Category Archives: Culture

CHOGM’s Shameful Legacy

By Ras Tyehimba
December 09, 2009

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009Trinidad and Tobago recently hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009 under the theme “partnering for a more equitable and sustainable future”. Fifty-three leaders of countries, formerly direct colonies, gathered in Port of Spain, under the symbolic leadership of Queen Elizabeth II. The general responses to the Summit have been quite unsatisfactory, especially in terms of the lack of critical perspectives and understanding of the operations of the Commonwealth organisation and our own government’s participation in this. The shallow mainstream media reporting and discouragement of perspectives and activities that may “embarrass the government” has meant that people of the so-called Commonwealth, in countries across the world, have been locked into the agendas of Imperial countries. By looking at the Commonwealth of Nations from a historical perspective, there can be greater awareness of how various hierarchies and systems of control have evolved from the period of direct colonialism to the present.
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Ministerial inexactitudes

By Reginald Dumas
December 10, 2009

Kennedy SwaratsinghThere has been a recent rash of quite extraordinary ministerial utterances. First, the scholarship issue. You already know the basic facts. What astounded me among other things were the various government attempts to gloss over the matter with comments that defy my powers of comprehension. Thus the Minister of Public Administration, Kennedy Swaratsingh, could wearily say-‘for the umpteenth time’, he complained, as if speaking to a bunch of not very intelligent first-former-that the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs (MCDCGA) awarded bursaries whereas his ministry awarded scholarships.
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The 2012 movie and Trinidad

By Derren Joseph
November 30, 2009

Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

The 2012 movie and TrinidadI went, recently, to see the movie called 2012. Given its performance at the US and UK box offices, the movie studio should be confident in its ability to recoup the US$200 to $300 million investment. For those who have not heard of it, it is a typical big-budget Hollywood disaster movie, but it is based on an “end-of-the-world” scenario expected in the year 2012. To be completely honest, I am a 2012 researcher myself. For some time now, I have been following the work of Terrence McKenna and Time Wave Zero, interpretations of the Mayan Long Count Calendar, Hopi Prophecies, galactic wave theories, such as Velikovsky’s Planet X Nibiru theories, planetary ascension theories, and so on. Naturally, we should only expect fascination with 2012 to heighten as we approach that fateful year.
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Educate, don’t just legislate

By Raffique Shah
November 22, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

The President, Prime Minister Patrick Manning, Hazel Manning and their son toast the official opening of the National Academy for the Performing ArtsON many occasions during my 40 years of driving on the nation’s roads, I’ve witnessed drunk drivers endangering the lives of other motorists. Mostly late nights, although I’m sure it happens during daytime as well, I’ve seen vehicles wobble much the way drunken persons do when they try to walk after consuming litres of alcohol. On occasion, I’ve had to make the risky decision either to overtake the drifting jackasses, or stay far behind them for my safety.
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At that price we expect nothing but the best…

By Raffique Shah
November 15, 2009

Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

IT’S most columnists’ nightmare, having to return to a topic he or she will have dealt with recently. It gets worse when the target is a politician, matters not what side of the divide he or she is on. They never look into their mirrors and wonder why writers focus on them. They conclude you are against them, that you support their enemies, hence your criticisms.

But, as I learned early in my many years of writing opinion pieces, you write and be damned; if you fail to address burning issues, readers conclude you are on somebody’s payroll. There are so many important matters I wish to address, to have my fellow citizens focus on. Sadly, because of the insensitivity of our politicians, I have to forego serious issues and zero my computer on Prime Minister Patrick Manning.
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Role of History and Culture in The Liberation Struggle

By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
November 14, 2009

www.trinidadandtobagonews.com

Emancipation

History is one of the most powerful weapons in the armory of a people to define and empower and defend themselves.

If a people do not place themselves in their proper historical context, then, such a people would be defenseless, powerless and nothingless. As such, it is very vital for a people to write, interpret, and analyse their own history for, by and of themselves. Failure to do so would be fatal for their existence. And their demise would be assured. No people should allow another people to write, interpret and analyse their own history. Most of all, the oppressed or colonised must not allow their oppressor or coloniser to write, interpret and analyse their history. More specifically, we Afrikan people must not allow our European oppressor/coloniser to write, interpret and analyse our history.

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