All voices must be raised in LGBTQ+ debate

Guardian Editorial
June 23, 2023 – guardian.co.tt

Guardian EditorialThe issue of lesbian and gay rights has been knocking on our door for some time now. Today, the LGBTQ+ community is banging on the front door demanding attention. A feeling of blissfully secure, or indeed silently angst from within the presumed safety of our previously secured places, will not protect us from facing an issue that is present everywhere in our world.
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Cradle of corruption

By Raffique Shah
June 20, 2023

Raffique ShahI haven’t given much thought to the local government election due to be held in August, nor have I paid much attention to the ongoing debate on reforming local government, a cornerstone of PNM’s vision for new governments.

In the first instance, besides creating three new boroughs, the Government is seeking to instil the decentralisation of governance, the precise details of which I have not studied. However, I am aware that the contentious issue of property tax which the PNM sees as not only a source of revenue, but more importantly a source of power to the local government bodies, remains a gap between the Government and the Opposition UNC, which is totally against property tax.
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Shame on you, FCB!

By Raffique Shah
June 11, 2023

Raffique ShahI never thought the day would come when I would find it necessary to write a column like this—coming down like the proverbial tonne of bricks on a financial institution that thousands of patriots like me breathed life into well before it was born, and certainly before the people who currently occupy its management chairs were even ideas, far less born.

But after my experiences over the past few weeks, and listening to other customers complain, I felt compelled to raise the issues in the public forum.
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Living While Black in America

By Dr Kwame Nantambu
June 08, 2023

Dr. Kwame NantambuThe violent, brutal beating/murder of the 29-year-old black man Tyre Nichols on January 7, 2023 by five black Memphis police officers immediately pushes to the fore the inherent, insecure and dangerous existence of black life in America today.

Indeed, there was a time when blacks were considered “three-fifths of a person”, but it seems that that evaluation has now totally been relegated to zero.
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Life after Parkinson’s? Maybe.

By Raffique Shah
June 06, 2023

Raffique ShahLeila found it hilarious when an interviewer, who is chronicling the lives of ‘prominent people’, asked his penultimate question: What’s next on the radar for you, Mr. Shah? He had covered much of the multifaceted life I’ve lived. He found, as I had done, that my life had indeed been intriguing especially upon reflection since having been struck with Parkinson’s Disease thirteen years ago. Except for my weekly columns in this space, and I have been trying to complete a few books that are mostly written, I’ve done little else in what many might see as an important periods in my life’s journey. I could not help but laugh out loudly, though, at the question about my future at age 77, stricken with this debilitating disease that can be crippling several times a day, every day without fail. What next for me? Death, I responded, laughing raucously. Everyone within range, joined me. I have that infectious effect when I talk about mortality.
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‘Informed’ voters will decide election

By Raffique Shah
May 30, 2023

Raffique ShahNot for the first time in its 67-year history, the People’s National Movement goes into a local government election as the underdog. In 2019, as I recall it, the main opposition United National Congress, and some other parties with which it had forged alliances of sorts, seemed confident they would flog the PNM in the wake of a sluggish national economy, job cuts and its failure to secure support for local government reforms that intended to increase the powers of the municipal corporations.
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MASSIVE CORRUPTION

20 years later: Piarco airport commission of enquiry report finally unwrapped…

By Ria Taitt
May 28, 2023 – trinidadexpress.com

Basdeo PandayIt has remained under wraps for two decades.

The Sunday Express has however obtained a copy of the report of the commission of enquiry into the Piarco Airport Development Project, a subject which has poi­soned the political bloodstream of Trinidad and Tobago with allegations of corruption on a grand scale and counter-­allegations of political witch-hunting.
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Poverty is a crime

By Raffique Shah
May 22, 2023

Raffique ShahNothing I have ever written in this space can be misconstrued to suggest that I proffered poverty as an excuse for crime. To the contrary, I have advanced many reasons why the link between poverty and crime is not axiomatic. And, I have warned the poor to stay clear of crime since they will be made to pay heaviest for it, while the real criminals have the wealth to retain high-priced attorneys, whose jobs are to keep the crooks out of prison.
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GOVT LOSES AT PRIVY COUNCIL – ‘PEOPLE HAVE A RIGHT TO VOTE’

By Anna Ramdass
May 18, 2023 – trinidadexpress.com

ParliamentThe people of Trinidad and Tobago have a right to vote.

This was the loud and clear message from the Privy Council law Lords who delivered judgement against the Government’s decision to postpone the Local Government Elections and extend the life of councils for one year.
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