Posted by: Errol F. Hosein
The ongoing behaviour of Prime Minister Patrick Manning suggests that he is driven by the ghost of Dr. Eric Williams. One must note that earlier in his career as Prime Minister, Mr. Manning referred to himself as the “Father” of the Nation. I suspect that he has not fully recovered as a result of what appeared to be a political “faux Pas” to the casual observer.
Continue reading The delusions of a Prime Minister
By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
October 29, 2006
Now that the anti-people, anti-labour PNM government has declared “open war” against the labour movement in T’n’T and its attendant workers, albeit the expendable lumpen proletariat, it is apropos to take a look “back in time” at the labour movement’s anti-colonial struggle against the Euro-British colonial government circa 1937-38.
Continue reading Labour strife repeats itself
By Raffique Shah
October 29, 2006
In debunking UN-fed statistics on poverty in Trinidad and Tobago in my column of last week, I suggested that we may be victims not so much of poverty as of wanton, wasteful consumerism. I pointed out, too, that the poverty line needs to be re-defined. Whereas 30 years ago a salary of $3,000 per month meant affording a middle-class lifestyle, today that means living on the edge. But one wonders if a re-distribution of the nation’s wealth would bring us closer to eradicating poverty or not sink us deeper into debt.
Continue reading Living on the edge
Response to the 2006 – 2007 Budget by the Hon. Leader of the Opposition Mrs. Kamla Persad-Bissessar (M.P. Siparia)
Continue reading Opposition Leader response to Budget
By Raffique Shah
October 22, 2006
Two years ago a report from some UN agency stated that 300,000 people in Trinidad and Tobago lived “on less than US$1 a day”. Today, with oil dollars gushing through the country, we have managed to lower this number to, I think, 170,000 paupers. When I read statistics like these I vigorously shake my head, trying to figure out if I am living in T&T or on some other planet. Although I cannot claim to know every district in the country, I try to figure out how these highly paid experts come up with their numbers when I don’t see evidence of such indigence.
Continue reading Statistics and damn lies
Now there’s concern?
By Corey Gilkes
October 18, 2006
On October 6th, during an inter-faith service, President George Maxwell Richards gave a speech lamented the creeping influx of foreign values and cultures into our country. According to the Express newspaper, President Richards, “spoke of mass media images of ‘glitter and glamour’ and ‘easy living’ from foreign metropolitan areas’, which young people are bombarded with…” and that “many young people, faced with these images, were willing to give up their heritage.”
Continue reading President Richards’ Laments About Foreign Values
by Ras Tyehimba
October 17, 2006
Recently, I read in the media of the incident involving Anita Lutchmepersad, who was forced to leave her home because of the threatening abuses of a ‘close male relative’. After she left, he burnt down the house and drank detergent in an apparent suicide bid. According to one newspaper report, the male relative had seen a text message from one of Anita’s co-workers and misinterpreted it, getting in to a fit of rage. Another newspaper report told of Devica Mahabir who survived being poisoned, beaten and burned but was left horribly disfigured by her husband who killed himself after murdering her lover. What are the factors at play in such scenarios? How do so many relationships which SEEM to start off so good and which are supposedly based on ‘love’ be filled with so much mistrust, pain and abuse?
Continue reading Male Arrogance, Abuse and Intimate Relationships
By Stephen Kangal
Government cannot be honestly embarking on a proposed Rapid Rail System (RRS) at a capital cost of $20 billion over 4 years and leave the people in the dark. They must be told how their money will be spent and what real reliefs to motorists and travelers will be provided by this astronomical monstrosity.
Continue reading Rapid Rail Questions
By Stephen Kangal
The proposed Rapid Rail System (RRS) OR BOMBARDIER STYLE TRAMLINK would appear to be a done deal that has been concluded in the privacy of Cabinet without the requisite proper feasibility study (recommended by APETT) being conducted to determine whether it can really alleviate the escalating traffic gridlock that has enveloped most areas of Trinidad. This RRS is being bandied about even before the receipt of the Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) Comprehensive National Transportation System (CNTS).
Continue reading The Rapid Rail To Gridlock
By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
October 09, 2006
Within recent times, it has been suggested that the international community is angered that the Islamic Republic of Iran has “enriched uranium” that may lead to Iran eventually possessing a nuclear bomb.
The notion has also been bandied about that the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has publicly stated that, “Israel should be wiped off the map.”
Continue reading Hypocrisy in Middle East