Guest Columns

“[…] Now that the police can no longer bring charges under the Sedition Act, they are going for the vague charge of ‘Tipping Off’ found in section 51 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2000. “A quick review of the Act showed that the charge of ‘Tipping off’ is designed …

It’s been more than 15 years since the Piarco Airport corruption scandal, and the once high-flyer Renee Pierre is before the court to answer three corruption charges. My late mother from behind–the–bridge used to say: “Friends will carry you, but they won’t bring you back.” This is still stellar advice—especially …

Desperadoes Steel Orchestra is in no position to refuse the generosity of the prime minister, but the population can. We can tell Dr Keith Rowley that the reasons Despers left the ‘Hill’ are still with us and may even be more deeply entrenched as we count the daily shootings, killings …

This Carnival, I felt like Black Stalin with his refusal to sing about ‘Dorothy’ while grave social injustices exist. The breathtaking interview and official announcement by the CEO of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), Haydn Gittens, in the FCB IPO scandal are shameful. The SEC exists to ensure the soundness …

The entry of the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) under the leadership of Makandal Daaga (then Geddes Granger) into Port of Spain on Thursday 26 February 1970, represented the beginning of the most dynamic and significant period in the history of Trinidad and Tobago. NJAC had convened a March through …

Dr Hollis ‘Chalkdust’ Liverpool suggested that everything happening in Trinidad and Tobago and elsewhere pales in significance to the ongoing ‘Murder Frenzy’—be it the Law Association’s fight to remove Chief Justice Ivor Archie, or whoever putting ‘dog in the curry’. But, last night, the nine-time Calypso Monarch champion was wrong. …

A case of racially-charged ‘offensive behaviour’ filed by TV6 journalist Kejan Haynes against then Progressive Empowerment Party (PEP) political leader Phillip Edward Alexander will be referred to a Tribunal for adjudication, after the Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) rejected Alexander’s defence and a conciliatory meeting between the two parties failed to …

Symbolic of the moral and ethical wasteland that we as a nation have become is the apparent dearth of flourishing fruits and natural habitat, which we once enjoyed and ravished with impish delight. Do mangoes, avocados, pommerac, plum and cherries grow in abundance as in days gone by? We, meaning …

In his 2007 work Categorically Unequal, sociologist Douglas Massey argues ‘education is the most important resource in today’s knowledge-based economy’. It is, therefore, not surprising to witness the passionate debate on this topic and to read the very different views of Mr Fitzgerald Hinds (Express, 2 February) and Mrs Kamla …

Another Carnival is here again, and we are seeing examples of excellence in performance, delivery and customer service. If these things work in one area of society, why is the performance in other areas so dismal? The answer lies in the proliferation of square pegs in round holes. Visit Rosalino …

On 4 February 2020, the Attorney General introduced the Interception of Communications (Amendment) Bill, 2020 (the ‘Bill’) in the Senate. The Bill has noble intentions, but as we all know the road to hell is paved with such intentions. The Bill seeks to amend the Interception of Communications Act by …

In August 1962, the first Common Entrance group entered secondary schools and heard Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams say: “… you carry the future of Trinidad and Tobago in your school bag.” At QRC, there was a boy from Rio Claro, another from Princes Town (now president of the Old …