Al-Nakba: The Palestinian catastrophe – Episode 1
Al-Nakba: The Palestinian catastrophe
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Are Israel and Hamas guilty of war crimes?
The Israel-Gaza war has been raging for a week, resulting in thousands of casualties in Gaza and Israel.
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Trinis can, must, do this
By Raffique Shah
October 12, 2023
Finance Minister Colm Imbert is too experienced in Cabinet to not know when he fixed the new minimum wage per hour—TT$20.50—he was, in fact, proclaiming a not-so-new maximum wage.
During my years as an active trade unionist, I became all too familiar with this legitimate, lawful reaction of many employers, mostly in the commercial, agricultural and some heartless manufacturers, stating to anyone who seeks employment with them, “You will be paid government’s rates…that is, $20.50 an hour, $164 a day for daily paid and roughly $3,300 for the month.”
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‘If you see something…’
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 10, 2023
I have been poring over the Ministry of Education’s (MoE) “Education Policy 2023-2027”. In it, the word “holistic” comes up so often that I do not know whether I am a holistic citizen or not. One dictionary defines the word as meaning “characterised by the belief that the parts of something are interconnected and can be explained only by reference to the whole”.
I am still not sure how the MoE expects a student to achieve that goal.
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Bloody Tuesday
By Raffique Shah
October 03, 2023
PART 2
Ramdwar (Dennis) shouted, “Gas!”
Gas, meaning CS: Crowd Dispersal Gas commonly known as “tear gas”.
The police wasted no time. It was like the proverbial “dog whistle”. Every “ranker”, Randy Burroughs and his “Flying” squad were there, as well as a large contingent of recruits, pounced on the peaceful workers and farmers raining blows with riot staffs, which were thick and heavy. Many bones were fractured on that day.
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Ashton Ford: a gentle spirit
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 02, 2023
I am always elated with seemingly little, obscure people—that is, people who are not in the spotlight—when they are recognised for the contributions they make to the civic, social and political development of our society. I felt that way when Ashton Ford was honoured with Hummingbird Silver last Sunday. He thoroughly deserved it. This suggested that a person can be involved in political and social work and still remain a decent human being.
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The true Bloody Tuesday story
By Raffique Shah
September 27, 2023
It was a chance encounter with one of only a handful of books on the contemporary history of Trinidad and Tobago that triggered memories of another time, another day. I refer to the late Owen Baptiste’s publication, Crisis. Owen published that book in 1978, shortly after he quit the mainstream newspapers.
A bit of nostalgia struck me: I had to re-read something in it, and I thought why not the beginning. I should add that the front cover carries a photograph of three policemen dressed for internal security operations, wearing the then-traditional anti-riot garments and equipment.
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The Blood of Our Children
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 25, 2023
And so the monstrous, mindless, criminal madness continued on Wednesday with the “execution-style killings of three children and a 19-year-old in the crime hotspot of Heights of Guanapo”. This massacre also left five people wounded, two of whom are children. Yet the Government keeps calling for talks with the Opposition as if there were some magical elixir in that encounter.
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Power in the barrel of a gun
By Raffique Shah
September 19, 2023
Like most people who live in this country, many of whom, like me, will never leave the twin-island republic to live anywhere else in the world, I am not only concerned but I am disturbed by what seems to be a deteriorating crime situation, especially crime that involves violence. At a recent news conference, I heard Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, not for the first time say, “We have become a very violent society.” Judging from the reports of criminal activities that we get in the media, that perception seems to be the truth.
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Our Truant Prime Minister
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 18, 2023
On September 8, the House of Representatives debated the political anarchy and runaway violence in Haiti and how we, in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), can help to bring that country back to political stability. AG Reginald Amour assured us that T&T’s government is “trying to help Haiti, but that troubled nation must be addressed with care, not loud sound bites.”
Caricom created an Eminent Persons Group (EMG) to “facilitate dialogue and consensus building among Haitian stakeholders with the aim of resolving the political impasse.” The EMG is “guided by Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley overseeing national security in the Caricom Quasi Cabinet.” One wonders where he is taking that group.
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