The CCJ as the appellate court of the Caribbean, a time for Caribbean jurisprudence! It comes at a time for T&T not without reservations. --"Be it resolved that the CCJ be the final court of appeal only in criminal matters."-- Civil matters may still go to the Privy Council. Huh?
1) The International Criminal Court Of Justice exists.
2) Death penalty must go through the Privy Council.
3) Privy council will query matters relative to the constitution.
How good does the statement look on paper? How good does it sound?
Romney A Smoller, Dean of appellate advocacy from 'Washington and Lee School Of Law' teaches us that it is a difficult course to steer especially when experienced lawyers and judges may lead you through to their argument.
In preparing the brief for appellate advocacy, one must create a winning strategy. What is the likely defense position & how can I win the defense argument? It must be solid with concrete confidence portrayed through voice & posture. 'Never use the word like, always agree with the judge to disagree in any ambiguous circumstances ', Dean Romney quips.
A lawyer is after all a persuasive profession :)
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Lacking the common sense
Here I go again! The future is in some sense patterned by our past. How?
Well from our own experiences, here's how my story evolves.
One Christmas morning about 7am, Lystra was knocking on our galvanise gate. Mum was just about to cut that black cake for us kids. Oh! The smell of black cake reminds me of this incident. I was about 6years of age and my brother was about 2yrs of age. Just WHY did Lystra have to knock on our gate? We were upset as kids. 'Just one moment, let me see what Lystra wants,' mum instructs us. Well, fight break out between two kids on Christmas morning. I cannot remember the reasons why silly kids fight, but I got my share of buff soon after when mum returned to cut us the cake.
The reasons were:
1) I was elder so I should set an example for my younger brother
2) Lystra wanted to buy half dozen of eggs to bake her cake
3) We already had our cake out the oven, her last 6 eggs she kept to bake another cake for the New Year was sold
4) Lystra didnt have time to purchase her eggs before Christmas and when we can help others in a situation, we must.
We sulked as kids even though we got to enjoy mum's freshly baked black cake. We blamed Lystra for our fight & that she spoilt our Christmas Day & how she should have bought her eggs the day before or in a grocery somewhere else. Only in a chinese shop, one could have gone knocking & buying groceries 24 x 7. Yes, even on Christmas Day.
Silly kids we were, we didn't speak to Lystra for a week. As we mature now, I for one remember the smell of black cake & this "sense of smell" lures me back vividly to a fight on Christmas morning with my sibling and mum's love and values. Mind you, no one else was up from bed yet as they closed shop late on Christmas Eve night. All the men were still asleep but mum was up baking for us & answering Lystra & teaching us the true meaning of Christmas ie sharing, loving, giving.
And so we have grown up to be who we are now, servants to others, even though it's the invisible inner trait.
The "sense of sight" teaches me yet another priceless treasure. From the movies, Asian and Catholic values differ significantly from Western culture. In US schools, teenage pregnancy by girls ain't no "taboo". This trend is being emulated in T&T perhaps? The Minister Of Education Dr Tim Gopeesingh stated 'teenage girl pregnancy rate was rising' in the news. The more liberalized American girl would work and study to pay for her tertiary education in a restaurant, or the parents will take a loan. Upon graduation, the kid will repay the loan. Aren't kids in the Caribbean happier because sterling leadership paved that road for us? The leadership from Caribbean governments to parental sacrifices throughout the generations is perhaps a lesson for American family culture to yearn to learn. Gradually though, the creeping dictatorial influences of American culture idolizes & implants it's values on our Afro-Trinidadian girls who see Nicki Minaj, Beyonce & Lady Gaga as personal mantras. Still, it's difficult to penetrate an ethnic population whose cultural roots are deeply entrenched by the presence of religion through the extended family. Thank God then for the sense of sight or foresight?!
Well from our own experiences, here's how my story evolves.
One Christmas morning about 7am, Lystra was knocking on our galvanise gate. Mum was just about to cut that black cake for us kids. Oh! The smell of black cake reminds me of this incident. I was about 6years of age and my brother was about 2yrs of age. Just WHY did Lystra have to knock on our gate? We were upset as kids. 'Just one moment, let me see what Lystra wants,' mum instructs us. Well, fight break out between two kids on Christmas morning. I cannot remember the reasons why silly kids fight, but I got my share of buff soon after when mum returned to cut us the cake.
The reasons were:
1) I was elder so I should set an example for my younger brother
2) Lystra wanted to buy half dozen of eggs to bake her cake
3) We already had our cake out the oven, her last 6 eggs she kept to bake another cake for the New Year was sold
4) Lystra didnt have time to purchase her eggs before Christmas and when we can help others in a situation, we must.
We sulked as kids even though we got to enjoy mum's freshly baked black cake. We blamed Lystra for our fight & that she spoilt our Christmas Day & how she should have bought her eggs the day before or in a grocery somewhere else. Only in a chinese shop, one could have gone knocking & buying groceries 24 x 7. Yes, even on Christmas Day.
Silly kids we were, we didn't speak to Lystra for a week. As we mature now, I for one remember the smell of black cake & this "sense of smell" lures me back vividly to a fight on Christmas morning with my sibling and mum's love and values. Mind you, no one else was up from bed yet as they closed shop late on Christmas Eve night. All the men were still asleep but mum was up baking for us & answering Lystra & teaching us the true meaning of Christmas ie sharing, loving, giving.
And so we have grown up to be who we are now, servants to others, even though it's the invisible inner trait.
The "sense of sight" teaches me yet another priceless treasure. From the movies, Asian and Catholic values differ significantly from Western culture. In US schools, teenage pregnancy by girls ain't no "taboo". This trend is being emulated in T&T perhaps? The Minister Of Education Dr Tim Gopeesingh stated 'teenage girl pregnancy rate was rising' in the news. The more liberalized American girl would work and study to pay for her tertiary education in a restaurant, or the parents will take a loan. Upon graduation, the kid will repay the loan. Aren't kids in the Caribbean happier because sterling leadership paved that road for us? The leadership from Caribbean governments to parental sacrifices throughout the generations is perhaps a lesson for American family culture to yearn to learn. Gradually though, the creeping dictatorial influences of American culture idolizes & implants it's values on our Afro-Trinidadian girls who see Nicki Minaj, Beyonce & Lady Gaga as personal mantras. Still, it's difficult to penetrate an ethnic population whose cultural roots are deeply entrenched by the presence of religion through the extended family. Thank God then for the sense of sight or foresight?!
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Sense Of Order vs Sense Of Chaos
Without prejudice, I know the pen is a mightier than the sword so I will refrain from statements of unqualifying opinions. Haha! Since I do not have any benchmarks to measure this opinion against, it remains a debatable paper for research.
As I started writing this blog, a friend called me....my thought process got in chaos mode, lol. I needed to recollect my senses from whence do I begin & from whence do I end?
I begin with the topic at my disposal & I draw reference to the use of photoshop. As in all things, there's good sensing vs evil sensing. I have always viewed this piece of software as a thing without integrity likened to whoever created it. In recent times, in coming to my senses, I realized that I was just so wrong. What struck me was a particular picture taken out by a reputable photographer who works for a reputable agency! This photo was a pool with three kids who are minors in the Beetham area in Trinidad circulating in a social media website for the world to view. I wondered to myself as so many folks complimented and praised the photographer & the photo.
1) Did the photographer obtain written consent from the kids' parents to circulate in social media this photo, with the absence of adults?
2) According to the UN convention on the rights of a child, section 16, every child has a right to privacy.
http://www.unicef.org/crc/files/Rights_overview.pdf
The sense of chaos seems so unqualified since it could not seemingly decipher right from wrong as all either complimented the photo for a front page magazine, or criticized the priorities of the parents & whether the child had a right to that level of happiness deemed a luxury by some given their poverty conditions.
The sense of order had not yet recognized that photoshop was useful here to blur the faces of the minors as each kid had not received parental consent, was not in public space as the pool was outside their one bedroom home & not a single adult was present in the picture. The picture had been circulating in a social media site, so where is the privacy rights of the child or the consent form?
Out of a sense of chaos came a sense of order! Photoshop software can provide justice & integrity to help rule the world as in this case for child privacy rights :)
Another case with esteemed interest of order sensing vs chaos sensing lie in the case of the Vatican's Pope Benedict XVI money laundering accusation by the Obamacare administration. The order lies in the US administration of justice laying down the rules for justice in American soil to allow abortion, contraception, gay marriages & revamping of American values according to Glen Beck's report, 'we are all Catholics now'. Herein lies a sense of chaos, we must hang together as Catholics otherwise we will all hang separately. The Pope recently elevated 22 cardinals all of whom are conservatives consistent with the ideologies of the church on family life & moral spiritual values. In so doing, he is preparing for spiritual & physical battle according to Glen Beck. Hilary Clinton stated that the US was there to help fight narcotics in a strategy report where the Vatican is included in a money laundering report. Money moving out of US into the Vatican was of concern to the federal bureau. Glen Beck stated that Catholics must now take sides to fight evil. Will the Pope go into exile from the Vatican?
Time reveals the unknown ;)
As I started writing this blog, a friend called me....my thought process got in chaos mode, lol. I needed to recollect my senses from whence do I begin & from whence do I end?
I begin with the topic at my disposal & I draw reference to the use of photoshop. As in all things, there's good sensing vs evil sensing. I have always viewed this piece of software as a thing without integrity likened to whoever created it. In recent times, in coming to my senses, I realized that I was just so wrong. What struck me was a particular picture taken out by a reputable photographer who works for a reputable agency! This photo was a pool with three kids who are minors in the Beetham area in Trinidad circulating in a social media website for the world to view. I wondered to myself as so many folks complimented and praised the photographer & the photo.
1) Did the photographer obtain written consent from the kids' parents to circulate in social media this photo, with the absence of adults?
2) According to the UN convention on the rights of a child, section 16, every child has a right to privacy.
http://www.unicef.org/crc/files/Rights_overview.pdf
The sense of chaos seems so unqualified since it could not seemingly decipher right from wrong as all either complimented the photo for a front page magazine, or criticized the priorities of the parents & whether the child had a right to that level of happiness deemed a luxury by some given their poverty conditions.
The sense of order had not yet recognized that photoshop was useful here to blur the faces of the minors as each kid had not received parental consent, was not in public space as the pool was outside their one bedroom home & not a single adult was present in the picture. The picture had been circulating in a social media site, so where is the privacy rights of the child or the consent form?
Out of a sense of chaos came a sense of order! Photoshop software can provide justice & integrity to help rule the world as in this case for child privacy rights :)
Another case with esteemed interest of order sensing vs chaos sensing lie in the case of the Vatican's Pope Benedict XVI money laundering accusation by the Obamacare administration. The order lies in the US administration of justice laying down the rules for justice in American soil to allow abortion, contraception, gay marriages & revamping of American values according to Glen Beck's report, 'we are all Catholics now'. Herein lies a sense of chaos, we must hang together as Catholics otherwise we will all hang separately. The Pope recently elevated 22 cardinals all of whom are conservatives consistent with the ideologies of the church on family life & moral spiritual values. In so doing, he is preparing for spiritual & physical battle according to Glen Beck. Hilary Clinton stated that the US was there to help fight narcotics in a strategy report where the Vatican is included in a money laundering report. Money moving out of US into the Vatican was of concern to the federal bureau. Glen Beck stated that Catholics must now take sides to fight evil. Will the Pope go into exile from the Vatican?
Time reveals the unknown ;)
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