…and arbitral rules
Here we go again! The Government insists its ‘perception’ of the law trumps everyone else’s!! Including those with the explicit power to interpret the law. It all started with President Granger and his insistence that only HE can interpret the constitutional requirement of “fit and proper” to fill the GECOM chair. For daring to contradict him, the court – which the Constitution mandates to interpret its rules – in the person of Chief Justice Roxane George, has faced the full force of his anger.
Like acting CoP David Ramnarine, she wasn’t even considered for the permanent substantive judicial positions now under his consideration!! Evidently, the wages of disagreement with the big enchilada is banishment! At least, unlike the Mad Queen in Alice in Wonderland, (or Forbes Burnham, for that matter), it isn’t “Off with his head!!” We hope!
Anyhow the latest incursion into – and demonstration of – the “monopoly of interpretation syndrome”, is by one of the minnows in Granger’s Cabinet – Keith Scott. Scott, as we know after three years of this PNC-led Government, likes to play “big and bad”. The problem however, is he has absolutely no standing to play the role and ends up embarrassed after his huffing and puffing!!
As Minister of Labour – in the DEPARTMENT of Labour (an oxymoron if there ever was one!!) – in the Social Protection Ministry, he took it upon himself to interpret the labour law. It’s “follow the leader” time!! He asserted that the latter Ministry can unilaterally appoint the chair of the arbitration panel on the teachers’ wage dispute. Scott – leader of the one-man NLF party, so wants to remain in the Cabinet, it’s pathetic!!
The matter hasn’t reached the courts as yet, but veteran labour leader and long-time General Secretary of the TUC, Lincoln Lewis, immediately bitched-slapped Scott, something silly!! He pointed out the rule Scott conveniently quoted was on COMPULSORY and not VOLUNTARY arbitration, which the Goverment and the GTU are engaged in. Has Scott just woken up from a deep slumber or he forgot that in the first encounter after the GTU AGREED to arbitration, both the Government and the union NOMINATED chairs?
But we can see the insistence of the PNC-led Government to refuse behaving in a democratic manner, with not only the political Opposition but every other individual or institution that has a different opinion from its own. The GTU made the mistake of trusting the PNC to keep its word – after its members had been betrayed before on the promised “substantial” salary increase right after the elections. The only language the PNC recognises is “power in the streets”.
Teachers’ strike!! You have nothing to lose but your begging bowls!!
…and fashionistas
If you had any doubts about the philosophical import of the question “What’s the world coming to” – on reading the daily reports on President Trump’s twitter flashes!!! – then the news that Michael Kors just bought into Versace ought to kill that thought!! Now, dear reader, this is beyond infra dig!! Let’s face it – for all its loud “in your face” American hype, Michael Kors sells its stuff in…yes…malls and department stores!!
And it’s now going to have a say in one of the top names in Italian haute couture?? Say it ain’t so!! Well, MK did dole out a cool US$2.1 BILLION for most of the 80 per cent of the trail-blazing 40-year-old mecca for fashionistas. The Versace family – a brother, a sister and her daughter of the murdered founder Gianni Versace – had sold 20 per cent of the company four years ago for US$250 million to the Blackstone Investment group. But this time, it’s to a pushy American fashion company that’s looking to capitalise on the name’s “halo effect”.
Will it work? Your Eyewitness thinks Michael Kors will drown in its debt!!
…and sole sourcing
Just ahead of MPI David Patterson’s submission of his excuse for sole sourcing the $148 million feasibility study for the new DHB, the IDB warned against the practice.
They know it’s a recipe for corruption!!
