Tag Archives: Colm Imbert

Finance Minister Colm Imbert announced an increase in fuel prices with immediate effect. Cue outrage from all quarters in the immediate aftermath. “Cheap Fuel is the bedrock of our society!” they clamoured. “Raise the cost of transport and everything else goes up! It’s common sense!” As tired as these arguments …

“Why does Minister Imbert not address the foreign exchange leakage by the NLCB? According to the terms of their contract, IGT are supposed to transfer technology to locals. Yet, after a 30-year contract, no such transfer has occurred and Trinidad and Tobago continues to lose over US$350m annually.” The following …

Repeat after me: “The Treasury is empty.” “The Treasury is empty.” “Again!” In psychology, there is something called the “illusory truth effect.”  Essentially, it says that a lie repeated often enough becomes believable, not only by persons hearing it but also by the people repeating it. The term only gained …

So the Finance Minister’s budget presentation is over; we all now know the major highlights. I make no apologies for not offering any red or yellow-tinted responses or comments or analyses. I want to break with the sterile ‘This was good’ and ‘That was bad’ tradition and discuss instead what …

I stopped watching many TV shows and movies a long time ago because they have apparently run out of ideas and are in the habit of using old shows and scripts—that worked sometime in the past—to see if they would work now. I am now convinced that I should also …

“After eight years and a half of expensive governmental control, the population is now being told that the government did not know what was being done or how taxpayers’ monies were spent while government appointees were ‘in the saddle.’ “What other surprises remain hidden?” The following joint media statement on …

It is Thursday evening on TV6; Shonda Rhimes, Viola Davis and Peter Nowal are getting away with murder. So too is Desha Rambhajan. The 7pm news anchor, easy on the ear and on the air, announces to her listenership that a Sangre Grande man has been charged with six offences, …

With the election of Donald Trump, the USA is set to leverage vast shale resources to further their energy independence agenda. That means that any reduction in OPEC production will most likely be offset by increased production from the shales. Finance Minister Colm Imbert must be racking his brain and …

Scene: Boardroom at an undisclosed location. (Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley tells his colleagues on the National Security Council and a few specially invited guests to expect an important visitor. There is a knock at the door). Keithos: Come in, boy. (Crown Trace resident and Unruly gang member Abdul “Krysis” Wakeel …

Time was when, if yuh neighbour house on fire, yuh used to throw water on your own. Not anymore, not in politics anyway. Nowadays, if yuh political neighbour house on fire, yuh does throw pitchoil. I thought that was the hidden message in an unpublished letter sent to Wired868 by …

“… In the fight against a few semi-literate street criminals, the police have thrown their hands in the air as acknowledged by the Ag CoP… One wonders if the season has anything to do with his hands going up in the air. “But as we celebrate next week’s festivities, I guarantee …

Being shocked senseless is the proverbial effect of the many tremors currently running through T&T’s political, social and economic landscape. We seem not only unable to come to terms with our present economic and social realities, but completely unwilling to put collective intellectual mettle to the wheel to address some …