Category Archives: Caribbean

Caribbean, General T&T, International, Spain

To be or not to be a national hero

4 Comments

By Dr Kwame Nantambu
December 22, 2022

Dr. Kwame NantambuAs a new year approaches, it is indeed a sine qua non to delve deeper into history in order to ascertain what it really takes to be a real national hero of T&T. At the outset, a review of the literature indicates that one of the most fundamental, basic inherent qualities/criteria of any nation’s hero is that person’s overt ability to be a dynamic, forceful agent for radical, structural, even violent change in an imposed oppressive system.
Continue reading To be or not to be a national hero →

Caribbean, General T&T, Guyana, Oil and Gas, Venezuela

Venezuela Clinging at Legal Straws to Delay the ICJ Arbitration with Guyana

4 Comments

By Stephen Kangal
November 21, 2022

Stephen KangalGuyana, by the internationally accepted law and principle of state succession today and as an independent state member of the UN/OAS has total authority, sovereignty and exclusive jurisdiction and control above (air space), beyond (maritime) and below (subsoil) the current state of Guyana formerly British Guiana by an Independence Agreement concluded by GB/UK and British Guiana effective from the date of the latter’s independence in 1966.
Continue reading Venezuela Clinging at Legal Straws to Delay the ICJ Arbitration with Guyana →

Caribbean, CARICOM, Food, Guyana, Oil and Gas

Keep Adversarial Domestic Politics at Home

1 Comment

By Stephen Kangal
August 22, 2022

Stephen KangalI am patently unsettled and indeed very surprised that CCNTV 6 saw it fit to feature and to give The Leader of the Opposition of Guyana Mr Aubrey Norton in its Friday last Morning Edition a window to level false and misleading criticisms against The Administration of Guyanese President Dr Irfan Ali for T&T consumption.
Continue reading Keep Adversarial Domestic Politics at Home →

France, General T&T, Haiti, International, USA

Haiti, we are sorry

1 Comment

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 30, 2022

Haiti, I am sorry
We misunderstood you
One day we’ll turn our heads
And look inside you…

—David Rudder, “Haiti”

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeAbout 22 years ago I was a part of a New England delegation that travelled to Haiti to demand that Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the first democratically elected president of Haiti after years of dictatorship, be allowed to assume the office he had won fairly and squarely.

We met with the United States Ambassador to Haiti, but nothing came of it. Our pleas, like so many others, were like voices crying out desperately in a wilderness of deceit and deception.
Continue reading Haiti, we are sorry →

Barbados, Caribbean, Environment, General T&T

Playing Smart…

5 Comments

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 08, 2021

“Why boasteth thyself/Oh, evil men/ Playing smart/ And not being clever?/ I said, you’re working iniquity/ To achieve vanity (if a-so a so)/ But the goodness of Jah, Jah/I-dureth for-I-ever.”

—Bob Marley, “Small Axe”

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeBarbados, the tiny Caribbean island with just about 287,371 souls “has been punching well above its weight of late,” says the Black Agenda Report (November 3). In fact, many people within the global community have taken note of Mia Mottley’s (Barbados Prime Minister) speech, “Get Up, Stand Up,” that she delivered to the United Nation’s General Assembly in New York last September, and now the world is buzzing (certainly those people in the Black and Brown world) over her “impassioned address,” to COP26, the UN Climate Conference held in Glasgow, Scotland.
Continue reading Playing Smart… →

Caribbean, CARICOM, COVID-19, General T&T, Guyana, Health

Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana officials in vaccine-use crosstalk

34 Comments

By Shane Superville
June 18, 2021 – newsday.co.tt

Dr Leslie RamsammyRemarks made by the Prime Minister during a media conference last Saturday led to a heated exchange between officials from the Guyanese government and business community and Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs on Friday.

During his presentation, Dr Rowley referred to a table highlighting the number of vaccines received by all 14 Caricom countries and their associates as of Saturday.
Continue reading Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana officials in vaccine-use crosstalk →

Education, General T&T, Jamaica

National heroes and history

31 Comments

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 24, 2021

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeA few weeks ago I listened to young Jamaican student Deane Weatherly talk about the importance of Queen Nanny of the Jamaican Maroons to her and Jamaican national life.

Queen Nanny, the leader of one of the country’s maroon groups, defeated the British in the 18th century, thereby establishing Nanny Town, a maroon town in the Blue Mountain region.
Continue reading National heroes and history →

Caribbean, COVID-19, General T&T, Health

Now’s not the time to misbehave

3 Comments

By Raffique Shah
April 05, 2021

Raffique ShahI suppose it had to come to this—an explosion of Covid-19 cases just when we thought we could see a ray of sunshine at the end of a year-long dark tunnel we’ve cautiously navigated, when the first tranche of vaccines had arrived, launching Trinidad and Tobago into the immunisation phase of the war against this deadly virus.

It’s not as if the surge in confirmed cases ambushed us. We were warned by the medical team that has thus far efficiently conducted the war against Covid-19, that should we continue to breach the simple safety practices that have worked for us, hence expose ourselves to regression, we would encounter a nasty backlash. But there are some among us who are plain “harden”, who must misbehave to look macho.
Continue reading Now’s not the time to misbehave →

Caribbean, COVID-19, General T&T, Health, Hinduism

A passage to India

14 Comments

Newsday Editorial
March 05, 2021 – newsday.co.tt

COVID-19 VaccineIN ALL the recent instances of wrangling over vaccines from India, a key issue has been left unaddressed.

The heated reactions to both Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh’s mischaracterisation of the custody chain of vaccines donated by Barbados and Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s letter to the Indian Prime Minister have deflected attention from a more profound diplomatic quandary which this country faces – as well as Caricom as a whole.
Continue reading A passage to India →