Category Archives: India

Culture, General T&T, India, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity

Connecting our Foreign Policy with the Diaspora

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By Stephen Kangal
October 21, 2010

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-BissessarPrime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar and her itinerant Foreign Minister Suruj Rambachan have both been extolling the important benefits of establishing closer functional links with our diaspora based in metropolitan Caribbean enclaves in North America and Europe as the rationale for radically reforming the priorities of our foreign policy. In fact both now have a shared political/administrative responsibility for the conceptualization and conduct of our foreign policy.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, India, International, Law, Media, People's Partnership, Politics, UNC, USA

Ish and Steve to be extradited to the US

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By Nalinee Seelal and Corey Connelly
October 10 2010 – newsday.co.tt

Ishwar Galbaransingh and Steve FergusonAfter weeks of speculation, Attorney General Anand Ramlogan yesterday signed an extradition order granting the United States Government the permission to extradite businessmen Steve Ferguson and Ishwar Galbaransingh to the United States to answer fraud charges.
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General T&T, India, International, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity

The Sun Also Rises

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 18, 2010

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-BissessarWhen Kamla Persad Bissessar took her oath of office she swore on the Bhagavad Gita, one of the holiest scripts of the Hindus. As a Yoruba man, I am not as acquainted with the Gita as I should but true to my bifurcated beginning I was taught something about the Holy Bible. I like the King James Version of the Bible and receive great spiritual sustenance there from.
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Africa, General T&T, India, Letters, Race and Identity

Emancipation 2010: ‘Ganges and the Nile’?

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EmancipationTHE EDITOR: Possible points of confluence, and of departure between the ‘Ganges and the Nile’?

As Emancipation, T&T ’10 approaches, and considering possible choices for ongoing nationhood, three prescient thinkers, one in each of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, are worth citing. One is William Faulkner, the Nobel prize-winning American author; the other, George Santayana, the 19th century Spanish philosopher; and T&T’s David Rudder.
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corruption, India, International, Law

Myth of all men created equal

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By Raffique Shah
June 27, 2010

Oil SpillTWO weeks ago in India, seven local managers who worked with Union Carbide at its Bhopal plant in 1984 were sentenced to two years imprisonment and each fined US$2,100. There was outrage outside the Delhi court, and understandably so. Those of us who recall that night of horror that was followed by years of additional pain, deaths, disfiguration and death-dealing afflictions, will never forget it. The Bhopal disaster proved that all men (and women) are not created equal. In death, they are even more unequal.
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corruption, Crime in T&T, General T&T, India, International, Law, People's Partnership, Politics, UNC

Ish and Steve refused bail again

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UPDATE: JULY 16, 2010

Ishwar Galbaransingh and Steve FergusonSir Ellis: Inconsistency in extradition attempts
In the matter referenced above (The United States of America vs Steve Ferguson and Ishwar Galbaransingh), my advice is sought on the merits of representations submitted to the Attorney General on the 21st of June, 2010 on behalf of Steve Ferguson and Ishwar Galbaransingh…
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Culture, Entertainment, General T&T, India, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, UNC

Ministry of Multiculturalism

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Secretary General of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, Satnarayan Maharaj
Secretary General of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, Satnarayan Maharaj (Photo: Phagwa celebrations 2010)
Look to Canada for help

By Sat Maharaj
Jun 03, 2010 – guardian.co.tt

For a number of years the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha has been advocating that the Ministry of Culture be renamed the Ministry of Multiculturalism with all the attendant policy changes. On May 28, at the SDMS Indian Arrival Day dinner at the Centre of Excellence, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced that she heard the Maha Sabha’s call and that the Ministry of Arts and Culture would be renamed the Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism. We have always advocated the culture of a country in the spontaneous expressions of the people and that the State has no business in culture except as a facilitator. The State must not decide which of the various cultures of our land should receive enhanced funding and which shouldn’t. Political affiliation and support must not be the measure of state support.
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COP, Elections, General T&T, India, NJAC, People's Partnership, PNM, Race and Identity, UNC

‘Dashiki’ Silence Disappointing

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National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) leader Makandal Daaga
NJAC leader Makandal Daaga
As an Indo-Trinidadian, I was amazed to hear Mr. Manning speaking ill of the African dashiki on his platform almost a week ago (“Kamla surrounded by strong, dangerous men, says Manning” – Express, April 23). To hear an esteemed Afro-Trinidadian belittling a garment that is culturally identified with my African brothers and sisters is parallel to Mr. Panday admonishing me for consuming doubles. It is a new depth when we as a people are so bent on denigrating other races and ethnicities that we mistakenly miss the boat and begin to attack our very own as Mr. Manning, without thinking has done.
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Culture, Gender, India, PNM, Politics, Race and Identity, UNC

Well a Woman is Almost There

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So wha bout the politics now?

By Corey Gilkes
March 02, 2010
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Kamla Persad-BissessarOn the 24th January an interesting but not unexpected shift in the politics occurred when Kamla Persad-Bissessar was voted in as political leader of the United National Congress dethroning the charismatic veteran leader and founder of the party, Basdeo Panday. This paved the way for her being sworn in as Leader of the Opposition on the 25th February. Kamla’s victory is significant in more ways than one. For well over fifty years there have been women figuring in one way or another in the political world of Trinidad and Tobago. Significant strides have been made by such figures as Audrey Jeffers, Gertrude Kirton, Muriel Donawa-McDavidson and Jean Pierre, to name but a few and while in the past there have been women appointed by the Prime Minister to function in his capacity in his absence, never before have we seen a woman elected to lead a political party with the likelihood that she may also be elected as the country’s next Prime Minister.
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