People are saying that it should not take a tragedy in the Gulf of Paria for the authorities to remember that the sea requires regulation and enforcement just as much as our highways.
People are saying that as families pace the shoreline at Chaguaramas waiting for word on the five passengers missing since Sunday’s horrific collision involving the vessel Belbagai off Cannings Point and with the Coast Guard scrambling to verify whether a sixth person might also be unaccounted for, grief has once again turned into a very familiar national frustration.
People are asking how vessels powered by twin 250-horsepower engines can tear through the dark waters off the peninsula with such catastrophic force, leaving survivors to recall hearing a 17-year-old girl, Kieyanna Seechan, crying out twice in the dark before the waters went silent.
People are saying that Gary Aboud and Fishermen and Friends of the Sea have hit the nail on the head by pointing to thirty years of legislative neglect by successive governments.
People are saying that while the authorities inspect party boats and talk about maritime reform after every disaster, pleasure craft and speedboats continue to treat our coastal waters like an unlit highway without proper oversight or updated laws.
After London speaks, Trinidad and Tobago must learn to live together
People are saying that the landmark ruling by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London striking down this country’s colonial-era buggery and serious indecency laws has finally settled an 11-year legal battle brought by activist Jason Jones.
People are saying that across the country, reactions to the judgment have ranged from quiet relief over the defence of adult privacy to fiery sermons from various pulpits warning of moral ruin.
People are saying that our society must be mature enough to distinguish between what belongs in a church sermon and what belongs in the criminal code of a modern constitutional democracy.
People have taken note that while Jones has reminded the country that the wider struggle for everyday equality is not over, several religious leaders have had to walk a delicate line between holding fast to their doctrines and acknowledging that consenting adults should not be made criminals by the state.
When Paramin can no longer afford to sing
People are saying that if anyone needed proof of how deeply the cost of living and lack of support are biting into the soul of this country, they need look no further than the hills of Maraval, where the Paramin Cultural Organisation has been forced to cancel its beloved annual Parang on D Hills for 2026.
People are saying that for decades, the road up to Paramin has served as the unofficial start of a Trinidadian Christmas, where the music, the mountain air and the local cuisine let citizens know the year was coming to a close.
People are saying that when rising costs and a drought of funding can silence the cuatros and maracas in the very capital of parang, something fundamental in our cultural landscape is under threat.
When even our most cherished village traditions are priced out of existence, it raises serious questions about our national priorities. A country that cannot afford to support its own music is poorer than the budget books suggest.
A $450 law that disappears after nine o’clock
People are saying that while the streets of Felicity and Aranguez sparkled with the beauty of Divali earlier this week, the morning after brought a far uglier picture at the Animals Alive shelter in south Trinidad, where volunteers spent the day burying a dog that had suffered a fatal heart attack during the night’s barrage of fireworks.
People are asking what was the point of passing legislation with a $450 fixed penalty for fireworks violations if the law goes to sleep the moment the first scratch bomb is lit.
People are saying that according to shelter managers and residents in neighbourhoods from Gulf View to Bel Air, the explosions paused around 8 p.m., only to return with a vengeance just after nine o’clock and thunder on until midnight without a single police patrol in sight.
$171 million in traffic tickets, yet death still walks the Bus Route
People have taken note of the announcement by the Traffic Branch that since the Cabinet doubled traffic fines at the start of the year, police officers have issued more than $171 million worth of tickets including nearly $25 million for drivers without seatbelts and another $20 million for uninspected vehicles while road deaths have dropped by 27 per cent.
People are saying that while those figures look like a triumph for road safety and a windfall for the Treasury on paper, the statistics ring hollow in a week when 35-year-old Teneille Kimberly Villafana lost her life after being struck by a vehicle driven by police officers along the Priority Bus Route near Silver Mill in Barataria.
People are saying that Villafana’s death, which pushed the country’s road fatality figure to 76 for the year, raises troubling questions about the standard of driving exhibited by those in authority.
People are asking whether heavy fines alone can cure a culture of recklessness on our roadways, especially when those entrusted to uphold the law are themselves involved in fatal collisions on a restricted corridor.
Walking off the field in Roxborough is the wrong lesson for our boys
controversial late penalty was awarded to Roxborough
Secondary in Tobago
People are saying that while emotions have always run high in schoolboy football, the decision by El Dorado West Secondary to walk off the field and head straight to their maxi-taxi after a controversial late penalty was awarded to Roxborough Secondary in Tobago during their Big Five clash has left a sour taste in the mouths of many sports lovers.
People are saying that everyone knows local refereeing can test the patience of a saint, and coaches across the Secondary Schools Football League have been complaining for weeks about questionable calls and penalties that appear out of thin air.
People are saying, however, that adults in charge of young athletes have a responsibility to set a better example than telling teenage boys to pack up their gear and abandon a match the moment a decision goes against them.
People are asking what kind of preparation for life is being imparted to our youth when walking away becomes the accepted response to perceived unfairness.
Sport in our secondary schools is supposed to build character and discipline long after the final whistle blows. If we teach our boys that the answer to a bad call is to abandon the field, we should not be surprised when they carry that same attitude into the wider society tomorrow.
