View Point

If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, we have heard a million times, bamboozle them with bullshit. Ralph Maraj is the exemplar par excellence of that message. On the post-4pm news segment of the i95.5FM afternoon show early last week, Maraj leapt to the defence of UNC Political Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar. …

“[…] It should be obvious to all that the most likely winner of a 100 metre race (no pun intended) is the participant who gets the ‘jump start’. It is in these circumstances that the ‘false start’ rule becomes operative and the race line-up is reset. “[…] What is undesirable …

Louis D Brandeis was a well known Justice of the US Supreme Court. In 1913, three years before his appointment, while an outspoken advocate for financial and government transparency as a means of curbing corruption, he wrote a piece in Harper’s Weekly magazine in support of the regulation of banks. …

This week had two apparently disconnected stories whose link we may not have discerned, but which profoundly affects our future. The first was the Express’ report on the alleged TT$549M EMBD bid rigging case which noted: ‘…some of the same contractors donated financially toward the current government…’ The second is …

“[…] We have bought into the Western, capitalist idea, that the individual bears sole responsibility for their success or failure—history and current extenuating circumstances be damned! This, of course, is a fallacy, a distortion of the truth that absolves us, and the rest of society of any responsibility to our vulnerable …

“[…] The very prosperity that slavery brought to British capital was to eventually make slavery redundant. The capital accumulated throughout slavery led to investments in science, technology and engineering, created the industrial revolution, brought into being productive forces based on machinery, speeded up the process of proletarianisation of the British …

“[…] Unlike other Emancipation celebrations, which included a festive, colourful procession through the streets of Port-of-Spain and ending at the Queen’s Park Savannah, this year’s Emancipation Day will be observed online. “[…] People who traditionally participate on the day are encouraged to share their personal observances with the ESCTT via …

Malaysia are many thousands of miles away but share many similarities with Trinidad and Tobago. They beat us to independent status by five years, adopted the Westminster system of governance and enjoyed key financial growth through industrialisation. They are divided along ethnic lines and as such practice race-based politics. They …

“[…] Even though ‘Mac’ and his colleagues were sent for counselling by the company, he never fully recovered. I am sure the same can be said for many of the others…” The following letter to the editor on the personal toll of the attempted coup by the Jamaat Al-Muslimeen on …

Trinidad and Tobago’s General Elections on 10 August is likely to proceed without international electoral observers, after the government revealed that its Covid-19 restrictions proved to be a stumbling block. Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said he ‘extended invitations’ on 9 July to the Caribbean Community (Caricom) and Commonwealth to …

The decision as to which party or person to vote for in our General Elections is seldom a single-issue decision. It is folly when our pollsters try to imagine that we vote based on ‘what is the biggest issue confronting us now?’—since many such issues are themselves complex. In the …

“[…] At the next meeting, I expressed my dissatisfaction with [TUCO president Lutalo ‘Bro Resistance’ Masimba] acquiring this large sum of money and asked what would a sponsor think if, when giving TUCO a million dollars, they were not aware that 20% goes to the president. No answer. “[…] On …