I so wanted to write about the theatrics and the vaudeville-type show just recently put on in Parliament by some seasoned actors and let’s say some neophyte starlets who saw an opportunity to have their names lit up in neon lights. The show debuted on 21 October 2021 and from …
Read More »Yasin Abu Bakr: The drugs made me do it; Jamaat boss on 1990 coup
Flashback: The following interview was first published on 27 July 2015… Jamaat-al-Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr says that the country still does not know the real story of July 1990 but he is not yet ready to share it. What he does share is that it is the Jamaat’s attempts …
Read More »Noble: I swear! Historical lessons on when to collaborate, and how to disagree
The swearing of an oath by our presidents is an expression of a specific intention to others. It is not limited to the moment when the person articulates the words. It commits to act in a certain way in the future. This action is a deliberate exercise of one’s free …
Read More »Demming: Leaders should avoid unbecoming, ‘impish’ language and respect their office
If only Members of Parliament could master the same level of decorum and use of language like our esteemed President, this would be a more gentle place. I contrast the language of the President with the language of the Prime Minister and feel sick to my gut. Prime Minister Dr …
Read More »‘Should PolSC have been left in the dark?’ President says Merit List for CoP was received and ‘withdrawn almost immediately’
“[…] I confirm that an Order of Merit List in respect of the commissioner of police was delivered on 11 August 2021 to the OTP and withdrawn almost immediately thereafter that day. I therefore had no list from which a notification could issue. “[…] If there exists apparently credible information …
Read More »Noble: Fixing our ‘superfluous’ mess; how the Judiciary, President, and Prime Minister stood up
Within the last two years, the world has had two pivotal moments: the arrival of Covid-19 and the development of the vaccine. The virus started small but has taken lives and wrecked economies, changing the way we live forever. Even though ‘Operation Warp Speed’ delivered vaccines way ahead of schedule …
Read More »Thompson sees seventh heaven despite deficit, imminent Property Tax and RATT
The budget presented by the Honourable Colm Imbert, minister of finance in the current PNM administration, is his seventh such offering. Not for the first time, he has offered the country a deficit budget, to the tune of $TT9.096 billion, resulting from expenditure in the sum of $TT52.429b and revenue …
Read More »Demming: Trying to put pandemic in pan’s way is putting democracy at risk
The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) is now run by a non-elected normalisation committee appointed by the sport’s world umbrella body, The Federation of International Football Associations (Fifa). Led by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, our Parliament acted to override the collective will of Tobagonians when their election results …
Read More »Noble: The PolSC’s Game of Thrones—as fingers point at Bliss, what of Kawalsingh’s conduct?
The Bible has remarkable insights into power politics: indeed, the popular series Games of Thrones may have drawn inspiration from it. We are witnessing the intrigues and drama of local politics as two powerful tribes—kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars and honest men—play a deadly, internecine game for control. …
Read More »MSJ: T&T Budget should reveal vision for our country and the society we want for our children
“[…] Many people do not believe that their lives will be better as a result of the Budget… An MSJ Budget would have been structured so that the man and woman on the street could understand, follow, see where we are and see where we are going and feel how …
Read More »Noble: Faced with ‘a right-wing coup’ involving the PolSC, the CoP and the AG, someone had to act
The drama surrounding the contract of the Commissioner of Police reveals our nation’s values, tests the strength of the commitment we make to our institutions, and shapes the character of our country. We take our democracy for granted and point to the 1990 attempted coup as a sure sign of …
Read More »Demming: Going, going, going, gone! Goodbye, Gary Griffith
From 1956 to 1981, Trinidad and Tobago experienced what it is like to be led by an unapologetically patriarchal leader who made decisions on our behalf whether or not we supported them. During that period our two-island nation became the richest country in the Caribbean. For 25 years, the leadership …
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