By Stephen Kangal
March 30, 2020
The PNM Government in categorically refusing to arrange entry/arrival home of 35 of our elderly nationals and having forced Barbados to quarantine them somewhere at their own expense when they arrived at Grantley Adams Airport from South Africa via the UK is in flagrant violation of customary law on the treatment of nationals, consular duty and indeed plain humanitarianism.
Continue reading Inhumane Treatment of Our Elderly In Barbados
By Raffique Shah
March 29, 2020
In time to come, when future generations write about us, about our behaviour during the great war against COVID-19, they may well resort to the Charles Dickens’ classic, A Tale of Two Cities, which was set in a tumultuous period in European and world history, 1775-1792. Dickens opened his tale thus: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…in short…some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only…”
Continue reading Best of times, worst of times
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 24, 2020
I am not a particularly religious man (spiritual is a better adjective to describe my theological persuasion), so I do not believe that God sent the coronavirus to teach us a lesson. However, we can learn a lot from our present challenges.
Lesson One: We must become a more mature society.
Continue reading Surrendering ME for the WE
By Stephen Kangal
March 23, 2020
We must take into judicious account today that The People’s Republic of China (PRC) with whom T&T enjoys cordial and mutually – beneficial fruitful diplomatic and trade relations is afloat and awash with a huge windfall of trillions of hard currency US dollars silos derived from unending trade surpluses realised especially with the USA and increasingly with the rest of the World.
Continue reading China Must Pay Covid-19 Compensation and Reparations
Journalist goes undercover at “wet markets”, where the Coronavirus started | 60 Minutes Australia
Mar 8, 2020 – The predictions about the coronavirus catastrophe grow more ominous by the day, and despite the best efforts of countries like Australia in enacting emergency action plans to contain the disease, its spread continues at a worrying rate. Even the World Health Organisation forecasts a world of pain. It says the virus poses a greater global threat than terrorism. That’s bad enough, but medical experts tell 60 MINUTES it’s actually even more terrifying.
Continue reading COVID-19: Not just a flu
By Raffique Shah
March 23, 2020
I admit that it took me some time to come to terms with the seriousness of the COVID-19 virus. When the highly contagious bug first struck in China late last year, I followed its development with more curiosity than concern. China is a vast country with a huge population and millions of foreigners visiting it most times, so one could expect anything to happen—such as a superbug making its entry into the world. But I have also learnt that the Chinese government and people can handle whatever nature throws their way, usually dispatching the intruder to a swift demise, and in the process sparing the rest of the world worry about it.
Continue reading Of coincidences and conspiracies
By Raffique Shah
March 16, 2020
I suppose it’s human nature to panic and go into the survival mode if there is a threat to life, especially when one’s family might be at risk, however remote the chances of someone dying from the COVID-19 virus may be. I sensed Trinis had arrived at the tipping point where mortal fear provokes panic, when, upon learning that one person had been diagnosed with the virus, mankind in droves stormed supermarkets across the country to purchase toilet paper by the bales.
Continue reading Battling COVID-19
Dr Keith Rowley
March 13, 2020 – newsday.co.tt
Madam Speaker, I have been authorised by the Cabinet of Trinidad and Tobago to make the following statement.
Colleagues, fellow citizens, it is in times like these that we define who we are as a people. We are currently facing two global phenomena that affect us directly and are both largely outside of our realm of control. The first is the widespread presence and deleterious effects of COVID 19, commonly known as the Coronavirus. The second is the serious global disruption in the prices of oil, gas and energy-based products that the international market places are facing and responding to in ways that are, in many instances, unprecedented.
Continue reading Full statement of PM on covid19
By H. Bruce Franklin
March 13, 2020 – counterpunch.org
Some people see the world as an infinite number of prize fights, each with one winner and one loser. For them life is an unending series of these zero-sum games. Unfortunately, one of these people is the President of the United States.
One example of something that is not a zero-sum game is a global pandemic. Someone else’s sickness is for me not again but a threat. No nation gains from the toll in another nation. To fight against the contagion, the main weapon is cooperation, on all levels, from interpersonal to international. On the international level, sharing resources and information is essential, because any vulnerability of any nation threatens the people of all other nations.
Continue reading What Is Covid-19 Trying to Teach Us?