Tag Archives: child abuse

The life that Safiya Sinclair describes in How to Say Babylon bears many similarities with lifestyles throughout our region. I have heard enough stories to convince me. The specific nature of her relationship with the Rastafari culture can easily be transferred to fit the widespread value systems that allocate superior …

“[…] Under Fifa’s Code of Conduct and Disciplinary Code, the use of profanity or degrading language by coaches can constitute emotional abuse and a breach of safeguarding standards, particularly in youth and grassroots settings. “However, in the context of Trinidad and Tobago, there’s an added layer of complexity. The use …

“[…] The pattern is familiar: someone speaks up, gets labelled, and only later do we come to understand the weight of what they tried to reveal. “To be clear, I am not accusing anyone currently under a safeguarding ban of criminal behaviour. That is not my claim. “My point is …

On Friday 5 April, the Express headline screamed, “Things you see in movies”. Little did the writer know that more horror stories would come within the week. The newspapers do not have to worry about the frequency of headlines that cause us to gasp. They can do it every day …

The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) has officially outlawed former national youth coach Terrence Marcelle and his club, Toda-World Football Academy, after finding that the academy has been managing children without a license. Toda-World FA, which officially started in 2017 according to its social media page, is based in …

Last Monday, the international community observed World Children’s Day; the theme: “For Every Child, Every Right”. The day has been marked on 20 November since 1954, for nearly 70 years. Looking at the rather superficial statements on its behalf in our space, I wondered if we ever stop to think …

Trauma is a loaded word—carrying burdens that are often invisible until something triggers an eruption. The first part is the event that invokes it, some truly cataclysmic occurrence that horrifies and terrifies to such an extent that even if it seems to have dissipated with time, it is a continuous …

He was telling me about a group discussion about childhood. In an unfamiliar environment, he’d told those strangers that he had experienced what he’d considered a typical West Indian approach to discipline. Licks. When they pressed for details, they concluded that it had been abuse. “I learned about a thing …

He is in his mid-fifties, a woodworker of the old school, where craftsmanship was an emblem of pride. He had come to Trinidad many years ago, on a roundabout journey from Guyana that had taken him to places far, and jobs disparate. Now, in modest circumstances, he plies his trade: …

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 …

As previously indicated, I was not impressed with the professed heartbreak of the pathetic Minister of Gender and Child Affairs Ayanna Webster-Roy. The cruel treatment of children in State- funded homes, exposed by the recent Judith Jones report, has been going on under the nose of the Minister and of …