By Marlene Augustine
July 31, 2017 – newsday.co.tt
THOSE in leadership positions need to do more to wean citizens off of an acute dependence on State assistance, former Minister in the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts Dr Lincoln Douglas said yesterday.
Continue reading Dependency syndrome must end
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 31, 2017
Last Sunday, Jonathan Fenby, author of The General: Charles de Gaulle, suggested that Emmanuel Macron, President of France, was following closely in the footsteps of Charles de Gaulle, founder of the Fifth Republic, by using his office with the same majesty, grandeur, and decorum that de Gaulle did. He clarified: “Both are (or were) very well read, formally courteous and with an attention to detail. Though not as rousing an orator as the general, Mr. Macron uses speeches, as his predecessor of a half a century ago did, as instruments of pedagogy, notably with his address last weekend on the 75th anniversary of the round-up of Jews in Paris, when he did not hesitate to criticize de Gaulle by name for the pretense that the French authorities were not responsible” (Financial Times, July 22).
Continue reading Keith Rowley’s Glorious Moment
By Raffique Shah
July 12, 2017
And we wonder why, in this land of plenty, we are seeing increasing numbers of young delinquents who invariably, in their middle to latter years, become dependent on the State for all their needs and much of their wants, some of them turning to crime as a rewarding enterprise that is the safest route to garnering, maybe amassing, wealth, faring better than their contemporaries who burnt the proverbial midnight oil, who sacrificed and struggled to earn an education they believed would equip them for life.
Continue reading Lost generations amidst free education
By Stephen Kangal
July 12, 2017
Taking into account the startling but incredible disclosures made by the Acting Commissioner of Valuation, Mr Baldeo Ramoutar in his 21st June affidavit filed in the San Fernando High Court, it appears to be pellucidly clear that the Minister of Finance, Mr Colm Imbert deliberately and knowingly misled and misinformed Parliament on the measures being undertaken for the first phase implementation of the Property Tax regime.
Continue reading Imbert Misled Parliament on First Phase of The Property Tax
Govt’s hands may be tied
By Shaliza Hassanali
July 08, 2017 – guardian.co.tt
MP Marlene McDonald, Cedric Burke (centre) and President Anthony Carmona
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has admitted that the Housing Development Corporation may have no choice but to allow Sea Lots community leader Cedric Burke to complete the contract he has on a development in Bon Air, Arouca.
He also admitted his Government did not undertake due diligence in appointing the board of directors of the East Side Plaza and New City Mall, Port-of-Spain.
Continue reading PM admits Burke has edge with HDC contract
By Stephen Kangal
July 05, 2017
Both during question time as well as during the debate on the definite matter of urgent public importance that the Speaker accorded to the major flooding disaster that occurred in the wake of tropical storm Bret, the Rowley Government on Friday demonstrated the deep divisions and further polarisation that it is fanning and embedding in this country to serve its nefarious electoral agenda.
Continue reading Using a National Disaster to Polarise the Country
By Gail Alexander
July 02, 2017 – guardian.co.tt
In what’s probably the shortest-lived Government appointment in recent memory, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday fired Marlene McDonald from his Cabinet (again) after he had re-appointed her to office just three days ago. In fact, McDonald didn’t even have time to move into the Public Utilities Ministry for which she had been announced last Thursday and for which she’d taken the oath of office at President’s House, St Ann’s, last Friday.
Continue reading Marlene fired again
By Raffique Shah
July 02, 2017
In 1950, when I was four years old, my father moved the family from a sugar company cottage in Brechin Castle (now Rivulet Road) to a rented house near the Croisee in Freeport. The house, two bedrooms sitting on stilts about five feet high (I’m writing from childhood memory), was located off a sharp bend in the Freeport River, the main watercourse in what I call Greater Freeport. In fact, its eastern boundary was the meandering river, and because the land was lower than the road, level with the river-bank, whenever it rained heavily for more than a day, which occurred several times every rainy season, our yard was flooded, the swirling waters ranging from a few inches to maybe three feet.
Continue reading A bend in the river
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 02, 2017
Last Sunday Anthony Bourdain presented a well-researched, balanced, and superbly crafted depiction of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) in his program “Parts Unknown.” All the interviewees portrayed T&T as a sophisticated, talented, diverse and intelligent community. Then, without much prompting, Mario Sabga Aboud, reminded Trinbagonians about a truth they know but rarely discuss publicly: The Syrian/Lebanese, a community of approximately 5,000 people, is the most powerful ethnic group in the country.
Continue reading State Capture: Syrian/Lebanese Style
By Raffique Shah
May 30, 2017
For some time now I have sounded warnings to our tribal leaders, more specifically those in the frontline of the United National Congress, that they are playing with fire by fanning the embers of racial strife that could easily ignite. While we have enjoyed relative harmony in a world wracked by ethnic and religious strife, the absence of war between the two main tribes in this country does not necessarily mean peace.
Continue reading Don’t nail judge to race-cross