No East Indians in national football team
Posted: Thursday, June 28, 2001
Abstract: (Express)
How do I explain to my American friends the reason our national football team does not have an Indian (the closest being Arnorld Dwarika) in a country in which Indians are 42 per cent of the population?
The US national football team reflects the ethnic plurality of the society. Many of them are second and third generations. One can see Hispanics, Africans, Russians, Anglo Saxons etc representing this great nation.
In Holland, Indians are active in the nation’s football and a few have represented the national team. Even in France, a country in which Indians are less that .five per cent of the population, there is presently an Indian in its national football team.
How do we explain the absence of Indians from the T&T national team? Or, is it that Indians are genetically not inclined to play football? The truth is that the Ministry of Community Empowerment, Sport and Consumer Affairs and the TT Football Federations have failed over the past years to reach out to the Indian population to involve them in football.
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Post by: Conrad
The person who wrote that was just trying to be mischievous. Let them say how many Indians play football in Trinidad and why they never participated in it.
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Post by: Tony
That is why H keeps saying history is important. Those who forget could become victims or oppressors. These two articles by Raff tell it all.
Sparrow through the eyes of Indo-Trinidadians June 01, 2001
From the moment he sang "Jean and Dinah", Sparrow was viewed by most adult Indians as a vulgar calypsonian who was dismantling their religious and cultural values (they understood that Sparrow was singing about "jamettes"), hence he was anathema to them. Indeed, while we children could sing Spitfire's "Post, Post Another Letter For Thelma" or Killer's "In A Calabash" without fear, we ran the risk of being spanked for singing "Jean and Dinah". Worse for us Indian children, the precocious and outspoken Sparrow was soon seen being chummy with Dr Eric Williams-the wily politician knew how to capitalise on a good thing-who had just won his first election leading the PNM. That, and the fact that Sparrow was of Grenadian origin, made him unacceptable to most Indians, especially those in the country districts. Catch the rest..
Memories of Regiment's first indian officer March 28, 2001
It is also true that many Indians did not apply to join the military, or, for that matter, the Coast Guard. And there were (and still are) good reasons why they didn't. My father, for example, if he'd had his choice, would have pointed me in the direction of one of the traditional professions. Unfortunately for him, I determined my own destiny from age 17. Most Indians do not see the army as holding any future for them or their offspring, hence the tendency to get into anything other than the military. Too, because of their religions, they tend to shun institutions where there is no "halal" meat or, in the case of Hindus, where meats form part of the daily diet. And yes, as far as I know, there is no time-off granted to Muslims for Friday's "Juma" prayers or for Hindu holy days (other than Eid and Divali).
If members of the military are largely Christian and Africans, blame our colonial history, not the recruiting officers or even the politicians. There was a joke about the time Colonel Pearce-Gould decided it was time to let the army reflect, as far as was possible, the racial composition of the country. He'd already had some Indians, a tonne of Africans and a few Syrians or "high-coloured" soldiers (Abraham Mahmood, of pure Syrian stock, was a private soldier). So he asked the recruiting officer to ensure that some Chinese were in the next "batch" of recruits. The officer dutifully selected Chinese names from applicants who had passed the tests and called them up for training.
But when the new recruits formed up, the CO did not see any Chinese. "I thought I asked you to ensure there were Chinese in this batch?" he reprimanded the officer. The latter, who swore he had complied with the CO's request, asked the sergeant to call out the Chinese names. "Tanwing!" shouted the sergeant. A dark African put up his hand! "Fough!" he shouted again. Another African, this one a Renegades player from Belmont. "Ming!" he belted out in frustration, and up shot the hand of a "Dougla" with five per cent Chinese! Up until I was at Teteron, Carl Lai Leung and John Aching were the closest we came to Chinese, and they were about 30 per cent Oriental! Catch the rest..
You could add football to the list. Raff should be a teacher... (In a way he is.)
From Trinicenter Forum
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Observing boobs
Posted: Wednesday, June 27, 2001
(Terry-J) IT came via e-mail, described as "a recently published medical finding", this claim that men who tot up ten minutes or more per day ogling women's breasts benefit doubly, by also reducing risk of stress-related cardiac arrest.
That it didn't come from Lancet or Johns Hopkins, or quote some identifiable authority threw up a warning signal. On the supply side, there was at least the coincidence that my heart has remained in good order despite a challenging lifestyle that--let me rush to admit--includes peeking at passing pairs.
The fruits of this harmless pursuit not only improved health among males, but brought watermelons and grapes into equal focus, as the report was neither size-specific, nor did it list any other characteristics as crucial to the curative component. More
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Blame Human 'BLIGHTS' for Football Fiasco
Posted: Sunday, June 24, 2001
(Raffique Shah) FOR people in this country who believe in superstition, especially sports fanatics and others who have an interest in cricket and football, there must be a feeling that a bad "blight" has settled over Trinidad and Tobago.
Some might suggest that the only way out of the morass in which our teams and sportsmen have found themselves is through a collective "bush bath" in Moruga, home of the legendary Papa Neeza whose near-magical powers seem to have been willed to that village. But as someone who has an holistic approach to matters of life-including sports-my view is that if we must resort to the "Moruga formula", it should be to stage the ceremonial drowning of the human "blights" that have strangled our sports for much too long. More
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PNM's Opportunities
Posted: Sunday, June 24, 2001
(Selwyn Cudjoe) Robin Montano has abandoned the party of his father in which the latter was one of its finest orators. Perched as I am, about ten thousand miles away, it is difficult to get the drift of his entire argument but it seems that the source of his discontent is that PNM has abandoned the ways of his father and now caters exclusively to Africans, the most grievous sin any Trinbagonian can commit. In this new dispensation, the agonies and aspirations of Africans do not matter. Just buy out a few here and compromise a few there and all will be well. More
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Land of the free
Posted: Wednesday, June 20, 2001
(Terry Joseph) BEING away from the executive level of commercial show production for more than a decade, I had hoped the interim would have cured us of wanting to enjoy top-drawer entertainment for free.
To say I was wrong is the short version of a very large disappointment experienced over this past week, as persons who should know better kept begging for free tickets to an event with which I was associated.
Among them were many who seemed comfortably able to afford astonishingly expensive cars, linen shirts, tailored dresses and designer outfits that virtually redefined haute couture.
Either from experience or through bold initiatives, there was no beating around the bush. Some were frighteningly forward: "Can I get two complimentary tickets to the dance?" Apart from being land of the free, Trinidad and Tobago can now also lay a confident claim to being home of the brave. More
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Not So, Mr. Speaker
Posted: Sunday, June 17, 2001
(Winford James) Perhaps the most important question that arises from the suspension from the house of representatives of PNM parliamentarians Keith Rowley and Fitzgerald Hinds is, not whether the speaker, Rupert Griffith was legally right, but whether he was politically right. But whether he was politically right or not, Griffith would still be a loser.
We must be clear in our minds that Griffith is a loser. He lost a great deal of credibility when, having been elected as a PNM parliamentarian in the previous five-year parliamentary term, he sold out to the UNC and crossed the floor. He lost again in his bid to represent the Arima seat in the present parliamentary term. And it is as a loser that he was appointed speaker of the house by the UNC (never mind the constitutional fact that it is the elected parliamentarians that must elect their speaker, not the government side a priori).
Now the constitution allows for a loser in a parliamentary election to become speaker since the speaker may come 'from among persons who are not members of either House'. Hence Griffith as speaker; he holds the position legally. But he holds it against a certain background, one whose principal characteristics are 1) betrayal of the PNM and the Arima constituency that put him in parliament in the first place, 2) purchase of his loyalty by the UNC, and 3) rejection by the Arima constituency in the parliamentary elections that led to his installation as speaker. More
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Honouring Lloyd Best on Father's Day
Posted: Sunday, June 17, 2001
(Selwyn Cudjoe) IN THE 1950s, when I attended Tacarigua EC School (it was called the Cocoa House then), a roster of names on a wooden tablet stood atop a cabinet in which our school supplies were stored. It contained the names of 11 students who had passed the College Exhibition Examinations.
Through their achievements, they earned the right to be part of a revered circle of intellects. In those days, only a precious few were lucky enough to enter the sacred sanctuary of Queen’s Royal College, St Mary’s College and Bishop Anstey High School. Those who did not make it, were left to catch as catch can. They were like so many flowers left to bloom outside the matrix of officialdom and its attendant legitimacy.
Lloyd Best, one the most gifted sons of the Tacarigua-Tunapuna area, was one of the names on that roster. After leaving the Cocoa House, Best went on to QRC and Cambridge University where he obtained Second Honours. Thereafter, he went to Oxford to do graduate work before being plucked, at the age of 23, to teach at the University of the West Indies (Mona). Years later, his study on plantation economies became a classic work in Caribbean economic thought. More
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Delinquent Parents Spawn Teenage Criminals
Posted: Sunday, June 17, 2001
(Raffique Shah) THE scene was as graphic as it was poignant: A relatively young mother of a 16 year-old youth who was shot dead by the police following a robbery, screaming, "I want justice for my son!" The boy was allegedly one of three armed bandits who robbed a Lotto outlet in downtown Port of Spain. Unluckily for him and his accomplices, the police, under pressure from city merchants who faced burglaries and robberies almost every night, had the area under tight security. So when the bandits pounced on the Lotto agent, they were quickly drawn into a running battle with the police. When the drama was over, Charleston Byron was found dead in a nearby drain.
Any mother or fathe faced with similar circumstances might have reacted the same way Byron's mom did. She was sure her "little boy" could not have been part of a gang of robbers, and even if he was, "De police couldn't shoot him in his leg?" She hinted that her son might not have been part of the robbery at all, just an innocent victim of recklessness on the part of the police. This latter claim has its merits since there many instances in which the police arrest or shoot the wrong person and make up for their errors by pinning a crime on the victim. More
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TnT Religious Supremacy Revisited
Posted: Friday, June 15, 2001
(By Dr. Kwame Nantambu) It seems to this writer that there needs to be further analysis or decoding of the direct connection between Euro-Roman Catholicism and European supremacy in TnT especially following the 'barrage of hate mail' that the Afrikan- Trini Roman Catholic Priest Father Clyde Harvey has received.
The fact of the matter is that Fr.Harvey took a principled position to resign as chairman of the diocesan clergy executive and as parish priest of San Fernando, by extension.
Fr. Harvey was historically on target when he stated that the appointment of the Euro-American –born –Re. Edward J. Gilbert as TnT’s ninth Archbishop is “an insult to the Caribbean” The fact of the matter is that Euro-America would NEVER accept an Afrikan-American or a foreign Nigerian as Archbishop of America. That will NEVER happen. More
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Class Struggle and Black Power in TnT
Posted: Friday, June 15, 2001
(Kwame Nantambu) In his magnum opus titled Class Struggle in Africa (1970), the deceased internationalist Pan- Afrikan Nationalist Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah observed that:
"For the Afrikan bourgeoisie, the class which thrived under (Euro)- colonialism is the same class which is benefiting under the post- independence, neocolonial (Trini-White) period. Its basic interest lies in preserving ( Euro- America) capitalist social and economic structures (businesses and values throughout TnT). It is therefore, in (collusive) alliance with international monopoly finance capital. Their survival depends on foreign support."(pp.10-12).
Nkrumah further contends that in terms of the 'class concept' - class struggle is a fundamental theme of recorded history. In every non- socialist society there are two main categories of class, the ruling class or classes, and the subject class or classes."(p.17).
This class phenomenon is all too clear in TnT whereby a dominant Trini white class coexists with the power of Euro- American capitalism watching its back along with its cultural value system. And this class concept is further compounded with the introduction of the ethnic variable into the mix. More
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Total Kaiso in the dance
Posted: Friday, June 15, 2001
(Terry Joseph) WITH The Mighty Sparrow, Black Stalin, 3-Canal, Roy Cape & the Kaiso All Stars, DJ Earl Crosby and the St James Tripolians as its music resource, Monday night's Back in Time Kaiso Dance is all set to be one of calypso's greatest celebrations ever.
New York-based Sparrow, whose first-class air travel home is fully sponsored by BWIA, brings with him five musicians. Drummer Anthony 'Bugsy' Niles, trombonist Phillip Nicholls, saxophonist Dennis 'Big D' Wilkinson, bassist and arranger Don 'Sunshine' Diaz and ace trumpeter Errol Ince; who will supplement the Kaiso All Stars for Birdie's 40 minute performance. More
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African presence in ancient and medieval Europe
Posted: Friday, June 15, 2001
(Corey Gilkes) I wish to correct an oversight that appeared in the 10th June's edition of the Trinidad Newsday. The story, reprinted from Sport's Illustrated, was discussing the possible African lineage of US baseball legend George Herman 'Babe' Ruth. Whether he did or didn't have some 'black blood' in his veins will not be discussed here. What is important is the fact that this article unwittingly brought to light the history of the profound African presence in ancient and medieval Europe that is still ignored and underplayed in the history books and in the media.
Now many researchers of European history are for one reason or the other Eurocentric in their outlook to the point where they only see people of a particular phenotype inhabiting Europe in ancient times. In that article there is a paragraph that reads: "No one disputes that Ruth's maternal grandparents were German immigrants and thus unlikely to have had any black ancestry". The implication here is that since we are dealing with Germany, we can safely dismiss any notion of any non-white presence there.
Very few societies, if any, remained homogenous for any lengthy period of time. There is always some physical and cultural intercourse with neighboring societies. Expansions, invasions and miscegenation were just some of things that made these societies so diverse and the place now known as Germany was by no means an exception. There have been settlements of African peoples in that region from as far back as the Old Stone Age. More
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A Question for Uncle Basdeo
Posted: Friday, June 15, 2001
(Clyde Weatherhead) "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings..." the saying goes. Well, imagine my amazement when a little neighbour of mine asked me to read a letter that she had prepared to send to a Whitehall address to one she affectionately calls Uncle Basdeo.
"Dear Uncle Basdeo,
I am always eager to understand everything you say to the nation since as uncle Raymond reminded everybody some months ago; the children are listening.
These last few days I hear you on the radio talking about BWIA and when another uncle was here from away, I heard you say that BWIA, since it was pr....privatised by uncle Patrick and his group, it is run by people who don't care about the national interest. More
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Jagdeo Singh to stand trial; remanded into custody
Posted: Thursday, June 14, 2001
Attorney Jagdeo Singh was committed to stand trial and remanded into custody yesterday, after Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls found the State had made out a prima facie case against him.Singh, 34, was charged with corruptly receiving $40,000 from Sherry Ann Basdeo and Lystra Bridgelal as an inducement to Senior Magistrate Deborah Thomas-Felix to grant bail to Rudolph "Horseman" John, an accused person in custody on a criminal charge, and for police prosecutor acting Sgt Claudette Bynoe to not object to the granting of bail.
He also said Singh is a flight risk and history may repeat itself. Singh is facing a charge for jumping bail before McNicolls in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates Court. The defence countered saying Singh is no longer a flight risk and he had complied with all the conditions of bail set by a High Court judge.Justice Herbert Volney, presiding in the Port-of-Spain Third Criminal Court had placed Singh on $200,000 bail with a surety on May 1.
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McVeigh, Sankerali connection
Posted: Thursday, June 14, 2001
(Joseph Pantor, Attorney-at-law) (criminal law)
In the practice of criminal law, like in any other job, you find very interesting situations. Sometimes we could learn something and make our country better.So I want to compare the case of Timothy McVeigh in the United States and Russell Sankerali in Trinidad and Tobago, in the interest of developing our criminal justice system.
McVeigh, like Sankerali, was sentenced to death for multiple murders. It was then discovered the State had hidden information which could have made a difference.In McVeigh's case a judge decided whether it made a difference.In Sankerali's case PM, AG, DPP and the Minister of National Security made the decision. No judge was involved. The laws on that issue in the United States and the republic are the same. Online Forum
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The Contradictions of Ramesh
Posted: Wednesday, June 13, 2001
June 11, 2001
(Shelagh Simmons) When asked in a recent press interview if he could be anyone in history who would he choose, Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj opted for Martin Luther King, with Mahatma Ghandi as first reserve. His choice for someone still living would be Nelson Mandela.
Since he apparently sees no contradiction between his former role of human rights defender/abolitionist and his current one of human rights attacker/hangman, it is perhaps fortunate for the people of South Africa that this is just fantasy. Otherwise we might have witnessed Mr Mandela being released from prison and coming to government only to embrace apartheid, a policy he had fought against for most of his life.
And Mr Maharaj used the legality of the death penalty in order to justify it. However, this is not a question of legality but of morality. Moreover, using his argument, William Wilberforce should have abandoned all attempts in the British Parliament to abolish slavery and as a result it would still be legal today. And following his logic, the 109 countries in the world that have outlawed judicial killing would still be practising it.
The Attorney General would do well to emulate his heroes Mandela, Ghandi and King, all of whom would never turn their backs on their principles, would certainly not resort to hiding behind the law to do so and who rejected all forms of violence including the death penalty. Prof. Cudjoe's Forum
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On the horns of a dilemma
Posted: Wednesday, June 13, 2001
(Chico) The power of participation at its many levels will impact the existing fabric with such a powerful force that weak or false fabric will not stand up.Bear in mind that participation can take many forms and you may have to accept and work with the various types and let them unravel as they may. After all we are a society nurtured on messiahs.
Understand also the absence of options that citizens of the republic face. The Manning lead PNM appears visionless and anti - democratic as a weak and ineffective leader clings to power long after his moment in history has past. So he is holed up in the southern castle surrounded by the most incompetent of advisors and mortally afraid to take his message to the corridor where the party power is now 75% concentrated.
Even when recent events in Parliament cry out for a popular response such as mobilising supporters in and around the seat of government, Manning is so afraid of the corridor people that he prefers to prostrate himself at the mercy of Ramesh and Griffith rather than involve the masses. Of course he is even more fearful that Rowley would gain more from such a move than he would.
It is into that vacuum that NAEAP is being pulled.
Respect always the collective wisdom and be guided by same. Just as we can discern the fascist tendencies of the UNC we also have a good notion of what we want and from whom.
Be patient, and although always pushing against the outer limits the push must never be violent enough to break the fabric that holds us tenuously together. The people in their round - about and clouded way will establish your final position. Prof. Cudjoe's Forum
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Panday reaps the whirlwind
Posted: Sunday, June 10, 2001
(Raffique Shah) THE dust has not settled, the acrid stench of human-generated cordite sits like heavy fog over the battlefield, and corpses waiting to be cremated, but whose owners are quite unwilling to quietly lie down and face their fates. That's the scene in the UNC camp one week after what party leader and Prime Minister Basdeo Panday described as the "real mother of all battles"-elections for a new executive-took place. Now, as Panday ponders over the future of both the party and government with him at the helm and brand new deputy leader Ramesh Maharaj breathing down his neck, the PM must have nightmares that he can share with no one else.
If the scenes I painted in that first paragraph appear to be something I plagiarised from a work of fiction, let me assure readers they are not. Recall carefully the events of the past few weeks, especially since we are justifiably branded a society with "a 24-hour memory". If Panday is honest, he will tell party members that he did not want Maharaj as his deputy for many reasons. It was not a slip of the tongue that prompted the PM to utter the irrevocable statement, "Let the nation see what fools they are....they will never lead this party!" It couldn't be Education Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, since she was a one-woman team, and those who latched on to her skirt were part of the harmless "women's platform" of the party. More
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Ah, Carlos Boy Part 2
Posted: Sunday, June 10, 2001
(Winford James) Despite the brave public face Carlos John is presenting in the wake of his defeat to both Ramesh Maharaj and Kamla Persad-Bissessar for the post of deputy political leader in the UNC, he must be hurting badly. As Trevor Sudama might say, the UNC voters gave him enough votes for him to stay in the UNC house but put him in his place; that is, they left him post-less.
How could they reject him from the post of deputy in the face of Panday's boast of, and call for, ethnic inclusiveness? Did they not see that they would have lifted the party's Afro profile by using the one-person-one-vote franchise to make him second in command? Did they not see that ethnic protectiveness was not the critical factor at this stage of UNC and national democracy? Did they not see the threat to the expansionism of the UNC into the Corridor of an ethnic ganging up? Did they not see the value of his high national and business profile? More
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Listen to this, Sir Ellis
Posted: Sunday, June 10, 2001
(Prof. S Cudjoe) SOMEONE of stature had to make such a statement: Trinidad and Tobago is more "an elective dictatorship than a democracy". Although I would not put it in quite those terms (there really can be no such thing as "an elective dictatorship"), the essence of the political phenomenon that former president, Sir Ellis Clarke, describes remains clear: the robust, participatory democracy that we established over the past 45 years is slowly succumbing to the authoritarianism of persons who have little faith in our citizens or their autonomy.
And it is not so much that the shareholders (the general public) cease to intervene in the political process after they cast their ballots every five years. It is that citizens do not prosecute their rights and responsibilities actively during that time and therein lies the reason for the advancing cancer within the bowels of our "elective dictatorship". More
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Today is October 7 2001
Posted: Sunday, June 3, 2001
Today is October 7 2001 I am putting 04-06-2001
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Mass retrenchment no solution to Government's money woes
Posted: Sunday, June 3, 2001
(Raffique Shah) FINANCE Minister Gerald Yet Ming sparked fear among public sector workers when he announced last week that given the state of the country's finances, the Government may have to resort to "trim the fat" in the public service in order to meet an increased wages and salaries bill. He said that the two largest elements of expenditure in the annual budget were the public sector salaries and debt servicing. Although he added that he was not "picking on public sector salaries", he felt that cutbacks on jobs were necessary, especially in view of impending increases for public servants.
To add to the woes of public servants and other public sector employees, Prime Minister Basdeo Panday agreed with Yet Ming, comparing the Public Service to a bell. "It has a very large bottom," he said. He argued that it was difficult to raise the salaries of those at the top since the representative trade unions invariably sought to get commensurate increases for their members. That, he said, made the cost of maintaining current levels of employment in the public sector "prohibitive". The former trade union leader, who resisted all attempts by Caroni Limited to cut back on its work force, is now supporting Yet Ming's call for "trimming the fat" in the service. More
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Gov't turns a deaf ear
Posted: Sunday, June 3, 2001
(Prof. S Cudjoe) A WEEK after I spoke at Arima, a failed meeting as the Express called it, a woman from Valencia informed me that she came to our meeting because of the problems she was having in her district. UNC activists told her that if she wanted to keep her job she would have to join the UNC. In defiance she arranged a public meeting for our organisation in Valencia, joined NAEAP and declared stoutly: “I am a Trinidadian. I will join whatever party or organisation I want to join. I’d rather be dead if I can’t speak my mind in Trinidad and Tobago.”
This incident would not be important except it parallels what happened in the Lower House when the Speaker suspended Keith Rowley from sitting in the House. In doing so, he demonstrated a frightful tendency that is becoming more commonplace in T&T: the decreasing circumference of speech in our society. Woe unto any politician or political commentator who does not go along with the prevailing wisdom of the day. As Rowley noted: “I don’t mind Government retaliating, but what I find objectionable is when the retaliation comes from the Speaker.” More
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