Supposedly in response to my own post in these pages on 9 September 2021, the National Trust made an engaging and informative post here on 17 September 2021. The most striking aspect of that reply was that the essential query was not addressed at all. For those who have an …
Read More »Tourism Trinidad announces Kurtis Rudd as new CEO, as body seeks to ‘re-energise tourism economy’
Tourism Trinidad formally announced today the appointment of Kurtis Rudd as its new chief executive officer. Rudd, a former Prestige Holdings marketing vice-president, officially started work on Monday 20 September. He replaced acting CEO Heidi Alert, who reverted to her substantive post as manager of destination development. Rudd, a senior lecturer …
Read More »Dear Editor: Charles is wrong, the health minister was obliged to defend T&T on Daily Show
“[…] The minister of health had an obligation to embrace the opportunity to appear on the show, as the matter raised by Ms Minaj had received widespread international coverage both on conventional and social media platforms. “[…] More particularly from a health perspective, T&T’s vaccination programme has been hampered by …
Read More »Noble: Hope is the oxygen of democracy; we cannot afford to let NGOs wither away
One of my saddest memories is of something that happened in 2015 at a village perched high overlooking Port-of-Spain. This village was once a place of joy, where citizens from all over the country flocked to watch the annual fireworks in the Queen’s Park Savannah. However, a nationally infamous gang …
Read More »National Trust chair: We got no Mandela Park proposal, but not every action should be done in public
“[…] As Mr Afra Raymond said, the National Trust is a membership-based organisation and we welcome volunteers in every aspect of heritage protection and awareness. However, not every action can or should be conducted in the full view of the public and I am sure that most persons will appreciate …
Read More »PAHO: Children face significant Covid risk, but countries must do everything ‘to safely reopen schools’
“[…] With each day that children go without in-person schooling, the higher the likelihood that they drop out and never return to school. For some of the most vulnerable children—particularly for our girls—this can have lasting consequences. “Experts agree that the pandemic has triggered the worst educational crisis we have ever seen in the …
Read More »Dear Editor: It’s illegal, under OSHA, to force employees to pay for PCR tests
“Many employers are trying to force workers who have not been vaccinated to take a PCR test… Of course, the expectation is that workers will pay for this—and at anything up to $1,400 a test, it is hardly worth going to work. “You’re not going to work to pay the …
Read More »Afra: Nelson Mandela Park revisited: the curious silence of the National Trust
‘Your silence will not protect you’—Audre Lorde, on the false benefits and toxic consequences earned from calculated or cowardly silences. I had no intention of returning to this issue but Newsday’s Friday 27 August 2021 article (Woodford Square to become heritage site (newsday.co.tt) was a sharp reminder that there is …
Read More »Tye: T&T’s governance model ‘breeds deep mistrust’—as such, ‘forced vaccinations’ would be a mistake
I certainly empathise with the government as they are navigating difficult decisions in the management of the economy and society during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Yet, the issues facing the society are mostly not due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but deeper social issues that have never been properly addressed by …
Read More »Dear Editor: Open letter to T&T’s women—vaccinate your children and your households
“[…] Sisters, I urge you to make the right choice and ensure that all our eligible children are vaccinated, so that they can carry those school bags into their schools again. “Just as we carried them as babes in arms to get their first vaccinations, let us now ensure that …
Read More »Kangalee: Pandemic, yes, but is achieving herd immunity more than a pipe dream?
“[…] What bothers me, though, is how can we achieve herd immunity in the school system or in the country as a whole, when we are dealing with a pandemic which is a world-wide phenomenon? The vast majority of people on planet earth have so far had no access to …
Read More »From vaccine hesitancy to hierarchy: will any port do for Covid storm?
“[…] Pfizer is widely perceived to be at the top of the tree, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson just beneath that, followed by Oxford AstraZeneca, Sinopharm and Sputnik. I don’t know the extent to which this is driving decision-making, but I’ve heard several people say that they’re prepared to wait …
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