View Point

We may be having a progressive cultural shift. I am referring to the proposed need for “permission slips” to take a wine on a woman in a fete or on the road on Carnival days. The probability of that shift is to be measured by Machel Montano’s quick reverse from …

The description of “African countries” and their diaspora in Haiti as “shitholes” goes way beyond the racist vulgarity of a decadent American President. It is merely a kind of sordid culmination of centuries of disparagement of Africans and Africa in the interest of western capitalism and white supremacy. But how …

Trinidad and Tobago has always been dreadful at organising anything but Carnival. Nowadays, we can’t even organise that properly. And it is killing us, in some ways, literally. The example of Desperadoes and the Laventille Hill is instructive. Laventille has been problematic but it has produced some of the most …

“The youths today did not create the monsters that are haunting our once beautiful two-island nation. The thieving politicians whom we have employed to manage our affairs and whom, blinded by party loyalty, we fail to hold up to public scrutiny are the ones to be held responsible for the …

“The law is not there to support a noisy culture; in fact, culture isn’t just out there, it’s man-made, in constant flux. The law is designed to help to shape the culture in ways that ensure harmony between legality and morality. And when that relationship is perverted what you have …

It is a new year but what does that mean? Well, my resolution for the new year is 1366 x 768, for which I would like to thank Nigel, the IT tech who has repaired my laptop. In trying to answer the meaning of the new year question in a …

“Police burned millions of dollars worth of marijuana plants,” announced a newspaper headline last week, not for the first time. Not for the first time, we dismissed the story simply as the drug rings at it again and went on with our business and our lives. But what if we …

“Steelband arrangers are constantly seeking to craft an individual style in their arrangements which, they hope, will be recognized and acclaimed by the artistic community in general and the pan fraternity in particular.” “Their musical productivity contributes to the development of new styles. But it is not a luxury; they …

Almost halfway through its innings and after plenty leave-alone punctuated by some ‘vooping’, the current PNM Government, has finally played a ball with the middle of the bat. The nomination of Madam Justice Paula Mae Weekes to be President of the Republic is an elegant stroke. Happily, the Leader of …

“Haiti’s Caribbean vision illuminated America’s way out of its colonial darkness. This is the debt President Trump’s America owes Toussaint L’Ouverture’s Haiti. “It’s a debt of philosophical clarity and political maturity. It’s a debt of how to rise to its best human potential. It’s a debt of exposure to higher …

“The carnage has become part of our lives just like potholes in the road, increased fuel prices, crime in the military and police service and deep-seated corruption in the Judiciary. “[…] Murder has now become the supreme expression of corruption in our culture.” The following Letter to the Editor on …

In November 2017, the Spiritual Baptists of T&T solemnly commemorated the centenary of “The Shouters’ Prohibition Ordinance,” the second wave of legislation designed to eradicate Afro-Caribbean Christianity. In 1927, Grenada was hit by the third wave, the “Public Meetings (Shakerism) Prohibition Ordinance.” The tidal wave of state persecution of Spiritual …