Guest Columns

I was once told that I have the diplomacy of a sledgehammer. It was during an online discussion on religion and I was simply presenting the facts as is, with my interpretations; and with the attitude that, if it offends your religious sensibilities, well, hard luck! Get over it! I …

How many times since last Carnival have we heard the refrain “We jamming still” quoted? And in how many different contexts? Lifted from the Ultimate Rejects’ mega soca track “We Doh Business,” it has tended to be used so often because it sums up very neatly the “carnival mentality” we …

Have you had some wild meat to eat lately? A little lappe, some gouti, maybe some manicou or guana? How about some tattoo, leatherback turtle or perhaps a little Scarlet Ibis? If you can truthfully answer no that last question, then you’re just not in the game—and Trinidad and Tobago …

Eleven million dollars in six months! I could only shake my head in disbelief. That’s how much money drivers speeding on the nation’s highways have already contributed to Government’s coffers. And I think it is a safe bet that that figure will go up and not down in the second …

“Class determines how they express their racism, that’s all. Poor racists are more overt, elite racists are more insidious”  (Facebook comment)  “[O]ur intellectual leaders have been so preoccupied with the campaigns against the hard-line white supremacists who make no compromise in their flaunting of Western civilisation that we have sometimes overlooked …

I was going to delay my ranting until Independence Day. But a couple things—including the events in Charlottesville—pushed me to decide to leggo the ramble one time and done. Almost immediately after I wrote my piece on “model” policing, two early comments illustrated exactly what I was speaking about. One person offered up a …

Right. Everybody who is NOT a millennial––and you of the Independence Generation in particular––I have one polite, humble request. Before 31 August, anywhere you pass and see the Red, White and Black flying, please, PLEASE stop, pull it down and hoist the Union Jack back up for me. Please. Seriously, …

At a very early age my parents, who were unable to read and write, stressed education as they understood it to be the future. The then Prime Minister, Dr Eric Williams, reminded us that “the future of the nation is in the book bags of the children.” This was the …

MOST OF US ARE EMANCIPATED ALREADY. UNFORTUNATELY. No, I haven’t gone completely mad. I just thought I’d try to grab your attention and so make you understand the importance of understanding the power words have. Today is Emancipation Day when we celebrate the end of the enslavement of African people. …

1990: A JAMAAT CHILD REMEMBERS—Part 2 Today marks the 27th anniversary of, in the splendid words of David Rudder, the night of the day when the prophets died” because “a man opened a door and showed us our other side.” To mark the occasion, Wired868 exclusively presents the second installment of a …

Monday was the anniversary of that infamous jailbreak, two years ago, and I should originally have submitted this piece to be published on that day. But I think that it’s better if it appears today, between that 24 July anniversary and the anniversary of another infamous episode in this country’s …

1990: A JAMAAT CHILD REMEMBERS  This Thursday marks the 27th anniversary of, in the splendid words of David Rudder’s “Hosay,” “the night of the day when the prophets died” because “a man opened a door and showed us our other side.” And today marks the first anniversary of an as yet …