Tag Archives: T&T Govt

General T&T, Oil and Gas, PNM, Politics

Government must come clean on future of oil industry

1 Comment

By Raffique Shah
April 02, 2019

Raffique ShahThe Keith Rowley Government needs to stop playing the ox with what little is left of the oil industry in Trinidad and Tobago. A few weeks ago, chairman of the successor company to Petrotrin, Wilfred Espinet, inadvertently (according to Energy Minister Franklin Khan) invited “interested parties who possess the requisite energy sector expertise and substantial financial resources” to apply for an initial marketing document regarding the proposed sale of Guaracara Refining Company (GRC) and Paria Fuel Trading Company (PFTC).
Continue reading Government must come clean on future of oil industry →

Education, General T&T, Religion, Schools

Celebrating An Educational Template of Presbyterian

5 Comments

By Stephen Kangal
March 23, 2019

Stephen KangalOn the occasion of the observance of 150 years of Canadian Presbyterianism introduced by Dr John Morton in 1868 into Trinidad to rescue the rurally- isolated and marginalised sugar- working indentures from educational neglect and English illiteracy it is right to celebrate, emulate and imitate this rich template of multidisciplinary excellence achieved by the high- performing schools administered by this small and dwindling denominational organization.

However while the educational platform built by this small church largely through volunteerism is a success story its primary evangelical component suffers from increasing statistical decline.
Continue reading Celebrating An Educational Template of Presbyterian →

corruption, General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

Beware: nasty election campaigns ahead

3 Comments

By Raffique Shah
March 20, 2019

Raffique ShahIf you thought that Vernella Alleyne-Toppin had plumbed the depth of depravity when, in the run-up to the 2015 general election, the then Tobago East MP launched the most scurrilous, vulgar attack on People’s National Movement leader Dr Keith Rowley, believe me, you haven’t seen the nastiest political campaigning yet.

Alleyne-Toppin had been allowed by House Speaker Wade Mark all the time she needed to allege that Rowley was a biological product of rape, and that he, in turn, would later end up committing the heinous crime to father a son. The alleged victims openly denied Toppin’s baseless charges, which were read into Hansard in the presence of her political leader, then Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, and other People’s Partnership parliamentary colleagues, none of whom intervened to stop the nastiness.
Continue reading Beware: nasty election campaigns ahead →

General T&T, International, PNM, Politics, UNC, USA, Venezuela

Kamla’s Position on Venezuela Ascended the High Moral Ground

4 Comments

By Stephen Kangal
March 09, 2019

Stephen KangalIn the face of rapidly unfolding political and diplomatic events globally and the current isolation of T&T for its ill-advised decision to recognize unwittingly and side with the internationally denounced illegal and illegitimate regime of Nicolas Maduro bilaterally while pursuing a contradictory neutrality/ non-interference position at the multilateral Caricom and UN levels, it appears to me that Kamla outwitted Prime Minister Rowley in her strategic support for Interim President Juan Guaido.
Continue reading Kamla’s Position on Venezuela Ascended the High Moral Ground →

General T&T, PNM, Politics, Racism Watch, UNC

While I Am Here!

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 25, 2019

“Until all races see each other as brothers and sisters and not as competitors or enemies Trinidad and Tobago is not going to move forward.”

—Kamla Persad-Bissessar

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI congratulate the Hon. Kamla Persad-Bissessar for the brave speech on race relations in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) that she delivered on Monday, February 11. While I do not agree totally with the accuracy of her “short history lesson,” thinking in and of the future is much more important than being mired in the commess of the present. Demeaning Persad-Bissessar’s important insights by castigating the probity of her having Malone Hughes, a brother who was charged and fined several times , on her platform does a disservice to a brilliant analysis of our present condition. It reduces a pressing existentialist issue to a misguided rant about non-sense.
Continue reading While I Am Here! →

corruption, Crime in T&T, General T&T

Do not politicise war against crime

5 Comments

By Raffique Shah
February 20, 2019

Raffique ShahBuried in the last paragraph of a document titled “Interim Gang Report 2018”, which was compiled by the Organised Crime and Intelligence Unit of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service and featured prominently in the last Sunday Express, was one of the main reasons why criminal gangs conduct their savagery with impunity, making a mockery of all attempts by new Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith to rein in their murderous rampage.

Said paragraph concludes: “…Extensive co-ordination between the TTPS and the T&T Prisons Service is crucial to expand investigations and gather intelligence to address the growing threat gangs pose to T&T.”
Continue reading Do not politicise war against crime →

Caribbean, CARICOM, General T&T, PNM, Politics, Venezuela

Montevideo Mechanism Product of Corridor Diplomacy

2 Comments

By Stephen Kangal
February 18, 2019

Stephen KangalThe Chairman of Caricom, St Kitts-Nevis Prime Minister Harris described the Montevideo Mechanism as a blue print or framework to process and resolve all political conflicts. However Caricom’s immediate mandate was to deal exclusively with identifying specific proposals/measures/ the way forward for abating and resolving the worsening humanitarian and political crisis in Venezuela via peaceful means.

This so -called peace-making Mechanism contains four theoretical modules that students develop in their conflict resolution classrooms. It is not self-executing and depends on the push and pull intervention by Mexico, Uruguay and Caricom for its fulfillment in Caracas. No word is forthcoming on progress being achieved this front.
Continue reading Montevideo Mechanism Product of Corridor Diplomacy →

General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

Periscope on upcoming national elections

2 Comments

By Raffique Shah
February 12, 2019

Raffique ShahEven as the crisis in neighbouring Venezuela remains volatile, with the threat of civil war looming large just beyond our horizon, politicians in Trinidad and Tobago are pressing ahead with preparations for their own political wars—local government elections due to be held later this year and a general election before the end of next year.

Elections in Trinidad and Tobago are driven by one core issue: when the People’s National Movement holds power, as it does now, how to remove it from office. Or when it’s out in the wilderness of opposition, how to keep it there. Nothing more, nothing less.
Continue reading Periscope on upcoming national elections →

Caribbean, General T&T, International, PNM, Politics, USA, Venezuela

Venezuelans should thank Rowley, not cuss him

5 Comments

By Raffique Shah
January 30, 2019

Raffique ShahThe Government of Trinidad and Tobago has adopted a correct response to the political crisis in the neighbouring Republic of Venezuela. In conforming with the United Nations charter that member-states will not intervene in the internal affairs of sovereign nations, as Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley explained, T&T has opted instead to join with CARICOM countries to try to persuade the UN to mediate between the warring factions and hopefully diffuse the tension and bring a peaceful resolution to the crisis.
Continue reading Venezuelans should thank Rowley, not cuss him →

General T&T, USA, Venezuela

Venezuelan Crisis is Now Regional In Scope

2 Comments

By Stephen Kangal
January 30, 2019

Stephen KangalIt appears to me that the latest statement issued by Minister Stuart Young deputizing for a missing -in-action Minister of Foreign Affairs on the situation in Venezuela stands on the following three planks:

  1. The UN principle of the Sovereign Equality of States
  2. Non- Interference by T&T in the internal affairs of sovereign state of Venezuela
  3. Non-Intervention militarily but potential mediation in crisis Venezuela
    The first thought that strikes me is that were the international community deterred by the first two above-mentioned pillars in South Africa, the despicable policy of apartheid in South Africa would have been still with us today. Infringements of human, civil and political rights concerns globalize the situation in Venezuela beyond its sovereign/territorial boundaries.

Continue reading Venezuelan Crisis is Now Regional In Scope →