View Point

“Men who hold high office in our society are never asked these questions by our journalists, regardless of the number of rumours that fly about on social media. That is because they are entitled to have their most private lives kept private, save and except where it seriously affects their …

“The question is whether any government has the political willpower to effect the necessary changes to make the Police Service efficient. I am not optimistic about an answer in the affirmative because the scale of systemic neglect extends to the health services and social care as well as environmental management and …

On 8 October, 2013, Newsday published a letter to the editor, headlined “Say no to gay marriages” and signed by Valentine Young, with which I fully agreed. Young’s position was that the legalisation of same-sex marriages had brought God’s wrath upon the United States of America (certain states anyway) because …

An Open Letter to Culture Minister Nyan Gadsby-Dolly Dear Madam, It’s over, madam. Dimanche Gras is dead. Like the numerous, onerous pretty costumes the Pegasus Fancy Sailor and Tan Tan and Saga Boy relegated into irrelevance, the show is arguably now exposed as a creaking, antediluvian anachronism, not merely moribund …

There was change at the top of the calypso pyramid last night as 24-year-old Helon Francis was crowned the 2018 Calypso Monarch with “Changes”—a powerful social commentary about Trinidad and Tobago’s need for introspection and revolution of thought to address corruption and crime in the two-island republic. Much of the …

As is the norm in our Republic, when something outrageous happens, it is condemned only by whispers in cliques and in the chambers and domes of elites, except for a few brave souls who speak out. And so it was with last week’s front page banner headline, “I am not …

“Since our last report, we continued with the investigation and have detained three more persons, bringing the number of individuals detained in relation to this matter to seven. The investigation remains a live one. “[…] The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service is obligated to enlighten citizens and residents of this …

I have a bit of advice for Mr Kamal Persad, coordinator of the research centre of The Indian Review: if you truly wish to defend the reputation of “the Indian-Trinidadian intelligentsia” (your description), as you claim in your latest “letter to the editor” in the Trinidad Express of 6 February, …

Aaron “Voice” St Louis can become the first Trinidad and Tobago artiste in 32 years to hold calypso and soca titles in the same season, after he beat the International Soca Monarch field for his third consecutive title last night. Voice’s song “Year for Love” held off Dexter “Blaxx” Stewart’s …

The 2018 Calypso Monarch Finals promise to be the best in about 20 years. This is so although the judges only got about 70% of the selections correct. The mix will be excellent, not simply in terms of musical variety and lyrical content and style and pace but also in …

“In a market economy, prices indicate demand which, in turn, affects supply—falling prices indicate lower demand, higher prices reveal shortages and, generally, supply adjusts to meet demand. “[…] The trouble was that State subsidies distorted the market for calypso. So government funding, especially over the past 25 years, concealed preferences—or, …

“Is that a new standard that the society is being asked to now adopt? Are our colonial hang-ups and archaic societal constructs so rigid and prejudiced that we cannot see beyond a person’s sexual orientation to determine if (s)he is competent to perform a task for the benefit of the nation? …