Tag Archives: Selwyn R. Cudjoe

Gender, General T&T, PNM, Politics

The Reeducation of Our Prime Minister

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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.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics

Denigrating Women Again

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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.
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General T&T, International, USA

Ancestors

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

Does UNC See Itself as Part of the Nation?

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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.
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Caribbean, Dominica, General T&T, PNM, Politics, Racism Watch, UNC

Do They Ever See Us as a Nation?

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 2, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeLike the Prime Minister, I want to tell the naysayers against his proposal to house our Dominican brothers and sisters to shut up but for different reasons. I couldn’t see how decent men could speak of our neighbors as though they were aliens (“refugees”) who have no place in our land.

Dominicans ain’t no now come. They have participated in the making of this society. In 1814 there were 25,717 enslaved Africans in the island. Between 1813 and 1821 Trinidad received 3,800 enslaved Africans “of whom nearly 1,100 came from Dominica and nearly 1,200 from Grenada” (Eric Williams, History of the People of Trinidad and Tobago).
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

Rogues & Lumpens

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 24, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThe Oxford French Dictionary defines “mentalities,” as “the attitudes of a group of people toward the world and their conception of their place within it; the modes of thought, beliefs, morals, etc.” My colleague Barry Lygate of Wellesley College’s French Department reminds me “first and foremost, this plural is a sociological term in French.” There is “no single English equivalent to ‘mentalities.'”
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch

Love a Donkey: Besson’s Independence Fables – Pt 3

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 18, 2017

PART 1 – PART 2 – PART 3

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeBesson argues that Trinidad and Tobago’s independence venture failed because more than 30 percent of the African population left the country since1962. “These emigrants,” he says, “were mostly urban, secondary school educated, more or less middle class….At the same time, about the same amount of people or more than that of those who left, have come from the islands of the Caribbean.” He elaborates: “Those immigrants’ background were mostly rural and primary school educated. This unique demographic transformation has impacted on Trinidad and Tobago politically, socially and culturally, and has significantly diminished the identity of the AfroCreole [read black] sector.”
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Culture, England, France, General T&T, International

Love A Donkey: Besson’s Independence Fables – Pt 2

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 10, 2017

PART 1 – PART 2 – PART 3

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn “Independence Legacies,” Gerard Besson offers his reading of Trinidad’s modern history. He says: “From 1783, Europeans and Black people who were not enslaved… arrived mostly from French islands. Many were refugees, political enemies and strangers to each other.… After the British conquest of 1797 to this milieu were added Chinese, Portuguese, and African freedmen. Then after much miscegenation, some decades later, Indian indentureship commenced, and latterly [sic] the Lebanese and Syrians arrived” (my emphasis).
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Crime in T&T, Culture, Finance, PNM, Politics

Love a Donkey: Besson’s Independence Fables – Pt 1

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 03, 2017

PART 1 – PART 2 – PART 3

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI always marvel when relatively intelligent people say silly things about Africans and our past because of their color or class position. In “Independence Legacies” Gerard Besson offers a mishmash of information, which suffers from factual, interpretive, and definitional flaws. Besson is more concerned with trotting out an ideological position rather than with offering an analytical argument to support his contentions. It’s almost as though his “Creoleness” exempts him from treating his subject matter with the academic rigor it deserves.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

Forgetting and Remembering

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 28, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOn August 31, Trinidad and Tobago will celebrate fifty-five years of independence. As per usual, there will be an inspection of the members of the armed forces, perhaps a fireworks display (I really enjoyed this as a boy); and many people will troop off to the beaches.

We will also witness the passing of venerable tradition: the conferral of national honors on deserving citizens on Independence Day. Our President has decided he could get more bang for the buck by honoring deserving citizens on Republic Day. Dr. Robert Williams argues: “Handing out national awards on Republic Day is truly symbolic and more meaningful in building and strengthening nationhood” (Trinidad Guardian, August 23).
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