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
By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
October 09, 2006
Within recent times, it has been suggested that the international community is angered that the Islamic Republic of Iran has “enriched uranium” that may lead to Iran eventually possessing a nuclear bomb.
The notion has also been bandied about that the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has publicly stated that, “Israel should be wiped off the map.”
Continue reading Hypocrisy in Middle East
They did not kidnap and rape anyone important.
Comment by Linda E. Edwards
There is a shady gray area where the minds of many men seem to “lurk”. It is the area of “rough sex”, “stealing a piece(tiefing)”, “she asking for trouble”, and “she like it so”. This gray area of fantasy sends men to watch movies that women, sensible women, would not be caught dead watching. It sends them to “gentlemen’s clubs” – titty bars and “cat houses” to see acts of sex, real and simulated, that their wives would not perform for fear that their husbands beat the daylights out of them. “Wey she learn that from? I ent teach she dat”. Men still make clear distinctions about women and sex.
Continue reading Why No Sex Offenders Registry?
By Raffique Shah
October 08, 2006
It is instructive that in a National Budget of $38 billion during fiscal 2006-07, the two proposals that have generated the fiercest controversies are the Finance Minister’s bid to clamp down on gambling and increased taxes on alcohol and tobacco. Retirees and pensioners have zeroed in on the less-than-caring manner in which they continue to be treated. The unemployed and under-employed have stayed silent, if only because they are not taxed on their meagre earnings or alms. And many of the concerns over the negative impact inflation has on people’s purchasing power seem to have simmered down.
Continue reading Stop gambling? Manning must be crazy
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
A Step Towards the African Revolution
By Leslie, africaspeaks.com
October 05, 2006
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com
The session at the last Moonlight Gathering in September was highly profound and without a doubt, edifying and interesting. Usually, after a period of song, poetry, drumming and other chosen activities, the group at the Moonlight Gathering would engage an issue; any issue that we feel worth discussing and for whatever reasons. However, the last gathering was the first time that the discussion was so heated; so much so, that some chose to ‘stay out of the kitchen’.
Continue reading Dealing with Colourism
By Raffique Shah
October 01, 2006
I wish members of the Catholic community, many of whom have defended Pope Benedict’s recent statements that insulted Islam, could feel what it’s like for a religion, its leader and its ardent members to be pilloried or mocked by writers, or worse, by leaders of another faith.
Pope Benedict’s choice of a quotation from an ancient emperor, “Show me just what (the Prophet) Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman…,” was not accidental, as many made it out to be. It has to be seen in the context of today’s George Bush and Tony Blair-led “crusade” against what they have dubbed “radical Islam”, but what has turned into a virtual holy war against Muslims in general.
Continue reading A very dangerous man
By Francis Joseph, newsday.co.tt
Sunday, October 1 2006
AFTER Chief Justice Clinton Bernard retired in 1995, Appeal Court Justice Sat Sharma was next in line for the coveted post of head of TT’s judiciary. But he did not get the job. The position went instead to an eminent attorney, Michael de la Bastide SC. So Sharma waited. His turn eventually came in July 2002 and he was appointed Chief Justice by then President Arthur NR Robinson.
Continue reading Sharma’s road to London
By Raffique Shah
September 24, 2006
Politicians, especially those who are in power, must know they are under intense public scrutiny, whatever they say or do. Once they have offered themselves for office and are elected by the people, they become public property. It’s a reality that many may be uncomfortable with. But if you commit yourself to politics, expect the masses to offer you no quarter. Opposition politicians can get away with murder or slightly lesser crimes when they reduce themselves to comic status, when they provide entertainment, not serious challenge for office.
Continue reading Manning ‘bombed’ by Bombardier