By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 24, 2017
The Oxford French Dictionary defines “mentalities,” as “the attitudes of a group of people toward the world and their conception of their place within it; the modes of thought, beliefs, morals, etc.” My colleague Barry Lygate of Wellesley College’s French Department reminds me “first and foremost, this plural is a sociological term in French.” There is “no single English equivalent to ‘mentalities.'”
Continue reading Rogues & Lumpens
By Clint Chan Tack
September 23, 2017 – newsday.co.tt
Prime Minister Keith Rowley yesterday said the vast majority of people understand why TT must do what it can to help Dominica in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Rowley was confident that most of this country’s citizens are caring people.
However, he expressed disappointment at the uncaring attitude of some over Government’s proposal to waive immigration regulations to allow Dominicans to stay in TT for six months, as their country rebuilds.
Continue reading PM disappointed by TT response to refugee invitation
T&T Guardian
September 23, 2017
Following Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s proposal for T&T to open its doors to citizens of Dominica in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, there was a lot of racist, political and xenophobic remarks on social media from citizens who disagreed with the idea.
Some of the comments included:
Continue reading Social media rages with xenophobia
By Stephen Kangal
September 22, 2017
This unilateral decision taken by PM Rowley that is inconsistent with our Immigration Act to open our ports and country to an unregulated influx of Hurricane Maria refugees from Dominica will have the effect of decimating and draining the much-needed current human resource capital of Dominica. There are only 76,000 people there.
Continue reading Leave the Human Capital in Dominica
By Raffique Shah
September 20, 2017
The suggestion I made last week to phase out the Port of Port of Spain (PPOS) as a cargo port and expand the Port of Point Lisas (PPL) to become the main such facility in the country, generated much interest and discussion. That, plus the fact that the Minister of Finance will unveil the fiscal 2018 Budget in a few weeks, prompted me to return to the issue of rationalisation of the nation’s ports, and in the context of diversification of the economy, to marine services as having immense potential as a key earner of foreign exchange.
Continue reading Grab Gulf coast opportunities
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 18, 2017
Besson argues that Trinidad and Tobago’s independence venture failed because more than 30 percent of the African population left the country since1962. “These emigrants,” he says, “were mostly urban, secondary school educated, more or less middle class….At the same time, about the same amount of people or more than that of those who left, have come from the islands of the Caribbean.” He elaborates: “Those immigrants’ background were mostly rural and primary school educated. This unique demographic transformation has impacted on Trinidad and Tobago politically, socially and culturally, and has significantly diminished the identity of the AfroCreole [read black] sector.”
Continue reading Love a Donkey: Besson’s Independence Fables – Pt 3
By Raffique Shah
September 14, 2017
The sittings of the Joint Select Committee of Parliament that is probing the procurement process of two ferries, maybe three, were broadcast live on television and are said to have displaced the leading “soaps” in popularity among television and radio audiences. Predictably, they generated juicy scandals that implicated politicians and corporate and professional hustlers who feast on the multi-million-dollar, taxpayer-subsidised Port of Port of Spain (PPOS).
Continue reading Beyond the ferries fiasco
By Stephen Kangal
September 11, 2017
Minister of Finance Colm Imbert is bent on foisting another layer of ministerial-imposed, badly- conceptualised tax bureaucracy on the hapless and besieged expansive property – owning class of Trinbago by his most recent concoction of a new land- tax regime to temporarily replace the still-legally admissible 2009 Property Tax Act. This Tax Regime has been the Achilles Heel of the PNM in that they bungled its implementation since Proclamation on 31st December 2009.
Continue reading Another Imbertian Bungling on The Property Tax
By Raffique Shah
September 07, 2017
No one has challenged Opposition Member of Parliament Roodal Moonilal’s assertion that the arrest and indictment of former Attorney General Anand Ramlogan last week was a “distraction by the PNM”. Moonilal is reported to have said: “…This is the modus operandi of the PNM, whether it is Basdeo Panday, Vijay Naraynsingh, Sat Sharma…to harass, to intimidate, to oppress and suppress independent voices against the PNM and their government…”
Continue reading Roodal riding Anand’s misfortunes
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 03, 2017
I always marvel when relatively intelligent people say silly things about Africans and our past because of their color or class position. In “Independence Legacies” Gerard Besson offers a mishmash of information, which suffers from factual, interpretive, and definitional flaws. Besson is more concerned with trotting out an ideological position rather than with offering an analytical argument to support his contentions. It’s almost as though his “Creoleness” exempts him from treating his subject matter with the academic rigor it deserves.
Continue reading Love a Donkey: Besson’s Independence Fables – Pt 1