Messages

31

General Discussion / Re: Thread dealing with LGBTQIA issues

« on: October 02, 2015, 02:18:08 PM »

Of all the problems in Jamaica, the civil rights of the LGBT community should be the least of their worries.

32

Football / Re: Want to revive Warrior Nation.

« on: October 02, 2015, 02:15:50 PM »

What happened to the old Warrior Nation? I recall joining in 2006, paying the dues (think it was $30 usd or so) but never receiving a membership package/shirt.

33

General Discussion / Re: Dr Keith Rowley Thread.

« on: September 28, 2015, 10:15:34 AM »

Fella no one is comfortable in T&T right now with the murder rate, just ask Dana Seetahal‘s family, so who gives two hoots about you being comfortable?

You are only posting lame excuses as far as I am concerned and seem happy for the current murder crisis in T&T to continue.

As I said crisis times call for drastic measures and if my plan will save lives which I am quite confident it will then there are no acceptable excuses not to implement it.

Lets prayer that our current Minister of National Security is more of my mindset than of yours or there will continue to be 400 plus murders per year and it is likely to get even worse.

If something quite similar to what I am suggesting is not done very soon then all of us will have a friend or relative who is murdered in T&T relatively soon.

Your narrative that, because I am not in favour of extra-judicial powers or converting us into a Police state, I am somehow happy with the murder rate is hyperbole, ridiculous, and insulting. I'm done, won't bother engaging in a post with you again.

34

General Discussion / Re: Govt to review Invaders Bay project

« on: September 28, 2015, 08:13:55 AM »

Also besides the mangrove, it's important to note that Invader's Bay is so named because this is where the British first landed on Trinidad during the invasion of 1797 when they defeated the Spanish. So if the effort is to preserve T&T's history with the next phase of development, this might be a good place to capture some of our colonial history as well. Didn't see that mentioned in any of the plans.

35

General Discussion / Re: Govt to review Invaders Bay project

« on: September 28, 2015, 08:11:54 AM »

Incredibly confusing to follow this story over the years. Invader's bay was originally a project that was supposed to be used to extend the POS Port and build a cruise ship complex.  I can't find the story, but there were also talks about preserving the mangrove swamp, and part of any development was also supposed to rebuild / extend the mangroves to compensate. After the land was reclaimed, it was rezoned for entertainment / shopping / tourism.

The below is a story from 2014 where it was suggested that Chin was sold a good chunk of the land below market value. Also, if I recall correctly, when there were talking about building the park between Moviewtowne and the Marriot, there was a squabble between Chin and UDECOTT over who had rights to develop that land.

This whole deal wasn't transparent from the first day.

Businessman Derek Chin was given a $75 million discount on his intended purchase of prime property at Invaders Bay, Port-of-Spain. This discrepancy is one of the main reasons why the Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) is renewing its call for more transparency in the way the land development deal was finalised.

The JCC is also calling for the multi-billion dollar project to be halted until the secret Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Planning and Chin is made public.

According to an October 2014 exchange between the ministry and the JCC, the ten-acre property was valuated at $205 million by the Ministry of Finance’s Valuation Division. The entire 70-acre property was valuated at $1.28 billion undeveloped and at $1.8 after government infrastructure and utilities are included.

But in an interview with the T&T Guardian on the project recently Chin, the owner of the MovieTowne franchise, said he was asked to pay a mere $130 million for the same ten-acre property.

There is no information available on how, why or when Chin was able to secure such a deal on the prime real estate, or if that multi-million dollar discount was part of the agreed concessions when the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with Minister of Planning Dr Bhoe Tewarie in 2014.

Tewarie has never made the MoU public despite constant requests by the JCC. The JCC sued the Ministry of Planning under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the court ordered the information be made public but the ministry has since appealed that decision. The final determination is still pending.

In 2014 JCC head Afra Raymond asked the Ministry of Planning whether Chin’s company,  Dachin Company Ltd, and the other selected company, Invaders Bay Marina Group, had received any concessions on the deal but the ministry stated in a letter that Chin had not received “any concessions of any kind.”

“Investments generally enjoy concessions established by the law in Trinidad and Tobago and some are specific to industries such as tourism. However, no new or additional concessions of any kind have been negotiated,” the letter said then. Any such concessions would have been included in the private MoU signed between Tewarie and Chin. Contradictory to normal industry practice, that MoU was kept confidential between the two and was never revealed to the public despite the JCC’s legal attempts to have it published.

In an email exchange with Tewarie on Friday, the T&T Guardian also asked whether concessions on the property were included in the confidential MoU. “The MoU’s were negotiated by PriceWaterhouseCoopers on behalf of the ministry. Ministerial oversight was in the hands of my PS (permanent secretary) who kept me updated. They contain no significant tax and maritime concessions,” Tewarie said then.

When pressed about the Government investment in this billion-dollar venture, Tewarie said that no funds had been expended on the project “so far.” “The MoUs do, however, identify State responsibility for provision of infrastructure to open up access to the lands and private developers responsibility for development of lands leased to them at market rates,” he said.

When asked to provide details on the legal opinion that his ministry received after the JCC sought the MoU through the FOIA, Tewarie said he gave all the information that the JCC sought, except for the legal opinion. “But Senior Counsel, via the AG, advised that Government should not surrender the principle that a lawyer’s advice to the State is privileged since that would open the door to release on demand of every legal advice given to Government,” Tewarie said.

He said the matter of the MoUs not being publicly released should be “easily understood in a context in which the actual leases for the land still remain to be executed by Udecott, which is the land owner.” 

“Thus the matter remains delicate and requires action,” he said. According to the response by the ministry to the JCC, Chin’s company was expected to produce a commercial and residential complex, a boutique hotel, a cultural focus area and three main event entertainment areas, comprising a museum, a bowling alley and movie theatres.

The other private developer, Invaders Bay Marina Group, was responsible for a hotel, a commercial office, a cruise ship complex, gas station, residential development, light industrial development and a marina. The Urban Development Company of T&T’s (Udecott) website stakes its claim on 24 hectares (59 acres) of the reclaimed land at Invaders Bay for further office, commercial and retail space, recreational parks, hotel accommodation and conferencing facilities, residences, a marina and a ferry terminal.

Udecott’s chair Jearlean John has refused to comment on the Chin portion of the land deal.

MORE INFO

On Sunday the T&T Guardian reported that Chin had abandoned the multi-billion dollar deal, prefering to walk away from the millions he had already invested rather than wait on the deed for the lands. Chin later refuted that statement, saying that he was still interested in the property and the development. The T&T Guardian was informed, however, that Chin’s investors have all disbursed, investing money in a similar project in Guyana instead.

36

General Discussion / Re: Dr Keith Rowley Thread.

« on: September 28, 2015, 07:37:44 AM »

Nope!!

Kamla and her cabal government were not serious about catching the BIG fish as they were probably financers of her party. Their dismantling of SAUTT as soon as they came into power in  2010 with nothing to replace it clearly signals that the UNC government were trying to keep the folks who deal with importing weapons and drugs into T&T happy.

I am not advocating for an SoE but just for the removal of all the illegal guns and ammunition currently in the hands of criminal elements and on the streets of T&T that came into the country over the last 5 years.

Locking up and trying to criminalize INNOCENT Black youths like the UNC/PP government did is not part of my solution and what I outlined WILL save lives and lead to the murder toll for the year at least being halved.

In addition once we take out the BIG Fish (which the UNC had no intension of doing to its financers) serious crime and murders will fall drastically because there will be no BIG fish to put new imported weapons back in the hands of the criminal elements and gangs once all the illegal weapons are cleared from the streets.

The only persons who will be against this plan are those who have an interest in seeing serious crime and the high murder rate in T&T continue as it currently is and it will inevitably get worse if we don't do something drastic now.

Again the SoE plan did not work with the UNC because they had no intension of making it work by catching the BIG fish who might have been some of their financers.

What is good about my plan is that the sweep after the gun amnesty will be of all areas of T&T and not just the so called "hot spots" and poorer areas so there will be no discrimination or perceived discrimination taking place during the illegal weapons eradication operation.

Do you know who finances the PNM? Neither the PNM nor UNC disclose who their financiers are, but it has been suggested that both parties have a large portion of the same financiers who alternate giving money between the two parties every few years. I don't know how you can post on this forum with certainty that this government will be different from the past, or suggest that the UNC alone has been guilty of never actually prosecuting white collar crime or addressing the folks at the top of the drugs/gun trade. Both the PNM and UNC have been dodging disclosing how they finance their campaigns since inception.

I think your idea of a gun sweep is well intentioned but ill-conceived. I agree we need something drastic, but giving more powers to the Police in their present state is dangerous. Frankly before we look at giving Police power to enter people's home without warrants, we figure out why police keep losing evidence (often guns) or losing their own guns supposedly locked up in police stations. There have also been rumours for decades (not just the last 5 years) that several police officers rent their issued guns out to the public.

I am not comfortable advocating for more power for the police until it has been completely reformed from the ground up.

37

General Discussion / Re: Dr Keith Rowley Thread.

« on: September 27, 2015, 09:36:53 PM »

So Breds, I don't want to criticize you for you beliefs. But the amount of unsolved murders in TT don't prick your consciousness. 90% of the murders are Afro TT killing one another. That don't bother you. You see it as the norm. Breds I from EDR. As rough as it was growing up there 3 decades ago, it was not a violent place with vicious people as there is now. I will not accept that as the norm. Never. If they have to put the army up for the next 5 years. Then .... By any means necessary.

When did I say it was normal, or it didn't bother me? I never said that. I specifically responded to the idea of house to house searches across the country, and another SOE.

Crime in T&T is at an epedemic level, especially the murder rate in depressed areas. However, simply giving emergency powers to the police/army is a flawed idea. The police should not need emergency powers to investigate murders. We have a ridiculous solve rate for homicides (it's less than 20%), and an across the board low prosecution rate for all crimes. This isn't due to police not being to go into people's homes and take guns away, that's a breakdown in the investigative abilities of the police, witness tampering, faith in the police service by the public, the court system, and other factors. The state of emergency does not fix that.

The anti-gang legislation which still doesn't have a successful prosecution was by all accounts vaguely written and largely enforceable. The last SOE that picked up hundreds of "gang members" resulted in 0 convinctions under that act because the law was/is flawed. Another SOE ain't gonna fix the legislation.

On the topic of guns and the porous border, it has been suggested that the majority of the drug trade (and infiltration of guns) come through legal ports. By all means we need to better equip the coast guard, but we need to address the legal ports (POS, Point Lisas, Chaguaramas, etc.). The guns from the 1990 coup came through the ports. When that man Mark Small was arrested for trying to get guns in Florida a few years back, he was planning to ship them in a container. You don't need a SOE to overhaul and flush the port systems.

Also, with regards to the fact that it's mostly black youths killing black youths, we definitely need a new approach on dealing with poverty and the social issues that cause these kids to join gangs and turn away from society. We have generations of afro-Trinis that now are going through this cycle of violence, but a SOE isn't going to be the tool to trying to alleviate poverty and fix some of the social issues there.

Lastly, soldiers aren't trained for policing civilians. They're largely trained to shoot and kill, and humanitarian work. Our new national security minister said that himself during a PNM town hall. Soldiers, as equipped as they are, aren't the people trained to be searching houses and collecting evidence that can actually be prosecuted in a court of law. That's not their role, that's the police's job. We need to fix the police service from the ground up, not give up all our civil rights and hope for a hail mary pass.

38

General Discussion / Re: Dr Keith Rowley Thread.

« on: September 27, 2015, 06:17:10 PM »

Thereafter the army should do a systematic house by house sweep of the country for illegal guns and ammunition with no households being spared; Any illegal weapons should be seized with the owner of the property being given a possible 5 years of prison time for housing illegal weapons on their property regardless of how high up in society they may be.

Are you serious? Are you asking for another State of Emergency?

The Police need warrants to search people's homes. Warrants get issued by the court. If you want soldiers searching houses, you are talking about emergency powers.

Frankly that is a terrible idea.

If it will save lives and get illegal weapons off the streets then it is a brilliant idea as far as I am concerned.
Don't forget it should be done right after we have a 2 weeks guns amnesty to allow the public to hand in illegal weapons and ammunition with no questions asked.

If a SoE needs to be called to allow the cleanup operation to take place then one should be called but I don't think a SoE is necessary.

We have to do something drastic to get all these weapons off the streets as T&T borders have been left open to everything over the past 5 years. Praying alone isn't going to help us and save us from the criminal elements.

Currently at least 1 person is murdered every single day in T&T so understand that every day you wake up at least 1 person in T&T is going to be murdered. Let’s not wait until it is someone we know to realise that we need to do something drastic to remove all the illegal weapons from the streets.

Brother, that is almost word for word the rationale claimed by Kamla/the PP for the 2011 state of emergency/curfew and objectives they claimed, including rounding up gang members under the anti-gang leglislation and seizing 100+ firearms.

And if you're suggesting extra-judicial home searches by the state, you most certainly are advocating for a state of emergency or some kind of suspension of civil rights to accomplish that.

You're rehashing a failed and widely criticized tactic employed by the last government.

39

General Discussion / Re: Dr Keith Rowley Thread.

« on: September 26, 2015, 07:20:21 PM »

Thereafter the army should do a systematic house by house sweep of the country for illegal guns and ammunition with no households being spared; Any illegal weapons should be seized with the owner of the property being given a possible 5 years of prison time for housing illegal weapons on their property regardless of how high up in society they may be.

Are you serious? Are you asking for another State of Emergency?

The Police need warrants to search people's homes. Warrants get issued by the court. If you want soldiers searching houses, you are talking about emergency powers.

Frankly that is a terrible idea.

40

Football / FIFA World Cup 2022 officially moved to Winter and shortened to 28 days

« on: September 25, 2015, 10:51:23 AM »

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ff4f47c4a9a449ddbe0cd77aa3adf01e/fifa-picks-nov-21-kickoff-28-day-world-cup-qatar

ZURICH (AP) — The 2022 World Cup in Qatar will start on Monday, Nov. 21, kicking off a 28-day tournament that will finish on Sunday, Dec. 18.

FIFA's executive committee confirmed the 2022 dates on Friday, six months after picking Dec. 18 — Qatar's national holiday — for the final.

In March, FIFA finally decided to switch the 2022 tournament from June-July to avoid Qatar's summer heat.

A 28-day World Cup is four fewer than usual and is designed to cause less disruption to clubs and leagues which must shut down for several peak midseason weeks.

FIFA had delayed choosing a kickoff date in Qatar while it held talks on the 2019-2024 schedule of national team fixtures.

The international calendar mandates when clubs must release players for national-team duty.

The calendar approved Friday means clubs must release players to the 32 World Cup teams by Monday, Nov. 14, 2022 — one week before the opening match.

No national team match dates — either qualifiers for continental championships or friendlies — have been set for October 2022.

Instead, the two fixtures typically scheduled in October will be moved forward four months.

That creates a four-match program for national teams, scheduled between May 30 and June 14, 2022 at the end of the European season.

In a minor switch, the September double-header of national team matches will be pushed back two weeks to start on Sept. 20, 2022.

41

General Discussion / Re: Venezuela saber rattling on Guyana

« on: September 25, 2015, 10:15:32 AM »

I know its not necessary related. The article however establish the on-going talks between T&T and our energy partner Venezuela. T&T and Venezuela has a stronger relationship now and T&T has the opportunity to be a key player in the escalating tension between our Caricom brother Guyana and our partner Venezuela since we have relationships with both countries. 

I agree at a level, but I think Rowley & company are going to have a tough job balancing issues. Venezuela's Guayana Esequiba claim is long-standing and nationalistic, so trying to mediate that is sensitive and could distract from bi-lateral talks over energy development.

I don't necessarily agree that we have a "strong" relationship with Venezuela. Our relationship with them has always been very cool/warm. Our joint development of those fields straddling our border has huge hurdles, including ideological gaps with Venezuela's views on foreign investment and nationalizing their oil industry (we are certainly more liberal/foreign friendly), and they've used PDVSA to be fairly hostile to the major Oilcos in the last decade - those Oilcos operate heavily in T&T and are at the core of our development.

Actually getting an agreement signed is going to take a lot of work, and if we are lobbying them to back off from their territory claims, it might derail the energy talks. Out of all the Caribbean countries, Cuba is probably best positioned to mediate the dispute.

42

Football / Re: The Jack Warner Thread.

« on: September 25, 2015, 08:51:26 AM »

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/sepp-blatter/11891462/Sepp-Blatter-under-criminal-investigation-at-Fifa-live.html

This from Martyn Ziegler, the Chief Sports Reporter of the Press Association, which neatly clarifies the past few updates:

Swiss prosecutors have opened criminal proceedings against FIFA president Sepp Blatter on a day of stunning developments at football's world governing body.

The Swiss attorney general's office issued a statement saying Blatter is suspected of criminal mismanagement or misappropriation over a TV rights deal he signed with former Caribbean football chief Jack Warner in 2005.

He is also suspected of "a disloyal payment" of two millions Swiss francs to UEFA president Michel Platini - who is the favourite to succeed him - in 2011.

43

General Discussion / Re: Venezuela saber rattling on Guyana

« on: September 25, 2015, 07:31:15 AM »

Hmmmm 

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/20150924/business/rowley-gets-courtesy-call-from-venezuela-delegation

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley received a courtesy call on Tuesday from a delegation from Venezuela led by Minister of People’s Power for Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez Gómez, a release from the Office of the Prime Minister has said

.

Not necessarily related. One of Rowley's campaign promises was to get an agreement signed to develop some of the fields on the Venezuelan/TT border, and usually after election all of the resident ambassadors meet with the new PM within the first few weeks.

It would be a good time for Rowley to raise concerns about the Guyana issue escalating, however he may also be torn on keeping focus on the gas agreement - for years Chavez largely ignored Manning and did not respond to our requests to talk about the developing some of those fields - it took Fidel Castro intervening to get them to the table and get a MOU signed. That was pretty late in the last Manning administration.

44

General Discussion / Re: Venezuela saber rattling on Guyana

« on: September 24, 2015, 04:37:22 PM »

Even assuming intervention, how would the integrity of the Guyanese border position be protected subsequent to US intervention?

Also, doh feel just because "iz Venezuela" that the issue possesses a walk-in-the-park solution. Certainly, despite varying degrees of intolerance towards Maduro across the continent, any US intervention would be greeted with much less than a welcome. One can't ignore the history and consequences of the US in Latin America. Additionally, would any such action distract the US' rapprochement with Cuba?

Also to be considered is whether the Venezuelan military strengthens or weakens in the process.

What is morale within the ranks?

What's in the US national interest?

Additionally, US / Guyana relations are not great, and that would not only be a tough sell to the US public but a tough one for the Guyanese gov't to get to that point request intervention.

I think if this were to escalate, we would probably expect to see Brazil play a role, since the disputed area borders Brazil and both Venezuela/Guyana hold long borders with it (and Brazil is biggest player on the continent). It would be in Brazil's interests not to have this blow up right next door (also in T&T's might I add).

45

General Discussion / Re: Venezuela saber rattling on Guyana

« on: September 24, 2015, 02:35:22 PM »

Allyuh know that is also a British problem. Or was created by the Brits when they were a superpower

Only one of many - almost every modern territory dispute in the Americas can be traced back to disputes between the competing colonization powers from the 16th to 20th centuries.

We had our own disputes with Venezuela, specifically over the boundary in the gulf and some of our outlying islands (like Patos and Soldado). Fortunately it was mutually resolved in 1942 and hasn't been a major issue since (well despite fishermen getting arrested in our waters, but the border line isn't disputed).

In this Guyana/Venezuela case, another factor here is all of the Amerindian tribes that live in the area. Not much is really said about what rights they have, when some of them are living in the same area/region (including where is being disputed) for centuries prior to Columbus. Guyana has a fairly high percentage of both intact tribes and people of Amerindian/Indigenous descent.

46

General Discussion / Re: Venezuela saber rattling on Guyana

« on: September 24, 2015, 01:23:46 PM »

Historically, although Guyana has sought to address this issue through formal channels, it has not beat the drum sufficiently in terms of galvanizing world opinion and informal structures. When Chavez was at the height of being a scourge to the global community (to those opposed), Guyana had an opportunity to reap a tangible dividend. It did not capitalize on that reality.

In recent months, Guatemala has been fairly activist (as it has historically) on Belizean territory, and there seems to have been a parallel vacuum in state capacity to act (parallel vis-a-vis Guyana), with the most vocal and expressive actors being non-state actors. Recently saw footage of Belizean environmentalists confronting the Guatemalan navy and roundly condemning Dean Barrow's 'silence'.

R45, I regard the PetroCarribe concern as overstated.

I'm not saying that Caricom support for Guyana is impossible, but Petrocaribe and other Venezuelans programs will put some Caribbean countries that have benefited greatly from Venezuela since Chavez (especially St. Vincent and Dominica) in a very awkward position to bite the hand that is feeding them.

I think part of Guyana's problem/inability to lobby is due to their poor relations with powers. During the anti-Chavez time, the natural ally would have been with the US. However Guyana's relationship with the US is not very good. A good recent case is when they made Henry Greene their Commissioner of Police. This was very much protested by the US/Canada/UK, and Greene had strong ties with the drug trade but Jagdeo went ahead and maintained the appointment. That ended up scuttling tons of joint operations between the US (and others) and both the Guyanese police and defense force, and lots of foreign aid.

Historically Guyana was more aligned with the Soviets/Russians, but it doesn't even seem like that relationship is very strong either. Instead, at least in my opinion, Guyana is isolated on many fronts (through many of its own actions), including within Caricom, relative to its South American neighbours, and globally. Let's not forget that Guyana also still has active territory disputes with Suriname and French Guiana.

47

General Discussion / Re: Venezuela saber rattling on Guyana

« on: September 24, 2015, 10:38:49 AM »

This also has some implications for T&T. When we settled our maritime border with Venezuela in 1990, part of our southern boundary that we agreed to was based on Venezuela's claim of half of Guyana, specifically the eastern-most portion of the southern line, near the end of our exclusive economic zone.

48

General Discussion / Re: Venezuela saber rattling on Guyana

« on: September 24, 2015, 09:49:41 AM »

Shootout? Where is Guyana defense if not guarding it's own border?

The GDF doesn't have much of an operational capacity, especially for rural access - it has been an issue for decades. They've always had an issue with not having enough vehicles (or the right type) for those remote regions, or not having enough landing strips to gain access quickly (and not enough troop transport options). They just don't spend enough as a percentage of GDP compared to their neighbours.

This Venezuela-Guyana should be a CARICOM issue, but this is incredibly muddy since Venezuela has been buying CARICOM goodwill through PetroCaribe and other financial support. Honestly I think that was part of their strategy to divide CARICOM and keep their Guyana/Venezuela dispute in isolation. CARICOM is less likely now to have a uniform voice condemning Venezuela on the border dispute because of how deep some of the governments (especially the Lesser Antilles) are with Venezuelan social programs.

49

Football / Re: Carlos Edwards Thread

« on: September 18, 2015, 10:19:46 AM »

Out of those last 3 wins, 2 have been shutouts as well. 

I hope he continue to play well for the rest of the year and gets a contract extension beyond the current January 2016 one. At 36 another major injury may be tough to recover from/justify a contract from another club.

50

General Discussion / Re: The Future of (the economy of) T&T

« on: September 18, 2015, 09:23:35 AM »

Developing those fields on our border with Venezuela in the Gulf is going to be the key for maintaining our Oil and Gas sector, as our proven reserves on the fields in our borders continue to dwindle.

There are lots of challenges though. For one, the instability in Venezuela makes it difficult for our usual foreign partners to invest in joint projects (especially with the Venezuelan gov't being relatively hostile to foreign investment). Also with the US sanctions on Venezuela, it's difficult for them to participate. Our relationship with Venezuela has always been challenging. Since the Eric Williams days, we haven't always seen eye to eye and there's always been mistrust. In the last decade, with PetroCaribe, it soured our relationship a bit as it has reduced our influence in Caricom.

That said, despite the above, we need to find a way to make it work. I think it would be in Venezuela's interests to do the processing here, as we have a much more stable environment and it'll much easier to get the foreign investment necessary as a T&T led project which the Venezuelans would otherwise may never be able to develop because both sides need to consent.

51

General Discussion / Re: T&T Prime Ministers !!

« on: September 16, 2015, 04:41:32 PM »

There is something to admire from where Panday came from to how high of an office he got, literally from being dirt poor. It's an interesting history.

52

General Discussion / Re: Kidnapping in T&T Thread

« on: September 16, 2015, 12:56:19 PM »

don't know how our Constitution dealt with police power specifically as it relates to our leaders, but it sure seems like it have nutten in place to prosecute high office holders without fear of victimization.....look both a minister and senior police officer break aviation laws and nothing seems to be happening in both instances...........one even get a certain CRIME PREVENTION tv personality to come to his defense even threatening d complainant openly.

There's the Police Complaints Authority Act (and the Police Complaints Authority that enforces the act), but unfortunately since it's inception in 2006 it is a bit toothless (has limited powers), continues to be interfered with politically, and has been largely ineffective in providing oversight of the police service.

53

General Discussion / Re: Kidnapping in T&T Thread

« on: September 16, 2015, 10:14:54 AM »

What we will see happening now that a PNM government is in power is that the true murder and kidnapping figures will start being released to the public.

During the past 5 years there has been an on-going a PR exercise of not reporting the real muder and kidnapping figures so as to make the government in Power appear like they were doing a good job in that area.

Pardner, are you suffering from memory loss? Police fully releasing statistics has been an issue for decades, not the last 5 years. Martin Joseph was accused of instructing the police not to release murder statistics, and that was a big issue during the last PNM government. Manning/Joseph were accused big time of manipulating/hiding statistics to minimize crime, especially around the CHOGM/Summit of the Americas. It continued and the UNC/PP did it as well.

Look I hope this new administration is more transparent, but this obscuring statistics wasn't restricted to the UNC/PP. The real solution is to make the police more independent of the government of the day, and also enhance the statistics office/media relations of the Police. In an ideal world, no Minister of National Security should ever be able to influence what statistics do/don't get released.

Once we close our borders to guns, drugs and human trafficing then the figures will finaly turn around and start to decrease but it will takes some time before things turn around.

I'd love to see that as well, and I'm hopeful for it.

54

General Discussion / Re: Kidnapping in T&T Thread

« on: September 16, 2015, 07:57:08 AM »

New government in office bout a week and kidnappings start back after a 4-5 year absence? Pretty suspicious to me

There have been kidnappings for the last 5 years as well, an average of 3-4 per year. I don't think it's time to pull out the tinfoil hat just yet.

55

General Discussion / Re: Kamla Persad-Bissessar Thread.

« on: September 15, 2015, 01:07:07 PM »

Frankly that might be a new low in the conceding an election loss that I can remember. When Panday lost the "moral and spiritual values" vote during the 18/18 deadlock (despite winning the popular vote), I think we saw an even more amicable acceptance of the situation.

56

General Discussion / Re: If you were to Vote based on Religion in T&T, NOT Race, how would you vote?

« on: September 15, 2015, 01:03:33 PM »

Bakes, that's the most thoughtful reply I received in 2 months. I'm not understating and underestimating the sheer scale of PP  corruption, but I'm just being apprehensive about applying broad historical labels without diving deep in a comparison.

And to be honest, the economic analysis is my interest but I realized quickly it's a small bandwagon that I'm on with this one. The problem I see is we have a revolving door of politicians, and every 5 years we ride a crest of hope to only have it come crashing down when the same old names end up showing up on state boards, ministries, get favoured for contracts (regardless of party), and we see the same old tricks employed with new twists.

Anyway thanks for the response

57

General Discussion / Re: If you were to Vote based on Religion in T&T, NOT Race, how would you vote?

« on: September 15, 2015, 10:27:56 AM »

This entire post is rife with asinine statements.  I also find it richly ironic that you are in here playing the victim talking about people denouncing you as drinking PP Kool-Aid when in fact you have been guilty of doing the very thing you complain of.  I remember in particular an exchange I had with you about two weeks or so ago when you accused me of being part of a biased PNM clique (wildly paraphrasing).  From that point on I wrote off any discourse with you as a waste of time.

Not sure what you're referring to. If I did, then that's unfortunate and not intended. I'll say I've made every effort to be as neutral as possible.

And I'm looking for no sympathy - frankly I just want a space where I can talk about non-partisan T&T politics and issues.

And btw... no, if you go back to 2010 you will not find anything resembling the accusations currently leveled at the PP gov't.  There were a number of posters here who were adamantly against Manning (if not the PNM itself) and who voted for the Partnership, many who wanted to give COP specifically a chance, some who wanted to give Kamla a chance, and some who were in the "anybody but PNM" camp.

That's exactly what I'm talking about though. The way Kamla was overwhelmingly voted in, despite signs that history was going to repeat itself (given that the party had many of the same suspects that got voted out when the UNC was in power prior, and that Jack was the big financier).

The most common complaints against the PNM were Manning's dictatorial style (particularly after sidelining Rowley) and the Calder Hart and Spiritual Advisor (the Pena woman) imbroglio.

What I've specifically tried to argue here is that you can draw parallels between this and Kamla's issue today. Manning's dictatorial style has similarities with Kamla's lack of control tendencies. I think they approached it from the opposite ends of the spectrum - that is, Manning exerted too much control and micro-managed his cabinet while Kamla seemed to let her cabinet run amok. The big difference is somehow Kamla maintained her individual favourability (based on favourability numbers compared to how Manning brought his entire party down), but both did it to the detriment of the government/country.

Calder Hart was a major corruption scandal, and Rowley himself did a lot to disclose the billions of dollars in gross mismanagement that happened as part of the variety of UDECOTT projects. Again, comparable perhaps to Lifesport, Highway corruption, and other PP corrupt events but warrants comparing the dollar amounts/something to figure out which was the "worst".

The Manning/Pena issues draw similarities to Kamla's drunk and infidelity accusations.

There was nothing even remotely similar to the complaints about gross mismanagement and outright theft you're hearing these days about the PP.

This is where I'm not sold, because everytime statements like this are made, there aren't attempts to quantify it. I'm not trying to downplay PP corruption, but I think people are understating the mismanagement of prior scandals (including Manning's UDECOTT, the Piarco airport, and others that preceded). It's easy to make an absolute statement that "xyz government is the most corrupt" and then cite specific corruption scandals as anecdotal evidence. But to do so without at least trying to compare them on some kind of comparable metric (like $$ stolen) isn't leaving much room for discussion.

This was true of the political climate in TnT generally, and of this forum specifically.  But of course you wouldn't know that, since by your own admission you seldom ventured here.  Ignorant of that context, your statement that this is "largely a one-sided board" seems particularly ridiculous, say nothing of being errant.

I was pretty clear that I said it was based on my experience/perceptions in the 2015 election cycle, and my 2010/2007 was pure speculation which I clearly disclaimer-ed.

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General Discussion / Re: If you were to Vote based on Religion in T&T, NOT Race, how would you vote?

« on: September 15, 2015, 09:40:51 AM »

In my view, there is a fair repository of common sense on the board. Overstating a position to the effect that political views on the forum are blindly blinkered, does a disservice to what passes here as generally reasoned good sense. How many card-carrying party members post here?

I'll be honest and say I haven't been reading the General Discussion much in my years in of visiting this site until recently. That said, based on my non-scientific impression of the 2015 election (and thumb in the sky math), I'd say of the majority of regular posters in that main thread were staunch PNM supporters (or staunch anti-PP, not sure of the difference) - there wasn't much room for neutral discussions without it quickly descending into absolute statements sans reasoning. Case in point, every time one tried to take things out of the context of the 2015 election (i.e. trying to be somewhat impartial, objective, and less hyperbolic), I was often accused of drinking UNC koolaid, being a PP apologist, or something to that extent immediately. Usually when rebuttals resort to ad hominem attacks and just painting broad stripes, you usually know you're dealing with a partisan audience.

I'd say though, between that rubbish, there was some underlying common sense in there as well. I think folks just get too caught up with the politics of the day to take a step back and objectively compare one government to others in years/decades prior - I bet if I looked back at 2010 you'd find something similar. Probably in a year or two things can be put into better perspective.

That said, it isn't too surprising considering this is a football forum, and we know that the die-hard following of our two major sports does also have an ethnic split in this country. I suspect the situation is probably reversed on another popular forum like Trinituner that probably has a reverse ethnic split due to the nature of that board.

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General Discussion / Re: If you were to Vote based on Religion in T&T, NOT Race, how would you vote?

« on: September 15, 2015, 07:55:44 AM »

Yeah not sure the point of this. People are already tribal with politics, and this is already largely a one-sided board. Not much will come out of this.

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General Discussion / Re: Edmund Dillon Thread

« on: September 14, 2015, 09:32:17 AM »

One thing about the OPVs - a major factor why the Manning administration wanted to order OPVs (and three of them at that) was due to Manning's lofty aspirations for the TT Coast Guard to patrol the eastern Caribbean on behalf of the other islands (up to St. Lucia/St. Vincent).

I sincerely hope that dream has died with the last PNM administration because it's foolhardy for us to be patrolling the entire eastern Caribbean when we have our own large expansive border. If we are interested in actually fixing our borders, I'd suggest the following items should be high on the agenda:

• Reform the Customs and Excise division. There needs to be a thorough anti-corruption sweep, change in management, and a holistic look at port security. The majority of our drug trade is done via shipping containers
• Complete review of the Coast Guard maintenance program, with emphasis on training/recruiting/retaining mechanics to maintain the ships we have. For decades we've bought new/refurbished ships but have failed to maintain them.
• Establish TT satellite consulates in Pedernales and Macuro in Venezuela. Pedernales is the closest town to Icacos Point, and Macuro is just west of Chacachacare. The consulate could be a small office that should have a (spanish speaking) liaison officer from the TT Coast Guard to share information with the Guardia National. Both of those towns have small Guardia National postings. The consulate would also help with diplomatic efforts when our fishermen that get arrested in Venezuelan waters (or often T&T waters by Venezuela as well..).
• Get the radar working (from what I heard, they've never all worked properly since installed) and make sure the right people (Coast Guard) have access to the information quickly.