The Covid-19 pandemic hit our shores at the wrong time. Indeed, there is no right time, but the state of our nation had made us incredibly vulnerable.  We were in a crisis, adjusting to the economic woes and experiencing lowered trust levels in our leaders. In the heat of Covid-19, …

Reading is dangerous; it can lead you to challenge things around you in unexpected but exciting ways. Or it can lead to a severe state of the blahs!  One expects those anointed by the mass media to use their time and space to provide insights, moving their readers to actions …

Nobody goes on a second date if, on the first one, they got slapped around. The woman (it is more often a woman) does not realise that they are in an abusive relationship until it is late.  The abuser sets the honey trap, seducing the unsuspecting victim into believing that …

There is a story about a Samaritan called ‘good’ in the Bible because he did not walk by a suffering Jew. He had no prior relationship with the man lying beaten on the roadside, who was not part of his community, yet he acted out of compassion. Giving up his …

Last Sunday, the state of our national dialogue alarmed two Express columnists. Martin Daly described it as poisonous (‘The country has descended almost exclusively into the practice of the poisonous politics of demonisation.’) while Selwyn Cudjoe warned about the consequences (‘I don’t know how the acidic squabble between the prime …

In 2016, our country was the western world’s highest per capita supplier of recruits for the ISIS campaign in the Middle East. We are among the world’s most violent nations, with an average annual murder rate of 32.9 per 100,000 inhabitants(from 2009–2018). Refugees and trafficking complicate our lives. These trends …

There is a quintessential Trini way to do business: we have enough of a façade to look professional, but we do things by vaps while the professionals stew silently. This tendency puts us into a weird space where the principals can vehemently protest that they follow the ‘science’.  Meanwhile, the …

Thirty years ago, Frico was a famous milk brand which offered free children’s toys in each tin. A ‘freeco’ was different: an event in which some could enjoy benefits for no money, yet others would have to pay for it. It is like the ‘comps’ for the young today.  Given …

As Trinidadians, we often want to ‘move on’ when difficult issues arise. We seldom wish to examine how public injustices happen. Instead, we accuse all who stop to explore the wreckage since we do not want ‘to play the blame game’.  This tendency is why our nation took 14 years …

This week has been awfully long. How the worm has turned! On Thursday 3 June, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley announced that US vice-president Kamala Harris had promised a substantial vaccine donation.  On Saturday 5 June, he informed that the country had secured 800,000 Johnson & Johnson vaccines with an …

The efforts needed to coordinate the necessary actions to combat Covid-19 should induce wide-scale collaboration. A government cannot act on its own but must bring along the wider society. Polarised positions negatively impact the effective societal response.  When there are difficult new situations, and the media is the prominent news provider, …

It is indisputable that Covid-19 represents the most significant health and economic threat faced in this generation. We have had raging arguments about the effects of efforts to contain the virus. Achieving the scale of the required changes in personal behaviour is challenging, but such changes are integral to success.  …