“[…] It is clear that the successful children did not need to be told to study hard but did so without cajoling and certainly without boofing. “So, contrary to claims that anyone can be a top SEA or CSEC or CAPE student—which is logically impossible anyway—the attributes of a minimum …
Read More »Dear Editor: Do tougher measures work? TTPS should not be judge, jury and executioner
“The heart of criminal law is the degree of protection afforded to the accused… The Police cannot be judge, jury and executioner. “[…] It is seductive in its logical simplicity but the idea that criminals are persuaded by ill treatment, stiff sentences or police killings is a middle-class delusion. It …
Read More »Gibbons’ new calypso drama: Voices from the ghetto to sing de chorus?
What, I asked myself, might a Part IV of “Sing de Chorus” look and sound like if the dramatist decided to write one? What quality material would he have to draw on? Would any such production be what a recent Express story about an upcoming concert called “an ode to …
Read More »“Talk less, empathise more and rough up less”; advice for CoP Gary Griffith
“[CoP] Gary Griffith’s penchant for engaging mouth before putting brain in gear will erode the goodwill we all have in store for him. He must understand that thinking more, talking less, empathising more and roughing up less, will help overall to soothe a nation in crisis and pain.” In the …
Read More »Dear Editor: “A sublime yet subtle poet […] who defied conformation”; Ode to Shadow
“He was a sublime yet subtle poet who danced to his own drum, who wove bass lines—allegedly from Hell, but so transportive as to refute that assertion—that underpinned, pulsed through and propelled each call that he made to his beloved people.” The following Letter to the Editor on the passing …
Read More »Media Monitor: “Disgrantle” resident and “prioritarise-ing” minister star in messy flood coverage
The one thing that disaster should never be is haha funny. Regrettably, nobody bothered to tell TV6. Or sister OCM station i95.5fm. On yesterday’s 7pm TV news, there was this guy from Greenvale fuming about the inadequacy of the $15,000 grant that Government has offered certified victims of last weekend’s …
Read More »Casting the longest Shadow: how the Bassman from Les Coteaux shook up calypso
As the homage continues, your pores raise as the senses are met with the incomprehensible but instantly recognisable “Ah be a ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya wha-wha-wha.” Who else but Winston Bailey could open a tune with his own blend of words and letters as a melody, to float upon the one he has …
Read More »From front to back and back to front; St Bernard on the legacy of the “Mighty Shadow”
“Come here Winston. Go there Winston. Dey always pushing me around,” sang the late iconic calypsonian, Winston “Shadow” Bailey. For that reason, I always called him Winston. I considered him my friend. He was complex and self assured about his music. I once begged him to allow me to compile a …
Read More »Dear Editor: Two Ears and One Mouth; the cost of T&T’s communication problems
“Be it Petrotrin, Roodal Moonilal’s Keith Rowley allegations, religious organisations seeking to deny persons their rights on the basis of their sexual orientation or just for not belonging to one belief-group or another, the Chief Justice and the Law Association, and the habitual venom of social media. “[…] It can …
Read More »Daly Bread: Sweetest songs, saddest thoughts; pushing back against mental slavery
It did not take long for a compere to call last Sunday morning to say: “page 27 Express ringing so many bells for us. Look, just what you have been saying.” I turned to the page as he was speaking. There I saw a report that the Barbados Minister of …
Read More »Salaam: What protests can really mean for UWI; why Guild should think beyond compound
It’s five degrees and blustery in Brooklyn this morning and this warm-blooded Trini is cold and freezing. But as I scan the headlines, the temperature is hot and sweltering in St Augustine as UWI students responded to the lack of safety and security on the campus in the wake of …
Read More »Dear Editor: Hope for change; how we can avoid Demming’s five reasons to fear for T&T’s future
“Inequality begets further inequality as the elites furiously kick down the ladder by which they ascended, only lowering it to bring up their friends, families and allies. This happens everywhere but we may be more keenly aware here because of the political rivalry and our multi-ethnic makeup… “Jared Diamond, in …
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