A homemade video of a child being abused and forced to drink milk is yet another window opened into the culture of violence in T&T. You can be sure that had the perpetrator and amateur filmmaker known that police would be searching for them, they would not have uploaded that …
Read More »Challenging Old Power: How T&T fails victims of domestic violence
A few days ago a young mother, pregnant with her second child, filed a report with the police. Her estranged husband had turned up at her parents’ home and threatened to “blow” them up. Roughly twelve hours later, in the dead of night, the house where she lived with her …
Read More »Come better than that: Sex and the State
Three years ago, at a workshop on women’s health, a street-smart 23-year-old from along the East West Corridor asked me, “If a man — in my mouth, I could get pregnant?” It will shock many to know that while in popular discourse about sexuality, young people are stereotyped as sexually …
Read More »Warriors in mourning: Marvin Phillip loses 10-month-old son
The Trinidad and Tobago national football team was thrown into mourning today as 29-year-old goalkeeper Marvin Phillip received word from home that his 10-month-old son, Maitai, was found dead at the Anointed Angels daycare in Edinburgh, Chaguanas. Police are investigating the incident. Phillip, a Point Fortin Civic goalkeeper with 44 senior …
Read More »A time for licks: David Muhammad discusses corporal punishment
Corporal punishment is clearly the most popular method of punishing children who misbehave. While there are other forms of punishing youngsters such as “being grounded” or denied certain privileges, a beating is the most immediate, swift and effective way to put a stop to undesirable behaviour. And, even though the …
Read More »To beat or not to beat: Madea’s diplomatic lesson
Mr Live Wire contemplates life if parents followed UN conventions and nations preferred not to spare the rod. (Scene: Somewhere in Trinidad and Tobago.) After rising tensions between Big Momma and her offspring, who was recognised as a sovereign nation by the United Nations on her day of birth, Big …
Read More »Ex-TTFA coach ponders youth football return despite ‘sexting’ schoolboy scandal
Terrence Marcelle, a former Pleasantville Secondary and Trinidad and Tobago national youth team football coach, has a passion for developing youths and the qualifications to place him in the top echelons of local coaches in that field. However, Marcelle’s past indiscretion with a schoolboy is threatening to derail his effort …
Read More »Mary had a little lawsuit
Minister of Gender, Youth and Child Development Verna St Rose-Greaves said the Children’s Bill 2012 has a provision that allows a Children’s Ombudsman to sue abusers on behalf of aggrieved children. St Rose-Greaves did not give details as to how such cases would benefit the young victims, what the impact …
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