There is something off beam with every one of us. For some it is a more severe matter than for others. If you do not believe this though, I’d respect your position. About 75 per cent of the oddities do not require judgment beyond personality quirks to be placed on the shortcoming. For the other 25 per cent, we are off-centre to varying degrees and can be diagnosed with one or more of over 200 classified forms of mental illness that fall in the pathology of psychology or psychiatry.

Of that 25 per cent, I’m risking a thought that only about five per cent would believe, accept, and do something about their peculiarity. This, because of the prevalence of stigma and discrimination and in some environments, that of human-rights violation, including denial of health and education services and exclusion from the workforce. Additionally, I’m aware that there are religions that frown upon the idea of believers/devotees/initiates accepting that mental neuroses are possible within the constituency of a supreme being and the specific healing ideology being promoted. 

In my instance, so many years ago my Mother was convinced my breakdown was demon possession and found sufficient support by those who “saw” many inappropriate things “being done” to me. That type of opinion is still alive and kicking! And while I would never discount the present evil, I’d always insist that religious leaders educate themselves to appropriate judgment in sensitive matters like mental illnesses. That said, this week I’d like to present some more information on Cluster A of personality disorders (PDs). Cluster A is called the odd, eccentric group and includes the following:

The Paranoid Personality Disorder; the Schizoid Personality Disorder, and persons with Schizotypal Personality Disorder. The Paranoid PD is defined by persistent mistrust and suspiciousness of others. People with this disorder assume that others are out to harm them, take advantage of them, or humiliate them. They put a lot of effort into protecting themselves and keeping their distance from others. They are known to pre-emptively attack others if they feel threatened, they hold grudges, are touchy, and display pathological jealously. Their perception of the environment includes reading malicious intentions into genuinely harmless, innocent comments or behaviour, and dwelling on past slights.

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Overall market activity resulted from trading in ten securities of which two advanced, three declined and five traded firm. Trading activity on the First Tier Market registered a volume of 148,292 shares crossing the floor of the Exchange valued at $1,446,845.08. National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited was the volume leader with 50,639 shares changing hands for a value of $53,170.95, followed by Angostura Holdings Limited with a volume of 29,900 shares being traded for $381,225. Scotia Investments Jamaica Limited contributed 29,757 shares with a value of $41,719.80, while First Citizens Bank Limited added 18,790 shares valued at $688,926. First Citizens Bank Limited enjoyed the day’s largest gain, increasing $1.14 to end the day at $36.66. Conversely, Scotia Investments Jamaica Limited suffered the day’s greatest loss, falling $0.10 to close at $1.40.

The Association of Caribbean States (ACS) is collaborating with regional agencies—Airports Council International (ACI), Latin America and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA), Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO), and the International Air Transport Association (IATA)—to host the Second Caribbean Aviation Day. This year’s event will be celebrated under the theme Improving the Passenger Experience and Securing Sustainable Market Growth in the Caribbean: A Review of the Latest Technological Trends, Operational Best Practices, Cost Implications and Strategies for 2014 and Beyond.

Caribbean Aviation Day 2014 will be held on September 16 in St Thomas, US Virgin Islands, one day prior to the CTO State of the Industry Conference. This event will gather the regional tourism and transport authorities as well as CEOs and senior executives of airlines operating within the Greater Caribbean. Aviation Day meetings are intended to provide a platform for dialogue among the regional tourism and transport sectors and facilitate the formation of strategic alliances among key regional and international stakeholders. In this regard, the meeting will discuss important matters pertaining to connectivity, passenger security, border control technologies and air traffic management among others, indicative of the opportunities and challenges facing the region. 

The discussions aim to enhance the knowledge and awareness of regional policy makers in support of development of strategies to address issues affecting intra-regional travel and air connectivity among the countries of the Greater Caribbean. Speakers include civil aviation authorities, tourism and aviation industry experts and representatives of regional tourism and air transport organisations.

I suggest citizens who care about their health research the connection between the substance alloxan, white flour and diabetes. And check out the connection between caustic soda (sodium hydroxide or lye) and cooking oils. If people want to fill up on pastries, sweet bread, dumplings, fried foods after they get that info, they’re free to do so. We see the results of this kind of diet in older people with circulatory problems, foot problems, overweight, difficulty getting pregnant, impotency etc. And early onset of diabetes in children. But if people choose to eat cheap then get chronically sick, that’s their choice. 

I must agree that there are tens of thousands of people who patronise commercial cooking oil and flour-based products. What is the state of their health? We see the side effects of unhealthy eating. The epidemic numbers of people with vision problems, calcified veins, dermatological problems, overweight, accelerated ageing, cardiovascular diseases, insulin dependence, amputations, etc, is enormous. The food they eat is directly correlated with these diseases. If we want a quickly developed, productive nation, well that won’t happen with a growing population of an overweight, sickly workforce.

The fact that there’s a huge demand for hospital space should raise alarm bells as to the extent that sickness is overshadowing this country. Pumping money into building more medical institutions is not the solution. The Prime Minister ironically announced a 20 per cent discount on flour and oil moments after the Minister of Health read out a new multi-million expenditure scheme to doctor vision problems and diabetes, at a post cabinet news conference on Friday, June 26. I think gifting the nation with fruits and veggies would make more sense if you’re aiming to bring about a healthy nation; if you’re aiming to reduce non-communicable diseases. I’m not interested in being gifted with substances that bring about disease. I think local mangoes, coconut oil, string beans, carrots and broccoli would make more sense as food gifts if the government is serious about reducing non-communicable diseases.

Have no fear, millions of our tax dollars are allocated to pay doctors to do diabetic and eye testing on people foolish enough to live on low-nutrient, caustic cooking oils and bleached rice and flour. So the support system is there. So, go get sick to give those people someone to prescribe CDAP drugs to. And to perform surgeries and amputations on. There’s always an excuse to not do better. Well let’s stay with runaway non-communicable disease and the repercussions of that. It’s not as though this is an important first world country like Japan where people invent solutions to improve life. I can tell you for a fact, people who live in rural areas eat better than those who get their food from the grocery. Rural dwellers eat what they plant. 

Getting fresh discounted fruits and veggies to the nation without spoilage is easy. The nation need only be informed before hand what is discounted, the proposed new price and date to expect the produce. We can fly men to the moon, build space stations, break the sound barrier, devise means to communicate with men on the other side of the planet in nanoseconds, connect bionic limbs to amputees, but we can’t subsidise fruits and veggies to feed a few hundred thousand people? Is there the will to do this? But Trinis don’t solve problems. They insist all things are impossible and are amazed when thinkers make the impossible possible.

T&T, you don’t have to suffer with preventable chronic lifestyle diseases by eating toxic processed food. Eat healthy instead. Eating well is cheap. Eating cheap is expensive since it leads to sickness. Sickness leads to need to visit doctors and to buy pharmacy drugs to counter compromised immunity. Eating healthy is cheaper than masking health problems with weekly cosmetic purchases. It’s definitely cheaper than doing gastric bypass surgeries. 

Sarah Parks
Via e-mail

Have we grown immune to the rivers of human blood flowing freely following vehicular accidents and violent criminal activity? Whenever someone dies unnaturally, the human cost is steep. We need to face that brutal reality and find solutions which work to eliminate the bloodshed. Speechifying won’t do. Bumping gums when a life-threatening wound is bleeding is no different from hand-wringing. Hesitancy at such times increases the chances of mothers wailing in grief at funerals.

Parliamentarians—particularly those in opposition—need to put aside the gimmickry and one-upmanship and all must put heads together to make our highways and byways safe again. 
The death toll inflicted by the lawless and the careless is too outrageous for anyone not to spring into immediate action to halt it. 

There’s nothing more sacred on Earth than human life. Every right the living enjoys springs from being alive. Rest assured, to die is not a right—it’s a certainty!  Mr and Ms Parliamentarian, scoring cheap points at the expense of your political opponents at a lethal time like nowadays is therefore a waste of breath, a waste of vital resources! For the sake of the nation’s sake, please join hands! 

Ayodele Chieng
Petit Bourg

On reading about the fatal accident along the Uriah Butler Highway in which three people died, I can’t help but wonder why the authorities can’t get things right and provide safety barriers along the centre median to withstand a collision with a vehicle. It’s been years and still some areas are incomplete and according to reports, although there was a barrier for the crash it did not withstand the truck. 

What good is the barrier if it cannot withstand a crash? It is not supposed to be for show. This was supposed to be a priority but like everything else that needs attention, it starts off hot and sweaty and just falls off slowly while nobody says or does anything until an accident such as this happens. 

Maybe the project was under-budgeted initially and requires some more millions of dollars to complete. Hopefully the speed guns will be in effect soon and speedsters will be caught and severely punished—if we could get that right.

W Dopson
Woodbrook

The saga of the Anil Roberts/Life Sport debacle has underlined the long-mooted calls for overhauling of the country’s Constitution. The startling revelation of the sordid state of affairs—financial—of the now-scrapped programme, which offered hope to needy young men in our society, has sparked a nationwide debate as to who is culpable in the eventual shutdown of the venture, the brainchild of Mr Roberts.

At the outset let me state categorically, especially for my friends who are of the PNM persuasion, that this is not in defence of Mr Roberts. He can defend himself better than I can do and he has taken the fight to his detractors, all of whom are crying for his political head for more than one reason, which I will examine later on. I also want to make it clear that I too was among those who said that even though he is one of the best sports ministers this country ever had, and in the spirit of the Westminster system which we conveniently choose to say we base our governance system on, I thought that as the minister who presided over this debacle, he should do the honourable thing and resign, pronto.

However, it is not the best thing to act in haste in certain instances, a habit I have adopted in the scolding or chastising of my children. You must approach certain things with a level head, otherwise you tend to make rash decisions and adopt positions which at the end of the day will not achieve what was intended. It was in this light, while musing over the entire situation and with what came out in the audit of the programme by the Ministry of Finance, I asked myself how this venture with such promising results could have gone so horribly wrong? 

I  commence with greetings to the Islamic Community that recently concluded their observance of Ramadan and Eid-ul-fitr. At this time, Hindus are engaged in festivities associated with the fifth month of the Hindu calendar known as “Shraawan.” Shraawan has been declared in Hindu scriptures as a very auspicious month for worship of Lord Shiva, one of the Gods of the Hindu trinity. In India, millions of worshippers of Lord Shiva attend the temples dedicated to his worship, particularly on Mondays.

In Trinidad, Shraawan has grown in popularity over the years and local Hindus have equated its significance with other popular festivals such as Divali (the festival of lights) and Maha Shiv Raatri (the night of Lord Shiva). Lord Shiva is frequently referred to in western literature as the God of Destruction but Hindus more accurately describe him as the God of reabsorption. 
We believe that in time to come, he will reabsorb all of creation (SamVaran).

Hindus meditate upon him as that blue-throated Lord, who wears his hair in matted locks that is adorned with the cool crescent moon and forms the platform for the sacred river Ganga. He wears elephant skin around his waist, the “rudraksha” (type of berry) beads around his neck. 
 

While the Prime Minister has removed a number of errant or unsatisfactory ministers, there is still a need to establish new standards for performance expected of members of a government in office. It would be a political culture of accountability which goes beyond the narrow confines of governments and ministers merely seeking to justify themselves in emotionally-charged election campaigns.  

From his stated intention to require audits to be done on the Citizen Security Programme (CSP), the National Mentorship Programme (NMP) and the Hoop of Life programme, it appears National Security Minister Gary Griffith may have grasped the determination of the national community to hold members of the Government responsible and accountable for programmes and projects in their portfolios.

By intending to order the audits in programmes which could be vulnerable to corruption, political manipulation and misdirection, Mr Griffith is ensuring that he has the information he needs to monitor what is happening on his watch. He clearly does not want to find himself in a position to be indicted in the same way his colleague, Sport Minister Anil Roberts, is now being called on to leave office, or to be fired. It is the only strategy that the Minister of Sport seems to know: bluster and barge his way through every difficulty that faces him. 

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The mother of two teenagers recently complained that she is sad, concerned and somewhat bewildered with the intrusion of technology in her family. 

Her husband comes home tired after a day’s work, plops down in front of the TV where he spends hours sipping his beers, leaving that only to browse on his computer or make calls on his cellphone. He eats dinner in front of the television and he sees nothing wrong with his actions. Moreover, he feels that she is unduly attacking and criticising him when she tries to encourage a change.

This mother is even more discouraged as she describes the behaviour of her son’s friends. She reports that they all sit around the kitchen table; each one is on his cellphone making calls and texting. There is no conversation, no connection and they appear to be quite comfortable with this situation. She further remarks that when her daughter’s boyfriend visits, they are also constantly on the phone and the computer.

She laments that they do not make use of the many board games the family has accumulated over the years; the table tennis gear just sits there unused; no card games take place like when she was growing up. Absolutely no body eats together unless there is a special occasion, like someone’s birthday. Moreover, she is the only one who is unhappy with this situation I have described.

This woman’s concern and unhappiness with her family just make me wonder how many families are faced with this dilemma. I do consider it a dilemma when family members stop interacting and even lose interest in one another.

Technology has changed our world. It has changed the way we live and the way we love. The changes are not even incremental as the experts recommend. The changes are rapid and constant. Its impact has affected the core of our existence and improved our lives abundantly in so many ways. However, the “Starke” reality is that this life force is also adversely affecting our efforts to create and maintain strong, happy and healthy relationships. 

The mayhem that exists within the walls of many family homes can attest to that fact. Child neglect and abuse, domestic violence, suicides, homicides, incest, delinquency among our youth, school failure, sexual orientation uncertainty, escalated economic hardship, job loss, depression and many more physical, emotional and mental health problems are just some of the evils that result when relationships fail to endure. Relationships have always been under siege but technology has now increased the challenge to have meaningful relationships.

Time was already such a scarce commodity and now one common complaint is that our partners and our children somehow manage to find a great deal of tech-time that takes away from our already depleted family time. Men, women and teenagers now spend so much of their time browsing instead of embracing and texting instead of talking. We are stroking our keypads instead of holding our loved ones. We eat in front of our computers and for many, the cellphone, social media and the computer have become the priority. The quality of our relationships is seriously threatened and we need to take action. 

Let us attempt to pay attention to what’s taking place within our inner circles and begin to make some small changes. One ingredient that is of the utmost necessity between couples and among family members is mutual respect. When we talk about respect what are we talking about? Why is respect so important? What does respect really mean? Webster’s dictionary defines respect (the noun) as “ high opinion,” “esteem,” “reverence,” “admiration.” Moreover, respect as a verb is defined as “value,” “think a lot of,” “revere,” “have a high opinion of,” “look up to” and “admire.” 

I think that this is a good time to take a look at how we treat one another. Our children are constantly observing and learning. We are their first teachers and we have the power to impact their lives and be their role models. So, we do need to ask ourselves, do we treat each other as if we value each other? Do we treat one each other with admiration and reverence? If this is not the case, a good place to begin to make a positive change is to begin the practice of respect. Let us treat one another with the same grace and care that we would like to be treated. This really is a great starting point as we strive to survive in this technological era.

The nudity, misbehaviour and bacchanal which characterise modern Carnival celebrations are not that different from what was seen at post-Emancipation celebrations. So said historian Prof Bridget Brereton during a lecture on Emancipation and Carnival, the second in a series being hosted by the Carnival Institute and the National Library and Information Systems. The lunchtime lecture took place at the VIP room at the Grand Stand, Queen’s Park Savannah, on Wednesday.

Brereton, along with comedian and talk show host Dennis “Sprangalang” Hall took the audience on a journey to the past, linking events to the present. In her lecture, Brereton said though Carnival had started in Trinidad in the late 1700s as a Roman Catholic European festival, by the mid- 1800s it had been completely taken over by Africans and infused with their music, dance and even element of satire as they mocked the former slavemasters. “I really think one can only see T&T Carnival as the coming together of two carnivalesque traditions, a merger of two carnivalesque festivals,” Brereton said.

She said there was an obvious link between Carnival and emancipation. While both Europeans and African slaves had their own celebrations, it was the European influence which placed the festival in the context of a pre-lenten one, she said. “From Africa came a very vibrant and important masking. Full-body masking was much more traditional of African. “This tradition was spiritual and the Africans also brought their moko jumbies, bush and animal costumes,” Brereton added. The African influences specifically entered Carnival through the Canboulay celebrations, when freed African slaves mimicked and mocked the treatment of slave masters during the pre-Emancipation period, she said.

By the 1880s Carnival had become a symbol of freedom and not merely a frivolous festival of excess, Brereton noted. Hall, in an extempo address, paid tribute to great calypsonians of the past and described Carnival today as one which had nothing to do with freedom or emancipation. “Carnival today is about who playing what, which is different from when it was about celebrating freedom with everybody,” he added.

The Republic Bank Group has recorded a net profit of $869.1 million for the third quarter ended June 30—an increase of 1.3 per cent over the corresponding period last year. Chairman, Ronald F. deC Harford, who announced the results said, “The Group is encouraged by the growth in our total assets and loan portfolio of 6 per cent and 8.5 per cent respectively, over the corresponding period in 2013 and the decline in non-performing loans to 3.6 per cent of total loans.” 

Harford said this is a reflection of the improved performance in the economies of T&T and Guyana and is tempered somewhat, by the continued weak economic performance in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. Commenting on Republic Bank’s investment in HFC Bank Ghana, Harford said: “In April, 2014, as mandated by the Ghana Code on Takeover and Mergers and after obtaining approval from the Central Bank of Ghana, the Group submitted an Offeror Statement to HFC Bank Ghana and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Ghana, in which it was announced that Republic Bank would make an offer to all the shareholders of HFC Bank Ghana to purchase the remaining 60 per cent  shareholding. This, however, is now subject to legal challenge before the courts in Ghana.” 

Harford said the Republic Bank Group continues to pursue avenues to amicably resolve the matter. He expressed his on-going appreciation for the continued support of management, staff and customers of the Republic Bank Group and said he expects the Group’s performance to continue throughout the last quarter of the year.

Ian Burns, CEO and founder of the short lived budget airline RedJet, died on Wednesday after suffering a massive heart attack in his native Ireland. He was 58. Burns, who believed the Caribbean could be unified by affordable and efficient air travel, launched the startup low-cost carrier in May 2011. The privately owned airline was incorporated in Barbados as Airone Holdings Limited by Burns and his son Robbie and began operating with a fleet of McDonnell Douglas MD-82 and MD-83 aircraft.

Initially RedJet sought to startup operations at Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, Jamaica. However, the airline shifted its hub to Barbados after it was denied permission by Jamaican authorities.  Less than a year after its inaugural flight, on the night of March 16, 2012, the airline suspended all its services because of financial trouble. On June 8, 2012, a day after dismissing its 94 workers, Redjet announced it was insolvent. Officials of the airline blamed the governments of Barbados, T&T and Jamaica for delaying approvals and licences in flying to each other’s destinations, claiming a breach of a regional ‘open-skies’ policy. They said the delays cost the airline millions of dollars of start-up capital.

Burns was a former partner of RSM Robson Rhodes, Chartered Accountants and Financial Advisors, with expertise in corporate finance and business development.

Once again it has happened. Due to some driver’s reckless, inconsiderate actions, innocent people have been injured and some have lost their lives. When I read about the gruesome death of this Penal family my heart grieved for them. This young boy was living the life not of a 13-year-old, but someone much older, having to endure dialysis treatment twice a week. People who undergo this treatment will tell you this is not a walk in the park. 

His mother made an enormous sacrifice, giving up one of her kidneys in order for her son to have a small chance of living. In a cruel twist of fate, someone who could care less for road safety nullified their years of sacrifice in a second. How heartbreaking! Funny thing, the person walked away without any injuries. I call on the authorities to step up the policing of our highways immediately. For too long we see cars speeding past stationary highway patrols, flouting the rule of law, confident that their would be no consequences to their actions. People tail-gating other drivers, people driving too slow, causing a traffic hazard, people zipping in and out of traffic at high speeds. These are all daily occurrences on our roads. 

This behaviour on our highways has become symptomatic of the ills of our society. We need to move fast and we need to get where we are going no matter what. Get out of my way, you are obstructing me! To hell with law and order, once I get to where I am going, all is well. I am begging this government to get those speed guns on the highways, get the legislation in place, revoke some of the reckless drivers’ licenses and let’s take back control of our highways.

Once again the “moon worshippers” in Islam have caused lunatic confusion in the Muslim community on determining the day of Eid. Their eyes must see that nocturnal deity before the month of Ramadan can come to an end. It does not matter to them that the Qur’an clearly states that Allah is the one who pre-determines the motion of the sun and the moon from which the calendar is determined. They put the sayings of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW) above the Qur’anic injunctions of Allah, whom they cannot see, and make the sighting of the moon the object of their worship.

Imaam Iqbal Hydal,
Ahmadiyya Anjuman

Human resources are the most critical asset of an organisation. For this reason, successful organisations develop strong policies for the training and development of their employees to ensure that those assets are of the highest quality in terms of relevant job knowledge and skills. The private security industry in T&T has mushroomed into a significant alternative provider of protection and security services in this economy. However, there is a wide disparity in the skills-set and other facets of the manpower employed in the industry and perhaps the time has come for a closer look at some key human resource issues in the sector. 

The recent issuance by the Government of a draft Private Security Industry Bill signals an intent to regulate this industry and to go further to professionalise private security services through requirements for training and the setting of practical standards for the certification of security personnel. This is a welcome step and can only augur well for the many employees who depend on this sector for employment on a sustainable basis. HR research today shows that in order to build a high-performance workforce, employers have two options: they can recruit the right talent from the outset or they can recruit and then train the personnel in the right skill sets. The second option is more applicable to the security industry since there is a large pool of available unskilled labour from which to recruit but which will require considerable investment in training in order to develop the resources to the quality and standard necessary to deliver quality service. 
As such, even before the private Security Bill becomes law, employers in the industry could begin to take an in-depth look into the specialised training needs for their recruits. This is where the training providers in the industry can play a role in designing an appropriate entry-level certificate course. Such entry-level certification requirement should apply consistently across the board in all security firms thereby establishing a common standard. Similar consistency should apply to the other job titles in the classification structure of the firms.  

This is an important consideration if the private security industry is to position itself as a significant employment sector in the economy thereby opening up yet another avenue to provide employment for our youths at the post-secondary level. So many youths today look to the trades for first employment, as well as the hospitality and services sector and even construction and transport. The private security industry sector, if formalised, can be another significant player in sustainable employment creation. The range of activities in the private security industry is wide: the entry level security guard at the booth or at the front desk is the most visible occupation but there are many other jobs emanating, for example, from security patrol services, armed and canine services, security escort services, bodyguard services, crowd-control, collection and transportation of cash, alarm monitoring and rapid response, property protection and the good old private eye/private investigation services. 

The proposed Bill in the Schedule at section 4 outlines the full range of security services peculiar to this industry. It would be useful if these exciting career opportunities can be made known to secondary school students through career fairs and online career databases. There is a wide range of competencies which security employees should possess, such as interpersonal skills, communication skills, customer service and conflict resolution skills and mental alertness, to name a few. A key consideration also is job enrichment to remove the apparent boredom which the entry level jobs tend to portray. No effort should be spared to establish a brand that reflects the crispness and professionalism akin to the police and para-military brand after which they are patterned. Improved skills and competencies, entry level certification, role clarity and job enrichment are just a few of the human resource issues which the industry must address urgently.   

The Caribbean Institute for Security and Public Safety provides training and professional development programmes. info@caribbeansecurityinstitute.com 

The failure of a now well-known senior government official to demit office on his own volition or on the insistence of his superiors, raises many questions. Why for example, is he continuing to function in his role in the face of overwhelming calls for his resignation out of the simple correlation between abject corruption in one of his programmes for which he must be held accountable? 
Is he indulging in a simplistic form of reasoning that because he did not personally sign cheques or contracts that he cannot be held responsible? If so, does he assume that he is speaking to an electorate all of whom are equally simpleminded? Does he not know that there is a growing intelligentsia that will scoff at such an assumption, their critical faculty recognising that one managing and organisation must accept responsibility for that organisation? 

If he does not, is this a marker of the contempt for intelligence and the courtship of unquestioning simplemindedness in the politics? Further, if he is unable to recognise his own flawed logic, is this a symptom of the diminished cognition of those who lead us, lacking in the intellectual penetration to understand the nuances of a situation and what it may demand? What of the moral compunction to admit liability and do the honourable thing? Can we hope for this, considering the new shamelessness in town to carry on nevertheless once I have the power and in this instance, the seeming endorsement of my principals?  

As for the principals, can we understand the reason for this official’s continuing survival when so many others have been fired for less? Is there more than meets the eye, or is this a reluctance to further diminish the Cabinet which can send the wrong signals in terms of effective governance? Ironically, if this is an attempt to save the Government further embarrassment, is there any awareness that persisting with an official who is universally regarded as persona non grata will play a significant role in diminishing the gains which will have been made recently in wooing the electorate away from the negativities which have come to be associated with the government, with the inevitable result for 2015?
 
In public affairs if you fall short, you must pay the price, and if those responsible for seeing that you do, don’t, then too, they will pay the price when the time comes.

Dr Errol Benjamin

Today, Emancipation Day, is the second public holiday in Trinidad this week, turning it, not into a three-day work week, as my pardner Zolin suggested, but a nine-day weekend, as my pardner Edwin corrected him; and, in that semi-permanent in-betweenity that is Trinidad, I’m wondering where a good Catholic apostate falls, in the two-day gap between Trinidadian Eid-ul-Fitur and Trinidadian Emancipation, if not on total firetrucking scepticism. Now, plenty people plenty smarter than me are believers and I often wish I was, still, too: my burdens were easier to bear when I thought I could give them up to God (but he took away my faith, leaving me to make sense of the cruelty, pointlessness and stupidity on my own, with only art, comedy and a little rum to help).

Now I’m willing—happy—to allow believers the comfort of sitting at the right hand of God when they croak, which they are all apparently entitled to, because they didn’t eat shrimp or bacon while they were alive. (There’s going to be an awfully big crowd at Heaven’s banquet table, all jammed up at that top left corner; luckily, we know a million angels can dance on the head of a pin, so there won’t be a problem with serving the eternal feast, not with all them pinhead angels ladling out nectar.) Believing in God is one thing; declaring for yourself behaviour required by Him, as revealed to you via a burning bush or conclave of men wearing dresses, and forcing others to accept your declaration because you have convinced yourself it is holy, is quite another. I accept God, kind of, but reject all religious doctrine completely. All sensible people should.
 

The enslavement of others also had a negative effect on the psyche of the European in not being able to recognise the common humanity of all mankind. That incidentally is a fact for which the abolitionists fought in the British Parliament as they sought to have the slave trade abolished, ending the dehumanisation of a people under the yoke of slavery.

Today’s celebration of Emancipation Day marks the 180th anniversary of the coming into force of the Slavery Abolition Act which ended slavery in the British Empire on August 1, 1834. 
While directed and celebrated in the main by the two major ethnic groups in this country, both Emancipation and Indian Arrival days really should be viewed as opportunities for the entire cosmopolitan society to reflect on the progress that the country has made since the end of chattel slavery and the human bondage that was indentureship.

Another freedom that the society celebrates today, even if it is not widely understood and acknowledged, is the release of those who engaged and enforced slavery and indentureship on other human beings. The enslavement of others also had a negative effect on the psyche of the European in not being able to recognise the common humanity of all mankind. 

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William “Panchoo” Campbell was possibly the last person in T&T who had been a kidnap victim of the slave trade. Emancipation in 1834 affected Tobago differently from Trinidad since unlike the latter, Tobago had no extensive crown lands for ex-slaves to settle and thus those who did not emigrate were compelled to continue working for the planters. In order to keep sugar estates going, the metayage system, which was a form of sharecropping, developed. The metayer (sharecropper) occupied a piece of land on which he/she planted canes. At harvest time, the estate owner supplied the mill where cane was processed into wet muscovado sugar, of which the metayer received a percentage for the labour. 

Over a decade later, falling sugar prices and the failure of estates in the West Indies for want of labour saw the bankruptcy of the West India Bank. The lack of credit for machinery upgrades and labourer wages meant that the planters were more dependent on the metayers than ever. Planters still needed bonded paid labour and could not entirely rely on the tested sharecroppers. Indentured workers from India and China were considered, but the cost of importation was too heavy for the decimated colonial purse. A devious stopgap measure was found in “liberated Africans.” 

Although emancipation had come to the British colonies in 1834, the Portuguese only followed suit in 1888. Even in the United States, a bloody civil war had to ensue before freedom came in 1865. This meant that many European slavers still plied the Atlantic. British men-of-war ships preyed on these and “liberated” the captives, taking them to Tobago, St Kitts, Antigua and St Vincent. According to the act passed to support this measure: “All persons dealt with or detained as slaves, who heretofore have been, or hereafter may be seized or taken, under any of the acts for the abolition or suppression of the slave trade, by her Majesty’s ships of war or otherwise, and liberated or delivered to the officers appointed to protect, receive, or provide for such persons, and all other persons who, as having been dealt with, carried, kept, or detained as slaves, may have been taken and liberated, or received, protected, or provided for under any of the said acts.”

In 1851 the first group of liberated Africans arrived on the island. Children were housed with native emancipated ex-slaves and were expected to acquire the rudiments of English speech. 
A system of indentureship was implemented and described thus in 1862 by Henry Woodcock, who was the Chief Justice of Tobago: “The immigrants are to be lodged by the employer in comfortable houses, and to be provided with medical attendance in sickness; and a weekly allowance of food, as prescribed in schedule G of the act. The employer is also to furnish the immigrant, in each year, with the articles of clothing enumerated in the same schedule. The first year’s clothing is to be furnished the immigrant on his entering into the contract.”

The number of liberated Africans was small enough, to be sure, being less than 300 all told. Many went to Windward estates. Though they integrated into the colonial society, the Africans were a people somewhat apart, retaining much of their language and culture which, when combined with a largely homogenous pre-emancipation ethnicity, is probably why so much West African heritage has survived in Tobago. In 1861 another batch of immigrants arrived and took their place in a unique chapter of Tobago history. Many old Tobagonians (now dead) remembered the very old Africans who were alive up to the 20th century. Perhaps the most remarkable was William “Panchoo” Campbell, who died in 1938 at an alleged 115 years of age. 

Bearing the scars of the terrible branding iron put to his skin, Panchoo was abducted from his native Congo by Brazilian slavers around 1849-50 and was originally rescued by a British warship and taken to the island of St Helena in the Atlantic Ocean. He was one of the arrivals among the liberated Africans who came to Tobago in 1851. Originally an indentured labourer, Panchoo became a small farmer after his contract expired and eventually accumulated significant wealth for a man whose original destiny intended him for bondage. He was the owner of a house and cultivated lands in Speyside amounting to several acres, had married several times and had numerous offspring. This grand old man, at his passing, represented the last of the fascinating people who had originally been captured slaves, but ended up being freed men in a strange land. Though he was not technically enslaved in Tobago, Campbell was the last documented survivor of the brutal human trafficking that took place in the plantocracies of the West.