“The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves—in their separate, and individual capacities.” US President Abraham Lincoln, 1854. This week saw the United National Congress (UNC) struggle …
Read More »Orin: The potential cost of UNC’s civil war
“[…] Ever since she ran in 2015 on a leader-centric election marketing campaign that sold the virtues of Kamla The Leader rather than UNC The Party, she has tightened her grip on her party. “[…] The double-edged sword of making the leader rather than the party the focal point is …
Read More »Noble: What empty Budget chatter reveals about T&T’s future and leadership
“Words are the clothes thoughts wear” — Samuel Beckett, Irish writer. The Budget debate and its fallout sent me scurrying to recall Beckett’s writings. He is the author of “Waiting for Godot”—a play the late James Lee Wah introduced to me in the early 70s. The state of play on …
Read More »Daly Bread: Bake, dumpling, cereal and banking czars—a people out of touch
As a small boy, I grew up knowing that my single parent mother was in a sou sou. Many decades later I have lived to read that the current governor of the Central Bank was surprised to learn of the extent of the practice of sou sou. The czars of …
Read More »Media Monitor: Kamla’s choice, Anil’s voice and putting party before country
It’s an ill wind, we have long heard, that blows nobody good. Ditto, I think, Anil Roberts. Which may be why Kamla Persad-Bissessar has seen it fit to return him to the national parliament as a senator. If every current UNC Member of Parliament were somehow able to make a …
Read More »Daly Bread: Facing the future with honesty; EBC delays, Kamla’s wriggling and relieved piggybank
In my column published on 12 July, I stated that ‘the leader of the opposition may be setting up herself for a post-election fall back role of martyred loser, if necessary’. I also wrote that the list of UNC candidates ‘was a political insurance list, packed with persons who might not …
Read More »AG: UNC not ‘vindicated’ in Cambridge scandal; UNC: Stop using gov’t resources for PNM propaganda
“[…] In the discharge of my responsibilities as the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, in Trinidad and Tobago, I extend caution against any premature revelry at the pause in the criminal investigation into the matters involving and/or surrounding the Cambridge Analytica fiasco…” The following are press statements from …
Read More »AG’s Cambridge Analytica probe is “misuse of power;” UNC insists TTPS and not JSC should investigate
“We support an investigation by the Commissioner of Police, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Integrity Commission, who are the appropriate persons to conduct investigations into allegations of breaches of the law. They are charged with the legal authority and responsibility for conducting fair and transparent investigations that can …
Read More »Media Monitor: TGIF, UNC! Why, despite PNM shortcomings, I mute Opposition politicians
TGIF. Tim Gopeesingh is farse. And outta place! He was on the radio the other day. And Rudy Indarsingh. And Roodal Moonilal. And Gerald Ramdeen. And Devant Maharaj. And, probably Wade Mark and Rodney Charles. And, of course, Kamla Persad-Bissessar. I have a queasy stomach so I have no idea …
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