Martin Daly

BC Pires, renowned writer and journalist, recently deceased at age 65, was encouraging when I became a weekly columnist.  Whatever the bite of his satire, BC could always be kind and affable. On one occasion I met him by chance on the steps of the Hall of Justice and he …

I am thinking amphitheatre for pan and for a place into which to throw those who damage the institutional integrity of our supposedly independent constitutional bodies to be subjected to public heckling. Unlawful and deeply troubling actions such as those taken by the Judicial and Legal Service Commission against Marcia …

In the aftermath of the annual ritual of the presentation of the Budget, three of Trinidad and Tobago’s most credible and authentic practitioners in the arts and culture were reported in the Trinidad Express newspaper, last week, as expressing reservations about what is passed off as Government support for culture …

So let’s get to the promised fish broth story. I am an All Stars sailor. I became a Carnival Tuesday sailor when mas completely surrendered to the big truck phenomenon. Both before and after returning to sailor mas, which I had loved as child, I repeatedly advocated for the sustainability …

A reader, who enjoys the historical perspective contained in many of these columns, asked me recently whether there is a program that I use to source those of my columns written many years ago. The answer is that as a weekly columnist writing in the information age for 21 years, …

In a column published 20 years ago, in mid-May 2003, I described the subject of crime as priority numbers one, two, three, four, five and six. The column went on to identify to which aspect of crime each of the numbers related. Number one was, of course, the murder rate. …

There is a discernible season, which commences on Independence Day on 31 August and ends when the annual National Awards Ceremony takes place on the evening of Republic Day on 24 September, which falls next Sunday. That period may be categorised as a season because it characterized by certain events …

I first used the phrase “panyard model” in a column published on 1 February 2007 entitled Restating the Case for Pan.  That was 16 years ago. With acknowledgement to the earlier seminal advocacy of Lloyd Best for schools in pan, I hope that readers will permit me to take some …

As was widely expected, the local government elections (LGE) resulted in a repeat of the control of the 14 local government bodies being split 7-7 between the PNM and UNC. Crumbs of votes were sprinkled on the minor parties. We have reconfirmed our propensity to condemn ourselves to continued political …

A large crowd, of which I was a part, attended the celebration of the United Nations’ declaration of 11 August as World Steelband Day, at an event in Times Square, New York last Friday. Under the auspices of the Consulate General of Trinidad and Tobago, New York, the event was …

From time to time, politicians say things with which we can agree in principle.  However, we are regularly disappointed when there is little or no implementation, or only a few moves are made for flash and for the glorification of the politicians and their satellites. Last week I described the …

The latest responses of the current Government and the Commissioner of Police to the crippling wave of murder and violent crime are the lame products of two decades of denial and a current desperation to say anything that will deflect the pressing questions about crime. The hard but unpleasant truth …