Tag Archives: Raffique Shah

General T&T, Law, Murder, Police, Security

A Radical Thought on Crime

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By Raffique Shah
November 21, 2022

Raffique ShahActing Commissioner of Police McDonald Jacob has been in the Service for too many years, and served at the executive level for far too long to fall for the trick of announcing yet another anti-crime initiative in a bid to halt the near hysteria emanating from the population over the five-to-ten murders a day. He is experienced enough to know that nothing short of a significant drop in the murder rate will ease the burden of his minister breathing down his neck, the opposition politicians lampooning him and deep frustration among his subordinate officers making his life very uncomfortable.
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General T&T

…And we will remember them

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By Raffique Shah
November 14, 2022

Raffique ShahHe would turn up at one of the three army camps we had in those days—Teteron, Ogden or Union Hall. His kit, such as they could be so considered—sometimes a tunic worn past its expiry date, other times a plain shirt, both items looking as though they were specially laundered for that important day; trousers neat with seams; footwear that he’d somehow acquired that resembled drill boots, likelier “washikongs”; and most importantly, his facial hair and features groomed to perfection.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T

Armed for war

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By Raffique Shah
November 07, 2022

Raffique ShahNot surprisingly, the murder rate in this country, as it soars past anything we have ever experienced, is seen as the number one issue impacting the populace, the electorate, based partly on people’s genuine fear of having to face unimaginable violence, maybe death, riding not a pale horse, but actually some stolen Nissan Sunny, its occupants armed with heavy fire power, ready to rob or kill some law-abiding citizen who worked hard for the few dollars he or she has.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Politics

Poor and foolish always around

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By Raffique Shah
October 31, 2022

Raffique ShahNothing I wrote last week in my “Pensioner’s plight” column must be misconstrued as suggesting that chief justices, other judges, prime ministers and other Cabinet ministers—in other words, holders of the highest public offices in the country—do not deserve the levels of compensation, allowances and retirement benefits they currently receive.

Clearly, those who hold such offices must have met certain standards in their respective disciplines, maybe even excelled at them. Judges, for example, must win the confidence of their peers and litigants or the accused in criminal matters over which they preside. And while there are no minimal standards that politicians must meet to qualify to run for office, ultimately they are answerable to the public, to electors, if they are to win elections and form governments.
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COVID-19, General T&T, Health, Politics

Pensioner’s Plight

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By Raffique Shah
October 24, 2022

Raffique ShahOne significantly large and growing demographic of the population that is feeling the brunt of the multiple negatives that are impacting the economy and every day consumers, is the aged and the infirm. They are dying like proverbial flies, often ‘parked aside’ and ignored, or worse, left to suffer sub-human conditions, large numbers of them choosing to make their exit as quietly and quickly as they can, not wanting to subject their surviving families and friends to lingering social fallout.
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Court, Crime in T&T, General T&T, Law, Politics

Stark staring mad

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By Raffique Shah
October 17, 2022

Raffique ShahTo think that once upon a time, many years ago, I actually considered pursuing law as a profession. Naïve, idealist I, would have been torn apart by the dogs of law, drawn and quartered by the merchants of justice, or, who knows, I might have succumbed to the practitioners’ code of compliance, casting aside shame and dignity, fight for my slice of the largesse from the multi-million dollars in “briefs” advocates at stake every living-or-dying day in this country. So much litigation.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics

Talk to me

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By Raffique Shah
October 10, 2022

Raffique ShahThis race, Karen (Nunez-Tesheira), is not for leadership of The People’s National Movement. It is for leadership of the country, the nation. It requires someone of stature and fortitude who can take Trinidad and Tobago by the scruff of its neck or other body parts, shake the masses into facing the reality that we can work our way out of the deep hole we have dug ourselves into, and from which we can clamber out only if we stand shoulder to shoulder and use our collective strength.
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General T&T

MPs must tackle traffic woes

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By Raffique Shah
October 03, 2022

Raffique ShahWhen elephants fight, the grass gets trampled. So goes an adage that hardly adds to anything that enhances the English language, but it hammers home the class and other stratifications of most societies, oftentimes not even knowing that the ordinary people have accepted their places or ranks, their fates, as if they were ordained by God, and cannot, must not, be tampered with by mere mortals.
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General T&T, Violence

Only two choices

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By Raffique Shah
September 26, 2022

Raffique ShahOne of these not-so-good days, when the good citizens in this nation have had it up to their throats with the thugs who are turning this once-peaceful country into the killing fields of the Caribbean, if not the murder and mayhem capital of the world, they will rise up like the mythical crimson tide with a fury they didn’t think they possessed, to reclaim the slice of paradise they once owned and enjoyed from the mindless criminals who have made Trini­dad and Tobago a living hell, something the population will never accept as the norm.
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General T&T, Politics

Fight, not cry for our beloved country

By Raffique Shah
September 19, 2022

Raffique ShahI cried for my country on the eve of Republic Day celebrations, this one marking the 47th year as a sovereign state. That graduation of sorts removed the Queen of England as our Head of State—a contradiction so many former British colonies cling to long after they became independent.

We did, too, but opted to shed the colonial shawl in 1976. Still, we retained a critical umbilical cord that leaves us clinging to Mother England, to the Privy Council as our final court of appeal. If that sounds jokey, think about the embarrassment that we have lived with for so many years.
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