By Raffique Shah
January 21, 2012
JUSTICE Minister Herbert Volney invariably comes across as a joker in the theatre of the macabre…a kind of black humour specialist.
He seems not to know whether his role is to make people laugh, cry or have a compelling urge to throttle him. He cannot decide if he is an entertainer, intimidator or Soca Monarch contender.
Continue reading Joker wild in Cabinet
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 20, 2012
I have never accepted V. S. Naipaul’s description of our society as being half-made or our people as mimic men and women. Some years ago, I wrote a trenchant criticism of Naipaul’s work in which I responded to those designations in an effective manner. For the past three weeks, I have been traveling in Germany and England. As I view our political landscape from afar, I cannot help but get the impression that our Prime Minister is playing dolly house with our people’s future; fiddling around which their good nature; and treating them with a contempt they do not deserve.
Continue reading De Prime Minister Eh Dey
By Stephen Kangal
January 15, 2012
PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar receives the Pravasi Samaan Award in Jaipur
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar attempted to touch the feet of The President of India, Shrimatee Pratibha Patil in true Trini Hindu-style of performing the “goar lagay” after receiving the Pravasi Samaan Award in Jaipur. The question is whether she has compromised the concept of the sovereign equality of states and infringed the secular configuration and contours of governance by this Hindu act of humility, respect, diplomacy and submission.
Continue reading To Goar or Not To Lagay
By Raffique Shah
January 14, 2012
TELEVISION footage that showed a hapless young female teacher being bullied by hard-backed men and a “be-hijabed” woman was the pannier that broke this jackass’ back. I had stupidly stayed silent when Sat Maharaj and sundry Maha Sabha persons, again men and women, hounded school principal Sita Gajadharsingh-Nanga. I thought that more than enough had been said and written about that unsavoury stand off to convince Sat and his people that they should improve their pedigree.
Continue reading Boorish behaviour by schools’ boards
Kamla Persad-Bissessar returns to village in Bihar for an emotional reunion
Continue reading PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s visit to India
By Andre Bagoo
January 13 2012 – newsday.co.tt
FORMER Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira yesterday for the first time revealed the personal reasons she had for taking her money out of the Clico Investment Bank (CIB) in December 2008, saying she did so in order to cut ties with Clico because her late husband Russell Tesheira – right up to his death in 2004 – had been badly treated by Clico and its former executive chairman Lawrence Duprey.
Continue reading Karen Nunez-Tesheira: They ill-treated my husband
Mom, dad & daughter ripped off immigrants
By Christina Carrega
January 12, 2012 – nypost.com
A seething Queens judge walloped three members of a crooked Richmond Hill family yesterday, sending them upstate to serve a combined 418 years for a brazen immigration and real-estate scam.
The mom, dad and daughter — dubbed “The Ramsundar Gang” by Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder — paid a shocking price for defrauding 19 families of $1.8 million over six years.
Continue reading Trini Scam family sent off to prison in U.S.
Jajah passes on: Trinidad and Tobago lost one of its musical pioneers with the death of percussionist Ja Jah Oga Onilu who died suddenly at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope last Friday night. Known as a master drummer, Onilu, who was 58-years-old at his passing, was also a well known artist and maker of “organic” musical instruments. He was also one of the members of Jewels of Nature organic percussion group along with his two sons Baba Onilu and Modupe Onilu. —newsday.co.tt
By Brother Resistance
January 11, 2012
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 11, 2012
Karl Hudson Philip’s brilliant advocacy for a respect of legal tradition and his reminder that standards ought to be adhered to touched an important note in Trinidad and Tobago’s psyche. Reading Hudson Philip, I was reminded of a time when things were simpler, standards were more transparent and justice [or perhaps consistency] was among desired outcomes. One stands amazed as one contrasts the legal maneuverings of Ish and Steve, the shenanigans of Calder Hart and Laurence Duprey, and the audacity of Harrynarine of the Hindu Credit Union with the behavior of British officials during the days of slavery.
Continue reading Looking Backward
By Michael Harris
January 08, 2012 – trinidadexpress.com
What is the difference between a silkworm and a maggot? This is the question which popped into my head as I reflected on the current controversy which has erupted over the recent appointment of senior counsel. Frankly I did not think that there was anything salient which could be added to the debate after the cogent and comprehensive submissions made by Messrs Hudson-Phillips SC and former CJ Michael de la Bastide.
I changed my mind, however, after reading the brilliantly lucid summation of the issues presented by Terrence Farrell in his article in the Express on January 5. It often happens that a particularly lucid exposition on any topic can serve to excite new and additional insights which help to develop the issue further.
Continue reading Of Silkworms and Maggots