank said the members of the Chamber are expected to meet today to discuss the way forward.

Political Leader of the Tobago Forwards Christlyn Moore could not be reached for comment.

Under the former People’s Partnership government, the Super- Fast Galicia began its inter-island cargo service on July 7, 2014 and $48 million was paid for an initial 12-month charter.

On Friday, the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) issued a statement indicating that they are aware of plans to host the event titled Tobago Beach Jazz.

The EMA said it has been in contact with the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) to discuss the concerns with the hosting of the event at the proposed venue, given the importance of the site as a sea turtle nesting habitat and further, that the nesting season which spans March to September annually, has commenced.

The EMA said it will facilitate discussion with the THA and the event organisers to find alternatives including a suitable location not currently identified as a sea turtle nesting site.

When contacted, event promoter Carl “Beaver” Henderson told Newsday yesterday that he while he has not yet held any discussions with the EMA on the matter, he has been invited to today’s meeting.

He said even though the venue is not on the beach itself, they have plans to fence the compound to ensure that nobody wanders onto the beach. Henderson said the event is expected to begin at 10 am and end at about 8 pm and he is aware that “The turtle watch people will be there and will be conducting turtle patrols.” He said that he has previously held discussions with SOS Tobago and they have already given advice on where to point lights and the colour of lights that should be used and all this was taken into consideration.

Just one week ago at the launch of the event Henderson, when questioned, said the event was previously backed by the late owner of the Mt Irvine Hotel, Bob Yorke, hence the change in venue.

“Unfortunately Mr Yorke has passed on and there is a new change of the guard at the hotel,” Henderson said.

“Out of respect for the new management, they are in transition mode so I could not disappoint people. This show is all about clientele appreciation.

“We are going to reshape the production and this has come about because we are listening to our clients.” However, Mount Irvine Bay Hotel has issued a press release indicating that they would not be hosting the event this year and is in no way affiliated with Henderson’s event.

“All reports of any entity, organisation, or venue purporting to be the new home of Jazz on the Beach are false, erroneous and inaccurate,” the release said.