For the Drinkers... (you know who you are)

This is a very interesting fact.

Toxoplasmosis is a parasite that has found a way to brainwash its host into turning off its fear response and making itself (the host) available to complete the parasite's life cycle by indulging in risky behavior that usually costs it its life.

In an amazing display of nature outsmarting itself, the parasite requires two separate species to survive, cats and mice.

Once contaminated in mice, the parasite adjusts the host's (the mouse's) brain chemistry to make it fearless of cats. The cats, grateful for this lowering of the guard, makes the infected mouse its meal. The parasite then infects the cat's intestinal tract where it reproduces and its eggs are later redistributed in the cat's dung.

The alcohol industry has something similar working for it, it's called advertising.

Through advertising, normally sensible men are made to believe that, once drunk they can conquer the world and every super model they meet along the way.

Don't be fooled. Super models are high maintenance and tend to throw up a lot, plus world domination requires far more work than you signed up for.

Think before you drink.

This message brought to you by your brain, which you are slowly killing one drink at a time.

Pink Slips...

In the science of Human Resource Management, there is a concept that calls for the effective dismissal of under performing employees for their good and that of the greater collective.

It is argued within this school of thought that employees are usually promoted until they reach beyond their area of maximum efficiency and optimum performance,  and may need to be either pulled back or dismissed altogether before they cause harm to the organization and their own career.

Based on this concept I was toying with the idea of  thinking of Trinidad & Tobago as a Corporation, and some of its/our employees that could use a tactical firing for the reasons spelled out above.

Remember the objective of this exercise is to maximize latent skill sets in existing opportunities.

Take Dr. Keith Rowley for example.

Here is a man who was thriving as the 'number two' man to the Leader of the PNM and who was doing quite well in the position. Now whether he was motivated by others or was thinking himself qualified for the number one position, he applied, went through a lengthy and vigorous  interview process and was eventually promoted to the number one position.

Safely ensconced in the job, he seems lost and appears to find himself rudderless and without any idea as to which direction he would take were he to discover a rudder among his possessions.

Human Resources in these circumstances postulates that the good Doctor, while an excellent 'number two,' is not qualified to function as a 'number one' or not for any lengthy period at any rate.

It is my firm belief that Dr. Rowley has been promoted beyond his effectiveness and needs to be either demoted or fired for the good of his career, the Party and the country as a whole.

If the Gentlemen would consider a return to the 'number two' position it would be an advantageous move for everyone concerned and a search for a more suitable able 'number one' be launched immediately.

Another candidate for this discussion is Stephen Cadiz

Mr. Cadiz ostensibly has been placed in the wrong department as he was a candidate for any position involved in the reduction of crime, violence and murder.

I would like to propose a lateral reassignment and have Mr. Cadiz appointed Commissioner of Police as he is both white and unqualified for the job, both obvious pre-reqisites for the position.

Anil Roberts

Here is a classic example of the right person in the wrong job, and the organization is suffering badly because of this mis-appointment.

Obviously well suited for the cut and thrust of jobs where sober decorum is neither an advantage nor a requirement, Mr. Roberts looks uncomfortable in his attire and does not seem to possess the required attributes for the position he occupies.

It my my recommendation that he be removed from the Cabinet, from the Parliament, from the Government and possibly from the country for a while.

Perhaps a posting in the Foreign Service may suit his qualifications, and were I to be pressed as to a locale, I would suggest appointing the gentleman as High Commissioner to either Iraq or Afghanistan.

George Nicholas

This gentleman was accidentally placed on an Airline board for which he has no qualifications save for the fact that he may have flown on an airplane a time or two.

Not only was he appointed to the Board, he was appointed its Chairman, which makes me think his appointment must have been a mix up, a typo, or gotten lost in translation.

Allegedly quite wealthy already, the only purpose for him accepting such an appointment in the first place must have been out of pure altruism and civic mindedness, and based on this I would think his service would be better utilized on a charitable board where could truly feel like he was 'giving back' to society.

Louis Lee Sing

Here is a man of action who has been placed in a boring desk job and who is already chafing at the inactivity of the posting.

Demonstrating his eagerness for a more hands on job, he recently went above and beyond the call of his office to start collecting idlers and loiterers with a view to having them relocated.

Obviously mis-appointed, Mr. Lee Sing should be fired as Mayor forthwith and rehired as head dog catcher and given his own truck, clip board and net.

Based on the above examples I am sure that the people of Trinidad & Tobago would prefer much better utilization of its resources  both human and otherwise, and perhaps the post of Human Resource Director should be advertised.

These are all just suggestions mind you, as the optimization exercise really ought to take place above my pay scale. It is hoped that this advice saves many people from the heartache of a lifetime spent in the wrong career.

The Legacy of Eric, Robbie & Ish...

For many who do not know, the Eric Williams PNM was a corrupt and dictatorial regime that used brute force and State largesse to keep the people in line. When Basdeo Panday talks about the days of 'the struggle' he is not making grand talk of trivialities, he is alluding to a time when political dissent could have cost you your life.

Many a historian is loathe to touch that era in the Country's development, because most of the things one has to give Williams credit for one also has to despise him.

His death led to a national exhale of such proportions as to guarantee his successor was bound to fail, if only as some measure of after the fact 'payback.'

It is my belief that even if George Chambers had found the cure for cancer he was still going to lose because of old PNM scores that people wanted settled, and the formation of the NAR emboldened many to come out and kick the now bobolee PNM while it was down.

RIght or wrong, the people wanted their say and their day and would not have been denied.

It came in the form of the National Alliance for Reconstruction, a Party with all the right ideas but little understanding of the level of collective dysfunction the Eric years left on the national psyche.

Freedom and austerity were a heady mix, and the people, newly unchained, were ready to protest any and everything that drew their ire. The failed 1990 attempted coup was a 'misread' by the ppowers behind Bakr, because in their acceptance of the above fact, gave Trini's more credit than they deserved.

People were going to march around the Red House and beat the collective drum, but participation in popular uprising was something else entirely; this was a generation figuratively accustomed to getting home before nightfall.

Picking up arms against the State was seen as akin to fighting with your father, and regardless of how deserving he was for a 'come-uppance', we just weren't brought up that way.

Fast forward to the Robinson term in Office and, say what you want about the measures employed to right size the economy, this Administration was a break with the corruption years of O'Hallaron and the boys and the country should have been grateful for that at least.

Likewise Manning's first term, post Robbie, while credited with some questionable dealings by men like Saith and the Chinese Mafia, nothing perpared the country for the wholesale assault on the treasury (and every system put in place to protect it) by Brian Kuie Tung, Steve Ferguson and their leader, Ishwar Galbaransingh.

If Ohallaron was a medicine man, Ish was a surgeon, and his focus and drive to pilfer in broad daylight attracted other pretenders like Karamath, Gillette and Duprey to the feast, but none were as able as Ish.

Being East Indian, he was allowed into the inner circles of the UNC that sadly none of the others could join. This was no world for pretend hindus, not when the real thing was rampant.

That the country owes a forever debt of gratitude to Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj for pulling down this band of thieves (regardless of his personal reasons) need to be said over and over.

Not only was Ish removed from the feeding trough, the public were treated to the spectacle of this same cigar-chomping symbol of all that is negative in the world of politics wearing State sponsored bracelets and apparently about to be housed at the State's expense.

Manning made sure to disembowel the UNC by attacking (high) all of its finaciers and bringing them before the Courts, (low) shut down Caroni Limited and removed the Indians' URP (hang jack) had Basdeo Panday himself brought up on charges and jailed and (game) took Basdeo out of jail and kept him in power in the UNC 'at his pleasure' to keep the UNC perpetually hobbled.

Were it not for a cruel twist of fate, a woman from Siparia, the aspirations of men of great self image and little self respect and a church in Guanapo, men like Hunt and Hart would still be feeding at the trough Ish built, but the PNM, in outdoing the UNC in the corrupt enrichment of some of it's own members, drank the poison the Party poured for the UNC.

Damnation & destruction in the public eye.

Led by a new leader whose job was to be the anti-Bas, anti-Patos, antidote to all those who went before, the country embraced its new bride and consigned the PNM to the dustbin of history.

Can that Party rise again?

If history is anything to judge these things on then yes, but at what cost?

The UNC has been ably aided by the PNM into painting the Manning PNM into a corner and in keeping the Rowley PNM confined there.

The question must be asked of Dr. Rowley: "Are you able to lead the Party back to glory?"

It seems that for change to come we as a nation are condemned to sink lower every time.

The UNC's only claim to fame now is that it is 'not' the PNM, and it is playing that card every chance it gets, much to Dr. Rowley's consternation.

His failure to see that Kamla's success was based on 'a severing of ALL ties 'Panday' and a distancing from his legacy' remains costly, as he Rowley is beset on all sides by Manning himself and those still considered loyal to him in the Party; he still can make no such claim.

His hands are completely tied and the UNC, realizing that they have little opposition, are romping home with the spoils.

Such is the legacy of those who went before.

Eric is long dead and Robbie is packed and ready to go.

Ishwar Galbaransingh is currently awaiting trial on many matters, is currently awaiting extradition to the United States to face even more matters, but is also rumored awaiting being set free by his Party, the Judiciary being used to make his final play, and some say fools of us all.

Political Intimidation - UNC Style

When the bell for the General Election was called I felt both elated and sad.

Elated because my work and the work of many others helped to pull down a runaway Administration that, left unchecked, would have destroyed Trinidad.

Sad because the only real option available was the UNC. 

For most of us, it was a damned if you do and damned if you don't, which was why I was toying with the idea of an independent run.

Long story short, I was the only commentator not fooled by 'Kamlamania' and was the only writer of that view being published at the time. 

Needless to say I was attacked, continuously and aggressively over the course of the election. My name was smeared and a campaign to discredit and destroy me was begun in ernest.

Since April of this year I have been threatened over the phone on numerous occasions and once in person by people claiming to represent the UNC.

Usually I would delete these things because, like all decent human beings, seeing my name in something like this angered, hurt and shamed me to myself. I will not delete anymore and I will expose it here for all to see and understand UNC styled politics.

They continue to undermine me and spread lies to 'neuter' me, but the tens of thousands of 'followers' that my blog 'Plaintalk-tt.com' has is a real threat to them.

I will not be silenced by this bunch of malcontents, and to paraphrase the Bible, if not me then the rocks themselves will speak out.

This is what I received today because I was 'tagged' in a PNM released video of the UNC's party to celebrate yet another journalist leaving the profession for a 'gift' position:

(This is the video in question - http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=144880845563270&comments)

[START]

Crystal Sankar 28 November at 13:16 Report

Dear Phillip---i noticed you tagged "all the lies exposed" on someone's personal party footage. if so can you just explain whether you now believe calder hart and manning are saints who did not plunder form the country and that the guanapo church and all other misdeeds from the disastrous manning regime are now right and true. can you put your opinion in the public record. devant maharaj

Phillip Edward Alexander 28 November at 14:10

I have no control of who tags me in what video, PNM does it and UNC does it and it is disingenuous for you to pretend otherwise or to behave like being tagged in a thing gives you authorship.

With regard to the video in question, I 'shared' it on my wall because it is disgusting.

With regards to my position on Manning and Hart, read my blog. I have a very public record, and I stand on it.

Also, I have copied this message and pasted it on my wall for all to see, and have tagged Devant Maharaj in it.

Crystal Sankar 28 November at 17:32 Report

Please tell me why is a private lime disgusting to you? Are you a sicko? Is it true as Winston Ragoo says that you use your son as an excuse to pretend that you're a fighter of children's rights when in fact you're trying to get children to molest? Is it true that you used to beat your child's mother mercilessly? You disgusting PNm nasty child molester, Ryan will get you. You all think Ryan dead but he's still here. And good thing you publish Devant';s name. Now he could report you to facebook. LOLOL. Tell Pearce your fellow bullerman child molester I still coming for him.This message from Phillip ChildMolester Edward Woman Beater Alexander.

[END]

I will publish all as I get them from now on.

I wanted to end by calling on Devant Maharaj himself to comment on and distance himself from any involvement here, but really, what's the use? He is tagged here anyway, just in case.

Desperately Seeking Obama...

You don't run for Public Office for the sake of being something, you do it to do something, to make a real difference for all the people - Barack Obama

Listening to Barack Obama speak tonight I am reminded of all the reasons why I admire this man.

When he was sworn in as President he had to hit the ground running, because his job required that he literally save the world.

He was pressed into immediate service to reinvent foreign policy in a world where America was despised, to halt financial Armageddon as the global economy was in full blown recession and the US economy on the brink of collapse and, if that weren't enough, the world was being threatened with a swine flu pandemic that had many panicking and was shutting down countries at the border.

For the first time in two centuries Mexico was literally closed for business for two weeks, and nervous reaction to this unknown threat saw Middle Eastern nations destroying entire stocks of pigs as if it were possible to shut that proverbial barn door after the fact.

In the US, Companies with hundred plus years pedigree were winding up and going out of business on a daily if not hourly basis, and the crisis of the burst housing bubble meant that most people's homes were worth far less than the mortgage.

As President, Obama also inherited two major unpopular wars begun by his predecessor, to which he was committed to ending, and if his legacy was that he hit three out of four of those balls out of the park, history would have been very kind to him for trying. But this was a man who was driven to bring real change, and barely six months in Office reinvented the global face of America, put a halt to the financial crisis and began the beginning of the end of the war.

He also found the time to change America by enacting the long fought for and embattled Health Care Reform Bill and signed it into law.

Contrast that with Trinidad:

We have a fairly healthy economy albeit with some challenges that need addressing, some far more urgently than others; we possess a health care system barely in existence and a crime wave brought on largely by bad management and a State 'allowed' flourishing drug trade.

Most if not all of the issues that plague our country are the result of bad management and political bureaucracy gone mad, and most if not all could be solved in six months or less.

With a population of 1.3 million people, we would barely qualify as a ward much less a county in the US, and it would be fair to say that with a true Leader in Office, all of our problems would be solved before lunch time Tuesday freeing everyone up for a round of golf.

I am tired of the apologists telling me that the Government is only in Office six months, as if six months is not a lot of time.

Had our Prime Minister the tenacity and drive of a Barack Obama, she would have forgone the self glorifying trips and stayed home to fix the problems. Taken one by one, the country could have been treated to success after success buoyed on the tides of the popularity the Government enjoyed post election, and I have been telling them this since day one.

Imagine the glory of a crime problem put down by the immediate deployment of required resources, the establishment of police/army bases in the heart of all 'hot spots', the creation of community police and neighborhood police posts, the establishment and deployment of a 'Roads & Highway Patrol' and a zero tolerance policy on unlicensed firearms with onerous fines and jail times coupled with a gun 'buy back' plan to rid the streets of guns and put a halt to the unbelievable murder rate.

Imagine a health care system broken up and privatized with citizens guaranteed proper health care paid for by a proper and competitive National Insurance plan.

Imagine a watercourse development and expansion plan as a matter of urgency that would begin to alleviate if not solve the flooding problem as well as prepare for possible drought.

Imagine a Social Development Ministry focused on the establishment of community centers in every community, a vibrant and supported PTA and an Education System based on term by term results.

In other words, had the people seen SOME relief, anything that could have been considered results, they would still be singing the government's praises.

Instead the people have been treated to old talk, bad talk and excuses, coupled with semi literate obviously under or totally unqualified Ministers incapable of delivering an idea much less a plan who are now bent on making excuses as to their failure.

Six months in, this Government must be seen for what it is.

Save your excuses, the people want REAL change.

This one is REALLY funny...

In the old days before running water, the best place to live was up river; that way the percentage of piss in your drinking water was less. Over time we learnt to justify fighting each other for the higher ground instead of encouraging the collective to stop pissing in the water.

Surely all of the intelligence that has come and gone before would have seen the connection between piss and land value, don't you think?

How about that little black boy screaming into the void as his daddy lay dead, bleeding like a stuck pig into a drain, on that drizzly Sunday morning? Do we see the connection between his pain and society's ills?

At this point you MUST be feeling gypped because of the title, but TRUST me it gets better, this one ends funny.

Our society is circling the drain because the people (you and me), who are supposed to give a shit about that little black boy standing in the early morning drizzle screaming for someone, anyone, to make his world make sense now that his daddy is dead are so self absorbed that we do not see the connection between him and our own children.

How did we get to be so pious and sanctimonious that 'we' have no problem diagnosing the cause without knowing the facts or seeing our own hand in the matter?

We answer the question our compassion asks that his lifestyle, his activities somehow led him to that end, and our compassionate voice, realizing that it is talking to an asshole, get's quieter over time. Yet that little boy, if statistics bear out, will grow up to be an angry man, and along the way his pain will metastasize to anger and then rage, and at some point someone else will be left crying in the rain, and we still don't get it.

Before you switch off know this, you can fuel your denial in whichever way fits your fancy and you can mute the uncomfortable stories all you want, but the circle of separation between your world and his is getting tighter, and it is only a matter of time before your worlds collide. 

We need to get over ourselves before it is too late and do what it takes to fix this, and as uncomfortable as this discussion is, we HAVE to have it.

The system is broken, the people are hurting and our best years are being spent pursuing conspicuous consumption. If you live a life of opulence and you think you deserve it because of some effort you made you're deluded, and worse, because you do not see that your need to deprive others to cover your own sense of inadequacy while pithy and sad is not the whole problem here, but actually fuels the demise of the quality of life you are chasing is saddest of all.

Would that we could get over ourselves for a minute and realize that the equity trapped in our delusions of grandeur could solve ALL the problems that plague our society, we would need no religion, no life coach, no gurus to provide us with answers.

We need them now because we need someone, anyone to tell us w'ere not really assholes, that it IS okay to be this self absorbed.

It's not.

Our diseases are common, our pain is shared, and if we do not get it and get it quick we will make the world harder for our children and for theirs.

Our education system fails them and we blame them for their lack of education. Our banks work to prevent them from owning homes yet we curse them for squatting and for needing Government subsidized housing.

We are both the problem and solution here, and we need to face it.

We need to take action beyond lip service, to join hands, show compassion, find solutions that lift our brothers up; We need to care about others and care deeply, way beyond the dollar we give the grocery bag boy and the ghetto youth wiping our window at the traffic light.

We need to provide decent wages for decent jobs, hope and opportunity and access to equity and ownership so that all can be contributing members of society.

Rounding up the homeless and killing the little blacks boys is not going to solve the problem, and if we do not find a way to share this world a little better it is only going to get worse.

Much worse.

We need to learn to stop pissing in our own water, because we are almost out of time.

How funny is that?