“Education kills,” some wit with spare time and a can of spray paint inscribed on the walls of the London Underground years ago, “… by degrees.” How right! The move from ABC to BA, MSc or PhD is very often not a journey about acquiring the life skills comfortable survival …
Read More »A dress for teachers? Best take on Education Ministry’s proposed sartorial intervention
As a minister of education, Tim Gopeesingh can’t touch Anthony Garcia with a ten-foot pole. As a conscientious educator with over three decades of dedicated service in the formal education system, I confidently so affirm. Photo: Former Minister of Education Dr Tim Gopeesingh And I go further. If you gave …
Read More »Strait is the GATE: Is T&T suffering from false sense of entitlement?
Are we having the wrong discussion about GATE? Should the conversation be whether the government should sponsor tertiary-level education at all? “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matthew 7:14, King James Version. My 14-year-old grandson …
Read More »Closing GATE on opportunity: The problem with the PNM’s education reform
In my previous pieces, I often referred to George Orwell’s 1984. Indeed in this country maintaining sanity is a Sisyphean task. Your concept of reality is questioned on a daily basis. Just when you think you have your wits about you, your grasp on reality is challenged and you spend …
Read More »Is just a PNM movie: Best look at what politicians are saying but NOT doing
“Life is a stage and we are the actors,” calypsonian Lord Valentino sang in the 1970’s. Three or four decades later, endorsement came from the novelist Earl Lovelace, who declared that (Politics in T&T) “…is just a movie.” “Everybody have a part to play,” Valentino also sings. Including Faris Al-Rawi. …
Read More »Barry, barra and other crap: Best on un-Parliamentary language
Say “Employer” to someone and (s)he expects soon to hear “Employee.” And ditto if you reverse the order. So I wasn’t really surprised when Wired868 stopped talking about “Barra” and started talking about “Barry.” But I stopped reading Monday’s Express story about the MP for Princes Town with the first …
Read More »CAISO: Padarath’s bullying of PNM MPs unhelpful; mature stance needed
CAISO (Coalition Advocating for Inclusion of Sexual Orientation) executive chairman Colin Robinson has criticised recent “homophobic” remarks by Sport and Youth Affairs Minister Darryl Smith and Facebook posts from the account of Finance Minister Colm Imbert. However, CAISO has also condemned the response by their target, UNC MP Barry Padarath, …
Read More »Consultation conundrum: Sheila ponders a long-standing Gov’t tradition
Civil society, perhaps more than any other sector, knows only too well that a healthy serving of scepticism inside the doubles is necessary when governments talk consultation. In T&T, “consultation” is sometimes political-speak for “we eh touching that,” “we eh know what the hell to do with that” or “we …
Read More »Come better than that: Sex and the State
Three years ago, at a workshop on women’s health, a street-smart 23-year-old from along the East West Corridor asked me, “If a man — in my mouth, I could get pregnant?” It will shock many to know that while in popular discourse about sexuality, young people are stereotyped as sexually …
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