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One of the reasons this area is so backward, is the excessive use of due process. Even when it is known that X should be fired ( all of the facts point to firing as the correct option) just miss one step in the due process and every thing falls down. At times it is necessary to tear down for there to be progress. I expect howls of indignation from this post. Having lived in Trinidad for ten years I can understand the non-use of due process.
“Having lived in Trinidad for ten years I can understand the non-use of due process”
Please explain to me exactly what is meant.
If you can achieve the same result by doing the agreed process. Then do the agreed process to achieve the same result.
If you need to start early because it is a lengthy process then do such. Quite often we are not prepared to do the work to bring about the result and thereby set precedent in the wrong way.
Maybe the office politics or national politics is to blame, but if we know better; do the right thing first. Then don’t compliant when everyone cheats and we have a very corrupted society where better is known but put aside to achieve the urgent?
The next thing i may be hearing is that the police can go ahead and execute e the person because everyone knows he was guilty and it was only a matter of time before the state got around to hanging(executing) him/her.
just asking
“Please explain to me exactly what is meant”
Take Barbados for example. Everything is done according to the so-called correct standard procedure and where is the country now ? In a mess that is where it is. At times rules have to be broken if one wants to sort things out. Take for example the sanitation workers position on working conditions and overtime. It doesn’t make sense to keep on talking; are you going to have discussions till the cows come home? Stop talking, pay out the whole set of them and start afresh. The Gantry crane is another example of a lot of delays that resulted in the country being disadvantaged. Keep on abiding by precedent and conventional happenings and you will see how far behind this country will be.
“The next thing i may be hearing is that the police can go ahead and execute e the person because everyone knows he was guilty and it was only a matter of time before the state got around to hanging(executing) him/her..”
I am curious as to how you arrived at this conclusion, seeing that the topic commented on refers to industrial action. I must admit you have a very fertile imagination.
It is like saying all cats are grey.
All animals that weigh fifty pounds are grey. ‘
This is about the fourth or fifth time that the UTT article has surfaced on this blog most times being advanced by a particular person.
De ole man is not going to get caught up in the issue of due process and administrative protocols like those before me.
These persons who speak to these processes are much more skilled than I will ever be in this regard
I will take the less trodden road OR IN THIS CASE, the road NOT USED AT ALL!
Let me begin this with a quotation about thd same UTT
“…However, in 2018, the Trinidad and Tobago Education Minister Anthony Garcia said he was surprised that the matter was in the public domain as discussions are being held to address the matter.
In the memo, staff was told that UTT’s financial situation has worsened with an 11 percent decrease in the 2017/2018 recurrent allocation to $200 million.
It stated that this development if left unaddressed, will see the university experiencing a huge cash shortfall of the order of 190 million dollars at the end of the fiscal year, with an inability to meet its payroll liabilities beyond January…”
De ole man would therefore ask the question
How do universities make money?
To answer this question de ole man is going to rely on information from civilized countries and not our back woods banana republic venues.
That should get a few of wunna vex AND ANOTHER SET THINKING.
“…Tuition and fees made up an average of just 21.5% of public non-profit universities’ total revenue.
State appropriations are immediately behind it at 17.6%…”
The recent fiasco with Chris Stinkliar AND THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES CAVE HILL would suggest that The Barbados State IS RESPONSIBLE FOR significantly more than 17% and that tuition would follow.
Now here is where we start separating thd Sheep from the goats.
“…Profits from sales and services of these profit and not for profit University institutions makes up the largest source of revenue outside of tuition, grants, and appropriations…”
De ole man therefore puts it to you readers that, faced with a dearth of meaningful revenue streams the UTT REALLY DID NOT HAVE MUCH OF A CHOICE.
In fact, and de ole man quotes here…
“…On Wednesday, UTT Chairman Professor Kenneth Julien in a memo to staff revealed that it may not be able to continue operations beyond January 2018.
As such it is being proposed that the management structure of the university be reduced by 40 percent, with total expenditure reductions of about 25 percent within the academic body and 50 percent within the corporate body…”
Gone are the days when lecturers at the various regional universities could get a job and then sit back and feel “eveyting good buoy” and “tings irie”
The realities of the world demand we Innovative models WHICH NECESSITATE THAT THESE EMPLOYEES JUSTIFY THEIR EMPLOYMENT
No mor effing free rides!!!
“:The realities of the world demand we Innovative models WHICH NECESSITATE THAT THESE EMPLOYEES JUSTIFY THEIR EMPLOYMENT”
Well said.
Didn’t know Professor Kenneth Julien was still around. Clashed with him at a graduate seminar on the definition of appropriate technology, which at the time I was leading the research effort into. He was a real big wig at UWI and had the backing of PNM when I was there.
The problem Dr. Lucas that people like yourself WILL ALWAYS ENCOUNTER @ UWI a cadre of academic cat burf euphemism for the other effluent from the other end of the tract.
Nuff people doan like de ole man cause dem feel I tink I too bright AND CONSIDERS DEM STOOPID.
It’s an occupational eccentricity that you acquire over the years that is confirmed by people who comprehend value AND ONE WHICH, CONSTANT INTERACTION WITH CUNTS, WILL MAKE YOU ANGRY WITH THEM, because you simply dont operate at their level.
Let de ole man put it bluntly.
If dem was a nice sweet oily pokey YOU WOULD DRIVE A KICK IN UM CAUSE DEM IS BLIGHTED.
Time either removes them from the equation OR YOU!
But in the meantime, they keep these protests and agitate to get back their jobs AND DO FVUCK ALL.
Forgive de ole man invectives but they are not directed at you.
It’s the insipidness of this rampant incompetence masquerading as intellectual genius and academic prowess that I cussing
“I am curious as to how you arrived at this conclusion, seeing that the topic commented on refers to industrial action. I must admit you have a very fertile imagination.
It is like saying all cats are grey.
All animals that weigh fifty pounds are grey. ‘”
Its called the “slippery slope” or “mission creep”. Once you have abandoned the “due process” for the “urgent process” the precedent for taking “other/urgent action” may be set. Over time it may become the SOP for dealing with any situation.
Practice makes perfect?
I was always told if u don’t like the process or law don’t break it change it. Any sovereign country has the right to amend or create laws to address what was mentioned by you. My advice is to fix the problem/laws so breaking the law is not the remedy.
After all we keep hammering or beating this drum about “good governance” and “a nation of laws” etc, or is that just hot sweaty political rhetoric?
Just asking?
You should realize by now, that it is mostly talk.
14th July 2020
Dear Editor,
UTT promotions with pay during this COVID-19 pandemic
This COVID-19 pandemic has been hitting the economy real hard with oil price dropping, tourists blocked from coming and food prices increasing.
Thousands of people have lost their jobs and some barely have food to eat or to feed their children. Many businesses have been closing with more layoffs to come. People are praying for Government COVID relief.
At the same time, the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) is throwing away public funds on unnecessary promotions with some people even jumping two ranks. The designation Professor “in Practice” has been attached to the positions as if these people bring industry experience to their posts.
UTT has also just promoted lecturers without Ph.Ds. to senior academic positions.
In fact, most of them are journeyman teachers, teaching their courses and going home, doing little or no research, publications, outreach or conferencing. Yet they have been promoted to Assistant Professors and Associate Professors.
UTT is probably ranked in the first 10,000 tertiary educations in the world while the University of the West Indies (UWI) has been ranked in the first 100. But UWI has frozen new appointments and promotions and signalled to staff to expect salary cuts.
UTT fired 69 academics in 2018 and nearly 200 administrative and corporate staff in late 2019, both supposedly for money problems. Now in 2020, it has all of these excessive promotions bumping up the bottom line.
Respectfully,
Fatimah Mohammed
Chin Chin Road, Cunupia,
Trinidad and Tobago
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