Trinidad and Tobago-born actress, Lorraine Toussaint, joined six people who were honoured at the .annual Legacy Awards Gala hosted by the American Foundation for The University of the West Indies (AFUWI) on February 19, 2020.
The Gala, was held at the Pierre Hotel in New York City, is now in its 23rd year.
This black-tie ceremony was the UWI’s major fundraising event in the United States. It brought together alumni and partners of The UWI to raise funds for scholarships for its students while recognising the achievements of notable US and Caribbean personalities.
The Gala has become a ‘must-attend’ for captains of the diaspora, counterparts and colleagues in North America and the Caribbean. Dr  Harry Belafonte is the patron of the Gala and has served in this capacity since the Gala’s inception.

Tourism Minister Randall Mitchell said he was not surprised Pigeon Point was named in the world's 50 best beaches by international monthly magazine Marie Claire.
“The high ranking of Pigeon Point Beach as one of the world’s most exotic and beautiful beaches comes as no surprise to me or to any of us in the tourism sector," he said.
In a recent article on marieclaire.com Pigeon Point was listed eighth in the 50 best beaches in the world, though the article did not state there was a ranking of the beaches. The caption read "Even the palm trees in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago are relaxed."
Mitchell in a message to Newsday said that Pigeon Point is "certainly regarded as the most iconic and beautiful in all of Trinidad and Tobago. And there is more beauty still to behold in the other idyllic, serene, and peaceful beaches in the undiscovered paradise that is Tobago. Englishman’s bay, Back bay, Pirate’s Bay, Speyside, Castara to name a few."
He said together with the Tobago House of Assembly and the Tobago Tourism Agency Government is actively trying to attract more and more visitors to experience the awesome beauty that lies in Tobago.
"To do that means we must work on airlift and offer a welcoming and an uncomplicated business environment to those integrated hotel operators wishing to set up in Tobago.
"Such as Apple Leisure Group and the Sunwing Group who all are integrated with the airlift required to bring visitors to our shores. We are excited by the interest and commitment by those huge tourism players." He added: "It is unfortunate the circumstances of the Sandals withdrawal as they too had a tremendous pulling power to draw visitors to experiences the beautiful paradise that we are fortunate to call home."
The marieclaire.com list included beaches from Florida and California in the US, Greece, Cambodia, Seychelles, Philippines, Indonesia, Mexico, Spain and there were seven other Caribbean beaches: Shoal Bay East, Anguilla; Eagle Beach, Aruba; Harrismith Beach, Barbados; Cas Abao, Curaçao; Seven Mile Beach, Grand Caymans; Reduit Beach, St Lucia; and Trunk Bay, St John, US Virgin Islands.
In July 2017, Pigeon Point Beach was ranked 98 of the world's 100 best beaches by CNN.com. The website said "Pigeon Point is a literal representation of the Caribbean beach ideal, right down to the charming old lady who sells soursop ice cream by the pound" and described the highlight as the thatched-roofed jetty "possibly the most photographed jetty in the world".
Pigeon Point Beach is also rated 4.5 from 1,222 reviews on Tripadvisor.com and number 17 of 174 things to do in Tobago. Source: Newsday, Feb 5, 2020.

Sekani Solomon is a down-to-earth, quirky, driven Tobagonian living in New York City. He is a senior motion designer currently working at Cash App in Square.
He has now pivoted to working full-time in the tech area and earlier this month he told Newsday, in five years he sees himself as being an instrumental player in design in one of the largest financial technology companies in the world.
Solomon first made his debut in the Black Panther movie in 2017, after he was a part of the production team responsible for building the movie's main title sequence. Before this he designed commercial projects for Dolby, Apple, Facebook, GE, IBM and Disney.
His latest accomplishment was becoming the first creative from TT, out of 500 entries from 45 countries, to be inducted in a Young Guns 17, hosted by The One Club for Creativity in New York. The One Club for Creativity is for people excelling in film, animation, graphic design to name a few.
The entries are narrowed down to 89 and from this, 28 winners are selected and awarded based on the merits of their work.
Young Guns competition is a yearly competition for creative talents under the age of 30.
He told Newsday wining a Young Guns award is no surprise to him because of the time and effort invested into his skill.
“I was so happy that the time and effort I’ve put in is being recognised in this way,” he said
On The One Club’s website, under Sekani’s entry, principal and founder Gordon Jee said he enjoyed judging the work all of the animators who entered this year but “Sekani’s work stood out in ways that made me excited when I viewed his entries.”
He commended Solomon’s brilliant, clear and effortlessly use of textures and “the strength of the silhouettes chosen to capture maximum drama.”
Solomon told Newsday he came from humble beginnings growing up in Hope, Tobago. “Like any kid I loved being outside, riding bikes and playing in nature.”
Solomon always had a creative side as he would draw often and make his own toys using cardboard and tape. For him, spending time by the river was also another activity he loved doing.
Many people aren’t aware that he also has a love for music and can play the guitar and drums. He also enjoys snowboarding and skimboarding (a type of surfing) in his free time.
At 15 years he was introduced to photoshop and he began dabbling in creativity.
“For me, it was a natural progression from drawing on paper. Naturally at that age, I was terrible at it. I decided to leave the arts behind to focus on sciences which, alongside law and business, is typically reinforced as one of the few pathways to success, and rediscovered it later on when I was 18 and fell in love.”
This was the beginning of journey that changed his life in many ways he told Newsday.
But before he found his place in the creative industry, he told Newsday he moved away from the arts because he though it wasn’t feasible and sustainable. “Fortunately for me I was quite wrong. I always felt like I wanted to do something creative.
“I wanted to be a software engineer, even though I was doing graphic arts and motion a lot in my free time. Eventually I looked for colleges that had both graphic design and software engineering courses before deciding to fully do graphic design. I then decided I wanted to do motion design.”
He said his talent began to get noticed and awards started coming in.
“I worked on the main titles for a show called Manhattan, for which we won the Outstanding Main Title Emmy at the 67th primetime Emmy Awards."
He also worked on the main titles for Vinyl on HBO (directed by Martin Scorsace) which was nominated for an Outstanding Main Title at the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards. Solomon was also involved in shows like Godless and Gypsy on Netflix.
When asked for his thoughts on the animation and film industry in Tobago, Solomon said he sees potential for growth. “I think the challenge is bringing awareness to the value of design and educating clients of the process, cost and benefits of high-end design.
“Tobago’s image can benefit from visual products such as good branding, website, digital content and commercials. All this helps in telling the story of Tobago and improving how it looks to the world.” He hopes to see more local productions from young people in Tobago.
Solomon believes consistency was the key to his success and now advises those in in the creative industry be diligent, hard working and to understand that the field goes beyond TT. “That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to leave. You need to develop your skills to compete internationally, there’s a lot of competition so you need to be among the best. Find mentors and other artists that are in the position you want to be in and soak up as much information as possible; networking is a huge factor in this industry.”
Solomon encouraged the THA to invest more in digital arts and design education and awareness.
“I don’t think the value of design is yet fully understood in Trinidad and Tobago. There is a reason companies collectively spend billions of dollars yearly on design, advertising and branding. We need to help create tangible skills. In my opinion, our education system depends way too much on testing, which isn't an accurate way to determine what tangible way someone can contribute.
“In addition, we are only getting more and more screens which mean more demand to put things on them, so the more people capable of having those skills, the more foreign revenue we can earn. Nothing can be done if we don't have the skillset.” Source: Newsday.

CALYPSO ROSE, one of TT's most distinguished international artistes, has received yet another prestigious international award. On Thursday, the 79-year-old was named Officer of Arts and Humanities, on behalf of the French Government, at the residence of the French ambassador to TT.
The award is regarded as one of the highest honours among the four French Ministerial Orders of Merit. She is said to be a well-known name in France and has previously won awards in the country, including the world album of the year award at the Victoire de la Musique awards in 2017, the Grand Prize for world music at Sacem Grand Prix and the 2016 artist award for world music by Womex at the 18th Womex Awards in Spain.
The ever-smiling Calypso Rose, whose real name is Linda McCartha Sandy-Lewis, was present at the embassy to receive the award, despite coming off a typically hectic travel schedule. She received a medal and certificate to validate her most recent achievement, which was delivered by the French ambassador to TT Serge Lavroff, who said he, like much of France, is a fan of the veteran singer/songwriter. Source: Newsday, Feb 20, 2020

PLACING SECOND IN THE COMPETITION WAS KARENE ASCHE WHILE HEATHER MCINTOSH-SIMON PLACED THIRD.FOR THOSE IN THE US, CANADA AND EUROPE WHO WERE UNABLE TO VIEW THE CALYPSO MONARCH FINALS LIVE DUE TO BROADCAST RESTRICTIONS, YOU CAN NOW LOOK AT THE COMPETITION HERE

​Tobago's magic is captured spectacularly in a three minutes and 10-second film featured on National Geographic.
The video is a result of a collaboration with the Tobago Tourism Agency Ltd (TTAL) and is featured in the latest edition of world renowned National Geographic magazine. It showcases eloquently the countless aspects of Tobago’s unique and jaw-dropping environmental attraction and boldly declares, "There is no comparison to beauty."
Introduced with a quartet of concise but engaging reports the National Geographic writer directs readers to what she describes as the seven most beautiful places in Tobago including Argyle Waterfalls, Flagstaff Hill and Englishman’s Bay. A compulsory expedition through the hiking trails of the world’s oldest protected rainforest to get up close and personal with the hundreds of species of birds and other wildlife must also be on the to-do list of visitors; and as well as lazing on the many beaches highlighted we’re also reminded of watersports and bioluminescence trips to No Man’s Land. Focusing on the island’s recent and longtime cookery influences and the culinary skills which typify dirt oven baking and the many variations of dasheen also entice the traveller tempted by food as part of the rest and relaxation package.
The magazine’s web edition also showcases an impressive promotional film titled Tobago: Full of Life, documenting the island’s many charms and beauty. Narrated by local voices the atmospheric documentary shares panoramic views of both the Caribbean and Atlantic coasts and beaches, together with aerial shots of familiar landmarks and depictions of Tobagonian life.
Viewers are given a snippet of the beauty and lush scenery of the rainforest, reefs, aquatic life and village festivals.
Talking about the collaboration with the National Geographic Magazine as part of the Tobago Beyond marketing campaign TTAL CEO Louis Lewis said the partnership will open tourism doors for the island.
“National Geographic are known as a travel magazine [which] has a close association with eco-adventurers, and people trust their content. The TTAL wanted to pursue an alliance with them to put us in the mainstream [and] where the crème de la crème [of tourists and world travellers] would be attracted to Tobago as environmentally beautiful and where our people are living in harmony with nature – those aspects are what attracts visitors,” he said.
Believing this type of joint work to be beneficial, Louis lauded the efficacy of the TTAL promotional campaign which he announced had achieved thousands of views since initial publication in early January.
“We wanted to ensure that we are attractive and engaging for clientele that appreciate the product that is Tobago. We are creating a viral promotion and the content is published on a site of trusted authenticity. It is for us to convert these views into a motivation to travel here, and that also results in increases in arrivals.”
Acknowledging the competitive Caribbean tourism market, Lewis said progress could be seen with the 20 per cent increase in tourist arrivals in the first month of this year.
As to the coming months, he said TTAL will maintain a robust approach. “Continuing to be strategic and innovative and to work more closely with hotel and property owners so positive impressions from this type of publicity can be converted into new and innovative sales.”
Copy and paste this URL into your browser to watch the film: ​​https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel/2019/12/tobago-full-life#vpcp

Soca star Machel Montano has tied the knot.
The 45-year-old wed his long-time partner Renee Butcher at the Red House on Valentine's Day. The ceremony was the first to be held at the Rotunda at the Red House since the building was reopened just three weeks ago.

This is a copyrighted 2300 word account of how Rose Mary Young ("Lady Young") got into quite a pickle when she was in Trinidad during WWII. In addition I have provided here links to source material, the Red Cross Committee, Lady Young's letter of March 10, 1940 and Sir Hubert Young's letter of July 3, 1940. I would be very eager to correspond with anyone who is interested in this period of Trinidad's history. I can be reached at kburke9@mac.com. Thanks.
Kevin Burke, Cambridge, Massachusetts
When I arrived in Trinidad for the first time I immediately got a good feeling about Lady Young, based on nothing more than driving up the roadway that bears her name in back of the Hilton Hotel. (That scenic overlook! I thought I was in the south of France!)
I figured Lady Young must have been the wife of a colonial governor and in that regard I was correct – she was the wife of Sir Hubert Young who is remembered in Trinidad today as the man who suspended carnival during World War II. In my mind I pictured her as a model of feminine delicacy – hosting a tea party, cutting a ceremonial ribbon, all smiles – but in this regard I was much mistaken. In reality she was a tall, strapping woman who had earned a reputation as a daring aviatrix in her previous posting in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). Also – she was not at all ladylike. In her four years in Trinidad she showed herself to be fearsome, self-important, and, like her husband, a bit of a bully.
Sir Hubert was brought to Trinidad in 1938 to deal with the labour unrest that resulted in bloody riots the year before – twelve people shot dead by police. The Colonial Office felt he was just the man to take charge because of his earlier success in breaking a strike by copper miners in Northern Rhodesia. His reputation preceded him to Trinidad. Prior to his arrival, labour leaders, led by Capt. A.A. Cipriani, marched through the streets of Port of Spain with signs reading, “WARM WELCOME SIR ‘HITLER’ YOUNG”, “BREAD, NOT BULLETS” and “TRINIDAD IS NOT RHODESIA”.
It was against this ominous backdrop that Lady Young set about creating new lines of discontent based on the prickliness of her own personality. She quickly came to feel unappreciated, even rejected, by her own people – the white British establishment. Her paranoia mounted and finally on 10th March, 1940 she snapped. Dipping her pen in bile she dashed off a letter to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Malcolm McDonald, a letter so ill advised and harmful to her own cause that I suspect she was in an altered state when she wrote it.
The letter began this way:
“Unfortunately as you know matters have not improved. It is all too stupid and in the middle of a War, or arising out of a War is too deplorable. Unfortunately also, nothing much that we can do will mend matters, as these people and the whole section – a small and vehement one they come from, have not even had manners they have no conception of manners, loyalty, or any other civilized virtue. They simply don’t live in the same box as ordinary human beings, one cannot calculate what any of their reactions are; they are as strange and remote morally as the Africans and low Caste Indians who have, as everything tends to sink, – much influenced the whole trend of life in these islands.”
OOF! When I first came across this quotation (in a book) there was no context. I wondered – what “matters” was she talking about? Who were “these people”? I assumed she must have been referring to anti-colonial activists like Capt. Cipriani and Albert Gomes – her natural adversaries. But no. It turned out her chief nemesis was the doyenne of Trinidadian society, an Anglo/Scottish woman named Martha Eunice Simpson. Her family owned the immensely valuable Aranguez Estate in San Juan. Her father had been mayor of Port of Spain.
The vendetta between Lady Young and Mrs Simpson began innocently enough. In the summer of 1939 Lady Young founded a chapter of the Red Cross Society in Trinidad and with great fanfare installed herself as its president. As was her wont, Lady Young demanded total deference from everyone in the exercise of her pet project.
About a month later the war broke out. Mrs Simpson quickly recruited four of her friends and formed a group, calling it the “Ladies’ Shirt Guild” whose purpose was to make articles of clothing for the war relief effort. (She had done the same thing during WWI.) Critically, Lady Young was in Tobago at the time and knew nothing about it. The guild members were some of the most prominent women in the colony, including Dora Gilchrist and Edna Gordon. Dora was the wife of Trinidad’s chief justice, Edna a member of the fabulously wealthy Gordon clan. As a leading historian has pointed out, ladies of this social class “did no housework, never marketed, and rarely cooked.”
But, in times of trouble, they sewed. On 22nd September Mrs Simpson wrote directly to Queen Elizabeth offering to send articles of clothing to Buckingham Palace and received an enthusiastic reply. This was big news in Port of Spain as it was whenever the royal family took notice of Trinidad. On 5th November the TRINIDAD GUARDIAN printed the letter from the Palace under the headline: “THE QUEEN THANKS TRINIDAD CLUB”. In boldface below was Mrs Simpson’s name.
When Lady Young saw this she went ballistic. Mrs Simpson and her informal group had stolen the spotlight away from her and the Red Cross! It was a situation that required tact and persuasion, but Lady Young preferred steamroller tactics. At a meeting at Government House on 9th November, 1939 Lady Young, accompanied by her husband, berated Mrs Simpson for writing to the queen behind her back and tried to browbeat her into quitting the guild and falling into line with the Red Cross relief effort.
This heavy-handed approach only served to stiffen Mrs Simpson’s spine. She wouldn’t back down. On 14th November, making no mention of the Red Cross or Lady Young, she sent two packing cases to Buckingham Palace, filled with “shirts, pyjamas, bedsocks, pads, splints, nightingales, scarves & pullovers.”
Governor Young called it an “act of defiance.” Indeed, Trinidad was not Rhodesia.
What began as a folie à deux entered a new phase with the husbands, Sir Hubert Young, KCMG, DSO and Major G.H. Simpson, OBE, entering the ring, tag-team style, to take up the fight in defence of their wives. Over the next two months the two men locked horns and demanded concessions and “withdrawals” from each other. Forgotten was the war relief effort. It became simply a grudge match, a battle of wills. In an earlier day they would have settled it with pistols at thirty paces.
To use Lady Young’s term, yes, it was all “too stupid”. The only reason to mention it today is to shed light on a dynamic that is not well known – the tension that existed between the white elite and the governor, not just Hubert Young, but all governors. As Sir Hubert put it:
“[T]he Simpson episode is not an isolated incident, or a question merely of discourtesy shown by a local lady and her husband to my wife and myself, but a symptom of a state of affairs in this Colony which has done incalculable harm in the past . . . There are in this Colony certain disaffected persons who are always on the look-out for an opportunity to take up an attitude of antagonism to the Governor . . . These are the people whose malicious unkindness to officials from overseas and their wives is a well known feature of social life in Trinidad.”
*          *          *
In early 1940 there came a major escalation of the dispute when the Simpsons decided to petition the Secretary of State for the Colonies for redress of their grievances, laying out the whole affair from their point of view. Governor and Lady Young rebutted the charges with their own version of events. It was against this backdrop of pettiness and spitefulness that Lady Young penned her infamous letter of 10th March.
The letter was a ghastly mistake on several counts. For one thing, although it was marked “private and personal,” the letter was widely shared in the Colonial Office – to the shock and alarm of everyone. Under Secretary of State W.B.L. Monson rushed to keep his boss from being pulled into the quagmire: “I feel that no comment on the substance of the letter can be made by the S. of S.”, he wrote on 15th April. The following day Asst. Secretary Harold Beckett spoke for the entire office when he wrote in his minutes:
“The fact that this is just an hysterical outburst must not blind us to the fact that Lady Young is saying what she really thinks. It does not make a very good mental background for anybody occupying the position of ‘lady’ of a West Indian (or indeed any other) Governor.”
As time dragged on with no response from Downing St., Governor and Lady Young realised their support was slipping away. They became completely unhinged. On 3rd July, 1940 Sir Hubert wrote, in a desperate letter to the Secretary of State, “They [the Simpsons] indulge in every form of slander and misrepresentation and also in victimisation and intimidation in some of their vilest forms.” Mrs Simpson’s entire family was “eccentric, self-willed, and well known for their intolerant attitude.” As for the tempest in a teapot created by his wife, he tried to inflate it into “an official matter of paramount importance to the successful prosecution of the war.” He even came up with a novel two-part theory to explain why Mrs Simpson had snubbed the Red Cross in the first place – first, jealousy (Mrs Simpson was supposedly “piqued” that she had not been appointed to the executive committee) and secondly, racial prejudice (she felt the Red Cross Society was “undesirably mixed” in terms of skin colour.) The latter charge was a real head-scratcher – of the twenty-nine people on the executive committee, twenty-seven were white and two were Indian.
Finally, on 13th August, 1940 – almost a full year after the formation of the Ladies’ Shirt Guild – the Secretary of State for the Colonies informed Governor Young that Mrs Simpson had been cleared by the Queen of any wrongdoing by writing to offer her assistance. It was a near total victory for the Simpsons and a stunning letdown for Governor and Lady Young.
Somehow – hard to figure – Sir Hubert was allowed to remain in his post. What happened next, though, could not be abided – his refusal to go along with the occupation of the island by U.S. military forces in 1941. For example, when the U.S. Navy proposed Chaguaramas as the site of its operating base, Sir Hubert argued for another location – the Caroni swamp. (We all know how that worked out.) In early 1942 the Colonial Office recalled him to London, citing “ill health” as the reason. A bully had been out-bullied.
As the Youngs were packing their bags, an ambitious plan was being floated for a new highway connecting the roundabout in St. Ann’s with the Eastern Main Rd. Although a name was not really necessary at that point, it was announced that the roadway would be named for the wife of the departing governor. Perhaps it was in recognition of all the abuse she had suffered. As a GUARDIAN editorial put it, “Firm, untiring, and constant, Lady Young has been a source of strength in the midst of many perplexities.” Many, to be sure.
Lady Young’s last day in Trinidad was 2nd April, 1942. As she walked to a waiting seaplane a photographer snapped a photo. On the left Governor Young looked like a cartoon version of a British colonial official – complete with bowler hat and walking stick. In the middle was Molly Huggins, wife of the Colonial Secretary, who seemed to be enjoying herself. On the right Lady Young was captured arching her back and clutching a briefcase. She appeared to be glowering at the photographer.
Before she got on the plane she was quoted as saying she “hoped that they might return one day on holiday,” but of course she had no intention of doing so. She hated Trinidad. Although she lived for another thirty-nine years she never set foot in Trinidad again.
The right time to return would have been on 3rd June, 1959 – the day the Lady Young Road was opened to motor traffic. It had taken seventeen years of digging and delay to create a paved path through the rugged terrain. In that period Trinidad had changed utterly. The power of the royally appointed governor had faded almost to nothing. A new group, the People’s National Movement, had won a majority in the legislative council. Mrs Simpson, whose family had enjoyed preferred seating in Trinidad for over a hundred years, pulled up her stakes and moved to South Africa. People barely remembered the tart-tongued lady who founded the Red Cross.
With the opening of the road, the term ‘Lady Young’ took on a new meaning that was kind of hard to describe. GUARDIAN staff writer Carl Jacobs (later editor) tried to explain it this way on 5th June, 1959, “long before Wednesday’s opening, the project had attained a secret glamour that might well have converted the name of Lady Young into an abundantly fascinating personality.” And so it was – ‘Lady Young’ was transformed into an eponymous ribbon of road and a disembodied presence that replaced the memory of a flesh and blood woman who wanted to have everything done her way.

The Right Honourable Baroness Valerie Amos CH PC, has been appointed as the new Master of University College, Oxford University, and will take up the post from 1 August 2020.
The Baroness will be both the first female Master of University College, Oxford, and the first black head of any Oxford college.
The current Director of University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, Baroness Amos’ career has also included serving as international development secretary and as leader of the House of Lords from 2003-2007.
A champion of equality and humanitarianism throughout her career, the Baroness has been a Labour Life Peer since 1997, and she has played a key role in tackling workplace discrimination and enabling international emergency relief efforts. 
She has served as both Executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission, and an adviser to the Mandela Government on leadership and change management issues. She was also UK High Commissioner to Australia before joining the UN in 2010, as Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at the UN, from 2010-2015. She was made a Companion of Honour in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for her services to the United Nations and emergency relief in conflict areas. 

Baroness Amos said: 'I am honoured to have been appointed as Master of University College Oxford. I look forward to taking up my role next year and joining a community which prides itself on providing an outstanding scholarly environment, excellent teaching and world-class research. Univ has been engaged in opening up access and opportunity through its Opportunity Programme and I also look forward to making a contribution to that work.
Professor Peter Jezzard, Vice-Master of University College, said: 'The College was fortunate in attracting a number of outstanding applicants to become its next Master to follow Sir Ivor Crewe in his distinguished tenure in the role. The Governing Body is excited that Baroness Amos agreed to accept our invitation to take on the role from next summer, and we very much look forward to welcoming her to the College and to working with her in the future. She brings a wealth and diversity of experience to the role, including a deep knowledge of the higher education sector, and will help us continue Univ’s outstanding reputation for excellence, access and innovation in Oxford.'
* Baroness Amos will step down from her current post at University of London when she begins her Mastership position at University College.