All posts by News

General T&T, Law

Garbage Country

9 Comments

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 05, 2018

“The constitutional conventions…provide the flesh which clothes the dry bones of the law; they make the legal constitution work.” —Sir Ivor Jennings

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeSomehow I can’t get the image out of my mind: a garbage truck, driving into East Dry River and dumping its contents in the middle of a city street. Some say the driver was forced at gunpoint to do so, while others said he showed his loyalty to his friends. The police contend that he dumped the garbage out of spite, malice, or mischief. He was charged “for willfully obstructing the free passage of a road and for littering” (Guardian, February 23).
Continue reading Garbage Country →

Crime in T&T, General T&T, International, Law, Media, Sex

Questions over shooting of gay man with links to Trinidad judge

10 Comments

UPDATE: MARCH 19, 2018: ‘Johnson planned hit on WASA official’
CJ’s close friend a suspect in 2 murders, says police report sent to UK…
ACTING Police Commissioner Ste­phen Williams has said it is alleged convicted fraudster Dillian Johnson, a close friend of Chief Justice Ivor Archie, who planned a hit on an official of the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA).

Dillian Johnson fears being killed for sexuality and is seeking asylum in the UK after attack

By Robert Booth
Wed 28 Feb 2018 09.11 EST – theguardian.com

Dillian Johnson and Chief Justice Ivor ArchieLawyers in Trinidad and Tobago are challenging the conduct of the country’s top judge, following questions about his relationship with a man who was shot in an ambush and is now seeking asylum in the UK.

The Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago is investigating allegations involving the chief justice, Ivor Archie, after local media queried his conduct in relation to Dillian Johnson, 36, who survived a night-time shooting outside his home in December. Johnson fled Trinidad to the UK three weeks after the shooting and says he fears for his life if he is forced to return.
Continue reading Questions over shooting of gay man with links to Trinidad judge →

Crime in T&T, General T&T, International, Law, Police, USA, Violence

No guns in our schools

3 Comments

By Raffique Shah
February 27, 2018

Raffique ShahWhile I empathise with the trainee teacher who was robbed at gunpoint on her school’s compound last Wednesday morning—I suffered a similar fate at my home back in 2002—I do not understand why people are shocked by the brazen, early morning robbery.

If we feel schools should be sacrosanct, that bandits and other criminals should show respect for our institutes of education, perish the thought. Some parents, teachers and students have long jettisoned that notion by their misbehavior, and students’ brawls captured on the ubiquitous phone-video-cameras are among the most popular fare uploaded onto sundry so-called social media Internet sites, providing perverse entertainment for people who seem to spend all their waking hours digesting cyber-garbage.
Continue reading No guns in our schools →

Africa, Gambia, General T&T

My Gambian Journey

2 Comments

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 26, 2018

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeMonday’s disorder in East Port of Spain made me reflect on my recent visit to the Gambia where I participated in Mboka, a festival to celebrate Gambian as well as African diasporic heritage. Gambians “belong to the Senegambia region of West Africa, the general name given to the area drained by the Senegal and Gambia rivers” (Faal, A History of Gambia). Mboka or “One Family,” a Wolof word, is taken from the ethnic group of the same name.
Continue reading My Gambian Journey →

General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

Arresting the Decline Into HDC Madness

8 Comments

By Stephen Kangal
February 21, 2018

Stephen KangalToday Friday 16 February 2018 I made my third visit for this week to the fabulous and awesome natural ambience of St Augustine Nurseries located West of Southern Main and Farm Roads in Curepe.

I have agonized at the potential and real destruction and bull-dozing of the beautiful natural and plant assets domiciled here for over one hundred years in this part of our landed patrimony that was in fact a workshop of nature generating flowers and food to all who visited.
Continue reading Arresting the Decline Into HDC Madness →

General T&T, PNM, Politics, Recession, Tobago

Toco port: let PM put his money where his mouth is

3 Comments

By Raffique Shah
February 21, 2018

Raffique ShahAs Government wrestles with seemingly intractable problems that bedevil the Trinidad-Tobago sea-bridge, and with the public’s focus riveted on which ferry might be operational on any given day and how many passengers or vehicles are left stranded at either port, the population could be easily blindsided to a looming disaster-in-the-making, the Prime Minister’s pet project—a port/ferry terminal in Toco, and a new main road from Valencia to Toco.
Continue reading Toco port: let PM put his money where his mouth is →

General T&T, PNM, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch, UNC

Contradictions & Counterfactuals – Pt 3

5 Comments

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 20, 2018

“…a state could never have been born without surplus.” —Yanis Varoufakis

PART 1 — PART 2 — PART 3

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeReading Ralph Maraj and Kamal Persad’s contributions, one would think that Eric Williams and the PNM were the worst things that ever happened to Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). They seem to suggest that if only Badase Sagan Maraj and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had won the 1956 general election T&T would have been a paradise.
Continue reading Contradictions & Counterfactuals – Pt 3 →

Crime in T&T, General T&T, Law, Media, Murder, Police, Protest, Violence

“Christmas” killed, residents protest

By Ryan Hamilton-Davis
February 20, 2018 – newsday.co.tt

Akeil “Christmas” is dead, and Port of Spain residents are not happy about it.

Police allegedly shot a man with that alias during the hours of last night, and in response, residents have taken to the streets in fiery protest, burning debris and blocking major roads which lead to the capital.
Continue reading “Christmas” killed, residents protest →