By Raffique Shah
June 08, 2013
THE DILEMMA I face every week writing a column must be no different to what my colleagues in all the print media do: what can I write about that’s reflective of good things happening in the country? Surely, there must be positives in the society, nation-building initiatives, achievements by citizens that are worthy of public praise.
Continue reading All the Queen’s donkeys
By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
May 29, 2013
The purpose of this article is to conduct an Afri-centric, linkage analysis of the Indian Indentureship system.
In his magnum opus titled Capitalism & Slavery (1944), Dr. Eric Williams postulates that: “The immediate successor of the Amerindians was not the African but ‘poor whites’. They were regarded as ‘indentured servants’ because before leaving England, they had to sign a contract binding them to service for a stipulated period for their passage. Others were criminals/convicts who were sent by the British government to serve for a specific time on plantations in the Caribbean.” (p.9).
Continue reading Indian Indentureship: Afri-centric Analysis
By Raffique Shah
May 26, 2013
I CANNOT quite figure out why so many people are shocked by Keith Rowley’s “revelations” in Parliament last Monday, or alarmed that the string of e-mails he read into Hansard; at first blush, appears to be as bogus as Clifton De Coteau’s black mop. Parliament has long degenerated into a theatre of the absurd, a forum for dishonourable members to slander and scandalise each other, an arena in which targeted citizens are crucified before hordes of reality-television viewers, a fate far worse than that which Jesus Christ is said to have suffered however many centuries ago.
Continue reading A matter of trust
Plot to cover up section 34
By Gail Alexander
May 21, 2013 – guardian.co.tt
Opposition leader Dr Keith Rowley wants the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Integrity Commission to probe e-mails purportedly bearing the names of frontline government officials who allegedly wanted to tap the DPP’s phone after the Section 34 furore. Rowley also claimed the e-mails revealed moves to shift the DPP to the judiciary and further discussed intended intimidation of a T&T Guardian reporter who broke the Section 34 story last September.
Continue reading Rowley: Plot to cover up section 34
By Raffique Shah
May 18, 2013
IF ANYONE can produce proof that there was a time when this country’s state-owned national airline, in whatever incarnation, made a real profit over a sustained period, meaning at least one year, I would surrender my sanity and vote in the next election. I feel safely insulated from having to do something so unpalatable because I know that in the post-Independence history of BWIA, now CAL, taxpayers who may have never travelled on an aircraft have paid dearly to keep the airline afloat. In the process, they have funded generations of joy riders who are stricken with a stratospheric strain of “gas brains”, and affliction I call “plane brains”.
Continue reading Cut CAL to the bone
By Raffique Shah
May 12, 2013
SHE had first contacted me a year ago, via a circuitous route, to relate a problem she faced at her Diamond Vale home and to see if I could offer any advice. Last week, the pensioner called again. Her problem remained unsolved. If anything, its impact on her health has worsened, and she had tried all avenues I had suggested, without success.
Continue reading Suffering in silence
Jack Warner, Sepp Blatter and Dr. Joao Havelange at the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation’s Centennial Dinner at the Dr. Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence, Macaya on September 05, 2008
Wednesday, May 1 2013
newsday.co.tt
JACK WARNER’S close friend Dr Joao Havelange, 96, in whose honour the Centre of Excellence in Macoya was named, resigned in disgrace after a Fifa ethics committee found that Havelange — a former Fifa President — had taken bribes.
Continue reading Havelange quits Fifa
By Raffique Shah
April 28, 2013
The issue here is not Jack Warner’s amoral attitude, his disdain for integrity in the conduct of public affairs. We have long established that Warner does not conform to the rules of the engagement, be it campaigning in an election, running a ministry or navigating the murky waters of global football. We expect no better from him.
Continue reading Massacre of the moral minority
Minister of National Security Jack Warner has resigned and Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar has accepted his resignation.
Works Minister Emmanuel George is to be appointed interim National Security Minister.
Continue reading Jack Warner Has Resigned