An Israeli Chief of Police for Trinidad
Aug 27th
Now I know that my fellow Trinidadians are smart and right thinking people and as such I am comforted by the fact that they do not really and truly expect a reduction in crime just because we now have a Canadian chief of police and a canadian deputy chief of police. For one, they are fully aware that these two positions are executive in nature and as with any executive position the results would be of a high level nature. Things like ensuring effective inter agency communication, excellent public speaking and PR abilities to pacify us no matter how heinous the crime. I think we can probably expect to hear some suggestions on how we can minimise the existence of rogue elements in the police service (although we have heard many suggestions before, we are a forgetful people so we will need to hear it again). What we are not expecting is any reduction in the number of murders, traffic offenders etc as these are and will continue to be the responsibility of our detectives and traffic police whose positions are not as executive as a Chief of Police and so the deliverables of these regular police are obviously not as important.
Additionally, we as Trinidadians being accustomed to the world at large are quite aware that the crime rate in Canada is very low, I mean you can even leave your house unlocked and go out for some quality time with the family. With this in mind, given that in our country criminals can walk into your house and slit your husband throat and then kidnap you, or take a mother and her 10 yo and cut them up into pieces and dump them and shoot 14 yo school drop outs standing at the side of the road. We can certainly rest assured that these Canadians will not be able to handle such an environment which would mean they are simply here on a training exercise for their army maybe. Should the government want to hire a serious international chief of police, I would suggest in the first instance an Israeli, then a Afghan and finally a Somali since these guys would be accustomed to the type of guerrilla warfare we have going on here
Perhaps one day, when the fairy Godmother of Justice grants us a few wishes, we will wish that the almost 2 million in salaries being used to pay these top cops will instead be distributed to the detectives and traffic police as incentives. For example a traffice police can have a quota of tickets to issue every day where these tickets must be successfully uncontested. Hmmm I’d say we can start with 5 tickets a day for each officer and 10% of the ticket value for each additional ticket can be given to the officer. So if you bribe the officer he can charge you for that too and get some of the money from the fine for that bribery charge too. This sounds so nice that I do hope the fairy Godmother of Justice comes soon with her bag of wishes.
Finally we as Trinidadians are patiently waiting for when the mark bus as to who these two canadians really related to here in Trinidad, as this has been our experience with Canadians hired on contract and paid millions of dollars.
There has been blood
Jul 30th
There was a movie called “There will be blood” sometime ago (see trailer below) which showcase some of the early history of the development of the oil industry in america. I highly recommend that every citizen of Trinidad and Tobago take a look at this film to get a full understanding of what is really at stake on this island which seems like a paradise on the surface. As a newbie in the energy industry, the impact of this industry on our politics and way of life continues to astound me.
Recently, there have been statements by the current government that we should look into developing our tourism industry, if I were to take these statements seriously I can only assume then that the persons making and agreeing with this suggestion have been running groceries and hardwares before coming to public office and are trying to apply the same type of economics to our country. If I don’t take them seriously my conclusion is even scarier cause it means they are trying to present a picture that is completely false. I heard that tourism counts for 15% of our GDP, now i aint no economist but somebody lying somewhere cause the percentage contributions to GDP of the various industries just not adding up to 100%, unless we measuring GDP out of 200%. I also have to wonder what type of tourism they referring to cause there is something called industrial tourism which we have obviously because of the many multinational industrial companies in Trinidad. Companies which have budgets for lodging of staff ranging from $2500 US per month to $5000 US per month which approximates to $12,000 TT to $30,000 TT per month and that is just lodging, there is still transport and entertainment to add in.
Upon the announcement of the global recession i heard companies were cutting back and instead of buying audi Q7′s they bought Q5′s, up to the other day I saw a guy rolling around in a PCP BMW 7 series. If this is the recession, then what was going on in the good times, but i digress
All of that is simply to say that tourism can never be a focus for Trinidad, the last country that diversified from energy to tourism was Dubai and built some of the worlds most innovative, tallest and expensive structures. We built 2 buildings and the people couldnt handle it, they got scared and changed their government. Good thing Dubai doesnt have that democracy nonsense to deal with.
Now my fellow trinis if you can give up burger king, hagen daaz, cold stone, your 3 movietownes etc, then we can start looking for non industrial contributors to GDP. Otherwise, you are invited to migrate to St. Lucia or Grenada where u can have all the tourism and agriculture you want.
I think I will make my own movie called Blood in Paradise (loosely based on a true story)
Right Now Ah Sellin Tiles
Mar 9th
Ok folks, this post is only for the people that fed up seeing the same old products everywhere you go. For those of us that, unfortunately have cable and watch international tv and see nuff style upon style from all over the world in all kinda ting and wonder why we doh have dat here.
So tiles is d latest ting I had to shop around for in this blessed country and at first I was disappointed, very disappointed. But three tile places came to the rescue and delivered tiles with a difference at reasonable to not so reasonable prices. N.B. none were ridiculously priced which is what we have come to expect. The “other” tile places that didnt meet expectations will not be mentioned. I don’t want them to get a bad rep, just maybe step up and improve their selections.
The three recommended tile places are
No. 1: RAFMON MARKETING
No. 2: CLEOPATRA
No. 3: TILE WAREHOUSE LIMITED
See your phone book for contact info and locations.
Beautiful Nightmare
Feb 24th
So I listen to Rachel Price lil rant on her experience at d beyonce concert, no parking for VVIP, doubles and corn soup as food, uneven ground, no seats, etc etc etc. So my fellow trinis pay dey $1600 and expected bess service but wait are you for real? Are you living in the same trinidad I living in. Apparently, trinis think service is about money, sorry to break it to u but its about attitude and the majority of us dont have a service oriented attitude. But at least we are consistent. Poor service at fast food outlets, poor service in govt offices, poor service from d phone company and in dat case is d service from d staff and from d phone itself. Hmmmm isnt it dat same phone company dat had d concert. So dat company cant give u good service all year but suddenly they figured it out for a concert? yeah right.
So to all my wannabe VVIP trinis if yuh aint VVIP on a regular day, u cant pay 1600 to be VVIP for one day. So you want parking. to park what? your almera? your corolla? your roll on roll off? come nah man get real if allyuh was rolling up in S class and audi A8 ah coulda understand but lets get real u is a regular person, relax yuhself. Next ting, is dat yuh want fancy food. News flash, next time u have to pay 1600 and somebody say yuh is a VVIP doh let food be a surprise nah. Demand to see d menu in advance. with all d ads they had how come menu aint get mention, cause yuh is not VVIP, u is only d fool dat somebody get to pay dat kinda money. But i understand why u would be vex, i might vex too if somebody embarass me in front everybody by letting d world know dat I is ah fool. Next ting is dat u want seats. Did u see a seat number on your ticket? huh huh did you? and d uneven ground.. well on planet Trinidad the savannah has been around since its inception and never has the ground been even. Beyonce nor her promoters have any magic wands that can make it even, no porcelain tiles can be laid overnight etc etc.
Now d only ting is dat I wish my people would learn from this experience, and while I know that the performances were enjoyed by all, I would hope they would know not to let anybody jook out dey eye just for a good time. But sorry, I being unrealistic here, Trinis getting fool up long time now, I aint see why dey go change dry so.
Bobol Practices and Customs
Oct 15th
So I decide to pretend to be a businessman do a lil import and distribution. Why in the world would I do that, maybe cause I only have one life to live so why not try it out and see. Anyway the learning process is happening very slowly, annoyingly slow but i starting to realise business in Trinidad moves really slow. So, if your trade products come up to more than $6000 u need a customs broker, of course nobody bother to tell me dat till i was handing d customs officer my docs without d proper entry being prepared. So I ifnally find a broker, get him all d documents only for customs to request a receipt as proof of payment for my goods. Of course I want to know what d france customs want to know all meh business for. Ah feel dey want to kidnap meh. But ladies and gents, nothing so innocent but rather much more damning. It seems my fellow trinis love ah bobol and they would present to customs invoices that showed they payed less than they actually did for the goods, which amounts to defrauding the government. These of course are the same trinis who complain bout how it have no bed in d hospital. Of course it have no bed, cause govt didnt raise as much money as they should to be able to buy dem. So now there is an extra red tape just to import 2 ting. I also want you to consider the next time you doh get something from d govt doh get vex with d minister instead turn to the trini next to u and ask him why he defrauding you. I going out on a limb here to give d govt some credit at least for trying to put some balance in a system dat has been abused by the ppl it supposed to help.
A woman’s worth
Oct 4th
I was watching a you tube presentation the other day on facebook by a well known female comedian in Trinidad. The topic centred around the crime situation in Trinidad and the prime minister’s “view” on why the crime rate is high this year. (I will leave comment on the PM’s view for a next time).
So the young lady was saying dat the Police Commissioner who is really only pretending to be commissioner since he is acting, said that absent fathers was a probable cause for all dese criminals. I want to present a radical idea here, The social impact of a father on a growing man’s life versus the social impact of a woman is minimal in comparison. This means that the woman has a FAR greater role to play. If a father pop down yeah it go have some problems, but if a woman pop down well is hell to pay.
Now why do I think so? in d bible, when Jesus start making waves healing ppl and ting and challenging d ppl authority, poor fella just couldnt keep quiet and leave d problems alone, people started to ask well where this man really come from and then they ask “Who is his mother”. His mother yes, not his father but his mother as though because he is a trouble maker it must be his mother fault. Who raise dis man to act and think like that. The same went for John the Baptist, people were interested in who his mother was, little concern for who his father is.
If i had to guess at the role of a father i would say its to reinforce the teachings of the mother and to show him a trade so he could wuk and make a lil money. in that case maybe these bandits in Trinidad need someone to show them how to wuk and make real money instead of the uncertain income they get over a short lifespan. I think if I only had a short time to live and not too sure about how much money I go make in that time I would spend it on some 22″ rims as well. Have my B14 looking bess. but I digress.
I was also looking at a program on National Geographic about a society in china where fathers dont live with their children or wives and the Mother whoever is the eldest mother is the head of the house. The child get male input from his mother’s brothers (uncles) and the father is discouraged from providing too much input, not even money he have to provide. He visits his wife in d night and during the day returns to his mother’s house. Any money he makes stays in his mother’s house to see about them and his sister’s children.
So is absent father’s really d cause or do we have some wutless women. Cause I know real ppl with no fathers who is not no criminal. So to the mother’s who know what time it is and bring up their children right, nuff props to dem. I sure some married men will tell u too who does really run d show.
Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act
Aug 21st
I am sure we have all seen or encountered in some way drivers who use the shoulder and have been most distured at how it is used. Some people who should be on the shoulder dont bother with it and those who shouldnt be on the shoulder are on it all the time. Many a time I have heard of officers charging citizens with overtaking on the shoulder, and
you would also hear the argument that the shoulder is for an emergency. Experience really is the best teacher, so today I got my first ticket from the goodly P.C. Mahase (16856) for “improper overtake on left (shoulder). Feeling a sense of being treated unfairly I draw for my own copy of the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act Chapter 48:52. It is interesting to note there is actually no reference to the shoulder at all in this Act. Amazingly it simply states the offence to be “Improper overtaking on the left side of the road” hmmmm on the left side of the road you say? If I am to interpret this, it would mean that overtaking on the left lane also has the same charge and that whether you use the shoulder or lane for a left side overtake it would still be an offence. Very Interesting indeed, as there is no mention of shoulder at all. Of course I have to question where in our wonderful, less than up to date laws is there the provision for use of the shoulder in eme
rgency and while we on that can anyone also show me the laws for the length of a filter lane cause I really find dem filter lane does change in length on a whim. Also can anyone tell me how is an overtake defined and is it define by law anywhere. But my dear fellow citizens I do encourage you to read the firt schedule of the Act where you will find many things that are done on our nations roads are actually an offence. Some are done right in front of officers on patrol with no consequence.
A few that I think deserve special mention are:
Vehicle with defective fittings: All dem old car and dem, why dem not getting charge eh?
Obstructing overtaking traffic: all dem ppl on d hiway who like to drive at 60 please note that is an offence
Permitting excess sparks, smoke or visible vapour to come from vehicle: so all dem truck with dey black smoke all dem deisel pick up and dem old car again, please note, dat is ah offence.