Dookeran defers questions at lecture

Affairs Minister Winston Dookeran, who has been away from work for several days due to ill health, yesterdays ducked questions from the media. When he was approached by reporters after a lecture by astrophysicist Dr Shirin Haque at his El Dorado office he said he would answer questions from the media when he returns to work tomorrow.

“I don’t want to take away from the lecture. You all handle the lecture and you’ll talk to me when I go back to work on Monday,” he said. Local Government Minister Dr Surujrattan Rambachan has been acting in Dookeran’s position and is expected to report on the speech by Therese Baptiste-Cornelis, Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, which generated controversy after it was posted on several social networking sites.

Dookeran spoke briefly after Haque’s presentation on ‘God Particle-A huge discovery of a tiny particle that greatly affects our understanding of the universe.’ He said: “There are many more discoveries that have to be made in the field of politics and in that context, I believe that we have had a wonderful exposition on a very complex issue.

“Another lesson I picked up was that everything has structures and that the universe has a structure, and in discovery of ‘God’s particle’ is getting in the very heart of the structure of the universe and therefore the laws of physics are likely to be adjusted to incorporate this new discovery in the way in which they have explained the structures of the universe.”

Dookeran said it struck him that in the world of politics, where he spent all of his adult life, the issue of structures is also relevant. He said perhaps some physicists were needed in politics to show politicians the structures.