Tag Archives: child abuse

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 …

Everybody knows, but nobody knows. This is the state of our politics and the conduct of some parliamentarians.  In 2000, Jamaican singer, Shaggy, had a hit song, ‘It wasn’t me’, in which he denied infidelity even when there was incontrovertible proof. Only at the end, he admitted that that line …

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. …

“[…] To say that the UNC Government’s answer to the Sabga Report on abuse of children was to develop a suite of children protection legislation is simply a cop out for not dealing with the criminality that the report revealed in gory and sordid detail. “The failure of then Minister …

“[…] For decades, there have been relentless attempts by past police commissioners and more recently the Police Complaints Authority to bring a certain degree of closure and possibly the perpetrator(s) to justice for this heinous crime against an innocent child.  “Many calls were issued for individuals with information to come …

We all have soundtracks that mark our lives, some inexplicably. As a pre-teen, I heard a haunting song that I have never forgotten and which appears to be appropriate in today’s Trinidad and Tobago.  ‘Sad movies always make me cry’ was one of the first songs on Billboard. It told of …

“[…] The first and most important red flag test a woman can give a man is to tell him ‘no’, especially when he really wants to do something involving your time, body, reputation, property or livelihood. “His request does not just have to be sexual. It can be anything. If …