‘… for someone who has never been taken to court or taken anyone to court, I find myself paying a lot of legal fees’
By Alicia Chamely
I AM proud to say in the 36 years I have ventured upon this planet I have not been to court once.
This is somewhat surprising considering my loose unfiltered mouth and penchant to find myself in sticky situations. There are days I find myself amazed I survived my adolescence and early 20s. Not only survived, but never saw a jail cell… this is a story, or collection of, for another time.
That being said, for someone who has never been taken to court or taken anyone to court, I find myself paying a lot of legal fees. Millions and millions of dollars in legal fees for lawsuits and charges that have never been laid against me.
The amount of money spent by our governments over the past couple of decades is beyond ridiculous. And guess who foots the legal bills? We do! Us tax paying citizens, who are busy minding our business are made to helplessly stand by, and watch our tax dollars that should have been used to improve our schools, our hospitals, our roadways, our quality of life, get vacuumed up by our governments’ legal messes.
The hardest part to swallow of this horrendous truth is our governments, present and past, are unapologetic about it. Not only unapologetic, but they continue to rub it in our faces.
As we all know the hot topic of the day is the collapse of the corruption charges bought against former attorney general Anand Ramlogan and, in everything like salt, attorney Gerald Ramdeen. Both men were charged with defrauding the Government in a kickback scheme that involved the Jamaica-born UK-based attorney Vincent Nelson.
To go into the entire debacle is entirely too bothersome, but it involves all kinds of deals that no one seems to know about, state witness Nelson now turned into state headache, lots of calls for resignations and of course millions of dollars in legal damages and costs… to the tune of $150 million… an amount our Opposition Leader Kamla Persad Bissessar got stuck in her craw.
But according to our Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, $150 million is chump change, because thanks to KPB and the People’s Partnership Government’s decision to cancel the Alutrint aluminum smelter, the Government has been slapped with a $2.5 billion lawsuit from a Chinese contracting firm, that was hired to construct the plant.
Once again, defending manure with manure. Do they really think this tit-for-tat works? Well, I guess it does because we still have people who are willing to die on a hill for their beloved political leader of choice.
I care not who cost the country more, what I care about is that so many of the lawsuits bought against the Government could be avoided. What upsets me is money that should be used for the advancement of our nation is being used to clean up the legal messes of governments that have never had to account for their incompetence.
Despite this garbage heap of legal nonsense, a hero arose this week, a curtain-wearing rebel who wasn’t going to let archaic dress codes hold her back from doing her business.
On Monday, Arouca caterer and my new style icon, Allison Skinner-Bacchus lit social media afire for her creativity after being denied entry to the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago because her shoulders were exposed.
How was she dressed you ask? Skinner-Bacchus was wearing a sleeveless mid-length turtleneck work dress with enclosed-toe high heels. She wasn’t wearing a party dress or a liming dress, she was in a work dress.
I understand you need to be dressed decently when conducting business, but it’s not like she rolled into Central Bank in a pair of bamsee biting pum pum shorts, a navel breaker and a buss up pair of Rattan’s slippers. Homegirl looked as professional as hell, but those arms being out… oh the offence. Queen went back to her car, pulled out a curtain she had purchased, draped it around herself, and marched back into Central Bank in all her pink chiffon glory.
Apparently dressing like an asylum escapee is less offensive than bare toes and shoulders.
Make it make sense, can someone tell the dinosaurs in power to get with the times and stop wasting my tax dollars to clean up their messes!
Paying Legal Fees, But Never Been to Court
‘… for someone who has never been taken to court or taken anyone to court, I find myself paying a lot of legal fees’
I AM proud to say in the 36 years I have ventured upon this planet I have not been to court once.
This is somewhat surprising considering my loose unfiltered mouth and penchant to find myself in sticky situations. There are days I find myself amazed I survived my adolescence and early 20s. Not only survived, but never saw a jail cell… this is a story, or collection of, for another time.
That being said, for someone who has never been taken to court or taken anyone to court, I find myself paying a lot of legal fees. Millions and millions of dollars in legal fees for lawsuits and charges that have never been laid against me.
The amount of money spent by our governments over the past couple of decades is beyond ridiculous. And guess who foots the legal bills? We do! Us tax paying citizens, who are busy minding our business are made to helplessly stand by, and watch our tax dollars that should have been used to improve our schools, our hospitals, our roadways, our quality of life, get vacuumed up by our governments’ legal messes.
The hardest part to swallow of this horrendous truth is our governments, present and past, are unapologetic about it. Not only unapologetic, but they continue to rub it in our faces.
As we all know the hot topic of the day is the collapse of the corruption charges bought against former attorney general Anand Ramlogan and, in everything like salt, attorney Gerald Ramdeen. Both men were charged with defrauding the Government in a kickback scheme that involved the Jamaica-born UK-based attorney Vincent Nelson.
To go into the entire debacle is entirely too bothersome, but it involves all kinds of deals that no one seems to know about, state witness Nelson now turned into state headache, lots of calls for resignations and of course millions of dollars in legal damages and costs… to the tune of $150 million… an amount our Opposition Leader Kamla Persad Bissessar got stuck in her craw.
But according to our Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, $150 million is chump change, because thanks to KPB and the People’s Partnership Government’s decision to cancel the Alutrint aluminum smelter, the Government has been slapped with a $2.5 billion lawsuit from a Chinese contracting firm, that was hired to construct the plant.
Once again, defending manure with manure. Do they really think this tit-for-tat works? Well, I guess it does because we still have people who are willing to die on a hill for their beloved political leader of choice.
I care not who cost the country more, what I care about is that so many of the lawsuits bought against the Government could be avoided. What upsets me is money that should be used for the advancement of our nation is being used to clean up the legal messes of governments that have never had to account for their incompetence.
Despite this garbage heap of legal nonsense, a hero arose this week, a curtain-wearing rebel who wasn’t going to let archaic dress codes hold her back from doing her business.
On Monday, Arouca caterer and my new style icon, Allison Skinner-Bacchus lit social media afire for her creativity after being denied entry to the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago because her shoulders were exposed.
How was she dressed you ask? Skinner-Bacchus was wearing a sleeveless mid-length turtleneck work dress with enclosed-toe high heels. She wasn’t wearing a party dress or a liming dress, she was in a work dress.
I understand you need to be dressed decently when conducting business, but it’s not like she rolled into Central Bank in a pair of bamsee biting pum pum shorts, a navel breaker and a buss up pair of Rattan’s slippers. Homegirl looked as professional as hell, but those arms being out… oh the offence. Queen went back to her car, pulled out a curtain she had purchased, draped it around herself, and marched back into Central Bank in all her pink chiffon glory.
Apparently dressing like an asylum escapee is less offensive than bare toes and shoulders.
Make it make sense, can someone tell the dinosaurs in power to get with the times and stop wasting my tax dollars to clean up their messes!