“[…] The presence of firearms in a household where there is a history of domestic violence increases the risk of lethal outcomes. “[…] The use of firearms by abusers in cases of domestic violence can extend beyond fatal outcomes. Firearms can be employed as tools to exert control, intimidate, and …
Read More »Daly Bread: The disconnect between Pan and our development goals
Last week, there was high level recognition of the relevance of the steelband movement to sustainable development goals, even though our governments have not published implementable policies for the mutual and sustainable benefit of communities and steelpan music participants—such as players, arrangers, tuners and tutors. By a resolution passed on …
Read More »Noble: The Church, Sex and the Young—our children can’t live in “sanitised bubble”
“If the kingdoms of this world are to be transformed into the kingdom of our Christ, qualified Christians need to be deeply involved in political, legal, and economic processes. “Resistance to the calling to address these social issues intelligently and with spiritual force arises within some local churches and Christian …
Read More »Dear Editor: Why shouldn’t Smith by applauded on Father’s Day? When will his redemption come?
“[…] So why should Darryl Smith not be applauded on Fathers’ Day? […] Does his ministerial indiscretion of some years ago automatically exclude him from being a good father? “[…] Ms Dennise Demming’s moral outrage against the Guardian for their temerity, and her seeming inability to say to Mr Smith …
Read More »Vaneisa: Why Trinidad and Tobago’s trauma is real and festering
Trauma is a loaded word—carrying burdens that are often invisible until something triggers an eruption. The first part is the event that invokes it, some truly cataclysmic occurrence that horrifies and terrifies to such an extent that even if it seems to have dissipated with time, it is a continuous …
Read More »Dear Editor: When did Darryl Smith transform himself into a model father? What was Guardian thinking?
“[…] In less than five years, former Minister of Sport Darryl Smith moved from being fired for interfering in the public service while still being actively investigated for sexual harassment to being proclaimed among the recognized fathers of our land. “[…] What is the message being sent to men in …
Read More »Dear Editor: Trinidad and Tobago will benefit by better valuing our fathers
“[…] This apathy is societal, in which the positive impacts of involved fathers are ignored. And we do not seem to care to make any necessary changes to this for the benefit of our society. “Jamaica recently introduced a clear paternity leave policy. In T&T… nothing—3 or 4 days in …
Read More »Vaneisa: Parenting and punishment—“discipline is often equated with physical violence”
He was telling me about a group discussion about childhood. In an unfamiliar environment, he’d told those strangers that he had experienced what he’d considered a typical West Indian approach to discipline. Licks. When they pressed for details, they concluded that it had been abuse. “I learned about a thing …
Read More »Noble: How the Journey began; understanding the lingering impact of slavery
“The history that is accountable to the enslaved cannot fulfil our yearning for romance, our desire to hear the subaltern speak, our search for the subaltern as a heroic actor whose agency triumphs over the forces of oppression…what comes into view instead are the inner workings of power and violence.” …
Read More »Noble: Ordinary women in extraordinary circumstances; lingering lesson of Mahdia tragedy
In 2014, Brij V Lal, an Indo-Fijian historian, at a Fiji Day of Remembrance said: “One of my life’s ambitions has been to remember what others have forgotten or chosen to forget—to give our people a voice and a modicum of humanity, to give them a place at the table …
Read More »Vaneisa: Flooding, drought, earthquakes, war… no wonder we struggle with mental health
A friend messaged me a couple of days ago to say that her doctor had put her on anti-anxiety meds and it makes her feel so exhausted. It reminded me that after I got Covid, I had experienced a quickness to exhaustion myself—a general fogginess and a funk. I deduced …
Read More »Dear Editor: Here’s why communities protest police killings more than murders
“[…] Police officers represent the state and are entrusted with the responsibility to protect and serve the community. When a citizen is killed by the police, it can be perceived as an abuse of power, eroding trust between the authorities and the public. “Protests can serve as a way for …
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