The primary focus of this Council for San Fernando has been a focus on improving efficiency through policy action and implementation. From the onset in January, multiple surveys were commissioned to identify the issues which are of a primary concern to the citizens of San Fernando.

The results of this survey indicated that traffic congestion and parking issues were the priority problems that required redress. However, in light of our national fiscal and economic situation, a more novel and efficient approach to managing this concern was necessary.

In light of these circumstances, members of council consulted with the TTPS, Municipal Police Traffic Managment and the Traffic Wardens Division to devise an efficient rerouting of traffic through the City core.

This new plan incorporated the tenets of an open consultative approach with all possible stakeholders. Schools, churches, taxi associations, businesses and public were all engaged and multiple points of view were considered and in many instances became a part of this new traffic plan.

The results speak for themselves as we have noted a dramatic improvement in the flow of traffic within the City. This exercise unearthed a new set of circumstances that exacerbate the issue of traffic congestion and has now been placed on the front burner for redress. Many businesses have erected illegal structures which impede the flow of both vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Whether in the form of overhangs, awnings or the modification pavements these all contribute to these issues and will be dealt with under the regulations and bylaws of the Municipal Act.

The San Fernando City Corporation has also taken steps towards the development of a better relationship with the Embassy of the United States of America. This was seen in our historic temporary relocation of the US Embassy to San Fernando earlier this year. In conjunction with this effort of strengthening ties, we have engaged the US Embassy in another initiative this Thursday in a business symposium where businesses and entrepreneurs with an interest in pursuing a business interest with the US are invited to come and seek more information.

We have also started a major drive towards embracing a serious stance on Arts and Culture as a viable industry in San Fernando. As was mentioned the fiscal restraints have placed additional challenges on these drives. However, the San Fernando City Corporation stands ready to support and facilitate initiatives that promote these ideals where possible.

One such drive towards this entrepreneurial drive is the introduction of the Farmers Market in conjunction with Namdevco as well as the hosting of both the One Love Concert featuring Chronixx and Eat Drink Jazz.

These initiative seek to showcase San Fernando as a viable option for events of these nature and would redound to the average citizen through the possibility of regular business opportunities.

We have taken a stance to continue our drive towards the development of San Fernando despite our economic situation. It is our belief that the experiences and lessons learnt during this period will positively impact on the way we conduct business in San Fernando as we search out efficient ways to execute our mandate to the Citizens of San Fernando.

To better understand the City of San Fernando, one must take into consideration the span of 234 years of our development, 172 years as a municipality and now 29 years a City.

San Fernando and our citizens are products of a long history that is the result of our national watchwords: discipline, tolerance and production. Founded in 1784 on the premise of an ideal location for a harbor, thanks to the geographic and topographic location, San Fernando provided easier access to the interior of Trinidad thanks to the many riverine courses that surrounded our City.

Combined with the plains that surrounded the outskirts of this location, they also provided ample opportunity for a multitude of sugar plantations to be established thanks to the Cedula de population, which saw a surge in immigration from the French occupied territories in the Caribbean. The promise of economic profitability thanks to the cash crop sugar saw the first of many instances of San Fernando’s unique capacity to act as an economic driver for Trinidad and Tobago.

With a sheltered harbour and what we know as the Guaracara River, Cipero River and the Godnieau River providing easy access for boats to transport sugar, citrus, cocoa and lumber: San Fernando soon cemented its role as a busy town centre and economic hub of activity. The result of this was a slow but steady increase in services and businesses attracting thousands of people of every class, culture and ethnicity.

This economic magnetism was further enhanced thanks to the discovery of oil. The past development and evolution of transportation networks further cemented San Fernando’s position as an ideal location for business and spurned on our rapid development.

The transition from agriculture to oil and gas earned our City the title of the energy capital of Trinidad and Tobago. But it was our early history that saw the creation of a unique society that was and remains a composition of every culture and ethnicity in Trinidad and Tobago. As San Fernandians, I believe this has given us a distinct advantage. The result of this melting pot of cultures and ideologies in our southern community has bred citizens of Trinidad and Tobago that have incorporated the ideology of “Tolerance” deep into our psyche. This is the essence of a San Fernandian and is the root of our national identity.

The development and urbanisation of San Fernando gave rise to a multitude of schools that have garnered for themselves a reputation for academic excellence. Over time, this effect has multiplied several times over resulting in some of the most influential citizens in Trinidad and Tobago and in a few instance around the world. Presidents, two prime ministers, doctors, lawyers, artists, sportsmen and cultural icons of both local and international renown have been the products of San Fernando, a feat of which all San Fernandians feel a swell of pride.

As it was noted, San Fernando and our citizens have been blessed with the capacity and capability to evolve and transform our society in lieu of the changing times. The decline of agriculture and the oil and gas industries combined with the push towards economic diversification has brought our City to the next stage of our economic evolution.

As Mayor, I am a firm believer that we, as San Fernandians, must begin the transition towards the Orange economy based in the service industry, arts and culture. This would provide ample opportunity and avenues for entrepreneurs to explore and enter a new era of development for San Fernando.

The Orange Industry would provide an important shift away from the non-renewable resource of oil and gas towards one of the greatest natural resources in Trinidad and Tobago, our citizens. This paradigm shift towards a truly sustainable development is now critical in these financial times. It places emphasis on the Citizens now to modify their approach in the service and entertainment industry that we must all carefully consider.

With the San Fernando Waterfront Project looming in the immediate future, San Fernando is poised to capture and ride the next economic wave into the next phase of our development.

This is one of the many reasons that we have taken a serious stance on infrastructure. Regarding the major changes to the flow of traffic and our successful traffic plan and the stance that we have adopted on illegal vending and similarly illegal structures.

Our push towards the efficient flow of traffic is based on the premise that an improved flow of traffic would positively impact the businesses in San Fernando and promote and stimulate economic growth.

The major interest in investment in San Fernando by the business community is evident in the growth of both the Southpark and C3 shopping centres that are the latest attractions in recent times.

I see a bright, prosperous and exciting future for the City of San Fernando. One that promises sustainable employment and is firmly rooted in the tenets of Vision 2030, our national development strategy as well as the global economic vision set out by the United Nations.

Our rich and diverse history puts San Fernando in a unique position to become the centre of Arts and Culture in our country. In order to accommodate this vision, we must be prepared to modify our image. In doing so more effort and emphasis must be placed to better position ourselves to attract visitors, shoppers and tourist in this new era, as such, a different and more dynamic approach is needed.

All that remains is that San Fernando and our citizens hold true to our historic identity and rise up and seize the opportunity for themselves and for the future generations.

HIS WORSHIP THE MAYOR ALDERMAN JUNIA REGRELLO
 

From time to time, investors end up focusing on the wrong thing. Truthfully, it’s easy to see why this happens. The constant buzz and need for “activity” in markets is enough to shift the unsuspecting investor’s focus from what’s really important: the company.

Investing legend Peter Lynch says it best: “Behind every stock is a company. Find out what it’s doing” Like many other elements of the investing world, the things that sound the simplest to apply are sometimes the most difficult. It’s fairly obvious to understand the logic behind Lynch’s words. Too often investors fixate on a company’s share price without figuring out what’s happening with the company itself – effectively akin to judging a book by its cover.

This approach is inherently flawed simply because several factors beyond an investor’s control (or study), at any one time, could be driving a company’s share price – the least of which could actually be what’s taking place with the company. For example, if a company’s stock price jumps by 25 per cent in one day, does it mean that the company is now 25 per cent “better”? Highly unlikely.

However, if the company has, over time, demonstrated solid growth in sales, market share and earnings (known as its “fundamentals”), one would expect that eventually (though no one can predict a date) it’s performance would be reflected in its share price.

As Warren Buffet says, in the short term, the stock market is a “voting machine”, but in the long term, it is a “weighing machine”- weighing the actual performance of the company itself. Thus, the wise investor who pays attention to the company itself, is likely to benefit as the stock price moves to reflect improved performance.

Investors who judge stocks by their prices also do themselves a disservice in another way – they falsely presume that a stock with a small dollar price is cheap, while another with a heftier price is expensive.

This misconceived notion can lead investors down the wrong path and into some bad decisions for their money.

The cheapest stocks also tend to be the riskiest. For example, that stock that just went from $40 to $4 might end up at zero.

And a stock that goes from $10 to $20 might double again to $40.

Only when an investor is armed with company-specific data will he have a sense of what’s likely to happen next, and as such, how he should calibrate his decision making.

That said, there are several metrics available to investors to understand exactly where a company stands performance-wise.

This is where the rubber meets the road. Understanding companies takes time, diligence and effort. In the words of investing legend Charlie Munger, “investing is simple, but it’s not easy.”

Andre Worrell

They call themselves Not From Normal, and honestly when you listen to the type of music that this local group makes, you will tend to agree. Intranzit, K-Wolf and El, the young men of Not From Normal, have been singing together since they were in Standard Four. Next week, they will release the single “Exursion.”

“Originally, it was four of us,” said Intranzit aka Jamol James.

“Back then we were called RB4 (Risen Beats 4) since we brought four different sounds to the table. During our developmental stage, we sang songs from Boyz II Men, 112, Next and any other boys group our parents grew up to,” he said.

“That opened our ears and minds to how groups performed back in the day. It also allowed us to explore and develop our vocal range and style of singing.”

The musical background of the group members also contributed to their unique sound.

James is the son of 1999 Road March Queen Sanelle Dempster and music producer Terrence James. At an early age he taught himself the piano and closely studied his father’s profession to become a music producer as well.

At the peak of his mentorship, he moved to the US in 2012 after receiving a full athletic scholarship. James began developing music that has been heavily influenced by rap, trap, R&B and EDM genres such as Future Bass and Pop.

K-Wolf (Shaquille Kareem Mc Kenna) is the great grandson of the late calypsonian Mighty Dougla. Like James, he also taught himself to play the piano and the guitar and they both furthered their vocal talents at the Pinnacle of Rubies Vocal Ministry in Chaguanas.

At the age of ten, the group’s third member Justin Eligon, known professionally as El, was placed in his local church choir to help him develop his talent and love for music.

Eligon never stopped developing himself and his craft, and at age 14 through age 17 he played the African drums and tassa in school. He was also a part of his high school’s drama club and dance group.

James said the group’s name came about following a conversation with his father.

“He was telling us that we needed to find a unique name to match our unique styles. As we talked, he told us that the music we would put out from that point should not be normal. That’s when the bells started to ring.

“I ran the name by my mother who later decided that we should be called Not From Normal.”

James described the group’s sound as urban/world music. “How Bout You”, “Be Mine”, “Foreign” and “Low Key” are some of the songs that the group has released so far which can be found on YouTube.

The ultimate goal of Not From Normal is to be recognised internationally.

“We want to show all that great things can happen anywhere! Our hope is that through our lifestyle and mindset people (no matter their age or position) would want more out of life and not just settle with the cards they were dealt,” James said.

Not From Normal is on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

In his book, “The Celestine Prophecy,” James Redfield defines what is called “control drama.” A control drama is played by anyone who is feeling low on power or energy, and who tries to manipulate and steal the energy of another. Control dramas are unconscious strategies all people use to gain power or energy from another person and to essentially “get their way with others.”

We get our way with others by making them pay attention to us and then elicit a certain reaction from them to make ourselves feel fulfilled. The positive feelings we gain are won at the expense of the other person and this often causes imbalance and drama in our interpersonal relationships.

Most of us have a dominant control drama in which we engage in automatically, without even realising what we are doing and to what extent and expense. Your need to defend and engage in defensive responses with someone means you are caught in a control drama and you will thus, “react.” When you start to become aware of your dominant control drama and can recognise it in action, you can start to hone it and make better choices in your responses to others. Likewise, once you understand how others use control dramas to make you react, you can refrain from engaging in them and move on to more healthy resolution “responses.”

As you learn more about control dramas, you will realise you are already familiar with them because you have been exposed to a variety of people throughout your life. There are four common control dramas that people use to attract and defeat others.

The intimidator

If someone threatens you, either verbally or physically, then you are forced, for fear of something bad happening to you, to pay attention to them and to give them energy. The person threatening you would be pulling you into the most aggressive kind of control drama—the intimidator.

Poor me

If, on the other hand, someone tells you all the horrible things that are already happening to them, implying perhaps that you are responsible and that if you refuse to help these horrible things are going to continue, then this person is seeking to control at the most passive level—”a poor me” drama.

The interrogator

An interrogator is another kind of drama. People who use this means of gaining energy set up a drama of asking questions and probing into another person’s world with the specific purpose of finding something wrong. Once they do so, they criticise this aspect of the other’s life. If this strategy succeeds then the person being criticised is pulled into the drama. They suddenly find themselves becoming self-conscious around the interrogator and paying attention to what the interrogator is doing and thinking about, so as not to do something wrong that the interrogator would notice. This psychic deference gives the interrogator the energy he desires.

Aloof drama

Another way of trying to get energy coming their way is by playing the aloof drama. This involves withdrawing and looking mysterious and secretive. They tell themselves they’re being cautious but what they’re really doing is hoping you will be pulled into this drama and will try to figure out what’s going on with them. When you do, they remain vague, forcing you to struggle and dig and try to discern their true feelings.

As you do so, you give them your full attention and that sends your energy to them. The longer they can keep you interested and mystified, the more energy they receive.

• Awareness and recognition of a control drama allows you to break the cycle and choose to disconnect from it altogether.

Stick to your ‘rules’

It’s very easy to stray from our typical money management routine when a lump sum comes our way. However, if we have certain “rules” in place about how we allocate our income, it’s important to apply them in the same way to any lump sum received.

So if you’re accustomed to saving, spending or investing a certain amount regularly, sticking with that routine maintains discipline when that flood of income rushes in.

Ultimately, treating with a lump sum the same way we’d deal with any other income tends to be the best way to manage it and most prudent way to go.

Pay down debts

One of the advantages of lump sum income is the freedom it can give us to tackle outstanding debts. Either in whole or in part, using a lump sum to clear certain debts and financial encumbrances can improve our overall credit position and help our financial well-being. Reducing debt in areas that may not be as beneficial to us, will allow us more space to borrow in other, more productive areas.

Avoid lifestyle escalation

One of the most financially destructive things we can do with a sudden spike in income is to adjust our lifestyle in accordance with it.

A major key to personal financial success involves living on less than we earn, and it’s no different with a lump sum of money.

Treating lump sum income as if it were something that we can survive on is a path to ruin. Making long term decisions on a oneoff lump sum should always be approached cautiously.

Preparation in advance is key

Receiving lump sum income can really help us advance our financial goals when used well.

It’s important that we plan in advance and stay focused on what we wish to achieve in order to manage that income wisely so that we can live well beyond payday.

ANDRE WORRELL
Guardian Media Limited
andre.worrell@guardian.co.tt

In the haste to satisfy a tax-paying public already concerned by the apparent inability of the State to act on matters of corruption, is the Government and by extension its agencies falling into the trap of making promises it may not be able to keep? The electorate is demanding action and answers on matters of possible corruption as we simply do not have the luxury of funding the corrupt. But even as lawyers, auditors, businessmen and board members square off in the matter of the reported discrepancy in oil production and payments involving A&V Drilling and state-owned Petrotrin, is the public guaranteed fair resolution of this matter?

With millions of dollars in payments on the line for a beleaguered state enterprise and a private supplier, Petrotrin has attempted to hit the right notes with the tax-paying public by issuing a press statement promising “decisive action.”

The caveat, though, is that “due care and deliberation” has to be exercised in the handling of the matter. This is one of many recent promises by the State or one of its agencies to act on a million-dollar matter of public interest.

And while we acknowledge that investigations can be time consuming, confidence in the State’s ability to deliver is becoming more of an issue. Let’s not forget that charges against a prominent UNC MP are yet to be laid several weeks after government allegations of a contracting scandal.

Failure to deliver is beginning to undermine credibility. In the case of Petrotrin, the state agency itself has several questions to answer in its own investigation. Among them, why the sudden spike in payments wasn’t flagged earlier and was there any internal attempt to suppress the alarm bells which were eventually sounded by the audit committee.

We look forward to all the reports being made public in this matter. There must be proper accounting of taxpayers’ dollars.

Drive to stay alive

Today’s Guardian reports that road fatalities are down by some 50 per cent as compared to nine years ago. While the downward trend is good news, 100 people still lost their lives in horrific accidents this year.

We simply must do more to bring these figures down. As of this week, the Government has a total of 15 speed guns in operation across the country, and while speed is indeed a contributing factor to many of these accidents, there are other issues like road rage and driving under the influence, which we must find a more efficient way to address. It’s no longer a joke to compare driving in this country to navigating an obstacle course as basic courtesy is a rare trait on any given thoroughfare. As the traffic increases this time of year, we urge all motorists to use more care, attention and courtesy on our nation’s roads. 2018 is approaching. Let’s do what we can to ensure we all make it there safely.

Immigration kiosks a good move

It’s welcome news that the Ministry of National Security is finally looking into the acquisition of automated immigration kiosks at our international airports. What happened at Piarco last weekend was completely unacceptable and the State’s move to finally put alternate systems in place, is overdue. We hope the move materialises…and the machines work.

History will record that the Islamic State caliphate—a bizarre pseudo-state founded on illusory goals, created by a global horde of jihadis, and enforced with perverted viciousness—survived for three years, three months and some eighteen days.” —The New Yorker (October 17, 2017)

In that period the self-proclaimed Islamic State “conducted or inspired” over 70 terrorist attacks in 20 countries not including Syria and Iraq. The fight against Isis reportedly cost Baghdad more than US$100 billion.

In recent months Isis lost huge swathes of territory including oil wealthy Musul, which financed its global terror, Raqqa, the nominal IS capital, and on November 9, the Syrian Army liberated the city of Abu Kamal destroying the last Islamic State in Syria.

And so the world breathed a collective sigh of relief. Not so fast.

In May 2017, an Al Jazeera documentary produced by investigative filmmaker Juliana Rhufus revealed that T&T had the highest recruits of IS per capita in the Western Hemisphere—officially 130, estimated higher, at 400, including women and children.

The documentary titled Caribbean to Caliphate mirrored us in a way that, we, in our practiced self-deception, murder fatigued selves couldn’t see.

Photos of blood splattered pavements, murderers defected to Isis, descriptions of the brutality of assassination; men in combat gear, assault rifles, practicing to kill; clips of people “wining” gormlessly; inebriated, people sitting enervated outside tatty rum shops; interviews in shabby mosques with the reporter, her head covered respectfully, with inchoate bearded gang members speaking with the self importance of men with big guns on tiny islands.

It was the great footage: classic cringe worthy, intellectually impoverished island of dumbed down brutality described by V S Naipaul in Guerrillas. Humiliating. Indelibly Third World.

The journalist saw, in plain view, that we have among the highest murder rates worldwide in a non-warring country. (By October 30 this year the murder toll in T&T was 405)
Rhufus asked the disingenuous question: “Why are young Muslims from the Caribbean island of Trinidad and Tobago being drawn to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq?”

Imam Abu Bakr’s view was the murder rate was spiralling out of control because the men are “going to a pool of unemployment. They sit in the ghetto and do nothing. The drugs come in. The guns are in.”

A gang member said the problem was not localised. “Politicians try to minimise the issue and say that it’s a small group of people who are criminally oriented who get involved in these things, and that is not true.”

The former national security minister Gary Griffith said local IS recruits “were in it for financial, mercenary gain,” rather than ideological conviction.

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi dismissed the documentary as “poor journalism” lacking in “balance and content,” a “slap in the face,” a pre-written script, his own two-hour interview with the journalist omitted.

A National Security source had a third view. He said the threat is real because these men will be coming home with knowledge of terror and need somewhere to put it.

“It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of ‘when’.”

He said the gangs in this country were a conveyor belt straight into IS. Many came out of schools where the illiteracy rate was as high as 30 per cent.

“They join gangs for respect, a livelihood, to belong somewhere, for a purpose. They want to be seen. They have nothing to lose, so they join a gang.”

Why did so many join IS? His answer was simple.

“They got all this and one more thing—Heaven.”

Al Jazeera ended the documentary with the caveat that “even if T&T refuses to allow IS recruits back in, issues at home need to be addressed.”

We’ve had an insurrection, an attempted coup: the end of IS in the Middle East is a call to action in a war here that can only be won with hearts and minds.

We’ve already lost the war on guns.

Vasant Bharath made a tactical blunder last Wednesday when he announced that he would not contest the position of political leader of the UNC in the party’s internal elections on November 26 instant.

There were some MPs whom he said were supporting him, but in the end he never revealed any names and no one who is a sitting UNC MP ever came forward to publicly identify themselves with his cause.

Two Sundays ago, I wrote about the experiences of Karl Hudson-Phillips in 1973 when he had a number of PNM MPs who were supporting him to become political leader of the PNM in succession to Dr Eric Williams.

Williams made his move to announce that he was not seeking re-nomination as political leader and then he changed his mind. It was at that point that all the MPs who were supporting Karl receded from their earlier support and he was left high and dry with the exception of one councillor from Couva—Desmond Baxter.Fast forward 44 years and Vasant Bharath apparently suffered the same fate. He kept talking about all of these MPs who were purportedly supporting him and that he could not call their names. When the time came for nominations to close, he held a press conference to announce his withdrawal from the race.

That is where he and Kamla Persad-Bissessar separate themselves from each other. In 2010, she faced an executive and a party electoral machinery that was under the control of Basdeo Panday and Kelvin Ramnath and she knew it would not be easy to take on the UNC establishment in a contested election and win.

However, she did it and she won in a process that revealed that UNC voters had changed their minds.

Bharath had that opportunity and he decided to walk away. It would have been better for him to have taken on the current UNC establishment and voice his opinions openly about what could be done better in the party, rather than to complain about what he feared might happen.

Persad-Bissessar could have done the same thing in 2010, but she decided to challenge the founder of the party, Basdeo Panday. That was not an easy decision to make.

Bharath had a somewhat similar challenge in front of him last Wednesday. When many people thought that he was calling a press conference to announce his slate, very few imagined that he was actually calling a press conference to announce his withdrawal.

Even if he lost, he would have been able to pontificate about what he thought needed to be done and he could even have alleged that he was not comfortable with the outcome and could have kept his battle going for change. For someone who stated that they had been working among the party membership for the last year, walking away was the last thing to do.

That has now cleared the way for Persad-Bissessar to press the reset button in the party executive as her sole challenger, Christine Newallo-Hosein, does not have a slate.

The biggest surprise was the entry of Jearlean John into a leadership position in the UNC.

By accepting nomination for the position of deputy political leader she will bring to the party a level of energy and diligence to duty that will redound to its benefit.

The three deputy political leaders also provide a level of diversity that not even Basdeo Panday was able to accomplish given his own attempts at quietly supporting a particular candidate in the UNC internal elections of 2001.

The contest between Persad-Bissessar and Newallo-Hosein will have to be hard fought as nothing must ever be taken for granted in politics.

The party mobilization that goes with an internal election is always valuable for any political party and provides a time for renewal of effort. That will be the UNC task for the future.

The need for “historical justice” is one significant element largely missing from the reportage and commentary on the Chaguaramas land distribution contention that first surfaced towards the end of the 2010-2015 UNC administration.

At that time, the reportage implied that favours were being given by the then government to its supporters, financiers and co-ethnics regarding the leases to occupy the Chaguaramas Peninsula.

Then too, I wrote about the inadequate information on the intended distribution of the lands; the inequity of the distribution; and very significantly, the purposes to which the land leases were to be put: a range of non-productive ventures—non foreign exchange earnings and savings being among the major reasons stipulated for the use of the leases.

Having only teased it in the 2015 column, I want to frontally place before readers the reason why historical justice should be a major determinant in the distribution/allocation/lease of the Chaguaramas lands.

One thing is certain; no one, no group of individuals should be allowed permanent ownership of the lands at this historical piece of real estate which belongs to the people of T&T.

The push to re-acquire Chaguaramas from the 1941, 99-year lease made by the colonial power, Britain, to the United States, was initiated (instigated by CLR James) by Premier Dr Eric Williams supported by the black middle and intellectual classes with the mass Afro base marching in “the rain with our Premier”.

It was a period when the established ruling classes were forsworn against Williams and his policies; they likened him to Hitler.

In turn, he characterised the attack against him by the commercial elite for his wanting to re-take the Peninsula as self-serving to protect their business arrangements with the American military.

The Indo-political party of the time joined with the French-Creole elements against Williams leading to his “Massa Day Done” historical-political essay. Eventually, he asked the question of those who opposed him: “They have to answer the question whether they are for colonialism or not”, ‘From Slavery to Chaguaramas’.

Upon being re-focused, that question has resonance today for how the lands are to be occupied: “Is it that a new form of landowning colonialism—economic and social—will be allowed to emerge at Chaguaramas?”

Through the march in the rain to the American Embassy and in negotiations with the British and American occupiers, and at several public political meetings, Williams prosecuted his case.

In the process, he received the support of elements of the black middle-class, from segments of the Indo population led by Kamal Mohammed and Winston Mahabir, with the bulk of the marchers from the black economic underclass.

When the names of those who had acquired the leases for Chaguaramas at the end of the UNC government became publicly known, largely absent from those who had acquired leases were those whose ancestors marched in the rain for the return of the prized T&T property.

But the need for historical justice does not end there. Hundreds of families, blacks and people of mixed descent were systematically deprived of their properties by the colonial government to make way for American occupation of Chaguaramas.

For a couple decades, Augustin Noel protested, braved police beatings, jail and faced the courts to retrieve ancestral lands.

Often the argument for retention of the British Privy Council is based on what is said to be the “uninterested” nature of justice from London.

We can surely take issue with the final decision of that court that denied Augustin and the hundreds of families the right to their ancestral lands for which they were poorly compensated; surely the BPC had the interest of colonial Britain to protect.

Recently, the country deservingly celebrated and recognised our Amerindian ancestors and pledged a parcel of land as “historical justice.”

Caroni sugar workers received lands and enhanced compensation; Chaguaramas farmers were pushed off the land.

n TO BE CONTINUED

State investment holding company National Enterprises Limited (NEL) suffered a 31 per cent decline in its profit after tax or the six month period ended September 30.

The company’s latest financial statements show that profits were down by $49.9 million to $112.8 million from the corresponding period last year, while earnings per share were $0.17 in the first two quarters of the financial year 2018 compared with $0.25 in financial year 2017.

NEL chairman Ingrid Lashley, in her statement to shareholders, said the results were reflective of the challenges of the markets in which its investee companies operate.

“Of note are the more conservative long-term prospects for National Flour Mills Company Limited (NFM) and Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT), our majority owned companies. While these companies have actively progressed their strategic targets, it is anticipated that the impact on results will more readily be influenced by economic factors outside of the companies’ control resulting in a long-term return to improved shareholder value,” she said.

Lashley said commodity prices have generally stabilised since the same period last year and increased upstream hydrocarbon activity is expected to lead to increased petrochemical production for the rest of the financial year.

She told shareholders that NEL’s investee companies have undertaken initiatives to improve operating efficiencies and implement strategic decisions to increase shareholder value over the medium-term, which will redound to their benefit.

Whether or not Chief Justice Ivor Archie will answer calls from prominent members of the legal fraternity, including judges, for clarification of several matters he is reported to be embroiled in, could play key role in the public’s perception of, and confidence in the judicial system.

Headlines in some daily newspapers over the past weeks have sought to raise questions about whether the Chief Justice used his position to gain unfair advantage for people he knew. While the Chief Justice is a public official and the holder of one of the most powerful positions in the country, when it comes to matters of a personal nature, the legal compulsion for him to respond is less certain under specific circumstances. However, answers are expected when questions arise about the use of position and power to influence matters where state resources are involved.

The Chief Justice has faced a public struggle this year with a vote of no confidence in him and other issues. The response from him has been guarded and minimal, save for one pre-action protocol letter arising out of one specific case. As Chief Justice, however, we are reminded that Ivor Archie is an experienced legal mind, in a powerful position, guided by astute and possibly very senior legal counsel. It is against this background we believe he is actually well positioned to publicly and adequately respond to matters which are now in the public domain and generating significant public interest.

Sandals setback

The decision by Sandals to explore options to set up shop elsewhere in the Caribbean, is the right thing to do. No business interest should waste time or resources to attempt to establish itself in any country, where the conditions are simply not ready or right.

Whether it’s a matter of incentives, concessions, economic climate or simply an unwelcoming environment, any astute business interest has a right to weigh its options and look for more attractive alternatives.

Whether the Sandals setback can be salvaged, however, should be cause for review.

The Ministry of Tourism, the Tobago House of Assembly, the Government, and the people of this country have to determine exactly how serious we are about economic diversification. Do we have the right systems in place to even begin to contemplate new business interests, or are we just consumed by our own rhetoric and paralysed by the possibility of what could go wrong?

The spirit of entrepreneurship

It’s refreshing to see passion, drive and determination by several small businesses in this country over the past few months. The state of the economy isn’t encouraging, but it hasn’t dampened the spirit of those who have always relied on creativity and innovation. The offerings of SMEs too many to mention in this space, reminds us that there are always options, that the spirit of entrepreneurship must never be underestimated.

I hope somebody deals with that,” Angela Davis mused from the stage.

Thursday night was emotional. Some of it was a combined frustration at technology and humanity. Bad GPS, plus my inexperience with the app, sent successive Ubers to the wrong street, while I shivered, shouting through the phone in my numb fingers “The Pratt St lay-by of the Baltimore Convention Centre” at two different, but equally harden Jamaican drivers, unable to find me the old-fashioned way, one determined to hang up as quickly as he could. “You don’t know where you are,” he chided, prompting my obscene agreement that I was in his, unfamiliar city.

I’d missed the city bus to the station. I ended up missing my train. Even though I’d torn myself away from the unexpected series of re-encounters with fellow activists from my youth in the US, now all-grown-up public intellectuals and programme directors.

This year’s National Women Studies Association’s conference made its focus the 40th anniversary of the Combahee River Collective Statement, a germinal US statement of the “intersectional” politics that women of colour have brought to this thing called feminism. The idea that we are many things at once, a combination of privileges and oppressions; that our own oppressions may feed our organising, but our commitments to justice can’t be narrow and single-issue.

The Underground Railroad’s Harriet Tubman led hundreds of enslaved Africans to freedom along that South Carolina waterway. Co-authored by a lesbian elder I learned politics from, the Statement taught young queer me that who I was, was “inherently valuable.”

The conference opening plenary, moderated by NWSA president Barbara Ransby, was a conversation between Angela Davis, the Afro-headed icon of my childhood at the intersections of gender, race and internationalism, and Alicia Garza, half her age, one of three young women who gave birth to the iconic Black Lives Matter movement.

It was an expect-stormers event, my Trini neighbour here and academic, Michelle, warned me. The room was full of students my age when I first read the Combahee Statement. One asked about armed struggle.

Each woman gave loving transgenerational tribute to the other’s individual significance, and to the intersectional movement work she is a part of. Both confirmed repeatedly the importance of the politics of imagination—how critical the ability to imagine the future you want to create is.

Davis reflected on young people taking for granted what could not have been imagined 40 years ago; Garza on the importance of having as her grounding the sense that making change is possible; Davis in turn on her generation learning new ways of imagining from Garza’s.

Davis reminisced about her early sense—something I recall well in the Caribbean—that “revolution was imminent…We were convinced that things had to change, and we acted with that urgency. But there was a lot that we didn’t know…We did not know how to model the world we wanted to create.”

Garza shared her lessons that organising is a process, not a destination; and that engaging with power is not about seizing it, but transforming the way in which power operates, and our relationship to it.

These are core challenges for our Caribbean, post-Independence. What to do with power. What future we imagine. How to work on justice intersectionally.

What struck me most powerfully were Garza’s homage to learning from Davis that “I can be Black and I can be queer at the same time,” a reminder of how many BLM leaders aren’t straight; and something Davis said only parenthetically, about learning to work for change, intersectionally.

That it means abandoning the stance that “I hope somebody deals with that.”

You haven’t encountered gangster until you’ve met the Indo-Caribbean grannies of Toronto’s Jane and Finch area. Originally from locations such as Berbice, Wakenaam and Beterverwagting in Guyana, these wisened ladies helped to fill the audience at Thursday’s University of Toronto launch of the collection, Indo-Caribbean Feminist Thought, which I co-edited with Guyanese scholar Lisa Outar.

In their sweaters and wool hats, their sharp gaze was nothing less than inquisitive and intimidating. They looked like is two good whack for any backchat, for belonging to the wrong kind of mafia, for dotishly playing gunman like you have nothing better to do, or for not knowing how to conduct yourself like a fearless and good-speaking beti when your family sacrifice to send you to school.

Especially when you edit a collection with a lofty word like ‘thought’ in the title, you have to be able to convince nanis and ajis, with more common sense and experience than you, why that book matters. That’s what we set out to do in an event less like an academic book launch, and more like a chutney fete. Not because there was rum and “Coolie Bai”, though there was roti and coolie boys, but because the gathering was community-centred, multi-ethnic, multi-generational, and joyfully inclusive of multiple expressions of sexualities.

There was the girl, just seven, dancing in garara and gold after women musicians played sitar and tabla, and while a young woman painted, because art and film give us language when words fail. There were bright, next generation students, confident, political and completing PhD theses. Now playing the role of mentors, were mothers with professional careers, able to be there because grandmothers were at home with our children. There were Indian women writers whose ideas provided a home, since the 1980s, for nurturing our thinking about Caribbean theory. In this choka, were feminist badjohns with their solidarities and their laughter, who teach with love across racial divides. Then, in the centre, were these matriarchs, representing their community organisation and its challenges to immigrant experiences of violence and poverty.

So, why should the collection matter? It’s a jahahin bundle, crossing oceans with many inheritances knotted in its pages. Tucked within are the legacies of Indian women in the Caribbean, and all the ways that they and indentureship have transformed us all in the region. It’s a remembering of foremothers who wanted more and pursued better for themselves and those who came after. It’s a warm enfolding of douglas and other mixes who are just as Indian too. There are cuttings of everything from carnival freedoms to matikor celebrations, from trance spiritualities to poetry. Finally, it’s a package tied with the gold threads of feminist work to live without violence, inequality or hunger, and to live with respect for matriarchal leadership and power.

And, were we able to talk good and show that education might not alienate us from our cultural histories as much as empower us to remake their relevance anew?”‘Is how much fuh this book?,” shouted one granny, at question time. And another, later, “I getting one too?”

So, in this collection’s travels from Guyana to Trinidad to New York, this week’s encounter is with the elder women of Jane and Finch’s concrete suburbs, our toughest crowd yet, who we managed to convince that another book mattered.

They left with copies because they came up and asked after, knowing it was deserved, and we were too honoured and terrified to say no. Lisa and I just handed over books, forget their cost or sale. Despite our degrees, when facing steely-eyed, no-nonsense grannies, who could wield a bilna like a gangster, we default to betis who know you just keep quiet and do what you are told. Our jahajin bundle was an inheritance from them, and our book might be the rare kind in which they recognise themselves as knowledge-bearers, feeling warm pride amidst Toronto’s cold.

More than once, in an attempt to get to the bottom of criminal behaviour in T&T, a 2012 UNDP Report on Citizen Security cites US criminologist, Dr Robert Agnew’s “General Strain Theory” which attempts to trace the connection between negative emotions, including anger, violence and adverse personal and societal circumstance.

For instance, the Report suggests that “visible disparities in income and standard of living can create frustration and anger for those who are deprived in society.”

This appears to be where Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) behavioural scientist, Dr Cheryl Jones, is coming from when asked, for this series, what she thinks underlies growing visible signs of anger and rage in T&T.

Dr Jones believes rage and anger can be linked to “changing societal norms and values and persons not being able to benefits within the context of set societal norms and values.”

Among such values, she says, are societies attaching greater value to “material things” as opposed to less tangible assets.

“In order acquire these things they resort to different approaches,” Dr Jones says, “and some of these approaches are against the norm.

“When people are not allowed to obtain the dream of incomes and other tangibles, this can result in anger,” she says.

Criminologist Renee Cummings however believes anger can be a healthy emotion. “It is violence that is unhealthy,” she says.

“The free floating anger, people who are angry and don’t know why and the intergenerational anger, usually in families where there is unresolved hurt (or) trauma, are conditions which need interventions because they could turn into violence,” Cummings argues.

This view concurs with Agnew’s theory which asserts that personal and social “strains” can manifest themselves in antisocial behaviours if they are seen as either unjust or insurmountable in magnitude.

He also points to the feeling that the sources of strain are either associated with low social control or provide pressures of incentives to engage in “criminal coping.”

Dr Jones argues that “there are so many different factors that go into how someone makes a decision” and that “mental health work in all communities” can assist in getting to the bottom of the negative behaviours being witnessed.

Cummings says what is needed is a more clinical approach to the issues.

“While Trinidad and Tobago has become a very violent society and violence has become the default mode of communication for a small group that’s causing big trouble, for the society at large, I don’t think we are an angry society, because, at given time, no more than 10 per cent of the population is engaged in violent behaviour.”

She attributes “early exposure to violence” as “one of the greatest predictors that someone will engage in violence as an adult.

“Too many children...are being raised in socially toxic families and experiencing early, frequent and intense exposure to violence; just examine the high rates of child abuse and child sexual abuse.

“That toxicity has made family life and personal relationships extremely bitter as evident in the high rates of interpersonal violence and domestic violence which lead to domestic homicide and contribute to the high homicide rate,” Cummings says.

Dr Jones shares such a view and also points to increasing exposure by young people to violent content on television, social media and in video games.

These, she says, “engraves” the acceptability of violence among young people.

Like Dr Jones, Cummings supports “an epidemiological approach to deconstructing violence.”

“What is required,” says Cummings, “is a trauma-informed justice system.”

“Whether or not a person becomes motivated to commit violent acts results from interactions over the life course between biological, sociocultural, and developmental factors as well as social learning,” she says.

“We need to engage a more scientific understanding of aggression and violence and design evidence-based policies to reduce violence beginning at the level of prenatal development to early interventions for persons who use violence.”

Numerous studies have placed young people at particular risk and chairman of the Children’s Authority, Hanif Benjamin sees “changing styles of parenting and the fight for a parental voice as the other (technological) voices have become, in some cases louder.”

Crime and violence, Agnew’s General Strain Theory argues, become likely outcomes of all of this when individuals have a low tolerance for strain, when they have poor coping skills and resources, and have access to few conventional social supports.

The UNDP’s five year old report, prior studies and successive research papers have since have described the ticking time-bomb.

The 130 singers of the BP Marionettes’ adult, youth, and children’s choirs are back at Queen’s Hall come December 7-10, with their anticipated Christmas concert, I Dream A World. Tickets are already going fast, with the first online ticket orders coming through in early September.

It’s no wonder, as the Marionettes’ annual Christmas concert has become a cherished annual tradition for many in Trinidad. For over 50 years, their faithful patrons have declared that “Christmas begins with the Marionettes.” Audiences can look forward to the choirs weaving the musical magic of Christmas through an uplifting and festive programme of classical, spirituals, gospel, musical theatre, and popular local and international Christmas favourites under the batons of Gretta Taylor (Hummingbird Medal Gold) and Dr Roger Henry.

Fans of talented soloists like Jacqueline Johnson, Hermina Charles and Gillian Seecharan-Nancoo — as well as young Annalise Emmanuel, Dominique Akal, and Aysiah McEachnie-Assing — will certainly not be disappointed.

Part proceeds of I Dream a World go to the Living Water Community’s hurricane relief efforts in Dominica and Barbuda; and part proceeds will go to the Marionettes Property Fund as the group seeks to build a home of their own.

Showtimes for I Dream a World are 7.30 pm on Thursday 7 through Saturday, December 9, and 5 pm on Sunday 10. Tickets are just $150 on opening night and $200 for the Friday performance, while the Saturday and Sunday shows are $200 open, $250 reserved, and $300 premium reserved. There are $25 discounts for early birds, seniors, children, students, and Patrons of Queen’s Hall. Tickets for I Dream a World are available at marionetteschorale.com and from members; at the Living Water Community (Frederick Street, 625-6730) from today; and at Queen’s Hall (10 am–5:30 pm) from Monday, November 27.

MORE INFORMATION

The Marionettes can be contacted on Facebook,
and at orders@marionetteschorale.com or
790-1751 (9 am – 5 pm, Monday–Saturday).

ABOUT THE MARIONETTES

Founded in 1963 and incorporated as a non-profit organisation in 2005, the Marionettes is one of the Caribbean’s most celebrated choirs, both at home and abroad. In 1995, the Youth Chorale was formed, comprising boys and girls from over 30 secondary schools nationwide; followed by the formation of the Children’ Choir in 2012.
The 120-odd singers of these three community choirs, and their multi-generational artistic and production teams, are entirely volunteer.
I Dream a World is supported by Flow, CNMG, and by the Marionettes’ title sponsor since 1972, bpTT.

New artistes all have the potential to be superstars, believe it or not. Sometimes all it takes is a little commitment and of course, consistency. T&T’s Keturah Gamba is one of those less known female songbirds who’s clearing her own path and making it understood that she refuses to take no for an answer.

Last year, the multi-faceted entertainer crossed over into the soca genre for the very first time, and of course, one year later, she’s back again, ready, she says, for greatness. She teamed up with young production duo – Badjohn Republic – and together they’ve laid down a full-fledged soca single called Lose Control.

The song was released last Monday and already with great feedback being received, Keturah is preparing herself in a major way, to ensure that she’s seen, heard and understood.

Like most other artistes, Gamba sings with passion, refusing to accept the comments of naysayers and instead turning every obstacle into a possibility. She’s worked with Pengco Music’s Randal Alexander in the past; the pair having dished out Like Sinatra in 2016. They’d however worked together on two singles prior, building a solid musical partnership that is often treasured by artistes in the business.

Earlier this year, Gamba teamed up with T&T’s Kerry John, an artiste who himself experienced tremendous carnival acclaim in 2017 when he penetrated the soca circuit with Drink King. When he met up with Gamba however, they decided to unleash a raunchy, provocative dancehall/soca fused single they called Rude Gyal. Gamba’s voice on that track was powerful to say the least, and delivered the essentials of a truly effective single.

Beyond music, Keturah Gamba has been championing an incredible cancer awareness and assistance initiative called “iCancervive.” Her sister having been diagnosed with the ailment, Gamba’s been working alongside some of her friends in the music industry to assist with the financial costs that often-time burden family members of those battling cancer. “This effort will remain a focus for me beyond my sister’s situation. iCancerive is more than just a family assistance drive. It is a ‘people’ assistance effort, aimed at helping everyone who is touched and scarred by this awful disease. Sometimes, it takes one person to be the driving force behind something that has the potential to help thousands. Maybe I can be that person,” said Gamba.

Music and a heart full of love, Gamba’s leaving no stone unturned as she sets her mind on conquering the music business with her God given talent. “When He empowers you,gives you the tools you need to make it in this world, you should never ignore it,” she said, referencing the big man above.