Santiwah

2008 Trinidad and Tobago Calender

Here is a cool link to a calender of events for the year 2008 in Trinidad and Tobago:

http://www.tntisland.com/calendar.html

Waste not, Want not!

It is the jewel of the Caribbean region, Trinidad and Tobago let’s say it correctly, Oil and Gas rich Trinidad and Tobago.  The republic is of great importance to the North American economy that purchases most of the Natural Gas that is explored and processed from the jewel of the Caribbean. This sounds great and the people of Trinidad and Tobago should be rejoicing now that Petro-Canada has struck the proverbial golden pot at the end of the rainbow.  Petro-Canada has discovered between 0.6 - 1.3 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas that has the executives of the company jumping for joy. The question is why isn’t the government and by extension the people of Trinidad and Tobago celebrating this discovery with Petro-Canada? It has to do with the dubious agreement that gave Petro-Canada just about all the gas – a gift so to speak.

I was perusing blogs relating to Trinidad and Tobago and came across a post written by Michael De Gale that can be read at the Trinidad and Tobago News Blog at www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog. The original story appeared in the Trinidad Guardian newspaper. Mr. De Gale’s article dealt with the 90% Petro-Canada ownership of the reserves with 10% owned by the Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago (Petrotrin) and by extension the people of Trinidad and Tobago.  Mr. De Gale was angry, and rightly so, that we signed away 90% ownership to get the area explored and have the resources extracted from the ocean floor.  Just think about the amount of monies that will be made from the extraction of this find with the vast majority of the profits ending up in the hands of foreign nationals. There is so much crime in the country, so many issues to be resolved and the resources that should help with the purchase of the materials and manpower to make a change is simply extracted and taken overseas to line the pockets of stock holders in North America. What a crying shame, shame to the politicians and negotiators that agreed to this one sided deal.

The elections came and the people of the country failed to see the big picture. They voted along tribal line and for the old way of doing business and by that I mean the majority of votes went to the PNM (who won) and the UNC (the opposition). These parties conduct business in a manner that is so similar to each other.  However, the movement of the COP gave people an option to take the country in a different direction and they were shunned by the vast majority of the electorate. The voters wore blinders at the voting booths and continue to do so regarding the policies of the present administration.

Our resources are getting ripped off and as Mr. De Gale’s article’s headlined, “Giving it All Away” said it all. The price of everything is going up and the present administration recently threatened to remove the gas subsidies (just under consideration said the government after grumblings of the society were heard). What a shame, what a crying shame that this will pass under the radar because the party and wining season has numbed the society into delirious abandonment just like the resources of the country have been abandoned by the politicians.

This post also appears on www.pwefen.blogspot.com.

Mark wades into PNM Caroni land mischief

No wonder the PNM celebrated in the manner that they did after winning the General Elections.  The base, heart and soul of the opposition were destroyed by dismantling Caroni limited.  To make matters worse now we are hearing allegations of mischief and misappropriation or better yet a manipulation of the rules put in place to ensure that the workers displaced by the closure of Caroni limited get the parcels of agricultural lands due to them by law. This land is to be used to earn a living now that their jobs were gone.  Mr. Mark has stated that he has a list of names of the persons that received over 3,000 acres of Caroni land that is located at Todd’s road in Central Trinidad. The land was divided in 50 acre plots and ‘doled out’ not to farmers but allegedly to cronies of the PNM. Mr. Mark stated: “But I understand that senior public officials and their wives, who are not farmers, have been allocated 50 acre plots because they manipulated the allocation process. I have the names of these people and I would like the minister to tell this Parliament how come PNM officials and their wives were able to arrest these plots for themselves, while farmers are still out in the cold". http://www.trinidadexpress.com.

So what is new? The party has just started and the winnings are being distributed to the worthy ones.  There is also the question of lands obtained by Blue Waters: a total of 450 acres to be exact and to date the farmers who were supposed to have benefitted from the plan are still in the line waiting with open arms. Does anyone believe that there would be an investigation to find out why and how these PNM honchos got possession of lands ear marked for ex Caroni workers - blatant cronyism. Mr. Wade should have blamed it all on Sat Sharma in order to get the DPP involved in this very distasteful act of arrogance … What is your opinion.

Energy Minister Conrad Enil tries to mix Oil and Water

Minister Enil: "The gas subsidy is now at $2 billion. The government now finds itself having to answer a particular question," Enill said. "Is the $2 billion a year better provided to water supply for everybody or for cheap gas and continuing the situation where people can travel at a very low cost?"  

Now this is very interesting and it seems to me like the good Minister is behaving like a seasoned Minister of PNM misinformation. What about all the electoral promises made Mr. Enil? At no time was the cost of the subsidies discussed as the Prime Minister painted a glorious masterpiece of his 20/20 vision. I have read many commentaries in the Express Newspaper as people vent their anger regarding the realization that the cost to restructure WASA is going to be in excess of TT$12.5 billion. The idea is to help offset this bill by removing the subsidy from the gas prices and applying it to the restructuring of WASA. Ok we will get back to WASA but first I have a question for the learned Minister of Energy. Dear Sir, why are we purchasing oil at the international price when we are producers of this black gold? He had to mention the price of gas in Barbados and compare it to that in Trinidad. However, I don’t think that Barbados has oil reserves and factories to process this natural resource? Just remember citizens of the Republic, oil is a natural resource of Trinidad and Tobago! I can’t understand why we have to purchase oil. Forgive me dear Sir, but the nation of Trinidad and Tobago has been in the Oil business since 1857 when the first Oil well was drilled near the Pitch Lake by the Merrimac Company. After all this time, are you telling me that we don’t have our own rigs in the ocean pumping oil to supply our economy? Are you telling me that all our oil is being explored and pumped by foreign oil companies and we only collect a portion of the profits through taxes? The only good thing that can come from the removal of the subsidy is that less vehicles may be on the road taking into consideration that we have close to half a million vehicles clogging up the highways. However, the negative consequence will be an increase of taxi and bus fares to offset the increase in fuel prices along with everything that is transported in the conduct of trade. That means, food, clothing and just about everything that sells will experience a rise in prices - a major inflation scenario. Is that the reason people voted the PNM into office – “to ketch dey arse?”

WASA, lord have mercy. Water, so precious, yet so difficult to get in your taps when you really need it. However, the bloat in salaries is not a big deal. We continually waste this precious resource because of so many leaking lines and the stupidity of not putting in meters in every user’s home to force people to pay for their usage. Surely that would be a good wake up call to every citizen to become more aware of their usage and to turn off their taps or pay the price for wasting this resource. Waste it, abuse it and the consequences will be felt when they receive their bill. The focus should be on supplying the people with their basic needs and water is just that, a basic need. Instead of investing so many millions of taxpayer’s dollars in areas that are not considered essential or basic needs, this same money could have been invested in desalination plants to help support the natural water resources during the dry spells.

So what do you want, water to drink or subsidies for cheaper gas? You have been backed into a corner by the very people that you voted into office. What do you intend to do? Should you continue to party and deal with it after you are sober enough to put your hands on your head to say, “Dear Lord what have we done?” Another thing to consider is the fact that the Trinidad and Tobago dollar is annexed to the US dollar and there is this great fear that the US economy in tethering on a recession. President Bush is putting in measures to get more money into the hands of consumers to bolster the economy. What is your government doing to help you?

Oil and Water have never mixed before but with 'ah lil' mischief the PNM spin doctors seem to have already convinced their horde of believers that in Trinidad anything is possible. The slogan went like this:"Patrick, we moving up with you". Thrust me with the PNM at the helm it is not just about the 20/20 vision because the only thing moving up now is the price you will pay at the grocery, 'toute bagaii.'