Machel Montano can now add doctorate to his long list of awards.
The soca king, who has been performing for 37 years, received an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from the University of Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday.
Montano said he felt great, honoured and humbled to be a recipient of the Honorary degree. 
In the presence of his close friend Anthony Chow Lin On, girlfriend Renee Butcher, Manager Che Kothari and mother Elizabeth, who graduated from the University of the West Indies last month with a Masters in Cultural Studies, Montano performed an acoustic version of 'We Not Giving Up' and 'Too Young to Soca'.
Also receiving similar honours from UTT was cultural activist, poet and playwright Pearl Eintou Springer. She received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts.
Source: The Loop

Ca­lyp­so Rose, 78, must find room again in her tro­phy cab­i­net for yet an­oth­er in­ter­na­tion­al award.
The hold­er of this coun­try's high­est award, the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go, is to be award­ed the Grand Prize for World Mu­sic at the Sacem Grand Prix in France in De­cem­ber this year.
She is among a list of awardees that in­cludes Eng­lish song­writer Ed Sheer­an, in an event that will cel­e­brate the out­stand­ing in song­writ­ing, mu­sic pub­lish­ing, hu­mour and clas­si­cal con­tem­po­rary mu­sic at Salle Pleyel on the evening of Mon­day 10 De­cem­ber.
The Sacem Grands Prix are mu­si­cal awards giv­en an­nu­al­ly to pro­fes­sion­als in the world of mu­sic by the So­ci­ety of Au­thors, Com­posers and Mu­sic Pub­lish­ers (Sacem).
They give rise to an an­nu­al awards cer­e­mo­ny, which has been held since 2006.
Ca­lyp­so Rose, whose re­al name is Mc­Cartha Lin­da Sandy-Lewis, is no stranger to win­ning top in­ter­na­tion­al awards.
The vet­er­an ca­lyp­son­ian won the World Al­bum of the Year award at the Vic­toire de la Musique award cer­e­mo­ny in France in 2017.
The award is con­sid­ered the French equiv­a­lent of a Gram­my award.
Rose's al­bum, Far from Home, com­pet­ed against rock group Acid Arab with their al­bum "Mu­sic of France" and Rokia Tra­ore with her al­bum "Born So."
Far From home, the plat­inum-sell­ing al­bum was re­leased on the Be­cause Mu­sic la­bel on June 3, 2016.
Ca­lyp­so Rose was al­so award­ed the 2016 Artist Award by the World Mu­sic Ex­po (WOM­EX).
She topped artists from 95 coun­tries in re­ceiv­ing the pres­ti­gious award.
WOM­EX is an in­ter­na­tion­al net­work­ing plat­form for the world mu­sic in­dus­try.
The Artist Award is the top award giv­en out at the WOM­EX event.
It had nev­er been won by a Trinidad and To­ba­go cit­i­zen be­fore.
In 1975, the To­ba­go-born ca­lyp­son­ian won her first na­tion­al award, the Pub­lic Ser­vice Medal of Mer­it (Sil­ver).
Some 15 years lat­er in 2000, Rose won the Hum­ming Bird Medal (Gold).
In 2017 she won the high­est award the na­tion can of­fer. Source:  Trinidad Guardian

Some 130 res­i­dents of Fyz­abad were af­fect­ed af­ter flood wa­ters gushed in­to their prop­er­ties and homes yes­ter­day.
Fed up of this sit­u­a­tion, res­i­dents and Fyz­abad MP Lack­ram Bo­doe called on the au­thor­i­ties to fix the four of sev­en sluice gates which have been non-func­tion­al for sev­er­al years.
The ar­eas af­fect­ed were St John Trace, Av­o­cat, Ack­bar Trace and Chat­ter Av­enue.
Res­i­dent Rod­ney Ramjit, who owns a fur­ni­ture fac­to­ry at St John’s Trace, es­ti­mat­ed his loss­es to be more than $75,000.
He said, “The flood come up so fast I did not get time to move out every­thing. We save some things, but I lost a lot of fab­ric, foam and ma­te­ri­als.”
He said it be­gan rain­ing heav­i­ly on yes­ter­day morn­ing and by 4 pm the riv­er had burst its banks and the flood wa­ters start­ed to rise. He called on the Gov­ern­ment to dredge the riv­er and fix the flood­gates.
“The main prob­lem is that sev­en years now this riv­er not clean and then four flood­gates not work­ing. And that is the main prob­lem caus­ing this flood,” Ramjit said.
“We con­stant­ly com­plain­ing about it to the Min­istry of Works but they do­ing ab­solute­ly noth­ing. The min­is­ter came and looked at it at the be­gin­ning of the year, but noth­ing was done. I fed up of this thing. I have a busi­ness and I los­ing a lot of mon­ey.”
When the T&T Guardian called him lat­er on in the day, he said the flood wa­ters had risen again.
“Look the wa­ter com­ing up again. I have to call for help,” Ramjit said.
Bo­doe and his staff were yes­ter­day out in the floods ren­der­ing as­sis­tance to the res­i­dents and dis­trib­ut­ing wa­ter and food sup­plies. He ex­pressed con­cern about “gov­ern­ment’s re­luc­tance” to re­pair the sluice gates at St John Trace.
“As a re­sult of this the flood wa­ter, flow to the Godineau Riv­er and Gulf of Paria has been de­layed. I call on the Min­is­ter of Works again to ef­fect re­pairs to those sluice gates.”
Bo­doe al­so com­plained that he had re­ceived no help from the gov­ern­ment agen­cies.
“So far, it’s just my staff and some mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty who have been ren­der­ing help. The res­i­dents are in­di­cat­ing that the wa­ter is still ris­ing and they are a lit­tle bit fear­ful about what will hap­pen,” Bo­doe said, adding he and his staff will be out in the field to­day again ren­der­ing aid.
The Fyz­abad An­gli­can Sec­ondary School was closed yes­ter­day.
The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion al­so said the North Oropouche Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry, North Oropouche RC and Debe Hin­du SDMS Pri­ma­ry School were closed as a re­sult of the de­te­ri­o­rat­ing weath­er.
“There were al­so ear­ly dis­missals for sev­er­al oth­er pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools and Ear­ly Child­hood Care and Ed­u­ca­tion (EC­CE) Cen­tres be­cause stu­dents and teach­ers were not able to ac­cess the school com­pound due to flood­ing in the com­mu­ni­ties,” the min­istry added.
The Pe­nal Quinam Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School was opened as an emer­gency shel­ter for res­i­dents of Pe­nal/Debe and Bar­rack­pore who were hard hit by the floods.
​Source:  Guardian

This beautiful song celebrating the 50th anniversary of Barbados in 2016.  A couple of years old but still very nice.

In an unusually very high voter-turnout in midterm elections in the United States that observers say illustrates strong opposition to President Donald J. Trump, several Caribbean Democratic candidates in New York romped to victory Tuesday night with overwhelming majorities.
Uninterrupted rain throughout Tuesday and problems with the voting machines did not prevent voters from casting ballots in an era of Trumpism.
According to New York State Board of Elections results, popular Caribbean American Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, won in a landslide, garnering 167,199 votes, or 87.59 percent, to her Republican Haitian-born challenger, Lutch Gayot, who received 10,336 votes, or 10.13 percent.
Clarke, who represents the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, noted that her victory came on the 50th anniversary of the first Caribbean American woman, Shirley Chisholm, to run for the United States Congress.
The late Chisholm, whose mother was Barbadian and father Guyanese, was also the first Black woman to run for the US Congress. She had represented the then 11th Congressional District in Brooklyn.
“I’ve demonstrated to the people of this district (9th Congressional) that I am committed to them,” Clarke told Caribbean Life Tuesday night.
“But I still have more work to do in the era of Trump — that this district has opportunities to sustain itself, that we use voter-strength to push for the goals of my community,” she added.
With the Democratic Party regaining the US House of Representatives, Clarke, a senior member of the House Energy Committee, said she will be in a better position to help her constituents.
“The victory will help to invest in infrastructure, health care, among a host of other things,” she said.
In the New York State Senate, Democratic Senator Roxanne Persaud, a Guyanese-born immigrant, regained her seat in a landslide in the 19th Senatorial District in Brooklyn.
Persaud received 64,940 votes, or 86,90 percent, to her Republican challenger, Jeffrey Ferretti, who received 7, 419 votes, or 9.93 percent.
“By winning the seat, we can continue doing what we’re doing,” Persaud told Caribbean Life Tuesday night at the Democratic Party Club headquarters in the Canarsie, Brooklyn. “I’m not focusing on one group of people. When you do that, you’re polarizing people.
“I do a lot of social issues in my community — foster care, senior care, etc.,” Persaud added.
For just the third time in 50 years, the Democratic Party gained control of the New York State Senate Tuesday night in what pundits said was a clear repudiation of Trump’s policies.


In the 20th Senatorial District in Brooklyn, Zellnor Myrie, a young lawyer of Costa Rican parentage and Jamaican-born grandmother, defeated the incumbent Jesse Hamilton, who ran for the Independent Party. Democrat Myrie had trounced Hamilton in the Democratic Primary.
In Tuesday’s midterm, elections, Myrie received 67, 803 votes, or 88.06 percent, to Hamilton’s 5, 327 votes, or 6.92 percent.
In New York State Assembly, Caribbean Democratic candidates were also triumphant.
Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, who represents the 42nd Assembly District in Brooklyn, handsomely beat two challengers.
Bichotte garnered 26, 817 votes, or 87.66 percent; Republican Matthew Williams received 2,173 votes, or 7.10 percent; and Jamaican Anthony Beckford, of the Green Party, received 631 votes, or 2.00 percent.
“I feel good!” Bichotte exclaimed on Election Night. “I think, throughout the whole year, I’ve been working hard to fill all corners of my constituen­cy.”
Bichotte’s Assembly Democratic colleague, Diana Richardson, the daughter of St. Martin and Aruban immigrants, was unchallenged in the 43rd Assembly District in Brooklyn. Richardson received 33,345 votes, or 92.94 percent.
In her first bid for elective office, Haitian Dr. Mathylde Frontas, a Columbia University professor, was victorious in the 46th Assembly District in Brooklyn.
In a four-way race, Democrat Frontas received 14, 750 votes, or 51.84 percent; Republican Steven Saperstein received 11, 823 votes, or 41.55 percent; Ethan Lustig-Elgrably, of the Working Families Party, received 421 votes, or 1.48 percent; and Patrick Dwyer, of the Green Party, received 284 votes, or 1.00 percent.
Trinidadian Jaime Williams was overwhelmingly re-elected in the 59th Assembly District in Brooklyn. Democrat Williams received 26, 229 votes, or 77.69 percent, to Republican Brandon Washington’s 6,306 votes, or 18.67 percent.
Source:  Caribbean Life, Nov. 2018

THE GIRLS have done it again.
THE President medal winners for 2018 are Sadhana Balladin of St Joseph’s Convent, San Fernando and Amrita Singh of Lakshmi Girls’ Hindu College.4 

They were among the pupils of girls high schools who took the lions’ share of 376 national scholarships in 2018.
The list was announced by Ministry of Education Anthony Garcia on Thursday at the ministry’s office in Port of Spain, live on social media.
The schools which took the most scholarships was St Joseph’s Convent in Port of Spain (41), St Augustine Girls’ High School (34), Naparima Girls’ High School (31), Lakshmi Girls’ High School (24) and St Joseph’s Convent (18) in San Fernando.
The tops boys’ schools which were awarded scholarships were Hillview (35), Naparima Boys’ College (31), Presentation College Chaguanas (19), and Presentation College San Fernando (18)


Also awarded scholarships were - Couva East Secondary school (four), Debe Secondary School (one), St Francois Girls’ College (one), St George’s College (one).
Garcia identified St George’s College and Queen’s Royal College (QRC) as two schools which “normally do very well” but did not this year.
“QRC is not among the schools which have been awarded scholarships but I am sure that in the future they are going to improve. It has been a school that has been one of the bastions of academic excellence in the past. These things happen. Sometimes we have a year does not do too well but I am sure that the principal and students are going to step up to the plate next year and when these scholarships are being awarded they will be among those. Some schools that did exceptionally well for example St Joseph’s Convent, Port of Spain”, said Garcia.


He said overall that “most of our students have done well”.
Garcia said: “While we glorify and we are very happy with the performance of our students and we are very happy to know that we can award substantial number of scholarships, Cabinet was also very concerned about the apparent imbalance in terms of the number of scholarships that are awarded in particular areas of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. In Natural Sciences 188 scholarships were awarded and Mathematics 103 students received scholarships.
Garcia said that Cabinet decided to appoint an Inter-Ministerial committee that will do an in-depth analysis of the award of scholarships. In future scholarships should be closely tied to our developmental needs.
“In other words there are some areas to the continued development of our country and every opportunity should be given to our students so that they can do further work in these areas and this can assist us in the development of our country", he said.