Tag Archives: USA

CARICOM, General T&T, International, Latin America, Politics, Venezuela

Chavez – Catalyst for Change

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By Raffique Shah
March 09, 2013

Raffique ShahHUGO Chavez cast a giant shadow over the Western Hemisphere during his relatively short life. Few world leaders can claim to have influenced the course of history and geopolitics the way he did. For more than half-a-century, visionaries formulated and articulated ideas for the creation of a new power centre that resided outside of North America and Europe. Chavez transformed those dreams into reality, however limited, and upon his untimely death he left behind the legacy of a new world order that seems set to redefine Latin America and influence global affairs in the 21st Century.
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Caribbean, General T&T, Haiti, International, Politics

How the International Community Failed Haiti

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Hundreds of Thousands Homeless in Haiti Three Years After the Earthquake Despite Billions in Aid Funneled to NGOs, Contractors and Internationals

By Bill Quigley and Amber Ramanauskas
January 17, 2013 – counterpunch.org

Aid?Despite billions in aid which were supposed to go to the Haitian people, hundreds of thousands are still homeless, living in shanty tent camps as the effects from the earthquake of January 12, 2010 remain.

The earthquake devastated Haiti in January 2010 killing, according to Oxfam International, 250,000 people and injuring another 300,000. 360,000 Haitians are still displaced and living hand to mouth in 496 tent camps across the country according to the International Organization of Migration. Most eat only one meal a day.
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General T&T, Politics, USA

President Barack Obama: One more time

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By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
December 02, 2012

Dr. Kwame NantambuThe most significant aspect of President Barack Obama’s re-election victory is the salient reality that it has relegated to the ash heap of America’s societal history the 1968 Kerner Commission’s report on race and poverty in America to the extent that “America had become two societies—one Black and one White, separate and unequal.”
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General T&T, International, Labour, USA

Joe Young: last man standing

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By Raffique Shah
October 07, 2012

Raffique ShahLAST Tuesday, one of this country’s great labour leaders and patriots, Joe Young, made his exit from life. Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note, as this gentle giant was hurried to some morgue, unmarked and indistinguishable from others. Not that he would have wanted otherwise. It was his final interaction with the ordinary man with whom he lived and mingled freely, for whom he fought many a battle. At age 80, Joe must have endured more than he could in this cussed country that he so loved. He was ready to join his ancestors, to re-link with old comrades.
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corruption, Finance, General T&T, International, Politics, UDeCOTT, USA

Fake Society

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
June 19, 2012

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThere was a time I would be hurt whenever V. S. Naipaul called us mimic men and a false society. I used go after him mercilessly saying how wrong he was and why we were a young society, trying to get things together. When, at the end of From Columbus to Castro, Dr. Williams endorsed Naipaul’s view of our world, I was crushed. I felt betrayed.
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Caribbean, corruption, Law, USA

Conman of the Caribbean

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By Raffique Shah
June 16, 2012

Raffique ShahI SUPPOSE most people digested the news that a US judge jailed conman Allen Stanford for 110 years, yawned, burped and moved on to the next item. Except for victims of the Texan’s multi-billion-dollar swindle, among them a few thousand from the Caribbean who lost their savings chasing a crooked shadow, Stanford’s life sentence for a crime that is commonplace is of little more than academic interest.
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Politics

Foreign policy does matter in presidential re-election

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By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
June 07, 2012

Dr. Kwame NantambuThe long-accepted notion that “it’s the economy stupid” is the yardstick in any successful presidential re-election bid, needs to be seriously looked at again.

The salient truism is that a weak national economy juxtaposed against the backdrop of a strong foreign policy position seems to have been the formula for a successful US presidential re-election bid.
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General T&T, USA

Obama’s Challenges

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 09, 2012

Barack ObamaNow that Francois Hollande has shattered the consensus around the virtues of austerity, the real question is this: what will American voters do when their turn comes to make a judgment on Barack Obama’s stewardship over the last four years. Too many Americans seem to have forgotten the mess that Obama inherited when he took over from George Bush and the unrelieved opposition he has encountered from a Congress and a Senate who are hell-bent on ensuring he fails. It is almost as though the Republicans want to punish Obama for not recovering the jobs that Bush lost in the first place.
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General T&T, International, Racism Watch, USA

White xenophobia in America

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Trayvon Martin latest Black victim in Florida

By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
April 12, 2012

Dr. Kwame NantambuThe 26 February 2012 killing of the unarmed 17-year old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida speaks volumes as to the omnipresence of white xenophobia (“fear of other races”) in America. And it must be pointed out that this putative fear, real or imagined, only targets the African-American (Black) male.
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International, USA

Obama’s Dilemma

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 14, 2012

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThe announcement that the US, Russia, China, the UK, France and Germany plan to reopen negotiations with Iran to solve the controversy around Iran’s nuclear program could not come at a better time for President Barak Obama. It gives him a little wriggle room to circumvent the disingenuousness of the Republicans in this matter.
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