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Archives 2012
- Playing politics with CAL May 13, 2012
- Anyone with a modicum of commonsense would have laughed off the pronouncement some months ago that cash-strapped, debt ridden Caribbean Airlines (CAL) was on course to make a profit of $200 million. And if you had a sense of humour, you would have rolled on the floor—or cried like a baby—when chairman George Nicholas pledged US$5 million from the anticipated profit to the Prime Minister's Children's Life Fund.
- Stop partying, start governing May 06, 2012
- The People's Partnership government is seemingly stuck in the self-destruct mode. It appears to be stricken with a series of minor collisions, with the driver preoccupied with averting a major, fatal crash. Its second anniversary in power is mere weeks away, but the five-party coalition appears to be overcome with fighting a spate of internal fires rather than being focused on delivering good governance.
- Fear of change Apr 29, 2012
- News that the People's Partnership Government has made an about turn in accepting the Caribbean Court of Justice as the final appellate court has elicited positive responses from eminent jurists and legal practitioners as well as most rational-thinking citizens.
- The more things change... Apr 22, 2012
- Fifty years after Trinidad and Tobago was granted independence, the tragedy of our politics is that it still revolves around the PNM, the party that took the country from colonialism through self-government and into independence.
- Marking time 50 years later Apr 15, 2012
- The perception that there are more mad people outside the St Ann’s Hospital than there are inside that mental institution seems to be reality, following the forcible detention of public servant Cheryl Miller.
- A primitive country Apr 08, 2012
- Fifty years after Trinidad and Tobago was granted independence, the tragedy of our politics is that it still revolves around the PNM, the party that took the country from colonialism through self-government and into independence.
- Oil and Gas Arithmetic Apr 01, 2012
- The announcements of two new oil finds over the past two weeks generated excitement among many in the population. “God is a Trini!” screamed the Express headline, quoting the Prime Minister. Such was the importance of Petrotrin’s discovery of 48 million barrels of relatively light crude, it warranted a full house of ministers and top company officials at the Cabinet Media Centre.
- UNC internals: theatre of the absurd Mar 25, 2012
- I learned a lesson in political morality — surely an oxymoron — at the politically tender age of 35. It came from the Machiavellian master himself, Basdeo Panday. Panday and I, along with George Weekes, Joe Young and others, had founded the United Labour Front back in 1976, when I was 30 years old.
- Focus on substance, not fluff Mar 18, 2012
- Over the past two weeks or so, public attention has focused on two issues, with the concomitant raging debates in the media and online. The first surfaced when it was disclosed in Parliament that the State had met expenses for Prime Minsiter Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s sister to accompany her on official visits to Australia, India and elsewhere.
- Rid the police of roughnecks Mar 11, 2012
- Crime pays. Big time. And big bucks. We always knew that. Mostly, when we think of profiteering off criminal activities, we think of criminals and attorneys, one breed often indistinguishable from the other.
- Crime pay$ big buck$ Mar 04, 2012
- Crime pays. Big time. And big bucks. We always knew that. Mostly, when we think of profiteering off criminal activities, we think of criminals and attorneys, one breed often indistinguishable from the other.
- Marketing our music Feb 26, 2012
- On Ash Wednesday, two articles in the Express perked me up. In the first, Planning and Development Minister Dr Bhoe Tewarie, interviewed in the Grand Stand, told reporter Anna Ramdass that soca star Machel Montano "should be leading the charge in selling Trinidad and Tobago internationally".
- Play mas Feb 19, 2012
- Nothing that I wrote last Sunday should be misread as the lament of an "ole geezer" who has had his Carnival day and who now wants to deny others the joy of the festival.
- Total disrepect Feb 12, 2012
- I have been nursing a not-so-quiet anger since last Sunday's Panorama Semi-finals, and no, it has nothing to do with Despers being omitted from the finals, although I feel "a how" about that.
- From blimp to ‘battimamselle' Feb 05, 2012
- Shortly after the PNM government acquired the second or third sky ship ("blimp") a few years ago, a well-informed patriotic national who resides in the US asked me why they did not consider new surveillance technology like remote-controlled drones. We had a healthy discussion on the issue.
- Let the tax debate begin Jan 29, 2012
- President Barack Obama's bold move to seek to apply a tax rate of 30 per cent to America's super-rich should serve as a catalyst of sorts for Finance Minister Winston Dookeran. Dookeran said recently that his ministry would soon review the income tax regime in Trinidad and Tobago. Changes to this country's income and corporate taxes were last made in 2006.
- Joker wild in Cabinet Jan 22, 2012
- Justice Minister Herbert Volney invariably comes across as a joker in the theatre of the macabre...a kind of black humour specialist.
He seems not to know whether his role is to make people laugh, cry or have a compelling urge to throttle him. He cannot decide if he is an entertainer, intimidator or Soca Monarch contender.
- Fear for our future Jan 15, 2012
- Television footage that showed a hapless young female teacher being bullied by hard-backed men and a "be-hijabed" woman was the pannier that broke this jackass' back. I had stupidly stayed silent when Sat Maharaj and sundry Maha Sabha persons, again men and women, hounded school principal Sita Gajadharsingh-Nanga.
- Fear for our future Jan 08, 2012
- Within recent times, I've had an uneasy feeling that this country is drifting around aimlessly. I sense that in the economic turbulence that has gripped much of the world, we have let go of the rudder of the ship of state, and cast our fate to the wind and the rough seas without even trying to steer a course to safety.
- Play mas with your medals Jan 01, 2012
- A few weeks ago, Dr Brinsley Samaroo telephoned me. After we exchanged pleasantries, he got down to stating the purpose of his call. House Speaker Wade Mark had asked him to make contact with a number of ex-parliamentarians whom he (Mark) wanted to recognise for their service to Parliament, and, presumably, to country.
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