The competing arguments concerning the appointment of Mrs Helen Drayton to the Chair of the Board of Directors of a State enterprise—immediately following her completion of service as an Independent Senator—has highlighted once again the issue of appointments in the public sector other than those made to the constitutionally established …
Read More »Come better than that: Sex and the State
Three years ago, at a workshop on women’s health, a street-smart 23-year-old from along the East West Corridor asked me, “If a man — in my mouth, I could get pregnant?” It will shock many to know that while in popular discourse about sexuality, young people are stereotyped as sexually …
Read More »Congrats and concerns: Working Women caution Dr Rowley on social policy
The following is a press statement from the Women Working for Social Progress: September 15, 2015 Honourable Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair. Dear Dr Rowley, Workingwomen congratulates you and the People’s National Movement on your recent election victory, after a campaign that was …
Read More »Sick of violence? Solomon seeks cure for T&T’s epidemic
Violence in Trinidad and Tobago is endemic. It pervades the pages of daily newspapers; it generates local content and attracts advertising income. We routinely talk about it, laugh about it and even contemplate it. It is hard to determine when or why, but we have allowed brutality to become our …
Read More »The Debe Campus’ real issues; Sunity goes beyond geographical furore
To frame the discussion about the UWI Penal-Debe South Campus purely in terms of location is to shortchange the conversation that has long been needed about this TT$509.4 million investment in the expansion of the University of the West Indies. The case for and against—as articulated by both the former …
Read More »Participation paralysis; Daly considers our reluctance to speak to power
We have peacefully changed another Government. Having been disappointed yet again by a previous choice of Government, the prevailing mood of many citizens is that we hope once more for better and fairer governance. It swiftly became the cliché of the day that we “exhaled.” There is however something striking …
Read More »Lowest common denominator; Shah muses over backlash to Max’s speech
Last week, at the opening of the new law term, two main speeches were delivered. The first was a feature address by former President of the Republic and former principal of the UWI St Augustine campus, Professor Max Richards. The second was the customary speech by the Chief Justice, a …
Read More »Identity, violence and nation building: social cohesion is T&T’s biggest challenge
Reading the racists posts on social media immediately following the election results, I was reminded of an intense conversation with a young Bosnian who tried to convince me that theirs was not a war born out of racism but rather ethnic differences. I must say I never got the point …
Read More »Projections, not predictions: why the pollsters got it wrong
My last two columns, one titled “Rowley rising” and the other “Lament for a falling leader”, were seen by many of my readers as being almost prophetic in the wake of last Monday’s election results. Had I made public another document in which I analysed the results in all 41 …
Read More »Winners and losers at the polls: Daly picks his favourite cut-tails
There were some enjoyable electoral cut tails on Monday last. Send me your favourite. Mine is Garvin Nicholas. Tell me too who or what is the new Government’s biggest problem after Jwala Rambarran, sitting like a Reshmi in the Central Bank. Following the 23-18 outcome of the general election in …
Read More »Our Own Field of Dreams; Sunity’s blueprint for great governance
All governments come to office with a chance at greatness. Many never even recognise it, most are too afraid to acknowledge it, and very few ever achieve it. Of our governments, none has scaled the heights. Some have done good, others have done better, all have done some things worse. …
Read More »Memo to Dr Rowley: Somebody’s watching you, PM
The new Government deserves time to settle in. Dr Keith Rowley is a first time Prime Minister, he is leading a team of wide-eyed inexperience and it has been a long, tense campaign getting here; we are all tired and bruised. Alas, after eight years of Patrick Manning and Company …
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