Thursday, April 12, 2012

A Child Molester's Paradise


Despite having no children of my own (as yet), I find myself being particularly aware when young children are around in the wake of 2 year old Aliyah Johnson's brutal murder. Maybe it's just the male protective instinct in me, maybe it's because I've been affected by this child's death in a way I do not as yet perceive.

While selecting fruits at the fruit stall in St. James near Singer's today, said instincts were over active when I observed the manner in which the fruit vendor was dealing with her daughter (or should I say not dealing with her daughter) who could be no more than 7 years old. The peculiar thing is it was not even an out right observation, and I was not particularly thinking about baby Aliyah at that point in time, but having read the various stories in the dailies this week my subconsciousness was some how perturb enough by this child's death to pay attention when children are around me.

So I'm there selecting my fruits while the vendor is speaking to one of her helpers and the little girl is desperately trying to get her mother's attention to tell her she is going to Singer's to come back. And she is there "mummy, mummy, mummy" and the mother and the help totally ignores her. "Mummy, mummy, excuse me, mummy, mummy". The mother continues to ignore her. She then grabs hold of her mother's hand, "mummy, mummy, mummy." The mother is still speaking to the help. Frustrated the child says, "I'm going to Singers and come back okay", and she proceeds to walk off, mother totally oblivious or not aware enough.

The mother does not even acknowledge her. Now imagine if I was a child molester, that child would have been a prime victim for me. Imagine this child attempted to engage her mother for close to two minutes without any success. As she walks off it is at this point I grab hold of the mother's shoulder (a little too roughly to be honest but I was agitated because of the situation I just observed), and as she looks at me totally shocked I say to her in a stern but friendly voice, "You need to pay attention to where your daughter is going, she has been trying to get your attention for the longest while and you have been ignoring her. Just remember one minute she will be here and the next minute she may not."

With a noticeable expression of chagrin, she acknowledges my admonition but I can tell she was grateful for the little "pull up". Parents need to be more aware of their children's whereabouts, virtually their every move. As parents people need to give their children their undivided attention, yes it can be difficult doing this while working, having to pay bills and put food on the table, but make no mistake, a parent's failure in this regard creates a child molester's paradise.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Kamla being more than dishonest with Statistics


With regard the poll conducted by the Ansa Mcal Institute of Psychology published last Sunday, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bisessar was quoted in Express April 11 as stating that if one "Adds the excellent , good, fair ratings - its almost 80%, so the government is doing fine." Now it is either the Prime Minister thinks the citizens she presides over are complete idiots or she was being deliberately misleading and having no compunction about it whatsoever. A standard five pupil can discern that the Prime Minister's pronouncements makes absolutely no sense and it is a deliberate attempt at polluting the poll results. The following were the Ansa Mcal Poll results:-

Ratings

Overall, how do you rate the performance of the Government to date?
Excellent 4%
Good 30%
Fair 47%
Poor 15%
Extremely Poor 4%

Ratings

If a general election was held today, which political party would you vote for?
UNC 5%
COP 3%
NAR 1%
PP 34%
MSJ 1%
PNM 13%
NONE 25%
DON’T KNOW 19%
NEW PARTY 1%


Ratings

How do you rate the performance of the Prime Minister to date?
Excellent 11%
Good 31%
Fair 42%
Poor 13%
Extremely Poor 3%

If by the Prime Minister's logic we are to add the good and fair ratings of two of the three questions, it would show that the government got almost an 80% rating and thus is doing well, then it stands to reason that if one is adding the good and fair ratings one must deduct the poor and extremely poor ratings to get a more objective view. This would show that the ratings according to the Prime Minister's logic were in fact (30+47-15-4) = 58% and (31+42-13-3) = 57%. Clearly as one further analyses the stats using the Prime Minister's logic it is blatantly clear that the PP Government barely made a passing grade. Out of the 512 people questioned, it would mean that only 296.96 and 291.84 persons gave the PP Government a fair to good rating. 512/2 = 256, one must therefore ask the question what exactly is Mrs. Persad Bisessar boasting about.

It is also instructive to note that the Prime Minister totally ignored the excellent ratings of 4% and 11% respectively, is this an indication that the Prime Minister is quite contented with mediocrity and does not concern herself with exceeding expectations? Of 512 respondents 4% would be 20.48 and 11% would be 56.32 persons, if I remember correctly in primary school when one's report card said "Good" or "Fair" for the term one usually went home with a B, B- or a C. And the most glaring omission of the Prime Minister was the ratings related to the question "If a general election was held today, which political party would you vote for?" Out of 512 respondents a whopping 5% (25.6 persons) said they will vote for the UNC, the party to which the Prime Minister belongs, and 13% (66.56 persons) said they will vote for the opposition PNM. Granted the PP got 34% one must beg the question if the Prime Minister is contented with the fact that the only way the party to which she belongs can win an election is by currying favour with other political parties for the sole purpose of defeating the PNM, because as a stand alone political party the PNM is the only party that got the highest rating.

I would therefore caution the Prime Minister, that the next time she opts to play with statistics to fool the population she should do so with a bit more cunning, as you can fool some of the people some of the time, you can't fool all of the people all the time.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Stone in my shoe


One morning a couple weeks ago at work, I had cause to take my shoe off to remove a stone that was causing me much irritation. While searching for the little bastard that was causing me much discomfort, I found myself muttering the words "Stone in my shoe". That was it, just "stone in my shoe", it was not even a full sentence. I stood confused asking myself, that apart from the obvious fact that I did indeed have a stone in my shoe, why did I see the need to verbalize it to myself and in such an informal way. It is during this state of unexpected mental indulgence that it occurred to me, hey....you know that would be a pretty cool name for a book, "Stone in my shoe".

As an avid reader, I did not surprise myself at the direction my contemplations veered. But then another thought came to mind, that is we all have figurative "Stones in our shoes", you know something or someone in our lives that is causing us to lose focus or feel discomfort. These stones usually tend to cause us to lose focus on achieving our goals or cause us to stop doing things we may enjoy doing. In some cases we ourselves may be the stone in our very own shoe by harbouring negative thoughts about ourselves or about others, thus becoming entrapped in a cycle of negative energy and thought, causing much discomfort to our spiritual and emotional well being.

The trouble is, some of us become so entrapped by the discomfort that it cripples us to the point of making it extremely difficult to come to the understanding that at times we just need to stop, realign our thoughts with our actions and engage in a sought of re-calibration of the soul, thus removing the "stone from our shoe". This can be especially difficult when as I mentioned above, sometimes we ourselves are the stone in our own shoe and in cases like these it can often be difficult to locate the stone as we fail to recognize that we may be the source of our own discomfort.

I guess my message to you in these insane contemplations is, always strive to maintain a stone free shoe, however figurative or literal. My other message to you is, it does not hurt to speak to yourself sometimes! Have a fantastic long weekend!

Free Cheryl Miller Now!


I find it tellingly strange that an introvert woman who goes by the name of Cheryl Miller, can be virtually strong armed and kidnapped from her work place by mental health officials and carted off to a mental health institution and drugged up without her next of kin being notified and without having apparently been evaluated by a psychiatric doctor. What is even more strange is this incident has a occurred after a mere couple weeks, March 23rd to be exact, when our Minister of Health Dr. Faud Khan stated, "Some 500 of the 822 patients at the St Ann's Hospital are not supposed to be at the mental institution. Sixty per cent of the patients do not need to be here and they are just social cases where the family themselves do not want to take responsibility for the patient. They are social patients, chronic care patients that do not need to be in a hospital setting because they do not have acute in-house psychiatric illness."

The issue surrounding Cheryl Miller has to do with her allegedly raising her voice at another co-worker because she felt she was being victimized. Now as someone who has never been described as insane, I must say I have worked in many organisations where I have witnessed loud boisterous altercations between co-workers, myself being a partaker of such outbursts at times. Such behavior while generally frowned upon socially is a regular occurrence on any given day in any establishment, and not just in the work environment but at home in domestic settings.

One must beg the question as a free thinking citizen, what did this woman do that would have caused her employer, the Ministry of Gender and Youth Affairs to institutionalize her? What acute in-house psychiatric illness did she display that warranted Minister Verna St Rose to come on national radio and say this woman was institutionalized "out of concern" for her. Ms. Miller is certainly not a patient whose family has deserted her, as her family were not even notified by the Ministry of Gender and Youth Affairs that they were institutionalizing Ms. Miller and her family has been visiting her and demanding her release so again I ask the question on what basis is this woman being held? Who is the medical practitioner that issued the medical certificate for her confinement as ought to have been done as per the Mental Health Act? Why was she committed to an asylum without her next of kin being notified?

Ms. Miller's co-workers have been staging daily protests for her release, some of them having worked with the quiet lady for 15 odd years. While they have outrightly described Ms. Miller as "strange" none of her co-workers have described her as insane, as having exhibited violent tendencies or any acute psychiatric illness. One co-worker went so far to say that Cheryl will use folders to box her self in at her desk so she would not have to communicate with people. He further went on to say that she has a penchant for mathematics and if something was off by a cent she will look for it and find it. The co-worker further stated that when he first saw her box her self in with the files it was a bit "strange" for him but after he got to know her he realized that's just how Ms. Miller is, and he worked with her for 15 odd years without a problem. One must call on Minister St Rose to state categorically what exactly is the problem now, because she as the Minister of Gender and Youth Affairs has not worked at the Ministry as long as Ms Miller and her co-workers, so what is the basis for St Rose's "concern".

While I may not be a medical practitioner, the behaviorial characteristics described of Ms Miller does not suggest to me an insane person. It suggest to me of someone who is suffering with a disability such as Asperger Syndrome, a form of Autism which is described as a "spectrum disorder" because it affects people in different ways. Medical professionals describe it as a "hidden disability" because people cannot easily tell someone has the disability from their outward appearance. People with Asperger Syndrome have extreme difficulty reading body language which makes it very difficult for them to communicate with others, they tend to be of average intelligence and in some cases above average intelligence having a penchant for subjects such as mathematics as in Ms Cheryl Miller's case. They are affected in three main areas, social communication, social interaction and social imagination.

People with Asperger Syndrome have difficulty expressing themselves in the following ways:-

  • have difficulty understanding gestures, facial expressions or tone of voice
  • have difficulty knowing when to start or end a conversation and choosing topics to talk about
  • use complex words and phrases but may not fully understand what they mean
  • be very literal in what they say and can have difficulty understanding jokes, metaphor and sarcasm. For example, a person with Asperger syndrome may be confused by the phrase 'That's cool' when people use it to say something is good.
Their difficulty with social interaction will include:-
  1. not understand the unwritten 'social rules' that most of us pick up without thinking. For example, they may stand too close to another person, or start an inappropriate topic of conversation
  2. struggle to make and maintain friendships
  3. find other people unpredictable and confusing
  4. become withdrawn and seem uninterested in other people, appearing almost aloof
  5. behave in what may seem an inappropriate manner.

While none of us may know what Cheryl Miller is suffering with, the Ministry of Youth and Gender Affairs carting her off to the mad house to be confined and drugged up without notifying her family seems to be an exaggerated and draconian manner for dealing with someone exhibiting the characteristics of Cheryl Miller. It would seem that not only Ms Miller constitutional rights were violated but also her human rights as per the United Nations Charter on Human Rights. We have a civic duty, each and every one of us to find out exactly what happened to this woman as it could be you or your family members.

Nothing short of a full investigation is required and anyone found culpable of violating the Mental Health Act and Ms. Miller's constitutional and human rights should be hauled before a court of law and be dealt with accordingly. It is not good enough for anyone to make a random accusation of insanity against someone and have them carted off to the mad house with just one phone call, no questions asked and no family notified. If that should be the case then we are bordering on becoming a despotic country the likes of Stalin's Soviet Union and Hitler's Germany, where the state can incarcerate any citizen on the flimsiest of pretexts i.e. insanity. FREE CHERYL MILLER NOW!!

Finger Licking Good!!!!

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