Category Archives: Opposition Party

General T&T, Media, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, THA, Tobago, TOP, UNC

Gambling on bare Jack

21 Comments

By Raffique Shah
January 19, 2013

Raffique ShahTHE ferocity with which the two main parties, the PNM and the People’s Partnership (yes, the PP!), fought the 2013 THA election, suggests that they see this battle for an anticipated 25,000 or so votes as a life-and-death struggle. Maybe it is, although I venture to add that this prognosis applies more to the Partnership than the PNM, as I shall argue. The intensity of the campaign, the media, ground and cyberspace advertising and propaganda blitz, which must have cost at least $50 million, certainly surprised me.
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General T&T, Opposition Party, PNM, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch, Tobago

Race Politics in T&T: Afri-centric Analysis

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By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
January 15, 2013

Dr. Kwame NantambuOne of the ultimate, stupid, insipid, divisive, dysfunctional, Euro-centric variables that has reared its ugly head is the issue of race in the upcoming Tobago House of Assembly elections.

At the outset, it must be emphasized categorically that the public “Calcutta ship” no-brainer, rubbish, diatribe vomited by Mr. Hilton Sandy only speaks volumes as to his utter myopic, ignorance and Euro-centric mis-understanding of Euro-colonial history; that is, the relationship between the European colonizer and the colonized in the Caribbean.
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General T&T, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch, Tobago, TOP

District split over Sandy’s Calcutta statement

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By Andre Bagoo
January 13, 2013 – newsday.co.tt

Hilton SandyRESIDENTS of the polling district of Belle Garden East/Roxborough/ Delaford, which PNM candidate Hilton Sandy hopes to win in the Tobago House of Assembly elections come January 21, appear to be split right down the middle over the question of whether his chances in the election have been hurt because of his controversial “Calcutta ship” remarks.
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General T&T, Media, Opposition Party, Parliament, People's Partnership, Politics

Choosing a president

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Newsday Editorial
January 6 2013 – newsday.co.tt

President Professor George Maxwell RichardsThere will be much speculation until next month as to the identity of the government’s nominee for the next president of Trinidad and Tobago. With a nomination deadline of February 5, a new president will be elected on February 15 ahead of the March 17 end of the five-year term of President George Maxwell Richards.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Law, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, Protest

PNM problem, PNM solution

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By Raffique Shah
December 09, 2012

Raffique ShahTHE tragedy of the crime-infested, poverty-stricken, pitiful and problematic ghettos located on the eastern fringes of Port of Spain is that they ought never to have degenerated to the mess they are today. There was a time when they could have been salvaged. Maybe that possibility still exists. But for as long as the politicians see Laventille, Beetham, Sea Lots and surrounding districts as permanent problems deserving only of temporary quick-fix solutions, the festering sores will spread, infecting and affecting the entire society.
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General T&T, Media, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, Protest, UNC

My way or no way

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By Peter O’Connor
November 25, 2012 – newsday.co.tt

Highway Re-Route Movement leader Dr Wayne Kublalsingh on a gurney after leaving this ambulance where he underwent some medical tests.I have been a supporter of the proposed highway from San Fernando to Point Fortin since it was first announced by Dr Eric Williams in his Budget Speech of January 1981. However, speaking at a forum organised by the Tapia House Movement at the end of March that year, I predicted that the highway would not be built, it would yield to “bng” (although that word was not yet created) projects like the Caroni Race Track. Dr Williams died that very night, and the highway to Point Fortin died with him.
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General T&T, Media, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics

Changing the face of power

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By Raffique Shah
November 03, 2012

Raffique ShahSOMETIMES the eternal optimist in me is severely challenged by a nagging pessimism in my mind, and I ask myself, is there any hope that this country would become the paradise so many think it could be, or are we condemned to the purgatory of mediocrity or worse? The thought that we might remain trapped in the netherworld of the latter depresses me.
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Caribbean, General T&T, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, USA

Celebrating Fifty Years of Trinidad and Tobago’s Independence

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
Published: October 23, 2012

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeFirst of all I would like to thank Professor Linda Heywood for inviting me to participate in this wonderful program. I am particularly delighted to be on the same panel with Professor Orlando Patterson, Professor Emmauel Akyeampong, and to have the opportunity to view the screening of “Akwantu: The Journey” since strictly speaking the journey for independence in the Caribbean began when these gallant brothers, incidentally led by Captain Cudjoe, began to fight for our liberation from bondage. Ever since then, the citizens of the British Caribbean have struggled to control their internal and external affairs, culminating in national independence for most of these territories in the 1960s. In Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, we gained our national independence in August, 1962.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Opposition Party, Parliament, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, UNC

Ten years and a ‘po’

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By Raffique Shah
October 13, 2012

Raffique ShahRECENTLY, as I mused on the state of “permanent politicking” that citizens of this country have been victims of for decades, I thought, why not elect a government for ten or 20 years? Before readers condemn me to the gallows for instant execution, or cart me off to the lunatic asylum to spend what is left of my miserable life, hear me out. Over the past 21 years, we have had—what?—seven general elections. We have changed governments four times and faces in government at least ten times.
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Caribbean, Finance, General T&T, Media, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, Politics

Tell me something good

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By Raffique Shah
September 29, 2012

Raffique ShahI WAS privileged to have known and spent some invaluable time with one of this country’s great thinkers, CLR James. He was in his winter years, mostly lying in bed, but his mind remained razor-sharp. A conversation with “Nello”, as he was fondly called, was worth several high-level lectures at any university, so I extracted the most I could from him during what would be his final sojourn in the land of his birth. Today, I remember him more for his wit than his wisdom.
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