I’ve argued the point many times that the TnT population is like sheep with a few wolves amongst us. The thing is, apart from a killer instinct, and possibly the reason they do have it, wolves have ‘teeth’ and sheep don’t. And the purpose of the analogy is because I am a gun lobbyist. Love it or hate it, I prefer to be armed in the killing fields rather than wait for the wolves to come with theirs and take what they want.

You’ve heard it all before, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people”, but do you really know the statistics? Firstly, in a developed country like the US, where the Second Amendment is the core basis to “bear arms”, children have a higher probability drowning in a pool than getting accidentally killed by a gun kept in the home. In Sweden, after joining the home guard and completing your military service you get to keep your automatic weapon, but they have one of the lowest gun crimes in the world. (Read Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubner)

But let’s look at the other side of the coin and the ruthless efficiency of the illegal arms trade. Practically anyone can get a gun illegally once you have the money to pay for it, and for a ‘law-abiding’ citizen, the courage to do it. Our leaders, who are still in the mode of our past colonial masters, distrust the idea of too many ‘black’ people having guns. (See Gandhi’s quote below). Coupled with the fact that they can never get their act together and able to tell via computer records and traces if someone is responsible enough to own a weapon, it will remain an elusive goal in my lifetime at least. 

Gun buy-backs from criminals have never worked anywhere in the world and it’s not going to here. In countries where guns were bought back they turned out to be junkers and heirlooms that had no use. The $50 or $100 they got went back into buying more sophisticated weaponry. The fact is, the illegal supply of weapons will far surpass what the authorities can get off the streets. At one time our Police Service was outgunned by the high-tech weapons in the hands of the bandits…

Would love to hear your opinions on this one! And just for the record, I never had, do not have, nor will ever have a firearm unless it’s a legally obtained one from a licensed arms dealer with the requisite user’s licence.

Here’s an excerpt from a gun lobby site:

Very good gun quotes: Source – http://www.sightm1911.com/Care/Gun_Quotes.htm

Mohandas K. Gandhi: “Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest. If we want the Arms Act to be repealed, if we want to learn the use of arms, here is a golden opportunity. If the middle classes render voluntary help to Government in the hour of its trial, distrust will disappear, and the ban on possessing arms will be withdrawn.” Mohandas K. Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Chapter XXVII, Recruiting Campaign, Page 403, Dover paperback edition, 1983.

Admiral Yamamoto: “You cannot invade mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass.” Advising Japan’s military leaders of the futility of an invasion of the mainland United States because of the widespread availability of guns. It has been theorized that this was a major contributing factor in Japan’s decision not to land on North America early in the war when they had vastly superior military strength. This delay gave our industrial infrastructure time to gear up for the conflict and was decisive in our later victory.

Adolf Hitler: “The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing.” Adolf Hitler, dinner talk on April 11, 1942, quoted in Hitler’s Table Talk 1941-44: His Private Conversations, Second Edition (1973), Pg. 425-426. Translated by Norman Cameron and R. H. Stevens.

John F. Kennedy: “Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom.”

The Dalai Lama: “If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.” (May 15, 2001, The Seattle Times)

James Earl Jones: “The world is filled with violence. Because criminals carry guns, we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise they will win and the decent people will lose.”

So, Sunday was the big day – Special Convention of the PNM called by their leader to discuss political and economic union of TnT and the OECS… What’s wrong with this picture?

First off, the PNM party – to which the government belongs – decides on the recommendation of their political leader? That’s like asking answers… In the Keith Rowley affair last year I opined that the PNM party was the only hope of this nation in curbing the dictatorial ambitions of its political leader, but they folded and decided that it was better to feed at the trough than bear the standard of country first.

http://nastylittletruths.wordpress.com/2008/04/26/pnm-the-only-hope/

 Yesterday as the PM ramajayed and brayed about political and economical union and the need to step up to save those small island economies, I saw the same overarching ambition in him that I wrote about so long:

http://nastylittletruths.wordpress.com/2008/08/25/imperialism-mannings-master-plan/

Make no mistake about it, this is all about the war cry of the PNM: “Great is the PNM!, Great is the PNM! and It Shall Prevail!”… even if it has to rely on votes from the small islanders who as Richard Thomas had said, will never vote for an Indo -Trini party.

We have our problems here but I’ve never encountered racism and political animosity as I have in St. Vincent and Guyana. I remember telling people a story about getting invited to the home of a COP supporter who was hosting a small get-together for a few friends and family. The hostess’ cousin was a PNM campaign manager for a candidate in the last elections and two others there were UNC-A. Yuh talk bout ole talk!! Man, we were going at it whole night, but there were no hard feelings at the end of it all – we accepted that people can support who they want even though we may not agree with them.

We may be passionate during an election but only the fanatics amongst us carry it too far for too long. (By this blog I may be a bloody fanatic too!) Is Patrick trying to change that with his grab for perpetual power? Amazing what people are willing to do for power and money. Vision 2020 won’t change what we are at heart – a third-world mentality of supporting the tribe and feeding at the trough even though it may be crumbs while the leaders are having cake…

We are going down a road that I feel very uncomfortable with, hence my expressions of concern, and no PNM apologist so far has made me any more trusting.

I had a problem with Israel Khan’s SC column in Saturday’s Express where he attempted to defend John Jeremie’s second incarnation as our Attorney General simply because he missed a crucial point. He can quote Martineau SC, Seetahal SC, Le Quesne QC, et al, but my crying question was not answered – can we trust a highly political appointee to a post that was intended to protect the rights of all TnT citizens?Quoting chapter and verse of a battered Constitution does not help me. Tell me what was the intention of the framers of the Constitution (like ANR Robinson purported to interpret on 01/12/24) and if they foresaw a rampant AG trying to usurp the territory of a supposedly independent DPP?

But then again after reading the headline of Sunday’s Express and the subsequent column by Camini Marajh, it all fell into place. While you condemned the ‘voices of discontent from the usual suspects’, you should have declared your interest in the matter, that is, state that your support for the AG is because of the briefs sent your way by his office.

One of my gurus had taught me that everyone is entitled to build a wall of financial security around them and their families to protect them from the uncertainties of the world, but I question everyday how high must this wall be for the people who see their country’s institutions collapsing before their very eyes yet money is their main priority? Do you think that you can escape to another land and spend it all and the peons like us will remain under the yoke of a dictator? What principles can a man stand on if they think like this? You disappointed me sir…

Now that it’s been six weeks since the overpass was officially opened – and most importantly, enough time to fix any obvious defects – I am back to the conclusion that the people who run the governments programmes need help… lots of it…

I spent the holiday in my old hometown and was heading north to the city on Friday morning. As I was approaching the Bamboo/Grand Bazaar overpass at maybe 5:50 – 6:00 am, the ramp was filled with cars and it was obvious that the ’shoulder drivers’ were using it to bypass some of the slow moving traffic by going up and coming back down on the other side. No police of course, but they had the manpower to station officers on the main overpass to chase people from stopping.

Under the Bamboo overpass on the left lane there is a very large depression that was not repaired. Heading to the ‘high-speed ramp’ as Colm used to call it, there were two potholes on the left lane. The merge in lane from the ramp coming down from the Bamboo overpass is way too short. Engineers attempt to get the angle as acute as possible so visibility for the guy entering the highway is safer, but this angle was too wide. The people coming down the ramp and trying to merge are practically blind and it didn’t help that there were so many of them using it as a shortcut.

So let’s head back east from Aranjuez road… Again, something is wrong with the lanes to keep left, get onto the overpass and then head south. Too short and they should have started from the filter lane coming off Aranjuez road. People heading south do not like to stay on the left lane before the traffic lights as they have to contend with the people coming out of Aranjuez road when they cross. It’s a dilemma to solve I agree…

Going straight up to the traffic lights as directed to go to Grand Bazaar is not bad, but if you are heading east, my word, it’s like you are on a roller coaster. Takng any of these three lanes at the posted speed feels as if you will lift off at any time. Same with the left lane when you exit the main overpass heading south… roller coaster…

The straight lane heading south when you cross from the Mt. Hope side is very dangerous getting down to one lane from two and the road needs repaving.  Merging traffic from the overpass is a danger too as they are coming down with speed and some of them forget that they shouldn’t cross into the extreme right lane.

All in all, it is a classic case of being so focused on one deliverable (the south-bound overpass) that everything else seems as if separate from the project. The fact is that it is all one intersection and the contractors failed by leaving all the other shoddy work around the site unattended to.

I was reminded of this when I passed quite a few times by the new NP service station being built at the top of Aranjuez road. There are two huge potholes just at the spanking new entrance and no one, not NP, nor the contractor seemed to think that they should fix it just to ‘complete’ their work. The mentality is that it’s not within the scope of the contract, but the fact remains, your customers have to go in that huge pothole when they enter and exit your service station. Why then is it not your responsibility? The answer to that question tells us a lot about ourselves.

A few months ago I promised to write the story about the ‘Cassava Man’ from Enterprise, but the small furore (there’s always a bigger one) that erupted when Justice Stanley John chided the magistracy about overly harsh punishments reminded me that I was late as usual. A letter by Gavin Nicholas in Sunday’s Express, however, with some some striking similarities raised me out of my lethargy…

The Cassava Man, as I was introduced to him, is a late forties-close to fifty guy of East Indian descent living in Ragoonanan Road, Enterprise. Apart from planting cassava, he used to be a truck driver working for a private fleet owner in Charlieville. He lives in a humble two bedroom home with his wife and children and said that life was a struggle, but not impossible when he had his two streams of income. He regaled me with the days when he had to reach Sunday afternoon in a quarry, sleep through the night and hope to get a load of aggregate on Monday… some time during the day…

The truck driving job came to crashing end one day in February 2008 in Sangre Grande when he was pulled out of his truck and beaten senseless by police officers of the Sangre Grande station. And I mean literally senseless because he woke up in the Sangre Grande hospital with an IV tube up his arm.

As he explained it to me, he was trying to manoeuvre between taxis parked badly on the road leading to the roundabout (believable… I’ve been there before) when he was accosted by a man who turned out to be an out of uniform policeman. Of course, when the plainclothes officer asked him if he was drunk (a high cab of a truck can be easily seen weaving from side to side, but not necessarily what’s blocking it), he responded with an expletive – first mistake.

The plainclothes officer started to yell at a uniformed policeman on the roundabout to stop the truck; ran up, opened the door and dragged Cassava Man out. As he described it, he never got beaten in his life, but it was so bad he blacked out and got back up in the hospital. He said that he was so afraid that they beat him again when they carried him to the courthouse the next day, he would have admitted to anything. A call to his employer by the police to confirm that he was authorised to drive the truck resulted in both the employer and his wife being at the courthouse.

The employer came for his truck (all the seats were cut open in a ’search for illegal drugs’) and the wife was encouraged to hire a lawyer. When Cassava Man approached the bench, he told me that he was going tell his side of the story when he felt a touch on his shoulder and a ‘lawyer’ said he was hired my his wife to represent him. The ‘lawyer’ told him to plead guilty and all he will get is a fine since it was his first offence. He did just that – second mistake.

Without tracing, without knowing one iota about his record, the magistrate slapped him with an 18 month sentence and suspension of his driver’s licence for 5 years! Remember… first offence… no clemency, but after 18 months in jail, the means of your livelihood is gone? Did the ‘offended’ magistracy consider that they were being too harsh or that they could have made a criminal of this guy? The magistrate sent this guy to a place where correctional and rehabilitation systems are non-existent, but getting in contact with the criminal underworld very likely.

I had to admire this guy after hearing his story (he was out after 12 months) that he was able to smile. I would have gone stark raving mad. So when Justice Stanley John criticised the magistrates for being overly harsh – and he gave only two examples – there are thousands more out there as well. And they should not feel offended, but hang their heads in shame. Someone is on to them, that’s why they reacted angrily. I heard today that J. John is retiring and taking up a position in the Bahamas. Our loss, but I understand what your experienced eyes has seen and your intelligence has concluded – time to flee..

Ably backed by Prime Minister Manning, whose instructions he follows anyway, and in total disregard of his function as protector of the rights of TnT’s citizens, here comes the new Attorney General John Jeremie. Be afraid, be very afraid of what this man is willing to do as exposed by the original ‘buss mark’ herself – Camini Marajh:

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161484437

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161484804

After reading this today, I owe Geoffrey Henderson an apology. I always thought that he was being influenced by the PNM government of the day not knowing he was actually standing up to protect us from the man who swore to do just that!

Don’t you feel a shiver when you think that, according to some reports, we will soon get a DPP who may be an ‘accomplice’ of the AG? My word, who will be next on the hit list? Who will feel the full weight of the state machinery grinding them into the dust like ex-CJ Sat Sharma.

Read some of my past posts about the law not being our protector but as a weapon used in the hands of our leaders and you will better understand what I’ve been warning this nation about for some time now:

http://nastylittletruths.wordpress.com/2008/08/27/jumping-the-bus/

http://nastylittletruths.wordpress.com/2008/08/28/a-frighteningly-good-read/

The man behind Patrick’s private army called SAUTT (still an illegal entity!) and who created his own number plates proudly bearing the letters TTAG1… Yuh think we goin’ 2020 or the path of tyranny?

Martin Daly had me rolling on the floor laughing today with his analogy to Star Wars… “Trinidad & Tobago is full of Sith. We need to remove the Sith” (we don’t need much anagrammatical skills to figure that one out!) But if that was not good enough, his search for Luke Skywalker ended up with the ’skylarkers’ on the Opposition bench. Bravo. Mr. Daly. I can only admire your skill with the written word.

The next was my other hero of wit – Tony Deyal. Tony had some ‘pressure’ at the Canadian High Commission and I’m glad that he brought it up in his Saturday column. I’ve seen this women at work before (one middle-aged Indo-Trini and a younger Afro-Trini). Last year the younger one trying to ‘buff’ me in public because I dared to go collect my daughter’s passport in the afternoon (visa granted) without a ‘letter of authorisation’… Uh, I am the one who applied for her in the morning… I am the one who submitted all the necessary paperwork and who you questioned… but with a single-entry visa stamp the passport has become more important than me? She reluctantly gave it to me, but she warned me – “next time, don’t make that mistake!” Welcome to our world Tony. We live in an under-developed nation of bandits, crooks and thieves so we are treated all the same when we have to beg for a visitor’s visa.

And on the topic of visas, I’m off to a complaint by a Mr. T. Ramoutar of Rio Claro who was denied a visa to the US. Mr. Ramoutar, I feel your pain but you could write to President Obama himself and it wouldn’t make a difference. A piece of advice though – next time you apply for a visa (I know you said you wouldn’t) speak from a position of confidence and flippancy. These people scent desperation from a distance and believe me, the process is intended to intimidate you. But just a few things – you are a public servant and you have all these assets? If the officer had to ask you if your money in the bank was an inheritance, one can assume that it was no small sum. Acres of land in Rio? I would hazard a guess and say the man pegged you for a ganja farmer… Your letter was an excellent one filled with clarity, so you are not dense. Insist on the truth for the refusal.

Ah sorry, but ah fed up…

Yesterday made it four weeks since the infamous lock-down of the main corridor for east-west traffic, the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway, to satisfy the 5th Summit of the Americas. (Yes, I remember the name even though the memory is similar to that of visiting a urinal after drinking Johnnie Walker Blue – there goes a chunk of money for nothing… No, wait a minute – I still have a little buzz from the alcohol…) It also marks the five weeks after the tint ‘crackdown’.

Last Saturday I was heading south and it had traffic on the north-bound lane from the walkover by Rex Kar to the walkover after Alescon. Why? Police stopping people for tint. I mean, come on – commuters have suffered in traffic for five days of the week getting to and from work… on a Saturday too? This was about 8:30 in the morning and when I was coming back up at 11:30, traffic still piled up.

But the traffic is not the cause for my rant, but the police themselves. Since when did the tint on cars became more important to law-abiding citizens (yes, I know that you hardworking boys and girls are really working on this for the population’s safety) than the noise makers who pass day and night making our lives a deafening hell? Why, pray tell, are you not doing something about that? If you take a poll right now, how many people do you think will protest against tint versus those who have been complaining for ages about the loud music in vehicles? This is a problem that affects us while we are trying to rest in the night to be productive in the day! But apparently a tinted car driving around the nation’s roads is a more serious offence.

Please Mr. and Ms. Police, do something sensible once in your life and crack down on these miscreants with the same vigour as you are doing for that loud and very disturbing tint. And while I am at it, why it is we can find policemen to stand guard on Colm’s Crossing and in the days of old when three lanes were waiting patiently to turn right and the impatient ones were in all sorts of compromising positions by the San Juan River bridge we couldn’t see any?

Let me end with the funniest story about idiots with loud noise-makers in their cars. You can’t make this stuff up… Idiot coming down the road with music so loud it’s shaking the houses, and all of a sudden the car stops. Idiot got out of the car, crosses road with a finger stuck in one ear and a cellphone in the other… and you guessed it – music still playing in the car! Idiot got out of the car to answer his phone! Idiot didn’t think about lowering the volume. Where is my video camera for this You Tube moment?

It’s great to have your business legislated. I mean, if I sold sno-cones and the law says that everyone must have a sno-cone, I’ll be rolling in moolah, aye?

Now I know how important it is to have insurance – especially on cars – but oh.. my.. lord.. Why, every time someone hits one of my vehicles, they are insured with some of the worst insurers in the land? Like I blight or what? In the last year two of my vehicles were involved in minor accidents (a few thousand dollars to fix, no spilt blood, no broken bones) and in both instances the other party was Motor One insurance. Who are these people? I heard that it was the ‘new’ B&L (popularly known as Bobol & Larceny), but I don’t know.

Every insurance company says boldly that you must not admit liability – I can understand that – but Motor One seems to have taken it to a new level. Do Not Admit Liability; Do Not Engage With The Other Driver; If You Do Engage, Make It A Violent And Obscene Exchange… and the list goes on. Incident one, the guy broke a major road and hit my vehicle, but they abused my driver. And when I say they, I meant the offending driver and his wife. Incident two, the other party overtaking a line of traffic (in clear violation of traffic rules) and ran into another of my vehicles. This one wants to beat my driver and even threatened him inside the Police Station.

Now, with all honesty, my vehicle have Third Party insurance – and I’ll explain why. In a minimal of instances have my drivers ever been in the wrong and it’s usually a case of nothing or next to nothing happening to the other vehicles. We always honor any repairs if needed but the gods seem to not care when the shoe is on the other foot! Anyway, back to my refusal to pay too much money for insurance. I have been screwed too many times by insurance companies to willingly give them my money. I drive a $50,000 car simply because I refuse to pay full comprehensive insurance on a $250,000 car. You have got to be either very stupid or very rich… Owning an expensive car is one thing, but every year you have to fork out a little more than 4% of the book value – if you are getting maximum no claim discounts – and that’s a good thing. Heaven help you if the car gets totalled the day after you pay your premium on a fixed amount and you then hear about ‘market value’.

If you haven’t done so as yet, please download a copy of the National Financial Literacy Programme’s booklet called, “In The Driver’s Seat – Understanding Motor Insurance”

http://www.national-financial-literacy.org.tt/In%20the%20Drivers%20Seat_Small.pdf

But to take you on a short trip down memory lane – and I dare say a similar one to many of you – I remember clearly the day I owned two cars at the same time. Enjoying a maximum NCD on my first car, I mistakenly assumed that I will get a discount on my new pet car – the sporty one That’s the day I realised that a car is like a corporation, it has all the legal rights and obligations similar to a person. You see, it was not me who had the insurance, it was the car. The fact that I was the driver and didn’t make any claims on any insurance made no difference. “Uh, no sir… that’s not how it works…” I can’t drive two vehicles at the same time so in theory, the North American version of insurance is far superior to what our poor legislators have saddled us with.

I want to have insurance to cover any vehicle I drive – even if I borrow my pardner’s $300,000 Vigo. If something should happen to it, heaven forbid, why should he have to go through the hassle of claiming on his insurance. (Ever question an insurance person about that sentence on your policy? “The policyholder may also drive another vehicle not belonging to him/her”? Try it.) So if I decide to have a stable like Jay Leno, I’ll have to be richer than him!

So all you dim-witted legislators, please protect us from this ‘parasitic cartel’ that serve themselves more than they serve the industry they are in.

Have any more names for insurance companies? Everyone knows Bobol & Larceny, Capital Punishment, Tata…

I saw a young guy in a mall once with a T-Shirt that read something to the effect that, if she’s rich and pretty, he’ll date her. (Trying to remember here… since it was funnier then). After reading yesterday’s Express investigative story by Camini Marajh, I was thinking the same about  Gita Sakal! US$45,000/month salary and US$2m bonus (guaranteed) makes it a very attractive proposition.

But I jest… What, pray tell, are we doing with these people? CL coudn’t meet their obligations to their clients and went to the Government to seek help. The Government asked for its pound of flesh for disbursing taxpayers dollars (!) and Ms. Sakal thinks that it’s unfair that all their monies are tied up? What money? You didn’t have any in the first place!

The story went on about the big boys who made their millions and millions of ‘hard earned pay’ making CL what it is today – a failure that is hanging around the necks of TnT taxpayers, not them. To make excuses that Duprey was a big picture man and he was an entrepreneur extraordinaire in where he took his company falls flat in the face of where the company is today.

I told many people since January that I saw no difference between our Duprey and the Stanfords of the world and all those greedy men and women in the capitalist capital of the world – the USA. How many men paid themselves millions – millions while the company was falling all around them. And now, just like Gita, they say that they are entitled to what their contract says is owed to them. Yuh talk about bold-face… I think that they should take their case to the taxpayers and see how they feel about it.

And what about the continuing saga of conflict of interest regarding the Minister of Finance. So, she said Clico paid off for her mortgage as it was insurance issue - that makes sense to me, but what about the Benz? Seriously, a Benz? And there’s no conflict of interest? I’m sorry, but it makes no sense to me when on the other hand your erstwhile colleagues speak about how difficult it is to find people for the Integrity Commission in the small pool of people available on the island.

Paying yourselves millions, running a company into the ground, the $10b that is needed to float back the group could have been meaningfully put towards infrastructure or services (well… as much as a dim PNM government can) and you still feel someone owes you something Gita? Isn’t the corporate secretary the legal embodiment of a company? After all that went on during your watch, you may be lucky to get away not making jail time.