Windies in thrilling finish against India; faces England in T20 final Sunday

Lendl Simmons

Andre Russell helped West Indies to a thrilling win Credit: Reuters

AFP REPORT:
 
India's dreams of a World Twenty20 title on home soil were shattered on Thursday after the West Indies stunned the hosts by seven wickets to reach the final.

Lendl Simmons fired an explosive 82 off 51 balls as the Windies broke Indian hearts in the semi-final clash at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium with just two balls to spare and will now face England in Sunday's final in Kolkata.

The West Indies went into the last over needing eight to win and Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni handed the ball to talisman Virat Kohli, who earlier scored an unbeaten 89.

Simmons grabbed a single off the first ball before Andre Russell smashed a four and six as the Windies ended on 196 for three after India made 192 for two.

Simmons hit seven fours and five sixes while opener Johnson Charles notched 52, including seven fours and two sixes.

It was not meant to be that way for India after Chris Gayle's wicket was taken early for just five runs but the hosts were left to rue a no-ball at a crucial stage.

Hardik Pandya thought he had taken Simmons in the 15th over when he was caught by Ravichandran Ashwin but the umpire ruled that it was a no ball and the Windies star made the most of his luck as he stepped on the accelerator.

Simmons, who was a late replacement for the injured Andre Fletcher, was given valuable support by Russell who hit an unbeaten 43 off 20 balls, including four sixes as the West Indies made a dash for the finishing line.

Ashwin endured some brutal punishment at the hands of the West Indies batsmen, going for 20 runs in his two overs.

His fellow spinner Ravindra Jadeja was also hit around the ground, conceding 48 runs in his wicketless four-over spell.

The Indian bowlers at times had trouble getting any grip in the heavy dew at the Wankhede.

Kohli had earlier hit 11 fours and one six in his 47-ball knock as India set a target of 193, regarded as a below par score on a pitch which has seen a feast of runs during the tournament.

Kohli injected much-needed life into the hosts' innings after a slow start from openers Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane.

Sharma hit three fours and three sixes in his 31-ball 43 while Rahane took 35 deliveries to reach 40, scoring only two fours and no sixes.

Kohli, who entered the fray in the eighth over after Sharma was bowled lbw by Samuel Badree, upped the tempo, to the delight of a packed crowd at the 33,000-seater stadium.

The defeat could spell the end of Dhoni's reign as India's captain in short form cricket although there was no immediate announcement from the 34-year-old about his future.

The West Indies will take on England at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday after Eoin Morgan's side defeated New Zealand, also by seven wickets, on Wednesday.

Former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford dead at 46

Rob Ford

From YAHOO News:

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/newsalert-former-toronto-mayor-rob-ford-dead-46-150659376.html

TORONTO - Rob Ford, a man simultaneously adored by his fans and abhorred by his foes as his scandal-packed term as mayor of Canada's largest city propelled him to international infamy, has died.

Ford, 46, succumbed to cancer Tuesday, 18 months after doctors discovered a softball-sized malignant tumour in his abdomen, his family announced in a statement.

"A dedicated man of the people, Councillor Ford spent his life serving the citizens of Toronto," said a statement from his family.

The diagnosis in September 2014 came less than a year after Ford confessed to smoking crack while in one of his "drunken stupors" and forced the mayor to withdraw from his bid for re-election in favour of running for councillor in his west-end ward.

He won in a landslide despite three years of headline-generating notoriety that included slurs against minorities and lewd, public innuendo about his marital sex life on top of his admission — after months of denials — of serious crack cocaine and alcohol abuse.

Those who knew Ford describe a man whose loyalty to family and friends was as unshakeable as the support he received from the "Ford Nation" segment of voters inspired by his rough-around-the-edges, ordinary-guy persona.

"He's very loyal to his friends. He has a big heart," is the way former Liberal MP John Nunziata, a Ford family friend, put it. "He doesn't throw his friends under the bus."

The loyalty was reciprocated. His family stood steadfastly by him through his scandals and, then, through the dark days of his illness.

A significant segment of the public also continued to breathe life into the "Ford Nation."

Ford's brother, Doug Ford, who picked up the mayoral candidacy torch after the cancer bombshell, placed a respectable second in the October 2014 municipal vote — a sign many said of his brother's enduring popularity.

Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, asked recently about the popularity of U.S. presidential hopeful Donald Trump, invoked the populist approach taken by Ford, whose anti-elitist rhetoric resonated with many people even as he staggered under the weight of the crack-cocaine scandal and derision from those opposed to his public vulgarity.

"There were a lot of people who didn't get it," Trudeau said of Ford. "But he tapped into a very real and legitimate sense that people had around who politicians were."

Ford, who kept a photograph of his late father taped to his mayor's office computer, revelled in his everyman persona. The self-described "ordinary guy" drove his own car to work every day — albeit a luxury SUV — and railed against "downtown elites" and a "gravy train" he said needed derailing at city hall.

He was, grudging admirers said, the consummate retail politician who had an uncanny knack of making people feel that he really cared about their plights.

Yet whatever his political accomplishments, his time in office became known for its sordid explosion into an unprecedented political circus that quickly became an international story.

Fuelling the circus were drugs and alcohol, followed by denials, confessions and apologies.

Secretly taken cellphone videos were leaked, resulting in blaring headlines not just in Canada but beyond. The first apparently showed him using crack and uttering slurs against minorities. Ford claimed to have no idea what it was about.

Other videos and audio recordings followed. He spewed profanities, made offensive comments about women. The high school football team — one he had proudly coached for years — dropped him. Top aides deserted him or were fired.

An extensive police investigation turned up links between Ford, known drug dealers and gang members. His friend and part-time driver, Alexander (Sandro) Lisi, was charged with extortion, apparently as he tried to retrieve the "crack" video. That case is ongoing.

Ford narrowly survived a legal attempt to have him booted from office for conflict of interest — on a technicality. However, council stripped him of almost all his power. Yet Ford, backed up or egged on by his councillor brother and with the undying support of the Ford faithful, blustered his way through it all.

People lined up almost half-way around City Hall at one point to buy a Ford bobblehead. He was mobbed like a rock star wherever he went. He revelled in the attention. Even a two-month stint in rehab became, in his words, "awesome."

First elected as a councillor in 2000, Ford sparked controversy almost from the get-go.

"Oriental people work like dogs....They're slowly taking over," he told one council meeting. He consistently voted against AIDS funding or other social and arts grants. He ranted about a "war on cars," and spoke out against cyclists.

Increasingly, however, his come-from-behind election as mayor in 2010 began unravelling. Ex-staffers described a man by turns ill-tempered and weepy, one who could not resist the bottle, even while behind the wheel of a car.

Late-night TV comics lapped it up. The mayor became a household name in Canada and a recognizable name in far-flung parts of the globe. Asked in October 2014 how his mayoralty would be remembered, Ford laughed.

"It'll definitely be remembered," he said with rare understatement. "No one's going to forget it."

Ultimately, it was the rare, aggressive large tumour in Ford's abdomen that caused the circus tent to come crashing down. Surgery and a repeated regimen of chemotherapy took its toll. He lost his hair. He soldiered on, at times unable even to climb a set of stairs; he battled pneumonia; he became a fixture at city hall in his red track suit — all evidence of his mantra that a Ford "never quits."

On election night in 2014, he praised his brother before vowing to return to fight for the city's top job in the next election. Few doubted he would make good on the promise given half a chance.

Funeral arrangements have not been made but a large turnout is likely, as is a period of "lying in repose" at City Hall. Jack Layton's flag-draped coffin sat at City Hall following his death in 2011 — and Ford, then mayor, paid his respects.

"To him, funerals are mandatory when it comes to friends," Nunziata said.

The former mayor is survived by his wife, two children, his mother, and three siblings.

Commentary: An Epitaph Written too soon

The brutality of the murder of 14-year-old Darian Nedd has caused deep concern among citizens. JYOTI received a commentary on the tragic story from a Canadian named TED BAXTER, which is reproduced below.

Please read the RADHICA SOOKRAJ story in the Trinidad Guardian to put the issue in its proper context.

GRIEVING MOM

MOM OF MURDERED BOY: I BEGGED POLICE FOR HELP

Commentary by Ted Baxter:
 
Parenthood has fine-tuned my senses in super-hero ways, particularly when it comes to the welfare of children.
 
Having kids does that you, or at least it should in most normal of individuals. 

So when I read stories about young lives cut short because of medical malpractice, lack of competent treatment, medical equipment or pharmaceuticals, or incompetence like letting young children around "domesticated" beasts it grieves me.

The suffering of children and youth is an acute pain that most of us feel. So when I read a story about a 14 year old boy whose life, despite apparent pleas to authority for protection, is attenuated because of the failure of others, and the evil malice of others I grieve even more.
 
I think what was I doing when I was fourteen?
 
I live in Canada and when I was that age I was in the ninth grade (form four) imagining all the things I wanted to become.

Practicing in the mirror to be a reporter on television, listening to Purple Rain and I think I made my first trip to Miami, drove down to the Keys with my parents. It was a wonderful time and I felt secure.

My parents protected me, my neighbours watched for me, as did my teachers and the police who were sworn to "serve and protect". I felt safe.

I wonder what young Darian Nedd was thinking, what he felt, how he suffered when butchers stormed his house cutting off his hand and foot and set fire to his body after he was accused of being an informant?

What more could his mother, who allegedly begged police for protection, do to protect her child.

I don't know her. But I would like to believe that she slaved away shilling and shelling oysters in Otaheite to provide a better life for a child she loved. That's what parents do.

What did this young man do that warranted his dastardly, painful demise?

Every time a child's life or a youth's life is lost the nation loses something. The hope and potential of that child never materializes and is lost to earth or lost to skies.

So while the nation focuses on the bacchanal and misbehaviour of public officials, as they rightly should, a little more focus and attention should be paid to the protection of life, particularly those who are innocent, those who are vulnerable, those who need
to be protected.

Protected even more safely than our oil, our foreign exchange - children and youth are the assets, the treasures of the nation.

Darian Nedd was his mother's treasure. Her most precious possession and he was taken away viciously, without conscience or concern.

For her I grieve, for him I grieve - as should we all.

TED BAXTER | Toronto, Canada

Marlene gone but what about Permanent Secretaries? - by Special Correspondent

The firing of Marlene Mc Donald from the Rowley Cabinet is the shortest time within which any PNM Cabinet has been reshuffled. 

Former Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar was heavily criticised by Rowley for having a reshuffle after one year in office in 2011. Now Rowley has beaten the Persad-Bissessar record by a clear six months with the compliments of Kirk Waithe and Fixin' TNT.

Kirk Waithe

They went after Mc Donald once she ws appointed Minister of Housing and Rowley was on the defensive as the pressure from Waithe kept mounting. Rowley kept defending her in public and even boldly stated in Tobago in mid-January that he was not going to fire her from the Cabinet.
 
So what happened? 

Why did he have to reverse himself two months later. The bottom line is that Kirk Waithe and his cronies were part of a team that wanted Marlene Mc Donald out of the way. 

Why? 

What caused his cozy relationship as the so-called independent voice against the People's Partnership during their term of office to turn against his beloved PNM?
 
The local media never let go of the story once the government had changed.
This is the second high-profile removal of a PNM public official within a month. First it was former Mayor Raymond Tim Kee and now it is former Housing Minister Marlene Mc Donald.

The investigation of Mc Donald must not just end with Mc Donald, but must also extend to the two signatories of the cheques made out to the Calabar Foundation for $200,000.00 and $375,000.00 respectively.
 
How could those Permanent Secretaries, as the accounting officers, in that Ministry have approved the disbursement of $575,000.00 of taxpayers money to this Foundation if this has led to McDonald's downfall?

Will Kirk Waithe and his pressure group keep on pressing this issue to include the two signatories to the cheques, one of whom is the spouse of a current Government Minister? 

Maxie Cuffie with his wife Hermia Tyson-Cuffie

Or has Waithe accomplished his mission and he is prepared to stop now and let the Minister's wife off the hook?

by Special Correspondent

Rowley fires Marlene McDonald

Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley on Thursday fired Marlene McDonald as Minister of Housing and Urban Development. 

Marlene McDonald - FIRED

McDonald has been under fire from several sources for alleged breach of integrity rules. 

The charge has been led mainly by Kirk Waithe of the civic group Fixing TnT, Opposition Senator Wayne Sturge who reported the former minister to the Integrity Commission and Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar. On Wednesday at a media briefing at her office Persad Bissessar reiterated her call for McDonald to be fired. She said if the Prime Minister failed to act she would take a censure motion to Parliament.
 
On Wednesday night Dr Rowley said on national television that he had new information about McDonald. "I saw what appears to be new information and I spent the day looking at it. And I just want to give the assurance to the national community, that if the facts bear out what is there and I have to take action, then I will," he said.

However none of the information circulating in the past few days is new. All of it had been in the public domain for months before last year's general election and the "new" information relating to activities that had been taking place for several years while McDonald was in opposition, serving as Chief Whip under Dr Rowley.

McDonald in the MP for Port of Spain South. She remains the representative for the constituency. But already there are calls on social media for her to resign the seat. There are also calls for swift police action in dealing with the several serious allegations against her. 

Randall Mitchell - moved to Housing

San Fernando East MP Randall Mitchell has been reassigned from Minister of Public Administration to the housing portfolio.

Mitchell was handpicked by Rowley as the candidate for the constituency. Former PM Patrick Manning had represented the constituency since 1971 and had declared his interest in running again.  

However, Rowley was reluctant to nominate his former boss and Manning withdrew his candidacy hours before he was scheduled to face the PNM's screening committee.

There have been two other cabinet changes.

The Prime Minister moved Maxie Cuffie to Public Administration, which porfolio he would hold in addition to his responsibilities as Communications Minister.

Maxie Cuffie - moved from Communication to Public Administration

Cuffie, a former journalist and MP for La Horquetta Talparo, has been communications minister since the PNM assumed office following the 2015 general election.

Stuart Young has been appointed Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister in addition to his responsibility as a minister in the office of the Attorney General.

Stuart Young - added portfolio

Young is the MP for Port of Spain North/St. Ann's West and served as a temporary senator in the tenth parliament.

Young, Cuffie and Mitchell are rookie MPs.

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO NOT IN CRISIS: IMF

T&T Not in crisis: IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has concluded that Trinidad and Tobago’s economy is confronting a major shock with the sharp fall in energy prices but the country is not in a crisis. 

"With substantial financial buffers and low, albeit rising levels of public debt, Trinidad and Tobago is not in a crisis" the organisation said in a media release from Washington Thursday.

It said this finding is based on the annual Article IV consultation that the organisation conducted in Port of Spain between march 3 and 15 under the leadership of Elie Canetti.

Canetti said the IMF is projecting a one per cent drop in GDP this year. He said this projection is based on available information "including (data) on job losses and continued supply-side constraints in the energy sector."

The IMF said declines in energy-based revenues will constrain the Government’s ability to act as an engine of growth. "Beyond 2016, new energy projects will modestly boost energy production, while non-energy growth could start to recover, provided there is confidence in the country’s ability to navigate the harsher global environment," the IMF stated.

The organisation expressed confidence it Trinidad and Tobago because of its "enormous strengths", which include a well-educated work force and a stable political system. 

T&T has "enormous strengths": IMF

But it cautioned that "the imbalances that are now starting to build up could lead the country to uncomfortable levels of debt".

It noted that the new Government agrees that policy adjustments are needed and has taken "some difficult but necessary steps", including widening the VAT tax base, cutting fuel subsidies, reducing the number of Ministries with a view to streamlining the civil service, and instituting spending cuts. 

However it said despite these measures, it expects the national deficit to grow and suggested that there is further scope to widen the VAT base and increase some excise taxes, which it said are low by the region’s standards.

The IMF said it supports the Government’s intent to conduct a national dialogue on fuel subsidies with a view to phasing them out over time, and to review the CEPEP and URP Government employment schemes and the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (GATE) program to make them more cost-efficient. "Reducing such expenditures would also leave room for a needed reorientation towards development spending," the IMF mission said.

It added that greater flexibility in the foreign exchange market would be critical to resolving the foreign exchange shortages. "While it is appropriate that the Central Bank paused in its interest rate hiking cycle in January, there is little scope, as The Bank agrees, to cut interest rates, at least until shortages of foreign exchange are ameliorated," the IMF said.

Despite that the IMF said, "The financial system remains sound, but some reform legislation has been lagging." It added that procurement reform is needed to assure contractors of an even playing field and reduce perceptions of corruption. 

It said, "The authorities were in broad agreement with the mission’s assessment.”

SOURCE:
Press Release: IMF Staff Completes 2016 Article IV Mission to Trinidad and Tobago

http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2016/pr16115.htm

More questions than answers for Camille

Camille Robinson-Regis

by our Special Correspondent:

The PNM has now set up its own tribunal to review allegations of impropriety against its own Cabinet Ministers. That tribunal consists of Prime Minister Rowley and Attorney General Al-Rawi. 

On Friday Al-Rawi announced the "findings" of this new "tribunal" to say that Minister Camille Robinson-Regis has been "cleared" of all allegations. They beat the Integrity Commission to the draw on this one and they have set up a situation that if the Integrity Commission finds otherwise they could attack those findings as unreliable.

The Prime Minister has already laid the groundwork for this line of argument by telling a public forum last week that he has lost confidence in the Integrity Commission.

Minister Robinson-Regis has told different stories about the $93,000 deposit. Was it part cash, part cheques ? Was it all cash ? The Minister also gave differing accounts of why the money was being transferred.
 
The new-found creation of a "tribunal" consisting of Rowley and Al-Rawi cannot wash away the Minister's public utterances. Their "tribunal" does not answer what happened between the withdrawal from Republic Bank and the deposit in First Citizens Bank. Was there a differential between the original sum withdrawn and the subsequent sum deposited ? Why was the entire transaction conducted in cash and not a mixture of cash and cheques as the Minister said or even all in a manager's cheque for that matter.
 
The Attorney General sounds very smooth with his rattling off of his own questions and his own answers to those questions. This seems more like a case of "methinks he doth protest too much".

The MITTAL story and investing in Steel

ArcelorMittal boss Lakshmi Mittal

In my commentary Sunday I noted the circumstances that brought Lakshmi Mittal to Trinidad to invest in what was a heavily subsidized (US$80 million - TT$500M) steel mill at Point Lisas.

Today, I am presenting a 1999 article from Forbes Magazine that shows how Mittal's business savvy turned around the state owned Iron and Steel Company (ISCOTT) and eventually bought the company for US$70 million. Mittal was able to do what the TT government could not.

From FORBES - August 23, 1999

Carnegie would be jealous

STEEL, ONCE A FONT of wealth and a symbol of America’s industrial might, is in sorry shape now. Government-subsidized mills across the globe are dumping metal on a glutted market. In the past 11 months, five U.S. steelmakers and one Mexican firm have filed for bankruptcy.

In this environment, who would want to buy a steel mill? Lakshmi Mittal would. This 49-year-old son of a steelman from Rajasthan, India buys troubled mills all over the world and tucks them into his Ispat International N.V. Ispat (“steel” in Hindi) netted $237 million on sales of $3.5 billion last year. Boasts Mittal: “We are the fastest-growing steel company in the world.” 

While steel slab prices were falling from $260 in 1998, to $135 a ton in the first quarter of 1999, Ispat just kept shaving costs. It was one of only two companies worldwide (the other was Korea’s Posco) to turn a profit making slabs in the fourth quarter last year, when steel prices hit their low point.

Ispat’s global presence gives it one big advantage over the competition. Mittal owns mills in seven countries, and can play one country off another. Example: He bought the steelmaking operations of Inland Steel last year for $1.4 billion. The three Indiana plants employ 7,000 union steelworkers. In early July, they were threatening to strike. Ispat dropped some hints about doing without their production, since it could bring in steel from its Mexico plant. On July 24, the workers signed a tentative contract.

Within 12 weeks of closing on the Inland plants, Ispat cut annual costs there by $40 million ( $8 per ton of output) by leaning on suppliers. “Every month we compare the prices, we compare the costs per ton [among the plants across the world],” explains Ispat president Johannes Sittard, sitting in the spartan corporate offices of Ispat Inland in downtown Chicago. “With this permanent exchange [of information] you get some nice cost savings.” All told, Mittal has reduced Inland’s operating costs by $45 a ton.

Mittal began working in his father’s mill as a teenager. In 1975, at age 25, he left for Indonesia, where he started a scrap-melting steel plant with a local partner.

Several years later Mittal began looking for a substitute for the expensive scrap he was importing to Indonesia. He read about something called direct-reduced iron, a technique for smelting without melting–removing the oxygen from iron ore while it’s still solid, that is. Mittal figured he could cut his raw-material costs in half by buying direct-reduced iron rather than scrap. In 1983 he started importing the stuff from a state-owned steel mill in Trinidad & Tobago.

That led to his next big move. As state-owned mills are wont to be, the operation in Trinidad was ineptly managed, losing $80 million a year. The soft-spoken Mittal describes this boondoggle politely: “They weren’t paying attention to improving the technology, and they were really not bothered because it was a state-owned company.”

In 1989 Mittal negotiated to lease and run the mill under a 10-year contract, with an option to buy in 5 years. Within 12 months he’d put the mill in the black. In late 1994 he exercised his option, buying the mill for $70 million in cash and a pledge to invest another $74 million over 3 years. The purchase made Ispat one of the world’s largest producers of direct-reduced iron, at 7 million tons a year.

Mittal’s experience in Trinidad set a pattern. Between 1990 and 1996 he acquired and turned around formerly government-owned mills in Mexico, Canada, Ireland and Germany.

Two years ago Mittal raised $776 million of equity capital by selling 20% of his company to the public and listing it on the New York and Rotterdam exchanges. Since then, a collapse in steel prices has sent the stock down by more than a half to $11, making Mittal’s 79% stake worth just $1.2 billion. J.P. Morgan analyst Michael Gambardella predicts earnings of $118 million or $1 a share this year, down from $2.10 a share last year. But earnings should recover. The price for hot-rolled steel in the U.S. recently perked up to $300 from a low of $250 per metric ton.

Mittal pays a tiny dividend, so you can safely assume he will pile up some cash and then buy something. “World steel production is more than 700 million tons and we are only 2%,” he declares. “Two percent is nothing, and I’m just 49. There’s still plenty of time.”

FROM FORBES MAGAZINE

COMMENTARY: Rowley distorting facts on closure of ArcelorMittal plant

PM Dr. Keith Rowley

Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley issued a media statement Saturday expressing "sadness and deep disappointment" over the decision by ArcelorMittal to close its steel producing business at Point Lisas.

He stated that it was done "on the heels of a decision where the workers had their rights defended in a Superior Court of Record" and charged that the decision was taken "without reference or discussion with the Government of Trinidad and Tobago".

That statement contradicts his Labour Minister, Jennifer Baptiste-Primus, who was quoted in the Trinidad Guardian on Saturday (March 12) as stating that she received two letters from the company, one of which advised her of the proposed closure and sought a meeting.

According to the Guardian report, the minister stated that she had other scheduled matters and could not meet with the company.

So Dr. Rowley was misleading citizens when he claimed that the steel company took its decision without reference or discussion with the government.

The other issue of note, is that the letter was sent to the labour minister before the judgment of the Industrial Court so it is clear that ArcelorMittal was contemplating closure before the court handed down its decision and that it wanted to meet the government to talk about it. But the labour minister was too busy.

What is even more worrisome in the claim by the Prime Minister that the company’s actions were "punitive and disrespectful in the extreme" without providing any evidence to support his assertion.

And while censuring the company he appeared to be conciliatory, stating that "the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Finance stand ready to re-engage ArcelorMittal on these far reaching developments".

He added, "…it is our expectation that...there is still room for the country and the investor to talk and work our way out of these very real difficulties.”

Why didn't Dr. Rowley and his government think about these things before? Instead of dialogue they behaved with typical arrogance in dealing with a multinational corporation that operates in sixty countries with assets of TT$500 billion. And the bullying approach backfired.

Could the minister not make an adjustment to her schedule to meet with the company? After all the jobs of 700 people were at stake, not to mention the economic fallout from the closure of a company that pays millions in taxes and buys goods and services amounting to tens of millions of dollars annually.And it had been doing it for 27 years!

The minister admitted in her comments in the Guardian that she knew the company wanted to discuss closing its operations but still did not see it important enough to meet with the company. Yet the prime minister concluded that the company's decision was "punitive and disrespectful in the extreme".

Dr. Rowley also distorted reality by presenting half truths about the history of the steel company in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Eric Williams PNM government built the Iron and Steel company (ISCOTT) at Point Lisas against the advice and better judgment of experts. ISCOTT had poor management, a lack of expertise and no global marketing skills.

ISCOTT became a national parasite, consuming more than one million dollars a day in subsidy, which the Chambers government continued to pour into the company until the PNM was voted out of office.

In 1989, the NAR government of Prime Minister A.N.R. Robinson sold ISCOTT to the Mittal family, which had been operating a company known as Ispat International since 1978. Ispat was already a major player in the international steel industry when it bought ISCOTT and renamed it Caribbean Ispat; in 2006 it became part of the ArcelorMittal multinational steel company.

The owner, Lakshmi Mittal, made the company profitable within a year without laying off workers or amending their terms of employment. In other words he saved the government about $400 million a year in subsidy alone and since 1989 has been paying millions in taxes and buying goods and services, while maintaining full employment.

So Rowley was telling a half truth and deliberately misleading citizens by suggesting that "a local steel industry, which was funded and nurtured by local taxpayers, then fell into the investment hands of Mittal, which with our continued support and sacrifice, went on to become a world power in the steel industry."

Rowley is wrong. There was no support and no sacrifice from T&T as he claimed. In fact it was the flip side of his claim; Caribbean Ispat provided an economic lifeline to the country at a time when Trinidad and Tobago was facing a severe recession. And the company remained a fixture in Trinidad and Tobago's industrial landscape for decades, providing jobs and pumping millions in revenue into the T&T economy until it started facing losses in 2009. Still it remained at Point Lisas until the government changed and the new administration put hurdles in the way with new policies that the company saw as a hindrance to continuing to do business.

The Rowley PNM government’s arrogance and refusal to meet with the company contributed to the closure of the plant, which was a part of the biggest steel operation on the planet. The government's harsh economic policies also influenced the company's decision.

BIG PLAYER

In 2006 Mittal created ArcelorMittal with its headquarters in Luxembourg. The multinational company, with plants in 19 countries and significant investments in 60 countries, had assets of US$76.84B (approx. TT$500B) in 2015 and revenue of US$63.57B (approx. TT$414B). This was no corner store!

http://corporate.arcelormittal.com/

Like any multinational company its principal interest was in making money for its shareholders. It owed no allegiance to any government anywhere and if the Rowley government had not acted with arrogance the story could have had a different conclusion.

The Prime Minister’s distortion of the facts and baseless accusation against the company demonstrate that he is not really willing to keep ArcelorMittal here. He is, as usual, hoodwinking the people with false claims and distortion of facts. No one enters a mediation by hurling insults while saying you want to negotiate in good faith. 

The real losers in this whole affair are the workers, their families and the others whose lives revolved around the steel plant. And if Rowley doesn't change his approach he would face an exodus of foreign capital because those who bring money here as investment are first and foremost doing it for their shareholders, not to be nice to Trinidad and Tobago.

Jai Parasram | 13 March 2016

Another view on ArcelorMittal

Ronald Bhola has another view on the matter of ArcelorMittal. Here are his thoughts:
 
COUNTRY BEING HELD TO RANSOM
 
When ArcelorMittal lost a 16 year battle in the Privy Council last August industry analysts felt that with the humiliation suffered by the company it was likely that they would not want to pay the contracted workers as awarded. 

Analysts and observers even suggested that MITTAL now had options available to him, one of which is to close down the Point Lisas plant.
 
When the local steel company (ISCOTT) was leased to ISPAT (Caribbean ISPAT) by the NAR, it had its main operations in Indonesia, but concessions with cheap electricity and natural gas made available to it in TRINIDAD, made it into an international powerhouse. 

Now this multi-national no longer needs TRINIDAD. They want electricity and natural gas as though it should be given free. The country is being held to ransom by this company.

Editor's note:
If it is as simple as that, then the present administration, with some of the original players and founders of ISCOTT as advisers, could let ArcelorMittal go and run the plant. But they could not do it in the 1980s and they can't do it today. Mittal and Caribbean Ispatt got energy concessions but saved the country billions of dollars between 1989 and today. In these tough economic times the government failed to see the big picture and try to find a compromise to keep the steel giant here. Seeking dialogue now while also insulting the company is not the way to go.

COMMENTARY: ARCELORMITTAL EXIT SIGNALS DEEPER PROBLEM

The ArcelorMittal steel plant at Point Lisas (Express Photo)

"A real tragedy." That’s how Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste-Primus summed up a decision by ArcelorMittal to suddenly close its steel plant at Point Lisas, putting hundreds of employees out of work.

The company pulled the plug one day after the Industrial Court imposed a fine on the company for breach of good industrial relations practice in temporarily sending home hundreds of its workers in December and again in February this year.

The minister admitted that ArcelorMittal tried to meet with her but that she was too busy to hold any talks with them. Obviously the minister, who is a seasoned trade unionist, failed to see the big picture and understand the danger in pushing around a multinational.

She could have taken a cue from her boss, Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley, who saw it fit to meet with the board of one of the region’s biggest conglomerates. Unlike the ANSA McAL group, ArcelorMittal has no roots in our country and like every multinational, it puts its financial and shareholder interests above those of any country. 

PM Keith Rowley met with the ANSA McAL board recently to discuss economic matters

 The company felt uncomfortable with the excessive push back and decided to leave. And it made that very clear in announcing its departure. Perhaps the clearest message to the government of Trinidad and Tobago was that local and international challenges had put it under severe financial distress since the second half of 2015.

It also signaled that new policy issues contributed to its decision to close shop – issues such as proposed rate increases for gas and electricity, proposed increases to port rental fees, property taxes and business levies, all of which contributed to the “unsustainability” of the business. Perhaps if there was some form of constructive two-way dialogue the story would have had a different ending.

The company had apparently been struggling since 2009 but policy measures taken by the new administration became the straw that broke its back.

While the workers should have been celebrating a victory they discovered the flip side of taking on a multinational without careful consideration of the consequences for workers and the country.

Now 700 people and their dependents have no income beyond the one month’s pay they will receive in lieu of notice of closure of the company. 

Workers demonstrate in Port of Spain

They have commitments – mortgages, rents, loans, transportation, education of their children – and of course food and clothing.

But it goes beyond that. Every worker contributes in some small measure to keeping the economic wheels turning. Quite apart from PAYE they put money into state coffers with every purchase, from buying coffee to purchasing cars and homes.

Their economic health sustains shops and other businesses that in turn pay their share to keep the economy moving.

So when 700 people have no jobs you can safely multiply that by four or five and suddenly we find more than three thousand people - and thousands more – are directly affected, including workers at industries that depend on the steel company for survival.

Eric Williams found out a very long time ago that multinationals were not good for the national economy because while they paid taxes and hired workers their first priority was never to the country or their workers.

Today we are seeing that clearly. Whatever the fault of the company, the union pushed too hard instead of dealing with some legitimate concerns like chronic absenteeism of between 10 and 13 per cent and a poor work ethic.

So the company retaliated by just shutting the doors and walking away. This is the same company that took control of that Point Lisas plant that was costing the government of Trinidad and Tobago more than one million dollars a day in subsidy and within a year turned it around and made a profit without laying off a single worker and without altering workers’ terms of employment.

Could there have been a compromise? Perhaps. But it appears that it is too late. The minister didn’t care to talk with the company and now the prime minister’s attempt at dialogue seems like a feeble case of bad public relations.

What has happened is only the fever that manifests itself when there is some deeper infection. And the infection is in the form of a cancer that started eating away at the country’s economic base after September 07, 2015.

The steel giant is not the only one that’s reacting to new state policy initiatives. Other companies are feeling the effect and downsizing or just quitting. There is no final figure on how many workers have been laid off or fired since last September since the numbers keep growing every day.

And it’s not only in the private sector. The state has been sending home workers almost on a daily basis and although the government will say otherwise it is common knowledge that many who have lost their jobs since last September have been politically victimized.

And it’s far from over.

It is indeed a tragedy, but one that was scripted by government policies that never considered the people factor.

Ancel Roget had planned to undermine the previous government by causing industrial unrest aimed at bringing the country to a halt. He failed. But the new administration seems to have done a great job at doing it all on its own while Roget, David Abdulah et al remain silent. 

Jai Parasram | 12 March 2016