Tag Archives: Selwyn R. Cudjoe

Crime in T&T, International, PNM, Politics, Schools

Forged in the Bowels of Corruption: Pt 4

3 Comments

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 11, 2017

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

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThis may be a far-out comparison but it bears making if only because it allows us to measure what success looks like at serious academic institutions. Fifty years ago, Jawaharlal Nehru, the president of India, created the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) with UNESCO’s assistance and funds from the Soviet Union to train his country’s scientists and engineers. On July 25, 1958, ITT Bombay, the second ITT, opened its doors with 100 students. These students “were selected from over 3,400 applicants for admission to the first undergraduate programmes.” IIT’s motto is, “Knowledge is the Supreme Goal.”
Continue reading Forged in the Bowels of Corruption: Pt 4 →

England, Gender, General T&T, International, Race and Identity, Racism Watch

The Black Princess

11 Comments

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 05, 2017

Princess we are happy
You came our way
But unfortunately
You could not stay.

This is a welcome
That has no end
Please pay us a visit
Now and then.

— The Mighty Sparrow

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn 1955 Princess Margaret came to Trinidad to visit. Most of Her Majesty’s subjects felt elated. I attended Tacarigua AC School at the time. All of my fellow students lined the Churchill Roosevelt Highway with our flags (the Union Jack) to pay tribute to our princess. Two days later we headed down to the Queen’s Park Oval to give her a royal welcome.
Continue reading The Black Princess →

corruption, Education, General T&T, Politics, Racism Watch

Forged in the Bowels of Corruption: Pt 3

3 Comments

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 26, 2017

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

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThe development of Trinidad and Tobago’s energy sector owes a lot to the dedication and ingenuity of Ken Julien, our energy czar. Wendell Mottley, T&T’s former Finance Minister, suggests that Julien would not have been successful if he had approached his job through “the typical state bureaucracy.” He was successful because Eric Williams, the former PM, “insulated the energy investments from the hassles and delays that might ordinarily be expected in a programme of such size, complexity and duration” (Trevor Boopsingh & Gregory McGuire, From Oil to Gas and Beyond).
Continue reading Forged in the Bowels of Corruption: Pt 3 →

corruption, Education, General T&T, Racism Watch

Forged in the Bowels of Corruption: Pt 2

2 Comments

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 20, 2017

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

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThings get mighty strange in T&T. Before President Anthony Carmona could wash he foot, he jump into de dance with the chiasmus: “I don’t feel because there is a recession that we need to have a recession in education” (Express, November 11). It sounds noble but it does not amount to a hill of beans.

When there is a recession everything recedes including educational funding for the simple reason that the government or the stakeholder does not have enough money to pay for an expensive enterprise, particularly when monies extended to that enterprise may not have been used with the necessary circumspection. However, the President’s statement sounded Solomonic in the presence of enablers of a seriously disabled system. They included UTT chairman Prof. Ken Julien, deputy chairman Prof. Clement Imbert, UTT president Prof. Sarun Al-Zubadidy, Education Minister Anthony Garcia and Chief Justice Ivor Archie.
Continue reading Forged in the Bowels of Corruption: Pt 2 →

corruption, Education, General T&T, Racism Watch

Forged in the Bowels of Corruption: Pt 1

20 Comments

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 14, 2017

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

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThe last time I heard, the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) was a public institution, which suggests the public owns it. This suggests further that the public (in this case, the taxpayers) have a right to know what’s taking place at “our national university” since the taxpayers have spent billions of dollars to establish this public institution.
Continue reading Forged in the Bowels of Corruption: Pt 1 →

Crime in T&T, International, PNM, Politics, USA

Targeting Dr. Williams

11 Comments

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 06, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn October (2006) I reviewed Colin Palmer’s Eric Williams and the Making of the Modern Caribbean for the Journal of British Studies. I congratulated Palmer for exposing the intrigue of Britain and the United States against Williams when he fought for the return of Chaguaramas for the federal capital of the Federation of the West Indies. I wrote: “It might come as a shock to many that the United States gave some thought to ‘eliminating’ Williams during the Chaguaramas discussion. The British sought to sabotage his efforts.”
Continue reading Targeting Dr. Williams →

Gender, General T&T, PNM, Politics

The Reeducation of Our Prime Minister

16 Comments

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 30, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn terms of native intelligence and intellectual brilliance, Keith Rowley is among the top three people who have held the prime ministerial office since independence. The same cannot be said of how he applies these talents to his present office. These attributes were on display when he was the leader of the opposition; now they have faded. Each office brings different challenges. A person may be successful in one and a dismal failure in the other.
Continue reading The Reeducation of Our Prime Minister →

General T&T, PNM, Politics

Denigrating Women Again

11 Comments

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 23, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeLast week my friend Prime Minister Keith Rowley was at it again, demeaning women without having a clue about what he is doing to their mental health, their self-esteem and lowering their respect in the eyes of the nation. No one in the party seems to have the courage to tell the PM that his views on women are antiquated. What struck me most about Camille Robinson-Regis’s defense of the PM’s analogy of the grooming of women to the grooming of a golf course was her unconscious ability to participate in demeaning herself as a woman and a mother when she suggested there are more important things the nation should focus upon.
Continue reading Denigrating Women Again →

General T&T, International, USA

Ancestors

6 Comments

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 19, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeLast weekend I traveled to Fort Lauderdale to see Mislet Harry, the senior member of the Cudjoe clan. It didn’t hurt that Miami was celebrating its annual carnival celebrations. The daughter of Aunt Elaine, Mislet has lived in the Miami area for the past thirty years or so. She started the Boston carnival in the 1960s and began to participate in Miami carnival once she got there.
Continue reading Ancestors →

Caribbean, Dominica, General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

Does UNC See Itself as Part of the Nation?

23 Comments

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 14, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeLast week I argued that there was something disingenuous about the suggestions put forward by Sat Maraj, Stephen Kangal and the UNC about sending money to Dominicans but making sure they did not enter our country. The UNC declaimed that none of its members said anything negative about the Prime Minister’s plan to bring Dominicans to T&T, but none of them had said anything positive about the plan, not even Rodney Charles or Wade Mark.
Continue reading Does UNC See Itself as Part of the Nation? →