Category Archives: England

England, European Union, General T&T, International

From Beautillion Ball to Brexit Cauldrom

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 18, 2019

“Brexit has killed and saved her [Theresa May] at the same time….She knows as soon as Brexit’s done, she’s done.”

—Ayesha Hazarika, Former Labor Party Adviser

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIt was one of those all-consuming weeks. I did a book-signing at Wellesley College, Massachusetts, on Wednesday March 6 before flying to Dallas, Texas, the following Friday to attend my eldest grandson’s Beautillion, one of those black coming-of-age functions that has its origin in the southern part of the United States. Another grandson called it “a cotillion for dudes,” it being comparable to the cotillion ceremony that is held annually for young black women.

It was one of those proud moments in a black man’s life when he participates in a function that emphasizes his responsibility to his people, his roots, and his family as he crosses the threshold from adolescence to manhood. They call it “a rite of passage.” It is an important stage in a young man’s life.
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England, General T&T, International

The Incredible Dream – Pt 3

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 19, 2018

PART 3

“The further you look into the past, the further you can see into the future.”

— Sir Winston Churchill

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOver the past month, I visited London, England, Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland where I delivered several lectures and participated in the launch of David Featherstone, ed., Marxism, Colonialism, and Cricket: C. L. R. James’s Beyond a Boundary in which I contributed a chapter on James’s intellectual origins and his knowledge of early Trinidad’s history.
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England, General T&T, International

Independence Child/Pan Africanist Vision

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 24, 2018

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeSeveral years ago Glenda Morean, Trinidad and Tobago’s High Commissioner in London, invited me to attend an intimate luncheon with Ulric Cross and four other people. It was the first time I met Cross, this distinguished man. Although I knew Cross’s reputation as a combat bomber navigator during World War II, my most indelible image of him was that of an ageless being playing a good game of tennis in his eighties.
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England, General T&T, International

Compiling the Costs of a No-Deal Brexit Armageddon

By Stephen Kangal
August 09, 2018

Stephen KangalThe image of traffic jams approaching the port of Dover conjures up chilling and growing fears for the unquantifiable consequences of a no-deal Brexit cliff-edge, doomsday scenario from the UK’s withdrawal from the single market, European Court, functional co-operation and the customs union of the EU. The panic button (clock is ticking) is being increasingly pressed on both sides with eight months left to reach agreement on the crucial Withdrawal Bill by 30 March 2019.
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England, General T&T, International

Britain Bracing for A Catastrophic Brexit Ides of March 2019

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By Stephen Kangal
July 24, 2018
Croydon England

Stephen KangalRed flags and red lines in anticipation of a no deal Brexit with the UK crashing out of the EU come 30 March next year are causing dark clouds of a doomsday scenario to gather over the skies of Britain and the 27 remaining EU countries in what could produce a most disruptive and an unprecedented chaos on both banks of the Channel. A mood of pessimism, political disenchantment in discredited Westminster politics and declining business confidence are increasingly generating traction about a no-deal given the EU’s negative reaction to the Chequers Plan that has been described as unworkable by EU chief negotiator, Francophonie Michel Barnier.
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England, General T&T, International

Theresa May Not Survive the Impending Brexit Implosion

By Stephen Kangal
July 11, 2018

Stephen KangalWith the resignations of the British Brexit and Foreign Secretaries, Messrs Davis and Johnson, the Brexit seismology has assumed the dimensions, challenges and divisiveness of the metaphorical Pandora’s Box prematurely opened up by a discarded former PM David Cameron who was its first Prime Ministerial victim. Theresa May is likely to become the second very soon.

The several waves and concentric circles of uncertainties spawned by this political economic issue are destabilising every aspect of British economic life with the only respite and antidote against the Brexit contagion being generated by the promising fortunes of the English soccer team at the World Cup in Russia.
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Africa, England, General T&T

Is Meghan Really the First …

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 28, 2018
(Dedicated to Wendy Williams)

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeNow, please don’t blame me; doh say that I say so because ah simply selling it as ah buy it but the people have it to say—call them de bad-minded people— that Meghan Markle is not the first black or mixed-race woman to join the British royal family by way of marriage.
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Africa, England, General T&T, International, USA

The British Royal Wedding, Feelgoodism and the Colonial Jumbie

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By Tyehimba Salandy
May 20, 2018

The British Royal Wedding, Feelgoodism and the Colonial JumbieTen years ago, British ‘royalty’, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla visited the Caribbean and locals prostrated before them. Local leaders made arrangements for them to play the Steelpan and the sacred Rastafarian Nyabinghi drums. Leslie from Africaspeaks.com wrote an insightful article titled Royal Visit Highlights Lingering Colonialism that brought attention to the dynamics of colonialism in this visit. This article is as relevant today as it was ten years ago when it was written, given the celebratory eruptions at the wedding of British monarch Prince Harry and his bride Meghan Markle. Yet the region is poorer today for elevating fake royalty to dizzying heights of reverence while neglecting the royalty inherent in resistant Caribbean voices who have worked hard at improving Caribbean societies.
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England, General T&T, International, USA

Royal Politics Shapes The Windsor Wedding

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By Stephen Kangal
May 21, 2018

Stephen KangalThe Royal Wedding between Prince Harry and American-born Meghan Markle that was solemnised at the historic Windsor Castle was billed to be a showcase of the cultural and ceremonial embodiment of British aristocracy, tradition and indeed of the British Raj in all its regal splendour descended into the realm of subliminal politics and public/race relations.

It started with Prince Charles walking down his future daughter-in-law Meghan down the aisle instead of her mother Doria who was at the wedding. This was intended to symbolise Royal assent and acceptance of the mixed-race Meghan into the Royal Family.
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Caribbean, England, General T&T, International, Law, Media, Sex

Britain: Theresa May ‘Deeply Regrets’ Anti-gay Colonial Laws

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By teleSUR
April 17, 2018 – telesurtv.net

Theresa May British Prime Minister Theresa May said, “nobody should face persecution or discrimination because of who they are or who they love.”

Only days after Trinidad and Tobago’s High Court repealed the country’s sodomy laws, arguing that they were unconsitituional, Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May said she “deeply regrets” Britain’s historical legacy of colonialism which imposed anti-gay laws throughout the Commonwealth.
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