All posts by News

Champagne taste, mauby pockets

By Raffique Shah
June 29, 2008

Elite DiningWith NFM announcing last week that the price of wheat flour is set to rise another 29 per cent, there was the usual groaning and moaning from consumers, blaming “de govament” for rising food prices. Really, you’d think these people have just landed from Mars, that they are unaware of the global food crisis, of inflation eating into people’s pockets just about everywhere in the world. You’d think, too, that by now everyone would have adjusted their spending habits to meet escalating costs through focussing on “needs” as opposed to “wants”.
Continue reading Champagne taste, mauby pockets

Zimbabwe at War

By Stephen Gowans
June 25, 2008

Zimbabwe WatchThis is a war between revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries; between nationalists and quislings; between Zimbabwean patriots and the US and Britain.

Should an election be carried out when a country is under sanctions and it has been made clear to the electorate that the sanctions will be lifted only if the opposition party is elected? Should a political party which is the creation of, and is funded by, hostile foreign forces, and whose program is to unlatch the door from within to provide free entry to foreign powers to establish a neo-colonial rule, be allowed to freely operate? Should the leaders of an opposition movement that takes money from hostile foreign powers and who have made plain their intention to unseat the government by any means available, be charged with treason? These are the questions that now face (have long faced) the embattled government of Zimbabwe, and which it has answered in its own way, and which other governments, at other times, have answered in theirs.
Continue reading Zimbabwe at War

Richplain lockdown illegal

By Sean Douglas and Andre Bagoo
Wednesday, June 25 2008

ArmyTHE Law Association yesterday questioned the legality of the “lock down” of Richplain by the Defence Force who set up camp in the Diego Martin community after the Father’s Day murder of Corporal Ancil Wallace and his best friend Noel Charles.

Soldiers pitched a camp at a savannah at Angies Field Road in Richplain, two days after Cpl Wallace and Charles were killed during the christening party for Wallace’s son Jaydon on June 15. There have since been reports by residents of beatings by the soldiers and the detention of several persons in the absence of the police.
Continue reading Richplain lockdown illegal

Teachers on corporal punishment

Ria Taitt Political Editor
Sunday, June 22nd 2008

School ChildrenTeachers feel “disempowered” and “abandoned” on the issue of corporal punishment and classroom control as students mock them saying “Government say yuh cyar do me nothing”.

Eighty three per cent of teachers agree that corporal punishment should be allowed in secondary schools. And, according to 62 per cent of teachers, sexual deviance-pornography, sexual intercourse, sexual fondling and kissing- on the school premises are “big problems”.
Continue reading Teachers on corporal punishment

Army can clean up the country

By Raffique Shah
June 22, 2008

ArmyThe telephone call came earlier than reveille-for-an-old-soldier, but it was not unexpected. At the other end of the line, “College”, having apologised for blowing the telecom bugle a trifle too soon, said to me: “Raf, you must write something about these little punks who feel they can shoot soldiers just so! That would never have happened in our day. We took care of our own, even if it meant bending the law!” To cut a short conversation even shorter, “College”, as the one-time private soldier was fondly known, felt that Corporal Ancil Wallace’s colleagues should have acted with dispatch to deal with the toy-criminals who brazenly shot to death the soldier and his close friend.
Continue reading Army can clean up the country

The Politics of Personal Grievance

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
June 19, 2008
trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Dr. Keith RowleyKeith Rowley insists he wishes to clear his name so that his children would know he is an honorable man. The only problem with such a pursuit is this: what happens after he has cleared his name? While his desire is admirable such nobility matters little in politics. I know of no political movement in history that rallied around a party member’s desire to clear his name from infamy. Party members usually rally around causes that crescendo into movements that challenge the foundations of injustice.
Continue reading The Politics of Personal Grievance

Boost for civil liberties

By Raffique Shah
Sunday, June 15th 2008

David DavisPREOCCUPIED as we are with wanton and random bloodletting, rampant crime, spiralling food prices and football politics, major national issues in this crowded barracoon, interesting developments in the wider world could steal past us hardly eliciting a glance. Last week, David Davis, a very senior member of Britain’s Conservative Party, shocked his colleagues and England by resigning his parliamentary seat over renewal of the “42-days detention” law. And in Washington the US Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision: detainees at the controversial Guantanamo detention camp are entitled to the privilege of habeas corpus.
Continue reading Boost for civil liberties