Tag Archives: governance

“[…] Neither African nor Indian communities benefit from this… In cases where division arises unintentionally, accountability must fall on leaders, organizers, media voices and political parties to clarify intent, calm tensions and redirect focus to the real issues. “But if division is deliberately stoked, then consequences must follow. Heads should …

A few years ago, Michal Teja captured hearts and titles with his hit song, DNA. At the time, I was living abroad and remember being moved by the line: “freedom in we DNA”. I was moved by that line as the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Palestine conflicts brewed, and what could be …

Three thousand dollars a month. That’s the minimum National Insurance pension a citizen receives after a lifetime of work. It’s also, for many, the difference between paying for food or medication in a given month—not both. A few weeks ago, more than 22,000 people shared, commented on, or followed my …

“[…] As we navigate 2026, we find ourselves facing a rather curious paradox: the very mechanism designed to illuminate public spending is operating with the lights dimmed. “[…] Monitoring without regular reporting is like installing a state-of-the-art security camera but refusing to plug in the monitor. The conspicuous infrequency of …

The UNC won the 2025 general elections promising to transform Trinidad and Tobago’s economic fortunes, treat workers fairly and address the crime situation—all important domestic issues. And as expected, as the Kamla Persad-Bissessar-led Government marks a year in office this month, commentators and analysts have opined on their performance in …

The danger was never the word. The danger… was that it sounded familiar. Once upon a time, leadership had a language. It was measured. It was deliberate. It understood that words, once spoken, carried weight far beyond the moment in which they were uttered. Today, it seems, we are learning …

At six o’clock one morning not too long ago, a woman sat quietly outside a public clinic with a numbered card in her hand. She had arrived before sunrise. Not because she wanted to—because she had to. Her eyes were failing for months. The headaches were becoming more frequent. Work …

“[…] There is often a misconception that MPs are exempt from the strict rules governing civil servants. The legal reality is the opposite. They are unequivocally public officers and a trustee of the people. “Because MPs wield immense political and legal power, often with very little daily oversight, the law …

“Trinidad and Tobago could only progress if Laventille does,” Winston Dookeran said in May 2010. Have we moved beyond this idea? Have we accepted that crime is not a group problem? It is not an “Afro problem”, an “Indian problem”, or a “PNM problem”. Crime is a national problem, and …

There is reason to be concerned about current trends towards the promotion of authoritarian rule in Trinidad and Tobago. The Commissioner of Police (the CoP) vehemently sought to dilute accountability for the fatal police-involved shooting of a citizen seen in a video emerging from a crashed vehicle after a chase, …

A dear friend sent me a despondent message in response to my lament about divisive and crass online comments. “I want you to identify for me anyone else who has integrity that you know of personally in the world, because I can’t find too many,” he said. My first reaction …

The concluded Christmas and New Year period has demonstrated the failure of the amendments passed in Parliament to the Summary Offences Act (“the fireworks legislation”) as a means of regulating the use of fireworks and in particular to bring relief from the noise that adversely affects persons and animals. The …