By NALINEE SEELAL and CLINT CHAN TACK Thursday, September 2 2010

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Dr Daniel Shapiro...

AMERICAN DR Daniel Shapiro, founder and director of the world-renowned Harvard International Project, will be teaching “the Art of Negotiation” to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and members of her People’s Partnership coalition Government during a three-day workshop at Coco Reef Hotel in Tobago.

The workshop begins today immediately after the weekly Cabinet meeting also at the hotel.

A statement issued yesterday by the Office of the Prime Minister said Shapiro will be one of the presenters at the workshop. Shapiro is on the faculty at Harvard Law School and in the psychiatry department at Harvard Medical School/McLean Hospital. He also has been on the faculty at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has

a doctorate in clinical psychology and specialises in the psychology of negotiation.

In addition to teaching at Harvard, Shapiro travels throughout the United States and the world teaching negotiation to groups such as governmental officials, corporate executives, lawyers, psychologists, and dispute resolution professionals. He also is an adviser to the International Criminal Court. Former President Arthur NR Robinson was the chief architect of that court. Shapiro is currently pioneering a research programme on the emotional and identity-based dimensions of regional conflict and terrorism.” Government officials said they expected Shapiro would be properly remunerated for his services but did not know what was the cost for him to conduct a session at the workshop.

When the former PNM government held retreats at the Coco Reef Hotel and in Salybia Bay, the presenters were all Trinidad and Tobago nationals. This was confirmed yesterday by former PNM government ministers Dr Amery Browne and Conrad Enill who attended those retreats.

Enill said the focus of the PNM’s retreats was team-building and learning various aspects of governance. He added that many sessions in those retreats were coordinated by local human resource consultant Dr Anthony Watkins and none of the presenters were foreign nationals.

A subsequent statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said journalist Tony Fraser, Law Association president Martin Daly SC, former Public Service head Reginald Dumas and Joan Massiah will conduct sessions at the workshop with government members on Government- Media relations, separation of powers between the Executive, the Judiciary and the Legislature, governance for an effective and high performance Public Service and protocol, respectively.

The workshop ends on Sunday morning with Persad-Bissessar and other government ministers expected to attend the opening of the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup at the Hasely Crawford Stadium later that day. Finance Minister Winston Dookeran presents the 2011 Budget in the House of Representatives next Wednesday.