Category Archives: Culture

Culture, General T&T, India, PNM, Race and Identity

Home Bound

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 30, 2010

Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe[This essay was written by Joy Clarke, a student at Wellesley College. I thought I would share it with my readers. It has been edited for purposes of length]

If literature is a signification of the emotional conscious of a people then V.S. Naipaul’s A House for Mr. Biswas is a literary masterpiece. It traces the life of Mohun Biswas, a man of East Indian descent living in Trinidad following the end of Indian indentured servitude. Mr. Biswas’ life is one of struggle, pain and his longing to find a place to call home. The reader is taken on a journey to locate home on several levels. On the surface is Mr. Biswas’s profound desire to own a home while the subtext suggests that a search for a national homeland for a people who were removed from their natal homeland of India.
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Africa, Culture, Elections, General T&T, India, People's Partnership, PNM, Race and Identity, UNC

Cudjoe’s Indian Time Ah Come

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Cudjoe’s Indian Time Ah Come Part 1

By Sat Maharaj – December 02, 2010

Secretary General of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, Satnarayan MaharajWhen my friend Prof Selwyn Cudjoe invited me to deliver the feature address at the launch of his latest publication, Indian Time Ah Come In Trinidad and Tobago, my first response was that this was a set-up. Was Selwyn attempting to portray Sat Maharaj and Indians in general as a group glorifying in the political success of the People’s Partnership in a boastful way?
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Books, Culture, General T&T, India, Politics, Race and Identity, Religion

Indian Time Ah Come

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 23, 2010

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeA foolish person opined that I was catering (they used the word “kissing up”) to Sat and Kamla because I dedicate Indian Time Ah Come, my most recent book, to Sat, Kamla and the East Indian struggle for justice. He even seemed perturbed that I asked Sat to offer the feature address at the launching of the book and more aggrieved that Sat agreed to do so.
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Culture, General T&T, India, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity

Connecting our Foreign Policy with the Diaspora

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By Stephen Kangal
October 21, 2010

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-BissessarPrime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar and her itinerant Foreign Minister Suruj Rambachan have both been extolling the important benefits of establishing closer functional links with our diaspora based in metropolitan Caribbean enclaves in North America and Europe as the rationale for radically reforming the priorities of our foreign policy. In fact both now have a shared political/administrative responsibility for the conceptualization and conduct of our foreign policy.
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COP, Culture, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics, UNC

Partnership leaders must smoke ‘peace pipe’ now

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By Raffique Shah
October 16, 2010

Raffique ShahA brief story in the Express last week caught my attention. The report spoke of serious differences between two organisations purporting to represent nationals of this country who have indigenous blood flowing in their arteries.

The first contentious issue is a claim that one group represents only Amerindian descendants who are Catholics. The other was the timing of the “smoke ceremony to the spirits”. One group swears it should be before dawn. The other went ahead “smoking” at 7 a.m.
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Culture, Features, General T&T

Nantambu’s “Old Time Days” List

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Best Ever Musicians, Calypsonians, Bandleaders, Entertainers, etc

By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
With assistance from Dr. Hollis “Chalkdust” Liverpool
September 13, 2010
Updated: October 18, 2010

Mighty SparrowFor the purpose of this treatise, calypso is defined as (1) “expression of thought, deed and/or musical melodies wherein the calypsonian depicts/analyzes the multi-faceted problems of society in poetic form” and (2) the “people’s voice in song.”

Ergo, the following litany represents the best ever musicians, calypsonians, bandleaders, entertainers, etc, in T&T of all time.
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Culture, General T&T, Media

The Way(ve) Forward for Local Content

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By Christian Hume
September 02, 2010

DancersMaestro’s plaintive appeal on behalf of local culture to “play me” (see Youtube clip below) is still as sadly relevant in 2010 as it was 34 years ago in 1976. In a nation 48 years old, it is something of a near-tragedy that local music is still struggling for airplay. This is a DESPERATELY SERIOUS issue as we move forward in our evolution as an independent nation.
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Culture, General T&T

Ponte Vecchio, Florence

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 01, 2010

DancersEven as a teenager I was attracted to the arts. When I participated in the Arts Festival (I think that was the correct name) that preceded the Better Village Program inaugurated by Dr. Eric Williams in 1964, I acted under Errol Hill, learned public speaking with his sister Jean Herbert and choral-speaking under David King, a true village patriot of Tacarigua. These stalwarts labored in the artistic vineyards to produce a more responsive citizenry and to cultivate a more rounded aesthetic sensibility that was appropriate for a nation that was coming into being.
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Culture, General T&T, International, Politics, USA

Our Strength is Our Diversity

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By Derren Joseph
September 01, 2010

TrinidadiansThere was a most interesting YouGov poll conducted a couple weeks ago on the website for the Economist magazine – one of my favorite publications. One of the questions asked – Whether or not you think the Islamic cultural centre and mosque should be built near the World Trade Center site, do you think that Muslims have a constitutional right to build a mosque there? Interestingly, 53.2% of Republican respondents, 24.9% of Democrat respondents and 25.2% of Independents disagreed – they actually believed that Muslims did not have a constitutional right to build a mosque on what is actually private property. Although these polls may not meet the test for being statistically reliable, I would argue that they are quite insightful.
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