By Raffique Shah
Sunday, September 7th 2008
The world is virtually under siege with problems, caused in the main by man’s misuse and abuse of Earth’s resources. Three hurricanes in the Caribbean at one time; flooding in parts India, the worst in 60 years; drought in Africa and Australia, the worst in living memory; and, of course, the two polar ice-caps melting faster than the proverbial sno-cone-in-the-sun. Global bee population is declining to frightening levels, raising questions about plant pollination, hence declining food supplies. Marine life, much of which, besides its ecological importance, serves as food for man, is disappearing in huge swathes of the oceans.
Continue reading Obama, McCain avoid America’s core problems
The Ugandan cultural group Ndere recently completed a very successful tour to Trinidad and Tobago as part of this country’s Emancipation celebrations. The term ‘ndere’ means flute, and this name appropriately captures the richness of the Ndere experience. The troupe was founded by Stephen Rwangyezi in 1984 to promote and develop African culture and arts, rekindle African pride, and to organize, develop and enable the artistically talented but socially disadvantaged young people to better their lives and realize their ambitions. Theirs is a mission to rekindle the sense of self, pride and confidence among Ugandans which were shattered by colonialism that branded every African cultural practice as evil, primitive, shameful, and backward. 
On Tuesday evening, thanks to the generosity of Jack Warner, I attended a soccer game between Joe Public FC and New England Revolution at the Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, Massachusetts, as each team battled to advance to the group stage of the CONCACAF Champions League. Joe Public defeated New England 4-0 in the sweetest Trinbagonian style thereby becoming the first Caribbean team to knock out a US team.
Several reasons can be advanced to support the incremental view that Manning’s latest political incarnation totally lacks any semblance of credibility. Readers will recall that in 2004 Manning floated a similar plan to achieve political union with St. Vincent and Grenada by 2007. That plan never saw the light of day.
Last night Barack Obama made history when he became the first African-American to be nominated to lead the Democratic Party for the presidency of the United States of America. On November 4, he will create history yet again by becoming the first black President of the United States.
I have just seen the box office hit movie, Hancock, with my two teenage sons and their 12 year old cousin. As usual, after seeing a movie with the kids, we engaged in debates about the representations and subtle messages in the movie. I asked the young men if they liked the film and they all agreed that it was a great film. I asked them what they liked about it and they said that Will Smith was the greatest superhero ever. Then they asked me if I liked the movie and I said no that I did not. Why not? They all asked in unison.
PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning yesterday defended his moves to form a regional political union calling it “a coalition of the willing” and saying the current mechanisms of Caricom “are too slow” to achieve the urgent goal of regional integration.
T&T has a tradition in being tardy in establishing maritime boundaries with its neighbours until it was unilaterally hauled before a compulsory UN Arbitral Tribunal by Barbados, spent millions of pounds in the costly litigation and an unfair and punitive boundary was imposed on us. It took us seventeen years to conclude the 1990 Treaty with Venezuela and we have been in discussions on the subject with Barbados since 1989.
The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) which is heavily slanted in favour of its drafters, the European Union (EU), and which the EU insists that the Caribbean agree to and sign by September 2, should be rejected and a completely new EPA drafted, which, genuinely, takes into account the social and economic interests of Caribbean nations.