By Marlene Augustine
July 31, 2017 – newsday.co.tt
THOSE in leadership positions need to do more to wean citizens off of an acute dependence on State assistance, former Minister in the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts Dr Lincoln Douglas said yesterday.
Continue reading Dependency syndrome must end
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
June 05, 2017
PART 3
Jasmattie live in bruk-
Down hut big like Bata shoe-box,
Beat clothes, weed yard, chop wood, feed fowl
For this body and that body and every blasted body
Fetch water, all day like if the
Whole slow-flowing Canje river God create
Just for she one bucket.David Dabydeen, “Coolie Mother”
All of us in Trinidad and Tobago were nurtured in Bruk-UP, Bruk-DOWN huts, big like a Bata shoe-box as David Dabydeen’s Guyanese example suggests. Even Eusebio Atanasio Valerio, an exemplary Amerindian ancestor, who documented his life in Sieges and Fortunes of a Trinidadian, lived in a hut in forested Arima. In Tacarigua, up until the 1960s, an Indian barracks stood at the back of the Orange Grove Sugar Estates (OG). Twelve of the first batch of Indians who came to Trinidad in 1845 were sent to OG where they joined the 265 African workers who were employed there at the time.
Continue reading Brek-UP, Brek-DOWN Society – Part 3
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 29, 2017
PART 2
Sooner rather than later I am going to ask Reggie Dumas to take the Trinidad and Tobago Government (T&T G) to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for their wanton destruction of historic sites in our country. In September of last year the ICC sentenced Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi to nine years in prison for “‘intentionally directing’ attacks on nine Timbuktu’s mausoleums and the centuries-old door of its Sidi mosque in 2012.” The judge hoped such a stiff punishment “will deter other attacks on heritage sites around the world.” (London Guardian, September 27, 2016)
Continue reading A Brek-UP, Brek-DOWN Society – Part 2
By Raffique Shah
May 19, 2017
I did a double-take upon reading Freddie Kissoon’s post-May Day column in the Kaieteur News of Guyana. I don’t know Kissoon personally, but I do know that he’s an activist and a writer who is not averse to controversy, who writes as he sees things, damn the consequences.
Continue reading Indian Tribalism
By Stephen Kangal
January 07, 2017
It is with deep sadness that the national community and the T&T diaspora received the news of the untimely and premature demise of the late Anand Yankarran, the veritable baritone singer of the chutney genre of music.
Continue reading A Tribute to The Baritone of Chutney
THE EDITOR: I can NOT believe that a new dress code for teachers is an issue. Really?! Wasn’t the existing one clear-cut enough?
Be that as it may, if true, it is welcome. Welcome in the sense that it serves to illuminate some of the elephants crowding the room that conservatives and the wilfully ignorant among us – i.e many of the over-40 age group – have no intention of discussing. You see in the wording of current guidelines (and no doubt the new one) there is a distinct gender bias, but that’s apparently okay with many people, including radio talk show hosts and their callers.
Continue reading On this “Dress” Code for teachers
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 19, 2016
On Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday of this week, the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival shall premier “Every Cook Can Govern: The Life, Impact & Works of C. L. R. James,” a film that was produced by Worldwrite, an English non-profit or charity organization. The producers describe this documentary as “The world’s first film on the life of a fearless and uncompromising revolutionary.” There is much truth in advertising here. “Every Cook Can Govern” is a well-crafted and informative film about one of Trinidad and Tobago’s most distinguished intellectuals and Marxist theoreticians.
Continue reading Every Cook Can Govern
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 05, 2016
In his article “Black Caucus, Black Humor,” Raymond Ramcharitar pours scorn on the BCM’s (Black Caucus Movement) demand for “land in Caroni for ‘Africans’ and saying it’s a love thing” (Guardian, August 17). He sought to reduce its position to “black humor” and to deride its claim for social justice it wishes to bring to the public’s attention.
Continue reading A Cry for Social Justice
By Ayinde
August 02, 2016
“The stories of our past should not condemn us to the turmoil of acrimony; but rather they should show us a path for achieving the positive and prosperous development of our country now and for the generations to come. . . . We are currently writing new pages in our history. . . . We need to ask ourselves, are we facilitating new prejudices and divisions in our society? Are we perpetuating a mindset of entitlement – claiming rights where instead we should accept personal responsibility? . . . Are we committed to working together in the best interest of our country? Can we look past the ‘me’ and ‘my group’ to the bigger picture of nationhood?”
Continue reading Self-Identity: The Key to Mental Emancipation
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
Submitted: July 31, 2016
Posted: August 02, 2016
Tomorrow (August 1st) is Emancipation Day. It’s a day on which the formerly enslaved commemorate their freedom; a practice they have undertaken since 1848 although there have been interruptions over the years. Generally, two different strata (those whose bread had been better buttered and those whose bread have been larded) have celebrated their emancipation in different ways.
Continue reading May Their Bread Be Buttered Over