Attorney General Anand Ramlogan has raised questions about the sincerity of some supporters of hunger-striker Wayne Kublalsingh about their concerns when the mangrove was cleared to make way for MovieTowne, Westmoorings and Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain.

Speaking at the Oropouche West constituency Divali celebrations on Tuesday night, Ramlogan said he noticed people from Bayshore and Westmoorings protesting against the segment of the highway at Debe to Mon Desir outside the St Clair Medical Centre on Sunday as Kublalsingh was being treated. He said: “Wrightson Road area was mangrove and swamp. Is it that we should never have developed Wrightson Road in Port-of-Spain and build no roads in and around those areas. 

“When MovieTowne was swamp and mangrove and they had to reclaim the land, no one in Debe or Westmoorings, no one in Port-of-Spain protested the cutting down of the hills so we could have Bayshore and MovieTowne. “No one spoke of the degradation of the environment because they understood the need for human progress.

“Our history teaches us that without some sacrifice there will be no human progress and development,” Ramlogan said, pointing out to objections during the construction of the Solomon Hochoy Highway which split the Caroni Swamp in two. “Did the Caroni Swamp die? No it is larger and better off than it was before,” he added.

Using the story of the Ramayana to underscore his point, Ramlogan said those who sought to block progress must understand the message of the Ramayana that those who sought to thwart the ambition of Lord Ram failed on the altar of prayer. He added: “Those who ask that I must bypass the court system and say that I must enter into any form of mediation, I ask the question:

“If you have lost your court matter against the State and you have been denied an injunction, not once, not twice, but three times, I must now ignore the court’s rulings, bypass the rule of law and engage in a discussion designed to produce one result and one result only, which is to give you that which the court said you are not entitled to in accordance with the laws of T&T.”

Ramlogan said to do that would be setting a precedent that every person who lost a case before the court could go on a hunger strike to get the desired outcome. He said the government would not only build the highway to Point Fortin but the highway to Diego Martin as well as the overpass in Valencia because it was a promise it made to the people who voted for it and it had a duty to fulfill that promise.

There was a notable absence of politicians on the podium at the launch of Divali Nagar 2014 on Tuesday night. The star of the function was former head of the Public Service and Police Service Commission, Kenneth Lalla, SC, 88, who was the chief guest.

A number of government ministers were present in the audience, including Works Minister Dr Suruj Rambachan, Planning Minister Dr Bhoe Tewarie, Trade Minister Vasant Bharath, Transport Minister and Chaguanas East MP Stephen Cadiz and Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh. But none of them spoke at the event. Last year Rambachan delivered the feature address.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar was invited but did not attend, an official at the National Council on Indian Culture (NCIC), which hosts Divali Nagar, confirmed. Lalla, who held many portfolios in public life, disclosed a little known side to him in a stirring address.

He was born in 1926 in Dow Village, California, the son of indentured Indian labourer Rambagoo Lalla, who was attached to the Esperanza estate. His father taught him, in Hindi, many rules of life and this constituted his mantra along his lonely journey, he said. His parents died when he was nine and he became a child labourer, earning his own keep of 25 cents a day and paying his way through school.

A devout Hindu, he disclosed he fought for many years for his religion to be recognised and respected in T&T. This included creating an Indian newspaper, a Hindu parliament and a Hindu school. But Lalla said Indians had little or no interest in reading about their culture in the newspaper, Sandesh, and it folded.

He had proposed the establishment of a Hindu parliament for the different Hindu organisations, in which each Hindu leader could continue to rule over his “kingdom” but meet with the others in parliamentary sessions, he said. This also fell through because of a lack of interest. With the elders on the Esperanza estate, the young Lalla established a Hindu school and offered to teach English and arithmetic free to the labourers’ children but was thrown out of the organisation because of the English.

In 1966, he contested the Couva South seat after people came to him and asked him to do it. “But after one term, I discovered I was in the wrong place,” he said. Lalla commented on the rapid psychological and social changes taking place among Indians in T&T, saying Indians no longer wear Indian clothes or speak Hindi, except on special occasions, and western food, language and culture have made great inroads into Indian culture. 

Lalla said Divali has been observed for thousands of years to celebrate light over darkness but darkness still pervades everywhere. He was presented with a number of exquisite gifts from India by the NCIC and likened to a saint. Help needed for Nagar site
NCIC president Deokienanan Sharma is appealing to the Government for money to help finish the main building at the Divali Nagar site.

The incomplete building, where the Divali Nagar launch was held on Tuesday, had reached its present stage largely through the NCIC’s own efforts, he told the audience in an address. However, Sharma said, it had become increasingly difficult to fund the completion of the building. “We are asking for assistance to complete the Heritage Centre,” he said.

He said the NCIC, founded in 1964, was celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. The organisation was born at a time when Indian artistes were at the lowest rung of the ladder, economically and otherwise, he said. But in 1986, Divali Nagar was established and this succeeded in putting Indian culture on the national landscape. “Indian culture could no longer be ignored,” he added.

Sharma said the NCIC was assisting Indians wherever they were settled in the world to establish their own Divali Nagars. The theme of this year’s Divali Nagar, which runs for nine nights, is Shiva, a primary form of god in Hinduism. He has many aspects, including being both benevolent and a great destroyer. The NCIC, for the first time, had its own theme song, created by sitarist and composer Mungal Patassar.

Tobago was thrown into panic mode yesterday after word had spread that a Liberian vessel had docked at the Scarborough port and the occupants were sightseeing in the capital. However, it proved to be a false alarm due to a misunderstanding in a radio communication between the port and T&T Coast Guard officials.

The T&T Guardian understands that the mix-up occurred when a formal request was made by the vessel Alley Cat, which had a three-man crew, to come ashore. An employee attached to the Port Authority in Scarborough, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the request was transmitted via wireless radio to the Coast Guard around 9 am. It is alleged that the Coast Guard officers misheard the origin of the ship as Liberia when it was in fact Bulgaria. 

Around 11 am the crew was allowed to dock at the Coast Guard base but were then not allowed to disembark the vessel. Instead, they were told officials from the Tobago Regional Health Authority and the Tobago House of Assembly had to clear them to ensure they showed no signs of Ebola. The source said no THA official eventually made that trip as the issue was sorted out by the Coast Guard and the crew was allowed to disembarks around 3 pm. 

The port employee said the experience caused some level of hysteria on the port as they have not yet been trained to deal with the virus "I cannot understand how they expect us to deal with Ebola and we are not trained to do so.  “Before everything was sorted out they wanted us to go on board but we refused because we have no gears or anything to protect ourselves at all so we are all panicking," the source said. The port worker said there was also no set protocol when it came to yachties, since some of them would also dock and disembark their vessels without making a request to do so. "I am calling on the authorities to take this Ebola thing seriously. This was just a scare and it is clear we are in no way, form or fashion prepared to deal with this deadly virus and we need to get our acts together because the first cruise ship is expected to call on November 2," the worker added.

The situation developed even as the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) met to make its own plans to deal with the virus. A release said the two-hour meeting, which was chaired by THA Chief Secretary Orville London at the Calder Hall Administrative Complex, was attended by senior representatives of the Customs and Excise Division, Immigration, police, Port Authority, Airports Authority, Health Division and the Tobago Emergency Management Authority. At the meeting London urged Tobagonians not to panic and said public education about the disease and its precautions was essential.

T&T yesterday joined some other Caricom states in implementing an immediate ban on visitors from African countries with the Ebola virus. Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan made the announcement during yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair. He said the Cabinet “had a long deliberation, and it came to the decision that with immediate effect, any person from Sierra Leone, Guinea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia and Nigeria will not be allowed entry into T&T. “Any person who has visited those countries within a six-week period will also be prohibited.”

Any citizen of T&T “who has visited those countries for the last six weeks will be subjected to an initial quarantine period of 21 days in the first instance,” he added. There would be no restrictions on US citizens visiting T&T, he added. Khan also said Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had banned all ministers and government officials from travelling to Ebola-affected areas or travelling to those countries. Cabinet also agreed to establish the Ebola Prevention and Response Team, which will co-ordinate and manage all types of Ebola-related activities and develop a strategic plan, Khan said. Acting Chief of Defence Staff Brig Gen Anthony Phillips-Spencer will head that unit. He said that team would also discuss whether Carnival 2015 should be postponed or cancelled, and on the basis of its advice, the Cabinet will then decide.

A medical management team is to be set up if any case of Ebola is discovered in the country. Khan said there were no suspected or confirmed cases to date. He said President Anthony Carmona has to issue a proclamation deeming the Ebola virus a dangerous infectious disease to allow the Government to implement the required measures. The governments of St Vincent, St Kitts, St Lucia took similar action earlier this week. Grenada is contemplating similar action while Jamaica Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has banned all travel by her officials to those countries. 

Equipment, isolation unit to come
The minister also said the Government was spending millions to procure special personal protective equipment for use by medical professionals to treat citizens who may contract the virus. 
The equipment includes head and face covers, goggles, face shields, trunk and abdomen aprons, rubber boots and shoe covers. He said most of that equipment was available at Nipdec and had been delivered to health centres and county medical officers of health offices across the country.

Khan said hazardous material suits, which offer more protection, were to be acquired. The Government was also setting up an Ebola isolation unit at Caura Hospital, he added. “It is specific for the isolation of Ebola and removal of hazardous waste and treatment of Ebola patients,“ Khan added. He said the unit would cost $3 million (US$500,000) and the suits $20,00 each. Khan dismissed a demand by Public Services Association (PSA) president Watson Duke that workers who might be required to treat Ebola victims should be given $10 million insurance. He said that demand was unfair. “That is bordering on ridiculous,” he added. He said the Government was committed to do all it could to ensure that Ebola did not kill anybody in this country.
 

Providing more compensation for health care workers in light of the Ebola threat is not high on the agenda of the government. Rather, Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan says Government is focusing all efforts to improve safety procedures in case the virus found its way to T&T’s shores. Responding to questions about calls for improved remuneration for health care staff, Khan said: “Right now we are concerned with procedures for safety. Compensation will be done at an appropriate time.” 

However, public relations officer of the Medical Association of T&T Dr Austin Trinidade said it was unfortunate that some people were trying to make money out of the perceived Ebola threat.   
“You cannot start to make a profit out of a perceived emergency. That is absolute nonsense and I am very upset about it,” Trinidade said. He said anyone who went into the medical field understood the risks involved. “To ask for extra pay and insurance is to cash in on serious situation. That is not the ethics that health workers should follow. “All of us face the risks of all kinds of diseases. Ebola is an extreme case but when you become a health worker you understand what is involved and there is an ethical principle by which we work. “We cannot be paid extra because of added risks. If it is a problem to work with these risks then you should not become a health worker. You cannot make money out of Ebola. Nowhere in the world is this happening.” he added.

Asked if enough was being done to allay the fears of health workers, Trinidad said it was important to educate them about the need for proper safety precautions. He said quarantine facilities also would assist to decrease the spread of the virus. 

We not pushing $$ over life—Duke
President of the Public Service Association Watson Duke has called on Government to quadruple the salaries of all workers exposed to Ebola risks as well as provide a $10 million insurance for them. Asked yesterday whether he had any meetings to discuss that, Duke said: “We are not pushing money over life. The major matter is if there is an Ebola outbreak they must provide the equipment, appropriate training and all the necessary prerequisites for proper screening.” He said specialists should be brought to T&T to train health workers, adding he was not satisfied with the strategies the Government had initiated to date. He said classes should be held for all health care workers.

However, Chief Medical Officer Dr Colin Furlonge who was part of a team which went to Nebraska, USA, for training on Ebola, said calls for increased renumeration was being discussed at the highest levels. “We are in the process of looking at this. We have also been in discussion with other treatment centres in other parts of the world and we have guidelines which we will follow,” he added.

The National Operations Centre (NOC) has dismissed rumours two vessels originating from Africa with an Ebola-infected crew members were anchored in T&T territorial waters yesterday. In a press release issued late yesterday evening NOC executive director Garvin Heerah described the rumours, which had been circulating for most of yesterday, as “entirely false.” “The NOC would like to ask the public to desist from sensationalising false information over this highly charged issue and to rely on the authorities for information on any related matters,” Heerah said. 

He also sought to assure the public that the Ministry of Heath had already instituted strict protocols and procedures to protect members of the public from exposure to the virus. Immigration and Customs sources alerted this newspaper to a vessel originating from Ebola-ravaged West Africa, which was anchored near to the Anchorage Beach Club yesterday afternoon. A second vessel originating from South Africa, which was anchored near the Scarborough Port also caused a scare in Tobago before the officials cleared it.  

Sources said staff of both agencies stationed at sub-offices at the Crews Inn marina expressed fear over possible exposure which may be carried by crew members. One of the crew members was expected to meet with the vessel’s local representative at the offices yesterday afternoon to seek approval from both agencies to allow the crew to disembark. 

However, the meeting did not take place up to late yesterday. The T&T Guardian was informed that the vessel’s manifest indicated that the research vessel had visited the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on September 13 and Ghana on September 25 before making the trans-Atlantic journey to the Caribbean.  While the DRC is not listed in the five West African countries that has been hit with this year’s Ebola outbreak, that country has still recorded over 68 cases which have led to 49 deaths.  

Thousands of citizens in central, east and northwest Trinidad were plunged into darkness last night because of “unrelated incidents” at generation facilities operated by Trinity Power in Point Lisas and Power Gen, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain. This was according to an advisory issued by T&TEC.

Director at the National Operations Centre, Garvin Heerah said the police and Defence Force were on alert and was prepared to provide any assistance required. General manager at T&TEC Kelvin Ramsook told the T&T Guardian that the problem was expected to be rectified by 9 pm last night.

Among the areas affected were St James, Diego Martin, Westmoorings, Maraval and Chaguaramas in the north west, Sangre Grande in east Trinidad and Endeavour and Waterloo, in Chaguanas.
T&TEC said the incidents “caused a significant reduction in the bulk power available for use on T&TEC’s transmission grid.”

Power was restored in Port of Spain shortly before 8 pm but areas west of Mucurapo, as well as some parts of central and east Trinidad remained in darkness up to press time. 

A community nurse at the Queen’s Park Counselling Centre and Clinic, Port-of-Spain, says T&T is not ready to deal with the Ebola virus despite assurances from Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan.
In an interview, Jason Augustus said the medical fraternity was panicked about the possible spread of Ebola. He said although an Ebola response unit had been set up, the Government had not yet organised staff for the containment units at the Caura District Hospital and the Piarco International Airport. 

A four-bed isolation unit at Caura was announced at a post-Cabinet media briefing two weeks ago but Augustus said it was still unclear who would be stationed at the centres. “I have been speaking to nurses and many of them are saying that there is no team in place as yet to handle this situation. The protocols are still being established and finding the staff to actually work there will be the most challenging thing that Government will have to do,” Augustus predicted. 

In the meantime, he said nurses and other health care workers were being educated about the spread of Ebola and how easily it could be spread. Asked whether a special incinerator had been set up to deal with Ebola-related waste, Augustus said no. On concerns over whether Ebola-contaminated clothes and other waste could be transported for incineration or disposed of in the same area, Augustus said the existing hospital incinerator could be used and ruled out possible dangers from transporting hazardous waste. “We are trained in this field and we believe that transporting the waste will not present a  problem once proper procedures are followed,” Augustus said. 
Yes to $10m insurance

Augustus commended the proposal made by PSA president Watson Duke that the State should put in place a $10 million insurance policy for health care workers who might be exposed to Ebola.
“If we have to deal with an Ebola patient, we have to be kept in isolation. It means we will have to stay away from our families for more than 21 days. We will be unable to engage in public transportation. “Our pets may be put to sleep as has happened with the Chile nurse who contacted the disease. We may die if proper procedures are not followed,” Augustus said. He added that additional compensation was warranted and anyone who thought otherwise was not being fair to health care workers.

National Security Minister Gary Griffith said T&T did not provide any information that led to Jamaat-al-Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr being detained and denied entry to Jamaica on Wednesday. He was speaking at yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair. He said the first time he heard about the matter was when T&T’s High Commissioner in Kingston Dr Iva Gloudon contacted him.

He noted the decision by the Jamaican authorities should be respected and not questioned. He said if Jamaica felt anyone was a security threat to the country it could rightly deny entry. He said Abu Bakr’s detention was not any act of retaliation by Jamaica against similar action taken recently by T&T against 13 Jamaican nationals who attempted to enter T&T but were deported. Griffith said the T&T Government was moving to address the high incidence of illegal immigrants in the country.

Bakr returned home shortly after 6 am yesterday on a private flight. He was detained in Kingston shortly after he arrived on Wednesday afternoon to attend Sunday’s Million Man March at the National Arena, being hosted by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. The authorities in Jamaica said Abu Bakr, who led an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the T&T Government in July 1990, was a security threat. And in a statement issued by the Muslimeen yesterday, Bakr described his arrest and detention as an “abuse” and after an investigation was complete “appropriate action will be taken in accordance.” He also wants the T&T authorities to intervene “to clear up this matter.”

Bark's Version of Events
Bakr said he, one of his wives and son boarded a Caribbean Airlines flight from Piarco to Norman Manley Airport, Jamaica, for a six-day visit to his daughter, who is studying medicine at the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies. The release also said he had been invited to the 19th anniversary of the Million Man March in Kingston. 

When they arrived at the Norman Manley International Airport,  Jamaican immigration officials denied them entry, saying they were all threats to national security, it added. After deliberations, Bakr’s wife and son were allowed into Jamaica but he was told he would be deported, it stated.  “Bakr refused to leave,” said the release, “stating he wanted clear information on how he could be perceived as a threat to Jamaica.” The release said Abu Bakr was in good health and strong spirits.

Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan yesterday challenged hunger-striker Dr Wayne Kublalsingh to prove him wrong about his health. Khan had said over the weekend  Kublalsingh, who has been on a hunger strike for almost a month, had no signs of imminent organ failure. 

Yesterday Khan dared Kublalsingh to prove him wrong and said Kublalsingh, the leader of the Highway Re-Route Movement, should produce the results of his blood test done at St Clair Medical Centre. “I would like Dr Kublalsingh or anyone in his family to make the blood results public and prove me wrong,” he said. 

Khan said he would also like Kublalsingh’s doctor to “show me where, in the reference of the medical literature, somebody’s organs are failing and the blood results are normal.”

RC Archbishop Joseph Harris yesterday reiterated his call for mediation, saying this would ultimately create a better society. “The possibility with mediation has always existed but it is up to the people to come to a consensus and a conclusion to find common ground and to move on. “I have said repeatedly I am not a politician, I am a theologian and I come to this issue from a theological point of view. “In a situation of conflict we have to seek ways of defusing the conflict and bringing people together,” Harris added.

Saying God wanted harmony for the world, Harris said mediation was part of seeking that harmony. “I am a religious leader and I have to promote harmony. I am not taking any sides and I have not been visiting anybody because I do not want to appear as if I am taking sides,” Harris added. President of the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO) Harrypersad Maharaj, when contacted, directed the T&T Guardian to Harris and Anglican Bishop Claude Berkley, saying they were the ones who had called for mediation. He said the IRO would be issuing a full-page advertisement on Sunday about the HRM’s cause.

Dear World

In just over six months, Ebola has managed to bring my country to a standstill. We have lost over 2,000 Liberians. Some are children struck down in the prime of their youth. Some were fathers, mothers, brothers or best friends. Many were brave health workers that risked their lives to save others, or simply offer victims comfort in their final moments.

There is no coincidence Ebola has taken hold in three fragile states – Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea - all battling to overcome the effects of interconnected wars. In Liberia, our civil war ended only eleven years ago. It destroyed our public infrastructure, crushed our economy and led to an exodus of educated professionals. A country that had some 3,000 qualified doctors at the start of the war was dependent by its end on barely three dozen. In the last few years, Liberia was bouncing back. We realized there was a long way to go, but the future was looking bright.

Now Ebola threatens to erase that hard work. Our economy was set to be larger and stronger this year, offering more jobs to Liberians and raising living standards. Ebola is not just a health crisis – across West Africa, a generation of young people risk being lost to an economic catastrophe as harvests are missed, markets are shut and borders are closed.

The virus has been able to spread so rapidly because of the insufficient strength of the emergency, medical and military services that remain under-resourced and without the preparedness to confront such a challenge. This would have been the case whether the confrontation was with Ebola, another infectious disease, or a natural disaster.

But one thing is clear. This is a fight in which the whole world has a stake. This disease respects no borders. The damage it is causing in West Africa, whether in public health, the economy or within communities – is already reverberating throughout the region and across the world.

The international reaction to this crisis was initially inconsistent and lacking in clear direction or urgency. Now finally, the world has woken up. The community of nations has realized they cannot simply pull up the drawbridge and wish this situation away.

This fight requires a commitment from every nation that has the capacity to help – whether that is with emergency funds, medical supplies or clinical expertise.

I have every faith in our resilience as Liberians, and our capacity as global citizens, to face down this disease, beat it and rebuild. History has shown that when a people are at their darkest hour, humanity has an enviable ability to act with bravery, compassion and selflessness for the benefit of those most in need.

From governments to international organisations, financial institutions to NGOs, politicians to ordinary people on the street in any corner of the world, we all have a stake in the battle against Ebola. It is the duty of all of us, as global citizens, to send a message that we will not leave millions of West Africans to fend for themselves against an enemy that they do not know, and against whom they have little defence.

The time for talking or theorizing is over. Only concerted action will save my country, and our neighbours, from experiencing another national tragedy. The words of Henrik Ibsen have never been truer: “A thousand words leave not the same deep impression as does a single deed.”

Yours sincerely,

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Source: AllAfrica.com

Amid concerns about the spread of Ebola to the Caribbean, there is the growing fear that the virus could enter the region through its sea ports, via cruise ships.

Belize yesterday refused entry to a cruise ship carrying an unnamed Texas hospital worker who may have handled Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan’s specimen. Two nurses who cared for Duncan tested positive for Ebola. The Belize Coast Guard did not let the vessel or any of its thousands of passengers into port.

“The Government of Belize was contacted today by officers of the U.S. government and made aware of a cruise ship passenger considered of very low risk for Ebola,” the government of Belize said Thursday in a statement. “Nonetheless, out of an abundance of caution, the government of Belize decided not to facilitate a U.S. request for assistance in evacuating the passenger through the Phillip Goldson International Airport.”

The government further said yesterday that it is no longer issuing visas to travellers from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, the West African countries with confirmed cases of the Ebola virus.

Belizean Minister of Immigration Godwin Hulse yesterday said that, under a new immigration protocol, visitors from those countries could no longer enter Belize.

Mexico also blanks ship
The Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital healthworker in question and a partner boarded the ship October 12 in Galveston, Texas, before the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated the requirement for active monitoring, the State Department said in a statement.

“It has been 19 days since the passenger may have processed” Duncan’s fluid samples, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement yesterday morning. “The cruise line has actively supported CDC’s efforts to speak with the individual, whom the cruise ship’s medical doctor has monitored and confirmed was in good health. Following this examination, the hospital employee and traveling partner have voluntarily remained isolated in a cabin.”

Authorities had earlier said the health worker was “quarantined”.

The Carnival cruise ship was also denied entry into Mexico, according to a Carnival spokeswoman. The ship yesterday headed back to the United States after Mexican authorities failed to grant it permission to dock off the coast of Cozumel.

A Mexican port authority official said the ship was denied clearance to avoid any possible risk from Ebola. 

“It is the first time that this has happened, and it was decided the ship should not dock as a preventative measure against Ebola,” Erce Barron, port authority director in Quintana Roo, told Reuters.

The Carnival Magic had been waiting off the Mexican coast since yesterday morning for its scheduled port visit. Mexican authorities still hadn’t given clearance by noon, so the ship continued to its home port of Galveston, Texas, where it is due back tomorrow.

The health worker, a lab supervisor who has not been named, has shown no symptoms of the disease but remains on board and in voluntary isolation, according to Carnival. 

“We greatly regret that this situation, which was completely beyond our control, precluded the ship from making its scheduled visit to Cozumel and the resulting disappointment it has caused our guests,” read a statement from Carnival.

The Carnival Magic is operated by Carnival Corp unit Carnival Cruise Lines.—Sources: Reuters, National Post

Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan says Government is not budging on its decision to quarantine all T&T nationals returning from Ebola-stricken regions of west Africa for a period of 21 days. And although he admitted they could not say just how many people this could affect, given that there were fears the virus could even spread in the United States, Khan said they would make the room at medical institutions across the country to ensure they could accommodate those people once they returned home.

“We will have to find space,” Khan told the T&T Guardian as he answered questions on whether the lone isolation unit at the Caura Hospital would be enough to undergo the quarantine exercise if there was an overwhelming response. Khan announced the quarantine on Thursday in tandem with a ban on entry to all travellers coming from west African regions, such as Nigeria, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Yesterday, however, Khan said the Government may review the ban on Nigeria, which had been able to contain the virus, as more information cane to hand on the virus. He said the decision to ban Nigeria was taken by Cabinet. Asked why Nigeria was banned when it had successfully contained the Ebola spread, Khan said Nigeria was on the St Lucian watch list and T&T followed suit. 

He agreed that many T&T nationals were employed in the Nigerian energy sector but could not give any figures. “This is being compiled by the Energy Ministry,” Khan said when asked whether adequate research had been done to ascertain how many nationals would be affected. Khan said  the T&T Government would work closely with the World Health Organisation and the Pan American Health Organisation before making future decisions on altering the travel ban.

“The WHO has made some pronouncements on Nigeria, so we will be reviewing our decision,” Khan promised. 

Nigeria safe — ambassador
Nigerian High Commissioner to T&T Musa John Jen says his country has been safe from Ebola infections for the past six weeks. He made the comment yesterday in response to Health Minister Fuad Khan’s decision to ban nationals of his country from entering T&T due to Ebola concerns. The WHO says Nigeria will be declared Ebola-free as long as no new cases are detected before Monday.

In a radio interview yesterday, John Jen, who will be returning to Nigeria this weekend after resigning from his post to contest a governorship in his country, said he would not have returned if Ebola was not under control. “I am heading to Nigeria with my family this weekend. If there is a threat, especially Ebola, I would be the last person to carry my family after six years and some months in Trinidad,” John Jen said.

He said there was now a system in Nigeria where contact details and other information was taken from travellers at every port of entry into the country. John Jen said during the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in China in 2002, that country had put systems in place to track and control any spread of the virus. He suggested T&T should employ similar measures.

Crew members on board the MV Ocean Discovery, which arrived in Chaguaramas on Thursday from Ebola-raved west Africa, have been cleared to come ashore by doctors attached to the Health Ministry. This was the word from Health Minister Fuad Khan last night as he tried to allay fears by fishermen in the region and members of the public that there are no vessels in T&T territorial waters carrying Ebola-infected crew members.

“The doctors have decided that they are eligible to enter the country because they have already spent more than 21 days since they left Africa,” Khan said. Chaguaramas fishermen were yesterday suspicious of the crew members aboard the ship, which arrived here after two stops at ports in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola and Ghana. “We not going near there. Them people have Ebola, we don’t want to die,” one fisherman at a depot near the Crews Inn marina said. 

When a news team from the T&T Guardian visited the area seeking to charter a fishing boat to have a closer look at the ship, only one of the dozen fishermen present was willing to take the job offer. Even then, as soon as the vessel came into sight on the boat trip, he quickly expressed strong reservations about going further. “Allyuh really want to go so near to it? I ent feel that make sense,” he said.  

He reluctantly agreed after reporters explained that the virus could only be transmitted through bodily fluids. When the boat approached closer, seven crew members were seen walking around the ship’s upper deck. Although it was difficult to communicate because of the distance and size difference between the ship and the fisherman’s pirogue, the crew members, who said they were from Scotland, said they had recently visited Africa. 

With a broad smile, a bareback crew member flexed his biceps and shouted across the water that he was not infected with Ebola. Before reporters could ask the purpose of their visit and if the crew was planning to come ashore, Port Authority personnel patrolling in the area intervened to say the mission should be immediately abandoned.  

The T&T Government’s decision to impose a ban on nationals of Nigeria and other west African countries because of the Ebola outbreak could damage its oil and gas relationship with that part of the world, Anthony Paul, managing director at Association of Caribbean Energy Specialists (ACES), warned yesterday. Paul, a senior consultant in the local energy sector, said the decision would affect an already volatile relationship between the governments.

“We have not managed the relationship well at the government-to-government level. If you looked at what happened in Ghana, there was a deal that was supposed to be signed and it did not come off for all kinds of reasons,” he said in reaction to Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan’s announcement on Thursday that people coming from Sierra Leone, Guinea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia and Nigeria would be denied entry to T&T due to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

He added: “West Africa is suffering and to add more suffering does not help. I went to Liberia about two years ago and I was working on a project there. In July, I was working on a Liberian project with Liberians in the United States. Part of my proposal was for them to come to Trinidad. Now they cannot. 

“All businesses with Africa are being affected but the worst hit is energy as that is the biggest relationship T&T has with Africa now.” 

T&T nationals affected too
Paul said there were also dozens of T&T nationals working in Nigeria and their livelihood could be affected. “I was in Nigeria and Ghana not too long ago. I was also in South Africa recently and they pulled me aside and asked if I was in west Africa. 

“There are many Trinis working in west Africa, in areas like Nigeria and Liberia, in oil and gas. Some actually live in Nigeria and rotate in and out of Africa every four weeks or so. My company is doing a project with a Nigerian group and we had a meeting in London two weeks ago with them,” Paul said.

He said he was recently involved in getting an opportunity for 60 Nigerian students to come here to study at the National Energy Skills Centre (NESC) and the measures taken by the Government would affect that arrangement “Everything was put in place then, put on hold in July and August, because of the Ebola outbreak. That means millions of dollars that must be spent on hotel and accommodation because these students are being held up in Nigeria. 

“It is the state government in that part of Nigeria that will have to pay for that. There are also 90 Nigerian students going to Tobago because of this programme. The Barbadians have put in place protocols to allow them to come in. What worries me about the T&T response is it is just a broad brush,” he added. He said Nigeria had been Ebola free for more than 42 days so the measures taken by the Government “do not seem to make sense.”

“If you are a Liberian living in the United States and you have not been to Liberia in ten years, then you still are not allowed into T&T. “What worries me is the lack of protocols. I am all for managing the country’s economy and its health and prevention but you cannot do it to people who have no cause to be excluded. We need to do it but in a more targeted way,” Paul added.

Petrotrin Phase II Pan Groove has cancelled its planned visit to Nigeria because of issues with Boko Haram and the growing threat of Ebola. Yesterday the band’s manager, Errol Skerritt, confirmed that development. Skerritt said: “As the reigning National Panorama champion Phase II was nominated to return to Abuja, Nigeria’s second city. Last year, we went there at mid-November, our visit coinciding with that state’s carnival. I imagine that this year it would have been the same time.”

But Skerritt said when the Boko Haram atrocities began the T&T High Commission in Nigeria warned the band that the situation was volatile and it should no longer come and since then the tour had seemed unlikely. Boko Haram is a militant Islamic extremist group which has been labelled a terrorist organisation by the US and which abducted over 200 schoolgirls in April. The recent outbreak of Ebola in west Africa created another problem.

Skerritt said: “When Ebola emerged, though it started off in west Africa, it didn’t get to Nigeria initially. “When you mix the Boko Haram and Ebola factors together, it has been an imperative that this tour will not come off. “Initially, there was talk of an alternative tour somewhere else in Nigeria but the sponsor—Chrome Group Company—physically located in Abuja. I knew they would not be interested in an alternative part of Nigeria.”

He also expressed concern about the possible cancellation of Carnival 2015 because of the threat of Ebola. He said: “At this time of the year we are usually going through the process of ordering instruments. Right now Boogsie (the band’s arranger and composer, Len “Boogsie” Sharpe) has about ten songs to pick one; the last one is usually the best one. Just yesterday, Thursday, he made a new one and was saying it sounds like ‘the one.’

“We also have to contend with the talk making the rounds that Carnival will be cancelled next year. We don’t want to spend too much money up front and then there is no Carnival. We have to be mindful that the lead-up time to Carnival is short, so we are walking a very thin line as far as preparations are concerned.” 

Amid concerns about the spread of Ebola to the Caribbean, there is the growing fear that the virus could enter the region through its sea ports, via cruise ships. Belize yesterday refused entry to a cruise ship carrying an unnamed Texas hospital worker who may have handled Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan’s specimen. Two nurses who cared for Duncan tested positive for Ebola. The Belize Coast Guard did not let the vessel or any of its thousands of passengers into port.

“The government of Belize was contacted today by officers of the US Government and made aware of a cruise ship passenger considered of very low risk for Ebola,” the government of Belize said on Thursday in a statement. “Nonetheless, out of an abundance of caution, the Government of Belize decided not to facilitate a US request for assistance in evacuating the passenger through the Phillip Goldson International Airport.”

The Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital employee and a partner boarded the ship on October 12 in Galveston, Texas, before the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention updated the requirement for active monitoring, the State Department said in a statement. “It has been 19 days since the passenger may have processed” Duncan’s fluid samples, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement yesterday. 

“The cruise line has actively supported CDC’s efforts to speak with the individual, whom the cruise ship’s medical doctor has monitored and confirmed was in good health. Following this examination, the hospital employee and traveling partner have voluntarily remained isolated in a cabin.” Authorities had earlier said the health worker was “quarantined.” The Carnival cruise ship was also denied entry into Mexico, according to a Carnival spokeswoman. 

The ship yesterday headed back to the US after Mexican authorities failed to grant it permission to dock off the coast of Cozumel. A Mexican port authority official said the ship was denied clearance to avoid any possible risk from Ebola. The Carnival Magic had been waiting off the Mexican coast since yesterday morning for its scheduled port visit. Mexican authorities still had not given clearance by noon, so the ship continued to its home port of Galveston, Texas.

The health worker, a lab supervisor who has not been named, has shown no symptoms of the disease but remains on board and in voluntary isolation, according to Carnival. “We greatly regret that this situation, which was completely beyond our control, precluded the ship from making its scheduled visit to Cozumel and the resulting disappointment it has caused our guests,” read a statement from Carnival. The Carnival Magic is run by Carnival Corp unit Carnival Cruise Lines.

        — Reuters, National Post

Members of the Joint Consultative Council of the construction industry (JCC) yesterday walked out of a meeting with National Infrastructure Development Company (Nidco) chairman Carson Charles before it began. 

Shortly after 2 pm yesterday, members of the media arrived at Nidco on Melbourne Street, Port-of-Spain, in response to an invitation from Charles to witness the opening statements of the meeting on the Armstrong Report on the Debe to Mon Desir segment of the Solomon Hochoy highway to Point Fortin. When JCC members arrived at the conference, however, they expressed surprise at the media presence and JCC president Afra Raymond left the room, along with several members.

Raymond was heard saying the group had not been invited for the purpose of talking to the media. He spoke to Nidco staff and urged other members of the JCC to leave the conference room. The group walked to another room in the building to have a closed-door meeting among themselves while Charles addressed the media. “It is a misunderstanding,” Charles said, adding that Nidco could not force the JCC to do anything. 

“We will meet with them anyway. We are going to have a nice long chat this evening but with respect to the media, they don’t wish to have that before the meeting,” he said. Charles admitted that it was a protocol issue and the JCC had not been told the media would be present. He said he felt there would be no problem with the meeting itself which continued despite the confusion. “They just prefer to talk in private,” he said. 

Charles said the JCC had asked for the meeting to discuss what Nidco had done with the Armstrong Report and to follow up on issues listed in the report. He denied Nidco had ever had a problem with former Senator James Armstrong heading the committee, which reviewed the disputed Debe to Mon Desir section of the highway. 

He said while he had no problem with the committee itself, it was inaccurate to say it was independent, as Armstrong and the other professionals on the committee had been selected by the JCC. Asked why, if there were problems with the constitution of the committee, the Government had agreed to pay for it, Charles said Government contributed to the payment but did not fund the entire project. 

He said the Government was asked to contribute by the JCC and agreed to give approximately $800,000, while the JCC funded approximately $400,000. Charles said the Armstrong Report had been considered and said he would discuss that with the JCC then issue a statement.

Grand Bazaar mall, Valsayn, was shut down yesterday after a fire broke out at the Ruby Tuesday restaurant. Three other businesses—Off Rodeo, Girls 2–7 and Mark of Style stores—suffered smoke and water damage, a statement from ANSA McAL’s Group Corporate Communications Department said. There was no report of injury, it added.

The fire began at 11.05 am in the kitchen of Ruby Tuesday on the upper level of a building facing the Uriah Butler Highway. The fire started in the grill and after attempts to extinguish it failed, the Fire Services were called in. Speaking with the media at Grand Bazaar yesterday, Anthony Salloum, general manager of the mall, congratulated the staff and security officers for their swift action, adding he was hoping the rest of the shopping complex would return to normal. 

He was not sure of the cost of the damage or repair, but said if the building was to be demolished and re-built it would take eight months to a year to complete. One tenant told the media she was disappointed in the Fire Services, which responded within 15 minutes after receiving the call. She said had the proper equipment been used, probably there would have been less damage.

Some tenants said they were frustrated that they were not allowed to remove some of the goods in their stores in an attempt to minimise loss. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined. ANSA McAL, which owns the mall, said it regretted the inconvenience caused to its customers and tenants by the incident. “We expect to be fully operational as soon as security and safety clearance are given by the authorities,” the statement added.