Is Prime Minister Patrick Manning undermining the project of regional integration? Speaking at the PNM convention two Sundays ago, and then a few days later in the Parliament, Mr Manning outlined several projects between Trinidad and Tobago and some selected territories of the Caribbean which were to be the foundation of a single economy by 2011 and "appropriate political integration" by 2013. »

When I heard that religious leaders had submitted a crime plan to National Security Minister Martin Joseph, I couldn't wait to see it. So I sat down and prayed very hard for the document to be delivered onto me. Yet nothing happened. But then I had a revelation. I am a writer, and I believe I am a writer because of genetics, chance events, and a lack of common sense. On the other hand, religious believers always like to talk about "God-given talent". So I figured, since I know more about religion than any religious leader in Trinidad and Tobago, any religion crime plan I wrote would be the same as whatever Minister Joseph got. Here, then, are some exclusive extracts from what was given to the Government. »

"One dramatic story of a Marley "sighting'' comes from a Cambridge professor who visited Tibet in 1979 after it had been closed for decades of Chinese occupation. At the Potola lamasert in Lhasa, an aging monk led the visitor through underground catacombs into a room carved out of rock, where a single light bulb and an old eight-track tape player were plugged into a single electric outlet. In the tape player, a Lebanese bootleg of Natty Dread played over and over-From the book On Racial Frontiers: The New Culture of Frederick Douglass, Ralph Ellison and Bob Marley by Gregory Stephens, scholar author and Marley fan.'' »

Part I »

Reporting on the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) results is an annual pleasure for the media. It is particularly so when every day seems to bring some new tragedy or scandal, which the media are also duty-bound to report as part of the process of forging a nation out of the rough ore of our history. And, when the national community gets the opportunity to celebrate the triumphs of our best-performing children, who by dint of intellectual talent and hard work have risen to the top, our hopes for the future are vicariously raised. »

GEORGETOWN: He would hate it said that he appeared on the defensive, taking first strike, as it were, but Barbados Prime Minister David Thompson appeared to be doing just that yesterday, in a news conference on the day before the opening of the 30th Caricom Heads of Government Conference here. »