The United States Embassy is assuring individuals that they do not need to get the Covid-19 vaccine before travelling to the US.
However, travellers must present a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, which should be taken within 72 hours of arrival into the US.
The information was provided by US Embassy consular chief Cindy Diouf during an information session on social media last week.
The session was held to respond to the many questions from the public regarding travel to the US at this time.
Diouf said one of the common questions was whether people travelling to the US could access the vaccine there.
“The answer to that is what I have heard from Trinbagonians who have travelled recently is that they were able to go to the US and get a vaccine. You would want to consult your family and friends that are living there,” she responded.
Asked if the US Embassy will be making arrangements for US citizens here to be vaccinated, she clarified that the Embassy did not provide private medical care to US citizens anywhere in the world.
Responding to another question about whether a specific brand of vaccine is required for entry into the US, Diouf again stressed that, unlike other countries, the US did not have a vaccine entry requirement.
Asked if a fully vaccinated person still required a negative PCR test to enter the US, Diouf said: “Yes! Even me! I got vaccinated, my kids got vaccinated but we still had to take the PCR test here in Trinidad and Tobago to be able to travel. That test has to be taken within 72 hours of arrival into the United States. So yes, everyone needs that.”
Visa queries
Diouf said the easiest way to obtain a US visa at this time was via the interview waiver process.
“And the reason for that is due to social distancing requirements, due to Government of Trinidad and Tobago regulations. We are only able to see a small number of applicants every day. Keep in mind that we have been open continuously since the beginning of the Covid pandemic,” she said.
She advised that people with US passports that expired after January 2020 are able to return to the US on that expired passport.
“We spoke with Caribbean Airlines about a month ago and they confirmed that they were allowing American citizens to travel into the US with those expired passports,” she said.
One person wanted to find out whether a visa would still be valid if it expired on August 22 but they wanted to travel from August 20 to August 30.
Diouf said the visa must be valid the day a person presents themselves at the airport.
She noted that emergency visa appointments were evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
“Keep in mind that the number of requests for emergency appointments far exceeds the capacity. So if you have an appointment, hold on to it. What you would need to send us are the particulars of the situation...fully lay out what is your circumstance, what is going on with your life that you need to get immediately into the US.
“So you don’t want to put in there something along the lines of having heart surgery at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota because when you show up at your interview I’m going to ask you for the documentation from Mayo Clinic indicating you’re having surgery soon. So whatever you say, always be honest. The US government knows everything...most things anyway, with regard to travel and entry into our country.”
Source:  Daily Express, July 13, 2021

​Wrightson Road, in Port-of-Spain, is named after English engineer Walsh Wrightson, a racist who held that non-whites ought not to vote or govern the country.
Wrightson, Director of Public Works and member of the Legislative and Executive Councils from 1895 to 1907, was responsible for the construction of what became known as Wrightson Road, a 1.6 km roadway cut­ting along the shoreline on the western edge of downtown Port-of-Spain to the lighthouse.
In 1900, he built the road from the Charles Street junction to gain access to town’s sewerage pumping station sited at Mucurapo Point on the Maraval River. It followed a path along the seashore on the Woodbrook Estate.
The roadway, extended in the 1930s by India-born engineer Ranjit Kumar, was named for Wrightson.
Wrightson was also responsible for several landmark projects on the island.
He supervised the construction of a sewer system for Port-of-Spain in 1897. He designed Knolleys Tunnel which was built in 1898 to enable the railway line from Jernigham junction, Cunupia to Tabaquite to go through a hill in the central range. He built the Moruga Suspension Bridge in 1899. And he designed, through architect Daniel Hahn, the best building in the city at the time, Queen’s Royal College, which was built in 1904.
Wrightson, however, was a central figure in the Water Riot of 1903, having drafted a waterworks bill that sought to install water meters in homes and increase water rates.
The bill was hotly opposed, and it sparked off unrest. The episode had political implications because the agitation against the waterworks bill was said to arise from bitterness caused by the abolition, in 1899, of the borough council of Port-of-Spain.
The eruption, precipitated by a volatile combination of disenfranchised masses and an oppressive colonial government, led to the Red House being set on fire by angry burgesses. More than a dozen people were killed by police.
Over the years, there have been calls for the renaming of Wrightson Road to Ranjit Kumar Highway.
Dr. Brinsley Samaroo, professor emeritus of history at the St. Augustine campus of The University of the West Indies (The UWI), supported the call. In an article published in the Daily Express on 12 June 2020, Samaroo described Wrightson as “one of the worst imperialists. Absolutely racist”.
Samaroo said, “He (Wrightson) sparked the Water Riots in 1903 since he took the decision to meter water, and he imposed water rates on poor people.
“He was adamant non-white people didn’t have the right to govern themselves. He strongly believed Crown Colony government must be perpetuated. It’s in the Hansard. If you are not white, you don­’t have the gift to govern yourself.
“He was totally against the movement for the franchise (right to vote). Wrightson Road should be renamed after the director of works, engineer Ranjit Kumar. Kumar designed it and built it in the 1930s.” Source: Dominic Kalipersad, June 12, 2021

a couple of years old - but she is one of our amazing Trinbigonians.  

​Congratulations to Karen Brun for being selected as an International Space University - Florida Institute of Technology (ISU-FIT) Commercial Space Program Aldrin Scholar! Through this program, she will focus on how to take space business concepts to market.
Originally from the island of Trinidad and Tobago, Karen moved to the US and served in the U.S. Air Force, specializing in aviation and air mobility operations as a C-5 Galaxy flight engineer.
She has earned three Associates Degrees, a Bachelors in Applied Science and Technology, Masters Unmanned Systems - Space Concentration at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and is currently pursuing her PhD in Aviation Sciences with a focus on Human Factors at Florida Institute of Technology.
Karen is an FAA licensed pilot with five additional ratings. She joined International Institute for Astronautical Sciences in 2016 and has participated in our Microgravity Flights and courses. She was a member of the NASA HERA Program and served as a NASA intern. Karen hopes to inspire generations of learners about aviation and space exploration, and how they too can become involved in STEM programs early.
The IIAS family is proud of your contributions to the industry and look forward to your ongoing journey!
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Image 1: Karen Brun in flight suit. (Credit: NASA)
Image 2: Karen Brun with her 2016 AST 101 class while instructor Dr. Paul Buza explains hypoxia and how to recognize is effects when using pressurized spacesuits. IIAS suborbital simulations during AST 101 are conducted in high-altitude pressure chambers.

Trinidad and Tobago born actor Rudolph Walker has been awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by the Prince of Wales for services to drama and charity.
At the investiture ceremony at St James Palance yesterday Walker 81, said he had not “in my wildest dreams” imagined he would receive the honour.
“My message to all the youngsters is if I can do it, so can they. Things are tough but everything is achievable,” he said.
“Who would have thought that when I set sail for the shores of the UK in 1960 that I’d be at St James’s Palace receiving an award. Not in my wildest dreams.“It sends a message to the people in the UK but also young people in the Caribbean But there is still a long way to go.”
CBE is the highest-ranking British Empire award. King George V created the Orders of the British Empire awards during World War I to reward services to the war effort by people bravely working on the homefront. They are given to people for the profound positive impact they have made in their work.
Walker, who is originally from San Juan, began acting as an eight-year-old in primary school, going on to join Derek Walcott’s Trinidad Theatre Workshop as its youngest member.
He migrated to Britain at age 20 in 1960 after fellow T&T actor Errol John convinced him to go to the UK, where the training was considered to be superior.
Walker was one of the first black actors to be seen regularly on British television and is well known for his comedic roles in Love Thy Neighbour which ran from 1972 to 1976.
Since 2001, he has played Patrick Trueman in the British television soap opera EastEnders.
Minister of Culture, Tourism and Arts Randall Mitchell took to social media to congratulate Walker on his award.
Source: Trinidad & Tobago Guardian, June 25, 2021

Ms Clement is one of 3 people appointed to the Senate by the Prime Minister on Tuesday.  She is the daughter of a Trini immigrant, Hubert Clement (who is just shy of his 100th birthday).  Mr. Clement was a longtime teacher at Montreal’s Marymount high school where he met Bernadette’s mother, a Franco-Manitoban teacher with the name Euphrasie (from the Greek for “good cheer”). Bernadette grew up in the city’s Côte-St-Luc area with a brother and sister.

The following is the announcement made by the PM on Tuesday:Bernadette Clement is a lawyer and politician, who has served as Mayor of Cornwall, Ontario, since 2018. Ms. Clement was the first woman to be elected as Mayor of Cornwall and the first Black woman to serve as a mayor in Ontario. Prior to this, she served three terms as city councillor. She is very proud of the fact that her mother, who passed away in 2021, grew up in Manitoba as a Francophone and her father, who is a few months shy of 100 years young, grew up in Trinidad, and that she reflects both Canada’s diversity as well as its linguistic duality.

In 1991, after being called to the Bar of Ontario, Ms. Clement started her legal career with the non-profit corporation Roy McMurtry Legal Clinic, where she still works today. She worked as a lawyer, before serving as Deputy Director for 16 years. She has been the Executive Director since 2017 and, in this role, she continues to practise law focused on representing injured workers and has been an ardent advocate for those less privileged in society. She also taught Ethics and Legalities to health care students part-time at St. Lawrence College from 2001 to 2005. She is a member of the Association des juristes d’expression française de l’Ontario and the Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry Law Association.
Along with her participation on numerous Cornwall City Council committees, including the St. Lawrence River Institute, Ms. Clement has been active in her community. She has been co-chairing the Race Equity Advisory Committee for the Association of Community Legal Clinics of Ontario since 2020, and served as member and Chair of the Maison Baldwin House, a women's shelter, for approximately 15 years. She also volunteered with the Kinsmen Community Residence and the Cornwall and District Immigrant Services Agency, and was a member and the Chair, for over 20 years, of Inspire Community Support Services, a counselling agency providing support for families and persons with disabilities.
Ms. Clement is a recipient of a Cornwall District and Labour Council award for outstanding service to injured workers and a Legal Aid Ontario GEM award for outstanding achievement.

Angostura, a brand that’s practically synonymous with the cocktail bitters category, is a mainstay on the shelves of everyone from top bartenders to home mixologists around the globe. The bitters brand has been around since 1824 and is a regular feature in popular cocktails like the Old Fashioned, Manhattan, the Vieux Carré, and of course the Angostura Sour.
But while the Angostura name is instantly recognizable, there’s a level of mystery surrounding the brand. First, the bitters recipe is an old family secret. In fact, only five living people know it — all of whom have agreed to preserve the secret. But it’s not just the contents inside an Angostura bottle that have long confounded drink lovers. The brand’s oversized label makes it stand out on the shelf and has long been a source of confusion for consumers. There’s a reason for that: It initially began as a mistake.
When the brand’s founder, Dr. Johann Siegert, died in 1870, he passed the family business along to his sons Carlos, Luis, and Alfredo. The Siegert brothers decided to enter a competition to get their brand some press, and decided to do a rebrand. One brother designed the new bottle, while another brother designed the new label. The problem? Neither thought to consult the other about how to size them. By the time they realized that the label was too large for the bottle, it was too late to start over; they entered the competition anyway, oversized label and all.
Though the Siegerts ended up losing the competition, one judge advised the brothers to keep the design exactly as it was. This, the judge said, would ensure that Angostura bitters would always stand out against the competition (who else would make the same silly mistake?).
The Siegerts did just that. To this day, a century and a half later, the label on every Angostura bitters bottle is just a little too large, sticking up around the neck of the bottle. And while this has helped the brand maintain its uniqueness, it has also inspired some copycats. Brands like Forest Floor Foods, Fee Brothers, San Francisco Bitters Collection, and Underberg all produce bottles with oversized labels not unlike that of Angostura. This may simply be a classic case of imitation, or perhaps Angostura — a brand that’s been around a bit longer and is arguably more popular than the aforementioned brands — has influenced the bitters space so much that consumers now associate the entire category with having a large label. Either way, while Angostura started the trend, its large label is no longer one of a kind on today’s market.
Unlike most of its imitators, however, Angostura uses its packaging mistake to its advantage; with all that extra label space, the brand provides useful information to its customers. In tiny blue lettering, Angostura’s labels detail the brand’s history, and contain Dr. Johann Siegert’s signature, a product description, product ingredients, and more — some of which is written in multiple languages. Angostura sure does know how to make a bitter situation into something sweet.
Source:  Katie Brown, Vinepair.com

TRIBUTE TO PROMINENT LABOUR LEADER
ALBERT MARIA GOMES
In Trinidad and Tobago many people tend to associate Labour Day Celebrations with one man “ TUBAL URIAH BUTLER” , but he was only one of the Labour Leaders in our country. Today the ABVMOTT recognizes the contribution of Albert Maria Gomes for his contribution towards the trade union movement.
Gomes played a significant part in the establishment of the development of Unionism in T& T . It's a sad day when we only pay tribute to a few of our labour leaders forgetting that there were other individuals also made significant contributions to our country's development.
Who was ALBERT MARIA GOMES (1911-1978) and what were his contributions towards the labour movement in T & T?
Albert Maria Gomes of Portuguese descent was born in Belmont, Port of Spain, Trinidad. Ever since 1930s he was an active trade union leader. In fact he wore many hats .He was a unionist, politician, and was the first Chief Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. He was the founder of the Political Progress Groups and later led the Party of Political Progress Groups. He was active in the formation of the Democratic Labour Party(DLP) in Trinidad and Tobago
In the 1930s, Gomes demanded workers’ rights, more pay, and criticised the colonial power structure with revolutionary arguments. During the 1940s, Gomes was elected the President of the Federated Workers Trade Union (FWTU) working together with Quintin O'Connor as the Secretary he and his team were successful in building up the FWTU a movement which played a critical role in the establishment of unionism in Trinidad and Tobago.
In 1938 Albert Gomes was elected into the Port-of-Spain City Council in 1938, in which he served for nine years. In 1945, he was furrher elected as a member of the Legislative Council, and made a member of the Executive Council in 1946.
From 1950 to 1956, Gomes was re-elected to the Legislative Council and served as the pre-Independence Minister of Labour, Industry and Commerce. He was leader of the conservative Party of Political Progress Groups (POPPG). From 1958, he served as a member of the West Indies Federal House of Representatives, which dissolved with the break-down of the Federation in 1962. When the POPPG was defeated by the only nine-month old People’s National Movement (PNM) in the 1956 election by winning 13 out of the 24 seats (that is, 1,458 votes more than the POPPG), Gomes took the defeat very hard and left Trinidad to live in England.
WE SALUTE YOU ALBERT MARIA GOMES, PATRIOT AND SON OF THE SOIL FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS THE ESTABLISHMENT OF UNIONISM IN T & T.
Credit to sources “THE PORTUGUESE OF TRINIDAD & TOBAGO and WHO, WHAT, WHY , Trinidad 1950 and the Virtual Museum of Trinidad and Tobago.