“[…] It is clear that the successful children did not need to be told to study hard but did so without cajoling and certainly without boofing. “So, contrary to claims that anyone can be a top SEA or CSEC or CAPE student—which is logically impossible anyway—the attributes of a minimum …
Read More »Salaam: What protests can really mean for UWI; why Guild should think beyond compound
It’s five degrees and blustery in Brooklyn this morning and this warm-blooded Trini is cold and freezing. But as I scan the headlines, the temperature is hot and sweltering in St Augustine as UWI students responded to the lack of safety and security on the campus in the wake of …
Read More »Dear Editor: My vagina is my business; a young woman tries to tie her tubes at Mt Hope
“[…] The doctor asked me no less than three times if I was sure I wanted to tie my tubes. I had to give her my life story and a bullet-point list of logical reasons why I didn’t want children. “Even after all of that, she couldn’t help but write …
Read More »The cost of marginalising Tech-Voc Education (Pt 2): full certificates and the ignored gender agenda
“We cannot simply produce a Policy for Education and not seek to educate the public on the value of Tech-Voc education. We must also demonstrate that value by offering Technology Education in all schools as a core subject in the National Curriculum. “[…] Another concept that needs to be examined …
Read More »Calcutta, Cookies and Cyats: Kamla’s “Oreo” jibe is part of bigger problem in multicultural T&T
“For all our multiculturalism, we really have succumbed to the danger of our group-think single stories. For all our racial harmony and ‘diversity-in-fete’, we exist in single-story social silos which are almost always at breaking point with one myth of the other: de UNC and Kamla tief; de PNM and …
Read More »Dear Editor: PNM’s race-tinged ‘sari skit’ was exploited by gender feminists and critics too
“[…] The sari skit is also being used by the gender feminists—who must be distinguished from equity feminists and women’s activists—to drum up support for their cause. “Just like the politicians using race codes, this brand of feminist wants to create fear, with men as the demonised group, by raising …
Read More »Uhmm, Kes… Hello?! Gilkes explains why he takes exception to soca star’s new video
I’ve been a big Kes fan for ages. I love “Wotless” and I’m not sure if I can get enough of the song “Hello”. Its recently released video, however, is a whole different bag of worms. Don’t get me wrong, I’m always happy when our ‘kaiso’—no matter the genre—is given …
Read More »Demming: Why new Angostura chairman, Bharath, must face up to Balgobin affair
Since 2005 there have been allegations of sexual harassment levelled against Dr Rolph Balgobin. To quote a Trinidad Express Newspaper report of 4 January 2017: “Former (Arthur Lok Jack) ALJ Chairman and (at that time) University of the West Indies Principal Clement Sankat yesterday confirmed that he had inherited the …
Read More »Not Condemning: Will T&T’s first #MeToo help dynamite lasting bastion of male power?
Congratulations are in order for the Minister of Labour, Senator Jennifer Baptiste-Primus, on becoming the first Trinbagonian woman to stand up and be counted in the #MeToo epidemic! The good Minister took the brave step of announcing in a Sunday Express article that she too had been a victim of …
Read More »Baldeosingh: Workplace sexual harassment is ‘a relatively rare occurrence’ in T&T
“The IADB-funded National Women’s Health Survey[…] found that […] fewer than 60,000 out of 463,000 women [had been sexually harassed in Trinidad and Tobago]. The most prevalent type of harassment was ‘in the form of electronic messages with sexual content’, which means that most women who were harassed were harassed by persons …
Read More »Not Condemning: Mr Trinidadian, when will you raise your voice against sexual harassment?
Calling all the nation’s men! Mr Trinidadian, you have a mother, a wife, a woman, a daughter, a sister, an auntie, a nennen, a bestie, don’t you? That means there’s a woman in your life who, if she is not yet being sexually harassed, at least runs the risk of …
Read More »“I can’t argue with gold!” TTOC president speaks on Ahye, St Louis, elite funding and the Commonwealth Games
“I think what has happened is more and more you are seeing athletes in various sports exercising their right to choose or take decisions that they believe are in their best benefit. It is no longer the athletes are pawns to be used. “[…] People talk about accountability and taxpayers’ …
Read More »