By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 06, 2023
I want to congratulate the Government for voting affirmatively on the UN General Assembly’s resolution on October 27 that called for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce” between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in Gaza. The resolution also called for “continuous, sufficient and unhindered” provision of lifesaving supplies and services for civilians trapped in the enclave.
Continue reading Acting in bad faith
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 25, 2023
And so the monstrous, mindless, criminal madness continued on Wednesday with the “execution-style killings of three children and a 19-year-old in the crime hotspot of Heights of Guanapo”. This massacre also left five people wounded, two of whom are children. Yet the Government keeps calling for talks with the Opposition as if there were some magical elixir in that encounter.
Continue reading The Blood of Our Children
By Raffique Shah
September 19, 2023
Like most people who live in this country, many of whom, like me, will never leave the twin-island republic to live anywhere else in the world, I am not only concerned but I am disturbed by what seems to be a deteriorating crime situation, especially crime that involves violence. At a recent news conference, I heard Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, not for the first time say, “We have become a very violent society.” Judging from the reports of criminal activities that we get in the media, that perception seems to be the truth.
Continue reading Power in the barrel of a gun
By Raffique Shah
August 28, 2023
If Karl Marx were alive and still fighting to establish his elusive dream of a pure communist country, he might have been amused by a 21st-century phenomenon that he would have uproariously branded “the lumpen intelligentsia”. Of course, just about everyone so branded, and most who are not, will be equally lost. You see, the vocabulary nowadays has excised such words and terms as if their mere mention would leave a stain on them.
If you or I walked up to one-time die-hard communists such as Wade Mark, who was among a small band of Marxists who fought elections in 1981 but won hardly any votes, they’d likely tell you, “No, boy, ah doh do dat again.” So it’s left to a handful of us revolutionaries to at least keep the memories of another day alive, if not kicking.
Continue reading Our ‘lumpen intelligentsia’
By Raffique Shah
July 24, 2023
If, over the past 50 years, we, meaning citizens, police and other law enforcement agencies were to have captured, charged, tried and convicted one Mr Big for every hundred named, Trinidad and Tobago today will have been a crime-free society.
I make this bold statement not to look or sound funny, but to illustrate how stupid it is for law officers and politicians, especially senior officials—what they do to impress their bosses and the masses. Every so often when there is nothing positive to report, we hear utterances about “Mr Big”.
Continue reading Messrs Big grow bigger
By Raffique Shah
June 20, 2023
I haven’t given much thought to the local government election due to be held in August, nor have I paid much attention to the ongoing debate on reforming local government, a cornerstone of PNM’s vision for new governments.
In the first instance, besides creating three new boroughs, the Government is seeking to instil the decentralisation of governance, the precise details of which I have not studied. However, I am aware that the contentious issue of property tax which the PNM sees as not only a source of revenue, but more importantly a source of power to the local government bodies, remains a gap between the Government and the Opposition UNC, which is totally against property tax.
Continue reading Cradle of corruption
Newsday Editorial
June 06, 2023
MANY are the reasons why a victim of sexual assault may not come forward.
Some fear they will not be believed. Others are daunted by a criminal justice system plagued with delay. All of this is made worse when the perpetrator is a member of the protective services.
Continue reading A special victim
20 years later: Piarco airport commission of enquiry report finally unwrapped…
By Ria Taitt
May 28, 2023 – trinidadexpress.com
It has remained under wraps for two decades.
The Sunday Express has however obtained a copy of the report of the commission of enquiry into the Piarco Airport Development Project, a subject which has poisoned the political bloodstream of Trinidad and Tobago with allegations of corruption on a grand scale and counter-allegations of political witch-hunting.
Continue reading MASSIVE CORRUPTION
By Raffique Shah
May 22, 2023
Nothing I have ever written in this space can be misconstrued to suggest that I proffered poverty as an excuse for crime. To the contrary, I have advanced many reasons why the link between poverty and crime is not axiomatic. And, I have warned the poor to stay clear of crime since they will be made to pay heaviest for it, while the real criminals have the wealth to retain high-priced attorneys, whose jobs are to keep the crooks out of prison.
Continue reading Poverty is a crime
By Raffique Shah
May 15, 2023
While members of parliament, on both sides of the divide debated, argued, and almost came to blows over a relatively minor issue— in this case, the supplementary appropriation bill— they could not see the herd of elephants in the House, not one in a room, set to stampede demanding an equitable place on Earth. I watched with consternation as MPs got close to blows over the Finance Minister’s proposal to increase expenditure for fiscal 2023, I thought: These people must be mad.
Continue reading Is What We Go Put