“I decided to give it one last go when track and field began getting rid of cheaters in my event,” Trinidad and Tobago women’s shot put champion, Cleopatra Borel, told Wired868. “I finished outside of the final in London [at the 2012 Olympic Games]. I was the first person outside …
Read More »Zig Zag, Zika and severance: How our political system gets it wrong
The currently very serious matters of Zika and the non-availability of severance pay have once again exposed our habit of rarely developing solutions to problems and limiting our energies to combative debate and protest, in the course of which officialdom invariably makes authoritarian pronouncements and tries to take unilateral action. …
Read More »Carnival in transition: Raffique explains why the festival is not dying
I don’t think Trinidad’s Carnival is dying, as many people say it is. For the traditionalists, it’s a case of wishful thinking. They want to see the jarring noise that passes for music—songs that have no melody, only hook lines and tempo—consigned to the dustbin of Carnival history. And they …
Read More »Man, mosquito and money: Raffique on Zika war and State spending
Dr Sherene Kalloo launched a broadside yesterday against Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh and his almost jokey war against the Zika virus, pre-empting a column I had already half-written, titled “Man vs Mosquito.” Dr Kalloo argued that Minister Deyalsingh’s declaration of war against Zika and the Aedes Egypti mosquito by deploying …
Read More »Living the Carnival principle: Sunity finds wonder in mas
Just as the heart was groaning under the weight of yet another foreign franchise coming to serve us coffee, in floats Ras Nijinsky to turn the imperial order upside down before sending it forth, unrecognisable to itself in ras and drag. This Minshall Ras Mas is, indeed, a high mas, …
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