Children beating a bobolee. Photo courtesy Newsday archives
I honestly think we should make David Rudder’s Madness into the national anthem. I know that won’t sit well with religious leaders, activists and intellectuals who are against Calypso, Pan and Carnival in general…because Rudder only sings “bumf” and Carnival promotes illiteracy, riiiight? I still waiting to see the study that supports that last claim. Anyone with one decent synapse knows Rudder doesn’t sing buumf…his lyrics are far too important a prism through which we can view this place.
Most mornings I get up and wondering what the hell really going on in this place?
Sunday we had the story of how the current government is divesting itself of 4 fast ferries purchased when Colm Imbert served as Minister of Works and Transport. If I didn’t know better, I’d think Devant Maharaj himself fed the story and the facts to the Express, because since the story made news we’ve been getting different and conflicting information daily. The newspapers reported that the ferries cost over $127m, then yesterday documentation was produced that showed the purchase of the ferries actually cost significantly less than that, closer to $50m. But what is even more worrying is that the ferries were sold for around $6m. Now, in a situation where the tax payers should know exactly who advised Colm Imbert to buy these 4 ferries at this price, and then who advised Devant Maharaj to sell them for such a paltry sum so that we know what’s going on with our money, we instead have more political mud slinging, both sides of the parliament giving conflicting figures, and things really beginning to sound like Voodoo Maths in truth?
The sad thing is that we, the tax payers, who likely to not get government pension because we paying NIS religiously, will never find out why what was spent on those ferries (at least one of which never worked) and why they were then sold at a loss. Again, no accountability for our money that being spent wildly, despite who in power!
Grim Doopeesingh lose the keys to his head and raise up the Roman Catholic ants patch by once again exercising his autocratic, boorish, vulgar, top-down style and insisting that Roman Catholic and Government (read denominational and non-denominational) schools in a PNM constituency must share the same compound…indefinitely. Listen, Grim, if Eric Williams, who was a much smarter man than you, decided to leave religious schools alone, who is you? Really? In a country where citizens already pissed with the poor governance your Panchayat doling out, in a country where citizens have begun to call this a Hindutocracy instead of a democracy….you as a Hindu Male have put yourself in a difficult position….no one will see the practicality of your suggestion about merging two schools onto one compound. And considering that your government just spent millions of dollars to build a brand new primary school and overpass for the small Baptist community your comments about saving tax payers $$$ already aint ringing true…instead they will see it as yet another move by your government to oppress and suppress anything that isn’t Hindu….it doesn’t help too that Sat Maharaj seems to be running wild, opposing Ministry approved Principals, opposing Ministry approved curriculum and breaking State of Emergency laws and never being locked up….doesn’t look good at all. Your silence on Sat Maharaj’s stance on the “Pan in School’s” curriculum makes it appear as if this government is demonising the national instrument….So, you really expect to be able to come and dictate the pace about when and how you housing the children of Catholic parents? Further, it seems you forgot to take a look at the Concordat. Apparently it allows school boards to determine what is taught on their compounds, while the Min of Ed dictates the pace at state schools…..so what exactly do you mean by merge? Do you mean housing two separate and distinct schools on the same piece of property (which is no doubt what the Archbishop thought) or do you mean to mix the two schools and put them under one administration….which is what you seemed to be saying in your speech at the school. Grim, boy…..you overstep your boundary son!
Today’s latest bobolee is Nalini Dial…I almost feeling sorry for her and want to offer her shelter. Ms Dial made a tasteless and unfortunate comment about 2 days ago wherein she implied that “what goes around, comes around” in reference to Mayor Coudray’s missing daughter. It is alleged that Michelle Coudray Greaves is dead. She’s been missing for a while now in Jamaica, and a body burnt beyond recognition has been “kinda” identified as hers by friends. Not too long after the news broke here Ms Dial posted the following on her FB wall: ”I do believe in retribution, and tonite I got proof. I know this will sound harsh, but guess who the cold heartless uncaring bitch was, who used to electrocute the poor innocent stray dogs, when she was the CEO of the San F’do Corporation? Guess whose daughter they just found dead, burned in Jamaica? I ain’t God, but now I feel that, He is paying back. the sins of the fathers (mothers) will fall on the children,”
Now, some context is necessary, although Dial was posted this comment on her private wall, and still lives in a democratic society that enshrines freedom of speech and expression, she is also a prominent political figure in the COP, she is also an animal activist….and in that light Dial’s outspokenness cause plenty commess and kuchoor yesterday. People were calling for her to be kicked out of the party, and generally castigating her for making what they felt was a harsh, tasteless and (in some corners) evil statement. No one of course is asking how a comment posted on a wall with privacy settings made it into national media….nah…all we’d be doing there is questioning who exactly violating Ms Dial’s rights to her privacy settings along with freedom of expression. Instead let’s disagree with her comments to the point where we call her crazy, insane, vile, evil, crazy bitch…etc….you get the picture.
But Dial’s comments don’t perturb me, really. She’s entitled to express herself. The Constitution says so. We don’t have to agree with her…but we should respect her rights. If a member of Kamla’s family was murdered in Trinidad, I feel quite certain that many Trinis would gleefully point out, “And they say crime down?” When Kamla “fell ill” in Barbados a few weeks ago I saw more walls speculating on how drunk she was than offering sympathy. I actually think it’s only when crime starts hitting members of government that they will begin to understand what the average citizen is facing. They’ve got paid drivers, security, police escorts etc and can sleep comfortably at nights. But I digress, because Coudray’s daughter is in Jamaica and not receiving any of these perks.
So if Nalini Dial, private citizen, decides to say “What goes around comes around, Marlene” why the need to circle her and cry for her blood? Constitutionally and legally, Ms Dial is well within her right to have and express her opinion (once it not libellous or obscene….eyes on you Rupert Griffith for cussing and then moving those police officers who dared charge you for using obscene language! How come nobody want Rupert Griffith kicked out of anywhere?); however, in Trinidad, where certain types of morality seem to be law….she transgressed!
Trinis fooling themselves into believing that they care about human lives that much. It’s herd behaviour all over again. We know speaking ill about the dead is culturally wrong, so we make cooyou mouth while saying how sorry we feel for Marlene….most of us don’t feel sorry for Marlene, and we more interested in the details of the murder than the life lost. We not even actually concerned about the lives lost here in the murderfest we are living through…what we do care about is if the murder toll affects us and our quality of life. The problem with Nalini Dial’s comments isn’t that she said it…but that she said it out loud and someone made a screen shot of her page, posted it, and it went viral. I’d be willing to bet money that lots of people have secretly thought that Marlene deserved it, or reaping what she sow. And as for the circumstances surrounding this missing person, they are plenty fishy, and if that body in the canefield turns out to be Marlene’s daughter, then I have even more questions…because that way of killing is meant to send a message to those alive…but who is the message for? The husband? The mother?
The PM is delaying her cabinet reshuffle until after Labour Day…..I sense someone trying to ensure that she doesn’t rile up the unions even more….which makes me think that the new cabinet going to cause plenty pain.
So while Trinis eating themselves up over Nalini Dial’s right to express her opinion on the disappearance of Marlene Coudray’s daughter, we have more bad spending, more HCU scandals, a Minister of Education stepping on the toes of school boards and parents, a cabinet that awaiting re-configuration, 38,000 Guyanese brought in to “pick coconut”, allegedly and rumours of extortion and bribes involving government ministers…yet the bobolee of the hour is the mostly insignificant Nalini Dial!
De Vice Cyah Done!
Hit the Bobolee hard girl! Hit them Bobolee’s hard. Hee hee hee. Like Rudder say is madness in we country MADNESS!
Once again, the population is being caught with mis-direction. The patsy has been set and the real gun man goes free from behind the grassy knoll. Imagine if Mrs. Hazel Manning as Education Minister did the same to an SDMS, ASJA or TML School as what Timmy doing the Pt. Cumana children. The courts would have been alight with pre-action protocols and the parliament would have echoes of Indian people being victimized and targeted by the government. And Griffith? He just taking queue from Nizam. So where is Sandy and Gibbs? Probably this is not a serious crime so it does not warrant the attention of the police service. This is not a fete in here this is…..
ok so let me get this straight, the RC school children have been moved to the government school to be accomodated because their building is condemned and they are vex with Timmy because he said it will be a ‘permanent’ solution until the RC board sort out themselves? excuse me? what did I miss? that is utter garbage! wasnt it the RC school board that allowed this school to be in that state of disrepair? what? they think they will get a new school when the RC board waves a magic wand? no sir!! I would refer to the precedent of the Nelson street boys RC school that took over 35 years to be rebuilt after it burnt down in the 70′s. I challenge anybody to say that I lie. they are not going to be getting a new school any time soon so they need to settle down and jess back. this church/state arrangement with respect schools in my respectful opinion has outlived its usefulness in a modern society and needs to be phased out. if the RC board wants to run a school, choose students, choose teachers and choose a principal, then build your school and run it as a private institution and let those parents who talking crap pay school fees to send their children there. I firmly believe who pays the piper calls the tune and the government doesnt owe them anything and doesnt have to build any school for them.
as for Ms. Nalini, i agree that she has the right to express herself. but here’s the rub: actions have consequences mamacita. she opened up her mouth so she opened up herself for licks. and she will take her licks like a nice chile and pee and go in her bed. her comments were truly distasteful but hey! everybody will get their 15 minutes. some thoughts are best kept to the inside of your head. miss lady learning that the hard way.
Check the newspaper story EC6384, the archbishop is having a problem with the fact that the Min of Ed is suggesting the move/combining of schools as a permanent one. The minister’s argument is that he won’t waste tax payers dollars to build a new and separate school….yet a school was built for the overwhelmingly large Baptist population in Maloney *crickets*. The archbishop is arguing from a legal position….so perhaps he’s got a point.
as per Dial….she had a right to express herself, as did the public….but the public not just disagreeing with Dial, they are punishing her….and to punish someone for having an opinion is a bit abusive in my opinion.
“…So until such time as the (Catholic Education) Board can indicate to the Ministry of Education that it has found land for us to build you a new school, we will consider this move a permanent solution,” Gopeesingh told the gathering.” i didnt get from that quote that tim was saying is would be a move for ever after i got that it would be a move until the RC board built their school. the parents only getting on like that because they know it takes the RC board 35 years to build a school. to my mind the ultimate question is this: Who is responsible for building the school? the RC board already has a sweet deal because their teachers are paid by the government and they get government money to run their school. So if the RC board is not happy with these arrangements then they should make alternative arrangements for their children. Pantomime am i missing something? i disagree with the whole church/ state arrangement for schools and i dont know what the arrangement was in place for that baptist school but i could guess it was for political mileage. Since it is an apparent free for all I think the pentecostals, the seven Day Adventist, the Hare krishna people who does be around the savannah singing, the muslims, the hindus everybody need to start rabbing and making noise for the government to build new schools for them now. so the government building schools, paying teachers, providing money to the schools and have little or no say in how it is managed? the TSC is has no independence with respect to matters of appoinment in these schools. they just rubber stamp whatever the school board wants. that makes no sense to me. the whole arrangement is flawed. any school the government is building in my opnion shouyld be a government school. this situation will implode unless they get rid of that concordat.
Ok, according to the Concordat, the existing buildings became the property of the religious boards. The Concordat however does not state who is responsible for maintenance and upkeep, but from my knowledge it usually falls to the board. Govt school’s have a maintenance and upkeep budget that denominational school’s don’t have. However the Govt assists, but on a smaller scale than they would with a state-owned/run school. The ticklish thing with this issue is this…the Concordat state’s that the religious board determines how the school is run and the materials used. If you merge the school’s and put all students under one admin then who determines policy? I didn’t get the impression from Tim’s comments on I95.5 this morning that is a simple case of two school’s running on a single compound, but under seperate structures and rules….i heard merge…..merge is the keyword…and when you consider that religious boards determine the curricula and ethos of their schools, I think there’ll be friction….imagine merging a Hindu and Muslim school into one…or a Muslim and Christian school….Or a Hindu and Christian school….this thing tricky ec6384….
it tricky yes! are we saying that the government owes a duty of care to the RC board to provide separate facilities where they (the board) have allowed their own facilities to become so run down and dilapidated that they had to be condemned? are we saying saying that the RC board is so hard up for money that they could not have taken steps to repair their own school before reaching this sorry state? if “merge” is the word that is causing the uproar then fine, let the RC board just find somewhere suitable to relocate their school until a new one is built. but they will never do that because it will require an initial outlay of cash that they are not willing to spend. it will create a logistic problem to try to run two schools on the compound, will there be two assemblies? will the two principals share an office? not to mention your point about policy. they think they are getting a quick win with this arrangement but in reality Pt. cumana will be bachannal central when this thing jumps off. but honestly pantomimer I say: “my school, my rules” if the RC board doesnt like it they know what to do. yuh cant come up in my place and tell me what to do, hoss! i dont expect this government to take that hardline stance and they will no doubt try to placate the catholics for political expediency. watch for the sod turning mark my words…
If the law of the land states that the board gets to determine it’s curriculum then it has to be upheld. Two school’s sharing a compound is not new to Trinidad and Tobago….but two different types of schools running under one type of administration is. The Archbishop agreed to the merging of schools and then changed his mind….and I think this was so because he was expecting shared compound, but separate schools. Not shared compound shared admin.
ignore the typos, eh…i was writing in a rush.
i think it flies in the face of reason to try to have shared admin for a secular school and a denominational school. and if that is what Timmy envisioned, i have to ask how exactly did he think that was going to work? anybody would think that the RC school would become subsumed under government admin. and the Archbishop he self couldnt see the logistical problems? So as usual they didnt think this thing through properly, then? how exactly was this supposed to work? oh i forgot! this is not a fete in here this is….
apparently the Archbishop only found out what the Min of Eds actual position on the “merge” was last evening at the meeting at the school. There is to be a meeting today.
Rudder for the WIN!!!!