Martin Daly

We are all acquainted with the expression 24/7 meaning continuous shifts or round-the-clock service. Sadly, our country is now a country of murder 24/7. Underlining that fact, we actually managed to have 24 murders within a seven day period, causing Guardian media to assert in a page one editorial on …

I have emphasised in these columns that we cannot expect our country to come out of its steep, continuous and frequently murderous decline if we continue, as I recently put it, with ‘poor governance, pursuit of failed policy, inability to vary something that is not working and official petulance when …

Last week I examined the promise of Minister of National Security, Stuart Young, that there will be charges and “big fish being taken down in the next set of operations before year’s end.” I expressed skepticism about this promise for two reasons, one of which was my concern that the …

Last week, in the course of the latest Parliamentary debate on crime, talk of ‘big fish’ came up again in the speech of the Minister of National Security, Stuart Young. First, let’s set out the context. The terms of the Opposition motion for debate asked the Senate: “to take note …

The Evil Queen in the story of Snow White repeatedly asks the magic mirror: “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all.” The mirror would invariably give the mamaguy answer ‘you are, my Queen’. In Shrek when the magic mirror is brought to Lord Farquaad, he …

It is readily apparent that, as predicted, the registration process for migrant Venezuelans is taking the Government and people of Trinidad and Tobago into much deeper commitments than those anticipated. Credible estimates put the number of Venezuelan migrants here at 40,000. A 14-day registration process—if well patronised by half that …

“Why is a Government which says it is committed to transparency proposing to make it more difficult for citizens to access information from official sources? “[…] [And] why, at a time of economic belt-tightening and obviously rising unemployment—whatever the official pronouncements on that issue—does the government consider it a good …

There is considerable confusion about the status of fleeing Venezuelans crowding into Trinidad and Tobago with more confusion to come. Some have gained entry through legal points of entry, but many have breached the conditions of their permitted admission, such as by working without the appropriate permit or overstaying the …

There are many issues other than the NAR’s bungling of the aftermath of the 1990 attempted coup with which I would like to engage. However, my colleague, Anthony Smart, has presented some material which he says shows that the NAR did not seek to avoid the amnesty or postpone having its …

My colleague Anthony Smart asked for particulars on my assertion of bungling by the NAR Government following the attempted coup in 1990. He reminds us that he was Attorney General of the NAR Government during that period, until the NAR lost office in November 1991. That’s easy, Anthony. After the …

I was finishing last week’s column about the unrelenting grip in which murderous crime holds our country when I read our Prime Minister, Dr Keith Rowley’s plaintive cry: “What have we become?” Dr Rowley was mourning the reportedly gruesome murders of a life long Tobagonian friend and his wife of …

I had intended this week to return immediately to the failure of all of our governments to properly assist the voluntary organisation sector in our society and to their bad practice of making funding decisions based on ‘contact’ and perceived partisan political kinship. There is however some expectation of a …