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.
Continue reading Identifying with Ancestral Home
July 29, 2010
Sparrow doing well after surgery
Renowned calypso icon Slinger Francisco, popularly known as Sparrow, is resting comfortably at a private hospital in Maryland, United States, after undergoing emergency surgery.
…Sparrow well after surgery
Slinger Francisco (The Mighty Sparrow) was yesterday in good spirits and recuperating well following emergency surgery on Sunday to treat an incarcerated right inguinal hernia.
Continue reading False Rumours about Death of Sparrow
By Raffique Shah
July 18, 2010
EVERY time I hear someone parrot poverty numbers in my Trinidad and Tobago, I wince. Politicians, and many ordinary citizens, often accept as the “gospel truth” the amount of people in this country said to be living “below the absolute poverty line”, defined as US$1 a day. The estimated numbers range from 10 per cent to 20 per cent of the population, which suggests there are between 130,000 and 260,000 desperately poor people in our midst living on less than TT$6.37 a day. That’s around $190 a month.
Continue reading Poverty Facts and Fiction
By Derren Joseph
June 24, 2010
Today I continue from last week’s exploration of tourism as a key component in our diversification thrust. There are three points to be made – there is a nexus between tourism and culture, domestic tourism is critical and greater decentralization which empowers communities to develop and implement local development plans are necessary.
Continue reading Tourism, Culture and Decentralization
By Stephen Kangal
June 22, 2010
The sober question that my favourite T&T electorate must address dispassionately is whether in the face of the sordid and blemished history/culture of widespread, pervasive, repeated corruption, vandalisation and pillaging of the public purse it can ever put God out of its mind and elect the PNM to mis-govern and bleed this country again?
Continue reading Should the PNM Govern Us Again?
Continue reading The Indo-Afro Political Dynamic
Thursday, June 10 2010
The auditorium of the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) will be named the Lord Kitchener’s Calypso Auditorium.
This was announced yesterday by Minister of Arts and Multiculturism, Winston Peters as he conducted a tour of NAPA.
Continue reading NAPA auditorium to be named after Lord Kitchener
By Sat Maharaj
Jun 03, 2010 – guardian.co.tt
For a number of years the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha has been advocating that the Ministry of Culture be renamed the Ministry of Multiculturalism with all the attendant policy changes. On May 28, at the SDMS Indian Arrival Day dinner at the Centre of Excellence, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced that she heard the Maha Sabha’s call and that the Ministry of Arts and Culture would be renamed the Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism. We have always advocated the culture of a country in the spontaneous expressions of the people and that the State has no business in culture except as a facilitator. The State must not decide which of the various cultures of our land should receive enhanced funding and which shouldn’t. Political affiliation and support must not be the measure of state support.
Continue reading Ministry of Multiculturalism
Sunday, May 16 2010 – newsday.co.tt
WE ARE ALL familiar with the rough details of the incident involving 81-year-old pensioner Percy Villafana and Prime Minister Patrick Manning. But have people really analysed the significance of this incident properly?
Continue reading They should have done the Percy ‘X’
By Ken Ali
May 11, 2010 – guardian.co.tt
Dr Eric Williams, Trinidad and Tobago’s first Prime Minister and acclaimed “Father of the Nation”, was an apostle of the ideals of Black Power.
Continue reading Williams, Daaga and Black Power