By Raffique Shah
August 29, 2010
We have a new Government, a new dispensation – call it what you will – in place. But change, if it’s going to happen, seems, at this point like being in the middle pack of a snails’ marathon covering all the 100 feet. You ask yourself, especially when you come from the Baby Boomers generation, will change come before I die? Will I live to see my country, my people change for the better?
Continue reading Time to Rewrite the Social Contract
August 27, 2010 – trinidadexpress.com
It is now three months since the People’s Partnership won the general election and, understandably, the focus has been on how it is performing and whether it is capable of keeping its election promises. My take is still that it is too early to make any real assessment as the Government is still settling in; six months might be a more reasonable time. Meanwhile, I believe this is a good time to look back and assess why the last Government lost power. There might be lessons there that could prove useful to not only the current Government but anyone in politics.
Continue reading Where are they now?
August 15, 2010
IT is easy for people to say that the new Government should stop looking back, stop blaming the ousted People’s National Movement (PNM) government for much of the mess we find ourselves in today, and just move on. Had the Patrick Manning regime been more circumspect in handling the huge windfalls we enjoyed from around 2004, I would have endorsed that view, asking the Government to get on with governance, make no reference to the past.
Continue reading No more wastage of public funds
July 31, 2010
Madness in Sportt–Anil
Roberts added: “Errors, omissions, impropriety and downright corrupt practices… from the Caribbean Games, which never came off, to the legacy flag at Hasely Crawford Stadium, to the hiring of interns, the leasing of expensive SUVs, duplication of duties/responsibilities and the creation of a ghost roof at the stadium.”
…’Prophetess would be proud’
SPORTS Minister Anil Roberts yesterday literally didn’t know if to laugh or cry as he exposed $65 million in a clutch of dubious deals at the Sport Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SPORTT) in a hard-hitting speech in the Lower House.
Continue reading Corruption, Mismanagement and Waste
July 11, 2010
THOSE among us who keep abreast of international developments will have noted huge protest demonstrations in Israel most of last week. This kind of action is unusual. Small numbers of Israelis who oppose their government’s policies towards the Palestinians and atrocities committed by their military, hardly come out in the open for fear of their lives and liberty. Last week’s protests were not only big, but apparently supported by the state apparatus.
Continue reading Injustice Sows Seeds of Terrorism
By Raffique Shah
June 27, 2010
TWO weeks ago in India, seven local managers who worked with Union Carbide at its Bhopal plant in 1984 were sentenced to two years imprisonment and each fined US$2,100. There was outrage outside the Delhi court, and understandably so. Those of us who recall that night of horror that was followed by years of additional pain, deaths, disfiguration and death-dealing afflictions, will never forget it. The Bhopal disaster proved that all men (and women) are not created equal. In death, they are even more unequal.
Continue reading Myth of all men created equal
By Stephen Kangal
June 22, 2010
The sober question that my favourite T&T electorate must address dispassionately is whether in the face of the sordid and blemished history/culture of widespread, pervasive, repeated corruption, vandalisation and pillaging of the public purse it can ever put God out of its mind and elect the PNM to mis-govern and bleed this country again?
Continue reading Should the PNM Govern Us Again?
June 20, 2010 – guardian.co.tt
Investigators may have to extradite former executive chairman of the Urban Development Corporation of T&T (Udecott) John Calder Hart, as he has moved to block criminal charges by severing all ties from this jurisdiction. The shocking new twist comes on the heels of the whopping $3,400,000 million selling price tag on Hart’s sprawling mansion at #No 6 De Lima Road, Second Avenue, Cascade. A deed dated May 20, prepared by attorney Mark Laquis of Pollonais, Blanc, de la Bastide & Jacelon of Pembroke Street, Port-of-Spain was delivered anonymously to the Trinidad Guardian Head Office on Friday evening, in an unmarked envelope.
Continue reading Calder Hart’s Castle for Sale
AG to advise Govt on TTEC
Attorney General Anand Ramlogan will report to Cabinet in two weeks and recommend what “further action” should be taken on the findings of a report on breaches in tendering procedures by the TT Electricity Commission (TTEC) in relation to jobs under the Street Lighting Implementation Unit, which implemented the street lighting programme (SLP).
Continue reading Corruption at T&TEC
at the Heights of Guanapo - Inset: Ex-PM Patrick Manning
Sunday, June 13th 2010
REVELATIONS about the controversial cathedral-of-a-church being constructed at Guanapo suggest that ex-prime minister Patrick Manning may have been more involved in the project than he suggested when the issue was first made public. The new People’s Partnership Government has commissioned investigations into the project. Should our worst fears come to pass, though, it would be ironical that religious fervour, seen by many as the road to salvation, would instead turn into the seed of destruction for Mr Manning.
Continue reading Let the chips fall where they may