Monthly Archives: December 2025

General T&T

Battering the Christ Child

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By Raffique Shah
December 20, 2025

Raffique ShahIt’s perhaps because those were earlier days and easier times when the population could make do with simple things that gave us pleasure and joy to own. Or it could be that most of the population decades ago were relatively poor. But whatever the reason why we did not enjoy the most expensive fruits, foods and things that cost plenty in general did not matter anyway.

One hundred years after the abolition of slavery, when the Africans who came in bondage had settled among their one-time captor in ways that were inconceivable when the British Lion still roared, and now among the world the beast no longer sported the fearsome jaws that made lesser mortals tremble with fear…those people, along with Indians and other orientals—Chinese…they were pursuing their full freedom, nothing less.
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General T&T

BrinkSmanship on our Shores

By Raffique Shah
December 13, 2025

Raffique ShahAs we move on past the first quarter of the 21st century, I follow with keen interest man’s search for power and control of our section of the universe in which we dwell.

We do this at a dizzying pace. Consider this: man first ignited fire over 400,000 years ago. Later on that same fire would help him soften and bend hard materials like iron to form weapons, tools, and it even paved the way for the development of the manufacturing industry, science and medicine. From the malleable iron we would get steel which is used in construction and other projects.
Continue reading BrinkSmanship on our Shores →

General T&T

Cost of dying, high

By Raffique Shah
December 06, 2025

Raffique ShahIf you are a robust 50-something-year-old with no known affliction, which signals that you are a healthy specimen, then you may well be concerned mostly with the cost of living.

You will have noted the runaway prices that affect the average householder by way of increased prices for basic goods and services. You’ll wonder how people who earn less than $10K a month, who are breadwinners to their families, fare in this jungle where the hunt is for lower prices. Not only does every dollar count, but a man or woman will walk the proverbial mile and a half to save $5 on one basic food item such as rice, flour, corned beef, etc. If, however, you are stricken by diseases that are all too familiar-some might say rampant-you will have noted the leap in prices of pharmaceuticals which will have quadrupled over the past year.
Continue reading Cost of dying, high →

General T&T

BrinkSmanship on our Shores

By Raffique Shah
December 13, 2025

Raffique ShahAs we move on past the first quarter of the 21st century, I follow with keen interest man’s search for power and control of our section of the universe in which we dwell.

We do this at a dizzying pace. Consider this: man first ignited fire over 400,000 years ago. Later on that same fire would help him soften and bend hard materials like iron to form weapons, tools, and it even paved the way for the development of the manufacturing industry, science and medicine. From the malleable iron we would get steel which is used in construction and other projects.
Continue reading BrinkSmanship on our Shores →