General T&T, Media, Politics

30 Years and Counting

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By Raffique Shah
December 04, 2011

Raffique ShahIT occurred to me recently that I have been writing newspaper columns for 30 years. When I started writing opinion pieces back in 1981, I did not think of it as a career. I was 35 years young, already an ex-soldier who had become notorious during the mutiny of 1970. I was also an ex-MP who had fought fiercely against both Dr Eric Williams and Basdeo Panday, and paid the ultimate political price for having the nerve to cross two crosses that were too heavy to bear.
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Africa, Features, International, USA

Africa Lies Naked to Euro-American Military Offensive

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By Glen Ford
December 02, 2011 – blackagendareport.com

Emancipation“The United States and its allies, principally the French, are positioned to ‘take’ much of the continent with the collaboration of most of its governments.”

The United States and its allies are engaged in an Asian and African offensive, a multi-pronged assault thinly camouflaged as humanitarian intervention that, in some regions, looks like a blitzkrieg. This frenzied aggression, still in its first year, saw NATO transformed into an expeditionary force to crush the unoffending Gaddafi regime in Libya and is now poised to topple the secular order in Syria. Although drawing on longstanding schemes for overt and covert regime change in selected countries, and fully consistent with global capital’s historic imperative to bludgeon the planet into one malleable market subordinate to Washington, London and Paris, the current offensive had a particular genesis in time: the nightmare vision of an Arab awakening.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Hindu, India, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, Politics, Racism Watch, UNC

Let the Jackasses Bray

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 29, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThere is blindness among the leaders of the UNC government that will lead to its demise. Overconfident by the results of May 2010, it refuses to see that its victory was not so much an affirmation of their prospective policies (which were ill-thought out at best) but a refusal of citizens to accept what Mr. Manning and his team were doing. In rejecting PNM the electorate stated categorically that they were against Manning’s increasingly tendencies of one-manism, his refusal to listen to others; and his knee-jerk support of Calder Hart whose practices left many persons uncomfortable.
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Flooding, General T&T, Politics, Protest

Failed Meeting With La Seiva Residents

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…Following Floods and Landslides

By Leslie Paul
November 29, 2011

Residents of upper and lower La Seiva, Maraval at a meeting with members of the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure
Residents of upper and lower La Seiva, Maraval at a meeting with
members of the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure

On Monday 28th November, 2011, residents of upper and lower La Seiva, Maraval, attended a meeting which purported to address their concerns following the landslides and floods which occurred last week. The Minister of Works and Infrastructure, Jack Warner, was supposed to head talks with the residents but was unable to attend. Members of the Ministry as well as the Chairman, Mr. Anthony Sammy and other representatives from the Diego Martin Regional Corporation were present to carry on with the meeting.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Law, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, Politics, Violence

PM’s Credibility at Stake

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By Raffique Shah
November 27, 2011

Raffique ShahPRIME Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s credibility is on the line with allegations of a plot to assassinate her and three of her ministers. This latest drama, coming at the tail end of a contentious State of Emergency, has drawn scepticism from many quarters. The PM and her security chiefs must now deliver the heads of the would-be assassins on the proverbial platter, or face loss of face and much more debilitating political fallout.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Media, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, PNM, Police, Politics

Plot to Assassinate the Prime Minister

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13 DETAINED

By Nalinee Seelal
November 26, 2011 – newsday.co.tt

Plot to Assassinate Prime MinisterPolice and soldiers have discovered a secret training camp in East Trinidad believed to have been used by ex-soldiers, rogue police officers and members of an organised group in preparation to carry out a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Attorney General Anand Ramlogan and Housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal.

As of yesterday, 13 persons, the latest a police sergeant, have been arrested in connection with the threat to the Prime Minister and national security.
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General T&T, USA

Black Friday: Afri-centric Analysis

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By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
November 25, 2011

Dr. Kwame NantambuAs the Americanization of all aspects of life in Trinidad and Tobago continues unabated 24-7-365, it is a sine qua non that Trinbagonians be educated/informed in regard to the concept of “Black Friday” via this Afri-centric analysis.

According to long-standing acceptable societal norms , “in the United States, Black Friday refers to the biggest shopping day of the year, which is always the Friday after Thanksgiving” (25 November 2011).
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Africa, Culture, General T&T, International, Race and Identity, Religion

Homecoming: Bahia 2011

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 22, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeFor the past week I have been visiting Salvador, Bahia, Brazil as a guest of the FUNAG, an independent foundation of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry. I was invited to participate in AfroXX1, a celebration of the United Nations “Year of the People of African Descent”; my having written a chapter in African Heritage in the making of National Identity in Brazil and the Caribbean, a book that was commissioned for the event. My contribution is entitled: “African Heritage in the Making of the Trinidad and Tobago’s Identity.”
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Finance, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics

Crime Pays

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By Raffique Shah
November 20, 2011

Raffique ShahTHERE has always been a “disconnect” between what Governments (note plural) say and what they do. The People’s Partnership’s first major policy document since coming to office 18 months ago, the Medium-Term Policy Framework (MTPF), is a comprehensive statement on where Trinidad and Tobago is today, its strengths, weaknesses and potential, and where the Partnership Government wants to take it in three years.
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