“Our mission of ‘water for all’ is the assertion of a basic human right as enshrined in the constitution of Trinidad and Tobago, namely – the right of the individual to life… Providing water for all our people provides for equality and equal opportunity…” Ganga Singh, July 2000. Our first …
Read More »Indra Persad Milowe: “My art brings to life many of my childhood memories…”
“[…] Our teacher pinned our small flags on our blouses and we had to hold hands with each other. We then walked clockwise around the school. “Every child had to recite one line of the national anthem. We then had to jump up in the air and, when landing on our feet, shout loudly: …
Read More »Demming: Digitisation won’t erase public sector “stuckness”, without attitude change
Congratulations to the Ministry of Legal Affairs (MLA). I received my digital marriage certificate in four days without leaving my home. Unfortunately, we have to start the process all over because there’s an error. The name of one of the witnesses is incorrectly spelt. Having gone through the application process I was …
Read More »Daly Bread: Contrasts of moonlight and misery; the trouble with Manzanilla-Mayaro
In November 2022, part of the Manzanilla-Mayaro road—the once scenic route along the east coast “through the coconuts”—collapsed. Part of it reportedly collapsed before, in 2014. In that same year, a commentary by Rajiv Jalim, described as a climate change advocate from Trinidad and Tobago, analysed coastal erosion on that …
Read More »Vaneisa: Flooding, drought, earthquakes, war… no wonder we struggle with mental health
A friend messaged me a couple of days ago to say that her doctor had put her on anti-anxiety meds and it makes her feel so exhausted. It reminded me that after I got Covid, I had experienced a quickness to exhaustion myself—a general fogginess and a funk. I deduced …
Read More »Noble: Reclaiming the dream—reconceptualised housing and family planning can lift T&T
As a people, we have dreamed that our lives would be better than those of our parents—and that our children would live even better lives. The harsh reality was exposed with the 2017 MFO Economic Sentiment Report. It showed a decline from three-quarters of our people who felt that life …
Read More »Vaneisa: Space for our diversity—T&T must resist “segregation” of “special interest” concerns
A long time ago, I had a discussion—maybe an argument—with a newspaper editor about what constituted “soft” news. He thought that issues affecting women were soft, and should be relegated to pages headed by labels that suggested they were for women only. Instinctively, I rejected that. It seemed to me …
Read More »Demming: “Our society must urgently navigate potholes of life… We need a deep, systemic redesign”
Forty years ago, while I was pregnant, I fell into a pothole. Fortunately, the fall did not terminate my pregnancy, but I still have the scar on my foot as a reminder. Forty years later our country continues to be haunted by potholes, despite owning the Pitch Lake and producing bitumen …
Read More »Noble: Playing chess with The Dragon; Dr Rowley’s gas gamble
“For any developing economy dependent on a single export commodity, powerful economic and political forces, both domestic and external, qualify the choices open to governments and structure their incentives. “[…] It is tempting to put the blame on poor leadership and examples of questionable public policy. In the end, governments …
Read More »CCHR: Did Paria violate the human rights of the four LMCS-employed divers?
“[…] The (rescue) divers were geared up and were ready, only to be prevented on Paria’s instructions, by Paria’s armed private police and the armed Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard. “[…] Paria had evidence that four human beings were alive, asking for help, suffering in a confined space and Paria …
Read More »Vaneisa: Open the gates—the trouble with the world
In Afghanistan, under such bitterly cold conditions that more than a hundred have perished, the Taliban has kept its focus sharply on repressing women. The economy has shrunk, but the forces are hell bent on keeping women restricted from public activities. No to education; no to certain jobs, no to …
Read More »Vaneisa: The house across the street; and coping with inevitability of change
Bob is dismantling the house where he grew up. These past few weeks, there have been sounds of construction—not the loud noises that come from my unconscionable neighbour’s welding business, but the muted clatter of galvanized sheets, and hammering. Before he began, Bob put a letter in the mailbox of …
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