​The decriminalisation of marijuana may be coming sooner than you think.
Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi in response to an Urgent Question in Senate on Tuesday indicated that the issue was a matter of priority and will be laid in Parliament in the first half of 2019.
Al-Rawi revealed that consultations with stakeholders have already begun with public sessions to begin after feedback is received from interest groups.
He explained that Government is working to ensure that it’s thorough in its consultation process and as such intends to collate the information from this feedback and address it in public consultation, which is expected to be conducted across the country.
“So what we have to do is go to the public domain exactly as we did in our prison consultation, our child marriage consultation and several of our other issues and get the voices of the people in open forum with open microphones, with open communication.”
This, he said, will ensure that they have the “widest form of understanding of this particular topic”.
While the Attorney General could not provide a list of interest groups and organisations engaged on the matter, he said Government had written to around 100 stakeholders.
“We’ve written to about 100 entities and we’ve received umpteen replies, so I couldn’t do justice to all of the stakeholders but we’ve included a very broad subsection.
We’ve written to the Medical Association, to the Law Association and to special interest groups. Interest groups have approached us, private citizens have approached us.”
Questioned further by Opposition Senator Wade Mark on whether a list of the stakeholder and interest groups would be made available ahead of these public consultations, Al-Rawi said he was two minds about doing so as it was an ongoing process.
The Attorney General issued an invitation to the Opposition to write in offering their points of view and expressed the hope that Government would receive Opposition support on the matter,
“This is an ongoing process and it will become public in a very short space of time when we go to the public domain... So, I welcome the Opposition but when we go public everybody will be invited and we will address the issue of exactly who we’ve received consultation from at that point because I hope on this occasion we will have some support from the Opposition.”
Responding to further questions on the matter, Al-Rawi said Government would opt not to produce a green paper.
He said the best way to treat with the issue is to do it in the same way Government approached the issue of child marriage.
“You see, for far too long our country has been stuck in analysis paralysis,” he said.
Al-Rawi stated that it is Government’s intention to dive into the issue and get busy with producing the work product.
Legislation to protect prison officers will also be laid in Parliament during early 2019
Source: The Loop, Dec. 2018

SOME 758 alleged killers are awaiting trial for murder, acting Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon told the Senate yesterday. Replying to a listed question by Opposition Senator Gerald Ramdeen, Dillon said, “A total of 758 persons have been accused of murder and are currently committed to stand trial at the Assizes.”
The minister replied to two other law-and-order questions posed by Ramdeen, respectively on police suspensions and witness protection.
Dillon said, “The Commissioner of Police has indicated that a total of 277 police officers are currently on suspension.” He said 269 are on suspension for criminal investigations, and eight for departmental/internal disciplinary investigations. Ramdeen, in a supplemental query, said some suspensions have been for as long as 14 years, but Dillon merely replied they are all at differing stages.
Also, Dillon said in a three-year period from September 2015 to September 2018, some 76 people were admitted to the justice protection programme. Ramdeen, in a supplementary question, tried to ask if the number represented a significant drop from past figures, but Senate President Christine Kangaloo disallowed it.
He tried again, asking how the Government plans to make the programme more attractive, but was again blocked by Kangaloo.

Source​Sandals has withdrawn from the Tobago project.
CEO Gebhard Rainer, in a press conference today, said the main reason for withdrawing was the negative publicity surrounding the project.
He said the Sandals team had been grateful for the unwavering support and transparency from the Government and from the Prime Minister.
"From the beginning there has never been a doubt about what the Prime Minister has been trying to do for the good of Trinidad and Tobago," Rainer said.
He said there would be no cost from Sandals that would be passed on to the TT Government as any cost they would have incurred from preliminary designs would be at Sandals' expense.
National Security Minister Stuart Young said a handful of people had tainted a global international brand and that was a sad and disappointing day.
Source: TT Newsday, Jan 2019

​Efforts are currently being taken to have Port-of-Spain declared a Unesco City of Music.
Port-of-Spain Mayor Joel Martinez revealed this on Friday night as he spoke at Phase II Panyard for the reveal of their 2019 song selection for Panorama.
Martinez said while efforts were made years ago, he has decided to push it again.
He said he met Carla Foderingham, former Chief Executive Officer of the Film Company of Trinidad and Tobago, who told him that the process was started some time ago but stalled.
"She said Trinidad has not had a designation from Unesco as a City of Music. Jamaica got it for reggae and I went to a function in Jamaica, the Mayor of Kingston invited me and they were so proud of their designation and they were spouting it so I felt when Carla brought it up to me I said let's get it done," he said. 
Martinez said we have lost out on so many things because we have not pushed it and having that designation would be an acknowledgment of our contribution to the world. 
"We are a talented nation, full of music, full of culture. We have invented the steelband, we have invented soca, we have invented calypso, we have invented chutney, so what are we waiting on?" he asked.
He said the process for the application has begun with Foderingham spearheading the project and he is hopeful it will be completed in time for the designation to be applied before the end of 2019.
To be approved as a City of Music, the following criteria need to be met according to Wikipedia: 

• A city must be  a recognised centre of musical creation and activity
• Experienced in hosting musical festivals and events at a national or international level
• Engage in promotion of the music industry in all its forms;
• Contain music schools, conservatories, academies and higher education institutions specialised in music
• Have informal structures for music education, including amateur choirs and orchestras;
• Have domestic or international platforms dedicated to particular genres of music and/or music from other countries;
• Have cultural spaces suited for practicing and listening to music, e.g. open-air auditoriums

Souce: The Loop, January 2019

For the first time in approximately three years, Trinidad and Tobago will be able to fully see the upcoming ‘Blood Moon’ lunar eclipse, which is also a supermoon, on January 21, 2019.
Although Trinbagonians were able to see the last partial lunar eclipse in August 2017, the last time a total lunar eclipse was fully visible to Trinidad and Tobago was on September 27-28, 2015.
However, on January 21, 2019, the total phase of this total lunar eclipse will be visible from North and South America, Europe and western Africa.
Central and eastern Africa and Asia will see a partial eclipse of the Moon.
The full eclipse should be visible to Trinbagonians from around midnight on January 21, 2019.
According to a report by meteorologist and avid astronomer Joe Rao, this month’s lunar eclipse is supposed to be a ‘blood moon’ and a ‘supermoon’, meaning it will appear to be larger than usual.
The phrase ‘blood moon’ is a misnomer as the moon can vary in colour from red to brown, grey or even black during the eclipse.
Traditionally, the January full moon is known as the "Wolf Moon." Names such as these are said to have been handed down from people living in old England or from Native Americans and are promulgated today in many popular almanacs.
Source: The Loop, Jan. 15, 2019

emperatures continue to dip in Trinidad and Tobago, hitting a nippy 19°C - the coldest on record for the year, according to the Trinidad and Tobago Meteorological Service.
The Met Office said in a statement Monday that Piarco recorded a chilly 19°C in the wee hours of Monday morning.
“During the early hours of the morning at Piarco, we recorded a minimum temperature of 19 degrees Celsius. This was the lowest temperature for the year thus far.”
The Met Office said these low temperatures are normal for this time of year and can be the result of several factors which occurred simultaneously, such as calm or near-calm winds, almost no cloud cover, combined with cold winds originating from the North in the lower levels of the atmosphere (over Trinidad).
The Met Office said these factors together increase the amount of 'Outgoing Longwave Radiation' from the Earth's surface at night (the surface cools faster).
The Met Office said the record for the lowest temperature at Piarco was a chilly 16.1°C, recorded in January 1964.
On January 10, 2019, temperatures dipped to 21.6°C and many Trinbagonians reportedly felt the cooler weather.
The Met Office said in February 2017 that it recorded a cool 19.6°C in Piarco, the coldest on record in the previous five years.
On February 2, 2008, the Met Office recorded a chilly 18.7°C.
The Met Office said these colder temperatures are expected to take place for the remainder of January into February.
Source: The Loop, January 14, 2019

Additional scholarship winner Darren Ramsook has created a free online learning platform eLearn Caribbean, for CXC and CAPE students who need help with mathematics.
It is a way of expressing his gratitude for the scholarship he received in 2015. A former Naparima College student who recently completed his BSc in electrical and computer engineering, Ramsook said his intention was always to use his knowledge to give back to the country which educated him.
When, last month Education Minister Anthony Garcia pointed out that nearly 1,500 students claimed zero passes in the 2018 CSEC examinations, out of 11,000 students regionally, Ramsook felt compelled to launch the free online programme he had been working on and which can be now be accessed via http://www.elearncaribbean.com.
Within hours of publishing the post on line, he received approximately 200 shares, which was also retweeted 400 times. Since then more and more people are now accessing the videos he has already created for CSEC maths across the Caribbean. While mathematics seems to be the most problematic subject for students, Ramsook’s desire is not to stop at math but incorporate interactive videos of other subjects. However, his challenge at the moment is content and he is appealing to people who are willing to publish content on this site to contact him at [email protected].
Ramsook said he sees this platform as having multiple capabilities in the long term. The beauty is that it is not limited to students of a particular age but provides a platform for older individuals who may not have been successful in previous examinations or never ever got a chance to write the subject before due to financial or other constraints.
It is also being developed to work alongside the current teaching infrastructure in secondary schools. “I believe that the platform as well as teachers can make their lives easier by sharing the load as different students react in their own way to certain teaching methods. For example, if someone did not understand how a teacher taught a topic in mathematics, they log on to eLearn Caribbean and get a different perspective,” he explained.
Ramsook said originally, hearing horror stories of people falling victim to crime, drove him to create this platform using education as an attempt for a long-term solution to crime. He said he wanted to transform youths involved in crime into contributing citizens as some of his ‘friends’ were led down the wrong path over a series of bad decisions.
“That was when I realised that criminals were not formed overnight but were created over an evolutionary progress starting at a very young age. In an effort to make a difference I began helping out my fellow youths in any way that I could have by volunteering in Peer Counselling groups and even just helping out friends with schoolwork.”
During his second year at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Ramsook recalled there was an element in a course called the Community Service Learning (CSL) Project which challenged groups of students to find problems in their communities and develop solutions to fix them.
This gave rise to his work on the first prototype of the online learning platform. After seeing the potential of the platform, he felt certain that if fully utilised it could be used not only to help students in TT but in the wider Caribbean.
“I started working more on the platform from the last day of my final exams in May and with advice from one of my key mentors, Dr Akash Pooransingh, I created a plan on how I should start publishing the platform. It was only on August 16, that I went public with eLearn Caribbean and it just blew up since then.”
In addition to creating a learning platform to help others, Ramsook also helped to bring joy to others through his passion for music via the four-piece instrumental band from San Fernando called Triplets.
He said Triplets, originally formed at Naparima College with three colleagues, Joshua Regrello, pannist, Lyndel Bertie, electric guitarist, and himself on the bass guitar, maintained the name when Presentation College student and drummer Daniel Ferguson joined the band. All four, three of them scholarship winners, are pursuing tertiary studies here and abroad.
Even though they are in demand and recently returned from a gig in the United States, Ramsook said this does not distract from their focus, but helps to “cool their heads”.
Touching on his personal life, Ramsook said his desire to help is inspired by his family, including his dad, a former police officer, who was left paralysed by an accident from the chest down because of a reckless driver in 2009.
“That time right after the accident was a very trying time for my family but we learnt to play with the cards that we’ve been dealt. This was really hard on my mom and it forced all of us to take on responsibilities and make sacrifices we weren’t comfortable with. Seeing my dad and family fight their way through and emerging the positive people we are today, despite our challenges, makes me believe that there is a better tomorrow.
“I take that same thinking of believing that there is a better tomorrow and apply it to our country all the time. That is actually one of the objectives of the learning platform - creating a better tomorrow starting today. I always have this urge to give back to my country because of the scholarship given to me in 2015.” He said he finds purpose from reading about the many problems society faces and coming up with solutions to solve them.
At the moment, he says, his head is bursting with ideas, but the focus is on eLearn Caribbean to reach the hearts and minds of people across the region and leave an overall positive impact.
“I really do hope that people of today utilize eLearn Caribbean so that they, as well as the country, can reap their rewards as contributing members of society. Even if this has a positive effect on only one person and it helps them out, I can die happy with that in my mind,” he said.

​Full Measure is a weekly Sunday news program focusing on investigative, original and accountability reporting. On assignment, they sometimes find out about remarkable things we didn't even know existed. That's what happened to Scott Thuman and crew on a recent trip to Trinidad and Tobago. They came across our amazing natural wonder.

TRINIDAD is shrinking. On every coast, the ocean is clawing at the land.
A dramatic example of this unstoppable force was the collapse in February of the cliff face in Cedros that consumed almost five acres of land on a peninsula that the experts say is losing as much as two metres of land every year.
But long before Cedros, coastal residents have been watching the sea with unease.
Coastline erosion is something that often happens imperceptibly slow, over hundreds, thousands of years. But people are seeing landforms reshaped in mere decades.
On Trinidad’s rocky north coast, village elders can tell of the stacks and arches, islets and caverns erased in short years, of sand beaches swept away to reveal long buried rock formations, and of seafront homes undermined and lost to a conspiracy of wind, waves, currents, tides and a rising sea level linked to global warming, melting the ice caps and glaciers.
On the island’s east coast, the roads to the old cocoa plantations and beaches in North Manzanilla now end abruptly at precipices, and the sea takes chunks of fertile land with every high tide.
The bathing beaches between Manzanilla and Guayaguayare are losing the coconut trees and seawalls. Tidal surges have made brackish swampland out of cropland. Beachfront home owners spend a fortune protecting their investment, defending with boulders, tyre revetments, tree trunk groynes, rock cages and concrete embankments. The Atlantic always wins, in the end.
In the natural harbour that is the west coast, the battering swells in the Gulf of Paria have been taking back the land reclaimed along the King’s Wharf, San Fernando, at Waterloo’s cremation site and the Temple in the Sea, and overtopping the Mosquito Creek road with increasing frequency. The Shore of Peace Cremation Site would have been lost if not for a $60 million coastal stabilisation, that also stopped the advance of the sea in the Cocal, Manzanilla.
But nowhere is the evidence of Trinidad’s losing battle more striking than on the south coast with its retreating clay and sandstone cliffs. Here is it recorded that up to twelve metres of land have eroded in a single year in areas between Los Iros and Quinam Bay- the location of south Trinidad’s most visited beach, which no longer exists.


A similar rate of erosion has taken place along Moruga’s south coastline where at the once popular La Retraite Beach, a visitor must descend a cliff to get to the shore.
Moruga is also where you will find more worrisome evidence of what is happening - concrete abutments of flood gates and fishing boat landings now sitting out at sea, the staircases of houses embedded in the sand littered with uprooted forest trees and bamboo groves.
At Gran Chemin, Moruga’s main village, the St Peter’s statue erected by custodian of the area’s history Eric Lewis, is now threatened. Its foundation is being licked by the waves finishing off the nearby fisherman shacks and derelict port facility.
But it is this very coastline destruction in Moruga that has revealed a piece of Trinidad’s history buried for so long that, when the waves exposed it some weeks ago, few knew what it was.
Its presence was brought to our attention by Moruga building contractor and community activist Loretto Miguel who himself wanted to know what the thing was, and whether the State had a plan to stop to damage being done to the fishing facility.
If you visit the village coastline at low tide, you will find a thick metal cable emerging from the muddy sea, snaking along the sand, and disappearing into the land near the Moruga Roman Catholic Church.
That telegraph submarine cable has been there since 1871, and when it came, it surely changed the course of Trinidad's history.
Before its arrival, Trinidad’s only means of communication with the world was by mail. The telephone was not yet invented. A letter to Europe went by ship and a reply would take months.
That is, until the invention of the electric telegraph in the 1850s, when morse code could be transmitted through copper wires over long distances in order to communicate by telegram.
This would lead, after many failures, to the development and laying of a transatlantic submarine cable in 1858 connecting the United Kingdom with North America, considered one of the great feats of the time.
"It is a triumph more glorious, because far more useful to mankind, than was ever won by conqueror on the field of battle" US President James Buchanan messaged Queen Victoria in the first telegram to be exchanged in 1858.
The telegraph cable network would expand to include a connection to Cuba, Panama, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St Thomas, St Kitts, Antigua, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St Lucia, St Vincent, Barbados, Grenada, Trinidad and Demerara (now part of Guyana). It is that Trinidad to South America cable connection that has been exposed in Moruga.
In the journal of chief engineer and electrician Sir Charles Tilston Bright, the man who oversaw the laying of the cable system for the West India and Panama Telegraph Company, his visit to Moruga examines the proposed landing site is reported as September 9, 1871.
Within months of his visit, the island was connected, with it being recorded: “At Trinidad, the Demerara cable was landed at the south-east corner of the island; while the continuing section northwards to Grenada was taken from Macqueripe Bay. The connection to Port of Spain (the capital) on the west side, was made by means of a long land-line A great part of this was erected through dense forest of more than fifty miles, which had to be cleared by a small army of wood cutters for a width of at least forty feet, for a considerable distance”.
By 1910, the major countries of the world were connected, and messages that took months to send, could be transmitted in mere minutes.
What can be seen in Moruga is part of the thicker section specially designed to withstand the surf at landing sites – a cable with a core of seven copper conductor wires insulated with a type of natural latex called Gutta Percha, bound by an outer layer of steel, and encased in silica and tar, weighing sixteen tonnes to a mile.
In all, 4,200 miles of cable was laid by the West India and Panama Telegraph Company, which would come to be known as Cable and Wireless. 
Source:  The Daily Express, Jan 2019