Cooked coo coo and Obeah obsessions
March 15, 2025
In the end, it comes down to the total miscalculation of a man who talks about responsibility but is averse to planning for the future. He never examines any issue facing the country deeply enough. Now, he insists “our coo coo will be cooked if the Dragon gas deal with Venezuela goes sour”. He even asked his fellow citizens “to send your telepathic power to overcome the negative nonsense about the failure of the Dragon deal”. Full Article

PNM's obtuse rationalisations
March 08, 2025
Blissfully, the Leader of Our Grief and Sorrow will soon relieve us of our miseries. Unfortunately, he leaves his clones behind who know not what they say or do. Chief among them are Faris Al-Rawi, a former attorney general, and Stuart Young, our first unelected prime minister. Full Article

Absolute foolishness
March 01, 2025
"Absolute foolishness." Those were the words the Leader of Our Grief and Sorrow used when he described "the heavy foreign exchange spending on Carnival costumes...He insists that costumes are not investments" (Guardian, February 26). Such statements are "absolute nonsense" and "absolute foolishness" combined in one. Full Article

Serve in order to lead
February 22, 2025
On Saturday last weekend, we celebrated the life of Joseph Sam Phillip, a districker, at the Good Shepherd Anglican Church, Tunapuna, at which Archdeacon Kenly Baldeo, another districker, presided. Good Shepherd, one of the oldest edifices in Tunapuna, was consecrated in 1866. Full Article

Regress rather than progress
February 15, 2025
The community is the source of democracy in Trinidad and Tobago. Recently, there have been many references to its role in solving our problems. On Tuesday Shamfa Cudjoe-Lewis declared: "Grassroots sporting groups and programmes must no longer be sacrificed for the sake of national government bodies." She obtained this wisdom seven years after she became the Minister of Sport and Community Development. Full Article

Intentional distraction
February 08, 2025
Nostalgia led me to the People’s National Movement Mani­festo of 1991, the year it defeated the National Alliance for Reconstruction. The PNM returned to government in 1991 but lost power to the United National Congress in 1995. A year later, the Leader of Our Grief and Sorrow challenged Patrick Manning’s leadership and lost. His rise to national prominence began at that point. The Leader will leave the political scene in a few weeks but will retain his influence on his protégé, Stuart Young. Full Article

The Cap of Freedom
February 01, 2025
Lately we have been obsessed about the elimination of colonialism in our society, the coat of arms discussion being the latest manifestation of this obsession. Only a rigorous study of and a confrontation with our historical past (and present) can release us from this debilitating condition. Full Article

UNC’s victory: the necessary antidote to PNM’s revival
January 25, 2025
A United National Congress victory in the forthcoming election is the necessary antidote to heal the fissures that have erupted in the PNM’s political structure. Only a UNC victory can counteract the fiendish act of PNM’s hierarchy of selling the party to the highest financial bidders. This will necessitate that PNM takes a more careful look at itself, especially in the absence of the Leader of Our Grief and Sorrow. Full Article

PNM sells out to the rich January 18, 2025
The People’s National Movement came into being against the backdrop of the representatives of black and brown people who met in Bandung, Indonesia, to oppose colonialism. In 1955, 29 countries representing 1.5 billion people (or 54% of the world’s population) demanded a greater share of the world’s financial resources. Full Article

Vote out the PNM December 29, 2024
Three recent events cemented in my mind that the poor and the not-so-poor will suffer much more over the next five years than they do today if the present Government is not changed. Full Article

"What is man, that thou art mindful of him?"
December 21, 2024
"What is man, that thou art mindful of him?" —Psalm 8:4
Last Monday Lisa Morris-Julian, Minister in the Ministry of Education, and two of her children (Xianne, 25 and Jesiah, 6) died in a fire that destroyed their Arima home. The cause of the fire remains sketchy but the response of the T&T Fire Service left much to be desired. Full Article

Rejecting illusions December 09, 2024
In this version of democracy, the Cabinet rules supreme, to hell with those people who elected them.
Eric Williams began his address to the Second Congress of Negro Writers and Artists Conference in Rome in 1959 by quoting African intellectual Alioune Diop, who said: "There can be no people without a culture. But what we often lose sight of is the natural link between the political and the cultural...It’s the State that guarantees a culture’s memory of its traditions and the nature of its personality." Full Article

Wos' Than Slavery December 04, 2024
A week ago I received the following note from Joyce Thomas, a retired VP of a government girl's college. She has been involved in sports at the Eddie Hart Ground (EHG) as a sprinter and coach over the past 63 years. Joyce is "a level 5 World Athletics Throws coach and has at least 12 athletes on Trinidad Carifta teams. This year Peyton Winter won silver medals in the Carifta Games and gold medals in the NACAC competition last year." Full Article