“It’s true that things are always changing, but I expected that some of the change would have been for the better. Instead the evidence of poverty was ‘in yuh face’ as ‘halfway-falling down’ homes, piles of garbage on the corners, roaming stray dogs, and the vine-covered trailer truck that once …
Read More »Noble: T&T must address childhood trauma, or risk being outnumbered by criminals
Trinidadians are amazing people. Glorifying each raid led by Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith, we ignore his 21 November prophecy, in Chaguanas, of 100,000 new criminals in the next five years. “It is really important for us… to look at secondary crime prevention… If we do not deal with this …
Read More »Dear Editor: T&T needs more thoughtful, collective response to crime, not blustery overreaction
“Being poor or even living in Laventille does not cause one to engage in crime or any other behaviour, but they make certain lines of conduct easier or more difficult. When poverty or unemployment is treated within the context of strong families and an active socialising church, crime and vandalism …
Read More »SSFL 18: Malick down Speyside to eye promotion, aim to bring back love in community
“Move over Bago, and let Malick pass!” The chant streamed out from the dressing room at Serpentine Road, St Clair yesterday afternoon, as the schoolboys from Malick Secondary celebrated a deserved 2-nil victory over Speyside High School in Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) Shell/FCB Big 5 action. The victory took …
Read More »Dear Editor: Floodwaters, People Power and the Legacy of Mis-development
“Some persons will criticise the actions of the residents, and they may be quite right in finding the water-dousing problematic. But there are bigger issues to be addressed. “If people find that the actions of a few residents were not the best, then they should also consider that the emotions …
Read More »Dear Editor: Crime, corruption and cockroaches; Griffith was appointed to protect elites, not regular Trinbagonians
“The national conversation on crime—as advanced by the same elite—has been about a few devious miscreants holding the country to ransom; and once they are brought to heel, the country’s crime problem will be solved. “Unfortunately the wider public has for lack of any other voices openly countering the rhetoric, …
Read More »Gilkes: Message to the Barbergreen; the continuing struggle for emancipation
Despite my shameless semi-appropriation of Malcolm X’s “Message to the Grassroots,” this in no way suggests that I place myself close to the same league of this giant ancestor. This is just my paltry message to those in my country, particularly those who live where there isn’t much grass, far …
Read More »TTSL: Newcomers, RSSR, stun Santa Rosa; Streete wants support for “Beetham boys”
Newly promoted outfit, RSSR, took their first major scalp in the Trinidad and Tobago Super League (TTSL) League One competition this evening, as the team from Port of Spain South and Laventille West stunned 2016 TTSL champions and 2017 runners-up, FC Santa Rosa, 2-1 at the St Mary’s College Ground …
Read More »Master’s Voice: Black labour pains: By the sweat of MY brow; thou shalt eat bread
“I have […] great doubts whether the Cooly and the African are morally and mentally capable of being acted upon by the same motives in this island on their first arrival as labourers are in more civilised countries… “The only independence which they would desire is idleness, according to their …
Read More »Not Condemning: What was point of President Weekes’ “Laventille Nights” visit?
Curiosity got the better of me last Friday—on 8 June 2018—and I chose the much publicised “Laventille Nights” with our first female President, President Paula-Mae Weekes, over my usual Friday evening lime with friends. I wasn’t sure if it was at Beetham or Sea Lots but the flashing blue lights, …
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 »MASTER’S VOICE: The genesis of the Syria/ISIS exodus; Gilkes cites verse and chapter
So once again we’ve made international news…And again for reasons we rather we didn’t make de people international news. I mean we crave foreign acknowledgement and validation, but not so, dred. Bright and early Thursday morning, I see on my newsfeed an Al Jazeera story exploring why tiny T&T have …
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