​TRINIDAD and Tobago basketballer Johnny Hamilton has been signed by NBA team Atlanta Hawks.
Reports said that Hamilton, 27, has agreed to a one-year deal with the Hawks.
Hamilton, who is seven feet tall, last played for EuroLeague club Fenerbahce and Adriatic Basketball Association club KK Mornar Bar during the 2020-2021 season.
Hamilton played for the Detroit Pistons G League team, Grand Rapids Drive, in the 2018-2019 season.
He has been signed to an Exhibit 10 contract which is a one-year, minimum salary deal that does not include the possibility of bonuses.
Source:  Newsday Aug 10, 2021

Trinidad and Tobago-born veteran journalist-author Jai Parasram is among the four Distinguished Fellows appointees to the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies. Jean Michel Montsion Director, Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies recently made the announcement. They are York University President emerita Lorna Marsden and President of the Institute for 21st Century Questions Irvin Studin reappointed and they are joined by former diplomat and Director of the School for Public and International Studies at Glendon, Annie Dimerjian, and Canadian journalist Parasram.
Parasram is a journalist, author, and communications and media specialist, who worked at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) until his retirement in 2013. He was the Line-up Editor on the pioneering team that inaugurated the CBC’s 24-hour cable news service in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1989, and was privileged to edit the first newscast to air on the service. Parasram’s career began in his native Trinidad and Tobago in 1972 and spanned more than four decades, mostly in television, during which he worked as a reporter, editor, producer, interviewer, news anchor, news director and executive producer.
He has worked with clients in T&T, Canada and the United States in program development for radio and television, corporate communications, event management and political communication. He has also trained journalists in T&T and Canada. He has also served as a political and communication adviser to two Prime Ministers of T&T.
Parasram has won several prestigious awards for excellence in journalism. He holds a Master of Journalism degree (MJ) from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Parasram is the author of Far from the Mountain (2013), a series of notes and commentaries on the politics of Trinidad and Tobago between 2007and 2012, and Beyond Survival: Indians in Trinidad and Tobago 1845-2017 (2017), a narrative about a people who blended the best of East and West to preserve for themselves and future generations, some of India.
Prominent members of the community, Distinguished Fellows are selected based on their past contributions to the Centre, the field of Canadian Studies or Canadian society. Working closely with the Director and the Executive Committee, they will offer advice on ongoing and future initiatives and priorities for the Centre.
Montsion said the Robarts Centre team will greatly benefit from these Fellows’ insights in supporting our activities, and in finding ways to make the scholarship conducted through the Centre more visible, connected, and part of the public conversation. (Source: Trinidad Guardian, September 10, 2021)

Trinidad menswear designer D.A.W.W Creations starred on the red carpet for the premiere of Turner & Hooch on July 1 in Los Angeles.
D.A.W.W Creations outfitted Canadian actor Brandon Jay McLaren who stars in the Disney Plus reboot.
Mclaren, who is of Trinidadian and Grenadian parentage, wore a grey suit with blue accents suit designed by Marlon George, owner of DAWW Creations. 
"The feeling is just gratefulness and thankfulness," said George when Loop news reached out to him.
He said a friend, television and film producer Elisha Baptiste reached out to his team about the opportunity and they immediately jumped on it, sending McLaren a video on how to take his measurements.
His creative director Cornelius Hector put together some sketches which they presented to the actor and he selected one of the options.
"We used the finest material, wool blends, to bring it to life," said George.
McLaren, who recently starred in Netflix' Firefly Lane as Travis, plays Xavier Wilson in the reboot of the 1989 American buddy-cop action-comedy which starred Tom Hanks. Source:  The Loop, July 16, 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.

At a certain point in their careers, most artists born in places far from the traditional art world capitals have to confront a question: Should they stay in their home countries, or move to Europe or the United States in hopes of landing on the art-world map?
Che Lovelace has witnessed plenty of artists opt for the latter in his decades as a staple of the Port of Spain, Trinidad, art scene. He gets it. “A decade or two ago, Trinidad would have felt isolated,” he tells me over Zoom. “Being somewhere far from the centers of art has always been part of the challenge of living here, which I feel is my place and where I want to work from.” 
For artists like Lovelace, there’s a rare upside to the pandemic: The rise of Zoom and Instagram and the decline of travel have helped level the playing field. “This increasingly digital era has made it possible to interact with the world and be part of a larger conversation—to contribute from this vantage point,” he says. Case in point: the exhibition of brightly colored, vibrant paintings he just opened at the pace-setting Los Angeles gallery Various Small Fires, which marks his second-ever solo showing in the U.S.
In any other year, Lovelace wouldn't have been available the afternoon of our virtual studio visit. He would've been deep in the food, music, and dance of Trinidad's traditional week of Carnival. Maybe more than any other part of pre-Covid Trinidadian life, it's Carnival that Lovelace misses the most. At this point, Mas, as locals call the celebration, has influenced him so profoundly that it's become essential to his work.
There’s a core cast of characters to be found at Mas, portrayed by participants known as masqueraders. Lovelace is a committed masquerader—and more and more, in his studio, he’s found himself inhabiting Carnival favorites like the Blue Devil. “I feel that if I act out a character—perform that character, so to speak—I’m able to get closer to it to paint it in a more intimate way,” he says. “To pretend to be something is kind of to learn it and be it.”
For the past five years, Lovelace has worked out of a former U.S. Army base 20 minutes outside of Port of Spain, situated in a tropical sea of green. He initially felt, guiltily, that it was “too pretty,” and that painting in a space which had been headquarters to American soldiers during World War II might be the opposite of creatively stimulating. “I could almost feel the weight of that history,” Lovelace says. But it soon became liberating. Lovelace grew up in the rural village of Matura, but as an adult has lived only in urban or industrial centers. To be so fully surrounded by nature, Lovelace says, looking through a massive open-air window, “felt like a homecoming of sorts.”
It also coincided with a burst of color in his palette. Early on, Lovelace “resisted” working with bright colors. He worried they’d come across as “too easily Caribbean,” just like painting, say, a coconut or coconut tree. Since learning to transform those tropes, his work has become defined by them. Figures are central in many of his paintings, but Lovelace doesn’t see them as representational. The Blue Devils he depicts aren’t of the Mas or himself. “I’m always playing around with the different ways I can represent the reality of what I’m thinking about or looking at,” Lovelace explains. And the moment something transforms from figurative to something more abstract is one he’d like to “relive over and over.” In a way, he does: “I’m able to discover the figure anew every single time I paint it.”
Over Zoom, I was initially alarmed by how casually Lovelace maneuvered a selection of paintings he’d laid out for me to see on the floor. The rich surfaces of his paintings belie the unassuming way they’re put together: four boards repurposed from a local stationery distributor, taped together and then framed. The freedom of movement in his methods translates to a unique ability to capture movement on a still two-dimensional surface. “Poised on the border between Cubism and realism,” the New Yorker wrote of his first U.S. exhibition, at New York’s Half Gallery in 2017. “Lovelace doesn’t really belong to any school.
But Lovelace has always been part of a community. Post-World War II, the Port of Spain art scene has thrived, and includes a growing legion of talented painters. Most of them are homegrown, but the island’s way of life and lush setting has also attracted the likes of Chris Ofili and Peter Doig, two internationally renowned artists who came from London in the early Aughts and never really left. Ofili leans on the island for his creative process—the Blue Devil has found his way into his paintings, too—and Doig is also active in the community. In 2003, he and Lovelace founded Studiofilmclub, which, for years, screened independent films free of charge.
While no one is going to the movies these days, the pandemic has allowed Lovelace time to finally finish works he started years earlier—it usually takes him a year and a half to complete one painting—and the show at Various Small Fires is an unusually thorough account of what Lovelace has been up to in his studio. When he finally sees it in-person—pandemic-related travel restrictions permitting—it’ll be just his third time visiting L.A. (He went twice as a young surfer.) But the artist is by no means a stranger to the U.S. Lovelace has visited New York at least once a year for decades now—long enough to have witnessed galleries make the shift from Soho to Chelsea. He shacks up at the most covetable of pieds-à-terre: the home of the art dealer Bill Powers and the fashion designer Cynthia Rowley.
It’s not that Lovelace hasn’t had the opportunity to show Stateside—let alone closer to home—over the span of his career. He simply isn’t too concerned with displaying his work, nor suffering the financial consequences. “Even with this space, I’ve been months and months behind on rent, and almost thrown out,” he says. He always finds a solution, whether it’s teaching surfing lessons or, currently, lecturing at the University of the West Indies. “I think you create a presence, you create something that has value,” Lovelace says. “I may not be getting cold, hard cash, but I'm getting a currency.”  To see more of his paintings, visit the site click here 
Source:  Stephanie Eckardt WM Magazine.com

Dr. Wendell Bobb is a Trinidadian-born medical doctor, board certified in neurology, clinical neurophysiology and sleep medicine. The St George’s College, Barataria alumnus is the chief of clinical neurophysiology at the Washington DC Medical Centre and assistant professor of neurology at the George Washington University School of Medicine. Who would have thought that this is the same individual who was told by a secondary school teacher that he would never become a medical doctor. Today, he is triple certified and an educator, helping and empowering young students. This is his journey from Princes Town to the corridors of the hospitals and classrooms of the universities.
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San Fernando General Hospital is where I made my debut. At seven pounds and some ounces, I came out kicking and screaming (so I’m told). Perhaps like most other babies, I was anticipating life’s challenges ahead. My conscious memory, however, wasn’t born until I was about two or three years old. I remember Princess, our black and tan-colored German Shepherd, rushing up to me on our porch on Gobin Street, Princes Town. Terrified and helpless, I stood there as she towered over me and sniffed around my head but did no harm as my mom ran from behind to chase her away.
We lived not too far from the vast sugar cane fields, parted by the Taska Road where oxen hauled carts of sugar cane to the St Madeleine sugar factory. My dad took me there sometimes and he would cut the cane with a cutlass then tear the tough skin off with his teeth, proudly demonstrating how he did it when he was a child. These were a couple memorable childhood experiences that have stayed with me to this day. I was fortunate to have grown up in a supportive and safe household with my dad, mom and two older sisters. When I was nine years, my dad accepted a position as Pastor in a new church, so we moved up north.
“That will never happen”
I attended St. George’s College in Barataria where I completed my secondary school education. My start there was rocky. Although I performed well in other subjects, I failed Mathematics consistently from Forms 1 through 3. One day in Form 3, my Mathematics teacher went around the class asking each of us what we wanted to become when we grew up. I told him a doctor. Smirking, he announced that would never happen based on my history with Math. But my friend’s mother, Mrs. Phyllis Joseph, who was a lecturer at The UWI, heard about my struggle and took me under her wing. She helped me realise that I was not inherently bad at Mathematics but I did not practise enough problems for me to do well in exams. So with commitment, encouragement, good instruction and faith, I went from floundering to getting a Grade 1 in the Caribbean standardized exam (called CXC at that time) and a Grade A in Add-Maths.
“Distractions and disappointments which had nothing to do with school sometimes became intrusive and overwhelming”
My transition to university life was somewhat challenging, but I felt well prepared, having done the Advanced Level (A-Level) exams. I prioritized getting and maintaining good grades by carving sufficient time to review the same information multiple times before an exam to ensure that it stuck. Despite my best efforts, at times, I didn’t do well. Distractions and disappointments which had nothing to do with school sometimes became intrusive and overwhelming. I grew to realize that these were part of the formula for my overall development. With guidance from therapists, close family and friends, and ultimately my faith in God and belief that I was born for a divine purpose--as I believe we all are—I was able to pull through the tough times when I felt depleted.
“I want to put water in a needle and give it to old people to make them walk better.”
According to my mom, that was my response when I was about three years old and people asked me what I wanted to do when I became an adult. But at one point, I remember also wanting to become a teacher. The intricacy and complexity of the human body fascinated me and I had a passion to help people live their best and healthiest lives. Medicine therefore seemed like the best fit for me as it also involves teaching students and patients.
Neuroanatomy was one of my first classes in medical school. My goal initially was simply to perform well in it since I heard that it was difficult but I became fascinated with the different functions of the brain and nervous system. One side of the brain controls the other side of the body. The brain causes the body to become paralyzed during dream sleep so we don’t get out of bed to act out our dreams. Having the knowledge and ability to diagnose and treat disorders that plague patients in an effort to improve the quality of their lives is rewarding. It can be discouraging, however, when available treatments are inadequate or patients don’t improve despite my best efforts.
“It’s important for me to practise the principle of the serenity prayer”
This is a great field for someone who is passionate about medicine and the functioning of the brain. The highs of this profession are when my patients get better; such as someone with sleep apnea who has been so tired that they are unable to remain alert at work or while driving, and with treatment, they feel like a brand new person. Or a patient with stuttering speech who keeps dropping things, and I’m able to diagnose him as having seizures, treat the seizures, and his condition improves. But there are definitely lows. Medicine is a science as well as an art. Sometimes accurate diagnoses are elusive and optimal treatments uncertain. Patients may have poor outcomes. But I’ve learned that after I’ve given it my best, applied my knowledge and experience to any given case and reached out for additional help as needed, I have limited control of what happens next. It’s important for me to practise the principle of the serenity prayer to remain at peace: God help me to change the things that I can, surrender the things that I can’t and when to know the difference.
“She somehow made the practice of medicine look humanitarian and scientific, yet effortless”
My family and friends were very supportive when I chose this career path. Some gave practical advice to ensure that I knew the pros and cons of becoming a medical doctor. Along this journey, I also had several mentors and coaches to help me in my academic, career, psychological, spiritual, financial, and physical development. I specifically highlight Dr. LaDonna Nelson, a close family friend, who would take me to Port-of-Spain General Hospital to shadow her when I was younger. She somehow made the practice of medicine look humanitarian and scientific, yet effortless. Of course I’ve grown to learn that it’s anything but effortless, though it is rewarding. One time, as I watched her assess an ICU patient, Dr. Nelson told me that medicine can be a thankless and stressful job. I’ve experienced both of those to be true many times, but my family members and friends were there to cheer me on.
In the same way that I had Dr. Nelson and others, I am sure that Trinidad and Tobago has sufficient role models and mentors. It is important to seek and find appropriate professionals who can guide you along your particular journey. As you travel, be relentless in looking for mentors in different areas. If someone doesn’t have the time or isn’t giving you the information you think you need, find someone else.
To that young man who is struggling and indecisive about the future, I want to encourage you to find a career that you will enjoy or are passionate about. It should be a career that could help you a make decent living while doing it. However, if you end up doing something that you may not love because you may not have had the opportunity or finances to do it at that moment, try to save enough capital so you can branch out eventually and do what sets your soul on fire. You should also seek out a career coach. Talk to guidance counselors or teachers. Talk to successful people in different areas. Look at reputable sites on the internet. And last but equally important, ask for divine guidance and trust that you will be led in the right direction.
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Dr. Wendell Bobb graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and then a Doctor of Medicine degree from the Florida State University College of Medicine in 2009. In 2013, he completed a residency in Neurology at the Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, DC and from 2013-2015, he benefited from two fellowships: in sleep medicine and clinical neurophysiology from Duke University Medical Centre in North Carolina. He currently resides in the USA.
Source: Mentions-Stories About Us, March 2021

​Let’s all congratulate a true Morvant resident on making an impact at the global level as Ms. Rhonika Kaplan has become a senior technical geoscientist at Chevron. Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation is currently one of the world’s largest companies.
Kaplan, who grew up in Almond Drive, recalls the good times she had growing up in the community. “I remember growing up playing all day in the street, running races, riding bikes, and roller-skating. I never felt scared or uncomfortable. We were a community, and everyone knew each other and supported each other.”
All the best to you and you definitely put T&T on the map.
Source: Adrian Leonce, FB, June 2, 2021