Reaction to last week’s Mayaro resumed column was as I expected. Readers welcomed and want more of “feel good” topics that bring some relief from the anxiety afflicting all but the one percent and the mindless fete people. This column is a postscript, but I must acknowledge reality first. People …
Read More »Racist thoughts precede racist actions; why Charlottesville and Kaepernick should matter to T&T
“Class determines how they express their racism, that’s all. Poor racists are more overt, elite racists are more insidious” (Facebook comment) “[O]ur intellectual leaders have been so preoccupied with the campaigns against the hard-line white supremacists who make no compromise in their flaunting of Western civilisation that we have sometimes overlooked …
Read More »Dear Editor: Has the Church finally stifled Martin Luther’s Protest?
“Tuesday 31 October, 2017 will mark 500 years since that day when Martin Luther posted his theses on the church’s door[…] “Where is the fire that burned in the hearts of men opposing the system that was trying to get men to submit their consciences to them at all costs?” …
Read More »Monitoring the masters’ voices to find the true colour of the Rottweiler’s bark
Seriously? Did you seriously expect some died-in-the-balisier PNMite to say (s)he disapproves of Prime Minister Keith Rowley’s decision to appoint a “sole investigator” for the ferry fiasco? Hahahahahahahahaha! You doh understand nutten about the culture of T&T—which is not, as the Mighty Power claimed years ago, just calypso and steelband. …
Read More »Media Monitor: Mistake jokes? Different folks, different strokes…
You pick up your Thursday Express and begin reading, as so many do, from the back. There’s a bold two-word headline reflecting the presumed attitude of the West Indies cricketers who just lost the First Test in England to two men. And below it, seven more words. With an error. …
Read More »Daly Bread: Mayaro resumed; problems in paradise
I wrote this column sitting adjacent to Mayaro beach enjoying a slice of the August holidays. It is about two hours to sunset on as glorious a day as it gets in this piece of paradise. A little earlier in the day I had—unusually for me—a daytime snooze, on the …
Read More »Master’s Voice: Too paralysed to analyse; fossilised Afro-Indian attitudes to European realities
I was going to delay my ranting until Independence Day. But a couple things—including the events in Charlottesville—pushed me to decide to leggo the ramble one time and done. Almost immediately after I wrote my piece on “model” policing, two early comments illustrated exactly what I was speaking about. One person offered up a …
Read More »Media Monitor: NeRowley dazzles while seabridge burns but Bassant not blinded by BS
And underneath is written, In letters all of gold, How valiantly he kept the bridge In the brave days of old. Take a bow, Mark Bassant. The brazen attempt by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to bramble the population into thinking that the bungling government is taking serious action on …
Read More »Farcical, Dr Rowley! Fixin’ T&T slams appointment of ‘sole investigator’ for procurement scandal
To label as farcical Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s appointment of Mr Christian Mouttet as the “sole investigator” on matters regarding the procurement of the Ocean Flower 2 and the Cabo Star would be generous. Madness or abject stupidity would be more apt. The Prime Minister, Minister Stuart Young and …
Read More »Media Monitor: TGIF, UNC! Why, despite PNM shortcomings, I mute Opposition politicians
TGIF. Tim Gopeesingh is farse. And outta place! He was on the radio the other day. And Rudy Indarsingh. And Roodal Moonilal. And Gerald Ramdeen. And Devant Maharaj. And, probably Wade Mark and Rodney Charles. And, of course, Kamla Persad-Bissessar. I have a queasy stomach so I have no idea …
Read More »Daly Bread: Drops to clean the wounds; T&T can find inspiration in cultural ambassadors
The ill winds of deep-seated race and class divisions have blown continuously for more than a decade. Beware of them. Their velocity is increasing. This warning is not new. I wrote it in October last year. At that time I reminded readers that, for more than a decade, I have …
Read More »Master’s Voice: Police modelling and model policing; why we need back the Union Jack
Right. Everybody who is NOT a millennial––and you of the Independence Generation in particular––I have one polite, humble request. Before 31 August, anywhere you pass and see the Red, White and Black flying, please, PLEASE stop, pull it down and hoist the Union Jack back up for me. Please. Seriously, …
Read More »