THE WEEK IN TRINIDAD 18 - 24 FEB 2007 

 

Venezuela and Trinidad have agreed to share the natural gas reserves in the
cross border Platforma Deltana gas field. About three-quarters will go to
Venezuela.

Due to the current gas supply situation, Trinidad cannot honour a 2004
agreement to supply Jamaica with LNG for 20 years for an aluminium smelter
there and also cannot honour a later agreement to supply Barbados with gas
to generate electricity.

Venezuela has now replaced Trinidad & Tobago as the dominant energy 
supplier in  the Caribbean under the Petrocaribe agreement whereby 14
Caribbean nations will receive preferential terms to buy oil from Venezuela.

 

A 15 year-old school dropout  of Morvant was shot dead with several shots to
his body and then several shots to his head. Police officers think his
shooting was gang related

 

From a Reuters Report "A tripling of murders in five years and a rash of
kidnappings has strained the twin island state's ethnic relations and
prompted some to propose radical solutions". 

"But it is crime that has prompted most national angst and nostalgia for the
old days of slow growth and low violence. There were just under 400 murders
in each of the past two years - about the same number as in the US state of
New Jersey, whise population is nearly seven times bigger."

"Police and government officials say gangs have expanded due to Trinidad's
growing status as a transshipment point for South American cocaine, even as
unemployment has hit record lows."

"Newspaper headlines from one day this month show why many fear the country
is becoming more like crime-prone neighbour Jamaica."

""Fish vendor gunned down" ; "Cop robbed, thrown over precipice" ;  "Girl 18
 shot in legs "; "Grandparents bludgeoned to death" , the headlines read"

"Recent weeks have seen a disturbing new trend with several police shootings
of suspects"

 

Police Commissioner Trevor Paul called Carnival 2007 "the best ever' even
though there were 46 stabbings, 200 people were arrested and 145 weapons
seized. The weapons seized were mainly knives, ice picks and cutlasses.
Seven robberies and 14 woundings were reported to the police. Eighteen
persons were treated for assault injuries, two for chop wounds and seven for
gunshot wounds.

 

PM claims that the unemployment rate had dropped to 5 % in the fourth
quarter of 2006 and the inflation rate to 8.6 %.

 

Owners in upscale communities are  installing bullet proof windows and doors
in their homes, due to their fear of crime.

 

$1.6 billion  spent on the Community Environment Protection and Enhancement
Progamme (CEPEP) since its inception in 2002. A special report by the
auditor general was laid in the Senate and has been referred to the Public
Accounts Committee.

Lionel Beckles, the father of the Minister of the Environment, Penelope
Beckles, has been accused of benefitting from millions of dollars in CEPEP
contracts.

 

 

 

J. Chin Aleong

www.westindiana.com

 

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