Tag Archives: State of Emergency

This is my penultimate column before I proceed on my break after twenty-four years of writing these weekly columns. As I move on to my documentary videography projects, which are not likely to be completed before September, I am intensely anxious for the future of our once materially prosperous island …

In light of the announcement last Tuesday of yet another state of emergency (SoE) I feel compelled to restate a main theme of these columns. We have barely advanced positively in politics or in governance and little ever changes, even after a general election at which we vote out an …

There is reason to be concerned about current trends towards the promotion of authoritarian rule in Trinidad and Tobago. The Commissioner of Police (the CoP) vehemently sought to dilute accountability for the fatal police-involved shooting of a citizen seen in a video emerging from a crashed vehicle after a chase, …

However the intended and laudable “revitalisation” of Trinidad and Tobago may proceed, the long standing need for socio-economic reform, accountable governance, and massive bureaucracy busting cannot be evaded. It is an essential part of any revitalisation. I therefore fully support the statement in a recent Trinidad Express editorial that “in …

On 31 October 2025, Attorney General Senator John Jeremie SC gave the House of Representatives the Government’s rationale for an additional extension of the existing state of emergency, first declared on 18 July and extended for three months by resolution of the House on 28 July. He referred again, citing …

Our small country is currently living under a state of emergency.  If, as authorised by the House of Representatives on 31 October, it does run its course of three months, it will mean that for a little over nine months of this year we will have lived under such a …

In the recent past, governments both of the United National Congress (UNC) and of the Peoples National Movement (PNM) have had the then president of the Republic proclaim states of emergency said to be directed at the level of violent criminal activity. The dates of the proclamations were respectively 21 …

Over the last ten days, I missed BC Pires. He would understand how to explain what has been going on in my beloved country. Vidia Naipaul is also not here, so he cannot update his famed The Mimic Men. Here is one of his quotes from that novel: “[…] We, …

“[…] Perhaps everyone, with the exception of members of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS), recognises that declaring a SOE is a clear indication that the respective state apparatuses falling under the umbrella of national security are acknowledging their collective failure to protect citizens. “[…] Apparently a handful of …

Current reality is significantly at odds with the much touted joy and unity of Carnival. It is front and centre of its own stage, which grimly rivals the dazzling Carnival stages. Such reality can no longer be easily pushed aside and become invisible during the Carnival season. The murderous challenges …

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley gave a superficial description of our country’s state of narco-infiltrated crime to the media on Friday last before his melodramatic announcement of his intended resignation from office as prime minister “before the end of the legal limits of this term” and his departure from electoral …

The Ministry of Health confirmed another 16 Covid-19 related deaths today, which took the number of fatalities this month to a sobering 326. In the previous 14 months of the pandemic, Trinidad and Tobago had a total of 169 deaths. There were 271 new cases recorded, which were based on …