There is a kind of surrealism surrounding the issue of the influx of Venezuelans into this country.
Recent headlines repeating Government statements on the issue reveal how wide off the mark these statements in relation to what is really needed if this country is to help Venezuela in overcoming its present difficulties.
PM: TT not the solution for millions of Venezuelan migrants one headline read. Another, TT to Maduro: Handle your borders.
While the PM said “…TT can only provide limited help”. His National Security Minister called on “…the Venezuelan authorities to step up their border patrols to try to stem the influx of migrants to TT”.
Is this the same Minister who only recently claimed that the TT ‘security forces’ were turning back boatloads of illegal Venezuelan migrants in the maritime domain and TT’s borders were being secured?
What is the Issue
Not so long ago there was a debate about whether there was a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.
The TT Government correctly, in my estimation, focused on the political problems and the need for its resolution by the Venezuelans themselves and convinced its CARICOM colleagues of the value of its position to the point of the regional grouping adopting that position as its own.
At the heart of the problem in Venezuela is the pressure being applied by the US and its meddling in the affairs of that country aiming to impose a governance system and regime favourable to US interests and hemispheric and global objectives.
The campaign to deprive the people of Venezuela their Right to a political system of their own choice and to impose regime change is not new or recent. It dates back to the initial victory of Chavez at the polls and the coup attempts to depose him.
The imposition of 5 years of embargo and sanctions against individuals and more recently against state-owned oil company, PDVSA, have the effect of confiscating resources vital to the economy of Venezuela and the needs of its people.
Such actions are contrary to international law which applies to the relations between and among states. They, as well as those, applied by European allies of the US have no legitimacy in any resolution or decision-of the United Nations.
If anything, any claim to legality of these hostile acts can only made in the sphere of US outlook and the unilateral actions of its President and Congress.
No country can claim there is a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela and its only measure is to deprive that country of its own financial resources and organise provocations on its borders and support open attempts at fomenting military coup d’état.
These hostile actions of the US and its allies only serve to deepen the political crisis in Venezuela and deprive the Venezuelan people of a peaceful resolution to political issues.
These aggressive acts also only make matters worse by depriving the country of material, etc needed to meet the basic needs of the people.
No country can claim humanitarian concern for the Venezuelan people and engage in such hostility against that country, all to serve its own ends.
Real Help that TT Can Offer
If the PM is serious about assisting the people of Venezuela, he must use all opportunities and all assets available to push for a solution to the real sources of the crisis and for immediate relief for the people
Accepting refugees or not is not about solving the problems in Venezuela. Nor is registering Venezuelan migrants in TT and offering temporary possibilities of work by Government or charitable donations by citizens going to bring about a lasting solution.
Loss of human capacity through forced migration has not solved any problem in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Palestine, Nigeria, Ukraine, Sudan, Yemen or anywhere else. That loss of human capacity only negatively impacts the possibility of any society to develop further. 
The PM must use his own voice and that of this nation’s representatives at regional, hemispheric and global fora to denounce the anti-humanitarian and illegal acts of the US  and demand an end to sanctions and embargo to assist Venezuela in providing for its people and solving its problems.
Accepting USAID money to assist refugees while remaining silent about the confiscation of the proceeds of the sale of oil and denial of access to Venezuela’s wealth by the Anglo-American Powers will not, in the final analysis, really help the Venezuelan people.
Non-intervention and non-interference in the internal affairs of other states must not only be said. Upholding such principles of enlightened international relations also requires action to stop violations of the said principles by others.
Real help for Venezuela cannot be provided by inaction based on those principles with excuses such as “...we have a responsibility to protect the interest of the people of TT first and foremost”.
Trinidad and Tobago, as a small nation, cannot accommodate and provide for the needs of a significant displaced population of Venezuelan people. But, our capacity to assist Venezuela and its people on a global scale, lies in adherence to and advocacy for all states to halt the hostile acts against that country and meddling in its internal affairs.
Internationalism involves fighting for the rights of one’s own country and standing in the defence of the rights of others.
Size is not an impediment to such action.
 
Clyde Weatherhead
A Citizen Fighting for
The Rights of Our and All
Nations and for Peaceful Resolution
of Conflicts Everywhere
27 May 2019

​The imposition of what the English quaintly labelled a ‘hose pipe ban’ back in the 80s and 90s is not new or novel to our country.
For decades our WASA and Water Resources Agency under the policy direction of numerous political administrations have failed to develop, far less implement, an effective water management policy and programme for this little 2-island Republic.
With only 2 seasons – wet and dry – not introduced or having a third inserted by climate change, it is as it has been. Yet when it rains, we get floods only growing more massive and destructive and when the rains are over, we never have enough water stored to take us through the dry season.
Not even hurricanes, except for Flora, add complication to our simple 2-part weather pattern, so far at least.
How is his possible in a land which has been subject of a multitude of hydrological studies and visits from everyone from the below-sea-level Netherlands to the bone-dry Israel with a few other nationalities thrown in?
Not even the handing over of the management of WASA to a local ‘dream team’ then multinational Severn Trent from England have rendered the failure of WASA and the WRA to manage our water resources. Not forgetting the change of location of the South West Water Project devised under the first Manning regime to a desalination water project for Point Lisas under the first Panday regime which replace Manning’s.
Tobago, which is smaller than Trinidad has fared no better under the same WASA and WRA and political administrations plus the THA. Neither the water management nor adequate sewerage facilities are present on that island.
Having served as a Commissioner on the Board of WASA in 1995-97 and PSA President straddling the Manning and Panday administrations, I had the opportunity of opposing the Severn Trent adventure. A joint a management-and-all unions exercise produced a development plan for WASA, minus the huge debt that Severn Trent demanded to achieve less outputs than the in-house plan projected.
The PSA persuaded the management to cut out the private middleman in purchasing alum for water treatment. Treatment costs nosedived until Government restored the monopoly to the middleman.
That Board took initiatives in metering commercial connections, reactivating storage reservoirs along the Northern range, rehabilitation of dilapidated sewerage treatment plants on housing developments, main replacement, new wells in South Trinidad, customer database and revenue collection improvement.
Severn Trent came and after collecting $50M US left this country no better off in its water supply or management situation. The same 50%-unaccounted-for water blamed on leaking old pipeline infrastructure of the 90s appears to persist in 2019.
The desalination plant was introduced largely to guarantee the supply of potable for the plants at Point Lisas to which most of the Caroni-Arena dam production is already allocated.
PSA first proposed the introduction of a waste-water treatment plant to utilise 20 million gallons from Port of Spain and 10 million gallons from San Fernando daily to supply industrial water for cooling plants instead of drinking water. The object was to free up 30 million gallons of potable water every day for domestic use.
Severn Trent opposed the idea, the UNC and greedy contractors sabotaged it and  the PNM is again rejecting it, even though it could mean the difference between disaster and well-being in any dry season.
There is no new major surface water source in Trinidad since Caroni-Arena and the desalination plant is subject to shutdowns more frequently than similar plants in Barbados and Curacao, suggesting that there may be design or other deficiency.
And so, we come to the latest harsh dry season and hose pipe ban. To add insult to injury this time, a few farmers in a decimated Aranjuez food basket had their pumps confiscated apparently to enforce a mass Abstraction Licence campaign. Commercial car washes are free to wash any amount of vehicles while homeowners in, gated and ungated communities, cannot wash theirs at home.  Meanwhile, all industrial plants are guaranteed a supply.
As on all previous occasions, the harsh dry season is not to affect those who use huge amounts water to make profits while those who need it for simply living are subject to frequently changing water schedules with as little as 2 or so out of 14 days supply.
The current Public Utility Minister has pronounced that what is needed is:

• More production
• More storage
• Less UAW (unaccounted for Water).

Well, go back over the multitude of reports and plans for our water and wastewater systems and you will find those elements in most if not every one of them.
The issues have been diagnosed over and over.
But, the Right of the population to a reliable source of water and sanitation facilities to protect their health has not become a matter of guarantee for the politicians of this small island nation.
Like every other Right, the citizens must demand its guarantee and cannot sit back waiting in hope but must actively demand it.
Clyde Weatherhead
A Citizen Fighting for a
Decent Life for All Citizens
22 May 2019

Increasingly, we are fed a diet of half-truths about the nature of the society in which we live, about the nature of the problems we face and about how the problems of this society can be cured.
With almost every new development, whether in economics, politics or in the cultural or social spheres, the spin doctors whose job is to maintain the status quo release their latest creations – half-truths about what is taking place and why.
Half-Truths About the Economy
Take the question of the latest episode of the economic crisis which is a chronic feature of all societies, like ours, based on the fundamentals of political economy that determine their nature.
On one level we are told that every round of recession must be blamed on the policies of particular administrations or they and the policies are to be praised for the next recovery. Alternatively, the economic hardships that are imposed on the people with every downturn is due to the mismanagement or corruption of a previous administration. The ‘turnaround’ or recovery phase is due to the prudent management of the party-in-power incidentally during this phase. Half-truths.
For example, the recent mid-year budget review (new name for the annual budget supplementation exercise) was ushered in with great hype seeking to have the population focus on the latest ‘turnaround’.
Speculation was rife as to whether there was indeed a turnaround, or real growth in the economy.
In the end, the Finance Minister, declared there are ‘signs of a turnaround’, there is ‘some growth’ and with the advent of a double elections season, spending will flow again.
All the talk about improved economy, he exemplified by uninterrupted profit increases for the usurious monopoly banking sector, increased consumer debt and conspicuous consumption of vehicles. Relatively low inflation is also presented as evidence of the new economic ‘miracle’.
Since the entire object of the capitalist system in the era of monopoly is the making of maximum profit, regardless of circumstances growing bank profits do not illustrate anything more than the truth that finance capital is achieving that object of maximum profit.
Increasing consumer debt really means more profits for the banks from interest to be collected on this debt and mounting hardship for the consumers who have to pay the interest down the road.
More vehicles on the road add to the burden of consumer credit and mask the failure to ensure the right of most citizens, largely the poor, to have an efficient mass transportation system. The huge economic cost of the congestion on the roads is also ignored or disguised.
Well, with ‘growth’ figures of less than or about 1 and a bit %, spending more on largely non-productive aspects of the economy for the sake of hopefully capturing a few votes or seats in elections, is hardly evidence of ‘sustainable’ growth or economic health that the Government is patting itself about. Nor, is increasing the public debt by $1Billion (borrowed in US$) for road paving an illustration of ‘prudent management’ or economic success.
The truth is that since Independence in 1962, the overdependence on hydrocarbon resources has left this economy vulnerable to and rolling like a roller coaster up and down, boom and bust, recession and recovery largely dictated in timing by the fortunes of the global oil and gas market prices.

No administration in 56 years, has fundamentally reshaped this economy toward sustainable crisis-free economic development focused on human development and guaranteeing the rights of the population for basic needs.
Half Truths About Crime and Prison Escape
 As is now the rhythm of life in this country, there is no respite between the episodes that demand our attention; never a dull moment.
On the heals of the Parliamentary drama, another of a more immediately concerning type exploded this week.
Overnight, a posse of 8 remand prisoners (7 murder accused among them) escaped from the Golden Grove prison.  Through a hole in the upper wall of their cell, out of the building, across the prison grounds and up, over, under or through the perimeter fence, we are told all 8 departed detected by absolutely no one. Their absence only noticed the next morning during ‘rounds’.
So how do 8, not 1, not 2 but 8 men traverse all this distance totally undetected in and out of a facility under 24-hour surveillance by prison functionaries whose motto is to HOLD and Treat?
So, the spin, the half-truths roll out. “The escapees were frustrated by the slow pace of justice and the judiciary is responsible for this escape and many more will occur”, we are told. “There are many tools in workshops and other locations within the prison so they could have accessed their tools of escape that way”, another yarn. Or, “there are too few officers to 950 or so remand detainees”.
“The fence is not maintained and has gaps or holes, so it was easy for them to get out of the compound”, another tale from a strange land.
So, if all the prisoners on remand are tried speedily and the convicted ones are in prison, are we to believe that those who could not see, hear or detect by cc camera or otherwise this escape will somehow prevent all escapes if the justice systems miraculously attains efficiency?
If the old decrepit fence is replaced with a very high, very  thick, very strong one, no one will be able to get out of the same cells and cross the same compound space to reach this new Chinese Wall undetected ever again?
Neither the Commissioner of Prisons who is in direct daily charge of the operations of the prisons, nor the National Security Minister who is in policy direction of the Prison Service have offered a contrite word or accepted organisational or political responsibility for this major, possibly historic (in terms of numbers) lapse of security.
The population in near or far communities to which any of the escapees have gone were and are exposed to the threat of a group of ‘frustrated’ men already accused of murder and serious violent crime, safety and security of citizens further compromised in a situation in which the body count of murder victims is rising by the 2’s and 3’s in any 12 to 24-hour period.
Massive national security resources and police and military personnel had to be deployed to address this horrendous failure of the prison system while the murderous mayhem continues unabated.
The Commissioner of Police who at Carnival in February (3 months ago) was displaying the new drone technologies that we were told provided nation-wide coverage and ‘real time’ video images to operations command centre, etc, found it necessary to procure the services of a non-national-security helicopter in the hunt for the escapees.
What happened to the drone technology (tether and fixed wing) that we were assured protected us during the madness of Carnival?
Either they did not protect us now or didn’t then either or after advertised deployment in February are secretly deployed in May.
Whichever it is, what is the status of these assets purchased with public money for public safety and security?
No More Half-Truths
When half-truths become the foundation of the way a society is run, most serious problems are created for the people. When half-truths prevail, the Truth, the Reality of the problems we face and how they are to be solved is obscured and we are only left with a diet of Lies.
Consumer debt is NOT evidence of consumer well-being. Insecure prison systems are NOT evidence of an efficient and effective service which is to protect the Right of Citizens to Safety and Security.
To take a stand consistent with the concerns of the people and that serves their interests, the interests of the Majority of the body politic, the fog of half-truths must be cleared away and Truth illuminate every aspect of the society.
 
Clyde Weatherhead
A Citizen Fighting for the
Renewal of Democracy and
For the Future We, the People,
Deserve.
17 May 2019