Category Archives: International

Get it Right Before You Write on TT’s Maritime Boundaries

By Stephen Kangal
May 01, 2012

Stephen KangalLet me categorically state that the printed media especially since 2004 when the TT/Barbados boundary dispute first erupted and counting, has never gotten it right in reporting about our very specialized maritime boundaries matter. They have done a great disservice to T&T. I cannot identify any single journalist past or present who has taken the time to research and/or to consult responsibly on this matter that the freedom of the press demands of media houses.
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Nature and Nurturing of a Prime Minister

By Stephen Kangal
April 24, 2012

Stephen KangalDuring the recent visit made to her ancestral homeland, Bihari village of Bhelupur PM Persad-Bissessar issued a most profound, conclusive, unnoticed and defining statement on her nature and nurturing en route to becoming Prime Minister. She confessed quite categorically to the Bhelupuris gathered that “…whatever I am today is because Bihar is in my DNA and whatever my ancestors taught me…”.
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White xenophobia in America

Trayvon Martin latest Black victim in Florida

By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
April 12, 2012

Dr. Kwame NantambuThe 26 February 2012 killing of the unarmed 17-year old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida speaks volumes as to the omnipresence of white xenophobia (“fear of other races”) in America. And it must be pointed out that this putative fear, real or imagined, only targets the African-American (Black) male.
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CAL Gatwick Route to London Viable

By Stephen Kangal
April 06, 2012

Stephen KangalAs a frequent flyer to London for the past 30 years I am totally confident that CAL’s long-awaited re-entry, using the originally familiar BW 902 flight designations to London beginning June 14 via London Gatwick will be viable and cumulatively successful. We must recall that when BWIA terminated its London route using Heathrow its Tri-star and Airbus flights were always full and were the most lucrative in the BWIA network.
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The Fat Ass Brigade

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 03, 2012

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeNow that Jack Warner has won PP’s chairmanship, there is a rumor that Winston Dookeran may be leaving the legislature to join the IDB in Barbados and Marlene Coudray is preparing to fight San Fernando East, it is time to ask whether the PNM is organized is to face the challenges that lie ahead in the short-term (such as a Tunapuna and San Fernando bye-elections) and in the long-term such as the general election of 2015.
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Rowley Went To India Looking for Jhandis?

By Stephen Kangal
March 29, 2012

Stephen KangalYears ago T&T’s former HC to India, Mr. Reginald Dumas went visiting the rural villages of the Indian state of Bihar assiduously looking for “jhandis” and found them. Last week another Afro-Tobagonian, Opposition Leader the Hon. Keith Rowley used the occasion of the CPA meeting being held in India to search for the elusive “jhandis” and according to him found none. And this after the PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar just returned from her Indian safari when the question of the rurally remote, sometimes inaccessible villages (pur) of the States of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar from which the “girmitiyas” came to T&T bearing their ‘Jahajee bundles” was well-documented.
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Jack Crossing: from Corridor to Caroni

By Tony Fraser
March 28, 2012 – guardian.co.tt

Jack WarnerAustin “Jack” Warner has made the crossing over the political, ethnic, racial and geographic Rubicon—from the east-west corridor to Caroni—and has done so in spectacular fashion. Without the endorsement of the hierarchy of the United National Congress, indeed, against its wishes, Warner sauntered into the heartland of the UNC to capture the chairmanship of the party and by an extraordinarily wide margin—12,695 to 656 votes.
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Results of UNC Internal Elections

United National CongressCOUDRAY COPS IT
San Fernando Mayor Marlene Coudray has copped a deputy leader position in the United National Congress (UNC) internal elections.

…SHE came, she saw and she conquered!

King Jack
WORKS and Infrastructure Minister Jack Warner’s popularity continues to grow by leaps and bounds within the United National Congress (UNC) as he convincingly beat his closest rival for chairmanship in the party’s internal elections in Saturday, by a whopping 12,000 votes.
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UNC internals: theatre of the absurd

By Raffique Shah
March 25, 2012

Raffique ShahI LEARNED a lesson in political morality — surely an oxymoron — at the politically tender age of 35. It came from the Machiavellian master himself, Basdeo Panday. Panday and I, along with George Weekes, Joe Young and others, had founded the United Labour Front back in 1976, when I was 30 years old. Within two years, Bas would “mash up” the organically integrated dream party when a number of us took what we thought were principled positions on fundamental issues, details of which are well documented.
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Exploring Linkages Between Indian Places and Cultural Spaces in T&T

By Stephen Kangal
March 19, 2012

Stephen KangalIt was culturally fulfilling, timely and enlightening to attend the public presentation of a ground-breaking PH.D dissertation produced by renowned cultural activist, Kathak dance exponent par excellence and former distinguished Permanent Secretary, Dr. Sat Balkaransingh held at NAPA on Wednesday last. The work is entitled, “Trinidad Space Speaking through Indo-Trinidadian Rituals and Festivals” will contribute immensely to cross-cultural understanding beyond the confines of the Indian community of the culturally persistent linkages that exist between ancestral India and its culturally-rich, diasporic community in T&T.
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