“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” James Baldwin. We can ignore what we faced on 8 June in the Queen’s Park Savannah or face it and propose to change it. Late that evening, a video surfaced of a police …

“Every politician who has tasted power, and many who counted for little, has gone to war with the media. If they didn’t, that would signal that journalists were not doing their jobs, that they were too busy prostrating to power to do their duty to country.” Raffique Shah, 30 March …

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley in his opening remarks to his economic recovery team said: “…Covid-19 has unmasked the inequalities that exist in the economy and at the wider societal level…it has also demonstrated that all segments of the society are at risk.” These sentiments are in line with those …

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before,” Rahm Emanuel, (2008). The context for that quote—which is really a riff off one made by Paul Romer, who in …

HG Wells (1945) summed up our perception of the present times, “a jaded world devoid of recuperative power…ordinary man is at the end of his tether”. More than half of us are feeling great uncertainty. Both the business community (90%) and the general public (75%) believe that the economic challenges …

“We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by our responsibility for our future.” — George Bernard Shaw. To accept the virus-induced lockdown was, for the most part, a no-brainer. To exit is not. Indeed, the public comments of the major business organisations show us more …

Stephen King, the famed writer, once said: “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others, read a lot and write a lot.” It is a pity that several in our community do the second and not the first. But beyond that, book publishing …

The great uncertainty of the impact of the Covid-19 disease wreaks fear and doubt in many. In a world that longs for certainty, we have met our match. For much of our human history, we have thought of the future as ‘a terrifyingly unknowable blur’. More lately, full of increasing …

“What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.” CS Lewis. Different views abound about the need to stay or not at home. Some bristle at the restrictions and I will confess my …

Joseph Heller’s book ‘Catch-22’ is a satirical novel about war and demonstrates how circular thinking (such as ‘you cannot find your glasses since you need to wear your glasses to see where they are’) does not lead to solutions but dredges up memories that prove to be debilitating. The main …

Easter 2020 meets the world ‘on its knees’, humbled by a virus that has catspraddled us. One day we were invincible; or so we thought and behaved. The next day, racked with physical and emotional pain, our voices curdle in our throats. Our hearts fail us for fear. We are …

Have you ever wondered how your favourite food store decides where to locate your neighbourhood store? They use information—like what the health ministry uses—about the country: where our people live, their habits and the roadways they are likely to use. Maps in such systems contain useful information but, more importantly, …