In the parliamentary debate held on Monday last, the boastful confirmation from the minister of transport that the air and sea bridges carried 50,000 persons between Trinidad and Tobago during the Easter week came up again. The prime minister reportedly ‘dismissed as a distortion the opposition leader’s reference to the …
Read More »Daly Bread: A bouquet of humanity; the power of community spirit
A discerning reader, well experienced in the issue of diversity, responded with appreciation to last week’s column dealing with police profiling of a certain socio-economic class. The message asserted that we should say Akiel Chambers’ name when we say the names of Duante Wright and other fatally-profiled victims currently in …
Read More »Daly Bread: Falling into Daunte’s inferno: police violence in the US and T&T
Daunte (pronounced Dante) Wright, aged 20, is the latest black man to be killed by a white police officer in the United States. The matter that first drew the attention of the police to him was minor. A questionable explanation has been given for the shooting of Daunte. The police …
Read More »Daly Bread: Taking a stand
Stung by the high voter turnout that was able to trump Trump, some Southern states of the USA—under the political control of Republicans—are taking steps to restrict the ease with which voters can vote before Election Day, as well as the use of absentee ballots and drop boxes into which …
Read More »Daly Bread: Suspending my disbelief; vaccines, THA spending and ‘gambage’
Dinah Washington was an artiste at the very top of more than one genre. In one of her classics, she sang: ‘What a difference a day makes/Twenty four little hours/Brought the sun and the flowers/Where there used to be rain…’ Listening to songs pitching hope of rainbows and brightness ahead …
Read More »Daly Bread: Thinking about Dukes… and Wasa
There is Watson Duke and Winston Duke, both Tobago born. Watson is famous in Trinidad and Tobago. As the star of Black Panther, the fame of Winston is international. While we are thinking entertainment, we cannot forget the much-loved calypsonian the Mighty Duke, the late Kelvin Pope. One might …
Read More »Daly Bread: Straight answers needed on vaccines, Wasa and recovery committees
Last Sunday’s column touched on multiple subjects about which there are a lack of straight answers. The range of coverage seemed well received, but there was a common observation: ‘you left out Wasa’! First, however, to return to the growing uncertainty about when will we receive a supply of Covid-19 …
Read More »Daly Bread: Topic, topic, topic—THA ‘fix’, police killings and Covid-19 vaccines
When Trinidad and Tobago is boiling over with trouble and nonsense, as it is currently, my Freeport compere says to me ‘topic, topic, topic’. So where to focus this week’s column? Should I comment further on the Tobago House of Assembly (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to break the six-six electoral …
Read More »Daly Bread: Entrepreneurial spirit of Carnival artistes provides light in gloom of violent crime
Today on what should have been Carnival Sunday, I find myself in a place where darkness and light have fiercely contested for attention throughout the preceding week. The contest between darkness and light has been triggered, on the dark side, by the murder of Andrea Bharatt; and, on the light …
Read More »Daly Bread: ‘The silence of the panyards’; needing Boy Boy to rescue our ‘desolate Carnival Land’
No pelau is cooking for a semi-final Panorama Sunday, in which we should be revelling today. No coolers and food baskets readied for the Savannah. The magic drums are silent. My soul’s feeling like it get planasse! The silence in the panyards sent me back to a brilliant Phase …
Read More »Daly Bread: Another letter for Thelma and another 2021 loss
For some, it is belatedly and painfully sinking in that there will be no Carnival 2021. But what art forms have we lost? In answering this question I can look through a long lens, having been six years old when my mother first ‘disguised’ me. I have no specific memory …
Read More »Daly Bread: Running in my blood; why Sekon Sta is a true Carnival innovator
Carnival pores now raising up. Driven in part by the regret of pockets not filling, there are calls to do something to mark the spot normally occupied by the Carnival season. But Sekon Sta is smarter than all of those who are belatedly rushing into the headlines. In the words …
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