By Raffique Shah
November 08, 2016
Today is a big day in American politics. In fact, the battle between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump for the presidency of the most powerful nation on earth has excited probably half the world’s population, who will have monitored the bruising election campaign and who will follow the count tonight until a winner is declared.
Continue reading No interest in US elections
By Raffique Shah
October 19, 2016
Trinidadians, as they would themselves say, “like too much confusion”.
The latest bacchanal began when Opposition MP Roodal Moonilal displayed and tendered in Parliament two photographs that purportedly show the teenage children of Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi “gallerying” (Moonilal’s word) with what appears to be a short-barrel rifle or a sub-machine gun.
Continue reading Baying for Al-Rawi’s blood
By Renuka Singh
Oxctober 14, 2016 – trinidadexpress.com
Acting Police Commissioner Harold Phillip has ordered an investigation into how the children of Attorney General Faris al-Rawi came to be holding high-powered military weapons.
Continue reading Police probe ordered on AG’s children gun issue
By Sean Douglas
October 12, 2016 – newsday.co.tt
AMIDST Opposition claims that photos exist of persons resembling children of top Government officials holding firearms resembling those commonly used by the Defence Force, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi could not ascertain if those featured in these photos are his children, but admitted members of his family have undergone “threat assessment” training at Cumuto Army Base as part of security protocols for families of State officials deemed to be at high risk.
Continue reading AG: Leave My Family Alone
By Raffique Shah
October 04, 2016
The unseemly public spat between President Anthony Carmona and Prime Minister Keith Rowley, if it gets any nastier, could bring both offices and office-holders into further disrepute, and add to the list of public offices, officials and institutions in which citizens have lost or are losing confidence.
We can take it as fact that based on the structural political divide in the country, at least half the adult population believes that Dr Rowley is wrong, that he is lying. We should not be ashamed to admit that most people judge politicians not on facts or evidence adduced, but on partisan politics, whatever the issue or whoever happens to be under scrutiny.
Continue reading Powers he does not have
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 03, 2016
This year’s US presidential election is perhaps the strangest of them all. In 1964, I witnessed my first US election when Barry Goldwater of Arizona challenged President Lyndon Johnson in the aftermath of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. As a Southerner, he realized the difficult tasks that faced the nation. His challenge was to insure that black citizens enjoyed the same rights as white citizens which he achieved when Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color or religion. In 1965, he signed the Voting Rights Act that removed the legal barriers that prevented blacks from voting.
Continue reading Extremisms in the Defense of Liberty
TAXMAN COMETH
IN rolling out a series of money-making measures in the 2016/2017 National Budget, both the rich and poor were touched by yesterday’s Budget presentation.
Continue reading Budget Presentation for Fiscal Year 2017 – Friday September 30, 2016
By Raffique Shah
September 28, 2016
You think we have problems in this country?
With days to go before Finance Minister Colm Imbert delivers the Government’s 2017 budget, Trinis by the thousand sit in bars across the country sipping beers or whisky, and amidst the din that is common to such establishments, shout to be heard: “Breds, we better drink up, yes…from Friday, we may not be able to afford Johnny Walker Blue!” Big problem, that.
Continue reading Never lose human compassion
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 27, 2016
I am an old timer. I believe integrity in public life predates the establishment of the Integrity Committee. My mother, born in 1909, used to say: “When ah dead, if anybody say ah owe dem any money, tell dem dey lie.” Her word was her bond. She believed each of us possesses an innate sense of what is right and wrong which tells us when we have transgressed those boundaries. Such a credo was part of an ethical value system that we, as black people, learned from our nineteenth-century ancestors. In those days, we did not need an Integrity Committee to tell us what constitutes ethical behavior.
Continue reading Integrity and Probity
By Ted Baumann
March 4, 2015 – thesovereigninvestor.com
When I was a kid I once got the better of a bully in a schoolyard scuffle that he had started. With workmen on the school roof cheering me on, I chased the guy halfway across the playground before he turned around and raised his hands in surrender. Needless to say, with the whole class watching, he was terribly embarrassed.
Continue reading America is a Big FATCA Liar