By Raffique Shah
February 14, 2026
I don’t know why the average person who gets drawn into conversation or argument withdraws into the safety net of the age-old boundaries of song and dance, and revelry and scholarly epistles. The educated among us are the first to shelter behind banality as they pretend to know much about art forms that, in truth, they know little of.
Continue reading You cannot legislate culture
By Raffique Shah
February 07, 2026
The first dire warning I issued on this threat to the stability of the nation was so far back that I hardly recall the date and circumstances on which I had spoken.
It was definitely before the 2025 general election. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had triggered the alarm system in my head which raised serious concerns of something close to a race war about to erupt. Sticking with her violent solutions to the runaway crime problem, not for the first time, she simulated a pistol being fired by her hand, with a mischievous look on her face; she squeezed the trigger a few times, shouting empty the clip.
Continue reading No mess, this is madness