Guest Columns

Violence in Trinidad and Tobago is endemic. It pervades the pages of daily newspapers; it generates local content and attracts advertising income. We routinely talk about it, laugh about it and even contemplate it. It is hard to determine when or why, but we have allowed brutality to become our …

To frame the discussion about the UWI Penal-Debe South Campus purely in terms of location is to shortchange the conversation that has long been needed about this TT$509.4 million investment in the expansion of the University of the West Indies. The case for and against—as articulated by both the former …

Last week, at the opening of the new law term, two main speeches were delivered. The first was a feature address by former President of the Republic and former principal of the UWI St Augustine campus, Professor Max Richards. The second was the customary speech by the Chief Justice, a …

Reading the racists posts on social media immediately following the election results, I was reminded of an intense conversation with a young Bosnian who tried to convince me that theirs was not a war born out of racism but rather ethnic differences. I must say I never got the point …

My last two columns, one titled “Rowley rising” and the other “Lament for a falling leader”, were seen by many of my readers as being almost prophetic in the wake of last Monday’s election results. Had I made public another document in which I analysed the results in all 41 …

All governments come to office with a chance at greatness. Many never even recognise it, most are too afraid to acknowledge it, and very few ever achieve it. Of our governments, none has scaled the heights. Some have done good, others have done better, all have done some things worse. …

The new Government deserves time to settle in. Dr Keith Rowley is a first time Prime Minister, he is leading a team of wide-eyed inexperience and it has been a long, tense campaign getting here; we are all tired and bruised. Alas, after eight years of Patrick Manning and Company …

It feels like a morning for poetry. Cool as rain, cutting as razor. Poetry that syncs with the soul, tempered by mood and tailored to taste. After the extended bout of political excess, this morning-before is thirsty for the clarity of Art’s truth as prescription for hangover. Perhaps you, too, …

So the Extempo King has fallen victim to the extempo politics of an extempo party—and he’s vex? Really? Winston “Gypsy” Peters should know that he can’t play mas and ‘fraid powder. He has been lucky to enjoy five years on the biggest extempo stage in the land and now that …

Less than eight months after Kamla Persad-Bissessar and the People’s Partnership skilfully navigated the crest of a high wave in a sea of yellow and assumed governance of a nation, the name Reshmi Ramnarine entered the national vocabulary. The PP government was elected on May 24, 2010. News of Ramnarine’s …

Former NAR Minister Lincoln Myers pens an open letter to Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister and UNC Political Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar: Dear Madam Prime Minister, It should come as no surprise that, with the 2015 election campaign approaching its crescendo, I am taking this opportunity to publicly express my view …

Columnist Sunity Maharaj considers the value offered by political manifestos to the electorate; and how the public might better utilise policy documents for better governance: With just two weeks to go to the election, there is not much that can be done with recently released party manifestos, apart from oooh-ing and aaah-ing, …