I wrote recently about the startling decision of the government to reject the offer of Patriotic Energies and Technologies Limited (Patriotic) to acquire the Petrotrin oil refinery, which the government closed down. When the titular head of the Ministry of Energy, Senator Franklin Khan, announced the sudden rejection, he gave …
Read More »Daly Bread: Patriotic manoeuvres on energy and education
Not for the first time, I wondered last week about the coherence of some of the government’s objectives. I noted that the chairman of the committee on community recovery gave an empathetic update on its work so far, but I wondered again whether that empathy would be shared by those …
Read More »Daly Bread: Disconnections and loose ends; making education our ‘great equaliser’
I paid more detailed attention to the Budget debates this year because our country is so down. The Opposition had little fresh content to offer. Most contributions represented attempts to fight over the General Election, which it lost nine weeks ago. The Opposition is so bazodee that, despite its recent …
Read More »Daly Bread: Accountability without insult—can minister Browne be the ‘new normal’
The reported threat posed to Trinidad and Tobago by the floating storage offshore vessel, the Nabarima, moored in nearby Venezuelan waters has been of concern for nearly two months. The Nabarima contains over one million barrels of crude oil, in storage on it. The vessels’ condition was reported on internationally …
Read More »Daly Bread: Bake, dumpling, cereal and banking czars—a people out of touch
As a small boy, I grew up knowing that my single parent mother was in a sou sou. Many decades later I have lived to read that the current governor of the Central Bank was surprised to learn of the extent of the practice of sou sou. The czars of …
Read More »Daly Bread: What goes beyond the money? Where the Budget falls short
The Ortoire River meets the Atlantic Ocean adjacent to Point Radix on the south-east coast of Trinidad. Point Radix is a headland that separates the two renowned, but badly abused beaches of Manzanilla and Mayaro, which are of similar length, each said to be approximately 12 miles long. As you …
Read More »Daly Bread: Lilies in the sand; T&T needs right conditions to grow our human capital
Like us, canna lilies are colourful children of the tropics. Our culture, as I shall explain, shares characteristics with these lilies but crucially departs in the nurture requirements. My Mayaro beat continued for much of September to include the dry hot sun of petit carême, in the course of which …
Read More »Daly Bread: Understanding the part the panyard plays in T&T’s social fabric
It appears from their television interviews, that the Community Recovery Committee headed by Anthony Watkins is proceeding with the task given to it by the Prime Minister, namely ‘to find solutions to address some chronic problems in urban and semi urban communities’. The appointment of the committee was stimulated by …
Read More »Daly Bread: Putting certain mouths into quarantine; and holding PSC accountable
Just before his very welcome elevation to the Court of Appeal, Mr Justice Boodoosingh gave a decision on the Public Health Ordinance and the Coronavirus Regulations made under it. The importance of the decision was blurred by claims of who won or lost the case made by politicians interested in …
Read More »Daly Bread: Nothing will just ‘turn up’; T&T Budget must shun ‘Micawber principle’
Confronted with social unrest shortly before the recent August General Election, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley was forced to acknowledge that there were socio economic problems that need to be relieved. I remind readers that the promise to be kept now is that the government’s community recovery committee, chaired by …
Read More »Daly Bread: Mayaro chill, Martyred opposition, Ministry of Health wobble
On a sunny afternoon the light blue sky accessorised the navy blue ocean. Later, at sunset, the crests of the waves on the east coast were pink. The sky to the north was also pink. The pink was oddly situated given the sun was, of course, setting in the west; …
Read More »Daly Bread: Settling down again and stabilising T&T, after a bitter election
We have been more unsettled than usual by the transition from one government to another following the 10 August 2020 General Election, even though the incumbent government was the victor. The Opposition did not concede defeat on Election Night. It did so one week later, after recounts for which it …
Read More »