By Linda E. Edwards
November 14, 2006
According to headlines in the major dailies, and substantiated in the accompanying articles of Nov.12, 2006; people of Indo-Trinidadian descent are besieging the visiting Vice-president of India for relief from the discrimination suffered daily in Trinidad and Tobago at the hands of the Afro-Caribbean and other people. This letter is in response to those pleas.
Continue reading The “Indians” Are At It Again!
By Raffique Shah
November 12, 2006
I think Alcoa spokesman Wade Hughes is “damn farse and outa place” (let him go learn our dialect) to suggest that Trinidad is “ideally positioned to become the aluminium hub of the Caribbean”. But Hughes got his license to make such insulting pronouncements from none other than Prime Minister Patrick Manning. When the PM referred to his fellow citizens, distinguished and ordinary, as being “dotish”, what could we expect from a “preferred” alien? Hughes and Alcoa, thanks to the “dotish” stance adopted by Manning and company on constructing aluminium smelters here, have been given “rank” over all of us natives. It was always this way as governments genuflected to multinational corporations, making them overlords of our nature-given resources.
Continue reading Manning, Alcoa must come clean
By Stephen Kangal
PM Manning, Minister Rowley and Alcoa have assured the Chatham villagers that the proposed third generation, state -of-the-art aluminum smelter earmarked for construction in the ecologically fragile and sensitive S.W. Peninsula will pose no serious threat to the human, physical and ambient environment. Accordingly I wish to suggest that having regard to this undertaking Chaguaramas would appear to be a superior site to Chatham as the preferred location for the Alcoa plant.
Continue reading Site Smelter in Chaguaramas
By Stephen Kangal
Last year, National Security Minister Joseph assured us that crime would get worse before it got better. Crime has intensified. Last week, Junior Finance Minister Enill, following in the same vein of PNM spin doctors assured that inflation would get worse (more than 10%) before it got better (single digit). Meanwhile, while POS is overheating and being ghettoised by the skyscraper landscape, we, the 300,000 poor, must lose the purchasing power of our scarce hard-earned dollars and await the effects of this over-used worse-better syndrome.
Continue reading Conflicting Signals on Inflation
Posted by: Errol F. Hosein
The ongoing behaviour of Prime Minister Patrick Manning suggests that he is driven by the ghost of Dr. Eric Williams. One must note that earlier in his career as Prime Minister, Mr. Manning referred to himself as the “Father” of the Nation. I suspect that he has not fully recovered as a result of what appeared to be a political “faux Pas” to the casual observer.
Continue reading The delusions of a Prime Minister
Response to the 2006 – 2007 Budget by the Hon. Leader of the Opposition Mrs. Kamla Persad-Bissessar (M.P. Siparia)
Continue reading Opposition Leader response to Budget
By Raffique Shah
October 22, 2006
Two years ago a report from some UN agency stated that 300,000 people in Trinidad and Tobago lived “on less than US$1 a day”. Today, with oil dollars gushing through the country, we have managed to lower this number to, I think, 170,000 paupers. When I read statistics like these I vigorously shake my head, trying to figure out if I am living in T&T or on some other planet. Although I cannot claim to know every district in the country, I try to figure out how these highly paid experts come up with their numbers when I don’t see evidence of such indigence.
Continue reading Statistics and damn lies
By Stephen Kangal
Government cannot be honestly embarking on a proposed Rapid Rail System (RRS) at a capital cost of $20 billion over 4 years and leave the people in the dark. They must be told how their money will be spent and what real reliefs to motorists and travelers will be provided by this astronomical monstrosity.
Continue reading Rapid Rail Questions
By Stephen Kangal
The proposed Rapid Rail System (RRS) OR BOMBARDIER STYLE TRAMLINK would appear to be a done deal that has been concluded in the privacy of Cabinet without the requisite proper feasibility study (recommended by APETT) being conducted to determine whether it can really alleviate the escalating traffic gridlock that has enveloped most areas of Trinidad. This RRS is being bandied about even before the receipt of the Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) Comprehensive National Transportation System (CNTS).
Continue reading The Rapid Rail To Gridlock
The text of Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s 2006-2007 Budget Speech as was presented in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, October 4th, 2006.
Continue reading 2006 – 2007 Budget speech