Are Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi and the Trinidad and Tobago Government making insufficient use of available legislation in tackle the home grown terrorism threat? Attorney Farid Scoon raises some points of concern in his Letter to the Editor: A Turkish newspaper reports that nine citizens of Trinidad and Tobago are …
Read More »Live Wire chronicles: Temporary child marriages, Deyalsingh’s POSGH retreat and the inimitable Jack Warner
If Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump is Sat Maharaj dipped in curry—and that is definitely a dish designed to induce bowel movement—then former president George W Bush is surely Dr Fuad Khan without a stethoscope. Simplicity is certainly not next to genius with those two. Let’s just say someone’s …
Read More »Not every salaam speaks for Islam: A Muslim’s response to Kevin Baldeosingh
Alana Abdool takes a closer, sympathetic look at Kelvin Baldeosingh’s controversial Trinidad Guardian column in our Letters to the Editor page: Dear brothers and sisters in Islam, I have a confession to make. And a warning to sound. Truth be told, Kevin Baldeosingh said atheists and white people are offended …
Read More »Je ne suis pas Baldeosingh: Trinidad Guardian angel shamed again in housing faux pas
“Crass”, “offensive”, “gratuitously insulting”… And that was just what satirical columnist Kevin Baldeosingh’s patron—the Trinidad Guardian newspaper—thought about his recent work. God forbid you asked the opinion of IBN television host and activist Inshan Ishmael, who led a protest outside the Trinidad Guardian headquarters yesterday on the Uriah Butler Highway …
Read More »Mixing God with Mammon: The problem with Gov’t funding for religious festivals
The bickering among Islamic organisations over the allocation and distribution of Government funding for the recent Eid celebrations underscores a point I’ve made ever since this nonsense started a few years ago: Government ought never to dispense public funds for religious festivals. A few weeks before Eid, in the midst …
Read More »Smoking Joe vs Sat the Hack; Live Wire reviews smouldering holy war over child brides
It. Just. Got. Flipping. Real! The Hindu community were supposed to be celebrating Arrival Day—no doubt at public expense too—but Maha Sabha general secretary Sat Maharaj used the occasion to tell Roman Catholic archbishop Joe Harris to get lost instead. “Archbishop, mind your own damn business,” said Maharaj. “(…) If …
Read More »Heartfelt Harris and hyping Harry: Daly looks at IRO controversy
When I saw the headline “Age has nothing to do with maturity” in last Tuesday’s Trinidad Express newspaper, I wrongly assumed I would be led into an explanation why a majority of Independent Senators would so easily allow themselves to be drawn into an apparent formation of a caucus. I …
Read More »Office of the PM responds: Gov’t sees “critical need” to end child marriages
The following release was issued by the Office of the Prime Minister in response to the issue of child marriages for Trinidad and Tobago’s religious sects: The Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister (Gender and Child Affairs) has noted with concern the statements that are being …
Read More »Holy crap! Dirty Harrypersad, Back-pedalling Berkley and child marriage
You know you probably need something strong to drink when the least controversial bit of an interview is the complete rejection of a woman’s right to an abortion. Brother Harrypersad Maharaj, head of the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO), made it clear in a Power 102 FM interview—in 2016 mind you—that under no …
Read More »Put those Dicks away, Cuffie family takes centre-stage with bizarre graduation photo
It has not been an easy week to vault into the spotlight, as Trinidad and Tobago remains transfixed by the twists, turns and flips of the local gymnastics saga. Yet maybe it should not be altogether surprising that Pastor Winston Cuffie is emerging as a strong contender to get a …
Read More »$40,000 can’t celebrate anything! Archbishop Burke and the gimme culture
When I was in the Senate, in 1996, I spoke and voted in favour of the grant of the Spiritual Shouter Baptist Liberation holiday, which was celebrated again last Wednesday. At the, time I referred with affection to Earl Lovelace’s great literary work, The Wine of Astonishment, which tells of …
Read More »The battle against ISIS extremism and why T&T should care
Of all the photos following ISIS’s horrendous assault on Paris, among the most moving are those of the long lines of people waiting to donate blood outside hospitals where the wounded had been taken. There’s a good chance that among them were persons of Islamic faith standing in line to …
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