View Point

I begin this week with a thank you to those in the airport who welcomed me home on the Saturday after Easter with the knowing look of having ‘made me out’. That includes the officers on duty commencing with the friendly immigration officer and I specially acknowledge the charming smile …

On Friday 5 April, the Express headline screamed, “Things you see in movies”. Little did the writer know that more horror stories would come within the week. The newspapers do not have to worry about the frequency of headlines that cause us to gasp. They can do it every day …

I suggested that people might not be offering their views on constitutional reform because they do not know what is contained in the country’s Constitution. I may be familiar with its nitty-gritty, but I can’t say I have a total grasp of what it covers. And that’s a point I …

It is 22 years to the day that my very first column appeared in the Sunday Express newspaper. It has done so every Sunday since, save and except odd days when I let my caring editors know in advance that I will not submit a column on a particular weekend. …

Bring back the old-time days… Do you remember the primary school days when we sat in the dusty school yard under the tambrand, tree, the downs tree, the immortelle tree, the padoo tree, or whatever tree that was in the yard while teacher Percy preached hellfire and brimstone and brought …

In the late 1990s, in response to one of my weekly columns, retired Professor Emeritus Desmond Imbert called me. It was the beginning of a rather odd friendship that went on for years—when he died in 2010, we had still never met in person. Communication was always at his instigation, …

    “[…] A true Gens de Arime, Raymond was loved and appreciated for his kind and generous spirit. “He was well known in Arima and surrounding districts in the entertainment fraternity having managed at one time the number one disco in the east. He was a painter, market vendor, …

“[…] Ever since she ran in 2015 on a leader-centric election marketing campaign that sold the virtues of Kamla The Leader rather than UNC The Party, she has tightened her grip on her party. “[…] The double-edged sword of making the leader rather than the party the focal point is …

Last week’s column was forced to return to what I assert is the government’s unwillingness to take any responsibility for the prevailing rampant killings, particularly for the easy passage of guns and drugs into our island for well over a decade. If not government agencies, who else is expected to …

“The area is dominated by gangs. Thus far, the police have had only limited success in eradicating the gangs. “It can be done, but it requires a multipronged approach, including all aspects of the state’s possible response; most of all, a genuine desire (my emphasis) on the part of the …

For some weeks this column had been focused on the good, the bad and the ugly of Carnival and its component parts. Last week, I returned to commentary on the government charades that are passed off as effective governance—on that occasion, dealing with the haphazard situation in respect of the …

“A lawless, indisciplined and corrupt nation cannot fight crime.” Pastor Clive Dottin, The People’s Roundtable, January 2024. At The People’s Roundtable, Pastor Dottin discussed the distinction between a street military revolt and a spiritual revival. He saw the nation as having a decision: either we allow the streets to be …