By Stephen Kangal
August 06, 2017
There can be at least three reactions to the question of lumping Indians and Africans together by Sir Hilary Beckles for advancing his money-based regional CARICOMesse reparations agenda:
1. One cannot trust Afro-Caribbean intellectuals to sincerely look after the interests of Caribbean Indians after they have been excluded in the first instance by CARICOM.
Continue reading Timeo Beckles et Dona Ferentes
By Corey Gilkes
August 01, 2017
No, I haven’t gone completely mad, just thought I’d try to grab your attention and so make you understand the importance of understanding what power words have.
Today is Emancipation Day, celebrating the ending of the enslavement of African people. You will hear the usual platitudes and speeches about how great we are and how we “broke the shackles of slavery”….and so on. Now as cynical as I’m sounding, those are important words to hear. So too are the sights of people walking around dressed in African or African-inspired attire, all that is praiseworthy.
Continue reading MOST OF US ARE ALREADY EMANCIPATED, UNFORTUNATELY
By Raffique Shah
August 02, 2017
I declared a personal health crisis at 2 a.m. two Wednesdays ago, informing my family that I needed to be taken to a hospital for emergency treatment for possible pneumonia or threat thereof.
On the previous Saturday, I had awakened with a severe sore throat, and within hours other symptoms of a nasty virus that’s making the rounds manifested themselves. By Monday, I was wheezing like an ancient farm tractor and every part of my body ached, I realised that my carefully-built and well-maintained defences, based on diet, supplements such as Echinacea and vitamin C, and daily exercise, had been breached by those dreadful bad bacteria for the first time in more than a decade.
Continue reading Why I chose a private hospital
By Sean Douglas
August 01, 2017 – newsday.co.tt
PRESIDENT Anthony Carmona yesterday publicly supported a call to have European governments, whose countries benefited from slavery in the West Indies, to pay reparations to the descendants of African slaves.
In his Emancipation Day message, Carmona said TT should support the efforts of Caricom governments as expressed by Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies and Chairman of the Caricom Reparations Commission, in an address to the British House of Commons on July 16, 2014.
Continue reading President Anthony Carmona: Pay for slavery
By Marlene Augustine
July 31, 2017 – newsday.co.tt
THOSE in leadership positions need to do more to wean citizens off of an acute dependence on State assistance, former Minister in the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts Dr Lincoln Douglas said yesterday.
Continue reading Dependency syndrome must end
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 31, 2017
Last Sunday, Jonathan Fenby, author of The General: Charles de Gaulle, suggested that Emmanuel Macron, President of France, was following closely in the footsteps of Charles de Gaulle, founder of the Fifth Republic, by using his office with the same majesty, grandeur, and decorum that de Gaulle did. He clarified: “Both are (or were) very well read, formally courteous and with an attention to detail. Though not as rousing an orator as the general, Mr. Macron uses speeches, as his predecessor of a half a century ago did, as instruments of pedagogy, notably with his address last weekend on the 75th anniversary of the round-up of Jews in Paris, when he did not hesitate to criticize de Gaulle by name for the pretense that the French authorities were not responsible” (Financial Times, July 22).
Continue reading Keith Rowley’s Glorious Moment
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 24, 2017
For the past seven years the two Ks (Kamla and Keith) have ruled the land. On Tuesday they introduced two other “Ks” to the unsavory mix: Kamauflage, another kamikaze-like maneuver designed to hoodwink our people. Basdeo Panday, characterizes their approach as “playing smart with chupidness.” One could also use the French aphorism to describe their carryings-on: plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose: the more things change, the more they remain the same.
Continue reading The Four Ks of Our Destruction
By Stephen Kangal
July 20, 2017
The last minute submission/alibi by SC Deborah Peake to the San Fernando High Court presided over by Mr Justice Frank Seepersad on May 19 that the valuation exercise was voluntary was indeed rejected as unconvincing and inadmissible by the Judge who proceeded to grant the injunction requested.
Continue reading Was the Valuation of Property Scheme Really Voluntary?
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 16, 2017
PART 2
The Anti-Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa, offers an excellent exhibition on the life of Nelson Mandela, the most recognizable person of the twenty-first century. On one of the walls there is a quotation that is attributed to Aristotle, the Greek philosopher. It reads: “Good moral character is not something that we can achieve on our own. We need a culture that supports the condition under which self-love and friendship can flourish.”
Continue reading Long Walk to Freedom – Part 2
By Raffique Shah
July 12, 2017
And we wonder why, in this land of plenty, we are seeing increasing numbers of young delinquents who invariably, in their middle to latter years, become dependent on the State for all their needs and much of their wants, some of them turning to crime as a rewarding enterprise that is the safest route to garnering, maybe amassing, wealth, faring better than their contemporaries who burnt the proverbial midnight oil, who sacrificed and struggled to earn an education they believed would equip them for life.
Continue reading Lost generations amidst free education