Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Attack On Trade Unions A Further Erosion Of Our Rights And Freedoms


It is quite clear that the current PNM administration through two state entities namely TSTT and PTSC is hell bent on sending a message of intimidation to the working class of this nation in addition to unleashing the conditions for a cruel indefinite wage freeze upon the labour force of this nation despite the continuous rise in the cost of living and government taxes. This current government has done everything in its power, from raising taxes, to raising utilities to squeeze the blood out of the working class of this nation to satisfy its insatiable reckless spending.

The solution to TSTT’s and PTSC’s request to decertify two of this country’s largest unions is quite simple. Every single member of the unions representing workers of these two entities should stop work ‘indefinitely’ until a message is sent to the bourgeoisie management and their bourgeoisie bosses in the respective Government Ministries that the workers are the life and blood of those companies. Every other single union in this country along with all political opposition forces and NGO’s should take this attack on the working class of this country extremely serious and give their all out support to the respective unions until government desists from oppressing the working class of this country. Massive rallies should be organised to picket TSTT, PTSC and the Parliament. Now is not the time for 'clan protectionism' or the 'it doesn't affect me attitude'. What the working class in this country need to understand is once Government (the largest employer in this country) begins to attack the working class and stifle justified wage demands it ultimately sends a message to the private sector who will follow suit.

The rights of the citizens of this country are being eroded every single day by this run away government, either through limiting of funds to the judiciary, the non-appointment of key public officials such as DPP, Solicitor General and COP, the proposal of a rogue ‘Draft Constitution’, the inexcusable reluctance to hold Local Elections and now the decertification of unions. Now is the time for citizens to open their eyes and see the storm approaching on the horizon, this storm is no longer ‘creeping’ it is now a full blown category five hurricane bearing down on our rights and freedoms! ©

Monday, September 28, 2009

Patience


Patience is not mundane inactivity, perpetual submissiveness or perverse tolerance. Patience is but a time interval to gather your thoughts to execute the best decision. It is your time line to gain understanding, a vital interval that allows the development of your plan of action or your response to whatever external stimuli. Thus the equation reads...Patience = Prudence. Oke Zachary ©

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Ego


The Ego is a self generated currency imagined by those devoid of character. It is of value only to the one imagining and to no one else. Pity those with the Ego, for they have not learnt the basics of ‘life’s economics’ and are victims of their own self induced ignorance. - Oke Zachary ©

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Congress of the Blockheads


"Anyone taken as an individual is tolerably sensible and reasonable - as a member of a crowd, he at once becomes a blockhead." - Schiller

Monday, September 14, 2009

Echoes of The Emperor’s Band




I heard an echo today, an echo amongst the ‘subjects’ of T&T......The Emperor has a band.....The Emperor has a band.....The Emperor has a band and it’s divinely called ‘Divine Echoes Orchestra’. The Emperor has a band and he has set aside 5 million dollars to fund his creation. When I heard this echo I thought to myself never! This could never be.....not when our country is facing a severe economic downturn. I hurriedly purchased an Express to confirm the ‘echoes’ of my fellow countrymen and low and behold, on page 7 of the Express all was confirmed to me. The Emperor has a band.....and it has cost his subjects (taxpayers) 10 million thus far. The Emperor has a band.....with instruments purchased from Miami.....but don’t worry......it’s only to the tune of 1 million!

The Emperor has a band.......and they played at a ‘free public concert’ at Pleasantville East Secondary School last Saturday in the Emperor’s San Fernando East constituency. The Emperor and his Empress along with several royal stooges attended this ‘free concert’. I mused that line over several times.......The Emperor has a band.....and they played at a ‘free public concert’? But how can it be free when the subjects (taxpayers) are footing a $10 million dollar bill for this divine royal creation?! How can it be free when the Express article has indicated that the Emperor intends to spend more on his divine band? Amusing you say? Wait until I hit you the best part!

The Emperor has a band..........but the Emperor is quoted as saying ‘the band would not be a “government” band and while it will initially be funded it would be “weaned” off of state money.’ Hmmmmm....the Emperor has a band that is not a “Government” band......well why the hell are the subjects (taxpayers) footing the bill for this non-governmental creation?! And if it’s not a Government band then what the hell is its purpose? I do recall the Emperor saying he has aspirations of becoming a Pastor? Is he going to become a pastor like one of those big time US Televangelist? Is this the Emperor’s smart man way of starting up the orchestra for his church by using taxpayers money? As a taxpayer can I request that the Emperor’s band plays at my impending birthday party?

The Emperor has a band.....The Emperor has a 10 million and counting band but on the front page of the Express there is a young child from the Beetham no more than 8 years old trying to full a bottle with water from a nearby canal, an image I’m more familiar with seeing on BBC while they are carrying a story on some impoverished African country. The Emperor has a band but the Beetham has had no water for the last couple days. The Emperor has a band......but so sweet is the sound that he does not hear the cries of his subjects residing in the Emperor’s political strong hold. Imagine that....the Beetham which is just on the outskirts of Port of Spain, home place to the Emperor’s Palace yet these subjects have no water.....but the Emperor has a band! A 10 million dollar and counting band!

The Emperor has a band......but subjects are going to have to pay more property tax because there is no money left in the treasury. The Emperor has a band.......but half an hour of rain saw my work place being flooded by water last week in the heart of our city. The Emperor has a band.....but young Stefon De Coteau has to wait until next year to see a neurologist because of our poor healthcare system.....while a cyst grows on his brain. The Emperor has a band.......but so sweet is the sound of his band he did not hear the gun shots that killed 5 people in a party on Sunday nor did he hear the gun shot that killed Sunil Sookdeo at his father’s poultry business. The Emperor has a band......but so intoxicating is its sound that he is incapable of discerning the blatant inefficiency of Martin Joseph....not even if that inefficiency knocks him over in his royal behind! The Emperor has a band.....and so sweet is the sound that he does not hear the cries of the families who have lost a loved one to rampant crime. The Emperor has a 10 million dollar band.....while the local art forms of calypso, soca and steel pan continue to be seriously under-funded and neglected.

Who says this country does not have potential as a tourist destination? We have an Emperor.......and he has a Band. We have an Emperor.......and he has a Palace. We have an Emperor......and he has subjects who live in abject poverty. We are the epitome of the perfect tourist destination........a modern day dynasty.....with all the right components. The Emperor has a band....but so sweet is the sound.....like the Piped Piper he is able to mesmerize and capture the waterless subjects of his political strong holds.....like an infestation of mad rats.....he is able to rally them to his call at any given election.....if only to cast their vote for the emperor.....so sweet is the sound of his band. The Emperor has a band......and I am not willing to sing for him................. ©

Sunday, September 13, 2009

What they Say....


It's not nice or all true......but they can't stop talking about you. - Miss Meek

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Simply passing through...........


Former Attorney General Brigid Annisette-George.......when she was a PNM senator and Attorney General she would beat her chest with pride like a mighty Roman soldier in battle while making her ‘contributions’ in Parliament. Tork about boast, tork about brag. The PNM was perfect and all was well in sweet T&T.

Now that she is no longer Attorney General and it has been revealed that an administrative error occurred with the UFF Commission under her watch as Attorney General, particularly the none gazetting of the Commission she is no longer a Roman (sic PNM) warrior. Her weak response to an Express reporter concerning the none gazetting of the UFF Commission was that she has ‘returned to private life and prefers not to comment’.

When people can make statements like these it is clear that their stint in public cum government life was nothing more but a 'passing through'. It does not give the impression that these people were there to make a difference, a contribution for the benefit of country. They were just passing through to see what they can get out of the system.....unconcerned about leaving any positive legacy behind or leaving their mark so other's coming after can learn from their journey.

Such is the way of T&T’s politicians, boast and show off in ‘public life’.......... Deny, denounce, avoid and pass blame on resumption of ‘private life’. Or better yet, you can also deny, denounce, avoid and pass blame while remaining in public life.....but you have to perfect the art....... like Colm Imbert! ©

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Passport Appointment To See A Firetrucking Neurosurgeon!


Young Stefon De Coteau who has been diagnosed with a cyst on the temporal lobe has been given an appointment in 2010 to see a neurosurgeon........someone who has something growing on their damn brain has been given a 2010 appointment to see a neurosurgeon!


A young person 19 years of age, named Stefon De Coteau has been given what me conservatively call a firetrucking passport date to see a flipping neurosurgeon! Maybe if I say it loud enough the Minister of Ill-Health Jerry Narace may hear me and do something about it instead of jumping about like a blimping jack in the box boasting about this horrendous health care system we have in sweet Tie & Tee! ©

Human Cockfighting & Its Moral Contradictions


This week someone wrote an article requesting a ban on boxing and I could not help but agree with the arguments proposed by said individual. Boxing and certain other martial arts disciplines are the only sports which opponents are actively encouraged to strike each other’s heads, an act which can cause serious long-term brain damage or possibly death as well as damage to the eyes. There are many medical studies which have proven that boxing is an extremely dangerous sport as chronic brain damage is caused by repeated blows to the head.

One can easily argue that there are many other dangerous sports such as downhill snow skiing but the fact remains boxing is an exception because the sole purpose of the sport is to cause bodily harm and ‘knock’ your opponent out. I am not going to discuss at length the medical effects of boxing as these should be pretty obvious to anyone with an iota of commonsense and basic knowledge of the functioning and vulnerabilities of the human body irrespective of so called ‘protective gear’. It is noteworthy however that both the British Medical Association and the World Medical Association have long been calling for a ban on boxing as a sport due to the negative medical effects it has on boxers (who happen to be HUMANBEINGS).

I would however like to address the moral contradictions of people championing boxing as a sport and national governments allowing the promotion of boxing as a sport while simultaneously banning sports such as cockfighting under the pretext of ‘animal cruelty’. Cockfighting is a blood sport between two roosters, more commonly known as gamecocks and is bred specifically for the sport. The correlation between boxing and cockfighting is that just as how boxing does not necessarily result in death so too a cock fight may not necessarily end in the death of a bird however the birds do suffer physical trauma which may result in death.

In Trinidad and Tobago game cockfighting is illegal and has also been illegal in Britain since 1835 and is illegal in all 50 States of the United States of America. It is without a doubt that many animal welfare groups played an important role in seeing the establishment of laws for the prohibition of this gruesome sport and a gruesome sport it is, there is nothing entertaining about two cocks pecking each other mercilessly in a most bloody fashion. In 2007 President George W Bush signed additional Animal Fighting Legislation into law on the heels of the indictment of Atlanta Falcon’s celebrity quarter back Michael Vick for violating federal laws against competitive dog fighting, procuring and training pit bulls for fighting and engaging in the act state wide. This new legislation covered dog fighting, cockfighting and other animal fighting.

My question is how can we as the supreme intelligent specie on this planet value the lives of other species to the point that we will enact laws to prevent any kind of sport that involves the purposeful infliction of physical harm by one animal to another while at the same time promoting a sport that encourages the purposeful infliction of bodily harm by one human being to another? Why is it morally wrong for two cocks to gouge each other in the eyes but it is ok for two human beings to repeatedly punch each other in the head, eyes, chest and abdomen until blood is spilled and one is knocked unconscious? Boxing is nothing but a human form of cockfighting. It is a cruel, bloody and violent sport that should be banned forthwith! Human health cannot and should not be sacrificed for the sake of mundane human entertainment. There is something extremely perverse and rotten about human nature when we have laws against animal fighting while we actively support and promote human fighting as a sport. ©

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Keep Em Entertained

But we've been trained that we must be entertained at all times so you just keep them entertained nigger keep them entertained. Keep them entertained while they poison us with our food, keep them entertained while we think we own a piece of land, keep them entertained while we erect those blood diamonds as our brand, keep them entertained while we medicate and ignore the youth, keep them entertained while this world we globalise, keep them entertained while America peforms genocide, keep them entertained so they'll continue to worship a lie, keep them entertained so they'll work until they fucking die you just keep them entertained nigger!!! - Miss Meek


Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Marijuna Truth Advertisement


Keep em entertained! Just burn that fly nigger keep burning and dieing nigger. Put it in that poison wrap and smoke a sack a day, who you going to sue when they take your lungs a way? See this is my marijuana truth advertisement, Miss Meek is reaching out to the youth and advising them unveiling lies and myths with an undeniable truth....lungs don't like smoke nigger! - Miss Meek

Monday, September 7, 2009

The Feasibility of Unfeasible Governance!


On Friday September 4, 2009 Gary Hunt revealed close to a billion dollars was spent preparing the site for the proposed Tarouba Sporting Complex. For the sake of repetition and to ensure that the point gets across, not that I doubt anyone’s ability to comprehend.....close to a billion dollars was spent ‘preparing the site for the proposed Tarouba Sporting Complex’. What that means Trinidad and Tobago is close to a billion dollars of our tax payers dollars has been spent in a time of severe economic slowdown and we have absolutely nothing to show for it not even a stadium!

When pressed by Opposition MP Hamza Rafeeq for the cost of the entire project Hunt responded “It is not feasible to give a projected cost for the entire sporting complex and all lanned infrastructure, as the under briefs for all sporting infrastructure are not yet complete." When pressed about the expected date of completion Hunt responded "It is not feasible to give the completion date of the entire sporting complex." When pressed about the annual cost of maintenance of the complex after completion Hunt responded "It is not feasible to give a projected maintenance cost of the entire sporting complex as the user brief for each component of the planned complex is not yet complete."

Am I seeing things? Am I being delusional while reading the Express? Is this a nightmare? What exactly does this government think they are running a parlour? So what the hell exactly is 'feasible' to Gary Hunt?! You mean to tell me these people spent close to a billion dollars without doing a cost analysis and feasibility study? No one in the Ministry of Finance saw it fit to do a budget for this project before any site preparation was conducted? By Hunt’s response I suppose it is a high probability that this project could cost us 80 trillion dollars and more because clearly there is no budget limit or exit strategy if the project happens to be not so feasible! And I guess that the stadium can be completed somewhere between the years 5080 and 5081 by that time my behind would have been buried and reincarnated multiple times and each time I die it is with an expression of great annoyance splashed across my face with a balsier dagger sticking out of my faint heart!

And is if to ensure that the citizens of this country are kept on the alert, heart racing as if we are watching a terrifying horror movie all alone in the wee hours of the night, a mere day after Hunt’s flabbergasting revelations of the infeasibility of him not being able to feasibly account for projects under his not so feasibly managed Ministerial portfolio, we are now hearing news of the potential collapse of the Uff Commission after 3 million has been expended on this not so feasible fiasco and which does not include the cost of Government’s legal counsel! Why? Because the Commission was never ‘gazetted’?! What crockery is that?

Every day I open the blasted ‘gazette’ and reading about so and so said this at the Uff Commission and so and so was interviewed at the Uff Commission, heck as far as I’m concerned that is enough gazetting, let the damn Commission continue! I want to know about the evidence Carl Khan has and what Calder Hart’s wife has to say about Khan’s allegations of her family ties to directors of overnight company CH Development which UDECOTT awarded the contract to build the Ministry of Legal Affairs Tower!

This government is demonstrating a most wasteful and obscene form of governance ever witnessed in this country. This is what Patrick sacrificed Dr. Rowley for? This is what the purging and political exorcism of the great PNM was about? To facilitate financial mumbo jumbo and national espionage! Perhaps Patrick should include a team of financial advisers to his team of ‘political educators’. First it is a Minister of Finance who does not know how a fixed deposit is operated, now we have a Sport Minister who can’t give any feasible responses to the projects falling under his portfolio and a 3 million dollar ungazetted Commission of Enquiry! I would seriously like to know the feasibility of having an unfeasible government mismanage an economy to the point that one day we may end up just like Guyana, a land with a history of wealth transformed to a land of despair all because of one man’s unfeasible blindness and stifling egotism! ©

Saturday, September 5, 2009

National Awards Politically Motivated


While Devant Maharaj and dem odder boys who obsessed with race try to pollute the minds of the uneducated and ignorant in this country Panday, Manning and all their Indo, Afro, Chinee and Syrian big boy friends tiefing de money of the poor TRINIDADIAN!

There is something extremely sinister on the horizon when people start to talk about STATISTICAL MAJORITY in a multi-ethnic society! - Oke Zachary ©


"Last week, the Indo-Trinbago Equality Council, which is headed by Maha Sabha executive member Devant Maharaj, issued a statement claiming that with "Indians constituting a statistical majority of the national population of over 43 per cent as compared to the 38 per cent for their African counterpart, it is inconceivable how and why Indians only receive a mere 10 per cent or 25 per cent of the national awards handed out annually." (Maharaj's population figures are inaccurate: according to the 2000 census, persons of Indian descent make up 40 per cent of the populace, and persons of African descent 37.5 per cent.)

But, says Dumas, "I don't know that we should go on the basis of giving awards on the basis of racial quotas." As to whether there is racial bias in the awards, he suggests, "I would like to see what happened under the Panday regime." In fact, during the UNC's five-year tenure, only 29 per cent of the National Awards went to Indo-Trinidadians. As Table 1 shows, there was no systematic racial pattern in the awards given out between 1996 and 2000, when the UNC held office."

Read the full story at Trinidad Express

Planet of Wishers


As children we wish to grow older but as adults we wish to return to our childhood youth.

We wish for a good job and when we get that job we wish we could stay home and do nothing but relax.

We wish for cars but when we get them we wish we did not have the expense of having a car.

Some wish for fame but when they get it they then wish for privacy.

We wish for knowledge and understanding but when acquired we abhor its implications for our actions and wish for ignorance.

We wish for many friends and then wish for solitude.

Some wish for public office and then wish for unaccountability.

Some wish for truth but when truth is revealed they wish it was kept concealed.

We wish for wives and husbands but depending how the marriage goes we then wish for girlfriends and boyfriends.

We wish to acquire maturity then wish for the playfulness of children.

We wish for the energy to keep going then wish for a moment to just stand still.

We wish for progress and change then we wish for the way things were.

We wish for a life of order then wish for a life of spontaneity.

We wish for development and urbanism then we wish for nature and wild life.

We wish for control and then wish for the abscence of responsibility.


We are a planet of wishers wishing for things we do not necessarily need but wishing all the same because to live without a wish is to live without desire. What have you wished for lately? ©

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Begging Politely


Nothing irks me more than an impolite beggar. Now don't get me wrong, if a homeless person decides to beg me for a little 'small' change I don't expect him/her to get down on their knees and prostrate themselves at my feet. I do however expect them to have the respect that goes with conversing with people who do not have a bond of familiarity with them and I also expect them to ‘beg’ in a less demanding manner without a disposition of entitlement.

For instance there is this particular guy who hangs outside the bank and begs me every single day. This is his approach to begging me on any given day :-

“Short man gimme ah dollar nah!’

“Soldier gimme ah dollar nah!”

“Aye...pappy gimme ah dollar nah!”

“Blackman gimme ah dollar nah!”

Now granted I am only 5 ft 10....who in their right firetrucking mind really believes this ‘Blackman’ will give them a dollar after being called short?! And it is not just what he says it is how he says it....in a very demanding voice that portrays a disposition of entitlement and familiarity as if we are pals.

There are those who do not respect bodily space and the boundaries that accompany such space. I am specifically referring to those that walk straight up into your face as if they are about to kiss you or they come so close to you to whisper in your ear “Boss you could just spare me a minute?” At this point I'm usually pondering whether I will be able to hold my breath long enough to get around them before their usual self produced ‘cologne’ assaults every single nerve cell in my nasal cavity.

My usual response to that kind is “Not today”. I mean, if you are going to beg for money then just get on about it and beg, don’t expect me to stop dead in my tracks empty my head of all thoughts and personal anxieties and ignore all priorities to stand up for 15 minutes to listen to the depressing chronicle of your sad pathetic life that is going to end in a climax of a request for a damn dollar! My 15 minutes is worth more than a firetrucking dollar!


One time a guy tried that one on me and I was like ‘Not Today’....well boy did I get a cussing of a life time! He was like “Not today? Not to f**king day? I ask you for something? Eh? I ask you for f**king something? You eh even know what the f**k I was going to ask you. Doh worry God will f**king do for you, I hope you does tell God not to day!” Well no need to tell you how unmoved I was and if he was trying to reach that part of my soul...the compartment with the label ‘empathy’ on it....he was clearly not hitting my emotional G-Spot!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Seriousness


Seriousness is a disease, the greatest disease of the soul, and playfulness the greatest health. - Osho

Finger Licking Good!!!!

Finger Licking Good!!!!
A moment every Trini could relate to :-)