This week, the shooting to death of the two security guards, Jeffrey Peters and Jerry Stewart, and the four bandits reminded me of Mahatma Gandhi’s quote: “The future depends on what we do in the present.”  It is highly disingenuous to wring our hands and bemoan the state of our …

One of the most dangerous things in life is to have someone ‘sweet talk’ you while being inauthentic. They say all the right words you want to hear, but the words do not mean a thing!  The Joint Select Committee on the Central Statistical Office (CSO) had words but nothing …

Our teachers’ day of ‘rest and reflection’ is entirely unsurprising. It is the natural outcome of events that began in the 1980s. The chickens have come home to roost. But even now, we, the society, are unprepared to confront the significant issues. We are stuck at “we want we money now”!  …

Harvard Business Review (April 2019) warned that perfectionism is a double-edged sword that can either motivate you to deliver high-quality work or cause you much anxiety and slow you down.  Are we witnessing this play out with the many iterations of the procurement legislation saga, or is it something else? …

“Forged from the love of liberty, in the fires of hope and prayer, with boundless faith in our destiny. We solemnly declare: Side by side, we stand Islands of the blue Caribbean sea. This our native land. We pledge our lives to thee.  “Here every creed and race find an …

On 30 August 1962, young boys from San Fernando, Rio Claro and Tobago stood shoulder to shoulder with the Tunapuna crew and others from Woodbrook and Ellerslie Park. We were all form one Queen’s Royal College students, present at the Queen’s Park Oval to hear Dr Eric Williams address the …

Government policies toward public housing are linked to their position on delivering economic growth. To interpret the strategies, we need to appreciate that governments respond to the pressures arising from social and demographic change and adherence to particular ideologies.  These decisions are complicated by the public discourse which advocates that …

The fiery protests that dotted our land in the same week we commemorated the anniversary of the storming of the Parliament may rattle some. A few commentators hinted that the underlying causes of the 1990 insurrection are still present and wondered whether we are witnessing a rekindled fire.  What is …

Like a passing cloud, our discussions about the SEA performance of our children have come and dissipated. While we anticipated that there would be some learning loss due to the effects of Covid on our schools and our children’s education, the results are astounding.  In every tier of the results, …

Many of us remember pivotal periods that form our life’s perspective. For me, it was the late 60’s and early 70’s.  I was a child in the Oval on 30 August 1962 when Dr Eric Williams inspired us, schoolchildren, by telling us that our future was in our schoolbags. I …

Our national anthem urges us to have “boundless faith in our destiny”. It affirms that “here every creed and race find an equal place” and “may God bless our Nation”.  Do these lofty words meet reality? Do these words apply to the people of Laventille, or are they to be …

Mark Twain is credited with the saying: “We have the best government that money can buy.”  Locally, we have not been shy about accepting money from unaccountable sources. Our non-existent rules about political campaign rules enable greedy political investors to corrupt our nation and destroy trust.  As Chinua Achebe observed …