Tag Archives: Selwyn R. Cudjoe

Irrational exuberance

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 08, 2024

Pain, fear, nausea, benumb our sensibilities.
Not sure how many of us will live to see tomorrow’s light,
Not confident our country will remain a coherent whole
After we leave this earth and our politicians depart this life in ignominy.

—Author’s poem

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOn January 1, 2024, Prime Minister Keith Rowley offered a disappointing New Year’s greeting to his nation. It is as though he were speaking about another country at another moment of time; sounding as someone out of touch with the existentialist realities of his society.
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A visit from my future

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 31, 2023

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOn Saturday of last weekend, I drove from Boston to Harlem to hear my daughter’s sermon at Rev Al Sharpton’s Action Network Committee (ANC) located on West 145th Street. Her sermon, “A Visit from Your Future”, traced “the life of a wealthy and ruthless businessman named Ebenezer Scrooge”, the major character of Charles Dickens’ novella, A Christmas Carol.
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Dreaming of a Black Christmas

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 26, 2023

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThere was a large picture of Jesus at the entrance of our home when I grew up in Tacarigua. In this picture, Jesus’ skin was white, his hair was blonde, and his eyes were a piercing blue. This represented the saviour who is supposed to save us from our sins and prepare us to enter into the heavenly kingdom. This depiction of Jesus was a Western whitewashing of history.
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Upholding a university’s core mission

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 19, 2023

What you’re seeing now is a handful of super-ultra-wealthy individuals—plutocrats that, I guess you would call philanthropists—who have incredible leverage over higher education.

—Isaac Kamola, professor, Trinity College

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOn Monday December 5, the presidents of Harvard University (Claudine Gay), the University of Pennsylvania (Elizabeth Magill), and MIT (Sally Korn­bluth) were summoned by the US Congress to answer how well they responded to threats that are made against Jewish students at their universities, and whether students who call for the genocide of Jews should be disciplined.
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Protecting our historic legacy

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 11, 2023

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn 2013 the people of Tacarigua waged a valiant struggle to prevent the UNC government from establishing a sporting complex on the Orange Grove Savannah, now called the Eddie Hart Savannah. The plan, developed by Sport Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SporTT), a limited liability the Ministry of Sport set up to act as its key implementation agency, called for building a 25-metre swimming pool, a cricket ground and football field, a pavilion, a 400-metre running track, and a car park.
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War Is Hell

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 04, 2023

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn those halcyon days of the 1950s and the ’60s when the isms and schisms (such as nationalism, socialism, and existentialism) ruled the day, we were sure our generation would solve the world’s problems. We are close to the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, and peace and tranquillity are nowhere in sight.

We watch with alarm at the wars in the Middle East. Even a conservative reading of the casualty figures in Gaza “shows that the pace of death during Israel’s campaign has few precedents in history. People are being killed in Gaza more quickly, they say, than in even the deadliest moment of US-led attacks in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, which were themselves widely criticised by human rights groups”. (NYT, November 25.)
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The Grandeur of Men and Women

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 28, 2023

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOn November 11, Raphael Dwamena, a Ghanaian footballer, collapsed and died during an Egnatia’s soccer game against Partizani in a tiny town in Albania. He was 28 years old and a renowned football star. Dwamena was the top scorer for his Albanian team and enjoyed a certain amount of success with them. This season he was the leading scorer in the Albanian league.
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Rebels at the Gates

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 21, 2023

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeTwo months ago, the Center on Law, Equality and Race (CLEAR) at Northeastern University School of Law invited me to comment on Dr Godfrey Vincent’s book, Rebels at the Gates: The OWTU in the Era of George Weekes. I accepted the invitation because of the importance of Weekes and the OWTU (the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union) in the labour and political life of the island. This event took place on Friday.
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A quagmire of death and despair

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 14, 2023

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeLast Sunday, several local groups — including the Concerned Muslims of T&T, the Joint Trade Union Movement, the Movement for Social Justice, the Emancipation Support Committee and the Non-Governmental Organisations of T&T for the Advancement of Women — called upon the Government to cut diplomatic relations with Israel for its savage attack upon the Palestinian people.
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Acting in bad faith

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 06, 2023

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI want to congratulate the Government for voting affirmatively on the UN General Assembly’s resolution on October 27 that called for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce” between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in Gaza. The resolution also called for “continuous, sufficient and unhindered” provision of lifesaving supplies and services for civilians trapped in the enclave.
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