Tag Archives: corruption

Stephen R Covey, the American author of First Things First, said: ‘We are free to choose our actions… but we are not free to choose the consequences of these actions.’  As a nation, we need to contemplate this as we mourn the loss of the four men in a recent …

Nobody wants to live in fear. Nobody wants to lose a loved one to crime or be victimised.  The pain ricochets through the community as others experience the wrenching loss that descends on us in sudden ways. Most believe that the government is responsible for public safety. But our reactions …

This week’s blackout taught us a great lesson: the street windscreen wiper boys at the West Mall traffic lights are human! Not only are they human and not freaks intent on mischief, but they are also brave entrepreneurs. Who would have thought?  When anxiety levels were rising, they, who reportedly live …

Our country has been widely shamed internationally by the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard’s fatal shooting of an illegal migrant baby.  The use of the label ‘accident’, the premature ducking of responsibility and due process as well as the crude, partisan political exchanges have compounded the shame. For the moment, …

In 2005, Steve Jobs addressed the new graduates of Stanford University. He advised: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. You have to trust the dots will somehow connect in your future.”  It is easy to miss the connections in our rancorous society …

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 …

“[…] There is no greater example of our misapplication of the national watchword, tolerance, than the way we treat Yasin Abu Bakr… He hosts press conferences, and participates in national discussions as if he is qualified or worthy. He is not. His very presence at the table is an insult …

Trinidad and Tobago did not buy ‘cat in bag’ when we hired Mr Gary Griffith. We knew full well what to expect.  In October 2015, then Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon reported on his predecessor’s bid to purchase armoured vehicles for the police service:  ‘Unknown to the PS and …

1959: Then Minister of Home Affairs Patrick Solomon removed his stepson from the Woodbrook Police Station. 2002: Late Prime Minister Patrick Manning phoned the Marabella Police Station where his driver was being held. 2018: former Minister of Public Utilities Robert Le Hunte has an altercation with a police officer for …

“[…] ‘No, no. Everybody going. My friend took her mother and they give him a vaccine one time and he young’… ‘I just take a chance when they set up in the paddock in the Savanna and it was around 5 in the afternoon and they just take my whole …

Mr James Chang Kit resigned his post on 4 January, in reaction to what’s happening at the Office of Procurement Regulation. I think it is immaterial that he did so three weeks before his term expired.   When should he have done it? The bill was proclaimed on 27 December 2020. As if …

Politicians and their satellites do not always practise abstinence from corruption.  If persons populating our institutions abstain, without credible cause, from the limited opportunities to act as checks and balances, we can expect no change in the rate at which the corrupt will abscond unjustly enriched. Last week, amidst public …