“[…] 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 …
Read More »Dear Editor: Does gov’t have plan to dispose of Covid masks? My 13-yr-old daughter wants to know
“To make me stop sipping my coffee, she came closer, made eye contact and asked again: “What is in place to either recycle, crush or even collect used face masks, shields, vials (that held vaccines), one-use plastic containers for sanitisers and other detergents?” The following Letter to the Editor on …
Read More »Gov’t offers email contact to nationals in St Vincent and Grenadines, ready to assist
The following is a release from the Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs: The Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago notes with concern the most recent activity at the La Soufrière volcano and its impact on the government and people of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Trinidad and …
Read More »Vaneisa: A matter of rights, responsibility, and respect for your neighbours
It was just after midnight, Old Year’s night, when fireworks pierced the roof and ceiling of my niece’s bedroom, landing on the bed where she slept. Fortunately, her baby son was not lying next to her as the noise and smouldering embers on her sheet woke her up, and no …
Read More »T&T’s silent holocaust: From Ceiba to Chaconia—how CEPEP follows ‘Sir’ Woodford’s racist footsteps
In honour of our fifty-eighth Independence anniversary, I visited Woodford Square, aka The People’s University, where seeds of Trinidad and Tobago’s Independence grew. But instead of feeling pride, I felt shame. Twenty tree stumps, envoys of once stately trees, left to rot without love or dignity illuminated Marcus Garvey’s words: …
Read More »Where’ve the butterflies gone? Our eco-system’s in danger, fixing it can also heal T&T’s anger issues
Opposite West Mall, on the Western Main Road, a mysterious derelict colonial building—rumoured to have been a church—stood like a prehistoric dinosaur skeleton peeking out from hectares of bush. As a child, when adults said bush they always conveyed the idea of something unwanted and to be cut down so …
Read More »Vaneisa: We’re at brink of environmental and societal self-immolation—the Earth may shake us off
“[…] We are at the brink of self-immolation; do we want to continue blithely polluting the space that sustains us? We’ve seen how a few months of reduced human activity has given the Earth some breathing space. “[…] Local debates over the fate of existing monuments have exposed the insidious …
Read More »Chain Reaction; Inside/Out—an environmental poem
The following poem was submitted to Wired868 by Serina A Hearn: Mahogany hardwood floors, so polished you could see your face, white silk-damask adorned hand-carved settees and winged- backed chairs stage the conference on the fate of soil sustainability, while Chopin entertains the closed windows, with a view over the …
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