Tag Archives: Selwyn R. Cudjoe

General T&T, PNM, Politics

Ashton Ford: a gentle spirit

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 02, 2023

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI am always elated with seemingly little, obscure people—that is, people who are not in the spotlight—when they are recognised for the contributions they make to the civic, social and political development of our society. I felt that way when Ashton Ford was honoured with Hummingbird Silver last Sunday. He thoroughly deserved it. This suggested that a person can be involved in political and social work and still remain a decent human being.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Murder

The Blood of Our Children

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 25, 2023

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeAnd so the monstrous, mindless, criminal madness continued on Wednesday with the “execution-style killings of three children and a 19-year-old in the crime hotspot of Heights of Guanapo”. This massacre also left five people wounded, two of whom are children. Yet the Government keeps calling for talks with the Opposition as if there were some magical elixir in that encounter.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, PNM, Politics

Our Truant Prime Minister

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 18, 2023

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOn September 8, the House of Representatives debated the political anarchy and runaway violence in Haiti and how we, in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), can help to bring that country back to political stability. AG Reginald Amour assured us that T&T’s government is “trying to help Haiti, but that troubled nation must be addressed with care, not loud sound bites.”

Caricom created an Eminent Persons Group (EMG) to “facilitate dialogue and consensus building among Haitian stakeholders with the aim of resolving the political impasse.” The EMG is “guided by Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley overseeing national security in the Caricom Quasi Cabinet.” One wonders where he is taking that group.
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Africa, Caribbean, General T&T, Race and Identity

Coming black on board

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 11, 2023

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeTwo weeks ago I was invited to be a panel member of a conference, “The March on Washington: Its Legacy and Impact in the Americas”, that was organised by the US Permanent Mission to the Organisation of American States (OAS) in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington at which Martin Luther King Jnr delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
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General T&T

Emancipation Foibles – Part 3

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 07, 2023

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOn Tuesday, July 18, as per usual, I was researching my present project at the National Archives when Jacqueline Charles, the permanent secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister, walked in. I presumed she was doing what every conscientious permanent secretary does: she was visiting one of the departments under her purview.
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Africa, General T&T, Race and Identity

Emancipation Foibles – Part 2

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 06, 2023

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOn June 27, 2022, Margaret Heath, a member of William Hardin Burnley’s family who once owned the Orange Grove Sugar Estates, sent me an email. It read: “Dear Professor Cudjoe. I thought you might be interested to know that my brother, as executor of my mother’s estate, has just informed me he consigned a trunkful of exclusive family papers that belong to William Hardin Burnley and his son, Frederick Burnley, to Paul Laidlow, Auctioneers, Carlisle, to be included in their sale on July 1st/2nd.”
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Africa, General T&T, Race and Identity

Emancipation foibles

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 03, 2023

PART I

“So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.”

—Ecclesiastes 4, Verse 1

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIt’s Emancipation Day (Tuesday)and all the politicians, the proprietors and the bankers are trotting out their lies about freedom and emancipation. They may even quote the words of our prophet Bob Marley (“Emancipate yourself from mental slavery/None but ourselves can free our minds”), to demonstrate how the ordinary black person has misused the opportunity to free himself/herself mentally in this country. But take it from me, “All of dat is damn lies.”
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General T&T, Religion

The esteemed ancestry of Bishop Rawle Douglin

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 24, 2023

PART II

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoePhilip Henry Douglin, grandfather of Bishop Rawle Douglin, took up his clerical duties at the St Clement’s Parish, St Madeleine, in 1887. Coming out of a slave past, having done missionary work in Africa and having been associated with some of the distinguished scholar missionaries of his day, Douglin was very conscious of Africa’s place in the world and the problems that beset his people.
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General T&T, Religion

The esteemed ancestry of Bishop Rawle Douglin

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 17, 2023

PART I

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeTwo weeks ago I announced that I was taking a four-month hiatus from this column to concentrate on completing Two Caribbean Preachers. I did not know I would be back to these pages again so quickly. As fate would have it, Philip Douglin, grandfather of Rawle Douglin, is one of the preachers I am writing about. Sadly, Rawle Douglin, former bishop of T&T, passed away on Thursday, April 6.
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General T&T, Shouter Baptist

Renewal and revival on Spiritual Baptist Day

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 03, 2023

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI am disappointed I did not join with my brothers and sisters to celebrate Spiritual Shouter Baptist Liberation Day at Couva on Thursday. Try as I may, I could not find out what was being done to honour those who had fought so hard to realise themselves in a foreign land.

Spiritual Baptist Day is important to me. My aunt, Lenora O’Brien, born on November 13, 1895, was never afraid of practising her faith publicly. She rang her bell and proceeded towards the Tacarigua River on Sunday mornings as she and her fellow congregants proclaimed their faith.
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