Tag Archives: Raffique Shah

General T&T

Through a schoolboy’s eyes

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By Raffique Shah
September 05, 2024

Raffique ShahIt was going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I was determined to make full use of everything I heard, saw and read. By the time Independence Day came around in 1962, I had learnt a whole lot of what it meant.

I did not quite understand some of the terms the politicians and legal professionals used. I knew that as a new nation we were severing ties with Britain, but the extent of that change was clouded by the perceptions and often plain politicking of certain politicians who had their own agendas.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics

Columbus dead, Prime Minister

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By Raffique Shah
August 28, 2024

Raffique ShahIf Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley is not careful with every word that “cometh” out of his mouth between now and whenever the general election is held (in 2025, he says), he could become part of the list of political leaders who have thrown away significant advantages they held before general elections.

Indeed, the advantages he and his colleagues have fought hard to establish and maintain after nearly a decade in power in Trinidad and Tobago could vanish in the putrid elections environment by him uttering inappropriate words and policy statements.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T

A time to kill

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By Raffique Shah
August 17, 2024

Raffique ShahIt was the Freeport address that piqued my interest. Six bandits (the police did not use “alleged”) shot dead in Freeport. Normally I would pay passing attention to such reports since the killing fields of criminals operating in this country can be anywhere, given our small size.

I paid closer attention now as I sat talking with my brother, Feroze, trying to figure out if we knew any of those who were killed by the police earlier that day, as we’d spent most of our lives in what I call “Greater” Freeport. As the television presenter continued with what was little more than a routine story, I realised the culprits did not belong to Freeport. They had, in fact, rented the house in a district that had expanded way beyond what I knew it to be. For all we know, one could be from Cedros and another, Toco.
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General T&T, Passed on, Sports

Relief from grief

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By Raffique Shah
August 10, 2024

Raffique ShahI thought I would never get over her. That night when everybody had left and just a few members of the family remained to keep us company, comforting words from my dearest relatives and friends hardly helped. I was just seeing her face everywhere.

Rosina must be laughing wherever she was: I feel sure she was in our room because I heard her laughter, her voice, and even saw her face smiling at me. Readers might become bored with this 78-year-old geezer who has just lost a wife. That happens almost every day to someone or several people worldwide, and when people read this column they’d probably laugh at me pining away after Rosina.
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General T&T, Passed on

Passing of a beautiful soul

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By Raffique Shah
July 31, 2024

Raffique ShahOn July 18 I lost my life partner, the woman whose beautiful face was the first thing I saw when I awoke, and the last thing I saw as I drifted off to sleep at nights. I must have had a hard day the day before, because for some reason on the morning she passed, I was lying next to her between sleep and wake, as close relatives of hers drifted in and out of our room, praying for her in between sobs and whispered words. If the last few weeks have been tough on my family, the last few days leading up to her death and funeral were sheer torture.
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Caribbean, General T&T, Guyana

All praise for President Irfaan Ali

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By Raffique Shah
July 17, 2024

Raffique ShahIt did not take me long last Friday night to switch gears, in a manner of writing, and focus this column on a politician to whom I owe at least an apology, Guyana President Dr Irfaan Ali. If he does get around to reading this, he will wonder why an apology from me: I haven’t written or said anything about this young man ever since he came to office in November 2020, and with good reason.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T

I feel defeated

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By Raffique Shah
July 10, 2024

Raffique ShahIt bothers me that I woke up from a sleep that was not exactly restful, scanned the early-morning television programmes, switched to international news, saw Britain’s new Prime Minister make his way into 10 Downing Street and I didn’t even know his name. I didn’t know how his Labour Party came to win the election, and what worries me most is that I don’t care. In fact, for much of this year, governments have changed in a manner that should have meant something to the people, if not directly to us in little Trinidad and Tobago, but that too didn’t mean a thing to me.
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General T&T, Trade Unions

Ivan, not so terrible

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By Raffique Shah
July 02, 2024

Raffique ShahEarlier this month, I became nostalgic over Labour Day celebrations in Fyzabad. The date and venue are etched together in spirit and in history; hence the reason why the 30-or-so times I attended, marched and even spoke on the platform, it was only at Fyzabad. That position was held by the radical unions.

Many of the North-based unions that openly supported the parties in power avoided Fyzabad for several years after the town had stamped its name with authority as the only venue that made sense. They would conveniently return to their headquarters when its significance was acknowledged by all, especially schoolchildren who were now learning that aspect of the country’s history.
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General T&T, Oil and Gas, PNM, Politics, Trade Unions, UNC

Labour Day nostalgia

By Raffique Shah
June 26, 2024

Raffique ShahI must confess that I feel nostalgic every year when Labour Day comes around. I wasn’t there in 1972 when June 19 was first declared a national holiday. The government of Dr Eric Williams had conveniently avoided recognition of the significance of June 19 to the history of labour and the country as a whole.

Most people who know anything about the significance of that date will know it was when Tubal Uriah Butler, who is seen as the father of radical labour, triggered a national strike by asking a large crowd of workers assembled in Fyzabad for a meeting if he should subject himself to being arrested by Police Corporal Charlie King, a powerfully stupid man who brandished a pair of handcuffs and the arrest warrant.
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Elections, General T&T, UNC

Autocracy, not democracy

By Raffique Shah
June 16, 2024

Raffique ShahWell before I thought about writing a column on the internal elections in the United National Congress, I deliberately decided that I will not focus on individual candidates but more on the process. In demo­cracies such as ours, there are always several interest groups that comprise the backbone of the parties which differ very little on critical issues such as the economic policies, crime and punishment, education and so on.
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