Tag Archives: societal change

(Scene: A dapper gentleman examines a humble lodging with notable admiration.) FAR: I love the more intimate office space, boss. I can get from one end to the next far quicker than at my last office, which is bound to make me even more less-dynamic. The decor is more than …

Nobody wants to live in fear. Nobody wants to lose a loved one to crime or be victimised.  The pain ricochets through the community as others experience the wrenching loss that descends on us in sudden ways. Most believe that the government is responsible for public safety. But our reactions …

Gabriel Faria, the past CEO of the leading local business chamber, had an insightful interview in this week’s Business Express. He discussed the formation of a new business advocacy group. He quoted a Dr Terrence Farrell 2011 article on the need for responsible elites in our society while admitting that …

Covid-19 brought an exhausting string of events. First, we had to wash our hands, and then we had to wear masks, social distance from all, then lockdown.  To be vaccinated or not. Fear populated our every moment as we realised how little control we had over our lives. The feeling …

Every time Honourable Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley opens her mouth my phone lights up with comments, video clips and messages of longing for a prime minister like her. Just stop it!  We have whom we have; just deal with it—because in the natural flow of things, that will …

“Opening the door doesn’t really change the nature of the room.” The statement made me reach for a pen so I could jot it down. I was listening via Zoom on 8 February to an online lecture given for the St Bride Library in the UK by a young Trinidadian, …

The revelation that Joel Balcon had been charged with 70 criminal counts remains a scandalous indictment of this country. But where in the system is the blame to fall?  In the Express of 4 February, Anna Ramdass reported an interview with an unidentified attorney who said he had previously represented …

Crime and the lack of personal security have featured in calypso through the years.  For example Caruso’s ‘Gun Slingers’ (1959) celebrates ‘beating them [criminals] with the cat’ while Sparrow’s ‘Royal Jail’ (1961) is about revenge as captured in the line ‘licks for them criminals’. If calypso is the people’s commentator, …

One group: burning tyres, pieces of wood, cardboard—debris really—in protest against the conditions of roads that are impassable or collapsing; or the absence of water via taps or trucks; or maybe it’s a bridge gone, cutting them off; or a fallen tree yet to be cleared; or a downed electricity …

‘Poor children are victims of circumstance/ In life they never really get a chance/Or have opportunities as privileged children do/ The road from the poor suburb to prison leads them/ From broken homes they are condemned to fail/ Their abusive and drug-addicted parents serving time in jail/ Their parents too …

“[…] The reality of Trinidad and Tobago does not allow women and girls to enter into public spaces without experiencing some form of fear and discomfort. “Socialisation of our men and boys must be acknowledged as a significant contributor to violence against women and girls, which must be addressed with …

As time goes by, I find myself increasingly preoccupied with revisiting childhood experiences. It comes from my belief that all that we are, all that we have become, is rooted in those gnarly years. It makes me think of mangroves and their intricate intertwining of robust and reedy roots, rising …