The insightful story by Suzanne Mills about her mother’s struggles is useful to highlight how the media wrestles with framing the large issues of life. It raises the issue of how we define who is a good editor. Is the metric the profitability of the media house, or is it …
Read More »Suzanne Mills: Has Newsday’s ghastly crime coverage—pioneered by my mom—helped or hindered fight against crime?
“At around 2 or 3pm, the commencement of crunch time, some editor, perhaps even I, would stick our heads out of our offices and ask, ‘No murders yet?’ […] As the murder toll rose, I asked Therese [Mills], ‘What’s the point of these crime front pages? We’re not making a sliver …
Read More »Demming: People are our only resource! Petrotrin axing and vague plans haunt T&T
I drove past the Petrotrin refinery one night and felt the stillness that darkness provides. In my imagination, I saw the stare of thousands of eyes from the darkness. It is now six months since Petrotrin chairman Wilfred Espinet wielded his axe, with the full permission of the current government, …
Read More »Gilkes: Deconstructing religion; Zionism, US/European exceptionalism and the rest of us
Back in the mid-80s, when I was in Form 3 or 4 at St Benedict’s College, a film was shown about the Rapture—an event in which the ‘righteous’ would suddenly be swept up into the clouds to be with Jesus and away from the horrific tribulations that would befall everyone …
Read More »Crowne: Copyright and the Privy Council; why AG’s wrong on Petrotrin complaint
The Privy Council decision in Maharaj v Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago Ltd, [2019] UKPC 21 (20 May 2019) has shone a Guaracara-esque spotlight onto Petrotrin’s decision to abandon its $97 million USD claim against Malcolm Jones. According to the Court, based on the evidence available to them, ‘there …
Read More »Gilkes: From Truman to Trump; how religion oppresses the post-colonial world
Shooting wars begin as culture wars and culture wars are initiated by ideas. So let’s for a minute set aside Uncle Sam’s amoral adventures in Venezuela; or not—because this issue is partly about what led to it in the first place. A few years ago Professor Merle Hodge wrote an …
Read More »Noble: A nation, moral leadership, short-sightedness; standing at the gates of Hell
“Hatred is corrosive of a person’s wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation’s spirit, instigate brutal life and death struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and block a nation’s progress to freedom and democracy.” Liu Xiaobo, 2010 Nobel Prize Laureate. The spectacle of a former …
Read More »Demming: Dr Rowley’s Carenage interview suggests gun violence trauma at epidemic level
An interview with Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and his constituents seemed to aggravate a deep wound in that area. What I saw and heard was a man from within the constituency reliving the pain of the shooting death of his mother WPC Bernadette James and asking for some assurance …
Read More »Noble: The Arsonists of T&T; from Kamla and the Judiciary, to the PM’s Office, Stuart and Gary
Can a nation experience vertigo? The feeling of not just dizziness but when either your head or the room is spinning but you are not sure which? We are battered into unease almost daily by persons who seek to burn down our institutions or destroy our sense of calm. Arson …
Read More »Demming: Zessers Come in all forms, AG; not just with gold chains!
Take away the gold chain and the ‘Zesser’ descriptor fits several other people in Trinidad and Tobago. Some of them drive Porsche Cayenne, Mercedes Benz, Range Rover, BMW and other high-end cars. Some of them live in specially outfitted high-rise apartments; they pay for tables where their friends lime or …
Read More »Noble: Tiger Woods, Pontius Pilate and great Easter comebacks
“To me, it was the greatest comeback I’ve ever seen! I never thought he’d get back physically… But he did. No one expected him to be back the way he is now…to me that’s a major accomplishment. To me it is unbelievable. Mentally, you can always think you can, but …
Read More »Noble: The Story of Nalini; how contrived colonial rifts still divide our multi-cultural society
“The colour of the rulers may darken; the ethnicities might change, blur or merge, but the culture of the power structure remains.” The quote from Jeff Henry in 2008—cited by Kerrigan in the UWI book ‘In The Fires’—explains how we are manipulated, even when we think we are in charge. …
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