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'shirt and tie'



The results of the SEA Exam are in, the top [4] children are announced, hugs and kisses, lessons learnt, parents thanking the God they worship, an all round joyous event. Of course there are the other 18,000 kids who were not as successful but I am sure that they will all see their way in life.
Just wondering why we allow the 3 dailies to 'sell' the SEA results every year. The top achievers will be feted and awarded nationally, all other successful students, their teachers and families already know their results given out at an unnecessarily emotional day at their respective schools. Why must those students not achieving their 'choice' schools be again not recognized 'on de papers.'

What bothered me somewhat was the call for the reintroduction of corporal punishment by the Dean of Discipline at the school whose pupil came first. Now I don't know exactly where that came from whether it was his personal view or that of the school or the religious body that controls the school.
If we look at education across the globe we see massive changes in the way children are taught, reverting to beating a child I do not believe is one of the newer techniques. The evolution in education is quite startling and instead of trying our best to go back to 18th century Britain why not explore modern education systems that actually work.
Oh, and we can start showing respect for teachers once again as we go about dealing with a broken education system.


The continuing saga of the second firing. I agree with the person of interest from Sea Lots who has now written a letter to the Ag CoP asking him to state whether or not he is in fact a person of interest to the police and if so why? a la the POTUS. If you are a person of interest to the police how much time is needed to build a case, if any, and how long before an arrest is made? If the reply comes in the negative does it mean then the person of the second firing is now free to be reappointed to the Cabinet for a third time. The PMOTT made it abundantly clear that if after a certain time and there is no determination of a matter then you go home whistling a happy tune. I can therefore only deduce from the PMOTT's own point of view that should the person from Sea Lots be exonerated then we are ready for the third swearing in! Everybody get your shirt and tie ready we going in tong.

I love how criminals are now being categorized. We have so called criminals from poor depressed areas, now know as 'community leaders' or sometimes a contractor. We have criminals from so called well to do areas know as 'Mr Big' or more recently '1%'. What I find difficult to understand is the fact that we have criminal gangs operating in T&T. Criminal gangs involved in drug and gun running, money laundering, kidnapping, extortion, murder, human trafficking and whatever else and yet we choose to separate them as though one side is somehow acceptable because of their circumstance and the other is given recognition because of their own circumstance.
All are criminals, all are murderers, all are guilty of disrupting the lives of every law-abiding citizen of the rock. All are to be dealt with, all are to be hunted down like the criminals they are and should never see daylight again.
If we are serious about eliminating criminal activity all are to be dealt with. Not because you come from one particular side of the river that somehow an excuse is made. Hunt them down, arrest them, convict them and jail them. Punto fino!

Reading where the police estimate that the gun trade, yes illegal, is valued at $100.0M per annum in T&T, and the officer can make that statement with no shame. Not a single scanner is in operation, not one of the five [5] scanners is in operation as of today, why? why is it that the Customs and Excise Div is not insisting that every barrel, box, pallet cart and shipping container be sent through one of the scanners? why is it that the TTPS is not insisting that surveillance is put to better use, sniffer dogs who can sniff anything, the 600,000 intercepted calls - did not yield any results? why is the Coast Guard not insisting and demanding more resources for the protection of our maritime borders [the CG has a large patrol vessel moored outside the Parliament during every sitting, waste of resources.]
There is much more that can be done with what is already available and yet nothing.

Even though today was a brilliant sunny day the clouds continue to hover over the twin island state. It seems settling is taking a long, long time. We cannot continue to make excuses for criminals.

To our American friends, happy July 4th!


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