Tag Archives: Noble Philip

Our national anthem urges us to have “boundless faith in our destiny”. It affirms that “here every creed and race find an equal place” and “may God bless our Nation”.  Do these lofty words meet reality? Do these words apply to the people of Laventille, or are they to be …

Mark Twain is credited with the saying: “We have the best government that money can buy.”  Locally, we have not been shy about accepting money from unaccountable sources. Our non-existent rules about political campaign rules enable greedy political investors to corrupt our nation and destroy trust.  As Chinua Achebe observed …

The ultimate sin today is criticising a group, especially on moral grounds. We live in a nihilistic post-shame era. There are no permanent standards, just the shifting judgment of the crowd.  We have a culture of oversensitivity, overreaction and frequent moral panics, during which everybody feels compelled to go along. …

I thank Wired868 for providing a forum for sensible discussion. I appreciate the engagement and contribution of its reader, Chambi Sey, to my column.  Thankfully, he understood my point that we needed to view the whole ‘name’ fiasco through a political lens. Therefore, in this context, I would comment on …

“[…] As a nation, Trinidad and Tobago ought to be beyond the moment in which the word ‘Trinidadian’ constitutes a default adjectival encapsulation of things Trinidad and Tobago.  “It is time to officially formalise the word ‘Trinbagonian’ or to institute an appropriately similar substitute that effectively reflects the conjoined community …

‘Bond, James Bond’ is an immortal catchphrase. No youth of yesteryear would forget Dr No and Sean Connery.  In that first movie in the franchise, Sean Connery said his name is ‘Bond…’ then closes his lighter—‘James Bond’. Those words lived through many years.  This scene rushed into my memory this …

A ‘harden’ child is a stubborn child who has to feel the wrath– usually in the form of ‘licks’–to understand the lesson. Trinidad is a ‘harden’ child—repeating its experiences without learning from them.  When the country is splintered and only the rich can survive, you are looking for trouble. You …

Derek Walcott, Nobel Prize winner, once lamented: “Colonials, we began with this malarial enervation: that nothing could ever be built among these rotting shacks, barefooted backyards and moulting shingles; that being poor, we already had the theatre of our lives.”  Yet, he is at one with Chinua Achebe, the towering …

Everybody knows, but nobody knows. This is the state of our politics and the conduct of some parliamentarians.  In 2000, Jamaican singer, Shaggy, had a hit song, ‘It wasn’t me’, in which he denied infidelity even when there was incontrovertible proof. Only at the end, he admitted that that line …

Two Fridays ago, I visited my neighbourhood’s favourite food store. I had gone to pick up one item. I saw an older man being helped by a woman as I entered the aisle.  Nothing appeared unusual, just a younger person helping an older one with his purchase. However, everything turned …

In the recent uproar about the viral videos of school fights, the November 2018 prophecy by then Police Commissioner Gary Griffith is forgotten.  “It is really important for us… to look at secondary school crime prevention… If we do not deal with this situation now, in years to come, we …

Last Sunday, late at night, I took a flight to the ANR Robinson Airport in Tobago. The journey was unremarkable, but a memory kept rising. That memory was of Mr ANR Robinson on a similar flight, but from Tobago to Port-of-Spain not long after he had split with the then …