Category Archives: International

Caribbean, CARICOM, Cuba, General T&T, International, People's Partnership, Politics

Blunder after Blunder

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By Raffique Shah
December 11, 2011

Raffique ShahFIVE weeks ago, in my column titled “Diplomatic Blunders”, I wrote, “…The US has the right to decide what countries it has relations with, so excluding Cuba as a trade or investment partner is not the issue. What is criminal is for the US to use its might to deny other countries, as well as all corporations, their right to have relations with Cuba…”

I was referring to America’s unjust trade embargo against Cuba, but also to the People’s Partnership Government’s seemingly confused foreign policy positions. Trinidad and Tobago had abstained at a UNESCO general meeting at which Palestine was granted full membership, with an overwhelming majority of nations voting in favour of the motion.
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Caribbean, CARICOM, Cuba, Editorial, General T&T, International, Politics, USA

Hilton’s Ban on Castro: An Affront to Our Sovereignty

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EDITORIAL
December 10, 2011

Trinidad and Tobago NewsThe U.S. has laws and regulations which prevent U.S. companies from doing business with Cuba unless they obtain a special licence from the U.S. Department of the Treasury. These laws extend to operations of U.S. companies in other countries as well. The United States Department of the Treasury refused to grant a licence to the Trinidad Hilton Hotel, which is managed by Hilton Worldwide, to host the CARICOM-Cuba summit which involved Cuban leader Raul Castro. This untenable affront to Trinidad and Tobago’s sovereignty reflects the continued tradition of U.S. imperialism in the Caribbean and our local leaders’ complicity in this abuse.
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Caribbean, CARICOM, Cuba, General T&T, Latin America, Media, Politics, USA

END ISOLATION OF CUBA

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IV CARICOM-Cuba Summit
Click here for more photos

By Clint Chan Tack
Friday, December 9 2011 – newsday.co.tt

CUBAN PRESIDENT Raul Castro yesterday slammed United States (US) President Barack Obama for failing to keep a commitment he made at the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Port-of-Spain in April 2009 to lift the 49-year-old embargo which the US placed on Cuba since 1962.
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Caribbean, CARICOM, Cuba, General T&T, International, Politics, USA

US Bans Hilton Hotel from Hosting Castro

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US BIG STICK FOR RAUL

Hilton blocked from hosting Caricom conference attended by Cuban president

By Julien Neaves
December 07, 2011 – trinidadexpress.com

Raúl CastroUS-BASED hotel chain Hilton Worldwide has been denied a special licence from the US Government to allow for the IV Caricom/Cuba Summit to be held at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre with visiting Cuban President Raul Castro.

The two-day summit, which starts today, will instead be held at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) in Port of Spain.
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Africa, General T&T, International, Race and Identity, Racism Watch

Originality vs Nationality: Afri-centic Analysis

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By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
December 05, 2011

EmancipationAs the UN-sponsored “International Year for People of African Descent” (2011) gradually comes to an end, historiography suggests that African people must deal with these fundamental questions: “Who am I here and now?; Am I all I can be?”, Am I really who i am? (and) Why am I here?”
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Africa, Features, International, USA

Africa Lies Naked to Euro-American Military Offensive

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By Glen Ford
December 02, 2011 – blackagendareport.com

Emancipation“The United States and its allies, principally the French, are positioned to ‘take’ much of the continent with the collaboration of most of its governments.”

The United States and its allies are engaged in an Asian and African offensive, a multi-pronged assault thinly camouflaged as humanitarian intervention that, in some regions, looks like a blitzkrieg. This frenzied aggression, still in its first year, saw NATO transformed into an expeditionary force to crush the unoffending Gaddafi regime in Libya and is now poised to topple the secular order in Syria. Although drawing on longstanding schemes for overt and covert regime change in selected countries, and fully consistent with global capital’s historic imperative to bludgeon the planet into one malleable market subordinate to Washington, London and Paris, the current offensive had a particular genesis in time: the nightmare vision of an Arab awakening.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Hindu, India, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, Politics, Racism Watch, UNC

Let the Jackasses Bray

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 29, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThere is blindness among the leaders of the UNC government that will lead to its demise. Overconfident by the results of May 2010, it refuses to see that its victory was not so much an affirmation of their prospective policies (which were ill-thought out at best) but a refusal of citizens to accept what Mr. Manning and his team were doing. In rejecting PNM the electorate stated categorically that they were against Manning’s increasingly tendencies of one-manism, his refusal to listen to others; and his knee-jerk support of Calder Hart whose practices left many persons uncomfortable.
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General T&T, USA

Black Friday: Afri-centric Analysis

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By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
November 25, 2011

Dr. Kwame NantambuAs the Americanization of all aspects of life in Trinidad and Tobago continues unabated 24-7-365, it is a sine qua non that Trinbagonians be educated/informed in regard to the concept of “Black Friday” via this Afri-centric analysis.

According to long-standing acceptable societal norms , “in the United States, Black Friday refers to the biggest shopping day of the year, which is always the Friday after Thanksgiving” (25 November 2011).
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Africa, Culture, General T&T, International, Race and Identity, Religion

Homecoming: Bahia 2011

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 22, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeFor the past week I have been visiting Salvador, Bahia, Brazil as a guest of the FUNAG, an independent foundation of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry. I was invited to participate in AfroXX1, a celebration of the United Nations “Year of the People of African Descent”; my having written a chapter in African Heritage in the making of National Identity in Brazil and the Caribbean, a book that was commissioned for the event. My contribution is entitled: “African Heritage in the Making of the Trinidad and Tobago’s Identity.”
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Africa, Culture, General T&T, Hindu, India, Labour, People's Partnership, Politics, Racism Watch

Sat and Devant on the Saddle

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 15, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeSat and Devant riding high on de saddle now and dey driving a hard bargain. Many who voted for the UNC never expected them to thrust Sat and Devant on we with such force, guns ablazing. Even those who refused to vote (and I am culpably in this regard), are feeling uneasy about what is happening in the country. However, I do not think those who voted for UNC and those who abstain should feel badly. They did the correct thing in telling Patrick Manning that he had gone too far and had to be restrained. That is the essence of democracy. Whenever things go out of whack, a countervailing force always steps in to correct the excesses of any party. Silvio Berlusconi who ruled Italy supreme for seventeen years is gone. Muamar Gaddafi ruled Libya for forty two years. He’s gone. As my mamma used to say, “Nothing lasts forever.”
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