For six years I served on the Regional Judicial and Legal Service Commission (RJLSC), the regional body responsible for the supervisory management of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). The RJLSC has no jurisdiction over the hearing and deciding of cases before the court. Judging is exclusively the court’s business. …
Read More »Daly Bread: Sweetest songs, saddest thoughts; pushing back against mental slavery
It did not take long for a compere to call last Sunday morning to say: “page 27 Express ringing so many bells for us. Look, just what you have been saying.” I turned to the page as he was speaking. There I saw a report that the Barbados Minister of …
Read More »Gilkes: Republic reflections; pondering difference between ‘de-colonial’ and ‘post-colonial’
“Politics is a game of fear. Those that do not have the ability to frighten power elites do not succeed. “[…] The platitudes about justice, equality and democracy are just that. Only when ruling elites become worried about survival do they react. Appealing to the better nature of the powerful …
Read More »Dear Editor: Baldeosingh says Rowley should be pleased to be called an Oreo…
“The first insult is quite ironic, since these same politicians always go cap in hand to the same 1 percent every election to beg for campaign contributions. The second insult is an insult only in America, where black ideologues (and white leftist types) consider European descent to be a mark …
Read More »Gilkes: Today Beetham, tomorrow…; residents were wrong but there’s a lesson worth learning here
It was bound to happen. What happened to Minister Fitzgerald Hinds in the Beetham was unfortunate, illegal and disrespectful. But it was all but inevitable, given a whole range of things including our society’s religious refusal to examine ourselves and our past and connect that to our present realities. So, …
Read More »Vidale: How legislation preserved Plantation society’s status quo; why emancipation hinges on labour struggle
In the first part of this discourse I attempted to argue that Emancipation as an event failed to meet the expectations of the African who were freed. But more than that, I posit that a concerted effort was made to ensure that changes to the essence of the society’s power …
Read More »Uhmm, Kes… Hello?! Gilkes explains why he takes exception to soca star’s new video
I’ve been a big Kes fan for ages. I love “Wotless” and I’m not sure if I can get enough of the song “Hello”. Its recently released video, however, is a whole different bag of worms. Don’t get me wrong, I’m always happy when our ‘kaiso’—no matter the genre—is given …
Read More »Vidale: From powerless slave to impotent employee; why emancipation hinges on labour struggle
“There is a closer nexus between the process of Emancipation Day and Labour Day than many of us seek to understand… According to Brereton, ‘the planters after 1838 wanted to make freedom merely a nominal change in status, while the [formerly enslaved] wanted to win a real economic independence of …
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 »Dear Editor: Racist, dehumanising language and militarised approach to crime will make things worse
“There’s no serious analysis of the observation—that even the Acting Commissioner of Police once made—that ‘crime’ is as much a social issue as it is a law-enforcement/security issue. “No, it’s easier to use words like ‘pest’ and ‘cockroaches’, strip the criminalised elements of their humanity—which they themselves often do as …
Read More »Daly Bread: Galleons and ganja; why decriminalising marijuana should be on national agenda
The maintenance of an efficient sea bridge between Trinidad and Tobago is a very serious matter. The recent failures of the sea bridge greatly damaged the economy of Tobago and the credibility of the current Government. Undoubtedly however, the procurement and much delayed arrival of the Galleons Passage has become …
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