The Sun Also Rises

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 18, 2010

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-BissessarWhen Kamla Persad Bissessar took her oath of office she swore on the Bhagavad Gita, one of the holiest scripts of the Hindus. As a Yoruba man, I am not as acquainted with the Gita as I should but true to my bifurcated beginning I was taught something about the Holy Bible. I like the King James Version of the Bible and receive great spiritual sustenance there from.
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Crisis of African youth in T&T … Prof. Cudjoe dead wrong

By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
August 17, 2010

ChildrenThis analysis is a critique of the following articles: Prof. Selwyn Cudjoe, “The Crisis of Black Youth” and Joel Mohan, “Cudjoe Right About Afro Male Youth”, Trinidad Guardian, 12 August 2010, pp. 32-33.

At the outset, it is necessary to issue the following caveats. Firstly, Prof. Cudjoe has uitilized a Euro-centric Americanized analysis/context of the “Crisis of Black Youth” in T&T.
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“Moral” Police, Allyuh Eh Have Nothing To Do?

Trinidad and Tobago's Latoya Woods
Trinidad and Tobago's Latoya Woods poses topless for an official photo shoot for the Miss Universe pageant in Las Vegas
By Corey Gilkes
August 15, 2010

Ok, so I see now it have bacchanal brewing over the Miss TnT/Universe delegate and some picture she take in which she topless. And some people all up in arms over it.
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Emancipation: some creation myths

By Selwyn Ryan
August 15, 2010

EmancipationI overheard someone complaining on a call-in programme during Emancipation week that people of African origin in Trinidad were a different breed from those in other islands of the Caribbean.

It was not clear whether the caller meant to say that the Trinis were a worse or a better breed. I think he meant that they were an inferior breed, since, like Prof Courtenay Bartholomew (Express, August 11) he had some critical things to say about us blacks here in Trinidad. The caller was however quite correct about Trinidad blacks being different from their Caribbean counterparts. Culture and cojuncture and not genetics were however responsible for the differences.
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No more wastage of public funds

Water Taxi
Water Taxi
By Raffique Shah
August 15, 2010

IT is easy for people to say that the new Government should stop looking back, stop blaming the ousted People’s National Movement (PNM) government for much of the mess we find ourselves in today, and just move on. Had the Patrick Manning regime been more circumspect in handling the huge windfalls we enjoyed from around 2004, I would have endorsed that view, asking the Government to get on with governance, make no reference to the past.
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Pursuing Closer Links with Guyana

By Derren Joseph
August 11, 2010

GuyanaIn looking at the often controversial dynamics of our regional integration attempts, frequent comparisons are made with the European Union. After the fall of Rome, various egotistical régimes had made attempts to unite what is now “Western” Europe with varying degrees of success. Out of this, the first point to be made is that the present European Union with its many languages and cultures is the product of hundreds, if not thousands of years of history. So when we ask ourselves why our little Caribbean region seems to struggle when it comes to cooperation, part of the answer may lie in our relative socio-political-economic “youth”.
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The Crisis of Black Youth

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 11, 2010

ChildrenWhen torrential downpours inundated north-western China on Saturday last (August 7), the Chinese government rushed in to assist the unfortunate victims of unprecedented landslides. In Zhouqu alone 1,117 persons died and 627 others were missing, a minuscule fraction of China’s 1.2 billion people. Yet the government spared not effort to assist them. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao urged rescue workers to hurry before the weather worsens. He declared: “You must race against the clock and spare no efforts in saving lives.”
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Emancipation Celebration?

EmancipationTHE EDITOR: After four hundred years of shackle slavery, and the worst kind of atrocities ever inflicted on any race of people bar none, all because of their melanin and without any apology and compensation, and therapy for Post Traumatic Slavery Syndrome, I am totally puzzled and confused with the reason for the celebration of Emancipation.
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Steaming over the big flood

By Raffique Shah
August 08, 2010

RainHEAVY rainfall, like that which we experienced last Monday, is an act of nature. Heavy flooding, which we have repeatedly been subjected to over the past two decades, is caused by a number of factors. Many of these are beyond man’s control. But governments and citizens must shoulder much blame for some of their actions, or inaction in instances, that add to the hazardous mix of factors that return to haunt us all, especially during monsoon-type weather conditions.
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Anil Roberts and US Embassy Visa Denials

Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Anil Roberts at the Emancipation Celebrations in Port of Spain
Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Anil Roberts at the Emancipation Celebrations in Port of Spain
Unnecessary row

Express Editorial – August 7, 2010

THE fresh row that has broken out between representatives of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and the American Embassy in Port of Spain over the issuance of US visas entered a decidedly nasty phase last week.
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