Responding to a question in the Senate, Dillon said the TTDF conducted an inquiry into the matter and a report was completed.

On the report being laid in Parliament, Dillon said, “I am not aware of any practice that internal Defence Force inquiries should be laid in the House.” Dillon, a former TTDF Chief of Staff, said this, “remains a matter of security in so far as the Defence Force is concerned.” He said he was aware that Opposition Senator Wayne Sturge had written the TTDF for a copy of that report. When Sturge claimed that contents of the report appeared in the media, Dillon said he had “no idea” about that. Dillon reiterated it was an internal TTDF matter and he was not privy to the contents of the report.

On Monday, the TTDF said a Sunday Express story, which claimed that the TTDF determined that proper procedure was not followed in relation to the children being in possession of the guns, was wrong.

The TTDF called for a retraction of the story saying it tarnished the reputation of its members.

Newsday visited the boy’s home at Block Six, Palmiste yesterday but was told by family that police advised them against speaking with the media. A family member said, “We won’t speak to the media because you all like to twist stories.” A police report, however, said the boy’s parents were studying with another one of their children when Bharath was noticed missing at about 5.20pm.

During a search of the premises, his parents found his body floating in the pool.

He was taken to the Gulf View Medical Complex where he was pronounced dead.

Bharath’s drowning is the second in two days as two year old Chyna Roberts also drowned in a pool in Tobago on Sunday morning.

I am aware that there is a shortage of foreign exchange and this must be dealt with. But we must understand that manufacturing and other foreign exchange (forex) earners cannot stand alone without major input from non-foreign exchange earners.

The top forex earners in this country are in the energy sector, which cannot exist without massive input from the oil services industry. These service players have to import massive amounts of equipment to keep energy going while not directly earning forex themselves.

The multiple plants at Point Lisas are generally forex earners. But there is also a massive industry of service providers to keep them functioning.

Construction companies and providers of other industrial equipment and services to the manufacturing sector are themselves not forex earners, but without them that sector will grind to a halt.

The construction industry, while not forex earners, is the largest employer of labour in this country.

Nothing can be constructed or built without the supply of massive amounts of equipment on rental or outright sale to this industry.

This brings me to our young and vibrant TT MA president who has brought this issue to the front burner. This needs to be discussed.

However, Vemco Ltd, of which he is a senior executive, is a manufacturer and also an importer of many fancy foods, drinks, wines etc. His allocations may very well go into raw material and wines. His company also owns a variety of foreign fast food franchises. There are vast monthly franchise fees to be submitted to the US in US dollars.

This is a complex system to manage. Both late Venezuela president Hugo Chavez and current president Nicolas Maduro have destroyed that country trying to implement same. The president of the largest furniture retailers in this country complained about a shortage of forex. This and the other large foreign warehouse distributors use huge amounts of forex.

Imbert has a tough call to make.

However, we cannot go back to the future.

David Salinger Maraval

However, there appears to be some confusion in the form of perspective which informed the organisers of these events, the Indian Diaspora Council and its local affiliate in TT . What we had was ideological confusion and the domination of an India historical experience and the total marginalisation of the Indian-Caribbean historical reality.

EH Carr in his What Is History defined it as “an unending dialogue between the present and the past.” He added that “history cannot be written unless the historian can achieve some kind of contact with the mind of those about whom he is writing.” The mind of our Indian ancestors was not recognised and ignored.

And this is easy to verify.

The history of the end of Indian indenture came about largely as a result of a massive campaign in India against the export of Indian labour under a contract or indenture system to various parts of the world. The India campaign was led by EK Gokhale, Pandit Madan Mohn Malaviya and especially Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi’s ten-year residence in South Africa brought him in contact with indentured Indians whose grievances he began to champion.

His mind was made up on the question when he returned to India.

In his autobiography he recorded that he was about “to tour the country for an all-India agitation” when the system was ended.

Indians in the Caribbean were not supportive of the Gandhian campaign. Indian opinion wanted Indian immigration to continue, even if in a modified form. For example, in the Koh-i-Noor Gasette (1898), the first Indian newspaper, there is no campaign to end Indian labour immigration. In 1913, the first detailed analysis of the Indian presence in Trinidad, given by FEM Hosein, titled “East Indians in Trinidad A Sociological Analysis,” expected Indian labour immigration to Trinidad to continue indefinitely.

The opponents to Indian indentured labour migration were largely non-Indians, mainly blacks. Eric Williams in chapter 9 of his book History of the People of Trinidad and Tobago (1962) listed the names and quoted their position extensively: Sir Henry Alcazar, Lechmere Guppy, Dr de Boissiere and Prudhomme David.

Two working class black organisations were involved in this campaign: Working Men’s Reform Club and the Trinidad Working Men’s Association headed by Alfred Richards.

In Guyana this opposition began in 1868. Several black newspapers in Trinidad and Guyana were part of this campaign.

The positions against Indian indentureship were similar for different reasons. The Gandhian India nationalist position had to do with Indian pride and self-dignity and an affront to their nationalist feelings; here it was a black campaign of the black fear of the Indian spectre.

An accurate interpretation of this history should inform Indian opinion to properly guide action in the present.

Kamal Persad Carapichaima

I normally suffer some discomfort in traversing this congested space with the movement vehicles and discarded garbage.

Downtown merchants, according to the deputy mayor, have threatened to sue the Port-of-Spain Corporation as the vendors on lower Charlotte Street obstruct the entrances to their business places.

I am also concerned about the daily dousing of a soapy and slippery liquid in front of a business place on Frederick Street between 7.15 and 7.45 am, Monday to Friday.

I assume it is done with the intent of sanitation. However, I beg the management of this business place to have this cleaning done earlier, between, say, 5 and 6 am when there are less pedestrians.

Unfortunately, I have seen many people slipping and sliding on the wet pavement. So Mr Businessman, please have that situation rectified.

Athelston Clinton Arima

Prayers always help. But maybe we need to do more.

We are in Lent but people, including Catholics, Anglicans and others, continue to drink alcohol as if it is Carnival Monday.

Maybe God will appreciate if pubs, clubs, rum shops and the like close at least one day a week during Lent.

Who knows, things may take a turn in TT for the better.

N JAMES Port-of-Spain

However, in bad times, as we are experiencing now, the citizenry becomes increasingly interested in the comments and advice of the gatekeepers of economic wisdom — economists.

But when thrust into the spotlight, economists reveal something about their discipline that most of us tend to otherwise forget — economists don’t always agree on economic policy.

Some citizens, who may be uneasy about the future of our economy, experience a heightening of this malady as a result of the lack of unanimity in the economics profession.

Furthermore, the squabbling among economists over policy alternatives can be downright disturbing. It often comes as a rude surprise to the person in the street, who, although paying due professional respect to economists, still sees the economist as a sort of mechanic.

When your car does not start, you expect that the diagnosis of the problem by one mechanic will be the same given by another mechanic.

The moral of this comparison is that the study of economics is much more than studying a repair manual, and economists are certainly not mechanics.

How is such disagreement possible? Is not economics called a science? Economists’ answers to the last question varies. Some point out that economists attempts to understand the social world from a particular standpoint.

They do this by adopting the values (objectivity, accuracy, open-mindedness, verifiability) and methods (observation, formulation and testing of hypothesis, acceptance or rejection of hypothesis) used in other fields of science. This part of economics, often termed “positive economics” by economists, is concerned with developing and using fundamental principles.

Because it deals with “what is” and not “what ought to be,” positive economics takes no particular ethical position and makes no value judgment. Controversies over positive statements in economics are settled by logical argument and an appeal to the facts.

Other economists contend that the claim that economics is a science is an exaggerated one for two reasons.

Firstly, unlike other scientists, economists are severely limited in their ability to set up laboratory experiments to replicate real-life conditions.

For economists, their laboratory is the real world and the real world is very complex.

After all, what happens in the real world is the result of human behaviour and human beings are not simple creatures.

Secondly, economists, like other social scientists, are called on to answer a question not asked of those in the pure sciences: What ought to be? Astronomers, for instance, are not asked what ought to be the gravitational relationships of our universe. That would be an absurd question.

Economists, on the other hand, cannot avoid, for example, making decisions about optimal output, optimal prices, optimal income distribution, and so on. Once economists step out of the secure world of facts and theory and enter into the realm of “what ought to be” or policy economics, controversy is bound to arise.

Disagreements over statements about what is “good” or “bad”and what is “right” or “wrong” are not easily settled.

More bluntly, as a study of human behaviour from a particular viewpoint, economics is never free of value judgments.

But to say that economists hold a confusing bunch of opinions is to miss a significant point. All opinions are not of equal value. Some are valuable or good whereas others are worthless or bad, and they have both present and future consequences.

As we confront the various problems that bedevil our economy and society and the many policy prescriptions or solutions proposed to deal with them, we must make choices. Some would produce the likely outcomes, others would not. We cannot evade these choices. That is how it is done in a reasoning and democratic society.

Bhagiratty Boodhan Avocat

This, he said, will not stem the current scourge.

“As Trinidad and Tobago battles a crime epidemic, the fact is none of the recently tabled pieces of legislation piloted by the Attorney General has been done with the aim of, or even possesses the potency to directly address the brutal acts of violence, murder and daily threats to the lives of our citizens.” He said this legislation is a public relations gimmick to mislead the population into thinking the Government is addressing the situation.

“All of the arguments put forward by the Government that they have been tabling legislation such as the removal of preliminary inquiries, jury-less trials and creation of a plea bargaining process to protect citizens can be debunked by the simple question ‘After these laws have been brought to Parliament, is our nation safer?’, which will be simply no.” The Pointe-a-Pierre MP said this country is in a tsunami of crime, never seen before, with no boundaries of geography or demographics.

“What is desired at this point is an all-out attack at crime from the basic, however Government has not displayed the political will, courage or fortitude to implement any direct measure which can allow the citizens comfort and peace of mind.” He added that the Government has failed to eliminate the causes of criminal activity. “This Government has neglected to deal with social issues which cause crime such as education, poverty eradication and mentoring for at-risk youth, they have failed to implement new training measures for the protective forces, there has been no sign of prison reform as championed before to deal with repeat offenders.

“It is clear that Government is bankrupt for ideas and strategies on how to protect our citizens as demonstrated by the prime minister’s response to identify one measure he had taken to address crime, in February, to which he answered ‘ensured the protective services were paid their emoluments’.” Lee said the Government is pursuing “feel good” legislation, not “feel safe” measures. “It is time for Government to critically examine the real causes of crime coupled with enacting serious proactive measures which can protect our citizens.”

He suggested the country also needs to look at investors from Germany, Canada and Europe as the printing sector presents an amazing opportunity to create more jobs during a time of declining gas and oil revenues. Lewis said the printing sector needs a major shake-up in order to take advantage of existing opportunities…

otherwise it will die.

He lamented that TT is not a country of printers as there are no clusters of specialists and not even an association of printers.

He said the industry was in better shape 30 years ago when a printing association was in operation, but this was long disbanded. Such an association needs to be brought back, Lewis said. Also speaking at the conference was Dr Markus Heering, managing director of the German Engineering Federation who said that printing is not likely to be threatened or made obsolete by the advent of social media and other modern forms of communication.

He said the conflict between printing and emerging forms of communication has been around for decades.

“When the radio was coming up, it was a new form of communication.

When television was coming up there was the cinema before and now it is the electronic media that influences all forms of communication,” Dr Heering said.

The conference was organised by Euro- ChamTT, the European Business Chamber in Trinidad and Tobago.

PrintPromotion is a company aimed at promoting the printing industry, the paper converting industry and other industrial segments related to printing technology. According to a statement from EuroChamTT, Print- Promotion is an integral part of the Association of German Manufacturers of Printing and Paper Equipment and Supplies within the German Engineering Federation and its aim is to provide training and support for the printing industry.

Entitled, ‘High-tech for the printing industry from German manufacturers – getting ready for the future’, the conference brought together representatives of different manufacturers of printing equipment to showcase their latest technological advancements, to a select group of local printers.

The First State of the Marine Environment (SOME) Report (2016) scientifically assesses the state of Trinidad and Tobago’s coastal and marine ecosystems, habitats and species, and their sustainability.

The report shows how these resources have been affected by a range of natural and human pressures such as land pollution and climate change.

Impacts include degradation of coastal and marine ecosystems such as coral reefs, mangrove swamps, seagrass beds and beaches, mainly by pollution. These negative impacts have made such ecosystems more vulnerable to the impact of climate change and other emerging threats such as invasive alien species like lionfish and sargassum blooms.

The study emphasises the safeguarding of TT’s fisheries resources as a key source of livelihood and nutrition for many marginalized groups and communities. The report includes a 2017 to 2020 Action Plan to mitigate such harm.

The thematic areas are: coastal development, ecosystem conservation and restoration, sustaining coastal livelihoods, vulnerability to climate change and pollution.

The report will be publicly launched in April. Given the current state of the marine and coastal environment, the report urges public and private stakeholders to arrest the impacts and to conserve the coastal and marine ecosystems.

Robinson-Regis also recently received the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB’s) Risk Resilient Coastal Zone Management Programme for TT and Design and Feasibility Study on Climate Resilience and Integrated Coastal Zone Management.

The IDB study showed which areas are likely to be heavily impacted by future climate change including agriculture through soil aridity; human health through the spread of water borne diseases and human settlements through increased flooding and the loss of natural coastal defenses.

The study also proposes some solutions focusing on the communities of Manzanilla, Guayaguayare, San Soucis, Otaheite and Speyside in Tobago.

The study’s objective is for the IDB to provide the Government with an economically and technically justifiable coastal management programme.