By Alexander Bruzual
September 13, 2011 – newsday.co.tt
It was an exuberant moment in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Eighth Court yesterday morning when charges against 21 men accused of being gang members were dismissed by Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar.
The courtroom erupted in loud cheering, clapping, and words of thanks to both God and the Chief Magistrate after it was announced that the 21 men were free to go.
Continue reading 21 MEN FREED
Newsday
September 07, 2011
Newsday today continues an edited version of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s contribution to the debate on the motion to extend the state of emergency for three months in Parliament on Sunday. The motion was passed with 29 Government MPs voting for the extension and with ten votes against by the Opposition MPs.
Continue reading Killers do not respect race
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 06, 2011
And Jack wept just as Peter wept after he betrayed Christ. Brigadier John Sandy bemoaned: “We must recognize that it is people looking like me who are being murdered, mothers like my mother, God rest her soul, who are out there weeping more than any other race.” There is no doubt that Brigadier Sandy loves black women. He is married to an Indian woman.
Continue reading Jack Wept
By Cecil Paul
September 04, 2011
“We must recognize that it is people looking like me, who are being murdered, mothers like my mother…weeping more than any other race”…”When we see the accused being led away, being led to court, it is people who look like me”…”When one looked at the prison population in 2011, 51% are Afro Trinidadians”. (Minister of National Security John Sandy)
Continue reading Of Vulgar Politicians and Ethnic Bashing
By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
September 02, 2011
It is ridiculous for some public officials to opine/conclude that “the only reason (Trinbagonians) were charged under the Anti-Gang legislation was because they are black.”
Such public insanity was further compounded when the leadership of the Emancipation Support Committee (ESC) also publicly contended that the People’s Partnership (PP) government’s anti-crime policy was “treading on slippery slopes” in regard to the targeting of African communities in T&T.
Continue reading Keep race out of criminal behaviour
By Christian Hume
September 01, 2011
It was most disconcerting to witness Minister of National Security John Sandy and Attorney General Anand Ramlogan trying to convince the nation that the gang leaders from East Port-of-Spain and the East-West Corridor are the “big fish” that the entire nation are waiting to see rounded up and tossed into jail. When the country’s top politicians decide to play blind, pretending not to see the reality that honest eyes among the population see all the time, then we know that times are stark and dark.
Continue reading Matters of Race in the State of Emergency
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 30, 2011
Is either I stupidly or Anand and dem know many things I don’t know. But I didn’t know that one had to declare a state of emergency to capture some gang leaders and charge them with possession of marijuana or cocaine. I didn’t know that the only way to solve the crime problem was to declare a state of emergency and arrest about five hundred young people (call them gang members) from Black areas in order to solve the crime problem. If so, the PNM was more than stupid to hold its hands until the PP discovered that it takes a state of emergency to capture all these black people so easily.
Continue reading Rejecting the State of Emergency
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 22, 2011
A writer does not write in isolation nor does he always know for whom he writes. A socially-conscious writer, as I see myself, always writes with a purpose. Sometimes it’s to entertain; mostly, it is meant to educate oneself and his public. From that mix one cannot remove the sheer bliss that one finds in writing and yes, even the pleasure of seeing one’s name in print.
Continue reading The Writerly Pursuit
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 16, 2011
August and anyone who is anyone has left Paris (and other Europeans cities) for the country for vacation. As one looks at the shuttered apartment windows, the empty streets (except for places such as Champs Elysees Avenue) and the barely-filed cafes that inundate the city and its sidewalks one realizes that everything will remain in abeyance until September when Parisians return to work and attend to their business again.
Continue reading Messengers of the Invisible
8/7/2011 – barbadosadvocate.com
It saddens me to the core whenever I read articles such as the letter to the editor, written by Michael A Dingwall in the August 4 edition of this newspaper entitled ‘Black, but proud of what?’. If there is nothing for you to be proud of, maybe you should look in the mirror, and if you still cannot see anything to be proud of, do a little research into African history – there is plenty to know.
Continue reading Modern science owes much to African civilisations