Monthly Archives: October 2017

Gender, General T&T, PNM, Politics

The Reeducation of Our Prime Minister

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 30, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn terms of native intelligence and intellectual brilliance, Keith Rowley is among the top three people who have held the prime ministerial office since independence. The same cannot be said of how he applies these talents to his present office. These attributes were on display when he was the leader of the opposition; now they have faded. Each office brings different challenges. A person may be successful in one and a dismal failure in the other.
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Court, General T&T, Health, Tobago

TRHA travesty

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Newsday Editorial
October 28, 2017 – newsday.co.tt

CourtThere are about 60,000 people living in Tobago. Yet, there is only one general hospital. And that hospital is killing patients. That, in a nutshell, is the damning view of the High Court which on Thursday found the Tobago Regional Health Authority (TRHA) culpable for the death of a child in circumstances which were wholly avoidable. According to Justice Frank Seepersad, 17-year-old Zach Seeram’s demise was due to the most basic of failings: the lack of a scan. Zach visited the hospital on no less than three occasions after receiving stab wounds which punctured his left lung, right diaphragm, liver and kidney. Despite repeated complaints and a recommendation that he undergo a CT scan, he was discharged.
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General T&T, Labour, Politics

Let casino workers plant peas in Cumuto

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By Raffique Shah
October 26, 2017

Raffique ShahIt says so much about this country, about the national psyche, when, in the wake of a budget that will impact the cost of living almost across the board, reducing people’s purchasing power, the most vociferous protests are coming from gambling establishments that add nothing productive to the economy, but enrich a handful of casino owners, pauperise thousands of families, reduce many female gamblers to prostitutes, and provide the biggest avenue for laundering the ill-gotten gains of criminal enterprises, in particular money from the illicit drugs and firearms trades.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics

Denigrating Women Again

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 23, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeLast week my friend Prime Minister Keith Rowley was at it again, demeaning women without having a clue about what he is doing to their mental health, their self-esteem and lowering their respect in the eyes of the nation. No one in the party seems to have the courage to tell the PM that his views on women are antiquated. What struck me most about Camille Robinson-Regis’s defense of the PM’s analogy of the grooming of women to the grooming of a golf course was her unconscious ability to participate in demeaning herself as a woman and a mother when she suggested there are more important things the nation should focus upon.
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General T&T

SWAMPED

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By Jada Loutoo and Corey Connelly
October 20, 2017 – newsday.co.tt

FloodingLarge sections of Trinidad were swamped yesterday by flood waters which continued to rise in certain areas following over 24 hours of non-stop rainfall which began on Wednesday.

As a result, the Meteorological Service yesterday maintained its riverine flood alert for Trinidad especially as the Caroni River burst its banks shortly after midday. In its 9.12 am bulletin, the Met Office advised that as opposed to street and flash flooding, riverine flooding is more prolonged and widespread.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC, Violence

Considering a new commissioner

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By Raffique Shah
October 19, 2017

Raffique ShahThe last hope we have for reining in runaway crime in this country lies with a leader yet unknown, the man or woman who will be recommended by the Police Service Commission to be named Commissioner of Police, subject to approval by Parliament. In fact, since crime affects so many aspects of citizens’ daily lives as well as the country’s economy, and because the Police Service is, or ought to be, the spearhead of any assault on crime, the new commissioner will carry on his shoulders a burden bigger than Government’s, and greater expectations than any other office-holder in the State-apparatus—the President, the Prime Minister or the Chief Justice.
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General T&T, International, USA

Ancestors

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 19, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeLast weekend I traveled to Fort Lauderdale to see Mislet Harry, the senior member of the Cudjoe clan. It didn’t hurt that Miami was celebrating its annual carnival celebrations. The daughter of Aunt Elaine, Mislet has lived in the Miami area for the past thirty years or so. She started the Boston carnival in the 1960s and began to participate in Miami carnival once she got there.
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Caribbean, Dominica, General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

Does UNC See Itself as Part of the Nation?

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 14, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeLast week I argued that there was something disingenuous about the suggestions put forward by Sat Maraj, Stephen Kangal and the UNC about sending money to Dominicans but making sure they did not enter our country. The UNC declaimed that none of its members said anything negative about the Prime Minister’s plan to bring Dominicans to T&T, but none of them had said anything positive about the plan, not even Rodney Charles or Wade Mark.
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General T&T, Oil and Gas, PNM, Politics, Recession, UNC

Every Trini wants to go to heaven

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By Raffique Shah
October 11, 2017

Raffique ShahAs I digested details of Government’s 2017-2018 Budget and monitored the furore that followed its presentation, I kept hearing “in mih head”, somewhat like calypsonian Shadow and his “Bassman from hell”, the lyrics of a song that was popular about ten years ago, “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die (to get there).”
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corruption, General T&T, Oil and Gas, PNM, Politics, Recession, UNC

A happy wonderer

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By Raffique Shah
October 04, 2017

Raffique ShahWhen you have lived as long as I have, and for most of your adult life you have had an interest in politics and affairs of state to the extent that you actually pay attention the annual Budget presentation by the Minister of Finance, you will have learnt that you waste valuable time listening to a mostly boring speech that contains little or nothing that is dramatic or surprising, and you’d be better off doing something more interesting (reading a good book, in my case), and await the summary of its salient points as captured by journalists who are paid to do such scavenging, or, if you have the stamina, listen to analysts who more or less say the same things year after year.
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