View Point

The following is the fourth and final instalment in Owen Thompson’s four-part series on the classic album, More Sparrow More!, by iconic calypsonian Slinger “Sparrow” Francisco: There are other equally telling avenues that allow us to arrive at meaning and afford us powerful glimpses into the unique quality of the …

“At stake here is the constitutional right to freedom of expression, which is ventilated not only during the Carnival season but is an entitlement which belongs to all citizens protected under the Constitution and the common law, subject only to the law of defamation or other statutory constraints…” In the …

The following is the third in Owen Thompson’s four-part series on the classic album, More Sparrow More!, by iconic calypsonian Slinger “Sparrow” Francisco: In Sa Sa Ay, Sparrow begins by making us all complicit eavesdroppers, inviting us both at the end of the first and the second stanzas to listen …

At the Panorama semi-finals two weeks ago, I became involved in a discussion with Eintou Springer, her daughter Attilah and an official of Pan Trinbago. The discussion turned to how Pan Trinbago spent the taxpayers’ money it received from complicit governments in the past and apparently continues on the same path. …

“[…] Sparrow took command of a cultural realm that touched a particularly sensitive chord, allowing for the message to be conveyed with extraordinary directness and clarity; the entire country sang along… Musically, and in terms of the procedural norms of an art form peculiar to T&T, Jean and Dinah was …

The fresh-faced Ronaldo London, 21, is Trinidad and Tobago’s new king of calypso, after he defeated 15 contestants to seize the 2019 Calypso Monarch crown last night at the Queen’s Park Savannah in Port of Spain. London, who sang last, won the favour of the judges and the audience with …

I’m backing Joanne “Tigress” Rowley for Calypso Monarch 2019. Her story is real. Her music is good. And, yes, I had a ring side seat to her deciding on the song, Who Feels It, Knows It. Her rendition deals with depression and a mental health issue she dealt with after …

“In the fullness of time, when Slinger Francisco’s massive oeuvre is unreservedly appreciated for its immense breadth and depth, rigorous scholars and casual calypso lovers alike will point to one special year, the Carnival season of 1969, when the Mighty Sparrow’s More Sparrow More!! album was released. “There had been …

I raised one brow when Colin Lucas moved from being Chairman of the National Carnival Commission to becoming the Acting Chief Executive Officer. But my both eyebrows raised when he was succeeded by former UNC Minister of Culture Winston “Gypsy” Peters. Seamlessly moving from director to executive is not a …

I note with some amusement that President Paula-Mae Weekes ‘suddenly discovered’ an error was made in the paperwork leading up to the appointment of Judge Charmaine Pemberton as a member of the Judicial and Legal Service Commission (JLSC). “She explained what the error was: ‘While the relevant instrument of appointment …

We now have belated confirmation—we knew it already—that, in addition to private capital, the source of which might be swanky neighbourhoods, funds for criminal enterprise are also drawn from linkages with public officials and the largesse of Government contracts. These funds are tools used to put or keep competing political …

Little seems to attract public attention like crime news. Crime Watch, in 2014, had a 10 percent larger audience than News at 7pm. Our perceived reality of crime has evolved where there are certain assumptions about crime and justice that are no longer questioned. We conclude with each new atrocity …