By Derren Joseph
August 04, 2010
Last week, the press carried a story about Deputy House Speaker Dr Fuad Khan urging Trinidadians to spend a portion of their vacation time in Tobago to boost the tourism industry in the sister island. The press report went on to say that occupancy rates at hotels are expected to drop as low as 15% in the coming months.
Continue reading Supporting Tobago’s Tourism
THE EDITOR: I am a retiring teacher who has served the government and the public for 33 plus years. Over the last few years, my health has deteriorated rapidly, up to being carried off to Mt. Hope because of a heart attack in the classroom. I endure two low-function kidneys, neuralgia, an inoperable hernia, depression, diabetes and uncontrolled high blood pressure…just to name a few.
Continue reading Retiring Teacher Needs Help
Emancipation Lecture 2010
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
Posted: August 04, 2010
This lecture was delivered on July 31, 2010 at the Center of Excellence, Macoya, Trinidad
This evening we are pleased that Professor Maxwell Richards, the president of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and his wife Ms. Jean Ramjohn Richards, newly elected prime minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, and her worthy colleague Mr. Jack Warner have consented to join us this evening at our tenth annual Emancipation Day Dinner. We are also pleased that Mr. Keith Rowley and his wife have been able to share this important day with us. I especially want to welcome Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar to congratulate her on her victory and to say to her that we at the National Association for the Empowerment of African People and most African people in this society genuinely compliment you on your elevation as the first woman prime minister of our land. We share in the sentiments of Indo-Mauritian author Leel Gujadhu Sarup who observed: “I feel good about her victory. As someone who has researched indentureship, this result bring tears to my eyes. There are no limits for an Indian woman to prove her worth.”
Continue reading A Society in Transition: A Community at the Crossroads
THE EDITOR: A fair and just society is all we the citizens ask of any government elected to manage the affairs of this wonderful twin island nation. Just as politicians swear to uphold the law of the land, so too must every man, woman, child and institution.
Continue reading Better Law Enforcement Needed
Kamla: Emancipation about struggle, triumph
PRIME MINISTER Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday urged the nation to not only see Emancipation Day as merely a public holiday but rather to reflect on the struggles of the ancestors of Afro-Trinbagonians who rose up from the chattel of slavery to take their rightful place in a free society.
Continue reading Emancipation: When Freedom Come
August 01, 2010
THE People’s Partnership has stamped its authority to govern the country over the next five years by convincingly winning two elections in as many months. Now, its leadership must be sensitive to the high expectations among a polls-drunk populace that was summoned to vote in six elections in ten years. The new Government faces the onerous task of governing a nation that can at times be overly demanding, somewhat fickle, and quick to condemn.
Continue reading Big win, bigger expectations
Professor George Maxwell Richards
On the occasion of Emancipation Day 2010, I send greetings to all citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, as we consider what this day means to us.
Continue reading President’s Emancipation Day 2010 Address
Fellow citizens. Today our nation commemorates the 172nd Anniversary of Emancipation in Trinidad and Tobago. That historic act on August 1, 1838, destroyed the moral and legal basis of a system, which allowed human beings to be classified as chattel and denied the most basic human rights.
Continue reading Prime Minister’s Emancipation Day 2010 Address
By Dr. Selwyn R Cudjoe
July 30, 2010
Forgive me if I do not feel as jaded about the PNM as so many commentators do.
The PNM is down but it is not out. However, the infighting that we are beginning to see certainly does not help. While it is true that the PNM has reached its nadir, in time it would begin to assert itself and continue to be an important national presence. It would not necessarily do so as it did before and with the same force but whatever happens it will remain relevant to our society’s political aspirations. In times such as these we are quick to draw conclusions about the fate of political parties and social groupings without understanding that history must be viewed as a process rather than a static phenomenon. We draw the wrong conclusion if we look only at the results of the last general and local government elections and conclude that the PNM is done. In fact, the recent performance of the PNM should not allow one to conclude that it has no future in this society nor that the People’s Partnership remains an implacable force of nature.
Continue reading Rising from Rock Bottom
THE EDITOR: Possible points of confluence, and of departure between the ‘Ganges and the Nile’?
As Emancipation, T&T ’10 approaches, and considering possible choices for ongoing nationhood, three prescient thinkers, one in each of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, are worth citing. One is William Faulkner, the Nobel prize-winning American author; the other, George Santayana, the 19th century Spanish philosopher; and T&T’s David Rudder.
Continue reading Emancipation 2010: ‘Ganges and the Nile’?