By Raffique Shah
January 07, 2012
WITHIN recent times, I’ve had an uneasy feeling that this country is drifting around aimlessly. I sense that in the economic turbulence that has gripped much of the world, we have let go of the rudder of the ship of state, and cast our fate to the wind and the rough seas without even trying to steer a course to safety.
Continue reading Fear for our future
By Raffique Shah
January 01, 2012
A FEW weeks ago, Dr Brinsley Samaroo telephoned me. After we exchanged pleasantries, he got down to stating the purpose of his call. House Speaker Wade Mark had asked him to make contact with a number of ex-parliamentarians whom he (Mark) wanted to recognise for their service to Parliament, and, presumably, to country. Brinsley informed me that I was among those selected, and he wanted to inform me and to gather some biographical data from me.
Continue reading Play mas with your medals
By Raffique Shah
December 25, 2011
A CHRISTMAS Day column could be a writer’s dream, or his worst nightmare. Many among those who revel in the spirit of the season would reason that it’s the best platform from which to extend greetings to a large number of people, thanks to the wide readership that the Sunday Express commands. Others might ask, in between “hics” and “burps”, “Who the hell reads anything on C’wismas Day?”
Continue reading Gifts that last a lifetime
By Raffique Shah
December 18, 2011
YOU would think that two years after he suffered the most severe political flogging in local history, Basdeo Panday would have long ridden off into the sunset, hoisted his grandchildren on his lap and sat back in luxury, enjoying an ex-prime minister’s generous pension and perks. But that’s not Panday’s style. He’s back into active politics…or so he says.
Continue reading Degeneration now
By Stephen Kangal
December 13, 2011
Ministerial and accredited diplomacy failed to insulate T&T from the embarrassment occasioned by the successful and complicit application of the extra-territorial tentacles upon which the anti- Cuba 1996 Helms Burton Act (HBA) depends for the effectiveness of its punitive global outreach during the recent triennial Caricom-Cuba Summit. It is Cuba that should have apologized to T&T for feeling the impact of the US big stick diplomacy.
Continue reading Diminishing Our Diplomatic Legacy
By Raffique Shah
December 11, 2011
FIVE weeks ago, in my column titled “Diplomatic Blunders”, I wrote, “…The US has the right to decide what countries it has relations with, so excluding Cuba as a trade or investment partner is not the issue. What is criminal is for the US to use its might to deny other countries, as well as all corporations, their right to have relations with Cuba…”
I was referring to America’s unjust trade embargo against Cuba, but also to the People’s Partnership Government’s seemingly confused foreign policy positions. Trinidad and Tobago had abstained at a UNESCO general meeting at which Palestine was granted full membership, with an overwhelming majority of nations voting in favour of the motion.
Continue reading Blunder after Blunder
By Raffique Shah
December 04, 2011
IT occurred to me recently that I have been writing newspaper columns for 30 years. When I started writing opinion pieces back in 1981, I did not think of it as a career. I was 35 years young, already an ex-soldier who had become notorious during the mutiny of 1970. I was also an ex-MP who had fought fiercely against both Dr Eric Williams and Basdeo Panday, and paid the ultimate political price for having the nerve to cross two crosses that were too heavy to bear.
Continue reading 30 Years and Counting
By Raffique Shah
November 20, 2011
THERE has always been a “disconnect” between what Governments (note plural) say and what they do. The People’s Partnership’s first major policy document since coming to office 18 months ago, the Medium-Term Policy Framework (MTPF), is a comprehensive statement on where Trinidad and Tobago is today, its strengths, weaknesses and potential, and where the Partnership Government wants to take it in three years.
Continue reading Crime Pays
By Raffique Shah
November 13, 2011
AS I watch the “Occupy Wall Street” phenomenon spread its wings of protest across much of the developed world, I cannot help but feel nostalgic.
Those of us who experienced the global rebellion of the 1960s and 1970s must also feel a sense of déjà vu, of having been there, done that. I ask myself: is this a generational upheaval that has erupted to complete unfinished business of that golden era of humanism?
Continue reading Inequality Breeds Unrest
By Raffique Shah
November 06, 2011
TRINIDAD and Tobago’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Rodney Charles, took two rather curious positions over the past week. On October 31, the UNESCO’s General Conference voted on a motion to admit Palestine to that organisation. Mr Charles abstained. Then last Thursday, Mr Charles was one of only three ambassadors who accepted invitations to have lunch with Marine Le Pen, French presidential candidate and leader of the extreme right-wing party, the National Front.
Continue reading Diplomatic Blunders