Category Archives: corruption

corruption, COVID-19, Finance, Food, General T&T, Health, International, Recession

Talk to me about patriotism

4 Comments

By Raffique Shah
January 24, 2022

Raffique ShahIt didn’t take Nobel Prize-winning economists such as St Lucia’s Sir Arthur Lewis, or the USA’s Milton Friedman or Paul Krugman, to project that as the world economy emerged from an unprecedented virtual lockdown that lasted three, four, who knows how many years during the Covid pandemic, commodity prices, especially those of goods and services that are critical to the recovery of countries across the world, would rise rapidly, putting them beyond the reach of the poorest nations and the poor in every nation.
Continue reading Talk to me about patriotism →

corruption, General T&T, Opposition Party, PNM, Politics

Eroding Public Confidence in Our Institutions

3 Comments

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 04, 2021

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI was trying my best to stay out of de commess until someone sent me a Facebook post that read: “That’s Faris’s Porsche that Roger has been driving around over the past two years.” The post also showed a photograph of the SUV number plate attached as well as a “Title of Certification.” Quickly thereafter the Express reported: “There have been suggestions of a link between Al-Rawi, [Roger] Kawalsingh, and Gary Griffith and on investigation that this alleged link has compromised the work of PolSC [Police Service Commission].”
Continue reading Eroding Public Confidence in Our Institutions →

corruption, General T&T, PNM, South Africa

PNM: Avoiding the Pitfall of Decline

7 Comments

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 19, 2021

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeTwo weeks ago South Africa’s Constitutional Court sentenced Jacob Zuma to 15 months in prison for contempt of court. He refused to appear at a government enquiry committee that was looking into the corruption that took place during his nine-year rule. The party (ANC) began to run the state as though it was just another arm of the party, and therein lay its downfall.
Continue reading PNM: Avoiding the Pitfall of Decline →

corruption, Crime in T&T, General T&T, Oil and Gas, Politics

Let them eat ‘old batteries’

1 Comment

By Raffique Shah
January 25, 2021

Raffique ShahIn my column last week, I questioned why the Government thought was necessary to exclude from scrutiny of the relevant authority details of Government to Government contracts. The point I was trying to make is that citizens almost instinctively do not trust politicians, especially when they are in office. Because countries like Trinidad and Tobago have been mired in allegations of corruption on a huge scale that spans different parties in power, suspicions of corruption will cloud every expenditure a government incurs, which leaves little room for getting things done.
Continue reading Let them eat ‘old batteries’ →

corruption, Finance, General T&T, PNM, Politics, Recession

King Imbert’s Court

16 Comments

By Dr Selwyn Cudjoe
December 28, 2020

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeTrinidad and Tobago became an independent country in 1962 and a republic in 1976, in which the people, through their representatives, were supposed to control their affairs.

Such a political arrangement sounded enticing since it promised to place the country’s destiny in the hands of people they knew, rather than foreigners (white) whom they did not know.
Continue reading King Imbert’s Court →

corruption, Court, Crime in T&T, General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

Least of the looters

5 Comments

By Raffique Shah
August 20, 2019

Raffique ShahIf the arrest of ex-Minister Marlene McDonald, and her indictment on fraud and misbehaviour in public office charges did anything for the morale of citizens, it was to restore confidence in some investigative units of the Police Service, and underscore the independence of the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Continue reading Least of the looters →

corruption, General T&T, Law

Land bandits stealing State lands

3 Comments

By Raffique Shah
July 19, 2019

Raffique ShahI listened to Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi a few nights ago as he detailed new legislation and associated measures the Government has put in place regarding land ownership and transactions. If I got it right, he said they have revolutionised the registration of deeds such that detailed information contained in those all-important proof of ownership documents will make fraudulent transfers difficult if not impossible.
Continue reading Land bandits stealing State lands →

corruption, Elections, General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

Look into the mirror, people

4 Comments

By Raffique Shah
June 06, 2019

Raffique ShahTwo crews, one from the URP and the other from the CEPEP, descended upon the two-by-two street on which I live during the past two weeks in a kind of pincer attack that I am convinced was devised by mid-level officials of the programmes to show citizen Shah how taxpayers’ dollars are wasted, and how we can do nothing about the wastage.

An in-my-face kind of gesture, probably with the finger…
Continue reading Look into the mirror, people →

corruption, General T&T, PNM, Politics

Whispers of Corrupting Practices

10 Comments

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 28, 2019

“Whenever you ignore whispers, you do so at your own peril. Sometimes they may be the truth.”

—Eric Williams, PNM’s Founding father

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOk! Minister Colm Imbert, PNM party chairman, did not bouff Education Minister Anthony Garcia. Garcia was asked “a barrage of questions” and Imbert intervened politely, according to Laurel Lezama-Lee Sing, PNM’s public relations officer, “to remind him [Garcia] that the press conference was about party issues” (Express, May 20).
Continue reading Whispers of Corrupting Practices →