VAT Trap

Attorney General Anand Ramlogan

This VAT-removal gimmick that the People's Partnership Government is trying to use to distract us from the fact that Jack Warner is still a minister, Anand Ramlogan is Attorney General and the Prime Minister would rather parade the catwalk than address issues of national importance is creating a lot more problems than it's going to solve.

Immoral Authority

“Where were the citizens who want to protect our democracy when there was evidence of political manipulation in the arrest of our former chief justice?

 “That was a huge blow to democracy. How come political relics of the past are coming forward now when they had opportunities in the past to change the system and did not take the benefit of that opportunity?”

That's Prakash Ramadar, political leader of the COP and Legal Affairs Minister, questioning the moral authority of citizens of T&T to demand better of his government.

At the Tipping Point

A tipping point is defined as "the critical point in a situation... beyond which a significant and often unstoppable ... change takes place".

I look around and I wonder when T&T will reach that point and what it's going to take to get there. Given the nation's history of generally mediocre (and often piss-poor) governance, the decade of sky-rocketing crime, pitifully crumbling infrastructure and an incumbent government that shows open disdain for its citizenry, I honestly wonder how much more people need to see before deciding that - whatever it takes - real change is imperative.

Another School in Poor Condition

This is how the experts at the Ministry of Works and Ministry of Education have collectively decided to deal with electrical problems at St. George's College.

The panel is overheating and the wiring is starting to burn, so they've just posted a fan there to keep things cool. Just for the while, I'm sure.

Political Patronage Continues

Stumbled across this this morning:

Prematee Ramnarine, mother of former Security Intelligence Agency (SSA) head Reshmi Ramnarine, has been promised a promotion to the post of Clerk IV at the National Agricultural Marketing and Development Corporation (Namdevco)—a position that does not exist in the establishment.

Ramnarine, who has more than 25 years’ service, approached the Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) last year, claiming she had been bypassed for a promotion. In a bid to bring a speedy resolution to the matter, former chairman Robert Ramsamooj agreed to enter into a voluntary conciliation mediation agreement between Namdevco and Ramnarine.

Yes, you read that right. The mother of the infamous Reshmi Ramnarine (who changed her name to Shashi Rehka last May) is now embroiled in her own employment scandal. Prematee Ramnarine was somehow promised a promotion to a Namdevco position that doesn't exist and is now in mediation to resolve the situation.

Parliamentary Race Baiting

National Security Minister
Jack Warner

After a week spent neck deep in news, I don't generally bother with the local happenings much on a weekend. But, once I stumbled across this, I couldn't let it pass:

In defending Ramlogan, Warner charged that Rowley had signaled him out for "persecution" because of his ethnicity.

"It's because you have a problem with the individual," he said.

Warner questioned how come Rowley did not have "one" like him sitting on the PNM benches or going up for elections in the PNM convention which takes place today.

"They don't count. You are attacking the Attorney General because the AG represents the things you dislike," said Warner. 

B.S. in Communications

In the wake of the controversy over his ill-advised email to the Head of News for CCN, Communications Minister Jamal Mohammed has issued an apology: