Guest Columns

The UNC won the 2025 general elections promising to transform Trinidad and Tobago’s economic fortunes, treat workers fairly and address the crime situation—all important domestic issues. And as expected, as the Kamla Persad-Bissessar-led Government marks a year in office this month, commentators and analysts have opined on their performance in …

What will history remember about Carnival 2026? Not the mas, for sure! Post-Minshall, mas has been eminently forgettable. Most, especially the Catholic Church, will remember the sex toy distribution and forget what Tribe played. Pan? Perhaps. The narrow Exodus win, their sixth in all, over a consistent Renegades, leading the …

Dogs, we have heard from since the Rock of Ages was a pebble, are man’s best friend. On the evidence Bobby and I have accumulated, it would seem they get along pretty well with calypsonians too. I think it’s a safe bet that if there were a part of the …

The danger was never the word. The danger… was that it sounded familiar. Once upon a time, leadership had a language. It was measured. It was deliberate. It understood that words, once spoken, carried weight far beyond the moment in which they were uttered. Today, it seems, we are learning …

Truth be told, Dr Keith Rowley should have held his tongue—he does not have the moral high ground. He should not have responded to Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s allegation, made under cover of Parliament without evidence, about the source of the money used to erect the new Balisier House. But not confident …

“[…] In Dr Eric Williams’ Capitalism and Slavery, he used historical analysis of a vast number of sources to put forward his seminal thesis: West Indian sugar fuelled Britain’s industrial revolution, and slavery in the British Empire was abolished not because of humanitarian arguments, benevolence or acknowledging the atrocities of …

For those who might have wondered about the absence of my column last week, the Express has decided that it only requires my offerings fortnightly. I had already begun writing when I was told, so I continued. I’d listened to three episodes of the Corie Sheppard Podcast on Carnival Tuesday. …

“[…] What is perhaps most instructive from the data on Trinidad and Tobago’s national culture is our incredibly low score on long-term orientation (17 out of 100 vs 77 out of 100 in China and 50 out of 100 in the US). “It demonstrates a low propensity to sufficiently consider …

“[…] Advocates of this strategy contend that traditional interdiction efforts intercept only a fraction of maritime drug trafficking operations, whereas the systematic destruction of vessels and the targeting of personnel establish a more robust deterrent effect. “The strikes have implications that extend beyond the immediate legal proceedings. Critics contend that …

It isn’t something I do—but when Alta, the Adult Literacy Tutors Association, contacted me to ask if I would write something to bring some attention to their Readings Under the Trees event, I could not refuse. Their annual event, held at the Royal Botanical Gardens (I am surprised that it …

Someone suggested rather irately that I write about how the rich and powerful operate with a different code, with such impunity that they get away with behaviour that is abhorrent to the moral masses. Several people have been raising indignant voices, and the air is vibrating with their vehemence. I …

“Trinidad and Tobago could only progress if Laventille does,” Winston Dookeran said in May 2010. Have we moved beyond this idea? Have we accepted that crime is not a group problem? It is not an “Afro problem”, an “Indian problem”, or a “PNM problem”. Crime is a national problem, and …