By Noel Kalicharan
April 22, 2017
The “war on marijuana” has been waged for close to one hundred years, cost trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives, made criminals out of millions of otherwise law-abiding persons, denied life-saving medicine to millions more, without making the smallest dent in its availability.
Continue reading Why marijuana became illegal
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 18, 2017
PART 1 – PART 2 – PART 3 – PART 4
Dr. Rudranath Capildeo, Dr. Eric Williams’s underground companion, tried to console him when he heard about the massive giveaway of the Chaguaramas lands. Dr. Williams informed him it was his party, the United National Congress under the leadership of Kamla Persad-Bissessar that started giving away the land.
Continue reading The Great Betrayal – Part 2
By Leanna Ganga
April 18, 2017
Imagine a society where all drugs are legal and persons can openly purchase any drug of their choice from licensed and regulated distributors, just like they already purchase cigarettes and alcohol.
One may think of such a society in a state of what sociologists call anomie and deviance, with lots of intoxicated people committing criminal acts and the majority of citizens being addicts. This thinking, however, would be inaccurate.
Continue reading No Crime Plan Without Legalising Drugs
By Raffique Shah
April 16, 2017
Let it be clear that I am not joining any chorus of condemnation of OWTU president-general Ancel Rouget for his remark on bpTT’s decision to have its Angelin gas platform fabricated outside of Trinidad & Tobago, “Take your rig and go!” As a former unionist, I fully understand and accept sloganeering, bravado, and even outrageous statements as legitimate tools of the trade.
Continue reading A Challenge for Comrade Roget
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 10, 2017
PART 1 – PART 2 – PART 3 – PART 4
I don’t know where Keith Rowley, Colm Imbert, Stuart Young, Rohan Sinanan, Kazin Hosein, Faris Al-Rawi, Camile Regis-Robinson, Franklin Khan and Fitzgerald Hines were on April 22, 1960, but I was in Woodford Square when Dr. Eric Williams, in the presence of thousands of Trinbagonians, burned “the seven deadly sins of colonialism.” As he dropped each document (including the constitutions of Trinidad and Tobago and the West Indies, the 1941 UK-US Chaguaramas Agreement, and a Democratic Labor Party statement on race) into an open fire near to the bandstand, he declared: “I consign it to the flames…to hell with it.”
Continue reading The Great Betrayal – Part 1
By Raffique Shah
April 08, 2017
In case you have not noticed, Trinidad and Tobago is gripped by war. Maybe I should rephrase that: there are several wars raging across the country. I wish I could say “civil war”, But there is nothing civil in the barbaric rules of engagement that seem to allow for one side to catch the other off-side and blaze them with bullets, only to have shooters from the home side exact revenge when the opportunity arises.
Continue reading Dillon must win the war—or surrender
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 05, 2017
On Monday I attended the funeral services of Rochelle St. Louise, the granddaughter of Ulric “Buggie” Hayes, a districker, as the people of Tacarigua call themselves. The ceremony was held at the Arouca R.C. Church. At about 11:15 am I left the service, traveling in a Breeze Maxi from Arouca to Port of Spain. I am in the front seat of the maxi. I ask the driver the obvious question, “How yo’ tink de government going, man?”
Continue reading Views from a Breeze Maxi
By Stephen Kangal
April 05, 2017
When the The Honourable Attorney General Faris Al Rawi tabled for approval by the House the Report of the EBC/Presidential Draft Order to legalise the package of measures for the holding of the THA Elections in January 2017 citizens saw that a 48,000 THA electorate albeit many absentees were gifted with 12 seats of assemblymen. This formula was deemed a successful and equitable model for Local Government by the PNM in Tobago with 3600 to 4500 electors per seat.
Continue reading Curbing The Tobagonian Apetite for Governance
By Raffique Shah
April 01, 2017
Permit me to quote from a column I wrote in June last year. It is the first time I’m taking this liberty, but I feel compelled to so do, and I think readers will understand why as I proceed.
I wrote then, “When constitutionally-independent institutions in the country seem to be collapsing…and when the law proves to be the proverbial ass, then, Trinidad and Tobago, we have a problem…a very serious problem.
Continue reading Oh, what a country!
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 27, 2017
Whenever a significant occasion arises, Kamla, in her ethnic enthusiasm, always muddles things up. When she was elected in 2010 she declared that the “hostile recalcitrant minority,” an observation that Dr. Williams made, had become the government of the country. I have argued previously that Dr. Williams was speaking about the behavior of a small segment within the Democratic Labor Party, but this fact has never interfered with the ethnic narrative of discrimination that some of our Indian leaders continue to propagate.
Continue reading Getting It Right