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

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!

Thought I would share this beautiful photo of tropical birds

While Caribbean governments have been slow and downright skittish to decriminalize marijuana in the region, a Canadian-owned company is looking to profit by combining two of the region’s best known products – rum and ganja.
The Tinley Collective has created the Dark Rum Extract, a blend of Caribbean spices with dark rum extract infused with marijuana. It is recommended users sip on the rocks or with soda, orange juice, black tea, lime or Tinley’s Amaretto.
The Tinley Beverage Company Inc. of Ontario, says the company was founded based on the belief that medicating should be done with products that are healthy, delicious and in harmony with mainstream lifestyles.
Other products in the Collective include Cinnamon Whisky and Amaretto extract-based varieties, as well as a single-serve Margarita cocktail.
The products are currently only available largely California residents and those who hold a valid California medical cannabis recommendation by membership to the Tinley’s medical cannabis collective.
Membership is free and valid for as long as you hold a valid medical recommendation but contributions are required to cover the costs of any products you consume.
Tinley says it is now working to setup home delivery for any member who is unable to visit our members or partnering dispensaries.
The company says it is also accepting recommendations from any licensed California physician, including those who perform evaluations online and via telemedicine.
“Opening this collective represents a significant milestone for the company and a critical component of our ability to offer cannabis-infused products via California’s extensive medical cannabis system. We will update our patients as our products become available,” said Jeff Maser, CEO of Tinley.
Source:  News Americas 3/03/17

An interesting article
​http://www.newsamericasnow.com/10-black-caribbean-born-executives-in-top-u-s-posts/

To mark Canada’s 150th birthday, we are counting down to Canada Day with profiles of 150 noteworthy British Columbians.
Hedy Fry brags that she can still dance in eight-inch heels and looks decades younger than her 75 years. She’s been mocked as a flake, accused of self-aggrandizing hubris, and has elicited disapproval from social conservatives for her enthusiastic endorsement of Vancouver’s vibrant gay community. Few politicians spend their 65th birthday dressed as a dancehall queen on a Gay Pride Parade float surrounded by bare-chested cowboys riding a mechanical bull. One thing all acknowledge about this national symbol of inclusive, feminist and progressive politics, however, is that she’s formidable. She has won eight consecutive federal elections.
Fry is the longest-serving woman in parliament. She launched in 1993 as a giant-killer. She ran as a Liberal, defeating the sitting Tory prime minister, Kim Campbell, who had herself succeeded powerful Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Pat Carney. Since then, Fry has drubbed high-profile challengers from left, right and centre. “Underestimate Hedy Fry at your peril,” mused charismatic — and rueful — NDP candidate Svend Robinson after she handed him his political head on a platter and his first defeat in 25 years. “She is a very formidable foe.”
She knows how to read the electorate and plan a campaign with an acumen displayed by few other politicians. Perhaps it’s because behind the friendly smile and effervescent personality is the machinery of a towering intellect.
She refused a scholarship to Oxford University in English literature because after reading a book about the psychiatric profiles of Shakespeare’s tragic heroes she had become interested in medicine. Instead, she crammed the equivalent of the BSc she needed for medical school into one year and was accepted by Dublin’s prestigious Royal College of Surgeons, from which she graduated with honours.
​Fry was born into a poor family in Trinidad and Tobago on Aug. 6, 1941. When she proved an accomplished scholar — she was class valedictorian — her parents used their life savings to pay for her medical studies. She came to Canada in 1970 and practised family medicine at St. Paul’s Hospital for 23 years. She was an activist. She has served as president of the Vancouver Medical Association and the B.C. Medical Association, fought for and won the first retirement plan for doctors in Canada, and campaigned fiercely and unapologetically for women’s, indigenous peoples and minority rights issues.
Her advice to those coming after her: “Leave the world knowing you made it a better place.”
Source: Vancouve Sun

As you may know, our beautiful T&T is one of the world's most important nesting sites for the leatherback turtle, which is one of the largest of this ocean species. In fact these turtles come from as far away as Africa and Canada to lay their eggs on our beaches. But did you know where you can see them during the nesting season? Well, nesting populations can be found at Matura Bay, Fishing Pond, Grade Riviere and at Turtle Beach in Tobago.  Although some leatherbacks have been known to weigh 2000 lbs and reach 10 feet in length – they more commonly average 800 - 1000 lbs and 5-7 feet long. They get their name “leatherback” because, unlike other sea turtles, they do not have a hard shell; instead, their shells are rubbery, flexible and marked by seven ridges which apparently allows them to withstand the pressure of diving up to 4,000 feet below the surface of the sea!  How interesting...  For more visuals about the leatherback, click on this link
Due to the size of these magnificent creatures, their only natural predators are sharks, killer whales and humans . Sadly, their greatest threat is getting caught in fishing nets – as they are air breathers, they drown when tangled in commercial nets. Other threats to their survival are the poaching of their eggs during nesting season, human consumption of turtle meat, ocean pollution, and the ingestion of plastic bags which they can mistake for jellyfish, their favourite food. While some beaches are patrolled during the nesting season to prevent hunting of the turtles and poaching of their eggs, many beaches remain un-patrolled and leaves the leatherback vulnerable. 
​Enjoy this video about the leatherback turtle.