Tag Archives: Raffique Shah

Never leave out the ham

By Raffique Shah
December 26, 2023

Raffique ShahThere is a kind of universality about Christmas that makes it impossible to ignore what it means to more than 30% of the world’s population whose spiritualism is anchored in Christianity. Christmas, whether its story is fiction or fact, remains a religious beacon to fewer people in contrast to the expanding populations across the world. There is no evidence, too, that Christianity maintains a leading position when the religions of the world are assessed on their impact on global affairs.
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There will be no war

By Raffique Shah
December 11, 2023

Raffique ShahYou’d think the bloodletting in The Gaza, especially when seen through the lens of Al Jazeera, would deter any country that is involved in disputes over territories from sliding into war. But, because of man, history is often doomed to repeat itself.

Let me say I have tried, on my own, to limit the exposure by television to the genocide that Israel is inflicting on the Palestinians. It does not always work. Rosina will sit quietly and cry, watching children of different ages, but mostly one ethnicity, screaming in pain after Israeli bombs destroy the hospitals they call shelters.
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Return to good manners

By Raffique Shah
December 04, 2023

Raffique ShahIf the crime situation were worse than it is today—and that is hard to imagine—one can easily see the bulk of the population reduced to spasms of laughter as we watch politicians, police and public officers offer lame excuses for us being in a virtual stage of siege, imposed by the criminals in the country who are the only people who seem to have some control over their turf.

For example, the daily dosage of murders appears to be under the total control of gangsters, with the police incapable of doing anything to decrease the numbers. The wider population, held spellbound by the ease with which crime has become almost an industry, offer a mishmash of solutions every Monday morning on media shows. Before the week is over their prognoses become irrelevant. They must once again dip into their magic boxes to churn out some new tricks for the next week.
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Oh Palestine

By Raffique Shah
November 28, 2023

Raffique ShahCloistered as we are in our tiny space in the wide world, Trinidad and Tobago often resorts to grandiose statements to appear to be playing critical roles in global affairs. There is nothing inherently wrong with that, except you can delude yourself into believing your inflated ego and end up being the butt of many a barb in social circuits you have breached by false pretences.

I am not suggesting here the Dr Keith Rowley administration is guilty of dereliction of duty in international affairs, that it has missed out on important interventions that might have brought us more than goodwill. Au contraire, I believe Dr Rowley has grasped opportunities as they arose, and created others where none seemed to exist.
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Crime and rewards

By Raffique Shah
November 21, 2023

Raffique ShahI thought, not hard and for long, I need add, but for long enough to determine, well, if Police Commissioner Erla Christopher could fire the first round of heavy artillery that had the effect of jolting her audience into full alert, which is not normally associated with this “Commish”, or most of her predecessors, coming to think of it, and even better for the sake of argument or a bout of Trini “bacchanal” one Sandhurst-trained Gary Griffith, who responded with a “spray” of machine gun fire that rivalled the ongoing attacks on The Gaza…
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My small, thin Trini wedding

By Raffique Shah
November 14, 2023

Raffique ShahIf someone had told me 50 years ago that I would endure, maybe even enjoy, 50 years of marital bliss, I might have forgiven his ignorance, or likelier ignored his backward thinking, and moved on with whatever I was doing.

In those days I considered ­myself a revolutionary in the image, if not likeness, of Che Guevara, and a flag-waver for the Age of Aquarius generation, both of which had sworn to destroy the “backward” institutions that had “expired” stamped all over them as the modern world trotted along, shedding the old, embracing the new. The 20th century was going to be a game changer, big time.
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Principles in politics

By Raffique Shah
November 01, 2023

Raffique ShahI know, I know: the words principles and politics hardly go together. They are more like an oxymoron. But fool that I am, until the day I breathe my last, I shall strive, in whatever way I can, to have politicians and their publics see the wisdom of insisting that they find ways, making principles an imperative for those who seek high public office, and for those who put them there.
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Andre, a walking exemplar

By Raffique Shah
October 24, 2023

Raffique ShahWe know him only as Andre. Never asked for his surname, nickname or other identification marks or details, the way you might be tempted to scrutinise a banker before you deposit $100 in his sanitised surroundings, what with their propensity to magically make money disappear, according to recent media reports.

With Andre, what you see is what you get: a six-foot-plus whacker-man, walking erect almost with pride, one might say. With his weed-cutting equipment sloped on one arm, and his strides even, much like a soldier’s, one might see him any day in communities around Claxton Bay, where he lives.
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Music, a universal language

By Raffique Shah
October 17, 2023

Raffique ShahA few days ago, I awoke from an afternoon nap to the sound of Indian music literally filling the house. I was somewhat disoriented transitioning from sleep to wake but also, because of the volume at which the music was being played. We hardly ever turn the volume up lest we disturb our neighbours. As I walked to the living room where our small music player is housed, I saw my wife sitting, tapping away her fingers to the rhythm of the music, and my daughter going about her normal schedule for the day. All doors and windows in the house were shut tight so nobody could complain about noise coming from our house.
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Trinis can, must, do this

By Raffique Shah
October 12, 2023

Raffique ShahFinance Minister Colm Imbert is too experienced in Cabinet to not know when he fixed the new minimum wage per hour—TT$20.50—he was, in fact, proclaiming a not-so-new maximum wage.

During my years as an active trade unionist, I became all too familiar with this legitimate, lawful reaction of many employers, mostly in the commercial, agricultural and some heartless manufacturers, stating to anyone who seeks employment with them, “You will be paid government’s rates…that is, $20.50 an hour, $164 a day for daily paid and roughly $3,300 for the month.”
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