“Not a woman ever complain yet with me. Ah eh boastin’ but ah know ah got true ability/durability. And if a woman ever say that I ever leave her dissatisfy, she lie, she lie, she lie, she blasted lie.” And there is a fairly long list of women who may …
Read More »Political games: Best take on how politicians play with us—and with our money
Many games are played most intensely by disturbed people. Generally speaking, the more disturbed they are, the harder they play. That’s not coming from me. It comes from Dr Eric Berne, in a late chapter of Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships, which he titles “The Players.” Here’s some …
Read More »Keithos and Kamla’s game of drones; Best sharpens focus on games political people play
Politics, they say, is the art of the possible; politicians, however, are frequently impossible, particularly when, like the plus-size and minus-size costumed men and women who play themselves on the Big Stage at the Queen’s Park Savannah on Carnival Monday and Tuesday, they are acutely aware that the camera is …
Read More »Tailor-made education: Best sews up loose ends on Ministry’s dress code proposal
“Education kills,” some wit with spare time and a can of spray paint inscribed on the walls of the London Underground years ago, “… by degrees.” How right! The move from ABC to BA, MSc or PhD is very often not a journey about acquiring the life skills comfortable survival …
Read More »A dress for teachers? Best take on Education Ministry’s proposed sartorial intervention
As a minister of education, Tim Gopeesingh can’t touch Anthony Garcia with a ten-foot pole. As a conscientious educator with over three decades of dedicated service in the formal education system, I confidently so affirm. Photo: Former Minister of Education Dr Tim Gopeesingh And I go further. If you gave …
Read More »Forged from the love of language: Best has another go at literary sloppiness in the media
Above a headline proclaiming “Forged from the love of liberty” on page 25 of the edition of Tuesday August 6, we are told by the Trinidad Express that language matters. But on Page One of the edition of Sunday September 4, the caption says that “Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley address the …
Read More »A swansong for Birdsong? Best laments for evicted pan side and national instrument
“Oh gorm,” David Rudder bawl out like Sprangalang. “Shot call!” The feckless, gutless, witless lot who are not “in charge” waited, it seemed, for an edict from the top. It never came. True to form, Culture Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly passed the buck. She had heard, said one report, that …
Read More »Learning from Rio: Earl Best takes some literary lessons from the 31st Olympiad
Javelin thrower Keshorn Walcott, writes Kwame Lawrence in the Trinidad Express of Monday August 22, “is threatening to become an all-time great in the event.” So whether or not you think it is a celebration of “mediocrity,” no one can reasonably find fault with the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs’ …
Read More »Not me and the media, mih dear! Earl Best looks at linguistic sloppiness in the media
In Trinidad and Tobago, my late brother Lloyd Best used to say repeatedly to the handful of brave souls who read his columns regularly, people walk about with their heads empty. Given that he left us more than eight years before the Rowley Government came to power in September of …
Read More »Strait is the GATE: Is T&T suffering from false sense of entitlement?
Are we having the wrong discussion about GATE? Should the conversation be whether the government should sponsor tertiary-level education at all? “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matthew 7:14, King James Version. My 14-year-old grandson …
Read More »The Colm after the storm; and Imbert’s about-turn on the gas subsidy
Minister of Finance Colm Imbert was interviewed by Khamal Georges on CNC3 last week and it was difficult not to be genuinely impressed by his calm demeanour. It contrasted sharply with the agitation and irritation he displayed during his mid-year review in Parliament a week prior, when he announced to the …
Read More »Is just a PNM movie: Best look at what politicians are saying but NOT doing
“Life is a stage and we are the actors,” calypsonian Lord Valentino sang in the 1970’s. Three or four decades later, endorsement came from the novelist Earl Lovelace, who declared that (Politics in T&T) “…is just a movie.” “Everybody have a part to play,” Valentino also sings. Including Faris Al-Rawi. …
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