BC Pires
is a barrister by qualification (class of 1984) but, for the last 28 years, has done nothing but write to earn a living. His flagship column, Thank God It’s Friday, has appeared in either the Trinidad Guardian or the Trinidad Express since Ash Friday, 1988. He has written about film from an informed lay perspective for the same period and is as close as the cricket-playing West Indies gets to a film critic (though he refuses that label). He has written for many publications, including the London Sunday Observer and the London & Manchester Guardian. Since 2010, his personality-based feature, “Trini/’Bago to D Bone” has been appearing in the Trinidad Guardian. Since 2002, he has been the editor of Cré Olé, the Trinidad & Tobago annual restaurant guide.This week’s TGIF, Trini to d bone and BC on TV
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Dog Bites Mankind
Saturday, November 7, 2020 Filed in: Trini to d Bone
My name is Ato Boldon and I hope Donald Trump loses the American election.
I have not been in Trinidad since 2018, the longest I’ve not been home in my life! I couldn’t go in 2019 because of career stuff. And then the borders closed in March. Going home is a kind of a reset for my spirit. Not being able to do that, not to see my dad, is a source of real frustration.
In Trinidad, I’s take stick for not sounding American, although I’ve lived there for 33 years now. But that kinda runs off my back. Because the voice in my head is always Trini.
I’m from Santa Cruz but, from age 14, I’ve lived mainly in the US. Since 2008, I’ve been in Florida. Which is a hard place to be now.
The racial strife, the madness in the USA, has been unlike any other time in my adult life. Florida, in particular, a very red, very pro-Trump state, embodies a lot of the worst of America. The GOP has put power over principle. Trump has not faced a single consequence for anything he has said or done.
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