The only thing missing from Warner’s “Straight Talk” rally on Thursday night was the world’s smallest violin, wheezing away mournfully. That thousands of people showed up to support Warner and cheer at his comments is a testament to the calibre of our voting public. Even worse, representatives of a party, who three years ago, would vote out the PNM for allegations of fraud, corruption and squandermania, now resolutely ignore the allegations against Warner and instead praise him for building box drains in their community. Yes folks, box drains are now the official UNC gauge for progress in the country. Moonan doesn’t need to move a mountain, just build a drain.

Warner spent hours last night going through some thirty plus pages of notes and at the end of the evening, the impression I came away with from the speech wasn’t that he had cleared his name, but rather that he was subliminally telling the crowd, “Yes, I took money. but I share some of it with you.” The disconcerting thing is, I think the crowd at the Pierre Road Recreation Ground last night were quite happy with that message and could care less what it implies about Warner as a person, MP and politician. Now what does that tell you about some of the constituents of Chaguanas West?

In a classic Panday move last Thursday night, Warner set out to circle the wagons before he announced his resignation as MP. The stage was set nicely. A fete is thrown for the constituents, to remind everyone of Warner’s largesse. He then mounts a stage, twists some of the allegations of the Concacaf Report around adequately to confuse the audience in to thinking the allegations against him may be false. He subtly reminds the more savvy members of the audience that he is a financier and can influence other financiers of the party. Then he declares his love for the party and his loyalty to Persad-Bissessar, while at the same time revealing that there are at least three members of the Cabinet who are against him. Signaling to the electorate that he is a man beleaguered by enemies, he is under threat, the Prime Minister isn’t making up her own mind, it’s being made up for her.

After last night, Warner has made it explicitly clear the pressure he is going to put on the UNC government in light of what now appears to be a forced resignation. But bear in mind that a week has passed and we still don’t know the complete truth about his resignation. Warner insists that he resigned because a newspaper reported that the Prime Minister was stunned after reading the Concacaf Report. According to Warner, when he queried this report, the PM said she never said she was stunned. The PMs response to fraud and corruption allegations, not the allegations themselves, is what leads to him resigning?

Andre Jennings and Lasana Liburd have been saying for years, what the Express is only reporting this week. Liburd’s Wired868 online new site often has the most cutting edge stories on Warner, complete with documental evidence. Neither the PM nor her advisers have an excuse for being clueless about Warner’s activities. But it is typical behaviour of Persad- Bissessar to affect the attitude of clueless female, always the last to know; yet another act of feigned helplessness so that we will commiserate with her and think, “Poor lady, look how them fellas running rings around her.”
But the allegations against Warner aren’t anything new. We can go as far back as 1989, if not further, and ask into whose pockets did the money for the oversold tickets fall into.

And with the timeline created by the Concacaf Report, you now have to ask yourself questions about how exactly the UNC has been funded all these years. This is the third financier of that party to have such serious allegations over his head. And at every turn it appears that the money being sunk into the UNC has a questionable past. Ish and Steve have money laundering questions to answer in the US, while it appears that Warner has been systematically moving funds from the accounts of other entities into his. Is this the kind of funding that keeps the UNC afloat? Is this the kind of funding that brought them into power? The leadership of the party isn’t perturbed by this? The other members of the coalition think this kind of funding is new politics? Because let’s be real with ourselves, COP, MSJ and TOP were all quite contented to use Warner’s funding in 2010, and turn a blind eye to the allegations then. Indeed, Ramadhar was one of the first to congratulate Warner when he became Minister of National Security less than a year ago. Clearly then the shadows following Warner were not a problem. So why is it a problem now? What is it about that Concacaf report that has everyone so willing and ready to believe Warner should step down, when they were so clearly avoiding making such statements before?

In a matter of days we went from Communications Minister Jamal Mohammed publicly declaring full Cabinet support for Warner, to Ramadhar, less than 24 hours after Mohammed’s declaration soundly refuting collective support and writing a stern letter to the PM demanding Warner’s resignation. Who knew he had it in him?

And then there is the matter of Warner’s replacements. Both Emmanuel George and Khadija Ameen are close allies of Warner. Indeed, it seems once Warner gives up a ministry, former DJ Hurricane George is on hand to take it over. This is the same Emmanuel George whose name has been mentioned alongside Ganga Singh, Hafeez Karamath, Desalcott, Inncogen and the short pants man, not so? And I should trust him with security? As for Miss Ameen, there is little about her performance in office thus far to suggest she has what it takes to be an effective leader.

His resignation as security minister has allowed Kamla to put significant resources into the hands of Suruj Rambachan. Minister of Works AND Local Government? Might a certain political party be fearful of losing Local government elections? If you thought THA was squandermania, just wait.

With Warner’s resignation as MP for Chaguanas West in full effect, expect even more entertainment for your money than usual in the next three months. His seat can’t remain vacant. So essentially, the country will be gearing up for two election campaigns in the coming months. Watch the rum and roti flow folks. The tsunami ain’t coming, it reach.

The folks in the Cultural Studies unit at UWI have started a series of discussion with activists and active citizens. From 1-4pm today you can come out and talk to afra Raymond, Hazel Brown and Michael Als at the Social Sciences Lounge…..it’s time to Participate in your Citizenship ACTIVELY!

http://www.wired868.com/2013/03/27/jennings-what-i-told-the-fbi-about-the-fifa-crooks/

Apparently Barbed Messages has hit a nerve.

Readers out there think that I should have used the blog space to extend condolences to the Ramsahai’s family, instead of raising questions about a series of events that seem related if only because the names and players keep popping up.

Had four or five young men from Beetham, Laventille or Sea Lots been burnt to death and wrapped in barbed wire, I doubt anyone from Jahaji Desi would even care that I wrote about the circumstances surrounding their death and the even more circumstances that have happened prior to their death.

The unfortunate thing too is that members of the Jahaji Desi blogosphere cannot even see that all levels of crime in the country are related. White collar to blood crimes….fraud crime to gang and drug related crimes….and in the midst of all of that is a Prime Minister who has been linked to several crimes in the past 33 months as a possible victim: a kidnap attempt, 2 assassinations and one threat.

Apparently it is taboo to talk about such….and apparently people with day jobs aren’t supposed to blog according to the very upset folks at Jahaji Desi.

I sense the writer of the letter posted below doesn’t believe that anyone else can or should write about a series of crimes and how they appear. Pity though that even forensic pathologist Valery Alexandrov thinks the criminals were sending a message with the bodies of these two young men, and the head less body in La Romaine and the young girl found in the Gyaymare river. Pity too that there were not one, but two newspaper reports between 2010 and 2013 that imply that Ms Ramsahai might be related to the PM…the head of our national security council.

Pity that all these details are there…and people choose to be upset about the wrong things.

Take a read:

From: Keshav Maharaj
Sender: JahajeeDesi2005@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sun, 3 Mar 2013 22:36:08 -0800 (PST)
To: caribbeantalk@yahoogroups.com; theunitedvoice@yahoogroups.com; jahajeedesi2005@yahoogroups.com
ReplyTo: JahajeeDesi2005@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [FREE SPEECH] _ Eternal Pantomime Insensitive!!!

“Eternal Pantomime” Insensitive and reckless blogging!

In her own ego-stroking blog “The Eternal Pantomime”, I have read one of the most insensitive and foolish pieces yet! The blog (appropriately named “pantomime” to reflect the nature of the individual responsible for it) in one of its latest installments addresses the most tragic incident of the murders of Jerome and Dale Ramsahai.

Now, one would expect any sound individual to sympathize and extend condolences to the bereaved family in such a trying time. I mean, two innocent lives of young men who had very bright futures ahead of them, were recklessly taken in the most inhumane and devastating manner. However, the writer chose instead to focus on whether or not the sister of one of the victims was a relative of the Prime Minister (which she admitted she herself did not know) and why she sat on a state board. Excuse me miss, but are you serious? Do you not have family of your own? How can you be so insensitive?

The article goes on to state “And who was the message for? Because a message was being sent by their killers. The killers or their handlers are pissed off….what are they pissed off about or who are they pissed of at?” referring to the gruesome murders of the two boys. Apparently, someone decided to play “Criminal Profiler” and determine that ‘a message was being sent’. I had no idea we had a Behavioral Analysis Unit in T&T! Oh wow!

It is alleged that this blog belongs to a particular UWI lecturer who apparently has way to much free time on her hands. Suppose one of her students has the misfortune to read the utter rubbish on this blog, what will they think of her? I am in support of blogging as I believe it’s a way of expression, but a word of advice to anyone who wish to “blog”, please Blog Responsibly!

Keshav Maharaj
Disgusted reader
__._,_.___

Darrell Heeralal went Tarantino on us yesterday. When he finished whipping “niggas” there was blood everywhere.

I’ve known Heeralal for more than a decade. The comment wasn’t atypical. In fact it wasn’t even new Darrell. He has a penchant for delivering his ideas in the rawest language, sometimes it works, other times it doesn’t. Yesterday was a prime example of the latter.

The thing is, Heeralal vented an opinion that many people, of all races and ethnicities believe : that poor people, especially poor black people are sub-human and don’t deserve to be treated with dignity. It is this attitude that makes us blind to their plight. It is also an attitude that is linked to both race and class. And if you went through all of Heeralal’s comments yesterday, you’d see he was really focussed on class discrimination than race discrimination. Which is ironic, because Heeralal quotes Karl Marx ad nauseam. and I’ve often said to him he discusses Marxism and Socialism in a vacuum. So to see him let loose on the powerless underclass the way he did yesterday was a lesson in irony (cue Alannis Morissette).

Class discrimination is rampant in Trinidad and Tobago. The existence of the West Accent, the Convent Accent, the Prep School Accent and our enthusiasm at mimicking them is evidence enough. When it comes to poor people, especially poor black people, we are incredibly put out. How dare they be all up in our faces while we trying to be upwardly mobile? How dare they remind us that state wealth isnt distributed adequately and that some people have access to all of the resources; but most people have access to none.

We never see how daily they are oppressed and how it then results into a spill over of rage that leads to blocked roads, burnt tyres and police intervention.

Yesterday a man lost his entire family in seconds. Seconds. We can’t return them to him. Yesterday and this morning that man is firm in the knowledge that he may never receive justice…ever. Because in this corrupt narco state of a country the cliques protect their own. In the midst of wrenching grief, this man knows that the person responsible for killing his family may never be brought to justice. The community of Sea Lots responded angrily, impulsively and violently. The police and armed services responded back.

Meanwhile, on a computer somewhere, a citizen, who happens to be a freelance journalist posts up a rant. It is both classist and racist. He sincerely believes that poor(economically) black people who protest should be shot and killed and cabbages planted on them. He is unapologetic. Within seconds, other people who have little to no clear details of the tragedy, but who also have a deep and abiding disgust for poor black people because they believe them to be a burden on society, click like on his status and add comments. Of the five people who clicked like, one is a police officer. Another one is a friend of mine; and yet another is an online persona I know who is quite comfortable with using the word Negro to describe and define Afro- descended people.

None of these people think there is anything wrong with Heeralal belittling the magnitude of the tragedy, or with him decrying vigilante style justice and then endorsing it with his own brand of vigilante justice. As much as Heeralal is disgusted by the violence of niggas…he has no problem suggesting violent measures of his own. Let’s arm ourselves and shoot them niggas…and when we’re done, let’s plant cabbages on them….I mean we can recycle, right? All those black bodies will be useful for something.

Most folks missed Heeralal’s reference to 1970 criminal Michael X. He was featured in that Jason Statham movie The Bank Job. Michael X was an alleged Black Power Revolutionary who murdered two people, buried them in shallow graves and planted cabbages on the graves…

Now, for the people who liked His comments, I’m curious…because he referred to Sea Lots residents asking for handouts….but no one asked the government for anything yesterday….and the government certainly never showed up to assist. Not a counsellor or grief specialist reach Sea Lots yet under this caring govt….like Glen Hamper Caravan get ah flat tyre in Sah Wah Chupke Chupke!

So yeah, for the likers of Heeralal’s comments, explain this: Why when the government and businessmen and the wealthy minority holding us to ransom with high prices in supermarkets, reduced gas subsidies, CLICO, HCU, $$$$ dollar handshakes, handouts, contracts, airport fiascos, Constitution Fiascos etc…..nobody deeply pissed off enough about that to launch into a tirade?
But a man loses his family, a community senses the corrupt police system about to hoodwink them and we lash out at them in united voices…quick to point out that we might be black but we ain’t niggas? Really? That’s pretty niggardly thinking….

How come Black people are the only people who are considered a drain on the economy when we lose money daily to fraud, corruption, overspending on govt projects etc……Beetham, Sea Lots and Morvant causing that?

And last question…..to the same people that was liking Heeralal’s comments….what exactly is there to like about arming yourself, shooting a nigga and planting cabbages on him?

Don’t keep me waiting on your responses now…..a nigga might burn a tyre up in this joint!

People who endorse racist/classist violence not normal….dey Full Dotish!