By Raffique Shah
October 01, 2024
Some day last week, several of my one-time associates and long-time friends managed to breach the hurdles TSTT has implanted on my ancient landline to isolate me from what passes for civilisation today. They called to ask if I heard Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley crowing like a “fowl-cock” when he rolled out a new programme his Government was about to embark on, one tag-line proclaiming: “Making agriculture sexy!”
Continue reading Rowley’s ‘sexy’ agriculture
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 25, 2024
There he was, resplendent amidst the splendour of the PNM Women’s League as he asked their members to get ready for the 2025 election. Acting as the titular head of the party in the absence of the Leader of Our Grief and in the presence of his “political Mother” (Camille Robinson-Regis), he signified his desire to achieve his next career objective: the leader of the storied People’s National Movement.
In his elation, he didn’t tell these women what to expect from a reincarnated party under his leadership. Nor, for that matter, did he tell them how he hopes to reverse the downward slide of the nation. A protégé of his leader, crafted in his style and embodying his essence, Young was a parody of the man he was hoping to replace.
Continue reading Time for PNM members to speak up
By Raffique Shah
September 25, 2024
Once upon a time not so very long ago, Trinidad and Tobago had a handful of older citizens, alive, if not kicking. Many were reclusive, perhaps eccentric. So it seemed, anyway. Mostly they would stay by themselves, hardly mix even with others of similar age. And, since it seemed difficult to get a word out of them, far less the mangoes from the trees in their yards, one would just steer clear of them.
Continue reading When madness is not gladness
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 18, 2024
PART II
In 1962 when Trinidad and Tobago went into business as a nation, it formed a committee “to select the symbols that would be representative of the people of Trinidad and Tobago”. It produced our coat of arms.
Those representative symbols consisted of a palm tree at the top that was taken from Tobago’s coat of arms (Tobago was annexed to Trinidad in 1889), three gold ships that Columbus is reputed to have used when he visited (or saw the island in 1498), two hummingbirds (Trinidad was sometimes referred to as the “Land of the Hummingbird”), and its motto, “Together we aspire, Together we achieve.”
Continue reading Pan and T&T’s coat of arms
By Raffique Shah
September 18, 2024
To listen to MP Rushton Paray tell his story, citizens who have lived through 15 years or more of political machinations will be excused for making out that he believes the hogwash he is spouting.
More than that, he appears to believe we will be convinced his is a political drama unparalleled in the history of the nation. Somebody or bodies should save Mr Paray from making an ox of himself.
Continue reading Ignore my advice, MP Paray
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 28, 2024
I wanted to finish my series on our valiant black women ancestors before I responded to the superficialities of people who assailed me on behalf of their leader (Express, August 6).
Although the press release of the PNM Women’s League purported to be the wisdom of its membership (close to 20,000 people, I guess), there is no way the League could have canvassed its members overnight to arrive at the claims that their leader offered “a powerful message”. Nor could they have constructed a collective response overnight. The missive of the PNM Women’s League was authored by one or two people.
Continue reading Enshackled thinking
By Raffique Shah
August 28, 2024
If Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley is not careful with every word that “cometh” out of his mouth between now and whenever the general election is held (in 2025, he says), he could become part of the list of political leaders who have thrown away significant advantages they held before general elections.
Indeed, the advantages he and his colleagues have fought hard to establish and maintain after nearly a decade in power in Trinidad and Tobago could vanish in the putrid elections environment by him uttering inappropriate words and policy statements.
Continue reading Columbus dead, Prime Minister
By Raffique Shah
August 17, 2024
It was the Freeport address that piqued my interest. Six bandits (the police did not use “alleged”) shot dead in Freeport. Normally I would pay passing attention to such reports since the killing fields of criminals operating in this country can be anywhere, given our small size.
I paid closer attention now as I sat talking with my brother, Feroze, trying to figure out if we knew any of those who were killed by the police earlier that day, as we’d spent most of our lives in what I call “Greater” Freeport. As the television presenter continued with what was little more than a routine story, I realised the culprits did not belong to Freeport. They had, in fact, rented the house in a district that had expanded way beyond what I knew it to be. For all we know, one could be from Cedros and another, Toco.
Continue reading A time to kill
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 07, 2024
In his address to the nation on African Emancipation Day, the Leader of our Grief called upon his distraught citizens to focus on Afro-Trinbagonians who have made outstanding contributions at home and abroad.
He urged the universities of the West Indies, of Trinidad and Tobago, and the Southern Caribbean “to research further, then highlight and promote the African heritage in the country’s art, literature, music, religion, drama, fashion, cuisine, technical and empirical skills”. (Express, August 1, 2024.)
Continue reading An ideologue’s pirouette
By Raffique Shah
July 02, 2024
Earlier this month, I became nostalgic over Labour Day celebrations in Fyzabad. The date and venue are etched together in spirit and in history; hence the reason why the 30-or-so times I attended, marched and even spoke on the platform, it was only at Fyzabad. That position was held by the radical unions.
Many of the North-based unions that openly supported the parties in power avoided Fyzabad for several years after the town had stamped its name with authority as the only venue that made sense. They would conveniently return to their headquarters when its significance was acknowledged by all, especially schoolchildren who were now learning that aspect of the country’s history.
Continue reading Ivan, not so terrible