By Al Jazeera English
January 25, 2010 – aljazeera.net
In 2008, in the midst of the global food crisis, we travelled to Haiti to look at the politics of rice – how such a fertile country became dependent on food aid.
In the wake of this current disaster, that dependence is – initially – going to deepen.
Continue reading Focus on Haiti – The Politics of Rice
By Raffique Shah
January 24, 2010
WHAT surprised me about my column last week was the number of people, mostly local, who knew little or nothing about Haiti’s history. But what should I have expected in a country and an education system in which history has been deemed irrelevant? Or when students study the subject, the focus is on lands and civilisations afar? Let’s face it: we know more about America and Europe than we do of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean.
Continue reading Haiti: Another American Annexation?
By Raffique Shah
January 17, 2010
SO we cry for Haiti again. Yet another natural disaster, this time an earthquake of horrendous magnitude, has all but flattened what was left of that ‘cussed’ country. In the Caribbean, so full of heart are we, even those who survive barely above the poverty line give, be it cash or clothes or food. But will our generosity, will the US$1 billion or so in help that will flow over the next year make a difference to 4.5 million of seven million people who live on less than US$1 day?
Continue reading Reparations, not handouts, for Haiti
By Raffique Shah
January 10, 2010
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog
Should readers feel I am making light of a serious subject, I plead guilty. With the coming of artiste Beyoncé taking on proportions of the second coming of Christ, I cannot help but enjoy a sense of detached amusement. First, I had to find out just who the hell Beyoncé was. Upon enquiring, I repeatedly mispronounced the name-Beyonce, Beyond-only to be rudely corrected by my daughter.
Continue reading Beyoncé a Boundary
By Raffique Shah
January 03, 2010
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog
Should political turmoil erupt in 2010, it wouldn’t be because of the Property Tax or government’s now toned-down spending spree. The opposition, united or divided, cannot trigger mass action, the kind we experienced in 1970. If anything, it’s the extreme insensitivity of uncaring ministers-Peter Taylor’s ‘living off the fat of the land’, Gaynor Dick-Forde’s ‘only 12 people against the tax’, Neil Parsanlal’s Goebbels-like, weekly media-bashing-that would send angry masses streaming onto the streets.
Continue reading Firestorm is a-coming
By Raffique Shah
December 27, 2009
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog
‘TWAS a year that brought mankind’s madness crashing into the stark realities of the punitive sins of excesses, the deleterious effects of unbridled greed, and maybe, just maybe, it also slammed some heads-in-the-clouds freaks to ground level.
Continue reading Year we learned discretion but ignored destitution
By Raffique Shah
December 20, 2009
trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog
As a Christmas gift to my colleague of many, many moons ago, I am backing Basdeo Panday for leadership of the UNC in the upcoming party elections. I have taken this decision, not after long and hard examination of the issues at stake, or any analysis of the future of UNC, but purely because Bas is a man. And this country of warped minds where people are whimsical in their outlooks, man must back man.
Continue reading Backing Bas …or Ramesh
By Raffique Shah
December 13, 2009
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog
I WISH I could take comfort in the marginal drop in the number of murders this year when compared with last year, the way Acting Commissioner James Philbert does. At a recent year-end function, (Acting) Assistant Commissioner Gilbert Reyes sought to assure citizens that soon we shall not only hear talk about further crime-cuts, but we shall have less crime to talk and write about.
Continue reading Crime shift from urban to rural districts
By Raffique Shah
December 06, 2009
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog
FROM today and until such time as I lose faith in the many manifestations of God that most people believe in, I revoke my agnosticism in the interest of my country. Given the multiple blights that seem to have overrun this country, I have no choice but to turn to the deities in a bid to restore some semblance of sanity to the only nation to which I bear true faith and allegiance.
Continue reading Lords, hear ye my prayers
By Raffique Shah
November 29, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog
Friday morning. Big day for Prime Minister Patrick Manning. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II heads a list of dignitaries attending the CHOGM. Over the next three days Trinidad and Tobago, this small country, will showcase its wonderful Chinese architecture to our envious Commonwealth brethren. Look at me! Watch my costume (including my brand-name ‘darkers’ that I don’t take off, not even to look Her Majesty in the eye, as royal etiquette demands). Don’t mash my Performing Arts cape! I’m on the world stage!
Continue reading An ‘old boys club’ headed by an old lady