By Andre Bagoo
December 24 2011 – newsday.co.tt
MERE days after the United States expressed disappointment over the outcome of failed extradition proceedings against businessmen Ishwar Galbaransingh and Steve Ferguson potential hurdles have emerged.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions is finding the situation very challenging in mounting renewed proceedings against the men in the local courts.
Continue reading Major Hurdles in Pursuing Ish and Steve Case
4 DEAD, 7 INJURED
By Sasha Harrinanan and Alexander Bruzual
December 21, 2011 – newsday.co.tt
Screams for help from women and children trapped in a raging fire filled the night in Trou Macaque, Laventille where four people burnt to death and seven were injured as they leapt from the balconies on the top floor of a five-storey HDC apartment building which had been firebombed.
Tenants and neighbours tried in vain to help the families living in two of the top floor apartments of Building 2, one of which had been doused in gasolene and set on fire in a deliberate attack by a brother of the occupants who lived there at about 1 am yesterday.
Continue reading Arson in Laventille: 4 Dead
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 20, 2011
There were smiles galore; enough to fill the entire room and a little left over for langniappe. There, boldface in the front page of the Mirror (and the Guardian too) was Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the Prime Minister of the country, in the tender embrace (or so it seemed to me) of Maxie Cuffie, the publisher and CEO of the Mirror. Another shot showed Wade Mark, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, clasping Cuffie’s hands with a broad smile on his face with Timothy Hamel-Smith, President of the Senate, equally gleeful, overseeing the tete-a-tete.
Continue reading Christmas Truce
By Jada Loutoo
December 20, 2011 – newsday.co.tt
ATTORNEY GENERAL (AG) Anand Ramlogan will not pursue an appeal in the extradition of former UNC financiers Ishwar Galbaransingh and Steve Ferguson.
In a statement yesterday, Ramlogan said he came to the view that “the ends of justice” will be served by foregoing the appeal, and allowing the criminal prosecution currently before the local courts to proceed.
Continue reading AG won’t appeal Ish, Steve case
By Raffique Shah
December 18, 2011
YOU would think that two years after he suffered the most severe political flogging in local history, Basdeo Panday would have long ridden off into the sunset, hoisted his grandchildren on his lap and sat back in luxury, enjoying an ex-prime minister’s generous pension and perks. But that’s not Panday’s style. He’s back into active politics…or so he says.
Continue reading Degeneration now
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 13, 2011
Annabella stocking want patching
She want de doctah to help she with dat
Johnson trousers falling
He want de doctor help he wid dat
Some want a zephyr motor car
Others want a piece of land
[Now] Dorothy loss she man
She want to complain to Doctoh Williams.
In 1958, as the demands upon Dr. Eric Williams grew, the Mighty Striker penned “Don’t Blame de PNM” in which he elevated Dr. Williams to the status of godhead. Dr. Williams may have been ironic in quoting this poem in his autobiography. However, Striker was on target when he satirized the fickleness of our people’s understanding of government when he observed that even when yo’ lose yo’ man, yo expect the prime minister to help yo’ with dat.
Continue reading The Prime Minister as Goddess
By Derren Joseph
December 13, 2011
Transparency International’s 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) ranks Trinidad and Tobago in position 91 out of 183 countries–falling from a 2010 rank of 73. Remember this is a temperature check of how corrupt we perceive our own public sector to be. So if you are a statistician; walk away–it is not a rigorous quantitative research methodology. If you are a politician, listen-up, as perception drives voting patterns. On one hand, it can be argued that this cannot be completely blamed on the present administration because it reflects a consistent slide from 2001 when we were ranked at 31.
Continue reading Bridging the credibility gap
By Stephen Kangal
December 13, 2011
Ministerial and accredited diplomacy failed to insulate T&T from the embarrassment occasioned by the successful and complicit application of the extra-territorial tentacles upon which the anti- Cuba 1996 Helms Burton Act (HBA) depends for the effectiveness of its punitive global outreach during the recent triennial Caricom-Cuba Summit. It is Cuba that should have apologized to T&T for feeling the impact of the US big stick diplomacy.
Continue reading Diminishing Our Diplomatic Legacy
By Raffique Shah
December 11, 2011
FIVE weeks ago, in my column titled “Diplomatic Blunders”, I wrote, “…The US has the right to decide what countries it has relations with, so excluding Cuba as a trade or investment partner is not the issue. What is criminal is for the US to use its might to deny other countries, as well as all corporations, their right to have relations with Cuba…”
I was referring to America’s unjust trade embargo against Cuba, but also to the People’s Partnership Government’s seemingly confused foreign policy positions. Trinidad and Tobago had abstained at a UNESCO general meeting at which Palestine was granted full membership, with an overwhelming majority of nations voting in favour of the motion.
Continue reading Blunder after Blunder
EDITORIAL
December 10, 2011
The U.S. has laws and regulations which prevent U.S. companies from doing business with Cuba unless they obtain a special licence from the U.S. Department of the Treasury. These laws extend to operations of U.S. companies in other countries as well. The United States Department of the Treasury refused to grant a licence to the Trinidad Hilton Hotel, which is managed by Hilton Worldwide, to host the CARICOM-Cuba summit which involved Cuban leader Raul Castro. This untenable affront to Trinidad and Tobago’s sovereignty reflects the continued tradition of U.S. imperialism in the Caribbean and our local leaders’ complicity in this abuse.
Continue reading Hilton’s Ban on Castro: An Affront to Our Sovereignty