Seemungal suffered injuries to his left eye and remained warded in stable condition at San Fernando General Hospital yesterday.

At the time of the alleged assault, the police were investigating a report of domestic abuse at Seemungal’s house on Ramlal Street, Penal.

Relatives yesterday feared the 36-year-old father of two may lose his sight.

“We are not leaving that so and I will be making an official report to the Police Complaints Authority.

“Look how he end up in hospital and right now he is experiencing a lot of pain in his head and chest. He may even lose sight in one eye,” his sister Seeta said yesterday.

She denied a police report that her brother attacked a female relative with a pitch fork.

She said her brother had an eating fork in his hand and never assaulted the woman.

Investigators said a woman made a report of domestic violence at the Penal station. The woman claimed Seemungal was intoxicated and had beaten her with a pitchfork. Two policemen and a policewoman visited the home.

They report Seemungal was handcuffed and while being escorted to the police vehicle he fell down an incline and sustained his injuries.

“Crime goes beyond party, religion, race and so on and just as how we are teaming up to clean up the country and it is being successful, I am urging the country to come together to solve the crime situation,” Hosein told Sunday Newsday yesterday.

“Everybody must come together,” he said after the launch of the seventh clean-up campaign in the Penal/Debe region.

Hundreds of volunteers, including school-children, and non-governmental organisations gathered at Francis Seepaul Recreation Ground, Debe for the Debe/Penal Regional Corporation leg of the campaign which is being undertaken in all 14 regional corporations. Hosein wants litter wardens and officers of the corporations public health and building departments to enforce the litter laws.

“Charge persons, enforce the law,” Hosein said observing that offenders are hardly ever prosecuted.

“They come to work and in that area little is done. These officers should become more active and once persons are charged people will become more conscious.

You must charge people for dumping in rivers and so on.

We can’t be doing this clean-up and after one week people start dumping again.” Penal/Debe Regional Corporation chairman David Sammy said the response has been overwhelming.

“They are all on board,” Sammy said adding the exercise continues today.

More than 40 small dump sites and watercourses are to be cleaned. Tyres dumped along the length of the M2 Ring Road from La Romaine to Debe were cleared yesterday.

The garbage was deposited at the Guapo and Claxton Bay landfills. Collections points were set up in Penal and Debe and Sammy hopes volunteers will continue to work with the corporation.

The clean-up campaign next goes to Siparia.

Planning and Development Minister Camille Robinson- Regis announced on Friday the disbursement covers the period 2017 to 2021.

According to a statement issued from her ministry, the disclosure was first made at the launch of the TT Country Strategy Paper (CSP) 2017- 2021 at the Magdalena Grand Hotel, Tobago on Thursday.

The ministry serves as the focal point between the Government and the CDB.

Ro bi n s on – R e g i s serves as the governor for TT on the board of governors of the CDB, while permanent secretary Joanne Deoraj is the director for TT.

The Cabinet held its weekly meeting at the hotel on Thursday and several government ministers held discussions with their counterparts in the Tobago House of Assembly THA about projects in Tobago.

These fell within areas such as finance, infrastructure, tourism and security.

The ministry said this CSP identifies and focuses on the needs of Tobago, as the methodologies used in many of the smaller borrowing member countries of the bank can be applied to Tobago. The CSP goes as far as to make a distinct allocation of resources to Tobago of US $67 million.

This sum is an increase of US$35.7 million over the previous grant between 2011-2014 under the People’s Partnership government.

The programme of assistance is designed to help achieve: improved quality of and access to education and training (US$146.2 million); strengthened social protection, (US$1 million); increased productivity, competitiveness and economic diversification (US$20.4 million); improved evidence-based development planning and institutional development (US$6.1 million); and strengthened environmental management supported by safe and resilient infrastructure (US$25 million).

On March 6, Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan and Nidco officials commissioned the lights on the South Trunk Road, La Romaine saying the long-delayed highway was expected to be restarted by May, with a completion date by 2020.

“The three packages to restart (are) out right now and we expect that by March 20, all the tenders will be in,” Sinanan had said. “It will take about a month to evaluate the tender documents and we should have the highway restarted by the end of April, beginning of May for the latest.

Once we start the highway, the intention is to take it straight down to Point Fortin. We give you the assurance that the highway will be completed.” However, in a media release on Friday, Rambachan said Sinanan had “opened a stretch of road which was completed 18 months ago” adding that the PNM administration, which won the 2015 general election some 18 months earlier, “has not built any portion of the highway since it came into office! “Yes, it took 18 months to install a traffic light and open a piece of the highway constructed 18 months ago. The PNM is trying to create an illusion that it is doing something with the highway,” Rambachan said, while the girders for the new bridge just before the Shore of Peace cremation site had “also been sitting there for 18 months and…the bridge was half completed 18 months ago.” “The failure of the PNM government to get the highway to Point Fortin going will result in cost escalation.

In addition, the economic cost and productivity losses continue to rise,” he said, adding the Mosquito Creek segment was “well on its way to completion.” “If the Minister of Works and the PNM want to do something of value on the highway they should in the short term proceed to complete two lanes of the project straight to Point Fortin from Grants Trace where the highway had reached. This will ease traffic on the old route through La Brea.

“In addition they should complete the section along the Mosquito Creek and up to St Mary’s South Oropouche to alleviate the traffic pile-up on a daily basis,” Rambachan said.

The world is one large mirror.

We constantly create each other and are created by each other.

There’s always a conflict brewing that makes the world churn and tumble, walk and dance, sing and shout, praise and denounce. It’s the turns and twists that spark our curiosity and make this an interesting existence. So why not add to the list, the calypsonian, known nationally for his ability to brew words into ideas that we feed off, that provide us with entertainment as much as they can be vexing.

The fact that Chalkdust’s winning calypso has sparked some opposition is probably a good sign, a sign that calypso still has some clout. But then the opposition seems to be coming from people from the calypso era so one wonders how much of the opposition is now outdated. As one friend remarked, “Trinidad is not African and Indian anymore. Is about time that people realize that.” But unfortunately, there will be sections that continue with the tired race arguments with which many of us with a younger generation mindset are bored. But then, boredom inspires change so it’s not all useless when one looks at it that way.

Politically however, opposition of this sort works to keep the veil across people’s eyes, ensuring votes and whatever other agendas the powerful are interested in. So while, in my home, there was laughter when my nine-year-old niece said, “He is right you know. That is an improper fraction grandma,” there were others taking offence at the Sat Maharaj reference.

And the Sat Maharaj reference is about Hindus as Hindus claim.

But that too is a vexing problem.

And it’s a vexing problem because it is not only one that the common man contends with, but an issue that scholars have also sought to investigate and write about. This conflation of the Hindu with Indian identity is not a new one so the opposition is not altogether ignorant.

I see this as the problem of India itself, an idea that we have inherited in no small degree from such media as films and music. For even when during Eid we hear the quaseedas and Islamic film songs, during the rest of the year, it’s Hindu devotional music and ideas of music and life that are portrayed through Hindu iconography – the god Krishna with his flute, Saraswati with her veena, Shiva with his damaru and so forth. And there are various other subtle ways in which this Hindu/Indian ideal has been created and persists.

Then comes the issue of calypso where people and objects become symbols of larger issues – the mad man, the shanty town and Sat. Given that one of the amplified voices on the child marriage issue has been Sat Maharaj’s it’s natural that one would use him as a symbol of everything that’s wrong with under- age marriage. Agreed, it’s not only marriage to older men that’s the issue. It’s a far deeper problem.

But, I thought, the sexual innuendos were natural for calypso. Many have enjoyed all the others so far, Jean and Dinah, Congo Man and in chutney, Radica, Dularie Gyul and a host of others. And now enters Chalky, after generations of calypsoes that we have danced and wined to, with one that deals with a topical issue with the wit and language of calypso, and voices rise to oppose.

Forgive me if I don’t see the issue in quite the same way, as do those who have taken offence at Chalky’s “attack” on the Hindu community.

Sat Maharaj seemed a natural choice given that his is an image whose meaning people would naturally grasp along with the sexual innuendoes characteristic of many calypsoes. I have read and listened to, with interest, some of the reasons proffered for the opposition to the calypso. Some viewed the Sat reference as a hidden way of calling the Indians/Hindus backward while others felt that the song misrepresented the Hindu community among other arguments. Perhaps it does, perhaps it doesn’t. Depends on which way you look.

The child marriage debate is a worldwide issue tied to such factors as poverty and the rights of women.

It’s one of the many things that’s wrong with societies, from the poverty that prompts parents to sell their children into labour and prostitution, to accusing women of attracting rapists by the way they dress. But discussion is always useful.

It’s now just a matter of taking the energy used to condemn and channeling it into effecting positive change.

Maybe long ago, just prior to and in the aftermath of Independence, we had the embryo of political development, even if we only had one genuine political party. But putting that aside for the moment, how do we, if indeed we can at all, develop genuine, and meaningful political discourse which can lead to governance which actually includes and embraces the views of whomever is in opposition at any given time? Our political agendas have deteriorated into Basdeo Panday’s shameless statement that “the role of the opposition is to oppose” and it has become clear that this level of national irresponsibility was embraced shamelessly by Rowley’s PNM between 2010 and 2015, and now by Kamla’s UNC . And strangely we, through our political parties taught this stultifying practice to the Americans.

The United States has a more relaxed political adversarial culture than what was imposed upon us by the British. Democrats or Republicans can vote against their party lines in Congress or Senate without being disciplined or expelled. They can vote either their conscience or the will of their constituents against what their party is supporting.

We, lacking any sense of true independence of thought or deed, stick with the British-imposed system that party members face discipline if they do not vote with the party line in Parliament.

In 2005 UNC member Chandresh Sharma was brought before the Privileges Committee for good cause and UNC members of that committee did the correct thing and voted to discipline Sharma.

This enraged UNC leader Panday and those members were suspended by him and served out their term as independents. That was the birth of the now dead Congress of the People party. But at least it was conceived and born standing for decent and correct behaviour.

When Barrack Obama was overwhelmingly elected president of the United States in 2008, the Republican party took a selfish and clearly racist position of voting against every piece of legislation presented by Obama—for eight long years.

That Obama was re-elected in 2012 meant nought to the Republicans.

That Obama took a country in economic crisis and turned it around despite the blockages they put in his way meant nothing to them. It was clear that they believed it was better the country grind to a halt than support any legislation sent by Obama.

When Patrick Manning called a suicidal early election in 2010, in order to stymie a vote of confidence that would have sunk him, he allowed another amalgam of parties (remember the NAR in 1986?) to take the government from the PNM. The CO P subsequently died in the embrace of the UNC . The PNM, now in opposition under Keith Rowley, whom Manning had attacked consistently, set out in Trumpian fashion to stymie every initiative of the UNC . But make no mistake here, when the PNM regained power in 2015, the UNC , now unfettered by any partners or alliances set out to oppose and derail any legislation which the PNM envisaged.

So just like America our existing political parties seek to oppose legislation just for the sake of it, or the spite of it, and our country, and we, the people suffer from their inability or refusal to govern. And make no mistake about it, this negative, stonewalling policy towards governance is not going to change in the foreseeable future, not in the United States, and certainly not here.

Politics is at a new low here and everywhere in the world.

And it is this realisation of failure all around, with only their dwindling sycophant sections able to give any support to either failed side, which creates the imperative for change. But change to what, and wrought by whom? We have no rising movements, indeed we have no movements, no groundswell of agitation or hope that could develop into a potential political party which could find or attract candidates to contest, far less win an election.

Yes, we have a new and noisy party—the People’s Empowerment Party, but that, for all its founder’s and only spokesperson’s Facebook barrages, comes across as soapbox shouting rather than an organisation being formed where other people have a voice to offer.

Dissent and disagreement are not encouraged there, so this organisation seems well in the mould of all other parties. So, from where can a challenge be built? CO P was a developing party when they were seduced into joining UNC in 2010.

But they are now a dead entity.

From where I sit, I see no current potential for a real party, not an amalgam of has-beens and hopefuls, to rise to our nation’s rescue.

This is not an enc o u r a g i n g scenario.

This position was not novel as I have heard many people make the same indictment on people they know little to nothing about. But I don’t blame her because we were raised to think that way. From nursery to tertiary we are taught that without a degree and a host of other useless qualifications, we’ll be doomed. Yea, well, our teachers have been lying to us. Many of us fail to understand that success is not determined by the size of the mansion with high walls, a trophy wife and a well-paying job where family time is limited. And actually, that’s a life I would prefer not to have because all three are very stressful to maintain.

Too many people are ready and willing to be condescending simply because others do not fall into their view of success, which generally involves a million academic qualifications. But, what exactly is success? Isn’t that supposed to be intrinsic and individual? Aren’t all of our goals the same in the end: happy life, happy family? Why can’t we appreciate the fact that wherever a person may be in life, that could be success for them, or even the start of their journey towards it? It irks me to see and hear the way the academically inclined segment of society shoves an academic education down everyone’s throat, as though vocational training is irrelevant.

Really and truly, happiness is the true key to our success; if there is passion for a job or even natural skill, education is inconsequential in many fields. Who are we to judge someone working at a fast food outlet or at a grocery when they are happy and contented with what they do? It is about time we start accepting the fact that education is not for everyone.

And maybe the next time you decide to skin up your noses at the men with no academic qualifications who are dangerously hanging on to garbage trucks to keep our country clean, remember that their contribution to society is probably more important than yours. And honestly, I have much more respect for them than any of the educated members sitting in our Parliament.

I was once unfortunate enough to be on a British Airways flight on one of those Airbus A380 planes a few years ago when a passenger became extremely ill, and ever since reading The Hot Zone by Richard Preston back in secondary school, I always freak out when someone starts coughing violently in close proximity to me. Nevertheless, as I am praying for this not to be the Ebola virus or some other deadly airborne contagion, one of the flight attendants made an announcement requesting the assistance of a doctor on board. One man seated on the upper-deck, apparently oblivious to the events unfolding below, identified himself as a doctor, and indeed he was; he had a PhD in Literature. With all that academic education success, the Englishman still made a fool of himself.

Now, even though I too am a “doctor” in addition to being an educator, I have no qualms in saying that an academic education is not the key to success, although I believe that at least a basic level of education is absolutely necessary for anyone to progress in life. One of my friends recently said that an education is the key to what society considers to be a good career, but not necessarily success by any measure. I completely agree.

Our society needs to move away from pushing academics down the throats of our youth, so that we do not continue to struggle with such an educated, yet unemployed population.

This year, hundreds more will walk across a stage at one of the too many tertiary institutions in our country; many of whom will find themselves underemployed or unemployable and unemployed for years to come. Others will decide to pursue postgraduate education because it is better than sitting at home doing nothing – sadly, it is that easy to obtain such a qualification in Trinidad and Tobago. Subsidised Master’s degrees for inexperienced people who are clearly not “masters” in their respective fields has to be the craziest thing in the world, but thanks to GATE , we now have a pool of over-qualified postgrads and no one sees why this aspect of the programme must be abolished.

At the end of the day, if we don’t start appreciating the role that every individual has to play in our society, we’ll s imp l y r ema i n a thirdw o r l d dump of educated idiots.

j a – mille85@ msn.com

It’s debatable if arguing ever does any good when shopping, in fact, if it descends to that level you have probably already passed the stage of appealing to someone’s better nature, and they are unlikely to cave in just because you are angry.

Online the question doesn’t arise. You can still get annoyed, but questioning a web page’s parentage isn’t going to get you anywhere.

Before the confrontational stage is reached, what the online experience often offers is the concept of FAQs – frequently asked questions. Many of us, though, rarely find what we’re looking for in these lists. They are a non-interactive version of the long-distance help-desks manned by people who don’t understand your problem because they can’t picture who and where you are.

Thus, when based in the UK I phoned a newspaper in the British Virgin Islands to book an advert for an international recruitment firm, and when it came to payment arrangements, I was invited to “swing by on the way home”.

Similarly, being based in the Caribbean but still having a UK bank account, one can be blithely invited to pick up a new card reader from the branch where the account was opened – once one has been interrogated as to how the old one came to be lost in the first place.

Seeing the caller’s life in her own context, the young woman providing the “customer interface” can’t imagine how anyone can lose such an item, which she sees or refers to every day of her working life but to you is a rarely used inconvenience. How can it go missing between where she keeps hers (in the little white chest of drawers with the gold, scrolly handles in her bedroom) and the settee in the lounge where everyone obviously conducts such business while watching TV and eating Doritos? Little does she know that some people have repeatedly packed and unpacked theirs along with the biros, earphones, old keys and boxes of staples that form part of their “office”, and hauled the suitcase containing that particular plastic bag through customs, in and out of taxis and up endless flights of stairs in whichever building in whichever location is to be home for what might be only a matter of months.

This line of thought leads to the inherently happy, peaceful activity of buying flowers. When you don’t know a good florist who does deliveries and is reliable, it’s tempting to just hit Google and allow the possibilities to be paraded before you.

This wasn’t a Valentine’s Day thing; I wanted to say thank you to two sisters who had helped me out, and although admittedly I don’t know them particularly well, there is never any sign or even talk of a man in their lives.

Call me old-fashioned (or sexist, or patronizing if you’re that way inclined), but I think most women like to be given flowers from time to time. In fact once, many years ago, I found myself flying into a florist’s on no specific occasion, just because a new female friend had told me no one had ever – not once in all her 30-something years – given her that little acknowledgement of her femininity.

So I thought it would be nice for the sisters to receive a floral tribute from a grateful friend.

Google found me someone who would do that for a minimum of US$89, rising well into three figures if I wanted something less basic.

I scoffed and slammed the door on their page. Then I saw a company offering the same sort of thing for US$45, which is still quite a lot in my humble opinion, but at least I wouldn’t be contributing to these people’s retirement fund quite so foolishly.

Entering the details, I progressed to the final page, where they casually dropped in the delivery fee of US$35. Where were these people based, I wondered.

Did they service their Caribbean customers by dispatching a Rolls Royce from a gated community by the Thames? Another metaphorical door slammed, I sought advice from local friends and came up with someone who they said would do a good job, including delivery, for a couple of hundred local smackers.

I called him and explained a situation that was simple enough but had come to seem complicated.

Just for extra insurance, I mentioned the name of the people who had recommended him.

Nice guy, same day service and he came to my place to collect the cash.

It feels like a discovery that should be shared w i t h friends.

I’ve got a great idea : don’t it online!

The practice of eating fish for Lent is rooted in one of the pillars of Lent, namely, almsgiving.

Fish became a staple on the Lenten menu because, historically, fish was cheaper than other types of meat. The monetary savings made from abstaining from more expensive meats, such as beef and lamb, were then given as alms to the poor.

To fall prey to Lenten price gouging will be, therefore, to stray far from the very spirit of Lenten almsgiving. All things being equal, it stands to reason that when one buys fish at an exorbitant price it reduces one’s ability to give alms to the poor.

Christian consumers, or any consumer for that matter, should not entertain the unconscionable thought of paying $100 per pound for fish for Lent. Lent does not demand that we eat fish.

What the Lenten season asks of us is that we make personal sacrifices for the good of others.

The phenomenon of high-priced fish at Lent is related to more than the law of supply and demand.

The hike is due more to the phenomenon of price gouging that depleted fish stocks in the Gulf of Paria, or fish shortages due to increased consumption. Price gouging is a moral issue: it is the immoral act of suppliers demanding higher prices for goods when they believe that consumers are desperate for the purchase of a particular good.

This is the kind of extortion that sometimes takes place in the aftermath of a hurricane when there is urgent need for water, medicine and roofing material. In the local context, the practice takes place as well at our nation’s hospitals when unscrupulous characters sell a pint of blood for as much as $1,500.

Price gouging, creates perceived and artificial shortages in times of human desperation. It is absolutely wrong to take advantage of people’s vulnerability and desperation. It is an immoral use of commerce, an immoral use of the market.

Commerce as an institution is meant to sustain social life, not undermine it. Commerce ought to be humane, not inhuman.

The Catholic Church is clear that commerce and markets must be moral. A moral market says no to price gouging. A moral market says not all goods demanded should be supplied, and not all goods supplied should be demanded.

Clearly, no one must pay for blood in order to save a life. Civil society must step in and put blood-sellers out of business by donating blood.

Clearly, we should not buy fish at $60, $70 or $100 per pound. Save money by purchasing a cheaper meat and give the savings to the poor.

It has become noticeable that several cases involving well-known, high-profile criminals are repeatedly being postponed. Some take several months before a verdict is reached.

On the other hand, a crime of similar nature by the “small man” can be heard and punishment administered within days of the offence without any postponement.

These long delays should be investigated as usually in the end the defendant ends up as the victor, and despite having committed a serious offence walks free or is awarded compensation etc.

GA MARQUES via email