By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 23, 2024
Two weeks ago, I responded to Nigel Seenathsingh’s letter that appeared in the Express. I wrote: “When I warned…about the dangers inherent in the Leader of Our Grief’s statements about women, I was not trying to demonise him or Stuart Young. I was only alerting my readers to be on guard about the violence against women [I emphasised women] that exists in our society and the role that language plays in this regard.”
Continue reading Language matters
By Raffique Shah
October 16, 2024
It is said that if you live long enough, you would have seen and heard “Everything”. I am closing in on 80 years and based on my last 30 years’ experience, I do not think I have seen close to everything. I guess the wise men who made that statement lived in the “donkey cart” era, not cars-powered-by-electricity era.
In today’s world, say over a generation (30 years), pace of change is so dizzying that one can suffer multiple medical conditions just trying to keep abreast of technology alone. If for nothing else, I’d like to be here to see the noiseless cars powered by electricity, silently whizzing up and down the highways and the byways. I want to see “Bounce mih nah!” Trinis shout at motorists whizzing past silently.
Continue reading Lead by example, PM
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 25, 2024
There he was, resplendent amidst the splendour of the PNM Women’s League as he asked their members to get ready for the 2025 election. Acting as the titular head of the party in the absence of the Leader of Our Grief and in the presence of his “political Mother” (Camille Robinson-Regis), he signified his desire to achieve his next career objective: the leader of the storied People’s National Movement.
In his elation, he didn’t tell these women what to expect from a reincarnated party under his leadership. Nor, for that matter, did he tell them how he hopes to reverse the downward slide of the nation. A protégé of his leader, crafted in his style and embodying his essence, Young was a parody of the man he was hoping to replace.
Continue reading Time for PNM members to speak up
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 28, 2024
I wanted to finish my series on our valiant black women ancestors before I responded to the superficialities of people who assailed me on behalf of their leader (Express, August 6).
Although the press release of the PNM Women’s League purported to be the wisdom of its membership (close to 20,000 people, I guess), there is no way the League could have canvassed its members overnight to arrive at the claims that their leader offered “a powerful message”. Nor could they have constructed a collective response overnight. The missive of the PNM Women’s League was authored by one or two people.
Continue reading Enshackled thinking
By Raffique Shah
August 28, 2024
If Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley is not careful with every word that “cometh” out of his mouth between now and whenever the general election is held (in 2025, he says), he could become part of the list of political leaders who have thrown away significant advantages they held before general elections.
Indeed, the advantages he and his colleagues have fought hard to establish and maintain after nearly a decade in power in Trinidad and Tobago could vanish in the putrid elections environment by him uttering inappropriate words and policy statements.
Continue reading Columbus dead, Prime Minister
By Raffique Shah
June 26, 2024
I must confess that I feel nostalgic every year when Labour Day comes around. I wasn’t there in 1972 when June 19 was first declared a national holiday. The government of Dr Eric Williams had conveniently avoided recognition of the significance of June 19 to the history of labour and the country as a whole.
Most people who know anything about the significance of that date will know it was when Tubal Uriah Butler, who is seen as the father of radical labour, triggered a national strike by asking a large crowd of workers assembled in Fyzabad for a meeting if he should subject himself to being arrested by Police Corporal Charlie King, a powerfully stupid man who brandished a pair of handcuffs and the arrest warrant.
Continue reading Labour Day nostalgia
By Raffique Shah
May 07, 2024
However lofty the ideals they may shout from the rooftops, when you get down to base, when you reach the gutter where most of them reside, politics is not about ideals. It is about naked power.
Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher, wrote in his masterful introduction to Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth: They bring nothing new, they create nothing new, they simply regurgitate what their masters fill in their heads. Centuries after the great intellects introduced them to concepts such as democracy, you can hear them in the ex-colonies, now independent states, screaming as if they invented the words, “Government of the people, for the people and by the people”; “Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!”
Continue reading Living to steal another day
By Raffique Shah
April 23, 2024
In the 40-odd years that I have been writing a weekly newspaper column, I admit that much of my work has been dealing with politicians and corruption. Over the years I have tried to address other issues such as the economy, our education system, crime (how can I not write about crime?), and so on. But I always seem to return to base, in a manner of speaking—meaning politics, politicians and corruption.
Continue reading Corruption’s demonic face
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 02, 2024
When Eric Williams went to London in 1955 to discuss PNM’s programme with CLR James, George Padmore and Arthur Lewis, he also visited with Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, the sister of Jawaharlal Nehru, prime minister of India. He raised the possibility of republishing Nehru’s autobiography with the latter writing a new introduction to it.
Continue reading The Indian connection
By Raffique Shah
April 02, 2024
Every time I watch or listen to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley deliver an address or a contribution to some pre-election forum, I sigh, shake my head, and think: what wasted words.
I have watched Dr Rowley develop over the past 25 years or so, from a bar-room brawler politician to a formidable spokesperson who has earned his place as the leader of his party. He struck me as being bright when after joining Patrick Manning in opposition in the ’90s he went on to become a frontline speaker who helped resurrect the party.
Continue reading Maccoes, not spies