Earl Best looks at the way forward for West Indies cricket

West Indies cricket remains manifestly in crisis. Not only have we been unable on the field to turn our game around and begin performing consistently like the world-beating teams of the last quarter of the last century, but beyond the boundary we have contrived to repeatedly, if not consistently, embarrass ourselves. That may not always have been the case but it now seems beyond dispute that at the heart of the matter lies the very real question of the appropriateness of the personnel entrusted with the responsibility of representing the regional interest. So it seems necessary to look at some of the choices that have been made or are being contemplated to determine whether we can reasonably expect better on the road ahead. And determine where to cast our vote when eventually we are asked to adjudicate in some form or fashion on the vital question of who we are to put in charge of our cricketing affairs.
In one sense it is already too late to take meaningful action. I refer, of course, to the fact that President Julien Hunte and his band of merry men who have bungled their way through at the helm of the sport regionally for the last two years last month contrived to get themselves re-elected to office. Given the way that organizations like the West Indies Cricket Board work, there is perhaps not a whole lot that is surprising about that. However, given their record of (not to put too fine a point on it) non-achievement, it seems inconceivable to me that their bid to retain their hold on the reins should never have gone unopposed. It did—despite a plan, we learned from WICB Director Joel Garner, hatched by the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board to unseat the incumbents.
According to the former fast bowler, he was approached by Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board President, Deryck Murray, to accept nomination as a candidate for the vice-presidency, then as now the preserve of Dave Cameron. Wary of getting embroiled in some underhand scheme unsanctioned by the duly elected representatives, Garner insisted that he would do no such thing unless he could get the backing of the Barbados Cricket Association for the move. When such sanction was not forthcoming, he declined the nomination. Meanwhile Murray, expected to oppose Hunte for the post of President, also withdrew from the race although it is not clear whether that was also because he could not get the backing of the TTCB. Now the question arises about whether Murray’s approach to Garner was a personal initiative or whether he was acting on instructions from his board. Put another way, why did the approach not come from the TTCB to the BCA rather than from Murray to Garner? At a media conference called to announce the TTCB’s intention to boycott the WICB August Annual General Meeting, the former West Indies vice-captain was asked about his designs on the presidency of the regional board. He never quite tackled that question head on. His response was to categorically deny that the decision not to attend the meeting had to do with anything other than the TTCB’s dissatisfaction with the way the current board has been managing the region’s affairs. Given the situation of the game in the region at the moment, he insisted, it could not be simply “business as usual”.
“I want to be clear,” Murray said. “This is not a threat to the unity of West Indies cricket . . . In this time of crisis, we cannot afford to sit back and keep doing the same things over and over again. That is not doing anything for our cricket. Our hope is that this move could be the catalyst for the change of West Indies cricket at the top.
“They must understand that we, the board and the people of Trinidad and Tobago, expect and demand that things be done differently from here on in.”

Meaning, I think, that we have not heard the last of Deryck Murray as a candidate for the presidency of the West Indies Cricket Board. Thickening the plot is the idea that has been floating around—though it was never quite pulled out of the closet at the media conference—that T&T might consider applying for Test cricket status. Though there are those who consider the idea nothing short of laughable, there are apparently those who seriously champion the cause. These proponents point to the fact that the local Board’s administrative track record has been exemplary since Murray’s Friends of Cricket won promotion to the formal leadership of the organization. More than a few paeans of praise have since been sung to the new levels of efficiency brought to the operation by Murray, CEO Forbes Persaud and company, which has seen the country almost always among the major prizes in regional competition over the last five years or so. After a longish drought, the trophy cupboards are now overflowing. Continued success at regional level, it seems, can be taken to mean likely success at Test level and since the current Test team has not enjoyed such success . . . Questionable as is that logic, the idea is not going to be allowed to go away, at least not if “we, the Board and the people of Trinidad & Tobago” have our way.
Another recent development is likely to add fuel to the insular flames. Shortly after last month’s AGM which followed the defeat of the third string by Bangladesh, the Board announced that Coach John Dyson has been sacked and will be replaced—temporarily—by his assistant David Williams. It was arguably Dyson’s influence that allowed Chris Gayle’s side to score a 1–0 upset of England in the Caribbean and temporarily regain the Wisden Trophy. Now months later, after the ignominious whitewash by Test cricket’s minnows, Dyson was deemed to be no longer serving his purpose and was to yield the position to the former Trinidad and Tobago wicketkeeper who will be considered for a full-time appointment. With the Board chary about hiring another foreign coach, former T&T and West Indies opener, Phil Simmons, who had had a fairly successful stint with Zimbabwe, is also expected to be in the running for the full-time position.
I hold no brief for the former Australia batsman and Sri Lanka coach who replaced his unpopular compatriot Bennett King in 2007. But it seems to me that there we have not heard nearly enough about the reasons for the termination of his contract.
Word on the streets is that this was the payback for the horrible error Dyson made during the England tour that cost Gayle’s team the rain-affected 1st ODI in Providence but that can hardly be taken seriously. A popular radio commentator suggested to Garner in a phone interview that the real reason the Board had finally got rid of Dyson was that he had consistently refused to sign his contract, dissatisfied as he continued to be with the terms offered him. Garner declined comment. Whatever the real reasons, it seems to me that there is a serious question to be answered before any decision is taken on Dyson’s replacement. We need to ask ourselves, I submit, whether the coach needs to be replaced? Are we gaining anything from the presence of a coach? And no less important can a coach offer any meaningful help to a third-rate team comprising a bunch of largely inexperienced players who are unsure that they enjoy the support of their colleagues or even of their countrymen? Is that not what former West Indies keeper Jeff Dujon meant when he declared recently that “no coach in the world can help the West Indies”? So the question here for the moment should be not so much who we go put, as should we for the moment put anyone?
But when it comes to the September 22 to October 5 Champions Trophy competition in South Africa, the WICB is clearly in no doubt as to the answer to the question of who we go put. Although the “first team,” the players who were originally selected to oppose Bangladesh but at the last minute made themselves unavailable, indicated that they would be willing to make the trip, the Board retained the services of the players who had played against Bangladesh. Floyd Reifer, who did not distinguish himself by his batting or his leadership against Bangladesh, was retained, maybe even to his surprise, as captain. It has to be said that his was not an easy task but the cares of the captaincy always seemed to sit heavily on Reifer’s shoulders although the Bangladeshis are hardly the most redoubtable opponents in the word. How much greater is the Barbadian’s discomfiture likely to be, how much greater his struggles when the opposition is Australia, Pakistan and India as will be the case in South Africa? I suppose one might argue that the Board could hardly have been expected to reward Gayle and the players who let us all down by selecting them for the plum assignment. Still, glorious uncertainties notwithstanding, I am betting that we are headed not just for embarrassment but for major humiliation come September 23 (Pakistan in Johannesburg ), September 26 (Australia) and September 30 (India).
There is also a need to answer the question of who we go put once the Champions Trophy distraction is out of the way and we consider the medium and long-term picture. Australia are next up on the menu for an away assignment towards the end of the year and, whatever happens in South Africa, they will still be smarting from the loss of the Ashes to an, arguably weaker, England team.

Taking them on will be no assignment for tyros. Their demanding supporters will not be satisfied with anything less than a comprehensive defeat of whatever team the West Indies can muster so as to reassert their once unquestioned dominance of the Test scene. It is to be hoped that the mediator will have been able to bring everyone to their senses long before the team to take on the Aussies lands Down Under in mid-November but we have had major surprises in this regard before. For that reason, it is essential to deal with the underlying causes of the problem and not just the symptoms.
There is little doubt in my mind that until and unless there is change at the level of the WICB, the causes will remain untouched. Much is being made of the Patterson report that has been collecting dust somewhere in the administrative offices of the WICB. Many authoritative voices have weighed in to say that salvation has to begin with the implementation of the recommendation therein contained. I do not know. Maybe. What is certain is that there are no easy answers. For all its insights, the Patterson report is already years old and in this dynamic situation it may already be outdated, at least partially. There has to be a complete commitment on the part of all stakeholders to the task of saving West Indies cricket. For me complete commitment does not allow for staying out of the discussion. It does not allow for raising your hands and saying that for years you have tried to talk so you do not want to talk any more. Talk, as Lloyd Best was fond of saying, is action, particularly when one finds oneself in a crisis situation.
So I hope someone can convince Messrs Murray, Persaud and company of that. There are some of us who are also concerned to see change in West Indies cricket at the bottom, not just at the top. And we Trinidadians and Tobagonians who want to see West Indies cricket return to some kind of position of which we can all be proud may well have to pose for ourselves with regard to the administration of our cricketing affairs the question of who we go put.

West Indies squad for the Champions Trophy: Floyd Reifer (capt), Darren Sammy, David Bernard, Tino Best, Royston Crandon, Travis Dowlin, Andre Fletcher, Nikita Miller, Daren Powell, Kieran Powell, Dale Richards, Kemar Roach, Devon Smith, Gavin Tonge, Chadwick Walton (wk).

By Gregory McGuire

Today is budget day and all of Trinidad and Tobago will wait in anticipation for what has become the most important economic statement from the Government. By this time, most of the national stakeholders such as the private sector chambers, umbrella trade union bodies and other civil society institutions would have submitted their respective proposals to the Government for consideration. In keeping with the spirit of Budget season, it would be worthwhile to share my perspective on some of the essential elements of Budget 2009–10.
First, Government must acknowledge the true state of the economy, including a report on the realised hydrocarbon prices and revenue for the last fiscal year.  Government must recognise that while the economy is, indeed, stronger today than when it faced the post-boom recession of the 1980s , there can be no denying that it remains highly vulnerable to both fiscal and balance of payments dislocation. This is the nature of the beast, and despite the rapid expansion and diversification within the energy sector (offshore), the economy remains vulnerable.
The greatest risk, to both Government revenue and the external account lies in the condition of markets for our major resource based export commodities—oil, gas and petrochemicals. Crude oil prices have stabilised and, with the resumption of growth in the major consuming countries, coupled with sustained discipline on the part of OPEC, it is reasonable to expect some uplift over the next fiscal year. The markets for petrochemicals have also stabilised at closer to average long-run prices.
An entirely different picture emerges in the natural gas market. The outlook for natural gas prices particularly in the USA, remain dismal. In August, natural gas prices had slumped to below US 3.00 /mmbtu, its lowest level in seven years. The market has been hit by three negative forces: a dramatic decline in global industrial demand for natural gas and electricity; an expected surge in liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, and an unexpected surge in North American unconventional gas supply. While the cyclical factors—demand destruction—will reverse, analysts are bearish on the prospects for an immediate balancing of the structural changes on the supply side. Moreover, the excess supply is likely to pull prices down in all markets—not just the USA. Market conditions suggest a conservative price peg of US$50/bbl (WTI) for oil and US$3.00 per Mcf (Henry Hub) for natural gas, which would yield effective fair-market values at well head of approximately US$ 40.00 for oil and US$ 1.60/mcf for gas .
Revenues from the energy sector, which constitute over 55 per cent of total Government revenue, will also be impacted negatively by a 5 percent decline in oil production, and the introduction of a new fiscal regime, with a lower Government take. Government can also expect lower non-energy revenues as a result of lower returns from significant contributors like NGC and reduced collections in VAT and Customs and Excise duties in light of the “deep economic slowdown”. In summary, the evidence suggests that Government would be hard pressed to obtain revenues in excess of TT$40 billion in the next fiscal year.
This means that for the first time in a decade Government expenditure is facing a revenue constraint. The Government has been the conduit through which energy sector revenues are pumped into the economy, thereby stimulating more broad based economic growth. Government expenditure skyrocketed from $15.3 billion in 2003 to $45.8 billion in 2008, an average increase of 24 percent per year, as Government took advantage of increased revenues to meet its social and economic objectives.
In the context of lower revenue projection, Government has two choices. It may seek to maintain expenditure at 2008–09 levels by drawing down savings and or borrowing to make up the deficit.
This was the approach taken at the end of the first oil boom in 1983, when the Government attempted to bring the economy to a “soft landing”. The result was a rapid drawdown on special funds until all were exhausted by 1986, to pave the way for the IMF in 1988. Alternatively, Government may choose the more difficult option to cut expenditure through a variety of carefully crafted strategies, aimed at striking the right balance among competing needs.

A more conservative approach to spending may yield several benefits. First, it permits a slowing of the economy to more manageable growth trajectory that is consistent with its absorptive capacity, thus reducing inflationary pressures.
Secondly it provides the opportunity for saving in the event that prices in commodity markets turn out better than budgeted. Thirdly, it compels Government to prioritise and sequence its expenditure programme, and sends the correct signal to the population.
The necessary prioritisation and rationalisation of expenditure should be informed by an unbiased assessment of our social conditions. It has become the norm in past budgets to trumpet the known successes such as rising GDP/capita, lower unemployment, free education from nursery to tertiary, free health care and medication for chronic ailments. These are often used as indicators of progress on the road to towards “developed country status”. But there are several other Human Development Indicators, which, when compared with comparator countries, show that Trinidad and Tobago may be now further removed from developed country status than when we started the Vision 2020 journey in 2003. The most obvious are with respect to crime, health and provision of public utilities, particularly water.
For instance, whereas Trinidad and Tobago outperformed Barbados in GDP/capita, the latter retained its Human Development Rank 31 while T&T slipped nine places to 59. In 2008, the infant mortality rate in Trinidad and Tobago was 23.59 deaths per 1000,000 live births, compared with 11.05 in Barbados and just 3.65 in Singapore. T&T growing reputation as a dangerous place to be is borne out by the data on homicides which shows the wide gap between this country and others. In 2007 our homicide rate climbed to 43 per 100,000, compared with 10 in Barbados and less than 1 in Singapore.

These are just a few indicators of the extent to which the human/services side of development has been sacrificed in the quest for economic growth. Inefficiencies in water distribution, transportation systems, air and sea bridge, drainage and health add to the frustrations experienced daily by citizens.
This situation demands a reordering of priorities so that greater emphasis and resources can be placed into addressing areas in which T&T lags behind.
The fiscal challenge for Government in 2009–10 is to strike the right balance between competing needs. Indeed this is not unique to the current fiscal year but remains standard practice for a hydrocarbon-dominated economy. In the traditional sense, a balance budget refers simply to the tailoring of expenditure to match the available revenues. A much broader concept of balance is advocated here. It comprises four dimensions: economic, social, geographic and inter-generational.
The economic balance requires the Finance Minister to take into consideration several imperatives. The primary consideration will have to be avoiding an escalation in the levels of unemployment while at the same time dodging inflation and preparing the economy for sustainable long term growth. Another consideration is the allocation of state resources between the energy sector and the non-energy sector.
If employment generation is its primary objective, it would be wise for Government to put its weight behind the latter i.e non-energy or the onshore economy. This may mean that Government will have to specifically target its expenditure and/or incentives package to stimulate output in sectors that (a) have a high local content and (b) boost domestic demand. Agriculture, tourism and construction are perhaps the likely candidates. This may well mean deferral and or cancellation of prestigious projects—rapid rail and the industrial island in the Gulf, both of which are of questionable economic import at this time.
On the revenue side of the equation, some short-term gains may be accomplished by simply increasing the efficiency of the tax collections. Reports suggest that the long awaited revised fiscal package for the energy sector will be introduced in the next Budget. It is hoped that this will yield increased activity in Exploration and Production, eventually boosting output and exports. Only time will tell the output elasticity of these measures.
The social balance refers to the quality and effectiveness of social services: education, health security, sport, culture and the arts. These areas have received generous levels of transfers over the last five years. The problem is that the outputs have been less than satisfactory. In the context of the projected revenue constraints of 2009–10 Government needs to (a) place greater emphasis on improving service delivery and (b) impose penalties for non compliance. For example, there is little doubt that the crime problem is aggravated by low detection and conviction rates. The data shows little evidence that the billions spent on sophisticated technological solutions (Blimp etc), have made an impact of the spiraling crime rate. A much less expensive option seems to be an increase in manpower levels in the police service and the magistracy, backed up by tougher legislation and swift justice for firearms offences.
Each year the Tobago House of Assembly puts forward an annual Budget laying its claim to the size of the pie. However, the question of geographic equity is hardly ever spoken about in Trinidad. Government expenditure in Trinidad and Tobago has had an urban bias historically. In the last, five years we have witnessed the greatest ever concentration of spending in the capital and urban Trinidad.
While the quest to build the most modern city in the Caribbean, such aspiration ought not to be at the expense of the rest of the country. The urban renewal thrust has been accompanied by increasing urbanisation with all its attendant ills—including distorted real estate prices, inflated rents, urban ghettoes, and urban crime.
In contrast, most rural communities are in a state of stagnation or slow deterioration, with century-old schools, limited water supply, poor roads and bridges, dilapidated community centres, and poor or nonexistent recreation facilities. These communities also have the highest levels of unemployment, although in the case of the South West and South East communities providing the country with a substantial amount of its wealth. This emerging trend will only intensify if a conscious effort is not made by Government to balance the geographic spread of its expenditure.
An important initiative in this regard will be the construction of major cross-country highways linking city to country and cutting travel time between extreme points to less than two hours. Such projects can yield multiple social and economic benefits. The shifting of certain Government Ministries—e.g. Agriculture; Labour; Education; Sport and Youth—from the capital city to other town centres will also assist in reducing congestion, promoting commercial activity and employment in other town centers.
Inter–generational balance addresses the issue of the distribution of natural resources wealth across generations.
Oil and gas are depleting resources. Each unit used today is unavailable to the people of tomorrow. In order to accomplish some degree of intergenerational balance, part of today’s output must be reserved for tomorrow, regardless of the level of prices.
As I have argued elsewhere, the concept of a single Heritage and Stabilization Fund (HSF) with two purposes but common rules of accrual and withdrawal is flawed.
Savings for heritage is very much like saving for pension. It is deliberate and happens regardless of the level of income (price). Savings for stabilisation is discretionary and dependant on hydrocarbon prices. The recent announcement of the Minister of Finance that no allocation will be made to the HSF for the fiscal year 2008–09 was not a surprise.
What is required is a amendment to the HSF Act that make savings for heritage a mandatory five per cent of annual energy income, irrespective of price. When buttressed by stringent rules of withdrawal, the heritage portion of the Fund will accumulate annually and over time will build up to serve the needs of the future.

PM Patrick Manning reveals his views on constitution reform and on the White Paper issued in the name of his round table of experts on the subject
By Mickey Matthews

The best way to deal with an institution we may be unable to change—given the Constitution-amending majority required—is to fully understand its scope, the better to adapt our practices. It is for this reason that we must be grateful to Mr Manning for airing his views on the presidency as explicitly as he did in Point Fortin.
The Prime Minister began his exposition with a long but hurried dissertation on the Divine Rights of Kings. The main point he sought to make was that these rights, which stemmed from the belief existing then that Kings got their mandate to rule from above, were discarded by the end of the 17th century after England had beheaded two Kings, and was replaced by the concept of governments which are popularly elected. He then skipped to the Republican Constitution of 1976 and its provision for the office of the President which replaced that of the Governor General of the 1962 Independence Constitution. He described the office as largely ceremonial but with a residue of unfettered executive powers in some critical areas, namely the appointment of the Chief Justice, the head of the public service, the judicial and legal service commissions, the police service and teaching commissions, the Public Service Appeal Board, the Election and Boundaries Commission, the Integrity Commission and the Auditor General. He said the President exercises these powers without being popularly elected or accountable, and his actions in the conduct of these duties cannot be investigated in a court of law.
Manning said he became apprehensive of these powers when his Government wanted to remove Occah Seepaul, the truculent Speaker of the House, for which it felt it needed a limited State of Emergency. The Constitution dictates that the State of Emergency could only be instituted through a request by the Prime Minister to the President. What if, he wondered, the President refuses? His fear that it could be an embarrassing rebuff for which he had no immediate recourse, was confirmed when both the Commander of the Army and Chief of Police responded to his hypothetical question of whether he could secure their services by going over the head of the President, by saying that they were obliged by their oath to take instructions from the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. As Leader of the Opposition he drew Prime Minister Panday’s attention to the possibility of the President refusing to accede to a legitimate request from the Prime Minister on an issue, in which the constitutional expectation was for a timely affirmative response, and forced Panday to contemplate what turned out to be his impending haplessness.
The first thing to be said of all of this is that, by juxtaposition, Manning has compared the powers of the President with the anachronistic Divine Rights of Kings. He has held that view long before Panday had his run-in with President Robinson, from which the PNM benefited—indeed, long before Robinson had given him the Prime Ministership after the 18–18 tie, on grounds that are arbitrary. If Manning is taken at his word, he has answered comprehensively to the popular perception that he has been driven in this matter of the Presidency by impulses that are less than altruistic. This perception, however, is not likely to go away and remains important purely on that account.
Another point that needs to be noted is that of Manning’s 17th-century point of departure, taking on board the Magna Carta and Montesquieu luggage when he could have taken a route that was more immediate, without sacrificing the long view. It would have been less pompous and more meaningful had he recognized that that century of English political ferment constitutes the backdrop to the beginnings of the political system in the post-Columbus Caribbean. If the Divine Rights of Kings have any relevance at all it is because the Governor who presided over the system represented its embodiment, subject only to the prerogatives of the Crown. He was head of the Executive, head of the Administration (civil service) and head of the Judiciary. And it was the   backdrop which provided favourable conditions for the evolution of the system so that before the century was out West Indian parliaments emerged which stripped the Governor of these powers and reduced him to the status of a ceremonial monarch, just as the King of England had become. As conducive as political conditions were for the stripping of the powers of the Governor they were equally as conducive to their restoration. The balance of power swung repeatedly between the Governor and the representative assembly. That is what happened in Nevis, St Lucia, St Kitts, Antigua, Barbados and Jamaica where the modern West Indian system of government and politics found its beginning.
It is this dynamic between government and administration on the one hand and politics and representation on the other which has driven the development of our political system. Trinidad’s (not Tobago’s) political system started as the classic Crown Colony, that is, one administered from the Colonial Office without representative institutions.  The pendulum had swung toward the Governor (government and administration) and away from the representative assembly (politics) in the aftermath of the Morant Bay rebellion. By the time Dr Williams arrived in 1956, however, the swing was in the direction of politics once more, so that the PNM administration that came to power had to be vetted by the parliament, then called the Legislative Council. Ministers elected by parliament are unthinkable today in our political system. What that means is that the 1962 Independence Constitution has swung the balance to highly centralised administration and there it has remained, although the upheaval of the young black generation of 1970 and the upheaval within the executive thrown up by the parliament of 1995, threatened the entire operation.
It was in response to tremors from below about the concentration of power in the hands of the administration now defined as the State, caused by the Black Power Movement, that Williams established the Wooding Commission on Constitution Reform. The provision of the 1976 Republican Constitution which established the presidency was devised by Williams to pretend that he had devolved power, confident that Sir Ellis Clarke, the inaugural President, was his man and was sure to do his bidding.
Though not quite the deus ex machina, Manning seems to be treating the office of the President as an improvisation which worked smoothly as long as Williams was there. The office of the President was quite effective in facilitating a smooth transition to the Chambers regime, but since then we have been treated largely to its unintended consequences.  Manning, by his own account, has been prescient about the implosion within the executive, though Clarke’s dust-up with Robinson was certainly prologue. The main plot pitted President Robinson against Prime Minister Panday and introduced politics to the corridors of government and administration, in a brief season of optimism which left regional leaders nervous about another swing of the pendulum. But swing it did not, because Robinson was just too innocent of the culture over which he presided.
Manning’s proposal to return to the Independence Constitution as a course of remedy betrays this dangerous innocence, and is every bit as self serving as was the provision it wishes to address.

By Basil A. Ince

Sprinters from the Caribbean archipelago rose phoenix-like from the ashes of World War II. In the very first Olympic Games that took place in bomb-scarred London in 1948, Caribbean sprinters announced themselves. Emmanuel McDonald Bailey, Herbert McKenley, and Arthur Wint rose to the occasion to put the region on the world’s sprinting map. Bailey, representing Britain, finished sixth in the 100m; McKenley, fourth in the 200m and second in the 400m; Leslie Laing, sixth in the 200m, and Wint, first in the 400m. In the 1600m at those games, George Rhoden, Laing, Wint, and McKenley, all Jamaicans, joined forces to challenge the powerhouse of track, the United States. That attempt failed when Wint, running the third leg, flew into the air, and then to the ground, felled by a cramp. McKenley never received the baton. Four years later the same team won gold.
Bailey of Trinidad and Tobago, McKenley, Wint, and Rhoden went on to become household names in the world of athletics. Bailey, a world record holder in the 100m, entered the Guinness Book of World Records; McKenley became a gold medallist, world record-holder in the 400m, and the only individual in Olympic history to make a final in the 100m, 200m, and the 400m; Wint a double gold medallist and twice runner-up in the 800m; and Rhoden, a double gold medallist and world record-holder in the 400m. These were the warriors in spikes who were the forerunners to the Usain Bolts, Asafa Powells, and Richard Thompsons, all stars at Beijing. The stars of 1948 and those of 2008 only provide the bookends to the plethora of Caribbean sprinters who have littered the international track scene in those 60 years. In between are Lennox Miller, Hasely Crawford, Don Quarrie, Wendell Mottley, Ed Roberts, Bert Cameron, and Ato Boldon.
Today, on the distaff side, the tracks are packed with Jamaican women wearing the gold and green. These are the current powerhouses in sprinting: Shelly-Ann Fraser, Kerron Stewart, Veronica Campbell, Sherone Simpson, and Melaine Walker, all gold and silver medallists. They built on the shoulders of their compatriots Cynthia Thompson, Merlene Ottey, Grace Jackson, Juliet Cuthbert, and Deon Hemmings. Determined not to be left behind, the Bahamian women, Debbie Ferguson, Chandra Sturrup, Pauline Davis -Thompson, and Tonique Williams-Darling jumped into the fray.
But the athletes from the English speaking nations are not the only ones drinking Caribbean water. The Cubans, Enrique Figuerola, Pablo Montes, Silvio Leonard, Alberto Juantorena, all sprinters, and Alejandro Casanas, Anier Garcia and Dayron Robles, sprinter hurdlers, are also helping themselves to the liquid. Silvia Chivas and Ana Fidelia Quirot have led the women in track but the Cuban women have done exceedingly well in the field events.
Caribbean athletes have always held their own at the quadrennial Olympics, but the year 1976 was an exceptional year for them when they won gold in four events: the three sprints and the 800m. Hasely Crawford of Trinidad and Tobago, Don Quarrie, Jamaica, and Alberto Juantorena of Cuba won the 100m and 200m respectively, while Juantorena was a double medallist in the 400m and 800m. The above record indicates that Caribbean sprinters, especially the men, have been generally at the starting line in the sprints when the starter barks, “On your marks.” But something strange happened for the first time in Beijing. When the pistol reported in the 100m, six Caribbean finalists out of the eight-man field rocketed towards the finish line. Just as 1976, Caribbean sprinters ran 1–2. In 2008, however, Usain Bolt set a new world and Olympic record: 9.69. In the 200m, Bolt set another world and Olympic record with a clocking of 19.30, smashing Michael Johnson’s record of 19.32.
This brings us to the just concluded World Championships in Berlin where Caribbean runners excelled and the national team had superb performances from several members. The remainder of this article will concentrate on the latest sensation, Usain Bolt, and the performances of the national team in the context of 2012 in London.

Usain Bolt performed just as he had done in Beijing. Well, not exactly. Again he won two races, set two new world records, and ran on the winning Jamaican relay squad which did not set a world record on this occasion. His obliteration of the 100m and 200m marks drew raves. Hans Eriksen, a Norweigian physicist at the Institute of Astrophysics at the University of Norway, and his colleagues were not surprised at Bolt’s new 100m record. Eriksen had analysed TV footage of the Beijing 100m, focusing on Bolt’s position, speed, and acceleration, as well as that of runner-up Richard Thompson. Eriksen then agreed with Bolt’s coach that if the speedster had not slowed down to celebrate 20m before the tape, he could have run 9.55. Instead, Bolt ran 9.58 and broke his old record by 0.11 seconds. He covered the distance in 41 strides compared to Tyson Gay’s 44 ½. His reaction time was 0.146 seconds, good for him, but it was faster than only Burns’ and Patton’s of the United States. Richard Thompson, the fastest starter, had a reaction time of 0.119.
The first man to run under 9.6, Bolt, a consumer of chicken nuggets, hit the 20m mark in 2.89 and was already in the lead. He covered the 60m mark in 6.31, faster than Maurice Greene’s indoor record of 6.39. Bolt’s 100m, considered the greatest athletic performance ever, was watched by 3.3 million viewers on BBC2 channel. Those who believed that the easy-going Bolt would relax in the 200m because his chief opponent, Tyson Gay was not running, were sorely mistaken. When the 200m was over, he had again obliterated his Beijing record of 19.30 seconds and replaced it with 19.19. Many began to believe that the 19-second barrier is in jeopardy.
Usain Bolt is a boon for athletics which has been under a dark cloud due to drug abuse in recent times. Drug cheats have made many lose confidence in the sport. Bolt, hopefully, could dispel the notion that drug abuse is rampant in his sport and that athletes are capable of great performances while competing clean. The encomiums for Bolt have been coming almost as fast as Bolt runs. One commentator trumpeted that Bolt has “redefined the sport and with it transposed himself into a sports advertising superstar.” Another offered that he had “entered the pantheon of global sports icons.” A final comment talked about Bolt redefining speed in general. These laudatory comments are showered on Bolt not only because of his feats but also because of the manner in which he accomplishes them. He is very relaxed on the field when all other athletes are uptight. He waves to and establishes contact with the crowd. When he came to the stadium wearing a training jersey with the words, “Ich bin ein Berlino,” the crowd appreciated Kennedy’s Cold War line, with a twist to the bear mascot of the championships called Berlino. Appreciative of Bolt’s popularity at the games, the mayor of Berlin has given the lanky Jamaican a piece of the Berlin Wall, 12 feet tall, four feet wide, and weighing 1.7 tons to take home. The wall, bearing a replica of Bolt, will be shipped to Jamaica.
A recent study by some professors published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, concludes that height, a major factor in athletics, will enhance performances so that there is a substantial improvement in virtually every sport. Noting the increasing height of athletes by researching the heights of earlier Olympic winners, they hold that these comparable giants will jump higher, run faster, and even hit harder in boxing. They noted that Roger Federer (tennis), Tiger Woods (golf), Carl Lewis (athletics), and Muhammad Ali and George Foreman (boxing) are all over six feet tall. Bolt, of course, is 6’ 5’’.
The national contingent at the World Championships in Berlin are to be congratulated for their sterling performance. They came away with a silver in the 4×100m relay to add to their Beijing performance, a bronze in the 400m (Rennie Quow), a bronze in the 400m hurdles for women (Josanne Lucas), a fourth in the 400m hurdles (Jehue Gordon) a fifth and seventh in the 100m (Richard Thompson and Marc Burns), and finalists in the women’s 400m relay. This was definitely Trinidad and Tobago’s best showing at the World Championships and it ranks as one of the nation’s best showings in world class athletics. The team came away with as many medals as the 1964 Olympic team and placed more athletes in finals than the warriors in 1964.
This team broke new ground. Firstly, a woman won a track medal in a meet surpassed in quality by only the Olympic Games. One would have to scour the records to find a woman athlete who had won such a medal in big time competition. Thora Best won a bronze way back at the Pan American Games in 1967 in the 80m hurdles. Interestingly, the only two track medals won by women in individual events in big time meets, are in hurdle events. This should provide some encouragement to track women who began to attend international meets long after men.

Phenomenal is the word to be used in the case of 17-year old Jehue Gordon’s fourth place in the 400m hurdles. His was an outstanding performance in one of the most difficult of track events. Running the 400m without barriers is difficult enough; doing it with barriers is simply awesome. If he continues like this, he will definitely pose a serious threat to the top rankers in this event at London in 2012. His maturity and experience will serve him in good stead.
Quow’s medal in the 400m was the result of a superb effort. His finalist status at Beijing and his medal in Berlin stamp him as one of the world’s ranking 400m men. At his age, he too is well positioned to challenge the top tier men over 400m in London. Not only will he be in his prime then but he will have accumulated some more experience. I noted that he ran a 200m recently. That was a good idea and should be repeated in as many meets as possible so that he can stay up with the quickies over the first 200m. His coach will certainly tell him that the first 200m is the faster split and will account for a faster time. Moreover, it will keep him within striking distance for the run home.
Richard Thompson need not apologize for his fifth place showing. His preparation was hindered by his accident early in the season. He has struck me as a very dependable runner and his start is always excellent. His reaction time in both Beijing and Berlin was the fastest on both occasions. In top condition, he will have no problem coping with the cream in the 100m.
Josanne Lucas is primed to be at her peak for 2012. To some extent her performance then will depend on the quality of competition she will have in the intervening years. Make no mistake, she is a gritty runner who could be even more than Trinidad and Tobago’s first woman Olympic finalist.
Not much need be said about the men’s relay team. It is now a recognized class act on the international scene. The women will have to start putting some bodies in the 100m final if the team is to improve. All in all, Berlin was a superb experience for all concerned. The athletes and their coaches need to be congratulated. London beckons.

By Ato Boldon

Rennie Quow

The 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics are now over, and as I board the flight for the long trip back to Florida, I am still on high, and why wouldn’t I be? When considering top sporting events in 2009, I would put this year’s biennial gathering of track and field’s best at the top of the list, against any sporting event globally. People who love track and field could not have asked for more, and if you are a Caribbean track and field fan, it was a banner year.

Josanne Lucas
When I made my picks on August 4th, my fellow pundits and experts e-mailed me back and forth to ridicule my pick for bronze in the women’s 400m hurdles as one which smacked of home-team bias. They weren’t laughing on August 21st. I never make picks based on my passport. Lucas had been consistent all season long, and is well coached at Auburn by Henry Rolle (of the Bahamas!). Lucas has become the biggest female track star for Trinidad and Tobago, becoming the first woman to make a global final and also the first ever to earn a medal in a Worlds or Olympics for us.

Jehue Gordon
I have been broadcasting while six world-record races have fallen in the past 15 months, starting with Usain Bolt’s 9.72 world record for 100m in New York in May of 2008, through his three world records in Beijing and his two in Berlin at these games. Never before have I had to physically restrain myself from screaming at a performance on air over the play-by-play announcer—until Jehue Gordon, he of the 1982 birth year, making him 17 at race time, came off of the final turn in the final of the men’s 400m hurdles final in Berlin and made a move to pass Trini-born Kerron Clement, who was on his way to being a two-time world champion. A Herculean lean by 2005 World champion Bershawn Jackson of the USA for third kept Gordon off of the podium, but it was one of the best runs by a teen at the entire world championships. Besides being the best single performance by a junior athlete in the history of our country, it also immediately gets added to that list that exists somewhere of the greatest athletic performances by T&T nationals, ever. Lara, Crawford, Stewart, Pierre, Bovell, Thompson—make room!

Trinidad and Tobago Men’s/Women’s 4×100m relay
The women’s 4×100 relay broke through in a big way by making a global final. They were only seventh, but this is a very young team that has to pay its dues—as did the men’s team in the Olympics in 2000. A female T&T relay team, in any relay event, had never before appeared in any relay finals in a Worlds or Olympics. The men, though, were the story here, giving Olympic champ and world-record holder Jamaica all it could handle, all the way around the track, and becoming the third fastest country at this distance, even while earning yet another silver medal. Only the USA and Jamaica have ever run this event faster. Trinidad and Tobago has now become the most consistent team of the decade in the 4×100m relay, with silver medals from Worlds or Olympics in 2001, 2005, 2008 and 2009, and seventh in 2004. For a team with no sprint relay finals appearances ever prior to 2001, this is simply astounding.

Renny Quow
When he made the final in Beijing last year, he caught the attention of many as a name for the future, as he was just 20 years old. The future of Trinidad and Tobago 400m running is here, now. Quow improved more than any other world-class quarter-miler in the world, and is now the second fastest in our country’s history. In taking third in Berlin, he earned our first-ever medal at the world championships in this event, ending a 26-year drought, as well as bringing home our first medal in this event at a global final since Wendell Mottley at the 1964 Olympics, 45 years ago.

Ryan Brathwaite
Barbados, in its history, never had a World Champion or Olympic champion on the track. They have a world champion now, in the 110m hurdles. Not unlike Jehue Gordon, Brathwaite has never been in a global final before, but you couldn’t tell in Berlin. Despite hitting the first hurdle hard, he held his poise and then out-leaned seasoned veterans at the line to create history for both the Caribbean and Barbados; save for Cuba, no Caribbean island had ever before won a hurdles world title. The fact that Brathwaite is only 21 is the best part of his entire championship performance. The Bajans have a new star.

Jamaica
Their anthem played at the Berlin Olympic stadium last week like it was a “dub plate”. They won the 100m and 200m for men and women, going 1–2 for the women, and 1–3 for the men. They won both versions of the 4×100m relay—men and women. Throw in a 400m hurdle win and a 100m hurdle win on the women’s side and you still don’t get a sense of how much they dominated the featured events in Berlin. Don’t listen to the so-called experts who say they only got second on the medal table. From a country of under three million people, they bring a small team from which everyone is expected to medal or be in the final, and almost all of them did. By any measure, they dominated even more than they did in Beijing, and some thought Beijing was the exception. Looks like the new rule to me.

Usain Bolt
My job as a broadcaster is to predict, educate and entertain. Having Usain Bolt on the track in front of makes this the best job in the world, because he creates history every time he runs, and even people who have never watched track are watching now to see the young lad from Trelawny’s exploits. In Berlin, though, I felt the way Motown employee Suzanne DePasse must have felt watching a young Michael Jackson perform for her for the first time: “There is nothing anyone can say, or do, that can stop talent of that magnitude.” In Beijing, although he was heavily favoured to win, he took us all a bit by surprise with his ability to respond to pressure and still surpass our expectations. Berlin, though, confirmed for me what I suspected after Beijing—that in the same way we now look back at old footage of the greats like Jesse Owens from 73 years ago, so too will future generations look back at what Bolt is doing now with reverence and awe.
If you have never seen Bolt run in person, check the 2010 track and field schedule, see where he is scheduled to run, and get a ticket to go see him. It is the only way that you can see tens of thousands of people, kings, queens, presidents, dignitaries, people young and old, many of whom thought they had “seen it all” in their lives already, gasp aloud as someone performs, and then stand slack-jawed, hands-on-head, as what they have just witnessed slowly starts to sink in after he has crossed the line.
He is simply the best thing to happen to track and field in my lifetime.

By Reay Greaves

Trinidad and Tobago
• Budget proposals for the fiscal year 2009–2010, will be read in Parliament on September 7, three days after the opening of the new parliamentary term.

 • The National Flour Mills (NFM) has posted a half-year after-tax profit of $0.4 million for the half-year period ending on June 30, 2009.

• The Central Bank announced that headline inflation fell to 8.4 percent on a year-on-year basis in June, from 10.3 percent in May. This was the first time in the past year that inflation had reached single digits.

 • The Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Commerce and the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers’ Association say they are concerned about the decision by one of the country’s biggest shipping lines to increase its demurrage fees. As a result of this hike, prices of goods and services will likely increase in the lead-up to Christmas. (Demurrage is a charge required as compensation for the delay of a ship, freight car or other cargo beyond its scheduled time of departure.)

• The ANSA McAl conglomerate recorded a 0.5 per cent (estimated $7.5 million) increase in its profit margins for the year thus far, when compared to last year. However, the conglomerate saw the group’s top line turnover go down by 6.8 per cent.

• First Citizens and Scotiabank reduced their prime lending rate to 11.50 and 11.75 percent respectively, from 11.75 and 12 percent.

• Scotiabank reported total assets of $16.8 billion and an after-tax profit of $330 million as it completed its third fiscal quarter at the end of July.

• For the first half of 2009, Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL) reported a decline in revenue of $153 million—a 14 percent decline when compared to the same period in 2008. Group chairman, Andy Bhajan, and group chief executive, Rollin Betrand, blamed the economic downturn for the decline.

• While most companies are still feeling the effects of the economic downturn, The West Indian Tobacco Company (WITCO) saw increased profits of $120.9 million for the six-month period ended June 30, 2009. This represented an increase of $27 million when compared to the same period last year.

• The Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries held its first consultative meeting for stakeholders on the Government’s proposed new petroleum fiscal package for the petroleum sector.

• The Energy Services Sector Survey conducted by the South Chamber of Industry and Commerce recorded a drop in profitability, and the Chamber remains worried about the global economic uncertainty. In its Energy Services Sector Survey for the second quarter of 2009, the Chamber found that levels of optimism and business confidence improved slightly in the second quarter, “possibly due to the upswing in energy commodity prices since April.”

• Energy giant bpTT said it has reduced the amount of money it plans to spend in T&T on oil and gas projects in 2009. Chief Executive Officer Robert Riley said the company brought its capital expenditure down from a projected US$1 billion to US$600 million this year.

• State-owned Petrotrin closed a US$850 million bond to raise money to finance a gasoline optimisation project which is said to be a year behind schedule and more than US$3.6 billion over budget.

• The Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries awarded seven licences for sand and quarry blocks.
• The Point Lisas Industrial Port Development Corporation (PLIPDECO) saw a $15 million fall in second-quarter revenue. Chairman Rolph Balgobin says the decline was attributed to reduced domestic cargo at its Point Lisas port.

• The Central Bank announced that Trinidad and Tobago’s economy contracted by 3.3 percent in the first quarter of this year as activity in the nation’s energy sector declined by 2 percent.

• Malcolm Jones, chairman of State-owned Petrotrin, was appointed chairman of NGC. Jones replaced Keith Awong who resigned as chairman.

• Tourism Minister Joseph Ross announced that Chinese firm, the Beijing Liujian Group won the $233 million bid to restore and upgrade Maracas Beach.

• New Jersey-based AM Best downgraded CLICO to C (weak) from B (fair) in a rating action. In a statement sent from its US offices, AM Best said, “the ratings remain under review with negative implications.”

• The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) dismissed claims by the Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL) against Caricom’s decision to suspend the Common External Tariff (CEF) on cement imports.

• Cabinet approved $5 billion to help the recovery of cash-strapped insurance giant CLICO.

 • The Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) announced that from September 1, commercial customers would see a one percent increase in their electricity rates.

Jamaica
• Skylan Airways, a Jamaican-owned and operated air charter service, had its inaugural flight from the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston to Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay.

• Standard & Poor’s (S&P) downgraded Jamaica’s rating to CCC+ and said the outlook on the country remains negative. The rating agency also cut the credit ratings on Air Jamaica and National Commercial Bank of Jamaica, bringing them in line, as its policy dictates, with Jamaica’s sovereign ‘CCC+’ rating on local and foreign currency debt, down from ‘B-.’

• National Commercial Bank (NCB), in a move aimed at cutting back on bad debts caused by delinquent credit card holders, started to block credit card accounts that were 15 days overdue.

• The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) announced an additional 100 basis points reduction in open market instrument interest rates.

• The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) received the first allocation of money from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the special drawing rights (SDRs).

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) cleared the way for Jamaica to get approximately US$320 million (J$28.5 billion) from the fund by early September.

• The Ministry of Tourism signed an agreement with US Airways which provides for an increase in airlift out of the United States to Jamaica.

Suriname
• Aluiminum producer, Alcoa, sealed a deal to buy Australia-based BHP Billiton’s bauxite and alumina operations in Suriname.

Haiti
• The World Bank and Haiti signed a US$5 million grant to strengthen Haiti’s agriculture management and support its sustainable development.
Venezuela
• Venezuela’s State oil company, PDVSA, and BP Plc resumed production at the 113,000 barrel per day Petromonagas project in the Orinoco heavy crude region, after it had suspended output in January to meet OPEC cuts.

• Venezuela reaffirmed that no plans are being considered to require more money up-front from poor Caribbean and Central American nations buying oil on preferential terms under its PetroCaribe programme.

• Gross domestic product shrank 2.4 percent in the second quarter representing the first contraction for the Venezuelan economy since 2003.

Antigua & Barbuda
• The Government put an end to fuel subsidies.

• The Government announced that the Venezuela-led Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) provided US$50 million to help the country overcome a fiscal shortfall and pay hundreds of civil servants outstanding salaries and wages.

Other Regional News
• The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved a US$1 million-dollar grant to support the design and implementation of an integrated disaster risk management plan for Guyana.

• The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) agreed to deepen their cooperation to strengthen statistics systems, tourism satellite accounts and tourism economic indicators in the region.

• The Bahamas Government suspended its Educational Guarantee Loan Programme (EGLP), saying too many students were defaulting on their loans. Educational Minister Carl Bethel said more than 61 percent of loans had not been serviced.

• The St Kitts Co-operative Credit Union (SKCCU) reported a surplus of EC$664,989 for the year 2008, the highest surplus to date in its 27-year-old history.

• The Montserrat telecommunication sector has been liberalised. A new Information Communications Development Act which came into force on August 1, opened the door to fair competition in Montserrat’s telecommunications sector.

• The Cuban Government released statistics showing an increase in its output of diesel and fuel oil in the first half of the year; but the figures also showed a drastic fall in gasoline production for the period.

• Sandals Resorts International (SRI) announced that it bought over the Four Seasons Resort Great Exuma in the Bahamas.

• The Peoples’ Republic of China granted a concessionary loan of US$35 million to the Government of Dominica for the construction of a new state-of-the-art college.

• The Butterfield Bank (Bahamas division) terminated six employees as part of its restructuring efforts to fit difficult market conditions.

By Ashford Jackman

Russell Latapy

By the time of reading this article, the state of Trinidad and Tobago’s 2010 World Cup bid will have become eminently clearer, following the weekend match away to Honduras. At the risk of putting my foot in my mouth, I will venture that emerging from San Pedro Sula with a draw would take a superlative effort; a win would be nothing short of a miracle. In spite of their so predictable victory over El Salvador last month, every match at this stage remains a do-or-die contest for the Soca Warriors-the cost of two major blunders committed by the authorities who run our football. But I have already exhausted the topic of the unofficial blacklisting of protesting players and the abysmal lack of a player succession policy or developmental plan; ditto leaving the team for too long in the hands of a foreign coach whose failings, from selections to puzzling tactics, have only served to underline my long held conclusion that, by and large, we have been saddled with a succession of foreign duds in the past 17 years.
It is the dream of this writer that one day, all this nonsense will come to an end. For now, dallying with the current scenario serves no useful purpose; nothing in the El Salvador win could alter my previously stated position that the pressure of having to win every match from here on will prove too great an ask for Latas and his evolving side. With that in mind, this article will focus on amplifying my views on preparing for the next campaign, as expressed in last month’s issue.
For this writer, the central issue in planning must be the never-ending saga of the passing parade of foreign national coaches. Surely now, after the Maturana fiasco, someone in the TTFF must have the cojones to stand up and say it must stop. Beenhakker was merely the exception who proved the rule; this practice of arbitrarily hiring foreign coaches of questionable pedigree, who approach the task scornful of our home-grown talent, has brought the country much grief, and at the cost of a considerable fortune in foreign exchange, even if it comes out of the expansive pockets of Jack Warner. Invariably, they bail out when the battle is all but lost, leaving another campaign in shambles; but only to be replaced by a caretaker local coach until the next qualifying series approaches.
It is not enough to hope that another Beenhakker is just around the horizon; even the Dutchman betrayed his true interest when he abandoned the Soca Warriors after the 2006 World Cup Finals in search of brighter lights with Poland. Now appears a young man with no apparent biases, one who seems to command the respect of all the players, both home and foreign-based; and for good measure, a son of the soil at that. His early selections, among them Trent Noel, Hayden Tinto and Radanfah Abu Bakr, indicate a refreshing faith in the ability of the local talent to rise to the occasion; his reversion to the country’s natural approach of speed and skill as its principal mode of attack point to an understanding that a team must play on its strengths, and not on what works in the minor leagues of other countries and cultures. Suddenly, T&T appears to have purpose in its play-dangerous in attack, improving in midfield, learning in defence. Suddenly, our foreign-based pros sense there is no guaranteed pick for them on this team; it’s either they perform or be dropped.
Many onlookers have not missed the irony that Latapy’s original attachment as assistant to Maturana had been a concession in the hope that he could revive the team’s fortunes in 2008, just as he did three years before. It matters not; the TTFF must cash in on their good fortune by investing in the Little Master, medium to long term.

The smart move would be to extend his tenure long enough for change to take effect; ergo, the contract should run, in the first instance, to the next campaign which begins in 2012 and ends the following year. It would afford Latapy the freedom to concentrate on matters on the field of play, without the distraction of having to defend his post at points along the way-a fate that ultimately spelt doom for other locals who preceded him.
In addition, Russell should be allowed to augment the training he underwent to become an assistant coach at Scotland’s Falkirk. Jack Warner could use his influence to arrange additional training abroad and/or short attachments to European clubs of some note, for Latapy and other selected coaches plying their trade in T&T. The knowledge and experience gained would then be adapted to meet the needs of our home-based players and channelled into the clubs, ultimately having a positive impact on the game at Concacaf club and national team levels.

Francisco Maturana

This leads to part two of the proposed strategy: the development and survival of national club football. Strangers like Beenhakker and Maturana are not alone in their misconception that the only good T&T players are those with contracts in the English and Scottish leagues; local “fans” betray the same belief when they disregard domestic competition and matches against Caribbean teams, only to rush in when the likes of Kenwyne Jones and Stern John turn up for the “big” games. They seem unaware that most Warriors got into Europe after honing their skills at home: from Dennis Lawrence, Tony Rougier and Hector Sam to Carlos Edwards and Jason Scotland. Even in the unusual cases of Jones and Dwight Yorke, who both jumped from the Secondary Schools league into England’s top ranks, the fact remains that they were recruited based on the fruits of their early development, right here in T&T.
The Pro League’s greatest challenge is the continuous flow of blood-the never-ending trail of aspirants to Europe and the MLS-a symptom of men desperate to break into the big leagues, and the clubs who see the buying and selling of players as being more lucrative than the Pro League championship cheque. The authorities ought not to attempt to stop the practice; but they should find the most progressive ways to counter the challenge it presents.
The run on talent, combined with the worshipping of foreign leagues and players, impacts on the gates, and by extension, the league’s income. Presently, the league relies heavily on a few corporate sponsors and injections from the Government; the trickle down to the clubs is not enough to offer contracts that can hold on to the better players. Advertising and promotion has had some positive impact, but mainly on the cup tournaments; Trinbagonians will not support their own when they can sit in their homes and watch the likes of Ronaldo and Messi in Europe, or switch to the NBA. However, the same Manchester United and Chelsea fans will always be first in line to obtain tickets for World Cup and other major internationals; so why not tax them- indirectly?
All it requires is the implementation of measures that marketers refer to as customer loyalty benefits. The TTFF rules across the board that Pro League season ticket holders should have first option to buy tickets to major international matches; for every season ticket, the holder is guaranteed first crack at one ticket, for every international at home. To demonstrate how this measure would work, imagine that the Soca Warriors are to play five warm-ups and five World Cup qualifiers at home in 2013. Any fan that purchased a season ticket in 2011 and again in 2012 must be given the first option to buy one ticket per match for each of the 2013 schedule. Doing the math, a family of four would have to purchase eight season tickets (four each for 2011 and 2012) in order to ensure access to tickets for any or all of the 10 games in 2013. Non-season ticket holders would be left to line up for any seats remaining after the deadline passes for the preferred customers.

Such a move would achieve several objectives. For one, the Pro League’s income would surge, regardless of whether the season ticket holders actually attend any of its fixtures. Secondly, there would be some increase in attendance, as people look to make use of money already spent. This would lead to the third objective: having watched a couple of games, they become interested in the product, and the increase in attendances is maintained. The fourth objective is fairness to the real fans of football: it is often said that the man in the street, having supported the league all season, is squeezed out of the internationals when corporate T&T buys tickets in batches for their people. With this system, the “small” man can now purchase a season ticket (which he would put to good use) and have a fair chance of getting in to see T&T versus Costa Rica or Mexico.
One potential issue arising from such a scheme would be how the income would be distributed among the clubs; the more successful ones would argue that they have earned a greater slice of the financial pie. That can best be resolved by a system of incentives-in addition to the prize money for placing in the top three, the Pro League should dedicate a certain portion of seasonal income as other rewards-for example, the clubs drawing the largest sum of people passing through the turnstiles throughout the season, the most improved and the most disciplined clubs, and so on.
Success comes at a price. For too long, we have watched selfish people use our greatest resource for their own uncaring satisfaction, blind as they are to the relation between the financial support that keeps the clubs afloat and the quality performances the same “fans” rightfully demand of the players in international competition. Even more so, the game is too precious to T&T to be allowed to slide further. The message must be clear: take pride in your own-player, club, coach and national team-and positive results will inevitably follow.

By Kevin Baldeosingh

Prosperity and pride. These were the implicit, and often explicit, promises made by the politicians who purportedly wrested independence for the Caribbean islands from the colonial masters. “Purportedly”, because the struggle for independence is a pernicious historical myth. Economically battered by the Second World War, Britain needed little persuasion, if any at all, to give up her West Indian territories. “The foundations of empire had been economic, and those foundations had simply been eaten up by the cost of the war,” says British historian Niall Ferguson in his book Empire. Britain owed foreign creditors US$40 billion, and the country’s per capita growth rate between 1950 and 1973 was the lowest in Europe. The empire as a whole, and certainly the Caribbean colonies, no longer paid its way.

But were either of the main promises of Independence fulfilled? Let’s start with the more easily measured one. The premise here was that the Mother Country sucked away the wealth of the colony and, therefore, independence would result in that patrimony staying in the islands and benefiting the populace. Thus, in March 1960 at the PNM’s annual convention, Dr Eric Williams declared that independence “means a national government equipped with the necessary powers to promote the national economic interest and develop the national economy . . . it means the establishment of one integrated common Federal market, presenting a united front to the outside world, in much the same way as each territorial market now does.” By 1962, however, Williams readily changed his argument after Jamaica pulled out of the Federation, presenting a resolution at a Special Convention of the PNM in which he declared that “Trinidad and Tobago’s 1960 population of 825,000 compares favourably with that of many independent countries,” and that the country “has a viable economy that can more easily sustain the responsibilities of independence than Cyprus, which, with a population of 579,00, is now an independent state…with a national income per capita of $677 compared with $612 for Trinidad and Tobago.”
But Cyprus would adopt a free enterprise system based on agriculture and trade. And, despite the Turkish occupation of 1974, which displaced one-third of the populace and partitioned 37 percent of the island, the Republic of Cyprus now has a per capita GDP of $137,000 compared to T&T’s $88,000. In 1990, Cyprus’s exports constituted 52 percent of GDP, compared to T&T’s 45 percent (and most of ours was in the form of oil and gas rents, whereas Cyprus’s foreign exchange earners are light manufactures such as clothing and footwear, foodstuffs, financial services, and tourism). Between 1975 and 2005, Cyprus’s annual growth rate was 4 percent, compared to T&T’s 0.6 percent. As economist Martin Wolf points out in Why Globalisation Works, “In order to achieve high standards of living, small countries do need a great deal of trade. Hong Kong’s gross trade (exports plus imports of goods) was 259 percent of GDP at PPP in 2000; Singapore’s was 294 percent; and Denmark’s was 69 percent.” Significantly, the Turkish part of Cyprus has remained economically stagnant, exporting mainly citrus fruits, potatoes, and carobs.

A look at income indicators for Caribbean countries suggests that independence, far from bringing prosperity, actually helped retard economic development. As Table 1 shows, out of 27 countries, 14 chose to become independent in the 1960s. Of those, eight now have lower-middle to low incomes, five have upper-middle incomes, and only one, the Bahamas, has a high income. So 60 percent of the independent Caribbean islands have not progressed economically, in relative terms, since colonial days. On the other hand, of the 13 countries which have remained formally linked to the metropolitan nations, four have high incomes, five have high to upper-middle incomes , and four have upper-middle incomes. None is in the low bracket. So, by contrast, 69 percent of the non-independent nations have progressed economically in the past 40 years.
But perhaps the citizens of the independent Caribbean countries are psychologically better off than those in the dependencies? After all, the other key argument was that the Mother Country oppressed the colonised people, creating in them frustration and a sense of inferiority. Once this yoke was removed, so the story went, the newfound sense of pride and ambition would create a progressive social order. But how can we measure pride? Even if an opinion survey were done, asking people if they felt proud of their country and themselves, this would only tell us what people say. A more rigorous measure would be the Gini Index, which shows the level of inequity in a society. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find such data for the smaller islands or the dependencies. However, two useful proxies for social order are the murder rate and the infant mortality rate. Apart from being an assay of social disorder in general, killings generally correlate with levels of inequality: the higher the inequality, the more murders, and the lower the inequality, the fewer the murders. The infant mortality rate, in turn, strongly correlates with development, perhaps because this rate reflects the country’s level of social organisation, as well as people’s attitude toward their society’s most vulnerable members.
Here, the picture is equivocal. As Table 2 shows, both the independent and the other islands have a wide range of homicide rates. Among the independent nations Jamaica (50 murders per 100,000), Trinidad (40), and Belize (30) raise the average, while among the dependencies the USVI (39) and French Guiana (51) do so. In respect to infant mortality rates, the difference is starker. Although among the independent islands, the mortality range is from 13 to 39, in the dependencies it is from 2 to 16. The averages for each group is significant: 16 per 1,000 in the former, and 8 and 9 per 1000 in the latter. (However, it should also be noted that none of the developed nations, who are responsible for these island-territories, have murder rates or infant mortality rates anywhere close to these. In the metropole, the former rate is 2 per 100,000 on average, the latter 3 to 5 per 1000.) In any case, these social statistics do not seem to imply any significant psychological or cultural difference between the independent countries and the dependent territories.
In this sense, therefore, the independence project can be deemed a failure. But why did it not attain its lofty goals? One possible reason is the literal manner in which Caribbean politicians described, and ordinary citizens conceived, independence. “Independence, unless it is a sham and an imposture, means a clean slate, the throwing off of the burdens imposed on us by the imperialist power,” said Dr Williams in March 1960 at the PNM’s annual convention. Independence was thus taken to mean autarky. Yet, for small economies, a closed or restricted system is invariably disastrous, as the socialist experiments in Guyana, Grenada, and Jamaica proved. Yet, even now, you will still hear some politicians and policy-makers argue in favour of protectionist policies, often pointing out that the rich countries of today were protectionist at the beginnings of their development.
This is true, but only for the larger nations a century ago, and in any case the data in favour of free trade over the last five decades are persuasive. A 1995 study by economists Jeffrey Sachs and Andrew Warner which looked at open and closed economies showed that free trade made poor nations wealthier, and a 2001 paper written by economists Aart Kray and David Dollar found clear linkages between free trade and per capita growth, which means that the poor also benefit from liberal policies. Financial theorist William J. Bernstein in A Splendid Exchange shows how the protectionists’ argument, although factually correct, is explained by the fact that in the 19th century, when the rich Western nations of today began to industrialise, internal trade was much more important than trade with other countries. In 1870, exports for the United States made up just 2.5 percent of GDP, in France 4.9 percent, and even for waves-ruling England a mere 12.2 percent. “As long as a country’s internal markets were open, a tariff wall against foreign goods did relatively little damage,” writes Bernstein. “ . . . As trade has grown, the world economy has become more dependent on it, with exports rising from 4.6 percent of world GDP in 1870 to 17.2 percent in 1998.”
In the West Indies in the 1960s, however, the dominant ideology was against capitalism and its necessary accoutrements, such as open markets, functional democracy, and property rights. And that ideology of authoritarianism, in turn, reflected a closing of the mind and spirit to pragmatism, objectivity, and compassion. And, for any society at any time, those are the keys to true independence.

By Ian McDonald

A man is murdered, a woman beaten and raped, a child horribly abused, a business robbed, a home terrifyingly invaded. None of these things will reduce national GDP by one jot. A booming economy can accompany a society where increasing crime makes life hideous. Which would you prefer—50 per cent reduction in crime or 50 per cent increase in national GDP? Older people might opt for the reduction in crime, younger people for the increase in GDP. In either case, the question raises the issue of how should success in a nation be measured.
GDP is just the value of all goods and services produced in a country in a year. It was originally introduced in the US in the Great Depression as a way of measuring how much and how quickly the US economy was shrinking. But somehow GDP has become a surrogate for wellbeing, something it was never designed to be. The Nobel Laureate, Simon Kuznets, who devised this famous indicator, himself recognized that “the welfare of a nation can scarcely be inferred from a measurement of national income as defined by the GDP.” But that is exactly what inference is drawn by all and sundry when they are informed of high or low GDP in a country.
It is clear that a better measurement of national wellbeing is necessary. And in Canada, I have been interested to learn, work is well underway in compiling a Canadian Index of Wellbeing. Under the auspices of the Canadian Institute of Wellbeing, dozens of academics and policy-makers are working on the various elements of the CIW. Roy Romanow, Chairman of the Institute, notes that “GDP measures everything but the quality of life. What we want to do is elevate a measuring tool which is easily seen and understood by the public in order to put pressure on governments.”
The CIW will be a composite index aggregating results from eight areas:

• Living Standards
• Healthy populations
• Community vitality
• Education
• Environment
• Time use
• Civic engagement
• Arts, culture and recreation

It is hoped that one overall figure for CIW can be created by early 2011, once sub-composite figures have been compiled along with weightings within the broader index. The group of investigators looking at living standards, for instance, is following nine major indicators ranging from housing affordability to wealth and distribution of income.
In assessing community vitality, to take another example, a number of indicators are being examined: Caring for Others, Belonging to Community, Participation in Group Activities, Volunteering, Number of Close Relatives, Providing Assistance to Others, Property Crime, Violent Crime, Walking Alone after Dark, Trust, Experience of Discrimination.
I suppose it is too much to ask our hard-pressed planners to take an interest in this work. They have more than enough on their plates at the moment. But I have no doubt that one  day it will be necessary for us, for all countries indeed, to produce a good-life Index like the one being attempted in Canada.
Certainly we cannot be satisfied with GDP as a true indicator of a nation’s overall success. Quite simply, it does not distinguish between economic activities that are good for our wellbeing and those that are harmful. Spending on tobacco, natural disasters, human-made catastrophes and mistakes, crime, accidents—all make GDP go up.
On the other hand, the value of unpaid housework, childcare, volunteer work and leisure time activity are not included in GDP. And subtractions are not made for activities that pollute the air and water or destroy natural habitats and, in particular, forests. The notion of sustainability—preserving priceless resources for future generations—does not enter the GDP equation. All in all, a more unsatisfactory indicator of what lies at the heart of human progress would be difficult to devise.
The most eloquent summary of the fundamental shortcomings of GDP was voiced more than 40 years ago by Senator Robert Kennedy. GDP, he said, “measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.”

A Short Story by Edmund Narine

Continued from TTR, July 2009 (Conclusion)

A week later, when the loudspeaker trucks were extolling the virtues of Mr Hardeed across the Diego Martin West constituency, Rougian visited his parents. A police officer, he was a member of an elite unit, whose task was the detection and apprehension of “Big Fish”, as the Minister of National Security had described his unit’s mission. He was attentive to his parents and sister; he trusted them, even showing his father, Mr Nemiah, the combination to the safe which held an assortment of his weapons. But he stood aloof from his sister’s perpetual problems and his father’s fight with Mr Taka. On the evening he chose to visit, another visitor arrived—Santos, with his entourage of bodyguards, gunmen ready and willing to shoot their own mother. Santos sat in his truck and called to Mary. She was not at home, yet Santos declared she was inside and that if she did not come out he would enter and drag her out. At the sight of Rougian, however, Santos changed his mind and sped away. But he was not done with Mary.
On the following day Santos was back. He met Nemiah at the front door and adopted a mood of conciliation. He only wanted to talk to Mary and pass on the fistful of dollars that he held for her and the children. To Mary’s horror, her father let Santos in.
He was no sooner in the house when he grabbed Mary and threatened to kill her if she did not leave with him. She refused and Santos, his arm locked around Mary’s neck, dragged her towards the door. The once laughing children now screamed in terror, the eldest using his fist against Santos leg. Mr Nemiah, however, acted spontaneously. He seized Santos’ dreadlocks and whether it was to express his anger or to hide his fear, he bellowed like a cow delivering an oversize calf. “Let me go old bitch!” Santos cried. But Mr Nemiah, now fearing for his own life should Santos break loose, hung on to the Rasta dreads, wishing they would leave Santos head so he could escape the murderous Santos.
But he had to do more. Maybe he should bite Santos on the neck or kick him in the balls, yet all he could do was to hold on like a terrified man while Santos flung him around and around. Santos let go of Mary and began to struggle with Mr Nemiah. Freed, Mary hoisted the baby onto her shoulders and with the toddlers screaming escaped from the Muckup’s house. Mr Nemiah was no match for the young and powerful drug lord.
Santos freed his hair, grabbed Nemiah by the head, flung him against the door, then dragged him through the shards of glass and wood and began to administer a series of kicks on Mr Nemiah. When he was through he called out to the now vanished Mary.
“I coming back for you tomorrow. You either come with me or a bullet will come for you!” He boarded his truck, started the engine, and with smoking tires squealing, sped off along Gorilla Crescent Road.
The following day, and for days too many to count, Mr Taka would have a fit of laughter when he approached Mr Nemiah’s house. And for days Mr Nemiah remained a recluse while Alice and Mary tended his wounds. He had black eyes, knots on his head and forehead, two broken ribs and a sprained ankle. The humiliation was too much, and he averted his eyes from his wife and daughter. He knew he had to reclaim himself or forever be the object of disrespect from his wife, daughter, and the people of Gorilla Crescent.
Election Day came and went as expected. Mr Hardeed, leading several marches against crime as his campaign strategy, won with a total of nine thousand votes. The runner up, a Mr Lightfoot, received five thousand. Mr Forthright, adopting the slogan “Humanizing for Transformation”, gained a mere twenty votes, two of them from Alice and Mary.
Seven weeks later, on Christmas Eve, Mr Nemiah’s wounds, except for his still aching ribs, were a thing of the past. Santos had yet to carry out his threat; Mr Taka still occupied the backyard house; and Mary and her three children continued to occupy the Muckups bedroom. Mr Nemiah sat before the TV and drank straight Black Label rum, his daily self-abuse for not pursuing Santos and reclaiming his lost image of man of the house. The TV showed Santa harnessing reindeer at the North Pole; Nemiah wondered what would happen were he to confront Santos in Morvant and gun him down in the presence of friends.
It was what he wanted, law or no law, he wanted a dead Santos, and he wanted to be his killer. But his respect for the law was crumbling in the face of what he had come to realize, who he really was: Mr Nemiah was a coward, a man used to shielding his cowardice by citing the law. He could see himself as a child running from every challenge to fight. His self-hate was palpable.
He grabbed the Black Label bottle and exploded it against the TV screen. He had had it. He was tired of the good, law-abiding man masquerade. He would have none of it, even if it meant kill or be killed. And the man he wanted to kill this evening was Santos—but not before he confronted Mr Taka for the very last time.
A steel band was playing “Silent Night”, and the voices of children along Gorilla Crescent Road put words to the music. Mr Nemiah looked out the window and was surprised to see Mr Taka’s wife and children, walking single file as usual, go past the house singing the Christmas carol. The words “All is calm, all is bright” seemed meant for him. He ground his teeth and sighed. If Mr Taka was not with his family, then he must be at home, alone, Mr Nemiah thought. He got dressed and left the house intent on facing down enemy Number Two—Mr Taka. He placed a butcher’s knife in his pocket, left the house and, wishing he had brought the kerosene lamp to light his way, stumbled through the darkness. Moments later he was on Mr Taka’s doorstep and banging on the cedar wood door as if to mash up Jah’s face.
“Mr Taka!” he shouted. “Mr Taka! Open up, is Nemiah, your landlord.” Minutes passed as he listened for Mr Taka to open the door. When he heard a squeak, he withdrew his knife from his pocket and held it ready to stab Mr Taka when he appeared. But the door remained firmly closed. “Mr Taka! Mr Taka!” He shouted while kicking the door. This was the final confrontation. He had to do it. Wasn’t Mr Taka the reason he lost his car? Wasn’t Mr Taka the one who had heaped disrespect upon him? Wasn’t Mr Taka the one egging on his children to laugh in his face and giggle “Morning, Mr Coward.” He banged on the door like a repossessor with an empty pocket. Again and again he banged. But there was no answer from Mr Taka. Except for the grunting pigs in the black backyard, no one was at home. Maybe, Mr Nemiah thought, he should just go out and destroy a pig; cut its throat and let it bleed to death. That would show Taka. Or better yet, destroy all the pigs along with Mr Taka’s precious goat. In this darkness no one would know that he was the destroyer. The dead goat would preoccupy Taka’s children, make them unhappy, and stop them from giggling at him.
And then an idea he had never dreamed off grabbed him. If Mr Taka wouldn’t leave his house, then maybe Mr Taka’s house would leave Mr Taka. Mr Nemiah, seized with the idea, ran like a mad man towards his home. He grabbed a pack of matches and the can of kerosene he used for filling the lamps when electricity failed and returned to Mr Taka’s house.
He walked up the steps and bathed Jah, the white robed shepherd, with kerosene. Finished, he struck a match and set the door on fire. He had committed arson, and as lover of the law, he knew what that meant. If he had to spend a lifetime in jail for one act, he thought, he would spend that lifetime for two.
Mr Nemiah returned to his house, but instead of going upstairs to his own abode, he unlocked Rougian’s door, entered his home and his safe, and pocketed Rougian’s Glock pistol. He resolved to go to Morvant, find Santos and shoot him.
Mr Nemiah boarded a route PH taxi at Gorilla Crescent and found himself in the company of three people: Capon, the driver; Lessee, the front seat passenger; and Mr Last, Mr Nemiah’s distant cousin. The passengers had heard about the fire, which had occurred about ten o’clock, an hour earlier. Capon was convinced that the cause of the fire lay in Mr Taka’s lap.
“You know how often I hear people talking about Taka children playing with matches. Children like them would burn down a concrete house much less the dry board house in your backyard, Mr Nemiah. You should of give Taka notice to move a long time ago. You should never rent to people with plenty children. If you did give Taka notice to move, your board house would be standing today.”
“You mean it had a fire in the Crescent today?”
“Not today, Mr Last, tonight. Any minute you will see the fire brigade coming to out it. Matches and children don’t mix. You know how much people children and matches distress.” Capon’s story went unchallenged. The passengers believed him.
Mr Nemiah sat quietly. The gun in his pocket had the weight of a big warratal stone on Mr Forthright wall. If the police and the fire department believe it was children and matches that burn down his board house, then he would escape jail. But that was a chance he would not take. The police might identify him as the arsonist, arrest him, and spoil his chances to kill Santos. He had burnt Taka’s home down, and now he would kill Santos. That was his resolve, and he would not move one inch away from it. He was headed for Morvant, and Morvant was in his sight.
Across the Laventille hills the electric lights of big and small houses twinkled along with those of a handful of visible Christmas trees. A DJ was playing, the sound of 2006 soca hits blasted the air. With the Glock in his pocket, Mr Nemiah could not help tapping his foot to the sweet soca sounds wafting down from hill to highway. He had gained his nerve; he would never look back, not even if death had come to arrest him. The taxi stopped. He got out, bid Mr Last goodnight, and headed into the DJ blast.

Santos’ house was at the end of the road, on a hill overlooking the city. Adjacent houses and shacks were lighted up, and from every house he passed there was the ever present sound of the boom box. His shirt was wet when he arrived at the lamppost that meant Santos’ house was a stones throw up hill. When he neared the house Mr Nemiah had no trouble locating Santos;  he stood, along with his usual entourage of bodyguards, in the glare of the lamppost light. Mr Nemiah’s approach silenced the men. Always on the lookout, these gunmen could spot an enemy a mile away. Mr Nemiah was recognized.
“Santos look out. Mr Nemiah!”
At the shout Mr Nemiah pulled the Glock and fired. That shot was the signal that triggered a fireworks display. Blazing guns seemed to rise from every bush, tree and abandoned house on the hill. Santos went down, the gun men went down, Santos’s girl friend went down. It was an unlucky night for Santos and his men, but even an unluckier night for Alice and Mary Muckup, for when the smoke cleared and the special police unit entered the contested area to identify the dead, the first body Rougian identified was that of his father, a bullet hole in his forehead, the back of his head missing. The following day the Newsnite headline read: Police Fired Upon Kills Five (One pedestrian shot dead in the crossfire).
In April of the following year Alice and Mary moved from the house on Gorilla Crescent. Mr Taka, his wife and seven children relocated to a room in Laventille. Alice would miss the Community Centre. For thirty years she had hosted PNM Parliamentary Representatives for Gorilla Crescent there. But with her vote for Mr Forthright, supposedly a secret ballot, she and Mary had become political village pariahs.
Mary had become a recluse and taken to alcohol. People celebrated her drug man’s death, but much as Mary tried to forget about Santos, his memory remained her constant companion. Mary loved her man.
Maybe Santos’ mother knew that, too, or maybe it was love for her grandchildren that pushed her to invite Mary along with her children and mother to live with her at Macoya. Santos was an only son. When the police released his body his mother took him to Macoya and gave him a burial fit for a prince.
Muriel Santos cried without end, the tears rolling down her cheeks the moment Santos’ name was mentioned. She was one mother who would grieve her son’s death until her very end.