THE EDITOR:
IN his recent Budget presentation, the prime minister promised that tertiary-level education will be free from next year.

He mentioned government-run institutions tertiary institutions like UWI, UTT and COSTAATT in one breath.

What the prime minister should know is that lecturers at COSTAATT are not paid comparative salaries as those at UWI and UTT.

Most full-time lecturers at COSTAATT have M.A. or M.Sc. degrees and teach longer hours than their counterparts at the other two universities.

While lecturers at UWI and UTT earn more than twice that of their COSTAATT counterparts, they also enjoy perks of book allowance, travel grants and sabbatical leave.

To add insult to injury, COSTAATT lecturers earn a little more than high-school teachers who still have the benefit of holidays during the Christmas, Easter and August holidays.

The unequal and unfair treatment of COSTAATT lecturers is causing much depression among the teaching staff.

This feeling of dejection would obviously affect their quality of teaching.

COSTAATT’s new city campus is situated next to the ruling party’s headquarters at Balisier House in Port of Spain. Whenever the prime minister sits at his next party meeting, he should spare a thought for the hard workers and poor children next door.

THE EDITOR:
REGINALD DUMAS declared that he is “not a racist” in the concluding sentence of his column Race and Colonialism (Express 14/11/05 p 11).

His column which is written from an Afrocentric race perspective is very faulty and reveals so much about the mindset of the writer.

The Civil Rights movement in the United States had limited “implications for the political independence” of West Indian and Caribbean colonies.

The movement for political independence predated the Black civil rights struggle.

If anything, World War II had a telling impact and Britain was all prepared to get rid of its colonies in an independent West Indian Federation.

Dr. Eric Williams singlehandedly dismantled this movement of political unification.

As for having “sprung out Stokley Carmichael from a Maryland jail ...”

Well, well, wasn’t that interference in the domestic affairs of another country.

Especially from one who was a representative of a newly independent country.

But then, the bonds of race was very strong and you did your part.

I disagree that “race plays a central role” in the poor condition of many Black Americans.

If one is prepared to work hard anything is still possible in America.

Millions of immigrants from Asia and Latin America are experiencing this.

And the thinking that recent immigrants of Asia and Latin America still consider the “Black man inferior” is questionable.

More importantly, in what way is this concretely manifested.

The reality is that immigrants from Asian countries like Vietnam, Korea, South Asia and Latin America are streaming into America and are prepared to take up jobs which Americans of all colours are refusing, especially farm and domestic work, and are building up themselves over generations.

They are also remitting billions of dollars to their countries of origin.

A recent BBC documentary show the kind of racism which the Hispanics are experiencing from, of all people, Blacks.

Open warfare is waged against Hispanics by Blacks.

Hispanics now constitute the significant minority and this is being increasingly reflected in American politics.

If anything, recent immigrants are showing up Blacks -- that the issue is not one of race at all.

As for the Katrina disaster in New Orleans it was the Black leaders, like Reginald Dumas, who first began to make race an issue out of the disaster.

Actually, the BBC was the first to point out the race of the New Orleans as being poor and Black.

But disasters strike America so frequently, race is never highlighted.

When Blacks are affected, it becomes an issue of race and discrimination against Black American.

Dumas has such clarity is addressing the falsifications of French history textbooks.

But one needs not be overly concerned about this once there is freedom to write and criticise and there is no one official version of the past.

It is better to focus on our own situation of the Afrocentric Caribbean history in our schools and in CXC.

Race and colonialism could best apply at home before we go abroad.

An Indian would have been very fortunate to receive the type of diplomatic posting as given to Dumas in 1962 under the PNM.

The entire State was reserved for Blacks.

The PNM was creating a Black State under Eric Williams, Black facist leader.

He wanted to civilise illiterate Indians from “Koon Koon Village” these hostile and recalcitrant minority who were a danger to the West Indies.

One minister, Winston Mahabir, left the PNM because of PNM racism against Indians.

Indians were discriminated against in Trinidad and Guyana just like Whites discriminated against Blacks in the United States.

The major theme is our history is the Indian struggle for justice and equality against PNM racism against Indians.

Dumas needs to come home.

THE EDITOR:
PLEASE permit me a space in your newspaper to air my view on an important issue in the politics of this country.

I hear of people running from heaven to hell trying to convince us that Winston Dookeran is not a good leader and he cannot captivate the attention of the General public.

Surely he is not a bad mouth, bark worst than bite type of leader.

He is a simple yet effective God-fearing man who emulates the good qualities shown by many great leaders as Jesus, Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and others.

The citizens of the country are wary of fly-by-night leaders who are only in this for their own ego and interest and entire countries suffer in the long run.

We want a God-fearing, decent, honest leader who would not try all kinds of shady deals and underhanded tactics, to gain power.

We want someone we can trust with our lives.

Trustworthiness, integrity and commitment are not the quality of the barkers.

Leave a God, sent man alone.

THE EDITOR:
IN his latest report upon the state of the economy, the Governor of the Central Bank paints a rosy picture.

Unfortunately, the latter does not bear analytical scrutiny such as applied by the Newsday editorial of 16/11/05.

As such, therefore, Williams can only be perceived as justifying his comfortable sinecure in analysing the anticipated increases to the national coffers which will arise from renegotiated royalties on our hydrocarbon resources.

He might care to explain to a public suffering the privation of funds in fundamental areas as diverse as health and infrastructure why, as originally premised by his prime minister, increased royalties have not been effected retroactively.

Since said renegotiation has been a pending promise even before PM Manning was wined, dined and transported by major players like Repsol and BP, the Governor of the Central Bank might satisfy public interest as to what would have been the current state of our national economic health had he, the Cabinet, the Opposition and/or a long-suffering public, been able to prevail upon Manning to do the job for which he is handsomely recompensed i.e. the renegotiation of those royalties from inception, rather than at a point in time when resources will obviously have been substantially depleted.

It is, unfortunately, necessary to state after his most recent presentation the Governor of the Central Bank, in what he failed to state in presenting his rosy picture, is reminiscent of the advertisement for gramophone records which featured a small dog in front of a speaker, and entitled “His Master’s Voice.”

Surely, far more is expected from the custodian of our national wealth.

Perhaps Central Bank Director Dr. Selwyn Cudjoe might care to elaborate upon this latest example of People’s National Movement (PNM) spin doctoring.