Swearing-In of Cabinet Ministers and Government Senators
New Cabinet to strengthen Government
Government’s parliamentary team has been strengthened with the appointment of veteran politician Ganga Singh as Senate leader, replacing Emmanuel George.
Continue reading Cabinet Reshuffle: New Ministers
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
June 06, 2012
A few days ago, the People’s Partnership (PP) celebrated its second year of office amidst a lot of hype and propaganda. Their esteemed leader even tried to mamaguy Orville London by calling him “a bully and cry-baby” because, in his capacity as the Secretary of the THA, he sought a meeting with Kamla Persad Bissessar, in her capacity as the Prime Minister, to talk about the affairs of his country. Under normal circumstances, London would not necessarily have wanted to meet Persad Bissessar because there is nothing intellectually attractive or physically compelling about her. But such is the dynamics of power that the Prime Minister and her cohorts could say a lot of nonsense and get away with it because they control the political purse and constitutional discourses about the nation.
Continue reading PP: Taking Loud and Saying Nothing
By Tony Fraser
March 28, 2012 – guardian.co.tt
Austin “Jack” Warner has made the crossing over the political, ethnic, racial and geographic Rubicon—from the east-west corridor to Caroni—and has done so in spectacular fashion. Without the endorsement of the hierarchy of the United National Congress, indeed, against its wishes, Warner sauntered into the heartland of the UNC to capture the chairmanship of the party and by an extraordinarily wide margin—12,695 to 656 votes.
Continue reading Jack Crossing: from Corridor to Caroni
Guardian Editorial
March 16, 2012 – guardian.co.tt
Like other women prime ministers elsewhere in the world, Kamla Persad-Bissessar has had to compete in the political arena on equal terms with her male opponents. The was portrayed during the 2010 general election campaign, and has been portrayed since, as being fearless, capable and intellectually superior. On this basis Ms Persad-Bissessar did battle—and won, emphatically. First she defeated the founding father of the UNC, Basdeo Panday, for the party leadership, and then she unseated the incumbent prime minister, Patrick Manning. No special allowances were made for her in any way — if anything, her gender was an advantage.
Continue reading Watch the playing of gender card, PM
By Winford James
March 07, 2012
In the end, as in the beginning, Keith Rowley’s motion of no confidence in the Prime Minister was a sideshow. It failed as it was bound to. It unified the executive and brought out their full armoury. It unified the Opposition and brought out some kind of offence. It won Dr Rowley a small political advantage and probably much more embarrassment. It gave the executive a golden opportunity to keep in the public consciousness the PNM’s “corruption, waste and inefficiency”. It unleashed, one more time, the executive’s politics of excess.
Continue reading A sideshow? Nothing more?
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 15, 2012
I can still hear Kamla Persad Bissessar’s voice as it caressed the late afternoon air at the UNC’s Final Rally at Aranguez Savannah on May 22, 2010 as she offered the following paean: “Thank you to those who are here-thank you to those watching at home. Two days… We have been counting down together… And now it’s just two days until we together begin to forge a new Trinidad and Tobago…I can sense we are all ready for a change…Are you ready to change our country…?”
Continue reading Time for Change
By George Alleyne
January 25 2012 – newsday.co.tt
Government should state clearly the nature and extent of the planned Indian investment in Trinidad and Tobago, which it is trumpeting, and whether this relates to the setting up of entirely new businesses or whether it will be the acquisition, wholly or largely, of State-owned and other existing companies.
Continue reading Investment or assets sale?
Prayers, best wishes pour in for Patrick Manning
POLITICIANS, both friends and rivals, yesterday expressed their shock at the stroke suffered by former Prime Minister Patrick Manning and offered their prayers for his speedy recovery.
Kamla: Spare no resources
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has advised Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan to ensure former prime minister Patrick Manning is well taken care of during his stay at the San Fernando General Hospital.
Continue reading Prayers, best wishes pour in for Patrick Manning
Newsday Editorial
January 23, 2012 – newsday.co.tt
There are bound to be questions and indeed raised eyebrows at the purchase of a luxury Porsche Cayenne SUV – with a showroom price tag of $925,000 – for the official use of Minister of Food Production, Vasant Bharath. Bharath defended the purchase by saying the actual price paid – after exemptions for taxes and duties – was about $400,000, which he said was comparable to the cost of other SUVs.
Continue reading Porsche questions
Mom, dad & daughter ripped off immigrants
By Christina Carrega
January 12, 2012 – nypost.com
A seething Queens judge walloped three members of a crooked Richmond Hill family yesterday, sending them upstate to serve a combined 418 years for a brazen immigration and real-estate scam.
The mom, dad and daughter — dubbed “The Ramsundar Gang” by Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder — paid a shocking price for defrauding 19 families of $1.8 million over six years.
Continue reading Trini Scam family sent off to prison in U.S.