Category Archives: Elections

Kamla must think carefully on Volney

Justice Herbert VolneyJudges in the house?
We have no problem with former judges deciding to join political parties, and to run as candidates for these parties. The difference is that a former judge is a citizen like the rest of us. We cannot yet refer to Judge Volney as a “former judge” in this debate. He was still on the Bench when he made his decision, and he clearly must have been in some sort of consultation with the UNC even as he enjoyed the status of a High Court Judge.
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Gordon Brown’s Disaster

Gordon Brown, Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe and Kamla Persad-Bissessar

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 30, 2010

It couldn’t have come at worse time. You are down in the polls. You have a reputation of having raging tantrums, being dour and bereft of the common touch. Although you are a good Chancellor of the Exchequer you are seen as the ultimate bureaucrat. Your political advisors say that you have to get out more; meet the common man and woman; exude more warmth; smile a lot with them which will make the electorate feel closer to you.
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“Too Old to Party”

Mrs. Penelope Beckles
Mrs. Penelope Beckles
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 29, 2010

Oskie, my perennial nemesis, was mad like hell. He say he ain’t voting for PNM no matter if they kill him so I had to ask him the inevitable question:

“Boy, why so mad at the PNM? Wha’ dey do yo so’?”

“Do me? Is what dey do you?”
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‘Dashiki’ Silence Disappointing

National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) leader Makandal Daaga
NJAC leader Makandal Daaga
As an Indo-Trinidadian, I was amazed to hear Mr. Manning speaking ill of the African dashiki on his platform almost a week ago (“Kamla surrounded by strong, dangerous men, says Manning” – Express, April 23). To hear an esteemed Afro-Trinidadian belittling a garment that is culturally identified with my African brothers and sisters is parallel to Mr. Panday admonishing me for consuming doubles. It is a new depth when we as a people are so bent on denigrating other races and ethnicities that we mistakenly miss the boat and begin to attack our very own as Mr. Manning, without thinking has done.
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Prime Minister Manning Says No Debate

PM Patrick Manning and Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar
PNM Patrick Manning vs UNC Kamla Persad-Bissessar
Kamla: I’m ready Manning: Nothing to gain

By Cecily Asson and Invera Arjoon
Wednesday, April 28 2010

WHILE UNC political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar last night said she is willing to take part in a live national debate with Prime Minister Patrick Manning in the run up to the May 24 general election, Manning, who is the PNM’s political leader, was reluctant to participate.
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A People’s Partnership

LEFT: David Abdullah of the Movement for Social Justice, Congress of the People (COP) political leader Winston Dookeran, Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) leader Ashworth Jack, United National Congress (UNC) leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) political leader Makandal Daaga, and chairman of the Movement for Social Justice Errol McLeod.
Opposition Parties Sign Unity Pact at Fyzabad Meeting
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 27, 2010

All the symbols were there: they met at Fyzabad near the spot on which Charlie King was killed in the name of the people and they raised their hands in unity as they proclaimed a new partnership. Makandal Dagga, Errol McLeod and Ashworth Jack were necessarily somber. Winston Dookeran sought to infuse a philosophical dimension into the proceedings even though he attributed President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s words from his Inaugural Address (“The only thing you have to fear is fear itself”) to Martin Luther King even as Kamla Persad Bissessar aimed to invest a solemnity to the occasion by delivering her speech in tightly clinched phrases. It was almost as though being herself and using her normally mellifluous cadences would have betrayed a peasant sensibility that they may have thought was inappropriate for the occasion.
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