The homecoming

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 15, 2022

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeAs the airplane hovered over the Northern Range, I knew I was home. I was happy but anxious-feeling. It was two and a half years since I left my country in April 2020, just before the borders closed. No one could have known the horrible Covid epidemic would bring so much sorrow to so many people.

A week before my departure from Trinidad I was supposed to fly to India, having been invited by the Indian government through its Academic Visitors’ Programme. I was honoured. The letter described me as a “Distinguished Academician”. I was supposed to deliver two lectures and looked forward to being exposed to India’s technical and intellectual life. More importantly, I wanted to explore India’s rich religious literature and its Hindu epic tales—the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the Bhagavad Gita.
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Finding African farmers

By Raffique Shah
August 15, 2022

Raffique ShahIt pains me whenever I feel it necessary to confront the race issue in my column. I see it as a waste of valuable column centimetres where those of us who have been selected by the managers and editors of newspapers to highlight and comment on matters of national importance instead find ourselves discussing drivel.

But there comes a time when columnists cannot ignore attempts by influential people in the society resorting to race, playing the race card when everything else fails them, in the hope that controversy might save them from oblivion, a fate politicians fear more than they do the hell-fire that is promised to believers and non-believers alike for the sinful lives they lead, convinced they are so clever, they can fool even the Creator.
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