“[…] Even as a small country with limited resources, we will make every effort to report to the required standard, with some assistance, of course. We expect others to do the same. “[…] Mr President, as an economy largely based on oil and gas and petrochemicals, we in Trinidad and …
Read More »Camille: Gov’t committed to the environment; Kamla should leave climate out of petty politics
“[…] Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, in his address which aired on local news channels in Trinidad and Tobago and is available on the UN’s website, spoke of the need to raise climate change ‘adaptation, ambition and action’ while working for the survival of not just mankind but all species. …
Read More »Demming: Will Imbert’s bottled water move make T&T the Caribbean’s laughing stock?
A friend from up the Caribbean laughed at me on Monday evening and, unable to find any sensible defence, I was terribly embarrassed. Making bottled water exempt from VAT, she remarked with a loud chuckle, is ‘a level of worldliness which only you Trinis understand’. Eight of our Caribbean neighbours …
Read More »Afra Raymond returns to Nelson Mandela Park and refuses to play ball with National Trust
Supposedly in response to my own post in these pages on 9 September 2021, the National Trust made an engaging and informative post here on 17 September 2021. The most striking aspect of that reply was that the essential query was not addressed at all. For those who have an …
Read More »Tourism Trinidad announces Kurtis Rudd as new CEO, as body seeks to ‘re-energise tourism economy’
Tourism Trinidad formally announced today the appointment of Kurtis Rudd as its new chief executive officer. Rudd, a former Prestige Holdings marketing vice-president, officially started work on Monday 20 September. He replaced acting CEO Heidi Alert, who reverted to her substantive post as manager of destination development. Rudd, a senior lecturer …
Read More »National Trust chair: We got no Mandela Park proposal, but not every action should be done in public
“[…] As Mr Afra Raymond said, the National Trust is a membership-based organisation and we welcome volunteers in every aspect of heritage protection and awareness. However, not every action can or should be conducted in the full view of the public and I am sure that most persons will appreciate …
Read More »Afra: Nelson Mandela Park revisited: the curious silence of the National Trust
‘Your silence will not protect you’—Audre Lorde, on the false benefits and toxic consequences earned from calculated or cowardly silences. I had no intention of returning to this issue but Newsday’s Friday 27 August 2021 article (Woodford Square to become heritage site (newsday.co.tt) was a sharp reminder that there is …
Read More »Dear Editor: When will government level with us about this Sandals business?
“[…] So where are we going to put Sandals and why the smoke and mirrors? “Unpatriotic and foolish? I guess I am. But every citizen has the duty to oppose its government when being misled…” The following Letter to the Editor on the issue of the ever-changing information regarding the …
Read More »NJAC: Dr Rowley should apologise for insulting public over Sandals protest
That’s insulting! The National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) is of the view that Dr Keith Rowley deserves to have the words of the first of his three non-PNM predecessors, Basdeo Panday, thrown at him. And they are calling on the current prime minister to ‘do the honourable thing’ and apologise …
Read More »Afra: What’s Mayor Martinez hiding behind the scenes in Nelson Mandela Park affair?
I wish to present in this article a summary of my main points on the proposed ‘revitalisation’ of the Nelson Mandela Park (formerly King George V Park or, before that, Pompeii Savannah) in west Port of Spain. Some spaces are of such significance that they should be altered only after …
Read More »CCSJ: ‘The environment is God’s gift to everyone’, Mayor Martinez must abandon Mandela Park plan
The following is a press statement from the Catholic Commission for Social Justice (CCSJ): The Catholic Commission for Social Justice (CCSJ) calls on Port of Spain’s mayor, Joel Martinez, to listen to the cry of the people and the cry of the earth and leave the grass that covers a …
Read More »Salaam: Climate change is as real as Covid-19, T&T must get ready
When newly-minted US president Joe Biden officially signed an executive order to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, known as the Paris Agreement, as a certified environmentalist I was elated. As a major financial contributor, the US decision to rejoin the Agreement is significant. All citizens need to be enlightened on what the …
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