WOULD YOU KILL THE FATMAN?

Like most people (or at least an overwhelming majority) I was very pleased with the May 24th victory of the People's Partnership at the polls for reasons that hopefully are very obvious. (If they aren't to you, then I'll happily debate them, but there are more important matters to discuss at the moment). What concerns me now that the new Government is settling down and settling in is that there are a number of economic or financial "potholes" (for want of a better word) left in the way of the new Government by the Manning administration that can de-rail the Government before it even gets off the ground.

Let me put it to you this way: Let's say that you were in charge of a railway switch. Coming down the track at ninety miles an hour is a huge locomotive that is totally out of control. Now, if you leave it on its present track it will run straight into a very fat man and kill him immediately. If, however, you throw the switch and send the train onto the other track it will run into twelve people a little further down the track and kill all of them in five minutes from now. You cannot warn either the fatman or the twelve people about this imending disaster. If you do nothing, everybody dies. What do you do? would you kill the fat man in order to save the other twelve? Everybody is innocent! It's a terrible choice, isn't it?

Well, that is something like the choice facing the new Government on a variety of matters. In other words, Prime Minister Persad Bissessar is going to have to make some very harsh decisions very soon that will hurt a lot of people. The first "pothole" or "runaway train" that we are facing is the crisis at State owned Petrotrin. Petrotrin has a debt of somewhere in the vicinity of TT$18 billion! There is no way that the company can survive unless something is done, and soon. The only options that appear to be on the cards are:

(a) massive retrenchment (approaching something like fifty per cent of

the work force), or

(b) a devaluation of the TT dollar which would increase the TT dollar

earnings of the Government and thus make this debt more

manageable (remember that the vast majority of the Government's

income is in US dollars).

Then there is the CL Financial/CLICO "pothole" or "runaway train". That particular hole is about TT$50 billion. The last administration was most reluctant to sell of the CL Financial assets, but it is difficult to see how the new Government will be able to avoid doing so. In any event, even with a sale the hole remains uncomfortably large.

Then there is the question of Errol McLeod's influence in teh Cabinet. Will he go along with a reduction of the workforce at Petrotrin if that is the recommendation of the experts or will he insist on a devaluation? In other words, will the pain be confined to a few or to the whole country?

There are other problems as well. It is clear that Mrs. Bissessar's team have inherited a huge mess. It is also clear that there is going to have to be a series of rather harsh and difficult measures that will be needed to get the country back on track. The question that has to be on everyone's minds is what exactly does the new Government propose? Well, we shall all find out soon enough I suppose. But make no mistake about it, they have their work cut out for them!! I genuinely wish them well. If they fail we are @#$%^&*!!!!!!!!!!

I'M BACK!!!

Okay! For a variety of reasons (most of them personal) I haven't been able to post anything on this site since the elections. I have at last managed to get my business in order and am now able to start posting again. There will be at least one new post a week (probably ... hopefully ... more). But for now you can look forward to checking me out every week. In return, I am looking forward to all of your comments and feedback. There is a lot to discuss!!

(POSSIBLE) REASONS FOR CALLING THE 2010 GENERAL ELECTIONS

Okay. I admit up front that I do not have a "hotline" to Patrick Manning nor have I consulted the Oracle at Delphi, nor have I consulted any seer women (or men),so what follows is purely speculation on my part. But the words that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle put in the mouth of his great fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, have always stayed with me:

"How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible,
whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?"
So, on that basis let's examine the possible reasons for calling the elections half way through a term when Manning had such a comfortable majority in the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago:

(Possible) Reason #1
Manning said that he called the election because the logical consequence of a no-confidence motion is that an election be called. So, he decided to give the Opposition what they wanted and has accordingly caught them by surprise and he will whip them at the polls.
I think that we can safely regard this as balderdash. And I don't think that any reader of this blog really needs an explanation as to why I say this.

(Possible) Reason #2
The economy is in serious trouble and harsh economic decisions are going to have to be made by September. For example, Petrotrin has an $18 billion dollar debt that it simply cannot repay. Accordingly, there are going to have to be massive lay-offs at the State owned oil firm ... some experts are predicting that at least half the work force is going to have to be sent home. Further, there is the CL Financial bailout to be considered. Word on the street is that this particular "black hole" is $47 billion deep. The exact position is difficult to ascertain because, quite frankly, there has been a dearth of information on this particular subject. But for those who pay attention, the recent high level resignations (Eurich Bob et al) are cause for raised eyebrows, if not outright concern. What was the real reason that these guys quit? Not very many people believe the reasons given. Also, the word is that there is a looming deficit that is even worse than the one that was predicted.
In these circumstances, the Prime Minister may well have realised that he would need a new mandate to govern. His moral authority to do so had already been badly damaged by the UDECOTT Commission of Enquiry and there was the very serious perception in the public mind that his government was corrupt. (Interestingly, to date corruption has not been a big issue on the Opposition campaign platforms).
So, it could well be that Manning called the election because he realised that his moral authority to govern had been seriously undermined by the UDECOTT fiasco and that without this authority he would be unable to hold things together when the harsh economic decisions that are coming down the pipeline have to be taken.

(Possible) Reason #3
Manning knew that he was going to lose the no-confidence debate. It was no secret that he and Dr. Keith Rowley were "at daggers drawn". It also does not take a political genius to realise that if Manning were to be "killed" (politically, of course ... this blog certainly does not advocate violence of any kind) tonight, Rowley will become the leader of the PNM tomorrow morning. The no-confidence motion was presenting Rowley with a really good chance to do away with the Prime Minister. The Opposition had 15 votes. Rowley's vote would make it 16. All that was needed was 5 more votes. Would Penny Beckles, for example, have sided with Rowley? She certainly had motivation to do so. Were there 4 more PNM M.P.'s? There is evidence to suggest that certain others might also have wanted to think about voting against the Prime Minister and had in fact lined up behind Rowley to do just that and that there were in fact 5 others who would line up with Rowley to vote against Manning and bring him down.
You must remember that the Motion was a motion against the Prime Minister and not the Government. If it had been carried Manning would have had 7 days to resign or call an election. If he had chosen not to resign but to call an election, his party would have probably revolted and thrown him out before the election and replaced him with Rowley. Either way, he was finished.
You must also remember that a Prime Minister is head of the National Security Council, and as such gets security reports on every thing that is going on that affects the security of both the State and his Government. If such a plot was afoot Manning would have got wind of it. That is for certain!

(Possible) Reason #4
The Americans told Manning that if he did not call an election that they would destabilise his regime. The Americans in fact destabilised the George Chambers regime way back in 1986 when they "cooked" the IMF's books and forced an unnecessary recession on Trinidad & Tobago. All that is now history and it is not relevant to this post as to why the Americans did that then. So, why would they want to interfere now? Because they have major economic and political interests in Trinidad & Tobago which could be seriously threatened if there was social unrest ... and all the signs were there that the country was heading for a serious period of social unrest (see Reason #2 above). The Manning Government had suffered serious body blows to its credibility and its moral authority to govern had been seriously undermined by various mis-steps (Calder Hart, UDECOTT, even the "$2 million flag", etc.). In the circumstances, the order was "call an election and we won't interfere. Don't call one and we will!"

As Conan Doyle so aptly said, "... when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
Well, Trinidad and Tobago, what do you think?

THE 2010 ELECTIONS – THE CONTINUING SAGA

Personal matters have prevented me from writing for the last two weeks, but life goes on and certainly there is a lot to comment on since my last post. The Opposition Parties have now come together under one banner and have agreed on not only a distribution of seats, but also that Kamla Persad-Bissessar will be the Prime Minister should they win the elections. The election is now less than a month away. Prime Minister Patrick Manning has spent the last few days attacking the coalition as being inherently unstable and predicting that they will fall apart soon after they gain power … if they gain power.

Unfortunately for Mr. Manning, this prediction is one that doesn’t look likely to gain traction with the voters. People are more interested in the recent past and the PNM’s handling of their problems. For example, one of the PNM candidates, Peter Taylor who represents Princes Town South, was roundly booed and jeered in Moruga (a part of his constituency) by people who declared quite openly that they normally voted for the PNM. This time they are saying that they will go for the Coalition. Taylor’s seat which was once considered a “safe” PNM seat is now quite clearly a marginal.

Feeling vilified, Mr. Manning has begun to use negative tactics while on the campaign trail. His latest salvo was to resurrect the infamous Scott Drug Report which the NAR Government of A.N.R. Robinson quite wrongly laid in Parliament way back in 1987. Robinson was terribly wrong to lay that Report in the Parliament because it accused many people of being involved in the heinous drug trade without giving any of them the opportunity to defend themselves from the terrible accusations. No doubt there may have been many people who were in fact dealing in drugs, but equally there were probably an awful lot who weren’t. The terrible thing is that nobody knows who is guilty and who is not. For example, the Report named “a director of Queensway” as being involved. Now, the directors of Queensway at the time were John Rahael, a former PNM Minister of Health, and his brother George. Mr. Manning must have been satisfied that the Report was not true of either of the brothers, and I make no criticism of either his appointment of John Rahael as a Cabinet Minister nor do I make any allegations against either of the brothers. Mr. Manning also appointed Camille Robinson-Regis as a Minister. But her husband was named in the Report as being involved in the drug trade! You get the point?
Mr. Manning has obviously cleared the Rahaels and Robinson-Regis (who later got a big job in WASA) but he doesn’t clear Suruj Rambachan, the deputy political leader of the UNC. And he tries to beat Rambachan with the Report on a public platform. Why? Some twenty-three years later nobody has been charged for any of the alleged crimes that are contained in that Report. That ought to tell us something.
(Maybe this last point isn’t so strong … 13 years after my cousin’s murder nobody has been charged, although everybody knows who did it and who helped to cover it up. But I make it nonetheless.)

Back to my point about the elections:
Negative campaigning obviously comes from both sides in this contest, and one could argue that the UNC and COP have been firing their salvos for two and a half years to prepare the election "battlefield."
Negative campaigning can only carry you so far. At the end of the day the average voter wants to know how are you (the politician) going to make his life better. There is a high degree of “fedupness” with Manning especially and with the PNM in general that may well prevent the PNM from a strong showing at the polls.

The election remains Kamla’s to lose. We are in what you might call the period of a “phony war” right now. This is highlighted by the very slick "Made in America" ads running for the opposition. The real campaign will certainly heat up after the Parties launch their campaigns with the traditional rallies where they present their candidates and present their manifestos. Kamla has been towing a fairly soft, fairly bland line so far. But there will be a lot of “slings and arrows” flung at her and the Coalition in the coming weeks. She is going to have to make sure that her shields and defences are in good order, and there is no doubt that she is prepared to fling back.

If I could advise both sides I would say to them to try and stay positive. We (the people) are not really interested in the bacchanal and ‘mauvais langue’ (as much as we … being Trinis … like to hear them). We really want good governance.
To the PNM, I say justify what you did with all that money that you have had over the last 8 years. Tell us in clear, concise and easily understandable language where you invested it and why. Tell us also how you propose to solve our common problems and why they seem to take so long to solve.
To the Coalition, I say tell us in equally clear, concise and easily understandable language what you think are the problems confronting us now and how you propose to solve them. Tell us what sort of principals you stand for and why you are deserving of the public trust. We know that we are in for a rough ride. We also know some of the problems. But we need you to identify them and tell us how you are prepared to deal with them.

The game is on. Let’s see what happens next!

R.I.P.

Shelly-Ann Ramharack Joseph
24 May, 1970 -- 9 April, 2010


On the evening of Friday 9th April, 2010, at approximately 7:00 p.m., when she was about 5 minutes away from her home, my loyal secretary, Shelly, was killed in a stupid motor car accident. The car she was travelling in was hit from behind by another car. As a result of the blow, her car jumped the median of the highway and was hit by an SUV that was barrelling down the other side. The car that caused the accident did not stop. Up to now, no arrests have been made. Shelly was sitting in the left front passenger seat. She died on the spot. She was a great secretary and a fabulous human being. "Sweetheart" is the word that everybody has used to describe her.

She leaves to mourn a husband, a daughter aged 13 and a son aged 7 ... and me! I have lost not only a good friend but just about the best secretary I have ever had. She was my left hand, right leg and right arm!! Rest in peace, my sweet Shelly. You will be missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing you.

A DISPASSIONATE LOOK AT THE COMING ELECTIONS

It has finally happened. With the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago now officially dissolved and general elections called for 35 days from now, it is a good idea to take a step back and look quite coolly and dispassionately at “the state of play” as it exists today. You didn't think I was unprepared for this event, did you?
Remember always that a week is certainly a very long time in politics, and now that Prime Minister Patrick Manning has called the election we will have five long weeks of campaigning before the country makes up its mind. So, without further ado let’s take a look at the three main players:

The Congress of the People
The COP’s greatest (and probably its only) strength is its management capability. Inside the Party are a number of capable and competent managers who do have a recognised ability to get things done. Unfortunately, the COP’s biggest weakness is that it is top heavy on management but is without a single salesman to sell the Party’s brand. The sad truth is that there is nobody in the front line who could sell a hot stove to an Eskimo on a cold winter’s night.
The COP top brass project a certain arrogance (whether intentional or not) that tends to turn off the masses. COP also has the problem that a large percentage of the people who voted for the Party in the 2007 general elections have now migrated back to the UNC now that Kamla has taken over the leadership of that Party. How many exactly? Well, that’s difficult to say without the benefit of a poll … but I think that it is safe to say that the number is significant. Put another way, the COP’s ability to damage the UNC in the coming polls will not be like it was before … unless, of course, something happens. And in this country you can never rule that out!
But the COP remains with the very unpleasant truth that it cannot win a seat. The most that the Party can hope to do is to act as a spoiler if it doesn’t get what it wants in the unity talks with the UNC… and even that is doubtful today. And finally, the COP is flat broke without any real ability to raise money. And elections are very expensive things!

The United National Congress
The UNC approaches the coming polls with a fair number of obvious strengths under its belt. Probably its most visible asset right now is its leader Kamla Persad Bissessar. Kamla has been a breath of fresh air not only to the UNC’s politics, but also in the poliyics of the country. She has become the media’s darling and is enjoying quite a little honeymoon with the Press. She is bright, articulate, and does not wear her femininity as a weapon, but is not afraid to be a woman. The truth is that the coming election is hers to lose.
In addition, the UNC has a solid base of fifteen seats and an organisation that can perform in the six marginals. (Remember that the magic number is twenty-one!) The Party’s electoral strength is solid and has been enhanced with the defections from the COP. It will be a formidable contender when the election bell is rung. Further, money should not be a problem for Kamla. Even if she did not have Jack Warner of ‘deep pockets’ fame by her side, she has enough wealthy backers that she ought to be able to more than raise the necessary funding to run this election campaign.
Jack Warner is also a formidable asset for the Party. Apart from having apparently limitless funds, he has proven himself to be a shrewd and capable politician who does not lose a battle … or at least not easily. He clearly has great organisational skills and is not somebody to be taken lightly at all.
But the UNC’s obvious strengths are also masking some rather serious weaknesses. The biggest danger for the UNC comes from within: what can be loosely termed ‘the Panday factor’. Kamla has several dissident sitting M.P.’s that she must deal with: There is the old Bas’ himself, his daughter Mikela, his brother Subash, Kelvin Ramnath and Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj. In addition she has to keep a wary eye on the St. Augustine M.P. Vassant Bharath who didn’t exactly embrace her after her victory over Panday in January.
The danger here is that if she allows them to go back as M.P.’s and she wins the elections this group or clique could pull her down as Ramesh et al did to her predecessor in 2001. It is unlikely that the UNC will win more than twenty-one to twenty-two seats. She will have to rely on their support if she wins. But, if she doesn’t allow them to go back she will have to face the rather obvious manoeuvrings that one or all of this group might engage in. Already, her deputy political leader Suruj Rambachan has made what could be a potentially damaging political error in saying that he is going up as a candidate in Panday’s seat of Couva North.
Why do I say this? Because Basdeo Panday still has support. What if (for example) he were to have, say, five hundred supporters turn up at Rienzi Complex when screening is being conducted for Couva North, and these supporters are there basically to boo Rambachan and cheer Panday? How will the ensuing debacle play on the evening television news and the next day’s papers? What if the others (Ramnath, Maharaj, etc.) also do something like this? In other words, Kamla has to have a plan in place to deal with these very possible exigencies. Failure to do so could present an image to the country of weak leadership.

The People’s National Movement
The PNM’s greatest strength is its formidable organisation. No other Party in Trinidad & Tobago is as organised as is the PNM. This organisation extends down to a fundamental understanding of its supporters and how best to ensure that they turn out to vote. Do not discount this ability!
The PNM also comes to the electorate with a fairly solid base of at least fifteen seats and with strong organisational skills already in place in the six marginal seats … and make no mistake about it: this election will be won and lost in the six marginals. The rest of us could almost stay home. The PNM also has deep pockets and ought to have a fairly strong war chest for this occasion. Further, the PNM does have enough financial support to replenish its coffers and ensure that there is enough for the coming battle.
But the PNM also has some rather glaring weaknesses. The obvious ones are what has been dominating the news for the last year or so: Calder Hart, UDECOTT, the new Revenue Authority, the Property Tax, etc. All of these can probably be summed up by the phrase ‘the PNM’s track record’. The PNM also has only one salesman … Patrick Manning … to carry its banner high into battle. Manning has “killed” Rowley and despite all the rumblings that we are hearing, it would be absolutely earth shattering if Keith Rowley was a PNM candidate in the next election.
The lack of a team of salesmen to carry the flag will tell in the campaign. With the exception of Colm Imbert, none of the present front liners have the ability to sway a crowd. Look for a rather lacklustre PNM performance on the hustings. The corruption bogey will also haunt the PNM on the campaign trail.
And finally, the media is fairly set against the Party. While the daily newspapers pretend to be balanced, the truth is that you don’t have to be a genius to figure out that they would like to see Manning go down.

So, where does this all leave us? Waiting and wondering. At the moment, my prediction is that the fight will be remarkably close and will go down to the wire. Is that prediction cast in stone? Not at all! I don’t pretend to be an oracle, and I reserve the right to change my mind when things change or new matters come to light. Having said all that, if I had to bet with you today I would bet a dollar to a doughnut on Kamla.
We will decide afterward who will pay the dollar and who will pay the doughnut.

IS A LANDATE PROBE REALLY A WASTE OF TIME?

The Trinidad Guardian in screaming headlines has reported wealthy contractor Emile Elias, the owner of NH International Company Limited (NHIC), as saying that any probe into Landate would be/is a waste of time and money. According to Mr. Elias, there have been lots of probes into that project and they have all come up with nothing except a huge cost to the taxpayer.

I can understand that Mr. Elias would like all questions on Landate to simply go away if not disappear altogether. The problem is that it just isn't that simple, nor is Mr. Elias all that correct. Indeed, Mr. Elias in the Guardian story (assuming always that he was quoted accurately) has indulged in telling only half the story ... and everybody knows that half-truths are often more dangerous than lies.

The whole truth is this: way back in 2004 there was a Commission of Enquiry (COE) into the construction of the Scarborough General Hospital headed by retired Justice Annestine Sealey. The "players" were NIPDEC which was the owner of the project, and NHIC which was the contractor. (Incidentally, NIPDEC was then headed by Calder Hart!) There were several complaints surrounding the project including the question of rather serious cost overruns. Another serious question was whether or not materials were being transported from the Scarborough General Hospital site to another site where NIPDEC was also the defacto contractor. This site was owned by Dr. Rowley's wife and was known as Landate

The allegation was that valuable construction materials were being transferred from a public works project to the private Landate project illegally.

NHIC at first participated in the COE but withdrew before one of its senior managers could be cross-examined on this question of illegally transferring materials. The evidence that came out of the COE (amongst other things) was:

(a) that the terms of the contract were that the materials became the property of the owner (NIPDEC) as soon as they arrived on site (my emphasis);
(b) that the engineer had no idea that the materials were being moved;
(c) that, in the words of the Quantity Surveyor for the project Mr. Cleveland Leonard (partner to local Transparency Jefe Victor Hart), this moving of materials was "a recipe for chaos"; and
(d) that there had been no real or proper accounting concerning what materials had been moved.

NHIC at first tried to say that the materials belonged to their corporate entity and that they could do with them whatever they liked. They argued that in any case, moving materials from site to site without the knowledge or consent of the engineer was standard practise in Trinidad & Tobago. Unfortunately for NHIC, the only witnesses who supported this thesis were from NHIC. In addition, the contract clearly disproved the allegation that the materials belonged to NHIC.
Well, the COE recommended that the police investigate the matter with a view to seeing whether or not NHIC had breached the provisions of the Larceny Act. In other words, had NHIC stolen the materials?
NHIC would be guilty of theft if it could be shown that the materials that were removed from the Scarborough General Hospital site to Landate had not been accounted for and if in fact NIPDEC had paid for them. Remember, the engineer had no idea that NHIC was removing the materials!

The matter has lain fallow now for 6 years. The DPP reported about a year ago that the police said that they couldn't investigate the matter because they did not have the file and they didn't have a copy of the COE's report! Good grief! Only in a Mickey Mouse country could such an excuse be made. But, it has held water up to now!

Mr. Elias also says that the matter should not be investigated because the Integrity Commission (IC) already did so and the High Court has ruled on the matter. Well, again, that is only half true. What happened was that the IC decided that Dr. Rowley had breached the provisions of the Integrity Act in regard to his declarations on Landate and had decided to prosecute him. Dr. Rowley applied to the High Court for judicial review of the decision to prosecute him saying that he had not been given a chance to explain himself. The High Court agreed and said the IC was wrong not first to give him a chance to be heard. And that was all! The substantive question on the issue has never been determined.

So, let's see what happens next. Will the new Director of Public Prosecutions deal with the matter or will he just let it slide ... again?! Or put another way, is the Landate probe really a waste of time? Stay tuned, my friends.

Opposition Unity … Unachievable Fact or Achievable Fiction?

There is a lot of talk going around about all the “work” that certain committees of both the UNC and the COP are doing to work towards a unity that will be real and lasting. Persons are calling for Mr. Dookeran to meet with Mrs. Persad-Bissessar quickly so that a united front can be presented for the looming Local Government elections which are due by September of this year (unless postponed again … but that is another story!).

Speaking for myself only, I am more than a little fed-up with the nonsense that is emanating especially from the COP camp on this subject of opposition unity. You see, I believe that if you ever want to understand a problem you should go back to basics. Now, if two (or more) political parties want to consider uniting the obvious questions are: what are our differences in terms of policies and philosophies? What are the policies and philosophies upon which we agree? On what issues are we prepared to compromise our values and beliefs in terms of the differences in our policies and philosophies and why would we want to compromise them?

Sort of obvious when you put it down like that, eh? But have you heard any COP or UNC leader talk about this? No! Why not? Answer: Because the truth is that there are no fundamental policies or philosophical differences between the UNC and the COP. None whatsoever! Or, if there are, they are so small that they could easily be resolved. No. The problem of achieving unity between the two political parties has nothing to do with ideology, but everything to do with jobs and positions. In other words, the ‘big’ boys realise that if they do have unity then a lot of them will have to give way and step down from the positions that they now enjoy. Mr. X will no longer be a deputy political leader, Mr. Y will no longer be a chairman, Mrs. Z will no longer … well, you get the point.

The problem is that there is a large segment of the population that is fundamentally opposed to the PNM and would like to see change. Some people feel more comfortable with the COP leaders being in charge and others with the UNC leadership holding the reins. The problem that the COP supporters have is that there aren’t enough of them in any one constituency to win a seat. The problem that the UNC has is that if they could get at least fifty percent of the COP supporters to vote for them (with the remaining COP supporters either staying home or voting for the COP) then the UNC would be assured of a victory at the polls. Unfortunately for the COP there are quite a few COP supporters who will vote for the PNM before they would vote for an enlarged UNC that absorbed the COP. Following on Kamla’s January trouncing of Mr. Panday in the UNC internal elections a fairly large segment of the COP support pealed off and “returned home” to the UNC. So, the COP has the problem of convincing their UNC counterparts that the remaining rump of their supporters will follow them “to the gates of hell” if necessary, and that these supporters are indeed numerous enough to make the difference between defeat or victory.

The UNC needs to approach the proffered chalice of potential unity with a great deal of caution. Frankly, if I was advising Kamla, I would tell her to run at least two different polls very quietly amongst the COP supporters to find out exactly how much COP support has indeed come over to the UNC, how much remains, how much will stay if some sort of accommodation is reached, what exactly are the issues that concern the COP supporters, and who in the COP is worth my while to keep and who should I discard. Why would I advise that at least two polls be run? Because when I get the results from the first poll I would immediately verify it with a second using a different team. If the results are the same, then I would know that I have a fairly accurate reading. If they are different then clearly somebody somewhere has made a mistake.


And why would I keep it quiet? Come on! You really don’t need me to answer that, do you?

LIFE IN THE TROPICS

You really can’t say that life in good old T&T is boring. In the last two weeks we have been inundated with all sorts of developments in or on the country’s political landscape.


First of all, two days before the judgement in the UDECOTT judicial review case the allegations burst on the scene with documents that if true show that Sherrine Hart, the wife of Calder Hart, is related to certain directors of Sunway Corporation and CH Development. The allegations are serious indeed. Then, before we get a chance to breath the judge hands down her ruling in the UDECOTT matter. She said in essence that while Uff and his fellow Commissioners were negligent and while they did exhibit bias, that was not enough to set aside the Enquiry report. UDECOTT has still to decide if it will appeal. Then, the very next day (Saturday), Calder Hart resigns and leaves the country. Chaos appears to ensue in the Government camp as Prime Minister Manning also leaves the country for England to attend a Commonwealth function.


In the meantime, there is also the story of a $30 million church being built by a small Christian sect in the heights of Guanapo. What makes this news is that the sect is headed up by the Prime Minister’s spiritual adviser/prophetess/ seer woman (whatever you want to call her). Also, the church is being built by Shanghai Corporation. The obvious question: where did this little church get the money to build such a huge church has remained unanswered and as a result ugly and unnecessary suspicions and rumours are circulating all over the place. In addition, it was reported on hearsay that the Prime Minister himself has been seen up there “several times”.
Mr. Manning, in what can only be described as an extraordinary performance in Parliament, lambasted his critics on the question of the church likening their criticisms to “religious persecution”. Had it not been for the Calder Hart revelations the following week no doubt this matter would have continued to dominate the news. As it is, it has not completely gone away.
Then, just when we think that we have heard it all, out comes the news hard on the heels of an announcement that the President was going to appoint a new Integrity Commission on Monday 15 March, which he did. On top of this, we learn that “a former Government Minister” is being investigated for breaching the Integrity Act. Still with me?

The allegation is that the former Minister failed to declare a very large Cayman Island bank account run by his wife in which there was over US$6 million. As rumours began circulating as to the identity of this former Minister, Dr. Keith Rowley came out almost immediately and said that the rumours were all pointing at him but that they were not true. He said he does not have any money at all outside of Trinidad & Tobago.
That might be true, but I don’t think that that was the exact allegation. I believe that the exact allegation was that it was the wife of the former Minister who has the alleged account. But let’s face it, I certainly do not know the identity of this former Minister and I certainly can’t say that it was Dr.Rowley who was being targeted. I did find his denials though a bit strange in that they were very specific in one way -- ‘I don’t have any accounts outside T&T" -- but vague on whether or not he was connected in any way with this alleged Cayman Island account. E.g., through his wife or some corporation ultimately controlled by her.
Again, let me be clear: I am not saying that this is so, just that I found it a little strange that Rowley was not specific in one regard while being very specific in the other. In any case, my guess is that we will soon find out who the alleged former Minister is when the charges come down. And I have been told by persons who should know that charges are coming. We’ll see! If it is Dr. Rowley who is charged, that will be a political earthquake equivalent to the Haiti and Chile quakes combined. Any other former Minister would only be passing headlines.

Then the Prime Minister goes on a walkabout in San Juan and tells the nation that there is basically a war going on between his Government and certain elements in the construction industry. In this war, he says, “some soldiers may fall”, but he made it clear that this will be a fight to the finish! Wow!

No right thinking person can be happy with what is going on. There is an old African saying: “When elephants fight the grass gets trampled”. Most of us are grass in this fight between the elephants that are on the stage right now. But grass has a way of catching fire when there is too much heat and the elephants themselves can end up being burned in the ensuing conflagration.


In 1990 then Prime Minister Robinson started mounting a series of political attacks on the then opposition PNM that made everyone very upset. The explosion finally came on 27 July. I don’t want to sound as if I am condoning corruption of any kind. Neither am I advocating or condoning revolution. I am not. But I do think that everybody should take a deep breath and step back a little. We need to turn down the heat.

Life in the Tropics does not have to be a constant carnival.

BASIC EDUCATION

A reader sent me the e mail below which I thought was so clear and so well written that I asked for (and received) his permission to publish it on this blog. Quite frankly, I agree with everything that he has said and really could not have put it better than he has done. My sincere thanks to him.


Over a period of years I have been bleating on in letters to the editor on this and several other similar subjects that should be part of the basic education of every Trini.
There should be a course on "home common sense" that should be obligatory in all schools.The idea is first to minimise possible risks to life and limb, then improve quality of life.
Here are some of the subjects that should be covered.

1. Disasters and emergencies (Hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc)
2. Rules of the road and road sense. As pedestrian, rider, and driver.
3. Anger management and conflict resolution.
4. First aid for first responders.
5. General health and hygiene.
6. Risk recognition in everyday life. Fire, electrocution, drowning, falling, poisoning, stings and bites, and other "everyday" risks.

In the quality of life section should be;
1. Civil rights and responsibilities.
2. Basic manners, customs, and etiquette
3. An outline of services available to citizens, and how to access them.
4. Basic home economics, nutrition, and simple home maintenance.
5. Environmental awareness and basic agriculture.

A manual covering these subjects(and no doubt others that will be identified) should be easily available to every citizen, and should be a required textbook in all schools. It should be available in electronic form too.

A diploma in these subjects would be required for entry into any government employment, including the "10 days" type programs. The examinations should be arranged so that alternative assessment is available for those with various challenges, (including lliteracy!).

I hope I have not bored you, but it is my view that many of the "reluctant" students in our current education system would benefit at least in basic life skills from this or a similar curriculum, no matter what their academic inclinations.
What do you think?

Well, what do you think?

“PRIME MINISTER KAMLA SAID TODAY … “

Harold Wilson once said that a week was a long time in politics. He made this now famous comment when the opinion polls were showing that his Labour Party’s popularity was extremely low and there was a General Election due in a few months. What he meant, obviously, was that his party’s fortunes could (as the Americans would say) ‘turn around on a dime’ and that they could be back in business before you knew it! Unfortunately for Mr. Wilson even though it is true that political fortunes can change very quickly, they didn’t change quickly enough for him. He lost!
Now, even though there is still almost 2 ½ years to the next General Elections in Trinidad & Tobago, it seems that they are Kamla’s to lose. By that I mean that unless things change, the next Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago will be Kamla Persad Bissessar.
There are many reasons for this. The first reason that one could cite is that there is a mood engulfing most of the western world for change. Trinidad & Tobago is no exception to this desire to see things go in a different way. Then-Senator Barack Obama, who is probably the best example, tapped into this mood in the U.S. most successfully a little over a year ago. Here in good old T&T one gets a distinct feeling from “the ground” that there is a great deal of dissatisfaction with the Manning Regime. The Prime Minister has not helped himself either, and has only increased this desire for change with the way that he defended his Spiritual Adviser/Priest/(or whatever you want to call her) in Parliament. People are asking very serious questions, yet he chose to lash out at just about every other religion in Trinidad & Tobago in a way that was guaranteed to cause (and did in fact cause) great offence. Unsurprisingly, he is getting hit from just about every angle on this issue and his cry of ‘religious persecution’ is falling on stony ground. Nobody is buying it.
On top of that, Mr. Manning is the only “salesman” in his Party. Having systematically decimated all of his leading “salesmen” (Ken Valley, Keith Rowley, etc.) he now finds himself with nobody but himself to carry his message and “sell” his visions to the public. And his senior ministers simply can’t carry the fight. Mariano Browne, for example, presents himself as a most competent individual, and to his credit, there has not been a whisper of corruption attached to his name. But Mr. Browne, competent as he is, is not charismatic and his message is often lost in the dry and uninspiring way in which he talks in public.
Kamla, on the other hand, has presented herself as the agent for change to a country that is growing increasingly fed up with Mr. Manning’s rather autocratic style of leadership. While the Prime Minister continues to present himself as the leader of a Government that is there to rule the people, Kamla is presenting herself as a leader that leads almost from behind … in other words, as a consensus builder. Her style is so dramatically different from that of the old lion (Panday) as well as Mr. Manning’s that even her critics are being won over. And since she became the leader of the UNC she hasn’t made a misstep … yet!
That “yet” is important, for while I said that the next election is Kamla’s to lose, the truth is that there are many pitfalls still ahead of her. The first thing to recognise is that while she has now become the “owner” of the UNC “brand”, that Party is presently broken, broke and in a most disorganised state. The Party machinery hardly exists, and that which does exist is in an extreme state of disrepair. Also (and more importantly), the Party is flat broke. Its coffers are empty. Now, it is true that the indefatigable Jack Warner (of deep pockets fame) is standing by, but way back in 1995 the UNC was accused (with not little justification) of falling into being “owned” by a small handful of financiers. The Party/Kamla will need to avoid falling into that particular trap again. If the perception is allowed to grow that Jack Warner now “owns” Kamla and the UNC, that belief alone (whether it is true or not) could be enough to sink her.

She also has the continuing problem of Basdeo Panday who has refused to exit with any degree of grace. Panday is now setting up (or trying to set up) a classic “triangulation” by saying that he is going onto the back bench and will stay there until Mr. Warner accounts for some $30 million allegedly given to him (Warner) by an unnamed UNC financier. That this accusation against Mr. Warner is patently ridiculous is irrelevant. Mr. Panday knows that some people will believe it and as long as he keeps it up he effectively undermines Mrs. Persad Bissessar even though he ostensibly now says that he accepts her leadership. Watch for him trying to create more trouble along the way.
Then there are M.P.’s like Vassant Bharath whose efforts to be on all sides at the same time are embarrassing, to say the least. The UNC’s constitution gives the leader the right to veto the nomination of any person going up for a seat. What will Mrs. Persad Bissessar do when the time comes for nominations to be made? Will she allow persons like Mr. Bharath to go up in safe seats like St. Augustine knowing that they could bring her down a la Ramesh or will she replace them at the appropriate time?
Then again, Mr. Manning is aware that he is in mid term. He can open the financial sluice gates next year, create a lot of jobs and hope that the apparent prosperity will save him. Will that be enough? Difficult to say at this stage, but a short answer is probably not.
There is a feeling of “fedupness” in the society that needs to be addressed and dealt with. He needs to re-connect with the people and come down from the ivory tower that he is perceived to be in. (Remember, in politics perception is reality). If he doesn’t, then in a little less than 2 ½ years from now you will hear a newscast on the radio begin with the words “Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar said today…”

TT Making Progress Against Money Launderers

As you may have noticed on Monday, my friends, the Trinidad Guardian erroneously reported Trinidad and Tobago as somehow part of a "blacklist" of terror-financing states. But did you happen to read this dire news in any of the other dailies? Or an internationally respected publication like the New York Times or London Times?
Of course not, because it isn’t true. A review of the facts reveals that Trinidad and Tobago is continuing to improve in our efforts to comply with global financing standards.
This one slipped through the editorial process, and the Guardian owes an explanation for the error. The misleading story ran with no by-line – an inconvenience for truth-seekers, but a hedge for hasty journalists and authors. In the story, the anonymous author builds the report around a recent report by the international Financial Action Task Force.
The Financial Action Task Force is a well-regarded body which reliably sets the global standard for identifying and stopping money launderers and terror financiers. As I’ve said all along, we must look to bodies such as this to measure our progress in TT.

Imagine my surprise when the Guardian turned this valuable report of the respected FATF upside-down.
Ignore the poor Guardian and read the report yourself.

The report only mentions Trinidad and Tobago with praise for recent progress and commitments to improve in the areas of Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism:

"Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago has demonstrated progress in improving its AML/CFT regime; however, the FATF has determined that certain strategic AML/CFT deficiencies remain. Trinidad and Tobago has made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and the CFATF to address these deficiencies, including by: (1) implementing adequate procedures to identify and freeze terrorist assets without delay (Special Recommendation III); (2) implementing adequate procedures for the confiscation of funds related to money laundering (Recommendation 3); (3) ensuring a fully operational and effectively functioning FIU, including supervisory powers (Recommendation 26)."

It is an unfortunate fact that small nations such as Trinidad and Tobago can easily be dragged into the dirty business of money laundering and terror financing. Thankfully in our case, the bad actors appear to be outside the government and we can marshal our forces against them. Whatever the faults of the Manning regime they at least appear to want to put a stop to dubious and dangerous financial behaviors. Trinidad has always been on the right side of history’s major conflicts and we should continue to remain on the right side of the global war on terrorism.

I’ve been saying for years that we must get serious about the issue of money laundering. This is not simply a problem of the rich trying to avoid taxes or otherwise shelter honest money. We must remain vigilant over our financial comings and goings as devious characters lurk amongst us, attempting to take advantage of our open, accepting and forgiving society.

In two earlier posts (Friday, 4th December and Friday 18th December, 2010) I wrote about the dangers of “State capture” and money laundering. There is no need to repeat here what I said then … just scroll down and you can read it. But the point is that this is another aspect of the dangers that a small society like ours faces. And we must also be wary of journalists and newspapers who do not report accurately. As to why the Guardian would want to turn a report on its head I cannot say. It is either sheer incompetence or somebody there has an agenda of some sort. Give me another reason?

In this space we will give credit where credit is due, and in this case Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s Government at least appears to be doing the right thing. Of course, a serious question remains as to whether or not there are persons lower down the “totem pole” who have an interest in making certain that no matter what the Government does (any Government whether Manning’s or somebody else’s) is frustrated. The society in general, and this matter in particular, is not helped by inaccurate reporting from a newspaper that boasts of its accuracy in reporting on serious matters.

IS THE COUNTRY IN “1986 MODE?”

Most Trinis will understand the question. For those readers of this blog who are not Trinidadians (and, yes, there are quite a few) what happened in 1986 was that the then PNM Government which had won every single election was severely routed in that year’s general election, losing 33 of the 36 seats in Parliament. (Indeed, there are some who say that they lost Patrick Manning’s seat as well making it a loss of 34 seats, but that it was then Prime Minister A.N.R Robinson who prevented a recount thus saving Manning’s bacon.)

It was pretty clear to most observers for at least two years before the 1986 elections that the mighty PNM was losing support at a hitherto unprecedented rate. By March 1986 it was clear that then Prime Minister George Chambers had run out of steam and that the PNM was going down whenever he decided to call an election. The unions were marching. People were complaining bitterly about everything under the sun. The newspapers were highly critical of the Government. For example, one of the issues then was the amount of vagrants that were on the streets; the Daily Express newspaper ran a “vagrant of the day” picture every day in a prominent position in the newspaper … and many of the Ministers were perceived either as arrogant or corrupt or both! During the election campaign in December of that year one of the less competent Ministers, Desmond Cartey, stood up on an election platform and proclaimed to the world that “all ah we t’ief!” What he meant was that the allegations of corruption were unfair as during the oil boom of the late seventies and the early eighties that there many, many citizens who had cheated in one way or the other, e.g. non-payment of taxes, evading customs duties, overcharging for goods and services, etc. But his most unfortunate turn of phrase was seized upon by opponents of the Government as an admission of guilt (which in a very real way, it was) and is still remembered today some twenty-four years later!

Fast forward to today: What do we have happening? The unions are acting up. The Public Service Association (PSA) has booted out its old executive which was blatantly pro-PNM and replaced it with an executive which (for the time being at least) is fiercely independent of all political parties and which is simply refusing to go along with the Government’s plan to revise the Board of Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise by merging them into one authority. The PSA is promising some “serious heat” after Carnival. The powerful Oilfield and Workers Trade Union (OWTU) is also most unhappy with what is going on in the State owned oil company, Petrotrin, where layoffs are being contemplated.

Mr. Manning’s present team of Ministers, with a few notable exceptions, have left a bit to be desired. In a recent debate in the House of Representatives concerning the most contentious property tax, one junior Minister offended just about everybody by declaring that people had been “living off the fat of the land” and it was high time that they started to pay their way. He later attempted to explain this foolish statement away and tried to put a spin on it by saying that he was misquoted. Of course, nobody bought it. This followed a most embarrassing gaffe by the Sports Minister Gary Hunt concerning the erection of a $2 million flag at the national stadium. Mr. Hunt at first attempted to say that the flag only cost about $18 thousand. When the total cost of the flag installation came out ($2 million), the country erupted in anger. Then, four months later, Mr. Hunt, in a prime time television appearance, inexplicably raised the whole issue again by proffering a rather half hearted apology for the mistake and promising that it would never happen again. What?

The Opposition led by the formidable Jack Warner, immediately demanded his resignation. In a First World or developed country, this would have happened a long time ago. But Prime Minister Manning has defended his Minister and suggested that the nation should now “move on”.
Then there are water woes. The Water and Sewage Authority (WASA) has declared that because of a drier than usual rainy season our dams are at critical levels and all the signs are that we will experience a drier than usual dry season. Accordingly, WASA has ordered that there be severe restrictions on the use of water (no washing cars, watering lawns, etc.). On Wednesday (10th February) the Daily Express published a full front page picture of the very green Prime Minister’s residence lawn being cheerfully watered with sprinklers. The gardeners were promptly blamed and fired! But then we are regaled with a story (again in the Express) that President Max Richards’ gardeners having been doing the same thing! Most Trinis are finding it difficult to accept that ultimate blame in these stories do not lie elsewhere.

But the point here is not about water or the lack of it or Ministerial incompetence (real or imagined) or about perceived corruption. What I am trying to say is that there is a lot of grumbling on the ground. On top of that, Kamla Persad-Bissessar is presenting herself quite successfully as a credible alternative to the Manning regime. This factor, more than anything else, is making people think very carefully about where they will put their “X” next time in the coming election which is a little more than two years away. Put another way, the coming election, for the moment at least, is Kamla’s to lose. There are too many similarities between what is happening now and what happened before the 1986 elections for any PNM supporter to feel sanguine about his Party’s chances of success at the coming polls. Not only to me, but to many people who I have been talking to, the country appears to be in “1986 mode”. Can this change? Oh yes! Will it? I don’t know. Based on present performance, the PNM has a lot of work to do.

BWIA AND THOSE ANNOYING HEATHROW SLOTS

There has been a lot of ‘toing and froing’ over the sale of BWIA’s Heathrow slots with critics saying that the slots were seriously undersold and BWIA management saying that the slots were sold at a fair price. The lead proponent of the ‘fair price’ argument is former BWIA Board member William Lucie Smith.

For those who came in late, a ‘slot’ can be defined as a particular landing and departure right at a particular time on a particular day at a particular airport. Put another way, one slot (or pair) can be defined as the right to land and depart at certain times on a particular day. BWIA had seven such slots at Heathrow Airport … one of the busiest airports in the world. Indeed, Heathrow has more flights that wish to land and take off than it can handle. In other words there is a scarcity of slots. To make it worse, prices are controlled so that raising the costs simply to use the airport won’t work … it’s not allowed. The fact that there is an excess demand for slots makes these a valuable asset for any airline that has one or more of them, especially if these slots are at prime times. And BWIA had seven such slots at prime take off and landing times!

These slots have not only a high strategic value for airlines but a high cash sale value as well. Early morning landing and take off slots are particularly valuable for the long haul flights … and again, that’s what BWIA had. Now, admittedly there is a grey area when it comes to determining the value of a slot. But take a look at the following tables and you will get some idea of how much a slot is worth:

Table 1 Airlines Shares of Slots Heathrow (Summer 2004 and change from 2001)

Airline and rank	Heathrow Slots – movements per week	Share	Change from 2001 (%)
BA (1)	3742	40.1	+11.0
British Midland (2)	1096	11.7	-12.7
Lufthansa (3)	416	4.5	+19.6
Aer Lingus (4)	290[1]	3.1	-9.4
Virgin Atlantic (5)	284	3.0	+31.5
SAS (6)	280	3.0	-6.7
AA (7)	222	2.4	-
Total	9332 (9308 in 2001)	100

Source: Competition Issues associated with the trading of airport slots. A paper prepared for DG TREN by the UK Office of Fair Trading and the Civil Aviation Authority, TSO, Norwich, 2005, p. 34. http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/589/oft832.pdf

Table 2. Some Transactions and Implicit Values in the Heathrow Slot Market

Purchase and year	Quantity	Price or Value	Comment
Quantas from Flybe (2004)	2 pairs	£20 million (€30 million)	Primetime take off and landing
Virgin Atlantic from Flybe (2004)	4 pairs	£20 million (€30 million)
British Airways from SN Brussels Airlines (2002)	7 pairs	£25-30 million (€37.5-45.0 million)	Only slots acquired by cash appear on balance sheet (my emphasis)
British Airways from Swiss International Airlines (2004)	8 pairs	£22.4 million (€33.6 million)
British Midland asset valuation (2005)	90 pairs	£425 million (€637.5 million)	The Observer claims a series of writedowns mean that bmi is now worth ‘£225m at most’, i.e. less than its slot portfolio.

Sources: Issues of Travel and Hospitality Industry Digest: 23 March, 2007, 11 June 2004, 06 August 2007, 11 June 2007, 31 January 2005. See: www.e-tid.com.

Now, it is generally agreed by all in the airline industry that the slots will only increase in value. Remember that BWIA sold its seven slots for a grand total of Pounds Sterling 5 million, which seems on the face of it and without any really good explanations to date, to be a sale at a serious undervalue. What happened?

Put another way, I certainly cannot say that there is or was “bobol” in the sale and purchase of the BWIA slots. I have absolutely no evidence to make that suggestion. What I can say (and am saying) is that on the face of it and without any proper explanations having been given to date, it is not unreasonable to believe that the sale was at a serious undervalue. The big question is WHY?

If you can really show that it was not at an undervalue, then do so in a clear and cogent manner. Don’t brush us off with platitudes and obfuscations. Failure to do so will result in very nasty and most unfortunate suspicions that cannot be good for the national psyche. I am not the only one who does not understand why this sale was made at this seemingly low price.

---

^[1] This works out at 145 return (‘pair’) services per week, an average of approximately 20 per day.

IS TRINIDAD & TOBAGO APPROACHING ‘FAILED STATE’ STATUS?

Sometimes it gets difficult to see the forest for the trees. If I ask this question of anybody who supports the present Government I will get a resounding ‘no’ for an answer. But if I ask the same question of those who oppose the PNM I will not only get a shouted ‘yes’ but I will get an added “we are already a failed State!”

So what is the truth? Perhaps we could start with a number of questions? Has the Government made T&T a safer place to live in? Has the economy been well managed or have the various economic decisions made by the Government over the years led us into trouble? Are we doing something now which, given the state of the world’s economy we ought not to be doing? If so, what? Are we doing something now which, given the state of the world’s economy we ought not to be doing? If so, what? Was the bringing in of the infamous Property Tax justified? If so, why? Are the country’s health care facilities in the best order that they could be in given all that has gone before or not? What about our education system? Is it being improved in a way that we can see, or are our children slipping further and further behind an increasingly competitive world?

All too often we argue from our own personal perspective with emotion and without regard to the facts. And our arguments are often tinged with our own political perspectives and prejudices. So, here are a few facts to consider:

There is a most interesting World Bank report which you can access here.

Basically, the report says that we are not doing too badly at all but that there are areas that need improvement and reform. If you go to page 51 of the report you will find a handy chart showing where reforms have been enacted around the world. You will see there that T&T is not doing too badly at all. And then there is another interesting chart put out by The Heritage Foundation for their 2010 Index of Economic Freedoms. You can access it here.

In this study T&T has been ranked at 55 out of 179 countries. Incidentally, neighbouring Venezuela was ranked at 174!

Well, if truth be told, that ranking isn’t bad. We beat Jamaica (57). But little Barbados (40) beat us, as did the Bahamas (47). But we beat Italy (74). Take a look. The chart is most interesting.

What I guess that I am trying to say is that there are “positives” in our situation and things are certainly not necessarily as bad as some would have us believe. On the other hand, I personally believe that we could be doing a lot better than we are and there are many things that are wrong with the way that we are being ruled and need fixing and/or improving.

Put another way, I believe that most (if not all) of us genuinely want to see our little country go forward and really don’t care who are the actual persons in charge (whether they are PNM or UNC or COP or any other acronym that you can think of) so long as things are done properly and that corruption is dealt with firmly. We can and will put up with the posturing of politicians on all sides provided always that they ‘deliver the goods.’ What we don’t want is the endless bickering, name calling and incompetence that we are so often met with.

I know that I haven’t answered any of the questions that I asked earlier. That has been deliberate on my part. I am trying very hard to be as balanced as possible and it is so easy to criticise without offering solutions. And I am not here trying to change your mind or opinion on any thing. I am simply trying to make you think and to realise that life is not one or two dimensional, but we live in a 3D world. If I have done that then I have succeeded. But those questions do need answering!

What do you think?