“[…] Tutors face many challenges in this pandemic era that they possibly were not prepared for at teaching college. Most students are technologically savvy, and in the age of memes and TikTok, teachers are at risk of being ridiculed…” Today Wired868 features a secondary school visual arts teacher with more …
Read More »Can the Rowley/Imbert partnership turn looming defeat into victory?
“[…] we must get the new digital economy going. Although liquidity is overflowing at the Central Bank, private sector credit is sluggish; unemployment and underemployment are growing and results thus far from the government-sponsored stimulus loans packages to banks and credit unions have been disappointing. […]” The following is the …
Read More »Rudder, Merle among speakers at month-long online Black Consciousness Festival
“[…] Joining the conversations will be New Management – Paramin Blue Devils; members of the world-famous Brazilian Afro-Blocos Olodum and Ilê Aiye; calypso icon David Michael Rudder; award-winning multimedia journalist Dash Harris Machado; author, activist and scholar Merle Hodge; Pan-Africanist organizer Khafra Kambon; and US celebrity food entrepreneur Shannon Allen. …
Read More »Budget observations; we may be on track, but we’re not there yet
“[…] While they are yet to put it squarely to the population, for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, it is clear that, quietly but consistently, the finance minister has been weaning the population off the comfortable, subsidised standard of living we have steadily come to …
Read More »Noble: A week of misinformation; how Chamber, UK MP and anonymous tweets added to ‘noise’
There appears to be broad agreement that the economic challenges, in the wake of Covid-19, are enormous. Facing a precipitous export earnings decline of 41% (roughly $10B in the last year), we should all be thinking about how to navigate the future: how to make the most of what we …
Read More »Daly Bread: Accountability without insult—can minister Browne be the ‘new normal’
The reported threat posed to Trinidad and Tobago by the floating storage offshore vessel, the Nabarima, moored in nearby Venezuelan waters has been of concern for nearly two months. The Nabarima contains over one million barrels of crude oil, in storage on it. The vessels’ condition was reported on internationally …
Read More »NJAC Rededication: How the ‘March to Caroni’ sent shockwaves through T&T
“[…] From the moment the chief servant [Makandal Daaga] announced the ‘March to Caroni’, it sent shock waves through the corridors of power. This march challenged one of the pillars of domination, control and oppression of our people, which was laid down by our past colonial ‘masters’—the creation and maintenance …
Read More »Dear Editor: Imbert sees unions in disarray, now he’s going for the jugular of the working class
“[…] The media cites Minister of Finance Colm Imbert as saying that public sector trade unions won’t be able to meet with the government around the bargaining table because of the state of the economy. No time frame is given. “This immediately affects those public sector workers who are near …
Read More »NJAC Rededication: Daaga goes from student guild to movement leader
“[…] Makandal Daaga placed great emphasis on people and the indispensable need for the participation of the population in the building of any new society. “[…] It was on this premise that he mobilised the nation, not just to change social, political and economic conditions, but above all to enlighten, …
Read More »NJAC: Budget shows Dr Rowley has abdicated responsibility for citizens to ‘rich elites’
“[…] Lacking in creative ideas or solutions, the government has decided to accelerate the process of privatisation and free itself of responsibility for the people’s welfare, wherever it can. “In NJAC’s estimation, what needs to be understood is that with privatisation, there are certain core concepts such as trimming the …
Read More »Dear Editor: Five reasons Christopher Columbus is no hero
“[…] the way this history is taught and culturally remembered casts a shadow over our collective consciousness, reifying imperialism and white supremacy … the idealisation of Columbus’ so-called discovery means romanticising oppression, corruption, mass murder and rape…” The following is a joint submission from the Warrao Nation, Partners for First …
Read More »Calypso vs film—Epilogue: Sparrow’s Lying excuses and marriage of the two media
There is much common ground between the mechanisms inherent to the narrative of film and calypso. Departing from the same basic treasure (‘the story, the story and the story’), the two media call for different types of interplay between creators and audience. The merit of the really good calypsonian is …
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