THE EDITOR: At its recent Convention, the Peoples National Movement has demonstrated that its inner and intra relationship politics is backward, undemocratic, pathetic and exposes its negative/self defeating cult of the Absolute Leader. Patrick Manning is no longer the PNM’s Political leader but he still determines the policies of the PNM. Even though he was absent from the Convention Manning was able to defeat Rowley, the new, unopposed leader on two major policy issues, critical to the image and future of the party.
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Tag Archives: Patrick Manning
Hospitals of Horror
By Raffique Shah
March 27, 2011
IF DOCTORS in the public health care system feel that they are being unfairly targeted by Government and the public, they need to pause, collectively inhale, and look into the mirror. They should also weed out those in their ranks who have given this once noble profession a bad reputation. Indeed, many senior doctors who have long moved on into lucrative private practice must also shoulder some blame for the ills that bedevil the public health sector today.
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Rumshop Politics
By Raffique Shah
January 29, 2011
DURING the formative years of the United Labour Front (ULF), circa 1975/76, I learned some harsh lessons in “politics by vaps” courtesy an often-tipsy Basdeo Panday. Those occurrences come to mind as I watch amazing scenes played out on the national stage. Since the lead actress is Panday’s successor, Prime Minister and UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who has publicly stated that Bas is her “political guru”, maybe there is a nexus between what happened so many moons ago and what is happening today.
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A case of poetic injustice
By Raffique Shah
January 23, 2011
WHEN Attorney General Anand Ramlogan made a fool of himself in Parliament by insinuating that ex-prime minister Patrick Manning may have stolen or otherwise disposed of “one grand piano” (as auctioneers would say), many may have missed the irony of Ramlogan’s boorish behaviour. “Wey the piano gorn?” Anand brayed, looking pointedly at “Patos”.
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Labour Movement Versus PP Gov’t
By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
January 17, 2011
Year 2011 has witnessed the continued acerbic relationship between the membership of the labour movement and the seven-month old People’s Partnership (PP) government.
The powers that be in these unions/associations need to realize and understand very clearly that the mammoth, outstanding sums of money owed to them are the irresponsible, anti-labour legacy of the former PNM government under Patrick Manning.
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PIANO FOUND!
…at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s
By Anna Ramdass
January 14, 2011 – trinidadexpress.com
The grand piano has been found —in the very place it was alleged to have been missing from. National Security adviser to the Prime Minister, Gary Griffith, told the Express by phone yesterday that the piano was found after checks of the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s.
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Mewey Cwismas, Trinis
By Raffique Shah
December 26, 2010
I WAS reluctant writing this column on the eve of Christmas, knowing it will appear in print on Boxing Day, that it would probably upset some people. Then it occurred to me that a significant number of adults would crawl out of their beds or wherever they may have slept last night, feeling like faecal matter of one kind or other. So, if anything, my thoughts would blend nicely with whatever brand of antacid they pour down their hatches in preparation for another day of overindulgence. Mewey Cwismas, people!
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Split in the PNM?
PNM Walkout
Newsday Editorial
December 08 2010 – newsday.co.tt
Opposition Chief Whip Marlene Mc Donald may shut her eyes to reality, play word games and deny her parliamentary bench is split, but Friday’s partial walkout of the Chamber can leave few in doubt of the power struggle that is confusing the PNM side. Friday’s division of the bench showed TT what it has for six months suspected: since losing office, there has existed a tug of war in the Parliament between MPs loyal to new Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley and representatives sympathetic to their former chief, Patrick Manning. Friday was a physical manifestation of the current PNM political reality.
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Big Sister is watching you
By Raffique Shah
December 05, 2010
“Virtually all countries of the world…have secret CIA tracking stations.”
—Intelligence expert and author Alexander Kolpakidi (Daily Mail, November 15, 2010).
THE scandal—allegations that US agents spied in (and on) sovereign states, allies like Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Iceland—broke around the same time the SIA mess hit the fan here in Trinidad and Tobago. American agents conducted surveillance activities against “suspected terrorists” on foreign soil. They did not inform the host countries of what they were doing, which included monitoring, photographing and filming people around their embassies and others taking part in protest rallies.
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Separating fact from fiction
By Kevan Gibbs
November 28, 2010 – guardian.co.tt
In the past six months, many political know-it-alls claimed former prime minister, Patrick Manning’s silence was part of a master plan. After all, what was becoming an uncomfortable silence from the San Fernando East MP must have been because he fancied himself a comeback kid that would reclaim the leadership of Patrick’s National Movement.
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