Two weeks ago, I asserted that the proposed closure of the Petrotrin refinery was a socio-economic earthquake attributable to the State enterprise fault line that runs right through our economy. That earthquake has produced its tsunami. It is a tsunami of grief. The question is this: Do we understand that …
Read More »Police hold “Snake”; Beetham resident charged for assaulting Hinds during “Operation Strike Back”
Beetham Gardens resident Richard “Snake” Marcelle, who shot to prominence last month after kicking flood water on to Laventille West MP Fitzgerald Hinds, was charged today for “assault by beating and use of obscene language” against the Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General. The Police Communications Department confirmed …
Read More »MOWT: Light vehicles can use PBR between Mt Hope and POS
The Ministry of Works and Transport wishes to advise the general public of the partial opening of the Priority Bus Route (PBR) to light vehicles ONLY between the intersections of Abattoir Road, Port of Spain and the Mount Hope intersection, until further notice. This has become necessary due to roadworks …
Read More »Dear Editor: Oil and gas is “a waste of the future generation’s patrimony”
“This notion that ‘we have oil’ is a gross misrepresentation of what it cost to get a bbl of oil out of the ground to the point of sale—not to mention that the price you see quoted via international media is not what our oil sells for…” The following Letter …
Read More »Baldeosingh: T&T intolerance of same sex unions runs deeper than suggested by MFO poll
“[…] 77 percent of young persons were opposed to homosexuals having the same legal rights as heterosexuals, as were 66 percent of people with a university-level education. “Thus, it is misleading to say that younger educated people are more tolerant than older less educated ones—the more accurate phrasing would be …
Read More »Media Monitor: Does moving T’dad Express editorial finger find sport nothing to write home about?
Yesterday’s Express leader, headlined “Victory for all,” purports to be a celebration of the recapture of the CPL title by the Trinbago Knight Riders on Sunday evening. However, if editorials can be viewed as the equivalent of Test matches, I submit, then this one was a T20-type effort, a brief, …
Read More »Dear Editor: Baldeosingh says Rowley should be pleased to be called an Oreo…
“The first insult is quite ironic, since these same politicians always go cap in hand to the same 1 percent every election to beg for campaign contributions. The second insult is an insult only in America, where black ideologues (and white leftist types) consider European descent to be a mark …
Read More »Calcutta, Cookies and Cyats: Kamla’s “Oreo” jibe is part of bigger problem in multicultural T&T
“For all our multiculturalism, we really have succumbed to the danger of our group-think single stories. For all our racial harmony and ‘diversity-in-fete’, we exist in single-story social silos which are almost always at breaking point with one myth of the other: de UNC and Kamla tief; de PNM and …
Read More »PNM condemns “racist” Kamla jibe, after Opposition Leader calls Rowley an “oreo”
The Trinidad and Tobago government has condemned Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar for a “racist attack” on Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, after she referred to the prime minister as an “oreo” during a public event on Monday. Persad-Bissessar made the remark while suggesting that Rowley was owned and controlled by …
Read More »Demming: Why Petrotrin is a socio-cultural fiasco that will darken at least 35 communities
I’m a “glass half-full” kind of person, which is why I see the Petrotrin closure as an opportunity for inspired leadership on one hand, and the transformation of our people on the other. Leadership and transformation both require a willingness to change the way we see things. The behaviourists talk …
Read More »Dr Farrell: Taking Responsibility; why the Petrotrin disaster is a very Trini malaise that may be repeated
“So the logical question is: why don’t our governments fix the state enterprise governance system? The answer is partly because it sustains political patronage and corruption, partly because it buys off the trade unions, and partly because of inertia—fixing things that don’t appear to be broken simply isn’t worth the …
Read More »Dear Editor: Trade unions are irrelevant, OWTU couldn’t even shut down Petrotrin on day of ‘rest and reflection’
“The OWTU could not even get its own members to shut down Petrotrin for last Friday’s ‘day of rest and reflection’. The diminishing influence of trade unions implies that the majority of citizens see them for what they in fact are: a divisive and dangerous lobby which is concerned only …
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