NEWS
Si/No!
In Venezuela, ordinary citizens face tremendous obstacles to having their voices heard. Aside from crippling shortages of food and medicine, they sometimes have to contend with the use of tear gas and water cannons at protests. But not so in Trinidad and Tobago . While yesterday there was some uncertainty over Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro’s scheduled visit to this country, one thing was clear: both his supporters and opponents plan to stage pickets at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s, this morning . On one side of the avenue at La Fantasie will be local trade unionists in support of Maduro’s socialist cause, singing, “Sí!” On the other side will be Venezuelans resident in this country fed up of conditions back home, crying, “No!” “That is the good thing about Trinidad and Tobago,” said Yesenia Gonzalez, a Venezuelan resident in Trinidad and Tobago. “People here have freedom of speech. The former Prime Minister ANR Robinson – God rest his soul – once said the voice of the people is the voice of God.” Gonzalez, who works as a psychic, said a group of Venezuelans were up to yesterday making the final touches to their placards. Read more…
Maduro facing protests in T&T
Members of the Muslim community as well as T&T-based Venezuelan activists will stage demonstrations at the Diplomatic Centre this morning “welcoming” Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro with lobbies concerning two different matters which they are respectively pressing for. Maduro was scheduled to arrive in T&T last night for a 11 am meeting today with Government at the Diplomatic Centre. Islamic Front (IF) leader Umar Abdullah says Muslim groups will be lobbying for release of five T&T nationals detained in Venezuela on terrorism charges since 2014. Attorney for the men’s families, Nafeesa Mohammed appealed to those at today’s TT/Venezuela talks, “If President Maduro wants help from T&T in any way, Venezuela must also help us and release the five brothers detained—this should be a negotiating position,” Read more…
Solo: Where is the fraud?
Beverage giant Solo has asked “where is the fraud?” as it hit out at the Food and Drugs Division of the Ministry of Health over the latter’s pulling of the company’s “coconut” drink, which Solo has argued is “as close to the natural fruit as anyone can get”. In an advertisement in today’s newspaper, Solo states that a move last Thursday to take the product off the shelves had come as a “surprise”, two months after it began to work with the Division on the labelling of the product. The beverage was previously labelled “Coconut Water”. Read more…
POLITICS
Rambharat: I am for hunting
While he sympathises with and respect conservationists who decry the idea of hunting on the grounds that it threatens wildlife and disrupts nature, Minister of Agriculture, Clarence Rambharat, said that he supported hunting, for it is a legitimate economic activity for some. He made this announcement at a public consultation on wild life held at the Caroni Swamp Visitor Centre last Friday afternoon. Rambharat stated also, that the two year moratorium on hunting was put in place to allow for a thorough assessment of the wildlife population and other relevant information to make informed decisions regarding wildlife hunting. He contended, “The two year period was as far as I know, meant to make an assessment, of the wildlife population and other things in order to inform other decisions. But between that short space of time between September 17th when I took office, and September 30th 2015, after making requests of the ministry, I was provided with absolutely no technical data to point me in one direction or the other. In any event, Parliament had not reconvened, and there was nothing I could do. But I did say, very quickly, after the season opened that the government, and I personally, will go through a process of making an assessment of what is happening with not only hunting, but wildlife conservation on the whole in Trinidad and Tobago and make a determination in time for 2016- 2017. So that is the background. Read more…
Education ministry to move into new home
The education ministry’s new head office on St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain will be handed over to the ministry by Udecott today, according to Education Minister Anthony Garcia. The 16-floor building has been undergoing outfitting since last year and is ready to be occupied. Lights have been on in the building night and day and floors, furnished with desks, computers and other equipment. Three weeks ago, Garcia said it would be occupied in about three months. Garcia also said he would meet this week with the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) Board, Education Facilities Ltd (EFCL) and parents of Rousillac Hindu School on the way forward for the new school and to ascertain why the originally-planned project went from two stories to three. He said no approval was given for this and he wants to get to the “bottom” of this. Read more…
PM to grads: Don’t be afraid of change
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday encouraged graduates of the University of the Southern Caribbean (USC) not to be fearful of change, and if they believed in something to take a stand for that cause – changes such as raising the marrying age of children to 18. At the time, Rowley was giving the feature address at the 83rd Graduation Commencement Ceremony of the USC at the Grand Stand in the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain. The Prime Minister was keeping a promise that he had made to the students from a prior visit that, if he had the time, he would attend the graduation ceremony. However, in his address to the graduates, the leader of the People’s National Movement noted that they needed to be aware of current events, and had to be very vocal on change that was needed to bring the country forward. “I can tell you one thing here today, since 1962 we’ve made a lot of progress in this country…but we’ve also fallen short in very many ways. And the world of 2016 is not the world of 1962, in fact it’s not even the world of 2000. It’s a very different world,” Rowley said. Read more…
BUSINESS
Baptiste-Primus: No quick fix for Retrenchment Act
As Government embarks consultation on amendments to the Retrenchment and Severance Benefits Act, Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste-Primus has warned that there will be no quick fixes to the existing legislation. “There are weaknesses in the Act that we need to strengthen and therefore we are bringing all the stakeholders together. And when I say all, I mean all. We are not addressing it in a tripartite framework meaning government, business and labour. “What we are doing, we are opening in it up to all the players: the regional chambers, all the unions, not only the trade union bodies, because this piece of legislation affects such a wide cross section of the community of citizens. “We have a sense of what will emerge based on what has been placed in the public sector, but the government will not go forward with any review of any of legislation without the input of all the stakeholders. In the final analysis, we all have to live here. We all have to continue to building this country,” she said. Read more…
Conglomerate sector review
This week, we at Bourse evaluate the most recent financial results of the three stocks listed under the conglomerates sector on the local stock market, namely, ANSA McAL Ltd (AMCL), MASSY Holdings Limited (MASSY) and GraceKennedy Ltd (GKC). With a market capitalisation of $17.5b, the second largest sector accounts for 16.2 per cent of the Trinidad & Tobago Composite Index (TTCI). The performance of the two locally-based groups, MASSY and AMCL, offer some insight into local consumer activity. Read more…
REGIONAL
PetroCaribe Boost - Venezuela, Ja Agree To Strengthen Ties Through Oil-Purchasing Pact
Despite a tense economic and social crisis enveloping his nation, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro yesterday came to an agreement with Prime Minister Andrew Holness to boost ties through the PetroCaribe oil-purchasing arrangement under which Jamaica and other Caribbean nations have benefited considerably over the past 10 years. During a whirlwind working visit to the island, the embattled Venezuelan leader signalled that the alliance between his nation nation and many Caribbean states, to purchase oil on preferential payment conditions, has been given a new lease on life. Though not outlined in detail, the plan for the decade-old PetroCaribe Agreement was among the main agenda items during Maduro's one-day working visit. Although PetroCaribe agreed links with the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) in 2013 - to go beyond oil and promote economic cooperation - there were concerns over the last year that the death of Maduro's predecessor as president, Hugo Chavez, would bring the curtains down on the arrangement. Read more…
Normalizing relations with US will take time, says Cuban official
Although the US and Cuba are working to make progress, normalizing relations will take time, Josefina Vidal, director general of the United States Department of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, cautioned on Friday. The diplomat was addressing researchers from Cuba, Mexico, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico and South Korea participating in an international colloquium that wound up on Friday at the Center for Marti Studies (CEM). She noted that the difficult and complex dispute with the US dates back from before January 1, 1959, with Washington of trying to impose its will on Cuba, a policy that in her opinion has not changed, but has a different strategy. Read more…
INTERNATIONAL
Syria conflict: Deadly blasts rock Assad strongholds
4 climbers die in 4 days on Mount Everest
Four people have died in the span of four days on Mount Everest including a Sherpa, while two others have gone missing. Danger is inherent in climbing the world's highest peak. And there are fatalities -- there has been at least one every year since 1990, according to the country's tourism department. And more than 200 climbers have died since Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary made the first official ascent in 1953. But the recent deaths -- coming so quickly on the heels of one another -- has rattled climbers who are now beginning their descent as the climbing season comes to an end. April was the first month of climbing since all ascent was halted after the catastrophic earthquake that struck Nepal in 2015 and a deadly avalanche that killed 16 Sherpas in one day in 2014. Read more…
23rd May 2016