NEWS

Calls for flooding to be on budget agenda

Almost one year after his home was under six feet of water and he lost over $50,000 in household items a flood victim, Larry Sammy appealed to the United National Congress (UNC) to place the issue of flooding high on the agenda when they present at the 2019/2020 budget on October 7. This as some parts of Trinidad experienced major flash-flooding yesterday. Sammy, a businessman, said felt offended, hurt and neglected to see people in the Greenvale Housing Development collect cheques within days of that flood on November 22, 2018 which also severely affected that community, while poor people in the Penal/Debe, Barrackpore, San Francique, Woodland and other areas are yet to receive any relief. Read more here

Thousands of Venezuelans await registration cards

Three months af­ter the reg­is­tra­tion process end­ed thou­sands of Venezue­lans are yet to re­ceive their reg­is­tra­tion cards. Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, one Venezue­lan na­tion­al who re­quest­ed anonymi­ty said he has been work­ing in a su­per­mar­ket since June even though he does not have his reg­is­tra­tion card. “We ex­pect­ed to get it by now. We are not crim­i­nals. I was a po­lice of­fi­cer in Venezuela but we still wait­ing,” Miguel said. An­oth­er Venezue­lan fam­i­ly who was fea­tured on a BBC doc­u­men­tary which sparked the ire of Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley said they too were wait­ing. “We were in the first batch of ap­pli­cants but no­body has called us yet,” one of the ap­pli­cants said. Read more here

POLITICS

Moonilal promises to go after PM in HDC/China contract scandal

Former Housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal said the Opposition will not allow the prime minister to extricate himself from the cancelled US$72 million housing project between the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) and a Chinese company. Moonilal said he has taken note of Dr Rowley's statement that this issue was irrelevant and just an administrative one if indeed he (Rowley) held the housing portfolio at the time the contract was signed. Addressing a pre-budget meeting in his Oropouche East constituency on Tuesday night, Moonilal said he has put his lawyers on notice, because if this applies to Rowley then it should also apply to him. Read more here

Analysts: ‘Back off Mr Prime Minister’

For­mer di­rec­tor of the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies In­sti­tute of In­ter­na­tion­al Re­la­tions Prof Andy Knight sees Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s move to pen a let­ter to the British gov­ern­ment about an in­ac­cu­rate British Broad­cast­ing Cor­po­ra­tion (BBC) doc­u­men­tary that there are 40,000 Venezue­lans in T&T as lu­di­crous. His com­ments came two days af­ter Row­ley ob­ject­ed to the BBC re­port ti­tled The Dis­placed which was cir­cu­lat­ed on so­cial me­dia. On Mon­day, Row­ley said his Gov­ern­ment will write the British gov­ern­ment to set the record straight, stat­ing that his gov­ern­ment had on­ly reg­is­tered 16,000 Venezue­lans which would al­low them to work for one year in T&T. Read more here

BUSINESS

Qualitech – a Caribbean leader

It started off as a small machine shop with three workers with working capital coming from his mortgaged home. Now, 24 years later, Qualitech Machining Services Ltd is one of the region’s leading engineering companies, having recently been awarded international accreditation from Electrical Apparatus Services Association (EASA) – a trade organisation based in the US with over 1,800 electromechanical sales and service firms in nearly 80 countries. EASA provides members with a means of keeping up-to-date on materials, equipment, and state-of-the-art technology. There are only 132 EASA accredited workshops worldwide with just 19 being outside of the US. Read more here

Money woes blamed

The financial situation at the Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SporTT) is dire. The company owes T&TEC $10 million. Its fiscal allocation for 2019 fell far short of its expenses, making proper maintenance of sporting facilities impossible. Read more here

REGIONAL

Light Stays On CMU - PAAC Demands Update On Controversial Contracts

A parliamentary committee is demanding answers from the Education Ministry about the status of three multimillion-dollar contracts linked to allegations of irregularity at a number of agencies that fall under its remit. The contracts in question include the two-year $20-million deal and the three-year $15-million agreement that the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU) signed with Gail Campbell Dunwell and former junior Transport Minister Othneil Lawrence to serve as consultants. Campbell Dunwell was simultaneously making $3.5 million per year doing similar consultancy work for the National Education Trust, the Education Ministry previously disclosed. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Zarif threatens 'all-out war' in case of military strike on Iran

Iran's foreign minister has raised the specter of "all-out war" in the event of US or Saudi military strikes and that Saudi Arabia would have to fight "to the last American soldier." Javad Zarif told CNN that Iran hoped to avoid conflict, adding that the country was willing to talk to its regional rivals Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. But the possibility of a return to negotiations with the US, however, would not happen unless Washington provided full sanctions relief as promised under the 2015 nuclear deal, Tehran's top diplomat said. Read more here

Fukushima disaster: Nuclear executives found not guilty

More than eight years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a Japanese court has cleared three former executives of the firm operating the plant of professional negligence. It was the only criminal case to arise out of the disaster, which was the worst since Chernobyl in 1986. In 2011 a plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) was hit by a tsunami causing a triple meltdown. More than 470,000 people were evacuated from their homes as a result. Nearly 18,500 died or are missing from the wider disaster. The three former executives - ex-chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, 79, and vice-presidents Sakae Muto, 69 and Ichiro Takekuro, 73 - were indicted for failing to implement tsunami countermeasures leading to the deaths of 44 people. Though no-one died directly in the nuclear meltdown, more than 40 hospital patients died after having to be rushed out of the evacuation zone. Thirteen people were also injured in hydrogen explosions at the plant. Read more here

19th September 2019

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