Keeping PNM Honest May 16, 2008
Five months ago, the PNM was elected to serve as the Government of the people of T&T although it received 43 per cent of the votes. On that November night, after hearing the results of the elections I, among others, streamed down to Balisier House to celebrate yet another victory. We were elated that our party had captured government for another five years.
Full Article

A City of the Dead May 09, 2008
Most people remember where they were when the levees broke in New Orleans. I was in Trinidad at the time. My daughter who lives in Dallas, Texas, called a few days later to say that many of her cousins were trapped on their way out of Texas a few days later when many parts of Texas were threatened by another violent storm. Apart from very long lines of traffic along the highway for several hours (it seemed as though it were a gigantic parking lot) they escaped the fury of this natural force. Full Article

Arnold Rampersad's Storied Odyssey May 02, 2008
Three decades ago I met Arnold Rampersad when he joined the African American faculty at Harvard University as a professor. At the time I was an assistant professor at Harvard, having received my doctorate from Cornell University and having taught previously at Ohio University. In those early years I could not foresee the heights to which Professor Rampersad would reach in the academic world. Full Article

Serving the People's Interest April 25, 2008
It came as a thunderbolt out of the political sky. A stunned country listened when it learned that Keith Rowley was fired from his position as a minister in Government. The Guardian headlines read: "Fired." In a note sent to the Guardian after he was seen sitting in the backbench of the Lower House, Rowley wrote: "I have not resigned. I have been fired." Full Article

Naming Ourselves April 18, 2008
In Omeros, Derek Walcott's epic poem, Achille, one of the major protagonists, returns to Africa and is welcomed home by Ofolabe, his father. During that visit, Ofolabe learns that Achille changed his African name to a Caribbean name that has little meaning. Full Article

The Values Imperative April 10, 2008
Over the past two weeks, some of my friends have accused me of or complimented me for going down memory lane. Others have suggested that once the genie is out of the bottle there is really no way to get it back in. They are both correct but for the wrong reasons. Full Article

Land of Hope and Glory April 04, 2008
Last week when I alluded to my double allegiance to Christian and Yoruba religious practices that attended my growing up in Tacarigua I wanted to suggest that religion, be it of the European or African variety, structures our imaginative and emotional lives and how we behave in our society. The English understood what it took to discipline a population and how to make a people see things through their (the colonizers') eyes. Full Article

Creating Community March 27, 2008
When I grew up in Tacarigua in the nineteen forties and fifties my mother made sure I attended Tacarigua E.C. School while my grandparents immersed themselves in their Yoruba religion. Each year, we celebrated the Christian holidays (Christmas, Easter, etc.,) but on those glorious nights of October when the Shango drums rang out through the village we all went to Mother Gerald's Shango tent. Full Article


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