By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 13, 2011
“How come one school could get 14 passes in the top one hundred places of the SEA,” asked the irate caller on the phone, and drew her own conclusion: “Dey had to tief.”
After she calmed down she explained her anxiety. She was referring to the fact that 14 students from Chaguanas Government School placed among the top one hundred students at the recent SEA examination. To her mind, that was impossible.
Continue reading Probe SEA Results
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 06, 2011
I have had mixed feelings about Jack’s fall from grace. I have not been able to garner the venom that some have displayed toward him nor the delight others have taken in his departure from FIFA. I am yet to see how Jack’s actions have so maligned Trinidad and Tobago that I have to hang my head in shame when I am in the outside world. Few Americans hang their heads in shame in light of Madoff’s shenanigans.
Continue reading For the Love of Jack
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
June 27, 2011
In March of last year the General Assembly of the United Nations declared 2011 “The International Year for People of African Descent.” It called for the “strengthening national actions and regional and international cooperation for the benefit of people of African descent in relation to their full enjoyment of economic, cultural, social, civic and political rights, their participation and integration in all political, economic, social and cultural aspects of society, and the promotion of a greater knowledge of and respect for their diverse heritage and culture.”
Continue reading Emergency: Young Black Men in Danger
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
June 21, 2011
A month ago the People’s Partnership (PP) celebrated its first anniversary. Its members party fuh so. Such was their glee that Kamla even found time to stick it to Orville London and the THA. Like all-conquering heroes and monarchs of everything they surveyed, not even the lowly CEPEP was beyond the grasps of their craven ways. They wanted it all. PP was not only of T&T; it envisaged itself as the all-embracing spirit of the society.
Continue reading The Allness of the Universe
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
June 15, 2011
Trinidad and Tobago ought to pause a moment; catch its collective breath, and then ask: where are we going as a nation. Anyone who viewed the video about Niyoka Folkes, a student of Barataria North Secondary School or saw the pummeling she received or the photographs of her bruises that appeared on the newspapers, cannot help but wonder at the sad turn of events at our public schools. That even an adult jumped in to add her blows seems to a dispassionate observer that our society might be going mad.
Continue reading Spinning Top in Mud
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
June 07, 2011
When I asked whether our honorable Prime Minister has a drinking problem I did not mean to be uncharitable or to be “sexist.” Given Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s difficulties I thought it responsible to raise an issue that has gained a life of its own. I still contend that the enabling role Strauss-Kahn’s friends played in supporting his illness may be analogous to the deafening public silence that surrounds the PM’s purported drinking problem. Many of Strauss-Khan’s close friends knew he had a problem. None was bold enough to speak about it publicly.
Continue reading Truth and Consequences
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 25, 2011
Almost invariably, nations, parties and individuals possess different narratives of themselves some of which they present to the world; others that they keep quietly to protect themselves from the world and others. Some of these narratives are wrapped in perfumed sweetness while others are left to petrify, hidden from the public gaze, until their stink pollutes the nation and the self.
Continue reading Does She or Doesn’t She?
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 18, 2011
Call me old fashioned if you wish. Whenever I feel like reading the Bible, I turn to the King James Bible (KJB). Ten years ago while I was in London I purchased a copy of the KJB, sometimes called the King James Version, bounded in Calfskin Leather, written on India paper with gilt edges. It was published by Cambridge University Press, the Queen’s Printer. This copy of the KJB possesses cross references, a Bible dictionary and the words of the Lord are written in red. After ten years, the book still smells of leather and is one of my prized possessions.
Continue reading Let there be Light
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 11, 2011
In March I supported the candidacy of Penny Beckles to become the chairman of the PNM because I thought she was the better candidate. Many of my friends, including Louis Lee Sing and Ferdie Ferreira, felt that Franklyn Khan was the better candidate not necessarily because he was more accomplished than Penny but because he is an Indian. In his now-famous words, Comrade Lee Sing declared: “If we don’t elect Khan as our chairman the PNM will become a N….Party.”
Continue reading Look What the PNM Come To!!!
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 04, 2011
Part 2 – Part 1
Joseph Winthrop Holley, the founder of Albany State University and the son of a former slave, was born in Albany, Georgia, which explains why he wanted to build a school in his native town. He attended Revere Lay College in Revere, Massachusetts which changed its name to the Boston Evangelical Institute before it merged with another school to form Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary that my former wife attended. During the latter part of the 1980s I visited that seminary often.
Continue reading The Souls of Black Folk