All posts by News

Africa, Books, General T&T

An ideologue’s pirouette

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 07, 2024

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn his address to the nation on African Emancipation Day, the Leader of our Grief called upon his distraught citizens to focus on Afro-Trinbagonians who have made outstanding contributions at home and abroad.

He urged the universities of the West Indies, of Trinidad and Tobago, and the Southern Caribbean “to research further, then highlight and promote the African heritage in the country’s art, literature, music, religion, drama, fashion, cuisine, technical and empirical skills”. (Express, August 1, 2024.)
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Culture, General T&T

Hear ye; hair ye: listen and be enlightened

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 31, 2024

Part II

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThe Council meeting began shortly after noon on October 1, 1849. Charles Warner, the attorney general, moved that the Board go into committee to give further consideration to the Gaol Regulations. He also informed the Council members that Governor Harris had received a delegation of citizens prior to the meeting and he assured them that he would alter the offending clause to which they objected.
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General T&T, Passed on

Passing of a beautiful soul

By Raffique Shah
July 31, 2024

Raffique ShahOn July 18 I lost my life partner, the woman whose beautiful face was the first thing I saw when I awoke, and the last thing I saw as I drifted off to sleep at nights. I must have had a hard day the day before, because for some reason on the morning she passed, I was lying next to her between sleep and wake, as close relatives of hers drifted in and out of our room, praying for her in between sobs and whispered words. If the last few weeks have been tough on my family, the last few days leading up to her death and funeral were sheer torture.
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Africa, Education, General T&T, Schools

Hear ye; hair ye: listen and be enlightened

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 24, 2024

Part I

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI wanted to add my two cents to Oke Zachary’s comments about educators freeing themselves from mental slavery as it related to the SDA dragging two students from their graduation because they cornrowed their hair (Express, July 14).

Zachary gave us an informative history lesson about the important role that hair plays in the lives of African people. He started with Bob Marley who had one of “the nappiest dreadlocks” and worked his way back to the inception of the cornrow style in 3,500 BCE before going to China “with the staircase braid from 1644 straight to the Caribbean with modern cornrows from the 1970s”.
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Crime in T&T, Education, General T&T

Discoursing about crime and education

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 17, 2024

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeJust think of the contradictions. One opens the Express of Tuesday, July 9, and is greeted with the blood-splattered headline “Bloody Monday”. Then comes the sub-headline: “Triple murder rocks Tobago” and “Carlsen Field home invasion: son killed, father critical”.

One then ventures to page three and the horror of the crimes: “Hangings must resume in this country. So said a relative of Anslem Douglas, one of the three murder victims shot multiple times on Sunday night. The triple murder, the first of its kind to rock the island, took Tobago’s 2024 murder toll to 15, one more than the whole of 2023.”
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Caribbean, General T&T, Guyana

All praise for President Irfaan Ali

By Raffique Shah
July 17, 2024

Raffique ShahIt did not take me long last Friday night to switch gears, in a manner of writing, and focus this column on a politician to whom I owe at least an apology, Guyana President Dr Irfaan Ali. If he does get around to reading this, he will wonder why an apology from me: I haven’t written or said anything about this young man ever since he came to office in November 2020, and with good reason.
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General T&T, International

As the world turns

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 10, 2024

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOn June 25, 2016, I wrote in this space: “Nine days ago when I arrived in London I had hoped the UK (United Kingdom) would remain within the European Union… There was some nostalgia there but my wish wasn’t to be…

“Xenophobia won out in the end although there were other concerns. There was the split between the metropolitan heartland and country; the disconnect between the elites and the masses; those who saw themselves as global citizens and those who prized the bulldog, isolationist identity and more conservative England.”
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Crime in T&T, General T&T

I feel defeated

By Raffique Shah
July 10, 2024

Raffique ShahIt bothers me that I woke up from a sleep that was not exactly restful, scanned the early-morning television programmes, switched to international news, saw Britain’s new Prime Minister make his way into 10 Downing Street and I didn’t even know his name. I didn’t know how his Labour Party came to win the election, and what worries me most is that I don’t care. In fact, for much of this year, governments have changed in a manner that should have meant something to the people, if not directly to us in little Trinidad and Tobago, but that too didn’t mean a thing to me.
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General T&T, Politics, UNC

Snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 02, 2024

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeMonths ago I wrote of the United National Congress’ ability to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. I saw this tendency played out in 1976 when the United Labour Front (ULF) was projected to win the election until its inglorious march from Arima to Port of Spain on the Saturday prior to the poll. I stood at the corner of Caura Royal Road and the Eastern Main Road in El Dorado when the march passed through on its way to Port of Spain. “What they didn’t say about Black People is what they didn’t know.” Such a misstep led to its defeat.
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General T&T, Trade Unions

Ivan, not so terrible

By Raffique Shah
July 02, 2024

Raffique ShahEarlier this month, I became nostalgic over Labour Day celebrations in Fyzabad. The date and venue are etched together in spirit and in history; hence the reason why the 30-or-so times I attended, marched and even spoke on the platform, it was only at Fyzabad. That position was held by the radical unions.

Many of the North-based unions that openly supported the parties in power avoided Fyzabad for several years after the town had stamped its name with authority as the only venue that made sense. They would conveniently return to their headquarters when its significance was acknowledged by all, especially schoolchildren who were now learning that aspect of the country’s history.
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