BOOK INFO: 

Sexual Intelligence

Marty Klein.

HarperOne, 2012.

ASIN: B005HF736M; 258 pages.

Review by Kevin Baldeosingh 

Sex is not something that most people can think clearly about—in fact, studies show that, for men, thinking about sex actually reduces their IQ. So psychologist Marty Klein’s book is useful just in order to present points about sex which should be obvious, but aren’t. 

Of course, Klein has years of experience as a sex therapist to draw on, and his book has many anecdotal case studies about his patients (names changed, of course). Although he does not note it, most of the time it’s the women who bring the couple in for therapy and, most of the time, it’s the women who are more critical of their partner. 

Klein sums up people’s attitude towards sex in this way: “What most people say they want from sex is some combination of pleasure and closeness. Yet, as a sex therapist, I can tell you that that’s NOT what most people focus on during sex.” 

Instead, he says, they worry about how they’re looking, smelling and sounding, and about maintaining an erection or staying wet, and whether they’re rushing to orgasm or trying not to orgasm too soon. 

“Focusing on how your penis or vulva is working is an enormous distraction from pursuing pleasure or intimacy,” Klein notes. “...if ‘manliness’ means always being erect regardless of fatigue, for instance, or ‘competent’ means climaxing every time, sexual ‘success’ will be frustratingly elusive.” 

Apart from pleasure and closeness, people also want reassurance that they’re sexually desirable and sexually competent, validation of masculinity or femininity, a sense that they’re normal, and relief from performance anxiety. 

• Cont“But if you’re struggling with these emotional needs, pursuing them through performance-oriented sex, and you don’t realise it, you may feel that sex is more trouble than it’s worth, or that feeling alone during sex is normal, or that sex is not the time to feel like yourself,” says Klein. 

One fundamental issue, he asserts, is that people’s concept of sex is usually formulated in their youth and remains unchanged. “Logically, as both our bodies and lifestyles change, our sexual vision needs to change too...A lot of my patients have trouble reconciling a vision that ten to 20 years out of date with a body and lifestyle that can’t support that vision comfortably,” he writes. 

“People no longer young (that’s most adults) often want a sex life that matches the one they had—or wanted to have, or believe they should have had—when they were young.” 

This is where sexual intelligence comes in. His book gives guidance on how people can change their concepts and how they relate to each other sexually. “Sexual intelligence means dealing with sexuality in a straightforward way, rather than hiding it, denying it, or blaming it. You talk about it. You don’t put your energy into pretending that sex isn’t the way it is,” he explains. 

Partners need to feel that whatever they want sexually is normal, even if they negotiate to not do the things one partner is not comfortable with. When people achieve this, Klein writes, “One of the wonderful things about sex is that we can make it a place where mistakes are simply not possible, and where virtually nothing can go wrong—not because we’re sexually perfect, but because we radically redefine sexual ‘success’.”

As the Port-of-Spain Corporation continues to commemorate City Day with 102nd anniversary celebrations, the western suburb of the nation’s capital is expected to explode in a burst of colour this evening from 6 o’clock with the staging of Fashion & Mas Rock the City.
 
This unique event, which will showcase fashion and T&T Carnival, will be staged at Ariapita Avenue, Woodbrook, and is being co-produced by world-renowned, award-winning designer Anya Ayoung Chee, commissioned by Port-of-Spain Mayor Kerron Valentine, and assisted by Leah Marville and a crew of young, creative people. 

The street parade of fashion and mas will feature local and foreign designers from Exhibit A, in addition to costumes from The Lost Tribe and Tribe. The production also includes a Tobago Heritage display and traditional carnival characters. There will also be live performances by steelbands and popular artistes. 

The parade begins at Alberto Street and makes its way along Ariapita Avenue, proceeding east to Adam Smith Square for performances and the fashion display. With the protective services out in full force, traffic restrictions will be in force along the parade route. 

The show at Adam Smith Square will be hosted by Kwesi “Hypa Hoppy” Hopkinson, an honoree. Ayoung-Chee and Ultimate Events director Dean Ackin are also amongst some of the honorees who will be receiving the Mayor’s Award for their outstanding contribution in their various fields. Other honorees include Shaun Sammy. 

The evening’s proceedings will also see performances from 5Star Akil, Ronnie McIntosh and Olatunji, and the parade contingent includes Newtown Playboyz Steel Symphony, as well as masqueraders from 2016 Band of the Year winner Ronnie and Caro, Fantasy Carnival and Passion. This is a family event and free for all to attend. 

Meanwhile, the Port-of-Spain Corporation is tying up loose ends for its June 24, Pan Down Frederick Street parade, which will showcase some of the nation’s popular steel orchestras along the parade route from Pan Trinbago’s headquarters on Park Street, and in Desperadoes’ panyard on Frederick Street.

Pan parade in crisis in St James 
Although requests were made to state entities since March, officials of this year’s Steelband & Traditional Carnival Mas Parade scheduled for tomorrow evening, were awaiting word on sponsorship, with lingering doubt whether it would be held at all.

A spokesman for the St James Community Improvement Committee (St James CIC), producer of this annual event for the last 16 years, said that this year obtaining sponsorship for this event has been an onerous challenge, making it very difficult to produce the 2016 WeBeat St James Live festival. 

Up to press time yesterday the (St James CIC) was awaiting final word from the line ministry on sponsorship of the steelbands invited to participate in tomorrow’s parade. 

However, before the steelband and mas production, WeBeat St James Live continues this evening with the staging of WeKaiso featuring several calypsonians performing vintage calypsoes. 

Acts billed for tonight’s WeKaiso include reigning National Calypso Monarch Roderick “Chucky” Gordon; Scrunter (Irwin Reyes Johnson); Brian London; Bally (Errol Ballantyne); Bro Mudada (Alan Fortune); Ajala (Keith Sutherland); SuperBlue (Austin Lyons); and, 5 Star Akil (Akil Borneo). Musical accompaniment will be by Pelham Goddard & Roots. 

WeBeat St James Live is also staging J’Ouvert tomorrow morning, from 5 am. It is the first time that a J’Ouvert masquerade has been officially sanctioned by the authorities to be part of WeBeat St James Live. The parade begins at The Amphitheatre and proceeds east along Western Main Road to Roxy Roundabout and back. 

Brian LaFond, an organiser of the J’Ouvert emphasised that the event is exclusive only to steelband music. Steelbands already signed to parade the route include St James Tripolians and Scrunters Pan Groove. LaFond added that rhythm sections are also included. He said: “We are trying to have a J’Ouvert like J’Ouvert was in the old days and we are encouraging the senior old mas masqueraders to come out in their costumes and play their mas, the way they played in yesteryear. Of course the young folk are also most welcome to participate in the fun.” 

WeBeat St James Live 2016 will have its climax on Sunday in the form of WeCruise aboard the Treasure Queen, berthed at Pier 2, Chaguaramas. Boarding time is 3 pm.

The T&T Film Festival (TTFF) is inviting young people with an interest in film, to apply to be a member of its Youth Jury during the ttff/16, which will be held from September 20 to 27. 

The Youth Jury will comprise five young people living in T&T, between the ages of 16 to 21 (inclusive), who are enthusiastic about watching movies with a critical eye, and gaining a better appreciation of the cinematic art form. 

A release from the TTFF said applicants must be T&T citizens, residents, or based in T&T for at least one year prior to application. Prospective Youth Jury members should apply at submit@ttfilmfestival.com by writing an essay of no more than 250 words, saying what their favourite movie is and why. 

Applicants should also provide their name, date of birth, gender, citizenship, residence and school or occupation. Successful applicants under the age of 18 years will be required to have written consent from a parent or guardian in order to participate in this programme. Successful jury members will be notified by August 26. 

The five-member jury will meet during the festival, under the guidance of an experienced film critic, to watch a selection of feature-length fiction films that deal with themes and issues affecting young people. 

After viewing all the films in competition, the Youth Jury will choose the winning film. The director of this film will receive a trophy plus a cash award of TT$5,000, to be presented at the TTFF/16 awards ceremony on September 25. 

As a participant, each Youth Jury member will receive a festival pass—which provides free entry to all film screenings—to the opening gala and awards ceremony, and invitations to selected social events during the festival.

Valdeen Shears-Neptune

They have been together for over 36 years and recently celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary. Dancing, lots of conversations, laughter and love are an essential part of their lives. More so now than ever. For Tom and June Thomas, every day is a shared memory and new ones are cherished even more than ones from years gone by.

Tom, 84, has Alzheimer’s and June has been his primary caregiver for the past 15 years, when he first started showing signs of the progressive disease.

“It crept up on us, you know. It took years for us to recognise it for what it is. Little signs, changes in his behaviour and mood were the first signs. He would have outbursts and then not remember or repeat himself and still at first we thought it just unusual, nothing more,” recalled June at their farm and home at Arima.

This, though, is not their first bout with Alzheimer’s, as Tom’s eldest sister had it and lived with them for a while before she was placed in an elderly home. It was while she was in their care that his condition was confirmed.

June said the siblings fed off each other’s energy and used patois (broken/dialect French), music and dancing as their own form of therapy.

“Oh, he was happy when she was here. They spoke patois as children and had their own world going on when they got into heavy conversation. I picked up a bit here and there, I didn’t feel left out at all. We all sang, danced and laughed together,” she recalled with a nostalgic smile.

Tom, she said, cried when his sister had to be taken away. To June, he became withdrawn and his condition worsened. He also has another sister living with Dementia (developed through advanced Alzheimer’s) in an institution.

Not easily daunted, June said she stocked up on ginkgo and other herbal “brain food” supplements. The family doctor, though, advised that she stop wasting money and simply invest more time, patience and love into their relationship.

“We had plenty of all that already but now it had to be on a more indepth, different level. Now we talk all the time, everyday,” she explained. He advised them to take up a second language and also to utilise technology, preferably Tom’s mobile phone.

Tom, though, she said, is not too tech savvy, but his interest was peaked when she bought him a tablet recently. A bit of Spanish is now on their daily agenda. But family continues to be his main remedy, she said.

The couple has six children and while they are all now aware of their father’s condition, June said it took them even longer than her to really realise what was happening.

An A-class welder trained in England, their children had known him for being somewhat of a perfectionist. When the disease started progressing, they noticed that odd jobs around the home, which he took pride in completing, were either ignored or left incomplete.

For the couple’s eldest son, who lives in the US, it took a telephone conversation with his father for him to become fully aware of what their mother had been coping with.

“He asked him about his sister and he doesn’t have any, so he then called me and asked and I confirmed. We are all in this together. That’s just how it is,” she said.

Now, Tom, a Ministry of Agriculture retiree, is happiest in his garden, being with his grandchildren, and having long monthly conversations with his family abroad.

June, who is constantly researching the condition, has opted to add one thing to their already healthy diet—coconut oil. The coconut oil, which she now produces on their farm, is part of their everyday cooking. Study, she said, has shown it helps with memory loss and improvement.

“Now, we take a spoon together each morning!” she recalled laughing. Living off their land with no processed foods, she believes, has contributed significantly to how well her husband is doing.

Sure enough, Tom is outside during the interview, determined to fill in a huge pond that she said she knows he cannot do on his own.

“I never argue with him. I distract and coax him because it is now the way his mind works. Patience and love and laugh a lot together,” was her advice for other caregivers.

The couple has watched the movie The Notebook at east three times together and while the roles are reversed, with the husband caring for his wife, June said she was just as determined that Tom never forgets who she is.

“It will always be about family, come what may. He is not like some cases where people are prone to running away (his sister was like that), he just wants to be home,” she said, looking lovingly in his direction.

Connecting with the Alzheimer’s Association of T&T
June is now prepared to go one step further and affirm a relationship with the Alzheimer’s Association of T&T.

The association was founded in 1996 as a project of the Soroptimist International Club of Port-of-Spain. The first seminar was titled Alzheimer’s Disease: The Affected Person and The Caregiver. In 2000 it became a registered nonprofit organisation and a full member of the Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) under the International Federation of AD and Related Disorders Societies Inc. The local body’s vision is to see people live full lives with dignity, support, empathy and the sharing of information.

In its bid to do just this, the association hosts monthly meetings in Port-of-Spain, Arima, San Fernando and Tobago, and facilitates several educational/outreach programme and lectures nationwide.

Its aim is to raise awareness and eradicate the stigma and shame often experienced by families living with Alzheimer’s.

MORE INFO
About Alzheimer’s
It is the most common dementia caused by abnormal brain tissue changes. 

Ten early symptoms include memory loss, difficulty performing familiar task, problems with language, disorientation, poor or decreased judgement, problems with keeping track of things, misplacing items, changes in mood and behaviour, changes in personality and loss of initiative.

Proper and early diagnosis, stated a release from the AATT, is extremely important as not all memory loss is a result of AD.

Dr Clive Tilluckdharry currently holds the post of principal medical officer (PMO) at the Ministry of Health. Previously, he was the specialist medical officer of the Insect Vector Control Division, the division responsible for, amongst other things, protecting the citizenry from diseases spread by mosquitoes. 

The Sunday Guardian spoke with him as the country prepares for the rainy season that heralds an increase in the number of mosquitoes and the likelihood of being bitten by the Aedes aegypti mosquito which can inflict three illnesses—chikungunya, dengue and Zika.

The Aedes aegypti mosquito needs stagnant water to breed, and the increased rainfall during the rainy season usually leads to more pools of stagnant water and a greater number of mosquitoes. This increase in the mosquito population is usually associated with an increase in the number of mosquito-borne diseases. This is why we must ensure that no stagnant water collects around our home where mosquitoes can breed. 

Q: What are the symptoms of the Zika virus?
A: Zika virus is unique in that only one in five people who are infected will show symptoms. This means most people (four out of five) who have the disease will not know because they will have no symptoms. The symptoms of Zika are very similar to the flu, are usually mild and typically resolve in two to seven days. People with the Zika virus rarely become sick enough to need hospitalisation. The most common symptoms of Zika virus are:
• Fever
• Rash 
• Joint pain  
• Conjunctivitis (red eyes) 

Other common symptoms include muscle pain and headache. People with the Zika virus can usually be cared for at home safely.  Zika virus is, however, associated with two significant conditions: Microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS).  

Microcephaly is a birth defect where a baby is born with a head that is significantly smaller than is expected. It is associated with Zika virus infection of the mother during pregnancy. Consequently, pregnant women should take steps to prevent being bitten by mosquitoes to minimise the risk of their baby being born with microcephaly. 

Guillain-Barré syndrome is a rare condition where a person’s own immune system attacks their nerve cells. This usually results in muscle weakness and paralysis from which most people make a full but slow recovery. 

Dengue fever, chikungunya virus and Zika virus can sometimes be difficult to tell apart without a blood test. All three can have symptoms in common such as fever, rash, muscle pain and tiredness. There are, however, a few symptoms that occur more commonly in one disease than either of the others. People infected with Zika virus show conjunctivitis (red eyes) more commonly than in the other diseases.

Dengue is associated with increased risk of bleeding, which can be potentially life-threatening. The significant joint pain associated mainly with Chikungunya infection can become chronic and can in some cases persist for years. 

What are the measures that citizens should be taking to prevent the spread of these viruses? 
Eliminating mosquito breeding sites (also known as source reduction) is the most effective way to prevent the spread of the Zika virus, chikungunya virus and dengue fever. In this way, no new adult mosquitoes develop to spread disease. This can be achieved by the following actions:
• Remove unwanted containers that can collect water to prevent them from becoming mosquito breeding sites.
• Cover all stored water to prevent mosquitoes from breeding.
• Clear drains and guttering to release stagnant water. 

Personal measures should be taken by citizens to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes. These actions may include:
• Wearing long sleeve clothing and long trousers.
• Using insect repellent with one of the active ingredients DEET, PICARIDIN or IR3535 to prevent being bitten. 
• Use mosquito netting on windows and doors to reduce contact between mosquitoes and people. 

Communities can work together to identify and eliminate their own potential mosquito breeding sites. This can be supported by several government agencies:
• The Public Health Inspectorate can assist with overgrown or vacant lots and unsanitary premises. 
• The Regional Corporation can assist with bulk waste and white waste collection.
• The Insect Vector Control Division can assist when a woman becomes pregnant or a confirmed case of Zika virus, dengue fever or chikungunya virus is discovered. 

Who are the most vulnerable among us? 
Pregnant women or women planning to become pregnant are vulnerable to complications associated with Zika virus infection and should take measures to avoid being bitten. Pregnant women should see their doctor if they develop a fever, rash, joint pain or red eyes. The very old (older than 65) and the very young (younger than five) are at higher risk of complications. People with chronic disease (Diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney or liver disease, tuberculosis and HIV) are also at higher risk. 

Under your leadership what are some of the new and innovative steps and programmes you have implemented or taken to improve fight against the scourges of dengue, chikungunya and Zika in T&T?
The robust response of the ministry is driven primarily through synergistic inter-sectoral collaboration with key stakeholders. This core response is augmented by an aggressive public education campaign which includes a caravan/bus distributing health education materials. 

A proactive approach has been implemented to protect pregnant women from Zika virus. A team from the Insect Vector Control Division will visit the home of pregnant women and do the necessary work to reduce their risk of being bitten by mosquitoes, including distributing bed nets. 

A rapid response unit comprising an inter-sectoral multi-disciplinary team usually responds to cases of Zika virus within 24 hours of notification. This means our field team is usually at the home and neighbourhood of the patient doing the necessary works the very next day. 

To protect our children, the majority of schools nationally have already been treated for mosquitoes. The outstanding few are on an aggressive work schedule. 

Mosquito traps using a new and innovative design will be deployed at public health facilities starting in a few weeks. These offer excellent mosquito control in settings where traditional methods may not be practical. 

What should a person who suspects they have one of the viruses do? 
A person who thinks that he/she may have dengue, chikungunya or Zika should visit his/her doctor to be properly diagnosed. Dengue can be potentially life-threatening and it is important to rule out this severe diseases. These viruses can be difficult to differentiate at times without a blood test so visiting your doctor is always a good idea. 

Paracetamol is the drug of choice for cases that can be cared for at home. It reduces fever and relieves pain. Fever can also be controlled by external methods such as applying a cloth soaked in room-temperature water or showering/bathing. 

It is very important to drink a lot of fluids to prevent dehydration. Adults need two to three litres per day and children should have fluids continuously, on demand. Water, coconut water, soups, fruit juices and oral rehydration solutions (ORS) are recommended. Sleeping under a bed net can prevent the spread of mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever, chikungunya and Zika virus to other family members. 

Medical treatment can always be sought at the local health centre as needed. 

Are there other ways that Zika can be contracted?
While Zika is spread primarily through the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, the virus can also be spread from mother to foetus during pregnancy. This can cause the disease microcephaly and other foetal brain defects. Zika can also be sexually transmitted by a man to his sex partners. This can occur before, during or after the male shows symptoms.

Think about this...when couples are tightening their belts, if you keep doing what you’ve always been doing, you’ll achieve what you’ve always achieved. In a sea of wedding vendors are you doing your best with your business development or are you becoming too complacent? Here are some tips for your wedding business during this time:  

Saying “no”—it may seem odd to say “no” to customers during a time of economic downturn but let me explain, say you have Bride A and Bride B...Bride A seems delighted with your “sales pitch” or with your merchandise, she returns to you more than once, bringing her friend/relative with her. She is a medium-to-high-budget spender and after the wedding, calls you up to say how very pleased she was with your service. 

Then you have Bride B, another medium-to-high-budget spender just like Bride A, however, she seems to be picking your quotation apart, deleting this and not wanting that. She doesn’t seem too satisfied either during the sales process or afterwards. She acts as though she’s “settling” for your service. In fact, what you probably found yourself doing was constantly spending time reworking quotations, meeting with her and taking her calls. Bride B is costing you more of your time (and time is money!) in the long-term.  

Depending on your type of business, perhaps it’s better to encourage more of the Bride A-types than the Bride B-types. In the long-term, those like Bride A may bring more referral business to you and will require a lot less time and effort! Now, doesn’t that sound good? 

Opt for faster volume—remember that cash flow is the lifeblood of your business. Without it, you won’t be able to pay your overheads or promote your business. Put more emphasis on products which are fast sellers, even though they may be slightly lower in profit margins, you will still be able to keep enough cash coming in. Once you have customers for those faster moving products or services, then you can try selling them your other offerings as a package price or as a special offer. 
 
Don’t let your marketing get mousey—If you aren’t being seen or heard, you are slowly fading away on the customers’ radar. Customers will not remember to get in touch with you if they are not being occasionally reminded about you through advertising. Word of mouth works too but it’s not very systematic, so it would be safe to say that you shouldn’t rely on it 100 per cent. Customers also won’t remember you if you’re not seen where they are, be it on a website like www.trinidadweddings.com, in a magazine or at a reputable event. 
 
Maintain your focus—what makes your business tick? What makes you different from other wedding vendors? Is it your top quality or unique merchandise, your super customer service? Your fast delivery? Can you make any of these better? 
Whatever your top three drivers are should be what you should focus on during tough times. After all, you don’t want customers who have a certain expectation of you to feel disappointed from ho-hum service or poor products. 
 
Double up—Let’s face it, all marketing and promotion involve a cost. Nothing good really comes for free. This is why when you’re doing any sort of marketing or promotional activity, it’s smart to get the most bang for your buck. Feel free to ask for volume discounts or specials or bundle advertising offers, you may be surprised at what you will find! 
 
For more helpful wedding business articles, follow me on Linkedin:
 https://www.linkedin.com/in/simone-sant-ghuran

Rapsoman Wendell Manwarren has had a long and varied career in the arts, beginning with the opera and continuing through theatre, mas-making and rapso. Manwarren spoke about his journey to a standing-room only crowd at the Monday Night Theatre Forum held on June 6, at the Trinidad Theatre Workshop, Belmont.

The musician, actor and director grew up in Belmont in close proximity to a wide range of characters involved in Carnival, including the famous sailor mas man, Jason Griffith, famous man of the theatre Austin Forsyth, sound engineer Robin Foster and soca legend David Rudder. His parents used to play pan and mas with different bands. 

“For me, growing up in Belmont is a powerful thing, I have a grounding, and I’ve come to discover that time and time again and try to reinvest and represent that in everything I do.” Manwarren also grew up watching Best Village theatre on T&T Television (TTT), where, he said, the folk culture was alive. It awoke in him a love of storytelling. 

“I’m a T&T storyteller, I’m grounded in T&T, I seek no other grounding. It’s an eternal quest, something I can’t get enough of, trying to understand who we are, why we are, where we’re going.” He lamented the eventual involvement of the State in the art form, which he said turned it into something else.

After leaving St Mary’s College, Manwarren fell into doing opera with the T&T Light Operatic Society alongside UK-based T&T tenor Ronald Samm and Roger Roberts—the latter now Manwarren’s partner in rhyme in the rapso trio 3Canal. He got into theatre in 1984 when he won the lead in Guys and Dolls, directed by Belinda Barnes. Afterward, he decided he wanted to be a part of the Trinidad Tent Theatre. 

Tent Theatre, under the guidance of Helen Camps, was a training ground for many T&T thespians, including prominent director and actor Raymond Choo Kong.

Manwarren said he was lucky to be there and catch a bit of the fire, as his compatriots became the next generation of directors and producers. He said theatre was the first thing he found he was good at, other than studying. 

“People would come to me and say I’m good, and the kind of people saying it, I knew they weren’t trying to mamaguy me. For me there was an inherent regard and respect for people who were doing this before me; I didn’t come in there thinking I was all that, which is a big difference to what happens now.”

Manwarren then moved on to working with The Bagasse Co. It was there he realised that he was interested in the directing and sound design aspects of theatre. Manwarren also began to do voice ads. 

“I’ve lived by doing voices for the last 30 years. My mother always used to tell me to ‘speak properly’ but I always appreciated our own language. I didn’t think it was ‘less than’ so I was able to understand you could speak English and you could speak Trini.” 

While at Bagasse, he got the opportunity to go to a retreat in Scotland, and there he learned to “claim his power.” He said he realised he didn’t have to take every job that was offered, and gradually he fell out of acting.

Manwarren was also working with Peter Minshall at The Callaloo Co, where he learned theatre as spectacle, and was Minshall’s assistant at the 1992 Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, where the mas giant staged massive productions as part of the opening ceremonies. Manwarren also drummed for Gloria Estafan during her performance of Reach at the closing ceremony of the Atlanta Games. 

Manwarren said the prehistory of 3Canal “to many people is those three years we spent making J’Ouvert and it was myself, Roger Roberts and Steve Ouditt. Steve drew, I wrote and Roger produced. Steve wanted the group to have a badman name, and 3Canal resonated.” “Three canal” is a vernacular name for a cutlass with three lines or channels on the blade close to the handle.

“We’ve since gone on to exploit that metaphor: it’s a weapon used to cut and clear, make a statement and you also use it to protect yourself.”

The band’s big break came in 1997 when Manwarren and Roberts, together with Stanton Kewley and John Isaacs, released the song Blue. It was a tremendous hit and resulted in the formation of the phenomenally large Blue J’Ouvert band. 

Manwarren said it was a horrible experience as so much could have gone wrong, and the band ended up “paying the devil” with Manwarren getting hit in the throat by a rock and Roberts ending up in the hospital. 

Nonetheless, he said, Blue took them all over the world. They were able to record almost 200 songs with various producers, including the late producer Sheldon “$hel-$hock” Benjamin, who Manwarren remembered as being no-nonsense and pure. 

“We did Happy Song, Good Morning Neighbour… people would stop us to tell us where they were when they heard it and how it changed their lives. I love music so much I still can't believe we make music as a career, but there's a part of me that's very aware of what it is and what we could do with it.” 

Manwarren said the group decided to do rapso because it was non-competitive. “It allowed us to make a statement. We had to find our voice and we had harmonies from years of singing in choirs, which no one else had.” In 1999 the band released Talk your Talk, which remains one of their most popular songs to date.

Isaacs died in 2000, in the heart of the Carnival season, and Manwarren said his legacy still lives with them today as he was the aristocrat of the group who insisted they hold themselves to a certain standard.

Manwarren has also worked with Noble Douglas at the Lilliput Theatre for the last 25 years or so, and acts in plays by Derek Walcott. He’s grateful to have worked with Douglas, Raymond Choo Kong, Tony Hall, Eintou Springer, Mavis John and other heroes and that’s why “I can relate to the youth and put myself back in their shoes a little bit. I don't take any of it for granted.” He lamented that youth nowadays are losing knowledge of T&T culture through lack of exposure in the media. 

“The role I see myself is playing now is to fill the voids with a sense of urgency, and those voids for the most part have to do with knowledge and valuation of self, commitment to self and self-determination.” He also advocated for the creation of safe spaces for the arts to develop, such as TTW, his own theatre space the Big Black Box, and the Little Carib Theatre. 

“We’re still pioneering. We need to start institution-building. Diversification of the economy to involve the creative sector is just talk; we need to see what exists and build on that. We need to bring back the old time days of TTT and project ourselves to the world with pride.” He had two pieces of advice for younger artists. Firstly, as Shakespeare said, “Above all else, to thine own self be true.” 

But, he chided they must remember “it didn’t start with you and it won’t end with you, so you need to know what came before you or you’ll be in trouble.”

Power defines Bitter Cassava, from the music to dancing to the singing to the performances delivered by every actor on stage. 

The play tells the story of Samuel William Blondell (played by Muhammad Muwakil), the village ram, who throws his common-law wife Justina (Tishanna Williams) and their three children out of the house when he decides to marry Betty-Lou (Ruby Parris), and the repercussions that follow. Power is also part of the story, the power of revenge and a broken heart, and karma, the notion that what goes around comes around. 

As the narrator Pa Cefus (Darin Gibson) says, “When yuh plant a bitter cassava garden, all while it growing, it lush and green like any good cassava crop, but in the fullness of the time, papa, is a bitter harvest to reap.”

The play is written and directed by Dr Lester Efebo Wilkinson, who directed the play when it was first staged in 1979. The play has since been produced several more times under different directors. Wilkinson said he was excited to be bringing the play back again and he was grateful for the cast and crew.

Wilkinson said he knows the play will have a great impact on those who watch it, and he is amazed at the continuing relevance of the play in today’s society. “It speaks to the cost of brutality within the family and the way that that brutality spreads itself throughout the society and makes for an uncaring, unfeeling society and makes for communities that simply do not know how to look after their own.”

Many cast members also agreed that the play will have a great impact on the audience. Williams said, “The situation is something that is so relevant to us—unfortunately the smallest child to the oldest adult knows on some level what this is, and what this looks like—and therefore it is something that is translatable. We're at a time in our history where the conversation with respect to a lot of issues that Bitter Cassava deals with is now a global social media conversation.”

Muwakil, a poet and spoken word performer, won a Cacique as best supporting actor for his role in the play eight years ago. This time, he said, the play feels more real. 

“Audiences will be shocked, they’re going to cry, people are going to hate me if I do my job correctly. There’s depth because you have to create back-stories and understand where these characters coming from, so it’s not just this one-note badman character; he’s come to where he’s come to by a process. It’s been interesting finding the motivations for things and that's helped me understand abusive people more and how abusers become abusers.”

Parris said she blames Blondell’s character for provoking the entire situation. “Women in today's society often pit against each other when a man horning them or a man leaves them for somebody else. They always go after the outside woman, nobody attacks the man, and normally it’s the man who’s to blame. 

“Sam has a common-law wife and three children with her. How could you leave your family and go with somebody else? I think it has to do with men thinking that the higher the colour or social background the woman is, the more they will move up in society and the social hierarchy. I hope men watching the play see themselves in Sam and see a change that they need to make within themselves, because it's a series of bad choices being repeated.”

Gibson said he hopes the audience goes away with a new perspective. “To me, people don't think too much about the spiritual effects of things, and part of what the person goes through is a spiritual or psychological blow and it comes back around.”

Kurtis Gross, who plays Papa Iban, said the play is a “drastic, dread, dark story, but it reflects actually what's happening in society in our country, sad to say. It tells you about the frustration that we face, it tells you about what we're going through, how we deal with pressure, things like that, so as much as the story is dark, it's real.”

The play incorporates elements of T&T folklore such as douens, and a spiritual element that is part of Trinidad folk culture, typical of Wilkinson’s plays. There are also elements of comedy, mostly between Pa Cefus and the policeman, played by Gervon Abraham.

Bitter Cassava runs until June 26 at the Little Carib Theatre, Woodbrook. Showtimes are 8 pm Thursdays- Saturdays and 6 pm on Sundays. There will be a special gala performance on June 11 in aid of the Coalition against Domestic Violence.

More info
Call 622-4644 or find the BV Theatre Project on Facebook.

All through the grim years of the Great War or World War I (1914-18) T&T showed its commitment to the British metropole in the enlistment of scores of men for service in Europe. These troops were divided along the established colonial lines of colour, being separated into the Public (black) Contingents and the Merchants and Planters (white) Contingents. 

When the conflict ended, the Public Contingents arrived home first. They were ferried ashore on a crowded barge like cattle, marched two miles up to the Queen’s Park Savannah where they were tersely addressed by Governor Sir John Chancellor and disbanded. Their commitment to the ‘mother country’ was discarded like so much garbage. The emotions of dissent, alienation and rage felt by these men would eventually boil over into the first real throes of a labour movement in the colony. 

The treatment accorded to the white contingents was certainly different. They were treated as heroes for whom the best could never be too good. A whirlwind round of parties and fetes began in their honour and it was deemed fit that some permanent establishment be initiated in appreciation of their service. This was piloted by the wife of Leon Centeno, one of the richest cocoa planters in Trinidad. 

The very same governor who had dismissed the black troops without a second glance, supported her initiative and offered the site of the recently-relocated St Ann’s Boys’ Government School as the site for a serviceman’s club. This spot was just southeast of where Belmont Circular Road joins the Queen’s Park Savannah.

Funds were raised through balls and dances at the Queen’s Park Hotel, the Grandstand and Prince’s Building (now the location of Napa) with the cocoa estate owners and white merchant class being generous subscribers since it was for their sons the effort was being made. 

The building spot was leased to the incorporated Sailors and Soldiers Club at the price of one shilling per year. Associated with this organisation was the Royal Air Force Club which would also have quarters in the edifice, being a separate annex to the back of the premises. 

A large, two-storey structure was designed by Dr Maxwell Johnstone and erected at considerable cost. On the ground floor was a gallery complete with an in-house bar and a dining area opening into a courtyard. Large arches, reminiscent of Spanish architecture, defined the outer façade.

Upstairs functioned as a hostel with showers, dormitories and private rooms available for members. 

On June 14, 1922, the Sailors and Soldiers Club was handed over and then began the round of social occasions which was to define its existence for the next 35 years. Annual Christmas balls and Carnival Dances were held here along with benefits for charitable causes.

The club facilities were ostensibly open to all servicemen of the Navy and Merchant Marines but, of course, given the prevailing prejudices of the time, it was tacitly understood that this was an invitation extended to whites only. 

The years of World War II saw the club being constantly utilised as many people occupied its hostelry while fund-raisers for the Empire were held in the gallery. Its courtesies were expanded to include officers of the American forces stationed in the island from 1941 under the Bases Agreement.

In 1957, the lease of the Sailors and Soldiers Club expired and was not renewed. It was a different social environment altogether in the post-WWII years which saw the dismantling of many of the old exclusionist establishments in the face of the rise of a wave of nationalism which had found its face a year earlier in the political ascendancy of Dr Eric Williams—a wave which would in a few years lead to Independence.

The building became the location of the Central Library. The administrative functions of this department as well as book storage moved to the old clubhouse. Many people can remember the iconic ‘bookmobiles’—the rural mobile library service—being parked here. 

Despite the change in usage, the RAF Club maintained its activities in the portion of the structure that it was originally allocated. Like most historic buildings that fall under the purview of the public sector, the clubhouse began to deteriorate from a lack of maintenance. In a couple decades after the Central Library moved in, the collapsing ceilings, cracked walls and malfunctioning plumbing heralded the inevitable fate that came in 1984 when it was finally demolished, ending an interesting chapter in the history of local built heritage.

This man has interrupted the lovemaking of crabs at Waterloo. He’s shaken the beds of sleepy swamp snakes, and braved the faecal stench of a bubbling Beetham sludge lagoon to show us the beauty of Black-necked stilts. His name is Robert Clarke, and he’s the adventurous narrator/guide persona of Bush Diary 2.

Bush Diary 2 is the recently released sequel wildlife DVD to the popular and award-winning 2012 Bush Diary 1 DVD. While the first collection featured four episodes (Caroni Swamp, Mangroves, Avian Wonders and Forest Fires), Bush Diary 2 spotlights three themes: Leatherback Turtles, Nariva Swamp and Wildlife Rescue. Atlantic Energy generously sponsored DVD manufacturing costs for Bush Diary 2.

Each episode portrays a different, unique story about our local wildlife and the special places where they live. Cameraman Rajnauth Lal and the team capture some beautiful visuals throughout the DVDs, whether it’s clouds drifting over a full moon in Matura, a panoramic swamp shot, or a dramatic closeup of a jewel-like dragonfly.

Both Bush Diary collections are well-produced local nature documentaries, split into 30-minute episodes, made by the resourceful team of Idiom TV, which is a small local film production company led by editor-producer-writer Paolo Kernahan.  

The episodes are precisely the kind of fun, intelligent local shows that we see far too little of on local TV: unique indigenous cultural products that educate, inform, and also, at their best moments, delight you with unexpected encounters. 

But the peculiar nature of competitive advertising, and local TV stations expecting to be paid to show quality programmes (as if all shows were ads), has lately turned Idiom TV away from that route. “It is not practical for any producer to produce television shows, and then pay a TV station to air it, because that is not sustainable,” commented Kernahan.

Even if a show is educational, and in the public interest, and will attract and build future audiences, “that has absolutely no bearing” when it comes to local TV screening policies, said the Idiom team. No matter what the type or quality of the show, whether it’s an election broadcast or a nature show, all local content producers must pay for local TV screen time, unlike in some other countries with more enlightened public television policies which have mandates beyond the purely mercantile.

Travelling around Trinidad

Despite a modest budget, the Idiom team in Bush Diary succeeds admirably in telling important local environmental stories while also being entertaining. They’ve also learned how to transform their equipment limitations into virtues, by force of necessity; so that, for instance, they’ve evolved a “stealth mode” of shooting birds to compensate for not having a super long lens. 

We get a chance to see, hear and learn not only about our own tropical animals, but also vicariously explore beautiful nooks and crannies of Trinidad where we may never have been. And the environmental education happens almost by accident, thanks to Kernahan’s skilful, unobtrusive scriptwriting and research.

Unlike the famous Australian TV wildlife personality Steve Irwin, Robert Clarke the Trini narrator does not deliberately set out to antagonise animals for human entertainment. Rather, it’s more a case of waiting patiently in the bush for the chance to capture just that special moment when the animals are going about doing their natural animal business. So just one minute of film can easily represent many, many hours of patient effort — not only waiting for the elusive animals, but also battling wind, rain, mosquitoes, equipment failures and attacks from hardened bush cockroaches!

Tattooed and with a clear speaking voice, Clarke makes a competent narrator for the wildlife escapades. The Guardian interviewed Clarke and Kernahan on June 6 in the T&T Guardian’s Chaguanas office to hear more about Bush Diary 2, and how the whole series came to be. 

How it began

The Bush Diary series began as a seed in Kernahan’s mind from the days when he was a reporter working on rice farming stories in Nariva, and saw Red Howler monkeys, and other wildlife, for the first time.

“That was mind-blowing for me, because I didn’t know that we had all of this here,” confessed Kernahan. 

“Ever since then, I’d always wanted to do an action-oriented nature programme, because people need to know much more about wildlife and the environment. For instance, the silky anteater or ‘poor-me one’ (in Bush Diary 1) was a revelation, not only to many viewers, but also to us, when we went out into the Caroni Swamp. So Bush Diary came from this interest in educating the public, and myself along the way, about all the tremendous wildlife and biodiversity here.”

Kernahan thought Clarke would make a good, adventurous show host, and alongside fellow media workers Narrisa Mandol and Rajnauth Lal, the core Idiom team formed in 2009, and production took off. 

“As we went along, we realised more and more that the show was also about conservation,” said Bush Diary host Clarke, adding:

“In my own background, I was always that way inclined. I couldn’t bear to see animals hurt. I don’t like to see habitat destroyed. As we filmed, we realised how fragile these ecosystems are. And how much they need to be protected.”

Filming the show dramatically raised the Idiom crew’s awareness of diverse threats. A big one is encroaching human habitation, which is wiping out wild spaces, they realised. We humans are the biggest threats to our own very special, unique, biodiverse natural heritage—but it doesn’t have to be that way.

“If we don’t pay attention to what we are doing, we could very well lose it. As David Attenborough said, people cannot be expected to cherish something that they know nothing about. So that is a very important mission of Bush Diary,” said Clarke.

“We didn’t want to hammer people over the head with the conservationist ethic. Instead, we wanted to show people: look, this is yours, this belongs to you. So you need to play a greater role to ensure this remains with us for future generations.” 

Inspiring stories

The team found inspiring examples of how just one individual, or a few people, have made a great difference to the survival of different wildlife in their areas. The Turtle Village Trust at Matura, for instance, emerged from the vision of just a few people who saw that turtles were worth far more alive than dead. (Atlantic Energy sponsors the Turtle Village Trust.) Meanwhile at Grand Riviere, a whole destructive village culture of butchering nesting turtles and eating them at beachside smokeouts became transformed and reversed years ago, once villagers became educated and saw the longer-lasting ecotourism benefits of preserving their unique local wildlife. Local fisherman Len Peters in Grand Riviere has now become an expert on turtles, with “encyclopaedic knowledge,” said Clarke: “His knowledge of turtles is as good as, or perhaps better than, any scientist.” 

“We want people to value these animals as economic assets. That means you need to know the wildlife you are talking about. It is absolutely unacceptable that if we bring tourists here and they ask us about an animal, we cannot answer. So Bush Diary is trying to make experts of each and every one of us. It’s more than a case of being proud of what’s here; that knowledge will also help us sell this country as an ecotourism destination,” said Clarke, adding:

 “We should never give up fighting for wildlife, because we have, in our own lifetimes, some fantastic examples of people who have raised their voices against others, to ensure that these animals have a future.”

MORE INFO

Bush Diary DVD 2 Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kjc9mBfJgpU

To order DVDs, email: idiomtv@gmail.com. The team will personally deliver it. Also on sale at Paper Based Bookshop at Hotel Normandie in St Ann’s; Rainy Days at Ellerslie Plaza, Maraval; and Signature Stationary in Valpark Plaza.

Sidebars (if space allows):

Who is Paolo Kernahan?

Paolo Kernahan is a writer and video producer for both the traditional and digital media. He produces content that tells T&T stories. His works include the video series Bush Diary with Robert Clarke, The Road Less Travelled, Battle of the Belly, Dinner in A Snap, and A Very Trini Christmas. Kernahan has been a talk show host at CNC3, Head of News at Gayelle and a television producer at TV6 and TTT. He currently writes a weekly column for the Guardian.

Who is Robert Clarke?

Robert Clarke is a freelance journalist and writer who also works in television production. He is the author of Sidney Knox, A Biography and has ghost-written several biographies for Trinidadians who made their names in various endeavours. Clarke, who has his Master’s of Journalism from Carleton University, Ottawa, worked as a broadcast journalist at Gayelle and was Guardian’s reporter of the year in 2003.

The most-deadly mass shooting in US history began in the early hours Sunday morning when a lone gunman opened fire at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Throughout the day, millions of Americans followed the story through their social media feeds, where many angrily rehashed debates about gun control, radical Islamist terrorism, homophobia, President Obama’s public response to the mass killing, and Donald Trump’s proclivity for making everything about Donald Trump.

For many good people, the gut reaction to atrocity is precisely to politicise it. They are shocked, angry and afraid. And in their goodness, they harbour a desperate, if impotent desire to prevent the wanton slaughter of innocents from ever happening again. They therefore seize on and forcefully press whatever change in belief or culture or policy would, in their estimation, bring about a safer world.

This leads to conflict among them and tends to vex many other people who respond to mass killings by retreating into something like a period of mourning. The mourners feel at a gut level that tragedy impels us to step back from the day-to-day; to postpone festivities; to suspend politics; and to process our grief.

People are just different. And some of us have previously reacted in both of these ways. Watching the conflicting responses on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and comments sections of the mass media, where they overwhelmed calls for unity, it is easy to despair of all the argument; to fret about what divides us; to lament that a bigot who pledged allegiance to Isis and murdered dozens caused us to anger at one another.

But media and social media distort how people see themselves and one another. Look back at Sunday through a different lens—what people did in the analog world rather than what they said online—clarifies that the country responded with its best, not its worst. As Omar Mateen began his attack, he exchanged fire with an Orlando police officer who risked his life in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the gunman.

Later, as Mateen rushed deeper into the club and the attack turned into a hostage standoff, a Swat team and other police officers numbering at least a dozen put themselves in great peril storming the building, killing the gunman, and saving numerous lives. Nearby, dozens of doctors and nurses set aside their horror at the carnage flowing into their emergency rooms and laboured to save as many of the wounded as possible.

As local reporters and editors scrambled to get news of the wounded to the public, the people of Orlando took the initiative to give of themselves in the manner most-urgently needed. “Lines stretched around the block as people waited, in some cases for hours, to donate blood in support of those wounded in a deadly attack,” NPR reported. “As Sunday evening approached, many of the city’s blood banks reported that they were at capacity, thanks to the enormous outpouring of support—but called for donors to return on Monday and Tuesday (today), as the need would continue.”

rime scene investigators and other unsung municipal employees in Orlando took on the grisly burden of processing as gruesome a crime scene as can be imagined. Nameless officials and medical personnel steeled themselves to tell fathers and mothers that their sons and daughters were among the dead. American Muslims quickly took up a task that should not be their burden, but that plays a salutary role—they denounced their Mateen and any claim he laid on Islam.

Muhammad Musri, the president and imam of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, called the attack “monstrous.” 

He appealed to Muslims to donate blood for the wounded and to co-operate with Florida police and the FBI. At a hastily-organised press conference in Washington, DC, Nihad Awad, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil-rights and advocacy organisation in the United States, scolded Isis. 

“You do not speak for us,” he said. “You do not represent us. You are an aberration. You are outlaws.” He went on: “They don’t speak for our faith. They claim to, but 1.7 billion people are united in rejecting their extremism and their acts of senseless violence.”

Gay-rights organisations scrambled to provide emotional and therapeutic support to shaken members. Equality Florida set up a GoFundMe page for shooting victims and their families. In the first 17 hours, 32,680 people donated almost US$1.3 million.

A shaken but brave gay community turned out in large numbers for gay-pride parades in major cities throughout the United States, refusing to let fear of terrorism stop them from peaceably assembling and pursuing happiness. Local authorities in all those jurisdictions went on high alert to protect their right to be there and queer.

Organisers in Central Florida pulled together vigils for the Orlando victims by nightfall. 

“Despite warnings from Orlando Police, who were concerned about the security of large gatherings, several hundred people communed on the shoreline of Lake Eola,” The Sentinel reported. 

“They lit candles and left sunflowers near the Chinese pagoda and one musician played an original song to honour the victims.”

They were hardly alone.

Communities throughout the United States held vigils big and small. Clear across the country, in Southern California, one was held at an LGBT centre, another at a mosque, a third at a major intersection, and a fourth at Long Beach’s Harvey Milk Park.

“Not since 9/11 has a moment like this brought the nation together, and that evaporated quickly,” Karen Tumulty wrote in The Washington Post.  

“Since then, calamity seems only to drive the left and the right further apart, while faith in the nation’s institutions deteriorates further. Across the ideological and partisan divide, it no longer seems possible to even explore—much less agree upon—causes and solutions. So the response has been muddled, even while the next tragedy looms.”

I mostly disagree. 

There are deep divisions in America about how best to respond to gun violence, Islamist terrorism, attacks by people who are violent or mentally ill, and many matters besides, but it could hardly be otherwise in a diverse nation of more than 300 million people with vastly different life experiences, values and empirical judgments. We live together, trying to address hugely-complicated problems. 

Of course we often muddle through. While frustrating, there remains an overwhelming consensus that policy disagreements should be solved through the political process. And most Americans understand, at least on reflection, that our country is much more than politics and policy. 

On Sunday, Americans on the allegedly-divided right and left were both represented among the police officers who risked their lives to kill a rampaging gunman; the emergency room professionals who laboured through horrific carnage to save lives; the local journalists who got timely information to their community; the community members who lined up for hours in Orlando to give blood; the gay people who bravely turned out at Pride rallies nationwide; the police officers who stood ready to protect them; the Muslim American leaders who denounced Islamist terrorism; the tens of thousands who began raising

‘Queer Muslims exist—and we are in mourning too’

A strange thing happened a few months ago. I got a news alert that my photo project, Just Me and Allah, which documents queer Muslims and their diverse experiences, had been mentioned in a major LGBT magazine website.

I didn’t recall having done an interview with them, so I clicked on the article. The piece was about a 17-year-old Muslim girl in North Dakota allegedly having had a gun pointed at her head by her father after he discovered that she was a lesbian. 

In the piece, I was cited as proof of the existence of pro-LGBT Muslims—as if that were an anomaly. I wondered whether some random LGBT Christian would’ve been mentioned had the story involved an evangelical father and his daughter.

This pattern of double standards is going to be repeated on a massive scale in the aftermath of Sunday’s horrific news—the devastating fact that 29-year-old named Omar Mateen killed 50 people at an Orlando gay club. 

Although details are still emerging, his father told NBC News that his son may been motivated by witnessing two men kissing in Miami a couple of months ago. “This has nothing to do with religion,” he told NBC, adding that the family had been unaware of his plans.

There will be no shortage of voices in the media in the days and weeks ahead analysing the links between Islam, terrorism and homophobia. Political candidates will likely use the incident to gain support for their platforms in the upcoming election.

We are now used to the fact that, every time a criminally-misguided Muslim commits an act of violence, the entire religion and all its followers are questioned and placed under suspicion in a way that isn’t replicated with other faiths. We—and this of course includes queer Muslims—have to take extra care walking down the street at night and entering our mosques for fear of Islamophobic attacks.

Muslim organisations and activist groups are tasked with the responsibility of releasing public statements, apologising for the actions of terrorists and reminding the world that Islam promotes peace so innocent Muslims who are just trying to go about their daily lives don’t suffer repercussions.

Much has been written about what drives someone to kill innocent people. Arie Kruglanski, a psychology professor at the University of Maryland, studied the final words of suicide bombers and discovered a pattern: their motivation is personal significance and a search for a meaning that they are brainwashed into believing can only come with death. This is not the typical Muslim experience, but an aberration.

Our thoughts must for now be with those in Orlando. But over the next few days, as we try to recover from this atrocity and begin to piece together what it all means, it’s important to remember that Islam is exploited by religious extremists all over the world, often in attacks committed against other Muslims. One such incident occurred recently in Gulshan-i-Iqbal in Lahore, Pakistan—a park I used to love visiting with my family as a kid. Nothing made me feel freer as an eight-year-old than rushing down the slides with my younger sister. 

More than 70 people, mostly women and children, were killed by jihadists who claimed to be targeting those celebrating Easter. However, the majority of people killed were Muslims—something the terrorists would have known full well.

Hopefully the Gulshan-i-Iqbal story illustrates that this can’t be boiled down to us vs them. We’re all experiencing the same tragedy together. And I can tell you first-hand: being a peace-loving Muslim who ­­­omophobic attacks as everyone else isn’t out of the ordinary. (theguardian.com)

• Written by Samra Habib, the founder of Just me and Allah: a Queer Muslim Photo Project. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Globe and Mail and the Advocate.

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan started last week, and most of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims will be observing it. This means there’s a good chance you might encounter someone—a friend, a co-worker, your child’s teacher—who is celebrating Ramadan. But what is Ramadan, exactly?  Here are the most basic answers to the most basic questions about Ramadan.

What is Ramadan actually about?
Ramadan is the most sacred month of the year for Muslims. Muslims believe it was during this month that God revealed the first verses of the Qu’ran, Islam’s sacred text, to Mohammed, on a night known as “The Night of Power” (or Laylat al-Qadr in Arabic). During the entire month of Ramadan, Muslims fast every day from sunrise to sunset. It is meant to be a time of spiritual discipline—of deep contemplation of one’s relationship with God, extra prayer, increased charity and generosity, and intense study of the Qu’ran.

At the end of Ramadan there is a big three-day celebration called Eid al-Fitr, or “the Festival of the Breaking of the Fast.” Everyone comes together for big meals with family and friends, exchanges presents, and generally has a good time.

How does fasting work?
Fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars—or duties—of Islam, along with the testimony of faith, prayer, charitable giving, and making pilgrimage to Mecca. All Muslims are required to take part every year, though there are special dispensations for those who are ill, pregnant or nursing, menstruating, or traveling, and for young children and the elderly.

The practice of fasting serves several spiritual and social purposes: to remind you of your human frailty and your dependence on God for sustenance, to show you what it feels like to be hungry and thirsty so you feel compassion for (and a duty to help) the poor and needy, and to reduce the distractions in life so you can more clearly focus on your relationship with God.

During Ramadan, Muslims abstain from eating any food, drinking any liquids, smoking cigarettes, and engaging in any sexual activity, from sunrise to sunset. Doing any of those things “invalidates” your fast for the day, and you just start over the next day. 

Muslims are also supposed to try to curb negative thoughts and emotions like jealousy and anger, and even lesser things like swearing, complaining, and gossiping, during the month.

Ian Smart has been interested in technology since he was a teenager,  and in renewable energy sources and technology since he began studying engineering at the University of Western Ontario. 

That school’s engineering department participates annually in solar car races around the world, fielding a vehicle known as a Sunstang (http://ow.ly/sSjv301aZ75). 

Smart, 38, is the son of local lawyer Anthony Smart. He did his masters in renewable energy at the University of New South Wales in Australia. He founded Smart Energy (http://ow.ly/2uNc301aZ0G) in 2003 and recalls, “My first act was to write an article for local newspapers about why T&T should go solar.”

The company’s first major project was to install a solar system to power a cell site at Chacachacare for TSTT which delivers service to the islands off Trinidad’s northwest peninsula.

Smart Energy has installed solar-powered mobile charging stations and does energy audits and installations for local business and government agencies, but wants to more deeply evangelise the importance of investing in renewable energy resources.

In development is a mobile phone app which will “gamify” green activities, pulling together interested individuals and companies willing to support useful efforts at environmental cleanup and resource management.

It hasn’t escaped the young entrepreneur’s notice that green initiatives have an uphill battle for local attention. Drunk on cheap gasoline and electric power, T&T citizens allow green projects to fall to the ground through inattention to be stepped on by petroleum-dependent industrial boots or well-heeled Loubotins too rich to care about marginal concerns like CO2 output and waste per capita.

What Smart Energy needed was a rallying point and it’s certainly found it. Ian Smart has been following the development of electric vehicles from Tesla since the company fielded the sporty Roadster model, and before taking the step of bringing one of the rare cars into Trinidad, spoke with local dealerships about the electric cars in their range.

To his surprise, nobody had one, or had any plans to introduce a model. 

“We don’t want to be pigeonholed into just Tesla,” Smart said, “we aren’t a car dealership.”

But the pervasive corporate disinterest in electric cars may push Smart Energy more firmly in that direction and they are considering midrange electric vehicles like the Nissan Leaf. Smart Energy has imported a Model S, the Tesla company’s luxury sedan (http://ow.ly/JKfM301aZr4) as its talking point car for the new initiative.

The choice of vehicle was driven by the company’s reputation in the sector.

“Tesla stands out among electric cars,” Smart said.

“The image of such vehicles was of a car that was slow, small, short-ranged and definitely not sexy. Tesla flipped that on its head.”

The Model S is available in a range of configurations which scale the price between US$70,000 and $120,000, the mass market model Model 3 starts at US$35,000. Smart Energy worked on the project for two years and sourced a Model S built in the US for the European market to get the right-hand drive configuration.

“We are a small company, and we want to partner with larger companies to make the projects work.”

But he’s been finding that all the interest is in the bridge vehicles, CNG powered cars and hybrids. Even the government has been slow to implement its removal of import charges on electric cars, and the importation of the Model S hit several hiccups on entry the port racing ahead of the execution of Parliamentary changes in the import regime for green and alternative energy vehicles.

“I don’t think hybrids will be around for much longer,” Smart said.

“I don’t want to down cry other alternative fuels, but I believe that electric cars are future proof. There are things coming with the development of electric cars that are going to herald a new model for technology.”

“Combustion cars have reached their plateau, and electric cars are now beginning to hit economies of scale in production. There are at least a dozen startups focusing on the space.”

The Nissan Leaf is popular in Barbados, with at least 150 vehicles on the road. In the time they have been in use, the cost of their batteries has dropped to one-fifth of the original price.

To operate the Model S locally, a charging station has to be wired into the home to deliver 220 volts, which can charge the car in ten hours at a cost of around TT$30. On a full charge, the car has a range of 400km, which makes it far more energy-efficient than a gas-powered vehicle.

Smart Energy plans to train selected garages in basic maintenance, but because electric cars have dramatically fewer moving parts, no plugs and no oil, relationships with mechanics are likely to become strained.

One Model S owner of Ian Smart’s acquaintance has had maintenance done once in two years. The Nissan Leafs in operation in Barbados average two maintenance visits over the course of three years.

The Leaf has a shorter range, and Smart Energy envisions solar-powered charging stations deployed at key points in T&T to support them.

Information about the landed cost will be revealed at the launch of the Model S on June 18, and the car was still to be licensed and insured for use on the road, so until then, you’ll just have to accept Ian Smart’s experience with the vehicle.

“It’s the most incredible acceleration I’ve ever experienced,” Smart said.

“The car is silent and rides smoothly, so there are no audible or motion cues to tell you how fast it’s going.”

“We didn’t take all the options, but we have some.”

The touchscreen dashboard, leather interior and glass roof are standard for the Model S.

Once Smart and his colleagues are past the buzz of being the “Tesla guys,” the next step is Smart Energy Automotive, a planned subsidiary of the company which will seek partnerships with other companies operating in the space in the region to collaborate on parts, maintenance and support systems.

“Our role is to make the case for doing something better for the environment,” Smart said, “We want to be electric car evangelists.”

Whenever I am thinking about interventions for the community of people who live with mental health disorders, I feel overwhelmed. 

That is due in part to what I see as progressive in mental healthcare and wellbeing in T&T (nothing) and also to the fact that, I suspect if we were to do a population study on the issue, the knowledge, attitudes and perceptions may show a high level of misunderstanding and disregard.

I have always been open about my diagnosis, long before we began this feature, and have explained why I speak candidly about living/ thriving with a mental disorder. Time and again, I have laboured the point of trying to get people not to think of mental healthcare as separate interventions for different types of illnesses; thinking for example that depression is of less consequence than schizophrenia.

Despite there being over 200 mental illnesses/disorders and that there are those that present with greater severity, the truth is they are all mental illness requiring (multilevel) intervention. But people do have fears and misinformation about the range of illnesses/disorders based on the little they choose to know.

Misconception is pervasive in this society. People I know and with whom I interact at all levels of education and understanding, economic and social standing carry a common characteristic when it comes to mental health/illness/disorders. That is ignorance; its consequences are many, but intolerance really stands out.

Public attitudes to mental health remain poor; how poor would be interesting to establish when I realise my dream of a national fact-finding and benchmarking survey on the matter. We have done so little and are doing nothing currently to promote understanding and acceptance of people with mental health problems and none at all to educate the populace on the matter. 

Our stories (with many victories, too) and burdens are locked in the bosoms of those of us who walk wounded. Wounded twice, first by the disorder we are made to bear—not by choice or request—and by the burden of bearing it alone, in a national shroud of ignorance that only seeks to isolate us.

Mental illness is complex and until something is done to impact on public attitudes, we who dare to participate openly in the needed dialogue will continue to live as stereotypes and suffer the prejudice and discrimination where we are urgently hoping for healing and help. 

By definition: A stereotype is an exaggerated belief, image or distorted truth about a person or group—a generalisation that allows for little or no individual differences or social variation. Stereotypes are based on images in mass media, or reputations passed on by parents, peers and other members of society. Stereotypes can be positive or negative.

A prejudice is an opinion, prejudgment or attitude about a group or its individual members. Prejudices are often accompanied by ignorance, fear or hatred. Prejudices are formed by a complex psychological process that begins with attachment to an “in-group” and is often aimed at “out-groups.”

Discrimination is behaviour that treats people unequally. Discriminatory behaviour, ranging from slights to hate crimes, often begins with negative stereotypes and prejudices (excerpt from a document by Harvard Uni, the University of Virginia and the University of Washington). 

One definition of tolerance is “to accept behaviour and beliefs that are different from your own, although you might not agree with or approve of them: to deal with something unpleasant or annoying, or to continue existing despite bad or difficult conditions” (dictionary.cambridge.org).

In the matters of stereotyping and discrimination, I’m always wracking my brain as to methods to make a breakthrough to our people in a short timeframe and with the simplest language. I’m always inventing a campaign to help my nation be more educated and more tolerant of the issues some of us face.

In all this, I recall the days when I had (unadvisedly) set aside all diagnoses, living under the pretence and pretext that my condition did not exist. I would see my anger and loudly voice my prejudices, espouse judgment and spew obscenities and think to myself that I was just made up “hard.” I remember having so little compassion, my sometimes deliberate tactlessness to make a point, my storming around in circles of fury. 

Now, in full circle, as I became better informed and met better doctors with more information, I began to accept that a large part of that version of me spoke to the imbalance that I had set aside (or so I thought). I took responsibility.

Now, I reflect on how I must have infuriated people (and I see them still holding tight to their hurt and hatred). Then I consider that I am microcosmic of the wider situation. 

I shiver at the thought of how many of us who need compassion now for our life’s journey are without it because we are all dealing with people who are misinformed about who we are, what we need, and what we need them to be for us—tolerant, despite our past.

• To be continued

Delicious and spicy, soothing, or sharp and funkily fermented, South Korean food has a whole spectrum of flavours and textures that’s making it a huge hit in the United States right now. 

And not only in the States: the eclectic variety, versatility, health properties, and balance of Korean cuisine has won it fans far beyond its shores. 

American chef, author and TV personality Anthony Bourdain is among its many fans. In a recent interview with Lisa Granatstein of Adweek, posted online on June 6, he observed how wildly popular Korean food has become in his country, especially among the “cool kids.” Korean food, he noted, has always been very authentic to its ethnic roots, refusing to “dumb it down” for foreign tastes even when it’s made abroad.

Here in Trinidad, it’s easier to find African, Indian, Creole or Chinese-influenced flavours than Korean food. But that was not the case last Thursday, June 9, when the Korean Embassy hosted their Unique Taste of Korea event at the Korean ambassador's residence in St Clair. 

From the multicoloured Platter of Nine Delicacies to the tangy kimchi nibbles, guests enjoyed samples from many different dishes, cooked specially by three Korean Master Chefs who are currently based in New York. 

Among the dishes were bibimbaps—steamed rice topped with sauteed beef and colourful vegetables, mixed at the table with spicy gochujang sauce and sesame oil. There were seafood and green onion fritters; tender braised beef with chestnuts and ginkgo nuts; firm tofu blocks in a delicious, piquant sauce; many fresh vegetable dishes delicately arranged into small vessels that were like miniature visual artworks in themselves; and several different kinds of kimchi—spiced fermented vegetables, with a crunchy, savoury pickled taste. 

Washing it all down were a selection of wines, as well as two unique Korean drinks: cinnamon punch, made from simmered fresh ginger, cinnamon and sugar, and Yuja Cha or citrus tea, made from the tart Korean yuja fruit and sweetened to make a refreshing drink.

Korean Ambassador Doo-young Lee, in a T&T Guardian interview before the event, spoke about his decision to use Korean food as a bridge for cultural understanding:

“Culture is the most useful and meaningful vehicle to build bridges for people to understand each other. So this year I invited Korean chefs working in New York to visit. As you know, New York is a major cultural, music, and financial centre. And there is a huge Korean community in New York—more than 30,000 people; with a large Koreatown. So there are many excellent Korean restaurants there. I invited three chefs to visit T&T from the Korean Chefs Association of America: Joy Cho, KCAA executive director; Dong Chan Lee, KCAA president; and Seung Joon Choi, KCAA vice president.” 

“Korean food is very popular in New York right now,” said Master Chef Joy Cho, “and 80 per cent of our customers in New York are foreigners. We are very proud to cook our food for them. Today, we have examples of traditional Korean local cuisine, temple food, typical Korean family meals and street food.” 

Chef Dong Chan Lee (also called David Lee), who also plays the drums and was once an interior designer, said cooking has always been part of his family: “I am from a restaurant family—I am the third generation. My grandmother was a chef. That’s why I couldn’t decide on a different career! At first I was an interior designer, but then I realised cooking was in my blood and I became a chef. I’ve been cooking for about 12 years now in New York City. I learned cooking in school and improved my techniques in different restaurants.”

Chef Lee graduated from the International Culinary Center in New York and has worked at many NY restaurants, including the Mermaid Oyster Bar, Spitzer’s Corner and Barn Joo. He was the executive chef at Goggan, an upscale Korean restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City, where he specialised in New American Cuisine, drawing from his Korean roots. Chef Lee has cooked many dishes, from French cuisine to traditional Korean to creative new fusions. When we asked him about his own favourite Korean dish, Lee laughed and said: “Anything from my mom!” 

Perhaps the youngest chef at last Thursday’s Taste of Korea event was Seung Joon Choi, who said he started cooking from the age of 16. He’s worked in many cooking jobs, from fast food places to the military, and shared: “I was once the personal chef of a general. I then decided to study in America. I went to the Culinary Institute of America, graduated, worked at a couple of Michelin star restaurants, and now I am working in a Korean kitchen.” 

Today he is the executive chef of the Korean restaurant Gam Mi Ok in NYC. Seung Joon Choi says one of his favourite Korean dishes is mul naengmyun, which is a spicy cold noodle soup made from beef broth mixed with a little kimchi juice, with added noodles, pickled cucumber, radish, boiled egg, and slices of meat—a popular, refreshing summer dish in Korea.

Guests at last week’s Taste of Korea event received a beautifully designed 54-page book entitled Hansik, explaining some of the ancient, communal, cultural and spiritual principles shaping Korean cuisine. The term Hansik refers to traditional Korean food, as well as the manners and rules for serving food beautifully. The book showcases earthy, tasteful food photography with well-written short features in a classic, artlessly simple, fresh yet timeless graphic design which breathes a sense of rustic elegance rooted in nature: the  publication in itself is a thing of quiet, unassuming beauty.  (The book, published by the Korea Tourism Organization, has won two design awards, including a 2015-16 Mercury Excellence Award.)

The book, on a page explaining the Korean verb danda—to contain (a word often paired with food)—includes this graceful statement: 

“Koreans believe food should contain the values and devotion of those who make it, the wisdom and laws of nature, and the memories built by sharing it with others.”What, exactly, makes Korean food unique?

If French cuisine is associated with sensory indulgence, and Caribbean food with eclectic spices and earthy, comfort-food flavours, then perhaps one defining quality of South Korean food is its sense of harmony, combining spicy tastes with healthy nutrition in culinary traditions developed over centuries.

South Korean food has evolved from dishes drawn from a rich culture of 5,000 years of Korean history. Balanced combinations of rice, vegetable and meat dishes developed from ancient agricultural and nomadic traditions. And because South Korea contains mountain ranges and is surrounded on three sides by the sea, there has always been a very wide range of ingredients to choose from, including many vegetables, root crops, many kinds of seafood, and meats.  So Korean cooks have become adept at combining many ingredients in balanced ways.

A distinctive part of the Korean approach to food is the notion that food can be a form of medicine in itself. “In Korea, we believe food and medicines come from the same root. So, for instance, we may use ginseng or other medicinal substances and combine this with other ingredients to make very healthy food. Korean food is also a slow food: the food may seem simple, but the preparations take a long time,” says Joy Cho, executive director of the Korean Chefs Association of America. 

Korean cuisine has evolved to include many nutritious natural foods. With seasonal vegetable dishes at its core, Korean cooks make generous use of cabbage, bean sprouts and spinach. And they prefer to steam, boil or lightly pan-fry meat and fish, rather than deep-fry, to preserve the meat’s inherent flavours. 

Korean food is also distinguished by its condiments, or “yangnyeom”, which, considerably more than casual sauces, play a key part in setting the tone for food flavours. Fermented soybean in three different forms are the three key condiments, while green onion, garlic and Korean chilli powder are essential herbs used in many dishes. Toasted and ground sesame seeds, sesame oil and perilla oil are also used to add a distinctive savoury flavour.

A key part of Korean food culture is not only the dishes themselves, but the way you eat them: sharing is essential, with large main platters and many smaller side dishes on the table, from which everyone helps themselves in communal meals.

Raw fermented vegetable dishes are a signature part of Korean food. Kimchi is the perfect example of this: a low-calorie food rich in vitamins, minerals, fibre, and probiotics that aid in digestion and help build the body’s immune system. To make kimchi, vegetables are salted, mixed with seasonings including red chilli pepper powder, spring onion and garlic, and then fermented. The kimchi that is preferred most by Koreans contains salted shrimp or anchovies, and has aged underground for at least a year in a jangdokdae (large clay jar). Like a fine wine, the process of aging gives kimchi its deep taste.

Although napa cabbage and radishes are common, you can make kimchi from almost any vegetable; some have even made kimchi from mango, pineapple, cucumber, and watermelon. 

According to the Korea Tourism Association, there are more than 200 different kinds of kimchi, and in the olden days, Korean village women would get together for “gimjang”, the practice of making large amounts of kimchi to last through the long winter months. This tradition brought families, friends and neighbours together in a culture of cooperation which UNESCO, in 2013, listed as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity feature. (SA)

MORE INFO

Korean food: http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/1051_Food.jsp

Embassy of the Republic of Korea in T&T: http://tto.mofa.go.kr/english/am/trinidad/main/index.jsp

Korean Embassy address:  36 Elizabeth Street, St Clair, Port-of-Spain; telephone: 622-9081, 622-1069

Korean Chefs Association of America: http://koreanchefs.org/about-us/

Book Review 

Kevin Baldeosingh

Anyone who writes about sex doesn’t need to be entertaining, since the subject matter usually takes care of itself. But psychologist Jesse Bering combines wide knowledge of his subject with a lively prose style and much wit.

“My perspective is that of a godless, gay, psychological scientist with a penchant for far-flung evolutionary theories,” he writes in the Introduction. His book is chock-full of titbits which will surprise most readers and, perhaps, even make their perspective on sex more liberal. Among the many topics Bering deals with are how the evolution of pubic hair reveals our close relationship with other apes; why masturbation fantasies distinguish human beings from all other animals; and how foot fetishes show that innocent childhood experiences can determine what turns us on as adults. The book is divided into eight sections, ranging from evolutionary theory (Darwinising what Dangles) to homosexuality (The Gayer Science: There’s Something Queer Here) to religion (For the Bible Tells Me So). So everyone from Islamists to gender feminists will find something to be offended by. For example, he has a chapter on why lesbian women living together do not get synchronised menstrual cycles, unlike heterosexual women. 

Bering cites some interesting experiments showing that semen is the cue which causes this synchronicity (called the McClintlock effect), so it happens once at least one woman in the house is having sex without condoms. On a related aside, such women also have fewer depressive symptoms than women who are having sex with condoms, apparently because chemicals in semen help improve women’s mood. (Of course, that mood would rapidly change if the woman got an STD.)

And even women who aren’t feminists might be bothered by research showing that many women fantasise about being overpowered or doing something out of the ordinary and that women’s frequency of orgasms correlate with their male partner’s income level.

Catholics will be offended by Bering’s assertion that masturbation by men has an evolutionary function, which is shedding old sperm while making room for new, fitter sperm (since sperm are healthy for only five to seven days).

Worse yet, he notes that frequency of erotic fantasies correlates positively with intelligence. “If you really want to know about a person’s hidden sexual desires, then find out what is in his mind’s eye during the deepest throes of masturbation,” he suggests.

In that context, one-third of men had fantasy encounters with over 1,000 people, compared to eight per cent of women. And pretty much everyone will be offended by his chapter on sexual attraction to children, in which he cites studies which show that paedophiles (people sexually aroused by pre-pubescent children) can be distinguished from ephebophiles (people aroused by pubescent children) and notes that the latter are evolutionarily unexceptional.

As for the question in the book’s title: it’s shaped like that basically in order to increase the chances of pregnancy and, as importantly, to remove other men’s sperm from the vagina. How? Buy the book and find out. 

Margaret Vinci Heldt, who became a hairstyling celebrity after she created the famous beehive hairdo in 1960, has died at age 98. 

Ahlgrim Funeral Home in the Chicago suburb of Elmhurst said Monday that Heldt died Friday at a senior living community. 

The beehive—a tall, conical woman’s hairstyle—became a cultural phenomenon during the 1960s and evolved into a style worn for decades as Hollywood’s starlets walked red carpets. Heldt created it on the request of a hairstyling magazine that published images of it in February 1960 and called it “the beehive” because it resembles the shape of a traditional hive. 

“I have lived a charmed life,” Heldt said in a 2011 interview with The Associated Press. “The opportunities opened to me and I said, ‘Now it’s up to me. I have to make it work.’” 

Heldt said the inspiration for the hairstyle came from a little black velvet hat, shaped like a small bump and lined inside with red lace. Heldt went downstairs to her family room one night while her family was sleeping. She put on music and started working with hair atop a mannequin head. 

The magazine article described the hairdo as a “tall wrap-around crown, creating a circular silhouette with high-rise accents.” Over the years, it was worn by cultural icons, including Amy Winehouse, Audrey Hepburn and Marge Simpson. 

Heldt grew up in Chicago and loved hair as a child. She won a beauty school scholarship in high school, but her family couldn’t afford to buy her a hair switch—a piece of fabric with long hair attached so students could practice—so she cut her mother’s long hair into a short bob and sewed that onto burlap to use in class. She passed the state board exam in 1935. 

Heldt opened her own salon—Margaret Vinci Coiffures—on Michigan Avenue in 1950. She won the National Coiffure Championship in 1954.

Heldt earned accolades during her retirement. The trade group Cosmetologists Chicago named a scholarship for Heldt for creativity in hairdressing. (AP)

Smart Energy Ltd is making transportation history in T&T with the introduction of electric cars to the local market. The firm is bringing cars like the much lauded Tesla and other electric-powered vehicles here as part of their push to promote green, sustainable transportation. 

The public will have a chance to see the impressive look and features of the Tesla Model S on June 18, when it will be on display during an all-day viewing demo at MovieTowne, Invader’s Bay, from 10 am to 10 pm. 

Smart Energy CEO Ian Smart envisions electric cars as a history-making solution to the nation’s traffic problems. 

“We are looking to promote a paradigm shift in how our transportation system works,” says Smart.

“We believe electric vehicles are the basis for making this shift. Currently, we are living in a transportation dystopia. We have high levels of pollution due to gas combustion engines, frequent traffic and high road fatalities.” 

Smart says electric cars have advantages, “Electric technology allows for the possibility of carbon-free emissions—no more pollution. Also, technology is changing. The gas combustion engine has plateaued. Electric cars are now on the ascent. They are going to outstrip gas-powered engines in terms of range—how far the car can go between battery charges, versus filling up. Also, autopilot features are developing. 

“Eventually we will reach where cars are completely driving themselves. This will increase safety with a reduction in accidents. Car engines themselves cause many fatalities. No engine means less danger. You’re not driving around with a highly combustible fuel in your vehicle. It’s not going to blow up.” 

Smart says the success of Uber, a mobile app transportation service, shows how computers can distribute traffic in a very efficient way. 

Smart feels convinced the technology is the way of the future: “In the next five years we will begin to see the prevalence of electric cars, once manufacturers reach economies of scale.” 

He says of the Tesla, which cleared the port in Port-of-Spain on June 10, “This is the first purely electric vehicle in T&T, also the first Tesla in the Caribbean. This car broke the mould of the original electric cars which were slow, with a short range per charge, and look more like a golf cart than a luxury vehicle. This is the exact opposite. It’s sleek, it’s luxurious, with a lot of features, like autopilot. We are facilitating the purchase of the cars, but we are not an auto dealership. We are like electric car evangelists.” 

Smart Energy is also in the process of developing a new Web app to be launched soon. 

Already, they say response has been fantastic. “We posted on Facebook that the car was in Trinidad and we got 12,000 views in a single day. It’s gone viral.” 

• MORE INFO: Web: www.ttsmartenergy.com

Email: info@ttsmartenergy.com.

The children of Barrackpore were treated to a festival of food and games recently when West Indies T20 bowler Samuel Badree hosted a party in his hometown to say thank you for the support they have given him over the years.

Badree transformed the Cumuto Recreation Ground on Rochard Douglas Road into a kids playground with ten bouncy castles, food stands and music. 

The festival, which the cricketer hopes to make an annual event, attracted thousands of children and adults who spent the afternoon playing games, zipping down waterslides and taking pictures with some West Indies cricket heroes including former T&T cricket captain Daren Ganga, Rayad Emrit, Evin Lewis and Jason Mohammed. 

MP for Moruga/Tableland Dr Lovell Francis and Naparima College principal Dr Michael Dowlath were also in attendance at the function which saw children competing in novelty races for prizes. 

In a short address, Badree reminisced about his childhood in Barrackpore and playing cricket on the Cumuto Recreation Ground. 

He jokingly referred to the many instances when his mother had to brandish a whip to get him to stop playing cricket outside and come home, as night fell. 

He urged the young people to believe in themselves, work hard and follow their dreams.

Jab jabs cracked their whips at the road and at each other, moko jumbies strode, dame lorraines flounced, and scores of traditional Carnival masqueraders—including fancy sailors, fancy Indians and the Blue Devils of Paramin—took over the Western Main Road, last Saturday night, to launch the Steelband & Traditional Carnival Mas Parade in St James. All this was part of the 16th annual WeBeat St James Live community festival. 

But the parade almost didn’t happen. Hosted by the St James Community Improvement Committee as part of WeBeat, only the last-minute intervention of the Ministry of Community Development, Culture & The Arts made the cash-strapped WeBeat festival possible. Even when Port-of-Spain Mayor Kerron Valentine pledged a “meaningful contribution” to the event the previous Friday night (when We Kaiso was staged at St James Amphitheatre), the St James Committee was still short of funds. 

Before Saturday, with the event in limbo due to a lack of sponsorship, some steelbands, including Republic Bank Exodus and St James Tripolians, still pledged that, with or without funds, they would parade. 

The parade began with the sound of La Creole Pan Groove, who entertained early-bird arrivals at the review stand at the amphitheatre in St James. After the traditional folk masquerade characters passed, it was the turn of the panmen, who proceeded westerly from the corner of Long Circular Road. Show host Phill Simmons, co-ordinator Angela Fox and parade marshalls, headed by Sinclair “Raspo” Thompson, ensured that the pan procession flowed smoothly. 

Joining Exodus in the parade were large conventional steel orchestras Renegades Youths and MHL Starlift. NCC vice-chairman Ainsworth Mohammed led Exodus. Meanwhile, Port-of-Spain Mayor Kerron Valentine walked at the head of Newtown Playboyz, and Pan Trinbago Eastern Region chairman Carlon Harewood led reigning National Panorama Single Pan champion Trinidad East Side Symphony. 

Starlift was the last band to perform for guests seated in the review stand, giving a concert-style performance and bringing the curtain down at 1 am. 

Former Culture Minister Joan Yuille Williams, who attended several WeBeat events this year, was among guests on the parade review stand. The former minister, along with former National Security minister Carl Alfonso, was also at last Friday night’s We Kaiso event, which featured retro calypsoes. Also in the audience was Frances Tyson, mother of Howard University president Wayne Frederick. 

The artistes keeping patrons tapping their feet and cheering were reigning National Calypso Monarch Roderick “Chuck” Gordon; Scrunter (Irwin Reyes Johnson); Brian London; Bally (Errol Ballantyne); Bro Mudada (Alan Fortune); Ajala (Keith Sutherland); SuperBlue (Austin Lyons); and 5Star Akil (Akil Borneo). This part of the show was hosted by Nikki Crosby and Penelope Spencer.

With fathers in mind 
Fathers are expected to be specially treated on Sunday with the commemoration of Father’s Day and one of the blue riband events scheduled is King David Rudder Live. This is  an eagerly awaited concert headlined by the acclaimed triple-crown calypsonian/composer. The show is scheduled for 6 pm on Sunday evening at Kaiso Blues Cafe, 85 Woodford Street, Newtown. Rudder’s guests artistes will be Jacobs Island (Carol, Carla and Caryl “Trini” Jacobs), Llettesha, Dean Williams Quartet and Wayne Bruno & Friends. 

Departed cultural icons Pal Joey Lewis and Holly Betaudier will be remembered in a special way on Sunday when De Nu Pub (The Mas Camp) holds a Father’s Day/Labour Day tribute, at the popular Woodbrook showplace from 5 pm. Music will be by Pal Joey Lewis Orch and DJs Hipster and Special Delivery. 

Another show billed for Sunday, to be held in the southland at 8 pm, is Carnival City presents 4 Dad, featuring Baron and Sunny Bling. Venue for this event is Carnival City Ultra Lounge, located at Gulf City Complex, South Trunk Road, La Romaine.

Pan in the city 
More pulsating steelband music will be heard in the nation’s capital next week when Port-of-Spain Corporation stages Pan Down Frederick Street on June 24. This will commemorate the 102nd anniversary celebration of City Day. The steelband procession, begins at 6 pm, in front Pan Trinbago Headquarters, Victoria Square North, Park Street and will feature First Citizens Supernovas, Hadco Phase II Pan Groove, Republic Exodus, PCS Silver Stars, RBC Redemption Sound Setters, MHL Starlift, bpTT Renegades and NLCB Fonclaire. 

At Desperadoes panyard on Frederick Street, there will be live steelband performances as well by Courts Sound Specialists of Laventille, San City Steel Orchestra, Brimblers Steel Orchestra and T&T Fire Services Steelband. 

In other steelband news, Valley Harps Steel Orchestra gave a farewell performance at its Petit Valley panyard last Tuesday night. Yesterday the band departed for a concert tour of France. Among the guests in attendance were Minister of Sport Darryl Smith, Diego Martin councillor Katherine Mendes, NLCB chairman Marvin Johncilla and members of Pan Trinbago executive.

President Keith Diaz seized the opportunity to reiterate a call for the NLCB to give approval for a new game, the returns of which will go towards the benefit of the national instrument. In his address Diaz also spoke about the strides being made by the national instrument in promoting pan to international audiences and the hundreds of non-T&T pan musicians currently active globally. The Valley Harps tour is scheduled to last 25 days. 

The tentative date for the eagerly awaited Pan on De Avenue is Saturday, August 27, staged by the Woodbrook/St James Community Association since 2012. In three years, this event has paid tribute to prominent Carnival personalities, steelband arrangers, pan tuners, Black Stalin and the late Holly Thomas.