T&T’s Asa Guevara sported two gold medals at the end of the Brutus Hamilton Challenge held in Berkley, California, on the weekend.
The Chaguanas-native mounted the top of the podium after clocking 47.23 seconds in the men’s 400 metres final. Guevara later teamed up with his UTEP squad to win the 4x100m in 40.42 at the two-day meet.
The weekend before the local quartermiler placed third in the 400m in a time of 46.81 at a meet hosted by his university in El Paso, Texas. The relay team also improved on its previous time of 40.70 in placing second.
Source:  Trinidad Guardian

I saw this very interesting post on the Mayaro Rio Claro Regional Cooperation site and thought I would share it.  It is self explanatory. 

Trinidad is shrinking and changing as it becomes increasingly vulnerable to storms, flooding and other natural disasters which cause coastal erosion and the retreating of the shoreline. In Columbus Bay, in West Trinidad, the coastline has retreated by 150 metres since 1994, losing 6.5 hectares of land. In the western part of Guayaguayare, the shoreline retreats annually by approximately one metre per year.
In Cocoa Bay, north of Manzanilla, the retreat is slightly more accelerated at 1.45 metres annually.
“The country is shrinking in some parts but it might be expanding in others, but the number of areas where it is shrinking is a lot more than the areas where it is expanding,” said Michele Lemay, Integrated Coastal Zone Management Specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB).
Lemay has spent much of the past two decades in the region, doing research on coastal erosion and providing expertise on the subject.
In an interview at the IDB office in Port-of-Spain, Lemay said at a national level, in the last decade, from 2005 to 2015, there had been a five-fold increase in Trinidad of storm events, erosion and flooding when compared to the decade prior.
She said this also coincided with an increase in coastal erosion.
“T&T is becoming more vulnerable and when you think about the cost of this in terms of getting to work, taking kids to school, damages to property and household, you see the more obvious effects,” she said.
“It happened in Matelot and Grand Riviere, before that it happened in Manzanilla and Mayaro. We found that the frequency of erosion and flooding in the coastal zone has increased considerably, even in Tobago.
“Sea level rise is going to worsen things and speed it up but we do know that up to the year 2100 there is a potential of 1 metre increase for sea level rise but I think in T&T there is more research needed to bring down the global models and come up with local numbers.”
Lemay said the Caribbean was more vulnerable than other places because countries are on the hurricane track or have more frequent storms.
“Caribbean islands are very densely populated so there are a lot of infrastructure along the coast. The more you build your shoreline, the more you create circumstances where you can have coastal erosion.”
She said the IADB had made recommendations for government to focus on priority areas for mitigating measures.
The areas identified were Speyside in Tobago, Mayaro, Guayaguayare area, Cocos Bay and San Souci as they are worse affected in the sense that when events happen, flooding or erosion they affect communities which are isolated.
“The idea is to promote people to stay at least 50 metres away from the shoreline for construction. Sometimes you have private ownership of land right up to the beach. You can tell people, this is your private property but do not build hard structures too close to the ocean.”
Lemay said T&T already had an advantage over other countries in the region in terms of research from the Institute of Marine Affairs (IMA) and installation of a Coastal Protection Unit under the Ministry of Works in 2014.
“What is needed is much closer monitoring of the shoreline. You can measure how it retreats, in some cases it moves forward or becomes more steep which is a clear sign of erosion.
“Our shorelines in the Caribbean are very vulnerable to storm events, flooding and erosion and traditionally the solution has been to build emergency structures when houses start losing their land and things like that. An integrated approach combines technically advanced solutions with regulatory measures and science.
“The work of the IMA and coastal protection unit is going in that direction.”
She said other measures needed to take place such as involving residents of affected communities in solutions like planting mangroves across the shore.
Source:  Trinidad Guardian, Aril 16, 2017

​Congratulations to the Trinidad and Tobago Under 18 Girls Water Polo Team who took the Gold Medal in their category today at the CARIFTA Championships in the Bahamas.

A Trinidad-born orthopaedic surgeon has made a discovery in the field of medicine. Dr Jabari Martin, 33, who is from Petit Valley, found that a person can have cancer of the lymph nodes but it can be mistaken by doctors for an infection at the site of previous surgery.
Martin attended Queen’s Royal College before heading off to the prestigious Howard University where he studied biology, medicine and then orthopaedic surgery. He is currently completing a fellowship in sports medicine at the American Sports Medicine Institute.
The discovery was made while Martin was still a resident at Howard University Hospital but was completing a rotation at the US Veteran Affairs Hospital in Washington DC.
The ground-breaking case is featured in this month’s edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and is co-authored by Drs Jasmine Bauknight; Vincent Desiderio and Bahman Sadr.
According to the case, a 49-year-old man with a history of skin cancer and skin infections came to the hospital with increasing pain in the left shoulder that was exacerbated by overhead activities; the pain was even felt during sleep. When questioned by a team of doctors, the man repeatedly denied that he had any history of trauma.
In an interview with the Sunday Guardian, Martin noted that the man “had previously undergone shoulder surgery to repair the rotator cuff. He healed uneventfully, with no shoulder pain, and improved function of the shoulder but three years after the initial surgery he began having recurrent left shoulder pain. It was recommended that he undergo physical therapy and pain management but that did not help him improve”.
Martin and the co-authors noted that an MRI was subsequently done and it revealed that the patient had a surgically amenable re-tear of the rotator cuff and therefore a decision was made to go back into surgery and fix the tear. The man then showed the expected improvements after surgery but began suffering recurrent pain five months later that could only be attributed to secondary tendonitis. Anti-inflammatory medications were recommended and prescribed soon after.
A breakthrough
This was ineffective and, according to the journal, the patient returned with fevers, chills and swelling over the anterior aspect of the shoulder. He was admitted to the hospital and underwent surgical removal of all infected tissues.
It was during this third hospital admission that the patient began exhibiting the symptoms of night sweats. The article describes in detail, “While in the hospital, the patient had drenching night sweats, copious serosanguinous wound drainage, an elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein level, and a mildly elevated white blood cell count, all attributed to infection from his presumed osteomyelitis.”
However, blood cultures, as well as capsule and synovial tissue samples and swabs obtained during surgery, showed no bacterial growth. According to the journal, “Over the next three months, the patient underwent three additional open débridements, each time with more aggressive removal of tissue, suture, and implants from prior surgeries. A total of 25 cultures was obtained, with the initial débridement cultures held for only seven days but subsequent cultures were held for 14 days and four to six weeks for fungal and mycobacterial cultures.”
Martin admitted that the team was perplexed as the cultures did not grow as expected. However, they encountered a breakthrough when, on closer examination, a swelling was noticed on the left side of the back of the man’s neck.
The swelling was not characteristically tender, prompting the team to test a sample. This led to the surprising diagnosis of cancer of the lymph nodes.
On Martin’s recommendation, the patient at once underwent chemotherapy and within days of starting chemotherapy, drainage from the shoulder decreased, and the pain improved. Within one month, the wound had healed, and at five months, the lymphoma was in complete clinical remission. At that point, the shoulder was minimally painful and remarkably functional considering the extensive multiple débridements of the rotator cuff and its footprint.
The study noted that one year following the last surgical procedure, the patient was re-evaluated and the lymphoma was in remission. His left shoulder ached intermittently on exertion, with the pain favourably rated between zero and six on a ten-point visual pain scale.
Source:  Trinidad Guardian

Two local Attorneys are currently representing Trinidad and Tobago at a two-week internship at the prestigious Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, in Toronto, Canada.
Attorney-at-law Shoshanna V. Lall, the Senior Legal Officer in the Office of the President, is one of four attorneys from an international list of 100 applicants to have won the internship. Lall’s Research Project, “Modernising Justice: Mandatory Mediation in the Trinidad and Tobago Justice System, E-filing and Legislative Reform” and the 45-minute interview, which followed her being shortlisted, earned her a place as one of the 4 Legal Research Interns at Osgoode Hall Law School.
Among the four selected interns is another Trinidad and Tobago Attorney-at-Law, Kamla Braithwaite, who is a Judicial Research Counsel in the Judiciary of Trinidad and Tobago. Her Research Project concerns “Access to Justice for Litigants in Trinidad and Tobago.” 
The Internship runs from March 6 to March 17, 2017 at Osgoode Hall Law School and will continue with the submission of a legal paper, presentations and the further action required for implementation of the Research Project in the civil justice system.
This International Legal Research Internship, financed by Global Affairs Canada (GAC), was offered through the Justice Studies Centre for the Americas (JSCA), in collaboration with Osgoode Hall Law School (OHLS), on the platform, “Improving Access to Civil Justice in Latin America”. 
Applications were invited from international attorneys-at-Law practicing in various fields of law- public and private- on a topic of their choice, which supports civil justice reform in the Region, in the area of civil procedure.
Source: Loop

​The theme for International Women’s Day 2017 yesterday was “Be Bold for Change”, reflecting the many strong young Trinbagonian women leading in areas of business, media, social work, STEM and sport, to name just a few. Here are several young women who are charging forward to take on the mantle of leadership passed on by previous generations.
1. Teocah Dove
Teocah Dove has become a familiar name, setting an example of success and leadership after receiving the Queen’s Young Leader Award in 2015.
She is a Chevening Scholar with over 10 years of volunteerism, advocacy and activism experience. She is also one of the first female recipients to have received this award.
Dove has a passion for equality rights and the protection of vulnerable persons in society and holds degrees in Journalism and Public Relations, Media and Communications, and Gender and International Relations.
She has a well-known history of designing, providing technical direction on, and implementing impactful social interventions, empowerment, inclusion and leadership programs, aimed at improving the lives of vulnerable women, children and youth.
2. Dr Marsha Pearce
Writer, cultural theorist and lecturer at the Department of Creative and Festival Arts, UWI St. Augustine, Dr Marsha Pearce focuses on Caribbean culture and its various expressions within society.
Her research interests lie in the fields of contemporary art, mass media, museum studies and practice and conceptualisations of space and place.
She was the 2006 Rhodes Trust Rex Nettleford Cultural Studies Fellow and is Senior Editor and Art Writer for ARC Caribbean Art and Culture Magazine, and has written for numerous local and international publications.
She is also a member of a number of professional networks including the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) – Southern Caribbean Section and the Commonwealth Association of Museums.
3. Nadine Bushell
Bushell is the youngest national District Governor of the International Association Lions Club, leading Sub-District 60A, which comprises Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.She is one of two female Lions occupying positions of leadership previously reserved for their male counterparts. Bushell is also Programme Coordinator at CARICOM IMPACS.
4. Asiya Mohammed
CEO, Conflict Women Ltd
Asiya Mohammed’s company, Conflict Women Ltd, has made ground-breaking strides in empowering victims of domestic violence since its inception in 2014.
Her company works with survivors of domestic and sexual violence, helping them to provide for themselves by creating and trading handmade jewellery.
For more information go to www.facebook.com/conflictwomenltd
5. Senator Jennifer Raffoul
Senator Raffoul was was appointed an Independent Senator on September 23, 2015 and has been making her voice heard on socio-economic and cultural issues ever since.
A graduate of Oxford University with an MSc in Economics for Development in 2008, Raffoul also attained a BA (Hons) in Applied Economics with a minor in Political Science from Queen's University, Canada in 2006.
The former student of St. Joseph's Convent Port-of-Spain was also the recipient of a National Scholarship in 2002.
Senator Raffoul has continued to call for the protection of the vulnerable in society.
She has been a board member of The University of Trinidad and Tobago since February 2015 and founded MadeIntheCaribbean.co, an e-commerce website for the sale of local products.
Previously, she served as Consultant for the IADB Fiscal and Municipal Management Division, Project Management Consultant for the Trinidad and Tobago Coalition of Service Industries, Research Fellow at the IADB Country Office, Trinidad and Tobago and a Technical Coordinator of the University of Trinidad and Tobago Green Tourism Project.
. Anisa Mohammed
Cricketer Anisa Mohammed has, along with the rest of the West Indies women’s team, helped bring glory back to the region.
The right-arm off spin bowler and her team won the 2016 World T20 Championship in 2016.
Since her debut at 15, 19-year-old Mohammed has played in 101 women's One Day International (ODI) and 89 women's Twenty20 international (T20I) matches.
She taken the most the wickets in women's T20Is, with 104, well ahead of everyone who has played in the international format.
Mohammed has also taken a total of seven five-wicket hauls in women's international cricket, five in ODIs and two in T20Is, the only player to achieve either of these feats.
7. Gerneiva Parkinson
Parkinson has received a $250,000 grant from US DNA-sequencing company, Color Genomics, to continue her research into breast cancer in Trinidad and Tobago.
The company also volunteered its own genetic counsellors to train local physicians.
Her story was featured online on Fast Company.
Parkinson is also hoping to fund studies into other forms of cancer, including prostate cancer.
8. Michelle-Lee Ahye
Olympic sprinter Michelle-Lee Ahye has brought pride to Trinidad and Tobago after competing at the 2016 Olympic games in Brazil.
Ahye won the Trinidad & Tobago National T&F Championships 100m title in both 2013 and 2014.
In the winter of 2014, Ahye traveled to Sopot, Poland representing Trinidad & Tobago at the IAAF World Indoor T&F Championships in the women's 60m dash.
In the finals, Ahye set a new National Record for 60 meters by running 7.10 seconds and placing 6th overall.
Ahye placed 1st in the 100m event at the Lausanne Diamond League meet on July 3, 2014 running 10.98 and Ahye placed 2nd at the Continental Cup in Marrakech Morocco for the Americas Team in 2014.
9. Khalifa St. Fort
Another Olympic sprinter, St Fort has also done well in her field.
St Fort produced three personal bests at the 2015 World Youth Championships in Athletics, winning silver in the final.
She won 100 m gold at the 2015 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships and broke the national record at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in the 4x100 metres relay with a time of 42.24 seconds, which garnered a bronze for the team.
10. Abeo Jackson
Abeo Jackson is a producer, actor and dancer, and a founding member of Les Enfants Dance Company in San Fernando.
Jackson previously studied mass communications and theatre arts at Dillard University in New Orleans.
The theatre expert worked with Raymond Choo Kong before creating her own production company, Abeo Jackson Productions, in 2012.
Jackson also performed alongside rapso stars 3canal in 2016 for their annual show.
11. Dzifa Job
Public relations consultant, Dzifa Job, has consistently helped shape, and provided exposure to, sport in Trinidad and Tobago.
Job is a writer with a wealth of local and international experience and lectures Masters students on Sport Communication and Public Relations at the University of Trinidad and Tobago.
She provides issues management counsel to the former Port of Spain mayor Raymond Tim-Kee, and works with local sporting organisations such as the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee and the TT Pro League.
Job also worked with Mango Media Caribbean to promote the Red-light Concert Series featuring Grammy award winning artistes R-Kelly and Ne-Yo.
Job is a graduate of Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications. With a BA in Public Relations and Post Graduate Diplomas in Sports Management and Protocol Studies from FIFA/CIES and the International School of Protocol and Diplomacy.
12. Gillian Wall
Gillian Wall is co-Founder of local NGO, Powerful Ladies of Trinidad and Tobago (PLOTT), a group that has been making a name for itself in bringing women’s issues to the fore.
In 2015 PLOTT received a National Award (Gold) for its “Outstanding Contribution to the development of Women’s Rights and Issues.”
Wall’s strong presence in advocating for the improvement of women’s rights and the end of domestic violence through PLOTT has continued to made a difference within Trinidad and Tobago. For more information go to www.plottonline.org
13. Nyssa Pierre
You may not see her name up in lights, but be assured that the people you do see might be because of her skilful expertise.
Pierre is the Managing Director and owner of PearTree Consulting, a full-service Public Relations and Event Management consultancy with a speciality in Protocol and Diplomatic requirements.
The company has handled several events including the recent launch of the Victoria Keyes Development and helped coordinate SoCalypso – Calypso Rose in Concert in February.
She has a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and Spanish from York University in Toronto and an Executive diploma in Protocol and Soft Diplomacy from the ISPD in Brussels.
Pierre also works with Trinidad and Tobago's most decorated athletes to “take brand T&T across the world”.
14. Tenille Clarke
A force to be reckoned with within the field of public relations, Tenille Clarke has worked with many influential brands such International Soca Monarch King Aaron “Voice” St. Louis, Roy Cape All Stars, Brian Mac Farlane and Olympian Cleopatra Borel, among others.
Clarke is the Managing Director of Chambers Media Solutions, a full-service public relations and events management company.
15. Thema Williams
Williams has fought long and hard to represent Trinidad and Tobago.
The elite gymnast was the subject of controversy in 2016 after fellow gymnast Marisa Dick replaced her in representing the country at the 2016 Olympic games in Brazil, which was reportedly due to an injury Williams had obtained.
Williams became the first gymnast to represent Trinidad and Tobago at world championship when she competed at the 2011 World Championships in Tokyo, Japan.
She placed 59th at the 2015 Glasgow World Championships.
Source: Loop News

He could talk at length about the experiences of the Amerindians, the islands’ first settlers; the African slaves who began arriving at the start of the 18th century; the East Indians who came as indentured labourers from 1845; the Germans who were put in local “concentration camps” during the first world war; and the Jews who settled here after fleeing persecution in Europe before the second world war.
He could tell you about T&T’s first heart operation, its first cinema, and its first car accident fatality, such was his commitment to learning as much as he could about the land of his birth.
“I believe that by learning one’s history, it instils a sense of pride and it instils a sense of purpose,” he told journalist Vernon Ramesar, in one of a series of interviews on Ramesar’s television programme beginning in 2013.
The interviews revealed Bissessarsingh to be a confidently knowledgeable, eloquent and engaging speaker. Bissessarsingh said he wanted to chronicle as much of the country’s history as he could for as long as he could. This he did.
When he died last Thursday, he had finished work on a historical novella and a reader on T&T folklore, both yet to be published. There were other projects, he said, that he expected to be published after his death.
Even after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January 2015 and given just months to live, he managed to finish his second book, A Walk Back in Time: Snapshots of the History of Trinidad & Tobago, which was launched in February last year.
His first, Walking with the Ancestors: The Historic Cemeteries of Trinidad, was self-published in 2014.
But Bissessarsingh was probably best known for running the Facebook page Angelo Bissessarsingh’s Virtual Museum of Trinidad and Tobago.
He started the project in 2009, after being turned down for a job at the National Museum.
He had a collection of artefacts, documents and drawings and began posting photos of them and of natural and manmade landmarks around the country. The photos appeared with background information.
The page slowly grew a following, who would add their own knowledge and personal experience of a subject. Eventually Bissessarsingh wasn’t the only curator of the page.
Dedicated followers started to post their own images and knowledge, making the Virtual Museum a community where T&T’s history was celebrated and discussed.
In a regular column with the T&T Guardian, in interviews with reporters and in comments on the Virtual Museum page, Bissessarsingh bemoaned the treatment of the country’s artefacts, from documents to buildings.
He spoke out against the destruction of the Greyfriars Church, the dilapidated state of the Magnificent Seven buildings and other historical sites, and the seeming ineffectiveness of state agencies with responsibility for preservation.
“Our post-independence experience and conditioning has taught us to despise all history as being ‘colonial’ and the heritage of ‘oppressors’ with pale skins,” he wrote in his Back in Times column in 2015.
“The inevitable state of affairs resulting from this prevailing mentality has been the swift destruction of our anthropological artefacts, ranging from the ornate architectural gems to documents, photos and books.”
He told Ramesar he wanted to help average people appreciate history. To do this you had to make history more that just dry facts and dates, he said. You had to bring history alive.
“Even for me, at times it becomes boring and crusty. There’s only so much repetition of dates and places that you do, before you lose interest,” he said.
“But I think that history is a living subject because there is a relativity between what was, and what is, and what is to come.
“And if you can add a little humanity and a little humour at times, I think that is where people get interested and people will join,” he said.
“And they also seem to have a perspective on history and themselves that they’re willing to share, and I’m always willing to listen and talk about it.”
In discussing the popularity of his most recent book in T&T and abroad, he told Ramesar in a final interview last year:
“The book is not just about history, it’s about memories. It’s about looking at those pictures and seeing your own life in sepia tones. And that is why these books are important.
“I could go in any academic history book and tell the statistics of slavery or the statistics of indentureship. But if I told you a story about one of those long trials, it becomes totally connected to your experience.”
Bissessarsingh—who worked in the Disaster Management Unit of the Ministry of Local Government—developed his passion for history and archeology as a child with the encouragement of his family and teachers at Naparima College. He told Ramesar of a seminal experience at age five.
“I remember one day my father took me to an Amerindian site. Everything I touched, I felt kinship with it: The pottery, the stone tools, the shell remains. I think we even found human remains on that site,” he said.
“I still entertain the utmost fascination for these things now as I did then. I have never lost my enthusiasm for them,” he said.
Bissessarsingh—who was awarded the Hummingbird Medal Gold last year for his contribution to history and education—worried about generations of T&T children being brought up without appreciation for the islands’ past.
“I believe many of our children are growing up without a sense of time, place, purpose, and also without a sense of their heritage,” he said.
“And there can only be a negative result from that.”
Historian and author Angelo Bissessarsingh died of cancer in his Siparia home at 10 am on February 2 at the age of 34.
Souce:  Trinidad Guardian