Tag Archives: PNM

One year ago, on 26 January 2018, Minister Stuart Young called into a radio programme hosted by former Senator Mariano Browne and tried to read a prepared statement. Almost one year later on 24 January 2019, his colleague Minister Fitzgerald Hinds physically storms the radio programme co-hosted by former Minister …

“Democracy and prosperity require tough choices…” The following release on Trinidad and Tobago’s recognition of Venezuela president Nicolás Maduro’s government was issued by US Ambassador Joseph Mondello: Venezuelan Interim President Juan Guaidó and the democratically elected National Assembly have the full recognition and resolute support of the United States of …

A photograph by Maria Nunes stirred emotions in me that I thought I had quelled. I cry for Laventille when I remember the beauty of the people and the ambition and the sense of striving I grew up with. The callous may say, “Nostalgia!” But it was real. The memories …

The Dr Roodal Moonilal Ramai Trace SDMS Primary School (Sunday Express, 13 January) is a prime example of our need to examine public spending. In 2013, the school ostensibly bestowed naming rights on the MP for the TT$350,000 raised from businessmen in the area to purchase the land. Construction reportedly …

‘Mind your business’ is the theme of the recent address to the nation by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley in his 40th month as our leader. It was unfortunate in its naming, content and style. The fact that it is now popularly referred to as the Prime Minister’s ‘power point …

“It’s true that things are always changing, but I expected that some of the change would have been for the better. Instead the evidence of poverty was ‘in yuh face’ as ‘halfway-falling down’ homes, piles of garbage on the corners, roaming stray dogs, and the vine-covered trailer truck that once …

Civility allows us to disagree without disrespect. It facilitates social interaction which enables us to look past our preconceptions and arrive at better solutions. In political discussions we provide information to persuade action. Unfortunately, some contributors seek to troll perceived adversaries; and personal attacks sometimes prove counterproductive, as they demotivate …

This column was one of the first among regular commentaries to identify that Government slackness was embracing criminality, and to make dire predictions about where this would lead. The assertion was met with dismay on the cocktail circuit. A well regarded commentator suggested to me that our governments were ‘mooks’ …

“To paraphrase a former politician, once Minister [Dennis Moses] was opposed, he became a ‘raging bull’. It was shocking behaviour. “It was also inconsistent with how we would expect a Minister to act—let alone a Minister with such an international portfolio where diplomacy and tact are key. The Honourable Minister’s …

Gary Griffith’s appointment as Commissioner of Police came with an eerie and uncanny realisation about the opaque and dysfunctional state of our institutions. Despite his political history, people were happy to embrace Griffith. And even though he has been on the job for only four months, are singing his praises. …

“A prominent political scientist devoted newspaper and academic articles to illustrating the UNC as corrupt and also darkly suggested an ethnic propensity to white-collar crime. He wrote: ‘For the UNC, politics is relative; everything is for relatives.’ “The party of all-ah-we-t’ief, Johnny O’Halloran and which spawned corruption-buster Gene Miles, had taken …

“Why should people be sacrificed so as to allow others, wrongdoers, to prosper? That is what we are being called upon to do, colleagues, […] What we are being called upon to do by a small clique of people in the country is to support wrongdoing, pretend not to know …