Tag Archives: Raffique Shah

Nightmare at Woodford Square

By Raffique Shah
September 04, 2010

HangingIT’S still dark, wee hours this Sunday morning, the steady drizzle having no impact on the growing crowd that is gathering at Woodford Square. I am dressed in a Rasta wig, fake-Shabaaz beard, jacket sans tie, looking more like a vagrant than the men at the ticket booths at the two entrances to the Square. It’s going to be a good day for hangings. People are queuing, some jostling, others scalping, but all more than willing to pay the $100 entry fee to witness the country’s first public executions since the days of slavery.
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Time to Rewrite the Social Contract

By Raffique Shah
August 29, 2010

TrinidadiansWe have a new Government, a new dispensation – call it what you will – in place. But change, if it’s going to happen, seems, at this point like being in the middle pack of a snails’ marathon covering all the 100 feet. You ask yourself, especially when you come from the Baby Boomers generation, will change come before I die? Will I live to see my country, my people change for the better?
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Police, Coast Guard, fail fishermen in distress

By Raffique Shah
August 22, 2010

Patrol BoatTWO murderous incidents that occurred last weekend exposed different sides of arms of the Protective Services, much of which is not flattering. In the first, sea-bandits attacked fishermen in a virtual orgy of violence that saw some six vessels seized by armed, masked men. The helpless fishermen, three of whom lived in my neighbourhood, were tossed into the sea miles offshore, and left to swim for their lives. The bandits-cum-killers conducted their ‘orgy’ from Pointe-a-Pierre to Otaheite.
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No more wastage of public funds

Water Taxi
Water Taxi
By Raffique Shah
August 15, 2010

IT is easy for people to say that the new Government should stop looking back, stop blaming the ousted People’s National Movement (PNM) government for much of the mess we find ourselves in today, and just move on. Had the Patrick Manning regime been more circumspect in handling the huge windfalls we enjoyed from around 2004, I would have endorsed that view, asking the Government to get on with governance, make no reference to the past.
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Steaming over the big flood

By Raffique Shah
August 08, 2010

RainHEAVY rainfall, like that which we experienced last Monday, is an act of nature. Heavy flooding, which we have repeatedly been subjected to over the past two decades, is caused by a number of factors. Many of these are beyond man’s control. But governments and citizens must shoulder much blame for some of their actions, or inaction in instances, that add to the hazardous mix of factors that return to haunt us all, especially during monsoon-type weather conditions.
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Big win, bigger expectations

Attorney General Anand Ramlogan, Minister of Works & Transport Jack Warner, Minister of Energy and Energy Affairs Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan, Minister of Public Utilities Emmanuel George and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar at the People's Partnership's Victory Celebration - June, 18, 2010
Attorney General Anand Ramlogan, Minister of Works & Transport Jack Warner, Minister of Energy and Energy Affairs Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan, Minister of Public Utilities Emmanuel George and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar at the People's Partnership's Victory Celebration - June, 18, 2010
By Raffique Shah
August 01, 2010

THE People’s Partnership has stamped its authority to govern the country over the next five years by convincingly winning two elections in as many months. Now, its leadership must be sensitive to the high expectations among a polls-drunk populace that was summoned to vote in six elections in ten years. The new Government faces the onerous task of governing a nation that can at times be overly demanding, somewhat fickle, and quick to condemn.
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1990 Enquiry: Exercise in Futility

Abu BakrI DO not know how Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and her Cabinet arrived at a decision to appoint a Commission of Enquiry into the attempted coup of 1990. I suspect the hype that always surrounds the anniversary date of the Muslimeen assault on the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) government may have prompted the PM and her colleagues to attempt to “put this matter to rest for once and for all”. It certainly was not part of the People’s Partnership manifesto or 120-day action plan.
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Poverty Facts and Fiction

By Raffique Shah
July 18, 2010

PovertyEVERY time I hear someone parrot poverty numbers in my Trinidad and Tobago, I wince. Politicians, and many ordinary citizens, often accept as the “gospel truth” the amount of people in this country said to be living “below the absolute poverty line”, defined as US$1 a day. The estimated numbers range from 10 per cent to 20 per cent of the population, which suggests there are between 130,000 and 260,000 desperately poor people in our midst living on less than TT$6.37 a day. That’s around $190 a month.
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Injustice Sows Seeds of Terrorism

This picture shows a portion of the barrier being built by Israel in the West Bank. This part is in Abu Dis, close to the eastern part of Jerusalem.
This picture shows a portion of the barrier being built by Israel in the West Bank. This is close to the eastern part of Jerusalem.
By Raffique Shah
July 11, 2010

THOSE among us who keep abreast of international developments will have noted huge protest demonstrations in Israel most of last week. This kind of action is unusual. Small numbers of Israelis who oppose their government’s policies towards the Palestinians and atrocities committed by their military, hardly come out in the open for fear of their lives and liberty. Last week’s protests were not only big, but apparently supported by the state apparatus.
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‘Desi’ Allum: patriarch and patriot

Desmond Allum
Desmond Allum
By Raffique Shah
June 20, 2010

MY mother takes a seat in the limited space available in court. It is early June, 1970, and the preliminary inquiry into the charge of treason gets underway. She looks at her 24-year-old son sitting in the dock alongside 60-odd soldiers. A stern-looking Magistrate Roopchandsingh sits on the Bench, and Attorney General Karl Hudson-Phillips leads a formidable, impressive-looking prosecution team. Like other parents and families of the accused, she is nervous, worried.
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