By Raffique Shah
March 08, 2015
The bell has rung, the gates are open and the campaign for general elections 2015 is underway. Over the next six months, political parties that matter and those that don’t will spend an estimated $300 million in a frenetic bid to be elected or re-elected to power. The stakes are high: by the end of this fiscal year, the incumbent administration will have spent $337 billion during its five years in office.
Continue reading Buying and selling government
By Michael Harris
March 09, 2015 – trinidadexpress.com
I must confess that I was taken completely by surprise with the news reports last week confirming that the police had received “voluminous” information from Internet service provider Google on the emailgate issue and that the alleged e-mails in the matter were being analysed to determine their authenticity.
Continue reading The spectre of emailgate
By Julien Neaves
February 22, 2015 – newsday.co.tt
WITH Caribbean neighbour Jamaica making moves to decriminalise marijuana University of the West Indies (UWI) Professor Emeritus Kenneth Ramchand is renewing his calls for marijuana to be decriminalised in Trinidad and Tobago for medicinal purposes.
In January this year the Jamaican Government tabled the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act, 2015 in that country’s Senate to decriminalise marijuana for medicinal, religious and personal use.
Continue reading Decriminalise it
February 19, 2015 – trinidadexpress.com
Kennya Cordner, star striker for the national women’s football team, appeared in the Port of Spain Magistrates’ Court yesterday charged with using annoying language to provoke a police officer to commit a breach of the peace.
The charge alleges that on Carnival Monday night, Cordner was outside Ma Pau on Ariapita Avenue when the music was shut off abruptly and she allegedly called out to some police officers nearby, asking why the music was stopped and complaining that they could not even wine on the police.
Continue reading Footballer charged with breaching peace
Griffith threatens to walk
By Renuka Singh
February 02, 2015 – guardian.co.tt
National Security Minister Gary Griffith is threatening to quit in the face of scathing press release issued by Communication Minister Vasant Bharath yesterday accused him of making false claims and compromising the integrity of Cabinet. Bharath was referring to reports that Griffith claimed he was pressured by his Cabinet colleagues not support a criminal complaint by Police Complaints Authority Director David West.
Continue reading Griffith threatens to walk – AG to resign
By Raffique Shah
February 01, 2015
For all its bountiful blessings—natural resources that allow us to live reasonably well, a mixture of races that dwell in relative harmony, a people that laugh more easily than they cry—this is a cussed country that moves with consummate ease from one political scandal to another, a society that has grown to accept a level of lawlessness and boorish behaviour that permeate it from top to bottom, from captain to crook.
Continue reading A wild ride to elections
Express Editorial
February 01, 2015 – trinidadexpress.com
“The standing of the Attorney General is not the only consideration Ms Persad-Bissessar is obliged to weigh. If, indeed, Mr Griffith had been aware of illegality even suspected of being engaged in or proposed by the Attorney General, he should not himself have waited until now to be exposed as someone in the know. His own fitness for office is now at least open to question.
“Finally, that it has taken nearly three months for Mr West, a lawyer, to report to the relevant authorities some illegality he might have suspected is itself troublingly questionable.
Continue reading AG must step down: first act in rare drama
‘A CONSPIRACY’
By Andre Bagoo
January 30, 2015 – newsday.co.tt
ACTING Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams yesterday announced that he had ordered a police probe into an allegation of an attempt to pervert the course of justice made against Attorney General Anand Ramlogan by Director of the Police Complaints Authority David West.
In a media release, the police public affairs unit stated, “The Commissioner of Police (Ag), Mr Stephen Williams, wishes to advise that today, Thursday 29th January, 2015, he was visited by Mr David West at Police Administration Building, Port-of-Spain, and presented with a signed statement, in which Mr West made an allegation of ‘an attempt to pervert the course of justice’, against Senator the Honourable, Anand Ramlogan, Attorney General of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.”
Continue reading ANAND UNDER POLICE PROBE
By the Multimedia Desk
January 29, 2015 – trinidadexpress.com
DIRECTOR of the Police Complaints Authority David West on Thursday issued a statement related to the rapidly unfolding events involving the allegations that he was asked by Attorney General Anand Ramlogan to withdraw his witness statement in a defamation lawsuit related to the failed extradition involving Section 34 applicants Steve Ferguson and Ishwar Galbaransingh, in exchange for him getting the job at the PCA. West has disclosed that as a result of claims made in the media and responses given by Ramlogan, he (West) had reported the matter to the police.
Continue reading David West has reported the AG to the cops
By Raffique Shah
January 25, 2015
There are many arguments in favour of extending the compulsory retirement age for members of the armed forces, the strongest being the fact that there are retirees receiving full pension at age 47, many of whom are fit and healthy and can easily work for another 20 years, which most do.
Continue reading Fit for the military