Tag Archives: Raffique Shah

General T&T, International, Sports

Saluting speed, strength and stamina

3 Comments

By Raffique Shah
Submitted: August 16, 2016
Posted: August 28, 2016

Raffique ShahBy the time I was ready to turn in on Sunday night, my pulse rate was back to normal, and like the Buddha you encounter at the entrances to many Thai restaurants, I wore a silly grin, like a man whose appetite was sated.

No, I did not overeat: I was overfed with athletics performances—and it was only Day 3 of nine days of track and field events at the Rio Olympics. Usain Bolt, who has stamped his authority as the greatest sprinter ever, almost gave me a heart attack by trailing druggist Justin Gatlin up to the half-way mark in the 100 metres final. Then he delivered, in style—but I was nervously massaging my chest!
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General T&T, Health, Politics

Living with Parkinson’s

5 Comments

By Raffique Shah
August 11, 2016

Raffique ShahI had no idea that Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley was seriously ill when I slammed into him last week for failing to take full charge of his responsibilities to the country. Upon reading that Dr Rowley’s ailment required him to have a series of medical tests conducted in the USA, I felt I owed him a sincere apology, which I tender here.

You see, in the years I’ve known him, I considered Keith an exemplar of fitness that those who hold public office should emulate. Because of my training, lifestyle and experience, I’ve often advised holders of high office with whom I’ve interacted that whatever the demands on their time they should set aside at least one hour a day for some form of exercise.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Law, PNM, Police, Politics

Lead, or shut up

2 Comments

By Raffique Shah
August 07, 2016

Raffique ShahI don’t know what plans he has for his vacation, but I strongly recommend to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley that he spend all of it in solitary self-confinement seeking guidance from whatever deity or deities he believes in regarding his leadership capabilities.

I don’t care whether it’s an ashram, a monastery or Papa Neezer’s shrine, I honestly believe that Keithos can benefit from a mega-dose of divine intervention to help him determine whether he has what it takes to lead this cussed country out of the morass it has been mired in for decades.
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General T&T, Labour, Oil and Gas, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, Recession, UNC

Sugar industry was doomed to fail

By Raffique Shah
Submitted: July 26, 2016
Published: August 01, 2016

Raffique ShahTrinidad & Tobago, as a very inefficient producer of sugar, relying heavily on preferential, prices for the commodity from Britain, and later the European Union, should have scaled back sugar production from the 1970s when the industry’s losses mounted year after year, soon to reach uncontrollable levels.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, Racism Watch, Religion

Workers welcomed Caroni’s closure

26 Comments

By Raffique Shah
Submitted: July 19, 2016
Published: July 25, 2016

Raffique ShahThe only thing necessary for myths and mischief to be recorded as historical facts is for informed persons to say nothing.

I liberally paraphrase Irish philosopher Edmundd Burke’s injunction to responsible persons to speak out or act when tyranny threatens, to respond to one lie Sat Maharaj peddled when he spewed cobra-like venom against deceased ex-prime minister Patrick Manning, branding him a racist.
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General T&T, Passed on, PNM, Politics, UDeCOTT

An accidental leader

4 Comments

By Raffique Shah
July 07, 2016

Raffique ShahThe end, when it came, brought relief from some five years of suffering, and pre-empted additional torture from treatment for cancer, which many have described as being worse than the disease itself.

Patrick Manning’s sister, Petronella, who is a medical doctor, said as much in her grief-stricken state. And his wife Hazel, who stood solidly at his side during the worst of times, both physically and politically, absorbed the shock of his death with aplomb.
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England, France, General T&T, International, Syria, USA

Referendum rooted in fear

3 Comments

By Raffique Shah
June 28, 2016

Raffique ShahThe referendum was never about Britain getting a raw deal in the European Union and wanting out so that it can prosper on its own. It wasn’t even about voting to stop the hordes of barbarian refugees at the gates of the castle, given its natural moats, the Channel, the North Sea, which, at other critical moments in history, stopped would-be invaders like Hitler dead in their tracks.
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Features, General T&T, Labour, Politics, Protest

Butler and Rienzi

2 Comments

By Raffique Shah
June 26, 2016

Raffique ShahWithin recent years, annual Labour Day celebrations trigger accusations that the trade unions that mark the occasion with marches and speeches at Fyzabad pay homage only to Tubal Uriah Butler, never Adrian Cola Rienzi.

Such sentiments imply that Rienzi, whose original name was Krishna Deonarine, is ignored by labour because of his race. They suggest that his contribution to trade unions in the country through registration and leadership of both the oil workers’ OWTU and the sugar workers’ ATSEFWTU in 1937 was as critical to the recognition and development of labour as Butler’s charismatic appeal to the masses.
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General T&T, Parliament, PNM, Politics, Recession, UNC

No civility, much hypocrisy

21 Comments

By Raffique Shah
June 16, 2016

Raffique ShahIt would be asking too much of our politicians that they show some humility in their public lives. In fact, it will be true to say that, with precious few exceptions, politicians across the world are egotistical and arrogant, character traits that distinguish them from most ordinary human beings.

Lest I be accused of being unduly harsh on the men and women who offer themselves for high political offices, I ask that readers think of politicians you may know personally, contrast the genial soul you knew before he or she was elected or appointed to high office with the person you see (or saw) in office, lording it over lesser mortals.
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