Guest Columns

A common pipeline fuelling the vitriol that is passing for discourse online has been the blatant racism and political partisanship that are obviously intertwined. It is tempting to ask how we got to this rabid state, but it has been festering for so long that we know it is not …

This week, two quotes came to mind as I read the local newspapers. The first was from Benjamin Franklin, who was accused of treason (by leaking letters) in 1774. These letters criticised the colonial rebels even though it was clear that his own loyalties were to the American colonies. He …

“[…] For neighbouring countries [of war sites], output falls by 10% on average after five years while inflation rises by five percentage points over the same period. “These results should be particularly concerning for Trinidad and Tobago […] because we are not like the average country in the Kiel Institute …

Our honourable Prime Minister, Mrs Kamla Persad-Bissessar, decided to mount a tiger to get access to the promised riches of the Dragon. We need the gas from the Dragon Field because our local output and reserves are declining, and we will be in a crisis by 2027. We also need …

“Budget 2026 is a declaration that Trinidad and Tobago is back on course… When UNC wins, everybody wins!” Minister of Finance, Davendranath Tancoo. The desk thumping and back slapping in response to the Budget delivery reminded me of the declaration by US President George Bush in 2003. After six weeks …

“True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.” Karl Popper, Austrian-British philosopher. The recent S&P Rating is not a new and startling event for Trinidad and Tobago. While many may have focused on the national outcome, we may have missed the reality that some …

Co-incidentally with the event described below, drawing talent from the diaspora has been in the news. The Government has passed legislation to allow persons to obtain Trinidad and Tobago citizenship through a grandparent who was a citizen at time of the applicant’s birth. The immediate benefit of this legislation is …

As primary school children, we would have learnt a poem by John Keats. “There was a naughty boy/ And a naughty boy was he,/ He ran away to Scotland/ The people for to see–/ Then he found/ That the ground/ Was as hard,/ That a yard/ Was as long…” This …

When in government, the People’s National Movement (PNM) speaks with the certainty of authority—decisions are made, policies defended, and dissent dismissed as misinformed or politically motivated. The tone is top-down, and messaging emphasises competence, legacy and control. Consultation becomes performance, not practice. But in opposition—or after electoral defeat—a different voice …

“[…] Basic economic theory does not always manifest in practice—in fact, it rarely does. To understand if or by how much exports/imports change requires an understanding of how responsive exports/imports are to price changes. This is called elasticity in economics. “[…] Alongside this, the constantly changing geopolitical environment must be …

Professor Emerita Bridget Brereton, in her masterful 2010 contribution, All ah we is not one, highlights the development of competing ethnic narratives. She highlights the colonialist and the anti-colonialist, then the Afrocentric versus Indocentric narrative. She said: “Generally, the kind of narrative produced before and after independence by former colonies …

The late Austin Clarke published A Passage Back Home as a tribute to his friend, Samuel Selvon in 1994 (the year Selvon died). He wrote about them attending what he called Carifesta I in Georgetown, British Guiana. “All of us from the various diasporas into which we had drifted, Europe …