Trinidad & Tobago: No Hope? · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

As a legendary Trinidadian artist's sculpture is given a coat of paint to “spruce it up”, Nicholas Laughlin says: “This…is a telling symptom. It tells me how unaware we are, as citizens, of the civic spaces we live and work in, and how irresponsibly we behave towards them. It tells me how little respect we have for the work of our artists and thinkers, and how eagerly the powers-that-be package that work in more palatable forms. It tells me we're far too fond of quick, superficial solutions to our problems.”