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Reflections
(of the life of a grandchild)
And so, a life was snuffed away that day,
Slaughtered
By “brutish beast” and murd’rous heart.
Trapped
By a child-like innocence she lay,
Oblivious of a world forced to depart.
A blossom beautiful and pure,
A joy from a childhood that exists,
All sang praises of her grace and more;
An intellect refined, an insight quick.
Yet, when in my reveries,
I ponder
On those last moments of self-less life,
I see an angel wafting in the wind,
Beckoning
Us, small mortals, to consider
This great truth: that those God loves most dearly
Shall be at peace with Him,
Eternally!
James W Townsend
Maraval
Food import bill too high?
President Richards joins a long line of hand-wringing pundits
in lamenting the fact that our food import bill is “more
than $1.2 billion.”
“These
figures speak clearly to us,” he told the Penal Rotary
Club.
Our actual annual average food import bill over five years
is $1,677,083,000 or $3.53 a person a day.
But that’s only half the picture. The other half is that
our actual annual average food exports over the same five-year
period is $926,195,000 or $1.95 a person a day.
Subtracting one from the other, it appears that we are spending
$1.58 a person a day on imported food. As we seem to speak
in US where money is concerned, that’s 25 American cents.
Is this too much?
Winston Beausoleil
St James
Success a tribute to Sirjusingh
This year’s success in the SEA examinations by the students
of Grant Memorial Presbyterian School is indeed a fitting
tribute to the outgoing principal, Lennox Sirjusingh.
Sirjusingh is well known in the sports arena, having the distinction
of being the first FIFA referee in the Caribbean to officiate
at a World Cup finals game. In 1999, he was awarded the Medal
of Merit for outstanding work in sports and community development.
In the eight years that Sirjusingh served at Grant Memorial,
he led one of the most vibrant parent/school organisations.
This union resulted in an after-school arts programme which
is second to none and includes disciplines such as violin,
modern and Indian dance, tassa and tabla drumming and pan,
to name a few.
Grant Memorial’s annual concerts have received tumultuous
applause from many distinguished people including the Minister
of Education.
The school’s infrastructure was enhanced with the construction
of an air-conditioned library and computer lab. Also, the
building of a new wing housing 17 classrooms alleviated the
long existing problem of overcrowding at the school.
At a time when violence in schools continues unabated, suggestions
are flowing in from all quarters and include the reintroduction
of “licks.”
I would like to suggest that people such as Sirjusingh, whose
experience and vision have made positive inroads in education,
be deployed in some meaningful way to solve this ailment which
continues to plague us.
On behalf of all the parents, teachers and students of Grant
Memorial, I wish Sirjusingh many years of blissful retirement.
Rooplal Samaroo
President
GMPSO
How UWI makes appointments
I refer to your story headlined “Ghany calls ‘chaos’
claim at UWI ‘sour grapes’” (p6, July 13) and
thought that the procedures for the appointment (including
promotions) of staff at the university should be clarified
for the benefit of your readership.
The university’s ordinance mandates that all vacant positions
be advertised. A departmental team that is chaired by the
head of department first considers all applications.
An advisory board then considers all applications along with
the comments of the head of department.
For all professorial positions there are interviews chaired
by the vice chancellor or his nominee, while for non-academic
positions a duly constituted interview panel interviews short-listed
applicants. A recommendation is then made to the appointments
committee.
In the case of a promotion, the head of department comments
on an application for promotion, and his comments, along with
the credentials of the candidates and the assessment of at
least three international experts in the field, are considered
by an assessment and promotions committee.
The appointments committee then considers the decisions and
recommendations of the assessment and promotions committee.
Only the appointments committee has the power to make appointments
(including a promotion).
David Moses
Acting Campus Registrar
UWI Campus
St Augustine
Maraval
drains being replaced, upgraded
I
have taken note of a letter in your newspaper which complained
about a blocked drain in the vicinity of Kappa Drugs in Maraval.
The author’s name, Ton Franks, does not appear to the
Voters List or in the telephone directory, and it is therefore
impossible to contact him. I would be grateful, therefore,
if the true situation could be clarified through the medium
of your newspaper.
The drain that has been referred to takes water from the Silva
Terrace area down to a culvert that passes under the Saddle
Road and out to the Maraval River.
Over the last year, a number of private developers have cut
the land above the Saddle Road to carry out construction work
which has sent debris and mud into the drain and blocked the
underground culvert.
The culvert itself only has a clearance of 16 inches since
it was built more than 50 years ago and was not designed to
handle heavy construction debris.
Because of its very shallow clearance, the culvert proved
very difficult to clear, since rocks and tree branches were
lodged in the culvert under the road.
At the time that Frank’s letter was published, however,
the drain and culverts had already been cleared and water
was flowing freely again, so the situation described in the
letter where the author claimed that “nothing was being
done” is incorrect.
Further, as the MP for the area, I was on site last week with
engineers from the Ministry of Works to plan the installation
of a new underground culvert across the Saddle Road in this
location, of a much larger size, which would provide sufficient
capacity to minimise the possibility of blockage in the future.
The real issue in all this is the fact that the infrastructure
in Maraval was constructed between 50 to 100 years ago, for
a very small population, and with the rapid development that
has taken place in the area, particularly in the last 25 years,
the old drains and roads in Maraval can no longer handle the
present large population and the new development that continues
to take place.
As a result, most of the underground culverts across Saddle
Road in Maraval will have to be replaced, and the roadside
drains upgraded, and I am sure that Franks will be pleased
to learn that plans have been made for a systematic replacement
and upgrade programme of all these old drains over the next
12 to 18 months.
I trust that this clarifies the situation.
Colm Imbert, MP
Diego Martin East
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