The Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) today referred Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) leader Ancel Roget to the Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) for ‘racist remarks directed towards certain members of the media fraternity’ during a JTUM press conference at Paramount Building, San Fernando on 4 August. Roget, while …
Read More »Kaisoca Jazz Punk? Miyamoto is Black Enough offers mesmeric new vibe
Ah comin home. Not in a ‘ask for special permission for the border to re-open for me’ kinda way; but ah coming home, the way I have come home again and again over the last 33 years, to beg ah underscoring of meh life as Trinidadian—verification for all the ‘nansi …
Read More »African groups demand ‘reparative action’ from Prestige Holdings for KFC’s Emancipation Day ad
“[…] We cannot allow a major Caribbean corporate player to perpetuate demeaning images of African People at any time—and more so on a day that is sacred to us, when we pay homage to our ancestors whose sacrifice resulted in the freedoms we celebrate on Emancipation Day. “In light of …
Read More »Gilkes: Rubbish Subran; Columbus and the colonials ‘whitewashed’ history—we’re fixing it!
It ends when there is a decolonised education system so that there is no chance of a person being miseducated by a David Subran, that’s when. His 19 June letter to the editor criticising the calls for the removal of Christopher Columbus’ statue was a shameless genuflecting to the west’s …
Read More »Claude’s comments: To Javier Carbajosa, Ambassador of Spain—the mother of white supremacism
Are we truly a banana republic? Or have we gotten too accustomed to the imperial arrogance of US ambassadors? Is the government beholden to Spain to such a degree that we have to servilely kowtow to the absurdities thrown at us by Spanish Ambassador Señor Javier Carbajosa Sanchez? As other …
Read More »Noble: Who will deliver our wretched nation from the politics of race?
The letter ‘When would real equality come?’ by Anand Beharrylal, QC—carried in the Express Monday 15 June edition—reminds me of an Aaron Levenstein quote: “Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.” His comments were suggestive but do not provide a full picture …
Read More »Dear Spanish envoy: Tell us where you put your Franco statues; and then mind your business!
To the Spanish envoy, from a citizen of this country, kindly shut up, sit down and keep out of this. Go process some document or something, this is no concern of yours. And may I point out to you and the few local lackeys who are either as ignorant as …
Read More »Remove monuments of hate and ‘racist barbaric adventure’, CRFP targets Columbus again
“[…] Germany […] has several statues of Adolf Hitler by the renowned British sculptor Arnold Brecker. Absolutely no one in their right mind believes that these should be put back on public display because Hitler was part of their history. “There is a clear understanding that he represents something that …
Read More »Noble: Is ‘all ah we’ one family? The uncomfortable race conversations T&T needs
Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF head, in a conversation with the Washington Post last week described the economic situation brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic as a ‘crisis like no other’. For her, the impending crisis was a ‘great reversal’ that was wrought with much uncertainty. She foresaw significant job losses …
Read More »Daly Bread: The Thing that does not go away; tackling race in T&T
There is a thing that it seems will not go away. It is described in Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye’, in which she told the extremely painful story of the desire of Pecola to have the bluest eyes and blond hair. Pecola’s self esteem is destroyed by the arrival of …
Read More »How to start a revolution; rule number one: challenge everything!
I spent barely four days in Manama in 2005, in the lead up to and immediate aftermath of Trinidad and Tobago’s historic second leg Fifa 2006 World Cup qualifying play off encounter with Bahrain on 15 November. Apart from an unforgettable football match and the searing heat, what I remember …
Read More »Daly Bread: T&T’s underlying system and its marginalising of black lives
Like citizens all over the world, I am following current events in the United States. I am sickened that persons there can take a black life without a second thought or one iota of internal moral restraint. What adds to the revulsion in the George Floyd killing is how disregard …
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