By Raffique Shah
Sunday, May 13th 2007
ONE of my favourite sergeant-majors in the Regiment used to say to private soldiers who committed infractions of any kind: “Boy! You is a nawsty awss!” His peculiar accent and the manner in which he berated some poor soul would elicit stifled giggles in the ranks, and laughter among officers who happened to overhear him.
I think of him (oh, he’s very much alive and kicking!) as I move around the country testing my own Vision 2007, knowing that 20-20 has diminished with the aging process. I am convinced by what I see that however much Prime Minister Patrick Manning may change the skyline of Port of Spain, whatever the authorities may put in place to keep the country clean, the majority of Trinidadians remain “nawsty awsses”.
Continue reading A nation of ‘nawsty awsses’
Like most Torontonians, I too enjoyed last year’s extended summer and unseasonably mild winter. Red peppers were still growing in my garden in late December and in early February; perennials were promising to bloom – again. I fired up my backyard BBQ in tee shirt and jeans,, washed my car by hand in the scorching sun, and then suppressed the heat with an ice cold beer. “This is the life”, I mused. Dreadfully fearful of bone chilling winters, I wanted summer to last forever. Imagine for a moment, a land of perpetual sunshine, BBQ and beer. On my CD player the incomparable Louis Armstrong sang, “What a Wonderful World” and a wise old friend assured me that “within everything, life hard but it sweet”.
THE country’s 100th murder was recorded yesterday morning when a Santa Cruz man was gunned down while asleep. 
Deputy Commissioner of Police Winston Cooper and Member of Parliament for Barataria/San Juan Dr Fuad Khan are calling on show promoters and local performers to be more responsible in the type of entertainment they provide for young people. 
Sir Elton John had to be granted a special permit to enter Trinidad and Tobago for last month’s CL Financial Plymouth Jazz Festival because the pop star is openly gay.
Once it was determined that the case was closed on the Akon/Danah incident, TV6 changed its tone on the issue. In fact, the 7pm TV6 report on Monday 7th May, 2007, called the dance simply a “sexy dance” which is a far cry from their earlier reports which described the dance as “lewd”, “dirty” and “sexually explicit”. This type of irresponsible journalism has translated into other foreign media jumping on the bandwagon: “Verizon ends tie with ‘rape rapper'”, “Akon Axed by Verizon Over Simulated Rape” and other such reports.
Tonight TV6 News reported that police investigators have closed the books on investigations into the Danah Alleyne/Akon raunchy dancing incident at Zen nightclub.
I have never met or spoken with Brian Lara. I didn’t need to (how easily one lapses into the past tense). Like millions of cricket fans around the world, I enjoyed his batting genius, replays et al, thanks to modern technology. And what a joy he was to watch when in full flight, flaying the best bowlers in the sport every which way-and so often beyond the boundary. Whenever he came to the crease his fans around the world watched in eager anticipation, expecting something exciting, unusual. Often, he was back in the pavilion without scoring more than 50 runs. But just the thrill of expecting big things from this little man was worth the wait.