An interesting article http://www.newsamericasnow.com/10-black-caribbean-born-executives-in-top-u-s-posts/ Facebook Global Director of Diversity Maxine Williams (L), was born in Trinidad. (Photo Credit: Robert A Tobiansky)
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![]() To mark Canada’s 150th birthday, we are counting down to Canada Day with profiles of 150 noteworthy British Columbians. Hedy Fry brags that she can still dance in eight-inch heels and looks decades younger than her 75 years. She’s been mocked as a flake, accused of self-aggrandizing hubris, and has elicited disapproval from social conservatives for her enthusiastic endorsement of Vancouver’s vibrant gay community. Few politicians spend their 65th birthday dressed as a dancehall queen on a Gay Pride Parade float surrounded by bare-chested cowboys riding a mechanical bull. One thing all acknowledge about this national symbol of inclusive, feminist and progressive politics, however, is that she’s formidable. She has won eight consecutive federal elections. Fry is the longest-serving woman in parliament. She launched in 1993 as a giant-killer. She ran as a Liberal, defeating the sitting Tory prime minister, Kim Campbell, who had herself succeeded powerful Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Pat Carney. Since then, Fry has drubbed high-profile challengers from left, right and centre. “Underestimate Hedy Fry at your peril,” mused charismatic — and rueful — NDP candidate Svend Robinson after she handed him his political head on a platter and his first defeat in 25 years. “She is a very formidable foe.” She knows how to read the electorate and plan a campaign with an acumen displayed by few other politicians. Perhaps it’s because behind the friendly smile and effervescent personality is the machinery of a towering intellect. She refused a scholarship to Oxford University in English literature because after reading a book about the psychiatric profiles of Shakespeare’s tragic heroes she had become interested in medicine. Instead, she crammed the equivalent of the BSc she needed for medical school into one year and was accepted by Dublin’s prestigious Royal College of Surgeons, from which she graduated with honours. Fry was born into a poor family in Trinidad and Tobago on Aug. 6, 1941. When she proved an accomplished scholar — she was class valedictorian — her parents used their life savings to pay for her medical studies. She came to Canada in 1970 and practised family medicine at St. Paul’s Hospital for 23 years. She was an activist. She has served as president of the Vancouver Medical Association and the B.C. Medical Association, fought for and won the first retirement plan for doctors in Canada, and campaigned fiercely and unapologetically for women’s, indigenous peoples and minority rights issues. Her advice to those coming after her: “Leave the world knowing you made it a better place.” Source: Vancouve Sun ![]() As you may know, our beautiful T&T is one of the world's most important nesting sites for the leatherback turtle, which is one of the largest of this ocean species. In fact these turtles come from as far away as Africa and Canada to lay their eggs on our beaches. But did you know where you can see them during the nesting season? Well, nesting populations can be found at Matura Bay, Fishing Pond, Grade Riviere and at Turtle Beach in Tobago. Although some leatherbacks have been known to weigh 2000 lbs and reach 10 feet in length – they more commonly average 800 - 1000 lbs and 5-7 feet long. They get their name “leatherback” because, unlike other sea turtles, they do not have a hard shell; instead, their shells are rubbery, flexible and marked by seven ridges which apparently allows them to withstand the pressure of diving up to 4,000 feet below the surface of the sea! How interesting... For more visuals about the leatherback, click on this link Due to the size of these magnificent creatures, their only natural predators are sharks, killer whales and humans . Sadly, their greatest threat is getting caught in fishing nets – as they are air breathers, they drown when tangled in commercial nets. Other threats to their survival are the poaching of their eggs during nesting season, human consumption of turtle meat, ocean pollution, and the ingestion of plastic bags which they can mistake for jellyfish, their favourite food. While some beaches are patrolled during the nesting season to prevent hunting of the turtles and poaching of their eggs, many beaches remain un-patrolled and leaves the leatherback vulnerable. Enjoy this video about the leatherback turtle. Lopinot was named after Charles Joseph Count de Loppinot (1738–1819).Loppinot was a young knight who rose to the rank of Lieutenant-General in the French army. He left France to serve time in the North-American French colony of Acadie (today known as New Brunswick, Canada). He left the colony of Acadie around 1755, when the French were expelled from the area. He then headed to Louisiana until he recognized signs of future annexation by the United States. His journey then continued to Haiti which was, at the time, one of the wealthiest sugar-producing territories of the world. It was at this time that Loppinot seized the economically viable opportunity to become a sugar planter. He quickly amassed great wealth and acquired land, slaves and a good reputation among his fellow associates. However, his stay in Saint Domingue was curtailed as a result of slave uprisings which began in 1791. After fighting alongside the British in an attempt to reclaim the island, he fled when victory proved unattainable. Legend has it that on dark, stormy nights the Compte Charles Joseph de Lopinot appears on a black horse, dressed in military regalia, and gallops across the Lopinot savannah — the site of the cocoa and coffee estate he established around 1806 after he fled to Trinidad. He died in 1819. After a visit in 2011, TV show Ghost Hunters International (SYFY Channel in the US) reported that they had found more evidence of paranormal activity here than anywhere else in the world. Incidentally, the Ghost Hunters also tracked down some spine-tingling phenomena Down the Islands in Chacachacare, Trinidad…have a look. Our Pitch Lake in La Brea is the largest natural deposit of asphalt in the world and is one of only three natural asphalt lakes in the world (the other two are in Venezuela and California). It is the result of a fault in the sandstone 250 feet down, through which crude oil or bitumen seeps, the pitch has been exported for decades, for use on roofs and road surfaces. Though you can walk on its surface, objects have been swallowed up, sometimes reappearing years later as the pitch slowly swirls. The Amerindians are said to have believed that the Pitch Lake was created by the Good Spirit to drown a village whose people had sinned by killing too many hummingbirds. When Sir Walter Raleigh discovered the Pitch Lake in 1595, it was already known as the Tierra de Brea, it's Spanish name, by the Amerindians guides who introduced Sir Walter to the 100-acre lake of black gold.
Sir Walter Raleigh immediately recognized the potential and began caulking his ships with the tar. On his second voyage to Trinidad, Sir Walter Raleigh took some of the asphalt home with him, where it was used to pave Westminster Bridge for the opening of Parliament. Unfortunately the raw pitch melted in the sun, as it has a tendency to do, covering horses hooves and gumming up carriage wheels. |
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