20 METRES FROM NEAR DEATH by David A.M. Fraser

http://www.dafsocialmediapoll.com/D-Fraser---Editorial-16-05-11.html

20 METRES FROM NEAR DEATH

16TH MAY 2011

By David Fraser

Tonight in the Macoya Wholesale Market, a criminal shot the head off an innocent hard working vendor around 9.30 p.m, twenty metres (20) metres from where I was standing. He walked out the gate casually with gun in hand, and disappeared. Women, children, and people in general, were all thrown into mass panic, as the gun shots rang out and they scampered for dear life. This is Trinidad and Tobago today. A lost society caught up in trying to feel sorry for the dispossessed who want to prey upon the innocent. This country needs serious politicians to take up the mantle and eradicate these less than scum life characters, whose simple motive is to make peoples lives difficult and miserable for the law abiding. One woman at the market was so afraid, she almost fainted. I saw real fear and panic on the faces of the people. At that moment my anger mushroomed.

Is this correct!!? I asked myself, with tears flowing from my eyes. Is this Martin Joseph's bringing back balance to the system??? Is this Manning's molly cuddling of the rebranded criminals called Community Leaders who were fed champagne, caviar and shrimp cocktails, along with hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts, and accorded social recognition and status by the state??? This was a great game by the PNM to encourage this scourge, build housing, and relocate these criminals to every descent community across Trinidad and Tobago. Was this the great balancing act that Martin and Patrick left for us as a legacy??

Women, children, and law abiding citizens cannot buy the food they need anymore, because the Market is now an unsafe place. It was one of those few remaining places where we went at night feeling safe and happy. Now the sanctity of the market has been breached! The fear and sense of helplessness I saw on people's faces told me that the society is in the middle of the political crossfire that was destroying the country, while everything continues to crumble.

I looked up to the sky and wondered, is this my Trinidad that once was a safe place to live and work??? It is a sad day that we continue allowing ourselves to be duped by racial bigotry and religious divisiveness. Suddenly it dawned upon me that I was just 20 metres from near death.

Respectfully Submitted,

David A.M. Fraser

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Editorial as at May 2, 2011 by David A.M. Fraser

Editorial as at May 2, 2011 by David A.M. Fraser

TERRORISTS WILL BE FOUND AND DESTROYED!

The death of Bin laden is an important moment in US and Western History. It must be remembered that he was indeed and in fact a mass murderer and terrorist.

The world's most wanted mass murderer was found by USA Navy Seals and his life taken out by US Special Forces. It shows that we have a serious challenge. Pakistan with millions of people in poverty still managed to keep Osama Bin Laden’s location & identity a secret from western intelligence.

Bin Laden went so far as to use a woman as a human shield during this operation. This Islamist Fundamentalist clearly demonstrated cowardice through his actions. He was asked to surrender and then shot in the head multiple times with American Bullets from American Soldiers. The Leaders of the Free world have liberated us from this unsung uncivilized hero of the Islamic world.

Navy Seals are the best soldiers in the world. No casualties were reported, and there was the loss of only one Helicopter. A 40 man team with about 25 on the ground took on a highly secured compound of armed terrorists in a hostile country with everyone a potential combatant. The firefight went on for forty minutes and Bin Laden was taken out, thereby showing who the best soldiers in town are. Understand, these guys were seriously outnumbered and it is their skills and training which saw them through this important mission.

Bin Laden's life was tucked far away from the piercing eye of satellites and other technologies. But Western Intel won out eventually finding this murderer and the President making the decision to go in and snuff him out. We showed the world that we run things and we will get you wherever you are.

Just like the hanging of Saddam Hussein and his gang, the shooting & death of Bin Laden is another important victory. However, the No. 2 leader of the Al Qaeda was released from prison recently when Mubarak was removed as leader of Egypt. So we now have another hurdle to cross, find this murderer, and deal with him in like manner. None shall escape. Great Job USA! Keep up the good work letting those terrorists and small minded people know that America means business and terrorism is a dead beat job.

Respectfully Submitted,

David A.M. Fraser

David A.M. Fraser

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SURROGATE THREAT RISK FOR TRINIDAD...AN INCREASED SECURITY VULNERABILITY . By David A. M. Fraser

SURROGATE THREAT RISK FOR TRINIDAD...AN INCREASED SECURITY VULNERABILITY .

By David A. M. Fraser

Terrorism is a dangerous threat to regional security. Trinidad & Tobago and major tourist countries like Jamaica and Barbados in the former British West Indian Islands are particularly vulnerable, as they become surrogate targets.

Terrorists who cannot get to attack developed countries have aimed their bombs at softer targets. Bali and Mumbai are classic examples. For most persons, Muslims are the only terrorists.

But terrorism is now into the contracting business making it extremely more difficult to detect and interdict.

Trinidad & Tobago in recent time now plays an even more important role as described in leaked US State Department documents with regard to US energy security.

Given the activities taking place in the Middle East, we may have been moved from the back burner in the international intelligence world, to the front. This also means heightened external intelligence activity and possible interference in the political economy of Trinidad and Tobago.

I am not sure that there is a differential appreciation of the shift in policy and the treatment regime now prescribed for Trinidad and Tobago, and what this could mean for governance and political stability. As mentioned in an earlier post, the situation in the Middle East should have the United States worried from two stand points:

1. The governments replacing the former dictatorships in the Middle East are theocratic in nature. And they possess a burning desire to set up conservative Islamic or theocratic dictatorships similar to the Iran model; and

2. The revolutions across the Middle East demonstrate the capability of the terrorist organization to plan and effectively carry out acts that destabilized a significant part of the world, which now pose a serious security threat to the entire planet.

Such a situation demonstrates that without much international pressure, terrorists can quickly organize themselves in ways that makes us feel very vulnerable in the free world.

Terrorism was not so much a front burner issue in the past two and half years, rather, they have been downgraded to "enemy combatants" and such terms like that. Today, however, these new developments may surely have heads in the intelligence community rethinking the policy with regard to the war on terror.

The eventual aim of what is taking place in the Middle East is to attack Israel. The danger signals are already propping up. The newly installed Theocratic Egyptian Government did two things of note within days of overthrowing former President Mubarak:

a. They released the #2 member of Al Qaeda from Egyptian Prison; and

b. They granted permission to Iran's military to enter the Suez Canal.

These two acts signal that there is a serious problem in the Middle East, and, the get along philosophy will not work.

Trinidad and Tobago's threat elevation could be seriously heightened as a result of new Geo Political developments in the Middle East and now Africa, Nigeria in particular, which is one of the world's leading petroleum producing States. This threat comes not only from Islamic Terrorists, but also from splinter groups and governments unfriendly to western democratic and capitalist countries.

There is a secret gun factory in Venezuela, and this can pose serious problems for Trinidad and Tobago.

What is needed is a bipartisan security policy formulation and implementation approach for Trinidad and Tobago.

This approach should take the form of special oversight committees, charged with the responsibility of putting into place a new framework that will link foreign affairs and national security.

This new structure will ensure a seamless approach to intelligence gathering. This agency will have different divisions reporting to committees, which answers to an overhauled and restructured National Security Oversight Committee/Council.

The new departments or sub agencies will treat with counter intelligence operations, illegal migration, slave trading detection and interdiction, external political interference, detection and treatment of foreign spies, for which an appropriate policy is desperately needed.

This ought to be done through an intelligence sharing and clearing house system, which should be a revolving integrated law enforcement and civilian team, continuously analyzing information to inform the next steps, such as, internal security and state threats, financial terrorism, counter terrorism, and the anti narcotics trade.

This approach is necessary, as the intellectual and human resources is not reposed in any single Political Party given the small size of the country.

There is also need to develop a structure and policy framework that forms part of a continuum on the Security apparatus of the country that will remain intact throughout future changes of governments.

In the meanwhile, what are we doing about Trinidad's potentially heightened risk of being a surrogate threat?

What could this mean for life tomorrow as a Trinidad citizen? As the threat elevation rises, also would it affect the way citizens live and go about their business. Threat assessments are not only for the state, but also by extension the people and wherever they may be.

Respectfully Submitted,

David A.M. Fraser

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“WORKING TOGETHER TO BUILD SUCCESSFUL NATIONS”

David A.M. Fraser

http://www.dafsocialmediapoll.com/D-Fraser---Editorial-7-04-11.html

TODAY’S EDITORIAL as at April 7^th 2011

Topic: Dr. Gopeesingh’s decision to reduce extra-curricular school activity.

DON’T BLAME GOPEESINGH FOR TRYING TO TAME THE TIGER

By David A.M. Fraser

Education in Trinidad was not about liberation. Tertiary education started off to train middle management in the private sector. The Institute of Business (IOB) was created for this purpose. The IOB was not about developing entrepreneurs and thinkers. The IOB morphed into the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business. The problem continues.

The Colonial Elementary Education System of the 1950’s and 60’s was a powerful successful model that was working well in the West Indies. Those were also the days of corporal punishment and the Teacher ruled supreme. Ironically, the Colonial education structure gave us the only entrepreneurs of note we have today. That system and syllabus of education was abolished without any worthy replacement.

Secondary education was supposed to be universal. Only, we had no teachers, nor people of the caliber to train and properly prepare children for the working world.

As a management strategy, the state took the good teachers from the Private Prestige Schools and made them Principals and Teachers at the Junior Secondary Institutions. This strategy failed. The hope was for technology transfer and methodology improvement to occur at public schools, which were already failing at the primary school level.

These newly appointed principals were not accustomed to managing or working in unruly public school environments, where the rules were very flexible, and followed procedures which recognized student rights above those of the teacher.

Delinquency is now the order of the day at these institutions, where chaos and mayhem rule supreme. The rod of correction was replaced by liberal school governance

structures, which spared the Rotan and is spoiling the children.

The United States in some jurisdictions retained and reintroduced paddling, harsh detention, and expulsion of children for unruly and disruptive behaviour. Such children are put into a database and followed up for corrective action. Dr. Gopeesingh may have his faults, but at least he is trying to tackle serious problems at the school place. CXC no longer recognizes proper English. Teachers are not mandated to be orators, and the ghetto language is encouraged. The theory is that once you can communicate, or have a general idea of what you are conveying, this is good enough.

This is an actual policy throughout the West Indies. Please note the correlation of the problems across the region, with crime and violence being supreme. Believe it or not! This is definitely one for Ripley’s.

UWI and UTT are churning out graduates that are stuck in the West Indies, and will not be able to move beyond these borders for two reasons:

1. They are not recognized graduates and;
2. They are incapable of communicating with anyone beside themselves, the unique dialect syndrome.

Unfortunately, we have people immersed in mediocrity and the emotional drug of "we special, we unique," and this is "sweet T&T". Many are blinded from the harsh reality that the world is interconnected and absolutely interdependent. No one can offer a definition to substantiate these defense preambles, which preclude any ludicrous statement they are about to make.

We import tomatoes from temperate climates and thousands of hectares go idle and wasted right here, and we complain about food inflation. Do not take this as cynical. Until there is a policy to create an education structure which encourages entrepreneurs who can design products to sell to the world, Trinidad will continue down an abyss of no return.

I cite no stronger a case than the decision of the Courts to allow a muslim to wear a hijab at a Catholic Institution (School). This victory was against the status quo, not for the right of the child to wear muslim garb at a Christian institution. The tail wagging the dog syndrome is fulfilled.

Should it have been the other way around, and Catholic's and/or other Christian students wore symbols of Christianity at a muslim institution, I wonder what would have been the reaction?

People see politics in everything in Trinidad today. The society is trapped and mired by political issues. The focus should be better education for all, not bacchanal, confusion, and mayhem. I am still amazed that we have illiterate people calling talk shows to criticize the education system and the decisions of Dr. Gopeesingh, and politicians listen to this diatribe.

The Tiger has been let out of the cage. It is now very difficult to put it back inside. However, someone has to take the tough decisions. I support Dr. Gopeesingh's efforts at improving the education system. He must restore important traditions and rules, and also improve on the old model.

The goodly Minister must also get rid of the liberal policy that now produces tomorrow’s gang leaders, and perhaps terrorists, as there is a fine line between the two activities. And, please, how I long for the reintroduction of the good old-fashioned wild cane (Rotan). (Although this is hardly likely, since it will reverse the Prime Minister) Remember folks, there is absolutely no substitute for a good cut a…s. Press on Tim.

Respectfully Submitted,

David A.M. Fraser

David A.M. Fraser - Founder: davidfraser@dafsocialmediapoll.com

Arlette L-M Jeet - Partner: arlettejeet@dafsocialmediapoll.com

FAFA Ltd. : fafaltd@dafsocialmediapoll.com Facebook: David Fraser

DAF Social Media Poll blog: http://dafsocialmediapoll.blogspot.com

FRONTLINE blog: http://davidamfraser.blogspot.com/

Business Savvy blog: http://arlettejeetcheckthisoutbusinesssavvy.blogspot.com

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David A.M. Fraser and Arlette L-M Jeet and their DAF Social Media Poll Team

“WORKING TOGETHER TO BUILD SUCCESSFUL NATIONS”