Legends of Corruption...

For those 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 speaks 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 what one wants to give Williams credit for one also has to despise him. His death led to a national relief of such proportions that regardless of who was appointed his successor they were bound to fail, if only as some measure of after the fact 'payback.' I firmly believe that even if George Chambers had found the cure for cancer he was still going to lose at the polls 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 seen to be down.

Whether you think it rIght or wrong, the people wanted their say and their day and would not have been denied. That day 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 coupled with austerity measures were a conflicting mix, and the newly unchained people were ready to protest any and everything that drew their ire. The failed 1990 attempted coup may have been a 'misread' by the powers behind Bakr, because in their acceptance of the above fact, gave Trini's credit for more than they deserved. Yes people were going to wine and march around the Red House and beat drums and chant, but participation in uprising was something else entirely and Trinis weren't ready for that. Picking up arms against the State was seen as akin to fighting with your father, and regardless of how deserving for a 'come-uppance' he was, we just weren't brought up that way.

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

Manning's first term post Robbie was a return to the pilfering time and credited with some questionable dealings by men like Saith and the Chinese Mafia, but nothing prepared 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 became quick legend and attracted other men of the greed faith to the feast. Men like Karamath, Gillette, Ganga, Carlos and Duprey quickly became household names, but no one before or since were as able as Ish. Being East Indian had its privelages and he was allowed into the inner circles of a UNC that none of the others could fully join. This was no world for pretend hindus, not when the real thing was rampant and flying high.

That this country owes a forever debt of gratitude to Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj for pulling down this band of thieves (regardless of his personal motives) need to be said over and over and over. Not only was Ish removed from the feeding trough, the then UNC's removal from Public Office saved us from losing (among other things) Petrotrin, the Caroni rum stocks and the pitch lake to this band of ruthless thieves.

Following Ramesh's lead, Manning went on to disembowel the UNC in a full 'all fours' styled sweep by (high) attacking the Party all of its financiers and bringing them before the Courts; (low) by shutting down Caroni Limited to remove 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 same trough Ish built, but the PNM, in outdoing the same UNC through the corrupt enrichment of some of it's own members and the dictatorial megalomania of its then leader, drank the very poison the Party poured for the UNC.

Where do we go from here? Stay tuned...

On the Budget 2011-12

Dear Mr. Minister,

It is a widely known fact that in countries where home ownership outnumbers house renters, the negatives in society such as crime and addicted behavior are sharply reduced. In these countries communities thrive, neighborhoods glisten and the people live secure with their families and their neighbors. Drug blocks and gang dens cannot spring up, and if they do they do not last because the home owners will neither accept nor tolerate it in their communities. Sadly in our country the opposite occurs, and we are ending up with a large peasant class beholding to landlords for their living space.  As it stands the people of this nation are disenfranchised due to the sheer impossibility of the average person to own a home, and because of this families break, neighborhoods collapse and the society as a whole fails to thrive. Where vibrant communities made up of generations that have grown together over the years should be standing we have ended up with ghettoes and squatter communities, broken families and children with no understanding of their rich history or their culture.

All of this has been wrought on the people by either unsophisticated or uncaring governments in the past, but the fruits of those failed policies have led us to where we find ourselves as a nation today. Mr. Minister, few Ministries have the capacity to effect dramatic social change for all manner of people like yours can, and the instrument of the budget to lead social reform through proper legislation and taxation is the central pillar of a functional capitalist democracy as you are no doubt well aware. They say that some men are born great while others have greatness thrust upon them, and regardless of how you come to find yourself where you are at this moment in history, I implore you to seize the opportunity to make this blessed nation the paradise on earth it was meant to be for all of its citizens. The burden now falls to you to wrench the momentum from its current course and redirect the ship of state to calmer and steadier seas.

Our intention must be to make it easy for people to acquire their own homes, and I would like to suggest the following.

We need to:

• Abolish the Stamp Duty on houses under one million dollars for first time buyers.
• Offer 'simple' mortgages based on 'principal plus ten per cent' over twenty years for first time home owners for houses under one million dollars. (In other words, someone borrowing one million would only have to pay back one point one million over the life of the loan)
• Offer zero deposit down on first time home owners for houses under one million dollars.

These three acts alone could propel current renters into home ownership in quick time as it would immediately become cheaper and easier to buy than to rent. This would cause a boom in the real estate and construction sectors for houses in the target range, and people who currently cannot qualify to own homes will suddenly become kings of their castles, raising many from barely making ends meet to people of means.

We live on a rather small island and there is no escaping the fact that land is a scarce resource. To ensure this plan could become a reality we also need to guarantee that there are houses available to be purchased and that idle housing land is put to the use for which it was intended. This needs addressing and can be re-engineered utilizing the property tax system.

To discourage real estate being used as investment (which drives the prices up due to supply and demand) I would like to propose that taxes on first homes be minimal if at all, but taxes on second homes be set at a rate that makes real estate speculation less attractive and taxes on third and fourth homes burdensome. Idle housing lands also need to be addressed, and all idle land not developed for more than three years should be reclaimed by the State and auctioned. While the very rich may be tempted to see this as a tax on their success, nothing could be further from the truth as what I am suggesting here is the removal of idle capital stored in a manner that is having a negative effect on the society as a whole and redirecting it elsewhere. Perhaps as a counter balance to this measure incentives could be offered for agricultural and entrepreneurial financing, government guarantees and tax breaks so as to create a new industry in the place of the one being removed.

Mr. Minister, should you see the benefits of these suggestions and act on them, you would be single handedly transforming many of the people of this country from handout seeking drones into forward looking, family-oriented, progressive middle classed people, reduce crime and develop our nation for the better. A richer legacy you would be hard pressed to find, and you would be forever remembered for having re-engineered a failed State into a vibrant, evolved and civil society dedicated to the advancement of all its citizens and not just a privileged few.

Incestuous Politics & Noise...

With the release of the Nelson Street 21 came the type of jubilation and celebration worthy of a Mandela or a Gandhi, yet in reality, who we were dealing with here were a bunch of petty thugs, hoodlums and wanna be gangsters who have been terrorizing people unrestrained and to whom the law and its enforcement has become a nuisance to be overcome rather than a guide and a consequence. While none of us took pride in seeing these 'innocent' looking young men being arrested, shackled together and whisked away in the backs of vans like animals (and many of us said so publicly), with the release of the CCTV footage showing just how brazen some of these same people could be when committing invasive advantageous robberies, the same many were forced to rethink our initial assessment.



The Opposition for their part in deciding to capitalize on the public's chafing at being made to live under rules may have inadvertently found themselves coming down on the wrong side of the issue and are appearing to support crime. It is supremely ironic that the same PNM that could not put a dent in crime when in government are now in fact raising their voices on behalf of the alleged criminals, as if redemption from the consequences of bad choices is hallowed ground.



Are we really fighting here for our right to be lawless?






If that is the case then we are far further gone than any of us realize. Psychologists tell us that our criminal underclass says more about us than we care to know, and in Trinidad it seems to expose the fact that we are an indisciplined, unruly people.

The DPP has been thrust into celebrity status for upholding his end of the law, but what was taken from it and made a fuss of was 'we' DPP slap down 'your' AG, as if the two arms of the State's legal machinery have now been remade into some sort of political front line.

 


Who is this helping?

Many if not all of our problems exist in the dual realms of either our unwillingness to observe the law or of others charged with the responsibility of enforcing it, failing to so do. Now that the script has been flipped and choice has been removed from all the participants in this tragic dance, many of the same people are now clamoring for representation against the same law enforcement we were clamoring for when the PNM were in Office, for which we ostensibly voted them out of Office for, and I think we need to ask, will the real T&T please stand up?

To my mind the State of Emergency has given us some important successes, but because it creates opportunity for abuse by those so bent it should be done away with as soon as possible. The police, the army, the citizenry and the underworld are now well aware of two things: That this government is serious, and that a State of Emergency works at suppressing crime. Should it even be considered a crime fighting tool despite its origins and what it was created for?

Absolutely. Anyone who says that we were not living in a state of utter chaos and lawlessness before is a liar, and the ONLY thing left to try, the absolute last resort that no one wanted to use worked and worked well. Now the questions we need to ask are where do we go from here and how. What did the State of Emergency give us that we did not have before, and how do we import those things into our normal state without ceding ground to the criminal class once again.

Someone needs to tell Dr. Rowley and crew that you cannot just oppose everything outright and expect to be considered and option or a part of the solution. Regardless of how good it may make the government look in the short term, if you are for country first and have the interest of the people at heart then have the balls to say we failed at crime, you have a go at it. The PNM is coming across like a band of noisemaking dogs barking at everything that moves from behind their fence and again I need to ask, who is this serving?

The opposition needs to put its house in order and realign itself with the political reality as it exists today, that the people are not remotely interested in a government soft on crime. No amount of noise can distract from that truth, and the people are definitely no longer interested in noise.

R Soles...

Once when shopping for running shoes in a large Miami sporting goods warehouse I stumbled upon a box of cross trainers that were not on the display and asked if they had my size in them. The customer service representative explained to me that those items could not be sold because they were all 'R Soles.' Intrigued I pressed further, only to learn that because of a design flaw or other fault, bad performance or because the shoes did not last nearly as long as they were supposed to, they were known in the trade as 'Reject Soles' or 'R Soles' for short; he went on to add that because they failed under pressure and did not perform as advertised they could not be sold. Impressed, I left the store thinking what a wonderful concept that was, the idea of rejecting a thing for poor performance and it got me to thinking about life in sweet T&T and some of the R Soles we have to deal with on a daily basis.

Take the Licensing Office for example, it is the first place that comes to mind when we think of R Soles as the service there is never as it should be and ought to be rejected. Most Government Offices, cell phone companies and many banks are also populated with an abundance of R Soles, as are just about any place where customer service seems like more of a chore than a service. In many of these establishments you can bet your last dollar you will be dealing with R Soles - people who look the part but fail to deliver on the promise or who should not be dealing with customers in the first place; I remember having to deal with a certain assistant Manager in a Bmobile store in the west who is not only an R Sole among R Soles, I believe that she could possibly be their queen.

Then there are the R Soles in public Service, those who seem to take pleasure in making the experience of dealing with them reminiscent of a root canal without anesthesia. Have you ever needed assistance and ran into one of these non-compliance officers who have absolutely no interest in you or your problem and seem to make your life harder just for sport? 
You just dealt with an R Sole.

Teachers who are absent more times than present, who come late and leave early and whose classes produce the lowest performers consistently are all R Soles who are in the wrong profession.

Racist health care providers are R Soles, as are racists everywhere.

People who loot insurance companies and leave the mess for others to clean are R Soles, Ministers who guarantee to bail out said firms armed only with fraudulent fantasy as Company paper work are R Soles as well. The entire Supervisor of Insurance department as well as the Central Bank seems to be flush with incompetent R Soles for failing to spot that onrushing train, and the many overnight financial wizards who knew what to do and to who are all R Soles too.

Drug traffickers are R Soles, but not as big as the corrupt public officials in customs and national security agencies that allow them to prosper. Those are the real R Soles, as are the banks and private companies that launder the loot so that the trade could continue.

There are R Soles in Government and Opposition as well as is clear to see. Whoever decided that WASA does not need clearance from local government to dig the roads is an R Sole. Not realising that having the road repair team on stand by is a testimony to this. 

The entire Opposition seems to be operating in R Sole mode as no one is sure what they stand for anymore. For a man who appeared so competent in the past, their leader is coming across as an R Sole for much of what he says, and if he is only guilty of taking bad advice from faulty advisors, those people are R Soles too.

Whoever advised the Prime minister that to promise a fixed election date, recall and referendum legislation and then renege once in Office is an R Sole, as are those who misprinted the pension promise.

Allowing corrupt R Soles to serve in public posts and State Boards makes an R Sole of the system designed to prevent such appointments, and until we insist that they take Integrity in Public Life and the Parliamentary Code of Ethics seriously we are all allowing R Soles to prosper.

Did the DPP, when he opted not to prosecute the Nelson Street 21 (for a lack of evidence to support the charges as laid) make an R Sole of the AG?

Some might beg to differ as, based on the subsequently released CCTV footage of many of the same 'gang' working together to make robbery victims of unsuspecting motorists stuck in traffic, the argument could be made that their fake innocence coupled with their legal team's hollow triumph may well have made R Soles of us all. 

Quotable Quotes...

In researching quotes for an article I stumbled on the following by George Orwell: 

"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act."

So beautifully simple in the ease with which it conveyed the idea it leapt off the page at me. It was listed on a page of many other well crafted offerings, and as some were more memorable than others I decided to compile a few and share them.

These are some of those that I found:

Democracy is being allowed to vote for the candidate you dislike least.- Robert Byrne - So many examples come to mind.

He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander. - Napoleon Bonaparte - Prudent knowledge, this.

I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. - Will Rogers - I would hope the media adopts this policy at some point.

I think it's a terrible shame that politics has become show business. - Sydney Pollack - Could not have said it better Sydney, all odor, no substance.

If a politician murders his mother, the first response of the press or of his opponents will likely be not that it was a terrible thing to do, but rather that in a statement made six years before he had gone on record as being opposed to matricide. - Meg Greenfield - In other words, lie, lie, lie.

If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable. - Louis D. Brandeis – So very well said.

In politics nothing is contemptible. - Benjamin Disraeli - Panjack, Ramjack, Gypsyjack, and now Kamjack. Hey, whatever works for you when ethics is not a consideration.

Politics have no relation to morals. - Niccolo Machiavelli - Patrick Mervyn Eustace Dhanraj Leeking Sabga Manning.

Politics is the art of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable. - John Kenneth Galbraith - Manning vs Warner

So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights, we'll be called a democracy.  - Roger Nash Baldwin – Our creed

The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis. - Dante Alighieri - for the mocking pretenders, the centrist deserters, those who resist the call to put Country First.

The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal, that you can gather votes like box tops is, I think, the ultimate indignity to the democratic process. - Adlai E. Stevenson - And will eventually undo us all

The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. - John Stuart Mill – Absolutely agree.

The secret of getting things done is to act! - Dante Alighieri

Those who stand for nothing fall for anything. - Alexander Hamilton - you see them every election in their orgasmic frenzy, parroting their leaders' drivel.

'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death. - Thomas Paine - Put that on my tombstone, chisel it deep so it will last a long, long time.

We have, I fear, confused power with greatness. - Stewart Udall - Only the public's response will change this.

You cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow your way out of debt. - Daniel Hannan - Hmmm

You have not converted a man because you have silenced him. - John Morley - Truth lives beyond

It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.  - Walter Lippmann - Wow!

In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery? -  Saint Augustine – The repeated raiding of our Treasury is proof of this.

Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed. - Benjamin Franklin - Agreed

Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights. Because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper. - Larry Flynt - Lol

The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return. - Gore Vidal - Vexing

A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history. - Mohandas Gandhi - ENT?

So, standing on the shoulders of giants, I left this for last:

"Until we know what we want and demand it, others will decide what we get, and we'll have to settle for it" - Phillip Edward Alexander

A Letter to the Prime Minister...

Dear Madame Prime Minister,

While I derive some measure of satisfaction from knowing that the Government reads my suggestions and follows up on a few of the ideas, I also know that many 'consultants' are being paid big money for my ideas as if reading a blog qualifies them as consultants. Between you and me, every now and then I would not turn down a check for my contributions that bear fruit, and please note, there are two 'L's in Phillip.

Nevertheless, withholding my suggestions out of spite helps no one, so whether or not you do the right thing Kamla, here are some more suggestions. It is laid out as a 'modified' version of the Twelve Step program, something many of us should already be familiar with:

- We admitted we were powerless

This is an important step to embrace, especially when one realizes that the promises made to get into Office cannot be realistically kept now that we are 'in' Office.

- Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

But Jack Warner is not Bas, no way, no how, never.

- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

Go ahead. Give the old boy a call. Heaven knows he bored sitting down home harassing poor Oma.

- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of our stuff.

You have surrounded yourself with some mooks, bandwagonists, incompetents, malcontents and ne'er do wells. Time to shake them loose.

- Admitted to ourselves the exact nature of our wrongs.

Yeah there were some mis-steps along the way

- Were entirely ready to remove all these defects of character.

As mih Jamaican pardner say "Fire dey bumbaclat arse".

-  asked for help to remove our shortcomings.

Yes you have my support, fire Warner, Ramadhar Singh, Emmanuelle George and Ganga too!

- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

Send Patos a sponge cake and a bottle of sea moss. What more he could want? 

- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Call Bas

- Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

And doh just use CNMG eh...

- Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

Big thinking this...

- Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

This too...

All joke and fun aside Madame Prime Minister, the burden of Governance cannot be easy and I am fully aware that you cannot please all of the people all of the time.

What you can do, however, and what I strongly suggest you do is to hold to higher principles always. 

Principles such as:

• Keep your word.
• When you cannot keep your word, explain why, apologize for the situation, and move on.
• Be conscious of the smallest and the weakest, and refrain from using them to score political points.
• Serve the people; more than anything, this is the rock on which they will break you, or the pedestal from which you will truly rise.
• Be for ALL the people, even the ones who don't look like you or didn't support you. You are now EVERYONE's Prime Minister.
• Hire from outside the Party. Yup, nothing says Leadership more than someone who is willing to try and unite ALL the people through sending the right signals.
• Get rid of dead weight; refuse to appoint or cancel the appointments of those who the people vehemently reject, as they may serve you some purpose now but they will be viewed as part of a sinister motive and will end your career as surely as it did your predecessors. 
• Get rid of the failures. A year and four months in you must already know who pulling stones. Cut them loose now.
• Extradite Ish & Steve, prosecute Brian and the rest. If you ever wanted to leave a legacy, be the PM who restored Trinidad to glory. Prosecute Duprey, Hart, Monteil, even Bas and Patos if they stole too.Take steps to repatriate the people's money. Show the country that you are 'for the people' and they will make you their Queen.

Madame Prime Minister, the country needs strong leadership now and I urge you to not waste this golden opportunity entrusted to you by the people. Where we go from here is up to you to decide, but choose wisely. Make your decisions based on how you want to be remembered, not on who calling you 'friend' right now.

Ask Patrick Manning, I am sure he will tell you, a legacy is a hell of a thing to waste.

Warmest regards,

Phillip

Solving the Diego Martin Traffic Problem... (at least in the short term)

In a nutshell, we all know that the traffic to get into Diego Martin and Petit Valley on an afternoon backs up as far as Movie Towne. Principally caused by customers trying to park at Starlite Shopping Plaza, it is further aggravated by activities going on around Four Roads. My plan would involve the creation of a by pass system that  would require less than a month to complete and should not cost five million if it costs a cent. 

In an ideal world we would get support from the owners of Starlite who could if motivated make the plaza a one way in one way out roundabout using the Morne Coco Road entrance, thereby solving the back up onto the highway caused by customers waiting to park, effectively constricting the dual lane to one. By using the Morne Coco entrance this overflow of waiting cars would be handled within the confines of the plaza's property and would not present any obstruction to the free flow of traffic on the Diego Martin Main Road.

Whether or not we get that support fro Starlite or not, the real meat of the plan involves creating a 'by pass' lane on the southbound side by appropriating the western most lane and using New Jersey Barricades as a partition, exit vehicles at the entrance opposite Victoria Gardens and run them up behind the block that contains the police and fire stations, beyond the gas station, alongside Acton Court and filtered into the extreme right lane on the northbound Crystal Stream Highway. This would allow for those desirous of going to Four Roads and Starlite the option, while allowing those who have no such intention to bypass that bottle neck entirely.

To compensate the southbound lane starting at Crystal Stream above Acton Court enough land exists on both sides to create a new lane so as to accommodate the by pass. By the time the road reaches the Four Roads traffic light there is enough idle land on the extreme eastern side to easily create another lane that finishes one quarter mile down opposite the Victoria Gardens entrance.

Important to this plan is the removal of the Four Roads traffic light at the southbound side and the installation of a walkover.

While this plan should not be considered permanent, it would bring immediate and much welcomed relief to the residents who live beyond Four Roads and give them back at least an hour of their lives if not more lost to traffic everyday. It would bring relief to the residents of Westmoorings and St. James whose streets are blocked on afternoons as drivers seek shortcuts to skip the traffic. It would lower the mood in Diego Martin and make living there a joy once again.

This plan could be implemented at night as much of the required roadway is already there, limiting inconvenience and further stress to road users. 

By creating this by pass we would also ease up the morning commute as the Acton Court merge lane will be gone and with it the morning bottle neck as parents try to get their kids to school crossing the three lanes of highway. With the traffic lights and that bottle neck gone, families could leave home a little later and enjoy free flowing traffic out of Diego Martin and environs, making this plan a workable success all the way around.

I am submitting this plan to Nicole Dyer Griffith, COP candidate for the constituency who intends to suggest it to the Minister of Works and we will try to see if some version of it could be created in the coming months. Hopefully we can get both the political will and the funding to do this, proving that you do not have to be in government to effect change.