-when high court judge joins race for parliament
AN UNPRECEDENTED decision last Wednesday by a High Court judge of Trinidad and Tobago to resign and immediately team up with the main opposition United National Congress (UNC) to contest the May 24 general election, may well provide some needed political grist for a seemingly faltering campaign of Prime Minister Patrick Manning ahead of Nomination Day tomorrow.
This dramatic and unique occurrence in the history of the English-speaking Caribbean’s judicial system has revived an old controversy about the judiciary in that CARICOM state being inflicted with the virus of party politics.
It is a notion strongly rejected by current Chief Justice Ivor Archie, whose appointment had followed the retirement of Satnarine Sharma in January 2007.
Sharma’s final years were marked by highly controversial allegations and counterclaims that, varyingly, involved the offices of Prime Minister Manning, his Attorney General, the Director of Public Prosecutions, and also the Chief Magistrate.
At the centre of the current controversy is a judge of some fourteen (14) years service, Herbert Volney, who had acquired a reputation for critical comments from the Bench on sensitive social and political issues, and at times directly aimed at the Manning administration.
Armed with Volney’s surprising resignation, Chief Justice Archie lost no time in issuing a media statement to underscore his own concerns about the perception that he may well have been in negotiations with a political party while sitting as a judge of the country’s Supreme Court.
As the Chief Justice set about advising President George Maxwell of Volney’s sudden resignation, Prime Minister Manning was ready to go on the offensive later that day with his own spins on the circumstances of the switch from judiciary to party politics.
Within some 36 hours of his resignation and media reports on his decision to be a candidate for the May 24 poll, Volney was being identified as the UNC’s choice for the marginal constituency of St. Joseph, which the PNM had won in a three-way contest at the November 2007 general election.

Patrick vs Kamla

In recent weeks, Patrick Manning has been in the firing line of a flow of invectives from the combined alliance of opposition parties and civic organisations that have vowed to end his party’s nine-year rule for, as they claim, various political, fiscal and economic sins since 2001.
But on Wednesday night, hours after the Chief Justice’s statement, Manning was ready with his strong warning that the future independence and integrity of the judiciary would be compromised, should a UNC-led administration replace the PNM.
He linked the recent resignation also of a magistrate (Ramraj Harripersad) to contest the May 24 as an opposition candidate to emphasise his expressed fears about politics and the judiciary.
For her part, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, UNC leader and a former Attorney General under the administration of ex-Prime Minister Basdeo Panday, was hailing, to rousing applause by her party supporters, Volney’s “courageous stand” for giving up his “distinguished judicial career” to be involved in the politics of change from PNM rule.
Scoffing at what she viewed as Manning’s simulated anger over Volney’s decision, the UNC leader recalled that the Prime Minister had proposed Justice Anthony Lucky as a candidate for the office of President of the Republic. After he failed to secure the required support, Lucky had returned to the judiciary.
The scene is, therefore, clearly set for an overflow of bruising rhetoric across the political divide following tomorrow’s release of the lists of candidates for the PNM, and those of the broad opposition alliance that was being profiled by midweek as the coming ‘People’s Partnership Government (PPG)’.
An eligible electorate of just over one million will determine the composition of the 41-seat House of Representatives, in which the PNM had, at the time of dissolution for the May 24 poll,  26 to the UNC’s 15.
While the PNM is fielding a full slate of 41 candidates, though at least three were still to be identified up to yesterday, allocation of candidates for the opposition ‘unity coalition’,  will be as follows:
UNC 23; Winston Dookeran’s Congess of People (COP) 10; National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) four; Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) two; and the Tobago Organisation of People (TOP) two.
While his opponents speak excitedly of “the coming change,” Manning continues to display confidence in retaining power, and not behaving like a leader about to suffer the fate of a loser that British pollsters have ascribed to Prime Minister George Brown for this Thursday’s general election.

Ecosystem Diversity

AN ECOSYSTEM is a community of plants, animals and other organisms living and interacting in an area which provides them with what they need in order to survive.
Within an ecosystem, the different species depend on the environment, and the environment depends on them. Everything is connected in the circle of life.
These connections can be shown and most appreciated in food chains, food webs and the natural processes such as water and nutrient cycles that are occurring in the environment.  An ecosystem can exist at any scale, from the size of your backyard garden to the size of the entire ocean. They may be classified according to the dominant type of environment, or dominant type of species present, for example, a salt marsh ecosystem, or a mangrove swamp ecosystem.

Ecosystem diversity is the variation of habitats, community types, and soil structure present in a given area. The diversity of an ecosystem is dependent on the physical characteristics of the environment, the diversity of species present, and the interactions that the species have with each other and with the environment. Lakes, marshes, and forests are typical examples of areas with diverse ecosystems.

The physical characteristics of an environment that affects ecosystem diversity are quite complex. These characteristics include temperature, precipitation, and topography. There is a general trend for warm tropical ecosystems to be richer in species than cold temperate ecosystems.  An exposed hilltop or mountainside is likely to have stunted vegetation and low species diversity compared to more prolific vegetation and high species diversity in sheltered valleys.

Environmental disturbances can affect the species’ richness and, consequently, the diversity of an ecosystem. Nevertheless, moderate levels of occasional disturbances can also increase the species richness of an ecosystem by creating spatial heterogeneity (diversity) in the ecosystem, and also by preventing certain species from dominating the ecosystem.

While the physical characteristics of an area will significantly influence the diversity of the species within a community, the organisms can also modify the physical characteristics of the ecosystem. For example, stony corals are responsible for building the extensive calcareous structures that are the basis for coral reef ecosystems that can extend thousands of kilometers (e.g. Great Barrier Reef). There are less extensive ways in which organisms can modify their ecosystems. For example, trees can modify the micro-climate and the structure and chemical composition of the soil around them.

Ecosystems are not constant, but instead undergo continuous change as species migrate and adapt to their environment. As seasons change and different weather phenomena occur, ecosystems also change. However, human intervention is causing, and has caused, these changes to occur at irregular intervals, which affect the ability of ecosystems to thrive.

We can manage our
impact on the environment by being cognizant of its importance to our survival, and taking action to protect and conserve it for this and the future generations.

You can share ideas and questions by sending letters to: ‘Our Earth, Our Environment’, C/o EIT Division, The Environmental Protection Agency, 7 Broad and Charles Street, Charlestown, GEORGETOWN or email to eit.epaguyana@gmail.com