“[…] Many [health care workers] are working under short term contracts—some as short as three months—[and] have been subjected to continual rollovers of their short term contracts and who have been employed continuously for 15 years and more. “[…] Instead of abolishing the short term-rollover contract system, coming up with …
Read More »Dear Editor: Effective inclement weather policies will address inconsistent national responses and save lives
“[…] If it was unsafe for schools to stay open, why were the non-essential businesses allowed to stay open with the workers exposed to the same risk? “[…] We must consider whether these weather alerts are reaching the population—especially in rural areas—and are they being understood? […]” The following Letter …
Read More »Something sneaky with your TP: anyone else notice the dirty toilet paper trick?!
With the proposed 2022-2023 budget having been laid in Parliament, a lot of Trinbagonians have been forced to be more circumspect in how they spend their precious dollars, especially as many public sector workers are still earning at pre-2104 rates! Nevertheless, something has happened to us even before this budget …
Read More »HDC promises more rental units for working poor, from Beetham to Chaguanas, Bon Air and Laventille
Trinidad and Tobago’s Housing Development Corporation (HDC) has vowed to expand its supply of homes attainable to the working poor, starting with the reconstruction of rental units at 23rd and 24th Streets in Beetham Gardens. The Beetham project, according to a HDC release, will be “the template for the reconstruction …
Read More »Orin: Time to leave Port of Spain—the case for decentralisation or flexi-schedules
“[…] We need to move some work out of the city to ease the traffic choke hold on this island every weekday. I’ve argued previously that ‘the daily Great Trek’ north and west to Port of Spain and back is a mad and unsustainable ritual. “[…] State and private sector …
Read More »Dear Editor: Too much negativity in media! Columnists and contributors should also inspire
“[…] I have no difficulty with the working journalists reporting the news as they find it, whether positive or negative… My concern is with the columnists and the established letter-writers. “I am suggesting that you devote at least one of your contributions per month to a positive message—something that will …
Read More »Vaneisa: “I’d never have believed the volume if I’d not seen it myself”—my war with African snails
Not since an army of bachacs stripped every leaf off a red-leaf ficus and a bird pepper plant overnight about 20 years ago, have I seen such complete decimation. The giant African snail has come to town in stealthy and voracious numbers, licking up agricultural lands and little home gardens …
Read More »Vaneisa: Suffering for silence, with missing fireworks legislation and EMA inactivity
Nearly 80 per cent of the people responding to a survey done by the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) said fireworks affected them negatively. Without knowing the extent of the survey, it is still a large and significant proportion. Another of their surveys said the majority of the animals affected (60 …
Read More »Orin: The dog ate my homework—the pros and cons of working from home
“[…] We had fun doing Zoom meetings in our boxer shorts, out of sight of the camera; but some realised that they’d mostly prefer to do work stuff from an office. In long pants, preferably. “Some missed the water cooler moments, where they could talk about what Ian Alleyne had …
Read More »Early Bird: Mango doudouce, julie and starch—but never tinned
“Pan? Pan my ass! Sat say once that UNC people have dholak and sitar and tabla and tassa; they don’t want no pan!” “Morning, breds,” I had greeted Prakash cheerily as he stepped into the street just as Bobby and I were passing his house on Friday morning. “Yuh hear bout …
Read More »Vaneisa: Foggy days of fatigue and other post-Covid symptoms
I’ve come to believe that what I had thought to be a vicious bout of both acid reflux and one of my lifelong afflictions, bronchitis, was really some form of Covid. By the time it occurred to me that it might be, it was too late for a conclusive test; …
Read More »Orin: The daily Great Trek; on T&T’s traffic woes and decentralisation of workplaces
“[…] There are no economic findings that I’m aware of, on how much the country loses by having a significant proportion of its workforce stuck in traffic every day. But there’s widespread recognition that there’s an economic cost, and that it’s probably a steep one. “For much of the past …
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