Tag Archives: Raffique Shah

Finance, General T&T, Oil and Gas, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, Recession

Recession was predictable

124 Comments

By Raffique Shah
December 07, 2015

Raffique ShahThis recession did not creep up on us like the proverbial thief in the night.

It was long in the making. In fact, from as far back as the global financial crisis of 2008-2009, when Clico collapsed and the price of oil plunged from a brief high of US $140 a barrel to $30, informed, patriotic citizens were warning governments to go easy on the wild spending, to set aside more savings in the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund, to wean the population off dependency on subsidies, and most of all to diversify the economy from its over-reliance on oil, gas and petrochemicals.
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Finance, General T&T, PNM, Politics

Sending the wrong signals

11 Comments

By Raffique Shah
November 30, 2015

Raffique ShahIf “Santa Colm” assures the populace that their Christmas will be bright, not blue, then we have no reason to doubt the man.

After all, Acting Prime Minister Colm Imbert is the substantive Minister of Finance, in which capacity he has access to data and information pertaining to the state of the economy, especially Government’s revenues and expenditures, that you and I will not see.
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COP, Culture, Elections, General T&T, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, UNC

The last ‘pahalwan’

41 Comments

By Raffique Shah
November 23, 2015

Raffique ShahThe battle for leadership of the UNC has ignited a discussion on leadership in a broader context, with the party’s founder, Basdeo Panday, weighing in on the issue.

According to my columnist colleague Sheila Rampersad, Panday told her that Indians tend to seek a “pahalwan”-Hindi for warrior, strongman-to lead them. Sheila cited Panday himself as an example of the phenomenon. In 1973, he succeeded Bhadase Maharaj as leader of the sugar workers’ union, and in 1977 he succeeded in transforming the only organic inter-racial party ever (my view…I was a co-founder), the ULF, into an Indian party.
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General T&T, People's Partnership, UNC

Boors will be boors

6 Comments

By Raffique Shah
November 16, 2015

Raffique ShahI address two issues of public importance today. First is the emerging controversy over this country’s attendance at the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) meeting to be held in Malta next week. And second, I join the chorus of frustrated voices crying out for something to be done to curb the dangerous, deafening din of explosives and fireworks that have become intrinsic to festivals like Divali.
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General T&T, International, Religion

Land of freedoms and freeness

85 Comments

By Raffique Shah
November 09, 2015

Raffique ShahI cannot understand the national outrage over the video posted on the Internet that shows several Trinidadian Islamic “jihadists” somewhere in Syria, dressed in combat gear, firing rifles on what appears to be a range, and inviting their Muslim brethren to join them in holy battle in “Hijra”, wherever that paradise or hellhole may be.

I’m serious when I say we should not only be happy that those men (and their many wives and children) are thousands of miles away from our country, but we should encourage others who believe in the nonsense they do to answer their call to arms.
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Elections, General T&T, Politics, UNC

The party’s over

54 Comments

By Raffique Shah
November 02, 2015

Raffique ShahChoosing a leader to take the United National Congress forward, backward, sideways, or keep it stagnated, is the business of members of the party.

It is not for me, who never belonged to any party other than the original United Labour Front, and that very briefly, to tell UNC members who they should elect as their leader, the way frontline members of the UNC openly lobbied for Penny Beckles over Keith Rowley during the internal elections in the People’s National Movement in May 2014.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Politics, Tobago

Police under fire

8 Comments

By Raffique Shah
October 26, 2015

Raffique ShahWith crime, especially murder, being the number one issue on the national agenda for more than two decades, the police cannot escape being targeted as the most blameworthy for the barrels of blood in which the nation is swirling.

In the most recent sensational case, the Tobago double-murder, the police have come under fire from just about every quarter, including the media and individuals in Britain, among them former UK High Commissioner Arthur Snell and the sole survivors of a string of similar gruesome attacks on the island, Peter and Murium Green.
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China, corruption, Finance, General T&T, Health, Opposition Party, Parliament, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, UNC

Scale of squandermania mind-boggling

37 Comments

By Raffique Shah
October 19, 2015

Raffique ShahIf a mere ten percent of the sums of money quoted by almost every new PNM minister as having gone to waste or astray under the previous government is factual, then at least a billion dollars was squandered or stolen during the tenure of the People’s Partnership.

If the ministers were accurate and truthful in their allegations of profligacy, then an astounding ten billion dollars, at least, found its way into the bank accounts of assorted thieves and accomplices.
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General T&T, Opposition Party, Parliament, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, UNC

Up today, down tomorrow

14 Comments

By Raffique Shah
October 12, 2015

Raffique ShahI switched on my television last Friday just in time to see and hear a stern-looking House Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George say to former minister and current MP for Caroni Central Bhoe Tewarie, “You have three seconds to wrap up…starting now!”

I did a double-take, wondering if I hadn’t mistakenly tuned in to the Western channel rather than Parliament, some wild-west movie in which the “fastest” gunman in town gives an impossible ultimatum to his adversary.
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Finance, General T&T, Parliament, PNM, Politics

Weathering the storm

By Raffique Shah
October 04, 2015

Raffique ShahTomorrow’s Budget presentation by Finance Minister Colm Imbert is the most eagerly anticipated Appropriation Bill in many years.

The main reason for heightened interest is the depressed state of the economy. With low oil, gas and commodities prices, hence lower-than-normal revenues accruing to government, citizens are waiting to see just how the new administration proposes to navigate the ship of State.
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