Tag Archives: UNC

Over the last two weeks, we have witnessed an unceasing commentary on Ms Christine Kangaloo’s supposed lack of fitness for the presidential office. At first, there was the sentiment that there was no need for a president. This position quickly got corrected when the legal ramifications of the post were …

The arts and culture milieu is my ground and grounding. By that I mean it is both my happy place and helps to keep me “reel”—best translated, I suppose, as the opposite of becoming a blinged-out, undiscerning and indifferent poser. And so it was that, on the first Saturday of …

“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.” Aldous Huxley, English writer. In the present furore about selecting a new president, it appears that we, as a nation, and our leaders have rubbished our history. We …

On 20 January 2018, women in this country were extremely happy when the electoral college unanimously elected our sixth president of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Madam Justice Paula Mae Weekes, who was our very first woman president. The mood was one of excitement, hope, and optimism. It was …

“[…] The difference between 31st December and 1st January is but a change in date… as we see the old politricks being played out in this new year. Firstly, there was the Prime Minister’s New Year’s Message in which he announced that there will be a series of public consultations …

To all my readers, good morning this New Year’s morning. Can we reach out to each other and resolve to make the ritual “Happy New Year” greeting mean that we will co-operate on a sustained basis to mitigate the adverse effects of the neglect of our needs and partisan political …

What a week! The events that tumbled over each other added to the exhaustion and frustration of the long road from 2020. Do we, as a country, have a clear path to success? Let us consider a few of the incidents. Firstly, the THA’s Chief Secretary announced that he and …

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines la-la land as “a euphoric, dreamlike mental state detached from the harsher realities of life”. In our version, leaders and followers are allergic to facts—inconvenient truths. They look at life through red and yellow-tinted glasses that allow them to possess selective memories. The citizens of La-La …

The immutable law of nature is: what we sow, we will reap. We will not get mangoes if we sow pigeon peas. We always reap later. Sometimes, we sow ochro and have a crop in six weeks. But the crop takes years at other times, as it does when we …

In a powerful editorial last Monday on the occasion of Divali, the Trinidad Express newspaper urged that we look around and see Trinidad and Tobago as it really is: “a country carried by the goodness of its people and their love for this place that we call home”. The writer …

The presentation and discussion of a national budget usually focus on competing ideas about the future of a country. The process is a statement about the development of the country. In 2020, Branko Milanovic, a reputed US economist, wrote, “the most important role economic policy can play now is to …

A regular reader, who messages me occasionally, opened a WhatsApp exchange about last week’s Budget debate in the House of Representatives with the question: “Have you heard the comments targeted at citizens made in Parliament?” She added: “Honestly, whenever I think they can’t get any worse, they do. I do …