“A black woman is no different to any other woman”
By Akilah Holder – Trinidad Express – March 08, 2013
www.trinidadexpress.com/woman-magazine/A_black_woman-196637151.html
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Category Archives: Gender
The “Pontificat”: Akilah Holder’s ‘Carnival’ Article
By Corey Gilkes
March 04, 2013 – trinicenter.com
I had planned to make my first contribution for 2013 to be on the series of important film documentaries on Trinidad Carnival put on by the TT Film Festival, not least of which were the two on Minshall and the presentation given by Ray Funk. Some were poorly attended but they were all priceless in the way each of them opened a little more of that portal on ourselves more of us need to see. Minsh used the streets as his canvass to express his philosophy in the traditions of Bailey, Saldenah and the legions of largely (tragically) nameless persons who used the Midnight Robber, the Minstrel, the Baby Doll, the Dame Lorraine, the Burrokeet, the Jab Molassie to hold up the mirror of society and all its hypocrisy and excesses to show us what many of us really are. That aspect of our Mas, the use of the open space as a gigantic participatory (before the advent of security, ropes and the word “exclusive”) political and social theatre, is perhaps the most important message that needs to be kept firmly in the minds of those who wish to take over the Mas – specifically those who have reduced it to empty, expressionless displays of bikinis, bras and feathers as if here is Las Vegas.
Continue reading The “Pontificat”: Akilah Holder’s ‘Carnival’ Article
Anil: Verna’s attack on PM, vile and dishonest
December 07, 2012
newsday.co.tt
Minister of Sport, Anil Roberts, said former colleague Verna St Rose-Greaves’ recent utterances about Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar was because she could not “railroad” the Cabinet into accepting the Gender Policy, without widespread consultation.
Continue reading Anil: Verna’s attack on PM, vile and dishonest
The Issue of Colorism
The Issue of Colorism: Dark-Skinned Girls, Light-Skinned Girls
By Akilah Holder, BA, MA
April 24, 2012 – trinidadexpress.com
For the most part of my life, I have had to deal with the drama of being stereotyped from the moment I step into a room because of my light-brown complexion. The animosity directed my way is usually intensified by the length of my hair and my mannerisms. And most of this animosity comes from my own sex, the darker-skinned of my own sex. This animosity seems to be indicative of and to be a result of colorism, defined as a conscious or unconscious state of prejudice that may be experienced by both blacks and whites so that they label as less attractive and intelligent individuals of a darker complexion… Continue…
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Madness All Around
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 11, 2012
It’s either the PP and its ministers have gone mad or they want to take us back into a past we repudiated a long time ago. It was not such a long time ago that Verna St. Rose Greaves was seen ringing a bell, walking barefooted in front of Salvatori’s building on Fredrick Street and engaging in what she called a one-woman protest against a perceived injustice. Now, she is a minister; a relatively enfeebled attempt at dissent by Cheryl Miller, a worker in her ministry, is enough to have St. Rose Greaves declare Miller unstable and tossed into an insane asylum for two weeks against her will.
Continue reading Madness All Around
A primitive country
By Raffique Shah
April 08, 2012
THE perception that there are more mad people outside the St Ann’s Hospital than there are inside that mental institution seems to be reality, following the forcible detention of public servant Cheryl Miller. I was outraged on learning of the woman’s plight, which only came to public attention when her co-workers protested her Gulag or Guantanamo-like situation. By then, this hapless citizen had already spent almost two weeks in the madhouse.
Continue reading A primitive country
Focus on substance, not fluff
By Raffique Shah
March 17, 2012
OVER the past two weeks or so, public attention has focused on two issues, with the concomitant raging debates in the media and online. The first surfaced when it was disclosed in Parliament that the State had met expenses for Prime Minsiter Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s sister to accompany her on official visits to Australia, India and elsewhere. The second pertained to Tobago Affairs Minister Vernella Alleyne-Toppin incurring private expenses on a Government-issued credit card that is intended for use by officials when they travel abroad.
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Watch the playing of gender card, PM
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
Verna wants end to under-age marriage
By Sean Douglas
October 23, 2011 – newsday.co.tt
MINISTER of Gender, Youth and Child Development, Senator Verna St Rose-Greaves, on Friday hinted at an end to the marriage of underage girls as now allowed by law for certain religious groups.
While the age of sexual consent is 16 years old, St Rose-Greaves said that girls are allowed to marry at age 12 or 14 years old, in allusion to special allowances made for Hindu and Muslim marriages.
Continue reading Verna wants end to under-age marriage
Suspects Nabbed for Rape of Mother and Daughter
Suspect in Central rapes surrenders on ‘Crime Watch’
By Gyasi Gonzales and Camille Bethel
UPDATED: September 25, 2011 – Trinidad Express
Four men are now in police custody for the robbery and rape of the Central mother and daughter and police say the arrest of a fifth man in connection with the incident is imminent.
Masked men broke into the family’s house in Longdenville, Chaguanas, around 2.30 a.m. on Thursday, raping the 49-year-old mother and her 17-year-old daughter and beating her two sons who were at home at the time. They stole cash and jewelry and the family’s car.
Continue reading Suspects Nabbed for Rape of Mother and Daughter