Health

Inside Madeo’s mini mart, the place in Aranjuez where I buy dahi, a tray with eight breadfruits the size of grapefruits sat on the counter. I had never seen such small ones being offered for sale, but since Madeo was always keen to market unusual fare, I was intrigued.  They …

Bird peppers turned up everywhere. You didn’t have to plant them; they took root wherever they were dropped off by their bird friends.  Small and innocuous looking, they were hot—none of the warning signs like scotch bonnets, whose succulent exteriors were a fire alarm. My younger brother, at four, was …

I have had a lifelong love for curries. When I was a child, my favourite meal was rice, dhal and curried chicken. It was actually the rice and the curried chicken, but we were made to have the dhal on it.  It felt like an interloper, interrupting the concentrated taste …

My first encounter with coffee left such a bitter taste that I silently swore I would never have it again. I must have been about eight or nine, and it was one of those rare occasions when we were left at home unsupervised.  It wasn’t that I had any particular …

“[…] Over the last week we have held the Jam Naked Fete and the Stink & Dutty Fete, which seemed to have got a free pass; they escaped all regulations and contributed to one of the bloodiest weekends of the decade. Murders, larceny, being drunk in public and wearing NO …

The nasty debate about which of the two different governments was responsible for the prolonged abuse of children in state-funded homes continues.   It is made worse by a discernible element of glee with which the politicians and other combatants attack each other concerning the revelations of abuse, incompetence and …

I see you write about me again, she said, laughing. Mystified, as she was not present in my mind as I wrote my last column, I asked what she meant. She was referring to the people who bottled everything inside and the unexpected eruptions that come from what might seem slight …

It’s hard not to be overwhelmed by the barrage of brutality. How many times in recent days have I felt my stomach churn because of the news bombarding us?  Rage is roaring through our space, so unfettered that we can’t help but feel that, here and now, all fall down. …

“[…] My brain injury did alter how the world looked at me, how the world saw me but it did not change me on the inside… Given today’s deterioration in families, it is essential that we as a society utilise any and all of our resources, physical and mental.  “[…] …

“[…] As a regular shopper at the Trincity Mall branch of Tru Valu Grand Market, I have observed within recent months that cases of bottled water are stacked against the clear glass pane on the western side of the grocery store.  “Every day, these cases of bottled water are exposed …

“[…] Without being required so to do, non-track athletes (discus and hammer throwers and shot putters) also tend to turn in an anticlockwise direction. And it’s not just athletics. Many other sporting events also move from left to right, particularly those involving racing along a circuit. “[…] Physiology has its say. …

Public transportation is a quality-of-life issue. Sometime in 2015, this statement caught my attention and gave me hope that Trinidad and Tobago was finally beginning to take action to bring our country out of the doldrums of the 20th Century. Seven years later, transportation continues to be chaotic, dangerous, and …