Tag Archives: Vaneisa Baksh

Last Sunday, Queen’s Hall was the venue for Dawad Philip’s Sunday with the Warlord, a play about the calypsonian Lord Blakie (Carlton Joseph). Blakie was perhaps best known for his two Road March wins, “Steelband Clash” (1954) and “Maria” (1962), and the play is a sort of narrative about his …

I came across this column I wrote in 1998, and for some reason it felt so relevant that I thought I would share this trimmed version (with a Billy Joel headline). When I quit full-time work, a major factor had been the desire to spend more time with my infant …

Not long ago, a couple of letters to the editor appeared where the writers complained about extremely long waits at public health institutions. I had immediately thought that this is why I walk with a book whenever I have to go to any institution, public or private. But then I …

On Tuesday, Rob Stevens, writing for BBC Sport Africa, presented a comprehensive look at the overall performances at the Paris Olympics by Africans, as he explored what could be done to ­improve them in 2028. I was happy to see it because I had been looking unsuccessfully to find an …

I don’t mean to be harping on health issues, especially given my lack of medical credentials. But as I said, I’ve experienced enough to feel that it is worth sharing information when it relates to the public good. So bear with me. Please. A few weeks ago, my offspring called …

“Questions of silence always raise questions of memory. Who and what has been forgotten? Which peoples and events are downplayed? “[…] Memory is a site of conflict, ‘in which many contrary forces converge and in which the interactions between memory and forgetting are contingent as much as they are systematic…” …

If I seem to be cantering down the road of health issues these past few weeks, it is because I have been talking to several sufferers who don’t seem to know what’s going on with them. Of course I have no medical training, but I have had such a diverse …

“She have the flu,” he said, when I asked about his daughter, who sounded weak and listless on the phone. Her symptoms? Fever, body aches and headache. I told him it sounded like dengue, and he should probably get her tested. It baffled me that no one in the household …

When people’s homes are flooded, when farmers lose livestock and crops, when roads become impassable during the rainy season, it’s impossible not to feel sympathy. The shell-shocked look is common as people try to assimilate what has happened, and what they have to do next. Apart from the horror of …

Something tells me that I already mentioned that I had dengue four times; once, dengue haemorrhagic fever, another at the same time as chikungunya. The first time, around the year 2000, was an ordeal itself, worsened by the fact that I had no idea what was happening when the pains …

A friend of mine was worried about her increasing forgetfulness. It didn’t seem any more acute than that of most of the people I know (myself included) over 50. But it was so disturbing to her that she was contemplating getting tested for possible ADHD. She is 51, and now …

Both of the semi-final matches in this T20 World Cup were demolitions. The match between Afghanistan and South Africa was actually painful to watch. Even if you supported the SA team, from a sporting perspective, it is unpleasant to look at that kind of devastation—like schoolchildren being trounced by adults. …