Tag Archives: Politics

Flooding, General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

A bend in the river

2 Comments

By Raffique Shah
July 02, 2017

Raffique ShahIn 1950, when I was four years old, my father moved the family from a sugar company cottage in Brechin Castle (now Rivulet Road) to a rented house near the Croisee in Freeport. The house, two bedrooms sitting on stilts about five feet high (I’m writing from childhood memory), was located off a sharp bend in the Freeport River, the main watercourse in what I call Greater Freeport. In fact, its eastern boundary was the meandering river, and because the land was lower than the road, level with the river-bank, whenever it rained heavily for more than a day, which occurred several times every rainy season, our yard was flooded, the swirling waters ranging from a few inches to maybe three feet.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, Property Tax, UNC

Don’t nail judge to race-cross

30 Comments

By Raffique Shah
May 30, 2017

Raffique ShahFor some time now I have sounded warnings to our tribal leaders, more specifically those in the frontline of the United National Congress, that they are playing with fire by fanning the embers of racial strife that could easily ignite. While we have enjoyed relative harmony in a world wracked by ethnic and religious strife, the absence of war between the two main tribes in this country does not necessarily mean peace.
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England, General T&T, International

Labour’s Youth Tsunami Shreds May’s Majority

4 Comments

By Stephen Kangal
(who was in London for the British Elections)
June 15, 2017

Stephen KangalOutgoing British Conservative Prime Minister Mrs Theresa May called a General Election for June 8- three years before they were due unexpectedly on April 19.

She clearly wanted to strengthen her negotiating position on the Brexit foreign policy issue with with the European Union that is scheduled to commence on 20 June 2017. It will last for two years until 20 June 2019- one year before the then scheduled elections.
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General T&T, Islam, PNM, Politics, Religion, UNC

United House passes Marriage bill

15 Comments

By Sean Douglas
June 10, 2017 – newsday.co.tt

End Child MarriageTHE Opposition last night ditched their previous qualms and hang-ups to join with Government in the House of Representatives to change the law and end child marriage in this country. By 35 votes “for”, none against and zero abstentions, the House unanimously approved the Miscellaneous Provisions (Marriage) Bill 2016.
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Court, General T&T, PNM, Politics, Property Tax, UNC

Looking for the justification of the May 22/June 5 Deadlines?

13 Comments

By Stephen Kangal
June 09, 2017

Stephen KangalThe Minister of Finance had pulled out of a hat a May 22nd deadline for the submission of the illegal return forms(VRF’s) to the offices of the Valuation Division.

He had further compounded the debacle by extending it to June 5 because Cabinet decided so. Since when Cabinet has to sanction and approve a voluntary exercise that is the sole prerogative of the Commissioner of Valuations?
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Court, General T&T, Law, Media, Politics, UNC

GO AHEAD AND SWEAR

2 Comments

By Jada Loutoo
June 07 2017 – newsday.co.tt

GO AHEAD AND SWEARNOTHING stands in the way of President Anthony Carmona swearing in two new judges to the High Court.

In a unanimous decision yesterday, Justices of Appeal Allan Mendonca, Nolan Bereaux and Peter Rajkumar said they were satisfied the Judicial and Legal Services Commission (JLSC) was properly constituted. They also threw out a substantive claim of former United National Congress Senator Devant Maharaj who challenged the constitutionality of the JLSC’s composition, on the basis that the Constitution does not permit more than one retired judge to sit in the commission.
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Court, General T&T, Law, Media, PNM, Politics, Property Tax, UNC

Property Tax forms can be submitted/collected

5 Comments

Justice Seepersad overruled again: Appeal Court makes new order

By Rickie Ramdass
June 07, 2017 – trinidadexpress.com

THE Court of Appeal has overturned another ruling of Justice Frank Seepersad, this one involving whether the State could continue to accept Property Tax valuation forms from citizens.

This morning, the Appeal Court ruled that Seepersad should not have granted an interim stay on the collection process but that the substantive matter for judicial review is still on.
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Culture, General T&T, Race and Identity

Brek-UP, Brek-DOWN Society – Part 3

20 Comments

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
June 05, 2017

PART 3

Jasmattie live in bruk-
Down hut big like Bata shoe-box,
Beat clothes, weed yard, chop wood, feed fowl
For this body and that body and every blasted body
Fetch water, all day like if the
Whole slow-flowing Canje river God create
Just for she one bucket.

David Dabydeen, “Coolie Mother”

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeAll of us in Trinidad and Tobago were nurtured in Bruk-UP, Bruk-DOWN huts, big like a Bata shoe-box as David Dabydeen’s Guyanese example suggests. Even Eusebio Atanasio Valerio, an exemplary Amerindian ancestor, who documented his life in Sieges and Fortunes of a Trinidadian, lived in a hut in forested Arima. In Tacarigua, up until the 1960s, an Indian barracks stood at the back of the Orange Grove Sugar Estates (OG). Twelve of the first batch of Indians who came to Trinidad in 1845 were sent to OG where they joined the 265 African workers who were employed there at the time.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, Racism Watch, UNC

Distorting facts to suit one’s biases

5 Comments

From: Glassie
May 23, 2017

lettersIt is human nature to feel more comfortable ‘with your own’. So, an Indian voting UNC or conversely an African voting PNM is not necessarily a sign of racialism but merely a level of comfort with your choice. But when facts are distorted to suit one’s BIASES or to satisfy existing prejudices for purely political expediency, is when the devious nature of racism takes effect.
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General T&T, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, Property Tax, UNC

Colm created tax confusion

4 Comments

By Raffique Shah
May 23, 2017

Raffique ShahFinance Minister Colm Imbert must shoulder much of the blame for the fiasco that a relatively simple exercise, the submission of information for the valuation of properties across the country, has degenerated into. The overwhelming response by property owners to abide by the law, hence flock the few Valuation Division offices where they could drop off their forms or get help filling them out, should have surprised no one. That the ministry was unprepared for the rush is an indictment against the minister and his senior advisors.
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