Tag Archives: Raffique Shah

Complaints, Food, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics, Protest

Agrarian Atrocity

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By Raffique Shah
April 30, 2011

Raffique ShahWHEN one sees the insensitivity—one might even say insanity—of persons who authorised and executed the destruction of food and root crops on three parcels of state land, one wonders what the hell is going on in this country. Successive governments, the incumbents included, have proclaimed their intent to make food production a priority. Yet, they have all committed agrarian atrocities, most times citing “progress” as an excuse. The price of progress is indeed very high.
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Africa, Complaints, General T&T, India, Media, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch, UNC

A full circle

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By Raffique Shah
April 23, 2011

Raffique ShahFORTY-ONE years ago, almost to the week, tens of thousands of mainly idealistic young people thought we had killed and buried the “race bogey” in this cussed country. We had grown up knowing that race-tension lay beneath the veneer of peaceful co-existence that those in authority had proclaimed. Too often, we had heard the epithets “nigger” and “coolie” bandied about, suggesting that after almost 150 years of living together in this melting pot, our people of different races and cultures were clinging to prejudices of a distant past.
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General T&T, International

War on wastage

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By Raffique Shah
April 16, 2011

Raffique ShahRECENTLY, I posted on a popular local blog an article that purported to show Germans’ intolerance for wastage. Although the report was dated, as a few respondents pointed out to me, its contents are as applicable today, maybe more so, than they were in post-World War II Germany. The article spoke of a group of Americans visiting Hamburg, ordering food at a restaurant, eating little of what they paid for, and leaving much “waste” uneaten.
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General T&T, Law, Media, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch, Security

National Service to Redress Imbalances

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By Raffique Shah
April 10, 2011

Raffique ShahTHE race-ratios in the Protective Services I mentioned last week would have changed significantly since my generation broke barriers back in the 1960s. In fact, even as I write, an Indian officer, Colonel Kenrick Maraj, is set to take office as the nation’s next Chief of Defence Staff. He will become the first Indian to hold the highest command position in the Defence Force.
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General T&T, Law, Media, Politics, Race and Identity, Security

Accounting for imbalances

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By Raffique Shah
April 02, 2011

Raffique Shah“PA, ah joining the Regiment,” I announced, rather casually. “Whaaaaat?” my father Haniff screamed, Anil-like. “The Regiment? You mad! What you joinin’ as?” he probed. He had known something about rank because I had been a member of the Cadet Force when I attended college.
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Complaints, General T&T, Health, Politics

Hospitals of Horror

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By Raffique Shah
March 27, 2011

Raffique ShahIF 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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General T&T, International

Awesome power of nature

By Raffique Shah
March 20, 2011

Raffique ShahI WAS watching a World Cup cricket match on television when I decided to see what was happening in the world. For me, that means switching to BBC, sometimes CNN, but never Fox News. When I saw “breaking news” on the screen, and images that looked like something out of a movie, I paid immediate attention. Massive earthquake in Japan, reporters were saying, as cameras (or video footage) showed huge walls or swirling water smashing everything in their paths. Tsunami!
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General T&T, International, Politics

Spectre of people’s power

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By Raffique Shah
March 13, 2011

Raffique ShahTHERE’S a spectre stalking the world. It is yet another resurgence of people’s power. Every so often in history, the oppressed, those who face discrimination and subjugation, people whose rights are trampled upon, rise up in a tsunami of discontent. At the cost of some lives, the masses sweep aside monarchies, dictators and even elected governments that have assumed an arrogance that creates a chasm between those who wield power and those who put them in office.
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Culture, Entertainment, General T&T

Collier recolonising Dimanche Gras?

By Raffique Shah
March 06, 2011

Raffique ShahTHE new Dimanche Gras Overlord, one Dr Cyril Collier, believes that the show’s calypso content is “too long, too boring”, according to a Guardian newspaper report. He is quoted as saying he is “very passionate about bringing the Dimanche Gras back to the days of the plantation owners”. Arguing that 12 Calypso Monarch finalists singing two songs each takes about three hours-plus to complete their segment, Collier suggested the show’s three components—mas, pan and calypso—should be allocated equal time.
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Entertainment, General T&T

Thanks for the Panorama music

By Raffique Shah
February 27, 2011

Raffique ShahAMIDST the continuous cacophony in the political gayelle, blood-curdling cries from the killing fields of Trinbago, and two million tonnes of “tatah” spewed in the Chutney Monarch wasteland, last Sunday’s Panorama semi-finals came like a refreshing, calming breeze that soothed a badly wounded nation.
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