In hindsight, it was a rather selfish column, so wrapped up in my woebegone mood that it might actually have been unfair. Not long after David Rudder migrated to Canada, I had written of the enormous loss to our country’s psyche. My distress came from the abiding feeling that for …
Read More »Vaneisa: Proposed crime solutions like “stand your ground” out of touch with reality
Within a few days of dismantling his family home across the street, Bob began rebuilding. First was the painstaking task of cutting down the two prodigious trees that had generously donated their fruit for decades. With ropes and a saw—the power generated by his hands—the branches came down one by …
Read More »Vaneisa: Say it loud! Why we must speak out against poor service
When I use my column space to complain about poor service, it isn’t simply to seek personal redress. I believe in the power of a voice, no matter how solitary it might seem. The responses to my last column where I had described my experiences with two service providers, TSTT …
Read More »Vaneisa: Tussling with TSTT and RMS—“what an example of indifference to customers”
In my mailbox last Wednesday was yet another bill from bmobile, the brand name of the Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago Ltd—the company we know as TSTT and further back as Telco. The sight of the bill aroused the same kind of disgust I felt when I’d read about …
Read More »Vaneisa: Corruption that kills a place; is it fair that so many escape their responsibilities?
Just over a week ago, the chair of the Housing Development Corporation, Noel Garcia, was reported to have said that now that the figure for tenants’ arrears is approaching $157 million, its management is considering evictions and other severe actions. This followed the disclosure by Housing and Urban Development Minister …
Read More »Vaneisa: Dear President Kangaloo, here’s one way to advocate for change in our youth
President Christine Kangaloo played a hopeful string of chords for me with her inaugural address. She spoke of modernising the protocols that govern how citizens and her office interact, and “having its facilities put to even greater use in hosting cultural, educational and artistic ventures, particularly among the youth”. My …
Read More »Vaneisa: Hauntings from the past—Gabriel García Márquez and reconciled childhood memories
The fantastic stories he told emerged from the cellar of his childhood—resurrected and polished till they exuded the patina of his mind. Gabriel García Márquez often said that what Westerners called magic realism was actually commonplace events in his native Colombia. Over and over he mined moments from those days …
Read More »Vaneisa: Inside an abandoned world; breaking the cycle of violence and cruelty
LAST August, I wrote about Wishing for Wings, the 2013 book by Debbie Jacob, and the 2022 film by Dr Kim Johnson. I’d written about the indefatigable efforts of these two in promoting the culture of this melodious, cacophonous paradox called Trinidad and Tobago. The film’s premiere was then being …
Read More »Vaneisa: Portals to the Past—the power of meals and dreams
Ask people what it is that makes certain meals so special for them, and I bet that when they reflect they will say it is because it invokes some warm memory from childhood. Hardly is it connected to a lavish spread—it has more to do with its homely nature. The …
Read More »Vaneisa: Space for our diversity—T&T must resist “segregation” of “special interest” concerns
A long time ago, I had a discussion—maybe an argument—with a newspaper editor about what constituted “soft” news. He thought that issues affecting women were soft, and should be relegated to pages headed by labels that suggested they were for women only. Instinctively, I rejected that. It seemed to me …
Read More »Vaneisa: Finding room in the little hut; a parable for unpacking problems
Snippets from childhood can pop up arbitrarily and stick in your head. As a wee reader (from the age of three), I read anything I could find, and some things have obviously lingered. I kept hearing this line from what was probably a morality tale during a difficult period these …
Read More »Vaneisa: In the wake of death—how different cultures say “farewell”
When someone dies, it is traditional to hold a wake. It’s a time for relatives and friends to gather during the nights before the funeral to offer commiserations and support for the grieving ones. Wakes are thought to have originated within the realm of Catholicism, when the idea was to …
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