Tag Archives: governance

“Hatred is corrosive of a person’s wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation’s spirit, instigate brutal life and death struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and block a nation’s progress to freedom and democracy.” Liu Xiaobo, 2010 Nobel Prize Laureate. The spectacle of a former …

I know I have a strong stomach. In my almost five decades as an adult, I have attended countless political meetings and have never once, as far as I remember, thrown up. I almost did this morning. Had I already broken my fast when I saw ‘50,000 NEW JOBS’ sprawled …

Last week predictably began with more turbulence over the aftermath of the Petrotrin shut down and over one of the successor companies, Paria Fuel Trading Company Limited. Our governments have had marked communications deficits because there is too much attempted secrecy over the process attendant upon deals constantly being made …

Recently I witnessed an act of discrimination at the Ministry of Legal Affairs. Two people were not allowed to enter the building because of their dress. One was wearing mid-calf jeans and the other had jeans with horizontal tears. In my own case I was only allowed in because I …

For more than a decade, I have consistently taken the position that so called stakeholder consultations, pretty ministerial speeches and public relations announcements will contribute little to improving the lives of our disadvantaged young people—many of whom are easily lured into violent crime as a way of life. One reason …

I raised one brow when Colin Lucas moved from being Chairman of the National Carnival Commission to becoming the Acting Chief Executive Officer. But my both eyebrows raised when he was succeeded by former UNC Minister of Culture Winston “Gypsy” Peters. Seamlessly moving from director to executive is not a …

“Unless and until Tobagonians, at a deep psychological level, understand that they have been colonised by Trinidad for over one hundred years and continue to be so colonised; until they understand, at a deep intellectual level, that the country, Trinidad and Tobago, is a legal and political construct and any …

After digesting Gregory Aboud’s insightful commentary in the Trinidad Express, it behooves me to offer a retort. His “Silence of The Elites” piece is chicanery masked as concern for country and changing the status quo. Aboud may genuinely believe that he is offering a compelling and emphatic critique of his …

One year ago, on 26 January 2018, Minister Stuart Young called into a radio programme hosted by former Senator Mariano Browne and tried to read a prepared statement. Almost one year later on 24 January 2019, his colleague Minister Fitzgerald Hinds physically storms the radio programme co-hosted by former Minister …

The Dr Roodal Moonilal Ramai Trace SDMS Primary School (Sunday Express, 13 January) is a prime example of our need to examine public spending. In 2013, the school ostensibly bestowed naming rights on the MP for the TT$350,000 raised from businessmen in the area to purchase the land. Construction reportedly …

This column was one of the first among regular commentaries to identify that Government slackness was embracing criminality, and to make dire predictions about where this would lead. The assertion was met with dismay on the cocktail circuit. A well regarded commentator suggested to me that our governments were ‘mooks’ …

Gary Griffith’s appointment as Commissioner of Police came with an eerie and uncanny realisation about the opaque and dysfunctional state of our institutions. Despite his political history, people were happy to embrace Griffith. And even though he has been on the job for only four months, are singing his praises. …