Category Archives: Media

Fourth Estate Outlasts Governments

By Raffique Shah
November 13, 2010

Raffique ShahMOST Cabinet Ministers in successive governments suffer with political foot-in-mouth disease, an affliction that seems endemic to the corridors of power. Others succumb to the “left-hand, right-hand” syndrome. In the latter, persons charged with governing the country, who meet at least once weekly, have differing interpretations of what they discussed and what decisions were made.
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They Spied on the President Too

SpyingClear and present danger
PRESIDENT George Maxwell Richards, former Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma, his wife Kalawati, Government and Opposition politicians, trade-unionists, journalists and even some of their children were subject to secret surveillance by the Security Intelligence Agency (SIA), Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar revealed yesterday as she expressed a “deep sense of personal outrage” over the SIA’s use of illegal wiretapping.
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The Corrupting Influence of the People’s Partnership

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 11, 2010

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI did not know Fazeer Mohamed well. He interviewed me on First Up once and did a good job although he was rude to me before the programme began. I chalked that up to the incivility that some of our public and private officials/servants indulge in most of the time. It simply goes with the territory. However such incivility cannot take anything away from the frightening implications of Mr. Mohammed’s firing that took place last Saturday in spite of the inelegant excuse that it was a part of a cost-cutting exercise.
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Mohammed pulled from Channel Six talk show

By Rhonda Krystal Rambally
November 09, 2010 – guardian.co.tt

Fazeer MohammedSacked co–host of the morning talkshow — First Up — Fazeer Mohammed says the show is now open to political interference.

Comments posted on social networking site Facebook, where C News and First Up each has a page, indicated that Mohammed had been fired following an interview on last Thursday’s show with Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Suruj Rambachan over Prime Minister Kamla Persad–Bissessar’s statements about providing aid to Caribbean countries affected by Hurricane Tomas.
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Hold parents responsible

By Sean Douglas
October 22, 2010 – newsday.co.tt

ViolenceTHE Rape Crisis Society yesterday called on Government to pass laws to hold parents responsible for sexual offences done by their children. “Some of the perpetrators of these heinous sexual assaults are teenagers and thus are not liable for prosecution.”

The Society wrote to media houses to support the Evidence (Amendment) Bill 2010, under debate in the Senate, which makes it easier for victims of sexual abuse to testify in law-courts.
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Ish and Steve to be extradited to the US

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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My Reflections on the Black Power Conference

(Oh Yeah, It Actually Had One)

By Corey Gilkes
October 02, 2010

EmancipationFrom the 17th – 19th September the St Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies was the venue for a conference marking the 40th anniversary of the 1970 Black Power Movement. This conference was preceded on the 16th by a panel discussion at the Lloyd Best Institute of the West Indies.
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Govt to get OPV $B refund

Scarborough CG 51 vessel at BAE Systems' shipyard on the Clyde River in Glasgow, Scotland
Scarborough CG 51 vessel at BAE Systems' shipyard
on the Clyde River in Glasgow, Scotland
By Nalinee Seelal
September 30, 2010 – newsday.co.tt

PRIME MINISTER Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday confirmed Government has cancelled a deal with a Scotland-based shipbuilding company BAE Systems for the acquisition of three off-shore patrol vessels, ordered by the then PNM government at a cost of TT$1.5 billion.
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Talking From Both Sides of Her Mouth

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 23, 2010

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeA few days ago the Honorary Prime Minister, Kamla Persad Bissessar addressed the United Nations General Assembly. Among other things she recognized that “the passport out of poverty is through education, community empowerment and social entrepreneurship.” She also acknoweldged that 16.7 percent of our people still live below the poverty line; 11.7 per cent are considered working poor whereas 9 per cent are deemed vulnerable. The goal, she says, is to reduce poverty by 2 per cent per year.
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