By Stephen Kangal
January 29, 2011
The official visits undertaken by Prime Ministers Panday (1997) and Bissessar-Persad ( 2012) to their respective ancestral homeland villages located in North India after receiving the Pravasi Samaan Awards bring into sharp focus the truth inherent in the maxim that God works in mysterious ways His wonders to behold.
Continue reading Alternative to Crossing the Kala Pani
By Stephen Kangal
January 22, 2012
It is patently clear that the staging of the tenth annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) pilgrimage to India by the Indian Ministry of Overseas Indians Affairs is geared and exclusively configured to exploiting and attracting for the benefit of the Indian economy the enormous wealth, political influence and entrepreneurship to be found within the 30 million Indian diaspora. Remittances alone to India amount to over US$50bn annually that is seven times T&T’s budget.
Continue reading Kamla Spoils the Bharatiya Party in Jaipur
By Stephen Kangal
January 15, 2012
PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar receives the Pravasi Samaan Award in Jaipur
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar attempted to touch the feet of The President of India, Shrimatee Pratibha Patil in true Trini Hindu-style of performing the “goar lagay” after receiving the Pravasi Samaan Award in Jaipur. The question is whether she has compromised the concept of the sovereign equality of states and infringed the secular configuration and contours of governance by this Hindu act of humility, respect, diplomacy and submission.
Continue reading To Goar or Not To Lagay
By Stephen Kangal
January 06, 2012
Our Prime Minister the Hon Kamla P. Bissessar is paying an Official State Visit to India, her ancestral homeland at the latter’s invitation after an interregnum of 15 years, Basdeo Panday being the last to do so. She is also the Chief Guest of the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh at the Annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas to be held in Jaipur from the 7 to 9 January. The PM is accompanied on this official state visit by seven Government Ministers and a public-private sector entourage numbering in excess of 100 participants.
Continue reading Jute Matting for Kamla at Delhi Airport
By Stephen Kangal
December 26, 2011
The infectious lyrics of chutney this Xmas have currently emancipated itself from the celebration and adoration of the rejected “rum till I die” theme to genuine social commentary/analysis of the deteriorating, dominating and lack-of-confidence conduct of the young Indian woman inside and outside of the marriage contract.
Continue reading Celebration of Wine to Rejection of Women
By Stephen Kangal
December 13, 2011
Ministerial and accredited diplomacy failed to insulate T&T from the embarrassment occasioned by the successful and complicit application of the extra-territorial tentacles upon which the anti- Cuba 1996 Helms Burton Act (HBA) depends for the effectiveness of its punitive global outreach during the recent triennial Caricom-Cuba Summit. It is Cuba that should have apologized to T&T for feeling the impact of the US big stick diplomacy.
Continue reading Diminishing Our Diplomatic Legacy
By Stephen Kangal – Caroni
July 05, 2011
The PNM with the longest sojourn in the governance of T&T now has no alternative but to review and radically revamp the secrective and undemocratic nature and nurture of its long outdated and corrupted delegate system used to elect and determine its leader and governing National Council.
Continue reading PNM Must Now Trump and Follow Suit
By Stephen Kangal
April 20, 2011
The Police Service is singularly the most unique and powerful institution of the state. The establishment of that service cannot be honestly and usefully compared with and justified by the ethnic composition of the establishment of any other public and private sector institution. At the same time the entry requirements for this service is academically minimal. Brawn was accorded overriding importance at the early stage of the then Police Force. Accordingly studying law, medicine or the professions was never an alternative to being a police man.
Continue reading Police Service Is Unique and Powerful
By Stephen Kangal
February 21, 2011
After 49 years of an ethno-nationalism-based and driven Independence and four distinct nationalist-leaning regimes what is the prevailing status quo on cross- cultural relations/diversity management that now impels us in T&T to want to chart a new culturally-sensitive and responsive way forward (multiculturalism) instead of continuing along the unjust and hitherto ethno-nationalism-paved track?
Continue reading Ravages of Ethno-Nationalism
By Stephen Kangal
February 15, 2011
Professor Selwyn Cudjoe in his article wrote:
“In his ‘Mother Trinidad and Tobago Speech’ Dr. Williams intimated that we owe our primary allegiance to T&T rather than the various countries from which our ancestors came. In 2010, angered by the seemingly preferential treatment that Africans enjoyed under the People’s National Movement, the People’s Partnership (PP) decided to emphasize our difference rather than our commonalities thereby tearing away at the common cultural bond that holds us together as a nation”. (Selwyn Cudjoe in “Mother Trinidad and Tobago” Article – trinicenter.com – 16 January 2011).
Continue reading Cudjoe and His Careless Thinking