By Raffique Shah
April 18, 2018
Understandably, the nation celebrated the two gold and one silver medals Trinidad & Tobago won at the Commonwealth Games staged in The Gold Coast, Australia, over the past two weeks. With “bad news” dominating the headlines daily, from crime to corruption, political wrangling and bungling to institutional paralyses, only the sourpuss among us would dismiss achievements in sports as being irrelevant to national pride.
Continue reading Gold…at what price?
By Stephen Kangal
April 18, 2018
In spite of the surprising level of sensitivity and thin skin displayed by Her Excellency The President Ms Paula Mae-Weekes to public concerns expressed on the Darryl Smith appointment I submit that she should not have acceded immediately to the advice of the Prime Minister and proceeded unwittingly to appoint ailing Maxie Cuffy in a new post as a Minister.
Continue reading President Erred In Appointing Cuffie a Minister
By teleSUR
April 17, 2018 – telesurtv.net
British Prime Minister Theresa May said, “nobody should face persecution or discrimination because of who they are or who they love.”
Only days after Trinidad and Tobago’s High Court repealed the country’s sodomy laws, arguing that they were unconsitituional, Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May said she “deeply regrets” Britain’s historical legacy of colonialism which imposed anti-gay laws throughout the Commonwealth.
Continue reading Britain: Theresa May ‘Deeply Regrets’ Anti-gay Colonial Laws
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 16, 2018
“The dicta coming out of Puttaswamy emphasized the fact that sexual orientation is an essential attribute of privacy which is inextricably linked to human dignity.” —Justice Devindra Rampersad
A nation is a strange phenomenon. It takes many strands to make it whole. When so many things are going wrong in the nation and there seems to be little room for hope, little things happen that allows hope to blossom and points to what we can achieve if we only put our minds to it.
Continue reading The Soul of the Nation
By Jada Loutoo
April 13, 2018 – newsday.co.tt
A victory was scored yesterday for the LGBTQI community, which is now celebrating a landmark Supreme Court ruling which has overturned this country’s sodomy law, deeming it unconstitutional.
Justice Devindra Rampersad had been asked by Jason Jones – a Trinidad-born openly gay man – to determine whether the State had the constitutional authority to criminalise sexual relations between consenting adults of the same sex.
Continue reading Victory for gay rights
By Raffique Shah
April 11, 2018
At the recent launch of its newest smart-phone, Samsung’s sales manager for Latin America and the Caribbean, Terry Weech, was asked what was the best feature of the Galaxy S9. Without hesitation, he said, “The camera!” He proceeded to promote the US $1,000-plus device’s 12- megapixel camera that captures photographs and videos that are “comparable with the quality used by media houses”, but said hardly a word about its communications prowess and other features that might propel me to hobble off to the nearest mobile phones dealer and buy one.
And I sat in my chair and wondered…
Continue reading Slaves to technology
By Stephen Kangal
April 11, 2018
Professed terylene ignorance of goings-on at Minister Moses’ own Ministry, allegations of a deliberate conspiracy to side line his weak and wobbly political directorate/ tenure in foreign policy finalization and lastly non-attendance by T&T at the March 15 OAS Budget Committee Meeting of officials on the Dominica waiver issue are being given centre-stage in the unconvincing explanatory paradigm for the anti- Dominica T&T vote debacle as well as the justification for the absolution by The Prime Minister of an out-of-his-depth, bed-raggled, somnolent and confused Foreign Minister Moses.
Continue reading Ignorance and Conspiracy No Bases for Moses’ Absolution
The statement from the Office of the Prime Minister
Today, (April 10, 2018) Prime Minister Dr the Honourable Keith Rowley advised Her Excellency Paula-Mae Weekes, President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in keeping with the provision of Section 3(9) of the Constitution of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, to revoke the appointment of Mr Darryl Smith as Minister in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.
This following a meeting between the Prime Minister, the Minister of Planning and Development, the Honourable Camille Robinson-Regis and Mr Smith during which new information came to the attention of the Prime Minister.
Continue reading Darryl Smith Fired by Rowley
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 09, 2018
Queen Njinga of Africa ruled Ndongo (located in present-day Angola) from 1624-1663. Despite her outstanding accomplishments, “Europeans at the time portrayed her as a bloodthirsty cannibal who thought nothing of murdering babies and slaughtering her enemies.” This is the conclusion that Linda Heywood, a Trinidadian professor of history at Boston University, arrives at in her new biography, Njinga of Angola: African Warrior Queen (2017).
Continue reading Flawed Heroines
By Raffique Shah
April 04, 2018
He was the most sincere, humble, decent political leader I’ve known, Of course, mere mention of sincerity, humility and decency as being the foremost character traits of any politician, especially when he was the leader of a main party in any country, axiomatically infer that he was also a failure if success is measured by winning elections and holding on to power.
All of the above were true of Cheddi Jagan, Guyana’s first Chief Minister (in 1953, when the colony was named British Guiana), a patriot whose birth centenary passed very quietly on March 22. In fact, I, who considered Cheddi a friend and comrade, would have not remembered the occasion had my columnist colleague Ricky Singh not written about it.
Continue reading Remembering Cheddi Jagan