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!!

A successful unsuccessful State of Emergency

So just short three weeks of the end to this illegitimate state of emergency I have come to the conclusion that it is a successful unsuccessful state of emergency. First of all during the SOE and the imposition of a curfew murders and rapes continued. After the lifting of the curfew and rentention of the SOE, murders and rapes continued. Last week a claim was made that rapes are on the rise and about two days after the police service published a release saying that sexual offences are on the decline.

After the police and army dug up a bunch of old guns, the security forces along with representatives of the People's Partnership Government all patted themselves on the back and claimed victory in ridding this country of illegal guns and restricting criminal activity. They even had a big public event where they invited the UN to come to Trinidad to destroy guns, yet still three weeks shy of the end of this State of Emergency the country's security forces are on high alert because of death threats against the Prime Minister and curiously enough "only three" other government ministers who seem to have been 'specifically' hand picked for this criminal plot. The Prime Minister has stated that this plot is being commissioned by criminal elements who are angry over the 'success' of the State of Emergency.

I'm not sure I understand this current situation facing our country. If the State of Emergency was successful in stunting the free movement of criminals in this country, getting illegal guns off the streets and destroying criminal enterprises then how come these criminal elements still exist and more so how come they have the capacity and resources to plot an assasination on the Prime Minister if the State of Emergency was successful? If after almost three months of a State of Emergency we have criminal elements in this country that are so powerful that they have the resources to plan an assasination againts the Prime Minister and three top government officials then one can only conclude that this is a successful unsuccessful state of emergency. The question is where does that leave us as a nation?

Under a State of Curiosity

I find it extremely curious that under a State of Emergency certain sectors of this country can protest "without police permission" to have a duly appointed school principal removed from her position, and no action is taken against them. I find it curious that under a state of emergency the board of a denominational school can disregard the instruction of a government commission and refuse to allow a school principal to return to school. I find it curious that under a state of emergency a board of a denominational school can put chains on a school to prevent a government appointed school principal from entering a school thereby putting the education of children in jeapordy & disturbing the peace.

I find it curious that under a state of emergency a goverment minister will go to the police station to support a 'friend' on the board of a denominational school that is engaged in disregarding instructions from both the Ministry of Education and Teaching Service Commission. I find it curious that under a state of emergency people can come on our national television and insight violence with impunity. I find it curious that under a state of emergency the Government of Trinidad and Tobago seem unable to bring the board of a denominational school to order yet they claim to be taking on criminal "big fish". I'm under a state of curiosity.

Police's treatment of female citizen needs to be investigated

Last night (Monday) I saw a video clipping on TV6's U Report showing police officers arresting a young lady on Ariapita Avenue and if anything this video did was show the total lack of professionalism of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, their abject ignorance and lack of commonsense. The video clearly showed the young lady claiming she did not refuse to take the breathelzyer test so why was she arrested? She did not use obscene language, was clearly not drunk and certainly did not pose a threat to the public. I therefore have a few questions for Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs.

1) Did these police officers read this young woman her rights?

2) Did they inform the young woman of the reason for detaining her?

3) Did the police have reason to believe that under this State of Emergency this young woman is a gang member or had criminal intent or posed a threat to the state?

4) Why did a male police officer attempt to roughly handle a female citizen despite the presence of a female officer?

5) Why did the male officer insist on attempting to roughly handle a female citizen despite her objections to him putting his hands on her?

6) Why is a female citizen wearing a skirt and high heels treated in such an inhumane and degrading manner by being made to 'cock up' in the back of a police vehicle?

7) Is the police so void of commonsense that they could not logically deduce that they should have put this young lady in the back seat of the police vehicle?

Only in an uncivilized third world country would a young lady be treated in such a disgraceful and degrading manner, even male suspects are placed in the interior of police vehicles in developed countries. Good luck in implementing your 21st century policing plan Commissioner Gibbs but from this video alone, I can tell that retraining these "thugs in blue uniform" is going to be a colossal challenge. I do not envy you.

Questions for Kamla..

Out of curiosity my dear Prime Minister, how do you know that only 7% of the scholarship recipients were of East Indian descent? Did your government conduct a DNA examination of the scholarship recipients? I have many East Indian friends with non-seemingly East Indian names so I would hope that you did not base your accusation exclusively on the recipient's surnames. Is this the modus operandi of your government Mrs. Persad-Bissessar? Governance by eugenics and ethnicity? I noticed in your accusation you said "7% of the recipients were of East Indian descent and the other 93% were of non East Indian descent", perhaps you should clarify to both the population and Anil Roberts what you mean by "Non East Indian", because when you said it Anil Roberts was heard by the entire nation shouting over your voice asking, "not even a Dougla?". I would have thought that non East Indian would mean Afros, Douglas, Syrians, Chinese, Caucasian etc, but it seems Anil Roberts begs to differ.

Why were you only capable of giving a specific percentage of the East Indians that received scholarships but you couldn't tell the population how many Africans, Chinese, Syrians, Douglas and Caucasians were given scholarships? By deliberately withholding information on what ethnic group or groups made up the 93% I fail to understand your claims of racial discrimination. Also what does this mean of the 7% of East Indians who received scholarships? How were they able to secure scholarships from an alleged discriminatory government (according to you)? Did this 7% betray the larger East Indian community to secure these scholarships? Now that former Minister of Culture Ms Marlene Mc Donald has indicated in Parliament that it was a five member committee, two of which are of East Indian descent were the one's responsible for interviewing the scholarship awardees, is our Prime Minister indicating that these two citizens of East Indian descent aided and abetted the PNM in engaging in racial discrimination?

Apart from considering the recipient's ethnicity did you or your government contemplate any other reasons why they were selected? Are the person's selected from a particular economic stratum? Was the government offering scholarships for courses which it deemed priority? And while we are on the topic of the ethnic composition of tertiary education students, does this mean that the People's Partnership Government is going to launch an investigation into why so many of the persons admitted into the medical school at UWI are of East Indian descent? And last but not least, forgive me if I seem to be slow, but could you please explain to me of what relevance is the PNM's awarding of scholarships to the current $50b budget debate? How does the PNM awarding scholarships to only 7% East Indians bear any relevance to the fact that your government is about to once again embark upon deficit budgeting in what is the largest budget in the history of this country, and to date the citizens of this country still have not received a lucid explanation as to how your government intends to utilize this money. You do remember that this is a budget debate don't you?