Category Archives: International

Elections, General T&T, Labour, PNM, Politics, Russia, UNC

Show me your leader

By Raffique Shah
August 29, 2022

Raffique ShahIt’s not so much that we have little or nothing to celebrate on the 60th anniversary of our Independence from Britain, as so many who swear they are patriots, but whose patriotism swings with the pendulum of their political party’s fortunes, which almost always are linked to their personal fortunes.

It’s more that our democracy has been carved up into near-equal but uneven parts in such manner, to misquote Irish poet William Yeats in his near-prophetic masterpiece, “The Second Coming”, “…Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world/The blood-dimmed tide is loosed and everywhere/The ceremony of innocence is drowned/The best lack all conviction/While the worst/Are full of passionate intensity…”
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England, General T&T, International, Politics, UK

Picton’s cruelty: Luisa Calderon’s resilience

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 08, 2022

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThere can be no doubt about the cruelty of —Thomas Picton, the first British governor of Trinidad and Tobago (1797-1803), and the resilience of Luisa Calderon, one of the persons he tortured during his governorship.

It is important that we applaud Shabaka Kambon and other patriots who have called for the renaming of streets and monuments that carry his (and other tyrants’) names.
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General T&T, International

Blame the ‘haters’

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By Raffique Shah
June 13, 2022

Raffique ShahBeing both a product and an architect of the age of love, peace and happiness, and belonging to a generation that opposed war and promoted peace, that even as I became a soldier, a highly-trained killer—we actively and successfully hounded America out of Vietnam and Cambodia, transformed colonised Africa into a battleground for liberation, and we set the world in motion such that generations marched together in countries across the world chanting, “All we are saying, is give peace a chance…’
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General T&T, India, Labour, Race and Identity

Origin of Indian indentureship in Trinidad

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
June 06, 2022

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOn the celebration of Indian Arrival Day, May 31, an Express editorial recounted: “On this day 177 years ago the Fatel Razack entered the Gulf of Paria with over 200 Indians aboard, the first of 143,939 citizens of India to be brought here under a British scheme to deal with a shortage of labour following the emancipation of enslaved Africans in 1834–38.”
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France, General T&T, Haiti, International, USA

Haiti, we are sorry

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 30, 2022

Haiti, I am sorry
We misunderstood you
One day we’ll turn our heads
And look inside you…

—David Rudder, “Haiti”

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeAbout 22 years ago I was a part of a New England delegation that travelled to Haiti to demand that Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the first democratically elected president of Haiti after years of dictatorship, be allowed to assume the office he had won fairly and squarely.

We met with the United States Ambassador to Haiti, but nothing came of it. Our pleas, like so many others, were like voices crying out desperately in a wilderness of deceit and deception.
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China, International, USA

The Strategy of Denial: Goading China into War

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Streamed live on Sep 15, 2021
A conversation on Elbridge A. Colby’s book The Strategy of Denial which offers an examination of how America’s defense strategy should change in order to checkmate China’s growing power.

“Elbridge A. Colby was the lead architect of the 2018 National Defense Strategy, the most significant revision of U.S. defense strategy in a generation. Here he lays out how America’s defense must change to address China’s growing power and ambition.
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General T&T, International, NATO, Russia, Ukraine, USA

John Mearsheimer on War in Ukraine

John Mearsheimer on War in Ukraine with Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Ambassador Jack Matlock, more…
Premiered Apr 7, 2022

John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago talks with American Committee for US-Russia Accord on War in Ukraine, with Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Ambassador Jack Matlock, Nicolai Petro, Marlene Laruelle and James W. Carden.
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General T&T, International, NATO, Russia, Ukraine, USA

U.S. admits to widespread propaganda on Ukraine conflict

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April 08, 2022

On this episode of Fault Lines, hosts Jamarl Thomas and Faran Fronczak talk about the White House pushing politicalized intelligence on Ukraine, China’s objectives for Eurasian integration and the disbandment of NATO, Zelensky showing up to Greek Parliament with an Azov fighter, and if Will Smith’s Oscars slap was bought by Pfizer to promote their new drug. more

The U.S. is using intel to fight an info war with Russia, even when the intel isn’t rock solid

April 6, 2022 – nbcnews.com
By Ken Dilanian, Courtney Kube, Carol E. Lee and Dan De Luce

It was an attention-grabbing assertion that made headlines around the world: U.S. officials said they had indications suggesting Russia might be preparing to use chemical agents in Ukraine.

President Joe Biden later said it publicly. But three U.S. officials told NBC News this week there is no evidence Russia has brought any chemical weapons near Ukraine. They said the U.S. released the information to deter Russia from using the banned munitions.
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