Category Archives: Politics

General T&T, Media, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch, THA, Tobago, UNC

The next generation of racial politics

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By Dr Sheila Rampersad
January 20, 2013 – guardian.co.tt

Trinidad GuardianThat Indian/African racism and racialism predate Hilton Sandy, that racial baiting has been ubiquitous in T&T politics, and that it is practised by PNM and UNC are by now undeniable truths. So to swelter inside that cocoa house with repetitive back-and-forth accusations of who said what, when, and who responded then but not now and vice versa is unproductive, unhealthy and, quite frankly, unbright.
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General T&T, Law, Media, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, THA, Tobago, UNC

ORVILLE TOPS JACK

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By Newsday Staff
January 22, 2013 – newsday.co.tt

PNMTHE INCUMBENT People’s National Movement (PNM) obliterated the Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) in yesterday’s Tobago House of Assembly (THA) election, winning all 12 seats. The Tobago electoral map was literally painted in the PNM’s colour — red.

From as early as 9 pm, it was clear that the PNM had easily pushed the TOP into second place in virtually all seats, with The Platform for Truth (TPT) party trailing a distant third everywhere.
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General T&T, Media, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, THA, Tobago, TOP, UNC

Gambling on bare Jack

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By Raffique Shah
January 19, 2013

Raffique ShahTHE ferocity with which the two main parties, the PNM and the People’s Partnership (yes, the PP!), fought the 2013 THA election, suggests that they see this battle for an anticipated 25,000 or so votes as a life-and-death struggle. Maybe it is, although I venture to add that this prognosis applies more to the Partnership than the PNM, as I shall argue. The intensity of the campaign, the media, ground and cyberspace advertising and propaganda blitz, which must have cost at least $50 million, certainly surprised me.
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Caribbean, General T&T, Haiti, International, Politics

How the International Community Failed Haiti

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Hundreds of Thousands Homeless in Haiti Three Years After the Earthquake Despite Billions in Aid Funneled to NGOs, Contractors and Internationals

By Bill Quigley and Amber Ramanauskas
January 17, 2013 – counterpunch.org

Aid?Despite billions in aid which were supposed to go to the Haitian people, hundreds of thousands are still homeless, living in shanty tent camps as the effects from the earthquake of January 12, 2010 remain.

The earthquake devastated Haiti in January 2010 killing, according to Oxfam International, 250,000 people and injuring another 300,000. 360,000 Haitians are still displaced and living hand to mouth in 496 tent camps across the country according to the International Organization of Migration. Most eat only one meal a day.
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General T&T, Opposition Party, PNM, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch, Tobago

Race Politics in T&T: Afri-centric Analysis

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By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
January 15, 2013

Dr. Kwame NantambuOne of the ultimate, stupid, insipid, divisive, dysfunctional, Euro-centric variables that has reared its ugly head is the issue of race in the upcoming Tobago House of Assembly elections.

At the outset, it must be emphasized categorically that the public “Calcutta ship” no-brainer, rubbish, diatribe vomited by Mr. Hilton Sandy only speaks volumes as to his utter myopic, ignorance and Euro-centric mis-understanding of Euro-colonial history; that is, the relationship between the European colonizer and the colonized in the Caribbean.
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General T&T, Media, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch, Tobago

Race in our politics

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By Raffique Shah
January 13, 2013

Raffique ShahHILTON Sandy’s Calcutta ship gaffe may well sink the stalwart’s personal political pirogue—after the elections, not before. The furore his Freudian slip has triggered would hardly influence the outcome of the THA election. Battle lines were drawn long before polling day was named, and I sense that the “swing votes” in Tobago hardly make a difference. So Sandy’s punishment for a thinly veiled racial innuendo must come from his party since the electorate, at least a significant number of them, are not offended by it.
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General T&T, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch, Tobago, TOP

District split over Sandy’s Calcutta statement

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By Andre Bagoo
January 13, 2013 – newsday.co.tt

Hilton SandyRESIDENTS of the polling district of Belle Garden East/Roxborough/ Delaford, which PNM candidate Hilton Sandy hopes to win in the Tobago House of Assembly elections come January 21, appear to be split right down the middle over the question of whether his chances in the election have been hurt because of his controversial “Calcutta ship” remarks.
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Court, Crime in T&T, General T&T, Law, Media, Politics

Expert qualification doesn’t depend on registration

By Dana Seetahal
January 11, 2013 – trinidadexpress.com

Dana SeetahalLast weekend’s headlines screamed “Fuad: Autopsy doctors not qualified” a reference to statements attributed to the Minister of Health in the wake of what were said to be conflicting autopsy findings on the cause of death of soldier Curtis Marshall. The minister was quoted as saying that neither Prof Daisley nor Dr McDonald-Burris were qualified as forensic pathologists as far as the Medical Board was concerned. He claimed that only Dr Alexandrov was so registered.
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General T&T, Media, Opposition Party, Parliament, People's Partnership, Politics

Choosing a president

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Newsday Editorial
January 6 2013 – newsday.co.tt

President Professor George Maxwell RichardsThere will be much speculation until next month as to the identity of the government’s nominee for the next president of Trinidad and Tobago. With a nomination deadline of February 5, a new president will be elected on February 15 ahead of the March 17 end of the five-year term of President George Maxwell Richards.
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General T&T, Politics, Violence

No peace and goodwill here

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By Raffique Shah
December 16, 2012

Raffique ShahTHERE was a time, maybe I should write “once upon a time” since this may sound so much like a fairy-tale, when nations at war suspended hostilities on Christmas Day, such was the pervasiveness of peace and goodwill associated with the birth of the Christ child.

The most memorable such occasion was on the night of Christmas Eve 1914, during the First World War, along the Western Front.
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