By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 06, 2024
If you are travelling from Port of Spain to Arima and pass through Tacarigua and make a left turn onto Richard Street, you would be heading to the Northern Range. It will take you to a semi-urban community, Paradise Gardens, that sits at the base of that magnificent mountain. Sometimes its serenity feels like paradise as the soft, refreshing breezes that caress the community.
Continue reading Living and dying on a river bank
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 23, 2024
Keith Rowley and his Government will not solve our growing crime problem for the simple reason that Rowley has become a part of the problem rather than part of a solution. He is much too arrogant, indecisive, ill-disciplined and un-inspirational to lead such a vital national effort.
First. He says that Trinidad and Tobago is a violent society, but exempts himself from that national condition. If his description is true, we are all infected with that virus. However, Rowley is mistaken in one regard. He feels that only physical violence matters. He does not realise that verbal violence—a product of the same society of which he is a part—is as bad as physical violence and may be the precursor to physical violence. Rowley practises verbal violence against the nation each day.
Continue reading Rowley cannot solve our crime problem
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 23, 2024
No fallen prime minister since Eric Williams has ever received such an outpouring of sympathy as Basdeo Panday did. On Thursday, the mayor of Siparia and his council members expressed the hope that, “His legacy as a dedicated servant leader, a man of unwavering principles, and a champion for the people of Trinidad and Tobago will always be remembered and cherished.” (Express, January 18). I am not sure their wish will come to pass.
Continue reading Consigning Panday’s Memory to National Forgetfulness
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 16, 2024
“Ah did tell Karen, at least in my dream, not to storm de people fete (ah mean de funeral). I told her, don’t go where you are not wanted and most of all, never make yo’ self a pappy show among Trini people. They will never let you forget it. Consumed with self-importance, Karen responded: ‘Ah have to show respect and honour Panday’s remarkable career, so ah going.'”
Continue reading Karen’s foibles
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 08, 2024
Pain, fear, nausea, benumb our sensibilities.
Not sure how many of us will live to see tomorrow’s light,
Not confident our country will remain a coherent whole
After we leave this earth and our politicians depart this life in ignominy.
—Author’s poem
On January 1, 2024, Prime Minister Keith Rowley offered a disappointing New Year’s greeting to his nation. It is as though he were speaking about another country at another moment of time; sounding as someone out of touch with the existentialist realities of his society.
Continue reading Irrational exuberance
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 31, 2023
On Saturday of last weekend, I drove from Boston to Harlem to hear my daughter’s sermon at Rev Al Sharpton’s Action Network Committee (ANC) located on West 145th Street. Her sermon, “A Visit from Your Future”, traced “the life of a wealthy and ruthless businessman named Ebenezer Scrooge”, the major character of Charles Dickens’ novella, A Christmas Carol.
Continue reading A visit from my future
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 26, 2023
There was a large picture of Jesus at the entrance of our home when I grew up in Tacarigua. In this picture, Jesus’ skin was white, his hair was blonde, and his eyes were a piercing blue. This represented the saviour who is supposed to save us from our sins and prepare us to enter into the heavenly kingdom. This depiction of Jesus was a Western whitewashing of history.
Continue reading Dreaming of a Black Christmas
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 19, 2023
What you’re seeing now is a handful of super-ultra-wealthy individuals—plutocrats that, I guess you would call philanthropists—who have incredible leverage over higher education.
—Isaac Kamola, professor, Trinity College
On Monday December 5, the presidents of Harvard University (Claudine Gay), the University of Pennsylvania (Elizabeth Magill), and MIT (Sally Kornbluth) were summoned by the US Congress to answer how well they responded to threats that are made against Jewish students at their universities, and whether students who call for the genocide of Jews should be disciplined.
Continue reading Upholding a university’s core mission
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 11, 2023
In 2013 the people of Tacarigua waged a valiant struggle to prevent the UNC government from establishing a sporting complex on the Orange Grove Savannah, now called the Eddie Hart Savannah. The plan, developed by Sport Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SporTT), a limited liability the Ministry of Sport set up to act as its key implementation agency, called for building a 25-metre swimming pool, a cricket ground and football field, a pavilion, a 400-metre running track, and a car park.
Continue reading Protecting our historic legacy
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 04, 2023
In those halcyon days of the 1950s and the ’60s when the isms and schisms (such as nationalism, socialism, and existentialism) ruled the day, we were sure our generation would solve the world’s problems. We are close to the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, and peace and tranquillity are nowhere in sight.
We watch with alarm at the wars in the Middle East. Even a conservative reading of the casualty figures in Gaza “shows that the pace of death during Israel’s campaign has few precedents in history. People are being killed in Gaza more quickly, they say, than in even the deadliest moment of US-led attacks in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, which were themselves widely criticised by human rights groups”. (NYT, November 25.)
Continue reading War Is Hell