Martin Daly

From the buggery murder of Akiel Chambers, aged 11, last seen at a children’s party in an upscale house in Maraval, to the smothering of Shannon Banfield, aged 20, last believed to be in a store in Charlotte Street, there are continuous lines of slackness and callous indifference. Both Akiel …

As asserted before, it is gross inadequacies at the macro level of political thinking and action that have inevitably produced and made worse the problems besetting us. The political parties need to re-think their deep inadequacies. They have us entangled in a nasty web of wanton murder, impunity for killers, …

My musically accomplished friends tell me that to be tone deaf means to be unable to distinguish the difference in pitch between different notes. In common usage tone deafness has a wider meaning, namely a person unable to discern the different nuances of a situation. We had a local government …

“The potential to soothe the savage beasts of the nation whenever they appear in your communities and to put disagreement into less destructive modes. That is a challenge to which you must all rise. “Meeting that challenge must be prefaced by a search for self-esteem. I say this is the …

Over more than a decade, my columns have contained an explanation of what I discern to be the deficiencies of the systems by which we are governed and reference to some possible solutions. These columns also seek to show the link between those deficiencies, leadership condonation of them and the …

I entirely agree that the Cabinet reshuffle announced last week is not likely to produce better or cleaner Government. Our governance structures and processes are out of date, unreformed, tainted with partisanship and in some cases riddled with corruption. They lack public trust. By analogy to Chalkie’s “The Driver Can’t Drive”, …

Last week, I wrote of the ill wind of deep-seated race and class divisions. Let me acknowledge that the use of the ill wind description was one put to me in conversation with someone for whose intellect and creativity I have high admiration. I asserted that this ill wind drives …

I am satisfied that the restrictions on the use of firearms and prohibited weapons contained in the Firearms Act do not readily accommodate “threat assessment training” of politically exposed persons or their families involving the possession and use of firearms. However we live in extraordinarily violent times in an unstable …

I was unable to attend the funeral of my colleague Allan Alexander SC, whom I held in the highest regard, owing to my commitment on that day to attend a meeting of a regional organisation—one on which he had also served. However, I was privileged to attend the gathering at …

It was nine months since my last visit to Tobago. On the occasion of my visit last weekend, I received very troubling accounts of the state of Tobago tourism from persons in the hotel industry, both owners and employees as well as persons involved in real estate. These accounts were …

It must be considered extraordinary in the life of a country when editorial writers are compelled to call on two of its highest public officials to account for the expenditure of public funds in the space of a few weeks. So much is coming off the rails at the same …

Abigail Hadeed, the photographer and filmmaker, is my cousin.  To be more precise, as her beloved grandfather and my uncle constantly reminded us, Abigail is my first cousin once removed. That is because her mother, who was born Daly, is my first cousin. I mention these relationships as a form …