Trinidad and Tobago News Blog http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:07:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 T&T borrowing $13 billion http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1908 http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1908#comments Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:59:17 +0000 News http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1908 Peter D Neptune
November 20, 2009 – guardian.co.tt

Karen Nunez-Tesheira

Karen Nunez-Tesheira

From January 2007 to the end of the current fiscal year, Government intends to borrow more than $13.6 billion to finance the budget deficit, pay for several large government projects and to fund the government’s money supply management strategy for the economy. Responding to a question by the Opposition during private members day in the Senate earlier this week, Finance Minister Karen Nunez Tesheira said the government has already borrowed more than $8.8 billion since January 2007, and plans are already being made to raise another $4.77 billion to continue its strategy into the new fiscal year. The funding needs for the next fiscal year include $2 billion from the domestic market, $2.2 billion from foreign capital markets and another $572.3 million in project related loans. She added that the Finance Ministry was in the process of developing a plan for Trinidad and Tobago’s borrowing requirements for the medium term – that is for the next three to five years beyond the current fiscal period.

She said that in total, from January 2007 to the end of March 2009, the state borrowed more than $8.8 billion. This includes nearly $3 billion from the domestic capital markets and more than $5.8 billion from international sources. Prior to the current fiscal period, the Central government borrowed three times through bond issues on February 2007 amounting to $674.3 million, in April 2007 another issue was made for $1.02 billion, and this was followed up by another bond issue of $1.2 billion in February 2008. The Minister said all three approaches on the local market was necessary for liquidity management and to control inflation in pursuit of the government’s management strategy for the local economy. External borrowings included 190 million British pounds (TT$2.008 billion), US$465 million (TT$2.953 billion), 17 million Australian dollars (TT$99 million) and Chinese RMB 800 million (TT$744 million). The total external borrowings in local currency from January 2007 to March 2009 was valued at TT$5.8 billion.

The external loans include 190 million British pounds as export credit guarantee for the purchase of two fast support and intervention vessels, three offshore patrol vessels as well as training and support packages for the purchase in April 2007.

Also in April 2007, government borrowed US$15 million and 17 million Australian dollars to purchase another six fast patrol crafts. Thirteen months later Government again approached the international markets in May 2008, to refinanced a US$150 million bond issue that was due for repayment. This was followed up one month later in June 2008, when government secured a Buyers Credit Loan for the construction of the Alutrint aluminium complex project. At that time another Chinese RMB 800 million loan was secured through a concessional rate facility with the Chinese government for the construction of Alutrint. Minister Tesheira said the interest rate on the funding ranged from a high of 8.25 per cent for domestic borrowings, to as low as 2 percent for the Chinese loan for Alutrint.

http://guardian.co.tt/business/business/2009/11/20/tt-borrowing-13b

]]> http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=1908 4 When electoral fraud is met by congratulations http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1906 http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1906#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:36:11 +0000 News http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1906 By Stephen Gowans
November 03, 2009 – what’s left
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Hillary Clinton

It has become standard practice in many parts of the world for opposition candidates to decry as fraudulent election results that favor the incumbent. Charges of vote fraud are routinely levelled against governing parties that win elections contested by opposition parties backed by Western governments.

For example, after (and even before) Zimbabwe’s last set of elections, the governing Zanu-PF party was accused of vote fraud, but the evidence for the opposition’s claim was gathered by organizations funded by the United States, a major backer of the opposition movement. Washington makes no secret of its desire to drive the incumbent president, Robert Mugabe, from power, by hook or crook, not because he’s corrupt, despotic or a human rights abuser, as Washington alleges, but because he has done what all foreign leaders back to Lenin have done who have fallen astray of Washington – failed to honor contracts and safeguard private property. (That’s not to say Mugabe and Lenin are alike in any way other than having committed what in Washington’s view is the supreme crime.) A cooked exit poll is not beyond the motivations and capabilities of US and British-backed anti-Mugabe forces, but that’s largely beside the point. Mugabe’s Zanu-PF did poorly in the election, and Mugabe, himself, failed to win a first round victory in the presidential election. If Zanu-PF rigged the vote, it blundered badly.

Similarly, the outcome of the last Iranian presidential election, which saw the return to power of the incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was denounced by the opposition as a fraud. The charge was taken up by Western politicians, journalists and a substantial fraction of the Western left, despite the opposition’s failure to produce a single jot of credible evidence that the election was stolen. Worse, the sole methodologically sound public opinion poll taken prior to the election – funded by the international arm of the Republican Party, the IRI – predicted that Ahmadinejad would win by a wide margin – wider, it turns out, than the margin he actually did win by. This was a case of widespread distaste for Ahmadinejad and Iran’s Islamic Revolution leading to the collective dulling of critical faculties. To be sure, if one hated Ahmadinejad and fundamentalist Islam (or fundamentalist religion, period), witnessing Iranians embrace secular Western enlightenment values was bracing indeed. The only problem was there was no evidence it actually happened.

We might expect, then, that charges of vote fraud will be routinely levelled against governing parties that win elections contested by opposition parties backed by Western governments, and that the Western media will accept the charges uncritically. This happens regularly.

But what of cases in which the weight of evidence points to an incumbent, backed by the US government, winning an election by fraud? How might we expect Western politicians, Western media, and even the UN, to react? One would predict that they would try to cover it up, and failing that, minimize its significance. Conspicuously absent would be the indignant denunciations that attend the electoral losses of parties backed by Western governments.

In Afghanistan’s August presidential elections, the incumbent, Hamid Karzai, who had initially been installed in his position by the US government, failed to win a first round victory. This we know now, largely owing to the efforts of the UN’s former number two man in Afghanistan, Peter Galbraith, who blew the whistle on extensive fraud perpetrated by the Karzai-appointed Independent Electoral Commission. [1] Also involved in the fraud, according to a recent New York Times report, was the president’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai. [2]

Galbraith charged that the Karzai appointed electoral commission abandoned “its published anti-fraud policies, allowing it to include enough fraudulent votes in the final tally to put Karzai over the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff.” Galbraith estimated that “as many as 30 percent of Karzai’s votes were fraudulent.” But when he “called the chief electoral officer to urge him to stick with the original guidelines, Karzai issued a formal protest accusing” Galbraith of foreign interference. Galbraith’s boss, Kai Eide “sided with Karzai”, effectively concealing the electoral fraud. [3] Eide told Galbraith that “the UN mandate was only to support the Afghan institutions in their decisions, not to tell them to hold an honest election.” [4]

At the centre of the fraud were ghost polling centres (1,500 inaccessible locations that were physically impossible to confirm the existence of), a corrupt election commission, [5] and the president’s brother. Ahmed Wali Karzai, “a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal trade” receives “regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency.” He “orchestrated the manufacture of hundreds of thousands of phony ballots” [6] and “is also believed to have been responsible for setting up dozens of so-called ghost polling stations — existing only on paper — that were used to manufacture tens of thousands of phony ballots.” [7]

In other words, the UN was involved in an attempt to cover up vote fraud, while the CIA, through the president’s brother, was at least indirectly involved in perpetrating it.

Some US news analysts, dismissing the affair as of little consequence, insist the runner-up, Abdullah Abdullah, stood no chance against Karzai in a fair vote anyway. But an honest account of the initial vote “would have had Karzai at 41% and Abdullah at 34%,” [8] putting Abdullah well within striking distance of victory in a run-off election. Abdullah, however, refused to participate, arguing that there was no reason to believe the run-off would be any less corrupt than the initial vote. He has a point. While Karzai’s electoral commission was asked to eliminate “the ghost polling centres and to replace staff who committed fraud,” Karzai increased the number of centres and rehired the authors of the initial fraud. [9]

The sole concern of officials in Washington – who, when their favored candidates abroad fail to win elections, present themselves as champions of fair elections and lead the charge to have the allegedly fraudulent election overturned — has not been that the Afghan election was stolen, or that Abdullah withdrew because the prospects for a fair run-off were slim. On the contrary, with Karzai winning another term as president only because Abdullah withdrew over legitimate fears the run-off election would be unfair, the official US response has been to “congratulate President Karzai on his victory in this historic election and look forward to working with him.” [10] Instead, Washington’s sole concern has been the exposure of electoral fraud, and its effect in undermining the legitimacy of their man in Kabul (who never had much legitimacy in the first place.)

Contrast the US reaction with the sharp Western criticism of Robert Mugabe after Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the run-off round of Zimbabwe’s last presidential election, claiming the conditions were not conducive to a fair vote. The difference is as wide as night and day.

Where are the stern lectures, the US-government and ruling class foundation-assisted nonviolent pro-democracy activists, the blanket mass media coverage of Afghanistan’s stolen election, the denunciations of Karzai as a dictator – all which attend the defeat of US-backed opposition movements in elections where the charges of fraud have become routine and the evidence for fraud bare to non-existent?

The reaction to electoral fraud, then, depends on the answer to a single question: Does Washington back the beneficiary of the alleged fraud or not? Or more fundamentally, does the beneficiary promote the sanctity of contracts, private property, free trade, free enterprise and free markets? If the answer is no, the reaction will be one of indignation and outrage, even where the evidence of fraud is thin to absent. If the answer is yes, the reaction will be muted, even where the evidence of fraud is voluminous and incontrovertible. Between Zimbabwe and Iran on the one hand, and Afghanistan on the other, official outrage, and therefore the outrage of the media, and therefore the outrage of the people, including a substantial part of the left, has been inversely proportional to the weight of evidence that fraud has actually occurred.

Washington cares not one whit about democracy — only about the interests of the corporations, investors and banks that dominate its policy-making. If “democracy” comports to those interests, well and good. If not, there are no phoney allegations of electoral fraud Washington is not prepared to take a hand in propagating, and no genuine electoral fraud it is unwilling to live with.

Notes:

1. Peter W. Galbraith, “What I saw at the Afghan election,” The Washington Post, October 4, 2009.

2. Dexter Filkins, Mark Mazzetti and James Risen, “Brother of Afghan leader is said to be on C.I.A payroll,” The New York Times, October 28, 2009.

3. Galbraith, October 4.

4. Peter Galbraith, “Karzai was hellbent on victory. Afghans will pay the price,” The Guardian (UK), November 2, 2009.

5. Ibid.

6. Filkins, Mazzetti and Risen, October 28.

7. Ibid.

8. Galbraith, November 2.

9. Ibid.

10. Statement of U.S. Embassy in Kabul, reported in Michael Muskal, “U.S. congratulates Afghan President Karzai on another term in office,” Los Angeles Times, November 2, 2009.

Source: what’s left

Trinidad and Tobago News Blog’s URL for this article:
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1906

]]> http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=1906 2 Prime Minister’s Best Village Trophy Competition in pictures http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1897 http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1897#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:06:34 +0000 News http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1897 Prime Minister's Best Village Folk Dance and Music Finals

Prime Minister's Best Village Folk Dance and Music Finals

Folk Dance and Music with Local Interpretative, Calypso, French influenced, African influenced with Limbo and Drumology. November 14, 2009
Click here for photos…

]]> http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=1897 0 At that price we expect nothing but the best… http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1888 http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1888#comments Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:03:56 +0000 News http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1888 By Raffique Shah
November 15, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

IT’S most columnists’ nightmare, having to return to a topic he or she will have dealt with recently. It gets worse when the target is a politician, matters not what side of the divide he or she is on. They never look into their mirrors and wonder why writers focus on them. They conclude you are against them, that you support their enemies, hence your criticisms.

But, as I learned early in my many years of writing opinion pieces, you write and be damned; if you fail to address burning issues, readers conclude you are on somebody’s payroll. There are so many important matters I wish to address, to have my fellow citizens focus on. Sadly, because of the insensitivity of our politicians, I have to forego serious issues and zero my computer on Prime Minister Patrick Manning.

Last week, amidst much fanfare, the $500 million Performing Arts Centre was officially opened. Based on images I saw in the media of both the interior and exterior of this edifice, clearly it’s a work of art. The PM claimed it is superior to the Sydney Opera House and better than many similar facilities elsewhere in the developed world.

I cannot challenge him on that statement since I have never been to any of these exclusive concert halls. Indeed, I may never sit on the inside of ours-even though as a taxpayer, I think I own at least quarter-of-a-tile somewhere near the toilets. Still, what did we expect to get for $500 million? A cowshed? A North Stand with velvet chairs?

At that price we expect nothing but the best. With seating accommodation in the main auditorium restricted to 1,500, and with all the supporting facilities outlined, we are talking about a structure that cost close to $10,000 per square foot. So why are these ungrateful sods-on-the-street griping about a showpiece edifice, something we should all be proud of?

Isn’t it ironical that even as the Centre was formally opened, promoters of our culture and members of the steelband and mas fraternity are wondering where different aspects of next year’s Carnival will be hosted? We boast about our Carnival being the ‘greatest show on earth’. The PM is among those who bask in the glow of our musical talents, pan being the centrepiece, with calypso, chutney, a variety of dances and mas making us a multi-cultural showcase.

Do any of these art art forms have a place at the $500 million Centre? No, they don’t. That centre is ideally suited for operatic performances, for concerts by groups like the Marionettes Chorale, for intimate musical performances or high-end steelband concerts.

How many of these do we have? If there are more than 30 in a year I’d be surprised. Theatre in Trinidad is limited to small audiences, as playwright/actor Raymond Choo Kong pointed out. Opera-type performances are fewer, with audiences that can easily be accommodated at Queen’s Hall, a short walk from the Centre.

In other words, Mr Manning and his government built an arts centre that is wholly unsuited to our culture! Ours is a ‘jump and wine’ society. People attend shows, be they pan performances or soca and reggae concerts when they can ‘play themselves’. At any of these chutney or soca shows, audiences do not sit quietly in their seats and politely applaud. Our audiences are very much part of the performances. Indeed, at times members of the audience outperform the artistes on stage.

That is the stark reality of our culture. We cannot escape it by funding and foisting on them Divine Echoes. We would be fools to think we can get Trinis to sit quietly and listen to Iwer George or Machel Montano. Even when relatively laid-back artistes like David Rudder or Mungal Patasar or Relator perform, our people want to ‘roll dat bum bum’, as Shadow sang.

So what Mr Manning spent so much of our time and money to deliver, while it looks impressive, has no place in real Trini-culture. With mere weeks to go before Carnival fetes descend on us (forget Christmas-that gone already!), tens of thousands who cannot wait for the real national festival have no idea where they would be doing what they love best: jamming, waving flags and rags.

Common sense would have guided a good government to consult with stakeholders and construct a proper Carnival Centre as a priority, especially after the Savannah facilities were demolished. I should add that as someone involved in sports, I fully support the exclusion of huge Carnival or other cultural events from our major stadiums. My friends in the culture-circle fail to understand that the track and field season starts in January, and they cannot deny our athletes, who bring glory to their country, the only training and racing facilities they have.

I agree with Mr Manning’s suggestion that these promoters be given (for free!) a part of the Savannah to host their monster-parties. But that does not excuse the folly of a government that would construct a glass-and-velvet-elephant at a humungous price-tab, while ignoring the needs of our artistes and cultural ambassadors.

That is rank stupidity-nothing more, nothing less.

Trinidad and Tobago News Blog’s URL for this article:
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1888

]]> http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=1888 12 Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-14 http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1886 http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1886#comments Sun, 15 Nov 2009 03:30:00 +0000 admin http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1886

]]> http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=1886 0 Role of History and Culture in The Liberation Struggle http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1880 http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1880#comments Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:33:30 +0000 News http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1880 By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
November 14, 2009
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com

Emancipation

History is one of the most powerful weapons in the armory of a people to define and empower and defend themselves.

If a people do not place themselves in their proper historical context, then, such a people would be defenseless, powerless and nothingless. As such, it is very vital for a people to write, interpret, and analyse their own history for, by and of themselves. Failure to do so would be fatal for their existence. And their demise would be assured. No people should allow another people to write, interpret and analyse their own history. Most of all, the oppressed or colonised must not allow their oppressor or coloniser to write, interpret and analyse their history. More specifically, we Afrikan people must not allow our European oppressor/coloniser to write, interpret and analyse our history.

We must not allow him to tell us who we are, as a people.We, Afrikan people, must write, interpret and analyse our own perspectives, frame of reference and worldview.

Our European coloniser only writes, interprets and analyses our Afrikan history in order to maintain, perpetuate and strengthen European global supremacy, as part of “the manifestation of the evil genius of Europe”. Under this scenario, Europe and Europeans are portrayed as the subject and creators of world history and world events, while Afrika and Africans are portrayed as the Object.

However, the liberation struggle demands that, as an Afrikan people, we must re-write our history so that Afrika and Afrikans are the true Subject and creators of world history and world events.

Our history tells us that humankind was born or created in Mother Afrika, and not in Father Europe. Mother Afrika is the cradle of civilisation. Our history tells us that we are the original peoples with original ideas. Our history tells us that we are true global majority, while Europeans are the global minority. Our history tells us that our past is that as an Afrikan people; our present is that as an Afrikan people; and our future is that as an Afrikan people. And there is nothing we or anyone can do to deny these realities. The liberation struggle demands that the time is now for us to live as our history dictates in every aspect of our daily lives. The time is now for us to Afrikanise ourselves 24-7- 365. The time is now for us to relive, re-practice and return to our original spiritual way of life and belief system. The time is now for us to return to our communal and extended family way of life. The time is now for us to internalise our original Afrikan mindset as we strive for total liberation, as a people, in this new millennium.

Our history tells us that being an Afrikan is an internal or inside job. It does not follow that just because someone wears Afrikan clothes, eats Afrikan foods, play Afrikan music, and even has an Afrikan name that these external actions make such a person an Afrikan. They do not.

Such a person may just only be a fake, superficial, phoney Afrikan or Trini-Afro-Negro.

A person’s Afrikanness is, first of all, planted and the seeds are sown in one’s invisible, internal, subconscious mind. This is the first stage in this growth process. This spiritual experience is similar to a drug or alcohol addiction when one achieves sobriety. Such a person knows when that time comes or when such an experience is achieved within himself or herself. Such a person also knows that inner, internal, invisible feeling and comfort zone. Such a person knows that a life-long spiritual, subconscious connection has been made with their “higher power” in this case or that spiritual God-force, Amun-Ra, the “giver of life” in the case of Afrikanness. These are two inside jobs. These addicts not only submit but also put their daily life in the hands of their “higher power ” just as the new Afrikan also puts his/her daily life in the hands of their spiritual God-force. This internal, spiritual sobriety then dictates, guides and fashions the external, visible, conscious mind-set and actions of this new Afrikan.

The liberation struggle suggests that a people without a sense of history are ill-equipped to visualise and plan a future because of an unclear, distorted and mis-directed picture of their past. It also asserts that a people without the knowledge of “having done”, will have grave difficulty in acquiring the positive motivation of “can do”. As slain Pan Afrikan Nationalist Bro. Malcolm X, once warned: “If I can convince you that you have done nothing, then you will do nothing.” Over the past 500 years, European or Euro-centric scholarship and history have been written to convince the world that Afrikans are a nothing people; a people without a history, culture or civilisation; and that nothing came out of Afrika but uncivilised, barbaric, primitive slaves, savages and cannibals.

As a counter-measure, we must re-write our history to convince the world that Afrika and Afrikans created original culture and civilisations. Indeed, the Nile River in ancient Kemet (Egypt) was known as “the world’s first cultural highway.” Afrikan people created everything and there would not be a world, Europe or America today in the A.D. Era if there was not an Afrika in the B.C. era. History proves that Afrikans, are an everything, all-inclusive people.

Everything on this Planet Earth came out of Mother Afrika and then spread to the rest of the world. Our history seeks to re-make us the powerful people we once were. Our history does not focus on those Afrikans who picked cotton, etc. on the plantations of the American South or the Caribbean or South America. This brutal, inhumane experience only represents .01 percent of the history of Afrikan people on this earth. This European slavery experience represents our nationality.

Indeed, our interpretation and celebration of our history must focus on those Afrikans who built the pyramids; invented the world’s first 365 ¼ day calendar; astronomy, astrology, writing, philosophy, religion, mathematics, paper, medicine, the Caesarean Section, psychology, governance and architecture, just to name a few. This glorious and humane experience represents 99.9 percent of the history of Afrikan people on this planet. This experience represents our Afrikan originality.

Our history informs us that our nationality is an accident of birth that is based on European enslavement, colonialism, imperialism and supremacy. It represents an indictment from Father Europe.

However, our originality is based on our direct Afrikan heritage/ Afrikanness and this is no accident.
Originality represents a gift from Mother Afrika. This interpretation and celebration of our history proves that we are the people of yesterday and tomorrow, while Europeans are only the people of today.
We, Afrikans, are the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

It must be properly understood that without a proper interpretation and analysis of our history, then the liberation struggle will be exercise in absolute futility, at best. Our history’s role is to facilitate, to define, re-locate, re-direct, fashion and mould the liberation struggle. Our history’s role is to equip us with the necessary tools and ammunition to formulate plans for the future. Its role is to enable us to engage in critical thinking and analysis of the multi-faceted problems and issues that affect and impact on us as a people. As the deceased Afri-centric historian, Dr. John Henrik Clarke, correctly observes:

“History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is also a compass that people use to find themselves on the map of human geography. The role of history is to tell a people what they have been and where they have been; what they are and where they are. The most important role that history plays is that it has the function of telling a people where they still must go and what they still must be.”

The reality is that cultural revolution is necessary today as a result of 500 years of European colonialism, imperialism, and supremacy. Such a revolution is all the more vital among oppressed peoples, in general, and people of Afrikan decent, in particular, as a result of European enslavement a la Afrikan Holocaust or MAAFA. Cultural revolution must involve total decolonisation if liberation is to be achieved and maximized. Anise asserts that: “Total national liberation must manifest in the establishment of a revolutionary culture as the foundation of nation-building.”

Cultural dependency cannot co-exist on the same road to liberation. This only represents cultural confusion and congestion at its zenith. Something would have to give way to the other.

Liberation calls for the exercise of “mass culture”, not “elite culture”. It must represent the cultural values of the masses and not those of the chosen few in society. If it does not, then this change will only lead to further nation or internal self-imposed divide and rule and inequality in the short-run and violence in the long-run. It must be clearly understood that the liberation struggle is “an act of culture”. Cabral also asserts that: “Culture and struggle come to influence one another reciprocally. Culture, the foundation and resource of inspiration for the struggle, begins itself to be influenced by the struggle; this is reflected in the conduct of social groupings and individuals as well as the unfolding of struggle itself”.

In the past and present, culture has never been regarded as relevant to socio-economic development in TnT. The cultural impact was absent, by accident or design and even political leaders have tended to neglect the detrimental and direct correlation between cultural imperialism, economic dependency and under-development. It is time that we realise that cultural factors are paramount in the process of genuine liberation. Tall buildings do not develop or industrialization make. They can engender superficial success or bring about disaster, as they have undoubtedly done for TnT.

In TnT today, we do not have an inward-looking, self-reliant, cultural approach to liberation. Instead, we have pursued and accepted foreign Euro-models.

As was enunciated in the 19th Century: “The country that is more developed industrially, only shows to the less developed, the image of its own future”. That is, the future for which TnT is striving – the achievement of first world developed nation status or to become the new United States of Trinidad and Tobago. This only tantamounts to the Euro-American re-colonization of TnT.

We cannot talk about national liberation when over 75 percent of TnT’s TV programs originate from Euro-America.These programs were once described by deceased William Demas as “brainless”, “junk” and an “insult” to the intelligence of our people. In terms of the liberation struggle, television programs must be used for re-education, development, transmission, strengthening and location of a cultural identity for entertainment and to ignite the spirit of TnT nationalism. As of this writing, TV programs and commercials have completely Kentuckyfried, Mc Donaldarised, Royal Castled, Pizza Hutted, Pizza Boysed, Mario’s Pizzarised, Burger Kinged, Ginzanos Subbed, Church’s Chickened, Subwayed and Popeyed Chickened & Seafooded TnT’s cultural/culinary values and way of life 24-7-365. Instead of having family evening dinners at home, these domestic meetings are now held in Euro-American, unhealthy, fast food eating venues. Trinis like foreign! And the shameful, sad, realistic irony is that 95.0 percent of the patrons of these eating outlets are Afrikan-Trinis.

This is unabashed cultural insanity, dislocation and retrogressive human behavior. The bottom-line is that Trinbagonians are neurologically culturally brain-damaged, brain-dead, anesthetized and culturally comatose.

However, the dangerous and scary tragedy is that Trinbagonians are walking around as if nothing is dysfunctional and/or wrong with their cultural body-politic; they are operating as if there is no problem. “We like it.”

As a result of this cultural madness, TnT not only has physical vagrants on its streets everyday, but also cultural vagrants who wear Afrikan clothing once a year at the Emancipation Carnival Day celebrations… one-ah-day-Africans.

It is at this juncture that we have to distinguish the vital difference between Emancipation and Liberation within a cultural context. The fact of the matter is that the current celebration of Emancipation has been practised in a Euro-Centric, dysfunctional context. It is devoid of its original, Afrikan historical context or Afrikanness; hence its obvious ineffectiveness in either empowering Afrikan-Trinis or being regarded as a serious, concerted and planned challenge to European supremacy. There is a vital endemic disconnect between Emancipation Day celebrations and the totality of the Afrikan historical experience on this planet. In other words, every August 1, Afrikan-Trinis wear very expensive Afrikan clothes, albeit costumes, at the historical site at the old Treasury Building, where the Afrikan slaves received the news of their so-called Emancipation from their Euro-British slaves – masters. At this site, Afrikan-Trinis not only beat Afrikan drums and Steelpans but also chew Euro-American made gum in the boiling hot sun in the early morning. This is cultural insanity, contradiction and inconsistency at its TnT asinine zenith. It represents past Euro-British colonisation and present Euro-American re-colonisation in the era of supposed political independence, or, as the deceased Afri- Centric historian, Dr. John Henrik Clarke, describes it, “flag independence”. These Afrikan-Trinis would then march through the streets of Port-of-Spain and end their pilgrimage at the Queen’s Park Savannah – a physical venue named in the image and likeness of the very same Euro-British slave – masters who enslaved and freed/emancipated them. This is cultural insanity, contradictions and inconsistency at its TnT asinine zenith. This Euro-centric action proves that the descendants of those Afrikan slaves may have been freed physically, between 1834-1838, but their actions in August 2009 prove that they have not been emancipated mentally.

As Bro. Malcolm X once observed: “The white man took the chains from our feet and put them on our mind”. In other words, physical slavery has been abolished, but mental, psychological or scientific slavery is still alive and kicking in TnT. 24-7-365. True liberation, within a cultural context, does not reflect what Afrikan-Trinis wear on August 1 but their values and way of life from August 2 to July 31, every year, surely do. Emancipation means that Afrikan-Trinis are freed and Afrikanised for one day, but for the remaining 364 days, they are Euro-Americanised in their daily lives. “We like it.” As a result of the current celebration of Emancipation Day, what we have in TnT are nothing but one-ah-day Afrikans. If any reader doubts this writer, please observe the clothes these same Afrikan-Trinis wear during these other 364 days; observe the foods these same Afrikan-Trinis eat during these 364 days; observe the Gods the Afrikan-Trinis worship during these 364 days.

The cultural reality is that Emancipation is nothing but an event to make Afrikan-Trinis feel good about themselves; at least temporarily. On a permanent basis, they are a powerless, defenceless people. Wake up, my fellow Trinis and smell the coffee; its Afrikan/ Black; its not Dougla, “Trini-White” or Red as in “Redman”. Emancipate yourself from mental, cultural Euro-imposed slavery.

Free your subconscious mind from Euro-centric garbage and cobweb so that total liberation can flow and be fruitful in this new millennium. Our Afrikan ancestors demand nothing more; so let us give them nothing less. Liberation demands that Afrikan-Trinis should stop celebrating Afrikan History Month in November and celebrate Afrikan Liberation Year instead. Emancipation Day must thus become part of Afrikan Liberation Year. Liberation demands that Afrikan-Trinis should renounce the Red, White and Blue psychologically and culturally, and embrace and operationalise (on a daily basis), the Red, White and Black, and the Red, Black and Green. At the global, macrolevel, Afrikan cultural potency demands that in this new millennium Afrikan-Trinis be Afrikan 24-7-365.

It is a full time job of consciousness with overtime expected. Emancipation Day only provides for part time, temporary work with no overtime expected or desired. It only produces dislocated, mis-directed and ahistorical feeling good Afrikan-Trinis. “Afrikans must live in the hope that, in the process of time, their turn will come when they will (once again) occupy a prominent position in world’s history and when they command a voice in the (global) councils of nations (as they did in the B.C. Era).” For whereas Emancipation deals with local Trini-cultural national identity, Liberation deals with global, international Pan Afrikan cultural nationalist identity. Whereas Emancipation Day gives Afrikan-Trinis a fish so that they can feed themselves for one day, Afrikan Liberation Year teaches Afrikan-Trinis how to fish, so that they can feed themselves for the rest of their lives.

Whereas Emancipation Day focuses on that period of history when Afrikans were powerless and Europeans were powerful, Afrikan Liberation Year focuses on that period of history when Afrikans were powerful and Europeans were powerless.Whereas Emancipation Day focuses on the Nationality of Afrikans in the A.D. era, Afrikan Liberation Year focuses on the Originality of Afrikans in the B.C. Era. Whereas Emancipation Day focuses on Afrikans who picked cotton etc. for Europeans, Afrikan Liberation Year focuses on Afrikans who educated Europeans, built their first university (University of Salamanca in Spain in 900 A.D.) and built pyramids etc. And whereas Emancipation focuses on the 0.1 percent of the history of Afrikan people, Liberation focuses on the 99.9 percent of the history of Afrikan people on this planet.

“Afrikans of TnT unite; we have nothing to lose but our minds.”

Shem Hotep (”I go in peace”).

Dr. Kwame Nantambu is a part-time lecturer at Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies and The University of the West Indies.

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]]> http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=1880 8 Foreign Affairs Ministry Responsible for Diplomatic Fiasco http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1875 http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1875#comments Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:29:13 +0000 News http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1875 By Stephen Kangal, Caroni
November 12, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Paula Gopee-Scoon

Paula Gopee-Scoon

From documented evidence available to me I can state categorically that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is solely responsible for the diplomatic furore involving a Saudi Arabian diplomat, Fawaz Alshubaili and ACP Raymond Craig at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. There is no need for any inquiry in this matter.

The Ministry of National Security was informed by letter twice that Mr. Alshubaili was coming to T&T to perform an official consular function to issue visas to T&T Islamic pilgrims. They were told that the diplomat was a Second Secretary of the Saudi Arabian Ministry of External Affairs, held a Diplomatic Passport with the number given and was being sent on official mission to T&T. I understand that a Protocol Officer from the External Affairs met the diplomat at Piarco and requested the requisite visa waiver.

Why did the Foreign Affairs Ministry not request that Mr. Alshubaili be attached albeit temporarily to the Diplomatic Staff of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Caracas that is accredited to T&T and be issued with a T&T Diplomatic Identity Card since he was engaged in performing official consular duties? Why did ACP Raymond Craig not contact the Foreign Ministry since he knew before the incident that Mr. Alshubaili was in fact a Saudi Arabian diplomat, had a Diplomatic and had to be treated carefully?

For Minister Gopee-Scoon to reduce the Saudi diplomat to the status of Brian Lara while the latter is on T&T soil to justify police intransigence is pure foolishness. For ACP Raymond Craig to suggest on television that since the Saudi diplomat was not accredited to T&T he can be treated as any ordinary T&T citizen intensifies the level of official foolishness.

If there were reasonable suspicion of Mr. Alshubaili having committed or likely to commit an infringement of our laws he should have been asked to leave forthwith after cancellation of the visa waiver to which he was accorded at Piarco upon arrival.

Failure of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ascertain before hand where the Saudi Diplomat will be performing his consular functions leaves that Ministry open to a charge of dereliction of duty.

Did the Ministries of National Security and Foreign Affairs exchange information they both had on the Saudi Arabian diplomat as they must?

We are drifting aimlessly from the foolish to the ridiculous with a bunch of political misfits in charge of the destiny of Trinidad and Tobago.

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]]> http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=1875 5 Official Opening of the National Academy for the Performing Arts http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1864 http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1864#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:53:08 +0000 News http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1864 The Official Opening of the National Academy for the Performing Arts (Northern Campus)

Opening of the National Academy for the Performing Arts

PM’s $480m PRIDE
National Academy for the Performing Arts a masterpiece, says Manning

PM: Udecott to set up new order
Prime Minister Patrick Manning yesterday formally opened the US$78 million National Academy for the Performing Arts Academy (North Campus) describing it as “a masterpiece.” And in his strongest vote of confidence in the Urban Development Corporation of T&T (Udecott) and its executive chairman Calder Hart, Manning said the State-owned special purpose company which manages many of Government’s billion-dollar construction projects “is the instrument that the Government is using to bring about a new order in the construction sector.”

Thank you Sherrine
UDECOTT chairman Calder Hart, whose wife Sherrine Hart has been linked to a Malaysian company his board awarded $668 million worth of contracts, yesterday thanked her for her “tremendous effort and support” as he opened the National Academy for the Performing Arts in Port-of-Spain.

‘Dancing fountains’ claim the spotlight
Streams of water spouted from the “dancing fountains” surrounding the National Academy for the Performing Arts in Port-of-Spain last night.

Tax dollars well spent, say onlookers
Citizens from all walks of life flocked yesterday evening to the National Academy for the Performing Arts at the Princes Building grounds, Queen’s Park West, Port of Spain, where they looked on in awe at the massive structure.

]]> http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=1864 5 Once it’s taped, it might as well be out there http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1851 http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1851#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:21:04 +0000 News http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1851 November 09, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Sex and RecordingsEDITOR: A collection of sex video clips involving a local celebrity is making the rounds on the internet. I am told that she is quite embarrassed about this exposure.

Personally, I do not have a problem with adults exhibiting themselves to other adults by choice. However, if they have a problem with such performances being made public, then why do they record them in the first place? And, if they do record them, why do they not secure them properly?

When relationships break up and parties are aggrieved, it is quite possible they can release these recordings in the hope of embarrassing their former partners.

Having these recordings on phones, laptops and even desktops is risky. I have heard people claim to have “accidentally” sent files from their phones and computers. Phones and computers, especially laptops can get lost or stolen. People can forget what data they stored on phones and computers when they take them to the repair shop or dispose of them, thus exposing themselves. Computers and cellphones can be hacked and files stolen.

All of what I have stated here is already known but despite the risks, people keep records of their sexual encounters which can eventually be published and cause them tremendous embarrassment.

I hope this latest sex scandal can serve as a warning to more people that they should not be naïve or casually trusting of partners, computers or cellphones.

If adults wish to make their sex lives a public affair (for adult viewing) that should be their right. However, use proper precautions.

Safe Sex

EDITOR’S NOTE 09-11-09:

We have published this letter so that others can be cautioned. If you wish to comment, please address the problem and not call the names of suspected parties involved.

EDITOR’S UPDATE 18-11-09:

We have confirmed the existence of the sex tapes and have identified two of the persons on them.

Miss Universe ’s3x’ scandal: Miss Trinidad & Tabago sex video ’stolen’ from laptop, claims boyfriend

Miss Universe Sex Tape Guy — I Got Screwed

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]]> http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=1851 6 What price, national pride? http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1846 http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1846#comments Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:32:33 +0000 News http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1846 By Raffique Shah
November 08, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

SPORT Minister Gary Hunt is convinced that the $2 million national flag that flutters over the Hasely Crawford Stadium would instil national pride in the populace. From the flak he has been subjected to ever since the issue first surfaced-the cost, that is, not the flag-he must be wondering what sin he has committed. In time, he argues, people would come around to understanding why his ministry opted for a 2,000 square feet flag hoisted on a 150-foot pole.

Sadly, neither the minister nor his boss, Prime Minister Manning, or any other minister (as far as I know) was schooled in history. Which is a pity, given that the country’s first Prime Minister, Dr Williams, was a renowned historian. It is often said that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat often-fatal mistakes of the past.

Had they studied landmark events in history like the fall of the Roman Empire or the French Revolution, they would understand why the majority among the population are angry that a government agency would spend that much on erecting a national flag. It is not because people do not care for the flag or they don’t take pride in our nation. It is simply outrage over misplaced priorities and mindless spending of public funds, something the Manning Government seems to have mastered.

They don’t give a damn about what the masses think. Let me take them back in history, to 1789 when the French Revolution started. France was a relatively prosperous country by world standards. But King Louis XV had brought the country to the brink of bankruptcy through a series of wars that were unnecessary, serving only to boost or bruise his ego.

By the time Louis XVI ascended the throne with Marie-Antoinette as Queen, the country had suffered famine and was stricken with severe poverty among its predominantly peasant population. The nobility prospered, as they always do. In the face of mounting discontent, the King’s financial adviser recommended that the royal family and nobility curb their conspicuous consumption. He was fired.

A bloody revolution followed, with the storming of the Bastille, the trial and execution by guillotine of the king in 1793, followed months later by that of Marie-Antoinette. Among the nobility, many heads rolled-some historians say 17,000-plus-into the basket as the guillotine separated them from their bodies. Out of that people’s revolution a new republic was born, and the tri-colour, the national flag, became a symbol of the new order.

Here again, a national flag played an important role in rallying the masses, just as historically, the flag (or colours) was used to rally troops on ancient battlefields. So the national flag does instil pride in people, but it could also spark anger when it seems to have been sullied by extravagance among the ruling elite. And that is precisely what is happening in this instance.

National pride, Minister, is walking through a capital city where the sidewalks are in near-perfect order, not ravaged by time and strewn with death-traps. Pride in one’s country is not having a virtual army of assorted vagrants to negotiate past, trying to avoid contact, possibly disease.

Sometime last year Minister Hazel Manning swore she’d rid the streets of these unfortunate souls. I warned her that I’d heard better cocks crow. Now she knows. They will still be around when she sits in her sky-high new office, staring at squalor not only in Sea Lots, but also at the ’slumdogs’ on the sidewalks and almost anywhere else she turns.

You cannot have a country that has earned around $200 billion in revenue over the past five years, but still cannot provide basic standards of living for its population of 1.3 million. If we exclude the ten, twenty thousand ‘lochos’ who are content to live in squalor, what of those brimming with national pride who have no hope of having decent roofs over their heads?

The HDC, as I commented recently, seems to have a strange selection process in which deserving cases for national housing die before they see a key. Yet known criminals hold priority over hard working young families: how in Jah’s name could that be just?

Minister Hunt, in reflecting on the anger that flag has provoked should scan the increasing number of street children who stalk the nation’s highways and byways. How can a giant flag, sited at a venue they know nothing of and will never have the money to enter, engender pride in them?

How can Hunt or any of his Cabinet colleagues justify their smugness at weekly Cabinet-defensive-talk-diatribes, knowing that thousands of children go to sleep on makeshift ‘beds’, not to add empty stomachs? What would one or two or ten million-dollar flags do for their national pride?

I’ll tell him what. They will harbour intense hatred for those who squander their patronage on endless metres of cloth, while they suffer for lack of clothes. And they will come after us, matters not whether we care about them or we ignore them. Watch out for the wrath of those children. They will take pride in snuffing out lives of the innocent and the guilty.

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]]> http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=1846 8 Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-07 http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1843 http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1843#comments Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:30:00 +0000 admin http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1843

]]> http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=1843 0 Williams went to obeah woman http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1839 http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1839#comments Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:48:13 +0000 News http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=1839 By Sean Douglas
November 07, 2009 – newsday.co.tt

Dr Eric WilliamsHistorian Prof Selwyn Ryan said that on balance former prime minister, the late Dr Eric Williams, was a positive force for Trinidad and Tobago but had done negative acts which affect the country to this very day.

Ryan gave a talk on Williams as part of the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) research fellow series of lectures on Thursday at the National Library, Port-of-Spain.

Ryan began by pointing out the complex personality of the “black French creole”, Williams, whose white mother suffered by not only being illegitimate but also by later being disowned by her family for eloping with the family’s black employee, who was to be Williams’ father. Suggesting that the bossy ways of Williams’ mother were later adopted by Williams in politics, Ryan said, “When she spoke, no dog must bark.”

Ryan suggested that the legacy of “genteel poverty” suffered by his mother gave Williams a chip on his shoulder which might have been expressed in venom in his famous “Massa day done” speech. He said Williams and his brothers used to be by their father to see a Vincentian obeah woman in Laventille, until their mother stepped in and instead had a Catholic priest visit them.

Ryan also painted a picture of an embarrassed Williams having to help deliver cakes around Belmont for his parents who were working desperately in many efforts to maintain themselves.

Ryan dwelt on the theme of whether historical events occur due to the character of great men, or due to the cumulative effect of the surrounding environment.

He said despite current speculation, there was evidence that Williams had in fact always wanted to get into politics, as he quoted a letter to Jamaican leader Norman Manley saying Williams’ autobiography would be a political manifesto.

Ryan said one of Williams greatest tasks was the decolonisation and reconstitution of the civil service. He said Williams liked “ad hocracy” involving his hand-picked mandarins, rather than people who had come up through the Public Service. These technocrats, said Ryan, enjoyed enormous power, even ahead of government ministers, such as sleeping at Williams’ house on Christmas Day.

“What puzzles me is how he turned on these people in the end, and the viciousness with which he treated them,” said Ryan. He speculated this might have been due either to demands upon Williams for morality in public affairs, or due the health of Williams. He recalled a speech by Williams accusing his technocracy of virtually wanting to have a coup.

“A number of civil servants were sent off to the ‘gulag’. They got too close to him…Some never recovered,” Ryan said.

Saying some were humiliated and lost their salaries, Ryan couldn’t understand how Williams could have so treated these people who had even virtually sacrificed their families for him.

“I looked for other explanations to Williams’ behaviour — something switched on or off (in Williams).”

Ryan said when top technocrats such as Frank Rampersad were “sent off”, it was assumed they had found out something explosive about Tesoro. He said the 1970s was the start of the “bypass system” of using technocrats ahead of the civil service.

Ryan said Williams was thought to know about corruption and may even have helped in cover-ups. He recalled being told Williams liked the jovial company of John O’Halloran through whom he may have enjoyed many things vicariously.

http://www.newsday.co.tt/politics/0,110529.html

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