Culture, Entertainment, General T&T, Music, People's Partnership

Sparrow alive, calypso dead

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By Raffique Shah
February 23, 2014

Raffique ShahThe Mighty Sparrow’s resurrection from a coma seems to have awakened many a dead, although the miracle I hoped for most, breathing new life into calypso, appears to be beyond the Birdie’s prowess.

Ever since calypso’s most iconic practitioner fell gravely ill, no pun intended, I assumed that the Government had quietly funded his medical expenses. After all, here’s the world’s greatest calypsonian in his winter years encountering not-unexpected health challenges, and his country, the land of calypso that he helped brand, enjoying a healthy economy, so much so that the authorities award millions of dollars every year to artistes of relative Lilliputian stature, you would think….
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General T&T, Law, Parliament, People's Partnership, Politics

Constitutional Commission (CRC) Re-Invented the Wheel

By Stephen Kangal
February 14, 2014

Stephen KangalHaving submitted what is no more than disappointing glorified minutes or executive summary of the deliberations of the CRC on the road map to reforming the existing 1967 Republican Commission without appending the requisite draft Working Paper it appears that the remit of the CRC in its own admission has ended. But why is the CRC still bent on holding further consultations on previous consultations when it admits it has completed its job? According to the CRC the next step to be taken falls within the ambit of parliamentarians and the population.
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corruption, General T&T, Media, People's Partnership

Minister: So what?

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By Julien Neaves
February 10, 2014 – newsday.co.tt

Dr. Lincoln Douglas, MPARTS and Multiculturalism Minister Dr Lincoln Douglas has denied claims by Trinbago Unified Calypsonians’ Organi-sation (TUCO) president Lutalo ‘Brother Resistance’ Masimba that Government officials and their friends have been abusing free entry to Carnival events.

“I think it has been reasonable. If you give seven, eight, nine, 10, 20 million dollars to an event, or to support, I don’t think it’s unreasonable that members of Government should expect to go to these events and not be able to take a friend or two,” Douglas said.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, ILP, People's Partnership, Police, Politics

Decoding Crime in T&T

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By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
February 12, 2014

Dr. Kwame NantambuOne of the apparently unknown realities of crime in T&T is the fact that neither the current People’s Partnership (PP) government, a People’s National Movement (PNM) government nor an Independent Liberal Party (ILP) government can solve/prevent certain crimes in this
country.

For example, if as occurred quite recently, an aggrieved ex-husband decides to kill his ex-wife, then, there is absolutely nothing any of the afore-mentioned or the Commissioner of Police can do to prevent/stop this familial crime.
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Africa, General T&T, Opposition Party, Race and Identity, Racism Watch

Judge not by colour

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By Raffique Shah
February 08, 2014

Raffique ShahI know there are many people in the country who think that Keith Rowley is too black to be Prime Minister. I didn’t need Fitzgerald Hinds to tell me that, although his charge that such sentiment emanates from the bowels of the PNM, from important persons in the party, did surprise me somewhat.

I don’t know why we bury our heads in the sand when the issue of colour prejudice, which is often linked to race prejudice, rears its ugly head in the society. It has always been there, and, I imagine, it always will be. Most people of lighter or whiter complexion, whatever their ethnicity, believe they are superior to others who are dark-skinned, or worse, black.
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Complaints, Environment, Food, General T&T, People's Partnership

From Cabbage Patch to Concrete Jungle

By Stephen Kangal
February 06, 2013

Stephen KangalWhile the Minister of Planning and Sustainable Development Dr the Honourable Bhoe Tiwari is romanticizing in the spills, drills and thrills of the imagination at the expense of not giving his ministerial attention to the issues at the ground level relating to the protection and conservation of our fertile arable soils to support a thriving and sustainable food farming industry geared to foster and promote the agenda for achieving food sovereignty and security, we are now witnessing before our very eyes a cruel and ruthless desecration of the lands of the traditional food basket of Aranguez by an incipient and expanding concrete and steel jungle.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Health, Media, People's Partnership, Politics, Schools, Sex, Sex Crimes

ARREST THOSE MEN

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By Andre Bagoo
February 05, 2014 – newsday.co.tt

ARREST THOSE MENTHERE ARE an estimated 2,500 teenage pregnancies per year, including several cases at the primary school level, Minister of Education Dr Tim Gopeesingh said yesterday as he called for the enforcement of laws against statutory rape in order to address what he said was a “huge”, “frightening” and worsening problem.

The minister linked the problem to social conditions, saying half the population now live in single-parent homes.
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Crime in T&T, Drug Trade, General T&T, International, Law, Money Laundering, Police, Politics, Security, USA

De ‘bust’ buss

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By Raffique Shah
February 02, 2014

Raffique ShahWithin days of the announcement by US authorities that they had intercepted 700-odd pounds of cocaine shipped from Trinidad to Norfolk, Virginia, and the well-publicised arrival here of a number of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents, I sensed that something had gone awfully wrong.
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General T&T, Politics, Religion

Let us pray

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Newsday Editorial
January 29, 2014 – newsday.co.tt

BibleWe fully support the current National Week of Prayer, as a potential tool against crime and other social ills, launched last Sunday by the Inter Religious Organisation (IRO) and Ministry of National Diversity and Social Integration.

We respect this nation’s diversity of beliefs including the right of a citizen to disbelieve, but we think the country at this socially-fragile time has more to gain than to lose through collective religious practices such as this Week of Prayer.
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