Diplomatic missions serves very little value in terms of development, when taken in the context of a country that has very little and dilapidated infrastructure (water, roads, drainage etc), and one that cannot feed itself when it has all the resources to do so.

Diplomatic Missions is a tool to reward party hacks. I heard something like over 70 M$ for the embassy in washington!! Do they do so much business?? Wont a little office somewhere out of the main city with about 4 rooms suffice for the amount of business the Tdad US embassy does, really you think people are lining up for blocks around the trini embassy in washington to do business?? Are embassies in 75% of the countries needed? NO - they just have to grandstand everything Trini style, all flash and no substance. Just Spend de money because you think you have the right to take everything for your party. But what do you expect with the kind of framework the constitution allows for - total rape of the countries resources by who can draw the most voters and the ability to perpetuate this crap indefinitely. A feeding frenzy for ANY party that gets into power.

When you look at it government in TT is all about feeding on the country's resources and how you can hold on to it, it has noting to do with development. Everything you hear from them is an illusion and a distraction from the real picture. Development, budgets, serving the people is all an illusion. And this is a result of the constitution. The current drive for constitutional reform is not any reform but the current constitution's evolution and its ability to become into something more sinister. One must consider the possibility that the original framers of the Constitution designed it this way. How is it possible for any decent person to be patriotic to this!

....face clean, backside filthy....this sums up the PNM creedo....

Sayeth The Pilgrim

The Devil, as always, is in the details...

First, let me commend Richard Lord for finally showing some meaningful journalistic acumen with this story as it unfolds - but he is still just reporting rote what he is being told, and is not pursuing the glaring inconsistencies in each morsel of new information he presents. I encourage him to keep on this story like the proverbial bulldog on a French poodle, and to demand answers to the constantly shifting story that is being fed to the public. To return to the beginning, the Devil is in the details.

To recap the story thus far (based on the articles of the past few days), the GOTT has already acquired a building in New York for the Consulate there, and that building is now occupied and in active use. Note that nowhere in the story above is any mention made of this building, nor has any information been made available as to when it was purchased, for how much, by whom, what was the original MLS list price versus the final price paid - nothing. Ergo Mystery #1.

Second, the GOTT has purchased a 16,000 sq ft building at 185 Sheppard Avenue West in Toronto (see pictures of it here: http://jyoticommunication.blogspot.com/2009/09/t-buys-toronto-building-f...). The purchase was made on 7/23/2009, although the MLS EXPIRED on 6/30/2009 after being on the market since 4/2/2009, and even that MLS was a re-listing of an older one. This is Mystery #2. Further, the MLS list price was CAD$ 4.25 Million, and the GOTT purchased the building - according to the official MLS website listing (I have a copy) - at FULL list price of $4.25 Million, leaving one to question why it is, in a depressed real estate market AND with a re-listed MLS, the GOTT could not do better than FULL list price on an EXPIRED listing. This is Mystery #3. To continue, in yesterday's article in the Guardian, the Minister first did a volte face on the use and purpose of the building (which had been reported the previous day as being to 'house the diplomatic staff') and then announced that the property in Toronto in fact cost CAD$5 Million - an increase of CAD$750,000 ABOVE full list price - and gave all kinds of spurious reasons why the purchase was necessary, including - but not limited to - that the new building gave easy access to health care, banking, and other services that bear zero relevance to the functions of a Consulate. Where the additional CAD$750,000 suddenly came and went to from is Mystery #4.

And today Richard Lord presents us with new mysteries, to wit:

Mystery #5: The “Details of Estimates of Recurrent Expenditure” indicates "$24.6 million to purchase a property in Toronto". At today's exchange rate, TT$24.6 Million is CAD$4.3 Million. So which is it: $4.25 Million, $5 Million, or $4.3 Million?

Mystery #6: Also in today's article is THIS curious anomaly: "the Government allocated $28.8 million in the 2009 revised estimates to purchase the property in Brussels and $46.2 million in the 2009 financial year to acquire the property in Toronto." What??? Now the property in Toronto is TT$46.2 Million??? That is CAD$8.10 Million! What is going on here?

Mystery #7: In yesterday's report, the Minister stated that the property in Washington - originally rumoured to have cost US$17 Million - in fact cost US$12 Million. But today's story - quoting the “Details of Estimates of Recurrent Expenditure” - says THIS: "The document reveals that the Government proposes to spend $69.5 million to purchase a property in Washington DC". When you do the conversion, TT$69.5 Million is US$11 Million even, so Madame Minister: what is the extra US$1 million for? And what was the original MLS list price on the property?

To the Editor of the Guardian: short of my coming over and poking you with a stick, how else can we get your paper to do some good investigative journalism and get meaningful answers to these mysteries and inconsistencies? Getting answers from the Minister is like trying to nail Jello to a tree. Your tag line is that your paper is "The Guardian of Democracy". Here's a suggestion - show us, don't tell us.

And here's a hint: The Devil is in the details...

When last has a cost/benefit analysis of the country's foreign Missions been done to rationalise & justify the kind of financial outlays and recurrent expenditure that they incur? With the current recession and declining revenues/dwindling reserves, it is more than time to embark on such an exercise. Even the big countries are doing it.
T&T's main exports and areas for foreign investment(oil/gas/petrochemicals) are self-selling & self-advertising/promoting. There is no need for all these low-productive resource-draining missions abroad. Instead of purchasing new buildings and opening new missions, it might be better to sell some of the properties & scale down the essential ones. Be lean and mean, the days of fat are gone. Most countries our size have few if any Embassies abroad, but they seem to do quite well, often better than we do. Maybe we could send some missions to some of these countries' to find out how they do it. When they have something of vital national interest to discuss/negotiate, they send an ad hoc delegation/mission, or use the telephone/fax/e-mail or they call in the foreign ambassador resident in their capital to help them out. They know how to survive without all the peacocks and leeches we tend to send abroad.
On the question of the maintenance of these properties, this situation is symptomatic of what obtains in the country:buy and/or build but not maintain. Is there no plan for on-going or scheduled maintenance of these properties abroad? When money was no problem, not that we are led to believe that it is now, why was not some of this essential maintenance carried out instead of allowing so many buildings to fall into such disrepair? And in costing these repairs etc, were the contracts based on estimates obtained from as many bona fide contractors as possible and properly vetted? Or is the work to be handed out to/by persons with vested interests? If you cannot afford to maintain these buildings, clearly you cannot afford to own or retain them, so some should be sold off & the income put towards retaining & maintaining those essential ones. Act now before they drain the country's life blood like Draculas!

$116M on Diplomatic Buildings:-
I will start from the bottom up.
- $2M for the Equal Opportunities Commission & Tribunal in T&T. I would assume that this is in T&T dollars. (Mr. Lord has been reporting in the past few days taking us from T&T dollars to international currency. So it's left me sort of confused.) This is a start, for this long awaited legislation to take effect. But need I say this is pittance if it is in T&T dollars. - We are planning to spend $5M on the "Diplomatic Academy" (Is this the one and same "Diplomatic House" at Whitehall referred to earlier this week?) By the time this Commission gets on the way, many of us will not be around to use it's services.
E.O.C. - will attempt to serve the interest of the people.
Dip.A. - on the other hand will attempt to 'dress us up and make us look pretty and try to impress the world'. This is not 'service' in the true sense, it's an illusion. .. Good Luck.

Mr. Lord, this article leaves me with the impression that you got your hands on one of the Gov't Fact Sheet/Cheat Sheet, and attempted to do the best you could with what you had. Lacking in financial or real estate expertise, I am floored to figures out what these purchases and stats are really all about. But I think that I was able to come to some understanding of what it really is .. I see our gov't trying to impress the world while at the same time mismanaging the affairs of this country and its people.

Having Missions and Embassies overseas is vital. No arguments here. But we must have accommodations we can afford (tighten our belts/loosen our belts?). We do not have to keep up with the Jones' or the rich oil a-plenty Arab Nations. Our piggy bank is dwindling and our peoples are going without basic essentials here in T&T.

The previous commentary addressed our concerns very well. No need for further contributions on stats or otherwise.

However, Mr. Lord, may I be so bold as to suggest that perhaps you request, to take under your wings, one of the Interns to tag along with you. You see the young are very sharp, untainted, a clean slate - willing to learn, and can ask all sorts of 'silly questions' to get to the point and answers, and could put forth to you (whisper in your ear, slip you a note) some of the questions we are raising here.

We do realise that it is difficult for reporters in this country to engage our politicians in a question and answere session. You must take what they are willing to give, because that's all you will get. If you push too hard, you could be sidelined. But as a seasoned reporter, you my Lord can out-wit the best among them. So can we expect some more investigative reporting on this oh so very important issue. ...Awaiting the next episode.
-----

I DIGRESS:- Reading this article and presenting my comments, my thoughts keep going back to the words from a John Denver song, as follows - it may not be quite accurate, but I will share ...
"I WANT TO LIVE"

"There are children raised in sorrow,
on a scorched and barren plane;
There are children raised beneath the golden sun;
There are children of the water, children of the sand,
and they cry out through the universe, their voices raised as one.

(CHORUS):
I want to live - I want to grow - I want to see - I want to know - I want to share what I can give - I want to be - I want to live.

Have you gazed out on the ocean, seen the breaching of a whale;
Have you watched a dolphin frolic in the foam;
Have you heard the sound the humpback hears 5 hundred miles away;
Telling tales of ancient history of passages and home.

Chorus: ....

For the worker and the warrior, the lover and the liar;
For the native and wonderer in time;
For the maker and the user and the mother and her son;
I am looking for my family and all of you are mine;
We are standing all together, face to face, and arm in arm;
We are standing on the threshold of a dream;
No more hunger, no more killing, no more wasting life away;
It is simply an idea, and I know its time has come."

..Chorus
..Chorus
---
I do hope that I have raised a few eyebrows and concerns with some of the words in this song. You see, at the end of the day, we must come to the realisation that even though we may be standing up and challenging the system for ourselves, we have a bigger responsibility for the children and the generations coming after us. We cannot shirk our responsibilities.

Have a good day.

Dear Editor,
Will these millions of dollars of taxpayers' money improve the pathetic service that Trinidad nationals receive at these Embassies? Will we get someone to at least answer the phones in a timely manner and be responsive to people's needs? There are horror stories coming from people who visit the Trinidad Embassy in Miami, who have to go next door to the businesses run by Embassy employees' cronies to make copies etc. This money will be better spent buying Copiers and Fax Machines for these offices. We will spend millions of dollars, but still have the lazy, laissez-faire, don't give a damn attitude of the Trinidadian Public Servants wherever in the world they are.

Go to any embassy and it will take you 3 months to get your birth paper and another 3 months to get your passport, and the funny thing the people using the embassy are the people traveling frequently, when you call to talk to someone only voice mail, sound like a Jonny O deal 2 me.

You buying building in Canada because Hart is a Canadian, I guess he people is the real-estate broker.

There are no new ideas only old reinvented ones, to rob the people. lol

Ryan4Party

Spending in foreign Lands?
Spending what we don't have in foreign lands is as ill-advised as the extravagant expenditure on non-productive buildings in Port of Spain, the Summit of the Americas, CHOGM and the corruption-ridden Brian Lara Stadium... and all of this when we don't have beds or medicine for our sick and elderly or people scrunting for water and food??? Lord, how long will such self-indulgent ineptitude be allowed to destroy our children's future? Please deal with it now before your people become bowed with frustration. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen!

Submitted by amirjairam on 10 September 2009 - 9:26pm.
" By the way, who going to be the suppliers of materials and labour for refurbishment?"
ajfyzabadbutlertown

In partial answer to the questions posed above, the Government would deploy all those displaced & unemployed Trini workers resulting from the wholesale importation of Chinese & other foreign workers, to do the construction and refurbishment at the Missions abroad. Just a thought, unless Hart already arranged for Sherrie's people to get the contracts.