“Yet now, after he is fired and humiliated, he can’t wait to talk to a non-legal, non-binding committee, who he is confident will vindicate him? “Let us be clear: no committee can vindicate Smith at this stage. That opportunity has already been forfeited and he should be ashamed for trying …
Read More »Media Monitor: Boldon’s broadside, Ahye’s comeback and other notable sporting quotes
Sporting history is replete with examples of if not famous last words, at least famous statements, good, bad and ugly, by famous sportsmen, for the most part good. Of recent vintage are two by former Olympian Ato Boldon which provoked a third from newly minted Commonwealth Games 100m gold medallist, …
Read More »Black identity (Pt 8): The redemption of blackness through the rubric of Black Power
The Black Power movement of the 1960’s and ‘70’s was not spawned by a spontaneous determination to destroy white supremacism and undo the psychological damage of European enslavement, colonialism and Jim Crowism. Rather, it was a much longer and more complex historical process, a process which this column is dedicated to …
Read More »Daly Bread: Doh look dong or behind; T&T politicians at sea
I am using the vernacular “doh look dong” instead of “do not look down” in order to keep real the dangerous nature of the predicament of the passengers transferred at sea from the water taxi Trini Flash to the larger vessel, Cabo Star. As readers will recall the Trini Flash …
Read More »Monitoring Me 2: Sport as nirvana; Football’s Lord, Cricket’s Prince and the Calypso King of the World
Happiness, for this West Indian cricket lover, is an 80″television set. Or larger. With Lara, Brian Charles Lara—no longer “live” but in living colour—in full flow. Nirvana? In the terms of Edward Fitzgerald’s “Omar Khayyam:” A stack of Tapia/Review, complete somehow; More, Sparrow, More; Beyond a Boundary and thou before …
Read More »Living Law (Pt 2): The rule of law and the ordinary citizen; professor shares guiding principles
The rule of law is an abstract concept but that does not mean it is difficult to understand. Here goes: Let us suppose the government passed a law to empower the police to come into your house and take all your money away and freeze all your bank accounts? How …
Read More »Not Condemning: Whoops, whaps, clap, clap, clap, Tobago Jazz management by voops and vaps
Last week, on 20 March to be precise, the chairman of the Tobago Festivals Commission, which is responsible for organising the Tobago Jazz Experience 2018 (TJE) made the announcement of the headline acts. That gives patrons less than six weeks’ notice that international artistes Ne-Yo, Tarrus Riley and Anthony Hamilton …
Read More »Media Monitor: Oh mih Guardian! The Grandma of St Vincent St under an editorial spell?
As the Guardian last week marched into April, something seemed to have been taking place behind the scenes. My suspicion is that, with Shelly Dass now officially fired, someone from the CCN group who knows English has crossed the floor and taken up new responsibilities in the print section of …
Read More »Fixin T&T: Rowley must remove Darryl pending investigation of sexual harassment claims
“On the heels of the disappointing hands-off approach taken in the matter of the sexual harassment allegations levelled against Government-appointed Angostura Chairman Dr Rolph Balgobin, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi and Minister Stuart Young have sought to robustly though ill-advisedly justify the alleged use of public funds to settle a matter …
Read More »Monitoring me: A rare view in the rearview mirror; stone-cold sober 2018 reflections
“Which woman,” my decent, upstanding, well-behaved friend CJ enquired with a chuckle, “doesn’t want to start her day every day with a prick?” Kees was on the radio, the melodic strains of his “Sweet type of Love” filling the room. Coincidence? Perhaps… “Wanna piece?” she had asked, giggling and proffering …
Read More »Same-sex “soul” brothers (and sisters); gay/lesbian interactions in Africa and the Diaspora
The issue of homosexuality and same-sex relationships as it pertains to people of African and Indian descent is an extremely divisive one. As I pointed out in my preceding article, regarding African people, it is as deeply contentious in Africa as it is here in the Americas. Some of that …
Read More »Battle for Souls (Pt II): Bullet, Beef and Bible; a look behind the mask of the unholy triad
In Part One, we touched briefly on my personal experience with American-born Evangelical Christian religions, their racist past and anti-tolerance messaging. We touched on how religion is historically used to erase and homogenise a culture for compliant assimilation into an empire and the impact it has on our multi-cultural nation …
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