Guest Columns

“In T&T, our social protection policies are open to manipulation and are informally enforced as most of them are not enshrined in law. Fuel subsidies also do provide important relief for lower income brackets to achieve social mobility by accessing education and transportation, or pay lower prices for food items …

“Devalue, the book sense people insist, he must devalue! He has to let the $TT find its true value! “They know book but they don’t know chapter…” Local economist Warren Thompson takes a different view on the Minister of Finance’s 2017 Budget and tells Wired868 why he thinks Colm Imbert …

“Since fair’s fair, given that a crime was committed on our soil by men who were—and still are—walking free in the US, when exactly are we going to see any politician here grow a spine and call for their extradition for trial here? “Or at least call the US out …

“As a people we are not part of any budget preparation which would determine our destiny for the next fiscal year. Why all this secrecy? “Why is there no participation by the ordinary citizens? Why don’t we have a date clearly identified for Budget presentation every year?” The following Letter …

“There is so much more to life than Instagraming our night on the town every week. We’ve become obsessed with curating the perfect image of our lives. “Deep down we know it’s a farce.” The following Letter to the Editor was submitted to Wired868 by Kenna Clarke: Trinidadians are huge …

“It is sad and indeed ironic that those who have been accusing taxpayers of living off the fat of the land, are the biggest parasites of the offices which they occupy; doing all this while paying no taxes.” The following Letter to the Editor on Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s …

Two Tuesdays ago at a meeting in Mt D’or, Minister of Finance Colm Imbert boasted that there were only two people who knew the contents of the budget, the Prime Minister and himself. The subsequent applause for this revelation is symptomatic of the nature of our state. We are accepting …

“Indeed, the government has to find ways to generate some savings, but wholesale attrition of state-owned entities cannot be a forward-looking strategy. “Especially when looking at them from a profit-loss point of view loses a sense of how some of them may contribute to our recovery and our economic prosperity.” …

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley hinted in a recent interview that he wants to reduce expenditure to around TT$50 billion. He also alluded to more taxes or, rather, greater taxation. Additionally, he reiterated his determination to avoid going to the IMF and the World Bank. All this comes against the backdrop …

“President [Anthony] Carmona appears out of touch with the urgent demands for accountability in 21st century Caribbean reporting and journalism.” The following is a release from the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) in response to President Anthony Carmona’s Republic Day message: His Excellency Anthony Thomas Aquinas Carmona SC is wrong to use his …

Is President Anthony Carmona’s mother-in-law, Savitri Seetaram-Singh, employed by the Office of the President? Has she travelled abroad with the President’s family? And, if so, who paid for her airfare and accommodation? These are some of the questions put to President’s House, through the Freedom of Information Act, by civic …

Former National Operations Centre (NOC) executive director Garvin Heerah shares his concerns on the fate of the Trinidad and Tobago citizens detained in Turkey on suspicion of terrorist connections: “We’re becoming more effective at limiting travel,” warns an analyst with the Washington DC-based The Study of War on Terrorism, “but …