Like a passing cloud, our discussions about the SEA performance of our children have come and dissipated. While we anticipated that there would be some learning loss due to the effects of Covid on our schools and our children’s education, the results are astounding. In every tier of the results, …
Read More »Hatt: Coach with enthusiasm! Seven tips to a brighter training session
“[…] Giving your athletes concise technique feedback enables them to continue to improve. ‘Great job’, ‘well done’, ‘that was awesome’, is good feedback. “Great feedback, on the other hand, explains exactly what was done well. Precise, regular pieces of feedback are most effective…” Canada-based Trinidad and Tobago track coach Tony …
Read More »Dear Editor: Open letter to T&T’s women—vaccinate your children and your households
“[…] Sisters, I urge you to make the right choice and ensure that all our eligible children are vaccinated, so that they can carry those school bags into their schools again. “Just as we carried them as babes in arms to get their first vaccinations, let us now ensure that …
Read More »Dear Editor: Does gov’t have plan to dispose of Covid masks? My 13-yr-old daughter wants to know
“To make me stop sipping my coffee, she came closer, made eye contact and asked again: “What is in place to either recycle, crush or even collect used face masks, shields, vials (that held vaccines), one-use plastic containers for sanitisers and other detergents?” The following Letter to the Editor on …
Read More »Dear Editor: Covid-19 regulations unfairly and disproportionately affecting youth athletes
“[…] In primary schools, it is 2,475 from 4,960 students or 49.8% [who are inactive due to Covid-19 regulations], while it is 2,838 from 4,750 students in secondary schools or 60%. That means a combined total of 5,313 from 9,710 students in Tobago, or 58%. “If Trinidad and Tobago had …
Read More »Pandemic leave, child care and remote work possibilities: Labour Minister issues guidelines
Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste-Primus issued guidelines today to employers, unions and employees designed to deal with the Covid-19 virus and ‘mitigate the obvious personal and family logistical inconveniences and the consequential significant workplace adjustments which are expected to be faced, as a result of the inevitable decision which had to …
Read More »Dear Editor: Dangerous precedent for govt to seize Mahmud and Ayyub; so why the silence?
“[…] I consider it a very dangerous precedent that the Government can so easily take custody of people’s children. If the argument is that the boys need some sort of specialised care that the mother cannot provide, then why won’t they still placed with her and visited by relevant personnel?” …
Read More »Heartbreak! How state body’s irresponsible act threatened future of Mahmud, Ayyub and Felicia
“What was the point then of saying that the mother had not reported it, if not to paint her an indifferent and uncaring lout? “This of course was to set the stage for the follow-on narrative of: ‘why should the government care if the mother doesn’t’—and to deflect attention away …
Read More »Noble: T&T must address childhood trauma, or risk being outnumbered by criminals
Trinidadians are amazing people. Glorifying each raid led by Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith, we ignore his 21 November prophecy, in Chaguanas, of 100,000 new criminals in the next five years. “It is really important for us… to look at secondary crime prevention… If we do not deal with this …
Read More »Dear Editor: My vagina is my business; a young woman tries to tie her tubes at Mt Hope
“[…] The doctor asked me no less than three times if I was sure I wanted to tie my tubes. I had to give her my life story and a bullet-point list of logical reasons why I didn’t want children. “Even after all of that, she couldn’t help but write …
Read More »Salaam: Mr President, don’t rush our children into adult decisions; why we should not lower voting age
“Good idea!” was my initial reaction when I read that President Anthony Thomas Aquinas Carmona is advocating that 16- and 17-year-old citizens have the right to vote for their leaders. I can think of no argument against involving youths in initiatives and activities, especially sporting and cultural ones, which require …
Read More »Kingdom come! Machel gets ninth Road March and clean bill of health from Guardian; Plus Rowley’s terror update
Soca star Machel Montano secured his ninth Road March title yesterday after his collaboration with Super Blue, “Soca Kingdom”—an okay song but a brilliant marketing slogan—beat Iwer George’s “Savannah” and Patrice Roberts “Carnival Sweet Fuh Days” into second and third place respectively. Even more important, Machel got a clean bill …
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