I’m fascinated by the media. I have been and continue to be a consumer, albeit in a more selective manner now than ever before. I have been a contributor of both advertising and editorial content. I am fascinated and appalled. Fascinated and appalled enough to be drawn into the train wreck that is the Brian Williams fiasco. Appalled by the notion that the likely most accurately researched news programs are hosted by comedians. In 2004, I wrote my unique perspective of the newspaper business and Trinidad’s ranking on the World Press Freedoms index. Since that time we have continued to endure malfeasance from the purveyors of our news and both Trinidad and the United States have slid down on the index.
Trinidad currently sits 41st with a score of 22.39, sandwiched between Samoa and Botswana while the United States sits 49th with a score of 24.41. The score puts both countries on the low side of the ‘satisfactory situation’ benchmark. Just for reference here are the categories and scores in context.
From 0 to 15 points: Good situation
From 15.01 to 25 points: Satisfactory situation
From 25.01 to 35 points: Noticeable problems
35,01 – 55 points: Difficult situation
55,01 – 100 points: Very serious situation
Although the index does not measure the quality of the media, some the variables they grade on like pluralism and media independence should give pause to any country clawing up from the bottom of the satisfactory category. Find the index and methodology here.
First published Sunday Express, Section 2, September 21, 1997, Pages 2 – 3. Archived here for prosperity.
Save our Savannah – Queen’s Park Savannah
The Savannah is the centre of attention in the week of Carnival, but unless you’re an ardent jogger or use it as a roundabout, it goes completely unnoticed for most of the year.
Queen’s Park is the last savannah of this size – approximately 260 acres – in this country. All the others, like the Arima Savannah, were encroached upon by the growth of the towns around them, and eventually lost huge chunks of their area to industrial or government concerns. The Queen’s Park Savannah, as the last untouched one of its kind, provides both a historical and ecological resource and is currently in danger of what many people see as violation.
At the media launch last month for the Carnival 1998 celebrations at the office of Dr Daphne Phillips, Minister of Community Development Culture and Women’s Affairs, it was announced that a paved roadway would be constructed westwards from the exit of the Savannah stage to Marli Street to facilitate the flow of bands during the Carnival 1998 season. For the remainder of the year the roadway would double as courts for netball, volleyball, basketball or tennis.
This reasonable-sounding suggestion is being met by a united voice of protest from representatives of the Town and Country Planning Division, the Ministry of Agriculture, Citizens for Conservation, the Rugby / Football Union, the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board of Control, Royalians Rugby Football Club, the Savannah Committee and even members of the Carnival Bandleaders’ Association.
Most of the protest echoes the sentiment of the 1989 report of the Savannah Committee, appointed that year by Lincoln Myers, a minister in the Ministry of the Environment. It consisted of a wide cross-section of people from organizations including the Ministries of Agriculture and Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs; the Chaguaramas Development Authority; the Institute of Architects; the Chamber of Commerce; the Port of Spain Corporation; Citizens for Conservation; and the Town and Country Planning Division.
The primary mandate of that committee was to examine and make recommendations for the restoration, improvement and preservation of the Savannah, with particular reference to limiting access and use by vehicles and improving its use for recreation and leisure by citizens.
But there is another important aspect of the Savannah: it is one of the largest water catchment areas in Port of Spain. The WASA pumphouses located in the Savannah cap wells that draw water directly from the aquifer and supply the General hospital and Woodbrook. When the Arena Dam is closed to clean up the pollution caused by contaminants in the Caroni River, WASA relies on the Savannah aquifer to make up the shortfall.
The Savannah is a gravel aquifer (an underground basin in which water collects.) There are two basic types of aquifers: gravel and sand. With sand aquifers, water seeps through the topsoil and impurities are slowly filtered out. However, in a gravel aquifer, the filter is virtually non-existent, allowing any surface pollutants to find their way into the water.
If a road is built across to Marli Street, with the associated traffic, vendors, and pollution, as with the other illegal roadway at the entrance to the stage, contamination of the aquifer will increase.
Additionally, there’s a flooding problem, which is caused by improper drainage and compacting of the topsoil. Increased hard surfacing will reduce the absorbency of the topsoil, further aggravating the flooding. There is a 60-foot height difference between the top of the Savannah – the zoo side – and the south side. If the natural run-off of water along Queen’s Park West is redirected by the road, flooding will occur on Marli Street and in Newtown.
At a meeting on August 28th at Stollmeyer’s Castle, members of the 1989 Savannah Committee expressed the opinion that if the project goes ahead, “it will be the end of the Savannah”.
Those at the meeting also agreed that any suggestion of building tennis, netball, volleyball or basketball courts on the proposed road is absurd. Courts in this country have to be built on a north-south axis because of the sun, and a netball court is 108 feet long; that means that 108 feet would be the minimum width of the road. Additionally, the surface of a netball court is hardly suitable for music trucks and steelbands to exit the Savannah.
Christine Millar of Citizens for Conservation summed up the position of the Savannah this way: “The Savannah is sacrosanct, the heart, lungs and soul of the city, and as such it should be preserved and protected.”
A representative of the Cricket Board reported that they are very unhappy about and emphatically opposed to the road, which will bisect one of their cricket pitches. Year after year they have to rebuild their pitches and clean their outfields because of the damage wrought by Carnival parking, litter, steelbands, trucks and other vehicles driving indiscriminately across the Savannah. He feels that the people who use the Savannah for two days at Carnival do so at the expense of the thousands of others who use it for the other 363 days of the year.
A Royalians spokesman explained that for over 25 years they have used their rugby pitch in the area immediately west of the old paddock. They do not want to move. The proposed road to Marli Street will bisect their pitch, a portion of which was already damaged and rendered unusable by the road laid across it last Carnival.
Royalians are emphatically opposed to the new road. Furthermore, they want their rugby field restored. They insist that all sporting clubs and associations must protect their rights to grounds in the Savannah.
Even a member of the Carnival Bandleaders’ Association stated that the issue was not getting bands off the stage, but getting bands onto the stage and exercising the necessary crowd control to speed up that process. In their opinion, the proposed road is not the solution to Carnival’s multiple problems.
Among the recommendations made by the Savannah Committee in its 55-page report in 1989 was that Carnival be given a permanent home other than the Savannah. They also recommended that the relevant authorities institute a system of parking controls, prohibit all fetes in the Savannah, re-grass the Savannah, widen the pitchwalk or provide a joggers’ track and establish a Savannah constabulary. These and other recommendations were presented to the government of the day and each successive government with the same result: nothing has been done.
Members of the various organizations who attended the August 28 meeting have joined together to form the Save Our Savannah Committee, intended to raise public awareness of the plight of the Savannah. National Carnival Commission (NCC) chairman Carlos John confirmed that the NCC and the committee have come to an oral agreement that no roadway will be constructed until a report prepared by the committee is presented in October.
Culture Minister Phillips was continually unavailable up to press time.
The Committee plans to set up a Savannah website as a way of continuing its fight for the “heart, lungs and soul of Port of Spain”. Concerned citizens can offer comments and show their support for the preservation of the Savannah by signing the book at Stollmeyer’s Castle from Monday to Friday 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and on weekends 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
HISTORY OF THE SAVANNAH
In 1817 the parcel of land known as Paradise Estate was sold by the heirs of Madame Peschier to the governing body of the day, the Cabildo, for 6,000 Pounds Sterling as a recreation ground for the citizens of Port of Spain. Seven years later, the Cabildo transferred Paradise Estate for 10,363 Pounds Sterling to the Colonial Government and what is now known as the Queen’s Park Savannah was laid out.
In 1882 the Queen’s Park ordinance was passed to regulate the use of the Savannah. Historical accounts mention that besides cricket and horse racing, athletics, football, hockey, polo and until 1936, golf were played in the Savannah.
In 1947, a little over four acres was leased to the Trinidad Turf Club. Three years later, the Grand Stand was erected by the Turf Club, the use of the Savannah extended to official and cultural events and the Carnival parade of the bands took a route through the Savannah.
In 1989, Lincoln Myers commissioned a Savannah Committee to make recommendations for the restoration, improvement and preservation of the Queen’s Park Savannah.
In 1994, the Grand Stand and its environs were put under the jurisdiction of the NCC on the departure of the Trinidad Turf Club to their new Santa Rosa facilities.
Since 1995, the Ministry of Agriculture has replaced some trees and installed cluster gardens, lights and signs.
WHO’S IN CHARGE?
There is no single authority with the final say for the Queen’s Park Savannah.
Instead, there is a bureaucratic morass which involves the Ministry of Works, the Port of Spain Corporation, Botanic Gardens Division, Port of Spain Health Officer, the Ministry of Sports, WASA, NCC and the Ministry of Culture that has resulted in an environmental free-for-all and a proliferation of ad hoc structures in violation of Town and country Planning codes.
The Savannah legislation of 1882 provides for the appointment of an official called the Superintendent of Public Gardens, Grounds and Pasture, with sweeping powers as to the usage of the Savannah. In recent history, the post was held by staff attached to the Botanical Gardens Division of the Ministry of Agriculture. The Botanical Gardens Division currently functions as a de facto Savannah Authority.
As an expat, I was trying to avoid making a public comment on the state of emergency in Trinidad. I’m not there, haven’t been there for a while, so I have no real concept of what’s going on a daily basis.
And here comes the ‘but’
One of the things I’ve always been proud of is good or ill you can say your piece and they’re always people who would. You don’t have to like them or what they were saying but they could and often times did.
In 2003 Trinidad was tied for 5th with Denmark in the World Press Freedom index and it was moment of true pride for me. Since then we’ve consistently slid down the ladder and in the 2010 index, we lay sandwiched between Latvia and Poland in 30th.
To compile this index, Reporters Without Borders prepared a questionnaire with 43 criteria that assess the state of press freedom in each country. It includes every kind of violation directly affecting journalists (such as murders, imprisonment, physical attacks and threats) and news media (censorship, confiscation of newspaper issues, searches and harassment). And it includes the degree of impunity enjoyed by those responsible for these press freedom violations.
Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2010
How the index was compiled
I thought I would be content to keep my mouth closed and let the state of emergency pass and for the government to realise what an abject failure that particular exercise was until this showed up in my news feed. Really, we’re keeping company with Egypt and China? For all the wrong reasons no less? Drafting legislation to deal with the regulation and monitoring of social media? Have these people been paying attention? What kind of backward, ignorant, clueless thinking is that? Oh wait, it’s the same kind of thinking that brought the state of emergency into play in the first place.
good times, good people, good food, good music. everything you need for a good vacation
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- trini tweetup round 1
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- first doubles glow
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- they grow up so fast
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- me, sterling & lise
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- me, sterling & danielle
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- a man’s beer
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- sunday lunch
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- 3canal at fete de la musique
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- danielle, me & elisha
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- save boiserre house
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- port of spain at night 1
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- port of spain at night 3
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- port of spain at night 2
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- port of spain at night 4
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- trini tweet up 2
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- elisha & stacey-marie
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- trini tweetup las’ lap
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- me and my women
i’m in trinidad for a week, primarily for this reason:
My first born
father/daughter dance
i’m back. safely and in one piece. been back since friday, just haven’t got the motivation to write anything before today.
as much as i generally dislike american, i have to say i was impressed, all my flights were early. don’t know if it’s the days i flew but we left on time and arrived early. although flying through MIA, i’m not sure how much of a blessing that is.
miami international airport is one of the worst airports i’ve ever been in. classing it with third world airports would be an insult to those airports. it’s grimy, it’s hot, even at night and you’re hard pressed to find a power outlet. that may be my own pet peeve, but how the hell could you not have a power outlet at the gate of an international flight?
trinidad was… wow. too many cars, not enough roads. so much construction. i vaguely remember the oil boom of the late 70s, early 80s and the behaviour seems very reminiscent of those halcyon days, but we all remember how those ended.
thank you all for you condolences.
i’m heading to trinidad tomorrow afternoon. and there can be only one reason for such a sudden trip.
interestingly i’m not as freaked out or stressed as when my mother called last week. even my mother seem calmer, 90 plus years is a long and fruitful rally and my grandmother told my mother she was tired. i guess she was ready to move on. i can only hope i’ll live as long as she did. in her lifetime she’s travelled by horse drawn cart, train, automobile and airplane, been witness to the two world wars, communicated via mail, phone and electronically. she had an amazing life and i’m proud to be her grandson. i have her stories to pass on and in that small way i can keep her alive.
i`ve always know that Trinidadians were copy cats but the incident in Port of Spain yesterday is incredibly saddening for me. not necessarily because i thought that Trinidad was immune to terrorism, i mean we`ve had armed insurrection before. we`re generally laid back as a people but there`s always been a breaking point.
but there are marked differences between insurrection, terrorism and a prank gone throughly awry. and from all indications it appears that yesterday`s… i don`t even have words for it, in Port of Spain may have been a prank that went heniously wrong. there is no rhyme or reason for it. compounding this are the idiots that are crying wolf and wasting the resources of the minimally trained police and emergency services by calling in bomb threats.
this is not a slight to many of the people who choose to protect and serve in Trinidad, but the percentage of people who join the police and armed forces out of a desire to make a difference as opposed to not having any other options and seeing an opportunity for a steady paycheque and get off on the power trip are slim.
the fact that one of my daughters was in Port of Spain less than three blocks away still has my stomach in knots. some of it is fear but most of it a bubbling rage that someone would dare to put my child in danger for what is most likely a prank. i understand that there are people injured and thankfully no one is dead; yet. but i`m mostly blind to that because this is my child.
when i was 14 i expressed an interesting in joining the priesthood. the priest i expressed that desire to, said the day i became a priest the earth would open up and swallow my parish.
i suppose i should quantify his response, before i expressed my desire to join the priesthood, i was commenting on what a cushy gig it seemed like; your choice of the ladies, free room and board and a car; i was thinking practically. some years later he and i had an opportunity to converse and he asked me if i was still interested in joining the clergy, but by that time i was completely disenchanted with the church. strangely, `our` new pope leaves me with the same bitter aftertaste i had when i abandoned the church.
growing up in Trinidad, i got a radically different perspective on Catholicism. i grew with a local archbishop and mass in English, even the hymnal was filled with songs written for us, by us. there wasn`t a church choir worth its salt without a pannist and a rhythm section. the church was us and we were the church and part of that was the fact we lived in a plural society.
our nation`s motto is every creed and race find an equal place and at least on the surface it applies. there are Christians of every denomination, Muslims, Hindus and if at no other time, we appreciate each other for the holidays. we celebrate, Christmas, Divali and Eid off the top, plus a bunch of others in between. we don`t have a large Jewish community otherwise they would be in the mix as well.
my point in all of this; the new thrust of the papacy seems geared towards extremism and exclusion which will continue to push more and more people away from the church.
next week is carnival in Trinidad. actually as we speak frenzied preparations are ongoing, there are fetes every night this week leading up to the two day orgy of excess that carnival is. by this time next week, the streets will be swept and the penitent will be lining in churches all over the country to receive their ashes.
and i`m missing it.
well i`m not really missing it, i think i`m missing the idea of being in Trinidad for carnival, particularly since this is the second successive one and at the rate the USCIS does things it may be at least two more years before i get to experience another.
it`s not like there are new things to be experienced. i`ve been involved in carnival in one form or another since i could walk. my mother; surprise of surprises; used to be this huge carnival junkie and every year, we`d pack the Mini full of food early on J`ouvert morning to watch ole mas and the other J`ouvert competitions, on Tuesday the process would be repeat for the `pretty` mas only this would be an all day event. i can`t remember if my mother was responsible for my school bring out a band or if there was one before that and she just took charge, but every year of my primary school education the weekends before the actual two days of carnival were filled with various children`s parades. in my high school years i wasn`t a direct participant, i would accompany my mother reluctantly to go see the parade of the bands but i was really interested.
after high school however, i discovered the joys of mas making and mas camps and helped make costumes. i also discovered the joys of feteing and actually playing mas as adult. i`ve partied the entire week before carnival, followed a band around just for the music for two days, followed a band around for the sole purpose of taking photos, built an ubiquitous carnival magazine, slept through j`ouvert, worked during carnival while people were feteing outside.
i really have been there and done that and got the t-shirt, so there is nothing specifically that i`m missing besides the ability to decide how involved i want to be this year.
