NEWS

OWTU: Industrial court, unions essential

Both the Industrial Court and the trade union movement have been deemed essential components of society as they provide mechanisms to “contain the anger, frustration and pain of ordinary working people.” In a media release, Oilfields Workers Trade Union (OWTU) chief education and research officer Ozzi Warwick expressed concern with recent statements attributed to TT Chamber of Industry and Commerce head Ronald Hinds who blamed the actions of trade unions for the shutting down of steel company Arcelor Mittal and the decision by energy giant BP to relocate construction of its Angelin platform to the US. Read more here

Mottley: T&T at tipping point like mid-90s

Na­tion­al award hold­er Wen­dell Mot­t­ley says Trinidad and To­ba­go is at a tip­ping point like the mid-1990s again. But he is look­ing for­ward to lead­er­ship com­ing from the young gen­er­a­tion. “...The lead­er­ship that will make me feel peo­ple of my age have passed the ba­ton and we can live com­fort­ably with that thought,” Mot­t­ley added yes­ter­day, soon af­ter re­ceiv­ing the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of T&T, the coun­try’s high­est award. A for­mer politi­cian and star T&T ath­lete, Mot­t­ley was pre­sent­ed with the award by Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes at Pres­i­dent’s House. Read more here

POLITICS

Emily: ‘Ministers don’t get involved’

Former housing minister Dr Emily Dick-Forde says she had no dealing with the stoppage and restarting of over 500 state constructed homes in Greenvale, La Horquetta. In a telephone interview with Newsday yesterday Dick-Forde reiterated what she posted on Facebook that the Greenvale project was not something she was familiar with adding that it was close to a decade ago. Dick-Forde replaced then housing minister, now Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley in 2007, the housing project was halted in 2009, both Dick-Forde and Rowley were out of government in 2010. Read more here

PM: Sandals pull-out would be a disaster

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has ad­mit­ted that T&T’s back will be against a wall if San­dals Re­sorts pulls out of build­ing two ho­tels in To­ba­go. Row­ley made the com­ment at Thurs­day’s post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre, St Ann’s, as he gave an up­date on the San­dals project, say­ing quite a few de­trac­tors have been say­ing the Gov­ern­ment has not been fol­low­ing prop­er pro­cure­ment process­es with San­dals In­ter­na­tion­al since sign­ing a Mem­o­ran­dum of Un­der­stand­ing last year. “We have no in­for­ma­tion to hide. Those who are push­ing this sto­ry about se­cre­cy...half of them are mis­chie­vous and the oth­er half is not fa­mil­iar with the con­duct of pub­lic busi­ness.” Read more here

PM rejects secrecy claim

Dismissing as invalid the claim that his Government was functioning by secrecy, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday lashed out that those who were prematurely demanding information. Read more here

BUSINESS

Crime robs growth: prevent it with innovation

How much does crime cost? According to an IMF report released in September, “Public and private spending on policing and securities, medical expenses, judicial procedures and forgone income, is about 3.5 per cent of GDP…compared to two per cent in advanced economies.” That is approximately US$770 million. And that is just the direct cost. Fear of crime drives emigration and capital flight. If your business has just been robbed, the chances that you will make a significant investment fall. Read more here

Jobs are not enough

By April of this year, T&T had seen 175 mur­ders com­mit­ted. This rep­re­sent­ed a 45 per cent in­crease on the same pe­ri­od five years ago. In fact, of the pre­ced­ing 64 months, on­ly 11 (17 per cent) av­er­aged less than a mur­der a day. On­ly one of these months has come since the end of 20151. Over this same pe­ri­od, on­ly 2014-2015 saw an an­nu­al re­duc­tion in mur­ders. Per­haps that year of­fend­ers took Ker­win Du Bois and Ravi B lit­er­al­ly when they sang ‘Over­do­ing It’. Ei­ther way, the respite was short-lived. The gov­ern­ment and the po­lice ser­vice say they are do­ing their best to rem­e­dy the sit­u­a­tion. It is be­yond the scope of this ar­ti­cle to judge their progress or make pol­i­cy rec­om­men­da­tions. Read more here

REGIONAL

Haunted By Nightmares - Children Exposed To Violence And Sexual Abuse Not Sleeping, Says Specialist

Nightmares are common occurrences among Jamaican children who experience acts of violence or regular sexual abuse, Dr Elizabeth Ward, chairman of the Violence Prevention Alliance, has said. Examining the latest police data on the number of children murdered or sexually abused since January, Ward emphasised the need for the Government to speed up the implementation of the much-talked-about Safe Spaces for Children programme. According to police statistics, from January 1 to October 31, 2018, a total of 353 major crimes were committed against children across Jamaica. That figure represents 128 fewer major crimes than occurred during the same period in 2017, when it was 481. Of the 353 children, 38 were murdered (24 males and 14 females). This indicates a 21 per cent decrease when compared to last year, when 48 of the nation's youth were killed. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Khashoggi murder: Saudi prince 'said he was dangerous Islamist'

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told the US he considered murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi to be a dangerous Islamist, media reports say. Prince Mohammed's reported phone call to the White House came before Saudi Arabia admitted he had been killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Saudi Arabia has denied the reports in the Washington Post and New York Times. A Saudi national and well-known critic of Saudi rulers, Khashoggi was killed and his body dismembered on 2 October. His remains have not yet been found. Read more here

Lion Air crash: Why recovering plane from sea floor will be such a challenge

Indonesia's authorities lifted the wheels of crashed Indonesian Lion Air Flight 610 out of the sea Friday, as questions turned to how to retrieve what is left of the body of the aircraft from the seabed. Investigators located a plane engine turbine on the ocean floor Friday, one of the largest pieces of debris found so far, five days after the flight crashed into the sea off the capital Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board. Divers located the flight data recorder and landing gear on Thursday, but are still looking for the cockpit voice recorder to shed more light on what happened in the final moments of the flight. Read more here

2nd November 2018

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