Moontown

And at the end of the day it was the West Indies who ended up being clinical and came out on top.
Stretching the limits of his fitness Benn delivered 53 unrelenting overs and took his first career five wicket haul – 5 for 155 as he combined with Kemar Roach who bowled with clever hostility to rough up the Aussies. They claimed nine of the ten Australian wickets – inclusive of a run out.

The Aussies fought in spurts but eventually fell for 439, allowing the Windies a 12 run lead which they duly extended to 35 after the openers – Chris Gayle (12*) and Adrian Barath (10*) – made 23 runs from the four overs they batted at the end of the day.

Kemar Roach

The details of the Benn/Roach domination of the Australian innings make for pleasant reading by a West Indian audience.

Australia started the day on 174 without loss, their openers were in their pomp on day two and they had laid a foundation for a massive total. Shane Watson was on 96, four away from his maiden Test ton and Simon Katich on 71. Neither got to a century and the West Indians have remarkably not allowed a single century in the series thus far.

Benn who operated using cunning variations of length and pace bowled Watson with the second ball of the day as he attempted to cut and forced the 28 year-old to trudge his way back to the pavilion in utter disappointment. The towering Benn produced a red-letter career performance and was at the very height of his bowling powers throughout the day.

The overall West Indies performance was nothing short of outstanding. On the day they dismissed all ten Australian wickets for 265 runs on a pitch which still remained good for batting. It further emphasises how supreme Benn and Roach were and their captain Chris Gayle did back them up with aggressive field placings.

Roach’s figures read 3 for 93 from 25.1 overs at the end of the Aussie innings. It was his pounding pace, delivered from an angled approach which confused the batsmen and resulted in them being hit on the body like few West Indian bowlers have done in recent times.

Sulieman Benn

Katich added 9 runs to his overnight 71 before he was outfoxed by Benn and lobbed a catch to Adrian Barath at forward short leg. Ricky Ponting then made 36 before he miscued a pull off Roach and was caught by Dwayne Bravo at midwicket. Roach has now dismissed Ponting on both occasions he has batted in the series and the Australian captain has not yet gotten the measure of the slippery Windies pacer who delivers with intimidating pace despite his short stature.

The two Michaels – Clarke and Hussey then added 79 for the fourth wicket, taking the score from 233 for 3 to 312 when Roach returned and had Hussey – beaten for pace – caught behind for 41.

Clarke went on to bring up his 15th Test half century but like Watson and Katich, was unable to get to triple figures. As the right hander was looking ominous having unleashed some classical drives either side of the wicket Benn cut him down. Having used his feet to Benn’s spin for the duration of his 130 ball innings (5×4) Clarke followed a wide ball and got a thick edge which Ramnaresh Sarwan cleaned up at first slip.

It was Benn’s fourth wicket in his 45th over following his dismissal of Marcus North (16) who was caught by Bravo at leg slip as he botched a sweep shot.

Darren Sammy – the only other bowler to take a wicket – then had Mitchell Johnson caught at slip by Chris Gayle for 7 while Roach accounted for Nathan Hauritz (caught by Ramdin for 17) to leave the Australians at 418 for 8.

Brad Haddin – not out on 55 (80 balls, 5×4, 1×6) at the end – pushed his side close to the Windies target but they fell a dozen runs short to leave the game even after the half way stage.

Benn hardly had any energy left to celebrate his five wicket haul but he could not withhold a broad smile which lasted for several overs after Peter Siddle (0) was caught by Bravo at gully.

It was most fitting that Benn and Roach combined to run out Doug Bollinger for a duck to end the Australian innings. The performance by the Barbadian duo was supreme and lifted the West Indies on a day when they had been expected to chase leather as the Australian batsmen dominated. Together – regularly in tandem – they sent down 78 or 60% of the Windies 131.1 overs.

The other bowlers were rarely called to duty as the pair persevered and felled the Australians. The game will now be a second innings affair and the team which plays better on the final two days is likely to take the win. To the surprise of fans and cynics alike the Windies have won the first three days but they must now follow through if they are to even the series which they trail 0-1.

This structure, the first of its kind in this part of the world, has as its mission to develop the co-operation between Caribbean journalists, with the aim of facilitating at the same time, transverse reports and the circulation of information among journalists and media workers in the Caribbean basin.

The Bureau of Information for the Caribbean (BIC) is also supposed to allow journalists from various countries in Caribbean, to seek, collect, and exchange political, cultural, social, economic, sporting and other information, for diffusion in the Caribbean area.

BIC will also have the responsibility to develop relationship among journalists of the Caribbean area and those of the whole world, to create a network of information, in the various languages spoken in the Caribbean.

The final session of the conference, which ended on Saturday, December 5, was devoted to the installation, of a provisional committee of 15 members composed of journalists, of various nationalities. The headquarters, which will be based in Guadeloupe, is responsible, for the six next months, to prepare the general constitutive assembly of the BIC planned for June 2010. Journalists who took part in the conference and the creation of the BIC came from Cuba, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, and Saint Lucia. (Caribnet)

Aabida Allaham

CARICOM Health Ministers are currently moving towards the creation of an agency in Trinidad and Tobago that seeks to ensure a disease-free environment for all.

At the opening of a two-day meeting of the bureau of Caricom Health Ministers to discuss and make evidence-based decisions in respect to its establishment at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Port of Spain on Thursday, Health Minister Jerry Narace said the decision to do so stems from the same desire to protect our people from health risk while effectively managing public health issues.

’Our focus in this meeting is the establishment of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA). Our vision for CARPHA is a Caribbean in which the health of the people is promoted and protected from disease, injury and disability, thereby fostering the wellness revolution enunciated in the Port of Spain declaration,’ he said.

CARPHA’s mission, according to the minister, will be to provide strategic direction, in analysing, defining and responding to public health priorities within Caricom in order to prevent disease, promote health and respond to public health emergencies.

’The mission also entails supporting solidarity in health, as one of the principal pillars of functional cooperation, in the Caribbean Community,’ he added.

The Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) Caribbean programme coordinator Dr Bernadette Theodore-Gandi added that the need to create an agency like this was necessary, especially in light of the influenza A/H1N1 pandemic.

’There needs to be a combined effort for dealing with public health threats and hopefully this will be the answer for people throughout the Caribbean,’ she said.

Once approved, however, CARPHA will assume the governance and public health functions currently undertaken by five regional health institutions - the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (Carec), the Caribbean Environment Health Institute (CEHI), the Caribbean Health Research Council (CHRC), the Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute (CFNI), and the Caribbean Regional Drug Testing Laboratory (CRDTL).

’It is envisaged that, with the establishment of this new regional health agency, whose headquarters will be located in Trinidad, the region’s public health sector and programmes will be managed more efficiently, providing upgraded services to the entire Caricom and the rest of the world,’ Narace added.

But more than that, he said, since approximately half of the world’s countries have a tropical climate, they expect CARPHA to evolve into a Centre for Tropical Disease Control in the long run. (Trinidad Express)

Richard Charan Editor South Bureau

HARD LIFE: Little Davanand gets his homework done before nightfall. The home at Rambert Village, near San Fernando, has no electricity, according to his mother Louis, left. -Photos: DAVE PERSAD

Last year, Basdeo Mohan got married.

It was the fulfilment of a seven-year relationship that bore him a child now five years old.

An unremarkable story.

Except that Mohan was 86 years old when he wed. And his bride, Louis Mohan, was 32.

For both, it was their first marriage, and their first child.

The Mohans need help this Christmas.

The home Basdeo Mohan built himself - out of rusted galvanise metal sheets, bamboo and discarded wood - is to be torn down.

Mohan has been told to get off the land he has no deed for.

The home is at the end of a overgrown track a quarter-mile off the main road at Rambert Village, near San Fernando.

He has been on the land for years, with the blessings of a woman who was once his companion, said Mohan.

She left and her relatives have reclaimed the property.

Mohan, a gardener, is prepared to fight. Save for his cane and imperfect eyesight, he has no medical ailments. But he is fearful for the future and safety of his child, he said.

So last week, he came to the Express asking for help.

It was the final stop after weeks of visits to State agencies hoping to get a place before being kicked out.

Last October 11, Mohan was home alone, his wife at the temple when he was attacked by a group of people. He had stayed behind to guard the ducks and chickens that were the only means of income except his monthly pension.

’They told me they wanted me off the property in a week. I asked where can I find a place in a week? They started beating me.’

Mohan said when he regained consciousness, the people were gone. He was treated at hospital. An assault and battery case is now being heard in the San Fernando Magistrates Court.

Now every day, the family live in fear in a home far from any neighbours, without electricity or running water, their only protection are dogs.

Louis Mohan said ’it used to be a comfortable life’ with a man she loves.

The two met, she said, at a movie theatre in San Fernando back in 2002.

’I used to go to movies. It was my relaxation. He went to see something that day also. It happened that we sat side by side. Started talking. Normal conversation, him telling me that the woman left him, that he needed a companion.’

She said, ’So, on and off, we met in San Fernando. One day, we decided I would come cook and wash some clothes for him. Eventually, he said he was lonely living there. So I stayed. And getting married was the right thing because of our child.’

On May 20, 2008, the couple wed at a temple at Mohess Road, Penal. Son Davanand is a First Year primary school pupil.

His parents said they have provided all they can to help him with his education.

But this Christmas, they can provide him with little.

The poultry they fattened to be sold this Christmas has mostly been stolen - $5,000 lost.

Anyone willing to help the Mohans can call 351-5256.(Trinidad Express)

Camille Bethel cbethel@trinidadexpress.com

Non-immigrant visa officers working out of the United States Embassy in Port of Spain were being trained, up to February of this year, to refuse visas to certain groups of applicants.

Among those who had virtually no chance of getting a visa were pregnant women, women who already had a child in the US, and locals going to America for job training.

The actions of the US Embassy officials were illegal, according to an internal inspection done by the US State Department’s Office of the Inspector General. The visa officers were told to follow US visa application laws.

The investigation was done over a two-week period from late January. The inspection took place shortly after former US ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago Roy Austin completed his tenure.

The report, deemed ’sensitive but unclassified’, was published on the State Department’s website several months ago.

The embassy’s public affairs officer, Matthew Cassetta, told the Express that, since the report was written, State Department officials had visited and ’found that everything is functioning as it should in the consulate’.

The report detailed the daily operations of the embassy and commented on its strengths and weaknesses. The reported stated, ’Consular section management currently teaches non-immigrant visa officers to refuse visas to certain categories of applicants who should not be refused under visa law.’

It stated, ’Of special sensitivity are routine refusals for newly hired employees of known local and American companies going to the United States for training. These knee-jerk refusals have damaged relations with those companies, many of which do daily business with the embassy.’

The report found that consular management argued that applicants just out of school and/or starting first jobs ’are poor candidates for full-validity visas because they might leave those jobs and stay illegally in the US’.

’However, section 214(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act clearly states that, ’every alien’ shall be presumed to be an immigrant until he establishes to the satisfaction of the consular officer, at the time of application for admission, that he is entitled to a non-immigrant status’, the investigators stated.

’Further,… if you determine an applicant is qualified under the law for a visa, that decision should apply to future trips as well. Suspicion that an alien, after admission, may be swayed to remain in the United States because of more favourable living conditions is not a sufficient ground to refuse a visa as long as the alien’s current intent is to return to a foreign residence,’ the report stated.

The inspectors stated that immigration officers should issue a visa based on an applicant’s travel intentions and not what the application might do in future.

Last week Cassetta responded to the report. He stated, ’As an internal document, the report speaks for itself and thus we must limit our comments. It is important to note that the section, of the report, on consular operations opens by stating that the embassy serves as a model for effective consular management.

’Consistent with policy, the embassy in Port of Spain and all diplomatic missions overseas are constantly reviewing procedures and practices to assure uniformity and fairness.’

He stated, ’Since the report was written, the embassy has been visited by several officials from the US State Department’s Consular Bureau. They have found that everything is functioning as it should in the consulate.’ (Trinidad Express)

Prime Minister Patrick Manning left for Havana, Cuba yesterday to conduct a routine medical examination.

Last December Manning had a cancerous kidney removed after a malignant tumour was found.

The surgery was done in Cuba and he was required to return for routine check-ups every three months.

He returns on Wednesday and in his absence, Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Dr Lenny Saith will act as Prime Minister. (Trinidad Express)

Rohandra John

snagged: A sheet of galvanise became entangled in overhead electricity wires after strong winds swirled through Prizgar Lands, Laventille, yesterday, damaging several houses and knocking off the power supply. -Photo: STEVE McPHIE

Laventille resident Sherwin Jones was at home relaxing yesterday afternoon when he heard loud banging noises just after 2 p.m.

He rushed outside only to see debris and galvanise sheets flying in the air.

’It was like a whirlwind. The rain had just stop falling and this heavy breeze came, I just started to hear these loud banging noises. I never experienced anything like this in the 39 years of my life, ’ Jones said.

He was busy trying to repair his galvanise roof which was ripped off with the heavy winds that swirled through Pritzgar Lands, Laventille yesterday, following a brief shower. He said the winds also knocked out the electricity supply in the area.

’I hope we could get a little assistance from the Government because this is a disaster. I have to see what money I could scrape up now to fix my roof and that will be real hard for me around this Christmas time, ’ the father of three said.

His neighbour Calvert Johnson was also affected.

’The roof covering my bedroom area get blown off. My wife and our two sons and a relative was in the house when it happen, but nobody get hurt. The roof on my mother’s house also came off but she was at church. This was very torturous. Is the first time something like this ever happened.’

Johnson said he was able to replace the galvanise on the roof but it is not ’sealed down or anything. We put blocks on it just to keep it down until better could be done.’

Contacted yesterday, Annabelle Brasnell, Communications Manager at the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission, said that sheets of ’roofing blown off in the small storm damaged overhead lines in the area.’

But she assured that a crew was assigned to the area and was working to restore the power supply last night.(Trinidad Express)