Culture, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity

The Limitations of Multiculturalism – Part II

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By Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 16, 2011

Part I – Part II – Part III

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeSome of us, including yours truly, have been speaking about a national cultural policy long before Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar announced her preference for a multicultural approach to the issue. In 1962 Dr. Eric Williams set the ball rolling with his “Mother Trinidad and Tobago Speech” which could be interpreted as a response to Lord Harris’s 1848 declaration that “a race has been freed, but a society has not been formed.”
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General T&T, India, People's Partnership, Politics, Race and Identity

Cudjoe and His Careless Thinking

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By Stephen Kangal
February 15, 2011

Stephen KangalProfessor Selwyn Cudjoe in his article wrote:

“In his ‘Mother Trinidad and Tobago Speech’ Dr. Williams intimated that we owe our primary allegiance to T&T rather than the various countries from which our ancestors came. In 2010, angered by the seemingly preferential treatment that Africans enjoyed under the People’s National Movement, the People’s Partnership (PP) decided to emphasize our difference rather than our commonalities thereby tearing away at the common cultural bond that holds us together as a nation”. (Selwyn Cudjoe in “Mother Trinidad and Tobago” Article – trinicenter.com – 16 January 2011).
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General T&T, Media, Passed on

Conversation with Keith

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By Raffique Shah
February 13, 2011

Raffique ShahHE sits on what appears to be a rock hewn from the long-abandoned Laventille quarry (so it seems, anyway, memories of that piece of the Hill’s history now distant), floating somewhere in the sky, shock on his face as he recognises my features. Without query over what I was doing “there” (wherever “there” may be) or greeting me (as was his wont), he booms: Raffique, yuh read where a reporter from my paper—yes, my paper!—wrote that my remains were to be “interred” at the Crematorium? What a thing! What dey interred…mih ashes? Heh heh. By the way, what you doing here? Don’t tell me….
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Media, Violence

DEADLY JUSTICE

29 Comments

By Newsday Staff
February 12, 2011 – newsday.co.tt

PunisherVillagers of Old Clarke Road in Penal reacted with full force when they heard the screams of a woman and children who were being brutally attacked at their home on Thursday afternoon.

The villagers’ action led to one man eventually dying of chop wounds and his partner in crime seriously injured and in critical condition under police guard at the San Fernando Hospital.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Media, People's Partnership, Politics, Security

Cops ‘Protest Action’ – No Love Lost

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No Love Lost

By Suzanne Mills
February 11, 2011 – newsday.co.tt

PoliceIf Social Welfare Association head, Sergeant Anand Ramesar is representative of police intellectual force in TT, I’ve heard enough. Let´s throw in the towel at once, surrender immediately to the bandits, but Jah spare us the cruel and unusual punishment of Sergeant Ramesar’s ad-libs: “We will down tools, no retirees for desk work, “no bikes for cops” and his newest, “Take back the $1,000!”
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Culture, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics

The Limitations of Multiculturalism in Trinidad and Tobago

24 Comments

By Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 09, 2011

Part I – Part II – Part III

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIt was an amazing thing. One week after I offered my reservations about the Government’s multiculturalism initiative, David Cameron, Prime Minister of Britain, made a scathing attack against his country’s approach to what he called “state multiculturalism” at the Munich Security Conference. In doing so, he echoed Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor who, in October 2010, called for “the end of multiculturalism” in her country.
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General T&T, International, Religion

Re-Examining the “Sex” of God

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And “His” Servants

By Corey Gilkes
February 09, 2011

BibleYes, that’s what I said. As if the articles on monogamy and extramarital relationships weren’t scandalous enough, I gone now and dive cross the line into blasphemy with talk about the sex of god. In our society – which for the most part retains a romantic, anti-intellectual attachment to the bible and things religious – merely asking questions such as why “god” is referred to in gender-specific terms is in many people’s minds as heretical as challenging the authenticity of the bible. Maybe we’ll argue THAT some other time but for now, examining god’s sex is bacchanal enough.
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General T&T, Media, Passed on

Keith Smith has died

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Keith Smith receives the Hummingbird Medal
Keith Edmund Bernard Smith receives the Hummingbird Medal (Silver)
from the President of T&T Professor Emeritus George Maxwell Richards
for his role in Journalism at the 2009 Independence Awards

Veteran journalist Keith Smith has passed away. He lost his battle with cancer at 3.05 this morning.

Smith’s career as a journalist spanned more than four decades. The Keith Smith Column, in the Express, widened his audience, making him a household name.
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General T&T, Opposition Party, PNM, Politics

Mouth Open and PNM Loyalty Jump Out

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By Stephen Kangal
February 06, 2011

Stephen KangalSenator Corinne Baptiste-McKnight has telegraphed by her irresponsible conduct displayed in the Senate on Tuesday last that her erstwhile loyalty to and decades-old, politically-partisan support/membership of the PNM, of which I am privy, takes precedence over discretion and good sense as well as the mask that she wears as an “Independent” senator. This is the cue for His Excellency The President to intervene to repair the initial error, revoke her appointment and replace her with a true, legitimate and genuine Independent Senator.
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