Tag Archives: Poverty

Crime in T&T, Drug Trade, General T&T, Law

Poverty is a crime

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By Raffique Shah
May 22, 2023

Raffique ShahNothing I have ever written in this space can be misconstrued to suggest that I proffered poverty as an excuse for crime. To the contrary, I have advanced many reasons why the link between poverty and crime is not axiomatic. And, I have warned the poor to stay clear of crime since they will be made to pay heaviest for it, while the real criminals have the wealth to retain high-priced attorneys, whose jobs are to keep the crooks out of prison.
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Finance, General T&T, Politics, Recession

Make poverty a punishable crime

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By Raffique Shah
July 19, 2021

Raffique ShahEvery so often, and since Covid-19 struck, maybe all too often reporters in the mainstream media assail us with heart-rending stories of families living in abject poverty—you know the kind: mother with three-to-ten urchin-like children, no resident father or no explanation of his or their absence, crammed into a dilapidated shack that looks like it will collapse if you sneezed in it; the little faces staring into the cameras are poster-images for strife and famine in some God-forsaken distant land; and the cries are always the same… my children will starve to death… if only I had a house… no, I can’t afford to send them to school… we need food, clothes, books, electricity… and so on.
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Culture, General T&T, Media, Religion

Make poverty history

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By Raffique Shah
December 23, 2012

Raffique ShahIF there were tabloids at the time, two thousand and however many years ago, their editors would have delighted in the heart-rending story that would sell their newspapers, headlines screaming, “No room at the Inn!”. The drop-head, “…woman gives birth in manger”. The text might read, “A very pregnant Mary of Galilee, accompanied by her husband, Joseph, rode into Bethlehem last night on the family’s ass and immediately sought accommodation because there were signs that Mary had gone into labour.
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Business, Finance, General T&T, International, USA

Inequality Breeds Unrest

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By Raffique Shah
November 13, 2011

Raffique ShahAS 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?
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Culture, Finance, General T&T, Politics

Poverty Facts and Fiction

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By Raffique Shah
July 18, 2010

PovertyEVERY time I hear someone parrot poverty numbers in my Trinidad and Tobago, I wince. Politicians, and many ordinary citizens, often accept as the “gospel truth” the amount of people in this country said to be living “below the absolute poverty line”, defined as US$1 a day. The estimated numbers range from 10 per cent to 20 per cent of the population, which suggests there are between 130,000 and 260,000 desperately poor people in our midst living on less than TT$6.37 a day. That’s around $190 a month.
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Complaints, Crime in T&T, General T&T, Sex Crimes

Child labour in T&T…A well-kept secret?

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By Cherisse Moe
March 2nd, 2009
guardian.co.tt

Child labour in T&T…A well-kept secret?The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) defines child labour as work that exceeds a minimum number of hours, depending on the age of a child and on the type of work. Such work is considered harmful to the child and should therefore be eliminated. There remains no official statistics on the magnitude of child labour in T&T. However, rapid assessment studies conducted by the International Labour Organisation, (ILO), in 2002, uncovered some alarming facts.
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General T&T

A Deadly Virus Called Poverty

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By Michael De Gale
May 24, 2006
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

PovertyThe escalation of violent crimes in T&T has politicians, business people, the police and concerned citizens not knowing which way to turn. In this climate of criminality, the Government has squandered millions in state of the art technology, promised action plans which failed to materialize and most recently have invited foreign police officers to arrest the problem.
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