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Political Face Value
PM Manning’s attitude towards crime has always been one of casual indifference. His flippancy is manifested in public statements that constantly seek to downplay the true state of social decadence and the chaotic breakdown in law and order. As head of the government, his attitude will inform the priority and policy of his administration towards crime.
So, to all those who keep asking ‘why isn’t the government doing more to solve the crime problem?’, I say take him at face value: he simply doesn’t care because his head is either so far up in the clouds or up a certain part of his anatomy, that the poor chap just cannot see the daily suffering on the ground. The frustrating search for a rational answer to this question may very well lie in Professor Selwyn Ryan’s suggestion that Manning is suffering from some form of mental or psychiatric disorder that afflicts those intoxicated with power beyond redemption called the hubris syndrome.
According to Ryan, the symptoms of hubris syndrome include “a narcissistic propensity to see one's world primarily as an arena in which to exercise power and seek glory; a disproportionate concern with image and presentation; a messianic manner; excessive confidence in one's own judgement and resultant contempt for advice; exaggerated self-belief; the belief that one is accountable solely to history or God; and loss of contact with reality.”
Ryan’s conclusion that we have empowered a hubristic leader and that now, ‘absent mindedly, we are slouching towards dictatorship, even if the symptoms are of the soft and benign variety’ is a damning indictment on Manning.
The attempt to create a parallel political union outside Caricom, the hosting of international conferences, globe trotting to meet world leaders, the construction of the emperor’s palace and the modern kingdom of imitation sky scrapers that remain empty are all manifestations of Manning’s ill-fated hubristic tendencies.
How else can you describe a leader who constantly addresses his grand visions that have nothing to do with the source of the fire that is consuming Rome? Crime is a worse pandemic worse than swine flu because there is no treatment for it and it is killing more people. Camille Danielle is murdered in front of a police station in her quest for refuse. A whole generation of children is now fatherless because of greedy, lazy young men who want easy money to buy gold chain, sneakers, clothes and concert tickets.
When our children were being kidnapped and raped, PM Manning said they were bogus and suggested that the UNC was behind them because they wanted to make the government look bad. When people were being bombed outside Smokey’s N Bunty’s Manning said he knew who “Mr Big” was and hinted that he will be arrested soon. When public executions started and people were being shot and killed outside Movietowne, Manning said it was simply “collateral damage”.
And now, as if to add salt into the wounds of our national conscience unremembered dead children such as Vijay Persad, Sean Luke, Radha Pixie Lakhan, Amy Annamunthodo and Akeil Chambers have inflicted, Manning tells his sycophantic flowing that the public outrage and sympathy for little Tecia Henry is misplaced. "Don't take it at face value," Manning told PNM supporters at the party convention. Not a hint of sympathy or concern.
With confounding and unbelievable arrogance he hinted that the Government had inside information he could not disclose. "I wish I could share the facts," he said, "but that is not for me to say." What part of the bible does Mr Manning read that could justify the callous murder of a ten-year old girl with a smile that could melt the heart of any enemy?In full political flight, our emperor boasted about the economic assistance he will dole out to hand picked Caricom neighbours so that he could expand his empire by creating new dominions. (Who do you think will be the king of the proposed union?) The economic hardship facing our people will intensify in 2010. Ordinary Trinbagonians are struggling to make ends meet. Instead of helping his own, Manning intends to pursue his grand egotistical political ambitions. Charity, it seems it will not begin at home.
The scare tactic of suggesting that there will be an influx of people from these islands in times of economic hardship is ridiculous. Whatever happened to the effective immigration policies and policing of our borders?
Is this a plan to permanently dilute the local Indian vote? Barbados has been kicking out hard-working Indians from Guyana because of pure racism and the self-appointed Godfather of Caricom, Manning has not said a word about this. Right here in T&T, there has been a silent, unwritten immigration policy to the same effect. I wonder why? Take nothing Manning says at face value.
By Anand Ramlogan
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There is now a need for the ruling political party to score some points - big time. And we see that the Government has given a small sum of money towards the burial of Tecia: Government gives $3500 for Tecia's funeral - Guardian 2009-06-26. Not that that is indicative of point scoring, but it is I assert, an indication of the direction in which the 'wind' is blowing. So what's going to be the story now? Money for every heinous child murder? Oh puhleese. Or will it be cash for funerals for those in a certain political heartland?
The Privy Council has not put a ban on hanging. And their judgments on certain hangings have no bearing on whether hanging is part of a solution to serious violent crime and homicide in T&T.Some in high 'circles' have misrepresented what the Privy Council (in very specific circumstances) has said. They have generalised beyond the boundaries of what the relevant judgments were, to whip up support among the uneducated - who are all too easily led by the nose by various 'puppet masters' - as a ploy to muster support for altering the Constitution.
No the issue is not to be decided on authority, but on fact.
In Pratt & Morgan 1993, which is often misunderstood and misquoted, their Lordships came to "...the conclusion that in any case in which execution is to take place more than five years after sentence there will be strong grounds for believing that the delay is such as to constitute "inhuman or degrading punishment or other treatment". If, therefore, rather than waiting for all those prisoners who have been in death row under sentence of death for five years or more to commence proceedings pursuant to section 25 of the Constitution, the Governor-General now refers all such cases to the JPC who, in accordance with the guidance contained in this advice, recommend commutation to life imprisonment, substantial justice will be achieved swiftly and without provoking a flood of applications to the Supreme Court for constitutional relief pursuant to section 17(1)."
My point that hanging is stupid, was clearly confined to the specific context of 'hanging' being seen as a solution to serious patho-sociological phenomenon, underpinning what has been seen since 1999 - the very year of the 'hangfest'.
Leh meh put it in plain Trini fuh allyuh..dat might help. Eeef yuh go to a doctar (aka doctor) and s/he say "Boy yuh see dat pain dey, dee only way tuh fix dat, is tuh take out yuh kidney!" And you go "A'right doc..do it - when is dee operation? Do it quick." Right and yuh lorse yuh kidney. Den yuh find out yuh still lef' wid dee same pain een yuh belly. Den yuh go tuh a proper specialist and yuh find out, 'Oh Gord, is meh gall bladder'. Yuh see wha' happen dey? No? Yuh cyah see it? Well sorry breds, yuh go neva see it.
Ok back to the Queen's (or President's, or whatever English). Get the 'treatment' right for the relevant underlying pathology! Hanging (regardless of legal concerns/precedent) is not a solution to T&T's problems of the exponential homicide rate, that we have seen since 1999. But if stupid people want to be led by the nose to a wrong conclusion by 'smoke and mirrors' - fine! Vote dem een again, boy!
I assert that I can see the future clearly. The TT Express of 2007-05-06 reported that Patrick Manning said the following words:
'...as bad as the criminals were they were afraid of their life being taken away...
...we believe that capital punishment is an essential element in crime fighting.
An essential element of that package has to be the return of capital punishment. I am a strong supporter of capital punishment...'
I assert that the above words uttered by Manning, were grossly uninformed. What about Manning's deeply rooted Christian values? Where is it in Christian values, they say that capital punishment is the gift of the leaders of a Nation? But because Manning is in power and people are baying for 'blood' guess what will happen? Capital punishment will come back.
The Express said in reported speech, that Manning said, that 'the Privy Council, sitting thousands of miles away in London, had from time to time put impediments in the way of hangings being carried out here. This is factually incorrect, if it is a correct interpretation of what Manning said. The Privy Council did not put impediments anywhere. They applied the law of the land and they came to a reasoned decision. There intention was never to 'impede' anything. That is equivalent to saying that the Court of Appeal is an impediment to the Government having it's will in some other matter. Rubbish! Courts don't impede - it is their job as a foundation stone of democracy, to balance the powers exercised by the Executive. It's called the Rule of Law and it can be traced back to political and legal theory in Montesquieu.
However, soon we will see a few on death row hung. Watch. Then the Nation will feel relieved that they have got their 'blood'. But that will not alter significantly, or in a durable way, the homicide rate. All it will do, is get people voting in a certain direction.
Get the diagnosis right...Get the treatment right..get the 'surgeon' right..but above all get the politician right!
In reality such an assumption or conclusion that hanging is an essential element in crime fighting, has never been proved to any widely acceptable standard. But that 'baying for blood' strangely has been at a time when there are calls to alter the Constitution and make the CCJ the highest court in the Land. The Privy Council has been put forward by proponents of Constitutional change as putting a ban on hangings, and that is one factor (erroneous as it is) that will be used to push through a change to the Constitution.
Basically certain people and 'organisations' do not like the judgments given by the Privy Council - and there has been thrown around a perception that 'dem white fellas een England eh know how it is dong here, nah'. That kind of perception/sentiment is so immature, it is beyond stupid. The law lords don't have to know how 'it is'. They are applying the law, and they have a collective mental estate of experience that dwarfs anything on 'the Rock'.
Monkey Islanders are about to make another serious mistake. Yes - another. The first was Independence (1962) when they could not manage it. Now they want new highest court in the land - same thing applies - they're not ready for it.
...well boy, Captain, you right on the money...like you too have an obea-woman forecasting the future, and getting it right all the time... you sound like you know something too, and you not telling the people all, you hiding it from them or what...?...the truth that is...the facts I mean...seems like everybody knows the damn thing all over the world, everybody except the people of T&T...!!!
...even Patrick, and he too not telling them, well he not telling them the facts...because he knows it but he can't...right..?...more of the snake oil stuff he has been selling them all the time, and they just can't figure him out....yet...right...??...either that or it stinks all the way to high heaven...???
...you see, the words of this Prime Minister daily reminds me of a few "old sayings" I had posted in my office years ago ...for the benefit of my employees...to help them out when they got themselves in a jam and were thinking about lying and deception, especially when they were trying to "hide the truth" ...or that they did not know the answer...and you could have seen it in their eyes coming...the first one was..."when you don't know the answer...just mumble..???...the other was that "assumptions are the mother of all foul-ups...so just stick to the facts..."...and the last one was ..."if the facts don't conform to your theory, the facts must be disposed of"...!...so you can see where all of this was leading up to...!
...so now, the Prime Minister has spoken again, and as in the past, he knows a lot and says a lot, but says nothing in all he says...up to the extent that as in the past, he had his wife and his Cabinet Ministers trying to explain what he is saying to the people, all because he himself does not know what the heck he is saying and he says it so often...!
...so therein lies the problem for the people of Trinidad and Tobago...and they all seem to like it so...they swallow his utterances like "manna from heaven" and bow to and salute him...to feed his oversized ego...just like the Preacherman he leads them to believe he is...and yet like Gandhi said in his writings..."he keeps experimenting with the truth"...and he delivers to the people all these assumptions and obtuse statements...just like "the great one"....in his "Never Never Land of Milk and Honey..."...where blood is flowing like water in the streets and "he keeps on speaking in a foreign tongue" or was that also a "forked tongue also..."???
....and ah yes, The Prime Minister has spoken again...even if they don't understand a word he has said...just like he himself...but he has spoken...nevertheless...!
...and so bow to and exalt him, for he is the chosen one...the great leader...he has a vision...20/20 vision at that ..?..well boy, the looney bin is full of them too...and this one just flew over the cuckoo's nest also...he got away from the guys in the white coats and straps...?
...so I'm all in support of your comments, Captain, he will throw them another "curve ball" and sit back and watch them squirm in all the crime and decay of civilization modern or otherwise, he has introduced and given to them, and they the people, say just like their great leader..".A LOT, BUT NOTHING AT ALL.....ALL MUMBLE...OR IS THAT ALL MUMBO JUMBO...???...take you pick.?
...and yes, The Prime Minister has spoken...AGAIN...but please don't hold your breath...???
...goodluck...Trini.t.o.o
Yup - perhaps my name should be changed to 'See-ah-man Walker' or somik. Boy ah good.
Read it here - where I spotted what was going to happen with hangings as a political move: Jeremie: two may face hangman - Newsday 2009-07-03. This is on the back of some Pastor who jump up and assert dat Gord say is okay for political leaders tuh hang people in the name of justice.
And meh nex' prediction? The hangings will be spread out. Dey eh going tuh do no hangfest like in 1999. Nah - dey go use dis set differently. Dey want to gih dee population a good taste o' blood. Watch.
...you so right Cap'n, but then right now they doing "the song and dance routine" with the people, because lets face it...Trini's love a bacchanal and a carnival and music and a jump up...they like a "fete for so", ...
...so as they move one step forward they going to take two steps backwards... when they hang one the President releases two by "Presidential Pardon"..???, ...and the song and dance routine continues...!...they "playing the people like a fiddle"...but then the people like it so...confuse the hell out of them...and keep them guessing ...but jes' let dem fete...No...???
...and all the while Rome burns...while the Preacherman gets to live the life of "Riley"the "Emperor"...and not a damn dog bark...same song...same dance...same routine...not even a different tune this time....he now fooling them in broad daylight...just let them "wine and jam" all year round...???
...and all the while... the people living like prisoners themselves behind iron bars...all the while the streets are off limits for everybody except for the criminals...and blood running like water instead of the milk and honey they had been promised so many times...???!...
...and "the man livin' it up with a smile and grin"...now with the useless President too...and now with a big "fat raise" for a pension.."just to keep his fete going...".like raiding the candy shop while everybody asleep...?
...and the people...?... well they like they all "stale drunk"...all the time...they can't get sober, they can't think for themselves...they living in a daze, like they all have "bazodee" and can't get out of it...or they just don't want to...cause its Party till they drop...???!
....same song...same tune...different dance...one step forward...two steps backwards...cha-cha-cha---?
...this twine has no end...???!
...yup, you're right Captain, they are so predictable...all because dey like it so...?
... goodluck...Trini.t.o.o
Well some readers may have seen my response containing thoughts on 'hangings' and wondered how on earth that could be related to the topic 'Politcal face value'. It's simple, really. It's easy to spot the immaturity and ineffectiveness of those in power and to make an extrapolation.
It's like when you watch children playing. As an experienced parent, it's easy to see when they're going to get into trouble or end up fighting with each other. The behavioural responses are easy to spot.
So too with the regime and the opposition in T&T. They behave like silly children - and from their level of immaturity it is easy to see what will happen next.
Well I'm actually sad to say 'I told you so - as predicted' - because people will be hung and pretty soon too. See: Newsday 2009-07-18 'No Hope' and Newsday 2009-07-19 'Return to hangings....'. In the latter they say:
"The London-based Privy Council is the island’s highest court, despite the 2004 establishment of the Trinidad and Tobago-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), which regional governments want to be the Caribbean’s final court of appeal. While all Caribbean countries are signatories to the original jurisdiction of the CCJ, only Barbados and Guyana have signed up to its appellate jurisdiction. Regional governments have long complained that the Privy Council has restricted them in carrying out the death penalty. In particular, the Pratt and Morgan ruling in 1993, named after two convicted Jamaican killers, set a five-year time limit for executing convicted murderers after sentencing. "
You know the stupidity of the local press never ceases to amaze me. What could dey possibly mean or expect when they say "..despite the 2004 establishment of the Trinidad and Tobago-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), which regional governments want to be the Caribbean’s final court of appeal... " . And you know stupid people will jes parrot dis garbage arong dee place. Garbage? Yes - it is!! The Privy Council whedda in Timbuktu or in my backyard will remain dee highest court for T&T until it is that is changed by a process of Constitutional change. It doh matter if dey set up 29 Caribbean Courts of Justice.
"Regional governments have long complained that the Privy Council has restricted them in carrying out the death penalty. In particular, the Pratt and Morgan ruling in 1993, named after two convicted Jamaican killers, set a five-year time limit for executing convicted murderers after sentencing." And dis demonstrates even further stupidity. Some may now see why I went so deep into Pratt & Morgan. The Privy Council has not restricted - as uneducatedly put - governments hanging murderers. The Privy Council is there to apply the law and ensure that the Rule of Law is maintained. The principle in its briefest form means that the State and each individual is subject to the law. So the Privy Council is there to apply the law to the State. In other words if the State wants to kill (or heng) people den dey have to do it according to the law of the land - not jes step outside dee law.
And that is probably a clue to the whole problem of crime in T&T. If you have a State that wants to play against the rules (as per Maha Sabha and Feroza Ramjohn) what you leave for the people who give power to that State. Well from my perpsective they likely to want to tear up dee rules too, very arbitrarily. In other words 'lynch mob' murderers like in dem Westerns from long time.
Dat Nation is in meltdown. Ah sayin' it loud and clear again, "Everybody leave now!!"
I ain't comin' off the trail - not on this one. See: Newsday 2009-07-22 Hang that Killer.
The thirst for blood among the electorate is now so great - likened to that of a person at the point of expiry after suffocation! The electorate will be given 'air'. And stupid people on dee Rock will thank the ruling regime for quenching their thirst for 'blood'.
The woman in the Newsday article groans, "I want justice, I have to get it because that was my child, that was my belly. He has to hang, I cannot help that. Everybody belly go boil but not this mother’s own.
Every time I think about my daughter I feel a pain inside. Nobody knows what is in my heart, but the almighty God knows how I am grieving. So I want justice. That is all that we want.”
I have no fight with people needing justice. However in my opeenion, this woman is confused. Why? Henging the murderer will not take away her pain - at all. The pain is inside of her - and not embodied in the murderer or his existence.
I empathise with Shirley Ramnarine. I would not like to feel her pain. However, she refers to a God, whodoes not give her the ‘justice’she seeks. Instead she begs the State to hang Tiwarie immediately. Interestingly she believed at one point, in her reported conversation with Polly, that “They are not God. They can’t do that” i.e. that the people who Polly had feared might kill her, could not do so, because they were not God. So it seems in those circumstances a quality of God in Shirley’s mind is the ability to take away life.
However, now Shirley Ramnarine begs the State who - by no stretch of the imagination of a reasonable body of people – is not God!! So I infer that Shirley ascribes a power she gave to God, to the State. In effect, this makes the State out to be God-like.
If the State was truly God-like on the Rock, would they have allowed a festering crime situation to develop so visibly from 1999 as it did. Surely not! Shirley Ramnarine appeals to the same State, that treated her and her people with contempt! However, this time she wants blood. So she is willing to befriend the State for just a moment perhaps and to give them God-like powers, to effect a form of 'justice' she seeks.
The reality is that hanging Tiwarie might serve her psychological need for vengeance. But vengeance is not justice. And devout Christians will know that the Lord said, ‘Vengeance is mine’.
The hangings will happen - differently this time compared to the ‘hangfest’ in 1999. This time they will give the population a more measured and prolonged taste of ‘blood’. Yup – they will quench their thirst – take away their anger and need for vengeance. The population (collectively) will then ‘cool dong’ and become more receptive to an idea that hangings will deter crime on dee Rock. And that is where the electorate will be herded rong for another round of humping! Watch.
Hangings I assert are not the solution to homicides in T&T – not even part of the solution. Those inclined to respond (or not) – know one thing – I am not an anti-hanging activist. If the State wants to hang murderers, it must be done strictly to the letter of the law!
...yes Cap'n, he now has the crowd in good ole T&T in a feeding frenzy for blood and more blood...!
...and the man keeps on feeding their frenzy so they can't raise their heads to see daylight...all because... .while the daily killings continue unabated...and he knows he does not have a plan to address it...for all his Plan "A to Plan Z" is now history without achieving any positive results...he is now bankrupt of any fresh ideas ....!
...so instead keeps on giving them more of his Snake Oil stuff, of which he is so good at, and that keeps them screaming for blood and more blood, all the while this man grinning and laughing at them....for this man is a master in the art of distraction...and deception...!!!
...so while the daily killings continue unabated, and he keeps them gazing at their navel strings...all focused on bloody revenge...he keeps on making speeches about sharpening their "Political Cutlasses"..."Hangings and more Hangings" and now more recently, ...!
....well now he is talking about threats to kills him, not once, but on several occasions in the past, and just recently...and yet he did not report any of them to the police, otherwise there would have been "More Bloodshed"...!...?
..."More Bloodshed"...he said...? ..so what the heck is this man smoking...?...Bloody Ganja...and what the heck is he drinking..."Bloody Mary's...so now everything he talks about is somehow associated with blood and blood letting...?..so no wonder the people all looking for blood and more blood...and he keeps on getting them more and more excited in their thirst for blood...?
...and the man knows all of this including the people who were involved in making those threats...the same as he knew who Mr. Big was...as well as all the very criminals whom he met and re-named them as "Community Leaders" and who has since met their "Waterloo", all now dead suffering from the same "bloodshed" being perpetrated on the people of T&T...!
...so the Prime Minister keep on giving them more "Snake Oil for Blood"...and the people keep on yelling for more of the same stuff...this time he going to make sure a few people get hanged and that would make their thirst for blood go away for the time being...!
...and all the while as the killings continue non stop... the people go back to slumber or navel gazing again...and the Snake Oil Salesman has once again achieved his goal...he has given them Snake Oil for Blood and they are all happy...once more...living in his Land of Milk and Honey...!
...all of that except the man has the Milk and Honey and they the people get to keep the Snake Oil and Blood...and to wallow in it daily too...boy, what a life...what a distraction...? what a deception from a so called Leader..?!
...when and where will the thirst for blood end...and who will see that it comes to an end...looking up in the sky is certainly not the answer...nor will a snake charmer do...!
...but whatever it is, our people better wake up soon...!
...goodluck...Trini t.o.o