By Kwame Nantambu
January 14, 2020
The recent tragic crash of Ukraine International Airline Boeing 737-800 shortly after taking off from Tehran, Iran, thereby killing all 176 passengers on board, has once again brought to the fore the use, albeit misuse, of the term/label Black to describe/analyze such fatal/bad incidents/events.
Continue reading Why describe fatal events as Black
By Raffique Shah
January 14, 2020
If we think that the Trinidad and Tobago economy is in for another rough ride this year, possibly rougher than what we experienced over the past five years, we should read some of the grim global economic outlooks projected by international agencies such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs et al for almost every country in the world.
Continue reading Amen, Brother Gregory
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 8, 2020
After it was reported that Pastor Vinworth Antony Dayal, leader of the Third Exodus Assembly Church, had assembled $29 million in assets over 19 years, Dr. Knolly Clarke, head of the IRO, declared: “Each church has their own way of doing things but in the Anglican Church and I think in the Roman Catholic, we have trustees. We audit our accounts every year. Our church is very strict with funds. It is not a one-man show” (Express, January 3, 2002).
Continue reading Tithes & Thefts
By Raffique Shah
January 8, 2020
No major infrastructural project exposes the huge, costly gap, both in time and money, between the decision to undertake critical public works projects and their implementation and delivery to the populace than the extension of the Solomon Hochoy Highway from San Fernando to Point Fortin.
Continue reading Simple things that count
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 02, 2020
The issuance of the polymer $100 bill and the hardships it caused many citizens should make us realize how the banking system discriminates against the poor and looks down on them for having created an alternative financial system that serves their needs.
The Trinidad Express, in an insightful editorial, offered a useful history of banking in this country. It cautioned: “It is in the interest of the national economy and social harmony that policy makers and bankers understand T&T’s culture of savings and design instruments appropriate to them instead of demeaning them and pushing them underground.” (December 19).
Continue reading How Our Banking System Dis-serves the Poor
By Raffique Shah
December 31, 2019
Imagine if you will waking up on New Year’s morning next Wednesday in a Trinidad and Tobago that is a “United, resilient, productive, innovative and prosperous nation (and) a disciplined, caring, fun-loving society comprising healthy, happy and well-educated people built on the enduring attributes of self-reliance, respect, tolerance, equity and integrity in which every citizen has equal opportunities to achieve his/her fullest potential…
Continue reading Vision without mission
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 27, 2019
I was in London in 2016 when the United Kingdom (UK) voted to leave the European Union (EU). I expected that the British would remain in the EU because international cooperation is better than nationalist posturing. I was wrong. The British people voted to leave the EU by a small margin.
Continue reading Democrats Beware!
By Raffique Shah
December 24, 2019
At the beginning of this year, the economic and political crisis that had gripped neighbouring Venezuela from almost a decade earlier exploded on the streets and other public places as hundreds of thousands of people participated in colourful, noisy, and sometimes violent protests, many against, some supportive of, the government of President Nicolas Maduro.
Continue reading Guaido gone?
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 16, 2019
ON THURSDAY I read Jovanne Edmund’s protest against Junia Regrello being reappointed as the mayor of San Fernando.
A day earlier I had seen a video in which Edmund had made a similar plea as she protested in front of San Fernando City Hall. Her gripe, according to Newsday, was that Regrello’s son worked for the San Fernando Corporation. Her rationale was as follows: ‘Nobody would kill you to say your son working in the corporation… Come out plain and say so. The same way your son could eat a food, other people could eat a food too’ (Newsday, December 12).
Continue reading NOT BECAUSE ONE IS PARANOID…
By Raffique Shah
December 16, 2019
I confess to being somewhat confused when the Minister of National Security, Stuart Young, and not the Minister of Finance, Colm Imbert, led the charge for the introduction of the new polymer $100 bills on behalf of the Government. It took me minutes to understand their motive for the swift phasing out of the old bills, rendering them of no value, and replacing them with the multi-security-features polymer notes.
Continue reading Beware those with hidden agendas