Environment

Imagine that you could have every single thing your heart desires. No restrictions. Do you think you could envisage it all at once? I mean, do you believe that on any given day you know precisely what it would take to make you absolutely content? Unlikely, I’d say at first, …

Responses to the declaration of a state of emergency have predictably been draped in political flags. As usual, everyone knows what should be done, and just as in West Indies cricket, everyone knows where the blame falls. What continues to be apparent is that it is not politically expedient to …

On Republic Day, some friends—mainly from the journalism world—reconnected at my home for lunch. It was a delightfully memorable afternoon, recalling stories of the craziness of the newsrooms and their eccentric characters. We drank a toast to our departed colleagues as we reminisced. But that’s not where I am heading …

In 1976, Elton John penned these words: “What’ve I gotta do to make you love me?/ What’ve I gotta do to make you care?/ It’s sad, so sad/ It’s a sad, sad situation/ And it’s getting’ more and more absurd/ It’s sad, so sad/ Why can’t we talk it over?/ …

When people’s homes are flooded, when farmers lose livestock and crops, when roads become impassable during the rainy season, it’s impossible not to feel sympathy. The shell-shocked look is common as people try to assimilate what has happened, and what they have to do next. Apart from the horror of …

“[…] The last government never did anything like this (the Clean-up and Beautify Trinidad campaign). This is a great opportunity for the residents and the surroundings. “Beetham Gardens was plagued with many health hazards, especially affecting children: the stagnant drains, the mosquitoes, the flies, the non-collection of garbage on time …

It has been about 30 years since Vicki-Ann Assevero put down her bucket in the land of her father’s birth. She didn’t come back because of some ancestral pull to Victor’s homeland—it was because she had met and fallen in love with another Trinidadian, the then-minister of finance, Wendell Mottley, …

On 16 May, the Central Bank Museum launched an exhibition of the late Glen Roopchand’s art. Roopchand, whose work is perhaps most publicly visible in his rendition of Carlisle Chang’s The Inherent Nobility of Man, which is on display at the Piarco International Airport, died in July 2022. The collection …

Life has a way of setting you adrift; sometimes on a rough sea, sometimes with such gentle currents that you barely notice how far you have travelled. Knowing that during my period of research and writing, I had sunk even deeper into my naturally reclusive state, I felt that the …

In the gloom of last Sunday, generated by the deaths of seven babies in less than a week at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in the Port of Spain General Hospital this month, I took heart from the offerings of fellow columnists Raffique Shah and Noble Phillip. During the …

When we witness injustice and the brutal acts that plague our nation, it is not easy to be grateful. We groan under the weight of many human failings, and our first reaction is not gratitude. Indeed, difficult times and circumstances are handy excuses to be disgruntled and ungrateful. We become …

“On a hill far away,” Paul burst into mournful fo’daymorning song as he caught up with us, “stands a new water tank, the emblem of suffering and shame…” Taken completely by surprise, Bobby and I looked blankly at each other. “Who side you on?” Paul asked. Scores of people, mainly …