The Junior Panorama took place last Sunday. It is the Carnival event I most enjoy. This year, my annual attendance was seasoned by an insightful statement from a member of the current government, whose communication is regularly that of deny, deflect and denigrate. The phrase that headlines this column is …
Read More »Orin: Machel Montano’s misstep; and why Soca Monarch deserves better
“[…] The main argument in defence of what’s in effect a Machel Monday redux on Carnival Friday was that ISM was dying anyway, so what’s the problem letting Monk have his way and have the day? “It’s a strikingly bad argument. If your beloved relative is dying, you don’t finish …
Read More »Dear editor: Gobar! How will raising minimum wage cause inflation, when it’s already here?!
“The Minister of Tourism, Randall Mitchell, has said that increasing the minimum wage will cause inflation… This is a ton load of gobar. “We are presently suffering from the highest inflation rate since the turn of the century. Is it caused by increasing the money supply? Or is it because …
Read More »Vaneisa: Suffering for silence, with missing fireworks legislation and EMA inactivity
Nearly 80 per cent of the people responding to a survey done by the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) said fireworks affected them negatively. Without knowing the extent of the survey, it is still a large and significant proportion. Another of their surveys said the majority of the animals affected (60 …
Read More »Daly Bread: Continuing inaction in culture and Carnival, and its cost to T&T’s creative sector
‘Covid-19 will force us to re-build our economy,’ I wrote nearly two years ago, in April 2020. ‘We should place our vibrant performing arts at the core of the recovery agenda, not merely with the disproportionate focus on one transitory carnival season, which we may not even have in 2021. …
Read More »Daly Bread: Subversion by subvention; how state companies like the NCC make mas
Our country has been widely shamed internationally by the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard’s fatal shooting of an illegal migrant baby. The use of the label ‘accident’, the premature ducking of responsibility and due process as well as the crude, partisan political exchanges have compounded the shame. For the moment, …
Read More »Daly Bread: Stop mamaguying us about a ‘safe zone’ Carnival, and tell us what the ‘taste’ costs
The government has decided to permit gatherings to participate in the limited forms of Carnival celebrations that it has belatedly decided to promote this season. Perhaps it should drop the ‘safe zones’ pretence. Such zones may not be workable with the freeing-up and ‘leggo’ of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival. There …
Read More »MSJ: The PNM and UNC have ‘colluded’ to kill Bill to regulate campaign financing
“[…] The MSJ condemns the PNM and UNC, as they have in effect colluded to kill the The Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill. “[…] If it ever becomes law, it would require political parties to be registered similarly to companies and mandate that parties present audited financial statements and …
Read More »Daly Bread: Looking for a new living beyond ‘the old carbon-intensive ways’
As a result of the stated ambition of big business to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 or before, Trinidad and Tobago is not the only country that will have to look for a living other than in the exploration, production and sale of oil and natural gas and …
Read More »Daly Bread: The silence of the nights—the govt’s ‘naïve assumptions’ about Despers pan theatre
The words of Kahlil Gibran in The Prophet inspire generations of readers all over the world. In the words of an Oxford University lecturer, the book ‘serves various occasions or big moments in one’s life’. I have so far escaped the worst of the deprivations of the pandemic. My pandemic …
Read More »Rowley’s Cabinet: Young, Imbert, Deyalsingh retain portfolios; Gadsby-Dolly, Pennelope get education and housing
People’s National Movement (PNM) political leader and Diego Martin West MP Dr Keith Rowley was sworn in as prime minister for a second successive term this afternoon while Faris Al-Rawi retained the portfolio of attorney general and is also minister of legal affairs. Other high profile returnees were: Port of …
Read More »Damn, Darryl! Rowley’s election announcement stumps Smith’s pension plan
So the Prime Minister, Dr Keith Rowley has dissolved parliament and called for general elections. On 10 August, our nations go to the polls to determine who will govern us for the next five-year period. While the pending election should provoke excitement nationwide, at least one individual may be feeling …
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