“The very invasive legislation seeks to investigate property owners, business persons and others with accumulated wealth as to the means in which they are acquired… “The Joint Chambers do acknowledge the present administration’s drive for transparency within the private economic forces that service our nation. We would also hope our …
Read More »Noble: Don’t forget how we got in this financial mess; and here’s how to improve our economy
“Thank God for decisions made to stimulate drilling […] by the Kamla Persad- Bissessar government… Instead of benefitting from flowing gas today, we might well have been on our knees, eating grass.” (Dr Bhoe Tewarie, Trinidad Express, 13 March.) An astounding statement with subtexts! What exactly is he saying and …
Read More »Why for the upper class, silence is golden; Perry rebuts Aboud on cure for public ills
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 …
Read More »Keita: How T&T can benefit from tapping into our flood crisis behaviour
Building our future is not something we can delegate. Julius Caesar is quoted as saying, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.” As a post-colonial country, it is not difficult to make the case that somewhere in the depths of our psyche, …
Read More »Nakhid: On politics and football; why Manning was irrelevant and Deschamps is a failure
A year or two before former Prime Minister Patrick Manning passed away, I wrote an article stating—among many other things—that Manning no longer held any relevance for politics in Trinidad and Tobago. Of course multiple queries followed from readers. I did not explain myself then as I found the statement …
Read More »Daly Bread: Not pointing fingers; the problem with Amcham’s crime-fighting tips to Dr Rowley
The major business groups last week reportedly temporarily arose from their customary indifference, alarmed by the prolonged and unrestricted crime spree. In passing, it should be noted that it is apparently the rising cost of doing business in a crime-ridden environment that has set off the alarm from slumber this …
Read More »Where potholes come from: Engineer urges MoWT to tackle commercial vehicle overloading
“Hauliers of aggregates and hardware material often install a ‘greedy bar’ in order to extend the truck’s capacity beyond the stipulated maximum gross weight. “The ‘greedy bar’ is removed whenever the truck has to be inspected by the Licensing Authority.” The following Letter to the Editor, which deals with aspects of the …
Read More »Afra scrutinises Central Bank; have CL Financial bailout lessons been ignored?
In today’s world of alternative facts, we have to be alert to the special dangers posed by ‘false equivalence.’ False equivalence arises when two arguments are presented as being of equal relevance but, in fact, one is solidly fact-based and the other is mere speculation or invention. As recent events …
Read More »MASTER’S VOICE: Behind the brutal battering of Bayshore’s beige buffers; ignore rage at your peril
My laptop real pick a fine time to stage a sick-out. Almost immediately all kinda things start happening. Fr Harvey get beat up…. by people who vex with him for forgiving those who actually beat him up; Saudi Arabia accused another country of supporting terrorism… That’s right… Saudi Arabia making accusations like that, …
Read More »Bourdain’s starter menu: Humble pie with foot-in-mouth; Live Wire dissects Sabga-Aboud’s apology
One serving of humble pie with a side order of foot in mouth please? And can I get some olive oil to go with that? The Trinidad and Tobago have-nots scored a rare but fitting victory today as Mario Sabga-Aboud, a prominent local businessman and respected member of the Syrian/Lebanese …
Read More »SALAAM: Attitude lessons for T&T: seeing tomorrow’s salvation in today’s customer service
Once in a store in Canada, I saw a sign that read, “Customer service is not a department…it’s an attitude.” In Trinidad and Tobago, we have a serious problem as it relates to the attitudes of people who have to deal with customers and clients. For years, people have complained …
Read More »How pro-active approach to marijuana can offer big boost for T&T tourism and agriculture
“If we were to go all the way and legalise marijuana for both medicinal and recreational purposes, think about the effects it could have on boosting and differentiating our basically still-born tourism product… The potential to revitalise the local economies of rural villages hardest hit by our recession is obvious. …
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