It should have been a relatively simple piece of legislation-ban smoking in public places. But the Tobacco Bill, which was passed in the Senate on Tuesday night, became embroiled in heated debate, largely because the Government included provisions which were excessively punitive or which would have transgressed on the privacy of citizens. »

I do not agree with the punishment imposed by the Privileges Committee of Parliament on reporter Andre Bagoo. After all, Bagoo is one of Trinidad and Tobago’s brightest young journalists, and unless Parliament stops him now he will only get better at revealing official incompetence, corruption and hairiness. Is this what politicians really want? »

Dr Eric Williams, I suppose, was the most famous diabetic in Trinidad and Tobago, the disease killing him in due course although it came on late, ’The Doctor’’ struck down by ’late onset’’ diabetes, something I learned about when, 64 years old that I am today, I thought I was long home free-well, from ’sugar’’ anyway. »

It was ostensibly about obscenity, but it was really about corruption and censorship -and in the end, justice prevailed. On Monday a Zambian court found journalist Chansa Kabwela not guilty of ’distributing obscene material with intent to corrupt public morals.’  What obscene material? She had sent photographs of a woman giving birth in a hospital parking lot during a nurses’ strike to senior government officials. »

The Government is doing itself no favours by dragging its feet on the upcoming appointment of a Police Commissioner. Less than 30 days remain until James Philbert’s extended acting appointment as Commissioner comes to an end, yet it was only last week that Cabinet approved the $4.6 million to fund the selection search, which is being conducted by the Penn State University’s Justice and Safety Institute. Why this tardiness from an administration which seems to act with alacrity when it needs money for far less important expenditures, such as a $2 million flag or a $10 million stage for the Prime Minister’s residence? »

SOME three months ago residents in one section of Arima woke up to the fact that a private contracting firm was handling the garbage collection and disposal service provided for decades by the borough itself. They didn’t like it, not that anything was wrong with the private service. They had just gotten used to the workers and the trucks with the blue and gold of the borough. »