We all have soundtracks that mark our lives, some inexplicably. As a pre-teen, I heard a haunting song that I have never forgotten and which appears to be appropriate in today’s Trinidad and Tobago. ‘Sad movies always make me cry’ was one of the first songs on Billboard. It told of …
Read More »Dear Editor: Griffith’s NTA swells the ranks of professional politicians; dare we give them rope?
“[…] Do I really need a cabinet? I guess I need a team to contest the elections. But after that, I will—as I attempted to do back then—tell all of them, and especially the minister of health and the minister of sports, how to run their affairs. “And my son …
Read More »Salaah: Portrait of Watson Solomon Duke, commoner with eyes on the crown
‘Send in the clowns’ is the title of a classic song written for a play launched on Broadway all the way back in 1973. I think it should have been dusted off and polished up and used as the signature tune for the play Watson Duke is making to take …
Read More »Dear Editor: Know why there’s a teacher shortage? Ask the MoE when last they paid substitute teachers
“[…] The Ministry of Education seems not to care about substitute teachers who make themselves available to fill the gap for full-time teachers. Sometimes four months after the execution of our duties, payment is still outstanding. It may be six months after too, or even an entire year. “[…] I …
Read More »Dear Editor: Why is the media glossing over Watson Duke’s sexual assault charges?
“[…] What is most worrisome is the media’s purposeful glossing over of Watson Duke’s history. I cannot be the only one aware of his four indecent assault charges and one rape charge. It churns my stomach. “As a woman, how can I be comfortable with this? How is the victim …
Read More »Daly Bread: Getting the wire; is the SSA fulfilling its mandate in this ‘spy’ business?
The use of technology to ‘spy’ on citizens has been high-profile news because of continuing charges and counter-charges about what terms and on whose authority spyware has been purchased from Israeli sources, and also about who was being spied upon. As usual, material issues have become blurred as Government, Opposition …
Read More »Noble: The pipeline from school to prison; the drivers of school violence—and the cure
In the recent uproar about the viral videos of school fights, the November 2018 prophecy by then Police Commissioner Gary Griffith is forgotten. “It is really important for us… to look at secondary school crime prevention… If we do not deal with this situation now, in years to come, we …
Read More »Ministry of Foreign Affairs ‘refutes erroneous and libellous statements by Watson Duke’ against PM
“[…] Mr Watson Duke may wish to withdraw his statement about investigation of the Prime Minister, which is erroneous, libellous and no doubt seeps from a well of ignorance of the interaction to which he referred and of matters of international engagement. “[…] Mr Duke’s understanding of the situation and …
Read More »Daly Bread: Mama Dis is Mas; the brilliance of Kitch and potential of Caribbean music
If I wanted to make my mother Celia steups, I would tell her that Sparrow was better than Kitchener. Of course I did not mean it because I became a Carnival piong when they both ruled town. This column focuses on Kitchener because this year is the 100th anniversary of …
Read More »Noble: Random musings about Trinidad and Tobago—a country trapped in zig-zag mode
Last Sunday, late at night, I took a flight to the ANR Robinson Airport in Tobago. The journey was unremarkable, but a memory kept rising. That memory was of Mr ANR Robinson on a similar flight, but from Tobago to Port-of-Spain not long after he had split with the then …
Read More »NJAC remembers Basil Davis, the first martyr of the 1970 Black Power Revolution
“[…] Basil Davis represented the type of persons who were joining the Revolution in their thousands in 1970. He was an ordinary brother from the blocks of Barataria. His now late mother and other family members testified that Basil was a very kind person, who shared what little he had …
Read More »Dear Editor: How the 1970 Black Power Revolution stirred up a ‘conscious’ Holy Name Convent girl
“[…] Two days later, Pelham Warner, a youthman from Morvant, was waiting for me by the school gate. He greeted me with the words, ‘I took your poem to Granger (Daaga), and he wants to see you immediately.’ “That very evening, at Waterman Road in Belmont, three NJAC seniors, Makandal …
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