OWTU SPEAKS – October 30, 2006

Good evening and welcome to OWTU Speaks! It is also said that the less people think, the more they talk. We were reminded of this Proverb as we continued to browse Mr. Wilfred D. Best’s ‘Students’ Companion”. We also found that some inappropriate and preposterous comments made over the weekend by Mook and Mookesh helped to confirm that the less people think, the more they talk.

Mook, in all of his industrial expansionist ambition, will hardly pursue the line, whereby he should seek to convince the fast growing opposition to Smelters being constructed here, that these Smelters are safe and environmentally conducive to our development goals on the basis of technical and scientific investigation and confirmation. He prefers the arrogant and anti-democratic approach which bears the ‘Lord over-all’, presumptuous, haughty and overbearingly obscene edict that ‘like it or not, there won’t be two but three Smelters on our South Western Peninsula. However, wrong the anti-smelters campaigners might be – and this should only be evaluated on the technical and scientific – however wrong they may be, it is only the politically puerile and sociologically stunted who would categorize the environmental and pro-T&T campaign as ‘foolishness’. It is really absurd and provides perhaps another good reason to not accept the apparently ‘innocent’ proposal to constitutionalize an Executive President, to be elected by the Parliament and whose powers will constitute the consolidation of those immense authorities and powers now possessed by the Prime Minister and our ceremonial head of state. If every opposing view is foolish it should be easy to convince the majority of electors on a one-man-one-vote-basis to vote into the office of Executive President, the Mook who is the smartest among all the eligibles and qualified ahead of the crooks. But some men are wise and some are otherwise.

Another and more dotish comment made on the weekend was one which exposed the re-engineering bankruptcy and anti-worker tendency of a utility Executive – well --- he postures as Executive Chairman of the particular utility anyway. The political directorate sees him as the best thing after slice bread, even as he shuffles between the Constituency offices of the two opposing political honchos in Central and South. Have you ever heard of a one-man crew? Sure, there is the crew-cut which essentially is a style of a man’s hair cut short all over. There is the crew-neck which is a round close-fitting neckline. But a crew, according to Webster’s is a body of persons manning a ship, boat, aircraft, train, articulated vehicle, a compliment of workers for a particular task, etc. These seem not to have made any sense to ‘Mr. Fearsome’ as workers and even some managers regard him at the utility. His obnoxious manner is said to be the most impeding factor to the utility’s thrust to improving its effectiveness and efficiency.

Last weekend Mr. Slice Bread threatened to reduce the utility’s crew sizes to 1 man. He actually said that he would be moving to one-men crews. Talk about foolishness – that is rank foolishness Mr. eh eh – Executive President – Prime Minister.

The less people think the more they talk – nonsense. Have a pleasant evening.

I am Errol K. Mc Leod for the OWTU Speaks!

OWTU SPEAKS – October 24, 2006

Good evening and welcome to the OWTU Speaks. The old folk with hardly a formal ABC education were many times the better teacher, and with so much clearer vision and tremendous foresight.

They taught so many lessons, some of which the late and former Inspector of schools, Wilfred D. Best, recorded in the Students’ Companion – an old teaching and learning text that every book bag should contain.

One such lesson said that ‘as you make your bed, so you must lie on it’ -: meaning that ‘you will have to bear the consequences of your own mistakes or misdeeds’.

Another figurative expression which was regularly used was ‘Above-board’ – essentially meaning – ‘beyond reproach, straight-forward, honest, not open to question’. Today, all of that is encapsulated as ‘transparency’.

We identified those two (2) figurative expressions as a basis from which any objective responses might perhaps be made on the circumstances attending the demission from office by leaders in our national community.

There are the few opportunists who will no doubt cry – hypocritically – and put blame on everybody else for the inglorious dismissal of one of the country’s most significant leaders from the Parliament. Equally we suppose, there are the few, just as opportunistic – who would feel it now easier to enter the territory of the now deposed and escape unscathed.

Neither of the two sets of opportunists is likely to go around the immediate self-serving political benefit of the inglorious disqualification from the House by the deposed member to spreading lessons of ethical behaviour and morality in the conduct of public affairs. We must emphasize the compelling principle of the leadership and the law maker being the stoutest upholders of the law. We must resolve to eradicating the divisive policy of different strokes for different folks.

Leaders must, in the discharge of their functions, be above-board, be straight forward – beyond reproach. Like the proverbial cow which kicks down the pail of milk, a leader who ingloriously fires himself after forty (40) years of invaluable invaluable and complimentary service, is unquestionably and perhaps dishonestly short sighted.

Cry no tears for he who has done injustice to you as he who has done injustice to you as he sought to ingratiate himself. As he made his bed, so he must lie on it. Let him bear the consequences of his own mistakes or misdeeds. Or, will we not owe Dole Chadee and his confederates a second chance?

I am Errol K. Mc Leod for the OWTU Speaks!

OWTU SPEAKS – October 23, 2006

Good evening and welcome to the OWTU Speaks. It is said that the headlines continue to be grasped by the activities that defame us and that identify our grounds as killing fields and our communities – ‘towns without pity’.

Las weekend failed to shine light on new perspectives for a better and more peaceful Trinidad and Tobago. Murderers continued in the shadows of death, brazenly embracing evil and drinking from the cups of their victims’ blood. It is madness! Nothing is new and there seems little if any indication at all of anything new for sometime to come. Last Friday we said that there was no over emphasizing our need of every candle power of light and the good hearts of men to dismiss the horror of death and the scourge of criminal activity that now stalk our land. We pointed out a few of the nerve chilling headlines on local newspapers over the previous two (2) days of publication and we found them horrendous – not the headlines but the fact that in this small country of 1.3 million, we could be so bloody lawless!

And just as the feathered vultures would sense the stench of death and pounce for feeding on carrion and gather in anticipation of more death, the rapacious and discredited and dying politician would disrespect the already dead ad insensitively exploit the bereaved for the advance of his own grave-yard ambitions. All of this on the weekend exacerbated the decadence into which we have fallen.

But surely we have grown! We have grown to our descent to the periphery of barbarism. Grannies are ‘gunned down’, children raped and buggered, girlfriends strangled and interred in shallow trenches and disgruntled party goers scatter-shoot into crowds of revelers. We have grown but sadly, we have degenerated to morons – we have not developed.

We paraphrase again, excerpts of our last piece: We ought to spend a while identifying the underlying causes of our predicament. We may also discover that we were better off when we were humble before abundant Petro-dollars which we do not know how to spend. We may realize that we had a richness of values and being. We have missed the mark of people development as we hit the bull’s eye of opulence and degradation. But let us hope and work toward redemption.

Have a pleasant evening and to the entire national community – Eid Mubarak!

I am Errol Mc Leod

OWTU SPEAKS – October 20, 2006

Good evening and welcome to the OWTU Speaks. There could be no doubting that we need every candle power of light and the good hearts of men to dismiss the horror of death and the scourge of criminal activity that now besiege our land.

Good evening and welcome to the OWTU Speaks!

Rehanna found in shallow grave;

Kidnapper testifies against father;

Man on Fire Dies at Hospital;

Wife succumbs to burns;

Outrage, when will the killing stop?

Two cops paid $20k for kidnapping;

Murder victim Sunita cremated;

Fugitive shot dead;

Escapee found dead;

Bullet-riddled body found in drain! And these are only a few of the nerve chilling headlines on local newspapers of the past two (2) days. They identify our grounds as the killing fields of the West and our communities as ‘Towns without Pity’. And as if it has really gone beyond our ability to cope, those to whom we have entrusted responsibility for our health, security and public safety respond, almost in resignation and say that they are trying their best to keep the murder rate below 400 to year’s end – what a horrendous state of affairs!

Grannies are ‘Gunned’ down, children are raped, buggered and have their lives exploded out of their faint bodies by the murderous thrust of depraved men borrowing barrowing for sick satisfaction. How have we come to all this?

Surely we have grown! Sadly we have not developed and definitely, marking time on one spot as we are doing will see us receding, depleted and tremendously worse off in 2020. We ought to spend a while trying to find out where and how we have gone wrong and to find remedies.

We may also discover that when we were humble before abundant Petro-dollars and so many automobiles and $m Real Estate and multi-million dollar palatial residences – we had a richness of values and being, we were growing and developing and appreciating. We have missed the mark of development as we hit the bull’s eye of disaster and life has become more expensive worthless with a $38b tag.

Today we just allowed ourselves to stray philosophically poetic. Let this be a safer and peaceful weekend.

Shubh Divali, to our entire national community.

I am Errol Mc Leod for OWTU Speaks!

OWTU SPEAKS – October 18, 2006

Good evening and welcome to the OWTU Speaks. One must applaud the Attorney General and especially the Director of Public Prosecutions for the independence and steadfastness in their response to Mr. Manning’s encroachment into matters to which he (Manning) ought to be a stranger. These decent, honest and sensible gentlemen: the AG and the DPP, were embarrassed like every intelligent enough PNM member ought to have felt embarrassed by the asininity of their leader and wannabe Executive President.

Every fool who supported – ‘innocently’ – the proposal deliberately made to create an office of Executive President must now be repudiating the idea. Even Baby Doc who has been long deposed did not come across with a repugnant an autocratic tendency as Papa Manning does. Remember Baby Doc, the son and successor in the Papa Doc Duvalier dynasty in Haiti? He bore so much physical resemblance and psychological likeness to our sitting duck here in Trinidad and Tobago. As a disheveled opposition renders itself more and more irrelevant to the country’s present circumstances we can depend on Mr. manning to exacerbate his own unsuitability to lead really strong, sensible and democratic government. In our last piece two (2) days ago, this commentator promptly and fearlessly criticized Mr. Manning for his assertion that two (2) prominent members of the COP Party were soon to be ‘snatched’ by the long arm of the law. I said that Mr. Manning had again allowed his untamed and reckless enthusiasm to propel him into the realm of grave indiscretion. I said that the Prime Minister as the Executive should know better than to venture into areas which should not be traversed except by the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Police. I iterated – ‘that more members of the former UNC administration are likely to be arrested and charged with criminal offences, is a matter for the DPP and the Police and that any pre-mouthing of it by the Executive could only lend argument to charges of political interference and prosecution.

If perchance two (2) former members of the former UNC Government were being investigated on criminal charges, they were very clearly offered an unearned advantage against the competent and appropriate authorities conducting the investigations once thoughtless utterances were made at the Executive level to compromise the process, as was clearly done in Sunday’s puerile bravado. It was so totally uncalled for- but, small minds are always prone to making big mistakes. The even smaller minds have a propensity to a making those mistakes a habit.

We run the risk of making thief of an Executive President when we fail to criticize, reprimand and admonish a Prime Minister who usurps the role of the police and the judge. Let it never be allowed. Statements of reprimand by the DPP and the Attorney General have been refreshingly welcome and have inspired hope for our democratic institutions. If this piece however, appears a harsh criticism of a person and office, we wish to assure all that ‘no malice, ill-will or odium’ was intended. It is just that we love and are committed to our country MORE!

Have a Good Evening! I am Errol Mc Leod for the OWTU Speaks.

OWTU SPEAKS – October 16, 2006

Good evening and welcome to your incisive, independent and fearless commentary - the OWTU Speaks, where talk makes sense.

We took particular note of the very polite and lukewarm response by the party faithful to their leader’s proposal for an Executive President such as would be constitutionally conferred with the near absolute power and authority as suggested in the ‘Innocent Draft’. We have a strong view that the PNM would not have popularly supported that proposal for even Dr. the Right Honourable Eric Eustace Williams whom they seemed to have loved and trusted absolutely. The faithful, with all the assistance that a splintered and discredited opposition would offer may, well get Mr. Manning the 32 seats that he wants but nobody seems to want either Mr. Manning or Chairman Bas as Executive President of our still relatively fortunate and democratic little country of Trinidad and Tobago. And we suspect that if this issue is put unmasked and unambiguous to the vote, those on the right and in the middle would say ‘NO’ and those on the left would shout ‘nyet’ – All of them negative. You see – an important pillar of democracy is ‘trust’ but it will be flirting with dictatorship if one were to remove one’s democratic safeguards and just trust and hope and pray:- not for Manning, not for Panday, not for anybody! The weekend saw an intense heating up of the political hunting season when every soucouyant and vampire bat come out for blood. Expectations were high and wild but the sexton did not ring a bell.

The belfry was spruced up, given a new coat of paint on an unprepared surface and surrounded by a reported 15,000 congregation of the faithful – yet the sexton did not ring the bell. As is no doubt well known, the sexton is the officer charged with care of church and churchyard, and often with duties of bell-ringer and grave-digger.

Perhaps the sexton had an old order of service which, since the last memorial, he had forgotten in his back-pocket and was therefore unprepared for yesterday’s homily, so he did not risk making discordant notes in the skill of bell-ringing. He turned much of his attention instead to grave-digging and the interment of an opposition expired by greed and corruption but afraid to lie down.

We think though that Mr. Manning had again allowed his untamed enthusiasm to propel him into the realm of grave indiscretion. Mr. Manning as Prime Minister and member of the executive indeed he is the Executive – should know better than to venture into areas which should not be traversed except by the DPP and the Police. That more members of the former UNC administration are likely to be charge with criminal offences – we think is a matter for the DPP and the Police and the politician’s pre-mouthing of it could only lend argument to the charge of political interference and prosecution. The sexton cannot be a good bell-ringer if he constantly puts his feet: one in his mouth and the other in the opposition’s grave.

Have a good Monday evening

Keep the Peace and save the children, I am Errol Mc Leod for the OWTU Speaks!

OWTU SPEAKS – October 09, 2006

Good evening and welcome to the OWTU Speaks. At the end of the debate, the $38b., Budget and Appropriation Bill will be put to the vote and the ‘Ayes’, under Imperial order, will have it – no amendment except for the inclusion of ‘Bhaji’ which was interjected while the Emperor was reading his cut, patch and paste essay last Wednesday. We continue to take the view that Public Service retirees and Old Age Pensioners have been contemptuously dismissed and insulted with a $100 increase in their monthly subsistence incomes – less than the winnings of a $5 Mark in the PNM’s Urban Play Whe Gaming economy – shame on Government high fliers, after an irrefutable case was made out for those senior citizens to have their ‘inflation ravaged fixed incomes’ adjusted to no less than $1500 per month.

Mr. Manning will be doing these old people no favour by treating them decently – they worked hard for every last penny to which they are entitled. Prime Minister must reconsider and amend the provision for Old Age Pension and Public Service Retirement Benefit to represent the dignity with which senior citizens ought to be treated. The youth seem to have already been alienated and lost. It will be to Manning’s damnation to so unceremoniously dismiss the old. It takes a ‘don’t-care-a-damn’, arrogant, imperial mook of a politician to so completely engage in capital spending without adequate investment in the people and human development. One would hardly need tertiary level training for such ordinary understanding.

We think that one needs only to be humble enough to dismount one’s imperial steed. And Mr. Manning knows too well the blow that arrogance inflicted in 1995. But he might be banking heavily on today’s most favourable economic and financial conditions and the fact that those contending for control of the power of the purse have discredited and disqualified themselves by their extravagant greed and malfeasant tendencies. We still feel that, that is not enough for Mr. Manning to bank on. There are two pertinent proverbs with which he should become familiar – ‘never look a gift horse in the mouth’ – and no pun is not intended here. The other is ‘never too old to learn; never too late to turn. One doubts that his stiffness of neck is so acute that he should have vertigo to change posture.

Many other parts of the Budget fail to identify any thoroughness of plans to deal with imported inflation and the ever increasing price of food, building materials and every day living costs. Agricultural development and agro-chemical expansion to achieve domestic self sufficiency have only been given passing mention – perhaps the Agriculture Minister will detail these important matters when he lends his monotone contribution to the debate.

Nor did we have the benefit of a domestic budget presentation that is set in the context and against the background of a well researched and analyzed hemispheric and global economic and developing situation. There was the time when the presentation of the National Budget was a premium learning experience for all in our national community. Then was when we had the profundity and excellence of leaders who purposefully studied and planned the movement and growth of the people and the employment of national resources to facilitate same.

We continue to hope as we engage in disciplined struggle. Have a peaceful evening and look to the new day with enthusiasm and purpose. Save the youth, respect and care for the elderly. I am Errol Mc Leod for OWTU Speaks!

OWTU SPEAKS – October 04, 2006

Good evening and welcome to the OWTU Speaks. This piece was produced and recorded earlier than the Finance Minister’s Budget Presentation in the House of Representatives at 2.00 p.m. today. Consequently, any bearing that any projection may have on any Budget pronouncements may be considered as purely coincidental.

Just over a week or two ago, Minister of Works and Transport, Colm Imbert, was reported to have said that the Cabinet was considering to take the Normal Retirement age back up to 65 years. Because it was Imbert who said it and particularly because of that Minister’s penchant for “double speak” – remember his foolish explanation of the test flight on the $50m (US) Bombadier Jet, and tenders for the $15B (TT) Rail system came across because of Imbert’s proclivity to double speaking, we paid little attention to his statement that the Government was about to extend the normal retirement age to 65. On second thought however, and considering how the manning Administration is given to proceeding without rhyme or reason on many issues, we thought that we might today make a few observations on that important matter.

Back in 1980-1983 when the first signs of contraction appeared following the end of the “boom” 1974-1980, the State Enterprise and Private sectors of the economy proposed and effected the reduction of normal retirement age from 65 to the present 60yrs as a major means by which to reduce employment levels without adversely affecting whatever opportunities existed for the recruitment and security of employment of young workers in industry. Thousands of senior workers were released on unplanned and unprepared retirement. Six (6) years later in 1988-1989, the major institutions of serious and meaningful training of  the young for gainful and sustainable employment were shut down only to be followed by an ongoing spate of voluntary separation (s0-called) of workers again without scientific planning and organization nor rhyme and reason. In other words, we have been expending trained, skilled and experienced resources without regeneration that would assure the sustainability of state enterprise and local businesses.

Among the many adhoc training programmes promoted by the government there is none that is as thorough going as the Craft Training, Technical, Engineering, Administration and well recognized programme which we once had and on which industry depended. To extend the retirement age of present workers to 65 years is to postpone any opportunity that the school leaver may have had for training and development and his entry into sustainable employment. Additionally, it will be nothing short of an actuarial and administrative nightmare to alter our many Retirement and Pension arrangements in ways that the cabinet’s considerations may suggest. Have a Merry Budget Evening.

Have a peaceful evening and look to the new day with enthusiasm and purpose. Save the youth, respect and care for the elderly. I am Errol Mc Leod for OWTU Speaks!

OWTU SPEAKS – October 02, 2006

Good evening and welcome to the OWTU Speaks. Wednesday’s Budget presentation this week is likely to be the last time that a Prime Minister Plenipotentiary cum Minister of Finance and defacto Minister of Energy will read a budget speech and sponsor an Appropriation Bill for the service of Trinidad and Tobago in our present constitutional arrangements.

Things will change and will be re-arranged in ways which will provoke revolution as perhaps the only means by which our country may be reverted to its democratic moorings and our still enviable civil liberties which seems threatened today by a Draft of an expert brew seemingly diminished by too often bouts of intellectual insobriety.

An Executive President not directly elected by the one-person—one-vote-system, and vested with the combined powers of the already wide and nearly absolute influences of Head of State and Head of Government is not good, can never be good for Trinidad and Tobago! And we venture to assert – without fear of recrimination – that matters will even be worse if that Executive President happens to be the pompous, unknowing, and super-arrogant out-front contender for that ‘Soca-oil styled’ Imperial office. We expect that we too are likely to be contemptuously dismissed by the ageing one for not possessing the constitutional legal acumen to draft alternatives to his/own, hodgepodge of prescriptions. We expect too that the Great Emperor of all he surveys will vilify us for disputing his right to be consecrated as the Nation’s Father and Executive President of not too ‘innocent a vintage’. But the Gods forbid!

So what election goodies do we expect in the 2006 – 2007 Budget? And it is true to say that all national budgets are election budgets. This one will be even more so as the king vampire will capitalize on the thieving purebred vampires having been scattered and caged and in his burning desire-nay, desperation – to capture two-thirds of 41 so as to comfortably bombard the constitution to install His Imperial Majesty to jet about in a Bombardier $315m airplane.

I think that we must say this ‘twenty-five years after the 25 year dominance by Dr. Eric Williams in the national politics, the people of Trinidad and Tobago have grown and are less unthinking than they were’. Some would say that Dr. Williams’ scholarship and mastery allowed his arrogance to sit well. No such luck for Mr. Manning! Prime Minister wannabe Executive President does not possess the gift nor-the-gait that would muzzle the steups, when one finds him a bit overbearing. Humility most often, excuses ignorance.

But back the Budget! Among all that is to be done to firm up our productive bases: the fiscal issues, taxation, GDP, GNP, Self-sufficiency in Food Production and Agricultural and Agro/Chemical Expansion, Infrastructural Development both physical and social, Health and Education – among all that is to be done, we respectfully remind the Chancellor of the Exchequer that the issue of Pensions and Retirement Benefits must be free of the quasi legal/regulatory entanglements which impose a limit of two-thirds of  final salary even in situations where many millions in surpluses exist. Contributory Pension Plans must allow their beneficiaries the fullest affordable Pension Packages that their funds will sustain.

After all, the Pension Funds are workers Deferred Earnings which qualify as property. Will the Imperial one jet his way out of the clouds and lend an ear and read a line in these regards in his Proclamation the day after tomorrow?

We will listen. Have a good evening a peaceful night. I am Errol Mc Leod for the OWTU Speaks.