Monthly Archives: February 2012

Culture, Entertainment, General T&T, Music, Security

Total disrepect

6 Comments

By Raffique Shah
February 12, 2012

Raffique ShahI HAVE been nursing a not-so-quiet anger since last Sunday’s Panorama Semi-finals, and no, it has nothing to do with Despers being omitted from the finals, although I feel “a how” about that. I have asked fellow pan-fans, many of whom, like me, no longer make the pilgrimage to the Savannah, but who, nevertheless, do not miss a note, “How could they show total disrespect to pan, to the thousands who labour in panyards to produce one of the world’s biggest musical extravaganzas?”
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Africa, Crime in T&T, Culture, Education, General T&T, Race and Identity, Schools

Crime in T&T – Afri-centric Analysis

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By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
February 11, 2012

Dr. Kwame NantambuThe most intractable, vexing and perplexing problem in T&T is crime. And the raison d’etre successive governments have been unable and unsuccessful in dealing with this problem is primarily because they have all adopted a Euro-centric approach instead of an Afri-centric approach.
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Death Penalty, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics, UNC

A Politician’s Cry

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 08, 2012

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeInitially, Jack wept publicly because he wanted to persuade black people that he felt their pain. Like Brigadier John Sandy, his enabler, he just could not stand how black people were killing one another so he joined his UNC colleagues to impose a State of Emergency that threw black people in prison, for the most part. I noted then, “Jack wept just as Peter wept after he betrayed Christ.”
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Culture, General T&T, Hindu, India, International, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity

Malay Steps out of His Crease

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By Stephen Kangal
February 06, 2012

PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar in IndiaIn the aftermath of the current euphoria and unbridled optimism generated from the highly successful recent State visit conducted by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissesar to India in connection with the annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas it is very disconcerting to hear HE The High Commissioner of India to T&T, Malay Mishra using an occasion to promote his mission’s Hindi language program in T&T, to unleash unwarranted and undiplomatic criticisms of her alleged inability to connect with the people of her ancestral village of Bhelupur because she spoke in English- the official language of T&T.
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Culture, General T&T, Hindu, India, People's Partnership, Politics

Impossible dreams

5 Comments

By Peggy Mohan
February 05, 2012 – trinidadexpress.com

PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar in IndiaThere is nothing strange in a person from India visiting Trinidad and being beset by dreams of connection with Indo-Trinidadians. They look so much like us…if only they could speak Hindi like us too. Once upon a time they must have…
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Crime in T&T, Finance, General T&T, People's Partnership, Police, Politics

From blimp to ‘battimamselle’

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By Raffique Shah
February 05, 2012

Raffique ShahSHORTLY after the PNM government acquired the second or third sky ship (“blimp”) a few years ago, a well-informed patriotic national who resides in the US asked me why they did not consider new surveillance technology like remote-controlled drones. We had a healthy discussion on the issue. I did not understand, nor could I explain, why Martin Joseph and his security advisers opted for the unwieldy “blimp” over the many ultra-modern devices that were then in service from Afghanistan to America.
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Crime in T&T, Education, Law, Schools, Violence

Principal Charged with Cruelty to Children

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By Nalinee Seelal
February 03, 2012 – newsday.co.tt

Arlene BlackmanPOLICE officers last night charged Arlene Blackman — Principal of Blackman’s Private School in Maraval — with two counts of Cruelty to Children, under the Children’s Act, Chap 46:01, Section III(I), for allegedly placing the head of two students in a toilet bowl at her school and flushing it.
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General T&T, Opposition Party, Politics

We need a strong opposition

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By Derren Joseph
February 01, 2012

Derren JosephRecently I ended up at a fundraiser organised by Democrats Abroad here in the UK. As one would expect, the event was to raise funds for the re-election of President Obama in this year’s US Presidential elections. Those of us in favour of campaign finance reform in Trinidad and Tobago are impressed by the relative transparency in the campaign finance process in the US, and in the UK. Foreigners are not normally allowed to donate to political parties and all contributions over a certain threshold are a matter of public record. In fact, I was only able to attend the event as a guest of my wife, who is a US citizen and a registered Democrat.
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Entertainment, General T&T, Music

The Beauties of Mozart

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 01, 2012

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIt was a good time to be away. While my good friend Louis Lee Sing was fighting down Brian Lara (a bad fight to pick: you just don’t dump on a national hero like that); and Penny Beckles, a woman I admire politically, was being chastised for cultivating her own group of supporters (I thought every politician had a right to develop his or her own political base); and my favorite publisher, Maxie Cuffie, was lambasting Lennox Grant for trying to compromise his journalistic ability (he says that Grant failed in his duty to advance the integrity of the press), I took time out to visit Wolfgang Mozart’s residence in Salzburg, Austria.
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