By Raffique Shah
April 16, 2017
Let it be clear that I am not joining any chorus of condemnation of OWTU president-general Ancel Rouget for his remark on bpTT’s decision to have its Angelin gas platform fabricated outside of Trinidad & Tobago, “Take your rig and go!” As a former unionist, I fully understand and accept sloganeering, bravado, and even outrageous statements as legitimate tools of the trade.
Continue reading A Challenge for Comrade Roget
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 10, 2017
PART 1 – PART 2 – PART 3 – PART 4
I don’t know where Keith Rowley, Colm Imbert, Stuart Young, Rohan Sinanan, Kazin Hosein, Faris Al-Rawi, Camile Regis-Robinson, Franklin Khan and Fitzgerald Hines were on April 22, 1960, but I was in Woodford Square when Dr. Eric Williams, in the presence of thousands of Trinbagonians, burned “the seven deadly sins of colonialism.” As he dropped each document (including the constitutions of Trinidad and Tobago and the West Indies, the 1941 UK-US Chaguaramas Agreement, and a Democratic Labor Party statement on race) into an open fire near to the bandstand, he declared: “I consign it to the flames…to hell with it.”
Continue reading The Great Betrayal – Part 1
By Raffique Shah
April 08, 2017
In case you have not noticed, Trinidad and Tobago is gripped by war. Maybe I should rephrase that: there are several wars raging across the country. I wish I could say “civil war”, But there is nothing civil in the barbaric rules of engagement that seem to allow for one side to catch the other off-side and blaze them with bullets, only to have shooters from the home side exact revenge when the opportunity arises.
Continue reading Dillon must win the war—or surrender
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 05, 2017
On Monday I attended the funeral services of Rochelle St. Louise, the granddaughter of Ulric “Buggie” Hayes, a districker, as the people of Tacarigua call themselves. The ceremony was held at the Arouca R.C. Church. At about 11:15 am I left the service, traveling in a Breeze Maxi from Arouca to Port of Spain. I am in the front seat of the maxi. I ask the driver the obvious question, “How yo’ tink de government going, man?”
Continue reading Views from a Breeze Maxi
By Stephen Kangal
April 05, 2017
When the The Honourable Attorney General Faris Al Rawi tabled for approval by the House the Report of the EBC/Presidential Draft Order to legalise the package of measures for the holding of the THA Elections in January 2017 citizens saw that a 48,000 THA electorate albeit many absentees were gifted with 12 seats of assemblymen. This formula was deemed a successful and equitable model for Local Government by the PNM in Tobago with 3600 to 4500 electors per seat.
Continue reading Curbing The Tobagonian Apetite for Governance
By Raffique Shah
April 01, 2017
Permit me to quote from a column I wrote in June last year. It is the first time I’m taking this liberty, but I feel compelled to so do, and I think readers will understand why as I proceed.
I wrote then, “When constitutionally-independent institutions in the country seem to be collapsing…and when the law proves to be the proverbial ass, then, Trinidad and Tobago, we have a problem…a very serious problem.
Continue reading Oh, what a country!
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 27, 2017
Whenever a significant occasion arises, Kamla, in her ethnic enthusiasm, always muddles things up. When she was elected in 2010 she declared that the “hostile recalcitrant minority,” an observation that Dr. Williams made, had become the government of the country. I have argued previously that Dr. Williams was speaking about the behavior of a small segment within the Democratic Labor Party, but this fact has never interfered with the ethnic narrative of discrimination that some of our Indian leaders continue to propagate.
Continue reading Getting It Right
By Stephen Kangal
March 22, 2017
All Caribbean peoples living at home and in the diaspora will exult with their mainland Guyanese counterparts over the successful 100,000 bpd discoveries of oil by Exxon Mobil off-shore of Guyana. The sub-regional oil balance will be tilted in favour of Guyana. T&T’s 100-year exploitation of oil and the current sub-regional supply monopoly is in steady decline. It was only aggravated by the Petro-Caribe initiative of former Venezuelan President Chavez targeted on Caricom countries former markets of Petrotrin totaling 60,000 bpd.
Continue reading Guyana on the Brink of an Oil Bonanza
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 20, 2017
This is not a criticism against Edmund Dillon, Minister of National Security, or the present government. It is more an attempt to place a finger on what the recent murders are doing to our national psyche, how they are affecting our emotional state and damaging our self-conception.
Continue reading Brutifying Our Sensibilities
By Raffique Shah
March 13, 2017
Many friends, relatives, even family members seem intent on having me “make ah jail” in my winter years: they are pleading with me to use marijuana! It’s not that they want to see me in a ganja-stupor or they will take delight in seeing armed cops swoop down on the geezer and whisk me off to some dank, putrid cell.
No. They want me to use marijuana for medicinal purposes, specifically, to reduce, probably eliminate, the debilitating symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) with which I have been afflicted for at least five years. Like me, they have watched videos and read of studies and trials conducted by scientists on the use of cannabis in successfully treating PD patients.
Continue reading Legalise it!