By Raffique Shah
December 06, 2019
Trinidad and Tobago is not now a failed state as many people claim it is. But it is precariously positioned at critical crossroads where, should the government and the populace take the wrong path or worse, stay put and do nothing, the country can descend into an abyss that would reduce the economy and the social fabric that has thus far held us together as a model nation to nothingness.
Continue reading First World, not failed state
By Dr Kwame Nantambu
December 03, 2019
Now that Trinbagonians have already successfully completed their “shopping mayhem” per “Black Friday Sale: Back to Black savings with huge Discounts,” “Black Friday super sale,” “Black Friday 3 Day Sale,” “Black Friday Deals,” “Black Friday Sales,” “Black Friday Weekend Super Sale” plus “Best Black Friday Deals … Today Only” and in the process overtly and scandalously imitating the ex-post United States Thanksgiving Day, Thursday 28 November events/activities, it is indeed apropos to examine the Americanization of specific aspects of life in T&T.
Continue reading Americanization of life in T&T
By Raffique Shah
November 26, 2019
I breathed a sigh of relief when I read my Express colleague Mark Wilson’s column last Friday headlined “Big Sugar, Kamla? Not so sweet.” I had just read the newspaper’s editorial which, in essence, supported a proposal made on the elections campaign by United National Congress leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar to resurrect the country’s sugar industry if her party returns to power, presumably following the 2020 general election.
Continue reading The bitter taste of sugar
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 26, 2019
One radio host called my comparison of Sat Maharaj with Martin Luther King “sacrilegious” while a caller to another radio station wondered what had happened to Professor Cudjoe since 2011. “I had admired Professor Cudjoe but now I don’t know what has gone wrong with him. Imagine his comparing Sat to Martin Luther King.” These were some of the condemnations that arose from my remarks about Satnarayan Maharaj.
Continue reading Sat Maharaj and Martin Luther King
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
Posted: November 26, 2019
Remarks made at the Sending Home Ceremony of Sat Maharaj, Secretary General of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS), at the SDMS Headquarters, St. Augustine, Trinidad, West Indies, November 18, 2019.
Sat Maharaj is dead!
Continue reading Sat Maharaj Is Dead
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 20, 2019
As Boris Johnson, UK prime minister is finding out, and Keith Rowley, T&T’s prime minister has found out, it’s easier to be on the opposition benches and spout invectives than it is to be in the driver’s seat making consequential national decisions. Boris lost pivotal votes last week in the British parliament as his Tory diehards voted against him. Even his brother—Jo Johnson—resigned from his ministerial post and his seat in Parliament. Boris is likely to have the shortest tenure as a UK prime minister.
Continue reading Two Trinidad and Tobagos
By Raffique Shah
November 20, 2019
Sometime between three and four o’clock on the afternoon of the general election of 2015,(September 7), my daughter Leila shouted from her room, “They have extended voting hours beyond 6pm!” “What?” I asked, “Who extended it? I am watching the television, and there is no such news.” “Kamla (Persad Bissessar),” she replied. “I just got an email from her.”
Continue reading Chasing a crooked shadow
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 20, 2019
‘Oh Lord, how manifold are thy works: In wisdom hast thou made them all: The earth is full of thy riches.’ -Psalm 104
GROWING UP in St Mary’s Anglican Church, Tacarigua, I took pleasure in singing the Anglican hymn, ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’.
Continue reading Bumsees & boobs
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 16, 2019
Part of the excitement of being an educator is my having spoken in many places (such as Canada, the United States, Central America, South America, the West Indies, Japan, Africa and the Fiji Islands) about slavery, education and social justice. I am always excited to share my thoughts about these issues and learn what others have to say about their conditions.
Continue reading Slavery, Education, Social Justice
By Alan MacLeod
November 11, 2019 – fair.org
Army generals appearing on television to demand the resignation and arrest of an elected civilian head of state seems like a textbook example of a coup. And yet that is certainly not how corporate media are presenting the weekend’s events in Bolivia.
No establishment outlet framed the action as a coup; instead, President Evo Morales “resigned” (ABC News, 11/10/19), amid widespread “protests” (CBS News, 11/10/19) from an “infuriated population” (New York Times, 11/10/19) angry at the “election fraud” (Fox News, 11/10/19) of the “full-blown dictatorship” (Miami Herald, 11/9/19). When the word “coup” is used at all, it comes only as an accusation from Morales or another official from his government, which corporate media have been demonizing since his election in 2006 (FAIR.org, 5/6/09, 8/1/12, 4/11/19).
Continue reading The Bolivian Coup Is Not a Coup—Because US Wanted It to Happen