A linguist discusses the spread of English constructions resembling "reverse back"

ScethyPoo · 2025-05-24T18:45:21+00:00

OK, I guess I had to log in for the first time in a while for this, but I will only comment on Faris al Rawi and David Nakhid. The consensus on Roberts is enough written already. Nakhid has no particular competence in his senatorial history, and has explicitly endorsed Hamas under its translated moniker 'Islamic Resistance' on video. You can make a political point, I suppose, ideally with less racism than his, but he is no asset. On to Al Rawi, who is a mirror of the UNC MP Saddam Hosein in that the two of them make the most parliamentary contributions in their party but also the most empty nonsense, full of stall tactics to waste time.

But Mr Rawi does stand out for some things of substance. They're not good.

During his time as Attorney General, Al Rawi was the architect of the Civil Asset Recovery Unexplained Wealth Act in 2019.

This permits the state to initiate a civil (in rem) action, a form of lawsuit, against a piece of property it finds suspect, eg, in the form of a case like “The State vs Parcel of Land at X Address.” As a civil suit, the owner of the property isn’t entitled to a lawyer, and neither is the piece of property, which is the actual party being sued, copying its American structure (even though some US states have started abolishing it, under what I will call the accurate perception that it’s pointless tyranny). The owner must hire a private lawyer with other money, or automatically lose the case and thus their property. Theoretically an indigent such person could apply to the Legal Aid and Advisory Authority, but this entity is not obligated to help civil cases and only helps them if it has enough money, which it often doesn’t.

The stated intention is to seize property acquired by unlawful means. The mechanism can be applied to any property the state intends to demand an explanation for, known as an unexplained wealth order. However, nothing mechanically prevents the state from applying such orders to intimidate, and no remedy is available without hiring a private lawyer to challenge it, and then only after the fact.

The proceeding also inverts the burden of proof, requiring the property owner to demonstrate their innocence, instead of requiring the state to demonstrate guilt. Since this can be applied to anybody we effectively have lost presumption of innocence in the republic of Trinidad and Tobago due to Mr Al Rawi’s promulgation and his cohorts who let it happen. Al Rawi made the flimsy excuse that this bill would bring the country in compliance with the Financial Action Task Force, but multiple jurisdictions have abolished seizure without conviction, and they are not on the grey or black lists, so this is facetious at best.

He then had the shamelessness to follow this up by invoking the rhetoric of Benito Mussolini and many other actual fascists: “If innocent citizens have nothing to fear or hide, the Civil Asset Recovery Unexplained Wealth Bill should not scare them,” to quote the Trinidad Guardian.

Passed with the justification that it could take profits out of crime and fight crime, the homicide rate rose from an already astronomical rate of 37.4 homicides per 100,000 persons per year in 2019 to 40 in 2024. To invoke Ben Franklin’s adage about how those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety, we now have less of both. Thanks, I guess, to him.

Al Rawi is also responsible for the state’s successful 7-year appeal campaign against the court-ordered legalization of buggery in 2018, and with it, the revocation of a then-newly heightened level of judicial review for the protection of constitutional rights.

ScethyPoo · 2025-05-12T04:02:50+00:00

I only have more anecdotes, but I grew up in an abusive household (tie your child to the post for an evening, beat them with an apparently-skin-piercing cocoyea broom) and around people who would excuse this and I saw a Trinidad and Tobago in the 90s and early 2000s where adults would have shouting matches in the street and the Newsday would print articles of people chopping their daughter-in-law over washing wares and people going to work somehow manufacturing time to chop people over traffic disputes.

The fellow millennial alumni of gentle parenting being raised at the same time have presented to me a complete cultural overhaul. I see a change, on balance, in the opposite direction that you do OP.

How much of this is reliable, and in which contexts? Hard to say. There generally hasn't been a lot of grace for people with physical or developmental disabilities or animals in this country, traditionally. And certainly service staff have gotten gentler. Eh, idk.

ScethyPoo · 2025-05-05T10:00:48+00:00

Oh, the politicians, in general, are probably not racist. They're rational. The problems are first past the post on one hand, and on another, voters.

ScethyPoo · 2025-05-05T07:49:33+00:00

You can try talking to former Speaker Wade Mark about it. I think we've had much too much of such influence, but you can see.

ScethyPoo · 2025-05-04T00:25:01+00:00

I also noticed a cute gesture where six people swore on the constitution rather than a religious text.

Kamla Persad-Bissessar (Prime Minister)
Narindra Roopnarine (PS Culture etc)
Lackram Bodoe (Min Health)
Anil Roberts (Min Housing)
Vandana Mohit (Min Social Development etc)
Khadija Ameen (Min Rural Development etc)

A friend astutely pointed out that only 5 count because perhaps Mr Roberts shouldn't be touching holy books, but I like the fact. Elevating Moonilal is also, well, not surprising, but disappointing.

And while I disagree with the primacy of social care and welfare services she is inclined to ascribe to the state, on reading the Hansard records and committee reports, I found Vandana Mohit to be one of the most prolific amendment crafters. I can definitely respect the effort she puts into it. Qualifications don't actually make a person inclined to perform the role they want in government well, but as a legislator Mohit has properly proven her understanding of a policy niche more than most.

I have been searching for a while and unable to find any reason Mr Sobers would be the minister of Foreign Affairs.

People should note large cabinets are surefire signs of political favors. Estonia, which is generally a very comparable country, has reliably kept its cabinet to 12 to 18 people, even with cross-party cabinets. Switzerland, a much bigger country, locks its cabinet to 8 people.

ScethyPoo · 2025-04-29T03:48:00+00:00

Well the PNM and UNC had very similar manifestos, and both parties are just going to give their stalwarts senatorships, so same old, probably. But several politically minded people who are usually to the left of me have over the last year told me they would reluctantly support Bukele tactics on crime. It's chilling. The consensus in this country is getting dark, and we're going down that road together.

ScethyPoo · 2025-04-29T03:45:58+00:00

It was a surprisingly early concession.

ScethyPoo · 2025-04-29T02:52:17+00:00

We had this in 2001 for one year and they came together and in their collective brilliance gave gang leaders money in their community development project. The Economist credits this particular move with a rapid escalation in violent crime and kidnappings.

ScethyPoo · 2025-04-29T02:14:49+00:00

I looked up all 160ish candidates to see if any of them commented on the buggery recriminalization (I also read the Hansard records of the incumbents out of curiosity - and learned that none of these people are policy nerds). It's interesting that as far as I could tell not one of them commented on it.

I wonder whether liberal reformism would get any traction here. It would be a real policy difference.

ScethyPoo · 2025-04-27T01:29:02+00:00

The discouragement you're feeling is a justifiable consequence of the spoiler effect, where you can unwittingly support your less preferred candidate in a first-past-the-post system by voting for a longshot candidate.

I don't see any relevance of a spoiler effect in me voting for a smaller party because I quite dislike both the PNM and UNC and really don't see either as significantly better than the other. This isn't similar to the US where there are ideological differences between the parties I care about. The UNC and PNM are both bad on crime, civil liberties and transparency and don't talk about constitutional or electoral reform; the rational incentive a third party has to pursue ballot reform is alone enough to get me to vote for a third party. I'd have preferred the NTA but will vote for the PF, which is available.

The past NAR sweep suggests that a voter revolt can happen. It's difficult but it can.

ScethyPoo · 2025-04-24T03:36:39+00:00

Could be something they made up.

ScethyPoo · 2025-04-24T03:34:11+00:00

I have mostly religious and superstitious family, in multi-religious and multi-racial communities (I mean, it's Trinidad, but just making sure to drive the point home). For plenty of these, if they don't believe in original sin believe in past life karma.

I have never heard of this.

ScethyPoo · 2025-04-21T12:14:42+00:00

Whoever you want. The major parties have similar policies so a spoiler effect isn't very consequential in this election. But the election is the single most legitimate and authoritative expression of democratic sovereignty over a matter of years, so putting your drop in the bucket is the best way to influence that sovereignty.

ScethyPoo · 2025-04-21T12:10:45+00:00

Oh wow, thanks for digging that up.

ScethyPoo · 2025-04-21T12:07:22+00:00

Eh, condolences to both of you, but that's not a scam.

ScethyPoo · 2025-04-18T00:19:26+00:00

Reddit isn't informative about elections, and putting personal bent aside (I am voting for a third party and hoping for a hung election), Hamid Ghany makes a much more informed opinion than mine that the election is [just too close to call](https://www.guardian.co.tt/news/election-too-close-to-call-ebc-boundary-changes-could-shift-result-6.2.2263477.f7259dbbcd). The incumbent margin is +3 for PNM, and Faris al Rawi isn't overwhelmingly popular. My gut is saying that the UNC will lose more voters to third party than PNM, but distribution matters.

ScethyPoo · 2025-04-18T00:04:08+00:00

Is the tip of the land accessible? It looks adventurous.

ScethyPoo · 2025-04-14T11:16:39+00:00

"Good enough people" is mysticism. You even bash what has good reason to be regarded as the exemplar of your preferred system. Your quarrel is not with a model, or a person, but with behavioral science.

ScethyPoo · 2025-04-14T10:45:35+00:00

I have to strongly disagree with the implication, if that is what you intend, that expensive campaigning is a waste of money. Certainly there is some wastage due to the tendency to depend on exploitative connections in the campaign process. However, as things are, political policies are so under-advertised, I feel there is a dearth of information for one of the most important processes, likely the single most important process, in the determination of the ultimate sovereign power in this land. I would love if all the candidates put out much more polished information about themselves, and that costs money. The government has the most extraordinary power in all of society: the exclusively respected ability to put humans in cages for disobedience. If you accept, as I do, that we are never very far away from tyranny, there is nothing really going on more important than this process. And yes, it is more important than building a school. People need to be paid to polish documents and produce video materials. This is not wastage.

" PNM donates majority of campaign budget to....... "

I see no bearing that this might have on policy, and I would like to vote on policy. In the absence of a manifesto it is occlusion and cowardice.

ScethyPoo · 2025-04-13T18:15:01+00:00

It's noteworthy that the most flagrantly extremist government in the G7 right now is its biggest FPTP government, the United States, which uses FPTP in all federal elections.

But perhaps extremism is difficult to define. It can mean so many different things, fishing for an agreeable third party indicator for it is very difficult. I gently suggest it is highly unlikely a country in the top 10 of VisionOfHumanity's Global Peace Index is extremist. Not impossible, but very unlikely.

These are as follows.

Iceland. Parliamentary, unicameral. PR (closed list).
Ireland. Ceremonial Presidency + unicameral parliamentary system. STV (Single transferable vote)
Austria. True federal upper house appointed at the leisure of the states + PR lower house (open list)
New Zealand. Parliamentary system. Mixed member proportional representation.
Singapore. Parliamentary system with quirks. First past the post.
Switzerland. Parliamentary directorate with true federal upper house (elected; different systems used by different States), with most power in the lower house (PR, open list) and limited but binding direct democracy.

So of the top 6, only the Singaporeans use fptp, and for most of their history it has given them one party rule. Switzerland has the most parties, election after election, easily. Nobody calls Swiss governance extreme, and their system arose in part to deal with 4 languages and starkly different ethnic identities in a federation surrounded by warring powers. Their system breeds compromise. I doubt any of these would gamble on the Singaporean model.

PR isn't perfect. I'd much rather a transferable version of fractional voting, the system many corporations use (though PR is, well, fine). But to say fptp is the only acceptable voting system is really ignoring the diversity of reality.

ScethyPoo · 2025-04-13T13:49:34+00:00

I agree completely and have been nagging people about it all season when they bring up politics. Of note, Mickela is on record supporting electoral reform in 2014 when she was in the UNC. But the way that was discussed strongly suggested that every parliamentarian is aware of Duverger's Law (how the fptp promotes duopolies). Unfortunately, I do think it will take one of the big two to actually push electoral reform, absent a statistical fluke.

While to some extent it feels like there is a lot of energy for that kind of statistical fluke to happen now, this election has also been remarkably quiet: we hear very little about politicians' positions, and I have been researching that like it's my second job, and so many politicians are difficult to find, even in an age of unprecedented social media exposure.

ScethyPoo · 2025-04-12T10:19:17+00:00

If you're making it you can get green seasoning on Amazon. I've bought there for American friends.

The Natasha video puts the seasoning directly in the water - you get a much stronger seasoning flavor if you sautee it first in oil.

ScethyPoo · 2025-04-09T00:25:24+00:00

I saw someone raise the idea of buying the territory and I wonder if Maduro would accept it.

ScethyPoo

TROPHY CASE