Tag Archives: Abuse

Crime in T&T, General T&T

Armed for war

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By Raffique Shah
November 07, 2022

Raffique ShahNot surprisingly, the murder rate in this country, as it soars past anything we have ever experienced, is seen as the number one issue impacting the populace, the electorate, based partly on people’s genuine fear of having to face unimaginable violence, maybe death, riding not a pale horse, but actually some stolen Nissan Sunny, its occupants armed with heavy fire power, ready to rob or kill some law-abiding citizen who worked hard for the few dollars he or she has.
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Africa, General T&T, Passed on

Rituals of grief

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 26, 2022

“The glories of our blood and state, Are shadows, not substantial things; There is no armour against fate, Death lays his icy hands on kings. Sceptre and crown must tumble down, And, in the dust, be equal made with the poor crooked scythe and spade.”

—James Shirley

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI didn’t expect to spend so much time looking at the funeral of Elizabeth II. I was intrigued by the spectacle made of death (a display put on for its visual effect and impact) and the ritual of grief (a solemn ceremony performed according to a prescribed order) that was enacted before millions of people.

It took 20 years of planning to stage this event. It was the responsibility of Edward Fitzalan-Howard, who inherited the role of Earl Marshal of England when his father died in 2002. He “descended from the same family that has planned royal funerals and coronations since 1672”. He takes his responsibility seriously. He did not earn a cent for the tireless work he did for the Queen’s funeral.
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General T&T, Politics, Schools, Violence

Prime Minister on school violence

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We can’t beat our way out of it

By Jensen La Vende
April 21, 2022 – newsday.co.tt

PM Dr Keith RowleyCORPORAL PUNISHMENT will not be the solution for school violence the Prime Minister said on Thursday as he responded to number of videos of school children fighting.

Speaking with the media at the Piarco International Airport on Thursday, Dr Rowley said a better approach must be used.

“There is no intention to beat our way out of this,” Rowley said when asked if the re-introduction of corporal punishment would be used to curb school violence.
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Africa, Christianity, General T&T, Religion

The Slave Bible

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 18, 2022

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn 1970 while I was a faculty member at Fordham University, New York, I taught a course on the development of Afro-American literature. One of the books I used was William Wells Brown, Clotel or the President’s Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States, published in England in 1853.

The novel told the story of Clotel, a daughter of Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, who fathered three children by his slave, Sally Hemmings. Although the white power structure denied this incident for two centuries, in November 1998 the truth of this claim was authenticated by DNA evidence.
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Agriculture, General T&T, Politics

Stop the land banditry now

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By Raffique Shah
April 04, 2022

Raffique ShahMy telephone mysteriously morphed into a Catholic church-type confessional after my column of last Sunday hit the streets, or given the dominance of the Internet in disseminating news, fake and real, likelier after Sunday Express’ online version was read by people who make it a point to stay ahead on the information highway.
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Agriculture, Food, General T&T

‘Foods’ that kill us not so softly

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By Raffique Shah
February 07, 2022

Raffique ShahEternal optimist that I am, I see opportunities in crisis—and believe me when I tell you I’ve seen crises in my life that most men cannot even imagine. Many do not wish to even go that far, fearing that nightmarish images would materialise into reality and they would remain trapped in a Dante-like inferno forever and ever… don’t ever mention the “amen”. That could render a grim present into an ominous future.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, Protest

Playing games with people’s lives

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 31, 2022

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIt is with regret that I return to PNM’s neglect of its people. It seems that nothing one says or does can make its ministers recognise their tone-deaf responses to the cries of their people. It is, as my mother used to say, “like stick break in dey ears”.

I couldn’t help but feel this way when I read Minister Marvin Gonzales’s response to reporters after he and Port of Spain South MP Keith Scotland visited John John and Sea Lots, with a view to repairing the sewage issues that have plagued the people of the latter area for several years.
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corruption, COVID-19, Finance, Food, General T&T, Health, International, Recession

Talk to me about patriotism

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By Raffique Shah
January 24, 2022

Raffique ShahIt didn’t take Nobel Prize-winning economists such as St Lucia’s Sir Arthur Lewis, or the USA’s Milton Friedman or Paul Krugman, to project that as the world economy emerged from an unprecedented virtual lockdown that lasted three, four, who knows how many years during the Covid pandemic, commodity prices, especially those of goods and services that are critical to the recovery of countries across the world, would rise rapidly, putting them beyond the reach of the poorest nations and the poor in every nation.
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Crime in T&T, Domestic Violence, General T&T, Violence

The Loss of Innocence

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 15, 2021

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThe recent upsurge of religious voices calling upon God to intervene in the carnival of atrocities that our country is experiencing occurred when the corpse of 26-year-old Kezia Janeka Guerra was found in a shallow grave in Maracas, St. Joseph. Father Knolly Clarke intoned: “I am concerned about this violence against women. There is violence permeating society. I don’t know what’s wrong with the men. It’s a challenging time, especially during Covid-19 time. Then you have to deal with violence against people all the time. It’s a sad moment in our history. I think we need to run programmes that would help people to understand each other. Teach young men and women to respect each other.” (Express, November 6).
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Elections, General T&T, Labour, Politics, THA, Tobago

Fear of Stupidity

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By Raffique Shah
November 15, 2021

Raffique ShahIf Nazi leader Adolf Hitler were around today, he would be simmering in glory and bursting with pride as he watched the modern world finally come to embrace his lunatic rants that passed for an ideology, namely Nazism, which extolled the supremacy of the Aryan race, namely pure-bred white Germans, first and foremast, then others at their designated stations in life, starting with the Europeans of 100 percent pure Aryan blood at the top—the masters—with others—classless whites, contaminated whites, Asians, Africans and finally Jews, those being the survivors of the calamitous conflicts that culminated in him finally being recognised as the Fuhrer, the Emperor, the Maximum Leader of this all-conquering new world.
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