Trinidad and Tobago will never achieve full food security. We could, however, substantially increase the production of foods and fruits that we are good at growing. But first we must convince the majority of the population that we should eat what we produce. Even if we reverse our addiction to …
Read More »Ask Mr Live Wire: Online taxes, gov’t corruption and gas and vehicle price hikes
In keeping with our efforts to engage readers, Mr Live Wire agreed to answer questions from random guests via Skype. The following were the satirical results: Balisier-baby: Mr Live Wire, I understand the reasoning behind all theses taxes eh. It’s because those crooked UNC politicians thief all we money! But …
Read More »Radicalising chance for change: how Sammy’s example can help T&T economy
Among the many points to be distilled from the West Indies’ Twenty20 victories is that the solution to any Caribbean problem often lies beyond the boundary of the problem as usually defined. This is as true of our cricket as it is of our economy, politics or, indeed, any other …
Read More »Going on the same way: Daly looks at enduring criminal and economic blights
I have noted with interest the Prime Minister’s statement that it is unacceptable for citizens to be gunned down in cold blood. This was followed by a statement from the Minister of National Security expressing concern about killing and brutality across the country. Regular readers of my columns and those …
Read More »$40,000 can’t celebrate anything! Archbishop Burke and the gimme culture
When I was in the Senate, in 1996, I spoke and voted in favour of the grant of the Spiritual Shouter Baptist Liberation holiday, which was celebrated again last Wednesday. At the, time I referred with affection to Earl Lovelace’s great literary work, The Wine of Astonishment, which tells of …
Read More »Doomed to importing foods: Raffique points to economic risks of our diet
Recently, there has been much noise over Trinidad and Tobago’s capacity to produce the foods that we eat. I use the word “noise” instead of discussion or debate because so much of what is said and written is uninformed. With the economy in full-blown recession and foreign exchange inadequate to …
Read More »Dear Prime Minister: A policy switch can help T&T though economic crisis
The following open letter to Prime Minister Dr Keith Christopher Rowley, which is titled ‘the leadership we require for these tough times’, was sent to Wired868 by author Keston K Perry: Dear Dr Rowley, It has just been six months since your entry into this office as the fourth head of …
Read More »Shah: Don’t take Mittal’s mill even for free; how T&T fuelled Lakshmi Mittal
Trinidadians are hell, I tell you. Take their almost instantaneous sympathy with the 600-odd steel workers who found themselves jobless last week when ArcelorMittal shut down its plant in this country. Sure, that means at least 5,000 family members facing very uncertain times if not utter devastation. Those who have …
Read More »Punitive and disrespectful! Rowley rips ArcelorMittal but ‘ready to re-engage’
The following is a press release from Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley on the decision of Luxembourg-headquartered multinational steel company, ArcelorMittal, to shut down its Point Lisas plant and simultaneously put over 600 workers out of a job: It is with a sense of sadness and deep disappointment that the Government …
Read More »Raffique rates Rowley’s Gov’t: the PNM’s inherited traps, pitfalls and own goals
I am relieved to learn that the Cabinet “retreat” in Tobago last weekend did not have, as a main item on its agenda: “Achievements of the not-so-new Government during its first six months in office.” If it did, I would have screamed bloody murder. Not to add rape of the …
Read More »Sorry, Woodford Café! Live Wire’s totally sincere apology to an angry businessman
The following is a response to a pre-action protocol letter sent by the Woodford Café owner (hereinto referred to as “Mr Uptight, Over-reacting and Overly Aggressive Proprietor”) sent, via attorney Keith C Scotland—and ‘C’ is unlikely to stand for ‘Cheap’—to a confused, frustrated and battered restaurant patron, Ms Abi La-La …
Read More »Modern day Shylocks: Raffique Shah muses over bankers and bandits
I don’t know if we should be more afraid of banks and bankers or bandits and murderers. Seriously. Both strike when we are most vulnerable. They relieve us of our life’s savings, of what we have worked tirelessly to provide for our families, with a callousness that is chilling. Bandits …
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