Tag Archives: Vaneisa Baksh

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 …

A young woman wrote this to me after my last column: ‘I’ve been thinking about this death penalty debate. I don’t know where I stand…’  It recalled for me a time when I too, did not know where to stand and how that changed. I easily remember traumatic episodes from …

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 …

A double-century on debut! And in Asia to boot! That’s the stuff of which West Indian boyhood dreams are made. As well as come-from-behind West Indian victories.  Guardian cricket reporter Vinode Mamchan did not seem to know about these dreams. Or to care about them. On television on Friday evening, …

I had begun writing about something entirely different when I suddenly felt I didn’t want to anymore, not this week anyway. It was too utterly oppressive and my mood had been altered by two sightings. One was photographs of the murals that Jackie Hinkson put up yesterday on Fisher Avenue …

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 …

A friend of mine based in the USA mailed his first novel to me on 15 September 2020—more than four months ago. There has been no sign of it; no indication from TTPost that there is a package for me to collect. Nothing. Many citizens receive statements and bills from …

“How you feeling today, Gramma?”  I would ask that question of my paternal grandmother every day.  “The head hurting. The blood pressure and the sugar high,” she would invariably answer. “Squeeze the head for me, beti.” I was a child then, as yet unafflicted by the relentless headache that arrived …

It was just after midnight, Old Year’s night, when fireworks pierced the roof and ceiling of my niece’s bedroom, landing on the bed where she slept. Fortunately, her baby son was not lying next to her as the noise and smouldering embers on her sheet woke her up, and no …

Here we are, into 2021, and probably wondering what we will make of it. We can be sure that it will be difficult and challenging on all fronts. The variable will be our individual responses. That’s the element that can yield the widest range of outcomes. Every year, we routinely …

Every now and then it feels necessary to step back from the daily bombardment of unpleasant news that can wrench your spirit into a forlorn space. It helps to summon cheerful thoughts that remind us that there is beauty around us, and that life very often goes on inside our …

I shouldn’t have been surprised by the volume of responses to my last column on domestic violence and sexual abuse. They are obviously prevalent though we can only guess at the extent. Yet it takes a lot of courage for victims to speak out. It isn’t just the accompanying shame …