All posts by News

Finance, General T&T, Letters, Oil and Gas, Opposition Party, Property Tax, Recession

Shelve property tax as energy revenue rises

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By Gail Alexander
May 10, 2018 – guardian.co.tt

Opposition Chief Whip David LeeThe Government should not institute the property tax since Finance Minister Colm Imbert recently said T&T has “turned the corner” and also projected “good news” in today’s mid-year Budget review, says Opposition Chief Whip David Lee.

“He has painted a more positive outlook for T&T in recent weeks. Also, energy prices are better than before. If the situation is really good, Government should have no need to pursue the property tax and inflict further hardship on the public,” Lee said yesterday.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Police

Police Service a disaster zone

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By Raffique Shah
May 8, 2018

Raffique ShahThe Sunday Express described it as a “disaster week” for the Police Service. If I were the editor, I would have headlined the editorial “Police Service a disaster zone”. With apologies to the many dedicated police officers who adhere to their oath of office and battle against Sisyphean odds of rampant lawlessness within their ranks and in the country at large, the events of last week involving their colleagues engaging in criminal activities or shameful acts were not aberrations.
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Features, General T&T, Race and Identity, Racism Watch

Conrad Friedrich Stollmeyer

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 07, 2018

PART 1 — PART 2

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIt goes without saying that human beings are complex people; none more so than Conrad Stollmeyer who came to Trinidad in 1844 under strange circumstances. He arrived after apprenticeship ended (1838), at a time when the ex-slaves were desperately trying to find plots of land to house themselves and their families, to cultivate their crops and tend to their animals.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, International, Politics, Venezuela

We must manage migration

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By Raffique Shah
May 01, 2018

Raffique ShahSometime in or around 1990, a large number of mostly Indo-Trinidadians, variously estimated at between 10,000 and 15,000, fled this country for Canada, and successfully exploited that country’s liberal immigration laws pertaining to refugee status and asylum, claiming political or racial persecution in Trinidad and Tobago.

The “refugees”, who were really Trinis seeking greener economic pastures in a huge, thriving Canada, realised their dreams through the wiles of a pool of “immigration lawyers” who, for handsome fees, beat the system and won them the right to live and work there. I imagine that most of them remain residents of Canada to this day, and they are happy in their adopted homeland.
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Caribbean, General T&T

Carrying on the Tradition

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 30, 2018

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI want to congratulate Marina Salandy-Brown for her marvelous gift to the nation in conceiving and developing the Bocas Lit Fest that has reenergized how we see our world. It connects to a long literary tradition that has its origins in the early days of our society.

Salandy-Brown, the founder of the festival, says she was motivated to “reestablish a place for Caribbean literature, which had all ‘disappeared’ from the purview of metropolitan publishers, being replaced, in Britain, by works by the children of Caribbean people born in Britain, such as Monica Ali and Audrea Levy” (Express, April 25).
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, Tobago

Tobago Self Government Bill To Amend Constitution by the Back Door

By Stephen Kangal
April 28, 2018

Stephen KangalWere the 1.3 million people domiciled in Trinidad to continue and persist in their laid-back complacent mode it could be a case of the unilateral, Tobago -centred and driven large scale amendment of the 1976 Republican Constitution using the back door provided by the Tobago Self-Government Bill No 5 of 2018 that is now before a JSC for its evaluation, scrutiny, amendments and report back to Parliament.
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General T&T, Politics, Tobago

Give Tobago full independence

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By Raffique Shah
April 25, 2018

Raffique ShahI’ve had it up to here (Shah motions his right palm one inch above his five-foot, six-and-a-half-inches-frame) with the cantankerous complainers from the island of Tobago who, seemingly every day, appear on multiple media forums to cuss Trinidadians in general, and the Government in particular, for failing to provide them with heavily subsidised services, be it ferry or air transport, medical or education facilities.
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General T&T, Health

Dr Morgan Job has died

UPDATE: MAY 06, 2018

Former Tobago MP Morgan Job has died
Job was recently diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer and was given six months to a year to live. His relatives had started a crowdfunding campaign to raise $50,000 for Job’s medical expenses: $8,870 had been raised up to news time. Copies of his book “Think Again” and his shorter writings such as “Police Reform and Performance Management: Crime, The Derby Report and History” were also being sold to help raise funds.

Former parliamentarian Dr Morgan Job has died
Former parliamentarian, economist, writer and radio personality, Dr Morgan Job, has died. The news was confirmed by his daughter Dzifa Job on Sunday.

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Dr Morgan Job has cancer, needs help $$

By Donstan Bonn
April 23, 2018 – trinidadexpress.com

Morgan JobAuthor, economist, former parliamentarian, radio host and equal rights advocate Dr. Morgan Job is in a fight for his life.

Job has been diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer and needs help with covering his medical expenses.
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Finance, General T&T, Media, Recession

Growing Our Cultural Capital

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 23, 2018

“As everyone knows, priceless things have their price.” —Pierre Bourdieu, The Forms of Capital

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeDr. Roodal Moonilal is a sophisticated intellectual who spent six years at the Institute of Social Studies at the Hague, in Holland, where he received a doctorate in history. In fact, he announced with justified pride: “I became the first student in the history of the Institute to graduate with a distinction in a PhD for my thesis (sic)” (Newsday, June 27, 2010). One would have thought that he was acquainted with Pierre Bourdieu’s thinking on the importance of cultural capital and its immense value to a society.
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