Police Commissioner Gary Griffith is urging the public to engage in more responsible use of social media, by verifying information before sharing posts that could lead to undue panic.
His call comes as police were called out to investigate bomb threats at St. Mary’s College, St. Joseph’s Convent, Port of Spain, Fatima College, Holy Name Convent, and St. Joseph Convent, St. Joseph on Friday.
The schools were thoroughly searched and declared safe for occupation by teachers and students later in the day. 
Commissioner Griffith said at the time when persons were sharing the post, police officers were actively engaged in investigating these threats. He said the "undue panic" resulted from one individual’s decision to share the post on social media.
The Top Cop said there are those who may use these incidents as a way of self-promotion or to achieve a sense of self-importance by sharing information on social media, but, all this served to achieve was increased anxiety and panic among students, parents and staff at these schools, as many students were sitting their CSEC and examinations.
The Commissioner said no bomb threat should be trivialised.
He strongly advised citizens that on receiving such a threat, that they should immediately make a report to the police so that relevant protocols for investigating the authenticity of such threats can be activated.
Meanwhile, Education Minister Anthony Garcia has strongly condemned the act to send a bomb threat email to several of the nation’s schools, labelling it as the work of a mischievous person or persons. 
The Minister said the email is a clear attempt to thwart the CSEC and CAPE examination process currently underway in secondary schools. 
Garcia indicated that his Ministry is working closely with the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service will continue investigations and treat with the threat as a matter of urgency.
The examinations at all schools continued uninterrupted after the schools were cleared by police and other officials. Source: The Loop, May 27, 2019

Clink on this link for the full list and some links to recipes.  

WASA has of­fi­cial­ly charged two farm­ers who were re­port­ed­ly si­phon­ing wa­ter in Aranguez for their gar­dens.
The farm­ers were served with sum­mons­es to ap­pear in court lat­er this month while they were meet­ing with Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Clarence Ramb­harat on Tues­day evening.
On Sat­ur­day, se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cers em­ployed with WASA con­fis­cat­ed the pumps of two farm­ers in the Aranguez dis­trict.
The farm­ers had threat­ened le­gal ac­tion against the move and de­mand­ed the re­turn of their equip­ment.
WASA has im­posed re­stric­tions on the use of wa­ter hoses, sprin­klers and im­posed a sched­uled sup­ply of wa­ter to res­i­dents as it claims its reser­voirs were be­ing de­plet­ed by the harsh dry sea­son.
The farm­ers are ex­pect­ed to ap­pear be­fore the Port-of-Spain Third Mag­is­trates' Court on May 22.
Source: Sheldon Awai Breaking News

Dozens of Venezuelan asylum seekers and refugees flocked to the Our Lady of Perpetual Help RC Church in San Fernando on Monday, hoping to get assistance ahead of the government's May 31 registration.
From as early as 7 am, the Venezuelans gathered at the church on Harris Promenade where they were interviewed by officials from the Living Waters Community.
A spokesman at the church said through the Living Waters Community, Venezuelans get assistance with housing, health, education, documentation, security and other social services. Living Waters Community is also the implementing agency for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNCHR).
Venezuelan national Joseph Figuera, his wife Daniella and their daughter Victoria were among those who came for help.
Figuera said he came to Trinidad nine months ago and was interested in getting registered as an asylum seeker.
Asked how he was coping, Figuera said his mother was Trinidadian so he was faring better than most Venezuelans.
During the interview, a security guard at the compound called Figuera and told him he will not get any help if he spoke to the Guardian.
Earlier the same guard barred Guardian Media from entering the church compound saying it was private property.
She said she had instructions from senior officials not to allow the Guardian inside their premises.
Other Venezuelans who stopped to talk with the Guardian outside the church gates were advised not to comment if they wanted help.
However, when contacted, an official from the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency said it works closely with the Living Waters Community to ensure that Venezuelans who fleeing the horrific conditions in their homeland are treated well.
A senior official at Living Waters Community said it conducts registration twice weekly on Mondays and Thursdays at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church.
UNHCR Registration staff conduct registration interviews, enroll persons in UNHCR’s Biometric Identity Management System (BIMS), and issues and renews UNHCR documentation.
Under the UNHCR, asylum seekers have the right to live in an environment free from discrimination, regardless of ethnicity, colour, sex, language, religion, political opinion, nationality, economic position, birthplace or any other personal attribute.
According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, any person whose life is in danger in their own country has the right to seek protection and asylum in another country.
The Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago guarantees rights without discrimination on the basis of race, origin, colour, religion or sex.
On May 31, Venezuelans who do not have a criminal record will be registered in T&T.
Once they are cleared, they will be given the opportunity to live and work in T&T for a year.
- by Radhica De Silva. Photo by Kristian De Silva. Source: CNC3 May 2019

The ochroes grow­ing in the back­yard of Harold and Par­batie Boodoo have again grown to ex­tra­or­di­nary lengths.
The last time the Guardian Me­dia high­light­ed their crop was in 2018 when the ochroes had grown to stag­ger­ing 20 inch­es but now a year lat­er, the ochroes have grown an inch longer.
Dur­ing an ex­clu­sive in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia, Par­batie said she was hop­ing that they could fi­nal­ly en­ter the Guin­ness World Book of Records.
The last time the en­try for an ap­pli­ca­tion was not pos­si­ble as Par­batie had har­vest­ed the ochro.
There is no record in the Guin­ness World Book of Records for the world longest ochro, al­so known as okra. How­ev­er, re­search shows that a Malaysian woman grew an ochro to a length of 18 inch­es while Sud­hish Ku­mar, of Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates broke the Li­ma World Record with ochro mea­sur­ing 16.3 inch­es.
Par­batie said her daugh­ter Kim­ber­ly Fung plans to make an ap­pli­ca­tion to the Guin­ness World Book of Records on their be­half. “We want to have an ad­ju­di­ca­tor come to our home at Tem­ple Street, Dun­can Vil­lage, San Fer­nan­do to view the ochroes. This is the first time the ochroes grew so long. It seems every time we plant they get longer and longer,” she said.
Harold, 76, said he spends most of his time car­ing for his plants in his lit­tle back­yard gar­den. “I talk to the plants a lot. Maybe that is why they grow so big,” Harold quipped.
He said the on­ly fer­tilis­er he us­es is Blauko­rn.
“I have the seeds. They are a va­ri­ety of ochroes called Deer­horn but it is not usu­al for them to grow this big,” Harold said.
He added that the few ochro trees in his yard pro­duce more than two dozen ochroes each.
“You know how much ochroes we gave away. It is amaz­ing how much these few trees pro­duce,” he added.
The cou­ple al­so said they want­ed re­searchers from the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies and the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture to vis­it their home and con­duct tests to de­ter­mine how the soil was so fer­tile.
“This is nor­mal sap­atay clay. We don’t use any big set of fer­tilis­er. There must be some rea­son why the crops come so good. I think there should be some test­ing,” Boodoo said.
He al­so agreed to share some of his ochro seeds to the Min­istry to do ex­per­i­ments.
Source: Trinidad Guardian, April 2019

Rook­min Mathu­ra is 104 years old but she still walks with a pep in her step.
To prove her en­er­gy lev­els and re­mark­able abil­i­ties, Mathu­ra, dressed in her gold­en dress and orhni, gave a brisk and dig­ni­fied walk for the Guardian Me­dia crew dur­ing her birth­day par­ty cel­e­bra­tions last Sat­ur­day.
Four gen­er­a­tions in­clud­ing her sev­en daugh­ters, sev­en sons and a mul­ti­tude of grands who at­tend­ed the cel­e­bra­tion, ap­plaud­ed loud­ly.
Her youngest daugh­ter Cin­ty Nar­ine who vis­it­ed from New York said it was her wish to re­turn home and hug her moth­er.
Hav­ing been abroad for 19 years, Nar­ine said it was amaz­ing that her moth­er still had such abil­i­ties and ab­solute­ly no health com­pli­ca­tions.
“She has nev­er been in the hos­pi­tal for any ail­ment. Up to when she was 86, she was still mind­ing cows and mak­ing a gar­den.
“She was al­ways a hard work­er. Then we de­cid­ed that was too much for her and we got rid of the cows,” she said.
She added that Mathu­ra no longer cooks but still does every­thing else for her­self.
“She has no di­a­betes, heart prob­lems, stroke, noth­ing. If she walks in the sun she gets a bit dizzy but that is it,” she added.
Nar­ine said Mathu­ra’s moth­er came to Trinidad as an in­den­tured labour­er. Mathu­ra was born in 1915.
Dur­ing an in­ter­view, Mathu­ra said she had for­got­ten how old she was. She said she spent most of her life work­ing on the es­tate.
“I had sev­en daugh­ters and sev­en sons and all are alive,” she said. How­ev­er, her hus­band died 57 years ago, leav­ing her to care for her chil­dren sin­gle-hand­ed­ly. She nev­er mar­ried but raised an­i­mals, plant­ed a gar­den and en­sured that all of the chil­dren had a firm spir­i­tu­al up­bring­ing.
One of her great-grand­sons, Chris­t­ian Rud­der, said he was thank­ful that his great grand­moth­er was still around. He said de­spite her age, she was al­ways ac­tive.
“She so old but she does still be cut­ting grass. She has a cut­lass which she us­es every day. She loves to walk the vil­lage and check peo­ple. This is how she stays hap­py,” Rud­der said.
He added that she was full of wis­dom.
So what was her best ad­vice?
“She said girls are too hard­en and don’t study them. She tells me that do some­thing bet­ter than that like my school work be­cause girls are trou­ble,” Rud­der laughed.
He added that Mathu­ra al­so ad­vis­es them to stay away from cig­a­rettes and al­co­hol.
“She says she used to drink and smoke and it did not do her good. Now she eats lots of veg­eta­bles and she re­mains ac­tive,” Rud­der said.
Mathu­ra’s favourite food is dhal, rice and bha­gi.
“She doesn’t know how to sit qui­et­ly. She likes to move around. She talks a lot. She loves to tell us what hap­pened in her ear­ly days. I want to thank God that she is here and I could still see her, hug her and love her,” Rud­der said.
Mathu­ra and all of her fam­i­ly went to the beach on Sun­day to cel­e­brate her life.
Source: Sheldon Awai, FB, April 25, 2019

This soil gave birth to the first black woman to be crowned Miss Universe in the history of the award, Janelle Commissiong, in 1977, and went on to see the gorgeous Wendy Fitzwilliam cop the title in 1998. Trinidad and Tobago has had five representatives place in runner-up positions at the international beauty pageant.
According to Providr, “Trinidadian women are well known for their extreme diversity in terms of looks due to the racial mixing on the island. The women are downright gorgeous…”  In Trinidad and Tobago, you will find people of Indian, African, Chinese, Syrian, Lebanese, European, and Indigenous ancestry, to name a few. 
​Melodic Accent
Our women are both beautiful and intelligent. Now mix this with the fact that MSN ranked Trinidad and Tobago’s accent as the 4th sexiest in the world, and you just might have a recipe for something very close to perfection.
The team at MSN stated that “…this accent is the most charming on women for its musicality and singsong quality. If you were to plot the notes of Trinidadian speech on a music sheet, they would flit up and down throughout the staff. Even when they’re angry, Trinidadians sound sprightly.”
And according to CNN, who ranked the accent 11th sexiest in the world, it “offers an undulating, melodic gumbo of pan-African, French, Spanish, Creole and Hindi dialects that, when adapted for English, can be sex on a pogo stick.”
The full list includes Venezuela, Brasil, Argentina, Korea, Ethiopia, India, Italy, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, USA, the UK, the Philippines, Russia, Sweden, Iran, and Australia.
Many may say validation was not needed. After all, if God is a Trini, then the women here are surely angels. 
Source:  Life in Trinidad & Tobago 2017