By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 14, 2023
Last Sunday, several local groups — including the Concerned Muslims of T&T, the Joint Trade Union Movement, the Movement for Social Justice, the Emancipation Support Committee and the Non-Governmental Organisations of T&T for the Advancement of Women — called upon the Government to cut diplomatic relations with Israel for its savage attack upon the Palestinian people.
Continue reading A quagmire of death and despair
By Raffique Shah
November 14, 2023
If someone had told me 50 years ago that I would endure, maybe even enjoy, 50 years of marital bliss, I might have forgiven his ignorance, or likelier ignored his backward thinking, and moved on with whatever I was doing.
In those days I considered myself a revolutionary in the image, if not likeness, of Che Guevara, and a flag-waver for the Age of Aquarius generation, both of which had sworn to destroy the “backward” institutions that had “expired” stamped all over them as the modern world trotted along, shedding the old, embracing the new. The 20th century was going to be a game changer, big time.
Continue reading My small, thin Trini wedding
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 06, 2023
I want to congratulate the Government for voting affirmatively on the UN General Assembly’s resolution on October 27 that called for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce” between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in Gaza. The resolution also called for “continuous, sufficient and unhindered” provision of lifesaving supplies and services for civilians trapped in the enclave.
Continue reading Acting in bad faith
By Raffique Shah
November 01, 2023
I know, I know: the words principles and politics hardly go together. They are more like an oxymoron. But fool that I am, until the day I breathe my last, I shall strive, in whatever way I can, to have politicians and their publics see the wisdom of insisting that they find ways, making principles an imperative for those who seek high public office, and for those who put them there.
Continue reading Principles in politics
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 31, 2023
When 85-year-old Israeli citizen Yocheved Lifshitz was released after spending 16 days as a Hamas hostage, she commented: “They didn’t break my ribs, but it hurt a lot, making it difficult to breathe.”
“Hamas,” she said, “took good care of the wounded,” referring to one person whose arm and legs were injured during their kidnapping (FT, October 25).
Continue reading Allow Palestinians to breathe
By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
October 24, 2023
As Americans have already celebrated Columbus Day, this article presents the real Afri-centric truth/analysis in regard to the so-called ‘Discovery’ of the West Indies/ New World by the Euro-centric historical criminal, Christopher Columbus — real name on his Spanish birth certificate is Cristobal Colon from whose surname are historically derived European systems such as Colonialism, Colonizer, Colonized and Colony.
Continue reading Christopher Columbus Exposed: HIS-STORY
By Raffique Shah
October 24, 2023
We know him only as Andre. Never asked for his surname, nickname or other identification marks or details, the way you might be tempted to scrutinise a banker before you deposit $100 in his sanitised surroundings, what with their propensity to magically make money disappear, according to recent media reports.
With Andre, what you see is what you get: a six-foot-plus whacker-man, walking erect almost with pride, one might say. With his weed-cutting equipment sloped on one arm, and his strides even, much like a soldier’s, one might see him any day in communities around Claxton Bay, where he lives.
Continue reading Andre, a walking exemplar
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 23, 2023
The following is a lecture delivered at the Pa Gya! A Literary Festival in Accra, Ghana.
First of all, I wish to thank the hosts of this marvelous festival for inviting me to participate in it and for allowing me to share my ideas of how literature, art, and culture have helped in understanding, achieving and reimagining the histories that link West Africa and the Caribbean. This is an enormous assignment. I will speak of how the West African culture, literature, and the arts helped to shape the identity of my Caribbean people. I will pay special attention to what transpired in Trinidad and Tobago, and then relate those experiences to the larger whole.
Continue reading Art and culture in West Africa and the Caribbean