Tag Archives: Noble Philip

When Christopher Columbus arrived on our shores, the Caribs and Arawaks did not know what was about to befall them. Nothing in their past prepared them to understand and deal with the invasion and they were decimated by guns and germs. Reading two recent local contributions about the phenomenon of …

The ‘Marlene Affair’ raises important issues about the fate of our women. Progress, as measured by the number of women in leadership, does not tell the whole story. Last week, three women—Marlene McDonald, Christine ‘Twiggy’ Livia and Joan Yuille-Williams—were in the courthouse precincts, a place where many mothers frequent because …

Dr Eric Williams’ last tome, The Blackest Thing in Slavery (1973), tells us that there were many more shady dealings in slavery than the African slave. This is analogous to the Laventille situation; there are more criminal dealings than those who live there. While there is an undeniable need for …

“In a diverse society, aiming to do well, African people are not doing as well as we expected or as well as we might,” intoned Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley on the same day that Fitzgerald Hinds, member of parliament for Laventille West, gave an expansive interview in the Sunday …

In the mid-60s, Paul Simon wrote: “And in the naked light I saw/ten thousand people maybe more/ people talking without speaking/people hearing without listening/ people writing songs that voices never share/and no one dared disturb the sound of silence..” These lines are about us, our crime situation and the impertinent …

“Never before in the United Nations’ history have we had so many refugees, displaced people and asylum seekers… the world must do more to prevent forced displacement, address its root causes and support solutions for those affected by it. It requires greater resources, and more political leadership… unprecedented cooperation by …

The Police’s seizure of Mr Devant Maharaj’s phone in pursuit of information, re the recent credible bomb threat, raises important questions about the evolution of the media and the preservation of press freedom. The importance does not arise merely on the issue of the action taken but we need to …

The insightful story by Suzanne Mills about her mother’s struggles is useful to highlight how the media wrestles with framing the large issues of life. It raises the issue of how we define who is a good editor. Is the metric the profitability of the media house, or is it …

God understands suicide. There are seven stories about suicide in the Bible, including Samson, seen as victorious, killing more in death than in life and finding his way into the Hall of Fame (Hebrews 11). Suicide is a complicated story in the Bible. It is a short-circuiting of God’s plans …

“Hatred is corrosive of a person’s wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation’s spirit, instigate brutal life and death struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and block a nation’s progress to freedom and democracy.” Liu Xiaobo, 2010 Nobel Prize Laureate. The spectacle of a former …

Probably for the first time, the government and the Opposition paid official attention in Parliament to the non-governmental organisations and non-profit entities (NGOs) that play a significant and life-saving role in the socio-economic and cultural life of our country, even though they may have dished out funds to them on …

Can a nation experience vertigo? The feeling of not just dizziness but when either your head or the room is spinning but you are not sure which? We are battered into unease almost daily by persons who seek to burn down our institutions or destroy our sense of calm. Arson …