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Williams went to obeah woman

By Sean Douglas
November 07, 2009 – newsday.co.tt

Dr Eric WilliamsHistorian Prof Selwyn Ryan said that on balance former prime minister, the late Dr Eric Williams, was a positive force for Trinidad and Tobago but had done negative acts which affect the country to this very day.

Ryan gave a talk on Williams as part of the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) research fellow series of lectures on Thursday at the National Library, Port-of-Spain.
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Can PM Manning Ever Get Anything Right?

By Stephen Kangal
November 05, 2009
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

TT CricketersWhen the ethnicity agenda gets in the way of PM Manning’s modus operandi, which is the rule, he is doomed to make faux pas after faux pas. He becomes a stranger to the stark multicultural reality that surrounds him. His groping in the dark Caucasian Minister of Sports is caught in the horns of an ethnicity dilemma. He dismisses the outstanding T&T Cricket Team as not winning anything in India. At the airport he merely “notes” the performance. He is a stoic only where cricket is concerned. This is tragic and blatant irrationality.
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Are the Chinese racist?

By Tim Collard
November 2nd, 2009 – telegraph.co.uk

Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Lou Jing
Lou Jing
Yesterday The Observer reported an alarming row over a TV talent contest in Shanghai. One of the leading contestants, a 20-year-old girl named Lou Jing (pronounced Low not Loo), has attracted enormous opprobrium from all over the country. Some of the comments in the Chinese blogosphere are almost unbelievable. Sounds familiar, you might think. But the only allegation levelled at her is that she has dared to appear on television while being of mixed race, her father being a black African who was not married to her mother.
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Shoring up time?

Newsday Editorial
November 03, 2009 – newsday.co.tt

Patrick Manning and Basdeo PandayWhat is the real agenda for the sudden meeting between Prime Minister Patrick Manning and embattled Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday?

According to the official line, Manning has invited Panday to the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s to discuss “national issues — crime and the constitution.” Basdeo Panday has jumped at the invitation, saying “It is my duty to respond…”
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Security sector stinks

By Raffique Shah
November 01, 2009
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

MI5 security companyLast Sunday’s arms heist at the inappropriately-named “MI5” security company’s premises was a disaster waiting to happen. The saving grace, if there was any, is that the bandits did not kill the lone female security guard and proceed on a gun-rampage through town. There are some very serious lessons to be learnt from this incident. But given our attitude towards matters that have implications for personal and national security, I don’t hold much hope that we’ll see the requisite changes.
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$2m spent on flag for ‘national pride’

Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

$2m spent for national pride

What’s the cost of the national flag at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Port-of-Spain? Is it $2 million? But Sport and Youth Affairs Minister Gary Hunt, while unable to confirm the flag’s price tag, said even if it was true, it would be “nothing out of the ordinary.” The flag was unveiled by Hunt at an official ceremony on August 4. He said then the flag was intended to be seen from far away and from every direction. He said then it was also intended to remind citizens of “its noble message and we feel a deep sense of national pride.” Hunt was questioned about the flag during yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s. He said it was “130 feet high and takes a considerable amount of engineering to plant a structure that high and of that weight.”
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Satanic Verses, Biblical Violations and the Property Tax

By Stephen Kangal
October 26, 2009
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

HouseI have already surrendered to Caesar what is Caesar’s by way paying his many fiscal dues and entitlements that are increasingly being levied on me. I retained on behalf of God what really is His. I proceeded to invest a large part of the remainder in a home that is in fact His temple. I foolishly thought I was par for the course. But here comes the cruel and inhumane, dimpled-cheeky tax-collector intent on reaping and extracting from the meek of the earth what he did not sow. This is in total violation and infringement of all New Testament, Koranic and Karmic principles.
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Leave this ‘House of Clowns’, Mr Speaker

By Raffique Shah
October 25, 2009

www.trinidadandtobagonews.com

ParliamentWITH the greatest deference to House Speaker Barry Sinanan, I think he should realise by now that he presides over a House of Clowns. If he values his integrity, he should run like hell, but not before he inflicts some choice words on the 41 jokers who sit in Parliament. In case the Speaker is short on gems from the “mooma-lexicon”, he can feel free to summon my help, since I co-authored the Obscene Dictionary.
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Political maturity in opposition in T&T

October 22, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

UNCThe recent dropping of charges against UNC’s “dissident MPs” and the meeting between UNC and COP representatives speak volumes as to the road to political maturity on the part of opposition parties in T&T.

In this era of democratically-elected dictatorship in T&T, both the UNC and COP must clearly realize and understand that their only enemy is the PNM. They must cease and desist from creating enemies within their own ranks if they are to remove the PNM government from office.
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