By Raffique Shah
October 20, 2013
This local government elections campaign was the nastiest ever in the history of this country.
And three man-rats, abetted by their respective executives, can take credit for having reduced electioneering to a level so low, anything worse will be burrowing the sewer mains. Dip your heads Jack Warner, Anand Ramlogan and Roodal Moonilal.
Continue reading Nastiest campaign ever
By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
October 17, 2013
The decision by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar not to participate in the Trinidad and Tobago Debates Commission’s (TTDC) leaders’ debate on 15 October 2013 speaks volumes as to her overt, detrimental/self-destructive tit-for-tat myopic politics.
Continue reading Kamla not ready for prime time
By Raffique Shah
October 13, 2013
Over the past 40 years, since the first oil boom began in 1973, allegations of corruption against government ministers, other politicians and senior public officials must have exceeded the one-thousand mark. I refer to alleged acts of corruption involving tens of millions of dollars and more, not to petty sums below, say, five million.
Since each corrupt transaction of this magnitude necessarily involves several persons—politicians, contractors, corporations, bankers, public officers—we could easily say that at least 5,000 persons of high standing in the society were involved.
Continue reading Corruption and deception
By Andre Bagoo
October 13, 2013 – newsday.co.tt
THE MOST crucial exercise in any democracy is an election. Therefore, the rules governing the electoral process take on a particular significance. Yet the elections rules, as currently formulated, appear to have crucial gaps which make them arguably inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution, the Supreme Law.
Continue reading Unruly election rules
By Raffique Shah
October 05, 2013
The street I live on is about 200 metres long, with two side streets, each 50 metres, making it a grand total of 300 metres. There are 24 residential properties located here, with two empty plots. A small river is the main drain that collects water from a few box drains (ah, box drains, a defining feature of modern Trinidad and Tobago!) and takes it to the Gulf of Paria.
Continue reading Who needs politicians?
By Richardson Dhalai
October 07, 2013 – newsday.co.tt
Roman Catholic Archbishop Joseph Harris yesterday stated that the Church would not be drawn into any debate on whether it would sanction same sex marriages.
He said the Roman Catholic Church’s position on gay marriages “very clear,” and according to the Archbishop, there was a difference between “loving the sinner and hating the sin”.
Continue reading Local Churches: We won’t marry gays
By Raffique Shah
September 29, 2013
Really, it’s a messed-up, mixed-up world in which someone like young Ravindra Ramrattan falls victim to indescribable madness, to savagery clothed in religion. Even as I ponder the enormous possibilities that were terminated in murderous gunfire in far-off Kenya, I take comfort in my agnosticism that has kept me aloof of the zealots of one religion or other, and my revolutionary spirit that soars above the ideologues who manufacture and manipulate madmen for whom no life is precious, not even their own.
Continue reading Victim of Zealots
By Renuka Singh
September 29, 2013 – guardian.co.tt
Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine has distanced himself from the negotiation process that allegedly led to an almost ten per cent drop in local voting rights over the cross-border Loran/Manatee bloc. This move comes on the heels of scathing criticism that the minister had mucked up decade-long bilateral talks between Venezuela and Trinidad that, if negotiated properly, could have boosted local energy reserves and made allowances for Venezuelan pipelines to pass through the local refinery.
Continue reading Bad Deal: Ramnarine blamed for messing up energy negotiations
By Stephen Kangal
September 27, 2013
Current Status of Property Tax Legislation
At present there are no laws in our statute books empowering the state to demand and collect property taxes except Act No.17 of 2009 that amended the Valuation of Land Act and Act No.18 of 1969 (The Valuation of Land Act). Those other pre-2010 laws have been repealed by the passing and promulgation of Act 18 of 2009. The Laws repealed at the end of 2009 were:
Continue reading Briefing on the Property Tax
By Raffique Shah
September 22, 2013
Republic Day in 1976—Friday, September 24th—remains etched in my memory, a vignette in my colourful life during which I often collided with history. On that day, age 30, I entered Parliament as a frontline member of the ULF, having been elected to represent the Siparia constituency. I had never been in that chamber before. In fact, I do not recall ever entering the Red House before, but when I did, I made as bold an anti-colonial statement as anyone could.
Continue reading Colonial to their garments