Last Monday, the international community observed World Children’s Day; the theme: “For Every Child, Every Right”. The day has been marked on 20 November since 1954, for nearly 70 years. Looking at the rather superficial statements on its behalf in our space, I wondered if we ever stop to think …

From the time I heard the news reports about the 300 cruise-ship passengers being stranded without tour transport in Tobago because the maxi-taxi operators failed to show up, something seemed fishy. The explanation given by presi­dent of the Tobago Maxi Taxi Association Cloyd Williams was that it was a combination …

After last week’s complaint about the unreasonable wait at FCB, I received two phone calls from different managers, apologising and telling me about the plans in motion to address long waits and accounts falling asleep in absurdly short times. If the plans are to ­materialise as expected, it should go …

Last Wednesday, I received a phone call from the CEO of the credit union I complained about in the previous column. Somehow, they’d recognised themselves and the CEO apologised, saying the treatment was unprofessional and went against the whole principle of the credit union movement’s basis. We discussed poor customer …

I relate this tale because I’ve discovered it is a common one and I hope that people will be encouraged to make public their experiences with credit unions and other financial institutions. It is a story about an organisation that is founded on a premise of helping others with compassion, …

I think it was the Palestinian UN Ambassador, Riyad Mansour, who said that we might recognise how and when something—like war—begins, but we do not know how it can end. Its impact could be felt for ten years, he speculated. I no longer try to understand how humankind can engage …

At the end of September, in Thank God It’s Friday, a column which has now been running for more than 35 years, BC Pires said: “Chances are Thin.” Without a wallow or a moan, but replete with dread details of his beastly struggle with cancer of the oesophagus, he revealed …

Leadership brings buckets of conundrums, and no matter how well-intentioned, few are equipped to face its challenges. Over the past few weeks, listening to international discourse, particularly at the UN General Assembly, it struck me again that our region has two formidable champions in Mia Mottley and Irfaan Ali. I …

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 …

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 …

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. …

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 …