By Raffique Shah
June 08, 2013
THE DILEMMA I face every week writing a column must be no different to what my colleagues in all the print media do: what can I write about that’s reflective of good things happening in the country? Surely, there must be positives in the society, nation-building initiatives, achievements by citizens that are worthy of public praise.
Continue reading All the Queen’s donkeys
By Raffique Shah
June 01, 2013
AT all times, human beings must be able to distinguish right from wrong; it is what differentiates us from other life-species. At all times, too, man must have the fortitude to stand up for what is right, to speak out against injustice, whatever the consequences he may face for his outspokenness. Today I feel compelled to make such stand on an issue that many may deem unimportant, and for which I risk being condemned.
Continue reading No to jungle justice
By Raffique Shah
May 26, 2013
I CANNOT quite figure out why so many people are shocked by Keith Rowley’s “revelations” in Parliament last Monday, or alarmed that the string of e-mails he read into Hansard; at first blush, appears to be as bogus as Clifton De Coteau’s black mop. Parliament has long degenerated into a theatre of the absurd, a forum for dishonourable members to slander and scandalise each other, an arena in which targeted citizens are crucified before hordes of reality-television viewers, a fate far worse than that which Jesus Christ is said to have suffered however many centuries ago.
Continue reading A matter of trust
By Raffique Shah
May 18, 2013
IF ANYONE can produce proof that there was a time when this country’s state-owned national airline, in whatever incarnation, made a real profit over a sustained period, meaning at least one year, I would surrender my sanity and vote in the next election. I feel safely insulated from having to do something so unpalatable because I know that in the post-Independence history of BWIA, now CAL, taxpayers who may have never travelled on an aircraft have paid dearly to keep the airline afloat. In the process, they have funded generations of joy riders who are stricken with a stratospheric strain of “gas brains”, and affliction I call “plane brains”.
Continue reading Cut CAL to the bone
By Raffique Shah
May 12, 2013
SHE had first contacted me a year ago, via a circuitous route, to relate a problem she faced at her Diamond Vale home and to see if I could offer any advice. Last week, the pensioner called again. Her problem remained unsolved. If anything, its impact on her health has worsened, and she had tried all avenues I had suggested, without success.
Continue reading Suffering in silence
By Raffique Shah
April 14, 2013
SPEAK no ill of the dead, they say. It is an Omertá-like Mafiosi code that binds hypocrites international, that global brotherhood sworn to covering up the dastardly sins of leaders like Margaret Thatcher, who are lionised in life and eulogised in death, thus distorting history to the extent that the truth be buried forever.
Continue reading Margaret Thatcher: Sinner or Saint
By Raffique Shah
March 30, 2013
IF THERE was anything surprising about the Prime Minister’s frontal assault on the media and journalists, it was the expression of hurt and outrage emanating from the nation’s newsrooms. Really, people, I cannot believe you were shocked when the PM labelled us “rogues”.
If anything, Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s declaration of war took a long time in coming—almost three years. Fellow scribes, be thankful for the lengthy grace period, be grateful that the lady wined and dined you lavishly before she turned on you.
Continue reading PM following predecessors
By Raffique Shah
March 23, 2013
THE purpose of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2013 is to add soldier-power to Government’s crime-fighting initiatives, although if you read the one-clause legislation you would think otherwise. The bill simply speaks of extending to soldiers engaged in assisting the police in maintaining law and order “the same powers, authorities, privileges and immunities as are given by law to members of the Police Service”.
Continue reading Don’t demonise soldiers
By Raffique Shah
March 17, 2013
AND hypocritically, we wonder why the moral-social fabric of the society is torn apart, nay, shredded, by a culture of violence, of lawlessness, of nihilism such as we have never known.
We blame the young, easy targets, never admitting that they are misfits moulded in our own image and likeness, created by elders who are anything but exemplars. We blame foreign influences, television, alien music and art forms. We blame any and everything but ourselves. We never look into the mirror.
Continue reading The Warner way
By Raffique Shah
March 09, 2013
HUGO Chavez cast a giant shadow over the Western Hemisphere during his relatively short life. Few world leaders can claim to have influenced the course of history and geopolitics the way he did. For more than half-a-century, visionaries formulated and articulated ideas for the creation of a new power centre that resided outside of North America and Europe. Chavez transformed those dreams into reality, however limited, and upon his untimely death he left behind the legacy of a new world order that seems set to redefine Latin America and influence global affairs in the 21st Century.
Continue reading Chavez – Catalyst for Change