Tag Archives: Selwyn R. Cudjoe

France, General T&T, International

Choisir La France (Choose France)

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 10, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe“Grâce à Dieu [Thank God!]” many French people cried when it was announced that Emmanuel Macron had trounced Marine Le Pen in Sunday’s presidential election. Aware of the great divide in his society (Le Pen received 34 percent of the votes), Macron declared in his victory speech: “My responsibility will be to unite all the women and men ready to take on the tremendous challenges which are waiting for us, and to act. I will fight with all my power against the divisions that undermine us, and which are tearing us apart” (New York Times, May 7).
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France, General T&T, International, USA

En Marche! (On the move!)

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By Dr, Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 08, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeVillers-Cotterets, a small town in France, is about 75 kilometres north of Paris. On Sunday last, after having arrived at Gare du Nord, the main railway station in France, I traveled through the Retz forest and lush fields yellowed by the colza (canola) flowers on my way to Villers-Cotterets. I got to Villers-Cotterets in a heightened state of anticipation ready to explore the place in which Alexandre Dumas was born.
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General T&T, International, PNM, Politics, USA

The Great Betrayal – Part 4

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 02, 2017

PART 1 – PART 2 – PART 3 – PART 4

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeDr. Williams and Dr. Capildeo were astounded when they heard the news: “The UWI picks T&T’s Bermudez as next Chancellor.” While they did not agree on many things there was mutual consternation at this news.

Dr. Williams said: “I know Alfredo Fernandez. He was one of our MPs in 1961. But do you know who Anthony is?”
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General T&T, International, PNM, Politics, UNC, USA

The Great Betrayal – Part 3

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 25, 2017

PART 1 – PART 2 – PART 3 – PART 4

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeA wry smile came over Dr Capildeo’s face as Dr Williams bemoaned his party’s betrayal in acquiescing to the massive giveway of the Chaguaramas lands. Dr Capildeo could not help but remember a similar land giveaway that had taken place under Dr Williams’s eyes even though Dr Capildeo did not live to see the long-term effects of that deal.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC, USA

The Great Betrayal – Part 2

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 18, 2017

PART 1 – PART 2 – PART 3 – PART 4

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeDr. Rudranath Capildeo, Dr. Eric Williams’s underground companion, tried to console him when he heard about the massive giveaway of the Chaguaramas lands. Dr. Williams informed him it was his party, the United National Congress under the leadership of Kamla Persad-Bissessar that started giving away the land.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics

The Great Betrayal – Part 1

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 10, 2017

PART 1 – PART 2 – PART 3 – PART 4

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI don’t know where Keith Rowley, Colm Imbert, Stuart Young, Rohan Sinanan, Kazin Hosein, Faris Al-Rawi, Camile Regis-Robinson, Franklin Khan and Fitzgerald Hines were on April 22, 1960, but I was in Woodford Square when Dr. Eric Williams, in the presence of thousands of Trinbagonians, burned “the seven deadly sins of colonialism.” As he dropped each document (including the constitutions of Trinidad and Tobago and the West Indies, the 1941 UK-US Chaguaramas Agreement, and a Democratic Labor Party statement on race) into an open fire near to the bandstand, he declared: “I consign it to the flames…to hell with it.”
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

Views from a Breeze Maxi

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 05, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOn Monday I attended the funeral services of Rochelle St. Louise, the granddaughter of Ulric “Buggie” Hayes, a districker, as the people of Tacarigua call themselves. The ceremony was held at the Arouca R.C. Church. At about 11:15 am I left the service, traveling in a Breeze Maxi from Arouca to Port of Spain. I am in the front seat of the maxi. I ask the driver the obvious question, “How yo’ tink de government going, man?”
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General T&T, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch

Getting It Right

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 27, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeWhenever a significant occasion arises, Kamla, in her ethnic enthusiasm, always muddles things up. When she was elected in 2010 she declared that the “hostile recalcitrant minority,” an observation that Dr. Williams made, had become the government of the country. I have argued previously that Dr. Williams was speaking about the behavior of a small segment within the Democratic Labor Party, but this fact has never interfered with the ethnic narrative of discrimination that some of our Indian leaders continue to propagate.
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Crime in T&T, Death Penalty, General T&T, Politics

Brutifying Our Sensibilities

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 20, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThis is not a criticism against Edmund Dillon, Minister of National Security, or the present government. It is more an attempt to place a finger on what the recent murders are doing to our national psyche, how they are affecting our emotional state and damaging our self-conception.
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General T&T, International, Racism Watch, USA

Making America Racist Again

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 13, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeWhen President Donald Trump promised to make America great again, no one believed he wanted the United States to relive its dark history. To be sure there was a desire to return to a time when things appeared to be less complicated—a kind of white-skinned Utopia—but no one believed the president would hark back to a period when racial bigotry, religious scapegoating and ignorance prevailed.
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