By Raffique Shah
May 20th 2007
Nobody should be surprised that international agencies like the World Bank and the IMF have rated Trinidad and Tobago among the leading countries with respect to economic development. It would have taken a complete fool in government, or a big-time bandit so placed, to have done otherwise given the high levels of revenue we have enjoyed over the past five years or so. So our GDP and GNP will have grown in tandem with the steep increases in prices of oil, gas and downstream energy products that account for most of our revenue. These and other indicators used by such agencies will also show a major reduction in poverty levels and almost zero unemployment.
Continue reading IMF ‘ranking’ blinds us to poverty amidst plenty
It seemed an ordinary enough church until someone pointed me to the angels. 
ONE of my favourite sergeant-majors in the Regiment used to say to private soldiers who committed infractions of any kind: “Boy! You is a nawsty awss!” His peculiar accent and the manner in which he berated some poor soul would elicit stifled giggles in the ranks, and laughter among officers who happened to overhear him. 
Like most Torontonians, I too enjoyed last year’s extended summer and unseasonably mild winter. Red peppers were still growing in my garden in late December and in early February; perennials were promising to bloom – again. I fired up my backyard BBQ in tee shirt and jeans,, washed my car by hand in the scorching sun, and then suppressed the heat with an ice cold beer. “This is the life”, I mused. Dreadfully fearful of bone chilling winters, I wanted summer to last forever. Imagine for a moment, a land of perpetual sunshine, BBQ and beer. On my CD player the incomparable Louis Armstrong sang, “What a Wonderful World” and a wise old friend assured me that “within everything, life hard but it sweet”.
THE country’s 100th murder was recorded yesterday morning when a Santa Cruz man was gunned down while asleep. 
Deputy Commissioner of Police Winston Cooper and Member of Parliament for Barataria/San Juan Dr Fuad Khan are calling on show promoters and local performers to be more responsible in the type of entertainment they provide for young people. 
Sir Elton John had to be granted a special permit to enter Trinidad and Tobago for last month’s CL Financial Plymouth Jazz Festival because the pop star is openly gay.
Once it was determined that the case was closed on the Akon/Danah incident, TV6 changed its tone on the issue. In fact, the 7pm TV6 report on Monday 7th May, 2007, called the dance simply a “sexy dance” which is a far cry from their earlier reports which described the dance as “lewd”, “dirty” and “sexually explicit”. This type of irresponsible journalism has translated into other foreign media jumping on the bandwagon: “Verizon ends tie with ‘rape rapper'”, “Akon Axed by Verizon Over Simulated Rape” and other such reports.