PM: PNM does not wash dirty linen in public

by Michelle Loubon
January 25, 2010 – guardian.co.tt

PM Patrick ManningThe PNM does not wash its dirty linen in public. Prime Minister Patrick Manning made this comment during the party’s 54th anniversary celebrations interfaith thanksgiving rally at Balisier House, Port-of-Spain, yesterday. Its theme was “We’ve come this far by faith.” Although he maintained the PNM did not interfere in the politics of other political parties, Manning boasted that the PNM model was the best with regard to internal organisation and discipline. “We take careful note of what goes on in other political parties…We want to know what not to do,” he said. He then waded into the practice of washing dirty linen in public. “If you find dirty linen being washed in public, it has to do with the method of selection,” Manning said.
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Kamla is new UNC boss

Kamla Persad-Bissessar is new UNC Political leader
Kamla Persad-Bissessar is new UNC Political leader

KAMLA IS UNC BOSS newsday.co.tt
Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar last night won by a landslide to be elected the new UNC political leader, while Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner is the party’s new chairman, displacing Basdeo Panday, who founded the party 20 years ago. Panday was the party’s leader and chairman.

Kamla crushes Bas guardian.co.tt
Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar has put a sound licking on her two rivals to become the new leader of the United National Congress (UNC). In the process, she became the first woman to become the leader of a major political party in Trinidad and Tobago. Although results were trickling in at UNC headquarters at Rienzi Complex, Couva, Persad-Bissessar was clear in the lead in most of the 28 polling stations. Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner was also heading for a landslide victory against St Augustine MP Vasant Bharath.
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Kamla is new UNC Political leader

Kamla is new UNC Political leader trinidadexpress.com
Kamla Persad-BissessarJoining Persad-Bissessar in the leadership rung is Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner who has won the chairmanship, also by a landslide. The triumph of Warner, who was essentially on his own, attests to his personal strength within the party.

Ready to work with opponents
Excoriated as a weakling incapable of leading and hiding a drinking weakness, Kamla Persad-Bissessar proved last night she had the political strength to beat two political legends.
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UNC Election Day

Basdeo Panday, Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj
Basdeo Panday, Kamla Persad-Bissessar & Ramesh Maharaj

D-Day for UNC
Political mud-slinging. Nightly public meetings. Walkabouts. Picong. Intrigue.

Election Day
By midnight tonight, T&T will know whether United National Congress loyalists, who have stood steadfastly by their leader, Basdeo Panday, through his travails over decades, will finally turn their backs on him, ushering in a sea of change in the political landscape and forcing him to ride out into the political sunset.
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Haiti: Another American Annexation?

By Raffique Shah
January 24, 2010

HaitiWHAT surprised me about my column last week was the number of people, mostly local, who knew little or nothing about Haiti’s history. But what should I have expected in a country and an education system in which history has been deemed irrelevant? Or when students study the subject, the focus is on lands and civilisations afar? Let’s face it: we know more about America and Europe than we do of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean.
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Haiti: the real looters are sitting in Washington

By Viv Smith
Socialist Worker

HaitiFOUR DAYS AFTER the disaster in Haiti, the media shifted its attention from images of suffering to those of looting.

Talk has turned to keeping “law and order”. Haitians are increasingly depicted as savages.

But the real savages and looters are the US ruling class.

Instead of helping to rebuild Haiti’s infrastructure to meet people’s needs, the US is ensuring that the rich who have plundered Haiti for 200 years get even richer.
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The hate and the quake in Haiti

By Sir Hilary Beckles
January 23, 2009 – nationnews.com

HaitiTHE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES is in the process of conceiving how best to deliver a major conference on the theme “Rethinking And Rebuilding Haiti”.

I am very keen to provide an input into this exercise because for too long there has been a popular perception that somehow the Haitian nation-building project, launched on January 1, 1804, has failed on account of mismanagement, ineptitude and corruption.
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COP In Win-Win Post UNC Elections Scenarios

By Stephen Kangal
January 22, 2010

Congress of The PeopleContrary to the uninformed view of Selwyn Ryan that victory for the Hon. Kamla P. Bissessar in the UNC internal elections will result in the political demise of Winston Dookeran and the COP I believe that based on all the post-elections scenarios the COP will derive political capital and find itself in a win-win situation. The COP is the common denominator in all post-elections scenarios and will emerge as the principal beneficiary post January 24 UNC elections.
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Haiti: An Unwelcome Katrina Redux

By Cynthia McKinney
January 22, 2010 – globalresearch.ca

HaitiPresident Obama’s response to the tragedy in Haiti has been robust in military deployment and puny in what the Haitians need most: food; first responders and their specialized equipment; doctors and medical facilities and equipment; and engineers, heavy equipment, and heavy movers. Sadly, President Obama is dispatching Presidents Bush and Clinton, and thousands of Marines and U.S. soldiers. By contrast, Cuba has over 400 doctors on the ground and is sending in more; Cubans, Argentinians, Icelanders, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, and many others are already on the ground working – saving lives and treating the injured. Senegal has offered land to Haitians willing to relocate to Africa.
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