All posts by News

General T&T, Recession

In Solid Support of Ancel Roget

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 13, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI am a child of labor. In any struggle between labor and capital, I locate myself solidly on the side of labor, since my family labored on the Orange Sugar Estates, Tacarigua, for almost two centuries. Their labor power was exploited ruthlessly by the owners of capital, which is nothing more than dead labor accumulated through the suffering and emasculation of millions of laborers. In Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 (first translated into English from German by C. L. R. James, Raya Dunayevskaya and Grace Lee Boggs) Karl Marx pointed out capitalism estranges or alienates the laborer from the fruits of his labor.
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General T&T, Oil and Gas, PNM, Politics, UNC

Remembering Malcolm Jones

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By Raffique Shah
August 10, 2017

Raffique Shah“I’ll share with you a personal secret…I. Don’t. Like. Pone!” said Malcolm Jones, emphasising every word he uttered. I couldn’t believe what he revealed: a Trinidadian who did not like pone, that cassava sweetbread whose taste and texture are sinfully irresistible to natives of this country? We eat pone by the slabs, not slices. “Malcolm,” I responded, “what kind of Trini are you?”
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Media

Gary Aboud hits back at Ancel Roget: Success is not a crime

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By Marlene Augustine
August 07, 2017 – newsday.co.tt

Gary AboudOWNER of Mode Alive Gary Aboud says success is not a crime.

Aboud was commenting on statements made by Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) President- General Ancel Roget during the union march on Friday last, in which Roget called on citizens to boycott Syrian-run businesses.
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General T&T, Race and Identity

Beautiful Are the Souls of My Black People

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 06, 2017

Ara romi o
My body is in pain
Ara romi Shango
Shango, my body is in pain
Ojo romi e e
The rain is falling on me [I am experiencing hard times]
Ojo romi Shango
Shango, the rain is falling on me [I am experiencing hard times.]

— Ella Andall, “Ara romi o”

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI want to modify the title of Jeanne Noble’s book (Beautiful, Also, Are the Souls of My Black Sisters) to describe the wondrous display of African couture (exquisitely designed African dresses, elaborately textured head wraps, and intricately woven male fashions) that graced Port of Spain streets on Tuesday as black people wound their way from the Treasury Building to the Queen’s Park Savannah to celebrate the 179th year of their emancipation from slavery.
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Africa, Barbados, Caribbean, Finance, General T&T, International, Racism Watch

Timeo Beckles et Dona Ferentes

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By Stephen Kangal
August 06, 2017

Stephen KangalThere can be at least three reactions to the question of lumping Indians and Africans together by Sir Hilary Beckles for advancing his money-based regional CARICOMesse reparations agenda:

1. One cannot trust Afro-Caribbean intellectuals to sincerely look after the interests of Caribbean Indians after they have been excluded in the first instance by CARICOM.
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Africa, Education, General T&T, International

MOST OF US ARE ALREADY EMANCIPATED, UNFORTUNATELY

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By Corey Gilkes
August 01, 2017

EmancipationNo, I haven’t gone completely mad, just thought I’d try to grab your attention and so make you understand the importance of understanding what power words have.

Today is Emancipation Day, celebrating the ending of the enslavement of African people. You will hear the usual platitudes and speeches about how great we are and how we “broke the shackles of slavery”….and so on. Now as cynical as I’m sounding, those are important words to hear. So too are the sights of people walking around dressed in African or African-inspired attire, all that is praiseworthy.
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General T&T, Health

Why I chose a private hospital

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By Raffique Shah
August 02, 2017

Raffique ShahI declared a personal health crisis at 2 a.m. two Wednesdays ago, informing my family that I needed to be taken to a hospital for emergency treatment for possible pneumonia or threat thereof.

On the previous Saturday, I had awakened with a severe sore throat, and within hours other symptoms of a nasty virus that’s making the rounds manifested themselves. By Monday, I was wheezing like an ancient farm tractor and every part of my body ached, I realised that my carefully-built and well-maintained defences, based on diet, supplements such as Echinacea and vitamin C, and daily exercise, had been breached by those dreadful bad bacteria for the first time in more than a decade.
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Africa, Caribbean, CARICOM, England, General T&T, International, Politics

President Anthony Carmona: Pay for slavery

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By Sean Douglas
August 01, 2017 – newsday.co.tt

President Anthony CarmonaPRESIDENT Anthony Carmona yesterday publicly supported a call to have European governments, whose countries benefited from slavery in the West Indies, to pay reparations to the descendants of African slaves.

In his Emancipation Day message, Carmona said TT should support the efforts of Caricom governments as expressed by Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies and Chairman of the Caricom Reparations Commission, in an address to the British House of Commons on July 16, 2014.
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Finance, General T&T, PNM, Politics, Recession

Keith Rowley’s Glorious Moment

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 31, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeLast Sunday, Jonathan Fenby, author of The General: Charles de Gaulle, suggested that Emmanuel Macron, President of France, was following closely in the footsteps of Charles de Gaulle, founder of the Fifth Republic, by using his office with the same majesty, grandeur, and decorum that de Gaulle did. He clarified: “Both are (or were) very well read, formally courteous and with an attention to detail. Though not as rousing an orator as the general, Mr. Macron uses speeches, as his predecessor of a half a century ago did, as instruments of pedagogy, notably with his address last weekend on the 75th anniversary of the round-up of Jews in Paris, when he did not hesitate to criticize de Gaulle by name for the pretense that the French authorities were not responsible” (Financial Times, July 22).
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