By Raffique Shah
December 31, 2023
For many years now, I have considered naming some national of Trinidad and Tobago, who has performed with sheer excellence over the year, as citizen of the year. I have stopped short of actually doing it by one consideration or another. In my school of thinking, a singular act by some citizen could merit the title, which is little more than being honoured by one’s compatriots since it will hardly carry a monetary value.
Continue reading Citizen of the Year
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 26, 2023
There was a large picture of Jesus at the entrance of our home when I grew up in Tacarigua. In this picture, Jesus’ skin was white, his hair was blonde, and his eyes were a piercing blue. This represented the saviour who is supposed to save us from our sins and prepare us to enter into the heavenly kingdom. This depiction of Jesus was a Western whitewashing of history.
Continue reading Dreaming of a Black Christmas
By Raffique Shah
December 26, 2023
There is a kind of universality about Christmas that makes it impossible to ignore what it means to more than 30% of the world’s population whose spiritualism is anchored in Christianity. Christmas, whether its story is fiction or fact, remains a religious beacon to fewer people in contrast to the expanding populations across the world. There is no evidence, too, that Christianity maintains a leading position when the religions of the world are assessed on their impact on global affairs.
Continue reading Never leave out the ham
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 19, 2023
What you’re seeing now is a handful of super-ultra-wealthy individuals—plutocrats that, I guess you would call philanthropists—who have incredible leverage over higher education.
—Isaac Kamola, professor, Trinity College
On Monday December 5, the presidents of Harvard University (Claudine Gay), the University of Pennsylvania (Elizabeth Magill), and MIT (Sally Kornbluth) were summoned by the US Congress to answer how well they responded to threats that are made against Jewish students at their universities, and whether students who call for the genocide of Jews should be disciplined.
Continue reading Upholding a university’s core mission
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 11, 2023
In 2013 the people of Tacarigua waged a valiant struggle to prevent the UNC government from establishing a sporting complex on the Orange Grove Savannah, now called the Eddie Hart Savannah. The plan, developed by Sport Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SporTT), a limited liability the Ministry of Sport set up to act as its key implementation agency, called for building a 25-metre swimming pool, a cricket ground and football field, a pavilion, a 400-metre running track, and a car park.
Continue reading Protecting our historic legacy
By Raffique Shah
December 11, 2023
You’d think the bloodletting in The Gaza, especially when seen through the lens of Al Jazeera, would deter any country that is involved in disputes over territories from sliding into war. But, because of man, history is often doomed to repeat itself.
Let me say I have tried, on my own, to limit the exposure by television to the genocide that Israel is inflicting on the Palestinians. It does not always work. Rosina will sit quietly and cry, watching children of different ages, but mostly one ethnicity, screaming in pain after Israeli bombs destroy the hospitals they call shelters.
Continue reading There will be no war
By Corey Gilkes
December 03, 2023 – coreygilkes.wordpress.com
Calypsonian/Philosopher Brother Valentino sarcastically sang how the average Trini “doh care if Ash Wednesday fall on Good Friday,” alluding to an acquiescent, happy-go-lucky, carefree culture of conformity in the face of exploitative authority figures. This can be a good thing sometimes, otherwise plenty places coulda (and shoulda) bun down already.
Continue reading Calling Arsonists to Quench Fires? Careful, Guyana
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 04, 2023
In those halcyon days of the 1950s and the ’60s when the isms and schisms (such as nationalism, socialism, and existentialism) ruled the day, we were sure our generation would solve the world’s problems. We are close to the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, and peace and tranquillity are nowhere in sight.
We watch with alarm at the wars in the Middle East. Even a conservative reading of the casualty figures in Gaza “shows that the pace of death during Israel’s campaign has few precedents in history. People are being killed in Gaza more quickly, they say, than in even the deadliest moment of US-led attacks in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, which were themselves widely criticised by human rights groups”. (NYT, November 25.)
Continue reading War Is Hell
By Raffique Shah
December 04, 2023
If the crime situation were worse than it is today—and that is hard to imagine—one can easily see the bulk of the population reduced to spasms of laughter as we watch politicians, police and public officers offer lame excuses for us being in a virtual stage of siege, imposed by the criminals in the country who are the only people who seem to have some control over their turf.
For example, the daily dosage of murders appears to be under the total control of gangsters, with the police incapable of doing anything to decrease the numbers. The wider population, held spellbound by the ease with which crime has become almost an industry, offer a mishmash of solutions every Monday morning on media shows. Before the week is over their prognoses become irrelevant. They must once again dip into their magic boxes to churn out some new tricks for the next week.
Continue reading Return to good manners
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 28, 2023
On November 11, Raphael Dwamena, a Ghanaian footballer, collapsed and died during an Egnatia’s soccer game against Partizani in a tiny town in Albania. He was 28 years old and a renowned football star. Dwamena was the top scorer for his Albanian team and enjoyed a certain amount of success with them. This season he was the leading scorer in the Albanian league.
Continue reading The Grandeur of Men and Women