By Raffique Shah
October 31, 2026

It doesn’t take much convincing these days to realise that if ever the world was under threat from brain-eating amoebae/bacteria, just let them loose at a gathering for world leaders, and just like that the microscopic buggers would starve to death and the crisis would be averted. A few good men and women would be sacrificed for the greater evil.

Listening to the news daily, both local and foreign, no longer elicits shocked responses, gasps or any real emotions, even when it involves homicide. We have become so desensitised to the actions of our fellow men that we no longer feel involved. Gone are the days of media sensationalism, because there is no headline they can put out there anymore that will shock an already deeply disturbed nation.
Continue reading Heights of stupidity →

By Raffique Shah
October 24, 2026

We in Trinidad and Tobago cannot claim, as most small island states do, to know little or nothing of bloody revolution. True, the experiences we had may not have been bloody by international or European standards. When changes in power occur, they tend to be moderate.

Our elections are usually peaceful, with a little picong passing from one politician to the next. Even our revolutions were mild when compared with other parts of the world. But what makes it mild or moderate or bad?—the carnage, the destruction of property, the rank lawlessness, or…something else?
Continue reading Shame on you →

By Raffique Shah
October 17, 2026

Had the Mighty Sparrow been present for the reading of last Monday’s “Awesome Budget”, I feel he might have said, or rather sung the following:

But yuh pipe ain’t have no water, you pay too much for butter.

(Take yuh steel beam and go!)

The terrible school system is such a bloody problem

(Take yuh steel beam and go!)
Continue reading The Birdie and the budget →

By Raffique Shah
October 10, 2026

The thing about an economic recession is it does not steal upon us like the proverbial “thief in the night”. More like the fabled Brigand of Kandahar—he has been lying, at times noisy, other times secretly constructing his web of destruction in full view of his victims who just don’t seem to be fully cognisant of all the blatant signs he has been sending them.

Traditional economics dictates that countries that are on the brink of toppling over are not yet in recession. Their economies must wait until they get to two quarters, taking them to the brink of collapse, then they will have reached the critical point. Many European nations have been teetering on the edge of economic crisis for the longest while, unable to pay outstanding debts.
Continue reading Spend wisely amid job losses →

By Raffique Shah
October 03, 2026

Over my decades of writing, I would have written several times about Slinger Francisco, more popularly known as The Mighty Sparrow. His wit and ability to rhyme coupled with the melodious sounds of his voice and catchy rhythms of his songs are to this day unparalleled. There is no calypsonian today who is able to remotely compare with the ingenuity of The Mighty Sparrow. As with anyone of his esteem, hearing of his passing was a profoundly sad occasion.
Continue reading Thanks for the music, Sparrow →

By Raffique Shah
September 26, 2026

As we exit SoE number 2,3 or 4, with a real threat of it returning, because as Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has said, she can reinstate it if she wants, I take a look back at what it has accomplished. To say nothing significant would be a gross understatement of how ineffective the SoE was, and an accurate description of how little to nothing was accomplished.

A stupid boast of a little over 3,500 people being arrested has done nothing to assuage the fears of the nation because as far as I am—and I am sure, thousands of readers are—concerned, crime marched irrespective of the SoE. So, come better than that, Madame Prime Minister.
Continue reading Criminals don’t ask for your party card →

By Raffique Shah
September 19, 2026

As a young fella, I had several animals. I was never really a cat person, but dogs, I loved and took care of.

At one point the people in my village, Beaucarro, used to call me Brown Boy, after my pet dog which attempted to accompany me wherever I went. They would often hear me shouting after him: Brown Boy, go home! We had just moved from Freeport junction to Beaucarro which was about a mile away, and Brown Boy had not yet settled into his new surroundings. Whenever I would head out to school on mornings, Brown Boy saw it as his duty to accompany and protect me on my way there. On one such morning, as I left for school with him in tow, I remember going back home and taking him with me and tying him, because school was three miles away and at that very young age, I didn’t want him to become stranded or disoriented.
Continue reading One for the Animal lovers →

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 →