Tag Archives: Selwyn R. Cudjoe

General T&T, Politics, UNC

Kamla’s second coming: a blessing

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 31, 2025

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeSOMETHING extraordinary happened two Fridays ago. Kamla Persad-Bissessar—the Mother of our Nation, as I call her—went to Woodford Square to thank her supporters. Her supporters from Tobago chanted: “Thank you, Kamla, the Mother of our Nation. We love you, Mother.”

Such adulation signalled that Trinidad and Tobago is evolving to another stage of social development. It reminds me of “The Chambered Nautilus”, a poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Snr, that explores themes of growth and change. The last stanza reads: “Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul /As the swift seasons roll! / Leave thy low-vaulted past! / Let each new temple, nobler than the last, / Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, / Till thou at length art free, / Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!”
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General T&T, International, USA

Defending black excellence against Trump’s academic assault

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 17, 2025

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeLast Thursday morning, I left Boston to attend the graduation of my second grandson from Morehouse College, “the storied Atlanta school” (The New York Times, May 13). This was a change in the institutions of higher education my immediate family attended.

I attended Fordham University, received my doctorate from Cornell University, and taught at Harvard University. My first daughter did her undergraduate work at Stanford University and got her law degree from Harvard; my second daughter attended Hampton College, received a Master’s from Yale University and a doctorate in theology from Duke University. Tomorrow she will deliver remarks on behalf of the Yale Divinity School Alumni Board, of which she is the president. My son-in-law received his undergraduate degree from Columbia and law degree from Harvard Law School.
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Elections, General T&T

No longer blinded by their lyin’ eyes

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 10, 2025

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeSome years ago I wrote of a conversation I had with Aaron St John from East Port of Spain. He spoke about the dilapidated condition of the South East Port Spain Secondary School and its surroundings: “I have been reading your articles for a while and I want to invite you to come and take a look at East Port of Spain where we live. I am 41 years old and was born in this city. It has not changed for all of my life. It remains the same dirty, nasty, undeveloped, unprotected place and it’s only getting worse and more dangerous…
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Elections, General T&T, UNC

Magnanimity in victory

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 03, 2025

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThe United National Congress’ (UNC) overwhelming victory last Monday was nothing short of spectacular. One of my colleagues called it an Eric Williams moment, meaning that Trinibagonians had inaugurated an important turning point in our social and political history: the decimation of an old stultifying order as they ushered in a new social and political era.
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Elections, General T&T

The Mother of Our Nation

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 26, 2025

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeWhen we achieved national independence on August 31, 1962, Dr Eric Williams became the FATHER OF OUR NATION. When Kamla Persad-Bissessar is elected tomorrow she will become the MOTHER OF OUR NATION. It will be a necessary corrective act: after all, we cannot have a father of a nation without having a MOTHER OF OUR NATION.
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Elections, General T&T

Five dogs and a shovel

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 19, 2025

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOnce John Jeremie, Kennedy Swaratsingh and yours truly supported UNC publicly, darkness would seek to prevail over light, stupidity would try to dwarf intelligence, and moral degeneracy would erupt with diabolic fierceness.

I couldn’t conceive the conversation would descend to the vulgarity to which the former Leader of Our Grief and Sorrow took it: “I have five dogs and I’m handy with a shovel, so John Jeremie does not faze me or the PNM.” (Guardian, April 15); Jeremie was “a dog in the PNM. I can call him that” (Express, April 18).
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Elections, General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

Why I will vote UNC

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 12, 2025

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeBy 1959, party politics had taken hold on the people of Trinidad and Tobago. Michael Kangalee (he now calls himself Krishna, his middle name), my schoolmate at Tacarigua EC, supported the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) that was led by Bhadase Sagan Maraj. I supported PNM, which was led by Eric Williams. Neither of us could vote but we followed our parents and villagers’ preference in expressing our party allegiances. Undoubtedly, our political position was shaped in part by our racial (not racist) affiliation. Years later, I went to the United States, and Krishna went on to live in Canada via England.
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Elections, General T&T

Young’s leadership, trauma, and the politics of bullying

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 05, 2025

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeWhen serving as prime minister, Patrick Manning rendered two insightful judgments on the former Leader of Our Grief and Sorrow. He said: “When he cannot have his way, Mr Speaker, his method is to bully you…We do not tolerate bullying in the secondary school system…The minute you oppose my good friend, he gets very, very angry. And if you oppose him strongly, he becomes a raging bull.”
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General T&T

Discarded human beings

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 22, 2025

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOn Tuesday about 1.20 p.m. I went to First Citizens bank in Tunapuna to transact some business. I wanted to find out my balance and the last deposits and withdrawals that I made. I am aware that if I had Internet banking I could have conducted that exercise from the comfort of my home.

On my way to the bank I saw an old woman, struggling with her walker, and her two assistants—they turned out to be her grandchildren—helping her up the steps. She went into the bank, took a number, sat down and waited to be served by the tellers.
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