Category Archives: Health

General T&T, Health, International, Israel, Palestine, USA

Respect conventions of war

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By Raffique Shah
May 24, 2021

Raffique ShahAn amazing contradiction that is embedded in the dissemination of information via technology that seems to evolve at a dizzying pace is how easy it is to fool massive numbers of people into believing glaring lies. Disinformation, a craft that is as old as civilisation itself, which has been used in warfare and in politics from ancient times to today, remains a weapon of mass confusion in the armories of sovereign states as much as parties that could, and have, catapulted many of them into power against immense odds.
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COVID-19, General T&T, Health, PNM, UNC

Politicians lying, people dying

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By Raffique Shah
May 17, 2021

Raffique ShahAs the spike in Covid-related infections and deaths rocketed almost exponentially over the past three weeks or so leaving many citizens stunned, people who sought guidance and leadership from politicians were assaulted with a cacophony of discordant notes that sounded like the braying of a pack of ancient jackasses.

What else could we expect from what passes for politics in this country? Imagine if you will a nation in Covid-induced-crisis that descended upon us after some powerfully stupid people believed their mystically motivated leaders who told them first that Covid was a hoax, then said it could be cured by sunshine, and later switched to acquiring vaccines for immunizing the population against what, less than one year ago was a hoax. Only in Trinidad.
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COVID-19, General T&T, Health

Too little poetic justice

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By Raffique Shah
May 10, 2021

Raffique ShahThere are times when I feel ashamed of being Trinidadian. On such occasions, I feel almost like a traitor, having to admit that some of my countrymen are bringing shame and disgrace to our otherwise proud nation.

As the Covid-19 numbers exploded last week from single-digit in­creases to 300-plus daily confirmed cases, hospital beds were occupied at dizzying rates while deaths rose from modest to uncomfortable levels, I felt personally defeated.
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COVID-19, General T&T, Health, India, International

The COVID-19 Catastrophe in India Keeps Growing

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By Vijay Prashad
April 26, 2021 – counterpunch.org

COVID-19 in IndiaIt is difficult to overstate the grip of COVID-19 on India. WhatsApp bristles with messages about this or that friend and family member with the virus, while there are angry posts about how the central government has utterly failed its citizenry. This hospital is running out of beds and that hospital has no more oxygen, while there is evasion from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Cabinet.
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Africa, COVID-19, Finance, General T&T, Health, International, Politics, Recession

Of dollars and sense

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By Raffique Shah
April 26, 2021

Raffique ShahI round off my intervention on the many possibilities we might find in a new post-­Covid economy by reminding readers the pandemic has hammered economies across the world, irrespective of their sizes, in ways never before seen.

Oil was rocked to unimaginably low prices. Stock markets swayed as if in stupor, major commodity prices collapsed to uneconomic levels, and the virus disrupted world production of essential industries, goods and services, leaving governments confused, powerless, defeated.
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COVID-19, Finance, General T&T, Health, Politics, Recession

Out with the old, in with the new

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By Raffique Shah
April 19, 2021

Raffique ShahThere comes a time in the affairs of a nation—and such occurrences are rare, maybe once in a century—when events shaped by the actions of citizens or unleashed by the forces of nature create the conditions for change, sometimes radical change that otherwise would hardly be considered, far less adopted, but which, when measured by the degree of dislocation the nation faces if its leaders fail to act, may offer opportunities that guide us along a path we didn’t think existed.
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COVID-19, General T&T, Health, PNM, Politics

Opening the borders

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 13, 2021

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI left Trinidad and Tobago on March 16, 2020, a few days before the borders were closed to citizens and visitors alike. I was on the verge of departing for a ten-day visit to India, at the invitation of the Indian government as a part of its Academic Visitors Programme for distinguished scholars.
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COVID-19, Finance, General T&T, Health, PNM, Politics, Recession

Pass the teacup

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By Raffique Shah
April 12, 2021

Raffique ShahThere must be an ultra-secret super-Lotto somewhere in the universe, where only the super-wealthy and governments-by-vaps play for super-stakes—you know, jackpots paid in gazillions, in currencies-of-choice, and in cash, s’il vous plait. Really, there must be. Why else would Finance Minister Colm Imbert and Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley strut around a country that looks like an abandoned steam locomotive whose era has gone, they looking cooler than the proverbial cucumber, seemingly without care or worry, while lesser mortals like your humble scribe worry to no end over the near-evaporation of foreign exchange, the unavailability of any good or service that we can sell in large enough volumes that will yield the billions of US dollars we require for our sustenance?
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COVID-19, General T&T, Health

PM Rowley tests positive for COVID-19

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PM Rowley tests positive for COVID-19
The diagnosis comes mere hours before the PM was set to receive his first COVID-19 vaccine dose.

Prime Minister tests positive for covid-19
Rowley is in isolation and under medical supervision.

CMO: PM will have to wait six months
Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Roshan Parasram this morning said that according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations, anyone who has tested positive for COVID-19 must wait six months before getting the vaccine.
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Caribbean, COVID-19, General T&T, Health

Now’s not the time to misbehave

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By Raffique Shah
April 05, 2021

Raffique ShahI suppose it had to come to this—an explosion of Covid-19 cases just when we thought we could see a ray of sunshine at the end of a year-long dark tunnel we’ve cautiously navigated, when the first tranche of vaccines had arrived, launching Trinidad and Tobago into the immunisation phase of the war against this deadly virus.

It’s not as if the surge in confirmed cases ambushed us. We were warned by the medical team that has thus far efficiently conducted the war against Covid-19, that should we continue to breach the simple safety practices that have worked for us, hence expose ourselves to regression, we would encounter a nasty backlash. But there are some among us who are plain “harden”, who must misbehave to look macho.
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