Guest Columns

Naila Ramsaran has been fired from family-owned business, Ramsaran’s Dairy Products, for a controversial Facebook post on Tuesday in which she referred to supporters of the People’s National Movement (PNM) party as ‘loafers’ and ‘cockroaches’ and suggested that contraceptives be placed in the water to stop them from ‘populating’. The …

Congratulations to the PNM on their victory at the polls under the leadership of Dr Keith Christopher Rowley. Congratulations also to the ongoing Leader of the Opposition Mrs Kamla Persad-Bissessar. Unless the results in the marginal constituencies are in the single digits, it would be a foolhardy pursuit to seek …

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley became only the fourth political leader to win successive elections last night; and, barring the internal catastrophes that faced Basdeo Panday and Patrick Manning in their short-lived second terms, will be the first since Dr Eric Williams to see out successive five year spells on …

Interesting how fried chicken could bring to light so much issues that explain what’s wrong with our society. One chicken drumstick is all it takes to expose certain realities, all of which are integrated, interlocked and in some aspects, results of deliberate actions. For one thing, this farcical episode involving …

“[…] To deport Venezuelan refugees back to the human rights and humanitarian emergency that they were fleeing, in the middle of a pandemic, is an outrageous violation of the obligations that Trinidad and Tobago has committed to under international law. “[…] The authorities of Trinidad and Tobago are pushing a …

The Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) today referred Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) leader Ancel Roget to the Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) for ‘racist remarks directed towards certain members of the media fraternity’ during a JTUM press conference at Paramount Building, San Fernando on 4 August. Roget, while …

“[…] It should be obvious to all that the most likely winner of a 100 metre race (no pun intended) is the participant who gets the ‘jump start’. It is in these circumstances that the ‘false start’ rule becomes operative and the race line-up is reset. “[…] What is undesirable …

This week had two apparently disconnected stories whose link we may not have discerned, but which profoundly affects our future. The first was the Express’ report on the alleged TT$549M EMBD bid rigging case which noted: ‘…some of the same contractors donated financially toward the current government…’ The second is …

“[…] We have bought into the Western, capitalist idea, that the individual bears sole responsibility for their success or failure—history and current extenuating circumstances be damned! This, of course, is a fallacy, a distortion of the truth that absolves us, and the rest of society of any responsibility to our vulnerable …

“[…] The very prosperity that slavery brought to British capital was to eventually make slavery redundant. The capital accumulated throughout slavery led to investments in science, technology and engineering, created the industrial revolution, brought into being productive forces based on machinery, speeded up the process of proletarianisation of the British …

Malaysia are many thousands of miles away but share many similarities with Trinidad and Tobago. They beat us to independent status by five years, adopted the Westminster system of governance and enjoyed key financial growth through industrialisation. They are divided along ethnic lines and as such practice race-based politics. They …

The decision as to which party or person to vote for in our General Elections is seldom a single-issue decision. It is folly when our pollsters try to imagine that we vote based on ‘what is the biggest issue confronting us now?’—since many such issues are themselves complex. In the …