Tag Archives: Joel Martinez

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 …

I wish to present in this article a summary of my main points on the proposed ‘revitalisation’ of the Nelson Mandela Park (formerly King George V Park or, before that, Pompeii Savannah) in west Port of Spain. Some spaces are of such significance that they should be altered only after …

The following is a press statement from the Catholic Commission for Social Justice (CCSJ): The Catholic Commission for Social Justice (CCSJ) calls on Port of Spain’s mayor, Joel Martinez, to listen to the cry of the people and the cry of the earth and leave the grass that covers a …

Coming events cast their shadows before them. Pay attention to the news and you can generally foretell when something momentous is about to happen. Like the closing weeks of 2020.  The question, in the light of the impending outcomes, then is: what do we owe each other? Are we, who …

“[…] We are at the brink of self-immolation; do we want to continue blithely polluting the space that sustains us? We’ve seen how a few months of reduced human activity has given the Earth some breathing space. “[…] Local debates over the fate of existing monuments have exposed the insidious …

“[…] Germany […] has several statues of Adolf Hitler by the renowned British sculptor Arnold Brecker. Absolutely no one in their right mind believes that these should be put back on public display because Hitler was part of their history. “There is a clear understanding that he represents something that …

We washed and put away our sailor costumes last weekend. That induced a stronger nostalgia than usual for the carefree days of Carnival generally and, in particular, for Carnival Tuesday as All Stars sailors. The nostalgia was a brief antidote to the keen awareness that murders—albeit unrelated to Carnival—remained an …

Carnival post-mortems are usually futile because the vested interests in Carnival are so strong that those with the power to make changes will not attempt to solve congestion on the parade route, the marginalisation of traditional mas and other problems. Nevertheless, all praise to Pan Trinbago, under the presidency of …

The PNM is vulnerable. The UNC is still suspect. The population is fearful and angry. The PNM, having no answer to rampant murder, is trying a t’ing to keep the UNC’s suspect reputation fresh by alleging that those who stand to gain when the murder rate spikes are fomenting it. …

There is a kind of positive energy associated with Carnival and particularly with the steelband movement. Players survive on less sleep and exhibit discipline and high levels of productivity in order to learn their Panorama tune. This is something we need to understand about Carnival, pan and panyards and their …

On October 12, the Cross Rhodes Freedom Project (CRFP), in collaboration with the Warao and Partners for First Peoples’ Development, staged a protest march against Port of Spain Mayor Joel Martinez’s vacillation on convening a forum for national dialogue on the CRFP’s call for the removal of Christopher Columbus’ statue …