Tag Archives: Noble Philip

“We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by our responsibility for our future.” — George Bernard Shaw. To accept the virus-induced lockdown was, for the most part, a no-brainer. To exit is not. Indeed, the public comments of the major business organisations show us more …

Stephen King, the famed writer, once said: “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others, read a lot and write a lot.” It is a pity that several in our community do the second and not the first. But beyond that, book publishing …

The great uncertainty of the impact of the Covid-19 disease wreaks fear and doubt in many. In a world that longs for certainty, we have met our match. For much of our human history, we have thought of the future as ‘a terrifyingly unknowable blur’. More lately, full of increasing …

Joseph Heller’s book ‘Catch-22’ is a satirical novel about war and demonstrates how circular thinking (such as ‘you cannot find your glasses since you need to wear your glasses to see where they are’) does not lead to solutions but dredges up memories that prove to be debilitating. The main …

Easter 2020 meets the world ‘on its knees’, humbled by a virus that has catspraddled us. One day we were invincible; or so we thought and behaved. The next day, racked with physical and emotional pain, our voices curdle in our throats. Our hearts fail us for fear. We are …

Have you ever wondered how your favourite food store decides where to locate your neighbourhood store? They use information—like what the health ministry uses—about the country: where our people live, their habits and the roadways they are likely to use. Maps in such systems contain useful information but, more importantly, …

The scale and speed of the Covid-19 disease are unsettlingly apocalyptic. A now-familiar question is: have you ever seen anything like this in your lifetime? The short answer is no. I have lived through the assassination of John F Kennedy when we were sent home from school; the 9/11 event, …

In a 2002 US Pentagon news briefing, then US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously said: “Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me because, as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; …

Dr Keith Rowley’s prime ministerial rebuke that ‘some people believe they have a pipeline to heaven and God knows them personally … if you are congregating, you will be giving us no chance to escape the ravages of this virus’ is unfortunate. He should not have been put in this …

The pictures of shoppers at a leading membership warehouse store that emerged on social media capture the social divide in our society. Those fortunate ones can go mid-morning to stock up whatever is needed to prepare for the eventualities while others are tied to their place of work and unable …

This Carnival, I felt like Black Stalin with his refusal to sing about ‘Dorothy’ while grave social injustices exist. The breathtaking interview and official announcement by the CEO of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), Haydn Gittens, in the FCB IPO scandal are shameful. The SEC exists to ensure the soundness …

In his 2007 work Categorically Unequal, sociologist Douglas Massey argues ‘education is the most important resource in today’s knowledge-based economy’. It is, therefore, not surprising to witness the passionate debate on this topic and to read the very different views of Mr Fitzgerald Hinds (Express, 2 February) and Mrs Kamla …