WE STILL AREN'T BEING TOLD THE TRUTH

 In my last post I said that we weren't being told the truth and I set out my reasoning for coming to that conclusion. Now, I have to ask the same question again. Put another way: are we still being misled? Take a look at what has happened recently. 

It was reported that somebody had been tested positive with the dangerous Brazilian variant for Covid 19. As soon as this report came out social media lit up with two questions: the first was how did this variant get here if the borders were locked down? And the second was who is the patient/victim? Is he/she an illegal immigrant?

Surprisingly, it took the authorities several days to answer these rather simple questions. Eventually we have been told that it came from an illegal Venezuelan immigrant.

Okay. That's believable, but why did it take so long to tell us? 

In the meantime another rumour surfaced on social media that a young (18 years old) Syrian boy in Westmoorings was tested positive for this Brazilian variant about the same time that the initial report about the Brazilian variant was said to be here. Also, the rumour is that this variant is literally ripping through and devastating the Syrian community in the West. Is all this true? I haven't a clue.

But you realize that the delay between announcing that the Brazilian variant is here and identifying that it allegedly came in through an illegal immigrant needs to be properly explained. The erstwhile Minister of Health tried yesterday to avoid giving proper information saying that questions on this should be directed to the Ministry Of National Security. To which I say why? What the heck is really going on? Why is there this apparent spike in Covid cases? Is there under-reporting? Was there under-reporting? Why do so many people simply not believe what we are being told? Why, for example, do so many people believe that the Prime Minister did not have Covid? Did he? I honestly don't know. But I do know that many, many persons simply don't believe that we are being told the truth - about anything!

And don't get me started on those guns which were found last week! Those announcements alone raise all sorts of troubling issues. Is it too much to ask of the Government that when their people talk to us that they tell us the truth?

WE AREN'T BEING TOLD THE TRUTH

 

It is difficult to come to any other conclusion other than we have not been told the truth about COVID 19 in T&T by the authorities. Why they should lie to us is, of course, another question. I can think of a few reasons, but they would only be guesses on my part and I wouldn't want to say anything that I couldn't prove. But why do I think that we haven't been told the truth? Consider the following:

First of all, when the whole world was locking down in February last year we held our Carnival. And then after Carnival there were reportedly very few cases  of the virus in the country, but we locked down on March 23rd of last year, about a month after Carnival had come and gone. Then after the lockdown  the rate of infection was supposed to have dropped so precipitously that some (little known) organization in England ranked us as number one in handling the virus. And even though we remained on lockdown we held a general election in August that allegedly did nothing in that there was no significant spike in new cases. But that didn't matter, we were number one in the world in handling the virus! (By the way, have you noticed that this claim is no longer being made? What do you think happened to stop the claim being made? Are we still number one? If not why were we knocked off our perch? And if we are still number one then why are we not being told this?)

But, (and here we go) apparently many of the symptoms of the deadly virus are very close to those of pneumonia. When I looked up how many people were reported to have died from pneumonia in the whole of 2018 it was less than half of the reported pneumonia deaths for March 2020! To which one can only say 'HUH'? That doesn't make sense - unless, of course, we were not told the truth in the first place.

Then we are now being told that there are two new cases of the British variant in the country. Okay. But it begs the question how? I thought that nobody but nobody can enter the country without (a) a negative test taken in the two weeks before arrival and (b) going into quarantine for two weeks after arrival and (c) getting an all clear at the end of the quarantine period.

So? How come this new British variant got into the country? Who screwed up? What has been done to correct the screw up? Do we know who the two victims were in contact with? Do we know who the persons that were in contact with the two victims were in contact with? And if Nobody screwed up what are we doing about finding Nobody or are we going to just give him a free pass -again!??

Then we are now being told that the virus is spreading and there are many new cases being reported every day. How and why is this happening?

Now, the authorities are tightening the restrictions. Okay. That is probably a good thing, but does anybody understand exactly WHY this is happening right now? 

And then there was the issue of the vaccines from India and Africa and the brouhaha with the Indian High Commissioner. It is probably best to leave my opinion and my very ugly and most unnecessary suspicions over that particular episode unexpressed at this time. except to say that it (that episode) has left me with a very bad taste in my mouth.

And finally, we had the news that Dr. Rowley was found to be Covid positive literally just before he was scheduled to get the vaccine. Many people do not believe that Dr. Rowley is indeed ill. Most certainly, the news reports as to how sick he is are conflicting and leave a reasonable observer to question as to what exactly is the truth about this. But it is more than interesting to find that there is a large number of persons who simply do not trust the report that Dr. Rowley is indeed ill.

And so, we come back to the beginning, which is that we have never received a clear and cogent report from the Health authorities as to what exactly happened and is happening. This has resulted in very ugly rumours of favoritism and a bending of the rules depending on who you are. For example, the Prime Minister's daughter and her family can get permission to visit her parents for a Christmas holiday but ordinary citizens remain stranded abroad and not able to come home. Why? No. Things simply don't make sense and when something doesn't make sense 98 percent of the time it is because the person who is telling you about whatever it is doesn't WANT you to understand; two percent of the time it is because HE is a fool and doesn't himself understand what he is saying.

So? Who is the fool, or who is trying to fool us and why?

 

CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM - FIXING OUR PROBLEMS PART 3

 As previously posted, I firmly believe that the root of all of our problems here in Trinidad & Tobago begins and ends with race. So? How can we solve this seemingly intractable problem?  I think that the answer lies in our British made/copied Constitution. You see, there are 41 seats or constituencies in T&T. Both major parties have a real lock on approximately 18 each with about 5 seats really in play at each general election every 5 years. And because of the demographics in each constituency that ain't gonna change any timesoon. Put another way, there is every incentive to vote race and so prevent "them" (whoever "them" might be) from gaining power.

But what if there was another way? Look: the reason for a 5 year term is fairly simple -it takes about 5 years (more or less) for any government policies to begin to work. Less time than that and a regime will not necessarily be able to do what is the right thing especially where that might entail unpopular policies; more time than that can lead to dictatorship.

But here is where the Americans seem to have got it right. (And, yes, I am aware of all the problems that they are having right now and the history behind those problems). They have a Lower House which is elected every 2 years, an Upper House elected every 6 years with a third of the Upper House facing re-election every 2 years, and a President/Chief Executive elected every 4 years.

What if we did a variant of that here? We could, for example, double the number of seats in our Lower House to 82 and elect them every 2 years. They would be full time parliamentarians with the responsibility in their districts for all that our current local councils have to do (lights, garbage collection, etc.) as well as legislative responsibilities (which would include things like budgets and other legislation). But because they would only be there for 2 years a lot of voters would be tempted to vote for a candidate from the "other side" if "their side's" candidate was simply a party hack and totally inefficient. The electorate then would have more reason to vote for somebody who would and could perform than for a hack. And if truth be known, we've got an awful lot of those on BOTH sides right now. 

Then we could have a full time Upper House of, say, 41 Senators with one third facing re-election every 2 years but with every Senator having a full term of 6 years. This could prevent stupid legislation from getting through. For example, let's say that the Government wants to pass a law that all men must wear green pants. Then the President gets the support of the members of his party in the Lower House along with a few in the Upper House. But at the elections held every 2 years those politicians who supported this absurd 'green pants' law are booted out of office including those Senators who supported it and voted for it. Now, if you were one of those Senators who rather blindly supported your leader in this stupid law, and you were facing the polls in 2 years time, would you quietly drop your support for this stupid law knowing that it will lead to your political demise or will you go down with that sinking ship? Put another way, this system returns power to the people.

Then we could have a Chief Executive whose election and period in office is not linked to his party have a majority in either house. He/she would face the electorate every 4 years and could have a term limit placed on him/her (e.g., 2 terms as is the case in the United States).

I could go on, but hopefully the point is made: that this system would effectively reduce , if not eliminate, the reason to vote race. What do you think? If you don't like it what idea(s) do you have? Because, like it or not, our problems begin and end with race. We need to do whatever we can to make it unprofitable to vote race. If we don't it will only get worse.

P.S. An added bonus would be to reduce the power of those small cliques who control both main parties.