Archive for the 'International' Category

In Defense of the Prime Minister

Published on September 26, 2019 in England, General T&T, International, Media and Politics. 4 Comments Tags: , , , .

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 26, 2019

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIt is easy to criticize the Prime Minister. I also take my shots when he makes egregious errors. This is why I suggested that he write what he says before he pronounces on national and international issues. His critics also need to be cautious before they condemn his failings.

The government, with all of its shortcomings, has acted responsibly with regard to the Venezuelan refugee crisis. The PM reported with pride, “American politicians commended this country for its position in treating with economic migrants coming to this country.” The politicians appreciate his achievements since they are dealing with a president who has intensified his crackdown on migrants and asylum-seekers.
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Turmoil in the global village

Published on August 14, 2019 in Crime in T&T, General T&T, International, Racism Watch, Recession, Syria and USA. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

By Raffique Shah
August 14, 2019

Raffique ShahIt’s so easy for us to be so overwhelmed by our own mess—and there’s more than enough sewage there to drown us all—that we are unmindful of what’s happening in the wider world, developments that could impact our small island state negatively.

When the fallout from certain actions by powerful leaders hit us in the face with a bang, we will come awake startled, crying out: Oh Jeezanages! I was watching Marlene McDonald and her gang…ah didn’t see that bolt from Donald Trump (or Xi Jinping or Boris Johnson or Vladimir Putin) coming this way!
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CLR James: man without honour in his own country

Published on August 2, 2019 in Africa, General T&T, International, PNM, Politics and Race and Identity. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

By Raffique Shah
August 02, 2019

Raffique ShahA tragedy of our times is the absolute ignorance of the vast majority of our population of the nation’s history. And for once I cannot blame this void on information technology, on the electronic devices that most young people and many mature ones are glued to, in most instances day and night.
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Thinking Globally; Acting Locally

Published on July 25, 2019 in France, General T&T and International. Closed Tags: , , , .

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 25, 2019

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeAfter I spoke at London’s Maritime Museum last Monday, I traveled to France for personal as well as scholarly reasons. Years earlier I had spent a semester at Paris and had taken my daughter to the University of Strasbourg on another occasion to study the French language for a summer. I never mastered the language.
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US demonising China

Published on July 12, 2019 in China, Chinese, Finance, General T&T, International and USA. 2 Comments Tags: , .

By Raffique Shah
July 12, 2019

Raffique ShahLast May, Minister of Finance Colm Imbert announced at a post-Cabinet media briefing that Shanghai Construction had been awarded a billion-dollar contract to build the Port-of-Spain General Hospital’s new central block. Minister Imbert said that the Chinese construction giant, which is no stranger to undertaking big projects in Trinidad and Tobago, had bid TT $1 billion, which was $600 million less than Bouygues Batiment, a French company.
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Crisis next door will continue

Published on June 21, 2019 in General T&T, International, Racism Watch, USA and Venezuela. 4 Comments Tags: , , .

By Raffique Shah
June 21, 2019

Raffique ShahDuring the recent Venezuelan migrants registration exercise, I found myself subconsciously scanning video-clips and photographs of the hundreds of hopefuls who turned up at the three designated centres each day for, I am not ashamed to admit it, applicants of colour. “Where are the Waraos?” I kept asking aloud. “Where are the Afro-Venezuelans?” I spotted one or two of the latter during the two-week exercise, but not one of the indigenous people (Warao and other tribes), who, I am told by fisher-folks who routinely make trips across to the Main”, live closest to Trinidad and Tobago.
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Contradictions Mar our Foreign Policy on Venezuela

Published on April 18, 2019 in General T&T, International, Politics, USA and Venezuela. 1 Comment Tags: , .

By Stephen Kangal
April 18, 2019

Stephen KangalAfter five decades of exercising our nationhood and political independence during which our foreign relations were carefully crafted and marked by clarity, unimpeachable consistency and firmly grounded in the achievement of our national interests on the global and regional stage by the likes of Rose, Constantine, Mc Intyre, Seignoret, Abdullah, Major, Ballah, Dodrige Alleyne, Naimool, Dumas et al our current foreign policy on Venezuela now in the hands of Prime Minister Rowley and a lame-duck Foreign Minister is driven by confusion, contradictions, lack of parliamentary over-sight and embarrassingly and patently inconsistent.
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The Brexit Quagmire

Published on April 6, 2019 in England, European Union, General T&T and International. 7 Comments Tags: , , .

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 06, 2019

“If you compared Britain to a sphinx, the sphinx would be an open book by comparison. Let’s see how that book speaks over the next week or so.”

—Jean-Claude Juncker, President, European Commission

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeLast Friday Britain was supposed to leave the European Union (EU) after which the land, as Boris Johnson and his Tory friends assured us, was supposed to be flowing in milk and honey. March 29 has come and gone. On that very day the British Parliament rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan to leave the EU for a third time. This left British citizens asking: “How did we go so perilously wrong?”
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The Other Venezuela

Published on March 29, 2019 in General T&T, International, USA and Venezuela. Closed Tags: .

The Other Venezuela
By Alborada/Redfish – March 29, 2019
A 15 minute documentary, produced by Alborada for Redfish, shows a reality of Venezuela that is absent from the mainstream coverage.

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Our Living Past

Published on March 28, 2019 in European Union, General T&T, International and Race and Identity. Closed Tags: .

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 28, 2019

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeTony Barber, Oxford scholar and European editor of the Financial Times, recalls an interesting occurrence when the European Union sought to write a European history book. “One historian from each EU member state was commissioned to write a chapter. The project was abandoned after the British complained that a Spanish historian had dismissed Sir Francis Drake, the Elizabethan maritime hero and victor over the Spanish Armada in 1588, as a mere ‘pirate'” (Financial Times, March 16).
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