By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
June 19, 2012
There was a time I would be hurt whenever V. S. Naipaul called us mimic men and a false society. I used go after him mercilessly saying how wrong he was and why we were a young society, trying to get things together. When, at the end of From Columbus to Castro, Dr. Williams endorsed Naipaul’s view of our world, I was crushed. I felt betrayed.
Continue reading Fake Society
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
June 13, 2012
There can be no doubt that a teacher’s job is fraught with great anxiety and the competing demands of their professional responsibilities and the rapidly changing social climate. However any observant reader must be alarmed by the concerns of Tim Gopeesingh, Minister of Education, when he says that errant teachers must be disciplined. If teaching is merely a job to them, then any other job would do since the ultimate purpose of a job is to take care of one’s basic needs (eating, drinking and surviving) whereas a vocation or a profession has to do with fulfilling of one’s life calling. I am aware that a young person today may change jobs as many as six or seven times in his lifetime. I have a feeling that things are a bit different in the professions.
Continue reading Ridding Our Schools of Errant Teachers
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
June 10, 2012
While I thank Ralph Maraj for his advice, I am not inclined to accept many of his formulations about the People’s National Movement (See Express, April 14 & June 5, 2012). Although he may be generous in offering his suggestions, the party should say thanks but no thanks to what comes over as a disingenuous plug for the People’s Partnership. Keeping in mind Maraj’s political history—his grasshopping tendency to jump from one party to another—dedicated members of the PNM should think twice before they accept what he has to say.
Continue reading Thanks, But No Thanks
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
June 06, 2012
A few days ago, the People’s Partnership (PP) celebrated its second year of office amidst a lot of hype and propaganda. Their esteemed leader even tried to mamaguy Orville London by calling him “a bully and cry-baby” because, in his capacity as the Secretary of the THA, he sought a meeting with Kamla Persad Bissessar, in her capacity as the Prime Minister, to talk about the affairs of his country. Under normal circumstances, London would not necessarily have wanted to meet Persad Bissessar because there is nothing intellectually attractive or physically compelling about her. But such is the dynamics of power that the Prime Minister and her cohorts could say a lot of nonsense and get away with it because they control the political purse and constitutional discourses about the nation.
Continue reading PP: Taking Loud and Saying Nothing
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 30, 2012
I want to congratulate my East Indian compatriots for the achievements they have made over the 167 years they have spent in Trinidad and Tobago and the enormous efforts they have made to carve out a space in these two beautiful islands in the West Indies. I also wish to congratulate Sat Maharaj for the herculean efforts he has made to improve the educational standards of his people and his determination to ensure that his people receive their rightful share of the national pie. When the history of the second half of the twentieth century is written I am certain he will take his place as one of the more outstanding Trinbagonians of the era.
Continue reading The Cowshed Fable
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 23, 2012
Indiscipline has its consequences. As a nation we are paying for this indiscipline in every phase of national life up to and including the unprecedented road fatalities on our highways. Yesterday it was the Acting Chief Justice; tomorrow it could be the President or the Prime Minister. If we do not come to our senses we will pay drastically for the indiscipline that plagues our nation. It is a disease that the old are passing on to the young.
Continue reading Leading by Example
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 16, 2012
Corruption takes various forms. Sometimes it is as deliberate as paying someone to give a view that is favorable to one’s position; sometimes it involves simply stealing another man’s purse through devious means; sometimes it entails padding the payroll so that someone gets more money than he or she worked for. Sometimes it even involves using one’s talent, be it mental or physical, and placing it at the behest of the highest bidder. Sometimes it is as blatant as the acts of Calder Hart or Bernie Madoff.
Continue reading Corrupting Our Morals
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 09, 2012
Now that Francois Hollande has shattered the consensus around the virtues of austerity, the real question is this: what will American voters do when their turn comes to make a judgment on Barack Obama’s stewardship over the last four years. Too many Americans seem to have forgotten the mess that Obama inherited when he took over from George Bush and the unrelieved opposition he has encountered from a Congress and a Senate who are hell-bent on ensuring he fails. It is almost as though the Republicans want to punish Obama for not recovering the jobs that Bush lost in the first place.
Continue reading Obama’s Challenges
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 02, 2012
The news flooded the airways and inundated the newspapers: “Vidwatie Newton, the sister of Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar, traveled first class when she accompanied the PM on her recent trip to India…The total cost of Newton’s travel to India was $233,600” (Express, April 27).
Continue reading Stealing from the Public Purse
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 25, 2012
Dr. Karl Case, a dear friend and one of the most eminent economists in the United States, has always pointed out to me that part of the greatness of the United States lies in innovative scientific research that takes place at its MITs (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and its California Techs; in its Silicone Valleys and Route 128 in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Case should know. He is one of the founders of the S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index, the leading indicator for the US housing market; a member of the Standards and Poors Index Advisory Committee and the Academic Advisory Board of the Federal Reserve Board of Boston; the co-author of Principles of Economics that is used in over 300 colleges and universities in the United States. Not only is he knowledgeable but he has proved his mettle in the hard, cold world of United States capitalist market.
Continue reading The New Barbarians