Category Archives: Race and Identity

General T&T, India, Law, Opposition Party, Parliament, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity, Security

President Revokes Nizam’s Appointment

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The following is a press release from the Office of the President.

President George Maxwell Richards
President George Maxwell Richards

THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
TRINIDAD
REPUBLIC OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

In the matter of the Constitution and of the Revocation of the Appointment of the Chairman of the Police Service Commission, as Chairman & Member.

His Excellency GEORGE MAXWELL RICHARDS, T.C., C.M.T., Ph.D., President advises that he has, with immediate effect revoked the appointment of Mr. Nizam Mohammed as Chairman and member of the Police Service Commission.
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General T&T, Law, Media, Politics, Race and Identity, Security

Accounting for imbalances

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By Raffique Shah
April 02, 2011

Raffique Shah“PA, ah joining the Regiment,” I announced, rather casually. “Whaaaaat?” my father Haniff screamed, Anil-like. “The Regiment? You mad! What you joinin’ as?” he probed. He had known something about rank because I had been a member of the Cadet Force when I attended college.
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Africa, General T&T, India, Politics, Race and Identity

Nizam’s Conspiratorial Theories

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Why Nizam Must Go

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 31, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOn January 20th, 2011 I wrote an article entitled, “Mother Trinidad and Tobago” in which I strongly rejected the People’s Partnership’s position on multiculturalism. I emphasized that Dr. Williams’ cultural policy as enunciated in his “Mother Trinidad and Tobago Speech” seemed a better position from which to base a national cultural policy rather than the nebulous, ill-informed multicultural thrust that the PP adopted. On January 20th I received the following response from Nizam Mohammed:
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General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics, Protest, Race and Identity

Listen to Mohammed’s message, not the messenger

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By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
March 30, 2011

Dr. Kwame NantambuIt has been a rather perplexing and strange experience to follow the national chorus of prominent citizens’ adamant position that President George Maxwell Richards should remove Nizam Mohammed as chairman of the PSC.

Their rationale for his revocation is the comment he made before Parliament’s JSC. Mr. Nizam Mohammed told the JSC and by extension, the national community that:
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General T&T, Politics, Race and Identity, Security

‘Too many Africans in Police Service’

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Race talk hampering Police Service

By Clint Chan Tack
March 26, 2011 – newsday.co.tt

Nizam MohammedTHE ability of the Police Service to win the support of the population in the war against crime in the country is being hampered by the perception of ethnic imbalance within the service.

Police Service Commission (PSC) chairman Nizam Mohammed made this charge as members of the commission met yesterday with the Municipal and Service Commissions joint select committee (JSC) in the Parliament Chamber of the Red House.
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Africa, General T&T, Race and Identity

The Souls of Black Folk

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 24, 2011

Part 1 – Part 2

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOn Thursday and Friday last week (March 17 and 18) I delivered two lectures at Albany State University, one of the three historically black colleges and universities in the University of Georgia system, in their International Studies Series. Albany, one of the most important sites of the civil rights struggles in the 1960s, is also the birth place of Ray Charles which explains the deep emotions with which he sings “Georgia on My Mind,” Georgia’s state song.
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Culture, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity

The Limitations of Multiculturalism – Part III

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By Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 02, 2011

Part I – Part II – Part III

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeAny society that aspires to be a cohesive national entity must be willing to accept all of its history; not just parts of it. And herein lies a problem that no multiculturalism in Trindiad and Tobago can fix: that is, a proper estimation and acceptance of Dr. Eric Williams’ role in our national development. It is precisely the inability of most of our Indian population to accept the totality of our history and the heterogeneous nature of our origins that prevent them from acknowledging Dr. Williams’ status as the father of our nation.
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Gender, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity, Security

Playing the Race Card

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 23, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeJack Warner is the last person I thought would play the race card but then as my mother says, “You never know.” Here is Kamla and the PP getting their licks because they don’t know their ears from their navels but all Jack could say when workers use the democratic tools to protect their interests is they are targeting Kamla because she is an “East Indian woman.” It is strange that Kamla’s East Indianness never came up when she was running for the election nor, for that matter, was her gender seen in a negative light. In fact her being a Hindu woman seemed an asset given the place that women hold in the hierarchical structure of Hinduism.
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Culture, General T&T, India, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, Race and Identity

Ravages of Ethno-Nationalism

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By Stephen Kangal
February 21, 2011

Stephen KangalAfter 49 years of an ethno-nationalism-based and driven Independence and four distinct nationalist-leaning regimes what is the prevailing status quo on cross- cultural relations/diversity management that now impels us in T&T to want to chart a new culturally-sensitive and responsive way forward (multiculturalism) instead of continuing along the unjust and hitherto ethno-nationalism-paved track?
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Culture, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity

The Limitations of Multiculturalism – Part II

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By Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 16, 2011

Part I – Part II – Part III

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeSome of us, including yours truly, have been speaking about a national cultural policy long before Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar announced her preference for a multicultural approach to the issue. In 1962 Dr. Eric Williams set the ball rolling with his “Mother Trinidad and Tobago Speech” which could be interpreted as a response to Lord Harris’s 1848 declaration that “a race has been freed, but a society has not been formed.”
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