Demeaning our Soca Chutney Cricketers

By Stephen Kangal
March 10, 2007

IndiansFirst let me offer on behalf of all patriotic cricket lovers congratulations to Darren Ganga and his Soca Chutney Cricketers for once again running away with the Carib Regional and KFC One day Championships. The Team presents the PNM Government with another opportunity to allow it to compensate and make it up to this team for the shabby treatment that meted it to them for an outstanding similar achievement in 2006. Government awarded the pittance of $1million to sixteen cricketers and technical officials while doling out over $35m alone in prize money to the Soca Warriors losers.
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Lecture: African Heritage in the Caribbean

By Chike Pilgrim
March 09, 2007

Professor Maureen Warner-Lewis giving her lecture 'African Heritage in the Caribbean'“THE CLASSICAL AND THE CONTEMPORARY”
2nd Part in a 4 Part Series put on by The University of T&T.

Lecture: “African Heritage in the Caribbean” – given by Professor Maureen Warner-Lewis.

The Lecture began in the National Library (Hart and St. Vincent) at 7:30pm and finished at around 8:45pm.

Prof. Warner-Lewis focused on eight (8) main areas of African contribution/heritage:
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State drops charges against CJ Sharma

Hall of JusticeIn a stunning development just after 1pm, the prosecution has dropped charges against Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma, who was charged with attempting to pervert the course of public justice.

As Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls entered the witness box, the lead prosecutor Gilbert Peterson, SC told the court that Sherman McNicolls, the chief witness against Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma, was no longer willing to give evidence in the criminal proceedings against Chief Justice Sharma. The prosecution subsequently discontinued proceedings against the Chief Justice.

Senior Magistrate Lianne Lee Kim then told the Chief Justice that the prosecution was not offering any evidence in this matter and that he is discharged.
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The Significance of African Heritage in Trinidad and Tobago

A Lecture by Maureen Warner-Lewis

Wednesday March 7th 2007

Time: 7pm

Venue: National Library, Port of Spain

AfricansBio: Born in Tobago, Warner-Lewis grew up in Trinidad where she received her early education. In 1962, she won a Trinidad and Tobago Scholarship to study English Literature at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. In 1970 she returned to Jamaica to lecture at the Univeristy of the West Indies and dedicated her life to studying the connections between Central Africa and the Caribbean that were forged through slavery.
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Politics, Legacy and the CWC Debacle

By Stephen Kangal
March 04, 2007

CricketEver since the establishment of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of CWC I never cease to agonise how current politics demoralises cricket and the playing fraternity. Both the Queen’s Park Cricket Club (QPC) and the T&T Cricket Board of Control (T&TCBC) have historically organised and conducted our cricket (Regional and Tests) with success both on and off the field of play. Examine the outstanding double success of the Senior Chutney Soca Cricketers in 2006 and 2007, the Youth League and Sunday Leagues. Have any of the current LOC political implants ever been involved in local cricket administration except peripherally for LOC Chairman Anand Daniel?
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Let us be gracious hosts

By Raffique Shah
March 04, 2007

Trini PeopleWith cricket World Cup fever gripping the Caribbean as of this weekend, maybe-just maybe-we’d get a respite from the politicians and the criminals, if only for a month or so. But you never can tell what these dubious breeds would come up with to steal our attention away from the galaxy of cricketing stars in our presence and the excitement of matches to come. It takes one mindless act by some gun-toting or cutlass-wielding jackass to cast the entire region in a bad light on the global stage. Or worse, some stupid statement by a publicity craving politician to stir up a storm, abusing his or her rank to paint a horrible picture of the country.
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Abortion and Cash-Incentive Sterilisation to Fight Against Crime?

Mungalsingh stands alone

By Mark Lawrence, newsday.co.tt
Thursday, March 1 2007

What the ...?OPPOSITION United National Congress (UNC) Senator Harry Mungalsingh stoutly defended statements he made to the Upper House on Tuesday that abortion and cash-incentive sterilisation could be measures used in the fight against crime.

Senator Mungalsingh stood alone yesterday as two senior UNC members — leader of Opposition business in the Senate and deputy Political Leader Wade Mark and Fyzabad MP Chandresh Sharma — both distanced the party from Mungalsingh’s statements.
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New politics needed in TnT

By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
February 28, 2007

Red HouseNow that election air politics is ubiquitous’ it seems apropos to postulate that there is need for a new genre of politics in TnT. The fact of the matter is that the time has come for the emergence of maturity in the country’s political ethos.

This writer is suggesting that the time has come for the inauguration of Public Policy Performance Politics (PPPP) in TnT. In other words, the time is now to move completely away from ethnicity to productivity in the political/electoral arena. The time has come for We, the People, to ask the following question: Are we better off as a result of our constituency’s representation over the past five years?
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At Brazil Carnival, Racial Unity a Mask

At Brazil Carnival, Racial Unity a Mask
“Nowhere is the vision of Brazil as a racial democracy more apparent than during carnival, when millions of people black and white, rich and poor, press up against one another in an annual party that began Friday in most of the country.

But the celebrations mask tensions that simmer beneath the surface in a nation where most of the poor are descended from Africans and most of the rich mostly from Europeans.”
Full Article : phillyburbs.com

Brazil’s False Image of Racial Harmony Has Accomplice: the Black Population
“For instance, in a study by Camino, da Silva, Machado and Pereira (1), Brazilians were asked their own opinions and what they thought the opinion of other Brazilians would be regarding “natural” attributes correlating to whites and blacks. In a classic example of recognizing prejudice but not seeing prejudice in themselves, Brazilians believed that Brazilian society itself associated negative attributes to blacks and positive attributes to whites.
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A Carnival we can be proud of

By Raffique Shah
February 25, 2007

Carnival at TriniSoca.comIt was not the “best Carnival ever”, as some Government ministers and security officials boasted last week. If they meant that it was the best in recent years, with that I agree. There were more than a handful of good calypsoes. There were a few mas bands that were colourful, that blended the skills of “wirebenders” and creativity of costume designers, bringing back some of the splendour of yesteryear. There was pan music supreme, so much so that I felt sorry for the many good bands that were not showcased at the finals. And for once I agree with Police Commissioner Trevor Paul, it was relatively crime-free.
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