Guest Columns

Happy birthday Iere; yuh tun 56… which means yuh mature, and with maturity comes reasoning and a clearer understanding of who you are and what you still need to do to reach where you want to go. But that’s when yuh mature, not when yuh eh sure of yuhself, confused as to …

I left the oil industry in 1989 because I was impatient with the wait for the VSEP money which was rumoured to be on the way. Since then, citizens of Trinidad and Tobago knew that Trintoc/Petrotrin needed dramatic restructuring; but our politicians continued to use the company as a reward …

As with most of the population, I myself anxiously awaited the official statement from the Board of Petrotrin regarding the future of this historical and economic significant company. To say that I was shocked or taken aback by the announcement of the immediate closure of the Refinery operations and the …

On Friday August 31st we celebrate our 56th year of Independence. “How allyuh feel?” How allyuh feel we have grown since 1962 Independence and more significantly, the fact that we are getting near to our diamond anniversary—sixty years—a landmark achievement and a symbol of experience and maturity? Are we on the path …

It was bound to happen. What happened to Minister Fitzgerald Hinds in the Beetham was unfortunate, illegal and disrespectful. But it was all but inevitable, given a whole range of things including our society’s religious refusal to examine ourselves and our past and connect that to our present realities. So, …

“Downpressor man Where you gonna run to? All along that day You gonna run to the sea But the sea will be boiling When you run to the sea The sea will be boiling…” Peter Tosh’s Downpressor Man began playing on loop in my head as I watched the clip …

I’ve been a big Kes fan for ages. I love “Wotless” and I’m not sure if I can get enough of the song “Hello”. Its recently released video, however, is a whole different bag of worms. Don’t get me wrong, I’m always happy when our ‘kaiso’—no matter the genre—is given …

Is it any surprise that National Security Minister Edmund Dillon has been removed? The Prime Minister has chosen to sacrifice one of the persons who brought home his political victory in preference for an opposition player. PM Dr Keith Rowley is either a masterful collaborator or the rocks he studied …

A couple made their way from South. It was already dark. The historic Pride Parade in Woodbrook had ended but, “I had to be here for some part of this day,” said the elder partner as she entered the after-party. As a young gay woman, living with her partner in …

Despite my shameless semi-appropriation of Malcolm X’s “Message to the Grassroots,” this in no way suggests that I place myself close to the same league of this giant ancestor. This is just my paltry message to those in my country, particularly those who live where there isn’t much grass, far …

“It was a Friday, she recalled, a day just like any other Friday. Like every other Friday she could remember, they had gone to the mosque for Jumu’ah. There had not seemed to be anything special about the midday religious sermon then but, looking back at it now, she saw …

How could it be a “Baby Bandit?” My attention was attracted to the sobriquet “Baby Bandit” in reference to a slain youth-man—David Ector—who turned out to be known to the Police and the community. Both groups knew this person to be euphemistically “walking on thin ice”—allegedly involved in criminal activity. …