By Suzanne Mills
August 19, 2011 – newsday.co.tt
By blaming the English riots not on poverty, unravelling race relations, government’s austerity measures, the global crisis, but on the perverse and criminal behaviour of some English people, British Prime Minister David Cameron is arguing that in the case of the rioters, bad behaviour triggered bad behaviour and that in general, conduct is not a symptom but a cause.
Continue reading Cameron’s multiple morality disorder
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 16, 2011
August and anyone who is anyone has left Paris (and other Europeans cities) for the country for vacation. As one looks at the shuttered apartment windows, the empty streets (except for places such as Champs Elysees Avenue) and the barely-filed cafes that inundate the city and its sidewalks one realizes that everything will remain in abeyance until September when Parisians return to work and attend to their business again.
Continue reading Messengers of the Invisible
By Raffique Shah
August 14, 2011
A WEEK sometimes feels like eternity in today’s fast-paced world. When I wrote last week’s column—”Jam Them!”—for which I received lots of jamming, Standard and Poor’s downgrading of America’s credit rating, and the almost instant global fallout, had not yet happened.
How was I to know that parts of London and other cities in England would erupt into mayhem?
Continue reading Slash subsidies, prioritise spending
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 09, 2011
I am in London, a few miles away from where the riots are taking place. Here in central London, one feels untouched by these riots and only knows its effects from what one reads in the newspapers. As I write, the riots continue to take Britain by surprise. It started in Tottenham, then spread to Brixton and Enfield; there from to Walthamstow and Hackney. London’s Independent newspaper described them as “London’s worst rioting in more than 25 years” (August 9). Although business seems to be going on as usual there is an eerie feeling that the police have little control of over what is taking place.
Continue reading Riots in London
8/7/2011 – barbadosadvocate.com
It saddens me to the core whenever I read articles such as the letter to the editor, written by Michael A Dingwall in the August 4 edition of this newspaper entitled ‘Black, but proud of what?’. If there is nothing for you to be proud of, maybe you should look in the mirror, and if you still cannot see anything to be proud of, do a little research into African history – there is plenty to know.
Continue reading Modern science owes much to African civilisations
By Raffique Shah
July 30, 2011
MY instinctive reaction when I first learned of the carnage that Anders Breivik unleashed in Norway was, “He is a very mad man…sick!” I imagine most persons reacted similarly to the terror, the deaths of innocent Norwegians this lone lunatic inflicted within a few hours. Norway is one of the least controversial countries in the world. It is wealthy, it has a near-perfect blend of economic and social policies, and it provides a refuge for less fortunate people from elsewhere in this imperfect world.
Continue reading Nurturing an ‘Oslo moment’
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 26, 2011
On Monday next (Emancipation Day) black folks will come out in full ethnic regalia to commemorate the emancipation of our forefathers and foremothers. They will march from the Brian Lara Promenade to the Savannah and make uplifting speeches (as they should) about our condition. The next 364 days thereafter they shall continue their slide into penury and humiliation as the People’s Partnership (PP) government does everything to ensure that African people eat the bread the devil kneads. In this new dispensation no mercy will be shown and no sympathy offered.
Continue reading The Hidden Agenda
By Raffique Shah
July 24, 2011
AS the nation prepares for a year of activities to mark our 50th anniversary of independence from Britain in August 2012, people of my generation must be wrestling with a mixture of emotions. There is a sense of pride, of having been there when the Union Jack was lowered for the last time, and the red-white-and-black colours of the new state hoisted atop flagpoles across the country. One had to be there to experience the birth of a nation to understand the pride, the joy, the celebrations. We were part of history, however insignificant we may have been in the hierarchical scheme of things.
Continue reading Is nationhood an illusion?
Analysis by Jennifer Viegas
Monday July 18, 2011 – discovery.com
If your heritage is non-African, you are part Neanderthal, according to a new study in the July issue of Molecular Biology and Evolution. Discovery News has been reporting on human/Neanderthal interbreeding for some time now, so this latest research confirms earlier findings.
Continue reading All Non-Africans Part Neanderthal, Genetics Confirm