By Raffique Shah
August 02, 2015
IN days of old here in Trinidad, people one or two generations ahead of mine used an adage, “when yuh crooked, wet brown paper could cut you”.
The word “crooked” in that context usually meant “a run of bad luck”, although in the instant case of Jack Warner, to whom it now applies, it could be a double-entendre. And if wet brown paper could cut you, then you were really deep in the doo-doo.
Continue reading Wet brown paper could cut Jack
Newsday
July 25, 2015 – newsday.co.tt
Deputy Commissioner of Police Glen Hackett today confirmed that 11 persons have been charged with the murder of Senior Counsel, Dana Seetahal.
Hackett was addressing a press conference at the Police Adminstration Building, Edward Street, Port-of-Spain.
The 11 charged are, Rajaee Ali, his brother Hamid Ali, Devaughn Cummings, Ricardo Stewart, Earl Richards, Stephan Cummings, Ishmael Ali, Kevin Parkinson, Leston Gonzales, Roget Boucher and Gareth Wiseman
Continue reading 11 charged with Seetahal’s murder
By Sue-Ann Wayow
July 22, 2015 – trinidadexpress.com
FORMER Minister of Justice Herbert Volney who was fired in September 2012 by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar for his role in the Section 34 fiasco, was hired several months ago by the Ministry of Health as a legal consultant.
Volney was working for a monthly salary of between $25,000 and $30,000.
The Sunshine newspaper first reported on Volney’s new position, and gave his monthly remuneration as $30,000.
Continue reading Volney lands job at Health Ministry
Express Editorial
July 21, 2015 – trinidadexpress.com
Even before the arrest and incarceration of Jack Warner on May 27, 2015, Mr Warner’s perceived and alleged wrongdoings in FIFA occupied headlines in national, regional and international newspapers and electronic media.
Since the arrest, scores of articles, talk shows and news items have been most liberal with matters existing out of Mr Warner’s US indictment for fraud, racketeering and money laundering. As we say in Trinidad and Tobago, every Tom, Dick and Harrilal have “washed their mouth” on Mr Warner’s charges.
Continue reading Jack Warner and the sub judice rule
Guardian Editorial
July 05, 2015 – guardian.co.tt
The problem is that members of the public might have been so distracted by the President’s rumshop reference—a terse dismissal of their questions and concerns—that crucial aspects of his statement might have been lost.
President Anthony Carmona’s reference to “rumshop logic” in describing citizens’ comments about the latest fallouts from the Integrity Commission is unfortunate. Not only did it defeat what was an otherwise laudable attempt to bring clarity to an issue that has long been a focus of national concern and debate, it has also reinforced recent negative perceptions of that agency. The President was well within his rights to deal with the matter at length—he was, after all the focus of much of the criticisms following the latest implosion of that august body. Unfortunately, his choice of words and his condescending tone served to alienate rather then enlighten.
Continue reading President Carmona, the IC and the public
By Julien Neaves
July 05, 2015 – newsday.co.tt
TRINIDAD and Tobago has received its lowest ranking ever on an international peace list as the country continues to have maximum scores for homicides and violent crimes, and high scores for perceptions of criminality and access to weapons.
Former National Security Minister Gary Griffith, however, says the ranking should be taken with a “pinch of salt” while a local criminologist says it is not telling citizens anything they do not live as a reality.
Continue reading TT scores low on global peace list
By Raffique Shah
June 21, 2015
Jack Warner is not a mad man—or delusional, as the Prime Minister euphemistically puts it.
If he was, then the PM, who chose him to act in the highest office in the land on several occasions, and assigned him to the national security portfolio three years ago, must be madder than him.
And members of Cabinet and the People’s Partnership hierarchy who clung to him as if he were a latter-day Jesus or Rama or Muhammad, are the maddest people ever to have governed a country.
Continue reading Jack’s revenge
By Nalinee Seelal
June 17, 2015 – newsday.co.tt
POLICE confirmed yesterday that they found five grammes of a “plant like material resembling marijua-na” at the Prime Minister’s private residence, prompting Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams to order an investigation into the mat-ter.
A report of the find was submitted to Williams at 2 pm yesterday — a day after he said that the police were not in possession of any information on drugs being found at the Prime Minister’s residence. The report, signed by Snr Supt Gould and given to Williams yesterday indicated, that the substance contained in a plastic bag was discovered in the male wash-room of a Gazebo on the western end of the Prime Minister’s residence at Phillipine. The discovery was made by a Special Branch officer on Friday April 19, 2013 at about 8.50 am.
Continue reading FRESH WEED PROBE
Sepp Blatter to resign as Fifa president after 17 years in role
By Owen Gibson
June 02, 2015 – theguardian.com
Sepp Blatter has dramatically quit as Fifa president just days after he was defiant in re-election for a fifth term, sparking a flurry of speculation over the future of world football and the fate of the next two World Cups in Russia and Qatar.
Under intense pressure from ongoing investigations by the FBI and Swiss prosecutors that have already led to 18 senior football executives being charged in the US on charges of money laundering, tax evasion and racketeering, Blatter said he had decided to step down.
Continue reading Sepp Blatter to resign as Fifa president
By Raffique Shah
May 31, 2015
If, in what may be described as normal countries, a week in politics is a long time, in abnormal Trinidad and Tobago, a week can be likened to a lifetime. Last week, most scribes and commentators in the media engaged in heated exchanges over the latest bacchanal in the Integrity Commission.
Today, few remember what that furore was about or who the protagonists were.
Continue reading Karma, boy, karma