Crime in T&T, General T&T, Health, Law, Politics

Legalise it!

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By Raffique Shah
March 13, 2017

Raffique ShahMany friends, relatives, even family members seem intent on having me “make ah jail” in my winter years: they are pleading with me to use marijuana! It’s not that they want to see me in a ganja-stupor or they will take delight in seeing armed cops swoop down on the geezer and whisk me off to some dank, putrid cell.

No. They want me to use marijuana for medicinal purposes, specifically, to reduce, probably eliminate, the debilitating symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) with which I have been afflicted for at least five years. Like me, they have watched videos and read of studies and trials conducted by scientists on the use of cannabis in successfully treating PD patients.
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Crime in T&T, Politics

Ramnarine on Petrotrin: Imbert wrong again

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Media Release from
Kevin Ramnarine
FORMER MINISTER OF ENERGY AND ENERGY AFFAIRS, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

Kevin RamnarineRamnarine: Imbert wrong again – Petrotrin paid over TT$ 20 billion in taxes, royalties and other payments to the Gov’t from 2011 to 2015. The country needs responsible leadership on matters of the economy; at such a time, it is critically important that we remove politics from the affairs of the Ministry of Finance.
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General T&T, International, Racism Watch, USA

Making America Racist Again

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 13, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeWhen President Donald Trump promised to make America great again, no one believed he wanted the United States to relive its dark history. To be sure there was a desire to return to a time when things appeared to be less complicated—a kind of white-skinned Utopia—but no one believed the president would hark back to a period when racial bigotry, religious scapegoating and ignorance prevailed.
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General T&T, Passed on

Appreciating the Late Rev Everson Sieunarine

By Stephen Kangal
March 09, 2017

Stephen KangalSome people progress on the basis of accumulating a unique repertoire of wisdom. They then mature incrementally into iconic stature by rendering+ unrelenting dedicated service to church and humanity such that their immediate family- members will surrender, quite understandably, their ultimate filial right to decide quite unilaterally, the nature of the final rites to be accorded to their deceased loved one.
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General T&T

At 71, a good run

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By Raffique Shah
March 08, 2017

Raffique ShahAs I mark 71 years of life today, almost all of them spent in my native land, I reflect on how I have fared, whether I am happy with what my country has done for me, and what I have done for my country. On both counts, I can say I am satisfied. Not fully, mark you. But only an ingrate would gripe at being short-changed when compared with the successes of others. What’s the point in feeling unfulfilled in one’s goals when some may have been unattainable anyway?
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Media, Violence

SAVE ME FROM STALKER

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By Nalinee Seelal
Tuesday, March 7 2017 – newsday.co.tt

ViolenceA 39-year-old woman, who has reported on several occasions that she is being stalked by a man at her Tunapuna home, is calling on police to do more to protect her and her two children. Lian David says she is terrified of the 56-year-old man against whom she has a court order.

On Wednesday last, the suspect pleaded guilty to three counts of stalking and harassing David and was ordered to stay 50 feet away from her home and her children’s school.
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Carnival, Entertainment, General T&T, Music

An Anarchist Anthem

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 06, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeLast Wednesday, Max Prime’s “We Jammin’ Still” was declared the Road March of the year. Over the two days of Carnival, it was played over 556 times as opposed Machel Montano’s “Your Time Now” that was played 77 times. On January 11, Joanne Briggs declared: “Ultimate Rejects” has already been declared the people’s anthem for Carnival 2017″ (Trinidad Guardian). She wasn’t wrong. Over the last two months, “We Jammin’ Still” replaced our National Anthem as an expression of our people’s sentiment: a directionless nation in crisis.
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General T&T, International, PNM, Politics, USA

Will Lobbyists Now Replace TT Diplomats in the USA?

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By Stephen Kangal
March 02, 2017

Stephen KangalThe Prime Minister, Dr Keith Rowley in his usual unrehearsed statement made in the House on Friday 23 February during the debate of the final FATCA sitting raises a number of policy decisions the chief amongst which is whether his Government proposes to liquidate and close our foreign missions accredited to Washington and replace them with highly paid lobbyists to tell the real truths as he put it.
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General T&T, Law, Opposition Party, PNM, Politics, UNC

Guarding Our Laws

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 26, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn 2011, shortly after the People’s Partnership was installed as a government, the GOPIO asked me to give a lecture on multiculturalism. I emphasized that Trinidad and Tobago will never reach its full potential unless all of us—black, white, Indian and African, protestant and Hindu—accepted our past as our national patrimony. Therefore, I was pleased when, Kamla Persad Bissessar, in her response to Faris Al-Rawi’s attempt to do away with the three-fifths requirement for the passage of certain legislation, recognized that our Independence constitution “was evolutionary and was the result of hard fought negotiations at Marlborough House by our forefathers.”
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Crime in T&T, International, USA

Americans’ right to revolt

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By Raffique Shah
February 24, 2017

Raffique Shah(WARNING: The contents of this column are meant to inform readers, more so citizens of the USA, of their constitutional rights vis-à-vis those who govern them. They are not intended to incite anyone, anywhere, to take drastic action to remove any leader, even if he (or she) has become a despot. I further warn my Trinbagonian brethren who live in the USA, and who may be visiting T&T for the Carnival, to resist the temptation to take a printed copy of this column when you return States-side. Mere possession of it could be grounds for denying you entry, or worse, for declaring you a terrorist!)
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