Trinidadians are hell, I tell you. Take their almost instantaneous sympathy with the 600-odd steel workers who found themselves jobless last week when ArcelorMittal shut down its plant in this country. Sure, that means at least 5,000 family members facing very uncertain times if not utter devastation. Those who have …
Read More »Raffique rates Rowley’s Gov’t: the PNM’s inherited traps, pitfalls and own goals
I am relieved to learn that the Cabinet “retreat” in Tobago last weekend did not have, as a main item on its agenda: “Achievements of the not-so-new Government during its first six months in office.” If it did, I would have screamed bloody murder. Not to add rape of the …
Read More »Modern day Shylocks: Raffique Shah muses over bankers and bandits
I don’t know if we should be more afraid of banks and bankers or bandits and murderers. Seriously. Both strike when we are most vulnerable. They relieve us of our life’s savings, of what we have worked tirelessly to provide for our families, with a callousness that is chilling. Bandits …
Read More »Rodney’s ghost haunts Guyana; the intellectual behind Caribbean’s black consciousness
The findings of a Commission of Inquiry into the murder of Guyanese intellectual and political activist Dr Walter Rodney, 36 years ago, are an indictment not only against the Forbes Burnham dictatorship that ruled Guyana for 21 horrible years, but also other Caricom governments and countries that never condemned Burnham’s …
Read More »Of sensuality and vulgarity: why Tim Kee is foolish but not misogynistic
I wonder if the wide spectrum of persons who have used the words “misogyny” and “misogynic” to describe ex-Port of Spain Mayor Raymond Tim Kee following his asinine statements on the murder of pannist Asami Nagakiya either believe what they are saying, or understand the definitions of the words? According …
Read More »Carnival in transition: Raffique explains why the festival is not dying
I don’t think Trinidad’s Carnival is dying, as many people say it is. For the traditionalists, it’s a case of wishful thinking. They want to see the jarring noise that passes for music—songs that have no melody, only hook lines and tempo—consigned to the dustbin of Carnival history. And they …
Read More »Man, mosquito and money: Raffique on Zika war and State spending
Dr Sherene Kalloo launched a broadside yesterday against Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh and his almost jokey war against the Zika virus, pre-empting a column I had already half-written, titled “Man vs Mosquito.” Dr Kalloo argued that Minister Deyalsingh’s declaration of war against Zika and the Aedes Egypti mosquito by deploying …
Read More »Destiny in our hands; How T&T can respond positively to falling oil prices
As a nation, we can do nothing about the plunging price of oil except watch with alarm as crude slides below US$30 a barrel. Even if we ramp up production, which has fallen by approximately 50 per cent over the past decade, it will make little sense. At this point, …
Read More »Humility was Jit’s hallmark; Raffique Shah pays tribute to late pan master
“I don’t know who Jit Samaroo was, but listening to others speak, he must have been a great man…my condolences to his family.” The Princes Town caller had phoned in to the TV6 Morning Edition show on Friday, which was devoted to pan arranger Jit Samaroo, who died the day …
Read More »Ageing in this cussed country: Raffique Shah on how T&T treats senior citizens
In a few months, I shall cross another threshold of ageing, scoring seventy years of life and officially transitioning into the status of “old geezer.” The dawning of a new year set me thinking about the past and the future, although I know I have fewer years ahead of me …
Read More »‘Do so ent like so’: Raffique Shah looks at UNC’s reaction to Jwala’s sacking
I am surprised that so many people are surprised by the termination of services—firing, suspension, the euphemistically-couched “sent on administrative leave”—of several senior government officials, the most prominent being Governor of the Central Bank, Jwala Rambarran. Clearing the politically-constructed State-stables of partisan appointees is a ritual that occurs every time …
Read More »Whey the money really gone: Shah identifies our other big users of forex
Central Bank governor Jwala Rambarran was the unlikeliest man to kick the hornets’ nest. But that he did when he named the firms that used the most foreign exchange—or forex—over the past three years. Amidst a cacophony of complaints from businesses and individuals about being denied adequate sums of forex …
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