Guest Columns

“[…] With the declaration of the SOE on Tuesday 21 April 1970, [Makandal] Daaga and other members of the NJAC leadership, were detained on Nelson Island and at the Royal Jail.  “In the ensuing months, a reign of terror was released on the population. A dusk to dawn curfew was …

The recent utterances of a UWI economist about our economy (‘dire straits’) had me scampering for a Lloyd Best quote: ‘Palpably, we lack the pegs on which to hang ongoing events, and which would allow us to convert arbitrary detail into a systematic pattern, arithmetic into algebra, the specific into …

Womantra and 2Cents movement have both survived firestorms of social media criticism that they allegedly mishandled accusations of either sexual harassment, gender-based violence or sexual grooming perpetrated by persons in positions of leadership. Ironically, both organisations are engaged in much-needed work that can fundamentally change our cultural landscape, but they …

In a week shortened by the long Easter weekend, we ended up exhausted and battered.  While our neighbours in St Vincent contend with a raging volcano, we wreck our society. They would lose their livelihoods, and some will need to be evacuated outside of the country. We are voluntarily destroying …

Sometimes you have a memory that seems so improbable you wonder if it was a dream. I was looking at a slightly battered book that I had acquired at the Couva office of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) when I had gone to see what records they had …

The opportunity provided by Covid-19 is transformational, but only if we remove the blinders of racial politics and the winner-take-all approach to developing our country, then engage a collaborative approach. Before March 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit the pause button on much of our activity, our systems were broken, …

The Mark Twain quote ‘facts are stubborn, statistics are flexible’ seemed appropriate last week, as the news about New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s misclassification of 9,000 Covid-19 deaths broke, shattering the carefully groomed image of his pandemic achievements as a national leader.  Cuomo, ably assisted by his aides, sought to …

“Opening the door doesn’t really change the nature of the room.” The statement made me reach for a pen so I could jot it down. I was listening via Zoom on 8 February to an online lecture given for the St Bride Library in the UK by a young Trinidadian, …

The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) revealed yesterday that 84-year-old businessman Emile Elias, a former TSTT chairman and Family Planning Association president, was charged on 10 March with one count of sexual penetration and one count of sexual grooming in the alleged sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl. Elias, …

We ‘love up’ on Tuesday night and on Wednesday, you tell the world that you are no longer in a relationship with me. That is a description of the real-life drama that unfolded as the leaders of the trade union federations exited the National Tripartite Advisory Council (NTAC). It is …

I’ve been repeatedly invoking my belief that the clues to adult behaviour lie along the childhood spectrum. When I recollect my past in these columns, the responses tell me that I am touching chords. Many have written and called to share how they too have been affected.  I am always …

The revelation that Joel Balcon had been charged with 70 criminal counts remains a scandalous indictment of this country. But where in the system is the blame to fall?  In the Express of 4 February, Anna Ramdass reported an interview with an unidentified attorney who said he had previously represented …