Our Prime Minister Keith Rowley made a splendid speech on the occasion of the state funeral of former Prime Minister, Patrick Manning. Dr Rowley kept it light and anecdotal, with reminders that he was his own man in the course of his rocky relationship with his deceased former “chief”. In …

I arrived in London 30 hours after the Brexit referendum decided that Britain would set out to leave the European Union. Two days later, a second Brexit occurred when Iceland tossed England out of the European Football Championship. There has been copious handwringing over both results.  Space constraints inhibit me …

It is generally known, but only reluctantly acknowledged, that our institutions are failing us. The reasons why this failure is not the subject of broad based civic and political action have been set out in my columns many times. Currently the Parliament has contributed to a massive national security failure. …

The instability, corruption and favouritism—as well as enduring shade, class and foreign preference—and just plain, but twisted, foolishness have become so overwhelming that I have been unable to write about some of my favourite things that reflect the resources capable of making Trinidad and Tobago a happier place. I had …

The digital and social media now regularly facilitates the uncovering of many matters that in earlier times might have slipped through the darkness of political obfuscation, including taking blatantly inconsistent positions on the same issue. One example of a significant revelation is the massive wrongdoing that has occurred in the …

I take comfort from the assertion of Archbishop Joe Harris last week that one does not go to hell for telling the truth, in light of the fact that it is necessary again to examine the conduct of the office of the President of the Republic. What has prompted this …

The Independent Senators appointed by the President of the Republic are currently in the news for all the wrong reasons.  One of them, albeit a temporary one, has responded obscenely to criticism, including deployment of lurid phrases, which I decided not to quote. The said President has on occasion shown …

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 …

Sunity Maharaj and I wrote, on the same Sunday last month, about the much delayed revelation of the exercise of so called Ministerial discretion to make State housing available to media personnel. These persons, including high profile journalists, were treated preferentially, at least as far as jumping the queue was …

The proceeds of our oil and gas production are no longer sustaining the high life.  As they say in Grenada, “the money can’t reach.” For decades there has much talk about diversification of the economy, but no action. This is a pity because we have other oil. I refer to the …

The currently very serious matters of Zika and the non-availability of severance pay have once again exposed our habit of rarely developing solutions to problems and limiting our energies to combative debate and protest, in the course of which officialdom invariably makes authoritarian pronouncements and tries to take unilateral action. …

Even though it is said we have become desensitised, the murder rate is once again front and centre of a very grim stage and we have been told to “brace ourselves for more murders.” This warning contains the grave implication that the authorities are not in control. It is also …