By Raffique Shah
May 28, 2011
WHEN discussions on Indian Arrival Day first surfaced sometime in the 1970s, United Labour Front (ULF) founding ideologue Lennox Pierre insisted that I should intervene in the debate over a public holiday to mark the Indian presence in Trinidad. At the time, the Indian Review Committee, led by Ramdath Jagessar, vociferously argued in favour of marking the arrival of Indian immigrants in 1845.
Continue reading I arrived in 1946
By Raffique Shah
May 22, 2011
THE suspension of ex-prime minister Patrick Manning from the House last week triggered a national debate that is curious, to say the least. I think the penalty imposed on the nation’s longest serving MP was somewhat harsh. But I also hold that Manning is a “harden fella”, not unlike another ex-prime minister, Basdeo Panday, who was also suspended three years ago, but who rushed to Manning’s defence—something I find quite amusing.
Continue reading Patrick in trouble…again
By Raffique Shah
May 15, 2011
THERE was a time when every dog owner in Trinidad needed a “dog licence” to own or keep a dog. Back then, everyone I knew who kept dogs owned “pot hounds”, also known as “common dogs” or “mongrels”. My father, like everyone else in our village who kept dogs, would go to the police station or court (I was too young to know details), pay a dollar and get a licence.
Continue reading Gone to the dogs
By Raffique Shah
May 08, 2011
IT was inevitable, of course, that Osama bin Laden would have met his death at the hands of the “Great Satan”. That he survived the hunt for some 15 years, eluding the world’s best intelligence agencies and killer-squads, is testimony to the man’s ingenuity, his survival skills. Little wonder he evolved from an ordinary freedom fighter to being a legend in his lifetime, a hero to many, a demon to others. Like him or hate him, few will deny that Osama has carved his name in history.
Continue reading Osama’s death gives Obama life
Newsday Editorial
May 2 2011 – newsday.co.tt
It is to be sincerely hoped that the Government will stand firm in the decision to put an end to the illegal occupation of State lands for whatever purpose.
This newspaper’s lead story yesterday gave another side, indeed food for thought, of the now highly publicised bulldozing of acres under food production in D’Abadie and other places which so incensed the public.
Continue reading Government must stand firm
By Raffique Shah
April 30, 2011
WHEN 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.
Continue reading Agrarian Atrocity
By Raffique Shah
April 23, 2011
FORTY-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.
Continue reading A full circle
By Raffique Shah
April 16, 2011
RECENTLY, 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.
Continue reading War on wastage
By Raffique Shah
April 10, 2011
THE 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.
Continue reading National Service to Redress Imbalances
By Raffique Shah
April 02, 2011
“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.
Continue reading Accounting for imbalances