Caribbean Economist Marla Dukharan and leading Trinidadian Transparency Activist Afra Raymond will discuss the recently-released Corruption Perception Index via an interactive webinar:
- The current state of corruption in Trinidad & Tobago
- From accountability to enforcement: What is missing?
- Specific steps that need to be taken to improve transparency
- Q&A
Tuesday, 6 March, 2018 • 11:00 AM AST (10:00 AM EST)
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or click here
AfraRaymond.net 
Afra!
How was playing Mass w/o me?!? ;-). Thought of you n Thecla and the whole trip while T was down there w you.
Congratulations on winning your case for transparency in the courts twice!
Big deal.
Glad you will be celebrating this weekend.
Carrie >
It was great! We had a time! We are going for the win!
IMPERFECT MODELS
We in T&T have adopted capitalism as our wealth distributive mechanism and democracy as our form of governance.Both of these models in the perfect sense, encourages transparency and fairness on all grounds because the conceptualized participation of the masses demand it.
What we have in T&T however, is a far from perfect,lopsided,Westminister model of governance due to an overall lack of participation by the masses.
I believe that a capitalist system which distributes wealth and focuses on supply side economics but does not empower consumers to exercise their rights and responsibilities will eventually fail or encounter many problems because decisions are left up to the whims and fancies of the business man.
Similarly,a Democracy which has everything in place(bodies, systems and laws) to govern for the people and of the people but which does not have the participation BY the people will fail also.
Here in T&T we see the adverse effects of both imperfections.
Citizens are silent because they:
1.Do not know their rights
2.Do not know or understand their responsibilities
3.Do know how to act even with the information at hand to effect change
So we complain and complain because we are definitely unhappy with many things here and have been for many years and we hope for change.This, is a typical imperfect system in operation.
To move our systems from imperfection to perfection,to achieve transparency,to eradicate corruption, it is imperative that the masses be informed on how we can use our participative power to influence governance.Unless that is done,unless such education and training of civic societies, infiltrates our schools ,workplaces and ways of life,that day, that you so desire Afra,one free of corruption, will be long in coming.
The masses/the citizenry ,the consumers participation creates the formidable checks and balances for our democratic,capitalist system.Our lack of knowledge,empowerment and action is what encourages corruption and unfairness.We do not as a body ,hold them accountable and they certainly have little respect for one man shows…
Thanks, Camille – One does what one can…and yes, the education system is an essential ingredient…civics were not taught even when I was in school, apart from the few enlightened teachers we had….it was really not a formal part of the learning, eh…ironically enough, one of the notables in that area was the inimitable Austin ‘Jack’ Warner who taught West Indian History at Sixth Form Government Secondary (popularly known as ‘Poly’) in St James..Jack was in charge of organising ‘General Paper’ lectures and did a fine job of introducing us to the issues of the day with a range of vibrant speakers…But then, as Jack would always teach us, History is Rich in Irony…