Wellness

I don’t recall ever seeing such a high level of apprehension in our space. Do you? It’s coming from a multitude of shadowed places, so many that it is difficult to put a finger on any one thing as the root. Armadas and squadrons loom on our horizon. Conflicting reports …

Thinking about the issue of belonging, I have been wanting to return to the subject of patriotism. I came across this column I had written in September 2021. Essentially, it was what I have wanted to say. So, here is a version of it. In the seventies, my large group …

“[…] Rachel Price made this observation reflecting on social media: some things that may have been deemed shameful a mere 10 years ago, are now common behaviours in order to solicit ‘likes’ and ‘shares’. “[…] Historians have longed recognised the role of shame in keeping groups in check. In the …

It’s not a local thing, not a Caribbean thing even. It’s more of a contemporary thing; this craving for brown food. Everyone succumbs to the smell and crunch of crispy, fried platters of unhealthy greasiness. Every shade is available—golden, tan, pale—however you like it, you can order it, and devour …

This past week has seen graduation exercises at The University of the West Indies (UWI)—a batch of degreed people flowing out of its gates, just over 3,000 of them. I’ve spoken to a few of them, getting a sense of their experiences within academia. Some were first-timers, others were completing …

A few days ago, Nemme McSweeney sent me the link to a YouTube video featuring the man behind Moruga Hill Rice, Mark Forgenie. I know it’s long, she said (just over an hour), but Mr Forgenie encapsulates so many healthy concepts we keep ignoring. It was riveting: a combination of …

Off the top of my head, I can count 14 North American fast-food franchises thriving in Trinidad and Tobago. There are probably more, but this is the figure I reached without scrubbing my brain too hard. It might not seem a lot, but the number of their outlets comes up …

This week I am returning to the recent Court of Appeal declaration that it was a breach of the constitutional rights of two citizens of Trinidad and Tobago (the Applicants), who were denied re-entry into Trinidad and Tobago when the borders were closed during the Covid-19 pandemic. At the material …

I can’t imagine anyone whose insides have not been churning at the gruesome images of murder, maiming and absolute devastation of humanity by humans globally. Most visible are macabre scenes from Gaza: children, babies, women, the elderly, the young, all strewn together as the faces of physical pain—limbs and torsos …

“[…] By praising Donald Trump and stating that this country is proud to be aligned with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s call for an international coalition to fight narco-trafficking, this country’s Prime Minister has put our country in the pocket of the US…” The following is a press statement …

“There is a tremendous difference between living in a place and belonging to it and feeling your destiny is irrevocably bound up in the life and destiny of that place.” Founding Father Right Excellent Norman Manley, Jamaica. The book Mixing Memory and Desire: How History Shaped the Foods of the …

“[…] Some teachers have already expressed support for a police presence, noting that officers are not bound by the Ministry’s slow disciplinary matrix and, therefore, can act more decisively to curb the spiralling student misconduct. “[…] A primary concern is the negative psychological impact on students. NPTA’s caveat is that …