by Raffique Shah
Sunday, February 3rd 2008
THE newly appointed Minister of Culture, Marlene McDonald, assured the nation last Thursday that “all systems are in place” for this year’s Carnival. Her optimism came amidst a cacophony of protests, some from calypsonians, others from the pan fraternity, over the standard of judging at various competitions. This annual bacchanal has become as much a part of the Caribbean’s biggest street festival as the inane, mostly jarring songs-if one can so classify them-that form today’s (cess)pool of road march material. I imagine the minister, being a Trini, has grown to expect and accept such rumblings as par for the carnival course.
Continue reading Pan music as a tool in fighting crime
“Yo mean yo’ had to tell de whole world yo’ business,” that is what Oskie, my good friend, asked when he read that I had “advertised” my sickness in the Trinidad Guardian.
The caption in the business section of the Trinidad Guardian 24/01/08 read, “Petro-Canada excited over T&T gas find”. The article referred to the recent discovery of between 0.6 – 1.3 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas. I’m not a geologist, but that strikes me as a significant amount of natural gas regardless of how it is measured. Petro-Canada is reported to have said that the local gas discovery is among the “more significant” of its international exploration successes. What’s more, this find is the first of a four well program and according to company officials, “…the discovery validates our exploration model and further success on the block could lead to a material development”. I am not sure what the term “material development” means but I am willing to wager a bet that the mother load is yet to be discovered.
LISTENING to today’s masquerade band leaders clamour for the Government to “run more money” my thoughts fall back on yesterday’s greats-George Bailey, Harold Saldenah, Cito Velasquez, Irwin McWilliams, the Harts and the Lee Heungs, to name a handful. These creative geniuses, forerunners to Wayne Berkeley and Peter Minshall, presented generations of Trinidadians and Tobagonians with Carnival spectacles that remain forever etched in the minds of those who were fortunate to see them parade in the city.
The relentless, insatiable and unmitigated fixation harboured by PM Manning in scraping the barrel for even the most tendentious and lack of a prime facie basis for wanting to disgrace and impeach former CJ Sharma as well as the rapidity of the process to effect the current appointment (done deal?) must surely lead citizens to inquire whether that whole sordid unnecessary chapter that blemished our political history in perpetuity was not a deliberately orchestrated political conspiracy engineered to remove CJ Sharma and enthrone Mr. Justice Ivor Archie in the first place.
Monday’s rapid fall of stock indices internationally, provoked by a severe and lingering contraction of the United States economy, the world’s largest consumer market, has seen the lengthening of recession shadows over, not only the US, but Europe and Asia as well. In line will be Latin America and Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean as the US economy, troubled by a pronounced slow down in housing unit starts urged on by a credit squeeze and a fall off in jobs and, consequently, earnings, has not given any indication of righting itself.
All the three major but flippant proposals announced by PM Manning at the inaugural Regency Hyatt Chamber of Commerce $800 luncheon lacked thought, vision, investigative evaluation and an appreciation of the fundamentals of problem-solving. 
In light of the escalating crime rate in Trinidad and Tobago, and the perceived impotence of the Police Service to arrest the situation, I want to once again bring up the idea of decentralization of the major law-enforcement bodies. 
Now that Prime Minister Patrick Manning has declared his latest plan to curb crime-hang ’em high-I must advise him of a sinister measure he can add for special effect. The PM knows I am among those who oppose capital punishment, although, shamefully, I must admit to having looked in the other direction as Dole Chadee and his gang were strung up under hangman Ramesh Maharaj’s watch. Now I urge the PM to torture the SoBs before putting the noose around their necks.