Corie Sheppard Podcast
Corie Sheppard Podcast
Episode 183 | OWO
We're back in the game!
In this week's episode we discuss our recent travels to LA and make some plans for future pods as we wrestle with life's changes.
We cover the artist formerly known as Diddy and his downward spiral.
A couple prominent businessmen owe the tax man in the hundreds of millions while the BIR is cracking down in an effort to recover $15 billion in outstanding taxes. Run & hide!
Erla is calling out the parents and rightfully putting the. crime surge on us as more and more bloggers and YouTubers com etc sweet T&T to cover the gangs in their numbers and visit parts of the country that are forgotten to most of us.
In the culture apparently we're still having preliminary talks about how to make carnival into an industry. A thousand years from now we'll still be having those talks but for now.....
Tune in & Enjoy!!!!
Thank you. Well, what had happened was Once they had a competition To see the most traveled podcast man Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Speaker 3:Everyone was shocked to see. The finalist was Sparrow and me. Sparrow went to Nigeria, then he went to Spain. He went to Ethiopia, then he went back again. He went to Cincinnati Then he went to Oahu, but I was the favorite when he went, where he went.
Speaker 2:Where he went One little week and they'll kill me.
Speaker 3:Not the kind of song you'll stop right, take it easy. I wasn't entering the show for something fake. Oh, rio, go. I know I'm only wasting time, but I'm only following my own. Well, look my passport. Oh, even got a visa in it or something, telling me Rio, you're convenient. Them foreign judges, so incompetent, say where you went, man say where you went.
Speaker 2:I read your card, put your name on my card. Welcome to episode 182, three or 4 of the Corey Shepard Podcast From Caranaj to Icacos. Well, they just call me Columbus.
Speaker 3:But look, I travel like Tarzan, I travel by vine, I travel almost everything you find, with two exceptions that I could explain, and that is minus boat and aeroplane. I travel down and travel up like chimimborazo, kodokasi, double bus, only bus, mini bus and maxi-daisy, trolley-doll, no-one-tri-single donkey-yard and motorcycle. I've been everywhere.
Speaker 2:Oli, I wasn't here. Welcome. It's episode 183 of the Corey Shepard Podcast. Welcome everybody who's been listening, welcome to all the new people who've come on board. How's it going? Long time no see, oli. Long time no see. Give me a wine here here, here, here here. I had to make a quick little run away. I had to make a quick and I'm actually up front, right, when we miss an episode.
Speaker 2:Two episodes don't have any value to Oli in a week, because I find men take a whole week to listen to. They are starting to reach a point now where, unless I see 300 spins between YouTube and the podcast apps, unless I see 300 spins, I ain't feeling to record again and I want to see numbers running up. So remember to like, share and subscribe on all the things that you need to see, right? Keep in mind, too, that you can find this podcast on YouTube every week, but anyway, there is. Listen to pretty much anything. You can find episodes there too, right? All the Google Podcasts? Well, google Podcasts had to make a move, right? Only looking like only moving to YouTube, and the people who would listen on Apple Podcasts only find. But if you're on Google Podcasts, switch to Spotify. I hear you don't take up no space on your phone and all these nice things, but tell me now, do you have value in doing more than one episode in a week? Ole good, let me know, you know. But we're here, we're here, we're back, we're back, we're back in town.
Speaker 2:I had to take a quick little runaway and I want to take a minute before we start to congratulate my little brother, jonathan Corby. We went to his graduation in LA, la, la la la. Let me tell you something. These places far, listen, these places far, and you see that set of long flying. I ain't know if I able to do long flying in the all normal body carry cover. I want to tell you this was nearly a two-week break from a one-week trip because I almost couldn't make it back. So salute to my guy, jonathan, graduating with his master's. If you listen to the, that's Jonathan Corby Woods. Of course, any man graduated I'd go and represent. I also have it in mind that the last time I was supposed to go to his undergrad graduation, I stayed here like a doof and bust my Achilles and ended up having to do two years of surgery and downtime and all these different things. But if we had to judge from the little sweater take yesterday where I was to score a flying scissors kick to win the game. I think I'm back in the game, I think. Salute to dr suge, I think my foot is healed, I'm good to go back in the game. So salute to my sister, salute to janelle.
Speaker 2:We went, we went over to la for the week, for the weekend more or less, title trip and um and came back in. So I don't tell only about this la trip, right, because this is my first. No, I went to california before I went to to san francisco as the as the podcast, as the as the as real say the traveling man, right, being the most traveled podcast man. That comes with some inconveniences like really little missed episodes and so on, but I went over there and it was. It was nice being in LA for the first time, passing through LAX. I feel like I was TMZ. I was waiting for some paparazzi to come and greet me and things, but nobody came. Nobody came. I did try and it was nice seeing where Johnny living and them things that being in the graduation. Only one thing they didn't want how LA cold, la cold, my air. Only one thing they didn't want how la coal. La coal, my air condition unit is only go up to 17 right, or go down to 17. This place never reach as high as 17. I I get up in the morning. I say you know what, as I order, let me see a little bit of the place. I'll go and take a little run walk on the morning. And boy, when I go on to take my run walk and 12 degrees start to hit me in my face, I end up in the closest starbucks. Get something warm up in my paws. I had to get something. It was deadly.
Speaker 2:But uh, I will tell you that the food was great and in um in la. I remember that being the case in san francisco. Right, if you ever make it to san francisco, as my cousin, our cousin by the name of kelsey, would tell me when he found out I was going to san francisco the last time, he say everywhere every time you're hungry, just go into the closest restaurant and it will be, it will be the best food you ever had. Right, I remember him telling me that and he was absolutely right. San francisco is some of the best for the, for the foodie people. Now, talking to all the foodie people for now go anywhere and eat whatever they recommend and it will be some of the best food ever.
Speaker 2:And maybe I had to say the same about la, because the first morning I was there I get up on a walk I say I think I was headed west, I hope I hope it was west, and I just keep walking until I find some spots, you know, I mean, and I see a restaurant by the name of millie's. Millie's looking nothing, looking fancy, but it looking like typical american diner but it's bacon and eggs and things. How bad that could be. Well, I could tell you Millie's is some of the best breakfast I've ever had. Millie's was on point.
Speaker 2:Went to another Thai food place called Kinara. It was good. The food was really, really good. It's hard to complain about About food in LA. The coal you could complain about but not the food. But I had to tell Oli could complain about but not the food. But I had to tell Oli about one night we home Because I had to tell these two people I was with right, these two people I was with wanted to Uber eat something the first time I was in LA. I come out there. I want to go to Compton.
Speaker 2:Look, kendrick has song and listen, you see them. Kendrick disses to Drake. We never stop hearing that on your radio, at no point in time during that LA trip. If you feel as a hip-hop person, if you feel like you're getting a sense of what the beef was like between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, you probably don't know what that is like till you get it. All the radio station playing is Kendrick. I'm talking about hip-hop station contemporary. It don't matter what station, it is the kendrick that fit in that format coming on and it's f is in heavy rotation almost every five minutes. So no wonder it breaking records for the most stream song ever and so on. So he he having a hell of a time.
Speaker 2:We went to rusco's chicken and waffles. Uh, I guess people say in la, the famous rusco's and chicken waffles, you had to go there. Most times I've heard people say, especially yankees, right, when they tell you you have to do this and you had to go to this place and it's some kind of chain, the food is be very, very, very average at best. Right, I want to tell you that's not the case with roscoe's chicken and waffles. I, when any states and you're like you know, I mean I like to order the state's food. Right, they have little mac and cheese. We have macaroni pie, but they have mac and cheese. They have cornbread. So I usually order them things and there's nowhere else I have ever ordered food. You know, going out and eating and you order food and get mac and cheese, the thing tasting good. Everything they had was good, including the chicken and waffles, of course, and the waffles much better than you expected.
Speaker 2:You only remember I leave here with some dental problems, right? So I ain't too sure how much I could eat either, and I want to tell you that I still have any same dental problems. I still care for you. If you see me dribbling and anything, work with me, right, I'm looking for grace. If you hear me slurring my words or you have a lisp or not reading properly, give me some grace. This week I still have a lot of oral issues, right, pause.
Speaker 2:But one night we decided we're going out and eat and I say, well, google the best place, not just Yelp. You know what I mean. Wherever you see good food, people say they're feeling. I say they're feeling for Cuban. Somebody say they're feeling for Mexican. We'll be fine at what I'll Salvadorian spot right Now when we drive to the place.
Speaker 2:Place rating is about 4.5, written, looking good online and so on. So we still be going across when we reach in the car park. Now the car park like Skid Row, if you see the car park. The car park is a mess and I'll tell you too, the homeless situation in LA is one you gotta see that and I know I didn't see the worst of it. I talk about mainstream downtownllywood, if that's where it's called. On the sunset boulevard and hollywood boulevard and thing, you're just seeing random corners where people in tents like the guys home to them, but we park in this skid row car park looking a little dodgy.
Speaker 2:I said this is looking so great and what's all right, we do rates and time and thing. And my sister she did say listen when the place looking like this is probably the best food you'll ever have. When we pop open the door, you know. You know the little thing you see in movies where the record and everybody look wrong. That is exactly what happened to me. He's the only black people in the restaurant and everybody else is spanish. The music loud, loud, spanish music and thing. But they kind of watch me and I start to feel uneasy once I want to come. I want to go, like home, to trinidad. I want to come back home on a flight or see something here, right here, and we went in the place on all that and it did turn out to be some of the best el salvadorian food we ever had.
Speaker 2:But people, we, we get little glimpses every now and again, people watching over. I think they were trying to watch and are trying to figure out. Well, what are they waiting for for me to make the first move over? Once again, when food done, my car didn't work and so I kept it. Thank god, general numbers, they, they settled the bill and all these things. And when we were leaving it, I find it strange that when we were leaving, they had an armed security guard by the door. He wasn't there. When we reach, I didn't see that guy.
Speaker 2:When we reach out, to all right, but I was talking to a cousin of mine and he was saying brother, he say the gang culture and thing real in la. He said when you're going to spanish or latino restaurants and together, be real careful about how you move, because they're not accustomed seeing groups of blacks, you know, I mean, and I don't think my little brother could pass over them. Red skin like them, spanish of them, you know I mean. But apparently not. So you see, when you see people like that, they will, they will be worried about what is to come. You know I mean, because not just use a threat to them there, but if you there and you have some kind of beef with somebody else, they don't want nobody coming there to find you on neutral territory.
Speaker 2:I was like this is complicated, why we had to do this, why this little boy couldn't study somewhere safe, you know I mean. And then on top of that, I telling him well, he asked like what we was wearing. Of course I like a buffoon and a big blue thing because I call I. I have a blue hoodie and my hoodie pull over my head. Of course, because I, I call me and noise trayvon martin looking to trayvon martin, me become a brother and sister. I have one two jeans jacket as well. So apparently we go on there like three crips up in his spot looking for el salvadorian food. But we had a great time. The, the service was good. Thank god jonathan could talk spanish too and we did not depend on um we did not depend on on my spanish, certainly, or ordering in english. Because, just like how we was wearing the wrong colors, I might have up and say the wrong thing, I'd end up in the wrong place at the wrong time and we could have be.
Speaker 2:Episode 182, could have been the last, but we're back, we're back here and we're glad to be back here. Right, we went, and we went and do the touristing for a little while and the touristing was nice, you know. I mean and let me give I've given you some assurances one time for the loyal listeners of the podcast I'm not going anywhere again for a little while. For a little while, despite what rio say. But there's a lot of transitions happening in my life now. I will talk about them publicly when they're done, made. So, as you know, I'm very consistent on a tuesday morning, bright and early, right, and I know how I always feel when, like saturday morning, joe button didn't release no podcast and I was very, very upset. I don't like when that happened. But I'm going to maintain as much as of my consistency as I can over this little transition period.
Speaker 2:I need feedback from ollie. Give time, tell me on youtube comments when I miss an episode. Will two episodes next week help. I know nothing to have makeup for the week. They are gone. All you really want to hear two episodes in a week or that is over kill all it tell me, right, but the tourist thing is done on our back here.
Speaker 2:But talking about touristing, right, they have an interesting, interesting trend that are looking at. This is not a local trend, right, it is. It's very much a global trend where you're seeing people who are, uh, traveling vloggers and youtubers and so on going to different countries and people generally like to see people travel. They don't like to see me travel if they get an episode, but people like to see travel vlogging and that kind of thing. And there was one point in time where the travel vlogging the ones who used to get the highest set of views is people who do reviews of popular destinations and vacation places or off the beaten path places, but it would show you the best of the place and how the place look and when they. You know they live in the best life and they do that. Then I saw a trend where people were actually vlogging about the travel experience. You would see casey Neistat and these fellas go and they talk about planes and who are the best, first class and who are the worst economy class and traveling by train.
Speaker 2:All these things worked right and coming off the heels of a guy who was walking from Tocco to, was it, galiota, I've seen more and more of them coming here now, of them are coming here now and a big part of the trend today is to go to countries and show the worst situations in the country, whether it be poverty or crime or whatever's the worst situation corruption. Now those things sell because, as I do research for podcasts, the most popular format of podcasting is true crime podcast, where people talk about true crimes and interview people about it and tell the backstory and try to find families of the victim or get a person from jail and do interviews. Them podcasts ahead of all other podcasts by far right. So crime and taking things people into and I have more following more and more how we approach, because I was making the point the other week that, um, my boy making his trek from toko to galiota.
Speaker 2:But we have a man right here I spoke about in my name of mark hippolyt, who went up. Uh, it was a ripple heights or a repair only going up there a hundred times for the 100 plus times for the year and he himself just recently did a walk. He crisscrossed from that, from the next direction I think he went from um, was it? Guayabicaca, so one of them all the way to shakarabas and what it took my guy a week and some change to do. He doing basically 24 hours. So let's mark him right. He's a legend. Follow him on facebook because this guy does this all the time. That that's this might be his full-time job.
Speaker 2:I hope you know the kind of views you could get as a foreigner coming here to do something pales in comparison to get to the kind of views you could get as a local person doing them same types of things. And it's so funny that I spoke about him in any any trek up the up the mountain a hundred times and he he decided to kind of answer back the thing and he didn't say anything like this. Right, but I saying it. Well, you could do them things as a person from here and I wonder how much people will stop to help you and stop to give you money, or stop to give food and stop to help you document your journey, or the hunters and rescue people, but with mark. They didn't have the time mark, finish mark, finishing that day by the time they catch mark mark, taking a bait up, tetron, you know I mean. So that was impressive.
Speaker 2:But these vloggers who come in here seem to be seem to be getting a lot, a lot of traction online and, uh, trinidadians, at home and abroad, I guess people want to see the quote, unquote, real situation or the real trinidad and, uh, the latest one in this is somebody who refers to himself as christmas list, right, and has a lot of viewers on his youtube channel. I believe is just at about a million subscribers. So you could you understand where the views coming from, right, but what? What I'm more concerned with is the local buy-in that you would typically get from people who come from abroad, and I I stopping just short of saying white people who come from abroad, right, I stopping just short of saying that because and I I'm not sure if it's just because the people white, or maybe they are just very, very popular youtubers who this generation want to see them anyway and they would want to latch on to that. And when you have a million plus subscribers, uh, I don't want to knock the hunters and rescue people because they do that great job, but any organization would want to align themselves or get close to somebody who have a lot of views, like it might make sense for me to um, I try to figure out how to up my subscribers and my listeners right, it might make sense for me to go and meet the fellas somewhere in toko and do a quick walk-in podcast with them. You know, I mean I might up my subscribers.
Speaker 2:My fear with things like that is that I don't like the tactics that will get more real plenty views in one week and then none of them people are interested in coming back and see one thing when the next week comes. So he, this new one, one new to me Christmas list Chris, being like Chris and must be an MUST list is in Trinidad now. T list is in trinidad now and he is. He is going to areas in trinidad and tobago that if I was to hazard, I guess I would think that me and you care, go or wouldn't go, right, he's done this in places in his states before, like he's gone to the most dangerous places in atlanta, the most dangerous hood in port-au-prince and that big voodoo as the, as the title of that. He went to the same skid row I was talking about in la. He went there and he interviewed people and all those things, and so I know I don't want to take away anything from the work he's done and the investment he's made in himself to get there and the credibility he's gained as well.
Speaker 2:Because when he say he going to gary, indiana's most most dangerous hood, he going there filming people with guns and talking and asking them genuine questions about why they're doing this, why the gang culture so strongly, and so on, and those are questions I think that me and you might have right. When we living in trinidad and tobago, here, where the average person is not coming into contact with no six, no seven, no eight, no nine, no alien, no, the average person here don't even know what. None of these things is right. So somebody like christmas coming here and getting, uh, some kind of response from the people who are involved in this as to why they're involved in this and why they're doing my shed light for me and you so we could start to understand it and maybe even, with the influence that people who listen to this podcast have, maybe even see how we could do something about it through the schools, through the um, through the church or whatever institutions we involved in, how we could do something about it. My thing is always to try to figure out, like I wonder if we could like, if I could go and do that, you know I mean. So let's around ryan ramchandani, right, who tell me don't call his full name, but he always used to tell me about this, these ideas similar to this to go out and interview and talk to people and, um, judging from this thing with christmas list, I I'm not sure that, at my age and stage in life, are willing to put my life at risk to go in some areas to do certain things.
Speaker 2:Because, as a man who wants to continue to live in Trinidad, for instance, if Christmas say or do the wrong thing or offend the wrong person, it's easy for him to get a plane ticket and go back where he come from and he and his family and everybody not under threat, right. But if I'm doing that every day and my face on YouTube next to the faces of people who would be, they may be wanted by the police or they may be police you know what I mean I'm not sure that is something that I'm willing to put myself on the line for. It'd take me 50-something episodes before I could just go on camera and show my face, so much less to do it in this way. But Christmas is here and check out his youtube channel again christmas list, chris m-u-s-t list and uh, he has about 15 20 videos. They're a little long, right, but if you can listen to this podcast, you can listen to him. His average video is a hundred, is a hour and a half still, and he's talking to youths in these areas about why they, why they um, why they joining gangs, why they defending the turf.
Speaker 2:It's a little bit shocking for me, right again, as an outsider to this culture of trinibar and all that. I don't know that you have youths up in gonzalez and different parts of belmont. I know about the idea of borderline right where belmont split into certain factions, so bella road can't go gonzalez and gonzalez and different parts of belmont. I know about the idea of borderline right where belmont split into certain factions, so bella road cargo gonzalez and gonzalez cargo st babs and all these different things is real right. This is what we know. But what I don't know is it's have men on patrol and like what?
Speaker 2:The one I watched today was one from rifle hill, these young fellas, you know, young, young when I say young, all the potential in the world. The world is yours, and the world that they choose is to walk around with rifles protecting rifle hill, to talk about why them is a part of six and eight and them don't deal with seven. Man alien can't come over here. And a whole new language. You know. I encourage you to go and see it, I will.
Speaker 2:I will say as well, for those of you who not interested in that at all, he also covered things like a walk for peace. He'd been in Point Fortin Borough Day. He went and did some crab and dumpling. I believe he did a bacon shark thing in Maracas. He had Dane Gulston on talking about Trinidad's top pan side. So credit to him that he's not here necessarily to glorify or to just shed light on the bad parts of the place. And even when he's in some of the quote-unquote bad parts of the place, he's still encouraging people. He said listen, when you're a tourist and you come here, you're never going to see these areas, you're never going to interact, you're going to be safe in Trinidad and Tobago and you're going to do fine and you're going to be okay. And credit to him for doing that and taking the time to do that, and he also seems like a guy who's genuinely, genuinely curious, which I think any good journalist has to. You had to have that quality to be a good journalist and to put together stories that are compelling and interesting to people. So let me let me just read from the uh newsday who's covering him here? Right, it's a vlogging gang culture in trinidad and Tobago glorification or reality? This from Marissa Fraser in Newsday.
Speaker 2:There's been an increasing trend of vloggers on youtubers visiting Trinidad and Tobago to showcase gang culture and violence. Typically, they visit areas deemed crime hotspots, saying the intent is to show the good despite the negative reputation. However, more recently, these videos have caught the attention of the police as civilians have openly been bearing firearms, saying that they are in gangs and discussing the involvement in ongoing wars, including basically saying that if them fellas from over, so come over here, we lighten them up, we sending them home. Men saying that openly, most of them masked up and thing right. The public has been generally divided on the issue. Some think vloggers are using or taking advantage of people of lowest, of a lower socioeconomic class, for likes and views, while others support them, saying that they are showing that there's more to these areas of violence, as well as showcasing reality.
Speaker 2:Before I read forward, right, uh, and admittedly, of the 15, 16, 17 videos, I watch one. I watch one in belmont and I don't think not not his fault, but I don't think that, despite how much times he asked about the community and where is he good, there was not much presented that could tell you okay, what is the good that come out of belmont? There's, there's not. Even even when he talked to some of the elders in society in the community, a lot of them didn't want to be on camera, and so on. You're not hearing people talking month there's, there's not. Even even when he talked to some of the elders in society in the community, a lot of them didn't want to be on camera, and so on.
Speaker 2:You're not hearing people talking in depth about the history of belmont, or, or you know, david ruddow and his involvement on the belmont song. You're not hearing much of that in terms of how much of our cultural hub belmont is. Most of what you're hearing is six and seven, eight and nine, and if eight come across, six and nine trying to figure out. If you ask one of them, nine minus eight. They might know, but they're going on and on about this gang culture. And when he put the direct question to these youths as to, okay, what is the genesis of this and why it continuing, these youth who are rifles in their hands struggling to answer that question, which that is not uncommon when you discuss and I don't want to use johnny bravo in the video, you know, johnny bravo, right, a security guy.
Speaker 2:He say he want to call them movements and not gangs. I think that's positive. But when you look at violent gangs anywhere and you see people interview them, you typically get this thing where the youngest people in the gang they don't know the history of the gang, they don't know why it was a gang, they don't know what they're protecting. Because when I hear they say, well, we're protecting me too, and I look at this too, I try to figure out what is this to offer it. You know, I saw somebody in the comments say why did you just come out and say it's drug wars, they're fighting on this territory, they're fighting for I don't know? I don't know, I'm not brave enough to say that either, but he says so far for 2024 youtubers shy coco boy, noymark, tim carter and christmas list have visited trinidad and tobago and done these videos which have racked up millions of views.
Speaker 2:Each of them also did several non-gag related videos while here which did not get as many views. I'll give you an example right when I go back to christmas list. His his video on uh, trinidad's deadliest gang war a day inside with the gunmen of belmont, has 248 000 views right. And the one just before that, port of Spain Peace Walk and Mother's Cry Demand Ends of Gang Violence has 48,000 views. His visit to Boroday has 129,000 views and the latest one he posted yesterday with Ultimate Silpan Battle, desperados vs Renegades vs All-Stars in Trinidad, has 25,000 views right. Just to put that in perspective Uh, a similar video was done in 2040 by international media outlet Vice News, which now has over 9 million views. It is titled Corruption, cocaine and Murder in Trinidad. Vloggers defend their content. Carter's video, titled Deep into the Caribbean's Deadliest Hood, has had over 1.8 million views.
Speaker 2:He documented a visit to Lavantel, where many locals in downtown Port-de-Saint urge him not to go. Residents of the communities told him while there there's a negative stigma about both areas. They are guided by peace and love. Among the people he spoke to was Trinibad artist, kashif Keman, 6 Sanka. A man featuring in the video called El Chapo, told Carter, although many call 6 a gang, it is just a Trinibad music movement. However, he added that those on the seventh side have issues with people from his area. He also showed Carter one of his guns, which he said he's had for protection. That's what all of them say. All of them say that they have the guns for protection and they have the guns for defense, but the defense they're talking about is rifles with 7.62 caliber bullets. You can google that, right. So this is again. Is that is a trend?
Speaker 2:I want to say that the that like titling the video. I'm terrible at titling videos, right, with youtube, titling videos matters, and if you title the video with something, uh, controversial, it's just like headlines back in the day, right. If I put a controversial headline with a controversial picture, the algorithm tends to show it or suggest it to more people, right, so people could come across it, rather than the the people who might come on directly looking for the podcast or listening to it. Every week, youtube will suggest it to more people. But I again, I'm I in it for the long haul. Right on episode 182 182 of 10,000.
Speaker 2:So the fast growth. I don't know if that's the best route for me. I don't want to put controversial things out there. I also have my day job. You know what I mean? I have jobs. I have to be careful about what I say here. This is not my main job yet.
Speaker 2:So when you get a chance right, go and check out Christmas List and I would suggest that you do this, whether you're inclined to the Trinidad movement, or check it out just to see what is happening in your country, where a local blogger or vlogger or news reporter or anybody might not have been able to get the kind of access that this guy got or be willing to take the kind of chances that this guy got to walk through some of these areas and so on. Uh, but it's important that we know because, like me, it's clear that my head buried deeper in the sand than I thought. And, uh, these youths taking this thing seriously where they've never been. I looking for, I looking for place to live in gated community where I could safeguard myself a little bit, and all the gate, the by the gate. All he's doing is saying Hi, good afternoon sir, all right, have a good day. The man by the gate is doing a damn thing to secure where I live in, whereas these men are walking around with 24-hour rifle patrol, just in case, and they're showing you a step. Well, they say, up to here we could go, go, but we can't go past that step and them can't come past this step. And I wonder if this is the same belmont and the same bella road and the same valley road. And thing that I I know from small. You're wondering if this is the same areas you know and how small going up in lavanti or going moving was not frightening. Or was I just naive? Was I? Was I just I did I have the bravery of youth or the valor of being young? I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. But the places are different place.
Speaker 2:I remember seeing that one time in jamaica I had to drop a partner back to allman town and he kind of tell me slow down, because we're driving back from the club and I'm driving. When he says slow down, cory, slow down. He said let him see his me in the car. And when he, when he would see it, his men, men had a rifle and they're looking down in the car and he just hail out everybody. And and when I had to drop this man off, I said when, when you're not in the car, how are you coming out in here? He said, nah, just make sure you pass back the same place you passed to come in. Don't make no sudden stop, don't make no sudden turn.
Speaker 2:I was like and I thinking what kind of society is this? You know, I mean, what kind of of world we really living in? But taking this so you could see what kind of Trinidad and Tobago we're really living in, and you might start to understand if this is the mentality or the attitude or a lot of these youths here who, again, I see as having a world of potential, all the potential in the world these youths have. If that's the attitude and the way they see in life, you're starting to understand why you have a murder every day and on a long weekend, like the weekend that coming up, you're starting to see seven, eight people and big, big figures where where murder is concerned. But I'm salute to christmas, salute to all the vloggers who willing to come here and do the work.
Speaker 2:I will say, however, that, um, with all the upcoming and ongoing podcasts that I see, all the vloggers that I see, I find and I was giving them credit for this the other day where I saw certified samson and so on being featured in in, um, in the mainstream media and newsday guardian express and so on, but I find, like you know, sometimes we street for his role of this red carpet to foreigners. I wonder how much local vloggers and so on, I wonder if mark hippolyt could get the kind of coverage for walking the country in 24 hours that um, my german guy could get for walking across the country in about a week. You know, and I ain't just talking about coverage like going viral online, talking about like the media picking them up and we as individuals actually learning who they are, reading their stories and understanding about them and so on I find like we don't give our own people the kind of coverage that we're willing to give foreigners. But maybe, maybe it's just a little bit of an island thing, right, um, where are we going from here? All you want to talk about diddy and cassie.
Speaker 2:People don't like when I spend too much time on on the foreign user, but I believe that, um, diddy, what? What did he mean to trinidadians right through his many ventures? Right first through coming up with hip-hop with, with with as early as craig mack and biggie smalls work he do with mary j blige. Plenty of Diddy hits was Trinidadian hits too. I shouldn't say hits, right, it was very, very Trinidadian. And then when you do things like making the band or his appearances in media, I could safely say that Diddy was a person who was loved across the board by Trinnies. You know what I mean. Diddy's a loved kind of personality, all mean diddy is a loved kind of personality. All the bravado and it's a rich, billionaire status as a business person and so on. You know it's something else to see.
Speaker 2:And, um, having seen that video, I'm not sure how many people were caught completely off guard by that video with cassie, in case you don't know. I don't know where ben he must be traveling, like me, but a video that came out on cnn with diddy brutally beating his longtime girlfriend cass Cassie and dragging her through a hotel hall room. It was hard to see, it was hard to stomach. You know what I mean. As a man, much less I could imagine how a woman feels seeing that kind of thing. Anybody who's triggered by this trigger warning right after the fact. Right, but it was bad. It was bad.
Speaker 2:It's not something you're expecting to see at all, much less from somebody who let me talk for myself like I admire diddy, that somebody, his drive and so on in business is something I always look at and it's like, okay, this is what we aspire to, this is what we want to get to. Doing big deals, doing big things, making you know, make, becoming a sort of beacon for society and an inspiration to others, everything you do, reinventing yourself so much. I was like many, many times I've compared in my mind I don't know if anybody else make this comparison, but I always compare Hoppy you know radio station Hoppy or DJ Hoppy, you don't even know what to call him right, just Hoppy, right. I always compare Hoppy to Diddy in my mind a lot, because Hoppy is that kind of fellow too. I remember Hoppy from teenage days throwing parties and them kind of thing, all the way now to owning his own radio station in Sulu to Squatch, and maybe it's because of who he looked to. You know what I mean. But Hoppy Dong has this local Diddy, and I admire Hoppy.
Speaker 2:You know, I look up to him and I watch how he do business over the years and he end up in several different areas of entertainment and there are people who, when he was a DJ and now going on to radio, there are people who were on radio with him who still on radio. No, no, knock on that, right. But he has evolved so much and done so many different things that he's owned a public radio station. Now, I don't think it will be his last station either, and he had owned uh, different versions of radio stations, radio stations as well, and, like he had done a corporate radio, so sometimes you might go in a place like super farm and you hear music coming through. He was, he had owned a subscription service for that for corporate, so they could uh, basically pay a subscription service every month and he will make sure they have music in their stores that fit their image, their brand image and so on.
Speaker 2:Genius little businesses, you know. I mean doing, doing a lot, and I don't think scotch will be the last I'm waiting for him to do. People ask me like, why do go on radio? Right, when when hoppy do talk radio, I go in, I'm gonna apply, I'm gonna apply. If you give any morning sure, taking it, I I can't do it. I'm gonna not my first thing in the morning and I'm on right.
Speaker 2:But yeah, seeing people like that, who you admire so much, do something like this, it feels disappointing at first. You know, and when I look at, for instance, I would watch Breakfast Club over the years, I would watch Joe Budden podcasts over the years, I would watch State of the Culture on Revolt TV I would watch there was another one with Joe Budden on Academics Hip-hop TV and that kind of thing. I would watch Sway in the Morning. All these interviews you tend to find that everybody around the hip-hop circuit and around Diddy used to talk about Diddy throwing these parties and Diddy is the best party thrower and all them kind of things. And many times you hear the parties being referred to as freak-offs. Right, and it sounds good to me. Freak-off is like that. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:But when you saw Cassie earlier this year or late last year, sue him and he settled pretty quickly for figures that are in the tens of millions of dollars, when you, if you had a chance, and you read that, I personally don't feel anybody could make that up and I also felt disappointed. You know, you look at the other people in the space in the entertainment, so it's like all you know him. You feel like, if so, all you know him and all they have him in this, none of them would not say nothing. All they don't know this was happening. But all of them, down to the Charlemagne, everybody came out and condemned it. Everybody also said that they had no idea this was happening. I find that a little hard to believe.
Speaker 2:But I suppose if you hear rumors about people, you can't really go down with your rumors. They certainly can't report any rumors, right, that land, um, any one of those broadcasters in serious problems if they cast aspersions on them. But you know, I feel a little betrayed by the media like, well, they couldn't give you an idea that, okay, this might not be the great guy, that's what they think he is, and so on. And uh, even as we talk, I hear in jason lee and more people saying they have more videos and more things to come out. So I mean outside of outside of the disappointment that disappointment is the best word I could come up with is like this is this is how you live it and you know, sometimes maybe it's naive, but you're looking at people who use, well, me I seen as they having everything all the success, all the money, all the control, all the discipline to achieve the things that they achieve. You know, and you could get any woman in the world like and this is the your behavior is.
Speaker 2:It's crazy to me when I suppose, as I say, like power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and I mean my heart reached out to cassie. There are no amount of tens of millions of dollars or any amount of money that could possibly compensate her for what she went through, because what's funny, not funny, but what was interesting is that exactly what happened in that hotel is what we saw on the every. She had a what we'll call that deposition or in the lawsuit, right, if you, if you get a chance to read the highlighted lawsuit. She spoke about this hotel incident in that lawsuit and exactly what she says is exactly what happened. She tried to run away and he come down the whole thing in a towel and he beat her and he went back and he paid $50,000 to the hotel for them to give up the video.
Speaker 2:I was wondering if the hotel is not liable for that too. How is the hotel? A big hotel brand he ain't staying in, no double palm, right. A big hotel brand he ain't staying in, no doubt right, he's staying somewhere as a reputable brand. But I understand from one of the reports that, um, it's not necessarily the hotel he paying for, it is the person like the security person or the person who operates in the camera. And um I 50, there will be a figure that could cloud your morality, like I wanted to tell you that if I see something like that, it's a no among the money you could give me to delete that tape. But I would be a damn liar if I say that. You know what I mean. I just want to be honest here. We will get to our figure eventually. When I see that figure, all my debts could be paid. Sorry, I mean I'm just thinking out loud here. But I do feel for Cassie. I mean she's married and it seems as though her husband has been sort of standing by her side and encouraging her and walking her through this process. So salute to him because I mean, with all that he sees and he knows he's a good one to help her to fight the battle and get the strength to do it and as she has done it now, many, many more people will continue to come forward.
Speaker 2:Reminds me of the whole R Kelly thing. I saw Diddy's apology. I reminds me of the whole r kelly thing. I saw diddy apology. I don't know, I don't know how all you feel about that apology, but diddy is clearly a person who has not apologized much in his life. He must be apologized for a long time. He looked like the kind of person if you offend him, you're fired and, uh, he will replace people and put people in a circle who he know don't challenge him or he don't apologize.
Speaker 2:That looked like somebody who ain't apologized in a long time. It looked bad. All of it was bad and it's still up there. That's the thing. So he don't seem to be somebody who listening to his pr team or his, his handlers or any, because everybody would be advising him not to post that. Everybody would be advising him to take all that down, it working against you. But it's clear that, as I say, absolute power corrupts absolutely and that fella mind corrupted and he is showing in more than just the video training is handling this. He still think that he is 50 000 away from a resolution to this, or 30 million dollars away from a resolution to this. But, buddy, that is pretty much the nLU. It's the NLU in my mind. I always come here and talk about cancel culture. I don't like the idea of cancel culture. To be honest, I always feel like my sister Stacey. They're always pointing out to me, sometimes subtly and not subtly.
Speaker 2:When you're talking about this situation with Diddy, they say but yeah, you listen to Joe Budden every week and Joe Budden is a wife beater as a matter of fact. I was looking forward to Joe Budden take on this whole situation. And I listen to Charlamagne every week and Charlamagne have a, I think, a rape accusation or something like that that was settled out of court. So you say you listening to these fellas, but you listening, you waiting, waiting to hear abuser talk about abuser and my take on it is yeah, like joe button. There's a lot of things. Entertaining is probably number one on the list, but there's a lot of things like when you hear these stories about him and woman and it's not pretty right, but as the whole cancel culture thing, not really in me, because I I wonder now, okay, if somebody did that, let me say a person, let me say me, you beat up a girl or you had a history of beating up women, and you reach a point now where you find yourself not the kind of therapy that they be talking about, uh, you find yourself and you work on yourself and that's not something you do anymore. It's like an alcoholic who recover. Alcoholic who recover will always tell you he's a recovering addict. Is it that of somebody who was abuser could say I'm a recovering abuser and get grace from people if they change their ways. Or is it that you're condemned for life, regardless of what you do in in later on in life? You know, I mean, isn't that the is is a wrap is over for you? And the truth is that this generation that seemed to be the former. It seemed like, if it's over for you, nobody don't want to hear from you again. Nobody don't want to hear your excuses, nobody don't want to hear your recovery part.
Speaker 2:Somebody told me recently I just want diddy to lose everything here. I just want to lose everything. I I want cassie to to be, to be sick. Well, she seems as though she's safe now. I want her to be safe. I don't want no moment to go through this, but at the same time, I also just want abusers to get the healing and the the help that they need and genuinely become better people. I want to live in a utopia where nobody don't feel to abuse nobody, but a utopia. That is right.
Speaker 2:And let me tell you something to runtime. Right before I move on from this sorry, yeah, before I move on from this, let me talk to ladies for a minute. Right, the women who who have been through this before, and I mean the lord. You, only you alone, know what you went through and how you come out of that. Right, but one of the things that gets bandied about every time this comes to the top of the surface is that fellas only need to check all your partners. And I want to. I want to explain something to all you, because this has come up all the time and I have been friends with people who I don't I don't want to use the word abusers, but it got into physical altercations with women already right, and it is not.
Speaker 2:I. I'm not sure what you all think of I should do in a situation like that. If I some, or I don't know what you all think I will do. I'm not sure why you all think that I wouldn't talk. I have a partner who beat any woman. I most men, 99 of men, right, if your partner beating a woman or ever hit a woman, you're gonna check your partner. You know, I don't know where, why you all think that nobody says anything. I am not going to come out in the public and let that person say make them lose everything. I wouldn't do that. But I will go to them and say, hey, what's going on with you? Cool, that, don't do that. If I am in a situation where you can't hit no one in front of me, come in in between and separate that and thing.
Speaker 2:But I wanted to appreciate something. Somebody who hell bent on being an abuser and have no intention to change their ways, at least at this phase in their life whether due to alcohol or substance abuse or whatever the thing, is them not going to stay around the men who telling them something for long. But if it has somebody in your ears right through, boy, do this dude, they will separate themselves. The reverse is also true. If I wrong somebody who is a perennial abuser, he didn't intend to change you why I stay in friends with you for long. I will distance myself too. I want to let you appreciate as well that man and woman businesses are funny thing, because I could intervene in the worst ways all right, physically too and go and fight the man, and then all they get back together and thing, and I'm wrong, another stick after that. I don't know that, you know. I know there are many, many reasons why people will not leave or get back together. I'm not saying anything about that, I'm just saying that I as a person, I can't stay around that for a long time and you know, sometimes it takes people who come out the next side of this to talk to this. So we could understand some of what we're talking about here and maybe that's something I'll do, because if you, if you, if you talk to us, if we sit and talk to somebody like cassie, we might find some compassion, because a lot of the comments is but she was apartheid and why she didn't leave that. Not so simple.
Speaker 2:People talk about stockholm syndrome. All them nice theoretical thing nice and all but one thing I know about theory. I do. I study business and I can tell you everything I study in business don't prepare you for when you're in a meeting and that meeting, if that meeting don't go well, you could struggle to pay your next mortgage when your foot shaking under that table and your belly hurting. How no business school could prepare you for that. So you see all that theory about stockholm syndrome and think that important, but nobody can know what it is like for a woman in a situation home other than that woman. So in other words, whatever she say, I give in grace and I accept what she say for what it is. It's something that we had to. We had to do better. I don't know, because I don't understand what the purpose of challenging cassie and all that. The other thing I would want to say is that we have to get. I always remember dave chappelle talking about this, right.
Speaker 2:Dave chappelle said at the end of apartheid it should have been a bloodbath. He said when apartheid ended, by all accounts it should be a bloodbath. Black people should have run into white people and eliminate as much of them as possible. Right, and he said the reason it wasn't a bloodbath was because of the great nelson mandela. And mandela was able, after being jailed wrongfully for so much years, lost all youthful life. Right, imagine that. Imagine when you come out of the usable. Nobody care wrong if you come out with vengeance, right. And if you watch any or read any documentary, listen to or read or listen to his book, you're watching victor. So any, any show, you would see that the white people who would have perpetrated the worst atrocities on black people, was frightened when they say mandela, and plenty of them flee.
Speaker 2:But mandela came out immediately and say hold on, we're not gonna do anything to them. We want to understand them. We want to learn them. A big part of the Invictus show was him getting the Springboks, the rugby team, and showing support for them. When the black Africans were interested more in soccer football, he said, no, let me go and support what they support. And he put on his Springbok hat, which a lot of people said was a symbol of oppression, but he embraced it. Embrace it Apart from Mandela's genius and embracing that is that he understood that to change a system, you must understand not only the abused, but you must understand the abuser.
Speaker 2:You can't create a situation where the abuser consistently chided, jailed, hanged, whatever it might be, and you never get a few. Because they are reformed abusers. Right, they have reformed abusers of substances, they have reformed abusers of people. Reform is real. If you could get to sit down with people who reformed and understand okay, what drives you to do this? What was your state? We could put meaningful situations or solutions in place to create a world where we have less people who are abusers and more people who willing to walk away If there's any sign of abuse we had. The system is one need changing, and I forget Cassie and them for a while right. So much in the data to be aware. Domestic abuse, abuse and violence is prevalent here. I mean it's prevalent. I mean it's prevalent.
Speaker 2:I was tempted to come here and play several Soka and Kaiso songs that openly talk about beating women and things. But I say you know what I mean. That would be nice Because some of them are very nice songs. You know what I mean. Some of them are good, good songs and I don't want anybody hating the good, good song we have right.
Speaker 2:But it's very much a part of our culture and I feel as if we had to do better collectively and not just like, not believe in the person who in the abusive situation and say, well, you stay and you look for that, or as much as the person who is up is doing the abuse. And I'm not saying they shouldn't be punished or they shouldn't be brought to reprimand or whatever is the term you want to use, but at some point we had to understand them, we had to do some studies and understand what leads you to be there and unfortunately, if at least in the theory when you look at the white papers, most of the people who abuse people have been abused right, so we could move on from that. We could go to? We could go to happier days. Can we get to happier days? You know? I mean I'll come back and I'll come back in the heaviest set of topics I ever see as soon as I line up these.
Speaker 2:I know there's one, there's one in particular, that that that that very heavy from. I was talking about hoppy being on radio stations back in the day. We need to come and see big headline Chinese Laundries account seized over $34 million BIR debt. They're Asha Javid. Right, asha Javid. If you don't know, when it comes to business reporting, there's two big names in this country, right, you see, asha Javid and Joel Julian, hard to beat when it comes to business reporting, right? So when Asha and them talk here to take that serious asha and them not joking, when they talk or they do investigations, right, those people is dot their eyes and cross the t's.
Speaker 2:So from asha javid, lead editor of investigations, the accounts of trinidad and tobago network. Trinidad and tobago radio network, the parent company of radio stations 96.1, we fm, star, 94.7 and 107.7 fm, or music for life owned by anthony chinese laundry chowlin on, have been garnished by the state. No, first and foremost, right, remember I was telling you youtube, youtube headings designed to create a little controversy and draw you in, and if you create controversial headlines, you tend to find that you will get more views. Guys, it's hard to create in those headlines, right? This headline is a little bit controversial compared to what I said in it, because I don't think seizing the accounts and garnishing the accounts is the same thing. Maybe I'm wrong about that. You know what I mean. I'm not going to argue with asha javid they're gonna know much more than me on this topic but the word season and the word garnishing is two different things. As far as I know, the procedure is that if you're you know you have plenty taxes outstanding, the bir can, uh, garnish your account directly from the bank. So they could basically say all right, right, well, this is going to come out of your account every month before you could do anything else, which is dangerous territory for our business, because that means it could potentially cripple your operation, right? But let me get to it. I know the loyal listeners are here to see how I will spin this into a defense of the 1%, and I want to assure you that I will. I shall put this into a defense only one percent. But guardian media understands that chow lindon owes 24 million dollars to the border in non-revenue for unpaid taxes. However, that sum is exclusive of interest on debt interest on the debt for the period 2015 to 2024, that's nine years. According to the bir letter, the accounts were seized on april 25th.
Speaker 2:At a meeting called with staff on wednesday, charlton said he was hoping to have the matter resolved by way of a payment plan to the state by the end of the by the end of the month, he said. The station's business model was adversely affected by covid pandemic and not sufficiently recovered. This was further compounded by the failure of advertising agencies to pay sums owed to the stations on time. Guardian media was told that staff of over 80 employees have been asked to take pay cuts to continue the business until the matter can be resolved. Chowlinan did not return calls or messages on email. All right, so let me talk about that pay cut pass first, right, because that seems to be one of the more egregious let me start my defense here.
Speaker 2:One of the more things that people are very, very upset about the issue there is not so much that you don't want to ask no staff to take no pay cuts for any reason, it is it. It is dangerous to longevity of your business and your businesses, like that them thing gonna be 96.1 or ttrn gonna be around forever. This is a speed bump, right, but the issue is this 34 let me do some quick math here. It's not the greatest mathematician they ever had, right, but 34 million dollars divided by nine years is about three. Let me call that four million dollars a year in taxes outstanding, right, tax is 30 percent of your profit. So if you're making, if you're paying, four million dollars a year in tax I'm just assuming that he didn't pay any tax right, which is probably not a good assumption because that tax, broken up into several things, right, which I will venture to explain here. This may have my own peril and I don't know why I'm doing this, but we're doing it anyway uh, would mean that you're making a profit somewhere near $13, $14 million a year. Right, let me assume that your business has cost you a million dollars a month to run, between paying mortgages for the buildings that you have. You have staff to pay, you have licenses to pay. A radio station can't be a cheap operation, right? The ground costs you some money every month. I'm just using a million for simplicity's sake, right, that's what it costs you to run this operation.
Speaker 2:Uh, when, the when, when, the when the state garnish your account, as they say, seize your account and garnish it, right, and they say all right, what going on? You owe me 34 million. We are taking 500 000 a month out of your account. Right, when they take that 500 000, you now have to run that same business at with 500 000 in month income, right? So what you're going to try to do is to try to adjust your business to suit your newly available income of five, which is half your money.
Speaker 2:Right, they have some ways you could do this, right. One of the ways is you could half your money, right, there are some ways you could do this right. One of the ways is you could get rid of assets. You can't get rid of your debts, right? Whatever you owe in the bank or anybody else. You have to pay you yourself and your directors probably not getting paid for that period at all. Most I don't want to talk on behalf of them, but directors probably affected by this more than anybody else and at some point probably last resort, you're going to realize that, all right, I have 150,000 left. After I make all these adjustments here, I have 150,000 to pay staff, but I only have 200,000 left in the account to pay staff.
Speaker 2:At that point in time you have a very hard decision to make as to whether you are going to cut down the size of your staff to suit the 150,000, which means that some people will be going home and left off the job market, or you could come to all the staff and say, listen, if everybody could take a little less, everybody could stay. This is a period that will last because the car garnish should come forever. I'm sure they have a time limit on this right. I could say that this period here will last a year because my car's going to get garnished for five years here. But within this year I'm going to figure out how to collect from advertisers, expand the business.
Speaker 2:What I do want to do is fall back and make less profit and threaten the longevity of the business as a whole, and had a shut down radio stations, because he could also say well, hey, what's going on? 107 point. However, they call them struggling a little bit. What's the next station name? Star 94.7, nobody else's at all. Let go home and you just work with 96.1. And rather than have six announcers and x amount of djs, we're going down to three. Everybody could work at double or they will get paid full money.
Speaker 2:So when people and again, this is the, this is this is me building my case right, I just and I let me let me stop joking, I'm not trying to defend this, right. Well, I'm just trying to explain it. I'm just trying to explain it because, uh, I've been in the wrong business for a little while and I've seen how things like this could go on. It's just it. Just, it's sung like huge numbers and it's sung very unfair. I see people say it's the only way.
Speaker 2:I have to pay tax, and I just want to put out there as well that Trinidad and Tobago is a society. Do you declare your second income, all the gigs you're getting booked for and getting paid in cash? Do you go and write on that on the BIR form when one time come. I want to know. That was the wrong thing. That's what I want to do. Do you declare all your? You know, carnival time? It has some people I know they stick up a little gig carnival time. They pull a little rope for them bands, right, they go in and pull a rope or they walk a little bartending walk or they stand up in front of the truck and they have a headset on their head directing the truck where they have to go. Do you tell the BIR about that? And I hear you know people have a tendency here to say but what the big, big businesses and pay, I think is a cultural thing, I think as a whole, as a society, and there's a difference as well. I want to say this too, right, as as not more, not more, defense, but more explanation.
Speaker 2:Right, avoiding taxes is different to owing taxes for a long period of time and getting garnished. That is not tax avoidance, right? I've seen a lot of people throwing that term tax, sorry, tax evasion. So first, there's a difference in tax avoidance and tax evasion. Tax avoidance is perfectly legal. Accountants will do it all the time. It's really just to minimize the amount of taxes you pay for a year. So, for instance, if I have a business and I make 500 a month, uh, what I could do is uh, if I have enough expenses in the business to offset the 500, I could declare, rather than declaring a profit of $500 a month. I put 250 expenses, legal expenses right, like my travel costs, my rent costs, whatever the things are about the business legal and legitimate costs. I could put that in place so that, instead of reporting a profit of $500 a month, I report a profit of $250 and paying 30% of that as corporate tax. Right, that is not illegal, that is quite normal in business, right?
Speaker 2:Tax evasion is another issue. Tax evasion is where I'm making $500 a month but I report to the BIR that I'm only making $50 a month. That is illegal, that is jail right and at least for these figures that we see in here, for these prominent businessmen, that is not tax evasion. They have declared their taxes. So, in other words, for the bir, the border in land revenue does not know how much money you make. Right, it has several different categories that you have to pay to the border in land revenue. The first one is the obvious right. Like they have a corporate tax which, whatever profit you make, is supposed to pay 30 percent of your profit, right? The borderline revenue does not know how much profit you make. They're depending on you to declare your profits via audited accounts or accounts, I don't even know that need to be audited. But you have to produce accounts every year to say, all right, this is how we operate, this is how much money we make, this is how much money we spend. There's how much profit we have. We make a million dollars. Look at 300 000, right?
Speaker 2:So if, if, if the if chowlin on, for instance, or the other article here is movie town owner chin owes bir 93 million dollars. It spans over the period of 20 years. Movie town, located at invaders bay, is 21 years old. So from beginning, guardian media understands that some of movie town's accounts were garnished by the state. Chin yesterday confirmed the amount to the state and he said the matter was in negotiations. He said a payment plan was in place.
Speaker 2:Uh, it is now understood that the action by the br is part of a nationwide drive to recover some 15 billion dollars in taxes owed by several entities. So same situation with him and charlotte them to know you owe them $93 million or $34 million. You have to be declaring your profit every year and telling them okay, this is the profit I make, $300,000 is what I owe you, but I don't have the $300,000. That is the situation they're in, for whatever reason I'll give you a few reasons as well. Legitimate reasons you don't have the $300,000 to pay the BIR at the time, right as well. Legitimate reasons you don't have the 300 000 to pay the bir at the time, right.
Speaker 2:The other payment you have is something called business levy and green fund. You're supposed to pay. I think both of them is adapted about three percent to one and a half percent. All your accountants go correct on this, right, I believe you have to pay one and a half percent to one and one and a half percent to the next one, and that is calculated on your revenue, not your profit, right? So whatever money people pay you about about 3% or point something percent or like help me, right, help me in the YouTube comments. Now there's a percentage I had to be paid and that's of revenue. I just want you to understand that if I pay you 3% of my revenue, I would owe you that, whether I make a profit or I make a loss. So if I make a loss, I don't have no 30% of corporate tax to pay, right, and I believe that, uh, your business levy and green fund is be offset if you make a loss. Am I complicating this too much? It'll be offset if you make a loss, right. So whatever you paid in, that will go towards your offsetting your losses.
Speaker 2:And then you have that right man pay your money plus that for your movie tongue ticket. The movie tongue supposed to take that money that they collect for that and pay it over to the bir and and whatever they pay out for VAT when they pay different things. They could net them two things off. And you have a VAT bill. So you have a month to pay on your profit, annually or quarterly for the more astute business people. Then you have VAT to pay every two months. So you collect the VAT and you're supposed to pay back over the VAT to them. And then every employee you have, like all of us, deduction from our salary called pay, as you earn right and whatever deduction is made for the from your salary. So let me say your salary is that's a big salary in this thing like. So your salary is 50 000 and you have your bir to pay. Let me say 10 000 is your taxable taxable amount when I send you a payslip that says 50,000 minus the 10 and you have 40,. That 10, we're supposed to pay over to the BIR, right? We pay over to the BIR right.
Speaker 2:So the issue is that, and that's paid monthly. Vat is every two months. Corporate taxes is annually, but usually people will pay it quarterly. Uh, I should have called links before I do this. You know and and and and um. Green business levy and green fund is annually. You'll probably cater for that quarterly too.
Speaker 2:But anyway, the point I'm getting at is this this is not a situation where you're tax evasion. This is because people putting it down as dishonest business. That is not what it is. I I'm not big passing any judgment to say who honest and who dishonest. I'm just saying that this situation you'll be seeing here is not dishonest at all. This is people who, over the last nine years in the chase, are traveling on or 21 years in case of movie talk. They're declaring their profits, they're sending 18 and they're saying this is how much profit we make.
Speaker 2:The issue is that for there are several reasons, mostly cash flow. You could be one of the first things charlotte nancy is I have a writing business to advertising agencies, but the ad agency in payment, right. So let me put it like this let me assume I was 34 million in tax this year and I they calculate the tax because I make a big sale to the agency for 100 million dollars, right that. So when I make that sale I run, these people add something. Now them owing me 100 million. When I submit my tax I had three percent to pay under 100 million and the agency didn't pay me. Yet I might not have that money. Right again, when the agency didn't pay me and the year done and I had to pay corporation tax, my 100 million minus my, let me say, 50 million in expenses, I have 50 million dollars in profit. When I take 30 percent of that. Somebody tell me what that figure is. I own the bir, that too. And the agency ain't pay me yet. Remember that within this period of time you had 12 periods within which I had to pay everybody's salary, everybody's salary. You cannot not salary, you cannot not pay salaries, you cannot.
Speaker 2:And these two fellas and their children in particular. His daichin group of companies is labor intense. He has security company. They hear movie tongue. He has restaurants, heavy people.
Speaker 2:When months end come, if you don't pay your people, you have a big problem. So he's going to pay the people, right? You don't pay your people, you have a big problem. So you're going to pay the people. Right? You don't want to defer salaries. That's almost undeferable. So when you pay all your salaries and all them deductions you make from all them people, that's the next thing you owe in there, the ad agency, and pay your money. So again, I'm not joking about the defense part. I just want to explain to people how I want to say easy and how normal it is for people to get into situations like these.
Speaker 2:If you're in contact with the border inland revenue and the border inland revenue could quote a figure at all it means you're doing legitimate business and you're declaring your taxes on a periodic basis and you're probably up to date with your taxes. For you to be on this BIR list at all, you're up to date with your thing and I would admit and I would agree with everybody that the 15 billion dollar figure quoted as outstanding is alarming. And I put like personally it's difficult and I think one of the more difficult parts of my job is bir and taxes and so on is. It's hard to manage, I'll admit. But what I will say is this you have several businesses in this country who declaring this thing every week and every month and every two months and every however long to come up because, again, the bi don't know how much money you pay your staff. They don't know how much money you're making on a monthly basis.
Speaker 2:There's there's several ways to and all illegal to evade taxes by underreporting your income. Do you report all your incomes and pay the taxes on it? I don't know, but underreporting income and so on would be uh, would be illegal. Over inflating your expenses would be legal. All those things would be illegal and you make a jail right. But I would say that if the 15 billion dollars in taxes by people who declaring the taxes and paying some part of it or making those payment arrangements to pay off the balances, if that figure is 15 billion, I want to only estimate from how much you feel going through the door by people who not declaring anything, not operating in any way, collecting cash, not declaring themselves as official businesses to the br or anybody else, not declaring any income or expenses. So in other words, 30 percent of those earnings over the same 20 something years would be completely outside of the system of tax collection by the border inland revenue.
Speaker 2:And again, if the, if, the, if the people who file in is 15, well, if you leave figures for people who don't file at all or who under reporting or over reporting the expenses and so on, I I have my suspicions. You know it's easy to to see some businesses and look like they're making small transactions on a daily basis, but I can tell you when you're making small transactions in those large numbers and you don't declare nothing at all to the border inland revenue, and then I count how much I will have any country doing that. Uh, my best guess would probably be if, if we had a 15 billion dollar figure for the legitimate businesses, we probably have upwards of a hundred billion again leaked out by businesses that not declaring anything at all. But, um, the powers that be might be better at helping you with that than me, should I? Should I read more about this movie tongue soon after, right, soon after? Let me give you another reason why you're gonna end up in this situation. As soon as they say, derrick chin wins some money in taxes 93 million dollars.
Speaker 2:The next article movie town eyes jamaica expansion. Because if you want to pay off your debts fast, one of your biggest ways to do that is to expand and we'll get a big build business, even bigger, to increase your profitability and things so you can pay off them balances fast, which I'll give them the benefit that they have every intention to pay it off right. Jamaica is open for business and is welcoming investors from the caribbean to take advantage of opportunities that are available in the country. This is as talks are ongoing for movie town country. This is as talks are ongoing for Movietown to expand its footprint in Jamaica. Movietown will face stiff competition from entertainment providers in the market, such as Carib Theatre in Kingston Palace Amusement, which operates in Kingston, and Montego Bay.
Speaker 2:During a news conference, the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association travel marketplace in montego bay on tuesday, jamaica's minister of tourism, edmund bartlett, told business guardian that there were conversations in new york last year about this new venture and the ministry will be revisited. It's an exciting project. Part of as an exciting project, part of what we want to see, is more caribbean investment in tourism to ensure that the region benefits more from the proceeds of the industry. The retention of the dollar in the Caribbean must be much stronger and that can only come from regional investment for tourism goods and services. When Business Guardian reached out to Movietown owner Derek Chin, we have Michael Leachan at Guardian Holdings as partners, but they are still very preliminary. That's what he said. The government of Jamaica has been very receptive and we're excited about the possibility of becoming a truly regional brand with locations in Trinidad, guyana and Jamaica. We would like to become the equivalent of Sandals. Jamaica would love to have a movie tour. Good move, if you ask me. Although you mentioned Michael Leachan, we saw recently where Michael Leachan was unable to pay or settle on a bond recently, which is really not a good sign for the viability of a business either.
Speaker 2:Best wishes to all Caribbean business people, including myself. Best wishes to everybody. Hope everybody can manage their situation with BIR well and come out on the winning side of that. But I did see an article saying economists put BIR putting taxpayers at risk by Shastri Budha, and I expected to see this Economist. Dr Valmiki Arjun has warned that the current tax collection drive by the border inland revenue might be putting taxpayers at risk. Arjun, who is the vice president of the chamber of commerce and industry, the chaguanas chamber of industry and commerce, commented on the issue while speaking at the businesses. The business groups are in their arrival day celebration at the passage to asia restaurant in chaguanas on saturday.
Speaker 2:He said he said once private in financial information, including tax information, goes public, it leads to individual individuals being targeted by criminals. Okay, I didn't think that was the direction he was going to take. I agree that. Um, I agree with arjun tax. I mean the crime is one thing, but these fellows, I mean there's no you talk about traveling on a director. They understand the risks they face where crime is concerned because they are prominent businessmen who people would assume earning billions and billions of dollars. Anyway, people don't assuming that, with these tax figures that they have outstanding, any by any stretch of the imagination. If you reach the point of going 34 million dollars to the taxman, your business doing some numbers.
Speaker 2:But I think it's a bad precedent by the, the, the border inland revenue when you you put people. In other words, if we had to take these two businessmen out the world and maybe you might not, but if you have to take them out the world and they're making payment arrangements or they they're addressing the situation, uh, I'm not sure that the name and shame approach by a board like the border in land revenue, I'm not sure what it does for for the country as a whole, for the ability to collect, it really don't change the price of rice, it just threatens. Not, it doesn't threaten them in terms of crime, I would say it threatens the stability of their businesses, because now you have situations which might have been private within the company becoming public. So, in other words, if I go in there my job every day, I could, I could raise questions about wait now, well, you could pay me my 50,000 in a month. I don't know, I don't know if Oli will be able to pay it at all. You know, I mean so. So you might have a sort of a brain drain, if you want to, if you want to put it like that.
Speaker 2:Uh, I don't think that's fair to the company or to the business owners. Uh, it also puts them at risk where your outstanding debts are concerned. You see, I learned something in business school, right? You see, when a business closing down, let me, let me ask I'm not saying this about, uh, movie tongue or ctrn, but when the impression is out there that our business will fall up. The people who owe them will stop paying immediately because they know you're going to fall up.
Speaker 2:How long you put up this front footer you want your money from me is a dangerous place to be in. So I just think that the crime is one thing, minor. I feel for these folks they would be concerned about crime and taking measures to keep themselves and their families safe anyway, but I just feel like it's an unnecessary approach that affects the stability of somebody who own you. If somebody own me, I want to make sure and work with them to do everything I could do to collect my money. Not necessary to put them on front street and put them in areas where my money could be at risk right, but I mean, who is me to talk? Let me, um, let me try get Sparrow to tell some of this story for me, right? ¶¶.
Speaker 4:I would like to know why they're blaming the doctor so well. I would like to know why they're blaming the doctor so well. One class of people fussing While the other class cussing, running them out like they take pro-clocks, blaming the doc for the income tax. But I want them all to know you can't get away from the docs. Believe me, you could jump up, high or low, you can't get away from the docs. Even if you leave and go, you can't get away from the docs. Yes, sir, to New York or Tokyo, nice parts, dr Reza, you can't get away from the Jax. Oh, even quite in Africa, you can't get away from the Jax. So you see, doctor or no doctor, you can't get away from the Jax. Believe it or not, that's the best man we've ever got. He is strong and brave.
Speaker 4:Trinidad is fighting to save wealth. Taxation over here Is nothing in comparison to elsewhere. I have traveled far and I see. So shut your mouth and pay the money. It's time everybody should know. You can't get away from the job. Oh, oh, oh Well, you could jump high or low, you can't get away from the job. Even if you leave and go, you can't get away from the job, oh yeah. To New York or Tokyo.
Speaker 4:You can't get away from the job. Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:One more.
Speaker 4:It's a shame. It's a shame that we have a cell to blame. It's a shame. It's a shame we have a cell to blame. We ask for new government. Now they're taking every cent. Cost of living is the same. It is really a burning shame. The doctor said you pay as you earn and the moron said you pay it to learn. But the father said you shop in the axe For when the collector passed. No cheaper for you to come tax ¶¶.
Speaker 4:But it's tax. I'm bothering me. Well, I am not working anywhere so I have no income to share. But Mr this and Mr that who are accustomed with the payroll fat Used to see them shedding tears, men like the Freighters and Fernandez. The doctor said to pay as you want. Sparrow said to pay him to learn, and me father said we shall be maniacs, for when the collector pass the cotton will come taxing. Thank you. We want better schools so the children don't grow up as fools. Then work for you and me. That is what plenty of them can see. All they know is, the doctor said to pay as you earn, and the star would say to pay to learn. They hear me father say sharpening the axe, for when they collect the past, don the chief of the head contacts. When the doctor went up to England, they bluntly refused to support this land.
Speaker 4:So there is nothing more he can do than to get it from me and you. That's the law now in Trinidad. If you don't like it, well, that's too bad. Take your things and get out today, because all who walk in must pay. Yes, the doctor said to pay as you earn and the spouse said you pay to learn. Thank you.
Speaker 2:I really just played that today. You know that none of these situations are new, right? Nothing new under the sun. Commissioner of Police tells the public bad parents are not cops to blame for crime. She said all of them who you see Christmas go to an interview up soon. It's their parents to blame.
Speaker 2:I feel I agree with her. I didn't think I'd agree with her in a long time. But I agree with this statement on a few levels. Number one the idea of blaming the police for crime is kind of like useless. As we're worried about the police, as we're fed up hearing from the police, it doesn't inspire much in me. But again, the issue with the police is really crime detection and crime solving and bringing those who commit crimes to, uh, to be punished, you know, I mean or to justice. But inevitably in a situation, especially in a country as small as ours, you you have a limit as to how much police you can put on the street right to police. One point, something million people.
Speaker 2:So one of the routes to making sure that crime is not an issue is to have citizens who don't want to commit crime, like in my area yesterday. I live in a gated place in chagona, little group chat, somebody go jump in somebody, yeah, teeth, some clothes and teeth a bike. You know, I mean it's just the. And then you had the community now had to come together to catch this person. I believe they catch him, or the police find where the fellow living and so on. And again, that's not the kind of crime that people typically afraid of, like I mean, if a woman on a horse by herself, she bound to be frightened when you get that kind of thing. But it's the murder and the violent crime that people most concerned about. But I always believe, like the, the petty thievery and those types of things is just a symptom of the violent crimes to come over the years. Because the issues are certain amongst a lawlessness. Lawlessness from the standpoint of citizens. Citizens just doing what they want. Citizens just want to break in place, do this, do that, whatever they had to do to earn, they do it at the expense of whoever. And on the backside of that you have police who they have a hundred reasons why they would be in this state, but they jaded. They were overwhelmed, overworked, underpaid, whatever the thing is. There seems to be no urgency by the police to address this crime situation and outside of some individual police, you might meet in a station or treat it well and take your issue seriously. You have too many situations where somebody breaking somebody's house and you have a policewoman who's like, hey, well, you know where the station is. You know what I mean. I don't know where she's going. She was up matlocked. Let me hear what Ola had to say. Police Commissioner Ola Hayward going. She was up matlocking me. Well, let me hear what ola had to say.
Speaker 2:Police commissioner ola, here with christopher, has complained that the trinidad and tobago police service is facing unfair expectation from a public that demands that it pushes back against criminal elements. Who should, who should have been better parented. Speaking at the launch of the 2023 national parenting program. You know I vex now. Come on the man hello I. I thought she make this statement on her own, like she. Come on, you know you make this at the national parenting program. Not that the statement any less true, but it's less innovative and unique and and thoughtful and insightful than I thought it was. I thought she come out to say this as a response to people who saying what they renew her thing for. You know, you went on the parenting forum and talk about the importance of parenting. They get a speech written for you. All right, let me read it down here.
Speaker 2:Already speaking at the launch of the 2023 edition of the national parenting program by the ministry of social development and family services at the belmont community center during our avenue for the spain, write a sentence here. What christopher said parenting remains at the root cause of a or contributory factor to violence and criminality locally. She said it all starts at home and complained that parents failings are the main responsibility of law enforcement officials. She said it all starts at home and complained that parents's failings are the main. Oh, when parents fail, it gain law enforcement work. Okay, I got you.
Speaker 2:What we are confronted with is an unrealistic expectation that the police can somehow miraculously transform the propensity, disposition and the behaviors of people with criminal intent. Maybe what we're expecting to hear from you this is you should open with this when they they're pointing. You should open with how practical a proposition is that Policing is not a substitute to parenting. You should have opened with that If you had opened with that. People don't forget, gary. Already the police, as a law enforcement agency, has its very definite role of ensuring the laws are enforced and that any infractions are detected and prosecuted. That role in a conscious society will have an effect on deterring and preventing crime. But there's also a very definitive, definite and perhaps more important role to be performed by parents and guardians in the nurturing of our young people, and this role requires very deliberate actions. I want to be used to say only a sp, you're spitting. I was talking like the mute.
Speaker 2:The police commissioner also noted that intolerance, disrespect and intermodination are rampant in school communities and violence among students towards teachers and security officers and each other too. Right, ola? She said. This breakdown also occurs within homes, where parents appear to be relinquishing their authority to children. Get your next term, get your next term. Herod Christopher lamented that the community elders are no longer involving themselves in raising children, as they sometimes face violent objection from parents. She said, adults are now. Adults are now.
Speaker 2:Avoid reprimanding deviant behavior in even the youngest of children, the bad behavior that escalates into offenses that are punishable by law. So, in other words, if too much of them escalates into things that are punished by law, there's no police force in the world or police service in the world who could deal with that. I'm with you. I'm with you Step by step. I'm with you Whether the offender survives or ends up dead. The whole society then cries out to the police to solve them, but they're too late.
Speaker 2:Only remember Curt Allen saying Curt Allen put this thing perfectly in it and I will play it. I didn't plan to, but I'm going to play it because Curt Allen put this thing uh, he put it perfectly in a song called First Investigation and I'm going back to it because the the police feeling right. We can establish that. I don't want to make it sound like it's the, the police failing right, we can establish that. I don't want to. I don't make it sound like it's the police, but the police should be the last people on the list of failures to talk about the parents of the, the community of the, the church of the, the, the, the sporting groups, all those things failing. All of us collectively we feel we're failing.
Speaker 2:So I gave my example of my bike thief the other day, right when the bike thief in the community, when it came up in the chat, a few of the fellas in the chat and people in the chat started spreading the word. So everybody now on the lookout for this person, people on the lookout for the person in security in front. He jumped in the car. He started to drive around, everybody looking now. So a few fellows who on the board went and looked now because they realized, like the fellow ain't had a bike with cameras, people started to check cameras. But then our of this thing we don't see the man where he walked, where he passed out a fellow who was coming home, see the fellow going out. So you have a description and by the end of the night the police know where the person living and they know who he is. I can't remember if you find back the bike or what point I'm making. Is this?
Speaker 2:For crime to be solved at this level, all of us had to be involved, all of us, the police, the police, completely overwhelmed and there's not enough police to do this. So communities had to come together to police themselves. I see my father and them, for instance, who again I was talking about the situation with joel right when the breaking by joel and running the place and just such a violation. But there's a community. I know that everybody comes together and they have the little air horn. So if, if somebody was to run to a place, when you hear one air horn song, the idea is to song, all air horns and look out for what is happening and lock down your place. Those things now, uh, deterrents the crime situation that make your community now safer by the fact that it's just harder to access because they know everybody in that community. So we live in our community here.
Speaker 2:Thankfully for some of the people who in law enforcement and know about security and stuff, they imparting their knowledge and changing the way we behave in the community. And one of the main things I partner, mine, is telling me all the time is for the first part, the first line of security is we have to know each other. I must know you, I must know your children, I must know your parents. We know each other as a community. So when somebody's strange in a community or moving strange, you stand out. We don't need no police to see about that and that's the same for any society that we're in. But we reach a stage. I would have born and grown in st james and you born and grow wherever you grow. Where we don't know. In st james we know everybody and st james had no loud horn like that. It just had a woman who used to ball hard in the house oh god it's still all right, but we don't do that game.
Speaker 2:And when, when you hear the woman ball, everybody know that miss patsy, miss patsy ball, and what just happening? Everybody come out the house and that thief have a problem. I'll tell a story in st james where I grew up, with a thief. Thief, a guy, stank from opposite by we running weird, try to run out the backyard, the back wall. Then he jumped all back well, but all back well, is about four feet high. He jumped that but what he ain't know is on the neighbor's side, is about 20 feet down and he got stuck on the foot. He break his foot and we come to get police and they meet him right, the community solved most of its issues, but I would earlier, and that's what we had. That's where we are today, but with earlier in that when I look at christmas and what, what, what happened with christmas up there and the people he's talking to and who, completely misguided, can't answer a question straight as to why they're in this situation or not.
Speaker 2:That is from home, from up from the parent standpoint, like okay, so you read, there's a big difference between a little toddler who making people laugh and saying this and that, and you know I mean the funny thing and learning to walk. There's a huge difference between that and a person walking around with a high powered rifle. And the difference is not the amount of years they take to get here, the difference is who is paying attention to them. It's like you only have a little plant, you know. I mean I see a meme the other day say you know, you're born and grown in the caribbean when you start to put a little bean in a cup and watch the bean grow and take. But if you ever do that, you know that when the bean now starts to grow it it sprouting up nice, just like them, little children, all of them nice. When these little babies, they're nice, bad, everything you do, they smile and they do we like, we love them right. But then when it started growing, it's all.
Speaker 2:I know, the little brand it's not a band, it's not fully formed yet, so it's not a band. But what you do when it's not a band? You take some of his a stick and you straighten it and you tie that down and you make sure you grow straight right otherwise, otherwise we'll die. You understand, but somehow we fail to do this with children, you know. I mean we take the stick away completely.
Speaker 2:And I'm not saying this stick has to go and be deterrent to submission, because that clearly don't work, but the stick is a certain amount of attention or something among the love, a stick to itiveness. And the love not in the form of giving them every single thing they want. The love is to tell them no, you can't do this. Plenty of love is coming, no, you know. And plenty of discipline is coming where you can't do, and plenty of discipline is coming where I make you do consistently.
Speaker 2:Because if you grow up by me and I'm not saying my environment is completely different to my son growing up I don't want to compare them two things, right, them two things is two whole different worlds. But I come from an environment where this is what was happening. My father come from an environment where that was happening. My mother come from an environment where that was happening, where the society had plenty of people or the community had plenty of people who would have been picking and choosing the wrong road or choosing which road to go down, and the reality is that the discipline that was there from home put us in a position where we wasn't going. I couldn't go down that road because that thing I hide in to do with my mother and them is concerned.
Speaker 2:Barney, go find out, I have a cousin. They go find. They will tell carol, somebody gonna pull up the neighborhood had a responsibility to the children in the neighborhood is the same in the community I live in here now I can't compare it to st bob's, you know, but what I could tell you is if I see a little child doing something here I see it here many, many times I go call him. I say hey, don't do that. I say what if your father see you doing that will go up. You might go and tell your father it's doing, stop. Or you pick up the phone and you call your father, say my boy, you boy, you know your son here by me, but here's what went on. And he go and deal with that. And we deal with that collectively, because I don't just do that and let the boy get in trouble. I call Zachary and I talk to him too.
Speaker 2:I say boy, when you're thinking, try and do good when you live together, don't go and follow one another and do up. I say boy, okay, let me know these little boys growing up. I just want to make sure and then when all of we see each other again, everybody good, uncle, you're good, and we play football together and we all. That is part of where the community is. And and again, the discipline is not just the rod, the discipline is also that as a community we come together.
Speaker 2:We have a little thing for the parents, we have a little thing with the children. You know, I mean, if I have food, everybody come and eat. If we we have a little football, all them children coming out and learn to play. A little boy, father here, he coaching all the little boys on the morning for free. They're trying to play football as a little unit. You know, I mean he building a club in the community, all these little things. Oh, all like me. So who can do one damn thing? Every time zachary bike, tire, bus or he chain come off, my, my hand is not that dirty, you know. I say go and check Uncle Jade, go and check Uncle Chris.
Speaker 2:So the community have a vibe and I'm not saying nothing can go wrong. I'm just saying that the level of parents that I've seen among men and women who is my age, 30-something, 40-something, maybe you know what I mean. It's a different world. So I would be shocked if anyone is little train here, go down a road where 20 years from now, 10 years from now, which in fact all they sit down on some youtube video with some foreigner telling them about how thing and they had the ak them out, and if six come on this side and if seven come back. So craziness and most of the people again, I agree with him. My community is not the same as, uh, bella road, but I can tell you that most of the people in my community come from communities like bella road and more is. We come from mova and lavante and st james and enterprise and it's the same thing as one generation removed from them, same communities that we're talking about. So I agree with Ola a thousand percent.
Speaker 2:I wish she didn't say something about parenting, but maybe it's the best forum. Maybe I had to eat back my words. Maybe it's the best forum to tell her. She said children are learning from what you do. What you do and how you do it makes a difference. Teach your children respect. I find these children have the kind of respect you see it a lot and I don't want to be one of these old people complaining about children. I think children are the answers to all problems, but some of them the basic respect and basic manners and things I assume Teach them to have a right sense of values. Be involved. We need adults to be involved in the child's life.
Speaker 2:We live in a world where too much children have the choice of how they're going to be raised and too much a choice as to how they will live, because they what do you call them? Latch key children. They're going home to a household where daddy absent, mommy working, everybody else working, uh, the kind of work that mommy and daddy doing to give them the time to come and spend with them. Mommy and daddy themselves was plants who didn't get straight when they were small, so they may know what to say. They're cussing in front of the child. It's, it's, it's different, you know, it's a different world. And then there's this huge surprise when couple generations go through the same thing and the household fall down and then we start to blame the church or the school at that point in time. There's been many school teachers now with richie police. I want to tell you that after the police, who we go blame at the army, like with garment, we run out of people to blame for the problems in our households and we have an aggregate household problem in this country that we're looking for more people to blame for.
Speaker 2:She said it frequently means sacrificing what you do for the sake and welfare your child. When parents become absentee or neglect their children, they create a vacancy for somebody else to fill and too often is filled by people of ill repute with the wrong influence. She said, gang leaders becoming surrogate dads, because the most common answer that them fellas get christmas was that they'd kill the boss. They kill the big man, they kill cocky. Imagine my time following a man named cocky boss, but the boy could kill cocky. And so them men, that's like you kill your father and what I'm doing is they kill your father so you spend a lifetime looking for vengeance for your father. It's so sad.
Speaker 2:I hear a man in the area of the one fella in belmont. I hold a gentleman to him then he was getting car fixed or doing a little mechanic work or something. I see a bonnet. I hear a man in the area the one fella in Belmont. I hold a gentleman to him. I think he was getting his car fixed or doing a little mechanic work or something. I see a bonnet open behind him and he say, boy, I have no problem coming on camera, because a lot of people didn't want to come on camera. He say I could come on camera, I'm comfortable, he say, because I'm not involved in that life and Belmont is a beautiful place. He talked about the pan, the savannah, right there, he said.
Speaker 2:He started to talk about, you know, I mean the real, the real belmont, and he himself had to say, well, nah, I ain't passing no border, neither you know, we go into community here in war, we in war too. And I, I know I don't want to knock him, I understand his statement. But what I mean is that the first time that happened, when the community still had plenty more good people than bad people, good people had to stand up. The good people had to come up and say now you, you want me to tell me. Imagine I grew up in st james and you're telling me, I care, I, I born and grow on this street, I can't go wrong. Matura street, I can't go up, hide a badge. I can't imagine it. And again, I too far removed from it to even to even think about it. But, uh, I'm happy that the, the uh, commissioner, police was able to come out and say this.
Speaker 2:I hope that people read this article again, isn't he? Isn't he guardian into my my reading don't do things to my justice, but isn't guardian. And it's by darice polo and is a important is is a important statement for all of us to, to, to latch on to and follow and understand, because the, the reality is that, um, the reality is that until that parenting change and I, I mean, if I was to judge by my community, I think it's changing. I don't know if this community is a representative of the overall society, probably not but until that change, we have a lot more of these wars With these same types of problems that are recurring and moving from area to area. I mean, I didn't even know it had eight and nine, I thought it was just six and seven. So by the time we turn this around, we have up to 15, 16 water gangs. It's a sad situation, thing to pay attention to.
Speaker 2:But you're back in my good books. I like you a lot, my new favorite police commissioner for the year. Let me get into some culture now. Yeah, let me get into some culture now. All it will tell me. All it will tell me if, um, if two episodes make any sense, right? Because the issue I always have when I miss a week is that I end up with too much thing to talk about, and I don't want to. I try my best not to cross two hours in an episode, so I'll wait for a guidance on that, right, let me just talk about? And I don't want to. I'm trying my best not to cross two hours in an episode, so I'll wait for a guidance on that, right. Let me just talk about some culture before we wrap this up.
Speaker 2:I saw an article from melissa maynard saying call for structure to harness trinidad and tobago's carnival's potential. For trinidad and tobago to generate foreign exchange from carnival, it must be structured and, more importantly, it must be measured. This song's familiar there's nothing we talk about all the time. That was the view amongst professionals during the recently held National Conversation Series hosted by the Trade and Economic Unit, titled Forex Earning Potential of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival.
Speaker 2:Many countries around the world are now measuring the economic impact of their festivals. What do you mean, no? Why are they saying no? Many countries of the world are now measuring the economic impact of the festivals. Trinidad and Tobago has not been doing so and that is a glaring error of omission from our policy standpoint and I think we really need to rectify that in a significant way. We've never done a proper economic impact assessment, taking into account all of the flows associated with cannibals, said dr keith, nurse, president of the college of costa right. Nurse was part of a panel discussion hosted by former ue principal botiwari, dr bohendra. That's why right that also included coach mental therapist denise deming and professor emeritus patrick watson, professor of economics at the UWE.
Speaker 2:A few of these people were my lecturers Noting the unique nature of Trinidad and Tobago's carnival in comparison to other carnivals around the world. Nurse said three key art forms shape Trinidad and Tobago's carnival calypso, mass and pan. Even more so, it is bigger than the art form as it is also a festival of art. Capturing the data drawing from his research, nurse said the issue of data capture is very weak. We don't consider things like the creativity industry to be an important element of our economies and maybe it has to do. The fact that we don't think these things really matter. I think it has to do with the genesis of where it come from. I think with the genesis of where it come from is still see that people playing the fool and half naked in the road and them kind of thing is not seen as an industry. Quoting here saying but in trinidad and tobago's context and in terms of festival economics, I would argue that there are four areas that need to be capturing data to understand the economic impact of foreign exchange and the foreign exchange impact, sorry. The first is festival tourism, and I call it culture and festival tourism. Accommodation, travel, hospitality, and those sub-sectors are really important to capture. For example, what is the occupancy rate for carnival. Well, for trinidad and tobego carnival, we know most of the established guest houses and villas are now Airbnb. We have an average accommodation rate or occupancy in excess of 90%. Similarly, we know that the earnings in terms of visitor arrival during peak period is the highest rate of arrivals in Trinidad and Tobago, and the data we capture are generally in a three-week period. Yeah, it needs to be longer than that. Deming said she views Carnival as a product and an experience. However, the absence of structure means the product is weak. The carnival product is an amazing product and it is one that is promoted and carried by our citizens. That product is a product that has to be sold in a way that other people would want to listen. I can't read no more this because it'd be hard to read things like this for me. Right, because everything and no knock on the people who talking about this. They're absolutely right and they're on point and everything they're saying. The difficulty with me reading these things is we still talking about carnival like if it's something we know, we know invent, we speak.
Speaker 2:I used to teach a course called new product management and every time I read stories about the viability of carnival industry and all those things. It's something like, if we're talking about a brand new product, what we're planning to launch, this song is like something, what we're planning to launch in 2025 and we're trying to talk about the structure. You don't go through all this. You know. I tell students recently I had a course in digital marketing a couple weeks ago, right, master's level. Uh, these students bright, they know their stuff, they well.
Speaker 2:It was a nice group of students in terms of their diversity or their backgrounds All different kind of industries. The good talkative, too, is on Zoom, so it's always hard sometimes when you have to get class feedback and participation, but that class was real good. One of the things that I find was impressive about that group is how up-to-date they were on things. We were talking about ChatGPT as an example, right. It's how up-to-date they were on things. We were talking about ChatGPT as an example, right. Well, of course, in an academic paper, you can't just go and put a question in ChatGPT and submit that, because then you'll get plagiarism and you'll get thrown out of the university, right. But all of them talk about how they use ChatGPT. So they would go in ChatGPT and it would give them a draft, then draft, then it will guide their research.
Speaker 2:So what chat gpt does is for me, is save time, because if, for instance, I had to uh come up with a proposal or if let's use lecturing as an example I need to do a uh powerpoint presentation on the marketing mix, I go in chat gpt and say, yeah, what I need to do, a powerpoint presentation, mba level, marketing mix. I need to talk for four hours and I usually talk for five minutes a slide. I need X amount of slides to cover the whole marketing mix. That wouldn't give me exactly why I asked for it to put in a PowerPoint From my experience and background and all that. I could then take that and tweak it to suit. Okay, this class, the level we had, the discussions we have, the kind of people who were in the class, the points that I want to make, because that is more important for their submissions and their exams and anything else. So it saved me the time because I could come up with the same thing that ChatGPT would have come up with based on my educational experience. But it would just take me more time. So I was using like a personal assistant.
Speaker 2:Then the point I'm making is this we here are trying point I'm making is this we here trying to reinvent the wheel and have discussions at high levels and platitudes in ue which who would probably be the best institution to undertake this kind of research? And and still trying to like figure out how to do it. Number one just go and chat gpt and try to figure out what's the best way to do this. It is too simple to figure out these things and even if that, that and all could be a waste of time, they have made. They have brazil, who have big festivals. They have a place called fifa is put on a big festival every four years. Go sporting festival right. They have an olympic committee.
Speaker 2:These frameworks and structures for measuring the viability or the forex or the impact of a festival or those things exist like why not just get consultants who've been doing this in bigger countries, in other places for many, many years? Pay the people consultants. If you get out um, if you collect that, if you collect that 120 something million, you might be able to pay the um. You may be able to pay the consultant. Pay the consultant. Let them come and help us implement it and put it in a place like ue or utt or cost. That way you have research centers and highly educated people like watson and deming and all these folks who top top, top class into and just getting research done in a structured way every year where? So, for instance, we have both ue and utt being the two bigger institutions in the country. Both of them are programs on carnival arts and culture and festival arts and music. All of them have that them fellas on them, had that already. So all these every year you're pushing out students at master's, bachelor's and and phd level who have research to do. When you finish with the consultant and you get the framework for this, these same students could contribute to this over time and make it more specific to our culture in Trinidad and Tobago, because the consultant might set it up. Nice for we.
Speaker 2:But part of what we also had to measure is how does our culture and our festival, that is, our roving festival, how that bringing in money for Jamaica, how that bringing in money for jamaica, how they're bringing in money for berlin and hollywood and miami and toronto and new york, how? You know the answer, so that we we have some data that can help us make decisions. So when we approach the people who run in hires and we say this is where our room occupancy is. This is what we do to attract these people. This is why we need an ex-hire. Somebody could just go to you. We pick up that document and go and present it to whoever we have to present it to. Or this is how we will charge jamaica for having a carnival award, because we have a franchise now and if you want to buy into our carnival, you pay us. The same way prestige holding pays kfc. You pay us a royalty and every costume that you sell, but we do.
Speaker 2:We keep going back to these high level discussions, uh, which typically exclude the people on the ground, like the businesses that run in the carnival and the people who most are involved in the carnival on the ground level, to try to. I'll stop here, but I guarantee you that I will come back to this when they have another article that's saying these exact. I keep on this date. You know this is episode 183. You listen, there's only 28 of me and there about right, and I'm going to come back when they do another wrong. Table a forum under the trees. They go and talk about these same exact things again and the currency here is coming, talking about it and not doing anything about it, and there's a hell of an oxymoronic statement to make when you're doing a podcast every week. I would like to play for you, as promised. Kurt Allen, going back to Miguel Ola. Right, I want to talk about Kurt Allen. Last bad, john Akalypso might be the first and he talking about the first investigation. Listen, kaizo.
Speaker 5:Action News reporting. There's a hole. There's a hole in the country. There come la. There come la. It's you who's boiling the tile. There come la. There come la. It's you who's boiling the tile. There come la there come la.
Speaker 5:I just feel sorry. So don't give me wrong. For anybody I hear get gunned down, innocent victims, criminals or not, each and every gunshot rattled the same spot. But when I hear some families expressing grief, the attitude does have me in disbelief. Criminals are thief, rape people and kill. The families demanded investigation still. But when, as a youth, they stay in of late, that is the time to investigate. Long before they start jumping people gate, that is the time to investigate. When your children pass in the elders trade, that is the time to investigate. When bad company start to infiltrate, that is the time to investigate. When bad company start to infiltrate, that is the time to investigate.
Speaker 5:You can't wait till they're in the forensic center To abuse the police and try them for murder. Watch your children have bloodstains on their hands. Too late to launch an investigation. Parents, stop cussing the police man, you have to launch the first investigation Now. The real state of emergency there come love, there come love. It's too much parents failing in their duty. It's too much of crime. Joint patrol with the police and army. They're only. They're only can replace parental responsibility. They're only fixin' 15 year old boy, his life gone to waste, killed by police on a high Speeches. Police will come see Peaches from a bar.
Speaker 5:Officers attempted to intercept the car. The fellas jumped out with guns blazing in their hand. Sato ran the bullets at the police. Van Police returned fire in similar style. Parents wanted investigation why he was just a child, still in school. They're putting food on your plate that is the time to investigate. When they work slow, yeah, where? But they're sleeping late, that is the time to investigate. Pants falling off their waist like they're losing weight that is the time to investigate. On the block all day holding their prostate that is the time to investigate. You can't wait till they're in the forensic center to block the road and catch old tires on fire. Talking human rights and making demands? Too late to launch investigations. Teachers, elders, evil guardians. You have to launch the first investigation.
Speaker 5:The family must be the first investigation. The family must be the main focus. They come last. They come last. The court and the politicians can't save us. There's too much of crime To arrest the crime. Keep it under control. They're only, they're only under control. Narrowly, narrowly. Fighting must stop in every making household. Narrowly, I wanna fly.
Speaker 5:Sixteen year old girl Shutting her belly, pregnant. Sadly she lost her baby. I investigate when the facts unfold. Already, the mother Of a two year old that means at age 14 this child made a child Neither read or touched by a pedophile. As far as I know and I understand, nobody never calls for no investigation. 12-year-old daughter going out on date that is the time to investigate. Two and a half trust pets who walk in their mouth gate that is the time to investigate. Three o'clock morning call I'm sleeping over by Kate that is the time to investigate. Three months later, vomiting and putting on weight that is the time to investigate. You can't wait until things get critical. Murder, murdered or lying down in hospital. Three children with five they've got one man Too late to launch an investigation. Don't do like Marcy and check the hope. Yeah, man, you have to launch the first investigation. Check the examples from our leaders. They come love, they come love, teaching we youngsters how to act like youngsters. Six versus seven? No, everyone, no Invalid is red, black versus yellow. I want to fly Yellow.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 5:Observe your children, check their mental state. That is the time to investigate. Until the conditions be to your, it that is the time to investigate. Don't wait until conditions deteriorate, that is the time to investigate quality time to spend with them.
Speaker 5:We have to dedicate. That is the time to investigate. Or the school teacher going to face disrespect and hate? That is the time to investigate. Now and again, take a look in the closet, check their bag and pocket for condom and bullet Once they start joyriding in that prison van. Too late to launch investigation. Guaranty to wait on legislation. You have to launch the first investigation. So much billions to boost security. There come love. There come love. What about billions to boost the family? It's too much of Christ. We have to reset, change we policy. They're only, they're only you know. Is the whole society guilty? They're only, they're only you know. It's the whole society guilty. They're only, they're only. I want to fly Sando.
Speaker 2:Hey, it's a short week. You know, the most productive country in the world is a short week, right? So happy Corpus Christi to all who's celebrating Corpus Christi. Happy Indian Arrival Day to all who's celebrating that, and I know that means all of us. So, only in a short, short week. Have a productive short week. Have a good show. We have an enjoyable show. We can only be safe on the weekend. Let's see what happened in the long weekend and turn that now so we see if we're out and about. You're home relaxing, you're taking a beach day. You'll be enjoying the long weekend. I will talk to you next week. Bye, thank you.