Category Archives: Politics

General T&T, PNM, Politics, Racism Watch, UNC

Race rules in this wasteland

27 Comments

By Raffique Shah
July 12, 2021

Raffique ShahIn this racially-fractured society, in which we can agree on nothing of substance, nothing that might help the nation move forward, or, to stretch this from the ridiculous to the sublime, we are a people so deeply divided that we shall never find ourselves on the same side of a battle-line should some army of the insane decide to conquer Trinidad and Tobago by force, readers might justifiably ask who in their “right mind” would want to own, rule or otherwise lay claim to the cussed country?
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Editorial, General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

Perks of unequal sacrifice

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Express EditorialIN engaging in counter-accusations and whataboutisms, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley is missing the point of the public’s annoyance over ministerial tax exemptions.

On the principle that two wrongs don’t make a right, his Government does not get a free pass from public criticism just because former ministers in the Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration are accused of various acts of corruption. The two are separate and one does not justify the other.
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General T&T, Politics, Recession, UNC

Black lies matter most

7 Comments

By Raffique Shah
July 05, 2021

Raffique ShahOne night recently, the latter part of the television news still being broadcast, I had half-an-ear tuned in to it as I multi-tasked, maybe checking out something on my tablet or the hard drive in my head. Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar was on-screen, more than likely addressing her supporters, and I half-listened to what she was saying. ‘…and then there is the NIB…that is insolvent…’ I muttered audibly, ‘That’s a lie!’ ‘Why do you say that?’ my wife Rosina asked. I switched my focus to her, and explained in detail why I said Kamla was lying.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

Opposition Leader knocks PM over shifting vaccine delivery

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By Darren Bahaw
July 04, 2021 – newsday.co.tt

Kamla Persad-BissessarOpposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar used vile language and personal pot shots to criticise the Prime Minister for failing to restart the economy during the covid19 crisis which has in effect shut down the majority of businesses since April 29.

In a statement, Persad-Bissessar described Dr Rowley as a “vaccine vagrant” whose promise to deliver vaccines keeps shifting.
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General T&T, Parliament, PNM, Politics, UNC

Time to heal, reconcile and conciliate

14 Comments

By Stephen Kangal
July 01, 2021

Stephen KangalThe work and deliberations of the Committee of the Whole on the two Tobago Self Government Bills have been adjourned sine die.

The PMTT has indicated that they may not come back to the House before September and may even lapse by December. This is the low measure of seriousness attributed to Tobago’s autonomy after the obscene “gallerying” of Monday, Tuesday and today Wednesday by Rowley and his gang of copy-cat neophytes.
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General T&T, Labour, PNM, Politics

A Labour Day story

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By Raffique Shah
June 21, 2021

Raffique ShahWith this country’s history largely unwritten, and in many instances unrecorded, I shan’t be surprised if my column today reads like Greek hieroglyphics to most people.

Many of us have an interest in knowing where we came from, this potpourri of races that confuses us more than foreigners. Our only identification mark, I cite Meer and Fuchs, examining our language from a phonetic perspective, is the sing-song prosody linguists insist we expose when we speak.
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COVID-19, General T&T, Health, Politics

Departing on arrival day

34 Comments

By Raffique Shah
May 31, 2021

Raffique ShahIn the event that you may have just awakened from a Rip shocking it might seem to you, it’s not just T&T; the world is at war…has been for almost one and a half years.

Just so you get right, we have already lost more than 400 lives in the war against Covid-19, with many more wounded, tens of thousands dislocated. Globally, some 3.5 million souls have returned to God, or wherever such poor buggers go, and mankind’s forces have suffered an estimated 170 million light-to-moderate casualties.
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COVID-19, General T&T, Health, Politics

NCRHA meets to discuss transferred doctors today apology

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By Gail Alexander
May 27, 2021 – guardian.co.tt

DoctorsThe board of the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) will meet today to discuss a call by 11 doctors for the reinstatement of and an apology to four senior doctors who were recently transferred from the Couva Hospital and Multi-Training Facility.

The board’s meeting this morning will examine a call made by the 11 senior medical practitioners, who’ve insisted the board immediately do a probe into why the four senior specialist doctors were removed from the Couva Hospital recently.
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Africa, COVID-19, Finance, General T&T, Health, International, Politics, Recession

Of dollars and sense

5 Comments

By Raffique Shah
April 26, 2021

Raffique ShahI round off my intervention on the many possibilities we might find in a new post-­Covid economy by reminding readers the pandemic has hammered economies across the world, irrespective of their sizes, in ways never before seen.

Oil was rocked to unimaginably low prices. Stock markets swayed as if in stupor, major commodity prices collapsed to uneconomic levels, and the virus disrupted world production of essential industries, goods and services, leaving governments confused, powerless, defeated.
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COVID-19, Finance, General T&T, Health, Politics, Recession

Out with the old, in with the new

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By Raffique Shah
April 19, 2021

Raffique ShahThere comes a time in the affairs of a nation—and such occurrences are rare, maybe once in a century—when events shaped by the actions of citizens or unleashed by the forces of nature create the conditions for change, sometimes radical change that otherwise would hardly be considered, far less adopted, but which, when measured by the degree of dislocation the nation faces if its leaders fail to act, may offer opportunities that guide us along a path we didn’t think existed.
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