View Point

In a powerful and moving maiden address to the nation she now heads, newly installed President Paula-Mae Weekes urged us all to “…confront the darkness and declare that it will not take over.” I wonder about her tense. From early boyhood, I have repeatedly heard that what is to is must …

Monday 19 March, 3:54pm. Charlotte Street. The shrill wail of a siren assails shoppers, motorists and pedestrians as a lone Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force vehicle bores a hole through the thick traffic, forcing drivers to hastily squeeze to the far edges of the road, making room where there is …

In England, the word black (originally spelt “blæk”), from its Germanic/Dutch root “blah”/“blaken,” first appears in Old English around 1210, meaning “absolutely dark, absorbing all light, the colour of soot or coal” [www.etymonline.com]. Interestingly, “blac” from the same root, meant: “bright, shining, glittering, pale.” Linked to fire, the two meanings …

“The English language has its roots in a savage historical racism and pride,” (Chris Searle, White Words, Black People, 1972). The words “black” and “white” in Searle’s book-title echo the dialectic in Frantz Fanon’s Peau Noire, Masques Blancs (1952). Indeed, Searle acknowledges his reliance on the English edition, Black Skin, …

Her Excellency Paula-Mae Weekes became the sixth President of the Republic on Monday last. She gave an inaugural speech that was universally well received. Her central theme was the question of what are we to do when “in the state of the State, we might see every reason to despair.” …

The following media statement by the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) on the proposed Cybercrime Bill was issued on Saturday 24 March, 2018: Today the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago appointed a steering committee to address deep concerns regarding upcoming Cybercrime legislation which has the potential to …

“One late September weekend in 2017, a local TV news anchor ‘switched gears’ to a packaged story about a central Trinidad resident, whose home had been ‘ravaged’ by flooding, never mind he and his family were still living in it. The camera showed scenes of damage as the voice of the homeowner …

The idea of the rule of law is very old; it has been traced way back to the time of Aristotle (384 – 322 BC), who wrote that it was “better for the law to rule than one of the citizens […] so that even the guardians of the law …

If you are wondering why, as a Trinidad and Tobago citizen, I choose to highlight the case of Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis v DSD & Anor [2018] UKSC 11 (DSD) coming out of the United Kingdom, the reason is simple. This case has basically turned the concept of …

“The police get more than 1,800 domestic violence reports annually and about 1,300 of these involve physical violence. This works out to an average of 25 per day. This means that, if the mandate being demanded by activists is met, at least 50 police officers will be expending at least …

On Monday March 12, Quartz Media, a respectable, business-oriented, online publication carried an article by film critic, Echo Huang. It was headlined: “A torture for the eyes: Chinese moviegoers think Black Panther is just too black.” The punch line in Huang’s story was provided by a “reviewer on Douban,” which …

This troubled Sunday morning, let’s view the continuing Chief Justice saga through the prism of Watergate. On 22 July 1973, the headline on the front page of the Washington was ‘Nixon sees witch-hunt.’ At that time, the now famed Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, were actively pursuing the …