“[…] As Mr Afra Raymond said, the National Trust is a membership-based organisation and we welcome volunteers in every aspect of heritage protection and awareness. However, not every action can or should be conducted in the full view of the public and I am sure that most persons will appreciate …
Read More »Afra: Nelson Mandela Park revisited: the curious silence of the National Trust
‘Your silence will not protect you’—Audre Lorde, on the false benefits and toxic consequences earned from calculated or cowardly silences. I had no intention of returning to this issue but Newsday’s Friday 27 August 2021 article (Woodford Square to become heritage site (newsday.co.tt) was a sharp reminder that there is …
Read More »NJAC Rededication: How the ‘March to Caroni’ sent shockwaves through T&T
“[…] From the moment the chief servant [Makandal Daaga] announced the ‘March to Caroni’, it sent shock waves through the corridors of power. This march challenged one of the pillars of domination, control and oppression of our people, which was laid down by our past colonial ‘masters’—the creation and maintenance …
Read More »T&T’s silent holocaust: From Ceiba to Chaconia—how CEPEP follows ‘Sir’ Woodford’s racist footsteps
In honour of our fifty-eighth Independence anniversary, I visited Woodford Square, aka The People’s University, where seeds of Trinidad and Tobago’s Independence grew. But instead of feeling pride, I felt shame. Twenty tree stumps, envoys of once stately trees, left to rot without love or dignity illuminated Marcus Garvey’s words: …
Read More »Dear editor: Basil Davis’ 1970 funeral is historic, although we’ve lost hard-won gains
“[During the 1970 uprising] Basil Davis pleaded that [an] arrested man had mental problems but was well known and harmed no one. The police officer shot the unarmed, pleading Basil Davis at point blank range killing him on the spot. “The shooting death of Basil Davis outside of Woodford Square, …
Read More »Our modern-day Athens; how redeveloped POS can stimulate T&T and battle racism and xenophobia
“City life forces us to live outside of our comfort zone in many ways. We must share space rather intimately, and therefore learn to live and cooperate with people with different ways of thinking and varying religious, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. “[…] The city is, in many ways, an incubator …
Read More »Feeding the spirit of the place: PoS needs protection from more than wreckers
In an interview with i95.5’s Dale Enoch last week, Mr Gregory Aboud, the President of the Downtown Merchants Association (DOMA), was once again lamenting the state of his city besieged by wreckers. He seemed convinced that business in downtown Port of Spain has fallen victim to a wrecker conspiracy driven …
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