Port-of-Spain – Special attention needs to be paid to ethnicity and its connection with diabetes, UWI Professor of Medicine, Dr Paul Teelucksingh said last week on World Diabetes Day.
He was speaking at the launch of Tatil and Tail Life Insurance’s event, “Diabetes – A Family Concern” on November 14. The group launched a five-year campaign to tackle the fight against diabetes, and embarked on a series of initiatives to promote lifestyle changes.
Teelucksingh said ethnicity should not be taken lightly, since it is a major contributing factor to diabetes.
Said Teelucksingh: “Different ethnic groups have different thresholds for revealing diseases. Indian and Chinese people are at greater risk. They have the lowest threshold for being obese and declaring diseases like diabetes and heart disease. They are followed by Africans and then Caucasians.”
According to Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Health, non-communicable diseases account for over 60 percent of deaths annually, of which 40 percent are preventable.
Last week also saw the President Paula-Mae Weekes calling on nationals to play a role in the prevention of diabetes.
Said Weekes: “Diabetes has an enormous physical, mental and economic toll on the family and the community. It is therefore imperative for every citizen to play a role in the prevention, treatment and care of the disease to reduce its prevalence and impact.”
Weekes noted an estimated 422 million adults are living with diabetes globally, a figure which has quadrupled since 1980 as a result of an increase in risk factors such as obesity, unhealthy diets and physical inactivity.
“Trinidad and Tobago is included among the countries with the most prevalent and fastest-growing cases of diabetes. The Ministry of Health estimates that the disease affects about 14.5 percent of the population, with about 88-90 percent of patients having Type 2 diabetes. Trinidad and Tobago also has a high rate of diabetic complications, with diabetes being a leading cause of blindness,” she said.
Additionally, Weekes noted diabetes remains a debilitating, costly and stressful disease. Untreated or unmanaged, it can lead to several complications, including heart disease, amputation, kidney failure and early death, she said.
Said Weekes: “Family members can help one another in the monitoring and control of blood sugar levels and work together to make necessary lifestyle changes. Family participation and support in the treatment of diabetes is critical to its effective management and ultimately leads to better outcomes for the patient.”

Port-of-Spain – Member of Parliament for Couva South Rudranath Indarsingh last week enquired whether the Prime Minister was suffering from the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu. He also challenged Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh to reveal the real H1N1 statistics in the country.
Last week Rowley missed consecutive local government campaign meetings, with colleagues reporting he was down with the flu. He was not present for a meeting in San Fernando on November 12, where Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi deputised for him. Then on November 14 deputy political leader Fitzgerald Hinds filled in at a meeting in San Juan/Barataria.
Indarsingh noted the PNM’s fascination with statistics and data in its recent accusations of UNC collusion with Cambridge Analytica. Linking this to Rowley’s flu, Indarsingh accused Deyalsingh of hiding statistics, and asked for the number of deaths that have occurred to date from the flu.
Riffing off the PNM showing “sudden” concern about data, Indarsingh wondered why the government would not reveal statistics on how many people had lost their jobs to date.
Said Indarsingh: “They concerned about statistics but after four years, Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste-Primus cannot tell you what is the true unemployment figure in this country. Jennifer Baptiste-Primus has been missing in action since Arcelor Mittal closed down. Yara Trinidad Ltd has signalled they will close down by December. Who next on the Point Lisas Industrial Estate?”
Additionally, “[We] are not hearing from Jennifer Baptiste-Primus, nor are we hearing from Energy Minister Franklin Khan on whether they will intervene in the negotiations with NGC and Yara to preserve the operations of Yara and to preserve the over 350 jobs, directly and indirectly, which will be affected by this closure."
According to Indarsingh, UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissesssar reported in Parliament that 63,633 people had lost jobs under the PNM’s tenure.
“When [Persad-Bissesssar] said that in the Parliament, there was not one rebuttal from the PNM the entire Cabinet got pip. They can’t talk. And Deyalsingh, who know who hide statistics, but could not say who were the office holders instructed not to provide the statistics for 2013, 2015, and 2015. We want the statistics,” he said.
Indarsingh said not only the Prime Minister but people throughout the country had the flu.
Said Indarsingh: “I want to ask Deyalsingh, ‘Terrible Terrence,’ as the public knows him, in terms of his failure to deliver health care, ‘How many deaths are associated with swine flu?’.”
Also, “[How] many suspect cases there are at the San Fernando General Hospital? How many confirmed cases are existing?"
Indarsingh said it was a sad state of affairs when the PNM was talking about data mining and statistics, “but they can’t tell tax-paying citizens how many cases there are, and how many vaccines are in the public institutions”.

Port-of-Spain – It was just a rally taking place in central Trinidad last week for upcoming local government elections on December 2, but UNC political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar was not treating it that way; instead, it appeared she was looking further ahead to general elections due next year. With this long-term objective apparently in mind, Persad-Bissessar presented a list of promises should the UNC return to power.
Engaging the large crowd before her at the Couva South Multi-Purpose Car Park, Persad-Bissessar revealed UNC’s upcoming plans as the party launched its 139 candidates for upcoming local government elections. Among these plans were repealing the Property Tax Act, decriminalising marijuana, restarting the laptop program, and bringing the Petrotrin refinery back into production.
Accusing the government of spending (TT) $250 billion in four years to neither stimulate the economy nor improve the quality of life for the citizenry, she unveiled the party’s National Economic Transformation Master Plan for Trinidada and Tobago using a video presentation.
Persad-Bissessar said the plan is on the party’s website and open for discussions and consultations. In the first 90 days of assuming office, she promised a UNC government will hit the ground running as she listed plans in every sector, including crime, health, education, and energy. She also promised the police service will get the proper resources to bring down the crime and keep the citizenry safe.
While the PNM government failed to proclaim procurement legislation, she said her government will proclaim the long-awaited legislation and resource the office of the procurement regulator.
Persad-Bissessar said her government will also open the Couva Hospital, adding if her government were in office, then the Point Fortin and Arima Hospitals would have already been opened. Additionally, Persad-Bissessar said information that had come to hand indicated the walls of the incomplete Point Fortin hospital are covered with mould.
She continued, “We will ban all single-use plastic straws and mandate Solid Waste Management Company to develop a new national recycling education programme. Some of you with the Rasta locks may like this one, we will table legislation for the decriminalisation for marijuana.”
Promising the farmers and fisherfolk protection, she said her government will be incorporating the Praedial Larceny Squad into the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, and all outstanding issues by ex-Caroni workers, cane farms, and Petrotrin employees will be settled.
She also promised to scrap the proposed Revenue Authority and bring back the Ministries of the Peoples and Justice.
Among other things, Persad-Bissessar also promised a reduction in personal and corporate taxes, and to widen the list of diseases covered under the Children’s Life Find to include Beta Thalassemias (a group of inherited blood disorders). She reminded that the UNC had gone to court and was unsuccessful for a child with this condition to get help under the fund.

Port-of-Spain – The passing of Secretary General of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, Satnarayan Maharaj will not affect the continuation of the constitutional challenge to the Sedition Act, Attorney Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj said.
The challenge will still go on since the case was filed by both the SDMS leader and the Central Broadcasting Services Ltd, the media house for Radio and TV Jaagriti. In addition, Maharaj said even if CBSL was not involved, a person’s estate could continue litigation. The sedition case is expected to be heard in the High Court on December 9.
As SDMS head and CBSL the late Maharaj filed a claim in the High Court seeking a declaration that sections three, four and 13 of the Sedition Act were unconstitutional. He claimed the wording was vague, uncertain, and, therefore, of no effect.
Attorney Maharaj said the “principle of legality” required that all laws, especially criminal laws that can override citizens fundamental rights, be clear and unambiguous. He said the ambiguous wording could criminalise all statements that were unpopular of the government, and could infringe on said fundamental rights.
Maharaj said the SDMS leader took on the case for the national interest and the benefit of the public.
Said the attorney: “Obviously we would miss Maharaj, because he was the architect of the case in the sense that he believed that the matter was unconstitutional, that people were entitled to speech without having to be penalised in law unless there is a properly defined offence. So it is sad but the case would go on.”
Maharaj said the SDMS General Secretary made “an indelible mark” on the country’s history, and was responsible for landmark judgements in Trinidad and Tobago. Among these judgements were changing Trinidad and Tobago’s highest award from the Trinity Cross to the Order of the Republic of TT, and fighting for the licenses for the radio and TV stations following discrimination by the government.
Added the attorney: “[The SDMS head] has not only been a leader in the Hindu community, he has made positive contributions to national development, he has stood up for the rights of people. He would be remembered also for challenging governments over the years in respect to issues which affected the Hindu Community as well as the people of Trinidad and Tobago.”
According to attorney Maharaj, while the Hindu community lost a great fighter, Trinidad and Tobago lost a great warrior who fought for the rights of the people.