By Stephen Kangal
July 13, 2021
There at least two matters that I consider to be very frivolous and entirely vexatious in the unwarranted Statement of the AG delivered in the House when it met on Friday 2 July to consider The Finance Bill.
We had our saturation fill on these Bills on Monday to Wednesday last.
Continue reading Exploiting the Privileges of a Minister
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 12, 2021
I don’t know how the acidic squabble between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition will end, but I know that verbal violence can have as much devastating consequences as physical violence.
Two of our most prominent leaders cannot be at each other’s throats every day, with their hate-filled language poisoning the national blood stream.
Continue reading The danger of verbal violence
By Raffique Shah
July 12, 2021
In this racially-fractured society, in which we can agree on nothing of substance, nothing that might help the nation move forward, or, to stretch this from the ridiculous to the sublime, we are a people so deeply divided that we shall never find ourselves on the same side of a battle-line should some army of the insane decide to conquer Trinidad and Tobago by force, readers might justifiably ask who in their “right mind” would want to own, rule or otherwise lay claim to the cussed country?
Continue reading Race rules in this wasteland
IN engaging in counter-accusations and whataboutisms, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley is missing the point of the public’s annoyance over ministerial tax exemptions.
On the principle that two wrongs don’t make a right, his Government does not get a free pass from public criticism just because former ministers in the Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration are accused of various acts of corruption. The two are separate and one does not justify the other.
Continue reading Perks of unequal sacrifice
By Darren Bahaw
July 04, 2021 – newsday.co.tt
Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar used vile language and personal pot shots to criticise the Prime Minister for failing to restart the economy during the covid19 crisis which has in effect shut down the majority of businesses since April 29.
In a statement, Persad-Bissessar described Dr Rowley as a “vaccine vagrant” whose promise to deliver vaccines keeps shifting.
Continue reading Opposition Leader knocks PM over shifting vaccine delivery
By Stephen Kangal
July 01, 2021
The work and deliberations of the Committee of the Whole on the two Tobago Self Government Bills have been adjourned sine die.
The PMTT has indicated that they may not come back to the House before September and may even lapse by December. This is the low measure of seriousness attributed to Tobago’s autonomy after the obscene “gallerying” of Monday, Tuesday and today Wednesday by Rowley and his gang of copy-cat neophytes.
Continue reading Time to heal, reconcile and conciliate
By Raffique Shah
June 21, 2021
With this country’s history largely unwritten, and in many instances unrecorded, I shan’t be surprised if my column today reads like Greek hieroglyphics to most people.
Many of us have an interest in knowing where we came from, this potpourri of races that confuses us more than foreigners. Our only identification mark, I cite Meer and Fuchs, examining our language from a phonetic perspective, is the sing-song prosody linguists insist we expose when we speak.
Continue reading A Labour Day story
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 31, 2021
There is much that is silly about the back and forth between the prime minister and the leader of the opposition about who is to be blamed for the rising death rate the savage pandemic has inflicted upon the people of our country. Rowley says that the candlelight vigils “organized and paid for by the UNC is a major contributory factor in the spike of Covid infections,” whereas Persad-Bissessar claims that the 50,000 people who visited Tobago during Easter “on the Prime Minister’s invitation resulted in the outbreak” (Express, May 25).
Continue reading Searching for Our Truths
By Raffique Shah
May 17, 2021
As the spike in Covid-related infections and deaths rocketed almost exponentially over the past three weeks or so leaving many citizens stunned, people who sought guidance and leadership from politicians were assaulted with a cacophony of discordant notes that sounded like the braying of a pack of ancient jackasses.
What else could we expect from what passes for politics in this country? Imagine if you will a nation in Covid-induced-crisis that descended upon us after some powerfully stupid people believed their mystically motivated leaders who told them first that Covid was a hoax, then said it could be cured by sunshine, and later switched to acquiring vaccines for immunizing the population against what, less than one year ago was a hoax. Only in Trinidad.
Continue reading Politicians lying, people dying
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 13, 2021
I left Trinidad and Tobago on March 16, 2020, a few days before the borders were closed to citizens and visitors alike. I was on the verge of departing for a ten-day visit to India, at the invitation of the Indian government as a part of its Academic Visitors Programme for distinguished scholars.
Continue reading Opening the borders