NEWS

PanTrinbago: Be prepared to give up something

PnaTrinbago's financial troubles are far from over. Speaking at the official opening of the organisation's office, at the corner of Duke and Melbourne Streets, president Beverly Ramsey-Moore said as manager of Katzenjammers Steel Orchestra in Tobago, she too has had to tell her 90 players who performed for Panorama 2018, that PanTrinbago does not have the funds to pay players. And, she said, it does not look possible for 2019. Read more here

Citizens push to safeguard self, properties

With crime at an all-time high, cit­i­zens are do­ing all they can to safe­guard them­selves and their prop­er­ties. This push at be­ing proac­tive has giv­en rise to a boom­ing mil­lion dol­lar in­dus­try that pro­vides every­thing from Closed Cir­cuit Tele­vi­sion (CCTV) cam­eras for the or­di­nary cit­i­zen’s home to armed es­corts for the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty as they make bank de­posits. A quick search on Google shows list­ings for 102 se­cu­ri­ty com­pa­nies through­out T&T. CCTV cam­eras are sold in su­per­mar­kets and com­put­er stores or in on­line stores, giv­ing con­sumers an op­por­tu­ni­ty to buy their own cam­eras and pay for in­stal­la­tion. Read more here

POLITICS

No ease-up from Rohan

Despite today’s back-to-school rush of parents dropping off their children to school, motorists cannot expect any special favours regarding the requirement to get their vehicles inspected for road worthiness, said Rohan Sinanan, Minister of Works and Transport yesterday. Newsday asked how the registration process was going, in light of the first day back to school after Christmas. “My information is that everything is going all right so far. We have stickers and we have inspections. This is just another day. There’s nothing different. Read more here

Rowley: We did more with less

Lay­ing his man­age­ment plan in the first part of his two-part ad­dress to the na­tion last evening, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley said his ad­min­is­tra­tion’s plan for the coun­try would cost tax­pay­ers $12.5 bil­lion—less than half of what his pre­de­ces­sors wast­ed. The $29 bil­lion in wast­ed funds, he in­di­cat­ed, was cold hard cash which was on hand and this fig­ure ex­clud­ed oth­er forms of ex­pen­di­tures. With­in his plan in­clud­ed ex­pen­di­ture on projects such as $2 bil­lion on re­pairs at the Port-of- Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, cre­at­ing a La Brea dry dock, and on hous­ing pro­grammes re­spec­tive­ly. He al­so planned a $1 bil­lion ex­pen­di­ture on the Drag­on gas pipeline, re­sort tourism project, the To­ba­go air­port ter­mi­nal, pur­chase of two new fer­ries for To­ba­go, and the San Fer­nan­do wa­ter­front project re­spec­tive­ly. Read more here

Mixed views on Kamla’s election plans

There are mixed views on the decision of Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar to revamp the United National Congress (UNC) electoral slate and not select several current MPs to contest the 2020 general election. Read more here

BUSINESS

Equity markets lower in 2018

This week, we at Bourse review the performance of the local and international equity markets in 2018. Similar to previous years, a relatively strong performance by cross-listed stocks supported the overall market locally. Internationally, most major regions posted negative returns as investors faced a range of concerns. Read more here

REGIONAL

Airbnb Fallout - Local Rental Market Tightens For Young Jamaicans As Landlords Target Foreigners

The explosion of the Airbnb market across the island has been pushing well-needed cash into the pockets of many Jamaicans, but it is providing a painful side effect - the tightening of the rental market. While figures for last year are not yet available, in 2017 Jamaica recorded approximately 55,000 Airbnb bookings across the island, with hosts in the Corporate Area earning US$2.4 million. But president of the Realtors Association of Jamaica, Andrew James, says the explosion in the Airbnb business has left young Jamaicans, those just leaving university in the 20 to 25 age range, and young professionals having difficulty in finding a one-bedroom apartment to rent for the long term. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Chang'e-4: Chinese rover now exploring Moon

A Chinese robotic rover has got its wheels dirty after rolling off its landing craft and onto the lunar soil. The Chang'e-4 spacecraft touched down on the far side of the Moon at 10:26 Beijing time (02:26 GMT) on Thursday. Lunar exploration chief Wu Weiren echoed Neil Armstrong's famous quote, telling state media the event marked a "huge stride" for China. The rover and lander are carrying instruments to analyse the unexplored region's geology. It represents the first ever such attempt and landing on the far side of the Moon, which has distinct characteristics to the near side we can see from Earth. Read more here

They united a gender while dividing a nation: The two women at center of India temple storm speak out

It was an extraordinary act of defiance, from two ordinary women who have since been forced into hiding. On January 2, Bindu Ammini, a 40-year-old law lecturer, and Kanakadurga, a 39-year-old local government employee, made history when they entered India's Sabarimala Hindu temple in southern Kerala state -- the first women to do so since the country's top court scrapped a rulebarring the entry of girls and women of child-bearing age. A 4-to-1 majority of Supreme Court judges said the rule was unconstitutional, setting off what has become an increasingly fractious national debate about gender, religion and the limits of the law. Read more here

7th January 2019

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