A new personal assistant selected by the Queen is set to become the first black equerry in British history.
Ghanaian-born Major Nana Kofi Twumasi-Ankrah has been chosen for the role, one of the most important positions in the royal household.
The 38-year-old Afghanistan veteran, known as TA among friends, will start this year, according to The Sunday Times.
His role as equerry is to support the monarch at official engagements such as regional visits and audiences at Buckingham Palace. 
The Queen's Equerry is an officer from one of the armed services, who takes on the role for three years.
Major Twumasi-Ankrah moved to the UK from Ghana with his parents in 1982 and studied at Queen Mary University of London and the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.
He became the first black British Army Officer to be commissioned into the Household Cavalry, and acted as escort commander for the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in 2011.
The timing of his appointment is significant as the Duke of Edinburgh is to retire from his duties later this year.
Twumasi-Ankrah is likely to become the most visible man by the Queen’s side.
Source: Evening Standard

History is made!! Team TTO Overall CCCAN Champions!!
1st English Speaking country to win these games
Team Awards:
1st place Waterpolo
2nd place Swimming
5th place Open Water
4th Place Diving

Thought I would share this video..it really works.  Of course I was skeptical when I saw it, but then I tried it, and to my surprise it worked for me!

A farmer aged 70 from Trinidad is graduating from Edinburgh Napier University with a Masters of Business Administration.
Ramgopaul Roop achieved academic success even though his parents Poyah and Roop Bataw could not read or write.
Ramgopaul – who had seen his three children study to degree level and beyond – fulfilled his ambition by combining full-time work on his smallholder farm then studying often all night. His dedication paid off when he was awarded an MBA with Distinction.He said: “This being the last chance on the last train, the only option was to sit tight and hold on.”
He added: “The past 32 months have been very challenging but stimulating. It shows there is no age limit to academic achievement and personal professional development.”​Ramgopaul – who is regional administrator of the Caribbean Agribusiness Association – studied online at Edinburgh Napier, one module per trimester.
He was supported by his wife Beena, who read and re-read drafts, and family dog, Coco, who had a special bed made up in Ramgopaul’s study to sit by him as he worked.
The farmer completed his studies last autumn but was unable to travel from the West Indies to Edinburgh for the ceremony as it clashed with his commitments at the Caribbean Week of Agriculture in the Cayman Islands, so he is receiving his degree at this summer’s graduations instead. In the intervening months, he has used research from his MBA dissertation to help develop a policy framework for the cassava industry – a 21st century multi-purpose crop thought to have the potential to transform the economy of the Caribbean.
Soil and water management techniques on his farm which can pave the way for intensive vegetable and tree crops production were also praised as “a diversification dream” in his submission to the 2017 Global Contest on Sound Solution in Farming for Biodiversity.
Ramgopaul said: “The skills acquired in writing assignments and my dissertation are now being applied in my everyday activities.”
Ramgopaul had been introduced to the work of the university by Southpoint Education International, which supports online, distance degrees offered by Edinburgh Napier.
Mammed Bagher, Director of MBA Programmes at Edinburgh Napier, said: “Ramgopaul’s achievement is testament to our ethos of education for all, regardless of age or social background.”
He added: “Our global online suite of MBA programmes is suitable for learners who are unable to take part in the traditional classroom environment. We are continuously investing in our online staff and student community so all our learners feel very much part of the wider university network without physically being present.”

The winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize has been announced as a first-time author of the genre from Trinidad and Tobago.
Ingrid Persaud won this year’s title with the first short story she has written, The Sweet Sop, fighting off tough competition from more than 6,000 entries from across the Commonwealth.
Persaud, who has previously worked as a legal academic, a visual artist and a project manager, published her debut novel If I Never Went Home in 2014 and is currently working on her second book.
The Sweet Sop explores the relationship between fathers and sons as well as illness, death and Caribbean masculinity, all tied together by the theme of chocolate.
Recent family losses and a true story about an assassination carried out by feeding the victim poisoned chocolate were the inspirations behind the story.
Chair of the judging panel, novelist Kamila Shamsie said: “The judges were very impressed by The Sweet Sop’s originality, the strength of its characterisation, the control of voice, and its humour and emotional punch.Writers from around the world entered the competition (Ryan Phillips/PA)
“It loses none of its effectiveness on a second or third or fourth re-reading, always the mark of a rich and layered story.”
Persaud, who has homes in Barbados and London, said: “I am humbled to be this year’s winner.
“The Sweet Sop is an intimate story that attempts to ask universal questions.”
The prize was awarded at a ceremony on June 30 at The Arts House in Singapore after being judged by a panel of five international writers.
In its sixth year, the prize is run by Commonwealth Writers, part of the Commonwealth Foundation, and recognises the best unpublished short fiction in English.
The ceremony was also attended by the four other regional winners, Akwaeke Emezi for Who Is Like God, Anushka Jasraj for Drawing Lessons, Tracy Fells for The Naming of Moths, and Nat Newman for The Death of Margaret Roe.
Source:  the Irish News, June 30, 2017

Many times we tend to forget the tremendous sacrifices of our forefathers in creating the present landscape. The herculean effort of these men are oftentimes blurred as to deny them their place in history and to deny their descendants a share in the economic windfall. Fyzabad needs to have a monument erected to these men who braved malaria, yellow fever and dengue to make their country, T&T, a more prosperous nation. We salute them for their heroic efforts.
—Rudolph Bissessarsingh


Angelo Bissessarsingh Published: June 15, 2014 The pioneering days of the Trinidadian oil industry of the early 20th century were filled with incidents of heroism and toil which laid a foundation for the economic prosperity with which we are blessed. When Capt Walter P Darwent drilled the first well at Aripero in 1867 it was in an area of moderate cultivation. When Major Randolph Rust prospected and struck oil in 1902 it was in primaeval jungle near Guayaguyare. Since there was no road access to the area, manpower and equipment were sent to the east coast by steamer and then ferried four miles up the Pilot River on rafts and canoes where a site had been cleared and levelled by hand.
So, too, in 1913-19, the cocoa plantations and virgin forests outside the little agrarian village of Fyzabad drew the attention of oil prospectors.
Trinidad Leaseholds Ltd began the march in 1913, acquiring lands, leases and oil rights from the peasant farmers. Apex Oilfields Ltd, led by the formidable Col Horace, also began acquiring lands at Forest Reserve, Fyzabad, both from peasant cocoa proprietors and by lease from the Crown. Most of these lands had to be cleared for the erection of drill sites, housing camps (for white expatriate staff), refineries, roads, pipelines, and all the infrastructure necessary to make the extraction of oil feasible.
Roads, in particular, were vital to the industry, as the use of the motor car was imperative. For example, Trinidad Leaseholds had fields at Barrackpore near Penal, and also at Fyzabad, more than 20 miles away, and a refinery at Pointe-a-Pierre, another 18 miles from Fyzabad. In the infant days of the industry, the bulldozer was still unknown and most of the work of clearing the forest and laying trajectories for roads fell to an amazing class of labourer, now forgotten in history, called the Tattoo gangs.


Corduroy roads
Tattoo gangs consisted of both men and women, who lived as peasants near the area of development. The men were powerful with an axe and hewed thousands of trees to make clearings in the forest. The women would cull the underbrush with cutlasses before firing the whole. Logs would be dragged by oxen (later crawler tractor) parallel to each other and smeared with a layer of gravel and clay to create corduroy roads. These logs were known as “cut dry” and were split lengthwise in four pieces, with each bit being paid for at the rate of a penny each. Corduroy roads were essential especially in the low-lying and swampy spots, as they allowed the free passage of machinery and vehicles on a surface which would not speedily become depressed or pockmarked. Hardy oxen also played a special role in the development of oilfields in Fyzabad.
Essential equipment and pipes for the establishments in Forest Reserve were brought by steamer from Port-of-Spain to the mouth of the Godineau River, near Mosquito Creek, and then loaded on a barge. The barge would proceed upriver to a landing place on the old St John’s estate, where a canal had been dug in the 1830s by the owner, De Godineau. The bank here was steep, so straining oxen would be used to heave the equipment up to the flat area above the river, where it would be taken by cart or truck to Forest Reserve.
In areas where hilly or rolling terrain impeded the progress of roads, the Tattoo gang performed monumental labours. Writing of his experiences in the oilfields of 1923, PET O’Connor says: “There were few labour-saving devices.
“Heavy equipment was headed into place by manpower, the forests were cleared by axeman and well sires and roads were graded by that unique breed of men and womenfolk called the tattoo gangs. Earthwork was paid for by the cubic yard, dug and moved, and the tattoo gang could move mountains. The men dug the wet earth with fork and shovel and piled the wooden trays high for their women partners to head to the ‘fill’ in an endless procession to and from like a swarm of bachacs . The bulldozer has replaced the tattoo gang, but the miles of road through our forests remain as a silent monument to a very special breed of men and their womenfolk who have passed into oblivion.”
The usual rate for a cubic yard of earth, dug and moved, was a shilling. If anyone has ever dug wet, clayey soil, then they can appreciate the awesome effort of the Tattoo gangs. By the late 1920s, crawler tractors and bulldozers had replaced the gang.
The oil wealth of Trinidad was not won by “suits” in boardrooms but by the sweat of thousands of forgotten pioneers. It is this aspect of history that has been too long neglected.
Source:  Guardian, June 24, 2017.