Tag Archives: public sector

(This column was written on the day he died, before I knew.) In January 2021, I wrote a column about headaches, and my perpetual one since I was about 14. It was not so much a complaint (I hope), but an attempt to explore that world of pain and its …

Congratulations to the Ministry of Legal Affairs (MLA). I received my digital marriage certificate in four days without leaving my home. Unfortunately, we have to start the process all over because there’s an error. The name of one of the witnesses is incorrectly spelt. Having gone through the application process I was …

“[…] So why should Darryl Smith not be applauded on Fathers’ Day? […] Does his ministerial indiscretion of some years ago automatically exclude him from being a good father? “[…] Ms Dennise Demming’s moral outrage against the Guardian for their temerity, and her seeming inability to say to Mr Smith …

The inquiry “yuh get thru?” is commonplace. It means: did you succeed in completing the business or personal transaction you were attempting to do with a third party? The transaction is usually one involving access to a service and the path to such success is routinely frustrating and stressful. Unless …

I met the face of grief a couple of weeks ago and it has haunted me since. It was a chance encounter with someone I did not know. It isn’t quite accurate to say it was chance, because I had gone seeking his artisan services. His kiosk bore a handwritten …

“[…] For many decades, T&T’s highly productive energy sector funded disproportionately high standards of living in its non-energy sectors, including the public service. However, production in the energy sector has been in decline since 2010, masked temporarily by extraordinary recent increases in energy prices.  “[…] In such difficult circumstances, governments …

“[…] The mantra of those in authority, who are now offering public sector workers a meagre 2% over an eight-year period, was repeated time after time: ‘We are all in this together.’ “But I wish to remind them of a famous quote which says this: ‘We are not all in …

God has a sense of humour. In 2017, Reginald Armour SC defended the Government in a Judicial Review case brought by a public servant seeking to establish the bounds of authority that the Prime Minister had on his ambassadorial posting.  By 2019, in the Court of Appeal, he won with …

Stephen R Covey, the American author of First Things First, said: ‘We are free to choose our actions… but we are not free to choose the consequences of these actions.’  As a nation, we need to contemplate this as we mourn the loss of the four men in a recent …

Nobody wants to live in fear. Nobody wants to lose a loved one to crime or be victimised.  The pain ricochets through the community as others experience the wrenching loss that descends on us in sudden ways. Most believe that the government is responsible for public safety. But our reactions …

“[…] In many cases, there are just one or two cashiers out of a possible nine or ten to service very long lines while other employees casually mingle and make small talk in full view of the public, who are already agitated by the poor service!  “The government might as …

Trinidad and Tobago public sector workers must declare their vaccination status by 4 January 2022 along with their willingness ‘to avail themselves of the services that will be offered at the special vaccination sites’, as the Government pushes ahead with its controversial ‘Public Service and Public Sector Vaccination Programme’. The …