By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 12, 2008
It’s kind of sad. A brilliant governor with an exciting future brought low because he couldn’t keep his penis in his pants. From all reports, he seemed to be happily married with an adorning wife and three devoted children. Yet, he could not resist the lure of high-class prostitutes on his occasional visits to Washington, D.C.
He needed the exhilaration that comes from living on the edge; the excitement that transgressive behavior generates. Here is a man who knew the dangers of getting involved in a prostitution ring trying to hide the payments he made and sources from which these payments came. He had prosecuted such rings before. Yet, the unfolding drama called for a playwright of Euripides’s stature (he was a Greek playwright), to capture the tragic nature of Governor Eliot Spitzer’s fall from grace.
Continue reading The Sheriff of Wall Street
The recent stabbing death of teenager Shaquille Roberts at the Success Laventille Composite School speaks volumes as to the overt breakdown and rapid, exponential decline and failure of all aspects of young life here in TnT.
ABOUT two weeks ago, a downright dangerous incident occurred offshore Claxton Bay, not far from where I live. Peter Vine, a UWI lecturer and environmental activist, was among a group of fishermen and nearby residents, protesting preliminary works being conducted by agents of the NEC in preparation for the reclamation of some 255 hectares of coastal land for the establishment of an industrial port.
The soul and spirit that presides over the terrific and tranquil Northern Range Caura shrine served up an unspoilt mecca for relaxation for over sixty years. It catered with its lush vegetation canopy for the recreational and unwinding needs of thousands. That is the unique heritage that is now being desecrated by lawless brigands and shameless bandits causing worshippers to scurry for their lives. These bandits must remember that a Catholic Priest cast a curse on the building of the corruption-riddled Caura Water Dam on the site of a previous church and it never materialised. Those who desecrate the Caura peace will surely pay for their sacrilege and disrespect to the gods that inhabit this sanctuary.
In light of the escalating crime rate in Trinidad and Tobago, and the perceived impotence of the Police Service to arrest the situation, I want to once again bring up the idea of decentralization of the major law-enforcement bodies. 
If anybody can convince me that a state of emergency would yield benefits in the fight against crime, I’d be willing to listen and act. So said Prime Minister Patrick Manning last week as he and others, the opposition UNC included, insisted that emergency powers were not required to deal with this unholy mess. I respond to the PM this way: show me that you can lower the level of crime using Minister Martin Joseph’s many “plans”, and I’ll concede that we do not need an emergency.
Though some may beg to differ, there is ample evidence to conclude that human beings are fundamentally evil. For any number of reasons, we almost instinctively oppress each other in the most brutal fashion. History is replete with genocide, slavery, ethnic cleansing, religious persecution, gender discrimination, economic and political oppression and the list goes on. Far from being exhausted, this does not even begin to scratch the surface of human savagery. According to Columbus’ own account, he received an enthusiastic welcome by native people who came bearing gifts. In response, he unleashed a reign of terror including rape, murder, pillage and enslavement.