On Thursday, the Express reported on a surprising conflict at the St Augustine campus of The University of the West Indies. It seems the Institute of International Relations had arranged a virtual seminar, Unravelling the complexities of peace in the Middle East: An Israeli perspective, to be delivered by the …
Read More »Gilkes: What Emancipation still has not brought us
Those of you who took god out your thoughts and were following my rants over the years know I have been saying the word “emancipation” actually means transfer ownership. And that puts into clearer perspective what dem snakes and soucouyants I was taught to celebrate as humanitarians and liberators were …
Read More »Noble: Dimming The Light of the West; pondering The UWI’s future
There is an exquisite Jamaican saying: “When dog have money, him buy cheese.” That is most applicable to our national spending on tertiary education. The expression means we recklessly purchase unnecessary items when we get excess funds. Hosein R and Tewarie B (2007) saw this recklessness concerning our tertiary education …
Read More »Noble: The Light that shone in the West; what next for The UWI?
Last week, the incumbent Prime Minister, Dr Keith Rowley, pronounced that The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has fallen from its scientific research mission. At the time, he was celebrating The University of The West Indies’ 75th and 70th anniversary of its Seismic Research Centre (SRC) (Express, June …
Read More »Vaneisa: The Shape of that Hurt—remembering Gordon Rohlehr
It is one of those rare occasions when every praise song being sung is true. Not one word has been misspent—generous, gentle, erudite, kind, gracious, pioneering—it is easy to endorse them sincerely. Since his passing, Gordon Rohlehr has invoked the kind of gratitude and love that truly befits the colossal …
Read More »Ford: The unsung icons of Arima—why our history should be taught in schools
“[…] What is significant about our [Arima] icons is the fact that in almost every aspect of life the individuals were first in their respective fields. “[…] I believe it must be incumbent on the Arima Council to lobby for the introduction of the history of Arima to be included …
Read More »Noble: Reading between the lines; how leaked CPSO email could trigger Guyana’s Caricom exit
The most momentous happening of this year is the leaking of an email from the Caricom Private Sector Organisation (CPSO). This event will reverberate beyond the ripples of the teargassing incident at the Queen’s Park Savannah. The latter reflects the polarisation of our country but the email fiasco highlights the …
Read More »A ‘first gen’ story: ‘We sold fruits and veggies at the Arima market, so my sis and I could go to school’
My mother got an A in picking cotton and a B in digging yam instead of the Common Entrance Exam. Her grandmother (and primary caregiver) must have thought that that was the better use of her time. Can’t blame her though; she herself couldn’t write and had a thumbprint on …
Read More »Noble: Economic expectations and emotions; T&T’s unique challenges must factor into analyses
The recent utterances of a UWI economist about our economy (‘dire straits’) had me scampering for a Lloyd Best quote: ‘Palpably, we lack the pegs on which to hang ongoing events, and which would allow us to convert arbitrary detail into a systematic pattern, arithmetic into algebra, the specific into …
Read More »Gafoor: Sir Hilary Beckles truly is the Caribbean’s Martin Luther King Jr
“[…] I have a dream; a dream in which the University of the West Indies upholds Sir Hilary [Beckles] as the Martin Luther King Jr of the Caribbean. “A dream where his phenomenal contribution to academia, sports and reparation justice for those who endured the dehumanising shackles of slavery and …
Read More »Flashback: Wheelers and dealers; how Miller and Fenwick got stuck in to T&T football
The following is the second of a two-part series on then chief executive officer of the Football Company of Trinidad and Tobago (FCoTT), Peter Miller, and was written by Lasana Liburd and first published in the Trinidad Express on 17 March 2002: Three years can seem a particularly long time …
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 …
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