In November 2022, part of the Manzanilla-Mayaro road—the once scenic route along the east coast “through the coconuts”—collapsed. Part of it reportedly collapsed before, in 2014. In that same year, a commentary by Rajiv Jalim, described as a climate change advocate from Trinidad and Tobago, analysed coastal erosion on that …
Read More »Noble: Mayaro is reaping the bitter fruit of T&T’s “success”
“[…] The crime situation is very terrible. Being a parent, I do not believe in condoning wrong things. It’s really sad that these things happening in Mayaro now. Mayaro is coming like a little Laventille…” Mayaro resident. Express, 24 January 2023. The resident was referencing the slaying of three youths …
Read More »Daly Bread: Suspending my disbelief; vaccines, THA spending and ‘gambage’
Dinah Washington was an artiste at the very top of more than one genre. In one of her classics, she sang: ‘What a difference a day makes/Twenty four little hours/Brought the sun and the flowers/Where there used to be rain…’ Listening to songs pitching hope of rainbows and brightness ahead …
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 »St Joseph, Moruga/Tableland, Chaguanas East… Rishi considers 2020’s marginal seats
As we go through five weeks of intense political campaigning, in the lead up to the 10 August General Election, expect to hear the word ‘marginal’ used a lot—be it ‘marginal seat’, ‘marginal constituency’ and, the perennial favourite, ‘key marginal’. ‘Marginals’ are a vital part of our electoral landscape, as …
Read More »Daly: Don’t cry for us, Mayaro; a very different Easter
This is a very different Easter Sunday. There are no gatherings to celebrate the resurrection and no congregation to hear sermons of hope. Pope Francis in Rome will be a solitary figure silhouetted against a vast, empty St Peter’s square. We may be unfamiliar with the Jewish Passover, a celebration …
Read More »Daly Bread: Baigan soufflé and judicial macafouchette; a Mayaro postscript and JLSC jab
Reaction to last week’s Mayaro resumed column was as I expected. Readers welcomed and want more of “feel good” topics that bring some relief from the anxiety afflicting all but the one percent and the mindless fete people. This column is a postscript, but I must acknowledge reality first. People …
Read More »Daly Bread: Mayaro resumed; problems in paradise
I wrote this column sitting adjacent to Mayaro beach enjoying a slice of the August holidays. It is about two hours to sunset on as glorious a day as it gets in this piece of paradise. A little earlier in the day I had—unusually for me—a daytime snooze, on the …
Read More »Queen Cleo on unfinished Olympic business, repping Mayaro and being consistently awesome
“I decided to give it one last go when track and field began getting rid of cheaters in my event,” Trinidad and Tobago women’s shot put champion, Cleopatra Borel, told Wired868. “I finished outside of the final in London [at the 2012 Olympic Games]. I was the first person outside …
Read More »Planting the garden wrong: Daly frets over T&T’s bitter cassava as values go astray
The instability, corruption and favouritism—as well as enduring shade, class and foreign preference—and just plain, but twisted, foolishness have become so overwhelming that I have been unable to write about some of my favourite things that reflect the resources capable of making Trinidad and Tobago a happier place. I had …
Read More »It takes six villages: How La Brea earned its say in a US$1 billion project
Last week, the people of La Brea taught the nation a much-needed lesson in organisation, representation and the holding of power to account. While it was their dramatic protest that caught public attention, the more powerful story was in the multi-layered depth of the community organisation underpinning the protest. Operating …
Read More »