From the Sunday Express headline on the 24th, ‘Gary choked me’, to the Newsday report of an affidavit on the 27th, headlined ‘Gary never touched me’, the story is staggering and deeply concerning. The initial Express report alleged that the police commissioner choked and threatened a Cocorite resident, Mr Cecil …
Read More »Noble: Going beyond generosity; why business charity is not enough
Corporate awards are an important part of modern business life. The awardee is established as a pillar of the community and is looked upon with favour. Most often they increase brand awareness and the likelihood of new customers and contracts. But awards also inform the world of what is valued …
Read More »Noble: Facing the naked truth: the fate of the Christian church
Beneath the veneer of the bikinied women in the Trinity Cathedral lies a harsh truth: the Anglican church is not financially sustainable. If the operating and investment budgets cannot be met by their offerings, the church is in trouble. This is to be expected since the Anglican church is the …
Read More »Noble: Powerful men, vulnerable women: exposing sexual harassers
‘Haters gonna hate’ is the thought that comes to mind as the opportunistic warriors of both political parties spar over the Darryl Smith sex scandal. They do not spend a moment to ensure that our women are protected and to voice disgust at the cavalier use of the continued suffering …
Read More »Daly Bread: Dante’s Inferno: Eggnog at St Ann’s, Bantu knots and Akiel Chambers
It was a surprise and perhaps something of a mark of appreciation that Noble Philip reminded readers of what I said in 2000, while I was in the Senate, about the shameful conditions at the St Ann’s Psychiatric Hospital. Insightful commentator that he is, Noble Philip lamented our lack of …
Read More »Noble: How TTPS raids in Arouca and Lady Chancellor differed; and what it says about our society
Mary Elizabeth Chancellor, the wife of our seventh governor, Sir John, gave her name to the road we now call Chancellor Hill. Sir John was the one who assented to the Shouter Baptist Prohibition Ordinance because ‘a Shouter meeting would make the neighbourhood where it took place unfit for residential …
Read More »Noble: Shame proof Trinidad and the TTPS’ farcical Transformed Life Ministry raid
As a primary school child, rearing aquarium fish was a joy. Of special delight was one called a ‘fighter’, which would flare its gills and spread its fins when it saw itself in a mirror. You could not put two in the same space because they would bite each other. …
Read More »Noble: White Knights or Piranhas? Examining the Petrotrin sale
On 18 October 2018, almost one year ago, a doleful Mr Ancel Roget was pictured, in a photograph supplied by the OWTU, between two prospective partners, announcing their bid to acquire the Petrotrin assets. One company, Sunstone Equities, appeared from the news report to be a facilitator of government-private sector …
Read More »Noble: Disrespectfully disagreeing; why polarisation hurts our democracy
Plural societies, such as ours, are prone to tensions and to pretend that it is a new thing is folly. What is new is the disrespectful disagreement we now witness as we moved from social polarisation (living in different communities) to issue polarisation (where we cannot agree on the essentials …
Read More »Noble: Will our business leaders give us hope?
Prior to the 1990s, the Jamaican business community lived a split life: families in Florida with a commuting businessman. That model did not work—investment plunged, making the businesses uncompetitive. By 1992, their dollar was reeling, causing much concern about social and economic stability. Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart then stepped up with …
Read More »Noble: Run for your life!: Why domestic violence should be a high priority
John Lennon, the Beatle, in 1965, wrote these haunting lyrics: “You better run for your life if you can, little girl / Hide your head in the sand, little girl / Catch you with another man / That’s the end, little girl / Well, you know that I’m a wicked …
Read More »Noble: The way out of our mess; what Espinet firing says of our political leadership
Shoshana Zuboff (2019) points to ‘the oldest political questions: Home or exile? Lord or subject? Master or slave? … eternal themes of knowledge, authority and power’. This week, with the firing of Wil Espinet, we are confronted with the same issues. Saddened by the crime situation and having had to …
Read More »