Tag Archives: Politics

PM and Bakr Land Deal

By Andre Bagoo
Friday, March 19 2010

Yasin Abu BakrWORKS and Transport Minister Colm Imbert, who yesterday denied being interviewed by the Anti-Corruption Investigations Bureau (ACIB) in relation to Udecott, was in fact also interviewed by the ACIB in relation to an alleged land deal between Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Jamaat leader Yasin Abu Bakr which was disclosed in an affidavit sworn by Bakr in 2006.
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How to save the PNM

By Dr Selwyn Cudjoe
March 18, 2010

Part I

Prime Minister Patrick ManningOver the last two weeks the media have been merciless in their attacks against the PNM, the Prime Minister and the Government. When it was not about the Prime Minister’s ‘Prophetess’ it was about Calder Hart’s presumed deception and alleged financial indiscretions. When it was not about the vindication of Keith Rowley, it was about the wonders of a revivified Kamla and prediction of UNC’s inevitable victory in the 2012 election, without the faintest acknowledgment that in politics, a week is like a year, and a year is like a decade. In political terms, 2012 might be 20 years in the future.
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National Academy for the Performing Arts tragedy

National Academy for the Performing Arts
National Academy for the Performing Arts

By Andre Bagoo
March 14, 2010 – newsday.co.tt

IT COULD TAKE as much as $80 million to correct flaws in the design of the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA), Port-of-Spain, the interim President of the Artists Coalition of Trinidad and Tobago (ACTT) Rubadiri Victor, estimated yesterday.

While Prime Minister Patrick Manning last week praised the NAPA as being “world class,” Victor yesterday begged to differ, saying the facility is plagued with technical problems and argued that it does not compare in any form with Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s.
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Governance by God…no less

By Raffique Shah
March 07, 2010

Prime Minister Patrick ManningIf Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s brimstone-and-fire like sermon in Parliament two Fridays ago was reflective of the normal behaviour of Born-Again-Whatever, then I thank the Lord (if She exists) for saving me from the darkness that envelops such tortured souls, for allowing me to see the light of rational thinking at a very early age in my life.
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Hart family ties to UDeCOTT contracts

WE WANT ANSWERS, MR. PRIME MINISTER

By Andre Bagoo
March 05, 2010

PM Patrick Manning and Calder HartTHE CONGRESS of the People (COP) yesterday called on Prime Minister Patrick Manning to immediately account for his failure to take action against Udecott executive chairman Calder Hart in light of fresh evidence linking Hart to a company his board awarded $820 million in contracts.
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Well a Woman is Almost There

So wha bout the politics now?

By Corey Gilkes
March 02, 2010
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Kamla Persad-BissessarOn the 24th January an interesting but not unexpected shift in the politics occurred when Kamla Persad-Bissessar was voted in as political leader of the United National Congress dethroning the charismatic veteran leader and founder of the party, Basdeo Panday. This paved the way for her being sworn in as Leader of the Opposition on the 25th February. Kamla’s victory is significant in more ways than one. For well over fifty years there have been women figuring in one way or another in the political world of Trinidad and Tobago. Significant strides have been made by such figures as Audrey Jeffers, Gertrude Kirton, Muriel Donawa-McDavidson and Jean Pierre, to name but a few and while in the past there have been women appointed by the Prime Minister to function in his capacity in his absence, never before have we seen a woman elected to lead a political party with the likelihood that she may also be elected as the country’s next Prime Minister.
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Maha Saba Children’s Phagwa 2010

Sanatan Dharma Maha Saba Children's Phagwa 2010
Sanatan Dharma Maha Saba Children's Phagwa 2010
A kaleidoscope of colour and brightness, reminiscent of youth, innocence and vibrance was witnessed yesterday at the Sanatan Dharma Maha Saba Children’s Phagwa celebrations at the Tunapuna Hindu School. Hundreds of students from various Hindu schools from all over Trinidad assembled to experience the delight of Phagwa and the fun of splashing each other with abeer with the dominant colours being purple, red, green, blue, pink, orange and yellow.
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PM does not get it

Newsday Editorial
February 28, 2010 – newsday.co.tt

PM Patrick ManningWe wonder what impression the Caribbean Parliamentary visitors must have had on Friday of Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s display of religious fervour — some would even say religious rage at what he perceives as persecution of himself and of the Full Gospel churches in Trinidad and Tobago?
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Ghosts in Panday’s political afterlife

Former Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday
Former Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday
By Raffique Shah
February 28, 2010

THE tide of events often disrupts the best laid plans of columnists. I promised readers last week that I would today conclude my take on a ‘dying Carnival’. I wanted to share my thoughts on the few remaining bright sparks in the festival-the effervescent young pannists, calypsonians Kurt Allen, Brian London and Kizzie Ruiz, and dedicated cultural activists who refuse to allow our Carnival to descend into the abyss of nothingness.
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