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General T&T

SWAMPED

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By Jada Loutoo and Corey Connelly
October 20, 2017 – newsday.co.tt

FloodingLarge sections of Trinidad were swamped yesterday by flood waters which continued to rise in certain areas following over 24 hours of non-stop rainfall which began on Wednesday.

As a result, the Meteorological Service yesterday maintained its riverine flood alert for Trinidad especially as the Caroni River burst its banks shortly after midday. In its 9.12 am bulletin, the Met Office advised that as opposed to street and flash flooding, riverine flooding is more prolonged and widespread.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC, Violence

Considering a new commissioner

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By Raffique Shah
October 19, 2017

Raffique ShahThe last hope we have for reining in runaway crime in this country lies with a leader yet unknown, the man or woman who will be recommended by the Police Service Commission to be named Commissioner of Police, subject to approval by Parliament. In fact, since crime affects so many aspects of citizens’ daily lives as well as the country’s economy, and because the Police Service is, or ought to be, the spearhead of any assault on crime, the new commissioner will carry on his shoulders a burden bigger than Government’s, and greater expectations than any other office-holder in the State-apparatus—the President, the Prime Minister or the Chief Justice.
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General T&T, International, USA

Ancestors

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 19, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeLast weekend I traveled to Fort Lauderdale to see Mislet Harry, the senior member of the Cudjoe clan. It didn’t hurt that Miami was celebrating its annual carnival celebrations. The daughter of Aunt Elaine, Mislet has lived in the Miami area for the past thirty years or so. She started the Boston carnival in the 1960s and began to participate in Miami carnival once she got there.
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Caribbean, Dominica, General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

Does UNC See Itself as Part of the Nation?

23 Comments

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 14, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeLast week I argued that there was something disingenuous about the suggestions put forward by Sat Maraj, Stephen Kangal and the UNC about sending money to Dominicans but making sure they did not enter our country. The UNC declaimed that none of its members said anything negative about the Prime Minister’s plan to bring Dominicans to T&T, but none of them had said anything positive about the plan, not even Rodney Charles or Wade Mark.
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General T&T, Oil and Gas, PNM, Politics, Recession, UNC

Every Trini wants to go to heaven

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By Raffique Shah
October 11, 2017

Raffique ShahAs I digested details of Government’s 2017-2018 Budget and monitored the furore that followed its presentation, I kept hearing “in mih head”, somewhat like calypsonian Shadow and his “Bassman from hell”, the lyrics of a song that was popular about ten years ago, “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die (to get there).”
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corruption, General T&T, Oil and Gas, PNM, Politics, Recession, UNC

A happy wonderer

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By Raffique Shah
October 04, 2017

Raffique ShahWhen you have lived as long as I have, and for most of your adult life you have had an interest in politics and affairs of state to the extent that you actually pay attention the annual Budget presentation by the Minister of Finance, you will have learnt that you waste valuable time listening to a mostly boring speech that contains little or nothing that is dramatic or surprising, and you’d be better off doing something more interesting (reading a good book, in my case), and await the summary of its salient points as captured by journalists who are paid to do such scavenging, or, if you have the stamina, listen to analysts who more or less say the same things year after year.
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Caribbean, Dominica, General T&T, PNM, Politics, Racism Watch, UNC

Do They Ever See Us as a Nation?

27 Comments

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 2, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeLike the Prime Minister, I want to tell the naysayers against his proposal to house our Dominican brothers and sisters to shut up but for different reasons. I couldn’t see how decent men could speak of our neighbors as though they were aliens (“refugees”) who have no place in our land.

Dominicans ain’t no now come. They have participated in the making of this society. In 1814 there were 25,717 enslaved Africans in the island. Between 1813 and 1821 Trinidad received 3,800 enslaved Africans “of whom nearly 1,100 came from Dominica and nearly 1,200 from Grenada” (Eric Williams, History of the People of Trinidad and Tobago).
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Caribbean, Dominica, General T&T, Opposition Party, Parliament, PNM, Politics, UNC

Impugning The Integrity of the Parliament

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By Dr. Stephen Kangal
October 2, 2017

Stephen KangalThe time has come when the bifurcated national community must now say that they have had enough of indiscretions and mediocrity. Is this what we have to show after 55 years of statehood and political independence?

We must abandon our traditional tribal loyalties/ political moorings and arrest the frequency with which The Honourable Prime Minister, Dr Keith Rowley has been bringing T&T’s democracy and governance into odium and disrepute in the eyes of all of us and those watching us from the outside.
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Caribbean, Dominica, General T&T, Oil and Gas, PNM, Politics, Racism Watch, Recession

Public transportation a priority

2 Comments

By Raffique Shah
September 27, 2017

Raffique ShahI continue to focus on issues pertinent to the economy, to chastise the Keith Rowley-led administration for using the slump in the energy sector, hence plummeting government revenues, to moan and complain and blame for their inactivity, rather than being bold and innovative, grabbing opportunities that require little by way of capital investments, but which might yield rich returns.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

Rogues & Lumpens

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 24, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThe Oxford French Dictionary defines “mentalities,” as “the attitudes of a group of people toward the world and their conception of their place within it; the modes of thought, beliefs, morals, etc.” My colleague Barry Lygate of Wellesley College’s French Department reminds me “first and foremost, this plural is a sociological term in French.” There is “no single English equivalent to ‘mentalities.'”
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