Someday in the future, when Trinbago nationalism becomes a common experience across our multifaceted demographic, February 1970 will surely be memorialised collectively as the month that precipitated the most significant events in the history of the two-island state since Emancipation. I am motivated to write this piece not only because …
Read More »Dear Editor: Do Port-of-Spain-based media have inherent bias against Indian culture?
“[Joan] Rampersad’s ‘December’ section highlighted the relocation of Desperadoes Steel Orchestra, a film featuring the Mighty Sparrow, the trial of soca artistes Machel Montano and Kernal Roberts, and the QED, Lydians and Marionettes Christmas concerts. Not a single Indian cultural event was mentioned.” The following Letter to the Editor, which charges …
Read More »Dear Editor: Kamal Persad wrong to ignore PNM’s history with citizens of Indian descent
“From the inception of the party under the leadership of Dr Eric Williams, the PNM […] could not have succeeded without the important role played by citizens of Indian descent who were either members of the PNM or citizens who put country first in their respective roles. “It was people …
Read More »A Massive Count?! Live Wire considers underlying issue as Gosein takes Rowley’s mudda for a ride
It is crude, simple and catchy and it references a part of the female anatomy that has caused more men to be laid off in recent times than low gas prices. Mr Live Wire is talking, of course, about Nermal “Massive” Gosein’s Carnival 2018 song “Rowlee Mother Count,” a song …
Read More »Dear Editor: Is the pot calling the kettle black? Baldeosingh knocks Fergus over ‘historical distortions’
“In an article published on Wired868 on 15 December, Dr Claudius Fergus responded to Dool Hanomansingh, rightly accusing him of ‘gross historical distortions’ and asserting that ‘He is obviously not a historian. If not for the danger that his fiction might be taken as historical fact, I would not even dignify …
Read More »Dear Editor: UWI’s Milner Hall an enduring monument to post-colonial mindlessness
“Built in 1927, The UWI’s oldest hall of residence on the St Augustine Campus still pays tribute to a man who was in the vanguard of the genocidal late 19th Century European imperialist project in Africa, which brutally wiped out large numbers of many ethnic groups while using forced labour to plunder the …
Read More »Master’s Voice: The defeatist class and the history that’s never taught in our schools
In many societies such as ours, there’s a class of people many—though not necessarily all—of whom have university backgrounds. I call them the “Defeatist Class” (DC). Whenever anything remotely progressive comes up, they surface to challenge ideas, customs and models that hold us to a period or paradigm meant to …
Read More »Dear Editor: A ‘one-off holiday’ for First Peoples? Are they children of a lesser god?
“Is it really proper that, when the list of 14 public holidays includes Indian Arrival Day and Emancipation Day, Eid-ul-Fitr and Divali, there should be no annual national celebration of the autochthonous group? “Is it really proper that, when the list of 14 public holidays includes Good Friday, Easter Monday, …
Read More »Daly Bread: Dominica, mwen regret ca; why we must help traumatised regional brothers
Dominica, I am sorry. I choose to say that in the patois of the headline of this column, consistent with the linguistic expression of Dominica’s national motto: Après Bondi, C’est la Ter—After God, it’s the Earth. Now, after Hurricane Maria, Dominica’s beloved Earth is a debris dump—its fertility disrespected by …
Read More »Dear Editor: Anger, outrage, myopia, convenient excuses and inconvenient truths
“It is our right to express anger when there is inequity in the responses to the cries for help. It is our right as citizens and taxpayers to challenge the use of public funds and to question corruption and inefficiency. “It is also our right to speculate over the misappropriation …
Read More »Without real leadership, T&T will not navigate rough xenophobia seas
For many people, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s announcement that this country will welcome Dominicans to these shores after Hurricane Maria pummelled that island meant adding salt to an open wound. The reaction on social media was swift and merciless, with many Trinidad and Tobago nationals decrying the proposal and …
Read More »STREET VIBES: What scene you on, Mr PM? Open we doors and shut we mouth?
The discussion currently dominating social media revolves around an offer made by the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, extending an invitation to citizens of hurricane-ravaged Dominica to come to T&T. This, according to the PM, is his idea of lending assistance to a fellow nation in the region. The …
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