Crime in T&T, General T&T, PNM, Politics

No place to hide

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 14, 2022

“There’s no hidin’ place up there,
Oh, I went to the hills to hide my face,
The hills cried out, ‘No hidin’ place;
There’s no hidin’ place up here.”

—An Afro-American spiritual

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThings have been warming up (or deteriorating) lately in the political arena among those who see others as pothounds; those who consider themselves as thoroughbreds; and those who accuse challengers of the established order as possessing sinister motives.

Stuart Young, Minister of Energy, demeaned PNM members who offered themselves for leadership positions in the party’s forthcoming elections. He claimed that since 2015, some of them have done nothing but criti­cise the party leaders “like little pothounds barking at our ankles as though they are the opposition and now they want to put themselves forward and call themselves firstly PNM members and then secondly want to be PNM leaders”.
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General T&T

…And we will remember them

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By Raffique Shah
November 14, 2022

Raffique ShahHe would turn up at one of the three army camps we had in those days—Teteron, Ogden or Union Hall. His kit, such as they could be so considered—sometimes a tunic worn past its expiry date, other times a plain shirt, both items looking as though they were specially laundered for that important day; trousers neat with seams; footwear that he’d somehow acquired that resembled drill boots, likelier “washikongs”; and most importantly, his facial hair and features groomed to perfection.
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England, General T&T, India, International, Sports

The British Re-Conquest of India

By Stephen Kangal
November 11, 2022

Stephen KangalThe Indian performance last night at the Adelaide Oval was a monumental anti-climax breaking the hearts of more than a billion devotees and 45m in the diaspora by their lack-luster approach to batting and hanging their bats to dry outside the off stump and unable to attack the English quite ordinary bowling.

Honestly from the very first over I thought India would have been a walk over for the Brits on a pitch that held no horrors for the pulverising pair of Hales and Butler who scored freely and indeed majestically as if they were playing against an English County pick up side.
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General T&T

Out of the cane fields of Tacarigua

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 07, 2022

PART VI

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOn June 27 I received the following e-mail from Margaret Heath, a relative of William Hardin Burnley (WHB). It read: “I thought you might be interested to know that my brother, as executor of my mother’s estate, has just informed me he has consigned a trunkful of extensive family papers that belonged to William Burnley and his son, Frederick Burnley, to Paul Laidlow, Auctioneers, Carlisle, to be included in their sale of July 1st/2nd.”
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Crime in T&T, General T&T

Armed for war

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By Raffique Shah
November 07, 2022

Raffique ShahNot surprisingly, the murder rate in this country, as it soars past anything we have ever experienced, is seen as the number one issue impacting the populace, the electorate, based partly on people’s genuine fear of having to face unimaginable violence, maybe death, riding not a pale horse, but actually some stolen Nissan Sunny, its occupants armed with heavy fire power, ready to rob or kill some law-abiding citizen who worked hard for the few dollars he or she has.
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General T&T

Out of the cane fields of Tacarigua

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 31, 2022

PART V

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeLast Wednesday, I had lunch with Caroline Elkins, the author of the very important book, Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire. A founding director of Harvard’s Center for African Studies, Elkins is also a professor of history and African and African American studies at Harvard University. As a product of a colonial education, I was particularly impressed with the depth and thoroughness of her study.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Politics

Poor and foolish always around

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By Raffique Shah
October 31, 2022

Raffique ShahNothing I wrote last week in my “Pensioner’s plight” column must be misconstrued as suggesting that chief justices, other judges, prime ministers and other Cabinet ministers—in other words, holders of the highest public offices in the country—do not deserve the levels of compensation, allowances and retirement benefits they currently receive.

Clearly, those who hold such offices must have met certain standards in their respective disciplines, maybe even excelled at them. Judges, for example, must win the confidence of their peers and litigants or the accused in criminal matters over which they preside. And while there are no minimal standards that politicians must meet to qualify to run for office, ultimately they are answerable to the public, to electors, if they are to win elections and form governments.
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General T&T

Out of the cane fields of Tacarigua

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 24, 2022

PART IV

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI began this series with the truism that the little people who come out of the cane fields and the rice paddies are the salt of the society. They are the ones who do what they must do to enhance the society because they believe they are a part of something bigger than themselves, something called community.

I started with Ulric “Buggy” Haynes, and went on to speak about Vernon Scott, William Holder, Cecil Boyce, and the other members of the Tacarigua Village Council who gave their time and energy to their community, without any financial reward.
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COVID-19, General T&T, Health, Politics

Pensioner’s Plight

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By Raffique Shah
October 24, 2022

Raffique ShahOne significantly large and growing demographic of the population that is feeling the brunt of the multiple negatives that are impacting the economy and every day consumers, is the aged and the infirm. They are dying like proverbial flies, often ‘parked aside’ and ignored, or worse, left to suffer sub-human conditions, large numbers of them choosing to make their exit as quietly and quickly as they can, not wanting to subject their surviving families and friends to lingering social fallout.
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General T&T, Politics

Out of the cane fields of Tacarigua

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 17, 2022

PART III

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOn May 8, 1982, I delivered a lecture, “The Village Council as an Organ of Popular Democracy”, at the Tacarigua Village Council on the eve of its 350-year anniversary, the village having entered its name into the island’s vocabulary in 1634 when it was identified as one of the four encomiendas at the foothills of the Northern Range.

Most of the Amerindians in the village came from around Lake Tacarigua in Venezuela, which explains the origin of the village name. Years earlier, I had visited Lake Tacarigua in search of origins even though I spoke little Spanish.
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