Forty years ago, while I was pregnant, I fell into a pothole. Fortunately, the fall did not terminate my pregnancy, but I still have the scar on my foot as a reminder. Forty years later our country continues to be haunted by potholes, despite owning the Pitch Lake and producing bitumen …
Read More »Vaneisa: Finding room in the little hut; a parable for unpacking problems
Snippets from childhood can pop up arbitrarily and stick in your head. As a wee reader (from the age of three), I read anything I could find, and some things have obviously lingered. I kept hearing this line from what was probably a morality tale during a difficult period these …
Read More »Orin: Your guide to wining responsibly—from an eight-year T&T resident
“[…] The number one complaint I get from women I asked about wining protocol is about men who don’t how to take their one wine and be contented. A wine does not necessarily signify a wish for continuing engagement or a deeper bond—irrespective of vigor, intensity or degree of contact. …
Read More »Vaneisa: In the wake of death—how different cultures say “farewell”
When someone dies, it is traditional to hold a wake. It’s a time for relatives and friends to gather during the nights before the funeral to offer commiserations and support for the grieving ones. Wakes are thought to have originated within the realm of Catholicism, when the idea was to …
Read More »Noble: Playing chess with The Dragon; Dr Rowley’s gas gamble
“For any developing economy dependent on a single export commodity, powerful economic and political forces, both domestic and external, qualify the choices open to governments and structure their incentives. “[…] It is tempting to put the blame on poor leadership and examples of questionable public policy. In the end, governments …
Read More »CCHR: Did Paria violate the human rights of the four LMCS-employed divers?
“[…] The (rescue) divers were geared up and were ready, only to be prevented on Paria’s instructions, by Paria’s armed private police and the armed Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard. “[…] Paria had evidence that four human beings were alive, asking for help, suffering in a confined space and Paria …
Read More »Vaneisa: Open the gates—the trouble with the world
In Afghanistan, under such bitterly cold conditions that more than a hundred have perished, the Taliban has kept its focus sharply on repressing women. The economy has shrunk, but the forces are hell bent on keeping women restricted from public activities. No to education; no to certain jobs, no to …
Read More »Vaneisa: Lovely jubbly, glubby glubby, and sensory overloads
Following my last column about the responses to textures, particularly in food, a friend asked how I felt about souse. For a fleeting moment I thought she had made some and was offering me a taste that Sunday morning. Although her message was about the column, my brain is so …
Read More »How T&T courts fail dependent spouses and jeopardise mental health of families
“[…] Access to justice is a human right and divorce is a basic exercise in access to justice. For many women, divorce is the only means by which to escape domestic violence or financial subjugation at the hands of a spouse. “[…] Adjournments or no shows of judges prolong the …
Read More »Dear Editor: Police work is a “wicked problem”; Dr Rowley should change tack to address crime
“[…] Dr Keith Rowley, police work is what is known as a “wicked problem”. Rittel & Webber (1973) identified the following characteristics of a wicked problem: “[…] The problem has no end point where you can say it is ‘solved’; solutions are not true or false, but better or worse; …
Read More »Vaneisa: How it feels matters—diary of a “picky” eater
I have always misunderstood marshmallows. Never quite got their popularity. In the old days, they popped up mostly around Christmas time, along with butter cookies and other treats. I’ve since discovered that they are actually made up of 90 per cent sugar, but that had nothing to do with my …
Read More »Vaneisa: Something to cry about—the winners and losers of repressive childhood codes
He is in his mid-fifties, a woodworker of the old school, where craftsmanship was an emblem of pride. He had come to Trinidad many years ago, on a roundabout journey from Guyana that had taken him to places far, and jobs disparate. Now, in modest circumstances, he plies his trade: …
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