The switchboard has been busy for the past few weeks complaining about the sub-standard quality  of the programming from our “friends” in The Pine.Channel 8 has become a playground for re-runs and second rate shows such as My Name Is Earl, Life On Mars and Burnt Notice.Fans say while they enjoy Prison Break, the series has finished and CBC is still into the first season. They are also asking why the 2007 first season of Best Years is being repeated.They also want to know why Shark is being shown twice a week and nothing super can be seen like Smallville.CBC has genuinely become the home of stale shows.Mum put on sick leaveA fat woman has stopped her sick mother from working alongside her.That’s because there are strange marks on the skin of mummy, who had a young bilingual boyfriend who died  a few years ago.Both mother and daughter adore young boys and live to support them.The problem is both mother and daughter seem to choose young  good-looking boys, who will do anything with anybody for money.Hot fishFish are so expensive in Oistins these days that a man took three  of his friends there and didn’t get back any change from $100.That’s because a container, and it doesn’t have much in it, can cost as much as $25. The embarrassed man had to turn to his friends to buy drinks as he simply did not have another cent.He and many others who have been ripped off say the area still has a large crowd every Friday because the emphasis is on the tourists.Men on the prowlThere is a place that is being frequented by several lawless men almost every day and night because there is a young girl working there.The nuisance minibus men and others need to know that they are looking for the same thing the sly, slim girl is looking for.Fed-up taxi menTaxi men who operate at Second Street, St James, say a driver who actually works in the public service  is driving them crazy.Apparently this tall, imposing man has been operating his taxi for over a year even though it is against the rules of the public service to have a second job.Angry taxi men said they could have overlooked this indiscretion but the man seems bent on driving them out  of business.For instance, he charges less than the other drivers and is always out to steal their customers by bad-mouthing them.Taxi drivers want to know how much time he really spends doing his legitimate job since he is always driving his taxi even when he was on sick leave with a broken hand.They want his boss to arrest this situation because it gets out of hand.Cheating teacherThere is a school teacher who seems intent on bedding the entire male staff at her school. She cheated on her husband with one teacher, and now that he has left she is repeating the dose with another.But while she is acting as though she is a teenager, little does she know that her new beau has her about number six on his list which includes some  of her students.

It is amazing how people does be making their own rules, setting up their own scenes, expecting you and me tuh live by dem, and then duh does turn around and break dem. Like the very same things they tell you not tuh do they turn around and do? I suppose it is a case of “do as I say and not as I do”.Leh we start wid the highest office and take for example what continues tuh happen in the House of Assembly week after week wid the politicians from both sides, doing a whole lot o’ foolishness.Now the way how things going, it is very sad tuh see that not one o’ dem politicians – old or young, green or stalwart – cahn tell the other one tuh come back and evah  one o’ dem out tuh  all like pop kites. But mind you, duh laying down rules of discipline fuh evahthing and evahbody including the PSV people, the vendors, the schoolchildren and the bus system; as I said, evah single thing, but all o’ dem doing as they very well like, when they like and how they like. Now dat is so sad.And what about the people who call demselves parents, people who God trusted with children tuh nurture and guide and help dem tuh grow and develop into good decent grounded and rounded individuals; wha’ bout these people?While they have some who take this role of parenting seriously and continue tuh lead and live their lives as examples for not only theirs but other people children tuh follow, there are the ones, pon the other hand, who doan seem tuh understand the true role of a parent.Sometimes it looks tuh me like some o’ dem doan even seem tuh understand dat these are the same children who ain’t gine stan’ small but gine grow into adults wid everything dat parents, good or bad deposit in dem.Double standards Then duh gine do the same exact thing dat we parents taught dem, and since you me and evahbody else will be old by then, they bless we or cut we tail wid it.And why not? Wha’ we adults are the ones who laying down the rules, setting the tone and pace, wid all kinds o’ double standards and expecting evahbody, especially the younger generation,  tuh follow. We allowing all kinds o’ cultures like scarfs, cellphones, short skirts, elaborate hair styles, and teachers not allowed tuh discipline on the spot tuh subtly filter in tuh the schools and the system.We adopting all kinds o’ garbage covered up wid glitter and allowing it tuh take root; then when it starts tuh take off and spread like love vine, we start back tracking, trying tuh set other rules tuh cover up or undo these rules, and more often than nought, try tuh blame somebody else fuh  the damage.I like dat cartoon in the Saturday paper wid the caption, How The Youth Get So? How ya mean how duh get so? We put duh so, dem ain’t born so, dem learn it from we, dem come along and see and hear it from we. How many years I was writing this column now?  I know dat for as long as I have been writing it, I have been saying dat our leaders, be it B, D or N, have always allowed the horse tuh bolt outta the stable before dem playing dem running gine tuh shut a door Hello! The horse done gone long a’ready,  the damage done do.How I could shut out Mavado and Vybes Kartel and doing the same thing in the house dat dem preaching? How I could tell my child not tuh get a tattoo when I got my whole body scrawl up? How I could tell you tuh go tuh school and get a good education, get a good job and become a model citizen when I sitting pon my tail day in and day out wasting time? How I could tell my girl child tuh keep she self tuh she self, take her time and wait fuh the right person who will love and respect her tuh come along but all she seeing is you dressing in the tightest latest clothes and weaves, going out fêteing every weekend and bringing in all kinds o’ undesirables including the ones who gine interfere wid her and destroy her innocence while you turn  a blind eye just fuh  the money?And we continue tuh make the rules and then break the rules but fuhget that these same double standards gine come back tuh cut we tail eventually; which is happening all like now so.• Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans and has an opinion on everything.

A CERTAIN HIGH PROFILE individual almost gave a well known public servant a major heart attack recently.Word reaching Cou Cou is that the individual was hired as a consultant to do some work at a certain institution over a relatively short period of time.After the job was completed he sent in a bill for specific services, and it was so exorbitant  that the public servant was forced  to remark that a loan would have  to be obtained from the International Monetary Fund to pay the bill.Some have queried why the individual was given the consultancy  in the first place. He has a not-too-flattering history of charging dubious fees for services rendered, and some not even rendered.Many years ago he sent in a bill  for over $200 000 for the use of his property to do certain activities when it was not necessary for his property  to be used in the first place.Frequent flyerYEARS ago a trip to any Caribbean island meant that a former operative had to first make her way to Miami  to shop.Now a certain operative’s attempt  to mimic her flying habits might have cost him a pick in a certain office, although similar to the proverbial cat, he has landed on his feet.Word reaching Cou Cou is that irrespective of where the operative  was sent, he somehow always ended  up in England to look for his son.Send him to St Lucia, he would be spotted in London. Send him  to St Vincent, he found a way  to pass through Gatwick Airport. Hopefully he has learnt from his transfer and the rest will just be water under the bridge.In hot water againAN elderly couple want back their money from a certain legal eagle after he failed to do his best in completing a transaction for which they had entrusted their money to him.That undertaken was to have occurred a few years ago.But now if the elderly couple decide to follow through on certain threats  the embarrassment could be spread even further than the legal eagle. That’s because he has moved up  in status and has some new friends. His is a situation that has returned to haunt him.Cou Cou has certain documents that are quite damning and is waiting on specific instructions before blowing the lid on this one.Robin hoodlumQUITE a great deal can occur in a day as the close kin of a former politico has discovered.Seems that he procured a pick at a certain state institution because of his connections, and though he might not have received a new car or been assigned an executive maid, he was put in a position of some authority.Bad move.Apparently, the individual from Day 1, and on Day 2, has become the reincarnation of Robin Hood. But this hood has not been giving any of his loot to the poor.Difficult times ahead
The less-than-scrupulous activities of a certain political operative are being spilled by his estranged  other half.Thus far, two agencies have been made aware of some of his deeds which have led to his enrichment at others’ expense.It might be in the interest of another group with whom he is associated, to distance themselves from him as soon as possible. But it might now be too late.Cou Cou will keep an eye on Coleridge Street to see if his actions eventually lead him to this location  in a different capacity.

A dinosaur got stuck in Trinidad. Was it by choice? Did the dinosaur want to savour  for as long as possible the experience  of being reunited with friends  and family? Even though she is only a skeleton, Dinosaur Sue made no bones about the fact that she was happy like pappy in Trinidad. Sue claims it is not her fault. According to a media report, DINOSAUR SUE, the largest Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur ever found, was stuck at the port of Port-of-Spain for the past two weeks. However, she has been cleared and a crew was expected to arrive from Chicago to begin assembling her for the grand show which will be held at the National Academy for Performing Arts (NAPA) in Port-of-Spain.I am sure Sue will find a kindred spirit at NAPA, which might not be designed for Chutney and that sort of thing but is able to accommodate dinosaurs. I won’t say that the minister of culture is a Tyrantosaurus Rex but she has been bearing the brontosaurus of the accusations.Sue seemed quite at home among the antiquated rules and procedures at the port. There at the seaside she must have found many Saltopuses and others who created problems without cause.According to the same media report, this will be the first time that a dinosaur exhibition has come to Trinidad. This is not surprising, given that bringing a dinosaur to Trinidad is like carrying coals to Newcastle, ganja to Jamaica, teaching Brian Lara how to bat, or introducing “choke-and-rob” to Georgetown.Trinidad and Tobago has its own political Jurassic Park here and even Sue will be hard-put to compare.  First of all, it has its own Pandaysaurus.It is a combination of Tyrannosaurus and Corythosaurus. It growls like a lion, raves and rants at every opportunity, and when threatened reverts to its familiar, “That’s insulting! That’s insulting!”Then there is the Patrickosaurus which would like the “Rex” or King after its name. Some people prefer “wrecks” but that is because they have their own political agendas and probably have been looking at the Brian Lara Stadium.The Patrickosaurus is a cross between the Megalosaurus (maniacus) and the Torosaurus. Toro is Spanish for “bull”.  There is the Panoplasurus, better known as Pan Trinbago, who keeps on making the same mistakes every Panorama.Also, the Sinosauropteryx or Ear-Nose-and Throat (ENT) specialists whose first recourse is expensive surgery. Then there are the Camarasauruses, politicians who gallery and pose instead of doing their jobs. There are some that are allowed to grow into huge beasts like Gigantosaurus Udecottosaurus and even the dreaded Jeremieraptor. There are those with tremendous appetites resembling Gorgosaurus, the 30-foot carnivore, that devour everything in their path – the famous Calderhartosaurus is an example.Still to be classified are the many Service Commissions, the presidency and the Commissioner of Police.Also defying classification is Jack Warner who continues to threaten legal action. Unfortunately, the name Sue has already been taken.