Tag Archive for 'T&T Govt'

Missing Their Mark

Published on September 17, 2018 in General T&T, Labour, Oil and Gas, PNM, Politics and Trade Unions. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 17, 2018

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeDr. Keith Rowley and the PNM came through the Petrotrin debate looking much better than Ancil Roget and the OWTU. Moreover, Rowley’s rationality and levelheadedness triumphed over Roget’s tentativeness and impulsiveness. Initially, I thought Rowley and the PNM would have won the battle and lost the war. I am not sure this prediction still holds. It’s a pity though Roget did not outline his refinery-saving proposal before (Express, September 14).

My neighbor, a shop steward of OWTU, has another view of things. He believes the strike was “partially successful. It was supposed to demonstrate to the political leaders that we need to change how we do things and to remind them that the people are still in charge.” “The union,” he said, “used the day to protest the selling of our national assets to foreigners.”
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PNM: Kamla must apologise

Published on September 16, 2018 in General T&T, PNM, Politics, Racism Watch and UNC. 8 Comments Tags: , , , , .

By Corey Connelly
September 16, 2018 – newsday.co.tt

Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Keith RowleyUnited National Congress (UNC) political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar is likely to pay a hefty political price is she does not apologise to the nation for labelling Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley an Oreo biscuit, outgoing People’s National Movement (PNM) chairman Franklin Khan stated yesterday.
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Day of work and rejection

Published on September 12, 2018 in General T&T, Labour, PNM and Trade Unions. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , .

By Raffique Shah
September 12, 2018

Raffique ShahI was not surprised when the trade unions’ call for the workers of the country to stay at home and observe a day of “rest and reflection” last Friday failed miserably. What was intended to be a general strike by whatever name labour leaders chose to label it, turned out to be a near-unanimous rejection of their insensitivity to the country’s economic crisis. Workers put their own job security and the national interest before the recklessness of a handful of unionists.
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The Tricky Ways of Democracy

Published on September 11, 2018 in General T&T, Oil and Gas and PNM. 12 Comments Tags: , , , .

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 11, 2018

“Democracy will never be supplanted by a republic of experts.”
—Thomas Piketty, Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI want to compliment Dr. Keith Rowley for the informative and well-argued address he made to the nation on Sunday about his government’s intention to get rid of the refinery operations of PetroTrin. One may not agree with everything he said or the conclusions he arrived at, but it was courageous of him to share his thinking with the nation.
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Fly flag at half-mast

Published on September 5, 2018 in General T&T, Oil and Gas and PNM. 12 Comments Tags: , , , .

By Raffique Shah
September 5, 2018

Raffique ShahIf I’d had a national flag that I hoisted on important occasions, I would have been sorely tempted to fly it at half-mast on Independence Day last Friday.

I don’t own one, so the temptation to display my shame over our inability to attain some achievements during 56 years of nationhood did not arise. I must confess though that the major electricity outage that struck large parts of Central Trinidad just when the military parade got underway relieved me of rendering my patriotic duty that has been an annual ritual for as far back as I can recall.
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Killing the Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs

Published on September 3, 2018 in General T&T, Oil and Gas, PNM and Politics. 6 Comments Tags: , , , .

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 03, 2018

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeAesop, an enslaved man from Ethiopia, once told a fable, “The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg.” It goes like this:

“A man and his wife owned a very special goose. Every day the goose would lay a golden egg, which made the couple very rich.

“‘Just think,’ said the man’s wife, ‘If we could have all the golden eggs that are inside the goose, we could be richer much faster.'”
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Hinds should have stood his ground

Published on August 22, 2018 in General T&T, Law, PNM and Politics. 8 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

By Raffique Shah
August 22, 2018

Raffique ShahFitzgerald Hinds made several fundamental errors in judgment that could have turned fatal when he ventured into the flooded Beetham Gardens last week Monday.

The first was to have gone there as the Member of Parliament for the area when there was nothing he could have done for residents whose homes were flooded out, except perhaps commiserate with them. I don’t understand why politicians believe their presence in such situations is obligatory. What the victims require is relief as far as that is practical, which means attention from the relevant regional corporations and disaster-management agencies.
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Poor People Fed Up

Published on August 21, 2018 in Flooding, General T&T, Politics and Recession. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

By Danielle Frederick
August 21, 2018

MP Fitzgerald Hinds on the runAs I watched the assault on the Member of Parliament for Laventille West and the Local Government Councillor for the area by their constituents on August 14, 2018, I was saddened by the knowledge that what was playing out was a culmination of long unaddressed social and political factors that none of the actors, on either side, would acknowledge long enough to address. Let me be categorical in my condemnation of the actions of some residents of Beetham Gardens towards their Member of Parliament and Local Government Councillor. These men, Minister Fitzgerald Hinds and Councillor Akil Audain, represented the entire political class, and those chasing them represented the underclass created and sustained, in part, by the political class.
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Selective Apology from PM Rowley on Sari Skit

Published on August 21, 2018 in Gender, General T&T, PNM, Politics and Racism Watch. 5 Comments Tags: , , .

By Stephen Kangal
August 21, 2018

Stephen KangalI find that there is a disturbing dysfunctional disconnect between what the PM Rowley said initially in cheap and embarrassing defence of the Sari Skit, the several reasons for his retraction/backing down of those ill -thought out statements, his conditional but confusing apology directed to a deliberately selective audience/aggrieved party and his continuation of his diatribe on associated matters against so-called saboteurs.
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Floodwaters, People Power and the Legacy of Misdevelopment

Published on August 18, 2018 in Flooding, General T&T, PNM and Politics. 7 Comments Tags: , , .

By Tye Salandy
August 18, 2018

Poor people fed up to how yuh system set up
Well, everyday the ghetto youths dead up
Mi ask the leader, him a di arranger
Fi mek poor people surround by danger
Fly and the roach and giant mosquito
Sewage water whey fill with bacteria
Unno ever take a look down inna di Riverton area
Bactu, and Seaview, Waterhouse, Kentire
Long time the MP him nuh come near yah
And the other one whho claims sey she a counsellor

—Bounty Killa: Poor People Fed Up

MP Fitzgerald Hinds on the runThe words by Bounty Killa, also known as the ‘poor people’s governor’ is relevant to every single Caribbean country, where the type of leadership after independence has failed to be sensitive to the experiences of those who have most been disadvantaged by social structures. So when I saw Beetham residents dousing MP Fitzgerald Hinds and councillor Akil Audain with dirty flood water and chasing them from the area, this was the first song that came to mind.
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