“You help others who don’t do as well by lifting the people who do well and making them the example so others will follow. But you don’t lift the children, you don’t motivate, you don’t inspire. “You want to talk about bad parenting but do not want to commend, acknowledge, …
Read More »Noble: The demonisation of the black woman; and its impact on our society
“The race rises as its women rise. They are the true standard of its elevation. “We are trying to produce cultured men without asking ourselves where they are to find cultured wives. We forget that cultured families constitute a cultured race and that a cultured race is an equal race. …
Read More »Noble: Will we condemn our children to lives of crime? There is another way
“The lie of a pipe dream is what gives life to the whole misbegotten mad lot of us, drunk or sober.” Eugene O’Neill. Media scrutiny of all criminal incidents has heightened in recent months and intensified with the promise of “crime talks” between the Government and the Opposition. I admit …
Read More »Noble: Our govts fail to link improved social conditions with reduced violence
“There is no avoiding the fact that public confidence in the Police and police legitimacy is essential. We recognise that, in many cases, the lack of trust between the Police and the community constrains effective crime intervention. “We are aiming at improving police accountability, re-establishing trust and credibility between the …
Read More »Vaneisa: Intelligent cricketers good; re-educated Caribbean societies better
Two aspects of the situation in West Indies cricket have to be addressed in tandem with each other. The first is for the future: rebuilding capacity all round, and the second is figuring out how to get current performances back to a respectable level. The former is the gargantuan task …
Read More »Noble: How the Journey began; understanding the lingering impact of slavery
“The history that is accountable to the enslaved cannot fulfil our yearning for romance, our desire to hear the subaltern speak, our search for the subaltern as a heroic actor whose agency triumphs over the forces of oppression…what comes into view instead are the inner workings of power and violence.” …
Read More »Noble: The golden handcuffs—our love-hate relationship with Trinidad and Tobago
In 1958, the author, John Steinbeck, wrote an essay describing San Francisco as a city with “a golden handcuff with the key thrown away”. The article was a rhapsody about life in that city. On the other hand, we watch our nation slide into a putrid abyss—never leaving but badmouthing …
Read More »Noble: “Kill everyone!” The link between school dropouts and societal violence
“Kill everyone!” was the instruction Dole Chadee gave Joey Ramiah, who then murdered four members of a single family. How could people be so heartless and cold-blooded? It was a long time in coming. Nothing was ever done to dismantle the networks that brought cocaine to our shores since life …
Read More »Dear Editor: We must ignore politics and courageously address issues—just like Jesus
“[…] So, after the Easter Celebrations, if we want to restore and rebuild our nation, we must come to terms with the politics of Easter. “We must be courageous enough to take off the political clothing of our political parties and risk speaking out on issues affecting the citizenry and …
Read More »Noble: Reclaiming the dream—reconceptualised housing and family planning can lift T&T
As a people, we have dreamed that our lives would be better than those of our parents—and that our children would live even better lives. The harsh reality was exposed with the 2017 MFO Economic Sentiment Report. It showed a decline from three-quarters of our people who felt that life …
Read More »Vaneisa: Space for our diversity—T&T must resist “segregation” of “special interest” concerns
A long time ago, I had a discussion—maybe an argument—with a newspaper editor about what constituted “soft” news. He thought that issues affecting women were soft, and should be relegated to pages headed by labels that suggested they were for women only. Instinctively, I rejected that. It seemed to me …
Read More »Demming: “Our society must urgently navigate potholes of life… We need a deep, systemic redesign”
Forty years ago, while I was pregnant, I fell into a pothole. Fortunately, the fall did not terminate my pregnancy, but I still have the scar on my foot as a reminder. Forty years later our country continues to be haunted by potholes, despite owning the Pitch Lake and producing bitumen …
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