Caribbean Airlines has been voted the region's Leading Airline Brand at the World Travel Awards.
CAL, which suffered financial and reputational damage due to a pilot sickout last weekend that caused delays on its domestic and international routes, won the award at Saturday night's gala ceremony for the 30th World Travel Awards.
Held at Sandals Grand Saint Lucian, the ceremony saw awards being given out to destinations and properties across the Caribbean and Latin America.
The red carpet evening marked the opening leg of the WTA’s landmark 30th anniversary Grand Tour 2023 – a global search for the finest travel and tourism organisations.
InterCaribbean, which has come under fire from various governments for its poor service, won the award for Best Cabin Crew.
Bahamasair won the award for Leading Caribbean Airline. In the airport category, Jamaica's Sangster Airport was voted the Caribbean's Leading Airport while Club Mobay, located in Sangster was voted the Best Airport Lounge.
(Source: The Loop, August 27, 2023)

JARULA WEGNER
On August 24, the celebrated Trinidadian writer Michael Anthony died at the age of 91.
Growing up in Mayaro, Anthony began writing poems and publishing these in local newspapers. To follow his dream of becoming a writer, he moved to England in 1954, where he worked at various jobs while joining a growing community of West Indian intellectuals who broadcast their works on the BBC’s radio programme Caribbean Voices.
Anthony submitted poetry and short stories to the programme until VS Naipaul recommended that he approach the publisher André Deutsch with a novel. Through Naipaul, Anthony achieved his first literary successes, including The Games Were Coming (1963), The Year in San Fernando (1965) and Green Days by the River (1967). These works quickly established him as a Caribbean writer who offered, in the words of CLR James, “something new, and native in the best sense of the word.”
On his return to the Caribbean, Anthony gave a lecture at the Caribbean Writers and Artists Convention in 1970 in Guyana. In his talk, Growing Up with Writing he commented on the difficulties of making a living as a writer in the Caribbean.
Anthony said, “I really think that the place of the West Indian artist is in the West Indies when the West Indies has developed sufficiently to really offer him a fair living. But this will not be in the near future, it won’t be in our time.”
Luckily, he was wrong. Almost 50 years later, when he gave one of his last long interviews to my partner Amanda McIntyre and me, Anthony corrected this earlier statement by saying: “Now, writers have it much better, they can come through. Especially if they are good and they are resourceful, they can make a living. I know that, I’ve seen so many young writers of talent.”
Part of the reason he was wrong was because of his own doing.
On his return to Trinidad in 1970, Anthony initially received small jobs as a writer, with little freedom and a negligible income. His breakthrough came after he submitted an essay entitled Writing for the Younger Ones to a National Library competition that celebrated the International Book Year 1972.
He was the only writer to follow through with the project, and thanks to this submission, was recommended by Prime Minister Eric Williams to receive a post at the National Cultural Council, then directed by Dr JD Elder. Anthony held the post until he retired, publishing one work of writing after another through to his nineties.
​Regardless of whether one reads the stories of his childhood in some of his first novels; or his historical fictions in short stories, novellas and later novels; or his historical works which have become classics, like The Carnivals of Trinidad and Tobago (2011) – he was a writer who always had the wider public in mind.
In an interview with Reginald Clarke in 1990, Anthony explained, “I think a good style is a style that doesn’t attract attention, and I think the important thing is, in telling a story, you want to communicate, and the important thing is to communicate as clearly as possible. So I think simplicity is a very, very important thing.”
The love and admiration he received from the public underlines the success of his approach.
Anthony was one of the reasons why it has become possible to make a living as a writer in the Caribbean. He demonstrated how important and enriching it is to have writers of fiction and history describing the world around us.
In 2021, he said, “if one likes writing, one has to write, and the only place one can write about is the place that one knows…So it’s just that I think the things you love, or the things that are important in your life, whether you love them or not, they take place and that makes a part of your story.”
Anthony’s stories draw on his own experiences and his tireless historical research.
Much of his writing aims at telling the story from a local perspective.
His books have been included in school curricula and he himself was invited to public readings time and again. Just as it is the wider Caribbean public who enjoys his writings, it will also be this public that will miss him the most.
Michael Anthony (February 10, 1932-August 24, 2023) is survived by four children.
Dr Jarula Wegner is the Hundred Talents Young Professor of German and Comparative Literature at the School of International Studies, Zhejiang University, China.
(Source: Newsday, August 27, 2023)

The voices of individuals, organisations and politicians spoke out yesterday on the loss so many people felt at the news of Denyse Plummer’s death.
The former calypsonian and pop and gospel singer died of cancer on August 27, at 69.
Her death led the nation to reflect on a woman who gave a voice and a face to the plurality of what it means to be a citizen of TT.
Her family confirmed her death on her Facebook page on Sunday, saying she was a wonderful mother, grandmother, wife and friend, and an exemplar to younger generations.
The family’s statement added that she would be missed by many, but would live on through her music and “the beautiful impressions she left on everyone she met.”
Initially, Plummer sang in bars and hotels before entering Calypso Fiesta in 1986.
Newsday's BC Pires recalled in his Thank God It’s Friday column in 2021, “What Skinner Park was for Denyse Plummer in 1986, the year she transmogrified from relatively upmarket Chaconia Inn lounge singer to decidedly downmarket calypsonian at the Calypso Monarch competition semifinals. Singing to the famously hostile Skinner Park crowd, she was booed, jeered and pelted with toilet paper (mainly for being fair-skinned, because both her songs were good).”
Despite the initial public reaction, Plummer’s persistence and dedication to the craft of calypso led her to become one of its treasured figures, and she won its major titles: National Calypso Queen, Young King and, in 2001, Calypso Monarch. In 2011 she was awarded the Hummingbird Medal.
In 2015 she became a born-again Christian and performed and recorded gospelypso with artistes like Michelle Sylvester. She also published her book Crossover that same year.
The National Carnival Commission’s tribute to Plummer on Monday said she was a true daughter of the soil who charted a journey that defined TT’s calypso landscape.
“Multitalented and gifted, Denyse blended music and social commentary, blessing us with well-known songs like Nah Leaving, Heroes, Fire and Woman is Boss. Without question or exception, she has left a legacy as one of our nation’s most talented ambassadors and cultural icons.”
Many of her fellow performers also paid tribute to her life and work.
Soca artiste Destra Garcia, in an Instagram post, saluted Plummer’s musical legacy, recalling Plummer’s 1988 hit Woman is Boss and her 2001 Nah Leaving.
Garcia said, “I salute queen mother. Thank you for being an inspiration and opening so many doors worldwide for the rest of us women, you helped pave the way, and taught us what the phrase Woman is Boss truly means, you fought a great fight.”
Chutney soca artiste Drupatee Ramgoonai posted a photo of herself with Plummer and said it had been a “wonderful experience” to share many stages with her, including calypso tents, fetes and tours.
Songwriter and composer Mark Loquan, who worked with Plummer on her 2003 and 2005 songs Identity and Frenzy, said it was a privilege to know her, and she crossed many barriers and boundaries to claim her success in the industry.
Loquan said he would miss her presence. They had communicated, after a long time, about a fundraising concert for her, Thankful, which was held on May 13.
“Imagine seeing her performing over so many years and getting to work several years with her in pan. I’m forever grateful for that rewarding experience. May she rest in eternal peace,” he added.
Bandleader and producer Carl “Beaver” Henderson shared some facts about Plummer’s start in the music industry and what it was like working with her for 47 years.
In a Facebook post, Beaver said before she started singing at Chaconia Inn, Maraval, she “honed her craft across the road...in a little known club called The Baron.”
He produced her first batch of recordings, including her first album and number one hit, You’re What I’ve Waited For, which he wrote for her.
“That single stayed on the charts at number one for 13 weeks. We won every award that year,” he recalled.
Beaver also remembered being on stage as her musical director at Skinner Park when she got her “baptism of fire.”
“No one fully understood your emotions in that moment except your husband Patrick and myself. I still marvel at the level of professionalism that you displayed immediately after.”
Plummer and Beaver shared many live performances over the years, many fetes and concerts – so many he could not count them.
“I also produced your last major iconic hit Nah Leaving (and that was a funny story by itself) which took you to winning the Calypso Monarch in 2001...
“So much time spent at your home with your parents and family, so many memories. I spoke to you a little over a month ago and we said our farewell without actually saying so…,” he said. "My sister from another mother, fly high and proud. You have served well."
Many other organisations and people shared condolences to Plummer’s family and their own personal story of what her life meant to them and the country. Among them were Pan Trinbago, the United National Congress,and the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts.
UNC MP for Princes Town Barry Padarath recalled using a verse from Plummer’s Nah Leaving as he vied for a scholarship in 2001.
“I was also fortunate to view Denyse’s performance at the National Calypso Monarch final that year in the big yard coincidentally. In all my life, I never witnessed a performance as majestic as the one Denyse delivered that night. Denyse was the embodiment of everything that was good about TT, she had a tremendous impact on my life and today remains one of the best artistes of all time,” Padarath said in his tribute.
A post by the Tourism, Culture and the Arts Ministry said Plummer’s journey as a singer and legacy as a performer was punctuated with lessons in perseverance and dedication for people to follow.
“Her work exemplified how the power of music could affect positive change. We will certainly miss her vibrancy and passion, but we will forever be grateful for the joy her music and life brought to our hearts,” it said. (Source:  Newsday, August 29, 2023)

Renowned author and historian Michael Anthony has died.
Anthony 93, passed away on Thursday after ailing for some time.
His death was confirmed by his family in a statement.
It read: "It is with profound sadness that we announce the death of our beloved father, who passed away peacefully last night at home surrounded by his family."
"Michael was an icon and a giant in the literary world and his legacy is deeply woven into the tapestry of our nation, which he loved so dearly. Above all, Michael was an adoring husband, father and grandfather and we will miss him deeply. We thank you for your well wishes, and we kindly ask for privacy during this difficult time," the family added.
Anthony wrote several books, including The Year in San Fernando and Green Days by the River.
He was awarded the Hummingbird Gold Medal for his contribution to literature in 1979 and received an honorary doctorate from the University of the West Indies in 2003.
He was also awarded a NALIS Lifetime Literary Award.
(Source: The Loop, Aug 23, 2023) 

Inspired by her mother who would always preach “Trini to de bone,” Keisha Dabrowski returned to Trinidad to immerse herself in the Emancipation Day festivities, learn about and expose her son to what their ancestors endured while enslaved in TT.
Dabrowski was born in Sangre Grande – her maiden name is Peters – and was a pupil of Arima Girls’ Government.
She is happily married and her husband is of German, English and Polish descent. Together they have one son, Kristopher.
When she was six-years-old, her mother migrated to the US.
She said her father had migrated first before her mother, but her mother did not even tell her she was going and Dabrowski only found out when she came home from school that day.
“Understanding what it means to be abandoned… I understand that. And I understand the plight of immigrants and their children. When I became a mum, I realised that was a hard thing for my mother to do because I could not even think of leaving my son far less to go to a country I knew nothing about.”
She stayed with her aunt for two years and grew to look from her mum’s perspective, which she described as a leap of faith.
At eight, her mother returned and took her to the US.
“We were living in a small one-bedroom apartment in the US, but we had a house with a nice backyard where I used to make mud pies. But I also saw the opportunities because growing up in Brooklyn with a bunch of other immigrants from these other countries who became my community.”
Dabrowski said there were people from the Caribbean and other countries working together and fighting for their children to have a better future.
“I would go to Manhattan and Long Island with my mum who did domesticated work – babysit and clean – and I remember going there and saying, ‘I would love to live in a place like this one day. This is amazing.’ And only seeing white people and thinking, ‘I want to be like them, this is something that only they have.’”
Dabrowski said her mother wanted her to have all the opportunities the US could offer, after realising that, she stopped at nothing to get it.
She said the pivotal point in her life and one of the other reasons she chose to celebrate Emancipation Day in TT this year was when she learned about Jim Crow.
“Racism is alive and well, and while in TT we will separate ourselves into Indo-Trini and Afro-Trini or Native people, in America, there’s white and everything else.”
While in Trinidad, she never learned about slavery, but it made her wonder about the history of TT.
After realising that the US’ Jim Crow era was just the construction of black identity – that would be used to justify slavery – she decided to pursue an undergraduate degree in communications and marketing at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. She jokes and says she went to an engineering college for a business degree.
Her reasoning was if a black identity could be created for negative purposes, then it can be deconstructed and used as a way to educate people.
“Typical to any Trini, I had so much pride in who I am and many times in the US, I say to them, ‘You see me and what you see is a black person because you have this binary sense of identity because if you really knew me, you’d know I was a part of a melting pot.’”
Dabrowski said this is because TT has different heritages and everyone celebrates every holiday whether it be Diwali, Eid Ul-Fitr or Christmas.
She also has a bachelor’s of science in business with a focus on marketing and a master’s in strategic organisational communication with a focus on corporate social responsibility from Rutgers, the State University in New Jersey.


Rutgers – originally called Queen’s College – is a research university and is the second oldest in New Jersey after Princeton University. It also has a 58 per cent acceptance rate.
She has worked at Rutgers for around nine years in different positions – executive director for student affairs and chief of staff to the vice chancellor of student affairs – because she always looked for the next step. She was also a part of the creation of the black history month curriculum for schools in New Jersey.
Dabrowski said she then got a phone call in February of 2021 from her mother and she began giving back to her immediately.
She took her shopping, travelling and to dinners among many other activities.
“One day she was pushing my son in his stroller in my neighbourhood and someone came up to her and said, ‘Hi, I didn’t know Keisha hired a nanny,’ and she said (in her Trini accent), ‘I’m not the nanny, I’m the grandmother.’ She came and told me with so much pride and she had so much pride knowing her daughter lived in a neighbourhood like this.”
The next time she got a phone call from her mother, she was told that her mother had stage four cancer and Dabrowski began calling everyone she knew to get her mother the proper healthcare she needed. At the time she was being recruited by Johnson and Johnson – US-based pharmaceutical industry company that has been in business since 1886 – to be a part of its health equity platform.
During the interviews, she warned them that she would not let the company settle for the bare minimum and be comfortable.
She told them, “People are dying… my mum is dying and she's dying because of health inequities. When I asked my mum, ‘How did we get here?’ She said, ‘When I went to my doctor, he was rough with me so I stopped going for my pap smears.’”
Dabrowski said her mother told her it could have been because of her thick Trini accent made the doctor frustrated.
“I decided that if I couldn't save my mom's life, I was going to save other people's mom's lives.”
She said she never wants anyone to feel the hurt she felt and continues to feel to this day as there were many other experiences she wanted her mother to experience with her.
“One of my best memories with her was taking her to Hawaii because she said she has never been. We flew first class and I remember getting into the plane and realising that you can lie back in the plane and she said this is what you see on TVs and she just couldn’t believe it. We stayed at Hilton Hawaiian Village in a three-bedroom penthouse suite and she looked at me and said, ‘Thank you.’”
All Dabrowski said she could think about was wanting to give her mother all of this and more, but with the thought of knowing her mother was about to die in the back of her head.
After her mother died last October, her biological father – who she did not grow up with – died shortly after in Trinidad and she realised he could have survived from a heart attack if there was better healthcare. When he died, that was the first time she returned to Trinidad in 30 years and Dabrowski said she immediately felt a connection to the island.
After that, she wanted to learn everything about TT and experience everything it had to offer, so she did. Dabrowski took her son with her to every Emancipation Day celebration before their departure on Thursday and tried to gather as much information on TT’s history as possible.
“I’ve been at the Hyatt (Wrightson Road, Port of Spain) and one of the things I have been disappointed in is that there has been no information about Emancipation Day.
"I was in the elevator dressed in the traditional wear and a woman asked where I was going, I said I was headed to the Emancipation Day parade and she asked, ‘What is that?’”
Dabrowski asked, “How can you have the Commonwealth Games happening right here and they don’t know such a pivotal moment for the island happening?”
She said while at the Emancipation Village, Queen’s Park Savannah, there was only one small booth with information about the day when it should have been the main focus. She said more on the history of the island when people were enslaved must be brought out and the importance of Emancipation Day must be shared with pride and to the extent that people leave the island knowing the history of it.
​ (Source: Newsday, August 5, 2023)

​The National Archives of Trinidad and Tobago extends our condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Professor Emeritus Brinsley Samaroo. Professor Samaroo was an acclaimed researcher, historian, politician, and academic who was known for his in-depth exploration into Trinidad and Tobago’s working class movements, Indo-Caribbean history, and political history.
Professor Samaroo began his academic career studying at universities in Delhi and the United Kingdom, before returning home to Trinidad & Tobago where he pioneered research into the Indian diaspora. After accepting teaching positions at the University of the West Indies to lecture in New World, and South Asian history, he decided to turn his focus to politics where he served as an Opposition Senator from 1982-1986.
Following this, he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1986, and was a notable figure in the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR), especially during the 1990 Coup where - according to former government minister Winston Dookeran - he was integral to helping oversee deliberations.
Beyond politics, Professor Samaroo pursued his academic career for over fifty years at the University of the West Indies, publishing numerous books and articles concerning Trinbago’s history. Some of these include: “The Art of Garnet Ifill: Glimpses of the Sugar Industry”, “The Price of Conscience: Howard Nankivell and Labour Unrest in the Caribbean 1937-1938” and, “Adrian Cola Rienzi: The Life and Times of an Indo-Caribbean Progressive”.
This photo showing Professor Brinsley Samaroo is courtesy of the Daily Express Newspaper, June 13, 2023. This newspaper is part of the National Archives of Trinidad and Tobago Newspaper Collection.
(source: National Archives of Trinidad and Tobago, July 10, 2023)

CHAIR of Tobago CivilNET Rodney Piggott says the organisation is working closely with the Emancipation Support Committee to decolonise spaces in Trinidad and Tobago.
“We have spaces like Fort King George (overlooking Scarborough)…. one of the most beautiful places in Tobago and I have to call this man’s name. I have to pour libation every time I use their names. Where are my ancestors’ names on these places?” he asked on Saturday while addressing a group of African descendants at the 2nd Middle Passage Remembrance Day observance at Bago’s, Swallows Beach, Crown Point.
Piggott noted Picton Street, scene of some of the most “barbaric” acts in Port of Spain, was also named after an early coloniser.
“We don’t realise this but it is their ancestors we are revering every time we call their names. We are about decolonising these spaces.”
Last year, the government appointed a five-member committee to review the placement of statues, monuments and historical signage across the country.
Piggott told the gathering that Tobago CivilNET, since its inception, has addressed several matters interest, including internal self-government.
He said the group has also established committees to “bring all activities of the people of Tobago to the forefront of Tobagonians.
“Right now, the political scene dominates Tobago. Everything is politics and no one knows of anything else except politics.”
Saying the organisation also started a holistic health series on social media, Piggott said the fourth episode, which airs on June 21, deals with mental health.
“Sometimes we don’t think that a people itself can be sick, that the mentality of a people can be sick.”
Author and historian Sufia Giza, who is of Muskogee/Creek and Gullah heritage, introduced the first Middle Passage Remembrance Day last year, in Tobago, as part of a celebration throughout the African diaspora honouring the millions of slaves who perished during the treacherous journey.
Remembrance Day seeks to educate African descendants about the importance of acknowledging and respecting the sacrifices made by their ancestors.
The celebration has been taking place in Ghana, Panama and various parts of the US, including Brooklyn, New York, Oakland, California, Charleston, South Carolina and other locations.
Giza, who has been celebrating the Middle Passage in South Carolina for the 12 years, said she was inspired by the gathering at the event.
“We are growing from strength to strength,” she said.
Giza also showed an image on her laptop computer of an area behind the Scarborough Police Station where she learnt, African slaves disembarked when they came to Tobago. She is hoping next year’s Middle Passage observance can be held at that site.
Giza urged the gathering to trace their respective lineages.
“I could trace my lineage to black native Americans crossing Siberia 15,000 BC and I still have 52 per cent Nigerian. I could go back 11 generations. So when it comes to decolonisation that is the work that we have to do. We have to find who and whose we belong to and that is our strength.”
Ifa Rounke Diedre Prescod, who has authored three books, offered libations to several historically-recognised African liberators, who, she believes, paved the way for ensuing generations. They included former South African president and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela; Black Jamaican nationalist Marcus Garvey; and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Hazel Beckles Younglao also spoke. One of the highlights of the event was a drum procession from Bago’s to Swallows Beach. (Source: Newsday, June 10, 2023)

The vibrant poetry scene of Trinidad and Tobago has won international recognition as writer Ronaldo Mohammed was chosen to represent the country from June 7-11 at the 40th edition of the Poetry Market (Marché de la Poésie) in Paris, France.
Mohammed was one of ten exceptional emerging poets selected to showcase their work at the highly-anticipated literary event. The cohort stood out from 252 applications from hopefuls vying for a chance to participate in the programme. For the first time, the Caribbean region was a guest of honour at the Poetry Market, due to the alliance forged with the Transcultura programme, a media relase said.
The event followed a call for young poets from the Caribbean, 18-35 years, initiated under the auspices of the Unesco programme Transcultura: Integrating Cuba, the Caribbean, and the European Union through Culture and Creativity. It is funded by the European Union. As part of this opportunity, the poets were also featured in a special supplement of the Market of letters (Marché des lettres), a prominent publication of the event, which served as a testament to the rich literary talent emerging from the Caribbean.
Mohammed, a poet and teaching artist, draws inspiration from TT's culture, folklore, and the nuances of local dialect, to shed light on issues such as crime, violence among youth, gender-based violence, and the challenges faced by Venezuelan migrants in TT, the release said. His approach has been evident in his performances during this year’s First Citizens National Poetry Slam, which was the closing event of the 2023 NGC Bocas Lit Fest.
Mohammed credits local authors for his passion for writing and poetry. “I'm extremely proud to have represented TT at this literary event in Europe,” he said. “Through this opportunity, I was able to present my first-ever chapbook of poems, What Happens at the Edge of the World, which highlights the untold stories of people who have succumbed to and soldiered through the rough realities of life in TT society.”
He believes this achievement affirms his status as a rising star in the world of poetry.
The Poetry Market is an annual event that presents a unique opportunity for young Caribbean poets to expand their professional horizons, forge connections with influential figures in the European literary scene, and strengthen their networks. A dedicated stand promoting the works of these talented poets graced the heart of Paris at the Place Saint-Sulpice. (Source: Newsday, June 16, 2023)