Summit All Up

CARICOM Heads meet with Mr. Obama

Well, the 5th Summit of the Americas is over and it remains to be seen what benefits are to be derived from it. However, I, and I am sure, most would agree that, to paraphrase U.S. President Obama, it all depends on the actions of the member countries rather than just their words. This certainly has been the bugbear of international agreements of all kinds for many years. Many countries sign on to laudatory and grandiose statements, resolutions, protocols, and whatever label they come up with, and unfortunately many a time there is no follow-through on what they were signatories to.

At the end of this summit Prime Minister Manning’s was the sole signature (so it is notable too that not even Mr. Obama signed) on the final document (see the Declaration of Commitment of Port-of-Spain), signing on behalf of all the governments. It remains to be seen now how binding his signature can be upon all the other nations as the OAS (Organization of American States) claimed in a post summit press conference. Nevertheless, from all indications and reports, this appeared to have been a summit of much frankness and openness, so perhaps for all of this forthrightness some diplomatic feathers were ruffled. In the midst of all of the hemispherical problems however, it still remains that there are many issues, which, in all likelihood, can best be solved through cooperation among countries and this, despite whatever differences, is what should remain at the forefront of our leaders’ minds.

For many, as was obvious from the general reactions, this summit was also, to a great extent, about the presence of Mr. Obama. His youth and charisma along with the historical significance of being the first Afro American U.S. President, carries a powerful combined impact that surely will not dissipate for a considerable time and overwhelming receptions are what will follow Mr. Obama for a long time in all his travels on the global stage, similar to, but I believe beyond those of the still lusty receptions of his Democratic predecessor Bill Clinton, providing he maintains his popularity.

It is for a similar reason too why Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, is also popular, at least in Latin America: he being the first person of indigenous descent to be elected president in his country. Mr. Obama’s visit too, represents the second such, what can be considered, historical visit for our country within recent time, the first being that of the visit of Mr. Mandela in 2004.

The Prince & the Pres: Brian Lara and Mr. Obama. This photo graced the covers of all local newspapers.

U.S. President Obama greeting children at Piarco airport Trinidad and Tobago

A gushing Mrs. Paula Gopee-Scoon, Trinidad and Tobago's Foreign Minister, and Mr. Obama.

The Pres. Obama photos above were taken from a slideshow available on Whitehouse.gov

Summit Time

The 5th Summit of the Americas is now underway in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago (the first Summit was held in Miami, in 1994). The theme of the Fifth Summit of the Americas, is "Securing Our Citizens' Future by Promoting Human Prosperity, Energy Security and Environmental Sustainability."

In line with this theme, the 5th Summit of the Americas Web site states “The focus of the Fifth Summit will be on human prosperity, energy security, climate change and sustainable development.”

Given the above, there are many issues that our country needs to address which fit into the summit theme. However, if we tried to tackle them one at a time we’d never get around to them all. In fact that is why we have all these government Ministries and departments (isn’t it?) where each of them fulfilling their respective mandates as need be, would help address all the varied issues at hand.

Nonetheless, given the limitations of the poll we have available now, please bear to select just one issue in answer to our poll question in the right right menu bar.

Thanks for your participation and comments.

See live coverage of summit activities on Trinidad and Tobago's CNMG (Caribbean New Media Group) live stream. Be sure to check out other Trinidad and Tobago news sites and blogs for coverage and information.

It All Ads Up: Alas, We Own Media Matters

"People perpetuate themselves through the images they create."

Errol Sitahal, Tony Hall from And the Dish Ran Away With the Spoon

With the recent closure of Gayelle TV’s News Department one wonders if there is any more fallout to come with respect to local media. This conjecture is by no means to cast any mal yeux (pronounced locally as: mal-jo) i.e. bad or evil eye, upon the local media fraternity but is simply made within the context of the current global economic downturn, which, of course, is having an impact on the local economy. Across the globe, the economic squeeze is being felt in varying sectors and the media industry has not escaped the constricting economic embrace.

Although, at least in the U.S., there has been some recent lightening of the dour recessionary rhetoric from the U.S. President himself, when we was widely quoted in the media on Tuesday April 14, as seeing “glimmers of hope” for the U.S. economy. Mr. Obama’s statements were later on the same day followed by similar sentiments from the U.S. Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke, who was reported as stating that “recently we have seen tentative signs that the sharp economic decline in economic activity may be slowing.”

But the U.S. media, particularly newspapers, have not been faring well: a negative consequential continuation of the growth of online media and cable, and which is now seeing a further dampening of the outlook for the industry with the current economic climate. In the U.S. from the State of the Media 2009 Web page, produced annually by the renowned Pew Research Center, the report starts with a succinct and telling statement, “Some of the numbers are chilling.” It goes on further to sate in the introduction that: “This is the sixth edition of our annual report on the State of the News Media in the United States. It is also the bleakest.”

It reports a 23% fall in newspaper ad revenues in the last two years, along with the bankruptcy and loss in stock value of newspaper companies. With respect to the Internet the report states:

“The number of Americans who regularly go online for news, by one survey, jumped 19% in the last two years; in 2008 alone traffic to the top 50 news sites rose 27%. Yet it is now all but settled that advertising revenue—the model that financed journalism for the last century—will be inadequate to do so in this one. Growing by a third annually just two years ago, online ad revenue to news websites now appears to be flattening; in newspapers it is declining.”

In the U.K. a December 2008 article "Writing on the Wall for Newspapers" (you can register for free to read the article) in the Financial Times relating its findings from Deloitte and GroupM (a media and marketing forecasting company) industry reports, mentioned predictions of a fall in ad revenues for the newspaper and magazine industry by as much as 20% in 2009. In U.S television the situation of industry decline seems the same, at least for traditional broadcast stations. In "The Not-so-Big Four," an article in the April 8 edition of the Economist it states that:

“Local television stations, many of them owned by or affiliated with national broadcasters, have seen advertising revenue fall by as much as 40%... It is not that people are watching less television. In the last quarter of 2008 the average American took in 151 hours per month, an all-time record, according to Nielsen, a market-research firm. The trouble is the growth of choice. More than 80% of American households now get their television via satellite or cable. To them, the broadcast channels are just items on a menu containing hundreds of dishes.”

From the evidence it is clear that consumers are moving from old media to new media, from print and broadcast to the Internet and cable. Back in May 2008, Advertising Age, the barometric publication of the U.S. and global advertising industry reported -"Revenue Grows by 8.6% Propelled by Digital" - that the acknowledged big four of global advertising, Omnicon, WPP, Interpublic, and Publicis generated 12.3% of worldwide revenue from digital services.

One way in which print is seeking to remain relevant is by bridging onto the digital world via QR (quick response) codes. This is a patterned image that contains a URL code or internet address. These codes are placed together with their print ads in magazines (they have been and are used in billboard and bus advertising as well) and allow the reader with a cell phone camera to photograph the image and then 'dial' or link to the company’s web site via the stored code to make further enquiries of the product or service being advertised. QR codes have been in use in Japan, where they were developed, since the mid 90s. They are now gaining greater attention in Western media markets. (See the QR Image code created for this blog in the right menu: visit qrcodekaywa.com to do the same or any other QR code generator web sites.)

Our local media environment has grown tremendously in the last two decades. From the listing provided on the TTPBA (Trinidad and Tobago Publishers and Broadcasters Association) Web site, there are some 37 FM radio stations and 10 television stations. There are three television subscription companies. Along with these we have three dailies, about a half dozen weekly newspapers and just over a dozen local magazines. With a population of only just under 1.25 million (according to the CIA Factbook Web site) it certainly does seem like a challenge for all these media entities to survive. However, according the Trinidad and Tobago Business Guide 2008/2009 (a 'Business Guide 2009/10 is already available), unlike other markets, local “newspaper circulation continues to grow compared to circulation decline of newspapers globally.”

Whether this remains the case as we attain greater online penetration remains to be seen. All three dailies provide significant free online content and if advertising revenues do become tight perhaps there might be some changes to this in the future. In terms of circulation figures, again according to the local business guide, the Express leads with 75,000, Newsday 65,000, and the Guardian 45,000. And perhaps as some tell tale sign of desiring increased revenue, all three dailies have recently increased their cover price from $1 to $2. The overall local advertising spend however continues to grow from TT$253M in 2005 to TT$330M 2006. For 2007, the Who’s Who in Trinidad and Tobago Business Web site estimated the local advertising spend at TT$636M. Despite such figures, Gayelle however was forced to close its news department as the station’s ad revenues were down 50% as stated by its Executive Director, Errol Fabien.

In a related issue of Caribbean media, from several media reports earlier this month, Michael Lee-Chin, the billionaire Jamaican–Canadian investor, announced that a deal was close at hand for the total or partial sale of Columbus Communications Inc, his cable television Internet service provider and digital telephony company (which that operates in 21 countries throughout the Caribbean (including Trinidad and Tobago where it trades as Flow) and Latin America. The deal according to a Gleaner report is to help AIC Barbados (the holding company for Mr. Lee-Chin’s Caribbean businesses) pay off US$170M in principal and interest on maturing promissory notes held by Jamaican investors.

According the the Gleaner (Lee-Chin to Announce AIC Asset Sale - Flow could provide J$15B financier needs to pay debts), Lee-Chin bought Columbus from a consortium of telecom firms in 2004 for US$80M and at present the company is said to be worth between US$200M to US$300M. The lead rumored buyer in the Columbus deal is Carlos Slim Helu (one of the world’s top three richest men) who owns América Móvil, the holding company of Claro, the latest entrant in the Jamaican wireless telephone market. América Móvil operates in 17 countries across the hemisphere.

From all this, it is typically clear that those with ample funds are more likely weather and adjust accordingly when bad economic storms form. With the government bailout of the CL Financial Group it seems that its subsidiary CL Communications, with its three radio stations (90.5, Music Radio 97, and Ebony 104), have been spared any woes. However, not too far afield in the region, it still remains unknown if the Antigua Sun, or the Sun St. Kitts/Nevis newspapers, both subsidiaries of Sun Printing & Publishing Ltd, owned by Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, now under investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, will suffer any consequences as a result of their flamboyant owner’s current troubles.

Gayelle is not as well heeled as these other media entities. Hopefully, for their sake, they just had a slip and lost their rhythm with the lam-weh in the gayelle that is the business world and has not suffered a serious blow from the bois of a beleaguered economy. Advertising is the fuel and food of media…and so Gayelle may well question, alas yet again, whether the dish (or the cable) has run away with its spoon.

A Citizen's Trust

"If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists - to protect them and to promote their common welfare - all else is lost."

Barack Obama

Arguably, it can seem understandable from a government perspective, that when people do talk and write, complaining about all things government, that it seems as if such people are all anti-government. But governments, just like any other organisation or individual, are not perfect and must be able to accept and learn from fair criticism. There are though, degrees of governmental error from simple careless mistakes to downright ineptitude, indifference, and arrogance, just as there are degrees of public complaint, from basic letters to the editor, to massive all-out protest marches, and riots. Ideally, surely everyone wishes that such relational breakdowns would not occur but such is part of the inevitabilities of human existence.

There is the view too from the governmental or status quo side, that tends to look at people who do stir up protest, as troublemakers, rabble-rousers, and such like. And from the public complaint side, there are many, as protesters, or who see themselves as some conscience of the government, who actually welcome and relish the idea of being so labeled, finding identity with the likes of so many famed, and not so famous personages of protest throughout history.

Complaint and protest are healthy checks on government power nonetheless, just as the formalised separate branches of democratic governments are established to curb excesses in each other. Any government that claims to look out for the interest of its citizens would or should acknowledge this and have adequate measures in place to accommodate feedback from their citizens on how they are performing. But creating such avenues for feedback and redress are futile and creates distrust if in the end the government does nothing to improve its act. The people’s assessment of the government then redounds to the cynical description of ‘all talk and no action,’ and trust is broken. Trust, we all know, lies at the heart of any relationship and between governments and their citizens it is no less. In a paper, Building Trust in Government by Improving Governance, Larry Diamond of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, writes

“ Failed states, revolutions, civil wars, and other related traumatic failures of governance all share in common the absence or collapse of trust: between citizens and the state, between different political factions or parties, and between ethnic, social or class groups at the mass level.”

Perhaps another way to look at the situation of complaints and protest against government is not so much in the vein of being anti-government, but rather as being 'pro-people' or 'pro-citizen.' Undoubtedly, some may argue that this is all just an artifice of semantics and spin as we all are accustomed to see government and corporate officials do. Yet, conversely too, it must be acknowledged that the way we do configure concepts in our heads tends to determine how we then think of them and consequently how we act accordingly.

In fact, what government hasn’t been elected because they clothed themselves in the mantle of being 'pro-people'? Essentially, we all know, ‘the people’ is what actually society is all about with government being the pre-eminent and formal body, so formed, to get the people’s work done for them. So when governments do, or at least appear to act in the people’s interest, then the need or desire to be anti-government is a non sequitur and does not arise. But regardless of labels, 'anti-government' or 'pro-people,' the core issue for citizens is for the government to do what is right. It is just wholly unfortunate in some countries where as Voltaire once said “it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.”

But systems have and continue to be developed by the U.N. and other international agencies and by forward thinking governments, at national and local levels, to encourage stronger bonds and accountability and, of course, trust between them and their citizens. In a report titled Engaging Citizens in Measuring and Reporting Community Conditions, Alfred Ho, a professor from Indiana University, examines two case studies, one from Des Moines Iowa, the other from Boston Massachusetts:

“The two case studies show how local public officials can work effectively with citizen representatives and community leaders to define the critical issues in public policies and community conditions, develop specific indicators to measure progress, and engage elected officials and the public in using the data to guide policy making.”

Edelman, a large, self-described independent U.S. P.R. (public relations) firm, has been conducting what it calls its Trust Barometer Survey for the past ten years (surely there are some readers now wondering about the veracity of a report on trust from a P.R. firm). For this year (2009) the survey consisted of just under 4500 persons in 20 countries across five continents. In the report (Edelman TrustBarometer 2009), business was trusted more than governments in 13 of the 20 markets surveyed and trust in government remained steady or declined in 12 of the markets surveyed.

Trust too is also about the average citizen believing that he or she can bring about positive change in the society. In essence, it is about trust in virtue and natural justice. What works against this however is what Paul Rogat Loeb describes in his book Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in Cynical Time where (although it speaks to and of its U.S. audience, his words are applicable to us as well),

“We mistrust our ability to make a difference. The magnitude of the issues at hand coupled with a sense of powerlessness has led far too many of us to conclude that social involvement isn’t worth the cost."

Our hope and so our trust in a better view of our future becomes halted by cynicism, which Loeb describes as a cynicism that “implies no institutions, truths, or community bonds are worth fighting for.”

As such, in our criticism of government, we must caution ourselves to never become so cynical as to believe things can never be improved. And we should always recognise that we have a role as well as a responsibility in helping direct the government to do that which is right by us, its people.

With greater use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) by government agencies the concept of e-government has and continues to grow. However, government services so described do tend to bear expectations of greater speed and efficiency from citizens. Therefore, in a modern ironic twist, via less physical interaction, greater trust is hoped for and can be developed through greater efficiency of services in this way: for essentially, improved service is ideally what the public desires and of course deserves. So surely this is a way to build trust at one level and particularly so with a developing country such as ours where long lines and long waits and gaps in communication still typically remain the fare for government services.

However too, at present in Trinidad and Tobago, we are awash in questions about government trust. This stems from the governments’ initial statements about the global economic meltdown not having an impact on us, to later contrarily imploring us to tighten our belts, the current UDeCOTT (Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago) Commission of Enquiry and the findings so far revealed, the issue of whether our Minister of Finance acted in conflict of interest and whether she was outright dishonest to Parliament, and of course the still absence of an Integrity Committee to complement our Integrity legislation.

In building trust though we must not and never forget that truth should be intrinsic to it. After all, it is the con (confidence) artist who gains your trust, only to deceive you; so true trust cannot be said to exist without truth being in effect. In this age of greater technological connectedness we can only hope that profound substantive connectedness i.e. trust, grows in tandem with all the social networks we form. For with the marvels of technology these days, we have all seen how things and people can be virtually changed, created, and appear to be in places where they really aren’t. Students now too, to a greater degree and professional writers as well, despite all the information available via the web, appear to be resorting to increasing levels of plagiarism.

We all know the famous Abraham Lincoln quote:

“You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

This quote though, I believe, is only true as far as we are vigilant enough to make it so.

Ablogged About Crime Again: Time to Snuff It Out

Unfortunately, sometimes I believe I should have a blog just dedicated to crime as this is truly the recurrent issue for Trinidad and Tobago. Crime just seems to have a life of its own which continues virtually unabated and woefully unaddressed. Surely there are a host of other problems we face and need to tackle but crime is the one-true issue that keeps gnawing –no- chomping away, at whatever sense of basic civility and hope we have for our country.

It has been so long that we have been enduring our Hobbesian torment that has mushroomed and remains with us like some mal-mutating lingering nuclear fallout. It is sad and actually treacherous too, that many of us are becoming or have become inured and desensitized to the crime situation, and somewhat accepting of the way things are now as some ‘new normal.’ And others, because they support the current administration, absolve them of all blame and responsibility.

Nonetheless for the morass, our Prime Minister and his cabinet members keep talking about other ‘this and thats' and ever glowing about forging ties hither, thither and yon, smiling all the while and wanting us all to be doing the same in unison along with them. The government and police authorities seem bent on constructing for us an environment not unlike the structured and sterile harmony in Huxley’s Brave New World. Yet, all their reassurances thus far remain delusional as their rhetoric fails to match the sordid reality around us. Government ministers seize every opportunity to regale us about our increasing city skyline, mega projects and Vision 2020. Yet, as of this posting, our murder rate stands close to the 450 mark. One cannot help but wonder when the year 2020 rolls around if our murder rate will be 2020 too.

The likes of Keith Cadiz, Choc’late Allen, Rev. Cyril Paul among others, have all tried to wake us up as a nation for us to see the rot that has taken hold and continues to spread. It was just a few years ago when roughly 100,000 people signed Mr. Cadiz’s online anti-crime petition and this was when the murder rate stood at about half what it is now. Yet then, when the petition was submitted to our President, Mr. Richards, for all the gentleman that he is, basically stated that his hands were tied: his decision reminiscent of someone named Pilate but ironically in our situation it is the masses themselves who then, and now, continue to be crucified.

The imagery and analogies come readily with respect to what the government is doing with all its glib and glowing talk of all the mega projects they seek to embark upon, images such as: pouring new wine into old wineskins, painting a house where the foundation and structural walls are no longer sound. So even if we were to make Port-of-Spain the most gleaming city in the region and oil were some day to hit $300 or $400 a barrel, all would still be for naught if the country remains riddled with crime. Surely any reasonable, sensible person would agree with this sentiment.

In this year’s budget presentation there was mention of the new 555 Initiative: basically a change from the previous 999 telephone number of the Police Emergency Rapid Response Service. However, as of this posting the Ministry of National Security’s Police Service Web page had only mention of the 999 telephone number to call, with no mention or hint of any 555 Initiative (hopefully by the time you read this the Web site will have been updated). In her budget speech, the Finance Minister also spoke about 450 police personnel being trained in community policing and potential for improved [?] rapid response and a national surveillance network. This surveillance network is one we have been hearing about for some time but delivering no substantial success as yet, given the still high crime rate we have, which the government itself asserts is mainly due to the drug trade which the very surveillance is supposed to address.

Annoyingly too, there is the impression that whenever we hear government and police authorities speak on the crime situation it seems that relief will be with us a la Calypso Crazy “in time to come.” Clear evidence of this was borne out some months ago, when the National Security Minister told the nation to expect the murder rate to be reduced in about three years’ time.

So what’s next then for a longsuffering, ever anxious public? Perhaps firstly the National Security Minister or Police Commissioner should provide us with a template of what the barest minimum our police stations or major crime units might possibly be furnished with in terms of facilities e.g. one way mirrors for suspect lineups, maps (including digital versions) of the major cities and towns in the country, computerized data entry of police reports with printouts given to the persons making the report as part of a receipt or acknowledgement of the report received, a shared database network of drivers licenses, VIN numbers and vehicle license registration. Such a networked database should be accesible at all times to any police officer on patrol anywhere in the country, to check on any suspicious vehicle or driver. Additionally, as has been suggested before, the country with its ebb and flow of kidnappings should introduce an initiative similar to the US AMBER (America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) Alert system. AMBER Alerts:

“interrupt regular programming and are broadcast on radio and television and on highway signs. AMBER Alerts can also be issued on lottery tickets, wireless devices such as mobile phones, and over the Internet.”

As such, a similar local initiative could work in coordination with the local media and ISPs (Internet Service Providers), transport organizations like the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) and taxi and maxi-taxi associations, and the Lottery Control Board. Digital signs on some of the nation’s highways can also be included for broadcasting any and all details relating to a kidnapping. The point here is to instill an overwhelming sense of odds for the kidnappers’ perception of escaping arrest.

Commendably, the Police Complaints Authority is a good idea but there is still no clear indication on how well it is utilized or serves as some sort of evaluator and motivator, albeit a coercive one, for our men and women in gray. Perhaps maybe someone or some nonprofit organisation can launch their own Web site, blog, or wiki, where the public can submit reports of their own interaction with police personnel. This need not only be about complaints but praise as well. One US organisation which provides such a service for ensuring proper police service to the public is a US national nonprofit organisation known as the Police Complaints Center (PCC) which has been in existence for 25 years. The PCC's Web site includes sections on Good Cops and testing of police response times. Policy Link, another US based nonprofit organisation promoting social equity causes, published "Organized for Change: An Activist’s Role for Police Reform" in 2004. This is a community-centered manual for improving community-police relations. Of course the document is pretty much applicable only to the US environment, nonetheless it shows an openness and connection that can be established for improving police and community relations.

We all know that the underpinning of any society is that of maintaining law and order. Our constitution commendably seems to underscore this by stating in Ch. 5 Section 75(2), that the barest minimum of the Cabinet must include the Prime Minister and the Attorney General.

Like any other country, we have a well-laid out and codified set of laws for the populace to follow. Of what good is our law however, when particularly in relation to serious and violent crime, we appear to have little success of apprehending and convicting those who break it? It is not uncommon now to hear many expressing the view that ours has a become a lawless country, where many flout laws and regulations at will. True, our familial relations, educational and religious bodies can and must do more to instil a sense of morality and respect for the law among us. Yet the ultimate stop when persons do break the law is solely under the purview of the police service. And given the level of crime, the police service has a great abundance of work to do.

With the recent killing of the elderly Swedish couple and a subsequent assault on two British couples in Tobago, we are only now hearing from senior police authorities that Tobago is in need of at least 150 police officers. The gaps of securing our safety and apprehending persons are terribly glaring indeed with Tobago now coming more into focus with respect to crime. Surely the wider public would be more assured and in approval of the government for greater police presence and effectiveness than any mega project of gleaming buildings and bilateral agreements that the administration has in store.

In Trinidad and Tobago we take pride in our use of double entendre or double meaning in our everyday communication, entertainment and even politics. We do well to make inferences and read between the lines. And so, perhaps a suitable turn of phrase with the play on a word with its own differing and opposing meanings, can be of use and well accepted and appreciated here.

The word of choice: sanguine - meaning one the one hand, cheerful and optimistic; on the other, bloody, bloodthirsty, murderous. See its entry in the Online Etymology Dictionary.

For we all do wish to hold a sanguine view of our nation's future. But lamentably, what we do have, for the present, is a sanguinary state of affairs created by the horrendous state of crime in our beloved country.

Somet'ing SAUTT to pass in mih [my] mout’

Now that we are in the month of October, the Christmas preparation in Trinidad and Tobago begins as this month brings the start of the Parang season. For the wider ‘Net audience, parang is a local word derived from the Spanish parranda, meaning 'to make merry' or 'to party.' Parang is a Hispanic styled music played in Trinidad and Tobago around Christmas time.

Traditionally, the themes of this musical genre centered on the nativity but over the years these have come to include more secular and Carnival-type themes, which led to the development of a derivative known as parangsoca, soca (soca being a derivative of traditional Calypso or Kaiso music) combined with parang. And more recently another, derivative, chutneyparang, parang combined with chutney, chutney being the name given to creolized festive East Indian music popular at our Hindu weddings and other celebrations.

All this is well and good, as it has shown the development of the music and its incorporation with the other musical idioms in the country. However, some parang purists have lamented these developments given a trend that seems to totally ignore the traditional or 'true' parang as it was known and performed: its integrity and value becoming completely sidelined and disrespected.

This brings me too, to the title of this posting which, as the locals would recognize, is a takeoff of what can be termed a classic Christmas calypso penned my the Mighty Chalkdust or Chalkie as he is affectionately known. The famous refrain in the calypso “Somet’ing soyt [salt] to pass in mih mout,” has long been used by locals as a plea for the serving of ham when they go visiting at Christmas time. The salty, savoury ham is seen as the centerpiece of Christmas fare: the pièce de résistance, without which somehow the integrity of the Christmas menu has been brought into contempt, despite whatever else has been served.

The question of integrity with respect to the government was again recently raised in parliament when independent senator Dana Seetahal referred to SAUTT (Special Anti-crime Unit of Trinidad and Tobago) as the most likely resource that would have been used by the Prime Minister to monitor whether MP Kamla Persad Bissessar had a mole in the Integrity Commission. The irony of this situation as the senator had pointed out was related to several reasons:

• (Perhaps the most pertinent one being) SAUTT is as yet to be lawfully constituted.
  
• If SAUTT was indeed the instructed agency in question, as a policing unit it cannot or should not be taking instructions from political officials.
  
• Given that SAUTT is as yet to be lawfully constituted it consequently answers to no one and as such is a law unto itself.
  

A digest - if it is all digestible -of all this is a conundrum whereby a law enforcing agency not lawfully constituted or not having legal integrity, was supposedly used by a political official to determine if another political official had managed to subvert the integrity another agency, an agency which, curiously, was established ensure the integrity of all the players involved. That agency, The Integrity Commission of Trinidad and Tobago, on its Web site, states that it is:

“mandated under the Constitution to ensure that persons in public life and persons exercising a public function comply with the laws governing integrity in the fulfillment of their duties and responsibilities to the people they serve.”

The above political-SAUTT-Integrity Commission muddle is sure to make anyone’s head spin and seems akin to the goings on at a Mad Hatter’s integri -tea party where similarly to the Carrollian chaos, answerless riddles and arbitrariness seem to rule the order of the day. It is notable that on the Integrity Commission’s Web site Community page, in an article titled What is Integrity, it quotes the famed playwright and former Czech Republic president Vaclav Havel:

“public officials live in a world of half-truth which saps the soul and integrity of any person.…Only responsible individuals of integrity risking the moral dangers of politics and persisting in their quest for a better public life can make a difference in the world.”

Havel as we see, notes that in public life there are inherent moral dangers and undeniably one factor which gives rise to such, stems from the Actonian admonition of what power and absolute power do to us.

But this fallout of possessing power also applies in many relationships e.g. adults abusing power over children, one spouse’s abuse over the other, senior workers abuse over junior staff.

And yet, unfortunately for some too, integrity means doing all that is integral to their own advancement regardless of the expense to others. In other words, their 'integrity' is only to ensure that their me-ism remains intact: lies by omission, half-truths, deceit and cheating bear no unrest upon their conscience so long as their desires are sated. In the book Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life, by Swedish writer Sissela Bok, she writes:

“Imagine a society, no matter how ideal in other respects, where word and gesture could never be counted upon. Questions asked, answers given, information exchanged –all would be worthless. Were all statements randomly truthful or deceptive, action and choice would be undermined from the outset. There must be a minimal degree of trust in communication for language and action to be more than stabs in the dark. This is why some level of truthfulness has always been seen as essential to human society, no matter how deficient the observance of other moral principles.”

One can see that the 'worthlessness' Bok warns of here is also not unlike the situation in Lewis Caroll's Mad Hatter’s tea party.

Christmas is a time when we traditionally become more sincere toward and more caring of our family, friends and anyone we encounter in general. Yet while the integrity that we see lacking from those in authority is abhorrent and should not be tolerated, let us nevertheless, ensure to maintain our own integrity so that in all our actions and in whatever service we provide our fellow humankind, our 'menu' contains and conveys the soyt [salt] of our true good selves.

Back to the Blog

Look at the image on the left. By now surely you don't have to "guess whose back?"

Well “OMG!” as we would now say in the texting lexicon, I can’t believe I let so much time pass by. It’s disastrous for me to say the least but let’s just say I had ‘other things’ going on and that sometimes I can be too much of a perfectionist afraid of just blogging for blogging sake.

I am back and will strive harder to keep this blog going from here on. I am glad of the little following I had picked up and for the encouragement and good comments on the quality of my postings. At any rate the word forever is in the title of my blog and my cessation of it after such a short time just absolutely cannot stand (at least for me). So happily and long overdue....I'm back to blogging again.