By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 01, 2009 – trinicenter.com
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(A lecture delivered by Professor Cudjoe at the 9th Annual Emancipation Day Dinner of the National Association for the Empowerment of African People [NAEAP] at the Center of Excellence, Tunapuna, Trinidad, July 31, 2009. Professor Cudjoe is the president of NAEAP.)
Continue reading Securing Our Future in Turbulent Times
By Raffique Shah
Sunday, August 2nd 2009
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com
I often wonder what grave sins we Trinidadians and Tobagonians have committed to warrant the kinds of politicians we have been saddled with for generations. It’s not that they are the worst in the world, although some people may swear they are. Look at it this way: we could have had really brutal dictators like the monsters who have wreaked untold suffering on billions of people across the planet. Mercifully for us, we have been spared that kind of horror.
Continue reading Paranoid Prime Minister
A PLOT TO KILL ME
PM tells of shocking event before coup anniversary last year
By Anna Ramdass – Published: 28 Jul 2009
Prime Minister Patrick Manning claimed last night that there was a plot to assassinate him last year. Speaking at the PNM’s meeting in Arima, Manning reminded the crowd of an incident that took place in July last year, when a marked police vehicle attempted to “peel off” one his security detail vehicles as he and his wife, Local Government Minister Hazel Manning, were on the way to the gym.
Continue reading PM Tells of a Plot to Assassinate Him
By Raffique Shah
July 26, 2009
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com
ON the few occasions I spoke with Dr Tim Gopeesingh, I found him to be an amiable, intelligent person. He is one of the few high-profile members of Basdeo Panday’s parties who are bold enough to actually converse with me. I add this since I’m sure Panday has some unwritten clause in his party’s regulations that deems interaction with this not-so-humble writer “high treason”. But that’s another story. Today I focus on Tim’s injudicious statement about “ethnic cleansing” of Indo-Trinidadian doctors at the Port of Spain General Hospital.
Continue reading Discrimination, doc, not ‘ethnic cleansing’
By George Alleyne
July 22, 2009 – newsday.co.tt
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com
Any Inquiry into the July 27, 1990 attempted coup by the Jamaat al Muslimeen should seek to find out who was behind the supplying of the then militant group with weapons and ammunition, who orchestrated the move to seize power and was the planned coup specifically designed to overthrow the leadership of the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) Government.
Continue reading Another look at 1990 coup
By Raffique Shah
July 19, 2009
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com
WHEN political allies fall out, the mess that hits the fan could be worse than what would occur should a sewage-filled tanker explode in the midst of a $1,000-per-person, all-exclusive fete.
Highfalutin men and women would have faecal matter splattered all over their ultra-expensive party clothes, on their faces and their lobster salads. Those were my first thoughts when I heard Basdeo Panday accuse Jack Warner of failing to account for $30 million in donations to the UNC he (Jack) allegedly received during the 2007 general elections campaign.
Continue reading Super-rich parties, dirt-poor supporters
By Sean Douglas
July 18, 2009 – newsday.co.tt
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com
CARONI East MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh alleged an “ethnic cleansing” of Indo-Trinidadian doctors at Port-of-Spain General Hospital (PoSGH), but Leader of Government Business, Colm Imbert, dismissed these charges as “scandalous, false and outrageous.”
The heated exchange shook up a dull debate on the Emergency Ambulance Services and Emergency Medical Personnel Bill 2009 as amended by the Senate.
Continue reading ‘PoS General, an African hospital’
By George Alleyne
July 15, 2009 – newsday.co.tt
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com
Issues of personal conscience with respect to policy positions held by two of the nation’s legislators — Independent Senator Gail Merhair and Opposition United National Congress Chaguanas West Member of Parliament, Austin “Jack” Warner — have dominated national public issues thinking within recent days. Senator Merhair, with respect not only to her support of the controversial Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, but the comments she made immediately prior to her casting of her vote, and Mr Warner’s voting in favour of Government’s Securities Bill 2009.
Continue reading A conscience vote
Guardian Editorial
Published: 12 Jul 2009 – guardian.co.tt
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Senator Gail Merhair injured the public interest not for voting, as an Independent, in support of the Government, but for the reasons she has given.
An Independent Senator is answerable to no constituency, no parliamentary whip, or to any party-line enforcer. Appointed in the President’s own, non-advised, wisdom, an own-way Independent Senator may pitch and roll indefinitely as a loose cannon aboard the ship of state.
Continue reading Montano adds insult to Merhair’s injury
By Raffique Shah
Sunday, July 12th 2009
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com
EVEN as this column appears in print today, there is a “unity rally” being held at Skinner Park in San Fernando. Its promoters have invited people of every political persuasion, even those who do not belong to any party, to attend. The rally, they say, is intended to send a strong message to the Patrick Manning Government that people are fed up with its high-handed form of governance.
Continue reading Dawn of a new era