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 Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 26, 2012
Question: If Trinidad and Tobago were one hundred percent Hindus, would our response to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar kissing President Pratibha Patil’s toes elicit a different response? I suspect it would. But only thirty five percent of Trinidad and Tobago’s population are Hindus and therein lays the conundrum. Such a move calls for a better understanding among the population and a more sensitive response from the PM in terms of her act of piety or respect as she calls it.
Continue reading Kamla’s Delicate Dance
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 Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 29, 2011
There is blindness among the leaders of the UNC government that will lead to its demise. Overconfident by the results of May 2010, it refuses to see that its victory was not so much an affirmation of their prospective policies (which were ill-thought out at best) but a refusal of citizens to accept what Mr. Manning and his team were doing. In rejecting PNM the electorate stated categorically that they were against Manning’s increasingly tendencies of one-manism, his refusal to listen to others; and his knee-jerk support of Calder Hart whose practices left many persons uncomfortable.
Continue reading Let the Jackasses Bray
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 15, 2011
Sat and Devant riding high on de saddle now and dey driving a hard bargain. Many who voted for the UNC never expected them to thrust Sat and Devant on we with such force, guns ablazing. Even those who refused to vote (and I am culpably in this regard), are feeling uneasy about what is happening in the country. However, I do not think those who voted for UNC and those who abstain should feel badly. They did the correct thing in telling Patrick Manning that he had gone too far and had to be restrained. That is the essence of democracy. Whenever things go out of whack, a countervailing force always steps in to correct the excesses of any party. Silvio Berlusconi who ruled Italy supreme for seventeen years is gone. Muamar Gaddafi ruled Libya for forty two years. He’s gone. As my mamma used to say, “Nothing lasts forever.”
Continue reading Sat and Devant on the Saddle
By Ria Taitt
November 11, 2011 – trinidadexpress.com
People’s National Movement (PNM) MP Patricia McIntosh has slammed the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) for its conduct at the Tunapuna Hindu Primary School in denying equal opportunities to pupils of different denominations, particularly black children who reside within the catchment area.
Continue reading Sat Blocked Black Children
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 02, 2011
Speak to any non-Indian in Trinidad and Tobago and one is asked the same question: What dese Indians want? It may be an unfair question, a paranoid response, or just the reflection of feelings of anxiety. Yet, there lingers in the minds of many non-Indians that there can be no pleasing Indians in Trinidad and Tobago. Do they yearn for equality or do they seek dominance?
Continue reading Hindu Ethics and Morality