Situations can inch up stealthily, creeping up so insidiously that we cannot pinpoint the moment when an aberration became the norm. Allow me to return to the realm of cricket to illustrate what I mean about how a particular kind of leadership can damage the psyche of a people, and …
Read More »Vaneisa: Education Minister’s casual cruelty on high temperatures burns
Cruel has to be the word to describe the response of Education Minister Nyan Gadsby-Dolly to the question of how her ministry was dealing with high temperatures in classrooms. How else could one interpret her offensive comments that teachers and principals are used to it and know how to manage …
Read More »Vaneisa: Saluting cricketers in a league of their own
So far, in not writing about cricket for eight columns straight (I am sticking to my story that they are really about Caribbean societies), I have avoided naming any contemporary players. But I want to veer away a bit and talk about some CPL events, and that entails some name-calling. …
Read More »Vaneisa: The Unseen and the Unspoken—and the need to fix “us”
When I started what I thought could be a series on cricket and our Caribbean societies seven columns ago, I imagined separating it into two elements: internal and external. My intention was to try to grasp the factors that affect the way our young people process thoughts and information. I …
Read More »Vaneisa: Build communities by teaching youths “histories of ourselves”
When Gordon Rohlehr and Brinsley Samaroo died recently, the torrent of tributes celebrated their contributions to the world. Especially significant was the consistent references to their generosity with knowledge—the way they shared without regard for financial remuneration or public recognition. Along with the indefatigable Bridget Brereton, they have been exemplars …
Read More »Vaneisa: Teaching our history to younger generation would enrich our societies
Discovering Frank Worrell through a comic book was a powerful moment in my primary school days. A voracious reader, I was growing up with the idea that heroic figures were remote figures from faraway lands. The one major investment in books in our home had been a set of encyclopaedias …
Read More »Vaneisa: The rush of blood—education changes minds, not violence
We are already far down the road where even if we can string words together, we cannot process ideas. There was a time when our oppressed peoples fully embraced the concept that the way to shake off their shackles was through education, and they went at it with great commitment …
Read More »Vaneisa: Intelligent cricketers good; re-educated Caribbean societies better
Two aspects of the situation in West Indies cricket have to be addressed in tandem with each other. The first is for the future: rebuilding capacity all round, and the second is figuring out how to get current performances back to a respectable level. The former is the gargantuan task …
Read More »Vaneisa: Mia Mottley, West Indies cricket and the public good
Last Tuesday, Mia Mottley, prime minister of Barbados, delivered the 22nd annual Sir Frank Worrell Memorial lecture at the Cave Hill campus. I happened to come across the live broadcast quite by chance and, as usual, was riveted by her candour, relevance and fervour as she discussed the state of …
Read More »Vaneisa: “We curse off the WI cricketers for being us”—a case of us and them
We can divide the discussions into two. The internal, what’s happening inside the body of West Indies cricket, its circuitry; and the external, the factors contributing to its current state. It’s really an analogy for the state of our region. Everything applies to what’s happening in our societies. We have …
Read More »Vaneisa: Caricom, cricket and culture—the conclusion of decades of decline
It was a pleasant surprise to find myself so eager to watch the First Test match between the West Indies and India in Dominica. I embraced the prospect, knowing fully well that we were unlikely to do well against that formidable team. I prepared for Wednesday, basically leaving the day …
Read More »Vaneisa: Hard not to be cynical about Caricom
Even when you have always believed that a unified Caribbean is the ideal state for regional development; even when you support the idea of Caricom, it is hard to buy in to what it has turned out to be in its 50 years of existence. I was but a child …
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