Tag Archives: steelpan

The ill winds of deep-seated race and class divisions have blown continuously for more than a decade. Beware of them. Their velocity is increasing. This warning is not new. I wrote it in October last year. At that time I reminded readers that, for more than a decade, I have …

“You’re going to love me,” she sang, raw emotion inhabiting but not inhibiting her voice. And the crowd roared. “She” is Arielle Cowie, the passionate young singer who performed with Renegades at last month’s International Steelband Foundation’s BIG 5 concert. And she was right; I loved her. As did, as …

One of the pillars of the administration of justice is the principle that open justice is fundamental to the rule of law and democratic accountability. That principle reaches its highest expression in judicial review cases and constitutional motions. The whole purpose of such cases is to put the processes by …

The record breaking success of Full Extreme is thoroughly deserved.  I will add to the boiling pot of opinions of why it struck such a deep chord.  For me it is a restatement of the saying that laugh and cry live in the same yard. I am otherwise reluctant to …

In response to public disquiet, there have been confessions by the Police Service that it cannot protect us. The archaic and stubborn belief that women are to blame for the attacks upon them persists—although successive Governments have been repeatedly advised that there has to be a policy shift in education …

Trinidad and Tobago is plunging downward right back where we fell in the mid-eighties having gorged ourselves on the proceeds of the preceding oil boom. A second round of energy sector riches have once again, in the famous Michael Manley phrase, “passed through us like a dose of salts,” but …

“They don’t want the people who made the sacrifice to control the commanding heights of our industry. They claim we can’t handle money. We don’t know how to do business. They say we don’t possess administrative skills. “But when we look at all the other businesses, especially those fortunate to …

Gerry Kangalee and the birdsong Steel Academy attempt to clear the air on the debt that led to their controversial eviction, in response to a Trinidad Guardian editorial on Saturday 3 September 2016: birdsong acknowledges with the deepest gratitude the widespread outpourings of support for our cause that have been …

Preparing a column for publication today was a difficult task because of the paradox of the visible joy when citizens congregate for a street lime but under which lies the deep grief of a murderous, contact driven and unjust society. Why are we having such a good time in celebration …

“The Chaguaramas development where the Five Islands Water and Fun Park and the Chaguaramas Safari Adventure were in the process of some infrastructural development in an area, where according to law, it should not be. “But, based on the amount of money spent, there was no way, they claimed that …

“Oh gorm,” David Rudder bawl out like Sprangalang. “Shot call!” The feckless, gutless, witless lot who are not “in charge” waited, it seemed, for an edict from the top. It never came. True to form, Culture Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly passed the buck. She had heard, said one report, that …

Makandal Daaga’s funeral took place yesterday. The 1970 Black Power movement may have frightened many but it was a necessary part of our evolution and a shake up of those values that still make us think less of ourselves and keep us indifferent to our indigenous movements, like the pan …