TWO iconic calypsonians will be honoured by the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) on October 25, to herald the official start of the third instalment of the Tobago carnival.
McCartha Linda Sandy-Lewis, also known as Calypso Rose, and the late Winston Bailey, stage name The Mighty Shadow, are two of eight icons, five posthumously, set to be honoured for their contribution to nation-building, culture and leadership.
At a post-executive council news briefing on October 23, Assistant Secretary of Tourism, Culture, Antiquities and Transportation Niall George said the THA will celebrate the icons by renaming prominent streets and landmarks.
The other six icons are legendary football coach Bertille St Clair; former chief administrator Allan Richards; the late politician and pharmacist James AA Biggart; deceased anthropologist Dr Jacob Delworth Elder; Aloysius Morean and Edna Morean (education), both deceased.
Secretary of Infrastructure Trevor James said it is important to pay homage to those that have inspired Tobagonians over the years. In a media release on October 23, he said, “Tobago does not only have a proud heritage but also a collection of legends that have made their marks on the international stage and psyche of what it means to be Tobagonian. We are a great people deserving of honour, and as an Executive and citizenry, we owe it to them to recollect, recognise and celebrate, as a joint expression of gratitude, and for younger ones to see and be inspired as well.”
The event is set to take place at the Scarborough Esplanade. 
As the carnival festivities began on October 23 with the Soca Titans competition, George predicted a bumper carnival season, set to culminate on October 27 with the parade of the bands. He said he has received reports from hoteliers that occupancy is at 100 per cent.
“We’re also receiving reports of an increase in costume sales. I know there would be late persons trying to get on to the island, in that sphere, we are hoping that we receive the support that we asked for from both Caribbean Airlines and the Port Authority.”
He said the theme of this year's event is mud and revelry, as he called on those who intend to patronise the events to make it unprecedented, whilst also making prioritising safety.
“We would have done our last safety checks on last week Friday which would have been a tabletop exercise. We would have been presented with many scenarios and how they would be solved.”
​He added: “We are saying to Tobago, have fun, have clean fun and know that the background work would have been done so as to ensure that we have a very safe and successful carnival. I am saying to each and every one, let us enjoy the festivities to the best of our ability, let us come out, let us make the best of it.”
He encouraged the patrons to make use of the spots after the festivities to take photos.
“Enjoy the beauty of the island, enjoy the cuisine of the island, the warmth of the people on the island and let’s make it the best as we take this step in continuing to make Tobago the greatest little island on the planet.” (Source: Newsday, October 23, 2024)

MEMBERS of the Surinamese First Peoples participate in the Water Ritual, part of Heritage Week activities hosted by the Santa Rosa First Peoples Community at the Arima River, Blanchisseuse Road on October 12.
The Santa Rosa First Peoples community held its annual Water Ritual at the river, celebrating their cultural heritage and spiritual connections. The ritual brought together members from various tribes, including the Trio Tribe from Suriname, who adorned themselves in traditional costumes and sacred body paint. According to Ricardo Bharath Hernandez, Santa Rosa First Peoples’ chief, the tribal garments are crucial for honouring the spirits and ancestors, allowing participants to seek direct messages through their connection with nature.
The ceremony featured offerings made to the water, emphasising the community's deep respect for the environment and its role in their spiritual practices. Elders and leaders of the various tribes, including Bharath Hernandez, played pivotal roles in guiding the rituals, ensuring sacred traditions were upheld, and fostering a sense of unity and reverence among participants. The event not only highlighted the community's rich cultural heritage but also reinforced their ongoing with the spiritual world.
The Water Ritual is part of the Santa Rosa First Peoples Community Heritage Week celebrations from October 12-18.
Other events include a film screening at the Arima mayor’s temporary office on October 15, a ceremony remembering the ancestors at the Red House in Port of Spain on October 16, and a cultural and social mixer at the Heritage Village, Arima, on October 18.
(Source: Newsday, October 15, 2024)

Trinidad and Tobago's Dylan Carter placed fifth in the 50m butterfly final at the Swimming World Cup in Shanghai, China on October 20.
Carter, 28, touched the wall simultaneously with Australian Matthew Temple. Both athletes were timed at 22.53 seconds and earned 899 points.
Taking the gold was new world record holders Noe Ponti of Switzerland, who clocked 21.68 seconds. In second place was Netherlands' Nyls Korstanje (22.00) followed by Germany's Marius Kusch (22.26).
Ponti broke the world record in the prelims with a sensational 21.67 performance to collect the US$10,000 bonus. The previous record was 21.75 shared by Nicholas Santos of Brazil and Szebasztian Szabo of Hungary.
It was the first world record set by a Swiss swimmer since 1985.
Carter, who won gold in the 50m freestyle on October 18, is currently ranked 12th overall. He was sixth in the 100m freestyle on October 19.
The Swimming World Cup makes its next stop in Incheon, South Korea, from October 24-26, before the finale swims off in Singapore (October 31-November 2). (Source: Newsday, October 20, 2024)

NOT many can boast of placing in the top three in a global competition. But the members of Presentation College, Chaguanas’ robotics team sure can. The students placed third in a joint effort with three other countries at the First Global Challenge in Athens, Greece.
The seventh edition of the competition, held from September 26-29, featured students from over 190 countries. Its website says the idea behind the challenge was for one team from each country to “participate and focus the world on the amazing things that happen when kids from every country work together to solve problems through STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).”
This year’s theme was Feeding the Future, which focuses on sustainable food production.
“This year’s theme challenges teams to learn about and address the obstacles and opportunities to provide the global population with equitable, safe, nutritious, and environmentally responsible food,” the website adds.
Trinidad and Tobago’s team travelling included Xavier Blache, Kovid Capildeo, Xavier Edwards, Sameer Badree, Justin Basdeo and Sarmad Singh.
What they call the “ground team,” which also contributed to their efforts, included Vasudev Rampersad, Adam Baig, Naveen Singh, Avesh Ragoonath, Jamian Leopold, Vivek Bahadur Singh, and Aidan Singh.
Every year, the event provides teams with a kit in their home country, with parts such as steel rods, aluminium channels, motors, wheels, etc. The students then have to build a robot that meets specific criteria like size and ability to rise to a certain height.
There were 12 qualifying matches at the competition, from which 32 countries were selected for the semi-final rounds. For the finals, the qualifying teams were then split into alliances.
The challenge/game this year was a two-and-a-half-minute match in which one “alliance” battled another. An alliance in the challenge consisted of four different countries’ teams joining forces. Trinidad and Tobago teamed up with Estonia, Singapore and Guam, forming alliance eight.
The aim was to conserve water and energy and produce food. Then all six teams worked together as a “global alliance” to secure food and balance global resources to make a sustainable food system.
Coloured spheres were used to represent different elements – blue for water, green for energy, and orange for food. The robots, as well as selected human players, assisted in the process.
Blache, the team’s captain, told Newsday the experience was “a mix of excitement and education.”
“The excitement came from seeing so many different people around my age from different countries who have the same passion. And then for education, the event is not just about competing but learning about new technologies and hearing all the different ideas people have on solving a world challenge.”
The 18-year-old upper-six student is an aspiring software engineer. He said he got into robotics when he was in standard five after doing his first coding course. He currently studies pure and applied mathematics, physics, computer science and IT.
He recalled long days at nights at the school, even during vacation time, in preparation for the event. In fact, he said, practice began about a year ago.
“We entered the competition last year, too. So (afterwards) we started practising with the parts from that one.”
He said while he was part of the travelling team last year, his role was “more minor.
“Then a colleague of mine, Justin Basdeo, came to me and said, ‘Blache, let’s go and experiment with the parts.’ And throughout (last year), we experimented and got accustomed to the parts. So when the actual challenge was released this year in late June, we had a bit more familiarity.
“We created an Omni base that could drive in any direction.”
He said there were times they were still at school practising at 9 pm or even 11 pm.
Capildeo agreed, saying his teammates were “running on caffeine” during the final days of preparations.
“I didn’t stay as late as Blache did, but they really would be there until almost midnight until they were completely exhausted. Then, they would come back to school like normal the next morning.
“They were really giving it their all, physically and mentally, to make sure this robot could be built in time to ship.”
Capildeo, 18, studies maths, physics, chemistry and communication studies and has been on the robotics team for about three years.
He added that once they completed everything in time, it was on to the near 26-hour journey to Greece.
“I think there's a team picture we took when we finally landed in Greece where everybody was just looking really exhausted,” he said, laughing.
“And the competition itself started maybe two days after, and every day, we had to be out of the hotel before 7.30 am.”
Suffice it to say they continued running on caffeine. Capildeo was the human player for Trinidad and Tobago.
Trying his best to explain in layman’s terms what their robot did, Blache said, “It has to place one energy and one water ball within the goal to release a food ball, and once the food ball is released onto the playing field, the robot has to capture the food ball and bring it back to the human player.”
This, he said, was repeated throughout the game.
“...Because the purpose of the game is a physical representation that all countries must work together to combine water and energy to create food, and the food has to be brought back and stored and the stored food gives points to everyone (on the team).”
Capildeo praised Basdeo, the team’s head engineer, who “spent a lot of time going to help out other countries.
“A lot of the other Caribbean countries that came, their robots might have got partially damaged in transit. Justin actually used a lot of his free time helping countries like the US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Bermuda…And this would be from in the morning up until the night.
“Sometimes we'd reach the hotel at 10 pm and try to get as much sleep as we possibly could to go the next day again.”
He said he is certain there were nights they only got one or two hours of sleep.
Robotics is for everyone
Although he knew the team worked hard, Blache was shocked when he heard they had placed third.
“I didn't even know what to feel at that point.
“Because seeing that we, a team of boys who had little experience in robotics before joining, placed third in the world…Something like that is an amazing experience.”
He said this is why he encourages other students to join the team, as many doubt themselves.
“A lot of them feel that you have to be a top, top person in class to join robotics, or you have to have some sort of know-how in tech before you join robotics. But in the end, truly, it's not that. It's really just taking the step to try.”
Alliance number three (China, Moldova, Madagascar, Cook Islands) won the competition with 338 points, and alliance seven (Uzbekistan, Cambodia, Poland, Ethiopia) came second with 333 points.
Trinidad and Tobago’s alliance, eight, got 324 points.
Capildeo said similarly, he was “in disbelief and astonishment” on hearing the results.
“I knew how hard my team had worked, and I was happy that we kind of got rewarded for it all in the end…We showed the world that we are country that's capable of doing these kind of things.”
“I remember right after, we met we all hugged up each other because we just couldn't believe it,” he added.
They also placed first in the category of social media and got a blue ribbon for it. This was based on challenges the competition had from July.
Echoing his captain’s sentiments, Capildeo said, “Robotics is for everybody and everybody should give it a try.
“A lot of the people that came in and helped a lot of the students wouldn't have been as involved in robotics before, and they hadn't studied any of the theory…and they were still really, really good at it.
“Passion and love and genuine desire and drive to keep going and understand it all really helps.”
The students were accompanied by principal Dr Rene Wihby, and mentors Collin Samaru and Tricia Singh.
Singh recalled “not being able to breathe" (properly) during the semi-finals owing to her nervousness looking on.
“(After), the students told me they were also nervous, they were scared, they weren't sure if they could do it…But they said when they looked in the crowd and they saw the red, white and black, they were like, ‘We could definitely do it.’
“Most of the supporters were parents, siblings; we had the current principal and two past principals there from the school as well.”
She said she is very proud of the students and their work ethic. (Source:  Newsday. October 13, 2024)

JUSTICE Eleanor Joy Donaldson-Honeywell was on September 27 made the newest member of the Court of Appeal.
In a news release on September 27, President's House said Donaldson-Honeywell was sworn in as a member of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Trinidad and Tobago at a ceremony at the Office of President Christine Kangaloo.
It said, "In accordance with the advice of the Judicial and Legal Service Commission, Her Excellency Christine Carla Kangaloo, ORTT, President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, appointed Justice Eleanor Joy Donaldson-Honeywell as a Judge of the Court of Appeal today, Friday September 27, 2024 at a ceremony held at the Office of the President. The Honourable Chief Justice Mr Justice Ivor Archie ORTT, also attended the ceremony."
Prior to presenting Donaldson-Honeywell with her instrument of appointment, President Kangaloo made brief remarks about Donaldson-Honeywell's accomplishments.
Donaldson-Honeywell was admitted to practise at the Trinidad and Tobago Bar in 1989 and at the Jamaican Bar in the following year.
After a short stint at the National Commercial Bank Trust in Port of Spain, she became an associate attorney-at-law at Clinton Hart & Company in Jamaica, then the legal officer at the Fair-Trading Commission in that island before entering into private practice for a short period in 1995.
In that year, she became the director of legal services and enforcement at the Securities Commission in Jamaica before being appointed as the resident magistrate in the Kingston Corporate Area Criminal Division in 1999.
Justice Donaldson-Honeywell returned to Trinidad after four years and joined the Divestment Secretariat at the Ministry of Finance before being appointed as a member of the Industrial Court of Trinidad and Tobago.
In 2006, she became the chairman of the Essential Services Division of the Industrial Court and in 2010 was made solicitor general of Trinidad and Tobago.
Donaldson-Honeywell returned to private practice at the beginning of 2014 before being appointed a puisne judge in June 2015. Since 2019, she has also served as a part-time judge of the United Nations Dispute Tribunal.
She is a published author, winning the NALIS First Time Author prize in May 2015 for the biography of her father entitled Sailor Dance – John Stanley Donaldson- The Story.
She serves as a trained volunteer with the Adult Literacy Tutors Association.
On August 30, Justice Geoffrey Henderson was appointed to the Court of Appeal.
(Source: Newsday, Sept 29, 2024)

BELMOPAN: A one-day workshop aimed at equipping senior officials of the judiciary with the skills for efficiently resolving disputes, avoiding lengthy trials and reducing the backlog of civil cases gets under way here on Monday.
The senior courts of Belize Judicial Education Institute said that the Judicial Settlement Conferences is specifically tailored for judges, registrars, judicial assistants, and members of the Bar Association of Belize.
It said the event is one of two critical training seminars on Judicial Settlement Conferences and Criminal Mediation aimed at improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the judicial system.
These training seminars are aligned with the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Academy for Law Needham’s Point Declaration, the Senior Courts of Belize Strategic Narrative, and the recommendations from the Criminal Justice Board.
Chief Justice Madame Louise Esther Blenman of the Senior Courts of Belize, and president of the Judicial Education Institute, said the judicial settlement conferences are facilitated by a settlement judge who acts as a mediator for matters assigned to another judge.
It will be facilitated by Justice of Appeal Vasheist Kokaram of the TT Judiciary, who is “renowned for his expertise and experience in mediation, and judicial settlement conferences, having provided extensive training across the Caribbean."
She said the Judicial Education Institute will hold a training seminar on criminal mediation from October 2-6, which is also judge-driven.
“In this case, judges will conduct the mediation of criminal cases. The criminal mediation training is sponsored by the European Union and the United Nations Programme Development PACE Justice Project.”
The five-day conference will be facilitated by Dr Christopher Malcolm and Burchell James of the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI).
“The participants will include the criminal division judges, magistrates, attorneys at law, and mediators. The training aims to introduce participants to mediation in criminal matters and the best practices as well as to tool participants with the skills for expediting case resolution and backlog reduction in the criminal-justice system in Belize. By incorporating mediation in the criminal-justice process, it will enhance access to justice, shorten legal proceedings and create a more responsive court system.”
The Chief Justice has sought to emphasise the significance of these training seminars in reducing case backlogs and empowering stakeholders of the senior courts of Belize with the latest knowledge and tools to ensure justice is delivered in a timely and effective manner. (Source: Newsday, Sept 29, 2024)

​Three people will today receive the nation’s highest national award—the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (ORTT). The Office of the President yesterday released the names of 65 citizens who will be honoured as they receive their national awards, as the country observes its 48th anniversary as a republic today.

• ​Mark Loquan, former president of the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago (NGC), for National Service (Energy and Steelpan Innovation)
•  Prof Patrick Hosein for Technology, Innovation and Engineering
• Sydney Russell Martineau, SC, former president of the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago (LATT), for Law.

The second highest award--the Chaconia Medal Gold—will be given to 11 awardees.
Among the awardees are a number of business people and experts in finance.
Executive chairman of Xtra Foods Supermarket Anon Naipaul will receive this award as well as Mohan Persad, director of Persad’s The Food King Supermarkets.
Eustace Nancis, founder of the Arima Door Centre Ltd. will also receive a Chaconia Medal Gold.

Chief executive officer of First Citizens Bank Karen Darbasie is an awardee in this category in the sphere of banking and finance.
Chaconia awards
There are seven recipients for the Chaconia Medal Silver, among them two former police commissioners and a former assistant police commissioner.
Former acting top cop Stephen Williams will receive an award in the sphere of National Security and Public Service.
Williams was commissioner from 2012 to 2020. He served as a police officer for over 35 years and has performed in all ranks, from constable to commissioner.
Former police commissioner James Anthony Philbert will receive the Chaconia Medal Silver. He has over 43 years in active policing and the Office of the President stated that he paid strong attention to the detection of transnational organised crimes, the management of illegal weapons and narcotics, human trafficking, and crime scene investigation.
Joanne James, retired assistant commissioner of police who has 40 years in law enforcement, will also receive the Chaconia Medal Silver. As a training specialist, James develops curricula and facilitate training for the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (induction and advanced levels). 
Hummingbird medals
The Hummingbird Medal is awarded for loyal and devoted service in any field of human endeavour, or for gallantry, or other humane action to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
A total of 18 recipients will be honoured with the Hummingbird Medal Gold.
Among them are six doctors, including dermatologist Dr Khamedaye Basdeo Maharaj. Basdeo-Maharaj is renowned for her seminal research in dermatology, particularly in the area of T-cell research, keloids, hair and nails.
President of Pan Trinbago Beverly Ramsey-Moore will receive the Hummingbird Medal Gold for contributions to Culture/Arts/Community Development.
There are 15 recipients of the Hummingbird Medal Silver and a number of awardees were recognised for their contribution to education. They include Zena Ramatali, first vice president of the National Parent Teachers Association (NPTA). Teachers, principals and a vice principal are also among the awardees.
The Public Service Medal of Merit is awarded for Outstanding and Meritorious Service to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
The Public Service Medal of Merit Gold went to eight people, including ombudsman Jacqueline Sampson Meiguel, who formerly worked as the clerk of the House. The Office of the President noted that Sampson Meiguel had been at the helm of the office of the Parliament as its accounting officer and head of department.
The Public Service Medal of Merit Silver went to former high commissioner Fitzgerald Mc Arthur Jeffrey (posthumous) who helped to strengthen ties between Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
The Medal for the Development of Women, Gold was awarded to Rowena Martineau Pitt, the director of Tabitha’s Home for Women and Children.
The Medal for the Development of Women, Bronze went to Giselle Granger, a farmer from St Mary’s village. (Souce: Sunday Express, Sept 24, 2024)