“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way it treats its children.” Nelson Mandela, May 1995. Ezekiel Ramdialsingh’s murder on 15 April received wide coverage in our newspapers. One even had it as a front-page story. But the description given to him was “an aspiring …
Read More »Noble: Finding peace in a troubled world for Easter
We live in an odd and unbelievable world. Nothing seems normal, and distinguishing the truth from lies is an increasing challenge. The news is like a five-alarm fire. It rages and feeds on our concerns and fears. How do we escape the information ecosystem that pours like a fire hose, …
Read More »Noble: Why the Dragon isn’t dead yet—plus T&T’s education crisis
I do not believe that the Dragon Field initiative is dead. The rumours of its end are greatly exaggerated. For context, I advance this quotation from the influential US Politico newsletter. It was written about the tariff situation of last week, but it can easily fit our situation. “He likes …
Read More »Noble: ‘One day you’re in, the next you’re out’—evaluating our 2025 election candidates
“The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves—in their separate, and individual capacities.” US President Abraham Lincoln, 1854. This week saw the United National Congress (UNC) struggle …
Read More »Noble: Political muck from all sides—is mad we mad, oui!
We are living in difficult times. We are witnessing the world, as we know it, turn topsy-turvy. But we want to be seduced into believing that there is a magic wand that will restore us to the glory days when oil and gas prices were high. We want to be …
Read More »Nobel: The lure of ‘progress’—T&T must not sacrifice social value in ‘paper chase’
Today, when I look around in the world, what do I see?/ I see footprints that man has left on the sand/ While walking through time./ I see fruits of our ambition, figments of our imaginations/ And I ask myself, When will it end? When will it end?/ It is …
Read More »Noble: What can—and should—Trinidad and Tobago expect from Stuart Young?
Within a week, the prime minister-designate, Stuart Young, will assume the role of the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago. Ferdie Ferreira, a long-time People’s National Movement (PNM) stalwart, said the PNM has never had a succession plan in its 68-year history. He made this comment when there was dissent …
Read More »Noble: Building or destroying our heritage; how T&T is shaped by its environment
In a Field Guide to Getting Lost (2005), Rebecca Solnit wrote of the places in which one’s life is lived: “They become the tangible landscape of memory, the places that made you, and in some way you too become them. They are what you can possess and, in the end, …
Read More »Noble: Where’s youth sport support? They want nice corn soup—but won’t invest in planting corn
The following is part two of an interview with FC Santa Rosa founder and head coach and ex-Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) technical committee chairman Keith Look Loy interview: Clubs no longer have roots in their communities. This uprooting leaves room for other institutions, like gangs, to attract young …
Read More »Noble: Rebuild T&T through sports—the untapped potential of elite and grassroot football
Natasha Wilson’s words came to me while reflecting on my interview with Keith Look Loy. In significant ways, her calypso summed up Keith’s sentiments: Sweet T&T, is my country/ I want you to know that I love you/ Every creed and race, have an equal place/ So let’s work together …
Read More »Noble: The Business, the Hothead and the Preacher—the problem with the TTPS
It is folly for us to be absorbed with the issue of the sniper rifles and not address the more significant problem of crime. The rifles are not missing. Our appreciation of how much our security forces are struggling with the criminal developments that plague us is our business. The …
Read More »Noble: The Arima Warriors—how Dial Dynamos were reborn
The historical overview A Short History of Santa Rosa De Arima by Jean Patricia Elie states: “[…] Arima was effectively Indian Territory. For most of the 16th and 17th centuries, the district of Arima was the home of the Nepuyo, whose active resistance to Spanish Rule effectively limited Spanish attempts …
Read More »