Guest Columns

“It’s curious he made no mention of The Diaries of Abbe Armand Masse, the French Catholic priest who on 30 April 1881 wrote that the marchers often ‘amuse themselves in a more or less noisy fashion but peace is not compromised’ but that year ‘by a sort of bravado, the …

“Is it that the ole mas is dying out on its own or is it an assisted ‘death’? “A long-running sentiment among ole masqueraders—including those from a band I am currently writing a book on—is that there have been influential people in the San Fernando City Corporation who became displeased …

“… In the fight against a few semi-literate street criminals, the police have thrown their hands in the air as acknowledged by the Ag CoP… One wonders if the season has anything to do with his hands going up in the air. “But as we celebrate next week’s festivities, I guarantee …

Corporal punishment was removed from schools over 15 years ago and there seemed to be a strong moral argument to abolish “violence” against children. But should that not mean young people—at least below the ages of 23—ought to be significantly less violent? Whether or not you believe that abolishing corporal punishment was the just …

“You, sir, are in the sunset of your career; you are in a position to set the stage for the greatest show on earth. Not Carnival but an island of innovation. “Dr [Keith] Rowley, we are in a lot of trouble and we need you to become the leader you …

“If 63-plus murders, combined with a number of persons missing, in a population of 1.4M does not constitute a crisis—as understood by your goodly self as head of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS)—what does? “What will it take to recognise that this nation is in crisis? Would 100 …

“For the TTPS to waddle into 2017 expecting that the murder rate will suddenly change simply on the grounds that the calendar did, is as naive and reckless as those who relied on ‘prayer’ as the best crime plan; even setting aside a day exclusively for this purpose.” The following …

“As citizens, we have been gun-whipped, shell-shock and shellacked into submission by these ‘monsters’, who roam night and day seeking out their next victim. They have shattered our once peaceful existence and turned us into persons who are distrustful, skeptical and paranoid.” The following Letter to the Editor on Trinidad …

Being shocked senseless is the proverbial effect of the many tremors currently running through T&T’s political, social and economic landscape. We seem not only unable to come to terms with our present economic and social realities, but completely unwilling to put collective intellectual mettle to the wheel to address some …

“I am not in the employ of the TTPS, I am not in a position to instruct and or assign police officers on how or where to detail. Nor am I in a position to purchase speed guns and/or breathalysers to detect drunk and/or speeding drivers.” The following Letter the …

“The more recent understanding of rights is that they also involve what we call economic, social and cultural rights; namely, the rights to education, to health, to work, the environment and to culture. “Significantly, we have moved away from the self-imposed limitation that economic, social and cultural rights are merely …

“In this small twin island state, where almost every Monday morning someone else goes missing—usually a young lady between the ages of 14 and 16 years old—it is indeed quite discomforting to see rewards being posted for assistance in only locating some people, while other families are ignored, neglected and …