Tag Archives: Raffique Shah

Food and water before oil and gas

By Raffique Shah
Sunday, May 3rd 2009

The MarketTRINIDADIANS would swear that the world is gripped by “blight”, a toxic mix of negative forces or “spirit lashes” that have us reeling every-which-way. Those who believe in the biblical end-times would counter that God is angry with man, hence the confluence of wars, pestilence, human misery and harsh economic times. Whatever the reasons for the seemingly intractable problems that have engulfed the world, I choose to adopt calypsonian Blakie’s refrain, “Ah never see t’ing so yet!”
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Caring too much about image

By Raffique Shah
Sunday, April 26th 2009

Fifth Summit of the AmericasPRIME Minister Patrick Manning seems surprised that so many people are angry over this country hosting the Fifth Summit of the Americas. I wrote a few weeks ago that having committed the country to the summit when he did, he no doubt thought that we could afford that $500 million or whatever the real cost was.

He must have felt, too, that just having all hemispheric Heads of Government here would boost his image as a the premier Caribbean leader. I do not dispute his reasoning that the country would benefit from world recognition, only because it was billed as the battleground between Presidents Obama and Chavez.
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Brother Barack, Comrade Chavez

By Raffique Shah
Sunday, April 19th 2009

Barack Obama and Hugo ChavezBY the time this column appears in print the Summit will be almost over. The 34 heads of governments will have had their say, hopefully in a civil manner. Hugo Chavez has indicated he would insist on the US trade blockade of Cuba be addressed in the document. Canada, too, is not happy with it, albeit for other reasons. What I found distasteful about the media pre-Summit hype was the focus on Chavez and US President Barack Obama at the expense of other leaders.
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Karen’s dilemma

By Raffique Shah
Sunday, March 15th 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Karen Nunez-TesheiraWhen she entered the political arena and accepted the Cabinet position of Minister of Finance, Karen Nunez-Tesheira must have been familiar with the adage, “In politics, perception is reality.” She would also have been aware that politics exposes office holders to intense scrutiny, and more than that, all politicians are presumed to be corrupt and liars unless or until they prove otherwise. In other words, politics is downright dirty business.
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Beyond Duprey

By Raffique Shah
February 08, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Lawrence DupreyUP TO ten days ago, Lawrence Duprey was one of most admired businessmen in Trinidad and Tobago. He was not self-made, as some of his peers and predecessors were. He inherited the biggest and strongest insurance company in the country founded by his uncle Cyril. But having taken over the reins of CLICO, he quickly moved to diversify the insurance giant’s vast resources, to venture where no other local entrepreneur had, into the downstream energy sector.
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Israel courting doomsday

By Raffique Shah
January 04, 2009

Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Israel killsSOME 40 years or so ago, in the heady days of Black Power and the global fight for basic human and civil rights by non-Whites, I saw all White people as oppressors. I was a young firebrand, who, in the universal spirit of my revolutionary hero Cuban Che Guevara, was ready to fight against injustices wherever they existed. I actually lived out part of my utopian dream by taking up arms against “the establishment”, a feat many of my contemporaries also dreamed of, but never experienced.
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Mobile Menace

By Raffique Shah
September 21, 2008

Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

A Show CarIT was a desperate cry from an exasperated woman, and it tugged at my heart when we finally spoke on the phone. She made me feel ashamed of myself, since, like so many others, I, too, am a victim of the jarring, amplified noise that passes for music in too many private motor vehicles. As a columnist who is often the voice of victims who have few options to vent their suffering, I failed to write about this growing menace of noise pollution.
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The Pastor’s daughter

By Raffique Shah
April 29, 2007

www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog

Danah and Akon at ZenIf the pastor’s daughter plans a career as an exotic dancer or a “dutty winer”, I applaud the 15 year-old. How many children at that age would make career decisions? Most are looking at their school curriculum, trying to determine what subjects suit them; what they would want to succeed in order to move on to A-Levels (now CAPE). They may even be thinking university education or skills training, but few would have carved career paths that would take them through life.
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