Williams, 71, died in Barbados on December 11.
Pamela was one of two children Williams had with his first wife, Elsie Ribeiro, and was named Elsie after her, though she was known by her middle name. Williams also had a son, Alastair, with Ribeiro.
He had another daughter, Erica Williams-Connell, with his second wife, Soy Suilan Moyou.
Pamela’s funeral took place yesterday at the Chapel of Coral Ridge Memorial Gardens in Barbados.
She will be cremated on Friday.
Former People’s National Movement stalwart Ferdie Ferreira said he did not interact with Pamela as much as he did with Erica and Alastair, but said he remembered Pamela as a “decent, classical person” and was aware she had a “very powerful academic career.” Pamela was a retired regional representative of the Inter-American Development Bank and a former Caribbean Development Bank employee.
She lived in Wyndham, Strathclyde, St Michael in Barbados.

Today the Chamber of Industry and Commerce is pleased to profile the runner-up in the Small to Medium Entrepreneur category (sponsored by EY) of the 2018 Champions of Business.
In 2004, Allana and her husband Bertie Steuart wanted to raise funds to purchase a refrigerator for a community member in need. Instead of doing the usual barbecue fund raiser, Bertie and Allana decided to make pepper sauce using Bertie’s unique recipe. They made 400 bottles of pepper sauce which sold out in record time. After the fundraiser, they started receiving calls for pepper sauce orders and Allana convinced Bertie to make another batch. This second batch sold just as quickly. The demand was continuous so the Steuarts continued production at their home. Eventually, Allana started distributing on a small scale to local restaurants and mini marts. In 2008, a breakthrough came when Tony Roma’s approached her to supply its restaurant on an exclusive basis.
In August 2012, the company landed its first major supermarket – Massy Stores (then Hi-Lo). This was the impetus to increasing the brand’s presence in the retail market. Then, in November 2014, PriceSmart approached the company to be its sole pepper sauce brand. This forced the company to scale up their operations. They subsequently moved to Woodbrook. With new staff added and a larger facility, the company was able to increase production significantly.
When Allana’s son Logan joined the business in 2015, sales increased significantly, and the company needed to find additional sources of pepper. Logan was instrumental in negotiating supplies from a local farmer with large acreage, who was able to meet the increased demand and with whom Bertie’s has forged a strong working relationship. Logan has also been instrumental in formalizing the company’s operations, its processes and increasing distribution and brand awareness. In 2016, the company moved to its current location in Aranguez.
To date, Bertie’s sauces are sold at most major supermarkets like Xtra Foods, JTA and Penny Savers in Tobago and other retailers nationwide. The product is also served at an increasing number of restaurants and restaurant chains locally. Bertie’s pepper sauce has become a household name in Trinidad and Tobago and is one of the most popular commercial pepper sauces on the market. In spite of the company’s success, it has remained true to the original Bertie’s recipe and maintained its commitment to using only fresh local peppers. The Bertie’s product line has expanded and now includes their original Bertie’s Pepper Sauce, a Pimento Sauce and a Scorpion Pepper sauce.
Bertie’s continues to be a major buyer of hot peppers and is proud to be a supporter of local farmers. They are “proudly TT” and this is reflected on all product packaging. Allana and Logan are currently exploring possibilities for the export market, starting with the Caribbean.
Source: Newsday, Dec 20, 2018

The original purpose of the Royal Botanic Gardens was not for taking wedding pictures and having family outings.
Although the space was open to the public, it was a scientific area for the sole purpose of benefiting the people of Trinidad.
Historian Gerard Besson told Sunday Newsday the Royal Botanic Gardens was created in 1818 by Sir Ralph Woodford, who was the Governor of Trinidad from 1813 to 1829. He was the first civil governor with all his predecessors being military men.


“He was concerned with developing the island. So he brought with him a group of young people, like himself, who had an interest in modern times, modern for those days, and was interested in the overall development of the place.”
One of those men was botanist David Lockhart, who was appointed as first superintendent and was responsible for the layout of the gardens.
With the government’s money, Woodford bought a 200-acre estate from Henri Peschier of St Ann’s for £9,160 which was a substantial amount of money at the time. Those 200 acres included the land that is now the Queen’s Park Savannah and the Botanic Gardens.


He cleared the area of forest leaving some local plants, made the area now known as the Savannah into a public space, and began laying out a botanic garden. Lockhart, under Woodford, started importing rare trees and plants from all over the world including India, Africa, the far east, other tropical areas.


“He (Woodford) was creating a botanical environment. He was creating a park where the people of the town, because it was not yet a city, would be able to enjoy the scenery, the rolling lawns, and would be able to enjoy seeing strange, exotic trees from different parts of the world that would have fruits and flowers–a different kind of environment. From all accounts it was a great success from the very beginning.”
Besson explained that the gardens was a place where rare plants and trees were brought to see if they would thrive and could be propagated in this part of the world for industry and agriculture. They were brought with a purpose–to be cultivated so cuttings could be procured and transferred to the various estates on the island for valuable timber and food.
He said the samaan trees were brought to provide shade and comfortable grazing for cattle so they could produce more milk. In fact, he said there were so many samaan trees in St Clair because the whole area, from around Wildflower Park in St Clair to Tragarete Road, was pasture land called the Government Farm, where many cattle grazed.
Breadfruit in the gardens
The first breadfruit tree in Trinidad was also planted at the gardens. It was brought from an island in the Pacific because poor people needed food and breadfruit was filling and healthy. “Woodford made a lot of advancements. He did a lot of things that really made a very big difference to the overall environment.”


He said over time, the Botanic Gardens was integrated into the work of the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture (ICTA), the forerunner to the University of the West Indies, St Augustine campus. The ICTA created a herbarium where it kept a record of all the species of the different plants and trees in Trinidad, both local and imported. “The very economy of Trinidad in the days before the exploration of oil was based on agriculture so it was very important to have, in Trinidad, an experimental station like the Botanic Gardens. And it was very important to have a college of agriculture, which became, over time, the university where agriculture would be studied, experimented with, and treated as a science. So the connection between the university and the Botanic Gardens was once a very strong, living connection.”
According to information from the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries, after the death of Lockhart in 1845, there were several others who contributed to the uniqueness of the gardens. These included William Purdie from 1846 to 1857, Dr Herman Kruegar, a trained apothecary, and Henry Prestoe from 1864 to 1886.


The rise of tropical agriculture
From 1878 to 1879, the gardens expanded with purchase of St Clair Estate and there was an increased collection of ornamental plants obtained from Kew and other parts of the world. Many new plants and crops of potential economic value were also introduced, distributed and exchanged throughout the world including cocoa, coffee, tea, mango, mangosteen, palms, varieties of sugar, rubber, and more.
During John Hart’s appointment to superintendent from 1888 to 1908 there was a renewed search for alternative cash crops for the colony, including spices, ginger, tobacco, citrus and various types of timber.
The ministry document stated, “In 1897, The Norman Commission defined the role of the Botanic Gardens: The introduction and experimental cultivation of economic plants to secure improved varieties of such plants, and especially of sugar cane. It should comprise a branch for the teaching of tropical agriculture, and should form a centre from which teachers would be sent to give practical lessons in the cultivation of tropical plants and the selection of suitable locations for growing them…In the mean time the Botanical Department in Trinidad should encourage the introduction and growth of the better descriptions of fruit, and give instructions as to the best means of cultivation and packing fruit for export.”
Over the years, however, things changed.
Besson noted that trees that were over 200-years-old were cut down for various reasons, including that some were rotting. However, he said they were not replaced with other exotic trees but with “common” plants like crotons and bougainvillea.
“So the idea of keeping it as a place where you would bring a rare tree from a distant place and plant it has gone. It seems the people who look after it today don’t have those ideas in mind. They just want to keep it as a park rather than a scientific place.”


One of the oldest botanic gardens
Speaking at the official postal stamp launch in commemoration of the bicentennial anniversary of the Royal Botanic Gardens on December 6, Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat said we were living in a society where many people lacked foresight and were “not even planning for the next two years, let alone, 200.”
He said, “The Royal Botanic Gardens has a tremendous history but perhaps the most important thing we can do in its 200th year is to reflect on those persons who had the foresight to make an investment into the future. What we enjoy today at the Royal Botanic Gardens is the result of an investment in attitudes and I commend those who have been involved in it and who have created something which we can all enjoy.”
Not only enjoy, but be proud of.
According to the ministry, the Royal Botanic Gardens is one of the oldest botanic gardens in continuous operation in the western hemisphere. It occupies 61.8 acres (25 hectares) and has assortment of over 600 plants–approximately 13 per cent indigenous to Trinidad and 87 per cent from every continent of the world.
In addition to the plants, the gardens, located north of the Queen’s Park Savannah, has a small cemetery, known as God Acre. There, several British government and military officials and their families are buried. The last person to be buried there was Lady Thelma Hochoy, wife of the first Governor General of TT, in 2010. She was buried next to her husband, Sir Solomon Hochoy.
The Botanic Gardens are open to the public daily from 6 am to 6 pm.
Source:  Newsday Dec 2018

Friends, family, the musical fraternity and the country at large are mourning the passing of yet another musical icon, Dr Andrew Marcano, aka Lord Superior, fondly known by friends and family as 'Supie'.
Superior passed away on November 24, 2018 in New York, after ailing for some time.
TUCO Trinidad and Tobago issued a statement on Sunday, hailing Marcano's musical genius and passionate spirit.
"For the third time in less than a month, the calypso fraternity is plunged into mourning another calypso icon, with the death of Dr Andrew Marcano, also known in the calypso Industry as Brother Superior who passed away on Saturday 24th November 2018, after ailing for some time now."
"Supie as he was fondly called, was one of those special bards who advocated for years, that there should be more calypso played on local radio stations to the point that he laboured for over twenty years until he was afforded a radio license from the government."
"He called his station Superior Radio and was one in those days that played calypso music twenty-four hours each day," the statement said
Dr Marcano was known for always being impeccably dressed. 
"One of the bards who was always dressed to kill as we say in T&T, he will be remembered for the life of our cultural history."
"On behalf of the Trinbago Unified Calypsonians Organisation, once again the President Mr Lutalo Masimba and his General Council along with the entire TUCO membership, we sincerely extend our deepest condolences to his immediate family around the world and here in T&T."
"May the soul of the late Dr Andrew Marcano aka The Brother Superior rest in peace with our calypso ancestors. Funeral arrangements will be forthcoming as they are received by TUCO," the statement said. 
Friends, family, the musical fraternity and the country at large are mourning the passing of yet another musical icon, Dr Andrew Marcano, aka Lord Superior, fondly known by friends and family as 'Supie'.
Superior passed away on November 24, 2018 in New York, after ailing for some time.
TUCO Trinidad and Tobago issued a statement on Sunday, hailing Marcano's musical genius and passionate spirit.
"For the third time in less than a month, the calypso fraternity is plunged into mourning another calypso icon, with the death of Dr Andrew Marcano, also known in the calypso Industry as Brother Superior who passed away on Saturday 24th November 2018, after ailing for some time now."
"Supie as he was fondly called, was one of those special bards who advocated for years, that there should be more calypso played on local radio stations to the point that he laboured for over twenty years until he was afforded a radio license from the government."
"He called his station Superior Radio and was one in those days that played calypso music twenty-four hours each day," the statement said
Dr Marcano was known for always being impeccably dressed. 
"One of the bards who was always dressed to kill as we say in T&T, he will be remembered for the life of our cultural history."
"On behalf of the Trinbago Unified Calypsonians Organisation, once again the President Mr Lutalo Masimba and his General Council along with the entire TUCO membership, we sincerely extend our deepest condolences to his immediate family around the world and here in T&T."
"May the soul of the late Dr Andrew Marcano aka The Brother Superior rest in peace with our calypso ancestors. Funeral arrangements will be forthcoming as they are received by TUCO," the statement said. 
His son, Moriba Marcano, said in a social media post that the calypso icon was a visionary of his time.
"RIP Dr Andrew 'Lord Superior' Marcano, my dad just passed in NY, one of his favourite places in the world, where he was set to be a star in the 1960's before deciding to return to Trinidad in an attempt to assist the burgeoning nation in forming its cultural identity."
"He was a great man and a visionary of his time writing songs to help guide humanity in general and his people in specific. Sadly misunderstood and underappreciated, I studied the man like a text book and I only hope that his genius and goodwill will be more easily recognized in the afterlife. I loved you dad," he said.
Actor Michael Cherrie also issued his condolences:
“Remembering Andrew Marcano - Lord Superior RIP... calypso great...make new and wonderful vibrations in that new realm...my deepest condolences to you, Moriba Marcano...Godspeed Supie...”
Jazz musician Etienne Charles issued his condolences via social media:
"Dr. Andrew Marcano aka Brother Superior aka Lord Superior aka Supie. the consummate Gentleman, class act, pillar of knowledge, guiding counselor and boss calypsonian. Thanks for your friendship, musicianship and clever wit. I'll say your name forever.  my heart and condolences go out to your family and loved ones," he said. 
Minister of Agriculture, Lands and Fisheries, Clarence Rambharat, also acknowledged Dr Marcano's monumental contribution to local culture. 
"Dr Andrew Marcano - Rio Claro’s Lord Superior has gone. So much remains to be told- seeing the greats at Crown Theatre and the train as Rio Claro’s connection to the best artistes of the day; living with Spoiler; campaigning for local content in the airwaves and completing more than 60 years in calypso," he said. 
Dr Marcano was born in Rio Claro in 1938 and made his debut into calypso at the age of 16 singing a calypso called "Coconut" at the Victory Calypso Tent in Port of Spain. In those days he was considered to be the youngest Calypsonian to perform locally.
Some of his memorable calypsoes were, Spread Joy, San Fernando Carnival, Saga T'ing, We want a day, Standardise Pan, Cultural Assassination and Put the women on top.
He was awarded the Hummingbird medal Silver in 2015 and received his Honourary Doctor of Letters at the 2017 graduation ceremony at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad.
He was considered to be the first calypsonian to produce a record on his own record label, the first to Perform at the Madison Square Gardens, in New York, USA, and the first to produce a full-length calypso musical.
He would have celebrated his 81st birthday next month.
"Rest in peace Bro Superior. You truly did it your way," said TUCO.

​Prof Emeritus E Julian Duncan
In 1844, the Polish botanist Jozef Warszewicz was sent to Guatemala to join a Belgian company established there. He became an independent collector and supplier of plants to gardens in Europe. He travelled extensively in Guatemala, Panama and Costa Rica, where he discovered a wealth of new plant species. Among these was Warszewiczia coccinea (Vahl) Kl, a member of the Rubiaceae (the family to which plants such as Coffea arabica (coffee) and Mussaenda (ornamentals) belong).
The plant is a native of the New World and is found in a vertical band straddling the equator, from Costa Rica in the north to equatorial Peru and Brazil in the south. This strip includes Trinidad.
In their 1928 publication of Part I Flora of Trinidad and Tobago, Williams and Cheesman, treated the Rubiaceae and recorded the presence of the plant in Trinidad. In addition to a botanical description of the plant, they recorded the names by which it is known locally. These are Trinidad Pride, wild poinsettia and Chaconier. They described the plant as being "a gorgeous plant, forming one of the
The plant produces a long bloom that is a panicle, a long arching axis, along which are paired cymes–groups of flowers with a common stalk (peduncle). Each cyme consists of 15-20 flowers. The flowers all have five green sepals, five yellow petals which are fused at the base to form a short tube topped by five free lobes, five anthers and centrally, the pistil. In one of the flowers, of each cyme, one of the sepals is transformed into a red, long-stalked petal-like structure, which gives the bloom its attractiveness. Since the cymes are paired along the axis, there are twice as many of these transformed sepals as there are pairs of cymes along the axis.
It is often reported that "it is the national flower of Trinidad and Tobago because it blooms on August 31, which coincides with the day that Trinidad and Tobago became independent from the United Kingdom." This statement can be easily misunderstood. In reality it blooms from February to November, peaking in July. Independence Day thus falls during the period in which it is in full bloom.
most attractive features of the flora of Trinidad." (Williams and Cheesman, 1928).
There are two legends associated with the more commonly used of the local names, one of which states: "The title is in honour of the last Spanish Governor of Trinidad and Tobago Don Jose Maria Chacon." This appears to be based on the mispronounced Chaconia, and hence misspelled, local name originally given.
The second is based on the recorded name–Chaconier, (Williams and Cheesman, 1928), the name given by the early French settlers. Many of the local names given by them, end in "ier", such as balisier (now pronounced differently) to the Heliconia, and Cocotier (now called cocoyea), to the coconut among others. It is recorded that the red, transformed sepals reminded them of the ribbons of silk or cotton attached to the garments of dancers of the chacone (sometimes rendered chaconne or chacona), a peasant dance popular in Spain and France in the 18th century. In Spain these decorations were called chaconadas.
In 1957, Grace Mulloon (nee Atteck) travelling along the Arima/Blanchisseuse road, in the company of David Auyong, spotted a rather spectacular bloom at the top of a group of Chaconiers.
Realising the importance of their find, Auyong parked the car and at risk to both limb and life, clambered down the steep slope to obtain cuttings which he hoped to use as propagating material.
His attempts were unsuccessful; he therefore solicited the help of Roy Nichols, who worked at the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture (ICTA). When success was achieved, they returned to the site from which the material had been collected, only to discover that the plant had been cut down in a road widening exercise (Nichols 1963).
A plant was sent to Kew gardens in England where it was confirmed to be a mutant of W coccinea.
Had Auyong not persisted in his attempts to propagate their find, we would never have known the plant. It is recognised to be a mutant of W coccinea and has been given the cultivar name, David Auyong.
The main difference between the wild type and the mutant is that in the former, one sepal of one flower in the group of 20 is transformed, whereas in the latter all the sepals of all the flowers of any cyme are enlarged to some extent and red; in many, the transformation is as extreme as that in the wild type sepal.
The wild type is commonly referred to as the single and the mutant as the double Chaconier. These terms are unfortunate and have led to an incorrect statement recorded in Margaret Barwick’s Tropical and Subtropical Trees: An Encyclopedia.
Referring to Warszewiczia coccinea she states, "The double flowered form lacks a functional pistil and does not produce fruit." (Barwick, 2004). This statement is no doubt brought about by the use of the term double to describe the flower, for in strict botanical terms, a double flower is one in which there is an increase in the number of petals or petal-like structures in place of stamens and/or carpels. Such flowers are thus sterile.
The increase in the number of petal-like structures in W coccinea cv David Auyong is brought about by the transformation of sepals. The stamens are present and functional, as is the pistil. There is no record of the mutant origination elsewhere. Although plants can now be found growing in other countries, these are all clones of the plant spotted by Mulloon.
The inflorescence of the mutant form, which was recently named the national flower, replacing that of the wild type, is truly Trinidad pride.
References
* Barwick, Margaret (2004) Tropical & Subtropical Trees: An encyclopedia. Timber Press, Oregon 484pp.
* Nichols, Roy (1963) ‘A new Cultivar of Warszewiczia coccinea’ Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society Vol. 88 (9), 406-408.


* Williams, R O and Cheesman, E D (1928) Flora of Trinidad and Tobago–Rubiales. Vol 2 Part 1. Department of Agriculture. The Government Printery, Port of Spain 1-48

Nine years ago, Den­nis Mc­Clung had a run­down swim­ming pool and an am­bi­tious goal, to plant a gar­den that would pro­vide a self-sus­tain­ing food sys­tem for his fam­i­ly.
Mc­Clung and his wife trans­formed the emp­ty ce­ment pit be­hind their home in Mesa, Ari­zona, in­to a closed-loop ecosys­tem teem­ing with life, from veg­eta­bles to chick­ens, even a pond with tilapia. The in­no­v­a­tive ur­ban farm was soon pro­duc­ing enough food to feed the cou­ple and their three young chil­dren, cut­ting their month­ly gro­cery bill by al­most half.
But what Mc­Clung ac­com­plished af­ter that is even more re­mark­able. With no for­mal train­ing, just plen­ty of in­ge­nu­ity, hard work, and re­source­ful­ness, Mc­Clung is now help­ing peo­ple around the world build cli­mate-re­silient and high­ly pro­duc­tive food sys­tems. Since launch­ing his non­prof­it or­gan­i­sa­tion Gar­den Pool, in 2012, Mc­Clung’s back­yard ex­per­i­ment has bloomed in­to a mul­ti­fac­eted op­er­a­tion that is col­lab­o­rat­ing with for­eign gov­ern­ments on food sus­tain­abil­i­ty, op­er­at­ing pub­lic seed li­braries, of­fer­ing class­es and work­shops, de­vel­op­ing a so­lar-pow­ered wa­ter ster­il­i­sa­tion sys­tem and most re­cent­ly, work­ing on a HoloLens ap­pli­ca­tion de­signed to help users build cus­tomised food sys­tems.
Though Mc­Clung’s farm­ing meth­ods might be low-tech, the tech­nol­o­gy he us­es to pow­er his or­gan­i­sa­tion is not and dri­ven by Mi­crosoft. He us­es Win­dows 10, Of­fice 365 and a Sur­face de­vice for graph­ic de­sign, re­search, pro­pos­als, and mar­ket­ing; col­lab­o­rates with em­ploy­ees and vol­un­teers re­mote­ly via Mi­crosoft Teams; and us­es Skype to teach a 3D mod­el­ling course to in­terns.
Work­ing with Chaney St Mar­tin who is based in T&T, the Gold­en Grove Prison be­came the site of his lat­est im­i­ta­tive where in­mates had been tend­ing an en­closed gar­den in a field by haul­ing wa­ter­ing cans back and forth in the blaz­ing heat. Mc­Clung set up a self-ir­ri­gat­ing wa­ter col­lec­tion sys­tem and a fish pond and added ver­ti­cal grow­ing, rais­ing plants in stacked lay­ers in­stead of in the ground to boost the gar­den’s pro­duc­tion. Prison ad­min­is­tra­tors were so ex­cit­ed about the changes that they asked for their own train­ing ses­sion.
“They said the project served as a mod­el for them to do the same thing on their own farms,” says Chaney St Mar­tin, an in­ter­na­tion­al spe­cial­ist in wa­ter and soil man­age­ment for the In­ter-Amer­i­can In­sti­tute for Co­op­er­a­tion on Agri­cul­ture (IICA), which part­nered with Gar­den Pool on the Trinidad project and sev­er­al oth­ers in the Caribbean.
There was al­most no bud­get for the Trinidad prison project, Mc­Clung said, so in­stead of us­ing a pre­made lin­er for the fish pond, he made one by mix­ing ce­ment and sand. He built the pond’s pump from spare pipes and used some old ce­ment blocks to cre­ate raised gar­den beds. “We re­al­ly had to be Mac­Gyver on this one, be­cause the prison re­al­ly didn’t have any bud­get,” Mc­Clung says, laugh­ing. “We just looked at what they had, and we got re­al­ly cre­ative.”
St Mar­tin, met Mc­Clung at a con­fer­ence a few years ago. The two got talk­ing and re­solved to work to­geth­er in the Caribbean. When Hur­ri­cane Ir­ma raged through the re­gion in Sep­tem­ber 2017, dev­as­tat­ing sev­er­al is­lands, they seized the op­por­tu­ni­ty to help. Mc­Clung, un­en­cum­bered by the bu­reau­cra­cy of a large or­gan­i­sa­tion, and his da­ta quick­ly mo­bilised re­sources and ar­rived on the ground to work with the IICA, St Mar­tin said.
“It was a tremen­dous ef­fort. If you un­der­stand the Caribbean con­text, peo­ple tend to be sus­pi­cious when out­side or­gan­i­sa­tions come in,” he says. “But Den­nis was able to come in and blend in very eas­i­ly with the cul­ture. Peo­ple re­al­ly loved the work that he did.”
Mc­Clung is turn­ing to da­ta col­lec­tion to val­i­date and quan­ti­fy his mod­els for sus­tain­able farm­ing. He’s work­ing with gov­ern­ments in coun­tries where Gar­den Pool has con­duct­ed projects to col­lect da­ta on farm yields, pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, and costs, and is part­ner­ing with Joel Cuel­lo, a pro­fes­sor of agri­cul­tur­al and biosys­tems en­gi­neer­ing at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ari­zona and an ex­pert on ver­ti­cal farm­ing, on the HoloLens project.
With his first in­ter­na­tion­al of­fice based in Trinidad, us­ing datasets from their work, Mc­Clung and Cuel­lo plan to de­vel­op a HoloLens app us­ing Mi­crosoft AI and oth­er ser­vices that will al­low users to se­lect a food sys­tem mod­el and scale it to a par­tic­u­lar space. The app will tell them how much the project would cost, what ma­te­ri­als are need­ed and how much it would pro­duce. The goal is to have a pro­to­type by the end of next year, Cuel­lo said.
He sees in­for­ma­tion shar­ing as crit­i­cal to Gar­den Pool’s ul­ti­mate goal of pro­mot­ing glob­al food se­cu­ri­ty. “No one on this plan­et should be hun­gry with the tech­nol­o­gy avail­able to us right now,” he says. “It’s just a mat­ter of us­ing it ef­fi­cient­ly and spread­ing it to those who need it. “The fact that we’re chang­ing the world is more im­por­tant to me than be­ing rich or tak­ing the fame and the glo­ry for it,” Mc­Clung says. “I’d rather share the knowl­edge so that oth­ers can do for them­selves.” 
Source:  Trinidad Guardian, Dec 2018

A few weeks ago, the coun­try lost one of its most valu­able ar­chi­tec­tur­al trea­sures. For gen­er­a­tions, the mag­nif­i­cent Friend­ship Hall Great House stood astride the South­ern Main Road, just north of St Mary's Junc­tion in Freeport and re­mind­ed us of an era long gone.
Not on­ly was the struc­ture im­pos­ing in its sheer size, but al­so for its ec­cen­tric style and the sto­ry it bore. Con­struct­ed in the 19th cen­tu­ry, it was ini­tial­ly a prime ex­am­ple of colo­nial plan­toc­ra­cy ar­chi­tec­ture which far out­shone the less sub­stan­tial planters' res­i­dences which dot­ted the sug­ar cane fields of cen­tral Trinidad.
Its own­er was an ec­cen­tric Scots­man named Nor­man McLeod who had served as an of­fi­cer in the British East In­di­an Reg­i­ment in the ear­ly 1900s. Whilst in In­dia he ap­par­ent­ly un­der­went a con­ver­sion to Hin­duism and up­on his re­turn to Trinidad he em­ployed his con­sid­er­able artis­tic abil­i­ty in trans­form­ing his pala­tial home in­to a mandir.
On the ground floor, the god­dess Dur­ga peered forth, while on the sweep­ing por­ti­co, McLeod placed a self-por­trait, wear­ing a tur­ban. He even con­struct­ed a throne with the words "Friend­ship Hall" above it. The Scots­man filled his home with price­less trea­sures rang­ing from a World War I Ger­man bu­gle to in­valu­able sil­ver from In­dia.
Gripped with a grow­ing delu­sion that the young daugh­ter of one of his In­di­an ser­vants was a rein­car­na­tion of his dead moth­er, McLeod willed his man­sion to them when he died in 1965. We live how­ev­er, in a na­tion where all but a few place no val­ue on the lega­cy of the ages. Friend­ship Hall fell in­to ne­glect and af­ter near­ly five decades of de­cay, was bull­dozed in­to the ground to make way for con­crete blas­phemies which are a sad trav­es­ty of the Scots­man's gift to his heirs.
As ap­palling as this as­sault on our built her­itage is to con­ceive, it is but a sin­gle chap­ter in a long his­to­ry of an­ni­hi­la­tion which can­not be blamed on any one per­son or sec­tor, since it is a rep­re­hen­si­ble bur­den we must all bear as a peo­ple. The ba­sic ar­gu­ment which may be prof­fered for the fate of Friend­ship Hall is that with­out le­git­i­mate state sup­port, this is to be the fu­ture of many of our his­toric struc­tures which ex­ist in pri­vate hands which are ei­ther un­ap­pre­cia­tive of their sig­nif­i­cance or can­not af­ford to sus­tain them.
Part of the prob­lem stems from a scarci­ty of com­pas­sion and pub­lic ed­i­fi­ca­tion re­gard­ing the val­ue of her­itage as­sets. There are now two min­istries ded­i­cat­ed to mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism and tol­er­ance, yet noth­ing has been done to in­cul­cate a sense of na­tion­al pride in our past.
Stu­dents are still taught that Colum­bus sight­ed Trinidad from the helm of the San­ta Maria ac­com­pa­nied by the Ni­na and Pin­ta, even though he was bare­ly able to walk from a smart at­tack of gout and all three ships had been sunk years be­fore. I dare say if the own­er of Friend­ship Hall Great House had pos­sessed a cul­tured ap­pre­ci­a­tion for what was gift­ed in­to his care, it would not have been de­stroyed. The whole­sale slaugh­ter of leatherback tur­tles but a cou­ple decades ago has been all but halt­ed, thanks large­ly to the foun­da­tion of a sense of own­er­ship which was in­stilled in the minds and hearts of those who shared a com­mon breath­ing space with the tur­tles.
Most com­mu­ni­ties in pos­ses­sion of her­itage as­sets can­not see the eco­nom­ic op­por­tu­ni­ties which can arise from these trea­sures. This is an­oth­er page we can take from the book of the leatherback tur­tle sto­ry, since tur­tle-watch­ing is now a lu­cra­tive mon­ey-earn­er for sev­er­al sec­tors, spawn­ing down­stream in­dus­try on a mi­cro-eco­nom­ic scale.
Lest it be said that I lam­bast the State too stern­ly, an ex­am­ple must be drawn from the aw­ful con­di­tion of the Mag­nif­i­cent Sev­en. These turn-of-the-cen­tu­ry mas­ter­pieces ap­pear in vir­tu­al­ly every tourist guide­book which beck­ons the un­sus­pect­ing to view a spec­ta­cle which must sure­ly stand as an in­dict­ment against us.
From the board­ed-up win­dows and un­kempt lawns of Mille Fleurs to the thread­bare grandeur of White­hall, suc­ces­sive ad­min­is­tra­tions have glee­ful­ly ig­nored their re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to his­to­ry. Those few pub­lic in­sti­tu­tions ded­i­cat­ed to con­ser­va­tion have con­sis­tent­ly failed in their man­dates and seem quite hap­py to con­tin­ue on their los­ing streaks while our past is tram­pled and lost.
I re­cent­ly vis­it­ed the Na­tion­al Mu­se­um and it pains me ex­ceed­ing­ly to see the vast po­ten­tial for pub­lic ed­u­ca­tion there­in and the de­fi­cien­cy of in­ter­est which is shown in it. The prover­bial ic­ing on the cake in the vis­it was that in one sec­tion, arte­facts were strewn willy-nil­ly with no se­cu­ri­ty, beg­ging the sou­venir hunter to pock­et one of our na­tion­al trea­sures.
There is a Restora­tion Unit with­in the Min­istry of Works and In­fra­struc­ture. Had I not been aware of its pres­ence, I would be as stunned as most peo­ple would be to learn that such a high-mind­ed de­part­ment could ex­ist with­in the wreck­age of our civ­il ser­vice. One on­ly has to look at our com­mu­nal ar­chi­tec­tur­al trea­sures to see the im­pact of the unit on the land­scape: the still-caved roof of Pres­i­dent's House, the fire-gut­ted shell of what used to be the his­tor­i­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant San Fer­nan­do Po­lice Sta­tion and the sapling which threat­ened to grow in­to a mighty tree from the roof of the now dis­mal­ly aban­doned Red House.
The lack of zeal or even pe­ri­od­ic en­thu­si­asm from the pub­lic sec­tor to­wards preser­va­tion is re­al­ly an ex­trap­o­la­tion of a na­tion­al men­tal­i­ty which frowns on the past. Our own first prime min­is­ter, Dr Er­ic Williams, was, most iron­i­cal­ly, a his­to­ri­an. Even more than three decades af­ter his death, the ef­fects of "doc­tor pol­i­tics" still shape the gen­er­al psy­che of the na­tion, where­in he trans­ferred his in­ner demons of his own ex­clu­sion from colo­nial elite so­ci­ety to his peo­ple, teach­ing us that all that was con­nect­ed to mas­sa was bad and should be oblit­er­at­ed if we were to find our­selves.
In this way, we in­dem­ni­fy the Plan­ta­tion So­ci­ety mod­el of the late, great Lloyd Best, since our idea of na­tion­al­ism finds ex­pres­sion in rag­ing against the Eu­ro­pean metro­pole and its relics by ex­ten­sion. We are a plur­al so­ci­ety thrown in­to each oth­er's com­pa­ny with no re­al for­ma­tion of the char­ac­ter­is­tics of a na­tion.
Yet, amid the morass of de­struc­tion and cal­lous ig­no­rance, there are bea­cons of hope. For many years, a small band of ded­i­cat­ed peo­ple call­ing them­selves Cit­i­zens for Con­ser­va­tion has been striv­ing against enor­mous odds (po­lit­i­cal ob­sta­cles be­ing the most fre­quent) to raise the na­tion­al con­scious­ness of our her­itage and to per­suade the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties of each ad­min­is­tra­tion to take a vest­ed in­ter­est in preser­va­tion lest all be lost too soon.
I doubt any of the mem­bers of Cit­i­zens for Con­ser­va­tion throw a good javelin or sing melo­di­ous rum-drink­ing dit­ties, but this is an or­gan­i­sa­tion which tru­ly de­serves a medal for the tire­less com­mit­ment to his­to­ry of its mem­bers. Cit­i­zens for Con­ser­va­tion stal­wart ar­chi­tect Ge­of­frey MacLean has de­vot­ed a life­time to con­ser­va­tion and sin­gle­hand­ed­ly re­dis­cov­ered our great 19th-cen­tu­ry artist Michel Jean Caz­abon and his works.
On­ly re­cent­ly Ge­of­frey and I were be­wail­ing the fact that dur­ing the 1970s and well in­to the 1990s, most of our ar­chi­tec­tur­al her­itage had been de­stroyed in the name of progress. Called to mind were the de­mo­li­tion of Bagshot and Per­se­ver­ance Hous­es in Mar­aval, the Ice House Ho­tel on Aber­crom­by Street, Port-of-Spain, and the old Cus­toms House on the wa­ter­front. The loss to pos­ter­i­ty has tru­ly been im­mense. Our most cur­rent di­a­logue on the demise of Friend­ship Hall Great House had a tone akin to that of lament­ing the demise of an old friend.
There is on­ly so much that can be done by those of us who have spent our lives in fer­ret­ing out for­got­ten his­to­ry and cop­ing with the ever-ex­pand­ing waste­land which our her­itage land­scape has be­come. Gov­ern­ment malaise, ig­no­rance of the gen­er­al cit­i­zen­ry and cor­po­rate greed have com­bined to form a daunt­ing front against con­ser­va­tion and as long as we see no val­ue to cher­ish­ing the lega­cy of our an­ces­tors, we face a very grim fu­ture, for it is from the glo­ries and teach­ings of the past we must draw on to find in­spi­ra­tion for to­mor­row. If this is in­deed our lot, where then can fu­ture gen­er­a­tions turn to find them­selves?
Source:  Virtual Museum of T&T Archives (Sept. 08 2012)

A Trini Christmas is the best. And in large, contributing to this are our festive Christmas foods. We have perfected the grand art of fusion and created an original cuisine for this season. Some food gurus thumb their noses at the term fusion, however, we would not have this outstanding cuisine if our ancestral cooks had not utilised the art of fusion. Really, what they tried to do is recreate the familiar foods of their past, using ingredients available to them locally, and so through the years, we inherited what we know as our true Trini Christmas cuisine.
These include boiling hams in pitch-oil tins, soaking black cake fruits for up to one year in advance to use in our black cakes; securing fig leaves to wrap pastelles, stocking up on enough rum for use in black cake and ponche de crème and baking bread to sandwich the ham and preparing garlic pork. Making pepper jelly and chow-chow to dress our meals, and preparing sorrel and ginger beer to cool us all down.
Most of these traditions still live on today, thankfully, although some have sadly been substituted for more non-traditional foods at this time.
For me, I am a lover of tradition and our Christmas cuisine. Making black cake is a big part of my Christmas tradition which I begin in October. I soak my fruits in a mixture of rum and cherry brandy for up to one month or more. I omit the browning, which I think imparts a bitter flavour to the cake, and I use a higher ratio of fruit which results in a dense, moist and very dark cake. It’s important to continue nursing the cake after baking for a few days with your choice of rum or brandy to keep it moist until use. Of course, you can opt for a non-alcohol version by replacing the alcohol with pure grape juice. And if you are not a lover of dark fruit cake, you can make a light fruit cake which is equally alluring on a different level!

Light fruit cake
1 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
4 eggs
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup candied cherries, finely chopped
1/2 cup mixed peel
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or almonds, (optional)
2 cups all-purpose flour
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Finely chop fruits.
Grease, line and flour 1 nine-inch round pan.
With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and creamy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time beating well between additions.
Fold in flour and fruits. Pour batter into a 9-inch round pan.
Bake for about 11/2 hours. Cool.

Best ever Christmas black cake
1 lb raisins
1 /2 lb currants
1/2 lb sultanas
1/2 lb prunes
1/2 lb chopped walnuts
1/4 lb mixed peel
1/4 lb cherries
1 2/3 cups dark rum
1 2/3 cups cherry brandy
1 lb Butter
1 lb all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 lb brown sugar
6 eggs
1 tsp cinnamon and allspice, mixed
2 tsp mixed essence
Combine rum and cherry brandy and add fruits to mixture. Let soak overnight or up to one week.
Preheat oven to 300F.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Sift together flour and baking powder, cinnamon and allspice.
Drain fruits reserve liquid. Chop or mince in food processor.
Add drained fruits to butter and sugar mixture.
Add cut up cherries and nuts.
Fold flour into fruits and butter mixture.
Add mixed essence, mix well.
Grease and line two 9-inch cake pans with waxed paper, grease and flour paper.
Spoon cake batter equally into prepared baking pans.
Bake for 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
Source: Newsday, Dec 2018