Monthly Archives: April 2011

Chinese, Crime in T&T, General T&T, Kidnapping, Security

Chinese Kidnapping – Slain Restaurant Owner

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Kidnapped Chinese restaurant owner Xue Hua Shan
Kidnapped Chinese restaurant owner Xue Hua Shan

Cops step up search for kidnapped woman
Police probing the kidnapping of Chinese restaurant owner Xue Hua Shan said her relatives told them that the woman’s mother, in China, received a text message saying her daughter was released. The text message, police said, was sent in a Chinese dialect to Shan’s mother who lives in China. Investigators said they had not contacted Shan’s mother and did not know if the message was true or a hoax. But detectives said yesterday that they were still looking for Shan and had no concrete evidence she had been released by her kidnappers. The lawmen said they have stepped up their search for Shan after also receiving a message from someone who called the Piarco Police Station around 6.30 am yesterday, claiming she had been dropped off near a bridge in St Helena.
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Food, General T&T, People's Partnership, Protest

Tragic waste

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Newsday Editorial
April 28 2011 – newsday.co.tt

The MarketAuthorities may have followed the letter of the law in the eviction of squatters illegally farming State lands at Mausica Road, D’Abadie, but officials might have used a defter touch.

We agree that the D’Abadie farmers were legally obliged to vacate the lands, but this problem stretched back to 2008. Discussions could have been held with squatting farmers in order to establish a date which facilitated the collection of crops and which did not delay in manner untoward the housing project in whose way the farmers stand.
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Africa, General T&T, International

Africa’s Global Importance

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 27, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIt is true generally that citizens of nation states are emboldened by the relative power their original homelands enjoy in the world’s council of governance. Jews all over the world are emboldened and strengthened by Israel’s power as Indians all over the world are strengthened and empowered by the growing international importance of India which is why not one East Indian demurred when India offered citizenship to Indians in its diaspora after our government allowed Indian and Russian business people to enter Trinidad and Tobago without a visa.
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Complaints, Food, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics

Day of Destruction

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By Burton Sankeralli
April 26, 2011

The MarketPineapple… sweet potato… water melon… pak choi… lettuce… topi tambo… bodi… pumpkin… corn…

On April 25th, 2011, this Day of Destruction, the so-called Peoples’ Partnership government destroyed 175 acres of food crops in two agricultural sites. There are certain actions that come to define a regime, certain events when such a regime loses its fundamental credibility. Such an event may involve bloodshed or it may, on the surface, be largely symbolic or it can involve the killing of crops.
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Africa, Complaints, General T&T, India, Media, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch, UNC

A full circle

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By Raffique Shah
April 23, 2011

Raffique ShahFORTY-ONE years ago, almost to the week, tens of thousands of mainly idealistic young people thought we had killed and buried the “race bogey” in this cussed country. We had grown up knowing that race-tension lay beneath the veneer of peaceful co-existence that those in authority had proclaimed. Too often, we had heard the epithets “nigger” and “coolie” bandied about, suggesting that after almost 150 years of living together in this melting pot, our people of different races and cultures were clinging to prejudices of a distant past.
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Africa, General T&T, India, Media, Opposition Party, Parliament, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch

Race Talk in the House

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ParliamentRace Talk in House: Jack, Rowley square off
The People’s Partnership has achieved better ethnic balance in the appointments of boards, Works Minister Jack Warner stated yesterday. He was speaking in the House of Representatives on the motion filed by Dr Keith Rowley, asking the House to reaffirm its collective commitment to the principles of fairness and meritocracy in public affairs in the light of the “reckless and divisive statements” made by the former Police Service Commission chairman Nizam Mohammed.
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General T&T, India, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch

Police Service Is Unique and Powerful

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By Stephen Kangal
April 20, 2011

Stephen KangalThe Police Service is singularly the most unique and powerful institution of the state. The establishment of that service cannot be honestly and usefully compared with and justified by the ethnic composition of the establishment of any other public and private sector institution. At the same time the entry requirements for this service is academically minimal. Brawn was accorded overriding importance at the early stage of the then Police Force. Accordingly studying law, medicine or the professions was never an alternative to being a police man.
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General T&T, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, Politics, UNC

Rowley’s Failure

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 20, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThe hiccups PNM is going through have more to do with Keith Rowley’s failure to lead than Patrick Manning’s political intransigence and nostalgia for power. Manning, the insane victim of his own ill-judgment, is suffering from the failed-leader syndrome to which many past leaders fall prey: an inability to recognize they messed up and ought to leave the political stage quietly if they cannot do so gracefully. This is the difference between great leaders (such as Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania) who knew how to demit office peacefully and stubborn autocrats (such as Ben Ali of Tunisia, Hosni Mubarack of Egypt and Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d’Ivore) for whom power is an entrancing aphrodisiac.
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Crime in T&T, Culture, Education, General T&T, People's Partnership

Mentoring T&T’s Youths

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By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
April 19, 2011

Dr. Kwame NantambuWhile the People’s Partnership (PP) government’s National Mentoring Programme should be widely lauded, much more needs to be done/analyzed in order to confront and deal with the ubiquitous “criminal gang culture” in T&T.

The fact of the matter is that the proclivity to commit crime among this country’s “at risk” youths is values-oriented-related-driven.
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