By Raffique Shah
December 16, 2012
THERE was a time, maybe I should write “once upon a time” since this may sound so much like a fairy-tale, when nations at war suspended hostilities on Christmas Day, such was the pervasiveness of peace and goodwill associated with the birth of the Christ child.
The most memorable such occasion was on the night of Christmas Eve 1914, during the First World War, along the Western Front.
Continue reading No peace and goodwill here
By Alexander Bruzual
December 11, 2012 – newsday.co.tt
REIGNING Soca Monarch and Road March King Machel Montano was yesterday found guilty by a Port-of-Spain magistrate of five criminal charges of assault and using obscene language during a fracas near the Zen nightclub in Port-of-Spain five years ago.
Montano gasped in the Seventh Court when he was told, he was guilty as charged by Magistrate Maureen Baboolal-Gafoor. He stood next to performing artistes Kernel Roberts, son of deceased Calypso icon Aldwyn ‘Lord Kitchener’ Roberts, 2011 Young Kings Calypso Monarch Rodney “Benjai” LeBlanc and Joel “Zan” Feveck.
Continue reading MACHEL GUILTY
By Nalinee Seelal
December 10, 2012 – newsday.co.tt
ENRAGED that there was no food in the house for him to eat, a 24-year-old man violently turned on his own five-day-old baby daughter, grabbing her tiny body and biting off the tender flesh from her left cheek before biting off a chunk of flesh from her right leg at their East Dry River, Port-of-Spain, home yesterday morning.
And while her father remains in police custody, the little baby girl who was given the name Jinayah only two days ago, is warded in a critical condition at the Paediatric Ward of the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) in Mt Hope.
Continue reading BABY’S FLESH BITTEN OFF
…to be sentenced January 17, 2013
By Darren Bahaw News Editor
December 10, 2012
SOCA STAR Machel Montano was this morning found guilty of five criminal offences.
Montano, the reigning Power Soca Monarch and Road March king, along with Kernel Roberts, the son of legendary Calypso icon Lord Kitchener, Joel “Zan” Feveck, a member of Montano HD Family, and Rodney “Benjai” LeBlanc, best known for his patriotic song, Trini, were all charged with a series of criminal offences arising out a fracas outside the Zen nightclub, in Port of Spain in April 2007.
Continue reading Machel Montano guilty on five criminal charges
By Raffique Shah
December 09, 2012
THE 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.
Continue reading PNM problem, PNM solution
By Andre Bagoo
December 06, 2012 – newsday.co.tt
SIR ANTHONY Colman, chairman of the Commission of Inquiry into the collapse of Clico has described Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard’s application to halt the inquiry or make it private as being “misconceived”, but said it is ultimately up to the Government to decide whether the inquiry should continue in light of a purported start of a police probe.
Continue reading Sir Anthony knocks DPP
By Raffique Shah
October 13, 2012
RECENTLY, 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.
Continue reading Ten years and a ‘po’
Finance and Economy Minister Larry Howai
By Clint Chan Tack
October 02, 2012 – newsday.co.tt
PEOPLE who drive vehicles fueled by premium gasolene will pay higher prices at the pump from today. A wide range of hefty tax increases was imposed on the local gaming industry as of yesterday and land and building taxes will return.
However orphans, retirees, special reserve police officers and persons involved in home construction are just some groups in society who will benefit from the country’s largest ever budget which Finance and Economy Minister Larry Howai presented in the House of Representatives yesterday.
Continue reading $58B Budget, TT’s Largest Ever
Gopeesingh: It’s my son
Education Minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh yesterday confirmed that the man depicted in a video assaulting a man with a cutlass is his son.
Continue reading Gopeesingh’s Son ‘Planasses’ Man
By Raffique Shah
September 22, 2012
IN ordinary times, the Prime Minister’s decision last week to fire Herbert Volney for allegedly misleading the Cabinet on a critical issue (Section 34) would have won the lady universal acclamation. But these are extraordinary times. The baying of the hounds continues unabated, the sounds of fury rise to crescendos, refusing to be silenced by the sacrifice of one silly goat. The natives are restless.
Continue reading Backward ever, forward never
