By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 31, 2008
The Airports Authority’s emancipation exhibit in its atrium proudly proclaims, “Happy Emancipation” and informs us that “in 1985, Trinidad and Tobago became the first country in the world to declare a national holiday, Emancipation Day, to commemorate the abolition of slavery on August 1, 1834.” As I am neither a linguist nor a logographer, I wondered why the use of “happy” to describe Emancipation Day and in what sense it should be described thus.
Continue reading Happy Emancipation!
FAR from being seen as the saviour in the mess that is now the collapse of the Hindu Credit Union, the Government action last week must rightly be classified as having come too little too late. 
THE dovetailing of two incidents last week laid bare reasons why, in spite of its immense potential, this country seems to be destined for self-destruction. First, there was the execution of a reputed gang leader, Mervyn “Kojo” Allamby, in Aranjuez. Note I did not use the generic name Cudjoe, an Anglicised version of the African name that even those who bear it are unaware of. It’s a bastardisation similar to Cuffie or Cuffy, the African root being “Kofi”, and among Indians, “Maha-beer”, a European version of “Maha-bir”.
CRY wolf, the adage goes, and you may just get your wish when you least expect it. I am reminded of the story of the little shepherd boy every time I read or hear someone say that Prime Minister Patrick Manning has morphed into a Mugabe. Are these people for real? I ask myself: do they really understand what a murderous, mindless dictator is, what he is capable of subjecting his country and people to?
T&T’s Press is so intent on demonizing Patrick Manning that sometimes it seems incapable of carrying a balanced story about any event that concerns him. Anyone who did not attend PNM’s 42nd Convention could not have hoped to get a balanced account of what transpired there last weekend if they only read accounts of same in the press. But as one poet suggested, none is so blind as he who would not to see.
As if this country is not burdened by more than its fair share of woes, I don’t know if I should laugh or cry over expressions of outrage by those who see the sky caving in on Trinidad and Tobago because government postponed Local Government elections for the third time. What, pray, is the big fuss over staging local elections? The municipalities and corporations continue to exist-note I did not say function-as they always have, elections or no elections. In other words, they did nothing to benefit citizens during their official tenure. And they continue to do nothing as they await reforms promised by the Government since 2002.