Category Archives: International

General T&T, International, Latin America, Media, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, UNC, Venezuela

Bad Deal: Ramnarine blamed for messing up energy negotiations

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By Renuka Singh
September 29, 2013 – guardian.co.tt

Kevin RamnarineEnergy Minister Kevin Ramnarine has distanced himself from the negotiation process that allegedly led to an almost ten per cent drop in local voting rights over the cross-border Loran/Manatee bloc. This move comes on the heels of scathing criticism that the minister had mucked up decade-long bilateral talks between Venezuela and Trinidad that, if negotiated properly, could have boosted local energy reserves and made allowances for Venezuelan pipelines to pass through the local refinery.
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Hindu, ILP, Latin America, PSC, Racism Watch, UNC

Irresponsible!

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Newsday’s Editorial
August 25, 2013 – newsday.co.tt

Raffique ShahIT was the height of irresponsibility for OWTU leader, Ancel Roget, to be among a group of masked, black-clad protesters participating in an illegal demonstration at the Halls of Justice on Wednesday, that had panicked Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mervyn Richardson, into fearing the makings of another attempted coup.

As a seasoned leader of one of the country’s most prominent trade unions, Roget must have known that the protest was a violation of several aspects of the law, both statutory law and common law.
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General T&T, ILP, India, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, THA, UNC

Jack’s shelf life

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By Raffique Shah
August 04, 2013

Raffique ShahThere is no tectonic shift in voting patterns coming out of the Chaguanas West by-election last Monday, as some politicians and political analysts posit.

What happened was simply this: the constituents, who are predominantly Indians and supporters of the UNC, used the ballot to tell the party’s leadership that it could not foist any “crapaud” on them. They wanted Jack Warner to represent them, and they were prepared to defy the party’s directives to make their point.
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General T&T, ILP, India, Media, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, Race and Identity, UNC

JACK WINS

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By Andre Bagoo
Tuesday, July 30 2013 – newsday.co.tt

GordonJACK WARNER, 70, has been re-elected as the Member of Parliament for Chaguanas West, after provisional results from the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) last night projected him as the winner of the bye-election. It was a crushing victory.

Up until press time, Warner provisionally received 12,631 votes while the United National Congress’s (UNC) Khadijah Ameen, 32 – his nearest rival – received less than half that amount or 5,126 votes.
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General T&T, Guyana, India, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, UNC

Buffoonery reigns

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By Raffique Shah
July 28, 2013

Raffique ShahThe tragedy of tomorrow’s by-election in Chaguanas West is that all of us—politicians, commentators, journalists, publicists and people—treated the exercise, more so the campaign, as a big joke, a comedy festival of sorts. In other words, we have all helped to perpetuate the unholy mess that passes for politics in a country where buffoonery triumphs over rationale, in a land where crapaud is king – or queen.
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General T&T, Law, Racism Watch, USA

Law versus the race question in America

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By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
July 25, 2013

Dr. Kwame NantambuThe “not guilty” verdict in the George Zimmerman case brings to the fore the twin-headed problem that confronts America today, namely, law versus the race question.

At the outset, it must be stated quite equivocally that the race question was intrinsically rooted in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and it also played a pivotal role in the passage of the Voting Rights Act signed by then President Lyndon Baines Johnson on 21 March 1965.
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General T&T, International, Racism Watch, USA

Zimmerman Verdict — Where Do We Go From Here?

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By Frances Cudjoe Waters
July 18, 2013 – huffingtonpost.com

“A black man has no rights which the white man is bound to respect.” — Sup. Ct. C.J. Roger Taney, Dred Scott Decision, 1857

Trayvon MartinOn March 6, 1857, Chief Justice Roger Taney and the United States Supreme Court put into words what America had been putting into practice for centuries. He stated that Americans of African descent should not ever presume to have the audacity to expect that the legal system in this country would ever treat them as equal citizens worthy of the same protection and respect enjoyed by others.
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General T&T, International, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics

The Charge of the Warner Brigade

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By Stephen Kangal
July 10, 2013

Stephen KangalWarner chose the maximum advantage-minimum cost political strategy to enhance and repair his damaged post-FIFA image and to restore the political status quo ante- the Palmiste debacle.

All that he is alleged to have committed and not proven took place outside of the jurisdiction of T&T within the largessse of the FIFA culture of gift-giving. He did not steal from the people of T&T. The four legal opinions have discredited the Simmons Report as being legally and procedurally flawed and therefore worthless.
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Africa, General T&T, Health, International

The lion in winter

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By Raffique Shah
July 06, 2013

Raffique ShahFROM A distance, I watch the Grand Old Man slowly making his exit from a world that is far from the perfect place idealists like him had hoped to see in their lifetimes. As The Lion breathes his last, family feuds disrupt the peace he so deserves in his final hours, I wonder why they do not allow him to die the way he lived—fearlessly, with honour. Nelson Mandela, in his 94 years on earth, has contributed to his country and to humankind what others will need several lifetimes to achieve.
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Africa, Crime in T&T, General T&T, Hindu, India, PNM, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch, Religion

Don’t Blame the Hindus or the Christians

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 04, 2013

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeTwo of my dear friends are reputed to have suggested that the Hindus and the Christians may be responsible for the plight of young Africans who find themselves in trouble with the law. They also seem to suggest that a Hindu-based government is to be blamed for out plight. I should hope that this is not what they intended to convey to the public. Such statements tend to inflame national feelings and deepen the national divide. I am a member of the PNM and count myself to be as conscious of my blackness as anyone else. However, I think we ought to be careful about what we say.
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