By Raffique Shah
December 20, 2017
It must have been at the funeral for a military colleague that Brigadier Joseph Theodore, then a minister in the Basdeo Panday administration, pulled me aside for private conversation, which he initiated by brusquely whispering in my ear: “Raf, you couldn’t £$&*g warn me about getting involved in politics?” I laughed, but Joe continued his mini-tirade about the underworld of politics in which one “had to tolerate so much s%$t” in contrast to the military, where order, discipline, rules and regulations reigned supreme, and where, generally, soldiers lived by codes of honour that implied implicit trust in one’s comrades.
Continue reading Peace unto all—at least for the Christmas
Well it’s that time of year again. Time for all good Americans to focus on what really matters. Not family, community, or world peace, but that national sacrament of late-stage capitalism known as Holiday shopping. Whether you do it online, or drag yourself to the mall amidst the sea of humanity scrapping and fighting for the latest must-have gizmo, rest assured that your actions are vital to the national interest. In fact, the annual consumer bonanza unleashed in the last fiscal quarter is so central to defining life in the U.S. that the economy’s strength in the beginning of the following year is literally tied to how much stuff we buy. So get out there and do your duty: Buy American. Be American. Shop till you drop, and remember, this is what it means to be a patriot!
The discovery in an abandoned house in Sea Lots of three missing persons, two teenaged girls and a young woman of 20, raises worrying questions about how the police handle reports of missing persons and about the responsibility of communities to look out for the vulnerable in their midst.