All posts by News

General T&T, Integrity Commission, Parliament, PNM, Politics

Integrity and Probity

4 Comments

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 27, 2016

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI 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.
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Finance, General T&T, International, PNM, Politics, UNC, USA

America is a Big FATCA Liar

3 Comments

By Ted Baumann
March 4, 2015 – thesovereigninvestor.com

FATCAWhen 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.
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Culture, General T&T, Letters, Schools

On this “Dress” Code for teachers

3 Comments

TeacherTHE EDITOR: I can NOT believe that a new dress code for teachers is an issue. Really?! Wasn’t the existing one clear-cut enough?

Be that as it may, if true, it is welcome. Welcome in the sense that it serves to illuminate some of the elephants crowding the room that conservatives and the wilfully ignorant among us – i.e many of the over-40 age group – have no intention of discussing. You see in the wording of current guidelines (and no doubt the new one) there is a distinct gender bias, but that’s apparently okay with many people, including radio talk show hosts and their callers.
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Culture, General T&T

Every Cook Can Govern

18 Comments

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 19, 2016

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOn Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday of this week, the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival shall premier “Every Cook Can Govern: The Life, Impact & Works of C. L. R. James,” a film that was produced by Worldwrite, an English non-profit or charity organization. The producers describe this documentary as “The world’s first film on the life of a fearless and uncompromising revolutionary.” There is much truth in advertising here. “Every Cook Can Govern” is a well-crafted and informative film about one of Trinidad and Tobago’s most distinguished intellectuals and Marxist theoreticians.
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General T&T, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, Recession

Pay the Devil

20 Comments

By Raffique Shah
September 17, 2016

Raffique ShahAnyone who believes that this Government can continue to spend money to fix the country’s many problems the way successive governments have done, seemingly forever, is either a fool or someone who regards us as a nation of fools.

The harsh reality we face is when the good times rolled, most of us, from politicians and the business elites to plebes and philistines, intoxicated by the flow of petrodollars, felt we could and should spend, spend, spend, and let the Devil take tomorrow.
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General T&T, International, Italy

The Monumentality of it All

3 Comments

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 14, 2016

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIt’s Sunday, September 4th. I am in Rome, Italy. The sun is ablaze but it is not a Trinidad hot sun. There is no breeze and the heat radiates from the earth, making you feel as if you are being roasted alive. I visit the Palazzo Barberini, the National Gallery of Ancient Art that was conceived to celebrate the artistic passion of Maffeo Barberini who became Pope Urban VIII in 1623. As a cardinal, he sponsored many artists with his patronage.
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General T&T, International, USA

Remember the FIRST Sept 11th

2 Comments

lettersTHE EDITOR: September 11 marks a profoundly tragic event in world history. On this fateful day and in the coming years, thousands of lives were lost or permanently destroyed. So many people were disappeared, to date unaccounted for. The events of that day so many years ago continue to affect the lives of countless people and societies to this very day.
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Food, General T&T, Health

Man must eat—but so much junk?

7 Comments

By Raffique Shah
September 05, 2016

Raffique ShahEven as most people cry out loudly about the state of the national economy, relating sad stories about the hard times they face, the high prices of almost everything and the unavailability of some things, especially critical medications, a Starbucks coffee house opened its doors for business last week.

According to news reports, scores of customers queued on the pavement outside the business, eagerly awaiting the opportunity to buy their first “cuppa” from the famous American-owned international chain. Prices range from $42 down.
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Culture, General T&T, PNM, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch, UNC

A Cry for Social Justice

15 Comments

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 05, 2016

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn his article “Black Caucus, Black Humor,” Raymond Ramcharitar pours scorn on the BCM’s (Black Caucus Movement) demand for “land in Caroni for ‘Africans’ and saying it’s a love thing” (Guardian, August 17). He sought to reduce its position to “black humor” and to deride its claim for social justice it wishes to bring to the public’s attention.
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Education, General T&T, Schools

Intellectual Honesty

19 Comments

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 29, 2016

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn the latter part of the 19th century when thinkers were reducing Karl Marx’s notion of man’s economic dimensions (an analysis he began in Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844) to saying man is an economic animal exclusively, Frederick Engels wrote to Joseph Bloch on September 21, 1890: “According to the materialist conception of history, the ultimately determining element in history is the production and reproduction of real life. Other than this neither Marx nor I ever asserted. Hence if somebody twists this into saying that the economic element is the only determining one, he transforms that proposition into a meaningless, abstract, senseless phrase.”
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