(TWICKS): This Week In Clusterf@$KS – Feb 6th- 12th, 2012

The calm and unflappable face of the TTPS: Sgt Wayne Mystar. Photo courtesy the Newsday's website.

This wasn’t a good week for the Trinidad and Tobago Police service inspite of the straight face and neutral voice of Sgt Wayne Mystar. Just as the public seemed to be coming to terms with their brutal handling of members of the Panorama semis crowd came the announcement of a raid on Newsday’s office that targeted specifically reporter Andre Bagoo.

The cornered Jack Warner

Fmr Fifa Vice President, Jack Warner also had a pretty screwed week, what with Fifa suspending his pension plan, the Soca Warriors seizing his property in lieu of payments owed and now his name being linked to a Haitian aid scandal. I’m not sure that Warner can build enough roads and bridges to dig himself out of the hole he in. http://wired868.com/868/index.php/volley/item/91-warner-named-in-haitian-aid-scandal

Justice Gladys "De Badiss" Gafoor. Photo courtesy Newsday.

Deputy Chair woman of the Integrity Commission, the badiss Gladys Gafoor, has gone from admonishing Ken Gordon to being in the centre of a $hit storm so magnificent it may well put an end to Intergrity Commissions. It is alleged that Mrs Gafoor has been leaking information to the media: specifically journalist Andre Bagoo. In light of this President Fete to de Max Richards dismissed Justice Gafoor from the IC (and that dismissal in and of itself rife with kuchoor, because the media release was intercepted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Communications and doctored before being released to the public. No one knows who did the doctoring or why…just that it was done). The IC then called for a full investigation. This investigation led to a raid on a media house and the entire People’s Panchayat Govt rushing to condemn the police’s action, and for the AG to go so far as to deny association with the Anti-Corruption Investigation Bureau (who carried out the raid) even though they fall within the ambit of the AG’s office. Ramlogan has gone on record to the Trinidad Express as saying he, “he viewed any continued connection between his office and the ACIB as an “embarrassment” and intended to speak with Commissioner of Police Dwayne Gibbs to once again assume full control of the unit.” http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/NO_CONTROL__OVER_COPS-139168474.html. If indeed Justice Gafoor did leak information to Andre Bagoo then she has single handedly created problems for the Integrity Commission, the Government and the Media…..and people wonder why the Pantomime say Gladys is a Badiss or Epic Proportions!

Such is the influence of the “Badiss” that COP Leader Prakash Ramadhar suddenly remembered that he too had a mandate in the Parliament not as Kamla Rani’s stooge, but as the representative of a demographic, and he took to the television to make clear that his party in no way supported the attack on reporter Andre Bagoo and the Newsday.

Andre Bagoo: the little reporter who could, and may well be the straw to break the IC's back! Photo courtesy Andre Bagoo's blog.

This latest snafu with the IC has many calling for an end to the institution. What’s the point of this committee if we clearly no longer have citizens with integrity. It seems every week there’s a new problem with a member of the integrity commission. From priests who plagiarise, to entire Commissions being found lacking and having to dismantle. If we don’t have the people to man the board….then dismantle the Pappy Show! http://newsday.co.tt/news/print,0,155132.html

Another niggling issue has to be the invincibility of Hot Shot Top Cop Dwayne Gibbs. This man like Teflon! HE remains untouched by a failed State of Emergency, questionable dispensation of public funds, support of Police intimidation of the Media and general incompetence. Every week there is a new installment to the Dwayne Glibbs’ show and no one seems motivated to fire him. The Government studiously ignores all calls for Glibbs’ removal…and I’m beginning to think that Glibbs’ job isn’t to deal with crime, but to act as the Government’s Fall Guy for all breaches in the protective services…..so it’s never the People’s Panchayat’s fault….just that damned foreigner from Canada, ent Kamla Rani?

Apart from the issues with the FIFA, TTFF, Police, Media and IC, the energy industry has been having a tumultuous week that has been overshadowed. Ministers Bhoe Tewarie and Kevin Ramnarine are embroiled in transactions with Saudi Arabia that led to the US having to levy a boof on the PM and now moves to privatise Trinmar seem suspicious. Is the national patrimony being sold? And if so are members of this govt lining themselves up to benefit from the sales while the country continues to suffer?
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/OWTU_concerned_over_Energy_Ministry_s__privatisation__move-139168429.html

Sita Gajardharsingh-Nanga. Photo courtesy Trinidad Express.

The Principal at the Tunapuna Hindu School, Sita Gajardarsingh-Nanga, got her transfer, then decided that she liked Sat Maharaj’s mistreatment of her more than she wanted to transfer; and so has declined the opportunity to transfer. Expect fireworks in the coming week on this issue….because with no more feral cattle to rustle in Icacos, Sat can now return to the issues that he loves best: blocking school gates, searching for visible panty lines, ferreting out non-Hindus, and managing wilful Hindu women who don’t know their place under him! http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Sat__Sita_can_t_be_principal_at_2_schools-139168464.html

And with all of these issues occupying our minds we still have:
*Dwayne Glibb’s crop duster plane rented at $.9m and the reasoning behind it.
* An explanation for the Newsday raid.
* TV6 Board of Directors being called in for questioning on the Crime Watch Rape tape.
* Dwayne Gibb’s assessment by the PSC….how this man still have ah wuk?

* 3 violent murders this week.
And the usual bacchanal leading up to the festival that defines this country, for better or for worse, Carnival!

De Vice Cyah Done!