TNN 94

Hello folks…an’ welcome again to we broadcast… (deep voice)… This Is TNN…… Trinidad is nice…… Trinidad is ah paradise!… (Valentino …. (background music))

Jumpstation: Gov't pichin' in; Well oiled; Power to de people; It's a woman's world.

Yes, we have now decided to sell two 25 acre parcels of our Pitch Lake to private investors (did I mention one of dem is ah party financier?  No, okay… ignore it, den…).  

How about a piece of de Gulf of Paria?  Or maybe de Aripo Savannah, or better still de caroni Swamp?  Look out Queen’s Park Svannah, dey go sell yuh GRASS jus’ now! After all, is citizens buyin’ it, right? 

Man, I eh know what to say again…. de excuse is dat de company eh runnin’ de Pitch Lake properly an’ de private sector go make money… somebody say $300M annually… ahm, is dat for de government or de private owner?  

Now, it seems to me, if yuh doh have proper management, yuh could simply pay for qualified personnel while at de same time fire some people who are obviously incompetent… simple matter from where I stand….. an’ I believe dat would be solid ground…! 

How come ah private comapany will be able to make $300M an’ de government cyah make nothin’?  How come de government wit’ all de financial resources behind it and de ability to buy any skills, cyah run ah simple company dat makin’ ah compound that is essential for something as road paving..?   Dat is de equivalent of ah freshwater plant losin’ money in de desert!  

De company den take out ah add in de papers an’ say dey eh lose money for some years now.. doh dey still have ah debt to pay… so in fact dey seem to have solved de loss makin’ issue, even though the government take away de bitumen contract by which dey was makin’ dey money, an’ give it to Petrotrin.  So apparently somebody lyin’… so what’s new?!

But further to dat.. ah mean, how yuh go sell part of of de Pitch Lake?  Yuh ever hear of America selling part of de Grand Canyon or England ah few rooms in Buckingham Palace?  Yuh cyah sell yuh patrimony to de highest bidder, like is nuts yuh sellin…! 

Ah bet yuh as soon as dey get de contract, dem private companies go train tour guides, open l’il aircondition offices, plug in websites and change de whole look of de t’ing.. dat is, if dey need to… because de money dey go make from Pitch alone go be phenomenal.  

Up to now I eh hear how dey go make $300M or why de government is allowing ah company to make $300M an’ eh hire dem to run de operations and share de profits…. dat is not de bes’ way to go?  But yuh know I is not ah economist, so maybe I missin’ something….. yeah, ah missin’ de money dat passin’ under de table!

Somewhere in ah place called Techier Village, two weeks ago, it began to rain oil….. constantly…! 

Apparently Petrotrin had ah oil well in de area an’ maybe somebody eh cap it properly an’ it bus’.. in de night, so de people taught it was rain, until dey wake up nex’ mornin…. 

Man, ah hear t’ings was smooth…if yuh get meh drift….! Oil in de water, oil on dey car, oil on dey pets, oil in dey garden…. man, was like dey move to Saudi Arabia.  

Ah hear if yuh wanted to get rid of de village, all yuh had to do was strike ah match an’ is because yuh could write Techier Village: population 0! 

Fumes getting’ people sick… a FEW DAYS later (ah tell yuh, dis place had to be far!) de Minister of Environment comes dong an’ says it is not ah disaster.. no mind everything one colour, even de river water….. an’ went back… in comes Petrotrin to clean up, an’ de Minister of  Energy says dat he is impressed wit’ de way Pertrotrin handling de situation….. 

Alyuh eh realise somet’ing wrong wit’ de picture…WEY DE HELL IS DE PEOPLE IN ALL DIS?!  Like dem is nothin’…!  Den de PM say dey MIGHT be able to get compensation, dey go see.. but den somebody else say, if yuh livin’ near ah oilfield, yuh have to realise dat sometimes dese t’ings will happen….. so if yuh livin’ near ah airport, doh be surprised if ah plane land on yuh house.. dat is how it is sometimes…! 

In any real country, de people would have been immediately moved to ah shelter, fed, treated, the entire place cleaned up, compensation paid, etc… but not here… one official even remarked dat tests show dat de air is good again, so no problem….. doh min’ de l’il oil, we cleanin’ dat up….. doh feel it…. dat is how we treat people dese days… interestin’ man…… 

Ah wonder how different t’ings woulda be if dat well did blow out in ah Minister backyard….. but leh we eh ask dem questions….. remember is dat same oil dat have we rich, so de government could say dat t’anks to a good social net, poor people are sharing, nay, bathin’ in de wealth of de country!

POWER TO DE PEOPLE....

Dat is what dey say when dey decide to bring ah company (INNCOGEN) by name to generate electricty in de country an’ sell it to T&TEC.   

Now, dis ah little complicated, so follow closely…. de PM an’ he sidekick (ah not callin’ names!) tell de country dat ah company called INNERCOB comin’ to build 4 plants (glass, plastic, etc..) in de country an’ because of de demand dat dese plants will place of de national grid, we need ah nex’ company (INNCOGEN) to help generate power.  

Fair enough… now watch closely.. since dis company is not coming to compete with POWERGEN (who supplies electricity to T&TEC), it means dat it is ah Co-generation arrangement, dey jus’ sellin’ dey extra power to de government….. so WITHOUT TENDER, INNCOGEN get de deal to build ah power plant an’ de government guaranteed ah US$150M (read TT$1B) loan for dem to build de plant (translation… if de company cyah pay back de loan de government will…. sorry taxpayers will get dey tails skinned tryin’ to pay back de damn loan!).  

So INNCOGEN comes merrily in, uses US$30M to shore up dey parent company which was in financial difficulties in NY, spends de res’ on de plant, an’ in less dan two years the parent company of INNCOGEN goes bankrupt……(ooopppps!).  

Who has to pay de default on de loan lest de creditors seize de plant….. (oh, we, of course!).  By de way, what about de 4 plants dat was supposed to be built.. well apparently INNERCOB is “in financial difficulties, but dey are still onstream,” prattles de PM (oh, ah didn’t tell alyuh dat ah good good fren of de PM was on INNERCOB board, an’ was he dat sell de idea to de PM?  An’ dat de self same man is in charge of fund raisin’ for de party New York branch?   No…okay, well it probably not important!).  

Apparently “financial difficulties” are such dat INNERCOB cyah even pay de rent on de land dat dey lease from Caroni for more dan ah year now… much less put dong 4 plants!  Unless dem plants is mango, plum, soursop and chennet!  

Did anybody check on de finances of INNERCOB?  Apparently de PM trust he fren wit’ OUR money?  Den to cap it off, de CEO of INNCOGEN say de PM NEVER mentioned anyt’ing about any plants to him, EVER! Sooommmebody lyin’…….. 

As far as he knew he was jus’ supposed to supply power to T&TEC alone… so in fact it was not therefore a co-generation which comes with perks, but independent generation of activity which should have had competitive bidding and no perks! 

Nice, de plot t’ickens!  Hear de final nail in coffin.. T&TEC has to pay for all de power INNCOGEN produce whether dey need it or not for 30 years, an’ at de time T&TEC did not need any more generation facilities.  To put de coffin in de ground, INNCOGEN generates 180KW at least, an’ T&TEC at the highest peak time in its operations only requires 50 KW more dan it gets from POWERGEN, which I could make in my backyard or could be supplied by the power stations at Pt. Lisas. 

INNCOGEN now tryin’ to sell it to get money to pay de creditors…… Never mind dat people said from de start dat money pass an’ INNCOGEN parent company was unstable an’ de PM shouldn’t spend de country money because he fren come to him wit’ ah deal….. De PM insist dat people jus’ like to point fingers… wey de corruption?!

IT'S A WOMAN'S WORLD.... 

At least in de world of University education….de last graduating class of UWI had 60% female and 40% male…in odder words de number of females graduatin’ was one an’ ah half times de number of males…ah understan dat on anodder campus is almost 3:!.  

A most worryin’ t’ing indeed, especially if yuh look at de number of young males in prison… apparantly dey prefer to spen’ de time dey, rather dan in school!  An’ is not now dis happenin’, yuh know, is over 10 years ah hearin’ about dis an’ not ah single person make ah suggestion about how to deal wit’ it… only hand wringing an’ cries of mourning.  

Apparently what dem brainy people sayin’ is dat boys settle dong later in school an’ in de early stages, girls develop faster.. but brudder, dis is at University level… when dey go settle dong?! 

Ah doh buy dat “out of de blocks early” theory.  We refuse to face de facts dat we have a major social problem an’  it have ah number of points to attack it from: 

(1) ah lot of young fellas doh have ah fadder or fadder figure around de house;

(2) dey followin’ all de nonsense dey seein’ on TV about what ah REAL MAN is, an’ nobody eh takin’ de time to push ah image of an man who educated, could talk BASIC English and have respect for women an’; 

(3) we doh hold up education as somet’ing to be prized.  

Look nah man, parents doh even check dey chilren homework again… long time yuh parents coulda teach yuh to read before yuh in school or yuh older brudder or sister woulda take yuh in han’… now is every man for heself, literally.  Any wonder why wen de young boy dem grow, get responsibilities or get ah l’il pressure dey does roll up like ah congori?    Leh we face facts, boys ah l’il different from girls (some people doh believe dat) an’ in de early stages and even in early teens, dey tend to be more difficult to handle, but brudder, if yuh eh ketch dem den, doh try later! Dey horse (or odder animal!) done bolt already….. 

Wey de Youth clubs we used to have to help young boys have good role models (Police Youth club, YMCA, de dyin’ Cubs and Scout movements), wey de sport facilities to help dem burn out dey energy, wey de discipline in schools to make sure dey straighten up…. ah could go on, but ah t’ink alyuh see wey ah comin’ from….. but de question is, alyuh know wey we go end up if we eh take dis in han’ ?! If yuh t’ink is not your problem… jus’ consider, suppose yuh daughter marry one ah dem fellas?!

Dat’s all for dis week folks… remember any queries, questions, comments, hail outs, etc… jus’ write to we anchorman Cobra at ttcobra1@hotmail.com an’ we go get back to yuh… Take care care, alyuh, ah gone…. Peace….. Ah goin’ to join San Fernanadians an’ roll on Coffee Street… so gimme more…. gimme more! …Tempooooo!…...(background music…..Calypso Rose)