Tag Archives: Selwyn R. Cudjoe

General T&T, PNM, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch, UNC

Contradictions & Counterfactuals – Pt 3

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 20, 2018

“…a state could never have been born without surplus.” —Yanis Varoufakis

PART 1 — PART 2 — PART 3

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeReading Ralph Maraj and Kamal Persad’s contributions, one would think that Eric Williams and the PNM were the worst things that ever happened to Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). They seem to suggest that if only Badase Sagan Maraj and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had won the 1956 general election T&T would have been a paradise.
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Africa, General T&T, Labour, Law, PNM, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch, UNC

Contradictions & Counterfactuals – Pt 2

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 13, 2018

“…a state could never have been born without surplus.” —Yanis Varoufakis

PART 1 — PART 2

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn the nineteenth century Trinidad saw the first massive giveaway of lands and bonuses to the Indians in lieu of their passages to India. Those options were never available to Africans. This was the first step in the systematic dispossession of Africans in the land to which they had been brought. Few of us seem to remember it.

Fast-forward to one hundred and thirty years (around the year 2003) when a PNM government engineered another massive giveaway of lands, which is taking place in front of our eyes under the faulty premise that Indians had the first preference because they farmed the lands. This was/is strange logic since these lands belong to all nationals.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, Racism Watch

Contradictions and Counterfactuals

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 08, 2018

“…a state could never have been born without surplus.” —Yanis Varoufakis

PART 1

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeV. I. Lenin, revolutionary and philosopher, believed that contradictions are inherent in everything we do. He argued: “Dialectics in the proper sense is the study of contradictions in the very essence of objects.”

Consider this: At the same time a PNM government (read black government) gives out 14,492 acres of land to ex-Caroni Ltd., workers (mostly Indo-Trinidadians) at a cost of $5 billion (Guardian, January 27), Kamal Persad claims that over the last 48 years PNM’s policies and programs “were directed towards the advancement of the black supporters of the PNM. [Eric] Williams’s intention was to create a local black professional middle and upper class to effectively replace the whites” (Express, January 24).
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Murder, PNM, Politics

Abdicating One’s Responsibility

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 30, 2018

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI am a bit stunned—ashamed is a better word—that the prime minister admits his inability to combat the most existential problem that faces our country. The prime minister declares: “I have noted the number of murders taking place and being reported in the newspaper daily…. I am being held responsible when it is the police service that has the power and authority to go after the criminals.”
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Africa, Gambia, General T&T, International, Passed on

In Tribute to John Campbell

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 23, 2018

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI met John Campbell around 1990. I had just finished writing my book on V. S. Naipaul and was beginning another manuscript on Trinidad and Tobago Intellectual Thought of the nineteenth century. I needed to hire some research assistants to assist me in my work. I asked the history department of the University of the West Indies (UWI) if it could assist me in this endeavor. This search yielded three wonderful assistants of whom John was one. This was my first contact with this brilliant and engaging young man with whom I had the pleasure of seeing about a week before he passed away.
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Gender, General T&T, PNM, Politics

This Woman Can Be Great

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 15, 2018

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeAs quiet as it is kept, women have always shaped our social and cultural identity. They have been the doers, recipients of the most brutal treatment at the hands of their oppressors and their mates, and a spur towards our liberation and development over the last two hundred years. Unfortunately, they do not always get the credit they deserve in our man-centered world.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Religion

Crime and The Church

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 10, 2018

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeLast Sunday I attended religious services at the St. Mary’s Anglican Church where my people have worshiped since it was constructed in 1843. The prayer of the day was the importance of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It read: “Father pour out Your spirit upon us and grant us a new vision of Your glory, a new experience of Your power, a new faithfulness to Your Word and a new consecration to Your service that Your love may grow among us and Your kingdom come, through Christ our Lord.”
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General T&T, International, Israel, Palestine, Politics, USA

Foreign Policy Blunder

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 02, 2018

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOnce I read our government had abstained on the United Nation’s resolution to condemn the United States decision to anoint Jerusalem as Israel’s capital I raced to the Tunapuna cemetery to reacquaint myself with the words on C. L. R. James’s gravestone, which read: “Time would pass, old empires would fall and new ones take their place, the relations of countries and the relations of classes had to change, before I discovered that it is not quality of goods and utility which matter, but movement; not where you are or what you have, but where you have come from, where you are going and the rate at which you are getting there” (Beyond a Boundary).
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

Big Dawgs and Ass-Kicking Time

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 31, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeA democracy was always meant to be a big boisterous place where all citizens come together to share their ideas about what constitutes the ideal state. In recent time radio talk shows and social media are serving that role-the exchange of ideas-but such avenues are not necessarily the most efficacious ways of soliciting/eliciting citizens’ views.

How we behave in society and the courtesies we extend to others are also important for building social cohesion. A country expects its leaders to lead exemplary lives and conduct themselves in ways that are worthy of emulation. In our society, things have been slipping for a while. We need to see where we have gone wrong.
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General T&T, International, PNM, Politics, Schools

Forged in the Bowels of Corruption: Pt 5

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 18, 2017

PART 1 — PART 2 — PART 3 — PART 4 — PART 5

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeUTT was established fourteen years ago. One estimate suggests T&T taxpayers have spent close to $2 billion on its upkeep. If an independent body has not evaluated UTT, it should do so and make its findings public. Citizens should look at UTT’s efficacy before government pours more money into its operations. Moreover, the following actions should be undertaken to make UTT a more viable institution:
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