It is clear given the horrid, regular reports in the news, all of which highlight the plight of youth, that the young demographic is in crisis without any “saving grace” from those in authority.

The prolonged silence of the Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs on youth issues clearly demonstrates that not only has he neglected this aspect of his portfolio but his sustained inactivity has led to a breakdown, if not total destruction, of the theme we once so proudly boasted, “A place, a plan and purpose for all youth.” The minister must be reminded that young people are not only the future of our country but that effective engagement of our dynamic youth force which allows for the contribution or creation of youth as equal partners in national decision making will almost certainly allow for the cemented, sustainable, national development.

The minister therefore has to break his silence and laissez-faire attitude towards youth development and begin examining, as well as realigning, if not redeveloping, a proper equitable framework that addresses the critical issues affecting young people.

It is imperative that his ministry works to address the crime and abuse affecting the youth while developing strategies to reduce youth unemployment and underemployment.

These are not Herculean tasks given the structures would have been put in place before with the initial stages of a TT youth commission being undertaken in 2014, which the nation is yet to be updated on since the change in administration in 2015.

Due to his pivotal base, the minister is in a position to take this nation forward. But the only way he can do this is by proper consultation with all youth stakeholders.

Nicholas Morris via email

This is clearly the case with murder trials as the statistics show the number of guilty verdicts is about one in ten or ten percent of cases.

This also means that nine in ten accused are found not guilty and are out on the streets again.

This does not mean they are innocent but simply that their wellpaid lawyers were able to beat the system, either by way of a technicality or a compassionate juror.

I have been called to jury service twice and was part of a jury once where I was able to witness first-hand the shortcomings of the system and personal biases of fellow jurors, resulting in hung juries and acquittals.

In my opinion, the present approach to jurisprudence in TT is in serious need of a major overhaul and replacing the jury system with judges can only help to improve the system of justice for all the people in this country.

Having said that, I would like to temper my support for the abolition of juries conditional on judges working hard to reduce the perception that they are too refined and pretentious and not in touch with the man-in-thestreet issues. They can start by abolishing those ridiculous wigs they sometimes wear.

C Rodriguez Petit Valley

The Virgin Mary is revered by Catholics. The New Testament states she was a young Jewish girl around the age of 12 or 13 years.

Jewish girls were not allowed at temple service after puberty.

They had to be married by the time of menstruation and this applied to Mary.

St Luke mentions that she was the handmaiden of God, and she was a very pious girl. She was devoted to God. Her life was simply for worshipping and serving God.

She was also concerned about her chastity, according to St Luke.

She was a young girl conscious of her obligations. She obeyed the commands of God and put her full trust in Him.

She was also concerned for her morals and ethical behaviour. She was conscious of her spiritual experience.

At the age of 12 or 14, Mary gave birth to Jesus. The Holy Quran also mention the Virgin Mary (Chapter 19, Verses 16-40).

May God bless her and grant her a place among the righteous.

AHAMAD KYAYYAM Curepe

Shandilya made reference to a statement attributed to Tourism Minister Shamfa Cudjoe on the need for a regulatory authority to set basic standards for all tourism operators.

I am of the view that Shandilya’s position that the authority already existed within the TDC is an erroneous one.

A regulatory authority, a supervisory body, is highly unlikely to have subsisted within the TDC or any of its predecessor companies.

A regulatory authority is an independent body created by statute, giving it powers, including disciplinary sanctions, to oversee an industry and its players.

Shandilya may have been confused as to the difference between TDC’s powers over quality assurance standards — facilitating inspections and licensing of tourism facilities and certification of industry players — and a regulatory authority’s statutory role and powers.

Shandilya is also quoted as saying that “an (A)ct and policy for the TDC to operate effectively had not been established, so the TDC became dysfunctional.” It is unlikely that a TDC could exist in recent times without references to its establishment/ registration under the Companies Act 35 of 1995 and regulations, and the Tourism Development Act, Chapter 87:22 (and regulations), which include an order of the minister declaring any tourism project to be an approved tourism project.

Speculatively, Shandilya believes “there is a difference between marketing tourism products for the island versus the brand destination of Trinidad and Tobago so one has to be clear in terms of the Act, policy and direction before they (authorities) go diving into another situation where the government agencies will be dysfunctional once more.” In general, an Act or policy to which it relates should bear no relationship to a tourism development company’s strategic goals and direction, namely, how the islands, their tourism products and services are rationalised, branded and marketed.

Appointments to a directorship of non-executive board members are a governance issue. Based on its superior skills in the relevant industry, a board may give advice on policy direction to its managing director, or other competent authority/authorities, but is not expected to set or direct strategic goals, which is a senior executive management function, except in circumstances where the company is failing for some reason.

Interference by board members sometimes happens in cases of ignorance, undeclared conflicts of interests, acting in bad faith or where it runs afoul acting outside powers conferred on it.

Interference can be manipulated to occur when an incompetent senior executive management team is appointed to positions, effecting a chain reaction of bad decision- making, the result of which may be viewed as profitable for some.

Inevitably, the consequence of interference or acting in bad faith is a failure of a duty to promote the success of an enterprise. In my view, interference without due cause and acting in bad faith are corrupt acts.

Some in the business do not clearly understand the nature of government, policy and roles in promoting efficient State enterprises.

An example of a policy initiative would be to facilitate the efficacy of the tourism industry by creating a tourism regulatory authority to perform an absent critical function, consequent to necessary approvals, funding and infrastructure.

If, for any reason, a stated policy initiative becomes skewed to the extent that the stated policy cannot reasonably be successfully implemented because appointed board members failed in their governance (ethical, statutory and accounting) obligations, both to the enterprise and to the shareholder, the seeds of dysfunctionality will continue to exist.

Kathleen Pinder via email

Maybe the people in charge at the Diego Martin Regional Corporation don’t walk on these pavements but surely once in a while they could roll down their car windows and pay attention to the surroundings they are responsible for.

Gerard Duval

Sgt Roger Worrell said the end result is that these girls are now being murdered.

Worrell was addressing students of the Palo Seco Secondary School during a youth seminar hosted at the school’s compound.

The seminar was presented by members of the Hindu Youth Association and the school’s staff.

Topics discussed included physical and online safety, gang involvement and teenage pregnancy. Worrell, who has 25 years service, said many young women are becoming sexually active at a very early age and the relationships, many times, become abusive. This abuse, he said, leads to the their death. He urged the girls to speak up and tell a trusted adult if they are being harassed by a male at any time.

The senior police officer told the students that there are laws to protect them from sexual predators.

Worrell said that a person could be charged with sexual grooming if he texts or engages in telephone conversations with a sexual content with any minor.

He said criminals are now not only staying at one location, but are migrating to different areas.

“You are at risk no matter which part of the country you are in.” Health educator and registered nurse at the Family Planning Association, Anjanie Chotalal, informed students of the risks and dangers of teenage pregnancy.

“As a teenager your body is not ready to carry a baby,” Chotalal said.

“You could end up with serious complications all because your body is not prepared right now.” She urged students to practice abstinence.

“When you are sexually active you are also prone to sexually transmitted diseases,” she said.

The seminar also featured an interactive segment where the students were allowed to ask questions and act out different scenarios.

Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA) president Gregory Aboud said on Thursday that several Port-of-Spain business owners wrote letters to the city corporation threatening legal action.

SBA president Daphne Bartlett told Newsday yesterday she fully endorses the move.

“We have been saying for years now that we must uphold the law,” Bartlett said.

“That is why we think everything is spiralling down at this time because what is illegal we are trying to uphold as legal and that should not obtain, absolutely not.” Bartlett said many of the vendors on High Street, San Fernando are actually “outsiders” who are allowed to sell their products illegally. But instead of taking action against them, she said police often target legitimate business owners. “When they (police) want to be very vindictive, when they know it is 5 o’clock and business people are closing up and they need to transfer things to their car and take out things and whatever, that is the time they come out and give you tickets.”

He urged that property tax be based not on the rental value as proposed by the Government but on the capital value, the latter which he said is likely to be a more transparent figure for which evidence will exist such as in the form of a title deed. By contrast he said Trinidad has a tradition of secrecy surrounding the level of rents that are actually paid, as he recalled that sometimes even property- owners are reluctant to reveal their rents even to the valuators of their properties.

Mulling how conflicts would be resolved between contrasting valuations done by the State and by the individual property-owner, he said, “For the tax to be acceptable, you must have a proper appeal process.” He said that valuations of commercial properties should be based on their income earning level, but residential properties on their capital value, especially as homeowners may argue that they have no intention to rent therefore scotching the notion of a rental-value. Regarding commercial properties, he asked audience members if they’d prefer a property that can be rented for $10,000 per month in either the city or the country? When most people replied “city” he suggested the urban should therefore attract a higher property tax, reasoning, “So doesn’t that suggest the urban is worth more? Yet still both properties will pay the same tax.” He named countries with a property tax based on rental value as being the United Kingdom, but those with a capital basis being Denmark, US, Canada, St Lucia, Australia and Jamaica. The key he said is to take account of each countries circumstances, including market conditions and the system of property registration.

Questions from the audience usually dwelt on a mix of usages and/ or occupiers.

Asked what tax is liable if the people live upstairs and rent out downstairs to a business, Farrell said the tax would be computed asa combination of respectively residential and commercial. Residential is calculated at three percent of rentable value, and commercial is based on five percent of rentable value. For someone renting out an apartment complex to tenants, he reckoned the tax rate would be charged as commercial (as would be the case of a business park). While a landlord is responsible for paying the tax, past experience would suggest he’d try to pass on some off such an increase to his tenants. A building owner living on leased land – such as common in Woodbrook – will himself foot the tax, said Farrell.

KPMG director of tax, Gillian Wolffe-O’Neil earlier took participants through the basics of the property tax.

Moritz, a poultry science and poultry extension specialist at the West Virginia University, made the comments in an interview with journalists following a Poultry Nutrition and Management Seminar held at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) ECIAF Campus at Centeno.

During the seminar he described his work at West Virginia University where he develops poultry feed that enhance the growth of the birds. A statement from UTT said the seminar was designed to provide information on some of the current best practices that can be employed in the poultry sector, in order to ensure sustainability and efficiencies within the industry. It was attended by ECIAF students working in the area of poultry and agri-business development.

Moritz told participants that the climate in West Virginia is cool to cold unlike this country where the temperatures are higher and poultry farmers are probably more concerned with keeping their birds cool.

He said rearing broilers is probably easier in West Virginia because of that cool climate but if the focus remains on the small broiler in Trinidad and Tobago, the bird that is reared for 38-40 days, which is the current practice this is very intelligent because that bird is less susceptible to disease and health issues due to heat stress. He said his meetings with the commercial feed mill and the poultry producers went very well, adding that those groups were very interested in food security for the country and maintaining a very strong industry and socio- economic development.

It is Demars’ first time in Trinidad and she has been meeting her relatives here and sharing stories about their ancestors.

Speaking to Newsday yesterday at an event in Long Circular Mall, organised by Jason Fraser, head of TT Sambo and Combat Sports Federation, De Mars said she has been on the phone with Rousey telling her about this country and is keen for her famous daughter to see Trinidad and meet her family here.

De Mars, the first American to win a World judo gold medal in 1984, said her family is currently in negotiations with a company seeking to do a reality show and said she will be pushing for filming to be done in the scenic sister isle of Tobago where she visited last week.

“We had been talking about a reality show in our family owned business and I said Tobago will be the perfect place.

All the girls want to come to Trinidad because we have been talking about it for years…

We’ve been working on the reality show for a while and been in negotiations. We haven’t signed with the company, we’ve had a couple offers and hadn’t found the fit. But when I was in Tobago it just seemed this would be the perfect way to get our team down here and film here because I think it would be interesting. Our team is very hardcore and triple ‘A’ personality working 80 to 90 hours a week and I think it would be really good TV,” she said.

Rousey, who became a household name with her stunning performances in the octagon, is still viewed as one of the biggest MMA stars despite two losses in her last fights. The 30 year old’s stardom has transitioned into acting with appearances in the multi-million dollar franchise, Fast and Furious 7, and the action-packed movie The Expendables 3.

Rousey’s impressive grappling skills and 12 straight victories from 2011 onward saw pundits wonder whether Rousey could even be successful fighting men as she seemed unbeatable against her same gender.

But a vicious knockout to Holly Holm on November 15, 2015 which saw Rousey medically suspended left the former champ’s pride badly wounded and she even contemplated suicide. Her mom yesterday discussed the role she played in helping Ronda battle the depression of losing her first fight and seeing her unbeaten record gone. “I think anybody who is a top athlete, there is a moment right after (a loss) where your world caves in. One thing what Ronda has going for her is that she has a really tight family that loves her. She comes home and I have four grandchildren who just climb over her and you realise these are the things that matter.” She continued: “You know it’s funny, when she was competing in judo as a little kid she used to go to the Junior Nationals, I would tell her: ‘You know Ronda if you don’t win I’ll still love you, just not as much.’ Then one day at age 14 she said to me ‘Mom you know what you said really hurts my feelings’ and I was shocked because I was joking.

But I tell her now ‘I love you just as much.’” De Mars yesterday said she believes her daughter’s legacy is cemented as a pioneer for women in combat sports and sports in general. “It is amazing and I always tell my kids that it’s better to be the first than the best. Someone could always come along that is better than you but they could never be more first than you. I think it’s great. Sports are wonderful but I coach kids in South Los Angeles (I tell them) I have a phD and a gold medal and one of them enables us to live at the beach in Santa Monica and it’s not the gold medal. For Ronda, she’s so much more than that (MMA), she’s super good at Math and works with our (software) company testing the games so I think for every kid, it’s important to keep in mind that you’re more than what you won this week.” De Mars, who has four daughters includng 18 year old Julia who is vacationing with her, said ideally she would not like none of her children come in harm’s way and would not recommend MMA but said they are so strong-minded that they will pursue whatever career they wish to. Fraser, commenting on hosting Rousey’s mother in Trinidad, said talks are underway for the reality show and he is planning an MMA event as well to possibly mark her presence here.

“We have begun talking about the possibility of having a reality show done and the family (here). For that to happen all the daughters have to be in Trinidad and Tobago. As long as it materialises they’re gonna be here and we’re gonna plan an event around that and have Ronda Rousey here as our guest.”