For some weeks this column had been focused on the good, the bad and the ugly of Carnival and its component parts. Last week, I returned to commentary on the government charades that are passed off as effective governance—on that occasion, dealing with the haphazard situation in respect of the …
Read More »Dear Editor: Despite “Santa Clausing”, Panday’s legacy is same as other PMs
“[…] Yes, Basdeo Panday was much kinder to certain individuals and organisations than PNM ever was or will be, but the political and economic status quo remained while he played golf with the elites. “[…] What is the legacy of Panday? The same as those before him. Dr Eric Williams, …
Read More »Dear Editor: To Basdeo “Silver Fox” Panday—his positives outweigh the negatives
Trade unionist, actor, attorney at law, politician and Trinbagonian legend, Basdeo Panday has passed. He was well known for his silvery-white hair, charisma and sharp wit and was someone many loved to hate politically and ideologically for his style of leadership over the years—his outspokenness and his skilful use of …
Read More »Dr Gopeesingh: Panday was a trailblazer and probably T&T’s greatest patriot
“[…] Basdeo Panday’s life itself is a story of incredible greatness and inspirational heroism—a poor, rural, Indo-Trinidadian boy, consigned to social and economic marginalization, defying and overcoming every single obstacle, to study law in the UK and then become one of T&T’s greatest trade unionists, politicians, prime ministers, and perhaps …
Read More »Daly Bread: Who they fooling? Crime isn’t priority for PNM or UNC
A reader, who enjoys the historical perspective contained in many of these columns, asked me recently whether there is a program that I use to source those of my columns written many years ago. The answer is that as a weekly columnist writing in the information age for 21 years, …
Read More »Daly Bread: Violent crime retrospective; mamaguy from Gov’t and Opposition
In a column published 20 years ago, in mid-May 2003, I described the subject of crime as priority numbers one, two, three, four, five and six. The column went on to identify to which aspect of crime each of the numbers related. Number one was, of course, the murder rate. …
Read More »Noble: “A political party without morals, is just a conspiracy to seize power…”
“If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.” Dwight D Eisenhower, March 1956. I recalled this Eisenhower quote as I …
Read More »Daly Bread: Stagnation reconfirmed, as T&T braces for Keith vs Kamla rematch
As was widely expected, the local government elections (LGE) resulted in a repeat of the control of the 14 local government bodies being split 7-7 between the PNM and UNC. Crumbs of votes were sprinkled on the minor parties. We have reconfirmed our propensity to condemn ourselves to continued political …
Read More »Noble: Democracy and the Vote—reviewing the 2023 Local Gov’t election
At the core of democracy is the vote. This single act is how we, the voters, signal how we feel to the politicians and their parties. It is a means of control. When we vote, we tell the nation which candidate we want and which policies or programmes are crucial. …
Read More »Noble: Wait Dorothy, wait; meaningless talk blows our future away
This week saw the eruption of meaningless narratives that do not help us to become the best we can be. How do we expect our citizens to dream of becoming better? We get seduced by rhetoric that induces hatred and possibly violence. When will we seek what is in our …
Read More »Noble: Forgetting the past, repeating mistakes—Jack’s return and Jamaica’s NCB mess
There were two disturbing events in a week when the nation needed to be reflective because of the anniversaries of 27 July and Emancipation Day. The first was the re-publication of a Jamaica Observer column by Lisa Hanna about the Jamaica bank debacle, and the second was the re-emergence of …
Read More »Dear Editor: Why I’m wary of triumvirate of Griffith, Warner and Kamla
“[…] We now have the triumvirate or the three-headed Hydra of Gary Griffith, Jack Warner and Kamla Persad-Bissessar. One was police commissioner whose response to the beating death of an accused in custody while he was commissioner was: ‘he fell off a chair’. “[…] The other (a one-time acting prime …
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