Manning Ducks our Problems and Runs to Africa

By Stephen Kangal
February 02, 2007

Patrick ManningThose of us who stood as helpless and detached spectators agonising at the repressive regime of the late Forbes Burnham of Guyana will recall that whenever the late comrade Prime Minister faced challenges with his domestic policies his political exit strategy entailed embarking upon some African foreign policy and demarche geared to divert Guyanese attention from his failures and lack of credibility at home. That is in keeping with the diversionary theory that when in trouble at home rulers choose to transfer the focus abroad.
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Jihad In Trinidad

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY
www.investors.com/editorial
Posted 1/23/2007

What the ...?Homeland Security: There’s a lot of talk about al-Qaida safe havens in Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. But the FBI is closely watching a potential hot spot in our own hemisphere.

Al-Qaida is suspected of having set up a front in the Caribbean island state of Trinidad, and sympathetic jihadists have already launched a movement there to replace Trinidad’s Westernized government with Islamic law.
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Grandparents bludgeoned to death

By Nalinee Seelal, newsday.co.tt
January 31 2007

JailAn elderly couple was beaten to death at their Cascade home yesterday by bandits who escaped with an iron safe, leaving behind two infant children crawling in the blood of their murdered grandparents.

The badly beaten body of retired Neal and Massy auto manager, Clyde Commissiong, 69, and his 70-year-old wife, Denise, were found covered in blood in two separate areas of their home on Riverside Road, Cascade. The discovery was made by their daughter Simone, around midday yesterday.
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Portrait of America in TnT

By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
January 29, 2007

AfricansIt is a universally accepted truism that Trinbagonians are the world’s perfect copycats of the modus vivendi of another foreign country. It is also a universally accepted truism that Trinbagonians copy the absolute worst aspects of daily life and values of that alien culture.

It is this truism that is progressively eating away at the very core of sane, civilized human existence in TnT. Not too long ago, there existed the “Portrait of Trinidad” during which TnT was a true, de jure paradise and Trinibagonians were “poor and polite.” This was a time when sanity, human respect/dignity, inward-looking way of life and indigenous values ruled. This was a time, indeed,” when neighbour looked after neighbour.”
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We are failing the promises of Independence

By Errol F. Hosein
January 27, 2007

Trini PeopleThe recent slaughter of four individuals in Morvant including a police officer and the horrific exposure to the atrocity by a young child, is a startling reminder that few are safe from harms way in our present-day society.

We are rapidly becoming a dysfunctional society in which crime and criminals command respect. Too frequently we make comparative analysis about crime and criminal activity in other countries around the world as if to minimize the pain and suffering that we are presently experiencing. This is simply morbid.
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Sledgehammer for a sandfly

By Raffique Shah
January 28, 2007

This is not a picture of Ishmael but a symbol of someone being arrestedThe comical though heavy-handed manner in which the police handled the Inshan Ishmael issue makes one want to laugh till you cry. Here’s a man who decided to mount a crusade against the evils that bedevil the society. In the still of the night, on the eve of his planned shutdown of the country, tonnes (yeah, tonnes!) of cops swoop down on his home and drag him away from his family much the way kidnappers do. They cart him off to Police HQ, hold him for most of the day. They then charge him with publishing a pamphlet without identifying the publisher-one of the most trivial, archaic laws in our statute books!
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Panday’s Zero Credibility On Unity

By Stephen Kangal
January 24, 2007

Basdeo PandaySelf styled and pathological struggler, Mr. Basdeo Panday who enjoys the unique distinction of having mashed up each and every recent experiment in electoral-based accommodation is again erecting another ego-centric unity platform carded for 25 January. As usual, unity, whatever that means is to be found in the mind of Panday, must be crafted under his skewed leadership and on his egocentric driven terms and conditions.
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African History Month

More Than a Celebration of Struggle, Arts & Culture

By Michael De Gale
January 23, 2007

AfricansIf I didn’t know better, during the month of February I will be left with the distinct impression that the Civil Rights struggle, crafts and music mixed with a dazzling display of dance and a variety of cultural activities represents the sum of Africa’s contribution to civilization. In spite of the overwhelming scientific evidence and the existence of numerous artifacts, little is ever mentioned in the mainstream about Africa’s contributions to civilization in the fields of science and technology. With the exception of inquiring minds, the proliferation of numerous books and scholarly articles on the subject has done little to dispel the truncated view of Africa as simply a land of exoticism in the consciousness of the greater public.
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Woman Police Constable among 4 shot dead in Morvant

4 shot dead in Morvant

By Nalinee Seelal, newsday.co.tt
January 23 2007

JailA 47-year-old Woman Police Constable attached to the Morvant Police Station, her 48-year-old husband, 20-year-old daughter and a man said to be in his ’40s were gunned down by four masked gunmen, who stormed into the Pelican Extension, Morvant home of the officer around 8.30 pm last night.

The gunmen shot dead WPC Elizabeth Sutherland, her husband Ivan, their daughter Anika, and Kevan Serrette. Newsday also learned that a grandchild was present at the time of the shooting, but up to 10.30 pm last night could not be accounted for. Police helicopters were hovering over the scene and police officers were combing the area looking for the child.
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