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Africa, General T&T, Labour, Law, PNM, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch, UNC

Contradictions & Counterfactuals – Pt 2

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 13, 2018

“…a state could never have been born without surplus.” —Yanis Varoufakis

PART 1 — PART 2

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn the nineteenth century Trinidad saw the first massive giveaway of lands and bonuses to the Indians in lieu of their passages to India. Those options were never available to Africans. This was the first step in the systematic dispossession of Africans in the land to which they had been brought. Few of us seem to remember it.

Fast-forward to one hundred and thirty years (around the year 2003) when a PNM government engineered another massive giveaway of lands, which is taking place in front of our eyes under the faulty premise that Indians had the first preference because they farmed the lands. This was/is strange logic since these lands belong to all nationals.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Law, Politics

Mad, mad Trinidad

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By Raffique Shah
February 13, 2018

Raffique ShahWhen opposition and government parliamentarians jointly pursue any issue that seems to be of national importance, I become very suspicious. Recently, when they did in the instances of the passing of former President Max Richards and election of Justice Paula Mae Weekes to the presidency, I expressed my fears in this space. Now that they have unanimously appointed a special select committee of six MPs them to probe the fiasco that the appointment of a Commissioner of Police is turning out to be, I smell a rotting rat whose putrid stench permeates both political parties, some commissions and commissioners, and possibly holders of high office who are aiming to go higher and higher.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, Racism Watch

Contradictions and Counterfactuals

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 08, 2018

“…a state could never have been born without surplus.” —Yanis Varoufakis

PART 1

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeV. I. Lenin, revolutionary and philosopher, believed that contradictions are inherent in everything we do. He argued: “Dialectics in the proper sense is the study of contradictions in the very essence of objects.”

Consider this: At the same time a PNM government (read black government) gives out 14,492 acres of land to ex-Caroni Ltd., workers (mostly Indo-Trinidadians) at a cost of $5 billion (Guardian, January 27), Kamal Persad claims that over the last 48 years PNM’s policies and programs “were directed towards the advancement of the black supporters of the PNM. [Eric] Williams’s intention was to create a local black professional middle and upper class to effectively replace the whites” (Express, January 24).
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Law, Media

$$ FOR FB POSTS

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By Jada Loutoo
February 06, 2018 – newsday.co.tt

Justice Frank SeepersadSocial media users beware. You may have to pay if your posts are found to be defamatory. The warning came from Justice Frank Seepersad who yesterday ordered a woman who posted defamatory statements on Facebook, to compensate an entire family. She was sued after a series of post appeared on her page in 2016.
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Business, Carnival, Entertainment, General T&T, Music, Politics

Death of calypso tents

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By Raffique Shah
January 30, 2018

Raffique ShahThey looked pathetic, three of the leading calypsonians in the country—Chalkdust, Sugar Aloes and Pink Panther—as they begged the Government for a “mere half-a-million-dollars” to operate the Calypso Revue tent over the three-week Carnival season. Admitting that they had already received $100,000 funding that was woefully inadequate, the top bards invoked the name, memory and legacy of the great Lord Kitchener, who founded the Revue 55 years ago. For Kitchener’s sake, they pleaded, grant us the half-a-mil.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Murder, PNM, Politics

Abdicating One’s Responsibility

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 30, 2018

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI am a bit stunned—ashamed is a better word—that the prime minister admits his inability to combat the most existential problem that faces our country. The prime minister declares: “I have noted the number of murders taking place and being reported in the newspaper daily…. I am being held responsible when it is the police service that has the power and authority to go after the criminals.”
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General T&T, PNM, UNC

Bad omen for new President

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By Raffique Shah
January 24, 2018

Raffique ShahThe passing of former President Max Richards, coinciding as it did with the unanimous vote by parliamentarians to elect retired Justice Paula Mae Weekes as the first female and new President of the Republic, seems to have triggered a measure of hope among some citizens that the nation can be rescued from its downhill slide by the eminence of the Head of State.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, International, Iraq, Law, Syria, USA

Meeting the ISIS challenge head-on

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Trinidad Express
January 22, 2018 – trinidadexpress.com

Trini ISIS fightersTHERE ought to be no question that the authorities here must see the urgency of the need to establish effective safeguards for the preservation of national safety and security, with the return home of persons who were enlisted as members of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS).
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Africa, Gambia, General T&T, International, Passed on

In Tribute to John Campbell

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 23, 2018

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI met John Campbell around 1990. I had just finished writing my book on V. S. Naipaul and was beginning another manuscript on Trinidad and Tobago Intellectual Thought of the nineteenth century. I needed to hire some research assistants to assist me in my work. I asked the history department of the University of the West Indies (UWI) if it could assist me in this endeavor. This search yielded three wonderful assistants of whom John was one. This was my first contact with this brilliant and engaging young man with whom I had the pleasure of seeing about a week before he passed away.
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Finance, General T&T, Politics

Note to economic planners: put needs before greed

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By Raffique Shah
January 17, 2018

Raffique ShahDr Terrence Farrell’s resignation last week as chairman of the Government-appointed Economic Development Advisory Board brought into focus a long-simmering conflict between economists and business interests in one camp, more or less; the Government, which sees the economy primarily through the prism of political power, on the other; and trade unions and a disparate population that sense the near-violent instability of the ship of state and recognise the need for adjustments by all passengers on board, from captain to cook, but each one expecting the other, not him, to move.
Continue reading Note to economic planners: put needs before greed →