Tag Archives: Senate

“[…] The T&T constitution is defective in one important respect. Too much power of nomination and appointment resides in the premiership and presidency; and therein lies suspicions of cronyism. “The Constitution effectively leaves the lid of the cookie jar unsecured. It then seems to operate on the expectation that those …

“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.” Aldous Huxley, English writer. In the present furore about selecting a new president, it appears that we, as a nation, and our leaders have rubbished our history. We …

Mark Antony’s speech from Julius Caesar is worth recalling at this juncture in our country’s history. It speaks to how honourable men, seduced by the drama of the moment, can wreak great evil upon a nation.   This is the sum of the events of 21 October in our Parliament; …

The media  and others were plainly wrong to inform the population that the government needed only one ‘yes’ vote from one of the nine Independent senators, in order for the government to succeed in its proposal in the Senate to amend the procurement legislation.  The government was seeking a simple …

It did not take long, did it? We all knew it was coming but less than a month? “One law for them. Another for you.” This stunning insight on the state of the Republic, brothers and sisters, comes down to us from the Upper House via Facebook. More accurately, it …

On a sunny afternoon the light blue sky accessorised the navy blue ocean. Later, at sunset, the crests of the waves on the east coast were pink. The sky to the north was also pink. The pink was oddly situated given the sun was, of course, setting in the west; …

It’s an ill wind, we have long heard, that blows nobody good. Ditto, I think, Anil Roberts. Which may be why Kamla Persad-Bissessar has seen it fit to return him to the national parliament as a senator. If every current UNC Member of Parliament were somehow able to make a …

The Urban dictionary defines dissing as ‘utterances of a (dis)respectful nature’ and goes on to add ‘not doing right thing… not showing common decency’ and ‘not creating balance in our world’. Twice this week, we were forced to witness our leaders dissing us and contributing to keeping our world off-kilter. …

As a young boy, my mother taught me ‘to quit while ahead’. Her context was if you kept talking after you missed a ‘cut tail’ she would look at you and ask: “You really want something?” Every Trinidadian child knows that is the point to shut up. No more complaining …

“Why is a Government which says it is committed to transparency proposing to make it more difficult for citizens to access information from official sources? “[…] [And] why, at a time of economic belt-tightening and obviously rising unemployment—whatever the official pronouncements on that issue—does the government consider it a good …

Reliable sources have confirmed that a minister who is being re-assigned from one ministry to another is not required to be sworn in consequent upon his re-assignment. As a result of a mistaken belief that another swearing-in was necessary when Darryl Smith was moved from the Ministry of Sport to …

Following last week’s column on the self-esteem crisis, which looked at the circumstances which contribute to the breeding of heartless persons, I was reading an interview with a rape victim who has written a debut novel entitled Dark Chapter. The book explores the traumatic experience of the author, Winnie Li, …