Twenty-two-year-old Santa Margarita, St Augustine resident Jonathan Anthony Mohammed is the first Trinidad and Tobago citizen to be charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act, after the DPP gave instructions to the Terrorism Interdiction Unit (TIU) on Friday 9 November. The Anti-Terrorism Act was initially passed in 2005 while it received its …
Read More »Dear Editor: Is Griffith’s crime-fighting medicine good for us in the long term?
“I celebrate the success of the intelligence that would have led to this find [of weapons and drugs]… But there is something else that I feel a deep concern about. “I look with discomfort at that brotherhood of testosterone and violence that our Commissioner seems a little too happy to …
Read More »“Media freedom under attack in this country”: MATT condemns TTPS “obstruction” of TV6 journalists
“MATT also notes the apparent attempt made by a member of the public to use their perceived influence to prevent the story—which the crew was in the process of completing—from being aired as a part of the station’s newscast on that day. “[…] MATT has provided details of the incident …
Read More »Gary needs more lightning, less thunder; Demming explains why she would gag CoP
Brace yourself for heightened aggression from the police! That’s the message I received from the recent television interview with Commissioner of Police (CoP) Gary Griffith about the police killing of five young men in Laventille. To paraphrase this very powerful citizen, anyone who objects to his approach either has not …
Read More »Dear Editor: T&T needs more thoughtful, collective response to crime, not blustery overreaction
“Being poor or even living in Laventille does not cause one to engage in crime or any other behaviour, but they make certain lines of conduct easier or more difficult. When poverty or unemployment is treated within the context of strong families and an active socialising church, crime and vandalism …
Read More »Daly Bread: Angels driving in their limousine; Shadow, flooding and citizen humanity
The thing about liming long is that you have a first-hand memory of plenty things. I saw ‘Shadow’, in a tent, in his first year of performing. I think it was Port Services club but what I am sure about is that I left repeating: “Kitchie boy, water in yuh …
Read More »Media Monitor: Maraj and Maharaj tell why we jamming the criminals but we still in a jam
“Why should people be sacrificed so as to allow others, wrongdoers, to prosper? That is what we are being called upon to do, colleagues, […] What we are being called upon to do by a small clique of people in the country is to support wrongdoing, pretend not to know …
Read More »And God liberated woman: Afryea finds genesis of today’s gender struggle in Holy Bible
In the King James Version of the Holy Bible, Job 42:12-15 reads as follows: So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. […] He had also seven sons and three daughters, and he called the name of the first Jemima, and the name of the …
Read More »Super G Meets Don Quixote: CoP lives up to his bloody boasts; but to what end?
As much as we may wish it to be otherwise, Gary Griffith is not the answer to our prayers but the symptom of our problems. In our greatest moment of fear, we have manifested and brought him to life as protection against the very forces we have created. Like Phoenix, …
Read More »Dear Editor: Self-motivation and high IQ—not prayers or parents—are key to academic excellence
“[…] 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 »