Category Archives: PNM

General T&T, Health, International, PNM, Politics

Black Betrayal (In the Age of the Coronavirus)

10 Comments

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 13, 2020

“They say the sun will shine for all/But in some people’s world, it doesn’t shine at all./ So much been said, so little been done./ They still killing the people/ And they having their fun”

—Bob Marley, “Crisis”

PART 3

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI have been writing about the plight of black people in Trinidad and Tobago for a while. Like Marvin Gaye, sometimes it “make me wanna holler/The way they do my life” (“Inner City Blues”). I have argued that we will never solve black impoverishment unless we see it as a national problem that demands the same resolve that we brought to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
Continue reading Black Betrayal (In the Age of the Coronavirus) →

General T&T, PNM, Politics, Racism Watch

Black Betrayal, Or God Don’t Like Ugly

1 Comment

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 31, 2020

PART 2

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn response to my column of three weeks ago, “Black Betrayal,” a critic attacked me in a slanderous manner. Mercifully, the Express deleted the more vitriolic aspects of his original letter. He claimed I invented Aaron St. John to carry on my nefarious agenda.

St. John responded:

“My name is Aaron Kerwin St. John, son of Gemma St. John, and grandson of Ester St. John. I am very real although certain persons would choose not to see the truth…They would rather we, the ordinary people, just shut up and be sad, unhappy, and poor, and continue, no matter what, to support this wickedness called governance by the PNM.
Continue reading Black Betrayal, Or God Don’t Like Ugly →

General T&T, NJAC, PNM, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch

Missing out on national unity

5 Comments

By Raffique Shah
March 10, 2020

Raffique ShahLast week, as I noted the absence of Indo-Trinidadians from the Black Power Revolution of 1970, I made a grave error for which I apologise to readers and to persons who may have been aggrieved by it.. I don’t know how I forgot that Winston Leonard, an Indian, was prominent in National Joint Action Committee almost from its inception—and he was not window dressing. He was vice-chairman of the organisation, a frontline speaker on its platforms, and he remained a member long after the dust from the upheavals of 1970 had settled.
Continue reading Missing out on national unity →

Caribbean, Elections, General T&T, Guyana, PNM, Politics

T&T’s Foreign Policy on Guyana Elections in Shambles

3 Comments

By Stephen Kangal
March 10, 2020

Stephen KangalIn the absence of Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley from T&T the foreign policy position and posturing on Guyana today seems to be in total shambles, nonsensical if not very contradictory and inconsistent at worst.

Its policy of detached non-interference that gained traction in the Maduro political crisis in Venezuela cannot be applied willy -nilly to the current stalemate in finalising the official results of the Guyanase elections for three unique reasons:
Continue reading T&T’s Foreign Policy on Guyana Elections in Shambles →

Elections, General T&T, PNM, Politics, Racism Watch

Black betrayal

3 Comments

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 09, 2020

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeAFTER my article appeared in the Express last Sunday I received the following note: “Gd Mr Cudjoe. I have been reading your articles in the newspapers for a while and I want to invite to come and take a look at East Port of Spain where we live. My name is Aaron St John. I am 41 years old and was born in this city. It has not changed for all my life. It remains the same dirty, nasty undeveloped, unprotected and it’s only getting worse and more dangerous. Our lives are not improving and a deep sadness covers every home and everyone in and around the city.
Continue reading Black betrayal →

Barbados, Caribbean, General T&T, Guyana, Oil and Gas, PNM, Politics

False and Misleading Expectations On Guyana’s Oil Bonanza

6 Comments

By Stephen Kangal
February 25, 2020

Stephen KangalIn a Statement delivered at the Opening of the Energy Conference recently Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley dishonestly sought to create false and misleading expectations in an election year namely that:

– T&T can gain continental shelf-access to and cash in on the huge hydrocarbon producing resources currently being exploited by Guyana, sometime in the future;
– by getting the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental to agree to extend the maritime limits of T&T beyond 200 miles measured from its straight archipelagic baselines promulgated in 1986 by Order in complete violation of the provisions of the 2006 T&T/Barbados Arbitral Tribunal Award, the 1993 TT/Venezuela Delimitation Agreement and the tenets of the 1986 Law of the Sea Convention.
Continue reading False and Misleading Expectations On Guyana’s Oil Bonanza →

Crime in T&T, General T&T, PNM, Politics

Robbing Hoods

8 Comments

By Raffique Shah
February 03, 2020

Raffique ShahAs we battle against the crime-plague that is devastating the country, and we in the media add our two-cents’ input to what should be considered a national discussion on the issue, I was jolted by an intervention from well-respected commentator Ira Mathur that turned up in my email inbox last weekend. Ira wrote that a “bomb” landed in her smart-phone in the form of a report on gang violence in Trinidad and Tobago by a researcher named Janina Pawelz of the Institute for Peace, Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg, Germany.
Continue reading Robbing Hoods →

Crime in T&T, Domestic Violence, General T&T, PNM, Politics, Violence

Who is without blame?

6 Comments

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 27, 2020

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIF one ever believed the PNM Government could solve the present crime epidemic in the country, one had better think again.

It is unlikely to do so for the simple reason that neither our Prime Minister nor Minister of National Security seems to understand the magnitude of the challenges that face our civilisation or way of life.
Continue reading Who is without blame? →

Elections, General T&T, PNM, Politics

A Foolish Dog

3 Comments

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 21, 2020

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeLast Sunday Jeralean John, one of the most dynamic persons to enter the political arena in the last year, invited me to visit Savannah Park, Waller Field, or what is known as “Gaza.” I eagerly accepted the invitation, excited at the possibility of hearing what ordinary people—although people are never ordinary—had to say about the conditions under which they live.
Continue reading A Foolish Dog →

Crime in T&T, General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

Focus on one war, fellas

7 Comments

By Raffique Shah
January 21, 2020

Raffique ShahAs the heavily armed hardcore criminals consolidate their murderous stranglehold on our country, striking with seeming impunity anytime, anywhere they choose to, the powers-that-be go into the panic mode and respond with fusillades of “gobar” rather than superior strategy and firepower.

Gunmen wielding weapons as deadly as the AR-15 launched yet another brazen attack in downtown Port of Spain mid-afternoon last Tuesday leaving two dead, scores who were nearby soiling their under-garments, and thousands more frightened to walk the city streets. What does Minister of National Security Stuart Young say? He speaks of some vague conspiracy between the criminals and “certain people” who want to promote fear and panic among the population. Why would anyone want to do that? Hey, a general election is due by year-end, so you guess who would want to create instability, to gain political power.
Continue reading Focus on one war, fellas →