Mark Twain is credited with the saying: “We have the best government that money can buy.” Locally, we have not been shy about accepting money from unaccountable sources. Our non-existent rules about political campaign rules enable greedy political investors to corrupt our nation and destroy trust. As Chinua Achebe observed …
Read More »Noble: Tobago’s evolving role in T&T’s politics, and why I’m as ‘Trinbagonian’ as Chambi Sey
I thank Wired868 for providing a forum for sensible discussion. I appreciate the engagement and contribution of its reader, Chambi Sey, to my column. Thankfully, he understood my point that we needed to view the whole ‘name’ fiasco through a political lens. Therefore, in this context, I would comment on …
Read More »Noble: The ‘Other’ Trinidadian children are representing well, and why Bunji betters Duke
Derek Walcott, Nobel Prize winner, once lamented: “Colonials, we began with this malarial enervation: that nothing could ever be built among these rotting shacks, barefooted backyards and moulting shingles; that being poor, we already had the theatre of our lives.” Yet, he is at one with Chinua Achebe, the towering …
Read More »Dear Editor: Griffith’s NTA swells the ranks of professional politicians; dare we give them rope?
“[…] Do I really need a cabinet? I guess I need a team to contest the elections. But after that, I will—as I attempted to do back then—tell all of them, and especially the minister of health and the minister of sports, how to run their affairs. “And my son …
Read More »Salaah: Portrait of Watson Solomon Duke, commoner with eyes on the crown
‘Send in the clowns’ is the title of a classic song written for a play launched on Broadway all the way back in 1973. I think it should have been dusted off and polished up and used as the signature tune for the play Watson Duke is making to take …
Read More »Dear Editor: Why is the media glossing over Watson Duke’s sexual assault charges?
“[…] What is most worrisome is the media’s purposeful glossing over of Watson Duke’s history. I cannot be the only one aware of his four indecent assault charges and one rape charge. It churns my stomach. “As a woman, how can I be comfortable with this? How is the victim …
Read More »Daly Bread: The AG’s dodgy sea legs make his Govt stumble over Ocean Pelican
The People’s National Movement (PNM) campaigned obsessively in the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) elections on the issue of the suitability of Watson Duke for office, and lost comprehensively. Days later, it began trying to discredit the winning party by reference to Duke’s alleged conflicts of interest. The court …
Read More »Dr Rowley seeks to address rampant virus with ‘public sector safe zones’; but will Duke shoulder arms?
At just past 4pm today, the Ministry of Health reported 33 deaths from Covid-19 over the past 24 hours. And, in a statement that is likely to be lost in the shrill of responses to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s latest promised pandemic measures, chief medical officer Dr Roshan Parasram …
Read More »Dear Editor: Unfair treatment between residents of Trinidad and Tobago cuts both ways
“[…] Tobagonians are free to apply for HDC housing in Trinidad. However, no Trinidadian can ever apply for housing in Tobago under the THA as constituted, not even if you are of Tobagonian parentage. As a consequence, several Tobagonians are the proud owners of houses in Tobago as well as …
Read More »AG asks court to examine Duke’s THA and PSA posts, union site says political and union roles ‘inextricably linked’
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Faris Al-Rawi has turned to the High Court for an interpretation of the Tobago House of Assembly Act and, specifically, a determination as to whether Watson Duke can legally continue in his dual role of THA deputy chief secretary and Public Service Association …
Read More »Dear Editor: Did Watson Duke not take the THA oath of office by accident or design?
“[…] While reading the oath of office, at the swearing-in ceremony for members of the Tobago House of Assembly on Thursday 9 December, 2021, Watson Duke uttered the words, ‘I will bear true faith and allegiance to Tobago and Trinidad’. “This is clearly not what the oath says…” The following …
Read More »Daly Bread: A triumph of legitimacy; PDP’s Farley gave good ‘calpet’ to PNM bullies
Farley Augustine and the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) have interrupted the alarming descent of Trinidad and Tobago into an authoritarian one-party state and I thank them for that. Having comprehensively routed the incumbent People’s National Movement (PNM) in the Tobago House of Assembly elections, in the backyard of its leader …
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