Category Archives: Culture

Caribbean, Culture, General T&T, Haiti, International, Race and Identity, Religion

Messengers of the Invisible

32 Comments

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 16, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeAugust and anyone who is anyone has left Paris (and other Europeans cities) for the country for vacation. As one looks at the shuttered apartment windows, the empty streets (except for places such as Champs Elysees Avenue) and the barely-filed cafes that inundate the city and its sidewalks one realizes that everything will remain in abeyance until September when Parisians return to work and attend to their business again.
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Culture, General T&T, Sex

Are People Born Gay?

11 Comments

By Camille
May 06, 2011

GaysOn Friday, May 06 2011, there were discussions on the Power102 FM radio station about homosexuality. A homosexual male called arguing that people are born homosexuals. In other words, he argued that homosexuality is genetically predetermined. Several callers challenged that claim. Dr. Raj Ramnanan, who also hosts a night programme on the said station titled Sexplosion, called in to the morning show and reiterated the claim that people were born homosexuals. Later that night on his show he repeated the statement and claimed that there are many scientific papers online that proves his point made earlier. The studies, he claims, explain how people are born gay.
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Culture, General T&T, India, Race and Identity, Racism Watch

Ethnicity versus race in T&T

4 Comments

By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
May 03, 2011

Dr. Kwame NantambuWithin recent times, issues of ethnicity versus race have been discussed and bandied about in T&T without any clear, professional/intellectual/historical delineation.

The fact of the matter is that official 2000 census figures reveal that about 42 per cent of T&T’s population is of Indian descent while 38 per cent is of African descent.
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Crime in T&T, Culture, Education, General T&T, People's Partnership

Mentoring T&T’s Youths

6 Comments

By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
April 19, 2011

Dr. Kwame NantambuWhile the People’s Partnership (PP) government’s National Mentoring Programme should be widely lauded, much more needs to be done/analyzed in order to confront and deal with the ubiquitous “criminal gang culture” in T&T.

The fact of the matter is that the proclivity to commit crime among this country’s “at risk” youths is values-oriented-related-driven.
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Culture, Education, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics, Religion

On Religion and Schools

14 Comments

By Corey Gilkes
April 14, 2011

The BibleI cyar keep up wit dis government nah, is from one thing straight to the next. Last Monday, one of the many announcements made by the Minister of Education was that there was going to be a review of the way religious education is taught in the nation’s schools. From all indications the aim is to create at the very least a greater understanding of the various faiths that exist in the country. Now it is no secret that I maintain a strong disapproval and dismissal of all organised religion; I consider all the major faiths to be bigoted, misogynist, patricentric murder cults, very authoritarian and largely steeped in anti-intellectualism. Like the very learned Denis Solomon I too consider religious education (oxymoron anyone?) to be a form of child abuse. But that’s MY opinion of them. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it is right and it definitely does not mean that everyone should adopt that stance.
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Complaints, corruption, Culture, General T&T, India, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch

Stop ‘Sampating’ Africans

26 Comments

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 13, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeSometimes I don’t understand why so many false dichotomies pervade the thinking of my compatriots, Africans as well as Indians. If I write about how East Indians think (I call it an Indian narrative) I am accused of being racist. If I support the aspirations of Africans it suggests I am anti—Indian. If I favor the candidacy of a particular PNM member for the chairmanship of the party, my friends respond that I am out of touch with the thinking of those on the ground and so it goes ad infinitum.
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Complaints, corruption, Culture, General T&T, India, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch

The Indian Narrative

36 Comments

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 06, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThe racial inanity that gushed out of Nizam Mohammed’s heart ought not to be seen as an aberration; the unfortunate comments of an ill-informed man. It can and should be seen as a part of what I call the Indian narrative that informs the behavior of many East Indians in our society; the reflection of a view that lay in abeyance while they were out of political power only to reveal itself once they came into power.
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Culture, General T&T, India, Politics, Race and Identity, Security

Nizam’s Race Comments Lack Historical Perspective

3 Comments

Nizam MohammedTHE EDITOR: Politicians in Trinidad and Tobago have always used cultural (ethnic) differences among our people to gain office, power and wealth. This ethnic baiting strategy is most notable at election time and goes back to colonial times.
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Culture, Entertainment, General T&T, India, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, Tourism

Plebian Carnival

5 Comments

By Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 09, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOh what a difference an election victory makes. For time immemorial we were told by some that the steelband could never be considered as the national instrument—there was always the dholak—and that carnival was not really the national festival. They always sought to convince us that devali was comparable to carnival and emblematic of the national consciousness; hence the need to promote devali in the same way in which carnival is promoted. Somehow carnival was too black.
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