By Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 15, 2025
The community is the source of democracy in Trinidad and Tobago. Recently, there have been many references to its role in solving our problems. On Tuesday Shamfa Cudjoe-Lewis declared: “Grassroots sporting groups and programmes must no longer be sacrificed for the sake of national government bodies.” She obtained this wisdom seven years after she became the Minister of Sport and Community Development.
Continue reading Regress rather than progress
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 08, 2025
Nostalgia led me to the People’s National Movement Manifesto of 1991, the year it defeated the National Alliance for Reconstruction. The PNM returned to government in 1991 but lost power to the United National Congress in 1995. A year later, the Leader of Our Grief and Sorrow challenged Patrick Manning’s leadership and lost. His rise to national prominence began at that point. The Leader will leave the political scene in a few weeks but will retain his influence on his protégé, Stuart Young.
Continue reading Intentional distraction
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 01, 2025
Lately we have been obsessed about the elimination of colonialism in our society, the coat of arms discussion being the latest manifestation of this obsession. Only a rigorous study of and a confrontation with our historical past (and present) can release us from this debilitating condition.
Our progressive workers and thinkers have worked to mitigate this condition for over 100 years. Canon Philip Douglin came to Trinidad as the pastor of St Clement’s Anglican Church, St Madeleine, in 1887. That year he delivered a lecture, —The Rio Pongo Mission”, about his missionary work in West Africa.
Continue reading The Cap of Freedom
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 25, 2025
A United National Congress victory in the forthcoming election is the necessary antidote to heal the fissures that have erupted in the PNM’s political structure. Only a UNC victory can counteract the fiendish act of PNM’s hierarchy of selling the party to the highest financial bidders. This will necessitate that PNM takes a more careful look at itself, especially in the absence of the Leader of Our Grief and Sorrow.
Continue reading UNC’s victory: the necessary antidote to PNM’s revival
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 18, 2025
The People’s National Movement came into being against the backdrop of the representatives of black and brown people who met in Bandung, Indonesia, to oppose colonialism. In 1955, 29 countries representing 1.5 billion people (or 54% of the world’s population) demanded a greater share of the world’s financial resources.
Continue reading PNM sells out to the rich
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 28, 2024
Three recent events cemented in my mind that the poor and the not-so-poor will suffer much more over the next five years than they do today if the present Government is not changed.
The PNM must move aside to allow us to inhale a new breath of freedom, experience greater competence in running the country’s affairs, and to assure us that we can expect a more normal life in the future.
Continue reading Vote out the PNM
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 09, 2024
“What is man, that thou art mindful of him?” —Psalm 8:4
Last Monday Lisa Morris-Julian, Minister in the Ministry of Education, and two of her children (Xianne, 25 and Jesiah, 6) died in a fire that destroyed their Arima home. The cause of the fire remains sketchy but the response of the T&T Fire Service left much to be desired.
Continue reading “What is man, that thou art mindful of him?”
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 09, 2024
In this version of democracy, the Cabinet rules supreme, to hell with those people who elected them.
Eric Williams began his address to the Second Congress of Negro Writers and Artists Conference in Rome in 1959 by quoting African intellectual Alioune Diop, who said: “There can be no people without a culture. But what we often lose sight of is the natural link between the political and the cultural…It’s the State that guarantees a culture’s memory of its traditions and the nature of its personality.”
Continue reading Rejecting illusions
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 04, 2024
A week ago I received the following note from Joyce Thomas, a retired VP of a government girl’s college. She has been involved in sports at the Eddie Hart Ground (EHG) as a sprinter and coach over the past 63 years. Joyce is “a level 5 World Athletics Throws coach and has at least 12 athletes on Trinidad Carifta teams. This year Peyton Winter won silver medals in the Carifta Games and gold medals in the NACAC competition last year.”
Continue reading Wos’ Than Slavery
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 27, 2024
Last Sunday morning as I sat in my usual pew at the back of St Mary’s Anglican Church in Tacarigua, a dear friend, Claudette Grant-Gooding, drew my attention to a booklet, “Inspiration for Spirituality XII: From Advent to Christmas”, that the Diamen Writers’ Circle (DWC) produced. Grant-Gooding teaches religious instruction and writes occasionally for the Diocesan newspaper, The Anglican Outlook.
Continue reading Our precious jewels