Tag Archives: Kamla Persad-Bissessar

A common pipeline fuelling the vitriol that is passing for discourse online has been the blatant racism and political partisanship that are obviously intertwined. It is tempting to ask how we got to this rabid state, but it has been festering for so long that we know it is not …

This week, two quotes came to mind as I read the local newspapers. The first was from Benjamin Franklin, who was accused of treason (by leaking letters) in 1774. These letters criticised the colonial rebels even though it was clear that his own loyalties were to the American colonies. He …

Last Sunday, I asked the question how effective has the expiring State of Emergency been and what next? At the time of writing this column, the Government was proceeding to have the House of Representatives pass a resolution to extend the State of Emergency for a further period of three …

“[…] For neighbouring countries [of war sites], output falls by 10% on average after five years while inflation rises by five percentage points over the same period. “These results should be particularly concerning for Trinidad and Tobago […] because we are not like the average country in the Kiel Institute …

Our honourable Prime Minister, Mrs Kamla Persad-Bissessar, decided to mount a tiger to get access to the promised riches of the Dragon. We need the gas from the Dragon Field because our local output and reserves are declining, and we will be in a crisis by 2027. We also need …

“[…] By praising Donald Trump and stating that this country is proud to be aligned with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s call for an international coalition to fight narco-trafficking, this country’s Prime Minister has put our country in the pocket of the US…” The following is a press statement …

“[…] Please do not incur excessive debt to fulfil campaign promises or popular votes. Continuous deficit financing and public debt that balloons uncontrollably will undermine investor/lender confidence, reduce cash flow and impact generational wealth. Everybody must win. “[…] Madame Prime Minister 2.0, it is clear that if T&T achieves its …

As primary school children, we would have learnt a poem by John Keats. “There was a naughty boy/ And a naughty boy was he,/ He ran away to Scotland/ The people for to see–/ Then he found/ That the ground/ Was as hard,/ That a yard/ Was as long…” This …

Professor Emerita Bridget Brereton, in her masterful 2010 contribution, All ah we is not one, highlights the development of competing ethnic narratives. She highlights the colonialist and the anti-colonialist, then the Afrocentric versus Indocentric narrative. She said: “Generally, the kind of narrative produced before and after independence by former colonies …

“[…] The fact that our Prime Minister would openly applaud extrajudicial killings as a solution to drug trafficking was troubling to say the least. By cheering on violence outside the rule of law, she plants a creeping poison in the heart of our democracy. “[…] President Donald Trump said the strike …

The late Austin Clarke published A Passage Back Home as a tribute to his friend, Samuel Selvon in 1994 (the year Selvon died). He wrote about them attending what he called Carifesta I in Georgetown, British Guiana. “All of us from the various diasporas into which we had drifted, Europe …

“[…] The Government’s position, as expounded by the Prime Minister and the Foreign Affairs Minister, is not neutrality by any diplomatic or regional standard. “[…] Authority without principle, without consultation and without regard for Caricom unity and regional peace is not leadership—it is recklessness masquerading as sovereignty…” The following guest …