Relatives made the discovery at 1.30 pm in a bushy area (State lands) off Coqueran Avenue, Penal Rock Road, Penal, where George’s animals grazed.

George lived alone at Church Street, Penal, and was neither married nor had children. Police reported that at 4 am, he went to drop off a male relative at the Marabella Market to sell produce.

Hours later when the relative returned to Penal, George was nowhere to be seen.

As such, a search was carried out for George with the presumption that he may have gone to tend to his cattle.

On arrival, they discovered his body and contacted police. Sgts Victor and Corrie together with a party of officers from both Penal Police Station and the Homicide Investigations Bureau (Region III) visited the scene.

Bereaved relatives told Newsday that only a week ago, George and another man had a confrontation in which he had accused the man of allowing his dogs to bite his (George) cow. During that altercation, relatives said, the dog-owner threatened to kill George. Relative Samantha Ferdinand described George as a man who kept to himself. “He was normal.

He had no dealings with anyone and used to keep to himself,” Ferdinand said. An arrest is yet to be made and investigations are continuing.

He said the findings of the committee headed by former Police Service Commission (PSC) chairman Professor Ramesh Deosaran to conduct a manpower audit on the Police Service will determine how to strengthen any gaps in the Service with respect to issues such as staffing, training and deployment.

He said the terms and conditions of the committee are being determined. Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley previously indicated the committee will submit its report to Cabinet by March 31.

On a newspaper report that alleged an eight year old child was being used as a “sex slave”, Dillon said he was advised that the Children’s Authority had taken charge on that issue. In a statement, the Authority confirmed that initial reports were made to its hotline about the child, “but these did not identify any concerns of child sexual abuse.” The Authority added that once that concern was identified following receipt of a media report, its Emergency Response Team was dispatched to investigate the new allegations made to the media.

The Authority said it has found child protection concerns and is taking steps to immediately address those concerns and ensure the child’s safety.

Imbert, who is the line minister for CAL, explained the normal route is Piarco International Airport to John F Kennedy (JFK)International Airport in New York (outbound) and JFK to Piarco (inbound).

In response to another question, Imbert said Government is “examining its role” with respect to the disbursement of foreign exchange.

He said the Central Bank handles this responsibility in accordance with the Exchange Control Act.

However he explained that the Finance Minister is empowered under the Act to give certain directions to the Bank in the exercise of its powers under the Act.

In an interview with Newsday yesterday at Yankarran Avenue, Couva home, Yankarran’s widow, Ananda said after the passing of her husband she spoke with Gadsby- Dolly on the telephone and she assured her that she would visit and assist financially.

She said to date she has not received the promised assistance.

“The opposition MPs Dr Roodal Moonilal and Rudranath Indarsingh took care of a lot of the expenses but I still have outstanding bills from the funeral,” Ananda said, adding that prior to the passing of her husband she had to deal with huge medical bills. “This is why I could not meet the cost of such a huge funeral.” Ananda said.

Apart from dealing with the grief of losing her husband, she said she had to contend with disrespect from the National Carnival Commission (NCC) when they chose to honour him at the recent Dimanche Gras show.

“First of all I did not get an invitation but I saw my step-daughter at the function. While it is okay for her to represent her father, I was totally left out of the proceedings,” she said adding that the organisers mistakenly played a song by his brother Rakesh Yankarran instead of him (Anand) and showed a photo of Rakesh with Anand’s name on it.

She said while she is thankful for the gesture to honour her late husband, they got it totally mixed up. She is calling for an apology from the NCC over this matter. She said she has since forwarded a letter to NCC’s Chairman Kenny De Silva on this matter.

Ananda said since her husband’s passing she has been holding monthly prayer meetings at her home. Described as a cultural icon, Anand died on January 2 after suffering a heart attack.

He had been ailing for some time after suffering a stroke in 2008 in New York where he had migrated. Anand was the son of another singing legend Isaac Yankarran. He rose to fame with his song Nanda Baba more than two decades ago.

Ananda said she met her husband in 2000 when he migrated to New York. While in North America she said he received great success with his singing career as he was in demand at almost every local function. “We lived in a dream home and we had everything when he fell ill with a stroke.” However, he wanted to return to his homeland and live the rest of his life.

Despite his illness, he released several hits among them a traditional classical song, Jho Jho.

Ananda says she will be looking at ways in which to showcase the belongings and trophies of her late husband.

It will be great if the Ministry of Education can provide some comparative data for the last five years so we can ascertain the trend in a more scientific way.

Also, the ministry should break up this information by school type to show if there are any differences. I am quite sure that there will be differences.

That is, some types of schools will have a higher attendance percentage than others. And this is where the difference is between a good performing school and a not so good performing school. Also, there should be discussions with all the relevant stakeholders before a decision is made on the suggestion to give the entire Carnival week off and make up for it in the July/August vacation period.

On the face of it, this may seem a reasonable argument.

However, it does not solve the problem of the responsibility or lack thereof of students and parents to get the students to school on Ash Wednesday and the rest of this week.

Students and parents must know that after frolicking, they must get back to business, which is school in this case, right after.

In the real world of work which they are preparing themselves for, this is required, especially in the private sector.

Then, will it be fair for a school that has good attendance on Ash Wednesday and the rest of the Carnival week to suffer at the hands of those schools that have poor attendance by shifting the dates of the school term? Why should the teachers’ vacation period be adjusted because students do not go to school? The students must know the consequences of lapsed behaviour.

Why should rules be made to accommodate those who deviate from them rather than having everybody conform to them? This is intrinsically linked to the wider societal problem of deviance and crime that we are still grappling with.

Kevin Ram via emai

Ashton, as he prefers to be called, was fortunate enough to have served under every political leader of the PNM. His journey from the PNM Youth League in 1968 to serving as mayor and MP for Arima, among other portfolios, to his last position as general secretary gives him one year shy of 50 years service in the PNM.

Ashton has a unique ability to communicate with anyone and make them feel as though they knew him for years. He is an open book or what we call a “salt fish” in politics which simply means he can fit in anywhere.

I recall our visit to the China CELAC conference in Beijing as executive officials of the PNM in 2015. Ashton delivered the feature address at the conference entitled “Political Parties in the 21st Century.” This was an extremely proud moment for us as most of the political parties from the Caribbean admitted to using the PNM as a model for their politics across the region.

One of the many lessons Forde taught the younger PNM generation was that of “patience in politics.” He said “while politics can be a fascinating experience, you cannot force your time by only trying to measure your contributions to the party. Remain active and loyal to the party and the party will be loyal to you.” In addition to his people friendly approach to politics, Ashton remains a media master. He also enjoyed much success in his role as general secretary because he understood the media and was a prolific writer.

I continue to keep Ashton as my mentor in many regards. We would have shared some truly enjoyable experiences preparing press releases, letters, tributes and other general writing on behalf of the party as general secretary and public relations officer at the time.

His selfless decision to retire as general secretary in favour of succession planning while the party is in power demonstrates true love for his party. Ashton was never obsessed with title but performed in service of the PNM regardless of where he was called to serve and that example of selfless service is noteworthy to all who desire public office.

I want to wish Ashton Ford all the blessings life has to offer and congratulate him on living a life of exceptional service to party and country.

Ronald Huggins St Joseph

Many schools had their own Carnival jump-up prior to Carnival Monday and Tuesday. Therefore, every schoolchild must adopt the right attitude of going to school on Ash Wednesday.

If the school boards and all education stakeholders decide to compromise and keep students away from classes on Ash Wednesday, then they should make it mandatory that the students attend a church service instead.

Minister of Education Anthony Garcia is correct to question the behaviour of both parents and teachers. If this type of behaviour is allowed to continue, we would be fuelling more confused and misguided youth and making it more difficult for social workers.

We ought to be guiding the youth to make the sacrifice and to work hard and deligently to achieve their goals and aspirations. Every day in school is a day closer to mastery.

The Mighty Sparrow advised in his calypso Education, “Children go to school and learn well, otherwise you will catch real hell.” The road may seem difficult and rough but every citizen, especially the young people, has a purpose.

They must follow their destiny and always reach for the stars even though they may not be able touch them.

The sky is the limit and we have the divine permit.

Gregory Neptune Port-of-Spain

Lewd, vulgar and generally licentious behaviour is laid at the feet of mas players.

True up to a point, but not totally true.

Licentiousness is a learned behaviour, elements of which must be tackled from kindergarten straight into tertiary education.

Some say Carnival should be once every two years, some religions say preferably not at all. Carnival 2017 has proven that if you take away (gradually we hope) all government funding, the entrepreneurs will work on keeping the money flowing.

Every year from now on less taxpayers’ money should be given where the profits, including prize money, should come from gate receipts. This would enable the Government to supply every seat in the Grand Stand and the North Stand on a first come, first served basis for a blanket $50 for those who want to or need to sit.

I have no expertise in economics but it would be foolhardy to write off Carnival as non-profitable. We cannot stop the Carnival for important reasons. Too many of the fiscally challenged depend on the yearly Carnival season to keep them in bread and butter. In a Third World setting, vending is the poor man’s avenue/vehicle out of poverty and dependency on government hand-outs.

Importantly, the musical expression by use of the steel drums is part and parcel of our identity. It soothes the psyche. The celebration of Carnival can diffuse that ticking “dissatisfaction time bomb” that resides within each living person.

It is time to advertise TT as a tourist destination that deals specifically with musical expression.

The sand and the sea remain merely the icing on the cake of a tropical holiday.

Perhaps we need to invite the players of the orchestras of the world to see how our steelband music is unique to the world and can be part and parcel of their own musical fulfilment.

In the tropical moonlight, the steel drums of all the bands seemed to be reflections of the National Academy for the Performing Arts, silver and round and enduring.

Lynette Joseph Diego Martin

Carnival is one area where the inefficiencies were glaring. At the private sector Carnival fetes, for example, the stages for the artists are well lit with digital lighting and modern electronic backdrop while at the Dimanche Gras the wooden stage looked like a relic from the sixties.

The Panorama competition is another area where the inefficiencies were blatant. The bands continued to take a long time to get on and off the stage, the sound system was poor and the production did very little to complement the high quality of performances by the participants.

The Carnival package is crying out for efficient management. There is an immediate need for the following: * Portable toilets at strategic positions along the parade route.

* Modern rotating stages for Panorama and calypso to facilitate one band performing while the other is either setting up with state-of-the-art lighting and sound management.

* Improved facilities for patrons. All-inclusive packages can be made available for sectors of the viewing area.

* Live media coverage with competent commentary.

Carnival is only one area where the funds raised can be increased exponentially. Before one considers marketing the Carnival celebrations the package must be greatly improved. Planning must start immediately.

It’s time to part ways with the old way of managing our Carnival and bring on board our young people with the ability and vision to make our Carnival the Greatest Show on Earth.

Steve Alvarez via email

The ministry says this temporary traffic disruption has become necessary in order to carry out maintenance work on the bridge. Motorists are therefore advised to use alternative routes where possible; proceed with caution and observe all directional signs and barriers; comply with instructions from police officers on site to facilitate the safe and orderly flow of traffic; and be aware of heavy equipment entering and exiting the site.

Motorists are advised to reduce speed when approaching the work zone