Tag Archives: governance

‘Never to know, never to tell’ was the street cry of a sweepstake seller when I was a boy in Newtown. It reflected that you never know what your luck might be. In a sweepstake, the punter bought a ticket from a sweepstake seller. The winning numbers of those tickets …

‘Discipline guarantees success’ has been a tried-and-true maxim, but no matter how disciplined you are, if your operating context is chaotic, you are unlikely to succeed. At all levels, Trinidad and Tobago exhibits a lack of discipline, which is facilitated by the absence of enforcement of the rules. From captain …

Shoshana Zuboff (2019) points to ‘the oldest political questions: Home or exile? Lord or subject? Master or slave? … eternal themes of knowledge, authority and power’. This week, with the firing of Wil Espinet, we are confronted with the same issues. Saddened by the crime situation and having had to …

On behalf of all the angry people that clamoured for this to be exposed, let me lay it out at the outset: The Ministry of Culture needs properly to account for the distribution of tickets for the main stage events of Carifesta, which was ill-considered, unfair and discriminatory. That each …

Dr Eric Williams’ last tome, The Blackest Thing in Slavery (1973), tells us that there were many more shady dealings in slavery than the African slave. This is analogous to the Laventille situation; there are more criminal dealings than those who live there. While there is an undeniable need for …

Another Police Station has been commissioned, but crime and criminality continue to dig in.  In a year or so, the people of Carenage will have an improved structure and a few policemen will benefit from promotions or transfers, but what will be the impact on crime and lawlessness in the …

Sometimes a song, phrase or expression lodges itself in your mind as if on repeat play. The one that is in my mind is the recent statement by former CEO of SWMCOL, Ronald Roach, which was reported in the Trinidad Guardian on 7 July. “We have not placed sufficient emphasis …

“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 …