By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe October 29, 2019 In 2003 I fought a doggedly battle to convince educators at (The University of the West Indies) that grades and standardized tests should not be the only criteria for selecting students to enter our university. Many people castigated me and a few called me a racist. Morgan … Continue reading Diversity Matters
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe October 09, 2019 Trinidad and Tobago is a difficult, contradictory society. Every time we take one step forward, we also take two steps backward. Imagine a progressive leader saying that she won’t invite a man or woman to a government function unless he/she is accompanied by his/her married partner. One … Continue reading Turning the Clock Backward
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe September 11, 2019 As Boris Johnson, UK prime minister is finding out, and Keith Rowley, T&T’s prime minister has found out, it’s easier to be on the opposition benches and spout invectives than it is to be in the driver’s seat making consequential national decisions. Boris lost pivotal votes last … Continue reading Two Trinidad and Tobagos
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe May 08, 2019 “Can there be a national life without a national literature?” —Jose Marti Marina Warner, a distinguished English writer of Trinidadian provenance and professor of English and Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, University of London, read from her work, Fly Away Home, at the Bocas Lit Fest on … Continue reading Obeahing the Word
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe January 22, 2019 “Kojo [or Cudjoe] was the Asante name for a boy born on Monday.” —Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing Theodore Lewis is angry that Selwyn Cudjoe has written about a racist white slave holder. He is equally as angry that Bridget Brereton, one of our most distinguished historians, who happens … Continue reading The Ultimate Philistine
By Raffique Shah January 03, 2019 I could have begun the New Year by griping about all the negatives of the old, cussing from politicians to crooks for the many woes we citizens face daily, ranging from a record high number of homicides to a seemingly stagnated economy, arguing that the current government is the … Continue reading Think small, earn big
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe December 25, 2018 On Sunday last, the Lydian Singers’ concert, “The Gift,” explored “the gifts of Gold, Frankincense, Myrrh…and Music” at its final concert at Queen’s Hall Auditorium. There were many outstanding performances. I was enthralled by Pat Bishop’s practice of blending local and foreign elements and her insistence that … Continue reading A Christmas Gift
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe December 04, 2018 The Jamaica Gleaner, it is true, was impetuous. On November 25 it announced that the University of Glasgow (UG) and the University of the West Indies had reached an agreement regarding reparative justice. According to the Gleaner, UG had agreed to pay “£200 million (approximately J$34 billion) … Continue reading Reparatory Justice
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe October 15, 2018 “Gold? Yellow, glittering, precious gold? No, gods, I am no idle votarist!…Thus much of this will make black white, foul fair, wrong right, base noble, old young, coward valiant.” —William Shakespeare,”Timon of Athens” Two weeks ago, I made a case for “reparative justice.” Drawing on “Slavery, Abolition … Continue reading “The gentleman doth protest too much, methinks.”
By Stephen Kangal August 31, 2018 It is now compulsory that tribal politics aside, the capital of T&T must be removed in the medium term from its present earthquake- susceptible location in POS to one that is less vulnerable to the damaging effects of a seven and more seismic event that is nearer and less … Continue reading Relocate the Capital from Earthquake- Sinking PoS