Budget debate turns into duel…
By Kyle Jeremiah
October 1, 2008 – guardian.co.tt
The 2008-2009 budget debate took a dramatic turn last night in Parliament, after a war of words erupted between Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Diego Martin-West MP Dr Keith Rowley whom Manning dismissed in April.
Continue reading Manning trains guns on Rowley
By Stephen Kangal
October 01, 2008
On what basis can PM Manning justify spending an astronomical $503m (one percent of the 2009 budget that is equivalent to the sum for the construction of the Tobago power plant) to host the Summits of the Americas and the Commonwealth in 2009 if not to boost his already inflated ego? What diplomatic goodwill and political and economic benefits will accrue to the pauperized people of T&T from hosting these Conferences when we are burdened with a poverty rate of 27%? The poverty gap is widening and pensioners on fixed incomes are ketching their “nennen”.
Continue reading Taxing The Middle Class to Fund Conferences
By Raffique Shah
Sunday, September 28th 2008
OVER the six decades I’ve been on this here Earth, more so during the latter four, I have learned to be wary of the very wealthy. Not all, mark you, but most. Some decent people earned their millions through sheer hard work and wise choices. Others educated themselves and used their professions to become rich. Among the aforementioned, you usually encounter nice men and women who just happen to be rich, and who see their wealth as a means to live comfortably, even to help the less fortunate in their communities and countries.
Continue reading Collapse of ‘Reaganomics’ and ‘Thatcherism’
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 26, 2008
It’s the kind of story that would get a cat vex or make a donkey want to commit murder. Imagine a young, imaginative entrepreneur, someone who does not possess a “gimme-gimme” mentality, comes into town and tells the world that he will build an empire that would make anything Sat Maharaj ever dreamed of doing look like a doll’s house. He starts a credit union and offers interest rates unlike anything the nation has ever heard; at least, not since the days of International Trust when my mother got burned because of her greed. People began to invest in this credit union and before you could say Pan-Dey it was the hottest thing in town.
Continue reading “Tell Me Who to Kill?”
EDITOR: The dismantling of the fuel subsidy has begun, as was predicted by the Food and Fuel Forum, which for the past couple of weeks has been distributing a bulletin linking the dismantling to the upcoming signing of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).
Continue reading Increase in the Cost of Premium Gas
By Stephen Kangal
September 24, 2008
Reasonable citizens and commentators are fast coming to the conclusion that PM Manning has pre-empted the yet-to-determined verdict of the people of T&T. He has now taken T&T, at enormous public expense, diplomatic hype and great bravado beyond the political point of no return on his proposed union with at least three other Caricom States. He justifies this cart-before-the -horse modus operandi on the basis that a private club of which he is the jefe, that is to say the PNM, some fifty two years ago invoked political integration as one of its bye-laws.
Continue reading Point of No Return on Political Union
New voice but same high-spending story
SPEAKING for three hours and seven minutes in what was her historic presentation of a national budget in the House of Representatives yesterday, Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira broke the first rule she established going in. She had pledged not to deliver a lengthy address.
Continue reading 2008 Budget Presentation Highlights
By Raffique Shah
September 21, 2008
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog
IT was a desperate cry from an exasperated woman, and it tugged at my heart when we finally spoke on the phone. She made me feel ashamed of myself, since, like so many others, I, too, am a victim of the jarring, amplified noise that passes for music in too many private motor vehicles. As a columnist who is often the voice of victims who have few options to vent their suffering, I failed to write about this growing menace of noise pollution.
Continue reading Mobile Menace
By William Blum
September 05, 2008
www.killinghope.org
Im sorry to say that I think that John McCain is going to be the next president of the United States. After the long night of Bush horror any Democrat should easily win, but the Dems are screwing it up and McCain has been running more-or-less even with Barack Obama in the polls. The Democrats should run on the slogan “If you liked Bush, you’ll love McCain”, but that would be too outspoken, too direct for the spineless Nancy Pelosi and her spineless party. Or, “If you liked Iraq, you’ll love Iran.” But the Democrat leadership is not on record as categorically opposing either conflict.
Continue reading Anti-Empire Report: Obama-Biden, Russia-U.S.
By Dr. Selwyn R Cudjoe
September 19, 2008
Last week’s article drew some interesting comments. I asserted that in spite of the bump in the polls the Republican Party received because of Governor Sarah Palin’s presence on the ticket, ultimately “the performance of the US economy is likely to remain the key to the election’s outcome.”
Continue reading The Economy, Stupid