Tag Archives: Kamla Persad-Bissessar

Partnership leaders must smoke ‘peace pipe’ now

By Raffique Shah
October 16, 2010

Raffique ShahA brief story in the Express last week caught my attention. The report spoke of serious differences between two organisations purporting to represent nationals of this country who have indigenous blood flowing in their arteries.

The first contentious issue is a claim that one group represents only Amerindian descendants who are Catholics. The other was the timing of the “smoke ceremony to the spirits”. One group swears it should be before dawn. The other went ahead “smoking” at 7 a.m.
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Leveraging Incompetence

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 14, 2010

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI am sure that People’s Partnership took a long time to select the three hundred persons they elected to the various state enterprises, statutory bodies, regional health authorities and key ambassadorial positions. In making her selection, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar enunciated two broad principles: a determination to make the correct choices and no one could sit on more than one board.
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PM orders review of $47M airports contract

By Corey Connelly
October 10 2010 – newsday.co.tt

Jack WarnerPrime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar last evening signalled her Government’s intention to review the $47 million public contract awarded to a Central company for lighting projects at the Piarco International Airport.
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PM’s statement on Clico

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-BissessarPRIME MINISTER Kamla Persad-Bisssessar announced that Government will establish a commission of inquiry to find who and what were responsible for the fiasco at CL Financial subsidiaries Clico, British American and Clico Investment Bank. Below is the Prime Minister’s full statement in the House of Representatives on Friday:
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Financial advice from ‘Layman Brother’

By Raffique Shah
October 03, 2010

TrinidadiansI HAVE never seen a million dollars in my life. The only time I gaped at big money—was it US$20 million?—was when the then high-flying “Sir” Allen Stanford stormed the hallowed Lord’s cricket ground in London, bearing 20-20 prize money in what appeared to be a huge casket. Most appropriate, in hindsight, since shortly thereafter “Sir Allen” ended up in leg-irons in some US jail that may yet prove to be his final resting place.
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Govt to get OPV $B refund

Scarborough CG 51 vessel at BAE Systems' shipyard on the Clyde River in Glasgow, Scotland
Scarborough CG 51 vessel at BAE Systems' shipyard
on the Clyde River in Glasgow, Scotland
By Nalinee Seelal
September 30, 2010 – newsday.co.tt

PRIME MINISTER Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday confirmed Government has cancelled a deal with a Scotland-based shipbuilding company BAE Systems for the acquisition of three off-shore patrol vessels, ordered by the then PNM government at a cost of TT$1.5 billion.
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Here today, gone tomorrow

By Raffique Shah
September 26, 2010

Brigadier Peter Joseph“So, I expect you to tear into (Herbert) Volney’s anatomy in your next column!” many of my readers chorused all of last week. People were itching for me—why me?—to go after the judge-turned-politician, the greatest intervention since, let’s say, mouth-organist Cutty Joseph. Or Hardeo Hardath, a PNM “crapaud” who opened his mouth in Parliament only when he yawned.
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Talking From Both Sides of Her Mouth

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 23, 2010

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeA few days ago the Honorary Prime Minister, Kamla Persad Bissessar addressed the United Nations General Assembly. Among other things she recognized that “the passport out of poverty is through education, community empowerment and social entrepreneurship.” She also acknoweldged that 16.7 percent of our people still live below the poverty line; 11.7 per cent are considered working poor whereas 9 per cent are deemed vulnerable. The goal, she says, is to reduce poverty by 2 per cent per year.
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PM: Volney’s views reflect his personal opinion

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER

Herbert Volney“That several members of her People’s Partnership administration have had a past history in politics and social activism as defenders and upholders of the rule of law and the independence and separations of all the time honoured Estates of a Democratic State as Trinidad and Tobago.
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PNM still attacking media

By Andre Bagoo
September 19, 2010 – newsday.co.tt

PNMTHE PNM is no longer in government, but its members are still attacking the media. In response to last week’s column, former Minister in the Ministry of Finance Mariano Browne, who was one of the key players behind the disgraced former Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira, sent me two e-mails to three different e-mail accounts. He did not agree with me, so he sought, as was his norm when in power, to attack my integrity. When a journalist simply does his job with the utmost dedication in the face of mounting oppression from an insidious Government, they don’t know what to make of it. Surely, there was something in it for me? Surely it was for a job in the PP Government?
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