Manufactured news/political spin on T&T’s LNG sector

The political response to the shortfall in gas supply to the local gas based manufacturing sector has been tall tales, manufactured news passing for political spin. With the collapse of oil prices and the consequent fall in LNG contract prices indexed to the market price of oil and the collapse in Asian spot prices primarily caused by increased and increasing supply and sluggish demand the manufactured news mill passing for political spin has now entered a new phase. This phase is now predicated on attacking the manner in which LNG produced in T&T is marketed internationally by the shareholders of Atlantic. This attack is without legal basis as it speaks as if the LNG industry of T&T is state owned and the shareholders have a legal duty to maximise the revenue T&T earns from the sale of LNG produced in T&T on the international markets. It is a UNC government that established the legal/contractual parameters for Trains 1to 3 of Atlantic LNG. A PNM government with the creation of Train 4 tried to vary this boundary of this parameter but the operational reality of Trains 1 to 3 were sacrosant/untouchable. But the fundamental reality remains: for all trains the final product is disposed of in keeping with the strategic imperatives of the transnational corporation which is a shareholder of Atlantic. Why then attack  the shareholders of Atlantic when their actions are lawful under the terms established by a UNC government? If the owners of the product of Atlantic choose to sell LNG to Chile where LNG prices are linked to US Henry Hub prices rather than to markets where the price of LNG is higher that is their legal right as determined by duly elected governments of T&T. You cannot eat your harkow and have it too these are the breaks. But this is not the fundamental issue raised in the manufactured news story and I have to ask questions because this is the era in T&T of pre-action protocol letters and being unemployed, poor and broken I have no court house clothes. These then are the salient questions that arise: this netback formula from which T&T revenue is calculated does this formula only apply to LNG produced at Train 4 of Atlantic whilst for Trains 1 to 3 netback does not apply? If yes what then is the formula applied to Trains 1 to 3 and how does this impact the revenue derived by T&T? These are the crucial questions in an era where the US shale gas revolution is now the gravest threat to the future revenue earning potential to T&T of Atlantic. This paltry attempt at attacking the shareholders in public then seeking to suck up in private is a dangerous play in the era of USD 40 and USD 50 oil, with profit warnings, falling stock prices and cost cutting driven by people losing their jobs. We don’t hold the trump cards in this world energy market they do. They are not driven by the desire to win a general election Play fake, denial hardball and we the people get burn. We the people need to be told the reality political spin cannot buy groceries!

July 27th 1990: 25th anniversary

The lead up to the 25th anniversary of the attempted coup d’etat of 1990 and thereafter have once again seen the use of the discourse of the threat of the Jamaat Al Muslimeen to Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) for what ends remains a matter of speculation. Since 1990 this card has been played ever so often by politicians for various supposed strategic reasons that were real and logical only to their minds and those of their lap dogs. In July 2015 nothing has changed except the fact that the politicians are calling for calm and saying all is safe and specific sections of the media establishment are prosecuting a discourse of imminent threat justifying their discourse with references to “intelligence sources” whatever that is. The discourse of imminent threat is in fact very badly cobbled together lacking in creative imagination. It is in fact bringing the 1990 playbook back in 2015 thereby telling we the citizens of T&T that after 25 years and billions of TT$ in national security expenditure we have learnt and done nothing to pre-empt this ancient play. Because if you could repeat the 1990 playbook in 2015 then the state is in stasis for 25 years. So a multimillion TT$ arms shipment was illicitly imported bypassing the entire state structure and is now in the hands of a criminal organisation intent on attacking the TT state all that is missing is the talk that it was smuggled in plywood. Then persons belonging to the said criminal organisation were sent abroad, trained militarily and successfully returned to TT. The jail break of July 26 was supposed to be the trigger event for the launch of the attack on state institutions in an attempt to free persons incarcerated. So with an attack by a handful of attackers the entire state structure collapses enabling the freeing of persons on remand. Questions: after you free the prisoners then what because the discourse says you don’t want political power? Where are you gong with yourself and the escaped prisoners? How do you propose to  leave T&T and traverse the international order with the policemen of the North Atlantic hunting you: US, Britain, Canada, France, EU etc? Most important according to the discourse the attackers belong to a criminal organisation but the successful daily operations of the illicit enterprise of a criminal organisation demands the purchase of impunity from the state. You cannot purchase impunity from a state that you attack violently and embarrass the politicians in charge. You cannot be a viable, sustainable Caribbean criminal organisation and bite the hand that allows you to feed.If you are a Caribbean criminal organisation and you carry out such an attack on the  state you are not a player in the game but in fact hired labour, bottom players and eminently expendable. Such an attack on the state flaunts a fundamental rule set down by the order of the Mexican organisations today in the Caribbean because such an attack is bad for their business interests and they will deal with the organisation according to their rules you lose your head and they give you up to the US. Further the discourse is telling us that this criminal organisation has been able to evade the surveillance of the powers of the North Atlantic that is focused on them right now! So they have not only evaded TT surveillance but North Atlantic surveillance and Mexican trafficking organisations surveillance. What then is the profit in a criminal organisation launching an attack on the T&T state to free people on remand? There is no profit for them only their extinction as an illicit organisation as criminal organisations are driven by profit and wealth generation not ideology. Maybe the next incarnation of the discourse will say that the criminal organisation is connected to the Islamic State.

Children with Assault rifles

The video on social media showing two children armed with assault rifles and live ammunition was interpreted by the T&T media the same old way: who are they, where was the video shot when was the video shot and where is the adult trainer in the video? The content of the video was never deemed relevant but that is the crux of the matter. The adult said to the children trainees that they are: “Ansar Mujahideen”. They are then the warriors of Islam likened to the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad (UWBP) therefore they are in the tradition of the Salaf of Islam. It is then by the term used highly likely that the children are exposed to the Salifi-Jihadi worldview placing them in the ambit of Islamic State. Click now on the link to the IS video which shows the training and worldview of one detachment of the Mujahideen of IS who are all children or the Cubs of the Islamic State. This is but one expression of the IS strategy to create the ultimate Shahid/martyr by focusing in on very young males 3 years old and above in an attempt to purge and write the discourse of IS on their consciousness and the young males present at the liberation of spaces and the creation of the IS but have grown up under the previous order of impurity and rebellion. These young males are moulded with a different strategy with a different emphasis. Were the children in the video in T&T being prepared for access to the youth Mujahideen of IS, the international brigade of Cubs? The expensive national security apparatus of T&T must answer that.

http://www.tv6tnt.com/sevenpm-news/-TERROR-TRAINING-2222—310815771.html

http://www.memrijttm.org/children-undergoing-military-training-in-new-isis-video-obama-we-cubs-of-the-caliphate-will-kill-you.html

Myths of Gangland T&T today: the case of Enterprise

Fundamental questions arise over the discourses placed in the public domain concerning the so-called Rasta City vs Muslim gang war in Enterprise, Trinidad today. These questions arise as the picture painted simply does not fit with the rules of the illicit drug trade in T&T. These are my questions: why if you are the franchise holder for this allegedly money spinner drug turf would you make war with a group of individuals simply because they are Muslim. War is bad for business as it dramatically reduces your daily turnover, cash flow and profitability which raise questions with the suppliers and the players on your ability to make money with the said franchise. If the group poses a threat to your franchise and you must choose war to defend your franchise why are you then prosecuting a war on the neighbourhood rather than on your enemies? War in defence of a franchise demands graphic, effective violence that takes out the leadership of the group that you view as a concerted threat but where are the bodies dropping in Enterprise? The longer the threat remains active and is not neutralised a message goes out in the business that the present franchise holder is weak and incompetent and the feeding frenzy begins ending only with the death of the franchise holder sometimes at the hands of his own people. The Crown Street group is said to be seeking to seize a drug block from its present franchisee but you cannot seize a drug turf using the tactics attributed to the Crown St group. Sneaking up in a ravine and busting shots is only inviting the franchisee to retaliate with extreme violence against the group which is yet to happen. Whilst the so-called aggressor group is assembled in the open in public it presents an inviting target for retaliation which is yet to happen. It is then a phony war where the persons living in the area are exposed to random violence but to what end? Where is the profit in all of this? How can you allegedly run a profitable drug block in an environment as this and fail to do what is done in the business to ensure prosperity? This is business this has nothing to do with the myth of Muslim vs Rasta. The ultimate question then is: what is the agenda driving the actions taken and the discourses being peddled in public?

http://www.tv6tnt.com/sevenpm-news/-NEW-VIDEO-ON-CENTRAL-GANG-WARFARE-6284—311087051.html

http://www.tv6tnt.com/sevenpm-news/-CENTRAL-GANG-WARFARE-2981—310815311.html

http://www.cnc3.co.tt/news/extended-robocop-interview