View Point

“I am the sugar at the bottom of the English cup of tea. I am the sweet tooth, the sugar plantations that rotted generations of English children’s teeth. “There are thousands of others beside me that are, you know, the cup of tea itself […] Because they don’t grow it …

“You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time. People on every continent have stood in your shoes through decades and centuries before you.” John Lewis, July 2020. This week marked the commemoration of …

I first used the phrase “panyard model” in a column published on 1 February 2007 entitled Restating the Case for Pan.  That was 16 years ago. With acknowledgement to the earlier seminal advocacy of Lloyd Best for schools in pan, I hope that readers will permit me to take some …

“[…] An individual is not precluded from raising self-defence merely because he/she has not retreated; rather, a failure to retreat will simply be one factor to take into account when deciding whether the use of force was necessary and whether such force was reasonably exercised. “[…] It is evident that …

As was widely expected, the local government elections (LGE) resulted in a repeat of the control of the 14 local government bodies being split 7-7 between the PNM and UNC. Crumbs of votes were sprinkled on the minor parties. We have reconfirmed our propensity to condemn ourselves to continued political …

At the core of democracy is the vote. This single act is how we, the voters, signal how we feel to the politicians and their parties. It is a means of control. When we vote, we tell the nation which candidate we want and which policies or programmes are crucial. …

A large crowd, of which I was a part, attended the celebration of the United Nations’ declaration of 11 August as World Steelband Day, at an event in Times Square, New York last Friday. Under the auspices of the Consulate General of Trinidad and Tobago, New York, the event was …

This week saw the eruption of meaningless narratives that do not help us to become the best we can be. How do we expect our citizens to dream of becoming better? We get seduced by rhetoric that induces hatred and possibly violence. When will we seek what is in our …

“[…] Earlier this year, National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds said that 25,000 citizens have licensed firearms. Some will therefore face circumstances in which they feel compelled to use them. “What’s absent from the conversation is situational risk assessment. It’s an important part of discussions about armed engagement, but it’s easy …

From time to time, politicians say things with which we can agree in principle.  However, we are regularly disappointed when there is little or no implementation, or only a few moves are made for flash and for the glorification of the politicians and their satellites. Last week I described the …

Those of you who took god out your thoughts and were following my rants over the years know I have been saying the word “emancipation” actually means transfer ownership. And that puts into clearer perspective what dem snakes and soucouyants I was taught to celebrate as humanitarians and liberators were …

There were two disturbing events in a week when the nation needed to be reflective because of the anniversaries of 27 July and Emancipation Day. The first was the re-publication of a Jamaica Observer column by Lisa Hanna about the Jamaica bank debacle, and the second was the re-emergence of …