Carlos John took it upon himself to pave part of the Queen's Park Savannah?
"YEAH RIGHT"
More like paving the truth
Carlos John, chairman of the National Carnival Commission, gave the orders to contractors to begin digging up and paving three acres of the Queens Park Savannah in preparation for Tuesday's Independence Day Parade. The reason given for the paving was that the Savannah was water soaked. Carlos John said that he made the decision on his own and did not consult the government.
He further said that because of the time factor he did not put the job out for tender, and he is prepared to stake his career on the decision. He has not given the cost of the job.
The minister of finance said that he was unaware of the job.
HOTEP:
This government knows well how to distract the public from focusing on their corrupted deals, like the airport contract that is costing tax payers over six hundred million dollars. They are proceeding with this project even though they opposed it when it was a scaled down version while they were in opposition. The cost of the project keeps going up, with the bulk of the contracts going to the financiers of their political party. The unsolved Indian Rice deals, thirty million dollars missing. The One Hundred Million dollars Miss Universe Contest, with it's missing foreign investments and tourists.
So it is not surprising that every day there is another raging issue that keeps people distracted.
I had to explain these issues before I went on to discuss this Raging Issue. Any one can put any spin they want on this issue because all the procedures were broken. So I would give my analysis of the issue.
I believe that Carlos John, HEAD of TIDCO, was involved in the discussions for the staging of the upcoming Millennium Expo. They choose the Savannah as the venue. It would not have been difficult to sell this, PAVING PLAN, to the Prime Minister and other government officials. I believe that the Prime Minister and some of the ministers close to the Prime Minister knew of the project.
He also wanted to show that he could accomplish something big as chairman of NCC. He needed to engage this battle with the environmentalists who have always objected to, and won the legal and moral battles against the paving of any portion of the Savannah. He wanted to engage the battle before the EXPO season and at a time when he could have gotten wide support. What better support to have than that of the military, the NCBA, and PANMEN, reminding them of the trouble bands experience going through the Savannah every carnival?
He may have taken his idea to the Prime Minister who would have been happy for another issue with which to distract the nation from the daily allegations of corruption about the airport contract. But after the losses experienced at the local government election, he would not have wanted to risk personally being in another controversial issue with, of all people, the Environmental Movement. He knows this organization is well financed and is controlled by some elite's in the country. Even though he may have felt the idea to be a good one, he would only go along if someone acts as the "fall-guy". He would pretend not to know about the project. Carlos John would publicly admit that he made the decision alone. Come on, would an opportunist risk an influential job unless the trade off is far greater? Think of it. He felt he could not win the Environmental Movement legally so he decided that he would use " strong armed tactics," with the support of the military and Carnival Interest groups.
UPDATE September 1, 1999.
WHEN IT RAINS IT REALLY POURS.
August 23, 1999
Carlos John claimed that he took these steps in the national interest. He said he wanted to make sure that the Army did not have to march in mud on Independence Day.
This Two Million Five Hundred Thousand dollar contract was given out without a tender, without authorization from the government, without knowing the total cost of the job at the time and without the NCC having the finance to pay for the job. I have already said that I do not believe him.
Now we hear the NCBA and Pantrinbago saying that they support the decision. We will not have to wait long to hear what will happen when Carlos John makes other unilateral decisions that these two bodies will not agree with.
August 31, 1999
Panorama News reported that some residents took it upon themselves to build a Bus Shed on an open piece of land without authorization. The residents claimed that they did it in the best interest of the community. The reason this made news is the legal owners broke it down. Enough said.
September 1, 1999
The rains came; there were tremendous flooding, hundreds of people had to wade out of their homes. Put it together for yourself.
Hazel Brown may have finally put her feet in her mouth. A TV6 report stated that Hazel Brown hinted that when the government renamed the Diamond Vale Boulevard to the Wendy Fitzwilliams Boulevard, she went to paint over the signs. She said that she was prepared to go to jail. This was said at a meeting in full view of the media, to plan a protest action against the illegal job done by Carlos John.
Well I hope they arrest her, if she is guilty, for defacing the state's property. Even though I disagreed with the renaming of the Boulevard, especially how it was done without proper consultation, I totally disagreed with anyone breaking the law. That is not the way to bring about change. Hazel Brown works with the government.
I guess she did this in the NATIONAL INTEREST.
TV6 issued a correction during the news. Apparently Hazel Brown called in and told them to check the tape recording of what she said at the meeting. What she actually said was that she was armed with the paint prepared to make a jail. She did not actually say that she painted over the Wendy Fitzwilliams street signs.
I BELIEVE THAT SHE DID IT.
Maybe, Hazel Brown has second thoughts about making a jail.
The West End Police have issued a release today. They said that their investigation into the defacing of the Wendy Fitzwilliams street signs has not been completed, but they are expecting to wrap up the investigation tomorrow. They claimed that they have fresh leads and that they are questioning a particular female activist.
GUESS WHO?
Just another day in paradise.
September 2, 1999
Well I am back with today's update. The rains came again, but like Carlos John and the Government have not got the message. In my opinion they are not going to level with the public and Carlos John have not resigned. The Government stopped the paving of the Savannah until Cabinet meets to discuss the issue. Apparently they are not aware that by they taking that action they are admitting that Carlos John did not follow the procedures otherwise they would have allowed him to continue.
Meanwhile today we had another day of flooding, the Army was in their barracks and people had to wade out of their homes.
Is NATURE trying to tell them something?
WHEN IT RAINS IT POURS. DON'T GET CAUGHT.
This is Hotep reporting to you from paradise.
Update:
September 5, 1999
The rains were lighter since they stopped the paving of the Savannah. The government put off their Cabinet Discussions on the Paving project, but the comments on the Radio Programs are very amusing.
People are pointing out the illegal manner in which this project was undertaken, without consultations, without environmental planning and without a budget. The responses from the government's supporters, are, the paving is good for hosting events and the Army did not have to march in mud this year.
These type of responses were coming even though residents were swimming out of their homes daily because of floodwater. But at least the Army men had dry boots on Independence Day. They were also safe in their barracks when homes were being flooded out whole week.
On several occasions I called Radio Programs and explained that the arguments were not making sense, one side was against how the decision was made and with the tendering procedures being breached and the other side counter-arguing on the need for such a project. These are two separate issues to evaluate. One could be in favor of the project but be totally against the manner it was done. I do not believe that people do not understand the issues, but that is the nature of blind loyalties.
On Thursday night, Port of Spain had a blackout because of a fire at T & TEC's North Division distribution compound. The generators in the hospital were not working, and someone called in the TV6's News Crew. Dr Tim Gopeesing, chairman of the North West Regional Health Authority claimed that the Intensive Care Unit patients were safe. The news crew slipped into the ICU and found a totally different situation. Let me quote the Express Newspapers on this.
"Medical personnel were struggling just to see with the torchlights in what was a moment of crisis.
They were very glad for the light from our camera. They used it for about 30 minutes. The doctor told us that without the light from the camera they would not have been able to do what they did, Smith told the Express".
"The doctor and five nurses were trying to revive a man while two other nurses were manually resuscitating two other patients. Another man was hooked up to a ventilator".
"After the crisis had passed, the media workers were thanked by the doctors and nurses present. Dr Gopeesingh and the Health Authority had a different attitude, however. In a press release, the TV6 crew was chastised because the hospital management had not granted permission for their entry into the ICU, which had compromised the privacy of the patients".
THIS IS NO JOKE.
"Dr Gopeesingh told TV6 that the ICU's stand-by generators failed because they are old. He said one could cost between a million and two million dollars. The hospital hoped to get one next year but were waiting funding from the Inter American Development Bank".
If this were not life threatening it would be funny.
THIS GOVERNMENT HAS JUST SPENT AROUND 100 MILLION DOLLARS ON A BEAUTY SHOW,
(the Miss Universe contest). We are still awaiting the thousands and thousands of tourists that Mervin Assam promised were to be flocking to this country during and after the show. We are still awaiting the billions in investments that were to follow. They are presently spending another 600 MILLION on expanding the airport, another CORRUPT deal. THIRTY MILLION still missing from the INDIAN RICE DEAL, more CORRUPTION. Carlos John gave out a contract to pave part of the Queens Park Savannah without following the procedures, now we are being told that the contract may cost another 2.5 MILLION.
All of this, and the hospital are awaiting a loan to buy generators. They cannot find resources to assist flood victims, and to fix the schools in time for reopening.
At least the military men did not get mud on their boots during this Independence Parade.
EXPRESS: Thursday, September 9, 1999.
By: Terry Joseph.
Coincidental concrete for the savannah
“It must be that we have the best architects and engineers in the world, or something would definitely be puzzling about the order of events that led up to the Millennium Expo being held on the contentious hard surface in front of the Grand Stand at the Queen's Park Savannah.
My point is that prior to the announcement of that activity, no one or group in this country ever seemed able to pull together large-scale, multi-million -dollar events at the speed that we are being led to believe next December's Expo has been created.
But clearly, a group of geniuses has suddenly sprung up among us. At last Friday's official launch of the Millennium Expo, the engineering and architectural giants of all time unveiled completed plans for construction of the of the state-of-the-art dome and other facilities on a surface that, up to just one week before, simply did not exist.
Let us therefore do a chicken -and-egg analysis. The paving of the Savannah grounds was said to have been conceived on the afternoon of August 21, a swift decision, we are told, because the Independence Day military parade was a mere ten days away and the area was soggy underfoot.
Paving equipment rolled into position two days later and the project was under-way, albeit without the usual fanfare associated with activities of the National Carnival Commission (NCC).
Only when the media intervened was there a comment from the NCC, which took the form of highlighting the extra-ordinary potential of the site for supplying the children of the ghetto with playing fields and the people at the large with an entertainment venue.
In last week's column, I boldly supported the paving (waxing unduly rude to some of the conservationists), on the basis that the move was intended to help the underprivileged and the hapless masquerade. Up to the time of writing “Get Something and Pave”, no mention had been made of the Millennium Expo.
In fact, there was no news on the massive exposition until the day of that column, presumably such an activity could not have been planned for the soft ground in front of the Grand Stand.
But by September 2, it seems that there had been soil test, quantity surveys and the assiduous architects burning the midnight oil to produce plans for the dome.
Even when an NCC official let slip that the World Beat Music Festival had been shifted from the Queen's Park Oval, it did not strike me that there may have been more in the mortar than the proverbial pestle. Nor did the fact that the paved area exceeded the normal size of the square for the Independence military parade. Evidently, I had resolved to accept the story being handed out by the NCC, if only because of a personal desperation, stretching back more than 20 years, for a large entertainment venue and available hard court facilities.
It just seemed to be a god-send for the inner city people, who have lamented the absence of these facilities for many Years. And although it did not quite fit the bill of an opera house or home for steel-band activities, I felt that it would do until the next round of election promises were aired. Actually, the story only started to unravel when the Honorable John Humphrey, who was acting as Prime Minister at the time of the decision to pave the area, later admitted publicly that he was advise of the move and gave the go-ahead. Remember, the Minister of Culture she only new on looking through her office window, although the NCC chairman reported to her. But if the motive was triggered by the need for a home for the Millennium Expo, let me make my position clear: dig up the bloody stones that have already been laid down and plant grass and let us go back to groveling in the mud.”
To think that big business could hoodwink the little people into believing that the hard surface was being put there in our interest and then turn around and charge us to come to their Millennium Expo is, at least treacherous.
But let us not jump the gun. I am certain that the pavers would be all to willing to come forward with documentation on when the Expo was conceived and precisely when it was decided that it could be held at the Savannah site and, by so doing, set out the true order of those developments. Hopefully, those dates would clear up any misconceptions and confirm that, among other things, we do have the best engineers and architects on the planet.
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