The voice on the other end of the line was female but it was neither family nor familiar. And without so much as a perfunctory greeting, she got right to the heart of the matter. “Mr Best, yuh eh have no mudder?” “I beg your pardon?” I said, taken aback. …
Read More »Baldeosingh: Workplace sexual harassment is ‘a relatively rare occurrence’ in T&T
“The IADB-funded National Women’s Health Survey[…] found that […] fewer than 60,000 out of 463,000 women [had been sexually harassed in Trinidad and Tobago]. The most prevalent type of harassment was ‘in the form of electronic messages with sexual content’, which means that most women who were harassed were harassed by persons …
Read More »The genesis of the Eden Gardens matter; what the media might usefully pursue
In November 2016, the State filed a lawsuit against certain former public officials for alleged fraud in the HDC’s 2012 purchase of 50.5 acres at Eden Gardens in Freeport. The former officials named in that lawsuit were Jearlean John (former HDC managing director), Henckle Lall (former HDC chairman), Greg Davis …
Read More »Not Condemning: Mr Trinidadian, when will you raise your voice against sexual harassment?
Calling all the nation’s men! Mr Trinidadian, you have a mother, a wife, a woman, a daughter, a sister, an auntie, a nennen, a bestie, don’t you? That means there’s a woman in your life who, if she is not yet being sexually harassed, at least runs the risk of …
Read More »Living Law: Three strikes? What the Domestic Violence Act really says
Domestic Violence is a little like the air around us; we know it’s there but we tend not to pay too much attention to it until some stench makes us fully aware of its existence. It may be stretching things more than a little to classify as a case of …
Read More »Daly Bread: Seeing it up close; what we can learn from Venezuela
Extensive comment on current events in Venezuela is not for me to make, but I am confident that events unfolding there are the outcome of a long-standing bitter polarisation between the Venezuelan political and socio-economic elite and the working class. When the poor and dispossessed eventually found a champion in …
Read More »Daly Bread: Fantasia in G; suggestions for Tobago Jazz Festival and the T&T tourism product
Later today at the Tobago Jazz Experience 2018, Fantasia is scheduled to be a headline act. I do not know in what keys Fantasia sings her rhythm and blues, but her appearance in Tobago today is a case of Fantasia in G, because the engagement of such artistes is part …
Read More »Dear Editor: End political blame game! It’s time we abandon unresponsibility and start taking ownership
“Responsibility implies a degree of maturity which recognises that there is far more long-term mileage to be gained from finding solutions and marching forward while the opposition remains mired in finger-pointing tradition. Even if the real motivation on the campaign trail lies in the lust to win power—actions thus far …
Read More »How would T&T respond to a disaster? Col Weekes and US official, Barrera, discuss value of Fused Response test
“Why [the] ANR Robinson [International Airport]? Why not Piarco as usual? Well, we are trying to go away from ‘business as usual.’ “We also spoke about Tobago being a location for an alternate governance if things in Trinidad go down. So we are going to test that as well and …
Read More »UN concerned by T&T’s “repatriation” of 82 Venezuelans, including asylum seekers
“The United Nations is concerned for the welfare of these people and is in contact with the appropriate authorities in Port-of-Spain to ensure that any person in need of protection will get it without fail.” The following media statement on the “repatriation” of 82 Venezuelans from Trinidad and Tobago was …
Read More »Daly Bread: Minding the gap; why President Weekes is off to a commendable start
Reliable sources have confirmed that a minister who is being re-assigned from one ministry to another is not required to be sworn in consequent upon his re-assignment. As a result of a mistaken belief that another swearing-in was necessary when Darryl Smith was moved from the Ministry of Sport to …
Read More »Monitoring Me 4: The Sisyphus miracle of rolling stones, uphill tasks and labours of love
My first encounter with Sisyphos came in Sixth Form Latin class at QRC when I was in my mid-teens. And a decade or so later, I was halfway between 18 and 28 in 20th Century French Literature class at UWI when I was introduced to the Camusian version of the …
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