Black Immigrant Daily News

The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) says it is not daunted by the recent spate of murders in the country as the 11 killings last weekend brought the murder toll to 59 for the month.

Last year, Trinidad and Tobago had a record 605 murders.

“We are not daunted by the unfortunate and disturbing spate of violence over this weekend. We will continue to intensify our crackdown on gangs to break the hold of the deadly gang culture and criminality that leaves a trail of death and despair within our communities,” Acting Police Commissioner, Erla Christopher, said in a statement issued late on Sunday night, as she acknowledged that the “weekend has indeed been an unwelcomed one.

“What we may be witnessing is the storm before the calm, as the TTPS will continue to use its resources to suppress these gangs and other criminal activities. We will not stop applying pressure on those who are determined to disrupt and strike fear in the lives of all law-abiding citizens. We will keep up the fight. God willing, we will succeed.

“However, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service continues to work assiduously to investigate the recent murders, pursuing several strong leads,” she said noting that as it relates to the killings in the Central Division, early indicators suggest there are connecting features, which implies that the same group of individuals are responsible for these acts.

She said early police investigations indicate that the murders committed in the North-Eastern Division, were as a result of disputes between community members.

“Our investigators are working feverishly on the ground to bring the perpetrators to justice,” Christopher said, adding also that the prevalence of illegal guns “in our communities is a central focus of the Service”.

The last of the 11 killings over the weekend occurred on Sunday night when the owner of a mini-mart in Sangre Grande, was shot and killed at his business-place.

Police said that Sherwyn Bernard was at his mini-mart in Sangre Grande, north east of here, when he was ambushed and shot by a gunman. The killer is reported to have escaped in a vehicle.

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WTO members on 31 January held a second knowledge building workshop to inform the second wave of negotiations on fisheries subsidies, focusing on data concerning the state of marine resources and on fisheries subsidies.

The workshop was intended to enhance members’ ability to reach an agreed outcome by the 13th Ministerial Conference, said Deputy Director-General Angela Ellard, who also called on more members to submit their formal acceptances of the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies.

“We all know that the availability of data has been a challenge since the beginning of the WTO fisheries subsidies negotiations. Members frequently have noted that a better and more detailed understanding of the state of fisheries resources around the world, as well as the amounts and types of fisheries subsidies being provided by governments, would help to inform and bring greater focus to members’ proposals and the Negotiating Group on Rules’ debates,” DDG Ellard said in her opening remarks for the workshop.

A previous workshop held in November focused on an overview of the key disciplines in the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies and best practices for and challenges in implementing the Agreement.

Audun Lem, Deputy Director of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Division of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, likewise emphasized the importance of data in his opening remarks: “Effective management anticipates the public sector playing a significant role in stock assessment, research, enforcement, monitoring, reporting, and institutional capacity building.” He also assured members of support and collaboration from the FAO for stock assessments and other efforts related to implementing the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies.

Members heard presentations from experts from governments and intergovernmental organizations providing national, regional, and global perspectives on data concerning the state of marine fisheries and subsidies to marine fishing. Members also had the opportunity to share their own reflections and experiences.

WTO members adopted the Agreement at the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) held in June 2022. For the Agreement to become operational, two-thirds of members have to deposit their “instruments of acceptance” with the WTO. Members also agreed at MC12 to continue negotiations on outstanding issues such as disciplines on subsidies contributing to overcapacity and overfishing with a view to making recommendations by MC13 to further enhance the disciplines of the Agreement.

DDG Ellard recalled that members expressed their desire at a fisheries subsidies retreat held in October 2022 to conclude the second wave of negotiations by MC13. “As this is just over a year from now – in late February 2024 – we really have our work cut out for us,” she said. She also highlighted the importance of the WTO’s Fisheries Funding Mechanism created as part of the Agreement to help developing and least developed members in implementing the Agreement and complying with the data obligations.

DDG Ellard further urged more members to formally submit their acceptance of the Agreement, noting that Switzerland was the first to do so, in January . “I hope that this first acceptance will create real momentum for additional acceptances by members. The sooner we reach the threshold of two-thirds of members, the sooner the Agreement will enter into force and start delivering its benefits for ocean sustainability and those who depend on it.”

While interventions highlighted challenges associated with data collection, they also indicated a strong commitment by members to increasing knowledge about their fish stocks and enhancing their understanding of the impact of different fisheries management measures. Experts detailed how a strategic approach to data collection, such as through sampling, can help members make best use of limited resources.

Members also heard how different types of government support can affect fisheries sustainability, and how data can support decision making for revitalizing fisheries stocks. The presentations also underlined the gaps in available data on fisheries subsidies and demonstrated how several members have collected and reported data despite challenges. Various programmes and donor support, including through the WTO’s Fisheries Funding Mechanism, are also available for data collection, the speakers noted.

Closing the workshop, DDG Ellard said: “Data is information to decision makers. The better the data, the better those decisions.”

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A 5.0 magnitude earthquake struck south of the Dominican Republic early Wednesday morning, jolting people from their beds.

The quake occurred in waters southwest of the capital of Santo Domingo at a depth of 28 miles, according to the US Geological Survey.

No immediate damage was reported.

Dominican geologist Osiris de Le?n said the fault that triggered Wednesday’s quake is the same one that unleashed Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake and a subsequent 2021 quake, as well as the 6.4 magnitude quake that hit Puerto Rico in 2020 that damaged dozens of homes and schools and killed one person in the island’s southern region.

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The University of the West Indies (The UWI) community is saddened by the passing of Professor Emeritus Gordon Rohlehr on January 29.

Professor Emeritus Rohlehr arrived at the St Augustine at a moment of change in the 1960s as the Caribbean began its course to transform the way in which it saw and positioned itself in the world.

For him, these changes were manifested in culture and shaped by culture. The calypso and the literature of the West Indies were, for him, transformative and reflected the apocalyptic nature of our history and our history making.

He became part of an international movement that reflected on the traumatic nature of New World history and who saw the literature that emerged as rich in contradictions and promise. The multifaceted nature of that history of enslavement, indentureship and European incursion shaped Caribbean scholarship and literature, and shaped him.

In that regard, He initiated and taught the first course on West Indian Literature in 1970. That scholarship and his charismatic lecturing fuelled generations of Caribbean scholars, many of whom have gone on to teach the courses he created or inspired in the Literatures in English section at The UWI.

He was one of a band of intellectuals who used words to fashion ideas and to change the course of politics and the future. He wrote in small journals, in newspapers such as Tapia and spoke on radio and television.

He connected with and interpreted the writings of the literary giants of the day, including Kamau Brathwaite with whom he had a particular relationship, Derek Walcott whose “mulatto aesthetic” evidenced the ambivalence of a memory of Africa and Europe; George Lamming, Wilson Harris, Roger Mais and Martin Carter whose work he brought into the mainstream.

But it is his pioneering academic work on the oral tradition and in particular on the calypso that many will remember. Calypso was a repository of the submerged past and the weapon used to chronicle the present. His work was and is masterly. A scholar and a critic, he was noted for his study of calypso, oral poetry, and cricket in the Caribbean region. As recently as 2015, Professor Rohlehr published a book about calypsonian the Mighty Sparrow, ‘My Whole Life is Calypso’, in which he stated that he set out to look at whatever might have been taking place in the 40-45 years beyond the early music.

In a tribute to Professor Emeritus Rohlehr, Vice-Chancellor of The UWI, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles said, “The Calypso Chronicler has gone to rest. His resonant, distinctive Guyanese tones have fallen silent. From Bourda to Sabina through Queens’ Park Oval, the region mourns a gentle giant. He served The UWI, his alma mater with distinction. Students and colleagues across the region and beyond have benefitted tremendously from him. Sleep well colleague and friend. Innings well played.”

Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal at The UWI St Augustine Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, remarked, “His legacy is carried in the students he nurtured at the Campus, through conversation and intense enquiry. His former students and those who thronged his lecture rooms, as well as the many scholars and intellectuals who have benefitted from his pioneering and intense and thorough research, share a deep sense of loss and gratitude. We extend condolences on behalf of the Campus community to his family.”

The University of the West Indies extends heartfelt condolences to his widow Dr. Betty Ann Rohlehr, their children and entire family.

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