EDITOR: It has long been known, that our greatest resources have been given to big business or prominent men from all over the world, especially the United States. However, this didn’t hit home until I was looking up Oil Fields to see who own them. And, under the United States I found Tobago listed as “In Development.” It is amazing to see and hear of corrupt people at home, but I am disgusted by these people and can’t hold back any longer. Our natural resources belong to the people of Trinidad and Tobago, and not to outsiders. Why should the people of Trinidad & Tobago get the smaller percentage?
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A Goon attacks a Vine
By Raffique Shah
February 24th 2008
ABOUT two weeks ago, a downright dangerous incident occurred offshore Claxton Bay, not far from where I live. Peter Vine, a UWI lecturer and environmental activist, was among a group of fishermen and nearby residents, protesting preliminary works being conducted by agents of the NEC in preparation for the reclamation of some 255 hectares of coastal land for the establishment of an industrial port.
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A Culture of Life
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 21, 2008
There is a frightening scene at the end of Emmanuel Appadocca, the first novel written by a Trinidadian in 1854 in which Emmanuel Appadocca, the major protagonist and son James Willmington, an English sugar planter, breaks into his father’s home in St Ann’s, seizes him and condemns him to death for abandoning him while he was a child. In this novel, author Maxwell Philip, examines the implications of the lex talionis–or the law of just revenge–and seeks to understand how it should be applied in the particular circumstance.
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A look at Fidel Castro’s Cuba
By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
February 20, 2008
Revered maximum leader Fidel Castro has decided to demit office as President and Commander-in-Chief of Communist Cuba due to ill health.
While the Bush Administration in the United States is euphoric to see Castro finally off the anti-America radar screen, the geo-political achievements/milestones of Comrade Fidel Castro “can’t be wiped away so easily” nor be down-graded.
Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba through armed revolution. He overthrew the pro-United States dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista on 1st January 1959. President Castro then proceeded to take the riches from the rich and give them to the poorest of the poor. The descendants of those rich, capitalist Cubans, now reside in Miami, U.S.A. They still harbor supreme acerbic anti-Castro sentiments.
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The Great African Scandal
Robert Beckford visits Ghana to investigate the hidden costs of rice, chocolate and gold and why, 50 years after independence, a country so rich in natural resources is one of the poorest in the world. He discovers child labourers farming cocoa instead of attending school and asks if the activities of multinationals, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have actually made the country’s problems worse.
Fixing Our Relations with Barbados First
By Stephen Kangal
February 19, 2008
In the build up to Wednesday’s meeting with newly elected PM Thompson of Barbados, PM Manning must be briefed comprehensively and clinically on the problems and issues that contributed to the deterioration of T&T/Barbados bilateral relations during the regime of former Prime Minister Owen Arthur. He must work assiduously to pre-empt similar mistakes from recurring during the Thompson watch and to frame the development of our future relations in a mutually beneficial manner.
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Dudes, domes and dot.coms
Online Sex Auctioneer Ordered to Reveal Customers’ Identities
A German woman became pregnant after having anonymous sex with six different men who bid on the erotic encounter in an online auction. Now a Stuttgart court has ruled that she has a right to know the men’s identities, despite the Web site’s assurances that their personal data would be kept private.
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Scrap URP, establish Labour Bureau
By Raffique Shah
February 17, 2008
LAST week, in another curious twist to Government’s off-and-on position on the $2 billion annual fuels subsidy, Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Mariano Browne, confirmed that it’s up for review. He gave no time-line for the exercise nor did he hint at the percentage being considered. These, I presume, will come after discussion and hopefully careful consideration of the implications, more so the impact on inflation.
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Ketching De’ Demon Early
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 15, 2008
Oskie vex too bad. Friday morning, first thing, he wake me up to complain, “Why you put ma name in de papers?”
“Well friend, Ah didn’t really put yo’ name in de papers. I was writing an article and I felt our conversation best personified your resistance to my letting the public know about this dreadful disease among black men.”
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Arthur’s Legacy on T&T/Barbados Relations
By Stephen Kangal
February 14, 2008
The damaging legacy bequeathed by the Barbados Labour Party’s dethroned Ex-Prime Minister, Mr. Owen Arthur in contributing to the turbulence that marred and blemished T&T/Barbados relations for the fourteen years of his Prime Ministership must not be allowed to accompany him unnoticed and unrecorded as he rides into the political sunset of Barbados. He personified the traditional “Baje” who is always one -step ahead of the unsuspecting and accommodating Trini.
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