Congratulations to actor Winston Duke and Director/Producer and Frances-Anne Solomon who were invited to join the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences earlier this week! 🇹🇹🏆💫🇹🇹🏆✨
The two TT Nationals are among 842 new members of the film industry to now be part of the Academy. They are joining more than 6,000 members of the film industry who will now vote for the best among their peers at the Annual Oscars.
In accepting the invitation to join, Duke said: "Oh man... Argyle Village, Tobago we reach....! As a kid growing up on a small island of 60,000, I was constantly watching movies and becoming enamored with stories, dreaming to one day be in the business myself. This is a dream come true. I can now vote on what movies and creatives win #Oscars and participate in a community of artists who lead through intention and execution. Thank you @theacademy for this auspicious gift. 🙏🏿 #blessingsonblessings"
Solomon meanwhile, said the invitation was a great honour and she looked forward to using her vote to choose next year's Oscar winners. She said: "This year, despite more diversity and better representation across the board, there were no women nominated or who won in the Best Director/ Best Movie categories. Hopefully gender parity in this year's crop will mean that does not happen again."
Source: TTT Live Online

For more click on this link
or copy and paste this URL : ​https://www.marieclaire.co.uk/life/travel/tobago-eco-holiday-destination-652967?fbclid=IwAR1fQrWD1Y8A2RW9EaFn09Zjk9t9oBJWh8Kv3IwsYusdRr8x2rI34DqxF5g

​Cabinet has accepted a National Protected Areas Systems Plan, proposing to protect approximately 20,000 square kilometres of protected land and marine space in TT. This is part of the Government’s policy to preserve biodiversity and improve the management of protected areas. This announcement was made at a forest replanting exercise on Corpus Christi last Thursday in Chaguaramas.
A release from the Ministry of Planning and Development said the aim of the plan was to identify areas in TT that were in need of protection so that the biodiversity in forests and other wildlife can thrive.
The new plan proposes the establishment of 136 protected areas. Those include 92 terrestrial and freshwater areas, 79 of which are in Trinidad and 13 in Tobago; 40 coastal and marine areas, 18 in Trinidad and 22 in Tobago; and four deep-sea marine areas. In total, approximately 1,933 sq km – 1,866 sq km in Trinidad and 67 sq km in Tobago – of the country’s land mass is proposed to be land and freshwater protected areas. The proposed coastal and marine protected areas approximate to 580 sq km – 14 sq km in Trinidad and 566 sq km in Tobago. The proposed open-ocean waters and deep-sea marine areas cover 15,600 sq km.
Some of the areas are part of a pilot plan because of their globally important biodiversity and ecosystems which include the Caroni Swamp, the Nariva Swamp and coastal zone, the Matura Forest and coastal zone, the Trinity Hills, the Main Ridge Forest Reserve and the North East Tobago Marine Protected Area.
A number of stakeholders participated in a series of consultations with the Planning Ministry such as the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries, Forestry Division; the Institute of Marine Affairs; the Environmental Management Authority (EMA); the Tobago House of Assembly; non-governmental organisations; and local universities. The National Protected Areas Systems Plan is an intervention coming out of the project titled: Improving forest and protected area management in TT, the implementation of which is being co-ordinated by the Planning Ministry and administered by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN (FAO/UN) on behalf of the Government.The project was done over the last four years – from 2015 to 2019 – at a total cost of US$30,510,074. Funding was provided by the TT Government, FAO/UN, the European Union and the Global Environment Fund. More information can be found on the Project Website: www.protectedareastt.org.tt.

Click on this link for full list of activities for the Canada Day weekend, or copy and post this URL into your browser
​ https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/canada-day/calendar.html

Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Tourism Trinidad Lim­it­ed gath­ered at the Res­i­dence, One Wood­brook Place last Mon­day to ex­tend their good wish­es to the 2019 Na­tion­al Culi­nary Team. The team left Trinidad on Thurs­day to par­tic­i­pate in the Taste of the Caribbean com­pe­ti­tion card­ed for to­mor­row in Mi­a­mi.
Led by Cap­tain Je­re­my Lovell, the team com­pris­es se­nior chefs Shon­elle Greenidge and Ger­ard Cox, ju­nior chef Jo­di Ever­s­ley, pas­try chef Keenan Leza­ma and bar­tender/mixol­o­gist, Isa­iah Trum­pet—all cur­rent­ly en­rolled stu­dents at Trinidad and To­ba­go Hos­pi­tal­i­ty and Tourism In­sti­tute (TTHTI).
"This is the first all-stu­dent na­tion­al culi­nary team that Trinidad has ever sent abroad to the com­pe­ti­tion," said Bri­an Fron­tin, CEO, Trinidad Ho­tels, Restau­rants & Tourism As­so­ci­a­tion (THRTA).
Fron­tin said the de­ci­sion to send an all-stu­dent team came about when they recog­nised that over 95 per cent of all for­mer team mem­bers had grad­u­at­ed from the TTHTI over the past 20 years.
Fron­tin said he sees this as a pi­lot project that will pro­vide the stim­u­lus and jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for Trinidad to host an in­ter-school re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al culi­nary com­pe­ti­tion—a ju­nior ver­sion of the com­pe­ti­tion next year, and in­di­cat­ed that or­gan­is­ers of Taste of the Caribbean in Mi­a­mi have al­ready agreed to hold dis­cus­sions on this pro­pos­al.
Fron­tin added, "Host­ing this com­pe­ti­tion in Trinidad has the abil­i­ty to pos­i­tive­ly im­pact our tourist ar­rivals, in­crease des­ti­na­tion aware­ness and presents an amaz­ing op­por­tu­ni­ty and plat­form to pro­mote culi­nary tourism and dis­play our world-class tal­ent."
Camille Camp­bell, CEO, Tourism Trinidad, pledged her com­pa­ny's sup­port to the team and said, "This is a unique op­por­tu­ni­ty for these stu­dents to show­case their tal­ent on a world stage and demon­strate their dis­ci­pline, com­mit­ment, and culi­nary skills. Tourism Trinidad is proud to sup­port this ini­tia­tive and look for­ward to the coun­try's host­ing of the 2020 com­pe­ti­tion."
A re­lease from Tourism Trinidad stat­ed that over the past eight weeks, the team has been dili­gent­ly prac­tic­ing their craft and host­ing 'sold out' Mon­day night din­ners at the Res­i­dence, One Wood­brook Place, where they have been fine-tun­ing their skills in prepa­ra­tion for the com­pe­ti­tion.
"We have the fullest con­fi­dence in the team's abil­i­ty to make us proud and bring home the gold," added Camp­bell. Source: Guardian, June 2019 

Scores of new squat­ters at Pine Set­tle­ment, San­gre Grande, are now liv­ing on the di­rect path­way of the $400 mil­lion Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la High­way project.
Squat­ters have al­so been en­croach­ing on pri­vate lands at Whar­ton Es­tate, Saly­bia and State lands at Galera Road, lead­ing to the To­co Light House, fol­low­ing Gov­ern­ment’s move to build a state-of-the-art To­co Port, which would open up the en­tire north-east­ern re­gion with busi­ness ac­tiv­i­ty and gen­er­ate jobs.
The il­le­gal oc­cu­pan­cies by fresh squat­ters have been giv­ing the chair­man of the San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Ter­ry Ron­don no end of wor­ry, as he called on the Gov­ern­ment to do some­thing fast, stat­ing the is­sue of squat­ting was to­tal­ly out of con­trol.
In the Land Set­tle­ment Agency (LSA) 2016/2017 re­port in­to the in­quiry in re­la­tion to squat­ters reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion, it showed that San­gre Grande has be­come the fastest grow­ing squat­ting area in T&T.
Al­so in 2016 the LSA told a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee of Par­lia­ment, that there were 55,000 fam­i­lies squat­ting in the coun­try. This amount­ed to over 200,000 peo­ple over­all.
The agency’s re­port es­ti­mat­ed be­tween 7,000 to 10,000 squat­ting fam­i­lies in San­gre Grande alone.
But Ron­don feels that fig­ure may have in­creased with­in re­cent times by an ad­di­tion­al 500 fam­i­lies, stat­ing that there has been an in­va­sion for lands.
“It’s mad­ness up here,” Ron­don said, re­fer­ring to the land en­croach­ment in cer­tain parts of the north­east­ern re­gion.
The LSA is au­tho­rised un­der the State Land Reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion of Tenure Act, No 25 of 1998, to pre­vent and con­tain fur­ther squat­ting on State land and to reg­u­larise el­i­gi­ble ex­ist­ing squat­ters.
A per­son who is el­i­gi­ble for reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion must have oc­cu­pied a dwelling house on the prop­er­ty pri­or to Jan­u­ary 1, 1998.
Some of the ar­eas Ron­don iden­ti­fied as squat­ting dis­tricts are the Va­len­cia Stretch, Aripo Sa­van­na, Bois Bande, KP Lands, Tu­rure and Ve­ga De Oropouche.
Though Pine Set­tle­ment has been re­gard­ed as a squat­ting com­mu­ni­ty over the years, Ron­don said with­in re­cent times new squat­ters have been mov­ing in­to the area af­ter pur­chas­ing one lot of State land be­tween $10,000 to $20,000 from un­scrupu­lous in­di­vid­u­als.
“Not too long ago a la­dy came to me and say she bought land right up there. They are grab­bing land,” Ron­don said.
Two weeks, Ron­don said he vis­it­ed the area in­form­ing the squat­ters that they had built their homes in the di­rect path of the high­way. “I car­ried a map out­lin­ing the high­way’s route and showed them where their homes are block­ing the path­way. If the Gov­ern­ment wants the high­way they will break down their il­le­gal struc­tures. At the end of the day, it’s their labour, mon­ey and time will go down the drain. That is why I took in front and asked them to de­sist from build­ing.”
Ron­don said some of the squat­ters re­spond­ed rude­ly, while oth­ers grum­bled up­on hear­ing the news. “I did what I had to do,” he said.
Asked how many hous­es have been built since Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley turned the sod for the 2017 high­way project, Ron­don said quite a lot.
“Some are up. If you go there now they build­ing....and by this evening you would see them move in and cur­tain fly­ing and ra­dio play­ing in their home.”
Along the scenic Saly­bia beach­front, Ron­don said he al­so no­ticed that sev­er­al trees had been re­cent­ly bull­dozed and burnt to make way for new con­crete and wood­en struc­tures on pri­vate land known as Whar­ton Es­tate.
In ad­di­tion to the homes, over 15 busi­ness­es op­er­ate me­tres from the seashore.
Ron­don ad­mit­ted that many years ago he wrote let­ters to T&TEC to help some of the busi­ness own­ers get elec­tric­i­ty con­nec­tion so they could earn an hon­est liv­ing.
Af­ter get­ting elec­tric­i­ty, Ron­don said the own­ers start­ed sub­let­ting to the squat­ters.
“We (cor­po­ra­tion) tried all how to get the land pur­chased from the Whar­ton Es­tate,” Ron­don said. But, he said, no deal was ever bro­kered.
“All that time...it has been a wild, wild, west sit­u­a­tion. Peo­ple are just do­ing what they want. They do­ing every­thing against the law.”
Ron­don said the own­er of the es­tate has since served no­tice to the squat­ters to va­cate his land.
“These squat­ters have been call­ing me to help. But I can­not. The own­er has to get a de­mo­li­tion or­der to get them out. And he has start­ed with his or­der.”
For years, Ron­don said the cor­po­ra­tion has been clean­ing the beach to avoid a health haz­ard.
“Our pub­lic health in­spec­tors have been look­ing at the health as­pect of the beach.”
The news of the es­tab­lish­ment of the To­co Port, Ron­don said has al­so led to a pro­lif­er­a­tion of squat­ters cap­i­tal­is­ing on State and pri­vate lands.
“Peo­ple are rush­ing for land that do not be­long to them hop­ing to ben­e­fit when the port comes on stream. This has to stop.”
On the north­ern and south­ern sides of Galera Road, Guardian Me­dia ob­served that sev­er­al trees had been slashed and burnt as squat­ters make way for new homes. Piles of lum­ber and gal­vanise sheet­ings were al­so ev­i­dent on the State land.
Ron­don said some squat­ters have been mas­querad­ing as farm­ers by cul­ti­vat­ing short-term crops, hop­ing the State would not ze­ro in on them.
“Every day some­body bring­ing in heaps of wood, blocks, grav­el and gal­vanise to build.”
Ron­don said the on­go­ing prob­lem needs to be tack­led in a holis­tic way.
“There is a lot of bu­reau­cra­cy in re­mov­ing a squat­ter. The peo­ple to stop these squat­ters are not around,” Ron­don com­plained.
Be­hind the Brook­lyn Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre in San­gre Grande, Venezue­lan mi­grants have al­ready cut down sev­er­al co­conut and wal­nut trees on for­est re­serve lands to build homes.
Care­tak­er of the cen­tre Clin­ton Moses said a vil­lager in the com­mu­ni­ty gave the mi­grants per­mis­sion to utilise the land which be­longs to the cen­tre.
“I had to stop and chase them be­cause what they were do­ing was wrong. The land be­longs to the Gov­ern­ment,” Moses said.
Moses said this was the fourth batch of Venezue­lans who tried to live there.
Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture Clarence Ramb­harat, un­der whose purview State lands fall in a What­sApp mes­sage ad­vised Guardian Me­dia to take up the Pine Set­tle­ment squat­ters mat­ter with the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port Ro­han Sinanan, as well as the LSA.
Sinanan, how­ev­er, re­ferred the is­sue to LSA whose CEO Haz­ar Ho­sein could not be reached for com­ment yes­ter­day. Source: Guardian, June 24, 2019

AS a child growing up in San Fernando Sirju Seeharack Mohan demonstrated superior skills in visual arts, designing and executing almost any idea once a pencil, paintbrush or other writing instruments reached in his hands.
"I do my work as gifts. Painting has been my hobby all of my life. I have given away hundreds of paintings. I am also a volunteer at the Broward County Sheriff's Office for the last 10 years. I did many portraits which I presented to them," Mohan said.
It is his love for the arts which landed the 77-year-old his latest award from the Pompano Beach Cultural Arts awards ceremony held on May 15 in Florida. He was nominated in the Visual Arts category, beating scores of competitors at the gala event. He did a live painting of 12 people dressed in Indian garments for a wedding, much to the appreciation of the audience.
Mohan told Newsday: "I feel so proud to receive this award. I have received about 20 awards from different events in different countries. I have had displays in almost all the cities on the east coast of the US. I always fly the TT flag anywhere I go."
The Pompano Beach Cultural Arts Committee created the award ceremony to recognise and honour the outstanding creativity in Pompano Beach.

Known as an artist, calligrapher and sculptor, among other titles, Mohan said he was delighted to share the work, having travelled the world doing so. He has been living in Florida for many years and recently visited his hometown of Friendship Village.
The ceremony recognised the outstanding creativity taking place in the city of Pompano Beach.
People were also honoured in categories such as dance, music, spoken word and theatre.
Mohan has completed portraits of people among them former US president Barack Obama, opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar and former lieutenant governor in Florida, Jennifer Carroll (née Johnson), a Trinidad-born American.
He also presented a self-portrait of former present Anthony Carmona as well as to Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai when she visited TT.
The soft-spoken Mohan is also a board member of an NGO called Unity in the community.
"This organisation raises funds to give scholarship to students. Every year I do a local painting which I put up for auction. They are worth thousands of dollars and the mayor auctions them. I do not charge them because that is my contribution. Eight years now I am doing this with them," Mohan said.
He recalled that during the reign of two commissioners at the Broward County, he presented them with portraits of themselves free of charge.
Source: Newsday, June 10, 2019

They're small, they're fuzzy, and they're the 'bee's knees' for honey and food production.
But did you know the typical yellow-and-black honey bee isn't originally from Trinidad and Tobago?
Here are eight things to know about bees in Trinidad and Tobago in commemoration of World Bee Day, celebrated on May 20, courtesy pollination ecologist Lena Dempewolf.


1. Some honey bees are 'douglarised' bees
Honey bees used in most commercial hives aren't local but are called 'Africanised' bees. That's because they are a hybrid of European and African honey bees, both of which were imported.
Some beekeepers have jokingly referred to this hybrid as a 'douglarised' bee, in reference to Trinidad and Tobago's diverse ethnic culture. 


2. Some native bees don't have hives, or a queen
Many native bees don't have hives but are solitary bees working alone to pollinate local plants. Solitary bees don't have hives and don't produce honey.
They often make nests in the ground in order to reproduce and are critical for pollination as they are better adapted for pollination of local plants.


3. Not all bees can sting you
There are nine species of ‘stingless’ bees that do have hives and a queen and produce honey.
Stingless bees are used to produce honey for commercial and medicinal purposes and are more effective than imported bees at pollinating local plants. 


4. Trinidad and Tobago's secret to award-winning honey? Diversification
Trinidad and Tobago once won global awards for its honey. However In 2001, the EU enforced the submission of a residue monitoring plan from all third countries (non-EU countries) wishing to export honey into the European Union.
Because of the lack of local testing facilities and costs associated with attaining certification abroad, beekeepers in Trinidad and Tobago have been unable to participate in the NHS and export their honey since 2001.
The wide range of flowering plants is what contributes to the unique taste of Trinidad and Tobago's honey. Destroying local forests would have an effect on the taste of local honey if bees are unable to access the diverse range of plants they did previously. 


5. Pesticides have been found in honey
Studies in Europe have shown that low levels of pesticides have been found in honey, however in Trinidad and Tobago, no studies have been done to confirm this in local honey.
However, pesticides are a continuous problem for imported and native bees, which are vulnerable to these toxins and can even be killed by them. 
Dempewolf says if bees happen to forage on flowers covered in pesticides, it might make its way into honey, however, it's at low enough levels that it's been proven (so far) to be safe for human consumption.
Many beekeepers are careful to keep their hives away from agricultural fields, however, Africanised honey bees may range quite far in order to find nectar and may go into farmlands where pesticides are used. 


6. No bees = no crops
Although honey is important, the most important bees aren’t honey bees but native bees.
Native bees are also more specialised for pollinating local plants.
“It’s like a lock and key, the shape of the bee matches the shape of the flower, so they can properly get in there to deposit the pollen,” Dempewolf said.
By contrast, although prized for honey production, Africanised bees are not as effective in pollinating local crops. Therefore the food we enjoy in local markets depends on the survival of our native bees. 


7. Climate change is affecting local bees
Climate change is affecting food production worldwide, however in Trinidad and Tobago, extreme weather changes can also affect bees' survival.
During extreme dry seasons such as that experienced in 2019, there's the likelihood of more forest fires. 
Africanised bees are more adaptable in that they often move their queen and relocate to a safer spot. Hence the reason one may often see a migrating beehive perched on a branch or other random location.
However native bees are unable to move their hives due to the large size of their queen, and often perish in forest fires. 
Dempewolf says solitary bees are slightly more mobile but they lay their eggs in bits of logs and other plants in the forest, which can also be destroyed by forest fires.
Likewise, during the rainy season, heavier showers can also affect bees and by extension food production.
"Bees generally don’t go out during wet weather…it can also wash the nectar out of flowers, so heavy flooding means less pollination," she said. 
There's also the problem of loss of habitat due to things such as logging, forest fires, housing developments and unsustainable agriculture, where farmers cut down all vegetation, leaving only one crop. 


8. Bee competition
Dempewolf said there is the element of imported bees crowding out native bees amidst competition for space and nectar - imported bees tend to ‘bully’ local bees out of spaces for hives, however, this comes down to proper management.
Imported bees, however, have been a part of the local ecosystem for quite some time and have learned to coexist with native species, however there remains competition for plants and flowers.
Source: The Loop, May 2019