Category Archives: Finance

Lords, hear ye my prayers

By Raffique Shah
December 06, 2009
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Patrick Manning and Basdeo PandayFROM today and until such time as I lose faith in the many manifestations of God that most people believe in, I revoke my agnosticism in the interest of my country. Given the multiple blights that seem to have overrun this country, I have no choice but to turn to the deities in a bid to restore some semblance of sanity to the only nation to which I bear true faith and allegiance.
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An ‘old boys club’ headed by an old lady

By Raffique Shah
November 29, 2009

Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Commonwealth 2009 Heads of State
Commonwealth 2009 Heads of State

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009Friday morning. Big day for Prime Minister Patrick Manning. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II heads a list of dignitaries attending the CHOGM. Over the next three days Trinidad and Tobago, this small country, will showcase its wonderful Chinese architecture to our envious Commonwealth brethren. Look at me! Watch my costume (including my brand-name ‘darkers’ that I don’t take off, not even to look Her Majesty in the eye, as royal etiquette demands). Don’t mash my Performing Arts cape! I’m on the world stage!
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T&T borrowing $13 billion

Peter D Neptune
November 20, 2009 – guardian.co.tt

Karen Nunez-Tesheira
Karen Nunez-Tesheira
From January 2007 to the end of the current fiscal year, Government intends to borrow more than $13.6 billion to finance the budget deficit, pay for several large government projects and to fund the government’s money supply management strategy for the economy. Responding to a question by the Opposition during private members day in the Senate earlier this week, Finance Minister Karen Nunez Tesheira said the government has already borrowed more than $8.8 billion since January 2007, and plans are already being made to raise another $4.77 billion to continue its strategy into the new fiscal year. The funding needs for the next fiscal year include $2 billion from the domestic market, $2.2 billion from foreign capital markets and another $572.3 million in project related loans. She added that the Finance Ministry was in the process of developing a plan for Trinidad and Tobago’s borrowing requirements for the medium term – that is for the next three to five years beyond the current fiscal period.
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At that price we expect nothing but the best…

By Raffique Shah
November 15, 2009

Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

IT’S most columnists’ nightmare, having to return to a topic he or she will have dealt with recently. It gets worse when the target is a politician, matters not what side of the divide he or she is on. They never look into their mirrors and wonder why writers focus on them. They conclude you are against them, that you support their enemies, hence your criticisms.

But, as I learned early in my many years of writing opinion pieces, you write and be damned; if you fail to address burning issues, readers conclude you are on somebody’s payroll. There are so many important matters I wish to address, to have my fellow citizens focus on. Sadly, because of the insensitivity of our politicians, I have to forego serious issues and zero my computer on Prime Minister Patrick Manning.
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$2m spent on flag for ‘national pride’

Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

$2m spent for national pride

What’s the cost of the national flag at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Port-of-Spain? Is it $2 million? But Sport and Youth Affairs Minister Gary Hunt, while unable to confirm the flag’s price tag, said even if it was true, it would be “nothing out of the ordinary.” The flag was unveiled by Hunt at an official ceremony on August 4. He said then the flag was intended to be seen from far away and from every direction. He said then it was also intended to remind citizens of “its noble message and we feel a deep sense of national pride.” Hunt was questioned about the flag during yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s. He said it was “130 feet high and takes a considerable amount of engineering to plant a structure that high and of that weight.”
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Satanic Verses, Biblical Violations and the Property Tax

By Stephen Kangal
October 26, 2009
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

HouseI have already surrendered to Caesar what is Caesar’s by way paying his many fiscal dues and entitlements that are increasingly being levied on me. I retained on behalf of God what really is His. I proceeded to invest a large part of the remainder in a home that is in fact His temple. I foolishly thought I was par for the course. But here comes the cruel and inhumane, dimpled-cheeky tax-collector intent on reaping and extracting from the meek of the earth what he did not sow. This is in total violation and infringement of all New Testament, Koranic and Karmic principles.
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UDECOTT WORSE THAN PIARCO

By Sean Douglas
October 20, 2009 – newsday.co.tt

UDECOTTPULLING no punches as he fearlessly trained his guns on his political leader, Diego Martin West MP Dr Keith Rowley yesterday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Patrick Manning, declaring the Udecott scandal was ten times worse than the Piarco Airport affair and warning that come the next General Election, the issue would be about PNM corruption.
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Jail Chinese contractors for slavery

By Raffique Shah
October 18, 2009
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Chinese labourersSOME five years ago when criminal activities intensified to frightening levels, several people who care about this country suggested to Prime Minister Patrick Manning that he declare a limited state of emergency. I was among those who argued that once the law enforcement agencies were armed with intelligence-identities of the main criminals, overlords of the guns and drugs underworld-Government should move to stem the crime tide by use of emergency powers to arrest the situation, to rescue the country.
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Dark Clouds From the Property Tax Overshadowing Divali

By Stephen Kangal
October 13, 2009
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

HouseThe acquisition of profit-yielding immoveable property especially of land is alternatively referred to in divine terms as Dharti Mata. The accumulation of wealth (arth) that is regarded as a boon derived from and conferred by Lakshmi Mata consistent with the laws of good karma is pivotal to all the tenets underlying the practice of Hinduism. The home is a mandir to Hindus. Any attempt or perception of potential desecration or diminution of its sanctity of the shrine will be resisted by Bala (strength). There is a most powerful bonding and almost religious nexus existing between an owner-built home and its Hindu owner/occupants. That explains why land-based Indians generally are not on the move or highly migratory in habits.
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On today, Uff tomorrow

By Raffique Shah
October 11, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Prof John UffSOMEONE determined many moons ago that there are three sides to every story-yours, mine, and the truth. Maybe that person lived in Norway, a country long seen as heaven-on-earth, which has consistently ranked at the top of the world in human development. He (or she) obviously knew nothing of faraway Trinidad where there are 100 sides to every rumour, and maybe more to every truth, if the latter at all exists in this country.
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