View Point

Coming out of the Covid-induced hiatus, our 2023 Carnival is touted as the “Mother of All Carnivals”. We promote our fetes as the best ever and discuss ways of monetising our 2023 Carnival’s impact. We believe that we could export this wonder of the world. Amid this noise, a lawsuit …

As a part-time monitor of the media and a full-time anglophile, I sometimes come across stuff in the newspaper that gives me pause but which might not move other more casual observers in the same way. For example, there is the Express’ Saturday 11 February lead story. It sent me …

Is it too late to post this? Our 9-day memory cycle kicked in already? I was thinking we should forget cricket and football and make chess our favourite game, like it is in Russia. For one thing, it will teach us to think several moves ahead. And another thing, we …

Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT) has provided quality coverage of this season’s Panorama competitions, particularly through the engagement of knowledgeable commentators. In the course of her closing remarks last Sunday morning when the medium and large band semi-finals concluded after midnight, Michelle Huggins-Watts, musicologist and formidable pan practitioner, commented on …

Apoplectic, my fo’daymorning walk pardnah Bobby would later describe my state. In hindsight, I had to agree. Unapologetically apoplectic. Don’t blame me. Blame the pair of presenters on duty on the 7 ‘o’ clock news on CNC3 on the night of 30 January. They had ignited my ire. Had lit …

“[…] Another response I took issue with was ‘let the market decide’ whether ISM survived or not. Some of those sentiments came from folks with a UWI education paid for by the state. “T&T as a society decided that access to higher education wasn’t going to be according to means. …

“[…] The crime situation is very terrible. Being a parent, I do not believe in condoning wrong things. It’s really sad that these things happening in Mayaro now. Mayaro is coming like a little Laventille…” Mayaro resident. Express, 24 January 2023. The resident was referencing the slaying of three youths …

The phrase “mother of all Carnivals” is overworked. Its use will eventually become as stale as “the greatest show on earth”. Moreover, whatever its short-term marketing benefits, it also has cynical political value when it is used to pump up the illusion of joy in these unrelentingly murderous and (with …

It is one of those rare occasions when every praise song being sung is true. Not one word has been misspent—generous, gentle, erudite, kind, gracious, pioneering—it is easy to endorse them sincerely. Since his passing, Gordon Rohlehr has invoked the kind of gratitude and love that truly befits the colossal …

“[…] It wasn’t about getting big and strong from an aesthetic level or a muscular level; it was strengthening my bones, my joints and, most importantly, my mind. “Continually putting yourself through rigorous activities–willingly–tends to hurt a little bit. But it helps you develop a certain mental fortitude that helps …

“[…] The main argument in defence of what’s in effect a Machel Monday redux on Carnival Friday was that ISM was dying anyway, so what’s the problem letting Monk have his way and have the day? “It’s a strikingly bad argument. If your beloved relative is dying, you don’t finish …

Last Sunday’s Junior Panorama was a scintillating competition. The crowds were so large that, as the Primary Schools category was completed, their supporters were politely asked to leave and make space for the next category, Secondary Schools. The quality of the musical performances of the participants in each of the …