Tag Archives: T&T Govt

Crime in T&T, General T&T, Law, Politics, Security, Violence

Wage war to win peace

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By Raffique Shah
July 17, 2011

Raffique Shah“‘Tis strange—but true; for truth is always strange;
Stranger than fiction; if it could be told,
How much would novels gain by the exchange!
How differently the world would men behold!”
(Lord Byron, Don Juan, 1823)

IN Frederick Forsyth’s 2010 novel, Cobra, the central character, Paul Devereaux, a former CIA agent, is tasked by his President (mucho resemblance to Barack Obama) to put an end to the cocaine menace that is strangling America. Devereaux demands, and is given, $2 billion plus a carte blanche instrument of authority to launch his war on the Colombian Cartel and its global tentacles. He hires as his operations officer a former foe, Calvin Dexter, and within one year they put together a powerful machine of personnel and equipment that attacks Don Diego and his overlords with extreme prejudice, as such exercises are described.
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corruption, Education, General T&T, Politics

Letter to Minister of Education on SEA Results

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July 14, 2011

Dr. Tim Gopesingh, Minister
Ministry of Education,
Port of Spain
Trinidad

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeDear Dr. Gopeesingh:

I am sure that you were pleased as I was to learn that 14 students from one class in the Chaguanas Government School placed among the top one hundred students in the recent SEA Examination. Initially, my instinct was to accept the result and to applaud the exemplary teaching that takes place in that school; that is, until allegations of cheating were brought to my attention. Although I wanted to disregard this unfortunate conclusion, my desire for fairness led me to contact a statistician from William Patterson University in New Jersey, USA, and a mathematician from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, to determine the statistical possibility of such a result occurring.
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General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics

Warner gets shaft from PM Cabinet

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By Anika Gumbs-Sandiford
July 10, 2011 – guardian.co.tt

Jack WarnerThe overwhelming popularity of Works and Transport Minister Jack Warner has a part to play in him being cut down to size in the recent Cabinet reshuffle. A plan, Sunday Guardian understands, was hatched to frustrate Warner out of the Kamla Persad-Bissessar led People’s Partnership (PP) Government, mere weeks after her resigned as vice president of FIFA. There had been rumours circulating more than six months ago that the PM had plans to split Warner’s ministry. Warner however, was unaware of this.
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COP, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics

Exercise in democracy

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By Raffique Shah
July 02, 2011

Raffique ShahAS members of the COP vote today on who will lead the second biggest party in the People’s Partnership Government, I commend officials who organised the internal elections, as well as the candidates and members of the party, on a reasonably well executed electoral exercise. I shall not attempt to influence voters by stating my views on the contenders. Suffice to say that for all his shortcomings, Winston Dookeran set some high standards that whoever succeeds him would find difficult to maintain, far less exceed.
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General T&T, Health, Parliament, People's Partnership, Politics

PM Persad-Bissessar reshuffles Cabinet

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Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar‘CEO of the Cabinet’ cuts four, changes 16 areas
A reconstituted Government team enters the Second Session of Parliament today with changes to almost half of its areas including a newly-created Ministry of Gender, Children and Youth Affairs, an Information Ministry and a drastically slashed portfolio for Works Minister Jack Warner.

We must do better
PRIME Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar reshuffled her Cabinet, promoting Dr Delmon Baker as a Minister in the Ministry of Finance, moving Cumuto/Manzanilla MP Collin Partap to be a Minister in the Ministry of National Security, and appointing Minister of Public Utilities Emmanuel George to be Government Chief Whip in the Senate.
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General T&T, Health, People's Partnership, Politics

PM’s Address to the Nation

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ADDRESS BY THE HONOURABLE PRIME MINISTER ON REALIGNMENT OF CABINET PORTFOLIOS

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-BissessarFellow Citizens, as I had previously announced, it has been my intention to undertake a critical review of the performance of my Government during its first year in office and to make such changes as are necessary in order to fulfill the mandate given to us by you, the citizens on May 24th 2010.
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corruption, England, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics, Sports

Think the unthinkable

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By Raffique Shah
June 26, 2011

Raffique ShahLAST December, after the FIFA voted on hosts for the 2018 and 2022 football World Cup, I wrote a column in which I suggested that Jack Warner might have exposed Trinidad and Tobago to negative fallouts in international relations because of the perception that he had reneged on promises made to the US and Great Britain.
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General T&T, Law, PNM, Politics

Cops were alerted about ’90 uprising

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1990 Attempted CoupCops were alerted about ’90 uprising
The police were alerted by Jamaat al Muslimeen insurgents that they were going to blow up Police Headquarters on the afternoon of July 27, 1990. This was disclosed by Jamaat member Jamaal Shabazz yesterday as he gave evidence before the commission of enquiry into the attempted coup d’etat at the Caribbean Court of Justice in Port-of-Spain, i “The police were alerted. There was ample time, if they followed instructions, to evacuate the building,” Shabazz told the commission. He said he found out after the coup the Jamaat had more car bombs which could have had a much more devastating effect but which they did not use. Shabazz told the commission Jamaat leader, Yasin Abu Bakr, was a former police officer and personally knew some senior police officers with whom he kept in contact.
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Complaints, General T&T, People's Partnership, Politics

Sasha denies sending threatening e-mails

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By Akile Simon
Jun 22, 2011 – trinidadexpress.com

Sasha MohammedSASHA MOHAMMED, adviser to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, has for the first time denied that she sent threatening e-mails to Express editor-in-chief Omatie Lyder and reporter Anna Ramdass.

Mohammed, through her attorneys Jagdeo Singh, Ravi Rajcoomar and Kelvin Ramkissoon, sent a three-page letter to Commissioner of Police Dwayne Gibbs yesterday, asking what offence she committed.
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General T&T, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, Racism Watch, THA, Tobago

The Allness of the Universe

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
June 21, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeA month ago the People’s Partnership (PP) celebrated its first anniversary. Its members party fuh so. Such was their glee that Kamla even found time to stick it to Orville London and the THA. Like all-conquering heroes and monarchs of everything they surveyed, not even the lowly CEPEP was beyond the grasps of their craven ways. They wanted it all. PP was not only of T&T; it envisaged itself as the all-embracing spirit of the society.
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