It has been about 30 years since Vicki-Ann Assevero put down her bucket in the land of her father’s birth. She didn’t come back because of some ancestral pull to Victor’s homeland—it was because she had met and fallen in love with another Trinidadian, the then-minister of finance, Wendell Mottley, …
Read More »Vaneisa: Inside the Labyrinth; how art can help save lives in T&T
On 16 May, the Central Bank Museum launched an exhibition of the late Glen Roopchand’s art. Roopchand, whose work is perhaps most publicly visible in his rendition of Carlisle Chang’s The Inherent Nobility of Man, which is on display at the Piarco International Airport, died in July 2022. The collection …
Read More »Vaneisa: Clutter of the mind—why I’m not a hoarder
Life has a way of setting you adrift; sometimes on a rough sea, sometimes with such gentle currents that you barely notice how far you have travelled. Knowing that during my period of research and writing, I had sunk even deeper into my naturally reclusive state, I felt that the …
Read More »Vaneisa: Combatting the cruel human invention of war
On Thursday, the Express reported on a surprising conflict at the St Augustine campus of The University of the West Indies. It seems the Institute of International Relations had arranged a virtual seminar, Unravelling the complexities of peace in the Middle East: An Israeli perspective, to be delivered by the …
Read More »Vaneisa: Questions of legality and integrity still haunt West Indies cricket
A few days ago at Lord’s, Sir Viv Richards and Sir Curtly Ambrose had a conversation with Machel Hewitt of talkSPORT radio in their capacity as ambassadors of the Antiguan Tourism Authority. Naturally, the talk turned to the state of West Indies cricket, and what they thought could be done …
Read More »Vaneisa: The solitary silence of words, and launching Son of Grace
Writing is a solitary experience. It’s you and your thoughts—all the chatter is internal. I do not quiver at the notion of solitude; I’m quite happy to be ensconced within my brain. When I finished with the book I had been working on for five or six years, Son of …
Read More »Vaneisa: Following Frank; the story of the Son of Grace
Over the years that I spent researching and writing the biography of Sir Frank Worrell, I often referred to him—sharing snippets and soliciting information—through this column. The book, Son of Grace, was published six months ago, and I found myself curiously unable to mention its existence, feeling awkward to say …
Read More »Vaneisa: Perhaps we should replace, not reform, our Constitution
I suggested that people might not be offering their views on constitutional reform because they do not know what is contained in the country’s Constitution. I may be familiar with its nitty-gritty, but I can’t say I have a total grasp of what it covers. And that’s a point I …
Read More »Vaneisa: Mancrab and the river—man’s struggle against time
A conversation about imagining our future planet raised a jumble of issues for me. I could grasp the substantive points being made by the 30-year-old, but many of them had not occurred to me before. It seemed that it might be a world where basic survival would define all activities. …
Read More »Vaneisa: Paying to learn—the lingering issue with VAT on books
In the late 1990s, in response to one of my weekly columns, retired Professor Emeritus Desmond Imbert called me. It was the beginning of a rather odd friendship that went on for years—when he died in 2010, we had still never met in person. Communication was always at his instigation, …
Read More »Vaneisa: The remarkable Razif—and his masterful food photos
Who said posting about what you had for breakfast is so banal? I did. In my last column. I am not retracting it as a general observation, but there was an anomaly. An exceptional exception. His name? Razif Khan, a man who shared photos on Facebook of his meals—breakfast, lunch …
Read More »Vaneisa: “Far more than a collection of books”—a library is a living space
In a land where public institutions are symbols of frustration, two stand out by dint of their commitment to service and innovation. I am referring to Nalis, our National Library and Information Service Authority, and our National Archives. In the course of my various episodes of research, I became convinced …
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