Funding culture vultures

By Raffique Shah
January 11, 2018

Raffique ShahThe Government missed a good opportunity to impress upon the population the gravity of the country’s economic circumstances, and consequently the dire need for all segments of society to make sacrifices on the expenditure side of the equation, when it capitulated by doling out millions of taxpayers’ dollars to fund private promoters whose sole interest in Carnival is to profit off it.
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Crime and The Church

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 10, 2018

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeLast Sunday I attended religious services at the St. Mary’s Anglican Church where my people have worshiped since it was constructed in 1843. The prayer of the day was the importance of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It read: “Father pour out Your spirit upon us and grant us a new vision of Your glory, a new experience of Your power, a new faithfulness to Your Word and a new consecration to Your service that Your love may grow among us and Your kingdom come, through Christ our Lord.”
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The Prime Minister’s full address to the nation

Dr Keith RowleyFellow citizens, as we settle into our various routines, wherever and whatever that might be, I trust that we all had a joyous Christmas Season, shared with family, friends and community spirit.

As we reflect on the arrival of 2018 and all that it holds for us, let us spare a thought or a prayer for those individuals and families who have been victims of violent crime from one direction or another. Their pain is our pain and even as the New Year has opened with reports of the continued murderous scourge on our land I want to appeal to all citizens to keep hope alive in this war against the heartless family members and career violent criminals.
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Interlude with Rudder and Tanker

By Raffique Shah
January 02, 2018

Raffique ShahSerendipity often steals upon you in strange ways. I was about to shut down my computer last Wednesday night when, in my e-mail inbox, I saw a post by Lasana Liburd alerting me to a video interview he had conducted with David Rudder. I respect Liburd for maintaining high standards on his Wired868 blog, and for me, Rudder is a peerless trailblazer who attempted to usher in a new era in calypso music in 1986.
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Foreign Policy Blunder

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 02, 2018

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOnce I read our government had abstained on the United Nation’s resolution to condemn the United States decision to anoint Jerusalem as Israel’s capital I raced to the Tunapuna cemetery to reacquaint myself with the words on C. L. R. James’s gravestone, which read: “Time would pass, old empires would fall and new ones take their place, the relations of countries and the relations of classes had to change, before I discovered that it is not quality of goods and utility which matter, but movement; not where you are or what you have, but where you have come from, where you are going and the rate at which you are getting there” (Beyond a Boundary).
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This Week in Crime 02/01/2018

Mom found strangled
A CHASE Village mother of two is the first woman killed this year. The body of Arisa David, 25, was found dead in her home at Limehead Road. Police believe she was strangled.

5 murders usher in new year*
Trinidad and Tobago recorded its first killing at 12.15 a.m. The murder toll for 2018 now stands at five compared to one murder committed on New Year’s Day 2017
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