“[…] I have no good wishes or aspirational sentiments. I’m not checking milestones women have achieved or the records we have smashed… I am preoccupied by our extinction at the hands of our men—our husbands, partners, baby fathers, lovers. “Who can celebrate on Women’s Day when there is so much …
Read More »Dear Editor: What’s TTPS’ plan, Mr CoP, for pulling back runaway murder and crime?
“If the current average rate of about two per day is sustained, by the end of the year, we can expect there will be some 700 homicides (aka murders). (But) that sort of figure is plainly ridiculous, outrageous for a country with only some 1.3 million people.” The following Letter …
Read More »No Holders Barred: Commandment to unwed girls: Thou shalt not open thy legs!
My heart is breaking for that young woman. You don’t know how it breaks my heart to know that the Ph.D student whose car was stolen some days ago recovered the vehicle but without her marine samples and research. It truly hurts. Although I don’t have a doctorate—yet!— I can …
Read More »Not Condemning: The tragedy of Laventille, Desperadoes, crime and bandits
Trinidad and Tobago has always been dreadful at organising anything but Carnival. Nowadays, we can’t even organise that properly. And it is killing us, in some ways, literally. The example of Desperadoes and the Laventille Hill is instructive. Laventille has been problematic but it has produced some of the most …
Read More »AV ROOM: Last year’s Beetham events and our new year’s crime-fighting resolution
It is a new year but what does that mean? Well, my resolution for the new year is 1366 x 768, for which I would like to thank Nigel, the IT tech who has repaired my laptop. In trying to answer the meaning of the new year question in a …
Read More »Two robbers and a coast guardsman walk into a bar; the case of the thwarted hold-up
Scene: COSTAATT campus. In an effort to spice up its media programme, the tertiary level school has hired Mr Live Wire to teach “Principles of Journalism” to students and would-be journalists. The class is in session… Live Wire: Okay, class, so today we are going to look at a real-life …
Read More »Master’s Voice: Between a marabunta and a jep nest; our two July days of infamy
Monday was the anniversary of that infamous jailbreak, two years ago, and I should originally have submitted this piece to be published on that day. But I think that it’s better if it appears today, between that 24 July anniversary and the anniversary of another infamous episode in this country’s …
Read More »STREET VIBES: Fuad, we Khan take no more! T&T sick of doctors’ irresponsible behaviour
To say that the level of irresponsibility in this nation is lamentable is an understatement; we could accurately use much stronger language. But the discovery of a foetus in the refrigerator of a doctor’s office in South gave us a clear demonstration of precisely how pathetic and irresponsible some people …
Read More »Was Top Cop right to scoff at low detection rates? A criminologist makes arresting case
“The theories of legitimacy and procedural justice offer the best explanation. In countries where the State and its institutions are deemed legitimate and fair, increases in arrests and detentions tend to produce the expected deterrent effect. “However, in other jurisdictions, when the State and the exercise of State power are …
Read More »MEDIA MONITOR: Sermon on the Mount: Suffer the little black boys…
The Guardian’s Jensen La Vende tried very hard to take the emotion out of his lead story in Wednesday’s paper and make it an inoffensive, completely objective news report that wouldn’t mash nobody corn. And the Express’ Michelle Loubon tried no less hard to avoid using the obvious word. But it was …
Read More »STREET VIBES: The sacred and the profane: if the priest could pay… will politicians now tackle crime?
I claim no special credit for having in the past made the point about Trinidad and Tobago being the Land of the Limbo so that we should not be surprised that our criminals are apparently hell-bent on seeing just how low they can go. The newest low, according to the …
Read More »How pro-active approach to marijuana can offer big boost for T&T tourism and agriculture
“If we were to go all the way and legalise marijuana for both medicinal and recreational purposes, think about the effects it could have on boosting and differentiating our basically still-born tourism product… The potential to revitalise the local economies of rural villages hardest hit by our recession is obvious. …
Read More »