I liken certain, not all, elements in society to the verse from Romans: "Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips," in how they have perfected the art of primal mode behaviour–hunting with lips dripping of blood for anything to survive for a story.
Why isn't the First Lady, Michelle Obama–who has over 22 staff members to service her–on every front page and in all the mainstream papers? Michelle Obama has:
�2 A director of scheduling, who is paid US$75,000 per year
�2 A deputy director of scheduling and events co-ordinator, who is paid US$62,000
�2 A deputy director of advance and trip director
�2 Special assistant and personal aide
�2 Deputy associate director of correspondence, and the list goes on to over 15 more people hired as part of her personal contingent, all paid for using taxpayers' dollars.
At the end of her tenure as secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton visited 112 countries in an official capacity; making her the most widely travelled secretary of state in history.Clinton travelled a total 401 days, with 306 of those spent in actual diplomatic meetings, and spent the equivalent of 87 full days on airplanes. Compared to other recent secretaries, Clinton travelled more broadly, with fewer repeat visits to certain countries.
Again, why wasn't the preceding ventilated in all of the main newspapers all the time? Why didn't investigative journalists try to find out which hotels she slept in, or the cost of her food bills or who accompanied her?I was looking for editorials, letters to the editor, stories by visiting the online archives of the daily newspapers, as well as using the search engine "Google" and could not find the following:
�2 When a senior magistrate in August 2009 questioned how a Chinese national, Ms Jun Lean Chen, had confessed to the court she could not read or write English but secured a firearm users licence for eight years (up to 2006)
�2 A former minister under the PNM accused of financial immorality and corporate misbehaviour by a well-known banking institution, and where the institution filed a civil law suit against the minister, who was its former president and CEO, for breaching his fiduciary duties and the bank's rules and procedures and among other things (Supreme Court Barbados in July 2004)
�2 A senior Cabinet minister in 2006, used a government-issued credit card to spend thousands US dollars on fertility treatment, buying wigs and hairpieces in New York
�2 When a former prime minister appointed his spouse during one term in office, to a senior Cabinet post via a senatorial appointment and then in a second term appointed his spouse again to another senior Cabinet post via senatorial appointment
�2 When a senior Cabinet minister had their uncle appointed to the board of directors of T&TEC. Or did the minister of public utilities at the time demonstrate to the public that the process of appointment in this case was fair, transparent and he was not cajoled or instructed to?
�2 When a former senior Cabinet minister exposed the corrupt procurement practices between a state-owned company and a major construction company. One of the allegations was the award of a contract for over $360 million for a ministry, by a company in their foetal stages and with connections to the then head of the state-owned company.
Prime minister Manning made 17 trips in 1995 to 19 countries? Remember that he was only PM from January-September 1995, as he dissolved Parliament early after the Occah Seapaul fiasco.
What investments were brought to Trinidad as a result of flying to 19 countries and using a private jet six times? We know from what was stated in Parliament records, that to lease a private jet costs nothing less than $790,000 per day. Mr Manning travelled 13 times in 2006, and employed the use of a private jets six times.
In 2007, he travelled 13 times to 15 countries and used a private jet five times. In 2008, he travelled 15 times to 24 different countries and used a private jet ten times. In total, Mr Manning between 2006-2008, used the services of leasing a private jet 22 times which means that it cost 22 X 790,000 = $17, 380, 000 (this is the lowest it could cost depending on where the jet was leased to go).
We need to spend some time reflecting! Our moorings have been anchored in one paradigm too long....The Rip Van Winkles among us must be awakened!
Hansen Stewart