Crime Clusterf@$k/Political Pantomime 23 mts, 3dys: Over time and Sister Acts!

I wonder if Tim Goopeesingh was as successful a gynaecologist as he is a Minister of Education? It seems every week this minister finds new ways to rub stakeholders of education in the wrong way….last week was Kindergarten for All! A few weeks before that was the change in the SEA dates which impacts on grading of scripts, student placement in secondary schools, registration of students at secondary schools….and he seems hellbent on antagonising the nation’s teachers. There are constant implications by the Min of Ed that there are delinquent teachers in the service….further there are steady implications that he thinks the general teaching service is delinquent…what Goopeesingh fails to indicate as well is that the Ministry of Education has clear rules, guidelines and industrial relations regulations that it can , and often fails, to follow that can discipline teachers. In the case of teachers taking more overtime than they are entitled to the MoE has a very effective form of retribution….they deduct the money from teacher’s salaries and the excess overtime and unworked days also affect the teacher’s eventual gratuity and pension…..why the Min of Ed doesn’t also explain this to the public is beyond me.
As per longer working hours…..you going to the union with that Tim? Because trust me, the minute you talking longer working hours, then you are talking a renegotiation of people’s terms of employment and that’s something you, the TSC and the union have to discuss….asking for people’s feedback at a meeting is you being a bacchanalist and raising a red herring…..what happen, you find we too focused on Vidwattie Newton the Travelling Assistant Nurse?

And when you talk about removing bank time, I guess you in talks with the union? Yes? Or you providing laptops for all teachers to allow them to do online banking?

Tim, one would hope that you would be a little less eager about playing smart with foolishness. In your constant harping about teacher’s overtime and vacation allocations what you are attempting to do is stigmatise teachers….but perhaps you can explain to teachers why over half their numbers cannot, independent of a partner or spouse, qualify for a half-decent medical nor look forward to a decent retirement?

It is seriously unfortunate that the route you have taken, from day one of your tenure as Minister of Education is to antagonise teachers and exclude them from the decision-making process on matters that directly impact on them….but carry on smartly Tim….I done seeing the end of your reign.

Hear nah….is ah Yorker Prakash pelt down the pitch at Kamla? Just so just so, after I done say a requiem mass for COP Testicular fortitude Prakash come and make me look like I lying on him! So no mayorship, no love? Prakash, is that you? And now they threatening to act independently when it comes to legislation and policy! Folks…..it sounding like we might have 2 oppositions in parliament…Prakash now start to talk like the COP going to do what people put them there to do…keep the Govt in check!!!
But it might be too late…..the horse done bolt the stable Prakash…Kamla say no referendum for all yuh…further to that this government get fat and full from eating ah food….too many abuses have taken place that you have remained silent on as an “independent” part that claims to be principled….you have to come real good to convince me that you aint still struggling to remain politically relevant while still eating ah food….but thanks for the excitement on the news!

For the idiots who keep defending the PMs hiring  of her sister….let me repeat slowly….there is no position called travel assistant…and according to the TnT Mirror’s recent lead story….Vidwattie is not a registered nurse. So, let me hear all yuh? How all yuh defending this abuse of state funds? In what capacity Vidwattie actually travelling with her sister if travel assistant doesn’t exist as a post and she is not registered to practise as a nurse?

Let me ask the questions again:
Didn’t the PM say that President Robinson’s son functioned as a travel assistant? What happen to that? Was it a lie?

Didn’t the PM say that India paid for the state visit? Then why Cabinet approve spending for that? How can cabinet approve spending for a position that doesn’t exist? Was the COP a part of this Cabinet? What happened to that? Was it lie?

Didn’t the PM say she paid her sister out of her own pocket? Then how come the Cabinet approved funding for Vidwattie Newton. What happened to that? Was it a lie?

Didn’t you say, Madam PM, that she travelled with you as a travel assistant? Then why Roodal Moonilal say in Parliament last week that the post of travel assistant doesn’t exist? What happen to that? Was it a lie?

Didn’t Roodal, the Leader of Govt Buffoonery say in parliament that Ms Newton travelled with you as a nurse, (again under privileges…..this man does real abuse this thing, oui.)? Why are we now hearing that your sister is not a registered nurse in either Trinidad or the UK? What happen with that? Was it a lie?

When does this government tell the truth?

A businessman on scrap iron charges.. I want to hope he resembling Sandy and have a diesel bunker in the Beetham…if not, then I am beginning to think that this government has spent a lot of time during the SoE stigmatising crime and criminal activities here…..and they wouldn’t do that, would they?

 

Folks, is only Monday you know….pace this week!

 

De Vice Cyah Done!

Crime Clusterf@$k/Political Pantomime 23mts, 1dy: 1st Class Ticket to Hell!

 

the TnT Mirror's front page story alleging that the PM's sister is not a registered nurse.....smdh!

 

 

So, in one afternoon we get three lead stories? Will there be no day that I can log on and be able to say, nothing interesting to report today folks…the government normal.

We’ve got first class sisters, spy vs spy and American gang members hiding in Trinidad….Is this a Michael Bay or Jerry Bruckheimer movie script? Because all we missing is an explosion or car chase in the next 10 seconds.

So, instead of the PM answering her own questions, the Parliamentary Buffoon was deployed once again to answer on her majesty’s behalf. So, let me get the trajectory on this straight….the State visit to India wasn’t paid for by the Indian government as our Government stated (lie 1); the PM did not pay for her sister’s travel expenses out of her own pocket (lie 2) because the Cabinet (made up of good old principled COP members) approved the payments and our tax dollars paid for it; the PM’s sister along with most of her entourage including the relative who carries her luggage, all travelled first class at the State’s expense, not India’s. The majority of the person’s mentioned in the entourage list don’t usually travel first class, but according to Perm Sec Cooper, who beginning to resemble a tick with every defence he makes of this government’s abuse of public funds, Ms Newton’s first class travel status was also Cabinet-approved (you see why Prakash, Roger and Carolyn cyah impress me? What principles?). But then explain to me why Lisa Ghany, Barry Padarath and the baggage handler all had to be in first class? Is so many people it does take to administer medication and help the PM to the ladies room? If so, then why is someone who is obviously so ill and incapacitated in charge of running a government?

And if as the Mirror’s story implies she’s not a registered nurse….then in what capacity is Ms Newton travelling with the PM?

Because the halfway Privy Council announcement didn’t quite distract us from the issue of Kamla’s abuse of State funds to advance the welfare of members of her family (doesn’t this smack of some integrity in public life breach?) Moonilal was forced to pull another trick from his sleeve, which is located at the back of his trousers, and the announcement was that this Government has been spying on us, since December 2010, and there is now a report to prove it. Moonilal is very proud of the report. Did I miss something here folks? Because the report states, according to the Express, that none of the 267 instances of interception was done on the basis of an application to a judge for a warrant to intercept, which is provided for under Section 8 of the Act. This section, however, is used when the interception is for “evidentiary purposes”. Apparently the interceptions were done under a different section of the law that allows for no warrant if the spying is done in the interest of national security and to protect the state’s economic interest and a couple other interesting areas. According to the act, the Chief of Defence Staff, the CoP and the Director of the SSA can make this judgement call……December 2010 was around the time the country was still reeling from the Reshmi Ramnarine, aka call me Shashi Rekma, incident…

And the plot thickens even further, because according to the Trinidad Guardian’s lead story this morning, illegal wiretapping and spying was happening under Basdeo Panday’s government. According to People Resembling Sandy, spying has been happening here without legislation for more than ten years. And de Bas trying to be disingenuous and say he didn’t know about it…..so as head of the National Security Council back in your day….and according to you the meetings were weekly, no one told you about these activities? That’s Insulting!

Now, remind me of something, this isn’t the same government that weep, wail and gnash its teeth when it was in Opposition over Manning spying on the population? Help me out here folks? Is it do as I say, but not as I do with this government? So you mean when Kamla was busy accusing Manning of spying on the government, she had also been part of an administration that had done the same thing….illegally…. without any proper legislation?

Where the PPG fanboys this morning, boy….how all yuh defending this one? Oh, wait, all yuh going to do like Bas and say it was for the good of the country?????

Seriously, can we get any more Orwellian in this state?

People dropping like flies in murders all over the country…the police have resumed their tune of drug-related and gang-related killings, after telling us in December right after the failed SoE (yeah, I said it!) that not all murders were gang-related….because of course then they couldn’t admit that right after a SoE to get rid of gangs, the gangs had resumed their activities.
In fact, if you were to go by SoE PR statistics, there’s no cocaine here, all the guns were confiscated, there are no gang members…..so technically Trinidad and Tobago is a crime-free state with ganja-addicted frozen chicken!

Given then that we have no serious crime here…I can only assume that it also means that we don’t have state abuse of public funds….what we have is Cabinet-approved spending for undocumented things.

We don’t have nepotism…..we have Family Values.

We don’t have credit card abuse…..we have credit card fetishes that go unchecked….and Vernella have to take this country and its Parliment for prize asses by referring to a 2004 THA document as justifcation for her overspending and abuse of the credit card….oh, wait…I keep forgetting that the PPG’s favourite hymn/bhajan/mantra/chorus/verse is the PNM do it too! Blame the PNM, Blame the PNM….

No accountability in this government, drug importation continues unchecked, violence all over the streets, a disgusted, disaffected and traumatised public, public servants being accidentally thrown into St. Anns for their own good, a tight family clique abusing the public purse….No wonder MP Amery Browne saying the MS-13 gang operating in Trinidad…..he watching them infiltrate the Parliament every week!

De Vice Cyah Done!

Crime Clusterf@$k/Political Pantomime 23 months:

 

 

In 2005, the current PM, then in Opposition announced that her party, the UNC was not in support of the CCJ and her reason was that there was no ethnic parity. I know it might escape the members of this government….but Indo-Caribbeans do not make up 40 or even 50%  of the Caribbean’s population. The Indian population lucky if it makes up 20% of the Caribbean demographic…yet here in Trinidad every day we have to grapple with an Indo-population that seems to forget that there are many other ethnic groups that exist here. As recently as last year when questioned on making the switch to the CCJ the PM said there was no need to, her government was not in any rush to dump the Privy Council, and every one knew it was because they were afraid of losing investors, as happened to Guyana when they made a similar move.

Yet as of yesterday, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, now Prime Minister, is busily embracing the CCJ, but only for criminal matters and therein lies the problem for many others in the local legal fraternity. This partial move to the CCJ has been described as illegal, unlawful and unworkable by many in the legal fraternity. Former AG John Jeremie is quoted in the Express as saying, ‘in any “criminal case” a constitutional point might arised and be argued. “It is artificial to speak about abolishing the Privy Council for criminal appeals only,” because criminal matters could have a civil dimension, he said. ‘

Another former AG, Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, has weighed in as well on the issue revealing that when he went to London in 1999 the Privy Council was not in support of a piecemeal split, but a total split:  He recalled that when he went to London in 1999 to get the approval of the British Government because the British Government had to decide whether they would keep the civil jurisdiction if the country wanted to do away with the Privy Council as the final court for the criminal jurisdiction. “We were told that they were not prepared to do that”. He said the Privy Council was quite happy to do get rid of the jurisdiction altogether, they were not prepared to accept the phased proposal.”And that was known by the present Prime Minister, because she was a member of the Cabinet” he said.

If both instances citied above are true, that splitting the final courts of appeal will cause problems for Civil and Criminal matters; and further, that the PM knows that the Privy Council won’t support this….why is she proposing this? Because clearly it won’t be a successful proposal.  It makes one wonder how exactly the PM and the AG got their silk in light of the various legal arguments that are flying about.

Meanwhile, the AG is asserting that these comments being made are mischievous and that there is “precedent in the Commonwealth” for a phased withdrawal.

So,  naturally, I have to wonder, like De Bas, if Kamla’s absence from parliament during the revelation of the use of state funds for her travel assistant/nurse sister, and her miraculous appearance to announce a half way move to the CCJ is not really another ploy to distract from her government’s abuses. Because now several things are in train, there is heated debate nationally about whether the nation wants to leave the Privy Council or not, there are cries for a referendum….that a yellow donkey and God face you aint seeing under this government, they are not about serving the people….and public scrutiny of the TT$.9m spent on Ms Vidwattie Newton has now gone to the back burner. The Prime Minister’s claims too that she needs Opposition support on this issue…yet if it is a flawed plan and The Keith decides not to support it in Parliament the UNCOP Govt will be quick to claim that the PNM doesn’t want autonomy….when in truth and in fact the issue will be that the partial move may not be a workable plan. I think Kamla and her small goal team being a bunch of tricksy little orcsessssss on this issue…gollum, gollum!

4 people have been murdered over a 24-hour period…..not a word from the government about their crime plan of late….only 21st century policing from Gibbs….and anyone remember that he didn’t have the authority to rent that $.9m Crop Duster? Whatever happened to that issue? The AG stop probing it? Like he stop probing Jack Warner and the Fifa scandal?

In the business sector issues of race, coupled with unequal pay and corporate crime continue to hamper our economic growth. When you see things like this you wish that the government spent less time trying to muzzle the media and the Opposition, (and making stupid tasteless jokes a la Roodal Moonilal) and focus on actually running the country efficiently….but that would require having a plan that’s broader and more complex than draining the treasury, wouldn’t it?

De Vice Cyah Done!

Crime Clusterf@$k/Political Pantomime 22mts, 29dys: Lies, Half Truths and Travel Assistants

 

 

As the People’s Partnership backpedal….a little over a year ago PM Kamla Persad-Bissesar was in no hurry to ditch the Privy Council… yesterday, without really explaining what caused the change of heart, the PM, in one of her rare visits to Trinidad, honoured us with her presence in Parliament and announced that we will be waving bye bye to the Privy Council.

I guess being the odd one out in the entire Caribbean and insisting there needs to be more ethnic parity on the CCJ and watching Portia Simpson-Miller receive more plaudits than her for embracing the CCJ (whose headquarters housed in Trinidad) was too much and she had to get in on the action and limelight.

On Thursday January 19th Suruj Rambachan said in an interview to the Guardian of the trip to India: “It was a state visit at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “In a state visit, everything is paid for by the government of that country,”…

This morning I am hearing that the various Ministries here, as well as the Office of the Prime Minister spent money on this trip to the tune of $868,268.11 for the Prime Minister’s Sister; $2.9 million for people from the Ministry of Energy;  $1.2 million for the Ministry of Tertiary Education; Public Utilities cost us $200,860  and Bmobile officials $304,961.

Some of these figures baffle me, because I am reliably informed that most of these officials travelled with spouses and companions….further, the PM also carried her pundit on this trip…so what was the fee for his services?

But let’s get back to the brass tacks of this matter. In January we were told that our purses didn’t feel the pinch for this trip….now were are hearing that millions were spent on the trip and to date note one word has been said about how we benefited from the trip other than numerous AP and Reuters pics of Kamla wearing malas, sarees and bowing to and kissing  Indian officials.

Remember too that the PM said at first that she paid for her sister our of her own pocket…since the treasury paid for Vidwattie Newton’s trip to India are we now saying that the Treasury is Kamla’s pocket?

Is Ms Newton a public servant?
Is Travel Assistant an approved position within the PM’s retinue?

If Ms Newton is indeed a Travel Assistant, then what does Lisa Ghany-Weeke’s do?

If Ms Newton is travelling as a professional nurse was she hired as such by this government?

Why does the PM need to travel with a professional nurse (as she has insisted)? How ill is she?

These are all questions that for some reason my pro-UNC/PP friends think I should stop asking. Why? Shouldn’t I be concerned about state funds are used for? Should I wait for the Auditor-General to tell me State abuse of funds? Years after it has happened?

Were we lied to by this government about this “state trip” to India?
Have we been lied to about the nature of Ms Newton’s presence on her 11 international trips with the PM?

Why has Ms Newton been receiving checks from the Govt? In what capacity? Why is her address listed as the Office of the Prime Minister?

I’m sorry, but the PM’s announcement that she’s not answering any further questions about her sister does not satisfy me….a tax paying member of this society.

Glen Ramadharsingh, in an attempt at self-promotion in the Parliament yesterday revealed that calls to the child hotline has tripled  in the last year. Ramadharsingh, speaking on the Children’s Bill…which was passed with 37 votes (YAY!!!!), was pointing out that he has increased monies to the Child Hotline….Glen, unless the money came out of your pocket….you didn’t do it,  WE, the Taxpayers, did!!!!!

These increases are troubling….are we really looking after our children?

A 15 year old Bagatelle youth was shot in the back…residents are alleging it’s police, and the 21st Century Police are saying it’s not them….So, I going to assume that someone in Carenage shoot a bullet up in the air and it land over  in the next Valley and hit the boy in his back…because everybody know that in Trinidad black people does only kill black people…and is only black people who violent…and if the boy was running, it had to be he was guilty right…..lawd help us if the bullet shells the villagers find really belong to a police gun….because then I will want to know why Police Officers here could only shoot young black men who resembling John Sandy in their back!

Sat Maharaj…aka the real Minister of Education….blocking TTUTA officials from entering the Tunapuna Hindu School….I can only guess that he owns the school.

La Brea villagers are protesting…..Tarouba residents protesting….Mon Desir residents protesting….every week some part of Trinidad protesting and showing their disgust with our Government…and these days the PM mum!!!!! Peas Tin attack she mouth and it swell!

2 days a go a Belmont man was found murdered in his bed….now another body has been found in Belmont with a bag over its head….repeat after me, “The SoE was a Success”…..”21st Century Policing is Working”……”We Have a Comprehensive Crime Plan”.

The latest television host to be targetted by the Govt is apparently Inshan Ishmael. Mr Ishmael is alleging that the govt is targetting him…specifically Devant Maharaj…and he is calling for Devant Maharaj to GO!!!!!!

I want all of them to go….and I done start to light my candle for them…because the longer this government stays, is then for sure we know:

De Vice Cyah Done!

CCPP 22mts and 28 days later: Attacking All Opposition

 

Ok, I don’t know about you, but these days when I get up to do this blog I keep wondering if I’m living in some alternative reality. Some days when I re-read the postings and the articles linked to them I wonder if this blog’s contents can’t qualify as a pure work of fiction. I teach Literature from time to time….and the books I focus on look at leadership, politics and social conditions since Independence. None of the books paint a pretty picture….and this blog is beginning to read like them. Corrupt leaders, creeping dictatorships, a citizenry fooled en masse by a political elite hungry to retain power at all costs, a population so desperate for deliverance it trusts any charlatan priest, prophet or politician that pops up…..I’m referring to the books….if any of it seems familiar to you, start getting worried!

I feel tired, defeated and depressed about reading the papers and listening to the news. And today was no different.

Since last week, I’ve been looking at Ian Alleyne be treated as the next messiah…all that was missing in his triumphant march through Port of Spain yesterday were palm branches and a jackass….ok….just palm branches. But as much as I find some aspects of Alleyne’s show and his public posturing crass and vulgar, I see quite plainly why he is so popular. He appears to be performing…Alleyne seems to be doing for members of the poorer classes, what the police and government seem unable to do…fight crime. If ever there was a poster boy for “perception is reality” Ian Alleyne is it!
And his success here just shows you how far we have fallen as a society. Alleyne sullies crime scenes, has no real conviction rate to speak off and breaks laws such as the Sexual Offences Act….and people are actually rallying to his side and asking that he be given a bligh because he solving crime and is the “voice of the poor man”.

His popularity has become extremely dangerous….so much so, that an arrest of Alleyne for an obvious infringement of the law is now made to be look like the suppression of  a voice that speaks out against the government.
And it is in this way that I believe Alleyne is a threat to the current govt. Ian’s support base is far more diverse than anything the UNC or PNM  can lay claim too…..Ian has the support of the urban and rural working class….which doesn’t know colour and creed….it knows poverty and suffering!

I watched the candlelight vigil on the Brian Lara Promenade a few nights ago and the small crowd that gathered there is an example of his support base. Then watch the make up of the crowd that went to his court hearing. In a matter of hours on the evening of his arrest Ian Alleyne managed to rally a support base over an alleged injustice much faster than any Motion of No Confidence or corrupt act of this govt.

Alleyne, the grandcharging, loose talking host of Crime Watch is more of an Opposition to this current govt than the actual Opposition Leader is….and that’s why there’ll be candle light vigils for Ian, who has broken laws, than there will be for The Keith, who trying to get this govt to stop breaking laws!

So the AG, who seems to have a mancrush on The Keith is claiming he paying to harass the Opposition Leader out of his own pocket. Devant Maharaj seems to want in on the action, even if it might mean sloppy seconds…..And I pretty sure that other members of this government probably circling to see how they could be a part of this parry and thrust with the Opposition Leader.

What confuses the Pantomime is what the government is objecting to. Is it not The Keith’s job to raise questions about the practices of the Government?
There are citizens of this country who have serious questions about the non-extradition of  Ish Galbaransingh and Steve Ferguson. We have serious questions about why under this current AG the prosecution team the state had chosen…that had been pretty successful in pursuing the extradition case was at the last minute changed….and it appears to some that a less competent team was appointed to prosecute by the current AG. I think instead of the AG deflecting the issue with a lawsuit, he should answer those questions. Ish and Steve mad mas with public money and the public has a right to know!
The public also has a right to know precisely what the AG is doing with the budget of $90m plus that he has at his disposal. I find it extremely discomfiting that this government seems to think that citizens don’t have a right to know what’s being done with its monies.

Further, I find it disconcerting that when the Leader of the Opposition does what the Opposition is meant to do (that’s why there was constitutional reform in 1956 to create a strong Opposition &&)  this current Government seems to want to shut down and shut up the opposition….almost as if they don’t want to be opposed or kept in check at all. And this attitude spreads to their treatment of the media. In not advertising with certain media houses they are attempting to cripple them…without revenue how can these media houses function and pay their reporters who are meant to ask the relevant questions?

The PM is currently suing the Express for allegedly maligning her image in a news story that I’d say was mischievously worded….ever desperate Fitzgerald Hinds is now being brought before the Privileges Committee for quoting from the newspaper article…..mind you both Moonilal and AG Ramlogan have been caught misrepresenting evidence….oh, who am I fooling….lying in Parliament on Noel Garcia and Brig Joseph respectively….and no one has brought them before the Privileges Committee for abusing Parliament’s protection.

When you look further, the many police raids of media houses also seems to be a state influenced attack on freedom of expression. The govt has come out to decry such police raids….but remember that the ACIB was a bureau that fell under this self same AG….and when the media got a hold of that information this self same AG pretended to know nothing about the unit falling under his jurisdiction and he immediately asked the PM to remove it from his purview.

This very government has also, within the last week restructured the format of the Joint Select Committee…there is no longer a need for Opposition or Independent members on the committee…it is now strictly a government quorum…this is the committee that weighs in on government contracts and procurement. So now they’ve got carte blanche.

At every turn this government seems to be lying, remains unaccountable and further to that angry and upset when institutions that are meant to keep them in check: Media and the Opposition, question their behaviour and activities. What does that tell you about Kamla and her small goal side? Does any of this sound anti-democratic to you? It certainly does to me.

The last time I checked, the only democratic government that doesn’t want opposition and freedom of expression of any kind is a Dictatorship….we already slipping down that slope at warp speed, folks….

 

De Vice Cyah Done!

 

Crime Clusterf@$l/Political Pantomime 22mts, 27dys: Mums the Word

Anand Ramlogan’s crush on The Keith growing stronger and stronger. Seems every opportunity he gets he levelling law suits at him…yet the AG is short on answers for the population on Calder Hart, Steve & Ish, the probe into that Crop Duster that Gibbs bought, the probe into Jack Warner and the Fifa Affair, and a whole host of other probes…..that is performance!

Dr George Laquis says our state cancer care is disastrous! And after their attempt to cover up RadiationGate a few weeks ago, and this latest suggestion to put an oncology facility in Penal, I have to agree with him….get out of Cancer care….get out of managing Health care period, because you doing a piss poor job! Fund it and find another body to manage it. How is it that a country like Cuba with far fewer resources can have such effective health care and we swimming in oil $$$$ for almost 4 decades and can’t even manage enough beds and medication for our ill????? You won’t get a comment on this from Kamla or Fuad…don’t hold your breath!

An entire family was gunned down in Laventille. The TTPS says they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The murder toll continues to steadily climb. Yet, you notice you don’t hear any government official or member of our National Security Council coming out to speak on it? Last year after a spate of murders over 1 weekend Kamla shut down the country and our rights for 107 days…this year after a spate of murders over the East Weekend and a continued climb in the subsequent weeks there is not one word from the PM, the Minister of National Security, or the COP. Don’t hold your breath on this either.

Keith Rowley has alleged in a press briefing yesterday that spying on the population continues under this administration….again I willing to venture that you won’t hear a word from the PM, the Min of National Security, the new head of the SIA or the National Security Council.

What this government has quietly shown in the last few weeks is that it no longer has to answer to, explain or be accountable to the country.

Imagine Devant Maharaj can come out and say that 5 former chairmen of BWEE/CAL have demonstrated that they had no common sense when running the airline. One of these former chairmen is now the head of the Integrity Commission, appointed by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. So Devant Maharaj is actually implying that his government appoints stupid people to run Commissions.
And Kamla…that excellent example of female leadership remains quiet….not one word…never a comment from her…never a correction…not even an apology from her or Devant for the insult he has levied at these men!

Mon Desir residents protesting over the highway and its impact on their homes and environment….Not one word from this government!

Tarouba residents protesting about the deplorable conditions of the houses they have been put in…and is years they writing and complaining….Not one word from this government!

Instead they will hope that the population remains distracted over Ian Alleyne’s arrest and the charges laid against TV6. People holding candle light vigil for Ian Alleyne, when what we need to do is burn some candles for Kamla and her Partnership. They have lost their way….they need some light. Today I going out to a store and buy some candles to burn for this Govt!

 

De Vice Cyah Done!

Crime Clusterf@$k/Political Pantomime 22mts, 27dys:

the message left by C0D3X on the ttparliament.org website

 

Listen, I’ve decided to stop be suprised by how foolish the comments that come out of Roodal Moonilal’s mouth are….but it hurts to know that this man is Leader of Government Business….because if that’s the best the UNC has to offer in Parliament then that party in a hot mess!

Over the weekend Devant Maharaj said that Ken Gordon, Arthur Lok Jack,  Karl Hudson-Phillips and Hugh Wooding as men who lack common sense. Apparently Rabindra Moonan has more common sense than these men……*crickets*

Over the weekend you would have heard that  the Parliament’s website was hacked. Moonilal’s response is that it not a serious issue, no need to pay attention to it. Is not the same as the hacking of the Ministry of Finance. Is it ok to be that daft, really? Is spinning PR so much a priority now that the govt entirely unable to call something the way they see it?
For me the issue with this alleged hack into the website is that it shows just how technologically unsavvy and unprepared our government websites are and these initial strikes by hackers may well be just that…initial strikes and then eventually to teach a more important lesson a hacker (or group of hackers) may hit where it hurts….really hard. But Moonilal, ever the buffoon continues to function as the opening act for this Barnum and Bailey Production that we running 22 months now at Tower D…come one….come all!

Crime Watch continues in court today. All yuh can’t say Ian Alleyne don’t keep improving on the entertainment value of his programme….he could give Moonilal some pointers. No doubt with the expected increased police presence, it’ll be even more of a pappy show! And to date the real issue still getting lost….a child’s image was shown on television in a sexually way…..Ian aired the tape, the station broadcast it twice….This was a breach of law. Yet the issue that has held most of the population’s attention is how “Ian get rough up”. Note that Attorney Om Lalla never said the police’s behaviour was illegal…just abusive. Can we press on? There are far more abusive things happening daily in this society that never gets us this riled up.

The 2012 march for children happened yesterday, and organisers called for better laws, and also stated that if the government can’t protect its children it should go. Imagine Akiel Chambers would have been 25 years old had he lived….Amy Annamunthodo would have been in her mid-teens, I think, as would little Hope.

David Abdullah has stepped down as head of FITUN; he plans to focus on developing of MSJ. That 2-month period you gave Kamla to re-think the shortcomings of the Partnership at least half way through, not so, Mr Abdullah?

Has the partnership begun to clean up its act yet? Are you going to pull a Prakash and decide that the UNC’s shortcomings are something you can live with in order to be able to eat ah food?

 

It’s Monday Folks…..Ian heads to court today….

De Vice Cyah Done!

It’s My Birthday and I’ll Blog If I Want To!

Ishmael Salandy's photo of Ian Alleyne at the Port of Spain General Hospital. Photo courtesy Express website.

 

Listen, all yuh think police does be smoking the contents of the evidence room?

Explain to me how after 6 months all yuh head in town to arrest Ian Alleyne…I saw the handcuffs, doh try to fool me….and all yuh aint walk with the warrant? No wonder Om and Ian buss style on all yuh so!

And yes, I know you could arrest without a warrant…but come nah man…is 6 months all yuh planning this thing!

That being said, Ian Alleyne, Crime Watch and TV6 are Charged for the toro toro (aka bullshit) they did to that child last year on the programme.

Yesterday, whole day PNM Abroad was frothing on its wall talking about Alleyne being the people’s champion….cause they want the tune again, nah….and people’s champion or not (I really not getting into that argument) we have to agree that if Ian Alleyne breached the law, he shouldn’t be above it. To justify Alleyne’s abuse of the law is to set a bad precedent. Now, for all intents and purposes, what is clearly a legal matter has been made into a political issue….Alleyne, all of a sudden has become the PNM poster boy for Govt abuse….so many more scary instances of abuse occurring daily, and the issue that get PNM People riled up yesterday is Alleyne’s roughing up by the police? I seriously have to wonder where people’s heads are at. The Govt quietly changed the quorum of the Joint Select Committee this week, and now allowing themselves carte blanche when it comes to procurement issues…and the thing that have PNM Abroad panties in a bunch is Ian Alleyne….a man who admitted to reaching the law? Listen…UNC financiers everywhere must be busting their guts laughing over this one!

As per whether Ian’s treatment at the hands of the police was necessary….probably not…maybe it was too excessive…I certainly think so….

I am also happy to see that TV6 didn’t escape unschathed. You were part of the broadcasting process…clean up your acts…both of you.

While the show highlights criminal activity in the country and certainly depicts Alleyne as doing a better job than police there are a few changes I’d like to see:

• less gore and dead bodies during a time children watching tv.
• less of Alleyne in the middle of the crime scene
• better production and editing
• less showcasing of specific police officers.
• statistics on how many of Ian’s arrests actually led to convictions!

Ian show beginning to look like Sgt Alexander’s PR plan!  Keep up whatever good work you might be doing Ian…..and keep improving the pappyshow into a proper show!

Pres Sando was literally on fire yesterday…and it had nothing to do with past alumni Patrick Manning, Basdeo Panday, Machel Montano or Kes Dieffenthaler…..or did it? Paying for past sins, Pres?????

Pervy McFadden, aka the Naked Bamboo Man, has been caught…..his bamboo remains intact…he lucky!

Part of the Marianne Bridge in Blanchisseuse get tief! Gypsy want scrap iron industry to be scrapped….I disagree, keep it and regulate…ppl resembling Sandy who don’t bunker diesel deserve to have their business and if the government had returned the confiscated scrap iron at the end of the SoE, maybe so much bridge wouldn’t be disappearing! Do SoE really aint like SoE, eh!

The man accused of running the Claxton bay Paedo Ring didn’t make it to court yesterday…..neither did the magistrate. We keeping an eye on this case folks….

It look like NUGFW getting ready to hit WASA some WETTIN! I waiting to see if they will really clean up Wasa or if this govt just on grandcharge.

Rumour has it Devant say is only common sense needed to run Caribbean Airlines…everybody pounding he choice of  Winston Dookeran cousin, Rabindra Moonan, as chairman….Well boy Devant, something tells me that you going and choke on them words soon. We watching!

 

It’s Saturday Folks!

 

De Vice Cyah Done!

 

 

Why Hot Meh Head?

This is a quick one, folks. I eating breakfast and thinking (two things at the same time, so you know I exhausted) and start to ask myself why in all of this TV6 not liable in any way….and anyone with an answer feel free to respond and clarify.

Because according to the Sexual Offences Act section 32 states:

32. (1) Before or after a person is accused of an offence under this Act, no matter likely to lead members of the public to identify a person as the complainant in relation to that accusation shall either be published in Trinidad and Tobago in a written publication available to the public or be broadcast in Trinidad and Tobago except where, on the application of the complainant, the Court directs that the effect
of the restriction is to impose a substantial and unreasonable restriction on the reporting of proceedings and that it is in the public interest to remove the restriction in respect of the applicant.
(2) A person who publishes or broadcasts any matter contrary to subsection (1) is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine of twenty-five thousand dollars and to imprisonment for five years.

Since Ian doesn’t own a television station, or broadcast rights….nor in fact pressed play on the tape button, doesn’t the TV station have some culpability in this matter? Didn’t the station allow the tape to be aired not once but TWICE…showing the face of a minor engaged questionable circumstances.

So if Alleyne arrested and ppl at TV6 not arrested…is not under this Act then? All yuh see why I asking if is the Mental Health Act or Dangerous Dogs Act? Because somebody in tv6 has to be liable too….because is the station broadcast the thing.

Another issue I have is this….ppl keep calling Ian the poor people’s champion and alleging he has done so much for this country….how many of Alleyne’s arrests have resulted in solid convictions? Because a crime is only solved when there is a conviction….so, how many solid convictions has Alleyne’s show really resulted in?

Could it be people have faith in Ian because he does put on a good (pappy) show

 

Crime Clusterf@$k/Political Pantomime: 22mts, 24dys Is REAL WETTING!!!!

The Express' front page pic today, of Alleyne's arrest last night.

 

“Director, come back to me, come back to me, Director!

It is alleged…it is alleged director, that I am facing 3 charges under Section 32 (2) of the Sexual Offences Act. But for what Director? For what? For helping the police do their job Director?”

I could almost hear Ian Alleyne show from next Monday evening in my head all now. If you don’t know already then is either you living in some remote place in foreign or in the afterlife because Trinidad and Tobago hot with the news…Crime Watch Host, and the People’s Police Commissioner Ian Alleyne has been arrested and it was all done on national television!

I get confused…under which act? Dangerous Dogs? Mental Health? Both?

Bear in mind that Ian come like a saviour/messiah figure to many members of the society who feel they can’t get justice from the police and judicial services here….if nothing else shows you how decrepit a society we have become, Ian Alleyne’s rise from pastor’s son, to obscure television host….to Trinidad’s Batman is a metre gauge that we shouldn’t ignore.

I ask myself regularly how this man get so popular….but after you’ve been a victim of petty and serious crime here with no damn recourse because our policing system designed to control crowds….not solve crime…it becomes extremely clear.

The meme generators are having a field day!

It is alleged (because I wasn’t watching tv at the time) Police show up at the station at the start of his show to arrest Alleyne. TV6 reporters tweeted throughout the entire event, and is them and my pardner Keithos El Slackos who I was getting blow by blow information from. Now, I have a question….if the man has been co-operating with the police all along, why did the TTPS feel the need for this absolutely public and poorly handled arrest? Were they looking to score points with the public? Did they think this would improve their public image?

Let me make a few things clear and straight, Ian Alleyne’s airing of the tape of that young girl being raped was wrong and disgusting. His showing of dead bodies on the show is crude and disgusting.
What was also wrong and disgusting was the police only taking action on the rape report that the teen’s mother had made 3 months before AFTER Alleyne aired the tape on TV6.

Alleyne’s action cannot be condoned….nor can the police’s action, both before and after the tape was aired.

If, as Om Lalla has asserted, Alleyne has been complying with the police, why the carload of police officers and the stake out of TV6’s building? Why not simply ask him to come into the station and lay charges there? I’m beginning to agree with Lalla that there was an abuse of process.
Could it be that the Police are media whores? Loving the spotlight? Grateful for the opportunity to highlight and showcase their skills on live television?

They want a reality show too?

I find it beyond curious that to date no police officer or section has been taken to task for the level of interference Alleyne imposes on a crime scene when he follows the police. Alleyne regularly tramples crime scenes and handles evidence…REGULARLY….and not a damn thing has ever been done about that….

Anyhow, up to the time I was writing this, Alleyne was still at the Mt Hope Hospital, having succumbed to chest pains and no charges have yet been laid, but on the news last night his attorney said if its the charges he is expecting will be laid they should be able to secure bail for Alleyne’s release. Mere minutes after Alleyne’s arrest the meme generators was on fire and youtube was under pressure. There is a part of me that even wondering if the entire arrest was staged given how over the top this entire thing has been. Raids for rape tapes and now raids to arrest…. If there is a show today….it will be EPIC.

Kudos to TV6 who has successfully removed itself from culpability by insisting that Alleyne responsible for his own show…that way the station never have to get any flack for the filth aired on the programme while getting all the viewership, advertising and ratings. Dominic Kallipersad is ah BOSS!

Now there are other important stories in the news today eh….Ancil Roget, the Labour Messiah, has signed off on yet another 9% settlement for T&TEC workers!

And 2800 WASA workers may face the axe…a bloated company, no doubt, but in this guava season with MPs possibly getting a salary increase, I wonder if the PPG have the testicular fortitude (not ovarian, because our special needs PM never uses hers, she relies on the men around her to take the big decisions and take the blame) to actually clean up a State Enterprise.

A 26 year-old Princes Town man has killed and injured members of his community, allegedly.

Sita Gajadharsingh-Nanga has now requested to stay at Tunapuna Hindu she no longer wants a transfer…PantyGate Re-loaded!

while the PM is saying her coalition govt is stronger than ever, her Min of Planning and the Economy admits that things are uneasy.

More reports of bullying among school children.

Oh, and Anand Ramesar agreeing with Gibbs that police shouldn’t get OT at the TCL compound!

 

On a side note, to the blog trollers who feel the need to dick measure, there are a few things to keep in mind:

• This is not a news page, my home page specifically says it is my take on the politics and culture….that alone should indicate that it’s my opinion here.
• healthy discussion is welcomed…abusive or potentially dangerous comments are not.
• Posting abusive comments are your prerogative….unapproving them is mine!

Is Friday people….it feeling like the bacchanal for the week only now start!

De Vice Cyah Done!