“Assholes!” Bobby shouts after the two half-naked young men as they fly around and past us like a speeding bus on Monday morning. And after one last, long look at the bare disappearing backs of the boy bandits, he resumes our interrupted conversation in his normal voice. “Which is also …
Read More »Noble: Are we all living pipe dreams, like Mahal, while T&T suffers?
Mahal was the walking legend in Trinidad from the 1930s to the early 60s. He pretended to drive a car while he, in fact, walked or trotted. He made hand signals and blew his horn as though he had a car. An anecdote reflects us in Al Ramsawack’s story on …
Read More »Vaneisa: Rough beasts slouching around—are we all barbarians at heart?
I think it was the Palestinian UN Ambassador, Riyad Mansour, who said that we might recognise how and when something—like war—begins, but we do not know how it can end. Its impact could be felt for ten years, he speculated. I no longer try to understand how humankind can engage …
Read More »Noble: How Slavery still influences depressed wages, union-busting, and job insecurity
“The mere fact that a man could be, under the law, the actual master of the mind and body of human beings had to have disastrous effects. It tended to inflate the ego of most planters beyond all reason. “They became arrogant, strutting, quarrelsome kinglets; they issued commands; they made …
Read More »Noble: Our govts fail to link improved social conditions with reduced violence
“There is no avoiding the fact that public confidence in the Police and police legitimacy is essential. We recognise that, in many cases, the lack of trust between the Police and the community constrains effective crime intervention. “We are aiming at improving police accountability, re-establishing trust and credibility between the …
Read More »Vaneisa: Two for the road: why Mia Mottley and Irfaan Ali bring pride to Caribbean
Leadership brings buckets of conundrums, and no matter how well-intentioned, few are equipped to face its challenges. Over the past few weeks, listening to international discourse, particularly at the UN General Assembly, it struck me again that our region has two formidable champions in Mia Mottley and Irfaan Ali. I …
Read More »Vaneisa: It’s no wonder that citizens feel disrespected and disregarded
Situations can inch up stealthily, creeping up so insidiously that we cannot pinpoint the moment when an aberration became the norm. Allow me to return to the realm of cricket to illustrate what I mean about how a particular kind of leadership can damage the psyche of a people, and …
Read More »Noble: Budgets, Foreign Exchange and Petro-Jumbies
“The real problem is that oil dollars have reduced us all to ‘petro-jumbies’, a people who have never explored our creativity, our talents, our potential. “For generations, we have been lazy slobs, knowing that the oil dollar, down today but up tomorrow, will rescue us from ruin, cushion fuel prices, …
Read More »Noble: “A political party without morals, is just a conspiracy to seize power…”
“If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.” Dwight D Eisenhower, March 1956. I recalled this Eisenhower quote as I …
Read More »Noble: Sugar and a cuppa tea—understanding colonialism
“I am the sugar at the bottom of the English cup of tea. I am the sweet tooth, the sugar plantations that rotted generations of English children’s teeth. “There are thousands of others beside me that are, you know, the cup of tea itself […] Because they don’t grow it …
Read More »Noble: Why it’s insulting to conflate trans-Atlantic slave trade with Holocaust
“You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time. People on every continent have stood in your shoes through decades and centuries before you.” John Lewis, July 2020. This week marked the commemoration of …
Read More »Noble: Democracy and the Vote—reviewing the 2023 Local Gov’t election
At the core of democracy is the vote. This single act is how we, the voters, signal how we feel to the politicians and their parties. It is a means of control. When we vote, we tell the nation which candidate we want and which policies or programmes are crucial. …
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