Wesley Gibbings
@wesleygibbings.bsky.social
Journalist, Poet, Artist
"#Steelbands and their #panyards – in instances where they represent legitimate, cohesive organisations (some do not) - have become important instruments through which key services, other than the clearly musical, are being delivered" wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/12/pan-...
Pan and the outsourcing of development
The recent, poorly timed, unilateral withdrawal of multiple steelband sponsorships (better described as “investments”) by state companies dr...
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com
December 3, 2025 at 5:07 PM
"#Steelbands and their #panyards – in instances where they represent legitimate, cohesive organisations (some do not) - have become important instruments through which key services, other than the clearly musical, are being delivered" wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/12/pan-...
"Let’s get things clear. We have a problem with harmful #noise in #TrinidadandTobago" wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/11/nois...
Noise and culture questions
Right from the start, let’s get things clear. We have a problem with harmful noise in T&T. Bad habits and reckless behaviour are not admirab...
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com
November 26, 2025 at 7:10 PM
"Let’s get things clear. We have a problem with harmful #noise in #TrinidadandTobago" wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/11/nois...
What, in the end, will constitute the real "outcomes" of COP30? wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/11/bele...
Belém's climate justice paradox
Even a full week in Belém, Brazil at the 30 th Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UN...
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com
November 20, 2025 at 5:56 PM
What, in the end, will constitute the real "outcomes" of COP30? wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/11/bele...
Steelpan arranger/composer, Jit Samaroo, as revolutionary hero - wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/11/jit-...
Jit Samaroo - the revolutionary hero
Last Saturday, I was honoured to contribute to a panel discussion on the life and music of the late pan arranger/composer, Jit Samaroo, as p...
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com
November 5, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Steelpan arranger/composer, Jit Samaroo, as revolutionary hero - wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/11/jit-...
Some new and not so new stuff from me
October 31, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Some new and not so new stuff from me
The father and son leadership of the largest elected opposition bloc in #Guyana have been arrested and face extradition to the United States on fraud and money laundering charges www.stabroeknews.com/2025/10/31/n...
Azruddin Mohamed and Nazar Mohamed arrested - Stabroek News
We Invest in Nationhood Leader Azruddin Mohamed and his father Nazar Mohamed have been arrested by the police. They are now said to be at Police
www.stabroeknews.com
October 31, 2025 at 4:32 PM
The father and son leadership of the largest elected opposition bloc in #Guyana have been arrested and face extradition to the United States on fraud and money laundering charges www.stabroeknews.com/2025/10/31/n...
On any regular weekday afternoon in Roseau, #Dominica, you would see the children in school uniform pass. They hold each other’s hands to negotiate the slim footpaths while fretful adults follow nervously behind. Post-Hurricane Maria 2017 wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/10/chil...
Children of the Storms
(First published in the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian on September 27, 2017) On any regular weekday afternoon in Roseau, Dominica, you wou...
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com
October 31, 2025 at 3:39 PM
On any regular weekday afternoon in Roseau, #Dominica, you would see the children in school uniform pass. They hold each other’s hands to negotiate the slim footpaths while fretful adults follow nervously behind. Post-Hurricane Maria 2017 wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/10/chil...
Beach Ladies (Maracas Bay, Trinidad)
October 29, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Beach Ladies (Maracas Bay, Trinidad)
Reposted by Wesley Gibbings
#Global 🌐 As states head to Hanoi for the @UN cybercrime treaty signing, IFEX urges governments not to sign unless human rights are protected.
The #UNCybercrime Convention must not expand #surveillance or repression across borders.
🔗 Joint statement: buff.ly/opZiliz
The #UNCybercrime Convention must not expand #surveillance or repression across borders.
🔗 Joint statement: buff.ly/opZiliz
October 24, 2025 at 3:15 PM
#Global 🌐 As states head to Hanoi for the @UN cybercrime treaty signing, IFEX urges governments not to sign unless human rights are protected.
The #UNCybercrime Convention must not expand #surveillance or repression across borders.
🔗 Joint statement: buff.ly/opZiliz
The #UNCybercrime Convention must not expand #surveillance or repression across borders.
🔗 Joint statement: buff.ly/opZiliz
#TrinidadandTobago has a new Chief Justice - Ronnie Boodsoosingh - following abrupt announcement of the retirement of Justice Ivor Archie
October 22, 2025 at 6:20 PM
#TrinidadandTobago has a new Chief Justice - Ronnie Boodsoosingh - following abrupt announcement of the retirement of Justice Ivor Archie
Put another way: Actions have consequences. Some of them lag but come back to bite you on the ankles. #Caribbean #Grenada #TrinidadandTobago #Caricom
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/10/unhe...
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/10/unhe...
Unhealed Caribbean wounds
The year was 1999 and then prime minister Keith Mitchell was coasting to a memorable 15-0 victory at the polls in Grenada. The campaigning w...
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com
October 22, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Put another way: Actions have consequences. Some of them lag but come back to bite you on the ankles. #Caribbean #Grenada #TrinidadandTobago #Caricom
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/10/unhe...
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/10/unhe...
"Official agencies may well find in the #media community trustworthy, loyal citizens who also have a vested interest in ensuring that critical threats to lives and livelihoods are as much their business" #Caribbean #disasters shorturl.at/XLkOw
Media and disasters
My submission deadline and other responsibilities ensured that today’s contribution to the T&T Guardian could not sensibly address some of t...
shorturl.at
October 15, 2025 at 4:41 PM
"Official agencies may well find in the #media community trustworthy, loyal citizens who also have a vested interest in ensuring that critical threats to lives and livelihoods are as much their business" #Caribbean #disasters shorturl.at/XLkOw
So, I did these #watercolours youtu.be/HcdK9QfqYLQ?...
Watercolour Compilation - July 2025
YouTube video by Wesley Gibbings
youtu.be
October 11, 2025 at 3:40 PM
So, I did these #watercolours youtu.be/HcdK9QfqYLQ?...
Here’s hoping that this country will engage the @Cop30noBrasil process - being hosted this year in Belem, Brazil in November - as vigorously as we (mostly) have in previous years. #TrinidadandTobago #Guyana #Caribbean wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/10/clim...
Climate truth and transparency
Here’s hoping that this country will engage the COP30 process - being hosted this year in Belem, Brazil in November - as vigorously as we (m...
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com
October 8, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Here’s hoping that this country will engage the @Cop30noBrasil process - being hosted this year in Belem, Brazil in November - as vigorously as we (mostly) have in previous years. #TrinidadandTobago #Guyana #Caribbean wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/10/clim...
That "social justice" conundrum never really went away, did it? #Caribbean #TrinidadandTobago #Guyana wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/10/revi...
Revisiting Cheddi Jagan in 2025
If you were on the Caribbean beat as a journalist in the late 1980s/early 1990s, you would have recognised the late Guyanese leader, Dr Ched...
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com
October 1, 2025 at 1:43 PM
That "social justice" conundrum never really went away, did it? #Caribbean #TrinidadandTobago #Guyana wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/10/revi...
However urgent, tragic, and compelling, the deepening crisis in #Haiti is unlikely to occupy considerable topline space at the United Nations General Assembly #OAS #Caricom #Jamaica #Bahamas #TrinidadandTobago wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/09/cari...
Caricom stakes in Haiti
However urgent, tragic, and compelling, the deepening crisis in Haiti is unlikely to occupy considerable topline space at the United Nations...
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com
September 24, 2025 at 4:44 PM
However urgent, tragic, and compelling, the deepening crisis in #Haiti is unlikely to occupy considerable topline space at the United Nations General Assembly #OAS #Caricom #Jamaica #Bahamas #TrinidadandTobago wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/09/cari...
The "Caricom is a waste of time" argument is a long-established function of unforgiveable ignorance (and a belief) there is more to be gained than lost through disengagement and recalibrated loyalties. #Caricom #Barbados #Belize #Dominica wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/09/inte...
Integration and the Caricom four
Two weeks from now (October 1), what is widely described as the “full free movement”, on a reciprocal basis, of Caricom nationals from Barba...
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com
September 18, 2025 at 4:29 PM
The "Caricom is a waste of time" argument is a long-established function of unforgiveable ignorance (and a belief) there is more to be gained than lost through disengagement and recalibrated loyalties. #Caricom #Barbados #Belize #Dominica wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/09/inte...
What have this year's #Caribbean #elections been telling us? I have no conclusive statement on this, but we need to think about it. wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/09/rest... #TrinidadandTobago #Jamaica #Guyana #Belize #Suriname
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com
September 10, 2025 at 1:57 PM
What have this year's #Caribbean #elections been telling us? I have no conclusive statement on this, but we need to think about it. wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/09/rest... #TrinidadandTobago #Jamaica #Guyana #Belize #Suriname
"Yet another school year is being launched ... and close to 1,500 children born here – and another 4,500 or so of other statuses - will be deliberately denied what we boastfully describe as our system of universal primary education" wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/09/a-de...
A Desk for Daniela
Last Sunday marked the last official day of a UNHCR (The UN Refugee Agency) physical, administrative presence in T&T. It was not unexpecte...
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com
September 3, 2025 at 2:23 PM
"Yet another school year is being launched ... and close to 1,500 children born here – and another 4,500 or so of other statuses - will be deliberately denied what we boastfully describe as our system of universal primary education" wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/09/a-de...
Seems like a clear majority for the incumbent PPPC in #Guyana following yesterday's #Elections
September 2, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Seems like a clear majority for the incumbent PPPC in #Guyana following yesterday's #Elections
Not sure why there is confusion over the #Caribbean "we" outside of pathetic delusions about being able to delink and set out alone #TrinidadandTobago #Jamaica #Guyana
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/08/wher...
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/08/wher...
Where are ‘we’?
The 56th Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) Annual General Assembly rolled seamlessly into the XV edition of CARIFESTA in Barbados last week...
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com
August 27, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Not sure why there is confusion over the #Caribbean "we" outside of pathetic delusions about being able to delink and set out alone #TrinidadandTobago #Jamaica #Guyana
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/08/wher...
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/08/wher...
Bourda Market, Guyana
August 12, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Bourda Market, Guyana
Faced with a ban in the late 1800s, people appeared to be saying: “Nope. No way.” Then through tamboo-bamboo to the percussive powers of discarded metals to what we have now, there birthed and grew the steelpan. Out of defiant protest.
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2024/11/the-...
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2024/11/the-...
The Value of Pan
Offered the rare (and flattering) pleasure of addressing one session of a cross faculty co-curricular programme hosted by birdsong at UWI la...
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com
August 11, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Faced with a ban in the late 1800s, people appeared to be saying: “Nope. No way.” Then through tamboo-bamboo to the percussive powers of discarded metals to what we have now, there birthed and grew the steelpan. Out of defiant protest.
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2024/11/the-...
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2024/11/the-...
Pan is among the great hopes of T&T in ways not easily recognisable to the recently introduced, uninitiated, or wholly ignorant. #steelpan #TrinidadandTobago #Caribbean #music
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/08/what...
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/08/what...
What pan means
So, it’s Steelpan Month 2025. It’s worth our while to remember this in these rather dark times during which self-confidence is frequently ch...
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com
August 6, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Pan is among the great hopes of T&T in ways not easily recognisable to the recently introduced, uninitiated, or wholly ignorant. #steelpan #TrinidadandTobago #Caribbean #music
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/08/what...
wesleygibbings.blogspot.com/2025/08/what...