 Did you know that Tobago is home to the largest recorded single brain coral found in the world! (10ft/3m high by 16ft/5.3m across).
In Kelleston Drain, a well known scuba dive site, just south of Little Tobago, lives a brain coral colony that has been growing undisturbed for centuries. The coral is nestled at the edge of a reef slope, about 55ft(17.5M) deep which is also a habitat for - nurse sharks, moray eels, manta rays, barracudas, sea sponges and other forms of coral colonies. This giant individual coral is made up of millions of tiny polyps that feed mainly at night by extending their tentacles. Corals are very fragile, so divers are warned to be very careful and never to touch any corals as even minor scrapes from fins or tanks can destroy the structure of the coral polyps, which in some cases can cause serious infections and leave ugly scars. #TrinidadandTobago #Trinidad #TobagoBookings #Caribbean #Coral #BrainCoral#ScubaDiving #Diving
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 MICHELENE AUGUSTE, IMG (International Management Group) model and now entrepreneur, recently threw open the doors of her Dem Golden Heritage Vintage Boutique in New York City and is excited about making her a name for herself in the fashion industry through her new venture.
Auguste is the daughter of Gabrielle Ahye who was a top TT model and flight attendant, and television engineer Grantley Auguste. She is also the granddaughter of late dancer and teacher, Iya L’Orisha Molly Ahye. Auguste lauded her family support for Dem, her short name for her travel inspired vintage boutique. She said: “My family has played a big role in my career. They keep me grounded. They are my biggest supporters. They inspire me to go after everything I want. My grandmother was a cultural icon in Trinidad, and my mother is and has always been my idol. Having these strong women to look up to has made me fearless.” She added, her boyfriend and artist Jordan Sullivan has also been a big supporter of her journey. “He’s opened me up to a lot of the art world over the years and continues to inspire me daily,” she said. Her boutique is situated in the lower Eastside Manhattan, 113 Division Street ans since opening, she said, the flow has been great. Its visitors are attracted to either the music, the art, and/or are just generally interested in what it even is. Auguste mainly sells vintage pieces or new pieces crafted from vintage material. “I have pieces from Trinidadian makers Anya Ayoung Chee, jewellery by Willow and Oak, prints from Che Love Lace, Brendan Delzin and books by Various Caribbean authors. I also collaborated with Jordan on some painted pieces for the store,” said Auguste. She said she sourced her store items from everywhere. “As a model I’ve travelled a lot and whenever I go somewhere I look for vintage....throughout Europe, America, the Middle East.” Auguste had always dreamt of a vintage Caribbean concept store. She had been selling vintage pieces for about three years online before opening the store. Seeing the abundance of talent the Caribbean possessed, she felt she had to create a platform to showcase that to the world. “When I left Trinidad I entered this fashion world that I couldn’t relate to. I didn’t do any research because I thought I should just be myself and that would allow me to shine. I showed up the first day to my agency in a purple turtle neck and a yellow cardigan. I thought I was in fashion. I was told to head to American Apparel for a white tee and black jeans. After that my agency made me come in before every casting to make sure I was dressed appropriately. I quickly learned that I had to adapt and follow suit. At the same time, when I didn’t have to be on as a model, I was finding my personal style. I knew I wanted to keep my heritage with me. I say all of this because Dem is something that I was craving when I first left Trinidad. I wanted to see African things, Caribbean things, Caribbean creatives.” Over the course of her modelling career, she has worked for such brands as Issey Miyake, Harrods, Louis Vuitton, DKNY, Duro Olowu, Maybeline, Nars and Google after first being scouted by IMG Models at Caribbean Fashion week Jamaica. IMG Models is an international modelling agency operating in New York City, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Milan, and Sydney. At an early age, Auguste had a love for fashion. “Before I was scouted I wanted to study fashion design. I put that on hold to model, which in turn became an education. “The modelling world has helped me learn the ins and outs of the fashion industry. While modelling I started collecting vintage from all over the world. Soon after I opened my online vintage shop. I love the process of finding vintage clothes, the hunt, and the stories that can be told through clothes. The idea of storytelling is what lead me to open a physical space for Dem. I love curating the store and mixing in pieces of my history and my culture. In this way Dem is a self-portrait and more of an art project or an installation than just a vintage store. I have a deep connection to everything I find and sell. It’s always about the journey and the story.” Auguste says Dem targets everybody. “We are all connected. Everything and everyone has a history, and I want to highlight that through the store.” As for her immediate goal, she said it is to continue to grow Dem and to share her culture and her story with the world, while her ultimate goal would be to design a sustainable clothing line, using all vintage and recycled fabrics. Source: Newsday, August 2019 This book shop hut on a drive through Manzanilla run by Ishmael Samad - books + the ocean. So much interest was shown that her now has his own Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/The-Book-Junkie-Manzanilla-347420562587563/  For more click on this link
or copy and paste this URL : https://www.marieclaire.co.uk/life/travel/tobago-eco-holiday-destination-652967?fbclid=IwAR1fQrWD1Y8A2RW9EaFn09Zjk9t9oBJWh8Kv3IwsYusdRr8x2rI34DqxF5g  Click on this link for full list of activities for the Canada Day weekend, or copy and post this URL into your browser
https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/canada-day/calendar.html  Mansa Musa travelled to Mecca with a caravan of 60,000 men and 12,000 slaves Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world, according to the 2019 Forbes billionaires' list released this week. With an estimated fortune of $131bn (£99bn) he is the wealthiest man in modern history. But he is by no means the richest man of all time. That title belongs to Mansa Musa, the 14th Century West African ruler who was so rich his generous handouts wrecked an entire country's economy. "Contemporary accounts of Musa's wealth are so breathless that it's almost impossible to get a sense of just how wealthy and powerful he truly was," Rudolph Butch Ware, associate professor of history at the University of California, told the BBC. Mansa Musa was "richer than anyone could describe", Jacob Davidson wrote about the African king for Money.com in 2015. In 2012, US website Celebrity Net Worth estimated his wealth at $400bn, but economic historians agree that his wealth is impossible to pin down to a number. The 10 richest men of all time
The golden kingMansa Musa was born in 1280 into a family of rulers. His brother, Mansa Abu-Bakr, ruled the empire until 1312, when he abdicated to go on an expedition. According to 14th Century Syrian historian Shibab al-Umari, Abu-Bakr was obsessed with the Atlantic Ocean and what lay beyond it. He reportedly embarked on an expedition with a fleet of 2,000 ships and thousands of men, women and slaves. They sailed off, never to return. Some, like the late American historian Ivan Van Sertima, entertain the idea that they reached South America. But there is no evidence of this. In any case, Mansa Musa inherited the kingdom he left behind. Under his rule, the kingdom of Mali grew significantly. He annexed 24 cities, including Timbuktu. The kingdom stretched for about 2,000 miles, from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to modern-day Niger, taking in parts of what are now Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Ivory Coast.  With such a large land mass came great resources such as gold and salt.
During the reign of Mansa Musa, the empire of Mali accounted for almost half of the Old World's gold, according to the British Museum. And all of it belonged to the king. "As the ruler, Mansa Musa had almost unlimited access to the most highly valued source of wealth in the medieval world," Kathleen Bickford Berzock, who specializes in African art at the Block Museum of Art at the Northwestern University, told the BBC. "Major trading centres that traded in gold and other goods were also in his territory, and he garnered wealth from this trade," she added. The journey to MeccaThough the empire of Mali was home to so much gold, the kingdom itself was not well known. This changed when Mansa Musa, a devout Muslim, decided to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca, passing through the Sahara Desert and Egypt. The king reportedly left Mali with a caravan of 60,000 men. He took his entire royal court and officials, soldiers, griots (entertainers), merchants, camel drivers and 12,000 slaves, as well as a long train of goats and sheep for food. It was a city moving through the desert. A city whose inhabitants, all the way down to the slaves, were clad in gold brocade and finest Persian silk. A hundred camels were in tow, each camel carrying hundreds of pounds of pure gold. It was a sight to behold. And the sight got even more opulent once the caravan reached Cairo, where they could really show off their wealth. The Cairo gold crashMansa Musa left such a memorable impression on Cairo that al-Umari, who visited the city 12 years after the Malian king, recounted how highly the people of Cairo were speaking of him. So lavishly did he hand out gold in Cairo that his three-month stay caused the price of gold to plummet in the region for 10 years, wrecking the economy. US-based technology company SmartAsset.com estimates that due to the depreciation of gold, Mansa Musa's pilgrimage led to about $1.5bn (£1.1bn) of economic losses across the Middle East. On his way back home, Mansa Musa passed through Egypt again, and according to some, tried to help the country's economy by removing some of the gold from circulation by borrowing it back at extortionate interest rates from Egyptian lenders. Others say he spent so much that he ran out of gold. Lucy Duran of the School of African and Oriental Studies in London notes that Malian griots, who are singing historian storytellers, in particular, were upset with him. "He gave out so much Malian gold along the way that jelis [griots] don't like to praise him in their songs because they think he wasted local resources outside the empire," she said. Education at heartThere is no doubt that Mansa Musa spent, or wasted, a lot of gold during his pilgrimage. But it was this excessive generosity that also caught the eyes of the world. Mansa Musa had put Mali and himself on the map, quite literally. In a Catalan Atlas map from 1375, a drawing of an African king sits on a golden throne atop Timbuktu, holding a piece of gold in his hand. Timbuktu became an African El Dorado and people came from near and far to have a glimpse. In the 19th Century, it still had a mythical status as a lost city of gold at the edge of the world, a beacon for both European fortune hunters and explorers, and this was largely down to the exploits of Mansa Musa 500 years earlier. Mansa Musa returned from Mecca with several Islamic scholars, including direct descendants of the prophet Muhammad and an Andalusian poet and architect by the name of Abu Es Haq es Saheli, who is widely credited with designing the famous Djinguereber mosque. The king reportedly paid the poet 200 kg (440lb) in gold, which in today's money would be $8.2m (£6.3m). In addition to encouraging the arts and architecture, he also funded literature and built schools, libraries and mosques. Timbuktu soon became a centre of education and people travelled from around the world to study at what would become the Sankore University. The rich king is often credited with starting the tradition of education in West Africa, although the story of his empire largely remains little known outside West Africa. "History is written by victors," according to Britain's World War II Prime Minister Winston Churchill. After Mansa Musa died in 1337, aged 57, the empire was inherited by his sons who could not hold the empire together. The smaller states broke off and the empire crumbled. The later arrival of Europeans in the region was the final nail in the empire's coffin. "The history of the medieval period is still largely seen only as a Western history," says Lisa Corrin Graziose, director of the Block Museum of Art, explaining why the story of Mansa Musa is not widely known. "Had Europeans arrived in significant numbers in Musa's time, with Mali at the height of its military and economic power instead of a couple hundred years later, things almost certainly would have been different," says Mr Ware. Source: BBC News, March 2019  Alisha Bruce (left) and Justine Lewis (right) Alisha Bruce and Justine Lewis are two peas in a pod.
They met at Naparima Girls’ High School and have been inseparable since. The most recent milestone for the two friends? Graduating from Howard University together. Alisha took to Twitter to announce the exciting news. “From Trinidad & Tobago all the way to Washington, DC. Last week I graduated Howard University with my friend of over a decade. I love you so much Juju, and I can’t wait to see what the world has in store for you,” Alisha posted on Twitter on May 17. Her post has been liked over 3000 times and retweeted over 700 times. In an interview with LoopTT, they shared how their friendship began. Justine recalled that it was their love for music that brought them together. She said they were both in choir throughout high school. They also did voice and piano lessons and sang with the Presentation College Mixed Choir. “Music has a way of bringing people together, and it surely did that for us. I think it was the day we discovered that our voices blended perfectly, that we became inseparable, and the bond became unbreakable,” she said. From Naparima Girls’ High School, the girls would then move on to Howard University. Justine left high school after Form 5 and was abroad for a year. She said this was their first time being apart and that came with ‘tears’ and ‘tabanca.’ “We wrote goodbye letters, and Bru took it an extra mile and sent me away with two DVD s called ‘For when you miss me’ and ‘For when you really REALLY miss me’ respectively.” Alisha would eventually follow her friend to Howard University. “When Justine was applying to Howard she suggested that I apply too. And well, the rest is history! We both received full academic scholarships from HU, so in August 2014, Ju and I were on our way to a new adventure in Washington, DC.” Justine pursued a degree in Biology while Alisha studied History and minored in Spanish. So how did they maintain their friendship at university throughout the years? Alisha noted that college was very different from university. She said with tough workloads and various extra-curricular activities they saw each other less but noted that their bond never wavered. What’s next for the dynamic duo? Justine said it’ll be the first time in 10 years they’ll be separated. She will be pursuing a medical Degree at Howard University while Alisha will be pursuing her Juris Doctor degree at Harvard Law School in the fall. Both intend to return to Trinidad. Justine said her ultimate dream would be to open a top-notch cancer facility in Trinidad. Alisha said while she is not sure which area of law she’d like to specialise in, her ultimate goal is to return to Trinidad. They had these tips for a lasting friendship: “We have always been very honest with each other. When someone does or says something to offend the other, we don’t hesitate to acknowledge it. In our 10 years of friendship, we’ve only had one disagreement! Something that we recently started doing with our friends from school was giving regular compliments, along with areas for improvement.”  Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) has won the Caribbean’s Leading Airline Award for the 10th consecutive year and the Caribbean’s Leading Airline Brand Award for the third consecutive year, while Tobago’s Coco Reef Resort & Spa has won Caribbean Leading Hotel Award for the 15th consecutive year.
The winners of the World Travel Awards 2019 (Caribbean and North America) were announced during a Gala Event at Sandals Resort, Montego Bay, Jamaica on Monday evening. In congratulating T&T’s winners, Tourism Minister Randall Mitchell, said that the country’s tourism product will only gain from these achievements. “All stakeholders, including citizens, must continue to further enhance and market our unique tourism product,” Minister Mitchell said. He is encouraging all tourism operators to continue to reinvest in their respective plants and operations to ensure there is a quality tourism offering. Nominations were submitted from several countries in the region, with St Lucia winning the Caribbean’s Leading Honeymoon Destination Award 2019; Jamaica winning the Caribbean’s Leading Destination 2019; Turks & Caicos being awarded the top prize for the Caribbean’s Leading Beach Destination 2019 and Sandals Resorts International winning the Caribbean Leading Hotel Brand 2019. National awards were also presented at the WTA Gala event: · Tobago’s Leading Car Rental Company 2019 – Avis · Tobago’s Leading Hotel 2019 – Blue Haven Hotel · Tobago’s Leading Resort 2019 – Coco Reef Resort & Spa · Trinidad’s Leading Car Rental Company 2019 – Avis · Trinidad’s Leading Hotel 2019 – Hilton Trinidad & Conference Centre · Trinidad’s Leading Hotel Suite 2019 – Presidential Suite, Hilton Trinidad & Conference Centre. The winners were determined via online voting from December 11, 2018 to January 10, 2019. World Travel Awards, the organization which hosts the event was established to support, promote and develop the global travel and tourism industry by identifying and rewarding excellence and inspiring its practitioners to continually raise the standards of their product and service offering.  Summertime in Toronto is host to some of the biggest cultural festivals in the city celebrating Canadian diversity and the many people that make up our nation.
This year, the Toronto Caribbean Carnival will celebrate the 52nd anniversary of the festival, and on this year’s frontline, they welcome newly appointed General Manager Richard de Lima. Richard de Lima was officially appointed as General Manager of the Toronto Caribbean Carnival at the beginning of last month and will be responsible for the overall management of the Festival Management Committee (FMC) and the production of the Toronto Caribbean Carnival, Canada’s celebration of freedom and diversity. The new GM brings 30 years of experience in business management, tourism, and hospitality to the 52nd year of the Caribbean Carnival celebrations in Toronto. In addition to a 30-year career in engineering and business management, including experience working for major tourism, hospitality and entertainment organizations in Canada, the Caribbean and other international locations, de Lima brings a passion for Carnival arts and culture, with his 43 years as a “mas maker”, masquerader and steelpan aficionado. “We are grateful to be working with an executive that combines both the required operational skills along with a deep knowledge of and passion for Caribbean Carnival operations”, says Joe Halstead, FMC Chairman. “We look forward to our 52nd year of the celebration under his guidance and leadership.” The Toronto Caribbean Carnival is an exciting four-week cultural explosion of Caribbean music, cuisine, and revelry. It is the largest cultural event in Canada and the largest outdoor festival in North America. Taking place from July 7th to August 11th, 2019, and since this year marks the 52nd anniversary of the carnival in Toronto it will feature more floats, music, celebrities, and fun than ever before. The theme “Canada’s Celebration of Freedom and Diversity” will infuse every aspect of the festival, from the parade route to the shows and all performers including singers, pannists and calypsonians. The city of Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area will come alive with the pulsating rhythms and melodies of Calypso, Soca, Salsa, Zouk, Reggae, Chutney, Steel Pan and Brass Bands. Carnival events will showcase originality, culture, and history to millions of spectators attending in downtown Toronto or watching on television and online. “I look forward to working with our key stakeholders in the Mas, Pan, and Calypso communities to forge truly collaborative relationships, where my objective is to evolve the Toronto Caribbean Carnival to be the best carnival in the world,” says de Lima. “As Canada’s celebration of freedom and diversity, our objective is to engage and invite Canadians and visitors from coast to coast to participate and experience the “Festival of Joy” that happens every summer in Canada’s downtown.” The Festival Management Committee (FMC) is the official producer of the Toronto Caribbean Carnival, Canada’s four-week-long celebration of freedom and diversity. Established in 1967 as part of Canada’s Centennial celebrations, the event formerly known as “Caribana”, has evolved into North America’s largest event of its kind with over 1 million participants annually and showcases the very best of Canadian Caribbean arts and culture. For more information, please visit www.torontocarnival.ca or connect with them on social media @gotocarnival. Put it in your calendars and make sure to head down to the Lakeshore and join your fellow masqueraders to celebrate the 52nd anniversary of the festival this summer! Source: Toronto Caribbean.com |
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