Tomorrow’s General Election takes place at a time when the rate of spread of Covid 19 is at a high risk level, causing more worry than at any other period since the pandemic began. We simply do not know what effect uncertainty about the ominous risk of exposure to the …
Read More »Live Wire chronicles: UNC backtracks from ‘blunderdrome’ as ho-hum campaign continues
Trinidadians, Lord Maestro once sang, ent really know what they want. It is a truism that never fails to repeat itself. For instance, Trinbagonians complained for years about the slow response time of lawmen to serious crime. And yuh know when police showed up in Morvant before three men were …
Read More »Media Monitor: UNC’s arresting image and Maraj’s masterclass on Kamla’s figures of speech
If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, we have heard a million times, bamboozle them with bullshit. Ralph Maraj is the exemplar par excellence of that message. On the post-4pm news segment of the i95.5FM afternoon show early last week, Maraj leapt to the defence of UNC Political Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar. …
Read More »‘Who should we trust?’ Noble confronts only question that counts for the 2020 Election
The decision as to which party or person to vote for in our General Elections is seldom a single-issue decision. It is folly when our pollsters try to imagine that we vote based on ‘what is the biggest issue confronting us now?’—since many such issues are themselves complex. In the …
Read More »Daly Bread: Motorcade democracy—Nomination Day Carnival and the Duke of hazard
The Nomination Day exercise for the candidates, who are standing in the General Election on August 10, took place ten days ago with deejay decibels and drumming. Since then, the throwing of political ‘dus in we face’—about which I wrote last week—has continued thicker and sometimes more polluted. The mini, …
Read More »Demming: Election 2020—can’t we do better than this?
The 2020 election campaigns have presented a kind of sameness or familiarity which is uninspiring. I get that their main objective is to energise their respective bases, but as comedian Sprangalang would say ‘allyuh go keel we’. Given these uninspiring attempts to excite the population, I conclude that both major …
Read More »Party time! Live Wire talks to the god of politics—spoiler: it’s not Colm Imbert
(Scene: A sports bar in Tacarigua. It is nearing closing time. Mr Live Wire sips on his rum and coke and considers the current crisis facing the planet and the havoc it has wreaked on the lives of so many innocent people. He shakes his head sadly as he wonders …
Read More »Daly Bread: Is Kamla preparing to be ‘martyred loser’? Did Cabinet ignore Laventille MPs?
My principal but probably vain hope for the general election, to be held on 10 August, is that it will not polarise the country further. Realistically, one cannot hope for more and it is mamaguy to feed us dreams of unity and overcoming while our leaders are likely to engage …
Read More »St Joseph, Moruga/Tableland, Chaguanas East… Rishi considers 2020’s marginal seats
As we go through five weeks of intense political campaigning, in the lead up to the 10 August General Election, expect to hear the word ‘marginal’ used a lot—be it ‘marginal seat’, ‘marginal constituency’ and, the perennial favourite, ‘key marginal’. ‘Marginals’ are a vital part of our electoral landscape, as …
Read More »Daly Bread: Does minister really think Trinis would face armed police for a few dollars?
The government has called the election for 10 August, plainly in order to have it before the unrest which gripped us last week gets worse and erases the goodwill earned through the management of the Covid-19 pandemic. On Tuesday last, there was widespread unrest in or near several disadvantaged communities. …
Read More »Nakhid apologises to ‘honest, hard-working members’ of TTPS, after Griffith scolding
“[…] I wish to apologise to the honest, hard-working members of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS), all of whom I am sure were hurt and discouraged by the statement…” The following is a response from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) and the United National Congress (UNC) …
Read More »NWU: Heritage about to bite the dust; how gov’t put T&T’s ‘jewel’ back into foreign hands
“The assets of Heritage are in a bad way… Years of poor maintenance has taken its toll. “[…] The recent rupture of tank no 27 in Point Fortin during pressure testing and the resultant flow into surrounding areas of 600,000 gallons of water and some hydrocarbon residue, causing respiratory problems …
Read More »