Are women advancing fast enough? Click and read Part 1 of my Newsday column

From the hallowed halls of Parliament to the nation’s dance halls and fetes, women are not merely showing up for work; in many cases they are leading the way. Perhaps, calypso and soca is a good place to start. After all it was the singer Peter Cipriani of the band Rukshun who declared “Carnival is Woman”. When you consider the male’s preoccupation with sexuality and the boomsie in the music (Dikobe, M, 2004), long before Kitchener’s “Sugar Bum Bum” in 1977 and long after Iwer’s “Bottom in the Road” (1998), it is no trifling matter that the women of soca have created their own stages today– soca divas and girl power, amongst them. From high pitch voices doing back- up vocals on scratchy records for the big boys, on everything from Lion’s “Netty Netty” in 1937 to “Rum and Coca Cola” in its many forms, today’s soca divas are singing their own tunes from the frontline.

Tired of tripping on the pavement? Then click and read my Newsday column.

On all Trinidad and Tobago’s pavements there are five or six inch drops, to one’s peril. In the US, Canada and so many other places, pavements are one level, set a foot or two away from the edge of the roadway. Vehicles coming off the roadway must go up then across the pavement, using a small riser set against the pavement’s edge. Pedestrians are therefore spared the ups and downs of pavement walking, which can be damaging to the joints and a nightmare for anyone pushing a stroller or using a wheelchair.

Click on the link above and read more about what the people want from urban renewal...