The administration of many ministries of government is in continuous decline, while the politicians have wasted tons of money and seek to blame each other when the decline is exposed as a crisis. In that scenario, the politicians and the ministries put out paid advertisements, Facebook posts and media releases, …
Read More »Vaneisa: Do we actually think about the rights of the child?
Last Monday, the international community observed World Children’s Day; the theme: “For Every Child, Every Right”. The day has been marked on 20 November since 1954, for nearly 70 years. Looking at the rather superficial statements on its behalf in our space, I wondered if we ever stop to think …
Read More »Noble: The demonisation of the black woman; and its impact on our society
“The race rises as its women rise. They are the true standard of its elevation. “We are trying to produce cultured men without asking ourselves where they are to find cultured wives. We forget that cultured families constitute a cultured race and that a cultured race is an equal race. …
Read More »Vaneisa: Customer service woes—and the beat goes on…
After last week’s complaint about the unreasonable wait at FCB, I received two phone calls from different managers, apologising and telling me about the plans in motion to address long waits and accounts falling asleep in absurdly short times. If the plans are to materialise as expected, it should go …
Read More »Vaneisa: Treating customers like second class citizens
Last Wednesday, I received a phone call from the CEO of the credit union I complained about in the previous column. Somehow, they’d recognised themselves and the CEO apologised, saying the treatment was unprofessional and went against the whole principle of the credit union movement’s basis. We discussed poor customer …
Read More »Noble: Will we condemn our children to lives of crime? There is another way
“The lie of a pipe dream is what gives life to the whole misbegotten mad lot of us, drunk or sober.” Eugene O’Neill. Media scrutiny of all criminal incidents has heightened in recent months and intensified with the promise of “crime talks” between the Government and the Opposition. I admit …
Read More »Vaneisa: No credit to this institution—the callous nature of local business
I relate this tale because I’ve discovered it is a common one and I hope that people will be encouraged to make public their experiences with credit unions and other financial institutions. It is a story about an organisation that is founded on a premise of helping others with compassion, …
Read More »Dear Editor: The late BC Pires embodied the spirit of the Calypso Tent
“[…] Truth be told, BC embodied the spirit of the Calypso Tent more than the Newsroom. He was a hybrid, in some sense, of Winston Bailey and HL Mencken. “[…] Kind, generous and determined to make a difference in a world populated by the indifferent…” The following Letter to the …
Read More »Dear Editor: Jada Pinkett Smith is an example of toxic femininity
“Jada Pinkett Smith is toxic… This woman brazenly admitted to infidelity […] and now is opening up about her obvious posthumous feelings for Tupac Shakur. “[…] Imagine the outrage if it was the other way around…” The following Letter to the Editor on a presumed example of “toxic femininity” was …
Read More »Vaneisa: Our immortal BC
At the end of September, in Thank God It’s Friday, a column which has now been running for more than 35 years, BC Pires said: “Chances are Thin.” Without a wallow or a moan, but replete with dread details of his beastly struggle with cancer of the oesophagus, he revealed …
Read More »Noble: The Other Side of the Coin—the cost of ignoring poverty
What do the deaths of the siblings Faith Peterkin, 10; Arianna Peterkin, 14; Shane Peterkin, 17; and Tiffany Peterkin, 19, have to do with our national budget? Does the death of Shazade Simon, the three-year-old who suffered burns in a cooking-related accident, have any relevance to our budget discussions? What about …
Read More »Vaneisa: Education Minister’s casual cruelty on high temperatures burns
Cruel has to be the word to describe the response of Education Minister Nyan Gadsby-Dolly to the question of how her ministry was dealing with high temperatures in classrooms. How else could one interpret her offensive comments that teachers and principals are used to it and know how to manage …
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