One Nation

We close the week off with some great stories, memories of wonderful people and of course the side of T&T that we try to cover by saying, 'like you never went thru Miami airport'. Today I attended the funeral of a first cousin, younger than me, in fact he was the youngest cousin of the entire tribe. Many attended his funeral, people from his whole life. The 'doubles lady' who he patronised was there. How many of us could claim that level of friendship, from Capitan to chef.  ' Le Sponge' will be missed by many. The great mas man Edmund Hart died today and once again great memories. Started playing mas with 'Harts' when I think they were in Jerningham Ave, the great part was heading back to the mas camp through Observatory St Belmont. Live music, Bobby Quan and 'Blue Ventures'. No wee wee truck, no all inclusive, buying food and drinks on the street. Of course players were still trying to piece together his costume on Tuesday morning.

The islands sure had their share of licks this September. Last night at 9.00 pm was one week since Hurricane Maria hit the island of Dominica. From all reports the people of Trinidad and Tobago have done a lot to assist the ravaged territories with all kinds of relief supplies being sent via many different means including the use of private vessels making the trip at no cost. I heard the PMOTT making yet another famous speech with reference to his plan to assist Dominica, which involved us taking in Dominican families who are under severe stress. The PMOTT is calling on his detractors to 'shut your mouth and let the country strive'. Hmmmm, and why would he say something like that? Not because some people disagree with you that you immediately get vex and want to take your ball and go home. The simple fact is that your plan has never been articulated properly, even your Minister of National Security is still not convinced as to how the plan can be effected. He, the Ministe

We headed off to the QP Oval this afternoon for the concert to raise money and relief items for the hurricane ravaged islands. A great initiative which could have attracted many more people but I guess that there are many other groups doing the same thing. Nothing wrong with this the main thing being the end result, help for the islands. The fix on the islands will require a lot more than canned food, tarpaulins and bottled water. What about us sending repair crews to reinstate power, water, roads and other infrastructure. Surely between the Government and the utility companies we could have personnel and equipment sent to the territories to assist in the rebuilding of the damaged power, communication and water distribution systems. Imagine the Trade Unions being part of this fix supporting the deployment of workers to the islands. I am not talking about T&T alone, the other neighbours must be part of it. Of course the billion dollar fix is beyond us all but giving in kind is v

I cannot get Dominica out of my mind. The island is officially known as the Commonwealth of Dominica . She has a President and a Prime Minister. I guess similar to Trinidad and Tobago. She is therefore on her own, on her own to fend for herself. Many of the other islands that have been devastated have a big brother like France or the Netherlands or the USA and Britain. Dominica is a very lonely island. Apparently the Prime Minister visited the United Nations today appealing for help. From what I am hearing T&T has been doing its fair share. I agree with many that to cry down the PMOTT's call for assisting the people of Dominica is really being very uncharitable. Whatever help we can give, I understand that the private sector has organized vessels to leave by the end of the week with supplies. This gesture with no publicity whatsoever, just doing what a good neighbor would do. The island is roughly fifteen (15) miles wide by forty (40) miles long. Previous hurricanes w

What a week, or should I say weeks. The ferry business has me tired and I wish it would just go away. Last night my life partner and I went to see a locally produced film and throughly enjoyed it. Like many of the productions this was a short film, 28 minutes, but it proved that the talent in this country is alive and well. We had hoped to attend another film based on a steel band tomorrow night but it was sold out. Last night the movie theatre was revving! Great signs for the future of film production in Trinidad and Tobago. What was more amazing was the average age of the filmmakers, young talented men and women, giving their all. Congrats! What happens to Dominica? From actual reports coming out of the hurricane devastated island of 74K people what is happening is not good. For one to plan for a hurricane far less a Cat 5 is extremely difficult. Persons who were able to communicate with families on the island could not fathom the needs. Tarpaulins by the mile, nails, hammer

The oldest person living in the world died this week. Violet Mosse Brown was born in 1900 in Jamaica  and died on the 15th September 2017 at around 2.30 in the afternoon. Imagine 117 years old, living through every hell on earth and yet many great things. She swore by the bible, never drank rum and ate cow's feet. It's strange how we humans mark our lives by our age. What age did you do what, your first romance, education, drunk, career, marriage, children, mortgage, travel and maybe the first time you ever ate cow's feet. Growing up in Arima during the sixties I was kind of a hippie, mixed up with black power, did not smoke the weed, drank the rum, I guess did not know who I was or what exactly I was supposed to be. Finished my formal education in 1968 and made my way in the world.  Like Vio I saw a lot of things, good and bad. Looking back on how the world has changed in my lifetime I wonder if it had stayed like the way I experienced it in Arima in the 50s and 6

Driving home this evening, listening to the radio (Trini's love to say ' ah hear it on d radio ) with a program promoting an upcoming Shadow concert. People were calling in giving stories about Shadow in his early years, playing the guitar and impromptu performances. I have a picture,  positioned amongst family photographs, of the great man and myself. Listening to the genuine love being expressed tonight put me in a 'Trini' good mood. Of course this is after this afternoon's reality show of the PMOTT's live media conference and what I would consider the worst to date of a performance by our PMOTT. First off, why is the PMOTT getting involved in issues of reported corruption at a state company? Why is the line Minister not taking the heat? That's the job of the line Minister, take as much licks before it gets to me! For a sitting PMOTT to make the statements he made tells me the poor man has indeed lost it. He is so thin skinned, why does he think

It started to set up at around 2.00pm and then the heavens opened, the sky lit up and roared. As a child we were taught that if you counted by seconds the length of time it took the thunder to roll after the flash of lightning, that basically was the distance in miles to the center of the storm. Today there were no seconds it was flash and 'bradam', one time. This went on for quite a while, maybe an hour. Our little rainy season weather and our street starts to flood, Saddle Road in a mess, Santa Cruz likewise. The poor people in the Northern Leewards. Ten times the wind, lightning and 'bradam' for hours upon hours. I cannot fathom the fright, the unthinkable aftermath.  The rock seems to be teetering once again. The ferry fiasco and scandal looks as though it is sailing out the Bocas because a new insight into the workings of Petrotrin is now emerging. An internal audit has shown payments for oil not produced nor delivered by a private contractor.

The fauna in Maraval has sadly been reduced by one. Our dog is still the hunter, one owl, one manicou, many zandolees and yesterday one young iguana. Maya, the bull mastiff, loves the hunt as much as she loves Crix. As much as we try our best to support the flora and fauna nature just takes control and the outcome is not always pleasant. We see nature at its finest in recent events in our neck of the woods. As horrific the end result is we can only look on in awe as to the power the natural world has. Poor iguana! It will all be over soon. The killer hurricane will be gone and we can only hope that 'September remember' applies. The territories that were in fact impacted will take a long time to recover, many of them very dependent on the tourism industry and with the season approaching it does not augur well for them. Stories coming out of St Martin are not good. The looting by gangs of armed individuals sends a very negative image to potential tourists who probably though

Looking at some of the video coming out of the northern Caribbean makes one almost speechless. One particular video of Barbuda with people walking around aimlessly, in shock looking at the total devastation around them. Nothing left, no where to go, no one to turn to for help, no home, probably all you have is the clothes on your back. When you think of people who have special needs, pregnant women, infants, the aged, what does one do to even start getting your life back together? The things one would take for granted to operate a normal life. The grocery, the job you go to, telephone, public transport, children's school, the ATM, electricity, pipe borne water, shelter, neighbours, family gathering. All of this disappeared in hours and the stark reality is you have absolutely no idea when any of it will return. Then you are told you are going to have a repeat within 48 hours. How does one deal with this? I don't think one can, I don't think we are designed to accept th

It has been a difficult couple days, listening to the Joint Select Committee of the Parliament hearings on basically the issues surrounding the Tobago ferry service and my brain has been in 'ferry mode' since. I had my stint yesterday evening and I was glad to be able to make my case. I had submitted a written  position on a number of issues surrounding the issue. I do find that many times the presentations drift off into areas that really are not for this Committee. I would have thought that the representative from Bridgeman's would have been given enough time to give his side of the story. That has not happened and I am not sure what the position would be as they have been asked to return, if they want, sometime after the 18th September, or submit their position in writing. I was not given a time frame to work with and all of a sudden I was told that I had two [2] minutes to wrap up. So be it, I guess the public will now have to hear my side through another foru

I have been very delinquent and not posting as I normally would. My mind has been elsewhere. Still very much in the colony but on other things. I am a 'witness' in the Joint Select Committee's inquiry into the troubled ferry service, so I have work to do. My involvement was in 2014 so I need to get my head around the circumstances and of course without access to files and other info it's not that easy. I feel as though I am back in Holy Cross College in the late '60's. Not a good place for me, not the college, just me. Anyway, I am scheduled to be a 'witness' on Monday or Tuesday, no notice as yet, but I am cool with what is happening and in fact I really welcome this opportunity to finally put some 'jumbies' to rest. What I love about governance in this country is the fact that there can actually be five different sides to a story. Which of course is what is happening with the Port. We have the following: Sole investigator. Integrity