Monthly Archives: March 2013

Culture, General T&T, Law, Media

ZOO BANS ‘SAGGY PANTS’

16 Comments

Monday, March 18 2013
Newsday – newsday.co.tt

Front page of Newsday: ZOO BANS SAGGY PANTSResponding to scores of requests from its paying patrons over the last month, the management of the Emperor Valley Zoo took the bold decision to ban entry to men who are inappropriately dressed in sagging trousers which expose their jockey shorts or other choice of underwear being worn.

Athough the origin of “Sagging” is not known for sure, the prevailing opinion seems to be that it began in prison, due to inmates not being allowed to wear belts. Many people believe that bearing this in mind, it is therefore incomprehensible as to why this would gain popularity here in Trinidad or elsewhere, especially among the younger generation,
Continue reading ZOO BANS ‘SAGGY PANTS’ →

General T&T, Media, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, UNC

Rowley’s revival of Ramesh

21 Comments

By Suzanne Mills
March 17, 2013 – newsday.co.tt

Keith Rowley and Ramesh Lawrence MaharajIt’s nigh impossible to gauge precisely what Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley hopes to accomplish by forming an alliance with his former foe, ex attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj.

We can deduce from the evidence Maharaj’s raison d’etre — he was beaten roundly and soundly in the 2010 UNC leadership race by Kamla Persad-Bissessar and likely pique has moved him to join forces with the Opposition to dismantle her regime. By teaming up with Rowley and the PNM, he is guaranteed a political platform, an additional opportunity to maintain a high profile and to bash the government, and possibly another shot at a seat in the parliament.
Continue reading Rowley’s revival of Ramesh →

General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics, UNC

The Warner way

38 Comments

By Raffique Shah
March 17, 2013

Raffique ShahAND hypocritically, we wonder why the moral-social fabric of the society is torn apart, nay, shredded, by a culture of violence, of lawlessness, of nihilism such as we have never known.

We blame the young, easy targets, never admitting that they are misfits moulded in our own image and likeness, created by elders who are anything but exemplars. We blame foreign influences, television, alien music and art forms. We blame any and everything but ourselves. We never look into the mirror.
Continue reading The Warner way →

Africa, China, England, Features, General T&T, Media, Race and Identity, Racism Watch, USA, Venezuela, Zimbabwe

Harare: Is It Really the Worst City on Earth?

6 Comments

Out and About in Zimbabwe’s Capital

By Andre Vltchek
March 15, 2013 – andrevltchek.weebly.com

ZimbabweFor a change, I don’t want to discuss politics. I don’t want to debate whether big bad Mugabe is actually an African national hero, as many on this continent believe, or some brutal dictator, as we are told relentlessly by the BBC, The Economist and virtually the entire Western establishment media.

‘Data’ about Zimbabwe is developed somewhere, to serve Western political interests, and then it is recycled, repeated by hundreds of websites all over the Internet. Old reports are not updated when the situation improves. Incorrect statistics are hardly challenged.
Continue reading Harare: Is It Really the Worst City on Earth? →

Culture, Entertainment, General T&T, Media, Music, USA, Violence

Machel Montano Performed in Miami After All

2 Comments

Machel MontanoFrom the article below (the bottom of the first page and continuing onto the second page), it appears that Machel Montano did perform at the “Nine Mile Music Festival 2013” which was held in Florida, Miami on March 02, 2013. There were concerns that his U.S. visa would have been revoked following his conviction last year for assaulting four persons in 2007 outside Zen night club in Port-of-Spain and for using obscene language. Montano was fined on February 25, 2013.
Continue reading Machel Montano Performed in Miami After All →

Africa, Gender, General T&T, Race and Identity, Racism Watch

A Female’s Scorn

18 Comments

“A black woman is no different to any other woman”
By Akilah Holder – Trinidad Express – March 08, 2013
www.trinidadexpress.com/woman-magazine/A_black_woman-196637151.html

Am I not a man and a brother?
AM I NOT A MAN AND A BROTHER?
I was standing in my local mini-mart one day, waiting to be served and minding my own business, when this scruffy and questionable-looking black man who had walked into the mini mart began eyeing me. From the corner of my eyes I had noted that he was eyeing me, and had thought to myself, “Oh gosh, here we go!”. As I had anticipated, this “character” walked over to me and began hitting on me. I shot him a look intended to convey “Ugh! Please!” At that point, I looked away. And I must have succeeded in communicating the meaning that I had wanted because he persisted, “why you have to treat me like I is a beast?” Yep, green verbs and all! I responded “because you are acting like one,” and so aggravated was I, that I was about to spit out “and you look like one too,” but I thought to myself “Look, Akilah, hush, jus hush”.
Continue reading A Female’s Scorn →

General T&T, Race and Identity, Racism Watch

Nothing glamourous about Racism, Colorism

2 Comments

The glamorization of Racism and Colorism makes these social plagues difficult to eradicate. The article linked below is another example of this stark reality.

“Rosetta Smith, Lady Governor of Trinidad“
By Angelo Bissessarsingh – Trinidad Guardian – Sunday, March 10, 2013
www.guardian.co.tt/columnist/2013-03-10/rosetta-smith-lady-governor-trinidad
SlaveryIt is no secret that the immensely diverse ethnic potpourri of Trinidad’s history has produced the most beautiful women in the world. Almost every white man of substance had his coloured mistress in days of yore. The fabled attraction of the mulatto woman had its effect on the fearsome Sir Thomas Picton, who ruled with an iron hand as the first British governor from 1797-1803. Picton sent forth pimps to search out a mistress.
Continue reading Nothing glamourous about Racism, Colorism →

CARICOM, General T&T, International, Latin America, Politics, Venezuela

Chavez – Catalyst for Change

7 Comments

By Raffique Shah
March 09, 2013

Raffique ShahHUGO Chavez cast a giant shadow over the Western Hemisphere during his relatively short life. Few world leaders can claim to have influenced the course of history and geopolitics the way he did. For more than half-a-century, visionaries formulated and articulated ideas for the creation of a new power centre that resided outside of North America and Europe. Chavez transformed those dreams into reality, however limited, and upon his untimely death he left behind the legacy of a new world order that seems set to redefine Latin America and influence global affairs in the 21st Century.
Continue reading Chavez – Catalyst for Change →

General T&T, International, Latin America, Passed on, Venezuela

Venezuela: Adiós Presidente

1 Comment

By Clifton Ross
March 8th 2013 – Upside Down World

Mourners pay their respects to Hugo Chávez (Efrain Gonzalez / Prensa Miraflores)
Mourners pay their respects to Hugo Chávez (Efrain Gonzalez / Prensa Miraflores)
It may be difficult for North Americans to grasp the loss Venezuelans are feeling over the death of President Hugo Chávez since we have no comparable experience in our entire history. I called a friend in Venezuela today to check in with her and find out how she was doing the day after Chávez’s death. She was obviously shaken. “It’s a blow (golpe) and you feel it everywhere. After all, Chávez is a man we’ve lived with for the past fourteen years.”

Chávez, whatever one may think of him or how his legacy will be judged, was a warm, charismatic, down-to-earth, entertaining, larger-than-life figure, part politician, part entertainer. He was from the llano, the land of the cowboys and that was so much of his appeal. When he looked into the camera on his weekly, Alo Presidente, there was a sense of physical contact with him among viewers. I know my friend Juan seemed to feel Chávez was there with us on those Sunday mornings as he laughed with him and even hummed along when Chávez sang.
Continue reading Venezuela: Adiós Presidente →

Caribbean, General T&T, International, Latin America, Politics, Venezuela

The Life and Legacy of Hugo Chávez

By Gregory Wilpert
March 7th 2013 – The Real News

Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, or Comandante Chávez, as he was affectionately known by his supporters and followers, passed away on March 5, at 4:25 p.m. local time, following a 21-month battle against cancer.

When he died, at 58 years of age, he had become one of Venezuela’s and perhaps even the world’s most important contemporary leaders, having launched what he and his movement called the “Bolivarian Revolution,” named after Simón Bolívar, the 19th-century independence hero who had liberated Venezuela and four other countries from Spanish colonial rule. Chávez was a devotee of Simón Bolívar, and his vice president, Nicolás Maduro, recently referred to Chávez as “the new liberator of the 21st century.” Whether this is a fair assessment only history will tell, but what is certain is that Chávez changed the face of Venezuela during his 14 years as president.
Continue reading The Life and Legacy of Hugo Chávez →