View Point

Just over a week ago, the chair of the Housing Development Corporation, Noel Garcia, was reported to have said that now that the figure for tenants’ arrears is approaching $157 million, its management is considering evictions and other severe actions. This followed the disclosure by Housing and Urban Development Minister …

Of course I am delighted that our new and seventh president, Her Excellency Christine Kangaloo, advocated for the panyard development model as a means of dealing with youth at risk in her inaugural address. For more than a decade, I have been advocating for the model’s recognition while describing real …

I support the decisions of the parents of the Nelson Street Girls’ RC Primary School children who agreed with the school administration not to take this year’s SEA examination. You, too, should concur based on the dramatic decline in the national results from 2020 to 2022 (a whopping 26% decline …

Persons in public life frequently exercise power without accountability. As President Paula-Mae Weekes was recently demitting office, we were reminded of the fate of the merit list for the appointment of a commissioner of police that was prepared by the Police Service Commission—but which was, in August 2021, diverted from …

All nations tell stories about themselves. These narratives tell us where we came from, who we are and where we want to go. Consequently, they change as the storytellers provide contesting viewpoints. The thread is twisted by grief, sentimentality, pride, or shame. Bare facts form only part of the saga …

“[…] Looking ahead to the seventh presidency of Trinidad and Tobago, some of the things I hope to see are a demystification of the role of the president; advocacy for the adoption in our communities of year-round, youth delinquency prevention programmes like the panyard model; protocols attending the Office that …

I have a friend who I will call Jarndyce, to protect his identity and save him from victimization. His story is this. Jarndyce is in his sixties and suffered a major failure of his eyesight in January 2020 as a result of glaucoma, which is a clandestine destroyer of sight—because …

These days I feel like Marvin Gaye, the singer of the 1971 Billboard hit “What’s going on?” Confronted by the incessant kangkalang, his lyrics become most relevant. Mother, mother/ There’s too many of you crying/ Brother, brother, brother/ There’s far too many of you dying Father, father,/ We don’t need …

“[…] Despite the refusal of European governments to engage the issue, the moral landscape across the world has changed discernibly in favour of reparatory justice for native genocide and chattel slavery. “[…] An increasing number of Caribbean people are coming to terms with the true horror of racialised Chattel Slavery… …

“[…] Gary Lineker, an accomplished former footballer for England, tweeted that the government set out an ‘immeasurably cruel policy being directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s’. “One sympathetic piece in The Guardian (UK) suggested that Gary can become …

“When a crime is not punished quickly, people feel it is safe to do wrong.” Ecclesiastes 8: 11 Last week’s avalanche of news robs any politician of the right to criticise any citizen for being cynical. It was like a hit parade list of things that can go wrong. The …

The inquiry “yuh get thru?” is commonplace. It means: did you succeed in completing the business or personal transaction you were attempting to do with a third party? The transaction is usually one involving access to a service and the path to such success is routinely frustrating and stressful. Unless …