Category Archives: Culture

Crime in T&T, Culture, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity

Crisis of African youth in T&T … Prof. Cudjoe dead wrong

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By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
August 17, 2010

ChildrenThis analysis is a critique of the following articles: Prof. Selwyn Cudjoe, “The Crisis of Black Youth” and Joel Mohan, “Cudjoe Right About Afro Male Youth”, Trinidad Guardian, 12 August 2010, pp. 32-33.

At the outset, it is necessary to issue the following caveats. Firstly, Prof. Cudjoe has uitilized a Euro-centric Americanized analysis/context of the “Crisis of Black Youth” in T&T.
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Culture, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity

The Crisis of Black Youth

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 11, 2010

ChildrenWhen torrential downpours inundated north-western China on Saturday last (August 7), the Chinese government rushed in to assist the unfortunate victims of unprecedented landslides. In Zhouqu alone 1,117 persons died and 627 others were missing, a minuscule fraction of China’s 1.2 billion people. Yet the government spared not effort to assist them. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao urged rescue workers to hurry before the weather worsens. He declared: “You must race against the clock and spare no efforts in saving lives.”
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Africa, Culture, General T&T, International, Letters, Race and Identity

Emancipation Celebration?

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EmancipationTHE EDITOR: After four hundred years of shackle slavery, and the worst kind of atrocities ever inflicted on any race of people bar none, all because of their melanin and without any apology and compensation, and therapy for Post Traumatic Slavery Syndrome, I am totally puzzled and confused with the reason for the celebration of Emancipation.
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Culture, General T&T, Politics, Weather

Steaming over the big flood

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By Raffique Shah
August 08, 2010

RainHEAVY rainfall, like that which we experienced last Monday, is an act of nature. Heavy flooding, which we have repeatedly been subjected to over the past two decades, is caused by a number of factors. Many of these are beyond man’s control. But governments and citizens must shoulder much blame for some of their actions, or inaction in instances, that add to the hazardous mix of factors that return to haunt us all, especially during monsoon-type weather conditions.
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Culture, Features, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity

A Society in Transition: A Community at the Crossroads

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Emancipation Lecture 2010

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
Posted: August 04, 2010

EmancipationThis lecture was delivered on July 31, 2010 at the Center of Excellence, Macoya, Trinidad

This evening we are pleased that Professor Maxwell Richards, the president of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and his wife Ms. Jean Ramjohn Richards, newly elected prime minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, and her worthy colleague Mr. Jack Warner have consented to join us this evening at our tenth annual Emancipation Day Dinner. We are also pleased that Mr. Keith Rowley and his wife have been able to share this important day with us. I especially want to welcome Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar to congratulate her on her victory and to say to her that we at the National Association for the Empowerment of African People and most African people in this society genuinely compliment you on your elevation as the first woman prime minister of our land. We share in the sentiments of Indo-Mauritian author Leel Gujadhu Sarup who observed: “I feel good about her victory. As someone who has researched indentureship, this result bring tears to my eyes. There are no limits for an Indian woman to prove her worth.”
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Africa, Culture, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics, Protest, Race and Identity, USA

Emancipation: When Freedom Come

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Head of the Emancipation Support Committee Kafra Kambon, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Minister of Arts and Multiculturalism Winston Peters
Head of the Emancipation Support Committee Kafra Kambon, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Minister of Arts and Multiculturalism Winston Peters
Emancipation Day Celebrations 2010 in pictures

Kamla: Emancipation about struggle, triumph
PRIME MINISTER Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday urged the nation to not only see Emancipation Day as merely a public holiday but rather to reflect on the struggles of the ancestors of Afro-Trinbagonians who rose up from the chattel of slavery to take their rightful place in a free society.
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Africa, Culture, General T&T, Media, Race and Identity

President’s Emancipation Day 2010 Address

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President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago Professor George Maxwell Richards
President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
Professor George Maxwell Richards
Message from His Excellency Professor George Maxwell Richards TC, CMT, Ph. D, President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago on the Occasion of Emancipation Day 2010.

On the occasion of Emancipation Day 2010, I send greetings to all citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, as we consider what this day means to us.
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Culture, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity

Prime Minister’s Emancipation Day 2010 Address

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Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar
Message to the nation from the Hon. Kamla Persad-Bissessar on the occasion of the celebration of Emancipation Day 2010

Fellow citizens. Today our nation commemorates the 172nd Anniversary of Emancipation in Trinidad and Tobago. That historic act on August 1, 1838, destroyed the moral and legal basis of a system, which allowed human beings to be classified as chattel and denied the most basic human rights.
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Books, Culture, General T&T, Race and Identity

Besson’s Cruel Accusations

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 23, 2010

Part I

Abu BakrGerard Besson’s The Cult of the Will seeks to challenge the historical orthodoxy that undergirds Dr. Eric Williams’s analysis of the causes of the abolition of slavery and the slave trade and the cruelty he perpetuated against the entire society although whites seems to come out worse in the bargain. According to Besson, Williams sought “to facilitate the stigmatization of Caribbean people of European descent, or those who appear so, through the projection of negative concepts of ‘slave master’ or ‘colonial master,’ to modern-day individuals for political and ideological purposes.”
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Africa, Culture, Race and Identity, Religion

Identifying with Ancestral Home

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Emancipation Celebration
Emancipation Celebration
July 22, 2010 – guardian.co.tt

Emancipation celebrations this year, I suppose, will have added significance for those of the African diaspora who consider that their spiritual navel strings are buried on the continent of Africa, especially as the World Cup venture was a spectacular international success. Incidentally, the football extravaganza was conceivably Mandela’s parting gift to Africa as well as Africa’s final tribute to him.
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