Moontown

PARAMARIBO, Suriname – Strike actions at the largest public hospital in Suriname entered its second day Friday after a walk out over a wage dispute with the government. Minister of Health, Celsius Waterberg, tried to negotiate a resolution while union president Michael Miskin warned that the health workers would take to the streets next week, if the situation remains unchanged.

According to the worker’s union, ABPLAZ, the staff of the Academic Hospital Paramaribo (AZP) are waiting for 11 months now to be included in the newly introduced salary scheme (FISO) for public servants. With the introduction of the FISO-scheme in 2009 numerous public servants have seen their salaries and other benefits increased. According to the union leader, health workers are also entitled to better wages.

In an invited comment, Miskin disclosed that, while most workers are on strike, for the time being dispensation has been granted to nurses and other employees in several vital departments of the institution.

“We know our responsibilities and since we are dealing with people who need special care and attention, we will keep on doing that as much as we can,” ABPLAZ-president Miskin said.

The union leader said he is extremely infuriated with the ministry of Home Affairs, which has lead responsibility in implementing the FISO scheme is, since this ministry is presenting all kinds of obstacles, which are delaying inclusion of hospital employees into the new salary structure.

“Every time the minister of Home Affairs names a new date for the implementation, he never keeps his promise,” said Miskin.

Dispensation has been granted to the Emergency Room, ambulance services, intensive care unit, kitchen and reception while the number of guards has been scaled back drastically and the pharmacy is only preparing medication for in-house patients. The Operating Room and Technical Department are on stand-by.

Miskin warned that if the workers take to the streets next week and that action also proves futile, the union will have no other choice then to recall the dispensations.

“We had a lot of patience, but enough is enough. It is after ten years that this union is using strike actions to be heard,” he further noted.

Meanwhile coalition leader, Otmar Rodgers, urged the government to resolve the matter as soon as possible.

According to the union leader during the past 11 months an intensive lobby campaign was launched to argue the case with the government. Even coalition Members of Parliament who are employed as medical doctors and specialists in the hospital discussed the matter with the government, but to no avail.

As a result of the strike action, pregnant women who were in labour were advised to seek assistance at other hospitals. The management fears that if the current situation continues, several key departments of the institution will ultimately be closed.

He noted that where the parenting deficit results in a disoriented maladjusted child, the State has a responsibility that it has to accept.

Jamaica’s Prime Minister Bruce Golding. JIS Photo

The Prime Minister, who was speaking in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, added that the State’s ability to take over the job as parents is not infinite, and he was keen on seeing legislation supporting the Parenting Commission brought to Parliament soon.

“We are going to have to start making it clear that the discharge of parental responsibilities to children is not an option…if you are not prepared to honour your obligation to your children, then do not have them,” Golding emphasised.

“If you have them and you are not prepared to honour those obligations, then you are going to be punished. If we have to take over the child to try to make sure that we fill that gap as best as we can, then you must understand that you have violated the rights of that child and you are going to have to be prepared to accept the consequences of that,” he argued.

According to figures from the Child Development Agency (CDA), a total of 5,890 children were in the care of the State as of December 2007, with 1,160 in foster care, 783 in homes on trial, 1,596 in children’s homes, 846 in places of safety, 1,342 under supervision orders and 163 classified as being under other care.(Caribnet)

More than five weeks after the magnitude 7 earthquake that reduced parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince, to rubble, Haiti’s government and its foreign aid partners say providing shelter for the more than 1 million left homeless by the quake has become the top priority.

Some downpours this month heralding the start of the rainy season in mid-March have added urgency to the need to improve shelter conditions for hundreds of thousands of quake victims camped out across the capital. The January 12 earthquake killed more than 212,000 people.

At the Culture Ministry, a government handout of packaged synthetic shelter material triggered fights between residents of a nearby sprawling survivors’ encampment that carpets a square in front of the damaged presidential palace.

The yelling survivors scuffled, wrestled and exchanged blows over the packages, scattering only when armed police moved in to break up the fights. One man was pushed over in the melee, broke his leg and was carried off by bystanders.

In another fracas outside the Plaza Hotel near the same square, men threatened each other with chunks of masonry from the quake ruins as they noisily disputed the ownership of a compressed package of plastic tarpaulin.

Haiti’s government, which has appealed for tents and tarpaulins from donors, is discussing with aid partners how to tackle the huge task of trying to clear an estimated 63 million tons of quake rubble from the ruined city.

USAID says it is rushing in thousands of rolls of plastic sheeting to give more effective shelter to the survivors before the coming rains turn their makeshift camps into muddy quagmires, raising the risk of disease.

Acting UN mission chief Edmond Mulet has said that not even the US and Canadian militaries or the UN Brazilian army contingent helping the relief effort in Haiti have sufficient heavy equipment there to shift all the rubble. He has suggested specialized private companies be brought in.

Haitian businessman Charles Clermont, who is part of an urban recovery commission tackling the shelter, housing and rubble removal problem, said foreign relief experts had told him the Haiti earthquake was one of the most complex disaster situations ever seen in modern times.

He said the government could not afford to wait months for a solution, but needed action in the coming weeks.

Working with international aid partners, the US military and United Nations plan to bring in tents, plastic sheeting and portable toilets as part of a multi-pronged strategy to provide better shelter to survivors and “decompress” affected zones of the city by starting to clear some of the rubble.

Experts says some victims may be relocated to improved camps, while others will be given materials to build temporary shelters or even repair their quake-damaged homes.

“Even if their house is damaged, you can help them make a temporary shelter in their own homes,” Clermont said. (Caribnet)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti AFP) – Haitians arrived Friday on the first commercial flight into their country since last month’s earthquake, desperately hoping to find family members alive and their homes still standing.

“I want to see my wife,” said Jean Felix as he waited to board the plane before takeoff in Miami.

“She’s living in the street and she’s told me by phone that we lost everything… I’m going there with my heart broken.”

One of the pilots of an American Airlines flight coming from Miami, Florida waves a Haitian flag from the cockpit window upon arrival to Port-au-Prince’s international airport. AFP PHOTO

The American Airlines plane touched down in Port-au-Prince to a warm welcome after leaving from Miami, but many passengers carried a heavy emotional load.

The flight came to a stop at the terminal with 132 passengers onboard. A pilot waved a Haitian flag from the cockpit window.

A band playing Creole music in the terminal greeted their arrival — a common practice prior to the devastating quake — but the passengers were bussed to a separate building to pass through immigration and customs controls because of damage to the airport.

Amid the small celebration, travelers were anxious to visit family members who survived and the graves of those who did not. Some wondered about how their own homes had fared in the disaster.

Marie Ange Levasseur, 45, began to cry as she spoke of how her cousin, who died in the quake, used to greet her at the airport when she would visit.

Levasseur now lives in Miami but still has family in Haiti.

“The first destination I want them to take me to is my cousin’s grave,” she said as she waited in line for immigration. “It’s very sad, this trip. I’ve never had such a sad trip like that.”

The capital’s airport has been an aid lifeline for the devastated country in the wake of the January 12 earthquake that killed more than 217,000 people and left over a million homeless.

Officials said resuming commercial traffic would inject crucial revenue into Haiti’s crippled government.

But for Haitians, it was simply a way of finding out who was still alive.

“I don’t have news from my sons nor from my brothers,” said Maurice Gernier, before boarding in Miami. “I don’t know anything, nothing about anybody… I need to go and see what happened.”

Jean Eddy Porche, 49, who also lives in Miami, arrived in Port-au-Prince with his wife to check on family members and the house he still owns here. He had been told it was damaged and was not sure whether it could be repaired.

Homes belonging to his mother and sister were completely destroyed.

“I have friends who are dead, cousins,” said Porche, adding that he felt “completely traumatized” upon arrival.

Outside the Port-au-Prince airport, family members waited under the sun behind yellow caution tape for the passengers to emerge.

Some embraced as they saw each other, while others seemed weary and simply turned and walked down the street together.

Since the earthquake, the country’s largest commercial airport has been transformed into a makeshift military base, with over a hundred armed forces and UN flights passing through each day when traffic was at its peak.

Thousands of tonnes of food and medical aid, along with disaster relief personnel have poured into Haiti via the hub, which at times has been overwhelmed, forcing officials to turn away some aircraft.

US embassy spokeswomen Elizabeth Detmeister said the resumption of commercial routes meant that US evacuation flights would now be phased out.

American Airlines will offer two flights a day from Miami and one from nearby Fort Lauderdale. A flight from New York’s JFK International Airport will operate four times a week, the airline said.

From March 12, the airline’s American Eagle service will launch a new daily route to Haiti from Puerto Rico, and two flights through Santo Domingo and Santiago in the neighboring Dominican Republic. (Caribnet)

Nikita Braxton South Bureau

’sorry’: Kamala Ramkissoon outside the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court yesterday. -Photo: TREVOR WATSON

THE woman charged with bearing her breasts for Carnival was yesterday sentenced to 240 hours of community service.

Kamala Ramkissoon, 43, of Cocoyea, changed her previous not guilty plea and yesterday admitted to the charges that she willfully and obscenely exposed her person and used obscene language.

The incident occurred on Carnival Monday at Harris Promenade, San Fernando.

As police prosecutor Ramdath Phillip read the facts of the case yesterday at the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court, Ramkissoon at times appeared surprised.

When arrested, she told WPC Maria Maharaj, of the San Fernando City Police, ’This is Jouvert and I having a good time. I could do what I want and I have nice breasts.’

Ramkissoon opened her mouth wide, then bent and shook her head when this was read. She also reacted when Phillip read that she had made derogatory remarks about Magistrate Alicia Chankar when she was arrested.

Attorney Mewahlal Chatoor denied his client made any such comments against the sitting magistrate. ’Nobody would have known she would have come to court before you,’ Chatoor said.

He produced two newspaper clippings: one of Ramkissoon when she was held on Carnival Monday, and another of an unnamed topless woman covered in body paint.

Of the second picture, Chatoor said, ’All her boobs exposed, she was not charged.’

He said there were many other people who could have been charged for indecent exposure for Carnival. He asked that Ramkissoon be allowed to walk free.

A tearful Ramkissoon apologised for her actions, adding it was not a purposeful act. ’I didn’t know if I was pulling the top up or down. I am very sorry,’ she said.

As Ramkissoon spoke, she constantly placed her hands on her chest.

’Stop touching them. They not going anywhere. We must all be proud of our bodies. You needed to contain yourself,’ the magistrate said.

She fined Ramkissoon $150 for cursing. The money had to be paid immediately or Ramkissoon would serve 15 days’ simple imprisonment.

Ramkissoon was also ordered to perform 240 hours of community service for exposing her breasts. The type of service is to be determined by that department. Should she fail to complete the stipulated time, she will have to return to court for sentencing.

Magistrate Chankar advised, ’Going out there and doing something worthwhile, you will appreciate yourself more. Nobody say you can’t wear your costume, but you must respect yourself as a woman and as a person.’ (Trinidad Express)

-Anna Ramdass

The establishment of the Trinidad and Tobago Revenue Authority (TTRA) will not place hundreds of workers on the breadline, Prime Minister Patrick Manning assured last night.

Speaking at the Parliament sitting during his contribution to a bill to establish the Revenue Authority, which would replace the Board of Inland Revenue and the Customs and Excise Division, Manning took to task Opposition MP Jack Warner’s claim that the Government was anti-worker.

’The establishment of the Revenue Authority provides for about 1,650 positions. In other words, Mr Speaker, the amount of persons who will be employed in the Revenue Authority is roughly equal to the number of persons employed today in the Inland Revenue Division of the Ministry of Finance and in the Customs and Excise Division. The argument, therefore, that the Government is anti-worker by the Member for Chaguanas West, conveying the impression that what the Government is doing is firing the workers, is a misrepresentation of the facts.’

Manning further called on the business community to voice their opinion on the establishment of the revenue authority.

’The time has come for business organisations to stand up and be counted. Every business organisation must now get up and say to the national community whether you support the TTRA or not,’ he said.

Manning said there have been problems at the port from since his younger days, and the time has come to put a more efficient system in place. He said when he was a student, he worked in Montano stores, specifically Bobby’s Shoe Store, where he saw for himself how the cargo would be tampered with at the port.

Warner questioned Manning on what the Government had done since that time to address the problem.

Manning said efforts were made to reform the system through help from the United States government but said that process was abandoned as there was no headway. (Trinidad Express)

All eight workers who lost their jobs after the contractor they worked for at the Prime Minister’s residence was fired for using sprinklers are to return to work under better terms and conditions, Prime Minister Patrick Manning told the Parliament last evening.

Manning said the workers will be rehired by the State-owned National Maintenance Training and Security Company Ltd (MTS), which replaced the fired contractor-Terra Forma Design and Construction Ltd.

Manning did so in response to a comments made by Opposition Chief Whip, Jack Warner, that the Government unfairly targeted the Terra Firma employees.

’MTS has been brought into the residence and all the workers who worked on the residence before will be re-employed by MTS. So that from the standpoint of the worker, the worker is much better off because they will now have a permanent position and a higher salary in a State enterprise. Those were the facts,’ Manning said.

Warner said Manning made no mention of this when he delivered a statement in the Parliament on February 10 on the matter, just one day after the Express exclusively reported that sprinklers were being used on the Prime Minister’s lawn at a time when the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) was not only calling for water conservation, but was threatening to charge anyone who disobeyed the restrictions it placed on water usage. These restrictions included the use of sprinklers and hose pipes to water lawns.

Manning had told the Parliament on February 10, that Terra Forma disobeyed instructions from his wife, Local Government Minister Hazel Manning, to conserve water.

On February 12, the Express reported that a woman employed with Terra Forma had called on Manning to have mercy and conduct a proper investigation into the matter, as she and eight others were placed on the deadline as a result of the contractor’s dismissal. -Juhel Browne (Trinidad Express)

Ria Taitt Political Editor

There is expected to be significant movement this weekend on the issue of leadership of the Opposition in the Parliament. UNC Political Leader, Kamla Persad-Bissessar is expected to surge forward in obtaining support for the position of Opposition Leader.

Today, Caroni East MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh holds a news conference at 11 a.m., at which he will speak on this issue.

Gopeesingh’s constituency had previously come out in strong support of Persad-Bissessar, and urged him to reflect the constituency’s sentiment in the form of support for the new leadership. At that time, Gopeesingh said he had to consider the broader implications of the issue.

Yesterday, two significant constituencies- Tabaquite and Oropouche East-also declared their support for Persad-Bissessar and urged their representatives, Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj and Roodal Moonilal, to do the same.

In a release signed by Councilor Henry Awong, chairman of the Tabaquite Constituency, the constituency called on Maharaj to ’lend your support for her (Persad-Bissessar) to become the Leader of the Opposition in our Parliament, so that she can begin the work to take us from the Opposition to the Government of Trinidad and Tobago’.

’It is our firm belief that all Members of Parliament should listen to the concerns of their constituents and strive to represent their views, both in and out of Parliament. As a result, we are of the view that Mrs Persad-Bissessar would need to lead a new parliamentary agenda to fulfil the objectives she outlined in the recently concluded campaign,’ it stated.

But Maharaj said yesterday he was not recognising this executive.

’They are just being used by an official of the party for his own political ends,’ he said.

Asked who was the official, Maharaj said he did not want to call his name.

’I am not going to be terrorised nor will I succumb to thuggery from anyone,’ he said.

’They (the Executive) have not been functioning since they were elected,’ he said, adding that he had since formed a constituency council which meets regularly.

’I intend to go the rank and file in the constituency, in all the villages, and inform them about these people who say they represent them and to discuss the question of the incumbent councillors and whether the people want them. Because what is happening is that most of the incumbent councillors are trying to get the nod of the party (for the upcoming local government elections), but they do not work,’ he said.

The Oropouche Exe-cutive, meanwhile, stated that, ’having noted the overwhelming support given to the new political leader of the UNC in the constituency of Oropouche East and the views of the wide membership of the party’, it was advising Moonilal to give support to Persad-Bissessar ’so that she can assume the mantle of Opposition Leader in the very near future’.

Party chairman Jack Warner yesterday was optimistic on the issue.

’I think commonsense will prevail and I would think by now and the end of the month it should be alright.

I am optimistic that it will be resolved by then, because I mean slowly but surely some people are coming around and I didn’t want to push people unduly. Let them make their own deliberate judgment and see what happens.’

Meanwhile, the UNC Executive goes into the constituency of Couva South on Monday, as it continues its ’Meet the Constituents Tour’. The meeting will be held at the Esperanza Presbyterian School and not at the Couva South constituency as previously announced. Both Persad-Bissessar and Warner will address constituents. (Trinidad Express)

Juhel Browne jbrowne@trinidadexpress.com

no response: Prime Minister Patrick Manning makes a point during yesterday’s sitting of the Lower House. Seated, from left, are Point Fortin MP Paula Gopee-Scoon, D’Abadie/ O’Meara MP Karen Nunez-Tesheira and Attorney General John Jeremie. -Photo: MICHEAL BRUCE

Opposition Chief Whip Jack Warner displayed a large photograph in the Parliament yesterday, of what he claims is a ’private church’ being built by Chinese workers from Shanghai, and asked Prime Minister Patrick Manning if it is being built with taxpayers’ money.

Warner claimed the church is being built in the Heights of Guanapo, east of Arima.

He made the allegation during yesterday’s sitting of the House of Representatives at the Red House, Port of Spain, during his contribution to the debate on the bill meant to establish the controversial Trinidad and Tobago Revenue Authority (TTRA).

The allegation came in response to comments made earlier in the debate by Culture Minister, Marlene McDonald, that the legislation will allow the Government to capture the revenue it is losing from the existing system that governs tax and duties collection.

Warner said he had received the photograph in his ’small post box’ after he returned home from a trip abroad on Thursday.

’Mr Speaker, this picture, I’m told, is a picture of a church being built in Guanapo Heights by some Shanghai Chinese. I’m told, Mr Speaker, I ask the question, this is the issue, I ask the question, is this where the money is designed to go,’ Warner said.

He then said ’if’ the information he received is correct ’can the Prime Minister’ confirm or deny it.

’Can the PM tell this House whether, of course, … he knows anything about this church. Mr Prime Minister, can you tell us, please?’ Warner asked.

Manning did not rise to his feet to respond.

’Oh you wouldn’t answer, okay,’ Warner said.

He later alleged the church is being built with taxpayers’ money.

’Tell us, Mr Prime Minister, if it is not taxpayers’ money, with whose money? Tell us?’ Warner asked.

Again, Manning did not respond.

Speaking to reporters during the tea-break of yesterday’s Lower House sitting, Warner recalled Manning had once said he planned to take up preaching after politics.

On October 13, 2006, Manning revealed his plan to preach when his political career comes to an end in an article written by Marie Y. Thibault, editor-in-chief of The Tech, the newspaper of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, USA.

The interview was published in the form of a Q&A and near the end of it, Thibault, who is identified as TT (The Tech), asked Manning, who is identified as PM, what he intended to do after his political career has ended. Manning told Thibault that his life in politics had motivated him to become a full-time preacher. He also told The Tech that he would not die in office.

Warner told reporters yesterday that the site where the alleged church is being built already has security on it.

’I know the guy (who sent him the photograph) went to get pictures, they have security who ran them off … from the land. In fact, they got T&TEC connection which they should not have gotten, which they were instructed to be given connection and all these things I was told in a letter in my postbox,’ Warner said.

He said Manning’s lack of response to his questions about it in the Parliament has raised even more questions about the structure.

’He has me now thinking some more. All he had to do, I was giving him a chance to answer, all he had to do was stand up and say that is not correct, that it is a nonsense, it is a fabrication, it is arrant nonsense and all he had to do was tell me all of that and I would have sat down. I gave him a chance to say so and the fact that he didn’t respond now, of course, put some bells on me and now I will send back an official person to investigate and get some pictures,’ Warner said. (Trinidad Express)