Tag Archives: environmental issues

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines la-la land as “a euphoric, dreamlike mental state detached from the harsher realities of life”. In our version, leaders and followers are allergic to facts—inconvenient truths. They look at life through red and yellow-tinted glasses that allow them to possess selective memories. The citizens of La-La …

“[…] If it was unsafe for schools to stay open, why were the non-essential businesses allowed to stay open with the workers exposed to the same risk? “[…] We must consider whether these weather alerts are reaching the population—especially in rural areas—and are they being understood? […]” The following Letter …

Not since an army of bachacs stripped every leaf off a red-leaf ficus and a bird pepper plant overnight about 20 years ago, have I seen such complete decimation. The giant African snail has come to town in stealthy and voracious numbers, licking up agricultural lands and little home gardens …

Nearly 80 per cent of the people responding to a survey done by the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) said fireworks affected them negatively. Without knowing the extent of the survey, it is still a large and significant proportion.  Another of their surveys said the majority of the animals affected (60 …

For decades, the approach and departure of festive occasions—Carnival, Independence Day, Divali, Christmas, Old Year’s Night—have elicited desperate missives.  Complaints about unbearable levels of noise from unrelenting sound systems and fireworks have poured out to the impervious Environmental Management Authority (EMA). Nothing’s changed. On its website, the EMA describes four …

After 22 years of passing the buck, the government has failed to pass the Beverage Container Bill which was intended to provide a structure for the collection and safe disposal of beverage containers. Their collective incompetence has facilitated the degradation of our environment, the clogging of our waterways, and litter …

A friend from up the Caribbean laughed at me on Monday evening and, unable to find any sensible defence, I was terribly embarrassed. Making bottled water exempt from VAT, she remarked with a loud chuckle, is ‘a level of worldliness which only you Trinis understand’. Eight of our Caribbean neighbours …

The following is a press statement from the Catholic Commission for Social Justice (CCSJ): The Catholic Commission for Social Justice (CCSJ) calls on Port of Spain’s mayor, Joel Martinez, to listen to the cry of the people and the cry of the earth and leave the grass that covers a …

The reported threat posed to Trinidad and Tobago by the floating storage offshore vessel, the Nabarima, moored in nearby Venezuelan waters has been of concern for nearly two months. The Nabarima contains over one million barrels of crude oil, in storage on it. The vessels’ condition was reported on internationally …

In honour of our fifty-eighth Independence anniversary, I visited Woodford Square, aka The People’s University, where seeds of Trinidad and Tobago’s Independence grew. But instead of feeling pride, I felt shame. Twenty tree stumps, envoys of once stately trees, left to rot without  love or dignity illuminated Marcus Garvey’s words: …

“[…] Through a friend I was able to find out that Paraquat is in fact on the radar of three ministries: Health, Agriculture, and Local Government, because of its danger to the environment and also as a method for suicide. “[…] The residential Cocorite coastal area where the spraying is …

My first visit to the seaside was Carenage; and in particular, Williams Bay. We travelled by bus and eventually I would ‘borrow’ my father’s Raleigh bicycle—put the seat to its lowest position and ride there. I remember that Pier 1 was not even a thing. Today, its building is imposing …