Corruption and deception

By Raffique Shah
October 13, 2013

Raffique ShahOver the past 40 years, since the first oil boom began in 1973, allegations of corruption against government ministers, other politicians and senior public officials must have exceeded the one-thousand mark. I refer to alleged acts of corruption involving tens of millions of dollars and more, not to petty sums below, say, five million.

Since each corrupt transaction of this magnitude necessarily involves several persons—politicians, contractors, corporations, bankers, public officers—we could easily say that at least 5,000 persons of high standing in the society were involved.
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Unruly election rules

By Andre Bagoo
October 13, 2013 – newsday.co.tt

ParliamentTHE MOST crucial exercise in any democracy is an election. Therefore, the rules governing the electoral process take on a particular significance. Yet the elections rules, as currently formulated, appear to have crucial gaps which make them arguably inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution, the Supreme Law.
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Who needs politicians?

By Raffique Shah
October 05, 2013

Raffique ShahThe street I live on is about 200 metres long, with two side streets, each 50 metres, making it a grand total of 300 metres. There are 24 residential properties located here, with two empty plots. A small river is the main drain that collects water from a few box drains (ah, box drains, a defining feature of modern Trinidad and Tobago!) and takes it to the Gulf of Paria.
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Local Churches: We won’t marry gays

By Richardson Dhalai
October 07, 2013 – newsday.co.tt

BibleRoman Catholic Archbishop Joseph Harris yesterday stated that the Church would not be drawn into any debate on whether it would sanction same sex marriages.

He said the Roman Catholic Church’s position on gay marriages “very clear,” and according to the Archbishop, there was a difference between “loving the sinner and hating the sin”.
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Victim of Zealots

By Raffique Shah
September 29, 2013

Raffique ShahReally, it’s a messed-up, mixed-up world in which someone like young Ravindra Ramrattan falls victim to indescribable madness, to savagery clothed in religion. Even as I ponder the enormous possibilities that were terminated in murderous gunfire in far-off Kenya, I take comfort in my agnosticism that has kept me aloof of the zealots of one religion or other, and my revolutionary spirit that soars above the ideologues who manufacture and manipulate madmen for whom no life is precious, not even their own.
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Bad Deal: Ramnarine blamed for messing up energy negotiations

By Renuka Singh
September 29, 2013 – guardian.co.tt

Kevin RamnarineEnergy Minister Kevin Ramnarine has distanced himself from the negotiation process that allegedly led to an almost ten per cent drop in local voting rights over the cross-border Loran/Manatee bloc. This move comes on the heels of scathing criticism that the minister had mucked up decade-long bilateral talks between Venezuela and Trinidad that, if negotiated properly, could have boosted local energy reserves and made allowances for Venezuelan pipelines to pass through the local refinery.
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Briefing on the Property Tax

By Stephen Kangal
September 27, 2013

Current Status of Property Tax Legislation

Stephen KangalAt present there are no laws in our statute books empowering the state to demand and collect property taxes except Act No.17 of 2009 that amended the Valuation of Land Act and Act No.18 of 1969 (The Valuation of Land Act). Those other pre-2010 laws have been repealed by the passing and promulgation of Act 18 of 2009. The Laws repealed at the end of 2009 were:
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Colonial to their garments

By Raffique Shah
September 22, 2013

Raffique ShahRepublic Day in 1976—Friday, September 24th—remains etched in my memory, a vignette in my colourful life during which I often collided with history. On that day, age 30, I entered Parliament as a frontline member of the ULF, having been elected to represent the Siparia constituency. I had never been in that chamber before. In fact, I do not recall ever entering the Red House before, but when I did, I made as bold an anti-colonial statement as anyone could.
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Preserving the Tacarigua Savannah – Part 2

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 20, 2013

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI don’t know what area of Trinidad Anil Roberts comes from and on what basis he makes the claim that a Regional Sporting Complex “is forty years overdue” or why he feels that a sporting complex “equipped with facilities for all citizens to use for sports such as cricket, football, swimming, squash, tennis and table tennis” (Newsday, September 16) is the best use we can make of the remaining ten acres of the natural savannah of Tacarigua.
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UNC Has Dollars But Little Political Sense

By Stephen Kangal
September 20, 2013

Stephen KangalThe critical factor underlying the growth, continuing relevance and survival of all political organizations especially in diverse democratic societies is the priority accorded to developing, adapting and embellishing an open-ended, politically-dominated and all-embracing strategic framework. It is against this standard that all challenges to the status quo/ existence are assessed and a politically correct and objectively determined response to external stimuli brain-stormed, conceptualized and implemented.
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