By Raffique Shah
September 12, 2026

To hear the stories being told from four cardinal points of the globe we call our world is to listen to or to read—or worse, experience—the common global issue of pharmaceutical failures. I’m not referring to failures in the sense of malpractice or drug side effects—well, at least that’s not what I’m concentrating on. My problem, as I am sure many others out there will have experienced, is the constant non-availability followed by price gouging of drugs necessary to treat ailments or conditions, if you will, that many people have absolutely no control over.
Continue reading No medicine, no excuses →

By Raffique Shah
September 06, 2026

I came from a family with a literate mother and a semi-literate father, both of whom understood the importance of their children getting a sound education. My siblings and I were not all cut out for the academic path, but we did the best we could with the abilities we had, I being the only one who received a tertiary education at that time back in the 1960s-1970s.

Today, though, all of our children have received some sort of tertiary education, and most of them are now employed alongside their peers in various sectors throughout the country. I bring this up because come tomorrow, the nation’s newest school year will open and some children will be going to school for the very first time, while others will be picking up where they left off the last academic year, and yet others will be either dropping out or graduating, never to return to academics again in their lifetime.
Continue reading Illiteracy in the age of AI →

By Raffique Shah
August 29, 2026

There is a dearth of leadership in Trinidad and Tobago as there is in the Caribbean and other parts of the world.

In the last five years or so, several countries from the region have faced angry electors howling out for change in their parties, and as I grope to find promising leadership to usher in a new era that is armed with people who will bring us a new generation in the seats of power, we are faced instead with party leaders who believe they have the gift of eternal life.
Continue reading Unchallenged integrity →

By Raffique Shah
August 22, 2026

Being an 80-year-old man stricken with mid- to late-stage Parkinson’s and quite possibly other ailments (I prefer to live in ignorance about the other issues, worrying might kill me faster), the last thing I should have on my mind is this country’s future.

As the old people would say, I have one foot in the hole waiting on the other to fall in. So, why then do I find myself worried about the future of my homeland and those who live in it? At first, I thought it was because of my grandchild and all her cousins, who may end up choosing Trini­dad as their home, and not migrating their talents to what may look like greener pastures but are in fact very attractive slave mills.
Continue reading ‘Yuh hear lie, dat is lie!’ →

By Raffique Shah
August 15, 2026

I sense there is a calm before a storm, an uneven time when the population sets out to look for someone who would lead them out of the marshland through which we have navigated the last 40 to 60 years.

Joseph de Maistre, conservative and philosopher, is quoted as saying: in democracy people get the leaders they deserve. If he got anything right in his lifetime, it would be that statement. I think back on the people we have had lead this country, those who would have made significant contributions towards our socio-economical outlook.
Continue reading Considering our leaders →

By Raffique Shah
August 08, 2026

If you listen to our politicians address the issue of race, you’d swear that they in no way seek to influence voters on race, colour or religion. They would tell you they have always been fair in judging their constituents: they see the electorates as one people. They do not count votes by ethnicity, and when in office they treat their supporters equitably.

How I wish all this were true. Race has always been a critical element in electoral politics. It straddles the country from post to post, corner to corner, as Andre Tanker once sang. As far back as the first election under adult suffrage, it has been the preferred weapon of many a party leader. I dare you to challenge me on that.
Continue reading Stop the race baiting →

By Raffique Shah
August 01, 2026

I begin this column on Emancipation Day 2026 with these two songs that tell the story of African slavery in the Caribbean and North America, when people of all of Africa and elsewhere were in a wicked world that decimated an entire continent and mauled the world.

My colleagues who work in the audio media often quit their conversations and allow the music to do the talk. I feel that today, my music, which I enjoy at home, should tell my story; my love for music that tells the story and gives the vision that I want to implant in the depths of my readers. These songs eloquently tell the world what millions of people from Africa, who were enslaved from the 15th century to the 19th century, had endured.
Continue reading Two songs that got it right →

By Raffique Shah
July 25, 2026

I am a man who has always identified as what we in the armed forces would describe as Land-Forces. This is not because I was a soldier, but more so because of my deep respect for the sea and all water courses.

As a child growing up I lost cousins and close friends to the seas. So, when my children were younger, we would frequent Maracas and Mayaro and the standing rules were: no bathing in water above knee-height, and no bathing without adult supervision. I could not swim until age 18 when I entered the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Swimming was a required skill for entry into the Academy, and if you didn’t pass the basic tests, you simply did not graduate. I was a most willing student of bold Major Baggerly who took me and a few others under his wings and every Saturday ritually, after the 10 a.m. parade, we would head for the Academy’s swimming pool where we spent about two hours learning to swim. This was a challenge not only for me and the Major, but for all boys who couldn’t swim because those who could made fun of us. From then on, I never feared the water, but I held a healthy respect for it.
Continue reading Maritime tragedies are preventable →

By Raffique Shah
June 18, 2026

Funny how life makes meandering turns for people—today you are Right Wing, tomorrow you are Left Wing, and by next week when the water boils over, you’ll tell everyone you are Centre, even though your rhetoric will always be Right, right?

I have long ceased describing myself as anything so vague as Left or Right. True, I have stayed left of the compass all my life, so far. I have fought for workers’ rights, equality, higher wages (less profits for the right-wing capitalists), and all the accoutrements associated with trade unionism.
Continue reading Power, paranoia and the rule of law →