That 130,000 pounds represents only what was seized and is no where near the total amount. 130, 000 pounds is what Charlie Sheen feeds his goldfish. That total seized by the United States CBP is muy muy muy pequeño, just tha tip of the iceberg. The Caribbean’s strategic location–especially Trinidad which is practically a broken puzzle piece off of Venezuela–makes it the ideal middleman between the producers in South America and the consumers in North America and Europe.

The Narco business is big mula. And when big mula is messed with there is an increase in the murder rate. We in the Caribbean are the gateway and the gate keepers to the flow of drugs. If this flow of drugs was regulated and legalized, it would be more transparent and a lot of the players, mainly the corrupted authorities who strike underhand deals and profit from the trade remaining illegal, would be held accountable…just food for thought.

The Beginning Of The Bacchanal

It all began last week, when Philly-born rapper Meek Mill took to Twitter to accuse Drake of not writing his own songs. He even stated that if he had known that Drake used ghost writers, he would have taken their collab song “R.I.C.O”, off of his latest album.
And apparently, not even a lil boy from the suburbs of the 6 taking that. So to retaliate, Drake released a song called “Charged Up”. However, Meek then returned to Twitter to give his own review of the Drake diss track. Meek Mill called it, “baby lotion soft”, and jabbed that even if he did write this song, that it was still weak.

But don’t think that Drake is the only one being clowned in this drama. In fact, after being accused of being “too emotional”, several comical tweets were sent out under the trend #MeekBeLike, mocking Meek for being so sensitive on social media.

The birth of Back to Back

Yet, it seems that despite Mill’s continuous attempts to lash out at Drake and call him out on his weak game, Drake has released yet another song aimed at his rival named Back to Back. And Mill, who is currently performing with his girlfriend Nicki Minaj on her Pink Print tour, seems to have given Drake enough material. In fact, in the song, he goes as far as questioning Mill, “Is that a world tour or your girl’s tour?” This diss goes along with several other jabs, including Drake boldly stating that Mill was being “bodied by a singing n***a.” Yikesssss!

So…#TeamDrake or #TeamMeek?

However, while it seems that so far Drake is winning when it comes to “who could throw more fruit at the tree with the best/ripest fruit”, perhaps Meek does have a point. In the rap/hip hop genre, originality is something that should not really be praised, but expected. The fact that ghost writing is something that can be argued about, or even discussed, goes to show that there is clearly a decline in the quality of music since the days of Tupac.
Drake, who is claimed to be one of the best in the industry, cannot rightfully be given such a position when, in fact, he may not even be writing his own lyrics. Whilst the supposed ghost-writer has denied any allegations that he has written songs for Drake, he has been given credit on Drake latest mixtape for co-writing. One of the things that makes someone a great artiste overall, comes from being a great lyricist.

On the other hand, there can be the argument of whether it truly matters who has written the music, once it is performed well. Some may agree that while Meek can boast of writing his own music, it doesn’t go much further from there. Drake, despite all the fight down, is more or less a strong musical artiste. Whether it be that he’s not a rapper, or more an R&B artist, he has been known how to sell his music and make a brand for himself. So perhaps, being a strong artiste is more than just having original lyrics.

So tell us what you think, which side of the debate are you on? And as for Meek Mill….well the ball is now in your court. Our guess? It’s either he’s finally working on that comeback song, or a reaaaaal fire tweet.
Stay tuned.

But wait, let’s backtrack a bit. Bland was pulled over by state trooper, Brian Encina, on July 10th for failing to use a signal before changing lanes (sounds familiar?). Bland, obviously vex, began to quarrel about how ridiculous she found the ticket was, Encina repeatedly screamed at her, ordering her to step out of the vehicle. As Bland refused to co-operate and continued to argue her case, Encina replied with “I’m going to drag you out of here,” and reportedly took out a taser and threatened, “I will light you up” ,before arresting her.

After her arrest, police stated that she continued to protest her arrest, whilst Bland complained of mistreatment from the police. Videos are even surfacing around the Internet of her arrest, where she clearly states that the police have slammed her head on the ground.

While her autopsy reports her death being due to self-inflicted asphyxiation, there are many suspicions surrounding this case. However, it is said that Bland had previously suffered from depression and had even attempted suicide before, and had even reported this upon arrival at the jail. So in that case, should she then not have been put on suicide watch? Instead of placing her in a cell, usually fit for four, alone?

On the other hand, she was said to be found hanging from the plastic from a garbage bag, which she tied to the partition of her shower. But….apparently garbage bags are not even allowed in the cells of inmates, neither did she have any lacerations consistent with a hanging. Thoughts?

Something isn’t adding up. What do you think? Is it just a plain case of negligence? Or do you sense foul play? When you dig into your inner Mariska Hargitay, comment and let us know what you think. But for now, from this view, it seems that being black is another thing that needs to be legalized in the US, apparently.

To give you further insight of the f*ckery, here’s a brief list of only a few of the remaining 28 demands:

• Power to refuse moderator.
• Wants questions placed in a guarded box at CNMG.
• Wants to be referred to as Prime Minister.
• Power to refuse panel.
• Power to approve backdrop of the debate 1 month in advance.
• Freedom to choose her attire.
• 2 preparation rooms.
• Debate must only be located in POS. (Like somebody wanna use dey helicopter boy)

Sounds pretty much like an Anal Annie to us. What do you think of these demands? Justified or not?

Next it’s really important to begin sifting through what is white noise and what is factual. A lot of money has been spent to keep us distracted from the real issues. We are too busy waiting for the next Sunshine bomb to ask the pertinent questions. As such, I’ve compiled a quick list of things we should all be paying attention to:

• The National Budget: With elections being held a mere month from budget month, you would think there would be some kind of plan in place to hit the ground running. As it stands, with no due parliamentary process, there is no account for the spending being done by the current government in the interim months. If we do see another 5 years of UNC rule, what things are in place to ensure a successful budget? If we go into a PNM government what have they been doing to ensure they have a clear grasp on the country’s financial standing before executing any plans?
• Unemployment: Anyone who is friends with a recent graduate knows how hard it is to find a job in any field that doesn’t require sandwich artistry or any use of a hair net. While we completely respect our hard workers in Customer Service, ’tis a bit discouraging to spend 3 – 5 years working on a Bachelor’s degree to have your only option be in the Fast Food or night life arena. We need our next government to stop lying too us and start working to create genuine jobs in various fields.
• War on Crime: Drugs and illegal arms are rampant on our little island. Pair that with a number of disappearances and we definitely need a serious plan for border control.
• Immigration: globalization is great but the legal movement of immigrants in and out of this country is one of the key stones to addressing a number of larger issues. We need to crack down on persons living and working illegally and pair it with realistic solutions to afford them proper integration. This is a plus for everyone as a lot of illegal immigrants are being taken advantage of by employers and family members in some cases.

This list is just my initial thoughts on what needs to be dealt with in the coming five years. Head to Facebook, Twitter or the comments below to share what you think should really be discussed on the campaign trails.

One of our main issues as a society is that we constantly fail to hold those we’ve placed in office to their word. I find it hard to believe that despite the very apparent minus column in our pay slips we continuously forget that it is OUR money which funds the government. I’ll repeat it for the people in the back; the billions of dollars being spent on failed initiatives, incomplete plans, repaving ALREADY PERFECTLY PAVED ROADS comes from YOUR paycheck. A portion of the money you generate with every sent email and pointless meeting goes towards ensuring that our Prime Minister has a private helicopter at her beck and call , the cost of which usually runs between 5 – 10 THOUSAND USD per hour.

Added to this egregious spending we then have the friends and family syndrome so common to our shores, contracts are awarded to persons affiliated with government officials, companies often run by their families or those who have been open financial contributors during the party elections. So why are we allowing this? We are aware that this is the time where a high of number of Trinidadian nationals are going into business for themselves and diversifying the monopoly we’ve felt in a number of fields for several years. Then why is it that the same companies continuously hold government contracts? How is it that persons have made mint off no other business than that paid for with our money?

Consider simply nothing more than due process being afforded to us in the dealings of this country’s finances? Why can’t we have open tender processes and transparent selections? It is time that we move away from the Banana Republic image that the financial world has of us and the only way we can do that is to start taking steps to reduce the amount of corruption we have. With a clearly failed Intergrity Commission, what is going to be put in place to level some semblance of fairness?

Understanding that we can never truly eliminate corruption is it still totally utopian of me to think that we could at least try to limit it? This is a discussion that needs to be mentioned and needs to be given a fair amount of thought or we’ll be stuck in the same old cycles no matter where we place our X. Politicians only do as they please because we allow it, we have no one but ourselves to blame for the multitude of issues we presently face. What do we, the consumer, who place our government into office plan to do? How are we planning to get better not just for ourselves, but for the better use for our taxpayers’ dollars, instead of it just being used to give them nice things?

Now, these videos have been said to have created awareness on the matter that you should not make immediate negative judgements about someone based on their appearance, and encourages confidence . However, shouldn’t the deeper message perhaps lead to that beauty is skin-deep? (As cliche as that sounds). I mean, yeah we should not judge a book by its ‘ugly’ cover or so you trying to say, but you argue that by just…making the cover better? Yuh eh making sense. Instead, it seems that these videos solely hold the purpose of already attractive people mocking others. For example, those with skin problems, glasses, and unibrows, just to name a few, and solely to highlight that they were, in fact, not beaten with an ugly stick.

As with everything that has gone viral, several videos have been made in response to this #dontjudgechallenge to emphasize why it is actually insulting and does not have the effect that it was supposedly meant to have. While some of these videos are truly entertaining, and QUITE the tief head (AH meaaaaaan), the only other thing we see from these videos besides a bunch of vain people, is that make-up truly is the devil!

What are your thoughts/opinions on this new trend? Let us know! Should we judge the don’t judge challenge?

As I scanned the Promenade, I contemplated Hosein’s, the pie lady, and even a box ah dead. Then suddenly, I saw something that caught my eye, as well as my half-filled with lint wallet: “Tastee Doubles ………$3.00″. Ah mean….$3.00?! That is a STEAL. So ah swing my steering and park my cheap @ss up by Church’s. Walking to the man, something tell me, yuh know, it must be have a reason why the man is $3.00, but by then my wallet and my stomach equally had agreed that they just didn’t _ucking care.

As soon as I got the attention of the right hand man, I spat out my regular order, “Lemme get one, everything and slight”. PA PA. That one doubles shell down my belly so much, I stood up by Tastee for 2 more (of course at this point in time, Carnival 2016 was nowhere in my mind). Satisfied, I smile, take my Red Solo to go, and handed over a mere $13 for a full breakfast fit only for Champions.

Doh get me wrong, I know it have doubles like Sauce in Curepe, Doubles Factory in Aranguez, and even George by Brooklyn Bar…but that morning, Tastee by Henry St and Independence Square, SHELL.
Dai me dey for yuh SCORCH Food Report, was alyuh favourite doubles spot/BESS doubles spot? Let us know!

Mr. Trump said, “when Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists…”
These were all statements made by the producer of the Miss Universe and Miss America beauty pageants that are usually aired on NBC, but when NBC got hold of his miraculous statements, Trump was now the one being told–you’re fired!

“I will build a Great Wall–and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me–and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our Southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall..”
Add this to the list of controversial comments blurted out by Mr. Wanna Be President regarding immigration.
“Due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants, NBC Universal is ending its business relationship with Mr. Trump.” A statement made by the network.

In his rebuttal Trump said, “The NBC is weak and is a prime example of why the USA is in serious trouble.” Also saying that “They are too worried about being offensive and not fixing the problem.” Furthermore, The Donald says that their contract violating closure of Ms. Universe/USA would be determined in court. Do I smell a law suit?
We understand that illegal immigration needs to be dealt with, but how about not being such an a$$hole about it.

Hold up…Didn’t Ms. Mexico win Ms. Universe in 2010? And doesn’t the Trump know that America was basically founded on immigration? Hmmmm seems like a SPICY situation… the SCORCH will keep you updated.

However, lately, traveling to and from Tobago seems to be harder than getting a clear word out of Jack Warner.
With only one boat in operation, and our one beloved airline available to fly us out to Bago, you already know how airport and port lookin.
People standing in airports on standby since 4AM. Port looking like a sell out fete. People cannot find their way back to work in time. No more boat tickets available until July 8th, whyyyy doin it??
So amongst all of the bacchanal and quarrel, as you can imagine, here are some fascinating tips and musings we overheard from our fellow flustered Trinis:

• “CALL KAMLA!!”
• “Bess we build a damn bridge oui”
• “Tell Kamla stop buy weed and buy plane nah”
• “How it go have one f*ckin boat?!”
• “Lewwe jus get a blasted train between the two islands nah”
• “Aye! I openin ah business call Standby, all of alyuh getting flight, who dey??”

…You get the idea. But on a serious note. This has not been the first time that an issue with travel arrangements between our islands has arisen. It is about time that something is done. Some of you may think it’s not that serious, but believe it or not, people don’t just go between Bago/Trinidad to lime. What yuh really feel we could do about this?

If you were also caught in the Tobago Trap, share yuh chronicles with us! #TrappyBusiness