Tag Archives: Vaneisa Baksh

I was surprised to find it was in December 2023 that I hosted a pepperpot lime at my home. Seems like it was just last Christmas when my friend Lynette came to teach us how to prepare this national dish of Guyana. My daughter was working on an article on …

For as long as I can remember, cow heel soup was a regular on Caribbean tables. As a child, I did not like the texture, the way it made your lips sticky, and the work to get the gelatinous strips off those big hard bones. I was a terribly picky …

Miriam Castellano, the name by which a prolific social media commentator goes, responded to a column I had written on the distressing impact of global warfare. “Disengage! You sound like an empath. For your own mental health you should train yourself to know when a Time Out is necessary,” she …

Perhaps the most surprising element of the general elections was the low voter turnout. According to the latest figures from the Election and Boundaries Commission, only 53.92% of eligible voters turned up at the polls. It is reported to be the second lowest in our history. Given the high-pitched nature …

I have been having a bout of angst, despair maybe; I’m not sure how to describe the wave of bleakness that has been washing over me. An optimist at heart, I am usually able to ferret out things that bring even a glimmer of hope under trying circumstances. I know …

We don’t have words for everything. We never will. Such is the nature of language; such is the nature of change. All around us, things evolve, develop new characteristics. Things become extinct, disappear from memory. Someone from as recent as a century ago would find it difficult to follow a …

Poui drizzling delicate pink blossoms like confetti over a population with little to celebrate has provided a welcome respite from the ashen pall that has been hanging over our heads. The impulse to photograph the trees rising majestically over their fragrant carpets has become the latest pastime. It is a …

Little things add up—sometimes, they can sneak up insidiously so that we don’t see them coming until something happens. It’s not that signs haven’t been there, it’s that they don’t seem important enough for us to take note. Take the recent situation when Dr Joel Teelucksingh, a newspaper columnist, who …

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak with two truly inspiring members of the Cocoa Research Centre (CRC) at The UWI: Professor Pathmanathan Umaharan, its head, and Dr Darin Sukha, its food technologist. I met them 16 years ago, when I started working at the university as …

It’s a little bit uncanny that I had wanted to return to discussing trauma, particularly the impact of bullying, before the issue raised itself vehemently in the public space. The story of five years of alleged physical abuse at St Mary’s College suffered by a student, who was expelled when …

Roughly 16 years ago, I interviewed Dr Dan Ramdath, a professor of Biochemistry at The UWI, about the efficacy of olive oil, given its superstar status as a healthy food. He is currently the director of research and a clinical research scientist (Human Nutrition) at the Guelph Research and Development …

When Professor Emeritus Arnold Rampersad spoke to graduating students of the Faculty of Humanities and Education at The UWI in 2009, he drew their attention to the notion of Self. Casting himself in the role of a “scholar-critic committed to biography and autobiography” (for which he is globally acclaimed), he …