By Raffique Shah
December 10, 2006
I kept wondering for some time now how long it would take Starbucks, the upscale coffee chain, to start doing business here. Last week I read where some local entrepreneur indicated he’d cornered the franchise. I guess by next year Trinis who did not know of Starbucks before would be flocking to the coffee house. A few years ago, in London, I had my first encounter with it. While I sipped an over-priced, under-flavoured “cuppa”, I observed the behaviour of customers in this consumer-driven ambience. I found it very revealing.
Continue reading ‘Hobbing with the nobs’ is debt-dealing
I have never ceased to agonise in mental pain at the continuing undue pressures being exerted on our Indian community to exercise constant and eternal vigilance geared to curb and correct the natural predilection of some public decision-makers in Trinidad and Tobago to exclude its presence from public symbols that claim by depicting selectively to represent the cultural diversity of our multicultural landscape. The absence of Indian names of public buildings and notably roadways are relevant in this regard.
British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, can best demonstrate that he is serious with respect to his recent statement on slavery by having legislation drafted and introduced in the United Kingdom Parliament for the provision of reparations to former British colonies in Africa and the Caribbean, which were victims of slavery, the slave trade and/or de-industrialisation.
The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a Jamaican-inspired resolution to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. 
YASIN ABU BAKR, the leader of the Jamaat Al Muslimeen, was yesterday afternoon freed of the charge of conspiracy to murder two expelled members of his organisation.
Today, the people of Venezuela go to the polls to elect a president. The election is of significance to Trinidad and Tobago because Venezuela happens to be the country closest to us. More than mere geopolitics, under President Hugo Chavez, that country has taken a leading role in hemispheric affairs as well as being a more-than-minor player in global politics. As the fifth biggest oil producing country in the world, Venezuela is also strategically poised to influence the Caribbean, as it did with the Petrocaribe initiative and several bilateral trade and aid agreements with member states of Caricom.
The Lady Hochoy Centres presented their Christmas Concert 2006 entitled “Our Gifts to Share” on Thursday 30th November, 2006, at the St. James Amphitheatre.
Women are at the highest risk for contraction of the HIV virus. Current statistics for Trinidad and Tobago state that the number of female HIV positive cases in the age group of 15–29, make up 65% of the total cases for the same age group. These statistics lead us to many questions and inevitably should draw greater attention to issues of gender discrimination, racism and poverty. With millions of dollars being pumped into HIV research internationally and great media exposure in Trinidad and Tobago, it is equally important to examine the values that exist and fuel the spread of the disease in its most vulnerable group, African women.