Last Wednesday, I received a phone call from the CEO of the credit union I complained about in the previous column. Somehow, they’d recognised themselves and the CEO apologised, saying the treatment was unprofessional and went against the whole principle of the credit union movement’s basis. We discussed poor customer …
Read More »Vaneisa: No credit to this institution—the callous nature of local business
I relate this tale because I’ve discovered it is a common one and I hope that people will be encouraged to make public their experiences with credit unions and other financial institutions. It is a story about an organisation that is founded on a premise of helping others with compassion, …
Read More »Vaneisa: Rough beasts slouching around—are we all barbarians at heart?
I think it was the Palestinian UN Ambassador, Riyad Mansour, who said that we might recognise how and when something—like war—begins, but we do not know how it can end. Its impact could be felt for ten years, he speculated. I no longer try to understand how humankind can engage …
Read More »Vaneisa: Our immortal BC
At the end of September, in Thank God It’s Friday, a column which has now been running for more than 35 years, BC Pires said: “Chances are Thin.” Without a wallow or a moan, but replete with dread details of his beastly struggle with cancer of the oesophagus, he revealed …
Read More »Vaneisa: Two for the road: why Mia Mottley and Irfaan Ali bring pride to Caribbean
Leadership brings buckets of conundrums, and no matter how well-intentioned, few are equipped to face its challenges. Over the past few weeks, listening to international discourse, particularly at the UN General Assembly, it struck me again that our region has two formidable champions in Mia Mottley and Irfaan Ali. I …
Read More »Vaneisa: It’s no wonder that citizens feel disrespected and disregarded
Situations can inch up stealthily, creeping up so insidiously that we cannot pinpoint the moment when an aberration became the norm. Allow me to return to the realm of cricket to illustrate what I mean about how a particular kind of leadership can damage the psyche of a people, and …
Read More »Vaneisa: Education Minister’s casual cruelty on high temperatures burns
Cruel has to be the word to describe the response of Education Minister Nyan Gadsby-Dolly to the question of how her ministry was dealing with high temperatures in classrooms. How else could one interpret her offensive comments that teachers and principals are used to it and know how to manage …
Read More »Vaneisa: Saluting cricketers in a league of their own
So far, in not writing about cricket for eight columns straight (I am sticking to my story that they are really about Caribbean societies), I have avoided naming any contemporary players. But I want to veer away a bit and talk about some CPL events, and that entails some name-calling. …
Read More »Vaneisa: The Unseen and the Unspoken—and the need to fix “us”
When I started what I thought could be a series on cricket and our Caribbean societies seven columns ago, I imagined separating it into two elements: internal and external. My intention was to try to grasp the factors that affect the way our young people process thoughts and information. I …
Read More »Vaneisa: Build communities by teaching youths “histories of ourselves”
When Gordon Rohlehr and Brinsley Samaroo died recently, the torrent of tributes celebrated their contributions to the world. Especially significant was the consistent references to their generosity with knowledge—the way they shared without regard for financial remuneration or public recognition. Along with the indefatigable Bridget Brereton, they have been exemplars …
Read More »Vaneisa: Teaching our history to younger generation would enrich our societies
Discovering Frank Worrell through a comic book was a powerful moment in my primary school days. A voracious reader, I was growing up with the idea that heroic figures were remote figures from faraway lands. The one major investment in books in our home had been a set of encyclopaedias …
Read More »Vaneisa: The rush of blood—education changes minds, not violence
We are already far down the road where even if we can string words together, we cannot process ideas. There was a time when our oppressed peoples fully embraced the concept that the way to shake off their shackles was through education, and they went at it with great commitment …
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