Replies

  • So , I been getting calls from Trini relatives very upset about the way the country was portrayed in the show , even though some of the points raised were similar to discussions we always have about crime , poverty etc.in T&T

    Personally I found the show to be far less offensive than my family did , even though I didn't agree with everything expressed.

    It was the viewpoint from what is essentially a food show  based on the opinions of the show's producers , writers etc., obviously with local input.

    My main point to my relatives , however was that Trinis seem to think that story tellers , writers etc. would come in from abroad and only produce "puff" pieces about how glorious the Carnival is , how beautiful the island is , and how "Trinidad nice".

    I would suggest that , instead about being incensed by a foreigner's view of their country, Trinidadians should be producing and telling their own stories promoting a positive view of their country , as is done by others for their countries.

    In my forty plus years living in North East USA , I've seen little if any documentaries , commercials , features etc. promoting Trinidad.

    It is foolhardy to wait for others to do it for them.

    • It's interesting though that Borudain can state that there were 460 murders in all of Trinidad & Tobago in 2016 and deduce without telling us how he got there, that Port-of-Spain’s murder rate was higher than Detroit’s, Oakland’s and Chicago’s.  While some town people might think that Port of Spain is the whole of Trinidad & Tobago, you cannot compute murders per capita for a city by using the total number of murders in the country as a base.  That’s incorrect.  It is not the way social scientists compute murders per capita and it borders on misrepresentation by a shoddy journalist.  Even more egregious, not one patriot is taking this on.

       

      Also pertinent, last time I checked, Lovelace, Naipaul, Taylor etc., have been telling their stories of Trinidad for a considerable period of time …., but I guess you fellas want the gloss of television.  But all that glitters ....

       

    • ...and yuh know Glenroy...of all the Bourdain show I have seen over the years, this one to me, focussed more on the country (and politics) than on food...without wanting to be drawn to deeply into the conversation, to me it's much ado about nothing though...

      • merrytones, it's the boasting people cyah handle, When yuh have cocoa in the sun yuh have to look for rain.

    • Glenroy: As long as I have been on the forum -- this is the first time and you and I ever agree on ANYTHING!!! (And I mean your entire post, not just the line I am highlighting.)

      "In my forty plus years living in North East USA , I've seen little if any documentaries , commercials , features etc. promoting Trinidad."

      For years now I have been wanting to make the statement you just made above on this forum but I was sure that somebody would come and counter with "ONE EXAMPLE" so I left it alone.

      Ironically, I had an interesting exchange this week which I will share. My wife was upstairs looking at some SHOPPING CHANNEL and they were advertising some product. I heard her screaming at the TV: The steeldrum is from Trinidad! The steeldrum is from Trinidad! 

      Then she came down stairs and said: Claude, I am sounding like a TRINI. They were selling this product and the background music was PAN MUSIC. Then the host (enthused by the accompanying music) shifted from the sales pitch and started professing his love for THE JAMAICAN STEELDRUM MUSIC. He just loved JAMAICAN STEELDRUM MUSIC.

      We have a long way to go!!! I say: LEAVE MARIO ALONE!!!

      • Claude...when the patriarch Anthony Sabga died a few months ago, the Guardian printed an entire release in his honour...I ent hear nobody complain then...Everybody buy they Guardian as usual....read it....and went about day daily business...

        • merrytonestothebone: When Ronald Reagan was debating Jimmy Carter he got plenty mileage out of the the expression: THERE YOU GO AGAIN!!!

          So: There you go again keeping it TOO REAL.

          I say is time for BLACK PEOPLE in Trinidad to start renting some boats and planes warehouses and start bringing in dey own drugs instead of standing outside the Syrian Businesses with nose pressed up against the window pane waiting to run off with some little gossip.

          Just now some MEXICAN POLITICIAN in California or New Mexico or Nevada will say just about the same thing. Only it will be like: We are 40% of the population but we control 90% of AMERICA.

          DRUGS money does ADD UP REAL FAST, boy!!! Do you know that the MIAMI SKYLINE was built on DRUG MONEY? Do you know that the MEXICANS tell the COLUMBIANS doh pay dem in $$$$$ any more just pay dem in DRUGS!!!

          Makes good business sense, right?

  • Hadeed: Mafia talk an act of prejudice

    By Indarjit Seuraj Saturday, March 27 2010

    Members of the Syrian/Lebanese community yesterday felt reassured that the country would progress under the leadership of Prime Minister Patrick Manning, after their concerns were addressed in a private cottage meeting.

    “I think a lot of the members left the meeting satisfied. And I am sure whenever the Prime Minister has his cottage meetings members of the community whom he visits are left satisfied,” Senate Vice President George Hadeed said. “It was an excellent meeting,” he added.

    Asked if the Syrian/Lebanese community felt prejudiced by reports that it was a meeting of mafia leaders, Hadeed replied, “If it is the media had reported that the Prime Minister met with the Syrian mafia, well obviously the community has the right to feel that way.” Attorney Faris Al-Rawi, son of former PNM Member of Parliament Diane Seukeran, told reporters afterwards that he was also pleased with the meeting.

    “Very productive, very fruitful. A sharing of perspectives as has happened in any walkabout,” he said.

    At 5 pm, at the Goodwood Park home of business tycoon Mario Sabga-Aboud, Prime Minister Manning and four of his Cabinet ministers arrived to speak and address the concerns of the Syrian/Lebanese community, largely made up of leading businessmen. However, also present were members of the Syrian/Lebanese Women’s Association.

    Al-Rawi said “construction, crime, finance sector, the banking sector” were among the issues which were discussed.

    He noted that the speakers and members stayed away from the controversial Udecott probe.

    “They throw their support behind Trinidad and Tobago first,” Al-Rawi said, adding the business community has always been willing to work and support the leader of the country whoever it might be. “It’s not unusual. There have been meetings with every other leader. There is no subterfuge, there is no conspiracy behind it to form an organisation,” he said.

    Sources said the meeting was requested by Manning and members of the community took the opportunity to express their grave concerns at the restlessness and dissatisfaction which could lead to an upheaval.

    Sources who attended the meeting and spoke to Newsday, requested anonymity. According to one source, the businessmen expressed the view that the situation today is ripe for a repeat of the events of 1970 and 1990 when the Syrian/Lebanese business community, among others, lost millions of dollars in the Black Power riots and the Muslimeen attempted coup, both of which destroyed shops, stores, groceries and commercial buildings in Port-of-Spain.

    http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,118021.html

  • The politics is very simple. THE SYRIANS offer FINANCIAL SUPPORT to the PNM and help them stay in power. The last things the SYRIANS want is for the INDIANS to have POLITICAL POWER on top of their ECONOMIC POWER.

    In return the the PNM pays them back in a BILLION WAYS.

    But what I got out of the exchange is that the SYRIANS are starting to get worried because they could sense that the poverty in TRINIDAD has reached a breaking point and LOOTING, SHOOTING, RACIAL MURDERING is right around the corner. And they may well have to end up leaving the country. Because LAW and ORDER in T&T is on the edge of the precipice.

    And allyuh worried about THE NEXT PANORAMA!!!

    AMEN!!!

    • Mi Amigo, I had reiterate this time and time again on this forum that, T&T is under a Political and Financial Siege, since "Panday and Manning" was in office, the "Natives had become Angry and Restless", and that a "Revolution is Eminent", so here it comes, many will perish/suffer...

This reply was deleted.