Guest Columns

The tragic circumstances surrounding Andrea Bharatt’s abduction and murder have shone a light on our society’s sensibilities toward a number of issues. And whilst our attitudes toward the value of women, the pursuit of justice, crime and punishment and scepticism of authority are by no means monolithic, the discourse surrounding …

Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith, in his trademark rhetoric, responded to concerns expressed by Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Senator David Nakhid about the deaths of Andrew ‘Solo’ Morris and Joel Belcon while in police custody with personal attacks today, via a Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) release. Griffith …

The Trinidad and Tobago police service (TTPS) today issued a statement that they would be investigating the deaths of two suspects, Andrew Morris and Joel Belcon, while in police custody. The two men were held in connection with the kidnapping and death of 23-year-old Andrea Bharatt, whose body was found …

One group: burning tyres, pieces of wood, cardboard—debris really—in protest against the conditions of roads that are impassable or collapsing; or the absence of water via taps or trucks; or maybe it’s a bridge gone, cutting them off; or a fallen tree yet to be cleared; or a downed electricity …

‘Poor children are victims of circumstance/ In life they never really get a chance/Or have opportunities as privileged children do/ The road from the poor suburb to prison leads them/ From broken homes they are condemned to fail/ Their abusive and drug-addicted parents serving time in jail/ Their parents too …

February 21 will mark nine days after the burial of Andrea Bharatt, and it is likely that the marching, candlelight vigils and accusations of ‘shedding crocodile tears’ will no longer be at the forefront of our minds. We will retreat to the burglar-proofed boxes we call homes and cautiously peer …

Change is needed. Whether they are the right changes, fast changes or far enough changes, will always be a matter for debate.  However, what is certain is that the criminal justice system needs reform. And while it may be convenient to ascribe blame on one component of this integral system, …

On the date corresponding to today in last year’s Carnival calendar, I was tied up in Tobago with pan business, enjoying the morning after our attendance at the medium band 2020 Panorama finals which was held in Tobago. Now all of Tobago is tied up. There is the deadlock in …

‘When a country is in the grip of a collective passion, it becomes unanimous…the partisan spirit makes people blind, makes them deaf to justice. It dims perception of goodness, merely enables it to mistake this or that means for an absolute good. ‘One must, therefore, endeavour strenuously to protect one’s …

I had begun writing about something entirely different when I suddenly felt I didn’t want to anymore, not this week anyway. It was too utterly oppressive and my mood had been altered by two sightings. One was photographs of the murals that Jackie Hinkson put up yesterday on Fisher Avenue …

I may be late to the party, but MX Prime has nailed it with his recent release Torture. He has demonstrated how our music has told our stories and records key moments in our history. When the history is written, this will be the defining story of early 21st century …

As time goes by, I find myself increasingly preoccupied with revisiting childhood experiences. It comes from my belief that all that we are, all that we have become, is rooted in those gnarly years. It makes me think of mangroves and their intricate intertwining of robust and reedy roots, rising …