Tag Archives: Selwyn R. Cudjoe

Barbados, Caribbean, Environment, General T&T

Playing Smart…

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 08, 2021

“Why boasteth thyself/Oh, evil men/ Playing smart/ And not being clever?/ I said, you’re working iniquity/ To achieve vanity (if a-so a so)/ But the goodness of Jah, Jah/I-dureth for-I-ever.”

—Bob Marley, “Small Axe”

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeBarbados, the tiny Caribbean island with just about 287,371 souls “has been punching well above its weight of late,” says the Black Agenda Report (November 3). In fact, many people within the global community have taken note of Mia Mottley’s (Barbados Prime Minister) speech, “Get Up, Stand Up,” that she delivered to the United Nation’s General Assembly in New York last September, and now the world is buzzing (certainly those people in the Black and Brown world) over her “impassioned address,” to COP26, the UN Climate Conference held in Glasgow, Scotland.
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Education, General T&T, Racism Watch, USA

Beloved

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 01, 2021

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeBeloved is an excruciatingly intense novel about the slave experience written by Toni Morrison, an acclaimed African-American writer. She is the only Black woman to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature. She also won a Pulitzer Prize for Beloved in 1987. In 2012 President Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award that can be bestowed on a civilian.
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General T&T, International, USA

Whiteness and critical race theory

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 25, 2021

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeAn article, “Energising conservative voters, one school board election at a time”, appeared in The New York Times last Thursday. It was subtitled “Republicans hope that concerns about critical race theory can help them in the midterm election”.

This issue has torn apart one of Wisconsin’s suburbs. Stephanie Saul, author of that article, sought to demonstrate how “Republicans are using fears of critical race theory to drive school board recalls and energise conservatives, hoping to lay groundwork for the 2022 midterm elections” (October 21).
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Court, General T&T, Parliament, PNM, Politics

Has the People’s Lawyer lost his way?

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 18, 2021

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeWhen the Opposition gave notice last week that it intended to file a vote of no confidence in Faris Al-Rawi, it was another sequel in an ongoing battle to get rid of one of the most inefficient attorneys general our country has ever known.

After he filed the motion against Al-Rawi, San Juan/Barataria MP Saddam Hosein noted: “We have seen six consecutive years of legislative incompetence and legislative insanity. And now the icing on the cake is the particular 2021 Order… which attempted to change the law for the appointment of a Commissioner of Police,” (Express, October 1)
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Crime in T&T, Finance, General T&T, Parliament, PNM, Politics, Recession, UNC

We Ent Wukking Anyhow

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 11, 2021

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeKaren Tesheira, in an insightful presentation on the budget 2022 statement, said, “A budget is far more than a number of figures cobbled together. It speaks to the government priorities, its values, its vision and its imperatives—in other words, its strategic plan for its citizenry.”

She titled her remarks “Government for the Rich and Powerful”, and reminded us of one of the main conclusions in the European Bank’s “Economic Inclusion Strategy [EIS]” (2017–2021): “The opening up of economic opportunities to previously under-served social groups is integral to achieving a transition towards sustainable market economies.” (Express, October 6)
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corruption, General T&T, Opposition Party, PNM, Politics

Eroding Public Confidence in Our Institutions

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 04, 2021

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI was trying my best to stay out of de commess until someone sent me a Facebook post that read: “That’s Faris’s Porsche that Roger has been driving around over the past two years.” The post also showed a photograph of the SUV number plate attached as well as a “Title of Certification.” Quickly thereafter the Express reported: “There have been suggestions of a link between Al-Rawi, [Roger] Kawalsingh, and Gary Griffith and on investigation that this alleged link has compromised the work of PolSC [Police Service Commission].”
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Finance, General T&T, Parliament, PNM, Politics, Property Tax, Recession

Criminalizing Civil Infractions

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 27, 2021

“All advanced legal systems condemn as criminal the sorts of conduct described in the Anglo-American law as treason, murder, aggravated assault, thievery, robbery, burglary, and rape.”

—Encyclopedia Britannica

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI always wonder why an inefficient government demands that its citizens be efficient when it represents the epitome of inefficiency. Recently, the government put out its regulations regarding its intention to collect “Property Tax” which requires “that every person in possession of residential land, commercial land, agricultural land or a combination of any of the above (mixed use) in Trinidad and Tobago furnish a return containing the particulars…on or before 30th November 2021.” Failure to comply with the requirement constitutes “a criminal offence which is punishable by a fine of five thousand dollars ($5,000).”
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General T&T, PNM, Politics

Decentering Dr Williams: debasing the PNM

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 20, 2021

PART III

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOn January 29, 2011, I delivered a lecture on the pitfalls of multiculturalism, at a Multiculturalism Conference at Gaston Court, Chaguanas. It was sponsored by GOPIO (T&T), the leading purveyor of Indian culture, when then-PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar introduced her cultural policy to engender greater equity within the society.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

Decentering Dr. Williams— Denigrating the PNM

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 14, 2021

PART II

The UNC represents the true spirit of Trinidad and Tobago,… all the poor, humble working people, farmers, small business owners, ordinary men and women, from north to south, east, west, central, the urban, the suburban, the rural, the swampland, the coastal, and floodplains, the hills and the lagoons.

—Kirk Meighoo, The Checklist (2021)

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIf V. S. Naipaul was Kirk Meighoo’s intellectual guru initially, he later turned to Lloyd Best for intellectual guidance and direction. Since a “half-made society” (a term that Naipaul used disparagingly) is a literary conceit it could not bear the sociological weight that Meighoo thrust upon it. Meighoo argued that Politics in a Half-Made Society (hereafter Politics) was “a slight reworking” of his doctoral dissertation. This led Anton L. Allahar, professor emeritus at the University of Western Ontario, to write: “I have never seen a doctoral dissertation in the social sciences that was devoid of a theoretical perspective and a clear statement of methodology.” (Caribbean Studies, 2005).
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PNM, Politics

Decentering Dr. Williams; Denigrating the PNM

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 05, 2021

PART I

“Ethnic mobilization [in Trinidad and Tobago] is the result of national political impotence, not its cause. Such parties, without any firm, rooted principles, provide no basis for political solidarity….These loose ethnic solidarities arise from the safe cliques by which citizens organize themselves in this half-made society.”

—Kirk Meighoo, “Ethnic Mobilisation vs. Ethnic Politics,”

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeDr. Kirk Meighoo is one of our better scholars. I have followed his academic progress since he was a student at the University of the West Indies. In his well-researched book Politics in a Half-Made Society (2003), he argued that societies such as T&T “have not yet established enduring, meaningful standards of their own. They are societies still in formation and unmade, without a firm foundation (intellectual, cultural, political, military, and/or economic), and in which solidity is elusive.” Although I disagree with his central thesis (taken from the work of Vidia Naipaul whom he calls one of T&T’s “great philosophers”) I still think his book is a worthwhile read.
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