Monthly Archives: April 2019

General T&T, Hinduism, PNM, Politics, Racism Watch, Religion, UNC

Calcuttising Sat’s Message To Tobagonians

5 Comments

By Stephen Kangal
May 01, 2019

Stephen KangalIt is patently clear that Prime Minister Rowley grabbed the quite innocuous, viewed from a local context, but attention-attracting Sat Statement and attempted to clothe it with the now infamous Calcutta Ship robes geared to arrest the declining support for the PNM in Tobago from the rise and rise of the Duke factor.

It was engineered to achieve the same electoral result as Sandy’s 2013 Statement and to nip the incipient electoral fortunes of Minority Leader Watson Duke in the bud.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, PNM, Police

Wage war against criminals, not the media

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By Raffique Shah
April 30, 2019

Raffique ShahGary Griffith’s unilateral declaration of a “cold war” on the conventional media in general, and the CCN Group in particular, was as predictable as it was inevitable. As a garrulous ex-military officer whose larger-than-life public image was literally forged by and in the mass media, he failed to understand that unlike publicists who are paid to promote a product or personality, successful media houses thrive on their fierce independence in disseminating news and views.
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General T&T, Hinduism, Politics, Racism Watch, Religion

Stoking the fires of racial discord

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By Raffique Shah
April 23, 2019

Raffique ShahAs I watched the mayhem unfold across Sri Lanka last Sunday, the death toll from multiple bombings at churches and hotels mounting from the initial count of 160 as some of the severely injured succumbed to their injuries, I thought of how fortunate we in Trinidad and Tobago have been thus far. More than that, I wondered if the purveyors of divisiveness, those who routinely stoke the fires of racial, religious and political discord in this otherwise harmonious society, realise the dangers to which they expose us all.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, Racism Watch, Religion, UNC

Vilifying the Messenger of Tobago Productivity Message

By Stephen Kangal
April 23, 2019

Stephen KangalThe comments of Sat Maharaj on poor productivity practices that stultify and retard the economic development of Tobago including its current justification for exercising greater autonomy were substantially no different from those uttered by Dr Rita Pemberton, THA Chief Secretary Kelvin Charles and Tobago East MP the Hon Ayana Webster- Roy. In fact Mr Maharaj in his well-known, call a spade a spade modus operandi was using language derived directly from the work ethic statements issued by these Tobagonian speakers recently.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, Recession, UNC

The Dog and the Bone

1 Comment

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 22, 2019

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOver the past year, Ralph Maraj, a fellow columnist, has been a tick in PNM’s behind. He isn’t always wrong in his commentaries—even a broken clock is correct at least twice a day—but his obsessive fascination with PNM’s failures leads one to question his objectivity and the distorting lens of his overwrought rhetoric.

Last Sunday he listed everything PNM has done wrong during its tenure and why he is heartened by UNC’s plans as it prepares to govern from 2020.
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General T&T, Politics

No to devaluation

3 Comments

By Raffique Shah
April 20, 2019

Raffique ShahThe continuous cacophony over the state of the national economy is confusing me, as I imagine it confounding the vast majority of the population, including many of those who promote themselves, or who are presented by the media. as experts to pontificate on the topic.

If I confused readers with my opening paragraph, rest assured that was not deliberate. It’s just that every Monday morning some Government minister announces that the ailing economy, having been rescued from the intensive care unit from near-death inflicted by his predecessors, suffering foreign-currency-asphyxia, is now stable-to-robust enough to have gone on a training run in preparation for the Miracle Economies Olympiad.
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General T&T, Hinduism, Racism Watch, Religion

Sat’s nasty attack on Tobagonians slammed

12 Comments

By Peter Christopher
April 16, 2019 – guardian.co.tt

Secretary General of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, Satnarayan MaharajSanatan Dharma Maha Sabha secretary general Sat Maharaj remained defiant yesterday in the face of a furore over his contentious comments about the people of Tobago and a call from Minority Leader Watson Duke to apologise or face a hate campaign.

“I have intentions to respond to Watson Duke and the critics, I will reply at a time of my own choosing and the medium of my own choosing,” Maharaj said when contacted for comment hours after Duke called for an apology.
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General T&T, International, Politics, USA, Venezuela

Contradictions Mar our Foreign Policy on Venezuela

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By Stephen Kangal
April 18, 2019

Stephen KangalAfter five decades of exercising our nationhood and political independence during which our foreign relations were carefully crafted and marked by clarity, unimpeachable consistency and firmly grounded in the achievement of our national interests on the global and regional stage by the likes of Rose, Constantine, Mc Intyre, Seignoret, Abdullah, Major, Ballah, Dodrige Alleyne, Naimool, Dumas et al our current foreign policy on Venezuela now in the hands of Prime Minister Rowley and a lame-duck Foreign Minister is driven by confusion, contradictions, lack of parliamentary over-sight and embarrassingly and patently inconsistent.
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General T&T, Politics

Learning by Example

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 17, 2019

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeA week ago Reginald Vidale, chairman of the Eric Williams Memorial Committee, begged the government “to celebrate the life and legacy of Williams as the founding father of the country and Caricom” and “to declare a day of remembrance, not necessarily a public holiday, to reflect on his contribution” (Newsday, April 4)

Ayanna Webster-Roy, Minister of Culture, countered by suggesting that, like Williams, the country must champion nation-building by following the nation’s watchwords: discipline, tolerance and production.
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Education, General T&T, Schools

Presentation Chaguanas at 60

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By Raffique Shah
April 12, 2019

Raffique ShahWhen the pupils and staff of Presentation College, Chaguanas, return to classes in two weeks, their prime focus will be on major examinations at the end of the academic year—promotions exams for those in the junior and intermediate forms, and CSEC and CAPE for those who are transitioning to the upper reaches of secondary level education and those who will enter universities.
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