Tag Archives: Raffique Shah

General T&T, International

War on wastage

2 Comments

By Raffique Shah
April 16, 2011

Raffique ShahRECENTLY, I posted on a popular local blog an article that purported to show Germans’ intolerance for wastage. Although the report was dated, as a few respondents pointed out to me, its contents are as applicable today, maybe more so, than they were in post-World War II Germany. The article spoke of a group of Americans visiting Hamburg, ordering food at a restaurant, eating little of what they paid for, and leaving much “waste” uneaten.
Continue reading War on wastage →

General T&T, Law, Media, Politics, Race and Identity, Racism Watch, Security

National Service to Redress Imbalances

6 Comments

By Raffique Shah
April 10, 2011

Raffique ShahTHE race-ratios in the Protective Services I mentioned last week would have changed significantly since my generation broke barriers back in the 1960s. In fact, even as I write, an Indian officer, Colonel Kenrick Maraj, is set to take office as the nation’s next Chief of Defence Staff. He will become the first Indian to hold the highest command position in the Defence Force.
Continue reading National Service to Redress Imbalances →

General T&T, Law, Media, Politics, Race and Identity, Security

Accounting for imbalances

13 Comments

By Raffique Shah
April 02, 2011

Raffique Shah“PA, ah joining the Regiment,” I announced, rather casually. “Whaaaaat?” my father Haniff screamed, Anil-like. “The Regiment? You mad! What you joinin’ as?” he probed. He had known something about rank because I had been a member of the Cadet Force when I attended college.
Continue reading Accounting for imbalances →

Complaints, General T&T, Health, Politics

Hospitals of Horror

7 Comments

By Raffique Shah
March 27, 2011

Raffique ShahIF DOCTORS in the public health care system feel that they are being unfairly targeted by Government and the public, they need to pause, collectively inhale, and look into the mirror. They should also weed out those in their ranks who have given this once noble profession a bad reputation. Indeed, many senior doctors who have long moved on into lucrative private practice must also shoulder some blame for the ills that bedevil the public health sector today.
Continue reading Hospitals of Horror →

General T&T, International

Awesome power of nature

By Raffique Shah
March 20, 2011

Raffique ShahI WAS watching a World Cup cricket match on television when I decided to see what was happening in the world. For me, that means switching to BBC, sometimes CNN, but never Fox News. When I saw “breaking news” on the screen, and images that looked like something out of a movie, I paid immediate attention. Massive earthquake in Japan, reporters were saying, as cameras (or video footage) showed huge walls or swirling water smashing everything in their paths. Tsunami!
Continue reading Awesome power of nature →

General T&T, International, Politics

Spectre of people’s power

5 Comments

By Raffique Shah
March 13, 2011

Raffique ShahTHERE’S a spectre stalking the world. It is yet another resurgence of people’s power. Every so often in history, the oppressed, those who face discrimination and subjugation, people whose rights are trampled upon, rise up in a tsunami of discontent. At the cost of some lives, the masses sweep aside monarchies, dictators and even elected governments that have assumed an arrogance that creates a chasm between those who wield power and those who put them in office.
Continue reading Spectre of people’s power →

Culture, Entertainment, General T&T

Collier recolonising Dimanche Gras?

By Raffique Shah
March 06, 2011

Raffique ShahTHE new Dimanche Gras Overlord, one Dr Cyril Collier, believes that the show’s calypso content is “too long, too boring”, according to a Guardian newspaper report. He is quoted as saying he is “very passionate about bringing the Dimanche Gras back to the days of the plantation owners”. Arguing that 12 Calypso Monarch finalists singing two songs each takes about three hours-plus to complete their segment, Collier suggested the show’s three components—mas, pan and calypso—should be allocated equal time.
Continue reading Collier recolonising Dimanche Gras? →

Entertainment, General T&T

Thanks for the Panorama music

By Raffique Shah
February 27, 2011

Raffique ShahAMIDST the continuous cacophony in the political gayelle, blood-curdling cries from the killing fields of Trinbago, and two million tonnes of “tatah” spewed in the Chutney Monarch wasteland, last Sunday’s Panorama semi-finals came like a refreshing, calming breeze that soothed a badly wounded nation.
Continue reading Thanks for the Panorama music →

Crime in T&T, Food, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics, Violence

The law-abiding will strike back some day

11 Comments

By Raffique Shah
February 19, 2011

Raffique ShahI AM so blasted vex as I write this column (Friday morning), I am seething with anger. The newspapers featured a story complete with photographs showing a group of thugs attacking some farmers and other residents of a farming community in Lopinot. The violent, brazen attack occurred in full view of journalists who had gone to cover the story. In fact, the thugs threatened and attacked media workers who escaped blows only because one of their colleagues knew one of the attackers.
Continue reading The law-abiding will strike back some day →

General T&T, Media, Passed on

Conversation with Keith

1 Comment

By Raffique Shah
February 13, 2011

Raffique ShahHE sits on what appears to be a rock hewn from the long-abandoned Laventille quarry (so it seems, anyway, memories of that piece of the Hill’s history now distant), floating somewhere in the sky, shock on his face as he recognises my features. Without query over what I was doing “there” (wherever “there” may be) or greeting me (as was his wont), he booms: Raffique, yuh read where a reporter from my paper—yes, my paper!—wrote that my remains were to be “interred” at the Crematorium? What a thing! What dey interred…mih ashes? Heh heh. By the way, what you doing here? Don’t tell me….
Continue reading Conversation with Keith →