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General T&T, PNM, Politics

Talk to me

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By Raffique Shah
October 10, 2022

Raffique ShahThis race, Karen (Nunez-Tesheira), is not for leadership of The People’s National Movement. It is for leadership of the country, the nation. It requires someone of stature and fortitude who can take Trinidad and Tobago by the scruff of its neck or other body parts, shake the masses into facing the reality that we can work our way out of the deep hole we have dug ourselves into, and from which we can clamber out only if we stand shoulder to shoulder and use our collective strength.
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General T&T

Celebrating the 46th Anniversary of the Republic Day, T&T

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An Address to the Trinidad & Tobago Association of Washington, D.C., October 2, 2022 by Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI am pleased that your president, Nigel Scott, has invited me to address you on the 46th Anniversary of our Republic even though I prefer to see the evolution of our political independent life beginning in 1962. In this context, I would also like to pay my respects to H. E. Brigadier General Anthony W. J. Phillips-Spence, Ambassador Extraordinaire and Plenipotentiary, Embassy of Trinidad and Tobago in Washington, D.C. What I am sure that your president did not tell you is that in 1962 both of us were invited by Dr. Eric Williams, Premier of Trinidad and Tobago, to attend a three-day meeting at Queen’s Hall, Port of Spain, to discuss a draft of the first Independence constitution. The meeting took place from April 25-27, 1962. The invitation read in part:
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General T&T

Out of the cane fields of Tacarigua

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 03, 2022

“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to always remain a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history.”

—Marcus Tullius Cicero

PART I

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI want to congratulate Ulric “Buggy” Haynes, a recipient of a Hummingbird Medal. Not only is Buggy deserving of this award, but it’s the kind of story we need to tell our children about the heights great men have reached and kept. His is part of a larger story of community that the Ministry of Sport and Community Development (S&CD) should keep in mind.
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General T&T

MPs must tackle traffic woes

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By Raffique Shah
October 03, 2022

Raffique ShahWhen elephants fight, the grass gets trampled. So goes an adage that hardly adds to anything that enhances the English language, but it hammers home the class and other stratifications of most societies, oftentimes not even knowing that the ordinary people have accepted their places or ranks, their fates, as if they were ordained by God, and cannot, must not, be tampered with by mere mortals.
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Africa, General T&T, Passed on

Rituals of grief

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 26, 2022

“The glories of our blood and state, Are shadows, not substantial things; There is no armour against fate, Death lays his icy hands on kings. Sceptre and crown must tumble down, And, in the dust, be equal made with the poor crooked scythe and spade.”

—James Shirley

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI didn’t expect to spend so much time looking at the funeral of Elizabeth II. I was intrigued by the spectacle made of death (a display put on for its visual effect and impact) and the ritual of grief (a solemn ceremony performed according to a prescribed order) that was enacted before millions of people.

It took 20 years of planning to stage this event. It was the responsibility of Edward Fitzalan-Howard, who inherited the role of Earl Marshal of England when his father died in 2002. He “descended from the same family that has planned royal funerals and coronations since 1672”. He takes his responsibility seriously. He did not earn a cent for the tireless work he did for the Queen’s funeral.
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General T&T, Violence

Only two choices

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By Raffique Shah
September 26, 2022

Raffique ShahOne of these not-so-good days, when the good citizens in this nation have had it up to their throats with the thugs who are turning this once-peaceful country into the killing fields of the Caribbean, if not the murder and mayhem capital of the world, they will rise up like the mythical crimson tide with a fury they didn’t think they possessed, to reclaim the slice of paradise they once owned and enjoyed from the mindless criminals who have made Trini­dad and Tobago a living hell, something the population will never accept as the norm.
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Africa, Britain, England, General T&T, Violence

Deluded Children of Empire

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 19, 2022

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOn a sunny day in February of 1952 I was an eight-year-old schoolboy made to attend a memorial service for King George VI, the father of the late Elizabeth II. On that day I remembered the “Taps” played by the Police Band or the Tacarigua Orphan Home Band, as the bugles rattled through the bamboos on the banks of the Tacarigua River that flowed on the western side of the church.
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General T&T, Politics

Fight, not cry for our beloved country

By Raffique Shah
September 19, 2022

Raffique ShahI cried for my country on the eve of Republic Day celebrations, this one marking the 47th year as a sovereign state. That graduation of sorts removed the Queen of England as our Head of State—a contradiction so many former British colonies cling to long after they became independent.

We did, too, but opted to shed the colonial shawl in 1976. Still, we retained a critical umbilical cord that leaves us clinging to Mother England, to the Privy Council as our final court of appeal. If that sounds jokey, think about the embarrassment that we have lived with for so many years.
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Carnival, General T&T

Look-Me! A Reclamation of Self

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 12, 2022

PART II

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeStaged events such as “Stink & Dutty” are nothing more than a reflection of the carnivalesque, a mode of cultural and social production that attempts to subvert the assumptions of the dominant class.

The patrons or masqueraders always try to accomplish their desired goals through an enactment of chaos and in-your-face daring. In the process, they seek to stretch the limits of received traditions to discover a new sense of authenticity.
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England, General T&T, Passed on, UK

The Queen and I

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By Raffique Shah
September 12, 2022

Raffique ShahIt’s incomprehensible that I, whose generation had every reason to dislike the British monarchy and wish for its early demise and for it to be replaced by something more modern, early in my life, became indifferent to the Windsors’ lingering presence as a symbol of Britain’s once inordinate prowess, and more than that, one woman’s mesmerising presence that defied all odds for almost 100 years.
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