By Raffique Shah February 14, 2022 My final focus on food production for now, on cutting back on imports which stand at approximately US$1 billion per year, adds nothing new, nothing that I, and others more qualified than I, have not said before. In fact, there is hardly anything I can add to this component … Continue reading Eat smart, beat inflation
By Raffique Shah June 28, 2021 I imagine that like me, most calypso aficionados first became aware of the existence of the late Winsford ‘Joker’ Devine when, in 1980, a virtually unknown calypsonian, ‘King’ Austin Lewis, emerged as a favourite for the calypso monarch title in his debut appearance, singing Devine’s record-breaking composition, ‘Progress’. The … Continue reading Joker, the Bard of Trinidad
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe February 01, 2021 In 2001 when UNC was in power, I objected to its endorsement of Dr Bhoe Tewarie as principal of The University of the West Indies (UWI). I argued that Tewarie was not sufficiently prepared for such a position, his having only attained the status of “lecturer” in … Continue reading Black & Brown People Beware
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe January 19, 2021 Last Thursday, in his response to a letter written by 23 Afro-Trinbagonians about the placement of Black students in our secondary schools, Kamal Persad, coordinator of the Indian Review Committee, responded: “It is clear the under-performance of Afro-children in the education system is still at the top … Continue reading A Black Race Position
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe December 09, 2020 It might be providential that Che Lewis’s corpse was paraded around the capital city at the same time that we are talking about the goals of our educational system and the Venezuelan crisis. The simultaneity of these events should make us think where our society is (in … Continue reading An Existentialist Crisis
By Dr Selwyn Cudjoe August 31, 2020 It is gratifying that we are looking anew at many of the institutional arrangements and practices that we have accepted blithely over the years. Recent articles by Reginald Dumas and Marina Salandy-Brown, the SEA discussion by The UWI scholars, and Theodore Lewis’s brilliant article on the subject have … Continue reading Embracing all our history
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe March 24, 2020 I am not a particularly religious man (spiritual is a better adjective to describe my theological persuasion), so I do not believe that God sent the coronavirus to teach us a lesson. However, we can learn a lot from our present challenges. Lesson One: We must become … Continue reading Surrendering ME for the WE
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe March 16, 2020 It was a polite letter. It was sent to me after my article appeared in last Sunday’s Express. It read: “My name is Denise Brathwaite. I am the Vice President of the South East Port of Spain Secondary Teachers’ Association. I came across your article last night. … Continue reading The Hot Prison
By Stephen Kangal March 04, 2020 Questions and Legitimate Concerns for the High-Powered Authors of the Statement on the Education of Children of African Origin (First Published in the Express of 24 and 25 January and 5 and 6 February 2020 in the Newsday) The foregoing list of questions and concerns is geared to be … Continue reading Responding to the Alleged Conspiracy Against African Students
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe November 20, 2019 As Boris Johnson, UK prime minister is finding out, and Keith Rowley, T&T’s prime minister has found out, it’s easier to be on the opposition benches and spout invectives than it is to be in the driver’s seat making consequential national decisions. Boris lost pivotal votes last … Continue reading Two Trinidad and Tobagos