Guest Columns

“[…] How many business people can write an honest account explaining their rags to riches story, or share a history that can serve as a roadmap for others? “If any of them opt for the challenge they would have to omit the bribes and protection money they pay, the tax …

“A single spark can start a prairie fire,” Mao Zedong, 1930. This observation came back to my mind in the witnessing of the events of the last seven days. Mao had meant then that the revolution would start small but was possible in China—not too different from all the recent …

For five consecutive years, I taught a youth program where the underlying theme was to teach young people to bloom where they were planted. It was about teaching them to use the resources in their environment to be their best selves. I stopped teaching that program when it became abundantly …

So the Prime Minister, Dr Keith Rowley has dissolved parliament and called for general elections. On 10 August, our nations go to the polls to determine who will govern us for the next five-year period. While the pending election should provoke excitement nationwide, at least one individual may be feeling …

Approximately 50 years ago, mainly young people—disillusioned by the continued colonial nature of the country, the deep racism, classism and limited opportunities—made brave efforts to improve things. Instead of the then government, led by Dr Eric Williams, listening and properly engaging with these persons, the leaders of the movement were …

I wrote the following words in 2015: The diminution of a murder to ‘gang related’ has promoted a (group think) consciousness that some deaths are acceptable. Moreso, we embraced extra judicial killings as a justifiable response to a situation which is out of control. “Kill everybody an done!” However, there …

The location of the points of the civil disruption have one thing in common. They have voted solidly for the PNM for the past 29 years but they continue to be socially and economically under-served. The seeds of the discontent were fertilised by the alleged police killing of three men …

As I sit in my home, uncomfortably watching and anxiously waiting for every new video that depicts our brothers and sisters, our children from the east-west corridor hills are forced into a reaction that every single one of us can understand if not accept. I warned of this, the political …

Last Saturday, three men were shot dead in their neighbourhood at about 2.30pm. Six hours after, the newspapers went to press not knowing the identity of two of the men while the other one was more likely to be named as ‘Warlord’. They were nobodies. On social media, some rejoiced …

“[…] It seems as though members of the police force have taken the commissioner’s use of force policy and his incendiary remarks about ‘cockroaches’ as a license to kill. This is not the first time that this has happened under the watch of Gary Griffith, as we had a similar …

Morvant residents faced a swift reprisal for alleged misdeeds yesterday. But on this occasion, the judge, jury and executioner was not the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS). It was Chee Mooke Bakery Limited, which revealed that it will no longer serve that community after its driver was robbed—in the midst …

We cannot change the objective facts of history but we can re-examine those facts to better guide our perspectives. Decolonisation is the process of revisiting the objective facts and applying revised perspectives to improve policies. Up until the 1980s, it was not uncommon to find in texts words such as …