By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
Septeber 04, 2012
It was there for all to see. The PP had its own independence function at Woodford Square while the PNM conducted its own at Balisier House. Even die-hard PNMites were offended by such disunity. One of my nieces exclaimed: “Why dey dividing up the nation like that? It’s de worse Independence I ever see.”
Continue reading Aspiring Together
By Corey Gilkes
September 03, 2011
In the days just before and after Emancipation Day I paid close attention to many of the comments and discussions on certain radio talk shows and in the newspapers and frankly I don’t know which side worries me more: those who oppose Emancipation Day or those who support it. Is kinda like de time when people responded to the charge by evangelist Benny Hinn that he saw plenty voodoo in Trinidad. Those simplistic bible-wavers who agreed with him as well as many who angrily denied what he said both had one thing in common: a profound lack of knowledge about and contempt for that ancient belief system. Likewise, many who don’t approve of Emancipation Day and things openly African displayed very clearly near complete ignorance about Africa.
Continue reading So, What’s Africa to YOU?
By Raffique Shah
September 02, 2012
PATRIOTISM. I have seen and heard this word used, misused and abused so much over the past few weeks, I felt like retiring as a patriot, surely an oxymoron that would have reduced me to a moron. Patriots, like revolutionaries, racists or bigots of any shade or persuasion, cannot resign or retire or even change. Either you are, or you are not.
Continue reading Part-time patriots
By George Alleyne
August 29, 2012 – newsday.co.tt
The argument has often been put forward by politicians and would be politicians that persons of Indian descent own a far greater degree of property in Trinidad than people of African descent, because they had saved and used their money wisely.
It is an attempt to create misunderstanding between the two major ethnic groups. What led to today’s disparity in land ownership is well documented and rooted in Trinidad’s colonial past. The end of slavery in 1838 and the movement by freed slaves to urban and suburban areas and away from the sugar estates, with which they had for so long identified with their suffering, meant that the sugar planters had to source new labour.
Continue reading No compensation for slaves
By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
August 26, 2012
The Euro-American re-colonization of aspects of life in Trinidad and Tobago is further compounded/exacerbated in the overt, wanton adoption of American-NBA names for this country’s men’s and women’s pro-basketball league teams such as Detour Shak Attack, Caledonia Clippers, Trailblazers, CIL Cavaliers, Falcon Crest, BM Spurs, Londdenville Warriors, Valencia Kings, Chaguanas Wizzards, and Cosmic Raptors. Roxborough Lakers.
Continue reading Real Independence: Updated
By Raffique Shah
August 26, 2012
I SUPPOSE there are a few achievements that we can celebrate at age 50. Top of my list would be the blessing that as a nation of many ethnicities we have not degenerated into bloody race wars or violent religious conflicts. It’s for want of trying, I should add. Many ethnic, political and religious misleaders, past and present, have worked hard to steer their flocks into confrontation. They could not give a damn about the possible consequences of their manipulation. Luckily for us, as David Rudder sang, most Trinis just “want to wine and have a good time and look for a lime”..
Continue reading Wine and have a good time
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 22, 2012
I do not envy any of the honors or pecuniary rewards Keshorn Walcott received. He deserves them all. It is an extraordinary achievement to bring home a gold medal to a country of 1.3 million persons when countries as large as Nigeria and India with a combined population of approximately 1.6 billion persons did not win a gold medal. Keshorn should be showered with our congratulations and our prayers for a long life and continued success. The government should be congratulated for recognizing his contribution to our national pride.
Continue reading Keshorn Walcott
By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
August 21, 2012
As Trinidad and Tobago celebrates 50 years of political independence, it is a sine qua non to deal with specific, poignant issues/questions in order to ascertain whether this independence is real or imagined.
Continue reading Real Independence — Afri-centric View
By Raffique Shah
August 19, 2012
I EXPERIENCED déjà vu last Monday, a feeling of “been there, seen that” as I watched the Prime Minister and her Cabinet colleagues milk golden boy Keshorn Walcott for all he was worth, and then some. Politicians can be merciless in extracting their mileage from achievers. Walcott, having endured two extensive world-class sporting events with all the in-built tension, not to add energy- sapping hours of travelling, was forced into an ultra-marathon homecoming to satiate the political appetites of the powers-that-be. In what should have been his hour of glory, I felt sorry for the boy.
Continue reading No political blight
Fellow Citizens
This year, as we celebrate the significant milestone of the fiftieth anniversary of our nation’s Independence, I am reminded of how thankful we should be to be citizens of a nation in which religious observances, such as Eid-ul-Fitr, can be celebrated in an atmosphere of respect and peace, as guaranteed by our Constitution and as espoused in the words of our National Anthem, where “…every creed and race find an equal place.”
Continue reading Eid-ul-Fitr 2012 message from His Excellency Professor George Maxwell Richards