One Nation

We are about to celebrate the 56th Aniversary of our Independence from Britain. I have always been extremely proud of who we are, our Anthem, our flag ( even though the stripe goes down towards the bottom like a bad graph) and everything about us. Of course, there are things that we should not be proud of but these are issues that are manmade, normally bad politics, and can be changed at the drop of a hat. Something happened today on the Rock of historic proportions. The Government has made the decision to shut down the Petrotrin Refinery. Did we see it coming, well we should have after racking up losses of $13bn TT, there is no way that the viability of the facility would be sustainable. Our history in the petroleum industry is well documented starting with the first well drilled to 61 metres by the Merrimac Co. in 1857. Of note are some other interesting dates. Texaco arrives in 1956, buying the interest in the then P-a-P refinery. The Government buys the Shell La Brea refine...

Storms, earthquakes, fire, and brimstone did not rain upon the weary citizens of the Rock over the weekend. In fact, we had a beautiful two days, with the full moon in effect, no rain and happy times. Pan on the Avenue in Woodbrook and a calming of the people. A welcomed respite from all of the goings on during the week. The PMOTT headed to Caracas this weekend to sign a deal with persons who are not authorized to sign anything. Why would we do this is anybody's guess. I guess for a politician any news is good news even if it is no news. Love the interview with the press on the airplane, POTUS style, with the PMOTT with a glass of wine in his hand. The press were invited for the meeting in Caracas, but were not allowed to actually cover the meeting, and no one had a problem with that. I guess any other PMOTT with a glass would have been ridiculed by all and sundry, quite rightly so. Caracas put me in a music mode of many years ago, Edmundo Ros! Edmund William Ross was born in...

For a small island state, we sure have a lot going on at all times, never a proverbial dull moment. The big story this week, of course, was the 'Big Shake' or 'Terror Quake'. We had experienced a 6.8 magnitude earthquake which did cause panic and understandably so. Luckily the epicenter was located in rural Venezuela and was recorded as being fairly deep. It did, however, give us here on the Rock and surrounding islands, quite a jolt.  There were no known injuries, minor damage to some buildings in the city and some damage to infrastructure in rural Trinidad. The commentary about the earthquake ranged from the people's evil ways, adult toys, the ruling party, LBGT, His wrath, and a host of other reasons none having to do with the fact that we are located not too far from the edge of a fault line and nearly every island in the Caribbean has had major seismic activity. Port Royal in Jamaica was destroyed in 1692, Port au Prince in Haiti in 2010, countless records ...

The week that was gave us a real insight into who we are as a nation. If only VS could have been around still, this last week would have been a continuing chapter for one of his books. Not sure which one but Miguel Street comes to mind. Of bumbling politicians, self-importance and completely missing the plot. First was what is now known as the 'sari skit'. A reprehensible, disgusting skit performed by a group of people who thought that they were actually doing the ruling party a great service. When the outrage was voiced across the Rock the politicians came up with simple excuses like 'it was just fun' not realising for a split second that people were horrified and appalled at the simulated disrobing of a woman by four males dressed as gorillas which had all the markings of a sexual assault. The Hindu community was up in arms over the remarkable simulation of a scene taken from one of its holy books. The politicians continued with their trivialising of something tha...

I must say with all the extreme weather happening around the world we on the Rock are experiencing yet another ordinary, regular ole rainy season. Yes, we will have the troughs, the systems, the waves, all part of the season. Coming on the heels of heavy rain is the annual affair of flooding. This time it seems that the rain has returned to the northern part of the island with a vengeance. Pelting rain for two consistent days and the poor people of the north flooded out again and then again. This was obviously part of the reason that when the Ag. AG ventured into his Constituency today not all the residents were happy to see him. One or two became a bit overwhelmed with the fact that a high official had taken the time to visit with them and proceded to soak him down with the flood water. I do not for a minute condone this type of behavior but after being flooded out twice in as many days one may be a bit frustrated. The fact that the MP was the then Ag. AG may have been overlooke...

Popo, the carpenter, "What yuh making?" "Ah boy, a ting wit out a name". My favorite line from Miguel Street. Naipaul saw Trinidad society for exactly what it was. Many disagree, it is felt that he abandoned his place of birth but I guess he could never have lived here. The Rock was too small a place for the great writer. I knew his family, the Capildeos, who lived in St James. In my early salesman days hawking quarrying equipment, I met Mr. Capildeo and his sister who I remember to be Naipaul's mother, wonderful people. RIP Sir Naipaul. I guess Sir Vidia understood the people of the Rock. Like why do we think that everyone else in the valley needs to listen to your own music? Or why if the garbage pick up is on Monday, Wednesday and Friday residents feel the urge to put it out days before, or the fact that once it is not in front of your house then it does not exist. I do not mean to trivialize his life by any means but I am sure that he could not live here...

One should never be at odds with the met office. You never know when you are going to need their help. With the advent of satellites, the internet, and Wunderground one can basically tell whether the rain is going to fall or if it is going to snow. On Thursday this week, the Met office issued a bulletin stating that we were going to experience a heat wave and we should be taking the necessary precautions. It rained cats and dogs, and more, it pelted with rain. There was no mention of rain in the bulletin. Hey, we do get it wrong every now and again but I really thought that somehow they could have seen that coming. Today was hot, a heat wave! The episode of the car stealing then the restealing of the same car within hours of the now famous car being found and the reaction by the Minister of National Security is one of wonder. The hapless owner was held up at gunpoint, car stolen, found, then restolen then found again. The Minister proceeds to make the statement that on hearing of th...

For all the things we are, for all the stress and trials and tribulations that we live through every day, there is always something that happens that says 'now that's the reason we live here'. Our garbage truck comes on a regular basis, three times per week, and we have had the same crew for some time. The other morning the truck came earlier than usual so we had not yet put out our bag. The doorbell rings and I am hearing a male voice calling 'morning, morning'. Of course, I am swearing under my breath who the hell is this calling, not even my second cup. There is a larger than life 'Mr. Bascombe' asking what happened, no garbage today? Mr. Bascombe has a system of collection where he moves way ahead of the truck, picking up the bags and taking them to a single spot so that the truck has limited stops making for a much quicker pickup. I have been on a new regimen for the last couple months basically making sure that I do not hit 66 as an old man. Walkin...

Sunday evening posts are probably the hardest, what happened today that could be of such interest? Sunday lunch, visiting familia, babysitting duties, buying papers? How about all of the above, it was a great Sunday. We had our third eldest gran, the others had headed off to other parts leaving the 'Charlo' with the grandparents. We are very fortunate to have all of our children and grandchildren here within fifteen minutes of each other. We know of other people who have grans living in Alaska and Australia, we are truly lucky! We are now rated as the fourth highest country in the world at 43 murders per 100,000 population. How in God's name did we reach here? This is not an estimate this is very real. We are the murder capital of the Caribbean islands. Better than all others in the island chain, we are now ahead of Jamaica who ruled the roost for a number of years. Can we put things into perspective? We are a population of 1.3 million people, we are an island nation o...

I never considered our neighborhood as being one with an ecosystem. I thought houses, golf course, mini mart, school were actually the antithesis of a green environment. Today's evening walk proved that wrong as I had two different experiences. The first being a fellow walker taping the cacophony made by the hundreds of parrots nesting in the neighborhood bamboo. Then I meet walker no. 2 who informs me that there is a new grouping of parakeets who have taken up residence in her area. We can now add this to the early morning hawks and the strange night bird calls. Very happy to see that earth is alive and well in Moka. How can the PMOTT say that "the PM's job is one of the two worst jobs in T&T". He made this statement in the Parliament during the "debate" over the appointment of a new Commissioner of Police. The worst job? I do not understand, what is the PMOTT on about? Is he not aware for a fleeting moment of the power he has to be able to change t...

We ran away, again, to the Spice Island, for a couple days. Work and play. Our first day there was the day of rain. I have never witnessed steady rain, a bucket a drop, like what we experienced on Wednesday. It started just after 7.00am and continued down to 5.00pm. Of course, the drainage system was put under severe stress and there was substantial flooding in many low lying areas, in addition to landslips on the hills. The videos of a guy on a board surfing on the street was real as was the guy attempting to tie his car in order to prevent it from being washed away. What was very noticeable was the fact that people who had to report for duty did in fact report. We stay at a small hotel and the staff were all present and accounted for. Speaking with other travelers the situation was the same throughout. This morning on leaving the hotel again everyone reporting for duty. Speaking with the GM she said that she had to pick up a couple people who were marooned in their homes, but ...