From: Anthony_Maillard@Mdd.comm.mot.com (Anthony Maillard)
Subject: T&T (If Yuh Int'rested)
Followup-To: soc.culture.caribbean
Organization: Motorola, Mobile Data Division - Seattle, WA
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 03:18:59 GMT

These articles may have been posted before. If they have ....sorry.
Christmas break and all that.
All copyright sources are listed but some articles have been edited.

Anthony Maillard - If Yuh Int'rested


TRINIDAD & TOBAGO


Merger Could Revive Flagging Oil And Gas Sectors 

Trinidad and Tobagos cash-strapped government is pushing ahead with plans
to restructure the island's flagging oil and gas industry, according to a
senior energy ministry official. 
Plans to merge the Caribbean island's two state oil companies Trintoc and
Trintopec are well advanced, the official said in a recent interview in
London.  ''A special committee is currently discussing plans to merge the
two state oil companies. we expect the new state company to begin
operations on Feb. 1 next year.'' As well as a cost cutting exercise the
merger is regarded as essential for the efficient supervision and
implementation of three key projects covering heavy crude, secondary
recovery and upgrading of the Point-a-Pierre refinery. Loans worth 411
million dollars are available, though their
release is conditional on progress being made to restructure the oil
industry. 
Plans to sell the government's share holdings in the state fertiliser and
urea companies are also underway, with information packages already having
been sent to potential bidders. The Trinidad government official rules out
either a full or partial privatisation of the soon-to-be merged company.
there are no plans either to privatise the 100,000 barrel a day
Pointe-a-Pierre refinery. However, government is seeking private sector
involvement in the upgrading project. under the joint venture plan, the
official said, the partner would contribute finance and technology and
supply the 70,000 barrels a day required to make up the shortfall in
domestic production. offers for the 80,000 barrels a day Fortin state
refinery however will be welcome. ''After the completion of the upgrading
project, the merged company will have sufficient refining capacity at
Pierre to operate without (the Point) Fortin (facility). We would therefore
be very happy if someone expressed interest in purchasing it,'' said the
official. 
Trinidad has a 70,000 barrels a day processing arrangement with the
Venezuelan company Maraven and is currently discussing the possibility of
processing heavy crude.
The People's National Movement (PNM) administration, headed by Patrick
Manning, is also looking for private investors to carry out the main burden
of exploration and development work following the state's expensive and
ultimately successful venture into deep water drilling with the pelican gas
project.  but the government, which faces debt maturities totaling 1.8
billion dollars in 1994, is only too keenly aware of the costs and risks
attached to exploration.  The possible failure of this high profile project
prompted Trinidad to sign a new more favorable 20-year gas supply deal with
Amoco last year, and to step up negotiations with British gas Texaco for a
local supply agreement.  a gas export deal is also being discussed with the
British company. other foreign oil companies with interests in Trinidad
include Deminex (Germany), Agip (Italy) and the U.S. company Occidental.
Moves to improve the investment climate took place last week with the
abolition of the oil recovery tax. enhanced incentives for deep water
drilling and secondary recovery projects have also been drawn up. Whether
this will prove sufficient to divert capital that might otherwise have been
channeled to the plethora of exploration projects in South America or
eastern Europe, remains to be seen.  non-commercial factors could well tip
the balance in Trinidads favour with a senior official with a British oil
company pointing to the island's ''relative political stability, highly
skilled workforce, good local management and strategic location'' as
positive factors in the island's favour. 
Trinidad's crude output, which fell 169,000 barrels a day in 1986 to
145,000 barrels last year is currently averaging 139,000 barrels a day --
67,000 of which was exported.  last year exports averaged 73,000 barrels a
day compared to 78,000 in 1990. around half of the island's crude output is
produced by Amoco which transports its share to its U.S. refineries. 
Trintoc produces 18,000 barrels a day and Trintopec 20,000 barrels. Amoco
also produces two-thirds of the island's gas production which is expected
to increase this year.


T&T: Suicide Capital Of The Caribbean

by Avian Joseph

Port of Spain, Nov. 20 (ips) --  At 22 years old, Amy is happy to be alive.
not so long ago, when she was a teenager, Amy had tried to commit suicide
over a love affair gone sour. ''I tried to do it ... there was so much pain
in the relationship because of the betrayal that I just wanted to stop the
hurt. I thought to end the pain I had to end my life. but it was a stupid
thing to do,'' she said.
Like Amy, scores of Trinidadians attempt suicide each year. Unlike Amy,
many do not live to speak of it.
Since the beginning of this month at least four suicides have been recorded
by the police here. In the last five years 817 Trinidadians have killed
themselves, according to official statistics.  Between January and
September this year there were 64 suicides.
These days, suicides have been attracting great media interest in this
southern Caribbean state of 1.2 million people, mainly because the victims
have gradually become numbered among the wealthier class.
This year's suicide victims have included two popular actors, 21 year old
Kathryn Squance and 28 year old Anthony Seyjagat; Varoun Permanand, son of
a high court judge and Bhavana Chandu Lal, daughter of the government
forensic pathologist.
Trinidadians have now begun talking about an epidemic of suicides and radio
call-in programmes, newspaper letters to the editor and the church have
begun calling for more and improved counseling facilities to offer help to
troubled individuals.
Public opinion is that suicides have increased and done so because the
church is failing the majority of Trinidadians and the traditional West
Indian family is disintegrating because parents emigrate to seek better
lives, leaving their children without proper supervision. Many of the
victims are young children, but, according to the police, suicide victims
this year were between the ages of 11 and 82 years old.
The main weapons of those bent on killing themselves are the rope (hanging)
and gramoxone, a weedicide used by nearly all of the country's farmers. at
7.50 US. dollars for 907 grams, the chemical is relatively cheap and can be
bought over the counter.
''The growing number of suicides is greatly related to the economic
problems with which the country has struggled over the last decade or so
... problems such as unemployment ... and which have spilled over to affect
the social and family life,'' says Dr Rampersad Parasram, psychiatric
specialist at the St. Ann's hospital, an institution for the mentally ill.
''People have simply lost hope,'' said Lionel Remy, a psychiatric social
worker at the hospital, located in this city. 
Over the last ten years, the Trinidad economy contracted sharply, resulting
in the halving of living standards. Real gdp, throughout the 1980s, fell by
one third, with an average annual decline of 4.2 percent. gdp per capita
fell from 7,226 US. dollars in 1982 to 3,246 US. dollars in 1989.
Unemployment in the first six months of this year stood at 20. 2 percent
compared to 10 percent in 1982. 
According to official figures more suicide victims come from the Indian
ethnic grouping. Dr Celia Ramcharand, psychiatrist at the San Fernando
General hospital, says that she has seen 206 persons who had attempted
suicide in the first six months of 1992. The majority were girls between 15
and 25 who were not serious about dying but who just wanted some attention,
she said.
San Fernando hospital is located in the south of Trinidad and takes in
patients from the rural central Trinidad area where the majority of suicide
cases have been found.
police statistics say of the 64 suicides so far this year, 48 are
Indo-Trinidadians and last year, 65 of the 87 people who killed themselves
were of Indian descent.
Dr. Parasram noted the higher suicide rate among Indians was due to
feelings of marginalisation, changing family values and the role of
alcoholism. The majority of the victims are from poor, rural areas where
alcoholism is rife and traditional, conservative East Indian values are
being challenged by modern liberal thought, he said.
He noted too that a recent increase in suicide among Afro-Trinidadians was
confined mainly to the urban ghettoes where residents were as poor or
poorer than the rural East Indian.

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.


Death On Hold For Condemned Men 

After three days of arguments, high court judge Lionel Jones late Wednesday
dismissed constitutional motions which sought to block the executions of
three convicted murderers, but nevertheless, he has granted the men a
reprieve. 
Jones, in handing down his judgment, forbade the state from carrying out
the executions until the court of appeal had heard the men's cases. the
men's lawyers had indicated to the judge that should he rule against them
they would appeal his decision. 
Gayan Juirisingh, Peter Matthews and Fazal Mohammed, on death row between
eight and 10 years and convicted of murdering a woman and infants: had been
scheduled to be hanged on the morning of November 10th. 
However, last minute attempts to save their lives began Monday afternoon,
when lawyers started arguing the constitutional motions before judge Jones.

The motion charged that their execution was unconstitutional because the
men would be deprived of their right to procedural provisions necessary for
protecting their right to life as guaranteed under the constitution of this
southern Caribbean state. 
The lawyers argued that the delay in their executions had led the men to
believe that their sentences would have been commuted, particularly as no
hangings had been done in the country for 13 years. In addition, the
attorneys noted that the state had canceled the death sentences of two
convicted murderers in 1985 and 1987. 
The lawyers also pointed to the report of a commission appointed by the
state to study the death penalty. the report had recommended that the death
penalty be retained but that those on death row for 10 and more years
should have their sentences commuted to life. 
The government had accepted in principle the recommendations of the
commission. 
but Jones, in his judgment, said the report was flawed in many ways and so
it could not be upheld as a decision of the government. 
The high court judge also noted that the state's canceling of the death
penalties of two men in the past was not binding on him. ''(The
applications) are an abuse of the process of the court, '' he said. State
attorney, Nolan Bereaux, called the constitutional motions ''a blatant and
transparent attempt to evade the hangman's noose. ''Despite all the various
arguments for the three applicants the real question is whether the
applicants have proved on the evidence that they have brought before the
court that their fundamental rights have been infringed,'' he said. 
The case has generated considerable interest here and in the wider
Caribbean as the men's executions were ordered in response to a crime wave
which has been echoed in several Caribbean countries including Jamaica and
Grenada. 
Except for small pockets in the society, public opinion is overwhelmingly
in favour of the hangings as Trinidadians believe the murders were
particularly brutal. 
Juirisingh had kidnapped a two year-old and despite the payment of the
requested ransom, the child was killed. Matthews raped a four year old girl
twice in one afternoon. she died of cardiac arrest during the ordeal.
Mohammed killed a former girlfriend who had rejected his offer of a
reconciliation. 


Situation in Other Islands

Despite the delay in carrying out the death sentences, national security
minister Russell Huggins was firm in his resolve that the men will die. On
national television , Huggins said: ''admittedly there may be delays ...
but the law will be carried out.'' 
The 11-month old government in T&T , beset by a sudden crime surge and
anxious to show that it was not soft on criminals, decided to hang the men.
Police data show that in 1991, 3,562 serious crimes were reported. The
figure jumped to 12,941 up to September 1992. 
In several other Caribbean states too, government officials have been
echoing Huggins as a result of a sharp rise in criminal activity. 
In the tiny eastern Caribbean state of Grenada, a debate on the issue of
capital punishment has been raging for the last two months. spurred on by
police data showing that criminal activities had jumped from 873 in 1988 to
1,603 up to august 1992, many in the island have been calling for a
resumption of hanging. 
Although never officially suspended there have been no hangings since 1978.

Pro-death penalty advocates worry that the crime level will harm the
country's fledgling tourism industry as tourists have, from time to time
been victims of the crime upsurge. 
Other Grenadians have noted that with the commuting of the death sentences
of the 14 convicted of the 1983 murder of former prime minister Maurice
Bishop, resuming official executions will be difficult. 
The 13 men and one woman had their sentences commuted in august 1991. ''The
presence of the 14 has a psychological effect on the island. As long as
they remain at the Richmond Hill prison the state cannot hang others ...
hence the recent upsurge in crime, ''said independent senator Ralph Bhola
in a recent speech advocating the resumption of executions. 
In Jamaica, with reported crimes in the first eight months of this year
reaching almost 10,000, national security minister Keith Knight has pledged
to re-institute hanging. The last hanging was carried out in that northern
Caribbean island four years ago. 
But the plan to resume hanging in these territories have sparked intense
and sometimes bitter debate. 
Finally, a high court judge last Monday (Dec. 7) ordered the government to
suspend executions until constitutional motions in the cases of three
condemned men were determined on Jan. 4, 1993.


Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.





Govt. Recruits US Lobbyists

Hiring of a US lobbying firm aims to prevent the US government from doing
anything which might hinder T & Ts exports to America. Finance Minister
Wendell Mottley declined to identify the of the US company and the cost of
its portfolio but noted that more and more Caribbean governments were
resorting to that practice in order to protect and promote their intrests
in the US.
I dont think it is good policy to give the name of the company; but it is
a very highly reputed firm of lawyers in Washington. More and more
Caribbean countries are having to do so; Jamaica for instance, has long
pioneered this and got very, very substantial benefits therefrom; including
measures of debt reductions.....that have been quite substantial, which
Jamaica attributed squarely to the efforts of their lobbyists in
Washington.
I am not saying that that is a particular objective of ours. We have a
different emphasis; on promotion, on getting attention of energy investors,
and so forth,
At the same time, (we are) making sure or trying to ensure that the US
government does nothing to prejudice our major exports.
Mottley also revealed that the US lobbyists will provide relevant
commercial intelligence to assist T&Ts businessmen in penetrating foreign
markets.

Spource - T&T Guardian



Anthony Maillard
Newsgroups: soc.culture.caribbean