At 37 years old, Trinbagioian Trevon Joseph, “village boy” from Paramin graduated from the prestigious, world-renowned University of Oxford, November 1st, 2019. He is the first recipient of an engineering doctorate (DEng) conferred at the university in a century. An award that was the first awarded for a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) in 1919 and the DEng in 2019.
Additionally impressive, is that both Joseph and Dr. Eric Williams, the first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago—who attained his Doctor of Philosophy degree at Oxford in 1938, both graduated from the same building, at the Sheldonian Theatre.
Joseph was among four students pursuing a doctorate in the offshore geotechnical engineering programme in 2014.
“I did not come from a rich background,” Joseph asserted. He explained he attended Woodbrook Secondary and Queen’s Royal College. He later studied civil engineering at the John Donaldson ‘John D’ Technical Institute (UTT). Here he said, he spent “the best years” of his life.
Joseph pursued a Bachelor’s in civil engineering at The University of the West Indies, St Augustine.
He got his first scholarship in 2007 at a university in Europe. When he attained his master’s degree, he secured a job in the United Kingdom after arriving there in 2009.
When asked about his historical success, Joseph said, “It was one of those events that you don’t really forget because you put so much effort into the last few years and you sacrifice time with family, friends, loved ones…just to more or less to do something that you want to do for yourself.”
He stressed that though it was no easy task, just “noting where we come from and where we represent”, to come to a foreign country and be accepted into an Oxford University programme, was “surreal”.
“I did not come from a rich background,” Joseph asserted. He explained he attended Woodbrook Secondary and Queen’s Royal College. He later studied civil engineering at the John Donaldson ‘John D’ Technical Institute (UTT). Here he said, he spent “the best years” of his life.
Next, he pursued a Bachelor’s in civil engineering at The University of the West Indies, St Augustine.
He got his first scholarship in 2007 at a university in Europe. When he attained his master’s degree, he secured a job in the United Kingdom after arriving there in 2009.
Joseph shared while he did not have family in the UK, he had friends and a fiancé. His parents would visit once a year. Sometimes, he said, his father would remind him “This is what you are doing it for Trevon…I know its hard but just crack on.” Both parents were present for his graduation.
In 2020, Trevon has plans to return to Trinidad and Tobago on a mission. He hopes to influence authority that renewable energy is cleaner and they only way ahead for the “betterment of mankind”.
Joseph observed that most countries, including T&T, are not contributing to the construction or the use of renewable energy sources to provide electricity that the country needs.
The European Union passed strict laws that ensure countries use a certain percentage of renewable energy sources by a certain date, otherwise, “they get fined” he said.
Overall, he said if countries were to invest in solar their contribution would be enough to supply a large percentage of their energy requirements from renewable energy sources.
“Trinidad has a lot of wind and a lot of sunlight…because of that…it does not make any sense not to capitalize on that…use some of that, capture it and convert it to electricity so you wouldn’t be using oil and gas to spin turbines to produce electricity. There’s a lot of blackouts that occur, one of the reasons is when the demand for electricity surpasses the supply,” he said. Source: Izzo.com Dec 14, 2019

I was trained to defend a country against armed conflict. What we are experiencing now is a virtual war. The enemy has the type of firepower and their tactics equate with what I faced when we fought the IRA whilst training in the UK.
They adopt hit and run tactics.
The difference here in this war - The rules of engagement is one whereby the enemy is trying to kill us and who we try to protect.
When we try to protect them and ourselves by shooting back with accurate shots, we are condemned.
We are attacked based even on what we wear. The media spends more time finding anything to attack us instead of the real enemy.
Many in the communities who lose loved ones by the same criminals, instead attack us, saying " all yuh too wicked".
Politicians who when in Government, saw it fit to tilt the scales of justice towards law abiding citizens, but when they go on the other side of the Parliamentary bench, get a change of heart and fight for the rights of criminals to be free even if held with weapons of war. And the unkindliest cut of all - in the history of all armed conflicts worldwide- this country has created history.
In our armed conflict, which is a virtual war zone, when we actually capture the enemy of the state, after being charged with gang activity and having firepower to kill hundreds in seconds, unlike prisoners of war who remain incarcerated until the armed conflict ends, we are directed to release them immediately, so they can go back unto the killing fields to lead their troops or be re issued with assault rifles to turn again at our law enforcement officials in the war zone.
Then when the murder count rises, the Police is blamed. Every creed and race no longer has an equal place. Criminal elements now have more rights, hence throwing cold water to that line in our anthem.
Regardless of the few detractors, and those who are in strategic positions to undermine what we are trying to achieve, including those in and out of uniform. I give the assurance that good would overcome evil.
I would continue to do what is required to defend the 1.2 million plus law abiding citizens from the criminals elements and their strategic allies.
The more they target me, it means that we are starting to achieve our objective. We would overcome. We would win back our country. Gary Griffith

Secretary General of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha and a man who carved out a legacy for himself as a fighter, Satnarayan Maharaj, 88, has died.
He died at 12.01 am Saturday, November 16, eight days after he suffered a stroke.
Maharaj had been warded at Medical Associates in St Joseph in critical condition and yesterday his son Vijay Maharaj announced that he had been taken off support systems.
The following is an article from the Trinidad Guardian, November 20, 2019 
SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI
shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt
Few peo­ple knew the soft­er side of Sat Ma­haraj and many brand­ed him as con­tro­ver­sial not know­ing that be­hind his acidic tongue, Ma­haraj had a heart that could have melt­ed stone.
Such were the trib­utes at his fu­ner­al ser­vice at the SDMS head­quar­ters, St Au­gus­tine, yes­ter­day.
Prin­ci­pal of Lak­sh­mi Girls’ Hin­du Col­lege So­nia Ma­hase and pres­i­dent of the SDMS Pri­ma­ry School Prin­ci­pals As­so­ci­a­tion Shar­main Bha­ga­loo-Ma­haraj, who both paid trib­ute to Ma­haraj, fought hard to con­tain their emo­tions yes­ter­day as they re­called the in­te­gral role the gen­er­al sec­re­tary of the SDMS played in build­ing a strong ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem for its 43 pri­ma­ry and five sec­ondary schools in T&T.
The court­yard of the SDMS was filled with hun­dreds of mourn­ers who braved the rains to pay their last re­spect.
Re­flect­ing on Ma­haraj’s life, Bha­ga­loo-Ma­haraj said he made land­mark vic­to­ries at the Privy Coun­cil.
Ma­haraj’s great­est achieve­ment she said was his ad­vance­ment in ed­u­ca­tion.
“He trans­formed our SDMS schools, which were first called and la­belled as cow­sheds, in­to pres­ti­gious learn­ing in­sti­tu­tions.”
Un­der Ma­haraj’s guid­ance, Bha­ga­loo-Ma­haraj said these schools to­day stand as bea­cons in com­mu­ni­ties.
“He was adamant that no child in an SDMS school should be left be­hind.”
Bha­ga­loo-Ma­haraj said those who “fell short” would feel Ma­haraj’s fiery out­burst be­hind closed doors.
She said Ma­haraj al­so had “a warm and gra­cious side that few were aware of and ex­pe­ri­enced.”
Try­ing hard to con­tain her tears, Bha­ga­loo-Ma­haraj said Ma­haraj was a “lov­ing, car­ing fa­ther fig­ure, a men­tor, guide and con­fi­dant whose shoes will be hard to fill.”
Bha­ga­loo-Ma­haraj said prin­ci­pals and SDMS self­ish­ly prayed for Ma­haraj to live to 100 but they all knew he was here on bor­rowed time.
“You have fear­less­ly fought and won your bat­tles, go and rest now with your wife Shan­ti,” Bha­ga­loo- Ma­haraj said, her voice crack­ing as she spoke.
Ma­hase spoke about Ma­haraj at­tend­ing the school’s grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny on No­vem­ber 7.
“At one point he turned and said to me, when we win our fifth con­sec­u­tive Pres­i­dent’s Gold Medal he was go­ing to ap­ply for a hol­i­day for all SDMS’ pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools to cel­e­brate.”
Ma­haraj, how­ev­er, did not live to see this hap­pen.
Stand­ing be­hind Ma­hase was the school’s 2019 Pres­i­dent’s Medal win­ner Ce­line Roodal, who was ap­plaud­ed for her achieve­ments. The school won 40 schol­ar­ships.
She said Ma­haraj would have been proud of the schol­ar­ships achieved at the Vish­nu Boys’ Hin­du Col­lege and Shi­va Boys’ Hin­du Col­lege.
“He has en­sured that all his sec­ondary schools have been placed on a tra­jec­to­ry of suc­cess.”
Ma­hase said Ma­haraj was un­com­pro­mis­ing, pas­sion­ate and at times a hard taskmas­ter.
Apart from be­ing their pil­lar of strength, Ma­haraj was their men­tor and vi­sion­ary.
“He be­came our gu­ru, our touch­stone and con­fi­dant,” Ma­hase said, try­ing hard to fight her tears.
Ma­hase said Ma­haraj en­sured that the ed­u­ca­tion of fe­males re­main a pri­or­i­ty while he stood proud of the strides made by fe­male stu­dents in the CSEC and CAPE ex­am­i­na­tions.
Pres­i­dent gen­er­al of the SDMS Pun­dit Kr­ish­na Ram­bal­ly said the last thing Ma­haraj fought against was the sedi­tion law.
“He dis­charged his re­spon­si­bil­i­ty with fi­nesse and tact. He was not one to be eas­i­ly dis­cour­aged. His lega­cy stands as tall and strong as he did. We have lost a great leader.”
Those who knew Ma­haraj could at­test that he was a lov­ing in­di­vid­ual.
Ram­bal­ly as­sured that the work of the SDMS will con­tin­ue in keep­ing with Ma­haraj’s vi­sion.

A Tri­ni-born sur­geon prac­tis­ing in Eng­land is be­ing hailed as a hero by many for suc­cess­ful­ly re­con­struct­ing the jaw of a 15-year-old girl fol­low­ing a horse-rid­ing ac­ci­dent.
Con­sul­tant Oral & Max­illo­fa­cial sur­geon based at Sheffield Teach­ing Hos­pi­tals and an Hon­orary Se­nior Clin­i­cal Lec­tur­er at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Sheffield, Ri­car­do Mo­hammed-Ali, suc­cess­ful­ly re­con­struct­ed the jaw of Emi­ly Ec­cles when it broke in half in Au­gust.
Speak­ing on the show “BBC Break­fast” on Fri­day, Ec­cles ex­plained that her jaw was at­tached to her body on­ly by a bit of skin and the hel­met she was wear­ing at the time.
Ec­cles’ in­jury was de­scribed by doc­tors as the worst they’ve seen out­side of a war­zone.
Al­so ap­pear­ing on the show was Mr Mo­hammed-Ali who ex­plained: “I got a call from one of my ju­niors, which was a bit odd that said we’ve got a pa­tient that is com­ing in and their jaw has been sep­a­rat­ed from their face.”
“It’s not of­ten you get a call like that. You get a frac­tured mandible, or a frac­tured cheek­bone, up­per jaw, low­er jaw,” he said

Elab­o­rat­ing on the ex­tent of Ec­cles’ con­di­tion in an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia, he said time was of the essence to the suc­cess of the surgery. “The jaw was split in two and the left side was com­plete­ly sep­a­rat­ed from the face. The low­er part of the face was de­tached from the rest of the face ex­cept for a strip of skin on the right side. The nerves that move the lip and pro­vides feel­ing were sev­ered. I had to re­con­struct bone, mus­cles, nerves and re­store blood sup­ply. If not the low­er part of the face would have not sur­vived. The surgery was time crit­i­cal to en­sure sur­vival of the tis­sues. We ba­si­cal­ly re-im­plant­ed the low­er face.”
Eight weeks lat­er Ec­cles is able to speak, how­ev­er, she ad­mit­ted on the BBC show that she can’t feel the bot­tom lip prop­er­ly as “it’s like pins and nee­dles be­cause of the nerves be­ing dam­aged and ripped out but oth­er than that, it’s be­come nor­mal now.”
Her re­cov­ery, Mo­hammed-Ali said, was re­mark­able. “On the third of Oc­to­ber it was two months and the swelling has gone down, the jaw is func­tion­ing, she is back to eat­ing and drink­ing as nor­mal.”
With such a re­mark­able re­cov­ery, many have hailed Mr Mo­hammed-Ali a hero, dub­bing his work as a mir­a­cle.
Asked by Guardian Me­dia if he felt like a hero, he said: “I am just do­ing my job and priv­i­leged that I am able to re­con­struct faces and treat pa­tients with fa­cial de­for­mi­ties.”
​Mr Mo­hammed-Ali was born in Trinidad and left for Eng­land af­ter stud­ies at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI). He has been re­sid­ing in the UK for the past 16 years.

The Tobago Tourism Agency Ltd (TTAL), in a press release, has announced a strategic move to increase visitor arrivals to destination Tobago. TTAL said it has engaged European travel specialist, Boomerang Reisen, to sell the island with a digitally-focused approach.
At ITB Berlin held in March of this year, one of the Tobago Tourism Agency’s objectives was to reinforce the support of major tour operators and re-establish the positive reputation of Tobago, ensuring that new earmarked partners are confident in the destination as a lucrative investment. With the launch of the Tobago Beyond brand and Go to Market strategy in Europe, Boomerang Reisen was one operator approached to further push Tobago’s presence in the German market.
TTAL said Boomerang Reisen is a long-haul travel specialist with more than 25 years in the market, operating 15 branches in three European countries. In 2018, the company started a programme for the Caribbean featuring select top destinations, and they have now added the "unspoilt, untouched and undiscovered" Tobago to their programme. TTAL and Boomerang will partner to undertake a pro-active approach to promote Tobago and its tourism products, with several campaigns encompassing traditional and online advertising elements.
TTAL marketing co-ordinator Sheena Des Vignes said in the TTAL press release, “Germany is our second largest source market and among the world travel champions, thus it is vital that we create increased awareness among consumers in that region. By tapping into this lucrative source market, the Tobago Tourism Agency endeavours to inspire interest in travellers seeking a unique experience for a holiday that goes beyond ordinary.”
TTAL hosted a familiarisation trip from October 1-8 with travel consultants representing four branches of Boomerang Reisen, to deliver first-hand knowledge of the island and its unique selling points and create a pool of properly qualified agents to sell the island in overseas markets. The trip included a networking event on October 7, giving Tobago’s tourism stakeholders the opportunity to meet with the travel agents.
Susan London of Bacolet Beach Club was one of the stakeholders at the event and enthused about the value of the networking initiative hosted by TTAL, as well as the addition of a new tour operator to sell destination Tobago.
“I am happy because we now have this opportunity to expose Tobago even further on the map by opening this extra channel. This is a plus for Tobago, and Tobago’s tourism,” she said. Source:  Newsday 14 October 2019 Stephon Nicholas

Cricketer/entertainer Dwayne Bravo’s fight against period poverty in his home, TT, is being well documented. It has been captured in local and international media. This time it is going to be further documented with a documentary called Men Take the Lead.
The documentary is being produced by Seattle-based production company, People Media Factory and is being done collaboratively with ANT production out of India and Singapore. The documentary’s producer is TG Vishwa Prasad, the executive producer is Natraj Pillai, its co-producer Vivek Kuchibhotla and director, Aarthi Shrivastava.
The documentary, Pillai said to Newsday, aims to cover Bravo’s life as well as highlight the work he is doing in fighting the issue of period poverty in TT and beyond.
The documentary highlights Bravo’s journey from the start of the initiative until he brings the low-cost sanitary pad-making machine to TT. It is expected to be 45-minutes long and is being filmed in TT and India.
The documentary’s synopsis says, “Men Take Lead is an incredible journey of a renowned cricketer and DJ from the Caribbean Dwayne Bravo. In a nutshell, the film explores how his trip to India changes the face of menstrual hygiene for thousands of girls in his country TT...Bravo during his stay in Chenni, India, comes across Arunachalam Muruganantham (Padman of India) tackling the issue of menstrual hygiene in India through his sanitary pad-making innovation.”
Pillai said he always wanted to do a documentary with some serious meaning. He added that when he found Bravo and his interest in charity and plan to meet Muruganantham he decided to document it.
For Pillai, the difference with this documentary is that Bravo is one of the few male sports people to talk about and support menstrual hygiene.
He hopes that the documentary will make the world take a look at the issue and result in other celebrities and other influential people getting involved. The final copy of the documentary is expected to be ready by December and will be sent to film festivals across the world.
Source: Newsday, Oct 22, 2019

I would make decisions based on what is right and not what is popular.
Within the last few weeks, I have made several controversial decisions and comments in my official capacity, that have caused nationwide debate as to whether it should have been done or not.
Whereas it is the right of everyone to have the freedom of choice or expression of any matter, it has indeed demonstrated the lack of understanding of the laws of the land by a few, as some are boxed into making views based on emotion and not based on logic, international best practice or fundamental policies of law enforcement.
Just a few of these decisions, which have caused some to comment in an adverse manner, have in fact raised eyebrows internationally, as those who understand law enforcement, are shocked that any logical thinking citizen would have concerns on making decisions based on what would have been done in the exact same manner in those countries, as is mandatory due to their experience and expertise in understanding the value of making such decisions, and adhering to Standard Operations Procedure.
Just a few of these include:
• The decision to release persons held against their will:
The audacity of me, being so bold, to release 69 persons who were reported as being imprisoned against their will, tortured, beaten, left naked, kidnapped, assaulted and had funds taken away from them.
How dare I as Commissioner of Police, be so out of place to expose this and release these persons from captivity?
• The decision to acquire Armoured vehicles to protect the lives of Police Officers:
In Parliament recently, a concern was raised by a politician as to the audacity of a Leader in the Police being so foolish to want to acquire vehicles to ensure that my Officers can be protected from hostile gunfire when they patrol.
So what if almost every elite law enforcement unit in the world has similar vehicles to ensure that the lives of Police Officers are protected, but how dare I do the same to try to protect the lives of TT Police Officers whilst performing their duty?

How dare I acquire an Armoured vehicle to assist the State to ensure that we are prepared to act if there is ever a repeat of 1990, or to extract a hostage if held captive, or to get personnel to a site to defuse a bomb, by wanting to have them secured in a vehicle that could save their lives?
• Establishment of a Police Social Media Monitoring unit:

So what if this is done worldwide - why should a unit be established that would monitor what everyone else is viewing on social media, even though this Unit would assist in reducing child pornography, human trafficking, child prostitution, recruitment of terrorists and recruiting of gangs, and getting leads to solve or stop a murder, because apparently for some, it is the right of the criminal to be protected and have a degree of privacy, so how dare I try to invade that privilege, even if it could save lives .
• Revealing facts in a charge report to the public, that is accessible to the media:

A well-known figure is charged under the Sedition Act, and the media only uses the extracts of what was conveniently fed to them, instead of actually acquiring the charge report. To clarify the misconception, I reveal the actual charge report, showing much more of what was in the charge report.
The Defence Attorney then sends a release, voicing his concern, that I revealed the truth and the facts to the public, so a media house puts a headline saying ' Gary's Mischief ', because how dare I reveal the truth to the public, because revealing the truth, revealing facts to the public is seen as mischief.
Breach of Regulations by allowing a civilian into an armed conflict, hence endangering his life and possibly that of other Officers:

The latest horror is me being so bold to launch an investigation whereby Police Officers, engaged in a hostage crisis, allegedly being confronted by someone with a firearm, but allowing a civilian to become vulnerable and exposed in a firefight, and being allowed into a possible kill zone, which could have also affected the said officers in the performance of their duties.
The excuse to justify such approval being that it is the family member of someone makes it even more important for anyone who has a firearm, not to be engaged in such an armed conflict, especially when it is under the control of the TTPS as that said time.

The same critics who are concerned about me being so bold to deal with a breach of operational law enforcement policy by allowing a civilian into a hostile environment would be the first to be expressing concerns, had that same citizen been killed in the crossfire.

Whilst the Officers can be commended for their actions in extracting the hostage unharmed, I ask which country, Police Department or Service in the world, would find it appropriate for a relative of someone being held hostage, to be allowed to draw a firearm and accompany Police Officers into a hostage crisis?
Social Media is indeed a double-edged sword as it opens the door for comment on every matter, much of the time without proper research and many times facts, causing at times more harm than good.
For too long, this country has seen many decisions made based on persons in authority going in a certain direction to win support and popularity.
As a Leader and in this case, as Commissioner of Police, I have no intention to ever make any decision or comment, based on doing what the majority feels, but doing what is required based on whether it is right or wrong, or whether it is legal or illegal.
I have no intention to change that stance
Gary Griffith Junior,
Commissioner of Police.
Source: Breaking News TT October 19, 2019

While au­thor­i­ties have cor­doned off the Pi­paro Mud Vol­cano fol­low­ing an in­crease in ac­tiv­i­ty, one fam­i­ly may have to evac­u­ate as earth move­ment has start­ed to dam­age their home.
Large fis­sures from the vol­cano con­tin­ued to widen from Sat­ur­day night in­to yes­ter­day, with fresh mounds of mud pil­ing up near the mouth.
As scores of cu­ri­ous vis­i­tors and res­i­dents gath­ered, the machi­nat­ed sound could be heard and gas was re­leased every few min­utes.
Po­lice of­fi­cers were do­ing pa­trols, in case there was a need to ini­ti­ate an emer­gency ex­er­cise.
For Fedell Solomon, whose home is sit­u­at­ed close to the vol­cano, the mem­o­ries of the 1997 erup­tion that al­most flat­tened their com­mu­ni­ty rushed to mind.
Solomon was on­ly nine years old back then, but when the equip­ment room be­gan sep­a­rat­ing from the rest of his fam­i­ly home, they im­me­di­ate­ly be­gan pack­ing up im­por­tant doc­u­ments and clothes and putting it in their ve­hi­cle in case they need­ed to evac­u­ate.
“We were get­ting ready for bed and just heard some­thing like a hard gun­shot. We thought it was some­one try­ing to come in­to the prop­er­ty. We tried to fig­ure out what it was. We didn’t see any move­ments un­til the sec­ond sim­i­lar noise and then a piece of con­crete lift­ed off.
It was then the house start­ed mov­ing. All we could have done was to ob­serve it mov­ing. We tried to move what­ev­er we could safe­ly,” Solomon said.
In 1997 erup­tion, the house which has been there for the past 30 years, al­so sus­tained dam­age. He said it is fright­en­ing liv­ing close to the vol­cano and his fam­i­ly is hop­ing for the best. He said they are con­tem­plat­ing to evac­u­ate their home if the sit­u­a­tion wors­ens.
Se­nior geo­sci­en­tist Xavier Moo­nan ad­vised cit­i­zens not to ven­ture near the Pi­paro mud vol­cano since drone sur­veys in­di­cat­ed it was about to blow.
Moo­nan and his team toured the vol­cano yes­ter­day morn­ing, hours af­ter res­i­dents re­port­ed see­ing fis­sures and cracks around the area.
In an in­ter­view, Moo­nan said: “We just drone sur­veyed the mud vol­cano. We should ad­vise peo­ple to not ven­ture on­to it at least. It looks like it may blow very soon. We are see­ing up to two feet of mo­tion on some frac­tures.”
Princes Town MP Bar­ry Padarath, who viewed the ac­tiv­i­ty at the vol­cano be­lieves that res­i­dents should not take any chances and those liv­ing close­ly should evac­u­ate.
Re­call­ing that the 1997 erup­tion came like a “thief in the night” he said the new de­vel­op­ment has caused pan­ic in the com­mu­ni­ty and was wor­ried that none of the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties had shown up to as­sess the con­di­tions. Source: Guadian, Sept. 24, 2019