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General T&T

First Nations Peoples: Historical Facts

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By Dr Kwame Nantambu
December 06, 2022

Dr. Kwame NantambuWithin recent times, there has been much public talk/discussion in regard to the establishment/.erection of a museum to be dedicated to the First Nations Peoples of this country.

No problema!

However, at the outset, it must be clarified quite equivocally that our First Nations Peoples NEVER called themselves Amerindians , period and full stop. The historical fact of the matter is that the indigenous/original peoples of the Caribbean were known as Kalinagos/Kalinas and Lokonos/Tainos later to be called Amerindians of the North and South American mainland.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Law, PNM, Police

A case of narcissistic sycophancy

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
Submitted: December 04, 2022
Posted: December 06, 2022

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeBy the time you read this column, the Hon Keith Rowley will have been re-elected leader of the PNM by as much as about 75 to 80 per cent of the vote. In so doing, party members have placed their seal of endorsement on everything he has done, thereby taking full responsibility for the downward spiral in which the country finds itself. On the very weekend in which he is elected leader of the party, we will be witnessing a record number of homicides in the country.
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Flooding, General T&T, Politics

A Flood of ‘Dotish’ Talk

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By Raffique Shah
December 05, 2022

Raffique ShahIf you know the Caroni River basin fairly well, and you are familiar with the Caroni River, if you have seen it overflow its banks after, say, two days of torrential rainfall, you will have seen floods spread rapidly, inundating everything along its banks for miles. Ever since I came of age and a rode a bicycle, and later acquired a motor vehicle, I have had many encounters with the flood waters of the Caroni, starting with cycling through Madras Road when the water was maybe eighteen inches high, which was challenging, but nevertheless something of a thrill for us boys, to driving through Kelly, St Helena and Piarco villages, having to skilfully use one foot on the vehicle’s accelerator to keep the exhaust functioning, and another on the brake pedal to control its speed.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics

A sacrificial lamb

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 28, 2022

“Little lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee,
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed
By the stream and o’er the mead…”

—William Blake, “The Lamb”

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeTwo weeks ago I spoke about the incivility in our political culture and the need to refrain from making savage attacks against one another. Many people responded favourably to my article. Richard de Lima, writing from Ontario, Canada, observed: “I have been reading your columns in the Express several years, which though always informative, sometimes stimulating, and often entertaining, have not prompted me to write you before. On this occasion, I feel obliged to extend my compliments to you on the penetrating remarks made about the conduct of PNM ministers and other senior party officials in regard to challengers for various positions in the forthcoming party elections.
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General T&T, International, Sports

Enjoying the World Cup

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By Raffique Shah
November 28, 2022

Raffique ShahAs the football World Cup tournament kicked off last week, igniting a global epidemic of “football fever” which strikes once every four years, your humble scribe duly fell in line with the billion-plus people viewing via their local television networks.

Now, I must declare that I am no “football peong”, a fanatic who cannot miss a crucial game in any of the many league matches, especially those played in Europe, where giants of the sport, from owners of clubs who eat, drink and sleep football, to star players who are traded like commodities, many of them valued at millions of dollars, which tells me that this “beautiful sport” is more about money than sport, which I bear in mind as I watch the games.
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General T&T, Law, Murder, Police, Security

A Radical Thought on Crime

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By Raffique Shah
November 21, 2022

Raffique ShahActing Commissioner of Police McDonald Jacob has been in the Service for too many years, and served at the executive level for far too long to fall for the trick of announcing yet another anti-crime initiative in a bid to halt the near hysteria emanating from the population over the five-to-ten murders a day. He is experienced enough to know that nothing short of a significant drop in the murder rate will ease the burden of his minister breathing down his neck, the opposition politicians lampooning him and deep frustration among his subordinate officers making his life very uncomfortable.
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Caribbean, General T&T, Guyana, Oil and Gas, Venezuela

Venezuela Clinging at Legal Straws to Delay the ICJ Arbitration with Guyana

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By Stephen Kangal
November 21, 2022

Stephen KangalGuyana, by the internationally accepted law and principle of state succession today and as an independent state member of the UN/OAS has total authority, sovereignty and exclusive jurisdiction and control above (air space), beyond (maritime) and below (subsoil) the current state of Guyana formerly British Guiana by an Independence Agreement concluded by GB/UK and British Guiana effective from the date of the latter’s independence in 1966.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, PNM, Politics

No place to hide

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 14, 2022

“There’s no hidin’ place up there,
Oh, I went to the hills to hide my face,
The hills cried out, ‘No hidin’ place;
There’s no hidin’ place up here.”

—An Afro-American spiritual

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThings have been warming up (or deteriorating) lately in the political arena among those who see others as pothounds; those who consider themselves as thoroughbreds; and those who accuse challengers of the established order as possessing sinister motives.

Stuart Young, Minister of Energy, demeaned PNM members who offered themselves for leadership positions in the party’s forthcoming elections. He claimed that since 2015, some of them have done nothing but criti­cise the party leaders “like little pothounds barking at our ankles as though they are the opposition and now they want to put themselves forward and call themselves firstly PNM members and then secondly want to be PNM leaders”.
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General T&T

…And we will remember them

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By Raffique Shah
November 14, 2022

Raffique ShahHe would turn up at one of the three army camps we had in those days—Teteron, Ogden or Union Hall. His kit, such as they could be so considered—sometimes a tunic worn past its expiry date, other times a plain shirt, both items looking as though they were specially laundered for that important day; trousers neat with seams; footwear that he’d somehow acquired that resembled drill boots, likelier “washikongs”; and most importantly, his facial hair and features groomed to perfection.
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