By Raffique Shah
October 23, 2011
I WAS not surprised that Tourism Minister Rupert Griffith was all excited over Trinidad and Tobago “winning” a “best destination 2012” award from a Romania-based organisation that seems to be as genuine as a three-dollar bill. Griffith does not strike me as being a particularly bright person, his doctorate notwithstanding.
Continue reading Bogus tourism award
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 19, 2011
Addressing the 15th Divali Celebration organized by the United National Congress Siparia Women’s Association last Friday, the Hon. Prime Minister offered the following remarks to her followers: “I thank you for your support, for your prayers and the adjustments you have made to your lifestyles during this period of the State of Emergency [SOE].”
Continue reading Moving Backward Into Slavery
By Clint Chan Tack
October 18 2011 – newsday.co.tt
PRIME MINISTER Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday dropped several bombshells in the House of Representatives, exposing what she described as major corruption scandals which took place under the former People’s National Movement (PNM) government.
Continue reading PNM SCANDALS
Jack Warner responds to London Telegraph video: Ingratitude worse than witchcraft
October 18, 2011
guardian.co.tt
Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner has responded to the video recording of his CFU meeting in Port-of-Spain which was highlighted in the London Telegraph last Thursday. In the following letter which was sent to the Guardian, Warner points out that the recording fell flat despite the pressures of foreign interpretation and the anti-Jack Warner sentiments. Warner also gives an insight as to what can be expected when he reveals his tsunami against FIFA ‘in the fullness of time.’
Continue reading Jack Warner responds to London Telegraph video
By Raffique Shah
October 15, 2011
NOT surprisingly, Jack Warner is back in the international news—for all the wrong reasons. When he resigned as one of the most powerful men in FIFA earlier this year, Warner probably thought he had buried his past in the murky waters of Lake Zurich.
But that was not to be. FIFA is not the kind of “brotherhood” from which principal players simply walk away. If or when they do, they are expected to maintain “omerta”, the ancient Sicilian code of silence that FIFA has cleverly combined with the Swiss code of banking secrecy.
Continue reading Unlimited Liability
By Gail Alexander
October 13, 2011 – guardian.co.tt
The Opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) and the Congress of the People (COP), a coalition partner in the People’s Partnership, have called on Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to immediately act in the issue concerning taped statements by Works and Infrastructure Minister Jack Warner. PNM MP Amery Browne said Persad-Bissessar must immediately suspend Warner from the Cabinet and allow a police probe to proceed. COP chairman Joseph Toney, who said he was not at all comfortable with the situation pertaining to Warner, added that the Prime Minister must speak about the issue and the country must be told whether any laws were broken.
Continue reading PNM, COP on Jack video: PM must address issue now
Budget Statement 2012
Finance Minister Winston Dookeran presented the National Budget for the fiscal year 2011-2012, in Parliament, at the Waterfront Complex, in Port of Spain, this afternoon. Below is the full text of the budget speech:
Continue reading Budget for fiscal year 2011-2012
By Raffique Shah
October 09, 2011
FOR the first time in many years, I am worried about the state of this country’s economy. I am not among alarmists who see doomsday whenever the price of oil dips by a dollar. To the contrary, in the wake of global financial crises of 200-08, when commodity prices tumbled, I didn’t even blink. Now, however, I’m wincing.
Continue reading Budget must reverse economic decline
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 06, 2011
If I turn into earth, water, grass,
Flower or fruit-if it comes to pass
I return to Earth in the animal class,
Why in the world should I care?
In the limitless bond wherever I pass,
A kinship is ever there.Rabindranath Tagore, Of Myself
A few things before I start. First, although my original paper is 27 pages long in conformity with the instructions given, I have had to cut my paper down to fifteen pages so that you will forgive me if there are gaps in my presentation. Second, the title of my paper is taken from an essay that Dr. Williams offered at the Second Congress of Negro Writers and Artists that was held in Rome from March 26 to April 1, 1959, entitled “The Political Leader Considered as a Man of Culture.” Third. Although my original paper examines the former article and “Four Poets of the Greater Antilles,” I will look at Dr. William’s relationship to literature and his essays on Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Rabindranth Tagore, with an emphasis upon the latter. In the process, I would like to expand upon the Professor Rampersad’s observation that Dr. Williams, a man of letters, was “comfortable with literature, capable of invoking the words of Shakespeare and Dante and showing a greater familiarity with their works and the work of other eminent writers than one finds using the index to Bartlett’s Quotations.” In the process I also hope to put a dent into the silly allegation that Dr. Williams was a racist who did not like people of Indian descent.
Continue reading Dr. Williams as a Man of Culture
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 04, 2011
I hate to be on Keith Rowley’s case but Rowley (and by extension the PNM) is really missing the pulse of the people and, in the process, failing to take the lead politically in the society. A serious party must be the elevated consciousness of a people. The leadership of the PNM has not shown such leadership in this crisis. We are following rather than leading the masses and that is not good for the party. It speaks volumes about Rowley’s leadership abilities.
Continue reading Sandy Must Stay!