A long time ago I had this dream of opening a café of sorts. A place where I could serve small dishes made with local ingredients; where the food and drink were simple, tasty and fresh. I wanted the quality to be outstanding, but I also imagined it to be …
Read More »Vaneisa: The lonely crowd; understanding our parallel pandemic
For those accustomed to an interior life—that is, living without need for external stimulation—the enforced isolation of a lockdown has been little more than an inconvenience. However by now, everyone has had to confront the grim surge of Covid cases; and anxiety and fear have mounted. The darks days will …
Read More »Vaneisa: When the streets were lined with books…
Sometimes you have a memory that seems so improbable you wonder if it was a dream. I was looking at a slightly battered book that I had acquired at the Couva office of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) when I had gone to see what records they had …
Read More »Vaneisa: What trust can do; the rebuilding of West Indies cricket
I’ve been restraining myself from writing about cricket although I have been following our regional matches closely. There seems to be a gradual shift in the approach that makes me hope that something different is seeping in to the culture which has plagued the game for so long. After the …
Read More »Vaneisa: ‘Opening the door doesn’t change the room’; Agyei’s lesson
“Opening the door doesn’t really change the nature of the room.” The statement made me reach for a pen so I could jot it down. I was listening via Zoom on 8 February to an online lecture given for the St Bride Library in the UK by a young Trinidadian, …
Read More »Beneath the surface; Baksh takes Best back in time and leaves him bleeding inside
Not unlike Shadow’s Bassman, Mystic Prowler in mih head, pleading with people to look beneath the surface. I have just read Vaneisa Baksh’s ‘Sins of the Father’ column. And not for the first time, I have told myself I’m not going to read her stuff. Not for the first time, …
Read More »Vaneisa: Digging up the past; ‘sins’ of the father
I’ve been repeatedly invoking my belief that the clues to adult behaviour lie along the childhood spectrum. When I recollect my past in these columns, the responses tell me that I am touching chords. Many have written and called to share how they too have been affected. I am always …
Read More »Vaneisa: When does evil begin? The making and breaking of Joel Balcon
The revelation that Joel Balcon had been charged with 70 criminal counts remains a scandalous indictment of this country. But where in the system is the blame to fall? In the Express of 4 February, Anna Ramdass reported an interview with an unidentified attorney who said he had previously represented …
Read More »Vaneisa: Should we hang? Does death penalty really act as a deterrent?
A young woman wrote this to me after my last column: ‘I’ve been thinking about this death penalty debate. I don’t know where I stand…’ It recalled for me a time when I too, did not know where to stand and how that changed. I easily remember traumatic episodes from …
Read More »Vaneisa: Divided we stand… something has to be done T&T
One group: burning tyres, pieces of wood, cardboard—debris really—in protest against the conditions of roads that are impassable or collapsing; or the absence of water via taps or trucks; or maybe it’s a bridge gone, cutting them off; or a fallen tree yet to be cleared; or a downed electricity …
Read More »Dimanche Gras! Not deflated, not defeated, will Brathwaite’s WI double up in Dhaka?
A double-century on debut! And in Asia to boot! That’s the stuff of which West Indian boyhood dreams are made. As well as come-from-behind West Indian victories. Guardian cricket reporter Vinode Mamchan did not seem to know about these dreams. Or to care about them. On television on Friday evening, …
Read More »Vaneisa: ‘Out of yesterday’s rejection, onward to a new perfection’; A praise song for Carnival
I had begun writing about something entirely different when I suddenly felt I didn’t want to anymore, not this week anyway. It was too utterly oppressive and my mood had been altered by two sightings. One was photographs of the murals that Jackie Hinkson put up yesterday on Fisher Avenue …
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