By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 22, 2025
From an immense bladder…
Hear words stripped of their soul
Hanging like bats from caves of rotten teeth.
—LeRoy Clarke, Douens
Continue reading Stuart’s abracadabra moment
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 22, 2025
From an immense bladder…
Hear words stripped of their soul
Hanging like bats from caves of rotten teeth.
—LeRoy Clarke, Douens
Continue reading Stuart’s abracadabra moment
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 15, 2025
In the end, it comes down to the total miscalculation of a man who talks about responsibility but is averse to planning for the future. He never examines any issue facing the country deeply enough. Now, he insists “our coo coo will be cooked if the Dragon gas deal with Venezuela goes sour”. He even asked his fellow citizens “to send your telepathic power to overcome the negative nonsense about the failure of the Dragon deal”. (Express, March 11.)
Continue reading Cooked coo coo and Obeah obsessions
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 08, 2025
Blissfully, the Leader of Our Grief and Sorrow will soon relieve us of our miseries. Unfortunately, he leaves his clones behind who know not what they say or do. Chief among them are Faris Al-Rawi, a former attorney general, and Stuart Young, our first unelected prime minister.
Al-Rawi complimented the Leader recently for “his policy initiatives and actions, which he said were critical in stabilising the oil and gas sector in Trinidad and Tobago. He also complimented Young for his measured approach to the imminent change in leadership”. (Express, February 27.) I am not sure what that last sentence means.
Continue reading PNM’s obtuse rationalisations
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 01, 2025
“Absolute foolishness.” Those were the words the Leader of Our Grief and Sorrow used when he described “the heavy foreign exchange spending on Carnival costumes…He insists that costumes are not investments” (Guardian, February 26). Such statements are “absolute nonsense” and “absolute foolishness” combined in one.
Continue reading Absolute foolishness
By Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 22, 2025
On Saturday last weekend, we celebrated the life of Joseph Sam Phillip, a districker, at the Good Shepherd Anglican Church, Tunapuna, at which Archdeacon Kenly Baldeo, another districker, presided. Good Shepherd, one of the oldest edifices in Tunapuna, was consecrated in 1866.
Sam was an outstanding districker and citizen. We attended St Mary’s Anglican School and were/are parishioners at St Mary’s Anglican Church. His grandmother, Mother Gerald, was the chief Shango priestess in the village. My grandmother, Tan Darling, was one of the chief Shango devotees. She cooked the saltless meats for the annual Shango festival that usually took place in November.
Continue reading Serve in order to lead
By Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 15, 2025
The community is the source of democracy in Trinidad and Tobago. Recently, there have been many references to its role in solving our problems. On Tuesday Shamfa Cudjoe-Lewis declared: “Grassroots sporting groups and programmes must no longer be sacrificed for the sake of national government bodies.” She obtained this wisdom seven years after she became the Minister of Sport and Community Development.
Continue reading Regress rather than progress
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 08, 2025
Nostalgia led me to the People’s National Movement Manifesto of 1991, the year it defeated the National Alliance for Reconstruction. The PNM returned to government in 1991 but lost power to the United National Congress in 1995. A year later, the Leader of Our Grief and Sorrow challenged Patrick Manning’s leadership and lost. His rise to national prominence began at that point. The Leader will leave the political scene in a few weeks but will retain his influence on his protégé, Stuart Young.
Continue reading Intentional distraction
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 01, 2025
Lately we have been obsessed about the elimination of colonialism in our society, the coat of arms discussion being the latest manifestation of this obsession. Only a rigorous study of and a confrontation with our historical past (and present) can release us from this debilitating condition.
Our progressive workers and thinkers have worked to mitigate this condition for over 100 years. Canon Philip Douglin came to Trinidad as the pastor of St Clement’s Anglican Church, St Madeleine, in 1887. That year he delivered a lecture, —The Rio Pongo Mission”, about his missionary work in West Africa.
Continue reading The Cap of Freedom
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 25, 2025
A United National Congress victory in the forthcoming election is the necessary antidote to heal the fissures that have erupted in the PNM’s political structure. Only a UNC victory can counteract the fiendish act of PNM’s hierarchy of selling the party to the highest financial bidders. This will necessitate that PNM takes a more careful look at itself, especially in the absence of the Leader of Our Grief and Sorrow.
Continue reading UNC’s victory: the necessary antidote to PNM’s revival
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 18, 2025
The People’s National Movement came into being against the backdrop of the representatives of black and brown people who met in Bandung, Indonesia, to oppose colonialism. In 1955, 29 countries representing 1.5 billion people (or 54% of the world’s population) demanded a greater share of the world’s financial resources.
Continue reading PNM sells out to the rich