Trinidad and Tobago is plunging downward right back where we fell in the mid-eighties having gorged ourselves on the proceeds of the preceding oil boom. A second round of energy sector riches have once again, in the famous Michael Manley phrase, “passed through us like a dose of salts,” but …
Read More »Do your job! TTPS must follow the money to tackle crime
The recent rally entitled Side by Side We Stand was focused on the appalling annual murder rate, with particular reference to the murders of women and children. The stimulus for the rally was the murder of Shannon Banfield found dead in a Charlotte Street store. The appearance at the rally …
Read More »Thema vs TTGF: Gymnastics body makes about-turn and requests arbitration
Trinidad and Tobago gymnast Thema Williams’ civil suit against the Trinidad and Tobago Gymnastics Federation (TTGF) as well as its former president David Marquez, first vice president Akil Wattley, second vice president Ricardo Lue Shue and his wife and assistant treasurer Donna Lue Shue opened today with its first case …
Read More »Left over dick and riding West with the TTPS; why we will be feteing with murderers
This year 2017 is likely to be one of the most challenging for our country since Independence. My fellow columnists have already laid out for us the stark reality of spending more than we earn compounded by a voracious appetite for things foreign when our severely reduced earnings have meant …
Read More »From Akiel to Shannon: Why T&T doesn’t catch murderous predators
From the buggery murder of Akiel Chambers, aged 11, last seen at a children’s party in an upscale house in Maraval, to the smothering of Shannon Banfield, aged 20, last believed to be in a store in Charlotte Street, there are continuous lines of slackness and callous indifference. Both Akiel …
Read More »Structural adjustment needed: Daly comments on spiralling murder rate and road fatalities
As asserted before, it is gross inadequacies at the macro level of political thinking and action that have inevitably produced and made worse the problems besetting us. The political parties need to re-think their deep inadequacies. They have us entangled in a nasty web of wanton murder, impunity for killers, …
Read More »Tone deaf: Daly examines response from both parties to local election results
My musically accomplished friends tell me that to be tone deaf means to be unable to distinguish the difference in pitch between different notes. In common usage tone deafness has a wider meaning, namely a person unable to discern the different nuances of a situation. We had a local government …
Read More »Rising to the challenge: Daly SC on local elections, violence, self-esteem and Kung Fu Panda
“The potential to soothe the savage beasts of the nation whenever they appear in your communities and to put disagreement into less destructive modes. That is a challenge to which you must all rise. “Meeting that challenge must be prefaced by a search for self-esteem. I say this is the …
Read More »All jangle and riot: Daly reiterates the problem with our governance structure
Over more than a decade, my columns have contained an explanation of what I discern to be the deficiencies of the systems by which we are governed and reference to some possible solutions. These columns also seek to show the link between those deficiencies, leadership condonation of them and the …
Read More »Shuffle, reshuffle, we still in trouble: Daly explains why Rowley’s changes won’t deliver results
I entirely agree that the Cabinet reshuffle announced last week is not likely to produce better or cleaner Government. Our governance structures and processes are out of date, unreformed, tainted with partisanship and in some cases riddled with corruption. They lack public trust. By analogy to Chalkie’s “The Driver Can’t Drive”, …
Read More »Beware the ill winds: Martin Daly on racial sensitivities, drugs and politically-fuelled hate
Last week, I wrote of the ill wind of deep-seated race and class divisions. Let me acknowledge that the use of the ill wind description was one put to me in conversation with someone for whose intellect and creativity I have high admiration. I asserted that this ill wind drives …
Read More »When good people win: To T’dad All Stars, Bishop Anstey choir and late Allan Alexander
I was unable to attend the funeral of my colleague Allan Alexander SC, whom I held in the highest regard, owing to my commitment on that day to attend a meeting of a regional organisation—one on which he had also served. However, I was privileged to attend the gathering at …
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