Health

“[…] There are no economic findings that I’m aware of, on how much the country loses by having a significant proportion of its workforce stuck in traffic every day. But there’s widespread recognition that there’s an economic cost, and that it’s probably a steep one. “For much of the past …

Old men are the worst. They see the world as theirs to do whatever they please. No matter the circumstance of birth, they have been conditioned to believe in their inherent superiority.  They din born so. They were taught so. By the time they are old enough to have sense, …

When I was 16, I got a job as the receptionist at a small printery on Sellier Street in St Augustine. It was not my first job—I’d left school the year before and had worked briefly at two or three places since.  One of the Seafood Enterprises outlets occupies that …

Inside Madeo’s mini mart, the place in Aranjuez where I buy dahi, a tray with eight breadfruits the size of grapefruits sat on the counter. I had never seen such small ones being offered for sale, but since Madeo was always keen to market unusual fare, I was intrigued.  They …

Bird peppers turned up everywhere. You didn’t have to plant them; they took root wherever they were dropped off by their bird friends.  Small and innocuous looking, they were hot—none of the warning signs like scotch bonnets, whose succulent exteriors were a fire alarm. My younger brother, at four, was …

I have had a lifelong love for curries. When I was a child, my favourite meal was rice, dhal and curried chicken. It was actually the rice and the curried chicken, but we were made to have the dhal on it.  It felt like an interloper, interrupting the concentrated taste …

My first encounter with coffee left such a bitter taste that I silently swore I would never have it again. I must have been about eight or nine, and it was one of those rare occasions when we were left at home unsupervised.  It wasn’t that I had any particular …

“[…] Over the last week we have held the Jam Naked Fete and the Stink & Dutty Fete, which seemed to have got a free pass; they escaped all regulations and contributed to one of the bloodiest weekends of the decade. Murders, larceny, being drunk in public and wearing NO …

The nasty debate about which of the two different governments was responsible for the prolonged abuse of children in state-funded homes continues.   It is made worse by a discernible element of glee with which the politicians and other combatants attack each other concerning the revelations of abuse, incompetence and …

I see you write about me again, she said, laughing. Mystified, as she was not present in my mind as I wrote my last column, I asked what she meant. She was referring to the people who bottled everything inside and the unexpected eruptions that come from what might seem slight …

It’s hard not to be overwhelmed by the barrage of brutality. How many times in recent days have I felt my stomach churn because of the news bombarding us?  Rage is roaring through our space, so unfettered that we can’t help but feel that, here and now, all fall down. …

“[…] My brain injury did alter how the world looked at me, how the world saw me but it did not change me on the inside… Given today’s deterioration in families, it is essential that we as a society utilise any and all of our resources, physical and mental.  “[…] …