‘Send in the clowns’ is the title of a classic song written for a play launched on Broadway all the way back in 1973. I think it should have been dusted off and polished up and used as the signature tune for the play Watson Duke is making to take …
Read More »New PSA president urges workers to ‘reject outright’ Govt vaccination policy
New Public Services Association (PSA) president Leroy Baptiste made his first public statement today, three days after taking office, and it was a call for workers to ‘reject outright the Government’s coercive attempt to force vaccination on the citizenry’. Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley announced on 18 December that, to …
Read More »Dr Rowley seeks to address rampant virus with ‘public sector safe zones’; but will Duke shoulder arms?
At just past 4pm today, the Ministry of Health reported 33 deaths from Covid-19 over the past 24 hours. And, in a statement that is likely to be lost in the shrill of responses to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s latest promised pandemic measures, chief medical officer Dr Roshan Parasram …
Read More »AG asks court to examine Duke’s THA and PSA posts, union site says political and union roles ‘inextricably linked’
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Faris Al-Rawi has turned to the High Court for an interpretation of the Tobago House of Assembly Act and, specifically, a determination as to whether Watson Duke can legally continue in his dual role of THA deputy chief secretary and Public Service Association …
Read More »Dear Editor: Could Duke keep day job if he was Massy chair? So how, Mr Weatherhead, is PSA job different?
“[…] What next Mr Weatherhead?! If we allow trade unionists to perform their full-time duties at their unions and still take up full-time jobs in the executive branch of government or in the executive of the THA, why can’t the chairperson of ANSA/McAl or the Massy Group of Companies do …
Read More »Dear Editor: Nobody can hold two full-time jobs at once; Duke should choose between PSA and THA
“[…] No matter how intelligent, resourceful, talented, creative or gifted, one individual cannot effectively and efficiently discharge the functions/duties of two full-time jobs. “[…] The Chief Secretary, in effect, would be demonstrating a stupefying lack of confidence in the other members of his team at the THA if he allows …
Read More »Dear Editor: NAR couldn’t keep pre-election promises in 1986, will the PDP be any different?
“[…] I recalled the vociferous demands and protest by the then PSA leadership [in 1986] for an increase in salaries from the Government, while the opposition National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) promised that they would implement the requested increase. “[…] Without an ounce of shame, I note the exact same …
Read More »Muhammad: Sedition charge is ‘globally embarrassing’ relic of dark ages; Griffith: Police will enforce all laws
David Muhammad: “It is globally embarrassing, socially backward, and developmentally counter-productive, for any society that promotes ideals of free speech in the 21st Century to conjure up ghosts of the intellectually dark ages of as far back as the 17th Century [such as the Sedition Act]…” Police Commissioner Gary Griffith: …
Read More »NWU: Duke detention ‘meant to intimidate and cower’ threats to ‘political elite’
“It is disturbing that the police have not made a comprehensive statement on the issue which clarifies the nature of the so-called investigation. Information in the public sphere seems to suggest that Mr [Watson] Duke is being investigated for statements made months ago and which are said to be seditious. …
Read More »Raffique rates Rowley’s Gov’t: the PNM’s inherited traps, pitfalls and own goals
I am relieved to learn that the Cabinet “retreat” in Tobago last weekend did not have, as a main item on its agenda: “Achievements of the not-so-new Government during its first six months in office.” If it did, I would have screamed bloody murder. Not to add rape of the …
Read More »Diary of a foolish genius: Fixing the passport office dilemma
Okay, I have just done some cleaning up and tossed out the garbage. How else can I make myself useful for the next few minutes? I know: how about helping to fix the passport office dilemma? This one is tricky. The passport offices are unfit for work and citizens will …
Read More »The Duke of Hazard returns
PSA President Watson Duke was back on the POS streets with a loud speaker and chip on each shoulder as he lectured on pay injustices yet found time to criticise OWTU leader Ansil Roget. Of course, Roget got his workers a nine percent increase while Duke controversially accepted five percent. …
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