In my previous pieces, I often referred to George Orwell’s 1984. Indeed in this country maintaining sanity is a Sisyphean task. Your concept of reality is questioned on a daily basis. Just when you think you have your wits about you, your grasp on reality is challenged and you spend …
Read More »Lead, or shut up! Raffique challenges Rowley to lift his game as T&T prime minister
I don’t know what plans he has for his vacation, but I strongly recommend to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley that he spend all of it in solitary self-confinement seeking guidance from whatever deity or deities he believes in regarding his leadership capabilities. I don’t care whether it’s an ashram, …
Read More »Law Association showdown: Anand-led group aims to oust Armour and Brooks
Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago (LATT) president Reginald Armour SC and vice-president Gerry Brooks will need the support of their membership to keep their respective positions, as they attempt to stave off a vote of no confidence instigated by a faction that includes former Attorney General Anand Ramlogan SC …
Read More »Mixing God with Mammon: The problem with Gov’t funding for religious festivals
The bickering among Islamic organisations over the allocation and distribution of Government funding for the recent Eid celebrations underscores a point I’ve made ever since this nonsense started a few years ago: Government ought never to dispense public funds for religious festivals. A few weeks before Eid, in the midst …
Read More »Kamla skeptical of intelligence memo; but mum on alleged Warner pact
Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar broke her silence this morning to respond to questions arising from a leaked United States intelligence memo. The document alleged that the former prime minister was not only aware of corrupt activity by her former minister, Jack Warner, but also benefitted from it. For her response, Persad-Bissessar …
Read More »US intelligence memo suggests Kamla stage-managed Warner’s FIFA exit
Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has refused to confirm or deny a leaked United States intelligence report which suggested that the then Prime Minister helped script Jack Warner’s resignation from FIFA and was far more aware of the football executive’s alleged criminal behaviour than previously admitted. According to the memo, Persad-Bissessar …
Read More »Off the Cuff-ie: Maxie talks corruption, PNM ‘arrogance’ and the ‘vomit comet’
“You can look at several laws that have been passed over the years that made absolutely no difference,” said Minister of Communications and Public Administration Maxie Cuffie. “The integrity in public life act has not made us more honest. It has not dealt with corruption. And it is because we …
Read More »The high price of perks: the HDC scandal reveals the soft underbelly of the T&T media
Judged by the standards to which it holds other institutions of public trust, one would’ve expected a clear and unambiguous media response to the Sunday Express report that a significant number of journalists and media workers were beneficiaries of public housing on the basis of personal recommendations from ministers of …
Read More »Keithos versus Kams: An outer-worldly showdown on steel, spelling and a new car smell
(Scene: A poorly lit street somewhere in Trinidad. Two shadowy figures, donned in capes and tights square off and glare at each other… That’s how it starts. The fever, the rage, the feeling of powerlessness that turns good men and women: cruel). Keithos: Tell me Kams… What’s your take on …
Read More »Dr Rowley’s baptism of fire; why PM may follow tainted footsteps of successors
The dismissal of Marlene McDonald could be the start of something good, if it helps to shift the system towards more accountable power. If this were to happen, it would mark a real revolution. The more predictable outcome, however, is that her dismissal will stand as a new marker of …
Read More »Fixin’ T&T: Excuses by Kamla and Padarath for hiring relatives is insulting
Civic watch group, Fixin’ T&T, will target Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar and MPs Barry Padarath, Dr Bhoe Tewarie and Rushton Paray tomorrow for allegedly breaching Sections 24.2 and 29.1 of the Integrity in Public Life Act by having relatives employed at their constituency offices. Fixin’ T&T, which is headed by …
Read More »No Biggie: Why we shouldn’t be too quick to celebrate Marlene’s dismissal
I must give credit to my colleague Earl Best for the title of this piece given that, on this rare occasion, he was faster out of the blocks than I was. The news late last night was that Housing Minister Marlene McDonald had been fired. Don’t pop that champagne just …
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