By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 12, 2021
I don’t know how the acidic squabble between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition will end, but I know that verbal violence can have as much devastating consequences as physical violence.
Two of our most prominent leaders cannot be at each other’s throats every day, with their hate-filled language poisoning the national blood stream.
Continue reading The danger of verbal violence
By Raffique Shah
July 05, 2021
One night recently, the latter part of the television news still being broadcast, I had half-an-ear tuned in to it as I multi-tasked, maybe checking out something on my tablet or the hard drive in my head. Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar was on-screen, more than likely addressing her supporters, and I half-listened to what she was saying. ‘…and then there is the NIB…that is insolvent…’ I muttered audibly, ‘That’s a lie!’ ‘Why do you say that?’ my wife Rosina asked. I switched my focus to her, and explained in detail why I said Kamla was lying.
Continue reading Black lies matter most
By Darren Bahaw
July 04, 2021 – newsday.co.tt
Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar used vile language and personal pot shots to criticise the Prime Minister for failing to restart the economy during the covid19 crisis which has in effect shut down the majority of businesses since April 29.
In a statement, Persad-Bissessar described Dr Rowley as a “vaccine vagrant” whose promise to deliver vaccines keeps shifting.
Continue reading Opposition Leader knocks PM over shifting vaccine delivery
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 31, 2021
There is much that is silly about the back and forth between the prime minister and the leader of the opposition about who is to be blamed for the rising death rate the savage pandemic has inflicted upon the people of our country. Rowley says that the candlelight vigils “organized and paid for by the UNC is a major contributory factor in the spike of Covid infections,” whereas Persad-Bissessar claims that the 50,000 people who visited Tobago during Easter “on the Prime Minister’s invitation resulted in the outbreak” (Express, May 25).
Continue reading Searching for Our Truths
By Raffique Shah
May 17, 2021
As the spike in Covid-related infections and deaths rocketed almost exponentially over the past three weeks or so leaving many citizens stunned, people who sought guidance and leadership from politicians were assaulted with a cacophony of discordant notes that sounded like the braying of a pack of ancient jackasses.
What else could we expect from what passes for politics in this country? Imagine if you will a nation in Covid-induced-crisis that descended upon us after some powerfully stupid people believed their mystically motivated leaders who told them first that Covid was a hoax, then said it could be cured by sunshine, and later switched to acquiring vaccines for immunizing the population against what, less than one year ago was a hoax. Only in Trinidad.
Continue reading Politicians lying, people dying
By Julien Neaves
March 17, 2021 – newsday.co.tt
POLITICAL and social activist Bernard Yawching said he expects backlash over his book The Hidden Agenda of Race Relations in Trinidad and Tobago.
The new book accuses the United National Congress (UNC), the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS), and some members of the Hindu community and the East Indian community of promoting a racist agenda. It tracks events from a 1913 speech by former Arima Mayor FEM Hosein about Africans not being as productive as Indians to more modern-day controversies such as Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar describing the Prime Minister as an “oreo.”
Continue reading Bernard Yawching defends book accusing UNC, Hindus of racist agenda
By Raffique Shah
November 23, 2020
“…We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights…whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers…”
Like Samuel Johnson’s proverbial scoundrel who seeks refuge in patriotism, I fall back on the American declaration of independence, especially its “unalienable rights”, and in particular the right, nay, the civic duty it imposes on citizens, to rebel with force to remove a government that is trampling their rights.
Continue reading Focus on T&T, not Trump
By Raffique Shah
August 17, 2020
One of these not-so-good days, some fool will vent his or her racial spleen on the anti-social media or in some public place once too often in a rant that has gone too far; another fool will feel sufficiently aggrieved to react with more than mere racial epithets, possibly summoning idle but willing hands to take up cutlasses and defend the domain of the tribe; and the tribal leaders, coming from a manure-fed lineage that nurtured the fires of hatred for generations, would, by word or deed, ignite an eruption that will wreck what passes for civilisation in Trinidad, not necessarily Tobago, sending this island back into a future filled with hatred, bile, sewage and all things negative. A potential paradise will never be allowed to bloom. It will instead be strangled by the patricidal savages who inhabit the wasteland.
Continue reading Destroying democracy
Posted on August 12, 2020
by Communications Manager
Elections & Boundaries Commission – ebctt.com
With an electorate of 1,134, 135 in the forty-one electoral districts in Trinidad and Tobago, 658,297 votes were polled, giving rise to a voter turnout of 58.04%.
These are the official Preliminary Results of the 2020 Parliamentary Election.
Click here for “The Preliminary Results of the 2020 Parliamentary Elections” (pdf)
There were official requests for recounts by the People’s Democratic Patriots and the United National Congress. The electoral districts where recounts were requested are:
Continue reading The Preliminary Results of the 2020 Parliamentary Elections
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 10, 2020
I have been a political activist and newspaper columnist for the past forty-five years. I have written for many newspapers including the New York Amsterdam News, the New York Tribune, the New York Times, the Boston Globe and the Baltimore Sun. I have never been subjected to as many invectives that I have received over my decision to support the UNC in this election.
Continue reading A Time for Forgiveness and Rejuvenation