By Raffique Shah
November 12, 2024
The world is what it is today, what it was yesterday, and what it always will be. It will never change because the vast majority of people do not want change. Mediocrity reigns supreme, vandalism rises to the top and so it will be forever and ever, Amen.
I awoke to the not-surprising news that 73 million Americans had voted Donald Trump in as the 47th President of the United States for the next four years.
Continue reading Dumb Trump
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 10, 2024
“And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea” (Matthew 14:25)
On Friday September 27, I flew to Charlotte, North Carolina (NC), to spend the weekend with friends and family. I was also interested in the gubernatorial and presidential races that were taking place there since it is the home of Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, one of the most notorious politicians in the US. NC is also a pivotal state in the next presidential election.
Continue reading The Darkest Hour
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 14, 2024
In 1985 I interviewed the president of the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) Sam Nujoma when he visited the United Nations Decolonisation Committee to plead for his country’s independence (West Africa, present-day Namibia). Namibia was a German colony from the 1880s to the First World War when South African troops occupied its territory.
From 1904 to 1908, the Germans waged a war that exterminated over 100,000 Africans from the Herero and Nama ethnic groups. It was deemed the first holocaust of the 20th century. In 1920, the League of Nations allowed South Africa to administer the territory.
Continue reading Africa’s holocaust
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 07, 2024
From New York to Los Angeles, from New Hampshire to Texas, thousands of students have risen up against how the Palestinian people in Gaza are being treated. US police have arrested over 2,300 student protesters, and many more will be arrested in the coming weeks. We should congratulate the moral courage of these students.
Edward Luce reminds Americans about their foolhardiness. He wrote: “America is in knots over the foolishness—or worse—of its campus protesters. But it is the adults who are making the biggest dunces of themselves. The role of the grown-ups facing student unrest is to keep the peace without sacrificing rights. These include free speech and physical safety. The task requires principled consistency.” (Financial Times, May 2.)
Continue reading Student outrage over US behaviour
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 23, 2024
On June 30, 2024, I will say farewell to Wellesley College, a place at which I have taught for 38 years. I have taught at several elite institutions in the United States such as Harvard, Cornell, Ohio and Fordham universities, but Wellesley holds a special place in my heart. I have grown fond of it over the years.
The college yesterday held a symposium and dinner to honour my services to the institution and my academic contributions internationally. Paula Johnson, president of the college who was a student at Harvard University when I taught there in the 1970s, and Prof Kellie Carter Jackson, chairman of the Africana Studies Department, opened the function.
Continue reading Age of retirement
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 12, 2024
Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, will face President Biden, the Democratic nominee, in the next US presidential election. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that Trump could win that election. Most of the polls, including the prestigious New York Times/Siena College poll, have given Trump a 2% lead over President Biden.
Continue reading The dangerous Mr Trump
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 19, 2023
What you’re seeing now is a handful of super-ultra-wealthy individuals—plutocrats that, I guess you would call philanthropists—who have incredible leverage over higher education.
—Isaac Kamola, professor, Trinity College
On Monday December 5, the presidents of Harvard University (Claudine Gay), the University of Pennsylvania (Elizabeth Magill), and MIT (Sally Kornbluth) were summoned by the US Congress to answer how well they responded to threats that are made against Jewish students at their universities, and whether students who call for the genocide of Jews should be disciplined.
Continue reading Upholding a university’s core mission
By Raffique Shah
December 11, 2023
You’d think the bloodletting in The Gaza, especially when seen through the lens of Al Jazeera, would deter any country that is involved in disputes over territories from sliding into war. But, because of man, history is often doomed to repeat itself.
Let me say I have tried, on my own, to limit the exposure by television to the genocide that Israel is inflicting on the Palestinians. It does not always work. Rosina will sit quietly and cry, watching children of different ages, but mostly one ethnicity, screaming in pain after Israeli bombs destroy the hospitals they call shelters.
Continue reading There will be no war
By Corey Gilkes
December 03, 2023 – coreygilkes.wordpress.com
Calypsonian/Philosopher Brother Valentino sarcastically sang how the average Trini “doh care if Ash Wednesday fall on Good Friday,” alluding to an acquiescent, happy-go-lucky, carefree culture of conformity in the face of exploitative authority figures. This can be a good thing sometimes, otherwise plenty places coulda (and shoulda) bun down already.
Continue reading Calling Arsonists to Quench Fires? Careful, Guyana
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 14, 2023
Last Sunday, several local groups — including the Concerned Muslims of T&T, the Joint Trade Union Movement, the Movement for Social Justice, the Emancipation Support Committee and the Non-Governmental Organisations of T&T for the Advancement of Women — called upon the Government to cut diplomatic relations with Israel for its savage attack upon the Palestinian people.
Continue reading A quagmire of death and despair