View Point

I have a vivid childhood memory of standing on the pavement with my friends waving our little flags to mark the end of colonialism and the start of Independence. Annually, I walked from my home in Quarry Street to the Queen’s Park Savannah to enjoy the military-style Independence Parade. Later …

The Delta variant is a rapid-fire version of the Covid-19 virus. It is capable of killing many and killing quickly. There are also a growing number of pediatric cases—children having been spared from the original virus. Two weeks ago the New York Times reported that ‘one in five ICUs (intensive …

“[…] It is well documented that the history of policing in Trinidad and Tobago has been characterised as bearing the undesirable feature of paramilitarism… Joan Mars, Guyanese sociologist and policing scholar, when commenting on policing during the colonial times argued that this model of policing was characterised by:  “An emphasis  …

On the occasion of the 59th Anniversary of the Independence of Trinidad and Tobago, political leader of the Movement for Social Justice David Abdulah is calling on citizens and patriots to embrace the vision of the Second Republic offered by his party. It should be clear to all, says he, …

Our governance arrangements and political style have left us in an uncomfortable void. Our country is not nearly as well managed as we could make it. We have not employed an enlightened combination of the country’s resources, citizen commitment and fairness. There are not many countries that have achieved satisfactory …

Trinidad and Tobago did not buy ‘cat in bag’ when we hired Mr Gary Griffith. We knew full well what to expect.  In October 2015, then Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon reported on his predecessor’s bid to purchase armoured vehicles for the police service:  ‘Unknown to the PS and …

“[…] The Legal Notice stipulated that the PSC had to submit to the president a list of persons who could act… Was such a list sent to the president?  “To date, the Parliament has not given its approval to an acting CoP. Questions may therefore arise if Mr Griffith is …

“[…] No, no—WASA should not and cannot be privatised! There are some entities which are what you call in economics, natural monopolies. For an economy like Trinidad and Tobago, the production of water is a natural monopoly and the state should do it. “[…] We are going to give WASA …

“[…] Non-energy revenues have fallen in 2020-2021 and for next fiscal, 2021-2022, it is going to be worse—partly because people pay taxes on the previous year’s numbers and partly because the recovery is going to be slower than expected because of the state of emergency and the impact of the …

“[…] The continuous revolts and burning of the plantations by the Africans, following the Haitian Revolution, removed the profits from the sugar industry and forced England to end the system. This culminated in the Emancipation Proclamation of 1 August 1834. “Trinidad and Tobago, as well as the rest of the …

There was an advertising slogan, ‘You’ve come a long way, Baby!’, in the late 60s that reflected the rising empowerment of women. By the early 80s, a board including two men, inspired by Radhica Saith, ran the first local Halfway House for Battered Women.  Thirty years ago, this week, our …

The words of Kahlil Gibran in The Prophet inspire generations of readers all over the world. In the words of an Oxford University lecturer, the book ‘serves various occasions or big moments in one’s life’. I have so far escaped the worst of the deprivations of the pandemic. My pandemic …