Category Archives: International

General T&T, USA

Demonising Mamdani

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
June 28, 2025

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI arrived in New York on Thursday. The cooling breeze was welcomed. It was not as hot as Tuesday when New York City’s JFK airport reached 102 degrees Fahrenheit, the hottest temperature recorded since 2013, while Central Park “broke a record set all the way back in 1888”. (June 23, New York Daily News.)

However, the weather on Tuesday did not prepare New Yorkers for the political tsunami that disrupted the city that day. Zohran Kwame Mamdani, a Muslim of Uganda heritage, defeated Andrew Cuomo, former governor of New York State and a scion of a prominent New York political family, in the Democratic primary for mayor.
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General T&T, UNC, Venezuela

PM playing with fire

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By Raffique Shah
June 07, 2025

Raffique ShahI hope and expect those in authority who have the powers, to act, if the need arises, to remove a sitting prime minister and government by whatever means it takes to save our country from what appears to be a spark of madness which is threatening to engulf us even as I write (Friday night). Because after I listened to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar a few nights ago, when I heard what she said, I scrutinised her image on television to see if I could discern any signs of insanity or dementia. I leave that for the experts to work on.
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General T&T, International, USA

Defending black excellence against Trump’s academic assault

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 17, 2025

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeLast Thursday morning, I left Boston to attend the graduation of my second grandson from Morehouse College, “the storied Atlanta school” (The New York Times, May 13). This was a change in the institutions of higher education my immediate family attended.

I attended Fordham University, received my doctorate from Cornell University, and taught at Harvard University. My first daughter did her undergraduate work at Stanford University and got her law degree from Harvard; my second daughter attended Hampton College, received a Master’s from Yale University and a doctorate in theology from Duke University. Tomorrow she will deliver remarks on behalf of the Yale Divinity School Alumni Board, of which she is the president. My son-in-law received his undergraduate degree from Columbia and law degree from Harvard Law School.
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General T&T, USA

America, the beautiful?

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 21, 2024

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeAfter I arrived in the United States of America in August 1964, I continued to follow the election battle between of Lyndon B Johnson, a Democrat, and Senator Barry Goldwater whom he defeated in the sixth most lopsided US election: Johnson won 44 of the 50 states and the District of Columbia; 486 electoral votes and 61.1% of the popular vote. Goldwater captured 52 electoral votes and 38% of the popular vote.
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General T&T, USA

Dumb Trump

By Raffique Shah
November 12, 2024

Raffique ShahThe world is what it is today, what it was yesterday, and what it always will be. It will never change because the vast majority of people do not want change. Mediocrity reigns supreme, vandalism rises to the top and so it will be forever and ever, Amen.

I awoke to the not-surprising news that 73 million Americans had voted Donald Trump in as the 47th President of the United States for the next four years.
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General T&T, USA

The Darkest Hour

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 10, 2024

Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe“And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea” (Matthew 14:25)

On Friday September 27, I flew to Charlotte, North Carolina (NC), to spend the weekend with friends and family. I was also interested in the gubernatorial and presidential races that were taking place there since it is the home of Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, one of the most notorious politicians in the US. NC is also a pivotal state in the next presidential election.
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General T&T, International

As the world turns

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 10, 2024

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOn June 25, 2016, I wrote in this space: “Nine days ago when I arrived in London I had hoped the UK (United Kingdom) would remain within the European Union… There was some nostalgia there but my wish wasn’t to be…

“Xenophobia won out in the end although there were other concerns. There was the split between the metropolitan heartland and country; the disconnect between the elites and the masses; those who saw themselves as global citizens and those who prized the bulldog, isolationist identity and more conservative England.”
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Elections, General T&T, Hindu, India

Hate is ugly

By Raffique Shah
June 10, 2024

Raffique ShahSenior Maha Sabha official Vijay Maharaj must be one very disappointed man, mud plastered across his face. According to Maharaj, Planet Earth ought to have shifted its political axis, with cataclysmic consequences, last Tuesday, June 4. But Mother Earth is not known to bow to mankind’s will or wishes, especially if—as seems to have been the case here—they come flashing “power” cards engraved with names such as Maharaj, Modi and Maha Sabha.
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Africa, England, General T&T, Germany, Namibia, USA

Africa’s holocaust

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 14, 2024

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn 1985 I interviewed the president of the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) Sam Nujoma when he visited the United Nations Decolonisation Committee to plead for his country’s independence (West Africa, present-day Namibia). Namibia was a German colony from the 1880s to the First World War when South African troops occupied its territory.

From 1904 to 1908, the Germans waged a war that exterminated over 100,000 Africans from the Herero and Nama ethnic groups. It was deemed the first holocaust of the 20th century. In 1920, the League of Nations allowed South Africa to administer the territory.
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