You stop at Curepe Junction to buy doubles and feel the need to relieve yourself, so you go into the nearby ultra-clean public washroom, with its automatic doors, no-touch flushing, electronic paper dispenser, sensor-operated soap, water and hand-drying facilities, music and voice messages, and even toilet seat washer. You are so comfortable that you don’t even want to come out to enjoy your doubles.

Beeeeeep … your alarm goes off.

It’s 6 am and you awaken to realise you were only dreaming about the fairly new state-of-the-art public toilets, called Exeloo Galaxy Automated Public Toilets (APTs).
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IN RECORDED conversations with an FBI informant, Guyanese-born terror suspect Russell De Freitas described the impact he believed an attack on JFK could have on the United States:

“Any time you hit Kennedy, it is the most hurtful thing to the United States. To hit John F Kennedy, wow… they love John F Kennedy like he’s the man… if you hit that, this whole country will be in mourning. You can kill the man twice.”

In another recorded conversation the suspect was alleged to have said, “Even the twin towers can’t touch it,” referring to the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York City on September 11, 2001 that killed more than 3,000 people.

“This can destroy the economy of America for some time,” De Freitas said.

OUR local socialists will most likely stay silent or even try to defend him, but Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s closure of the privately-owned Radio Caracas Television is an ill omen.

It is a central paradox of populist leaders that, while they always claim to stand for “the people”, the first thing they do when they get power is try to suppress freedom of speech. Their standard argument is that the free press does not reflect the voice of “the people”, but of entrenched interests. Even when that is true, however, it is the State under such leaders which always becomes the most entrenched interest, usually to the detriment of ordinary citizens and the country as a whole.

Last week, Radio Caracas Television was forced to close after Mr Chavez refused to renew its licence. His ostensible reason was that the TV station was trying to undermine him. But Mr Chavez did not say how the station was doing this. Was it through negative commentary and skewed news reporting? Or was it through actual plotting with, say, military forces opposed to the Chavez regime? Continue Reading

A 56-year-old Trinidadian was among three persons detained between Friday and yesterday in connection with an alleged plot to blow up buildings and fuel tanks and lines at JFK International Airport, New York, which would have killed thousands of people. A search is on for a fourth man, believed to be hiding in Trinidad.

The four were charged in the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York on Friday, with several counts of terrorist-related activities.

Nationals of Trinidad and Tobago watched on in shock yesterday as CNN and other international networks revealed an elaborate plot to blow up JFK which accommodates at least 1,000 flights daily, including two from Trinidad-owned Caribbean Airlines.

The details of the alleged plot, unsealed in a New York court, revealed elaborate plans to cause mass destruction, even greater than the September 11 attacks which killed more than 3,000 in New York in 2001.

Yesterday, Commissioner of Police Trevor Paul hosted a hastily-arranged news conference to discuss the matter. He said that sometime on Friday, FBI officials informed local law enforcement officials of the alleged plot and that three of the suspects were in Trinidad.
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THE ELECTIONS and Boundaries Commission (EBC) is preparing to put its 2007 voters’ list on-line in time for the upcoming general election. And while officials are assuring stringent cyber-security measures to ensure there are no security breaches of the list, political leader of the Congress of the People (COP) Winston Dookeran and Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar are concerned about what security measures are being put in place to protect the integrity of the list.

While in principle, both agree greater access to the list by the electorate is a good thing, Persad Bissessar feels the EBC should “tell the nation about its security measures”, while Dookeran said the Commission must have measures in place to deal in a “prompt manner to any discrepancies” which may occur.

But chairman of the ruling PNM John Donaldson said the “possibility of fraud exists and while the list provides for greater convenience for parties, we have to live with any chance of people corrupting the system. I have no objection with the required safeguards.”
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