Guest Columns

“Racism has been Europe’s greatest gift to the world.” So said Dr Eric Williams, the first Prime Minister of T&T (Selwyn Cudjoe, Eric Williams Speaks). Of course, Williams was being sarcastic. If racism was a gift to the world, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the greatest gift …

Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF head, in a conversation with the Washington Post last week described the economic situation brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic as a ‘crisis like no other’. For her, the impending crisis was a  ‘great reversal’ that was wrought with much uncertainty. She foresaw significant job losses …

There is a thing that it seems will not go away. It is described in Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye’, in which she told the extremely painful story of the desire of Pecola to have the bluest eyes and blond hair. Pecola’s self esteem is destroyed by the arrival of …

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” James Baldwin. We can ignore what we faced on 8 June in the Queen’s Park Savannah or face it and propose to change it. Late that evening, a video surfaced of a police …

When the crowd took a knee and held it in silence for nine minutes, I knew I was amidst a sea of young persons who were sending a message that the time for change is now. The #ttblm movement gathered peacefully in the Queen’s Park Savannah, chanted and spoke their …

I spent barely four days in Manama in 2005, in the lead up to and immediate aftermath of Trinidad and Tobago’s historic second leg Fifa 2006 World Cup qualifying play off encounter with Bahrain on 15 November. Apart from an unforgettable football match and the searing heat, what I remember …

“Every politician who has tasted power, and many who counted for little, has gone to war with the media. If they didn’t, that would signal that journalists were not doing their jobs, that they were too busy prostrating to power to do their duty to country.” Raffique Shah, 30 March …

The Police Complaints Authority (PCA) has investigated 150 fatal police shooting incidents resulting in 258 deaths from 2011 to March 2019. According to their statistics, the average annual number of police killings between 2013 and 2019 works out to about 34 deaths per year. Across the same time period in …

Years ago, one of my mentors advised me that as a then public relations professional, I could not separate my private life from my public persona—so I had to be on my guard at all times. There is timeless value in this advice and it is even more important as …

With Trinbagonians, you just cannot win. Let me explain. When I was over the pond—between the Middle East and Europe doing my Academy business—busy as ever, but finding the time to write about the injustices meted out to black people globally, but more specifically in our homeland. Some of the …

“[…] I was also very concerned on last Wednesday morning, when I heard [i95.5FM] Head of News Dale Enoch affirm—on the popular morning talk show he hosts with Tony Lee—that the Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) were never bought (by any government of Trinidad and Tobago). “[…] It seems implausible to …

“[…] The MSJ is compelled to extend our solidarity to the mass movement in the US, not only because solidarity is one of our core principles, but because there are so many hundreds of thousands—indeed there are millions—of Caribbean nationals and their descendants living and working in the US. “They …