Tag Archives: Raffique Shah

General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

A Wasteland of Hubris

Leave a comment

By Raffique Shah
March 20, 2023

Raffique ShahYou will think that a political party anywhere in the world that commands the lead stories in at least two national television newscasts per week; add for measure twenty-plus radio stations, most of which are ethnically weighted in favour of the party’s support base; three daily newspapers that go the extra mile to be fair to you, with even your lies making the cut, unlimited social media posts on the various sites, again in your favour… The party stages at least one public meeting per week that is also broadcast live on radio and at times, on television; flavor the above with, on balance unlimited parliament broadcasts that you control, if only by the volume, antics and other eye-catching tricks; sundry anti-government public meetings, often staged or influenced by the party’s activists that sometimes generate their own free media access, and so on…
Continue reading A Wasteland of Hubris →

Court, Crime in T&T, General T&T

Wuss dan dat

3 Comments

By Raffique Shah
March 13, 2023

Raffique ShahSurely, we deserved better than that, Leila sighed audibly as she aside the device on which she had been reading a news report. I thought I knew what report it was, but I felt in the baiting mood, so I asked ‘What are you upset over? Who deserved better?’

‘I’m talking about the twenty year old corruption matter involving the state vs Basdeo Panday and others. The state under which heading the DPP must fall, withdrew one of the corruption matters yesterday.’
Continue reading Wuss dan dat →

Elections, General T&T, PNM, Politics, THA, Tobago

Manufacturing Dictators

3 Comments

By Raffique Shah
March 06, 2023

Raffique ShahThe dizzying pace at which politicians who have promoted themselves as contenders for top positions in government, see things fall apart around them, is an ominous collapse of a political system that seems to have been built to secure the ruling elites. The relics of a post-colonial era that guaranteed the grandchildren of the favoured ones is being battered every-which-way leaving many of them who now hold strategic positions in governments, unsure of their future, and quite likely afraid of what tomorrow may bring.
Continue reading Manufacturing Dictators →

Carnival, Entertainment, General T&T, Music, Sex

Porning our Carnival

4 Comments

By Raffique Shah
February 27, 2023

Raffique ShahIf anyone in the country was surprised by the minimalist style that almost all the designers opted for in outfitting female masqueraders, such poor folks have either detached themselves from Carnival for some time, or ceased to be bothered by the near nakedness of thousands of adults, whose gyrations and simulations of sex, could one day erupt into an orgasmic explosion, the effects of which might send some uncontrollable individuals into uncharted dimensions, something akin to never-ending euphoria on steroids.
Continue reading Porning our Carnival →

General T&T, Opposition Party, Politics, Recession

Go softly on utility rates

1 Comment

By Raffique Shah
February 20, 2023

Raffique ShahAs someone who has long advocated the dismantling of over-generous subsidies for a number of goods and services, many readers may find my change in position opportunistic, and proceed to lump me with politicians who thrive on hollow rhetoric such as “freedom for the masses”, even the more vacuous slogan, “freeness for the masses”.

These are flights of fancy that the younger among my generation when our larger-than-life giants like Guevara, Ho Chi Minh, Patrice Lumumba and Malcolm X walked among us, preaching revolution through which we would establish an egalitarian world.
Continue reading Go softly on utility rates →

Carnival, Carnival, Culture, General T&T

There is hope yet for pan

1 Comment

By Raffique Shah
February 13, 2023

Raffique ShahEvery year, ritually, come Carnival, steel pans and drums rescued from the paws of scrap-metal hustlers hunting for a few dollars, or rust that’s threatening to render them useless, join hundreds of cellos, bass and retired hubcaps from derelict motor vehicles, coming together to treat music lovers with the most scintillating sounds and songs that could allow the “mad blood” in all of us to enjoy “we music”.
Continue reading There is hope yet for pan →

Crime in T&T, General T&T, Politics

One Thousand Patriots

3 Comments

Raffique Shah
February 06, 2023

Raffique ShahIf, after thorough investigations into this outrage, the State being ordered to pay approximately two million dollars each to five murder-accused in the Naipaul-Coolman case, stands; if no minister or public officer from the Ministry of the Attorney General’s office is held accountable, placed in shackles, held in jail as their trial on serious criminal charges are conducted; or if no agent of the battery of attorneys we have grown accustomed to seeing daily is charged with grand theft of Reggie Armour’s mystery file; then take notice that I, citizen Shah, shall take whatever action I decide is necessary to dissolve the republic of Trinidad and Tobago, which has proved to be a useless country not deserving the title of sovereign state.
Continue reading One Thousand Patriots →

General T&T, Guyana, Oil and Gas, Politics, USA, Venezuela

Thanks, USA – for nothing

Leave a comment

By Raffique Shah
January 30, 2023

Raffique ShahI suppose Trinidad and Tobago, being a small-island-state, very literally, has to be thankful for small mercies dished out by the super-powers of the world. In this case, big, bad USA, has finally agreed to issue a waiver on the sanctions it has imposed on Venezuela that will allow TT and Caracas to monetise an estimated 4.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from the Dragon field, which lies close to the international boundary between the two countries, but which belongs to Venezuela.
Continue reading Thanks, USA – for nothing →

Crime in T&T, General T&T, PNM, Politics

Talk Done

1 Comment

By Raffique Shah
January 23, 2023

Raffique ShahWill the Prime Minister tell the nation what he expects to achieve by staging a national consultation on crime, which he announced recently? When he made the headline-grabbing proposal, which seemed to me an outburst triggered by extreme frustration, Dr Keith Rowley came across as a leader who had nothing more to offer the population on the one issue that impacts their lives daily, although statistics might well reveal that in reality, fewer that ten percent of them have come face-to-face with violent crimes, and far fewer have been victims.
Continue reading Talk Done →

Culture, General T&T

Celebrating Our Bards

1 Comment

By Raffique Shah
January 09, 2023

Raffique ShahUpon rereading my column last Sunday, I thought I did grave injustice to Leroy Calliste, the Black Stalin, by attempting to evaluate his immense contribution to calypso, the art form, and culture as a whole in Trinidad and Tobago, or indeed in the Carribbean, by summarizing his works in a few paragraphs. My apologies to the late bard who passed on and was given one of the most impressive funerals I’ve witnessed in my lifetime.
Continue reading Celebrating Our Bards →