View Point

“The police and the police commissioner are not supposed to declare war on the citizens of the country. They are supposed to bridge the gaps and develop and maintain good relationships with the people in the communities. “[…] The youths in our communities are not criminals by nature; it is …

I read recently that the Ministry of Education has ordered the Arima Hindu School, located on Temple Street to be closed, as consequence of an upsurge of crime in that community. Now I don’t want to jump the ‘gun’, since there was to be a meeting at the Arima Town …

I drove past the Petrotrin refinery one night and felt the stillness that darkness provides. In my imagination, I saw the stare of thousands of eyes from the darkness. It is now six months since Petrotrin chairman Wilfred Espinet wielded his axe, with the full permission of the current government, …

Back in the mid-80s, when I was in Form 3 or 4 at St Benedict’s College, a film was shown about the Rapture—an event in which the ‘righteous’ would suddenly be swept up into the clouds to be with Jesus and away from the horrific tribulations that would befall everyone …

The Privy Council decision in Maharaj v Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago Ltd, [2019] UKPC 21 (20 May 2019) has shone a Guaracara-esque spotlight onto Petrotrin’s decision to abandon its $97 million USD claim against Malcolm Jones. According to the Court, based on the evidence available to them, ‘there …

The Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies (CCLCS), will present a special panel discussion hosted by the Elma Francois Institute for Research and Debate (EFIRD) entitled ‘Venezuelans in Trinidad and Tobago: Implications for Labour and Society’. This event takes place on Friday 24th May 2019 from 6.00pm – 9.00pm …

“Sometimes I am so disoriented that I don’t even know what day of the week it is, to be honest. One shift is usually 12 hours. Sometimes we work 36 or 48 hours; but most times it is 24 hours. “If no relief is sent for me when I’m done …

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 …

“In the context [of the police searches of homes in the Gulf View area, National Security Minister Stuart Young’s] words are, with respect, equivocal and misleading…” The following Letter to the Editor on recent warrantless searches by the Police Service was submitted to Wired868 by attorneys, Dr Emir Crowne, Matthew …

Shooting wars begin as culture wars and culture wars are initiated by ideas. So let’s for a minute set aside Uncle Sam’s amoral adventures in Venezuela; or not—because this issue is partly about what led to it in the first place. A few years ago Professor Merle Hodge wrote an …

“Hatred is corrosive of a person’s wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation’s spirit, instigate brutal life and death struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and block a nation’s progress to freedom and democracy.” Liu Xiaobo, 2010 Nobel Prize Laureate. The spectacle of a former …