ASHBY, ERNEST of 274 Mis-sion Road, Freeport passedaway peacefully on 27thFebruary 2017. He was thebrother of Clarence, Vernon & Irma Ashby. Uncle of Jenny, Lyndon, Clinton, Wayne, Adrian & Nicole Austin, Michelle, Danielle, Simone and Lynette.

Funeral service takes place on Monday 6th March 2017 at2:00pm at the St. Sylvam's R.C. Church, St. Marys Junction Freeport. The private cremation takes place on Tues-day 7th March 2017 at 11:00am at J.E. Guide Funeral Home & Crematorium. For further enquiries please contact Clark & Battoo Ltd. San Fernando at 652-3488.

JOSEPH, AZIZ ESPER passed away peacefully on Wednes-day 1st March, 2017. Husbandof Bahige (nee Nahous). Fa-ther of Vida, George, Victor,Geoffrey and Jerry. Father-in-law of Anthony Moses, Nor-ma, Noha, Lauren and Joanna.

Grandfather of Melissa,Melanie, Joseph and Andrew,Jordanna, Matthew and Kim-berly, Gerard, Megan and Gregory, Kristin, Justin and Dylan, Justine, Jeremiah and Jude. Great grandfather ofsix. Brother of the late Bishara, Saleem, Joseph, Selma and Sarah. Brother-in-lawof the Nahous, Naime, Raffouland Esper families.

Funeralmass for the late Aziz Esper Joseph takes place at10:30am on Wednesday 8th March, 2017 at St. Finbar's R.C. Church, Diego Martin, followed by private crema-tion. Funeral entrusted to C&B. For enquiries, please contact Chancellor Walks Funeral Services, 287-0403/04.

Former Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine yesterday described as “bad news for the energy sector,” the decision by Methanol Holdings Trinidad Limited (MHTL) to shut down two of its five methanol plants at the Plipdeco estate and offer VSEP to the affected workers.

The decision was announced last Friday in a meeting between workers and the operator, Industrial Plant Services Ltd. The shut down comes as the Point Lisas-based company is faced with the problem of a gas shortage.

MHTL is the second company located at Plipdeco which reported a shortage in gas. The first company faced with the problem was Caribbean Ispat, which also ended operations here one year ago.

Commenting on the news yesterday, Ramnarine said it was unfortunate the National Gas Company Ltd could not come to an agreement with MHTL.

In emailed response, he said: “My understanding is that MHTL put forward a number of commercial proposals which were not accepted by the NGC. It’s very disappointing that this has happened, since methanol prices are very good at this time. It’s also likely that the gas supply situation will improve at the end of 2017 and into 2018.”

Weighing in on initiatives such as the Dragon Field in Venezuela, he said, “The Venezuela/Dragon deal is fraught with political risk. I saw one gentleman say we will get gas from Venezuela in 2019. I’m happy if that happens but it seems overly optimistic.”

Ramnarine added: “BP’s TROC is on target to deliver gas. It will help but not cure the problem. The BP Juniper project is also on target. It too will help but again it won’t cure the entire problem of the shortage. The BP Savannah exploration well is being drilled and we await the outcome.”

While MHTL has not announced how much staff will be affected, Ramnarine said it was unfortunate workers would lose jobs as a result of the shut down.

“If MHTL decides in 12 months to restart these two plants, it is likely that these workers would have moved on and won’t be available to MHTL. That means re-mobilising for restarting the plants would be more costly.”

Overall, Ramnarine questioned why the Poten and Partners Gas Master plan has not been implemented and called for its implementation.

“Poten and Partners completed the Gas Master Plan in August 2015. The election came and the PNM decided they wanted to make changes and review it. I have no issue there , but that was 18 months ago.”

Critical of the decision-making process within the energy sector, Ramnarine said the pace has clearly slowed.

“In addition, we are facing a tough situation at the Ministry of Energy with the departure of the top tier of public servants via retirement. I am optimistic, however, that there are some bright young persons at the ministry who can step up if given the chance.”

Efforts to contact Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste-Primus were unsuccessful yesterday, as she did not answer her cellphone or respond to messages.

Buenos Ayres residents are calling on the Water and Sewage Authority (WASA) to remove the remains of a giant water tank which has been vandalised for years by unscrupulous scrap iron dealers.

Nestled atop a picturesque hilltop just off the Main Road in Erin, the tank is mostly hidden from passers-by and had been mostly forgotten by residents when pipeborne water was introduced to the community several years ago.

It was not until the scrap iron trade began to flourish some years ago in the quiet community, that residents first began to notice that pieces of the tank were missing.

Now, most of the bottom of the tank has been cut away by blow torches, leaving it supported on four small pieces of its siding.

The area around the tank has also become a dumping site, with fridges, freezers and television sets marring the natural beauty around it.

Resident Roshan Sahadeo told the T&T Guardian the tank had been the target of the thieves for a number of years.

“They keep cutting away pieces of the tank. Ever so often villagers would go up on the hill and notice a little more of it gone,” Sahadeo said.

“About two years ago there were blowtorches and gas bottles discovered hidden in the bushes around the tank, but I don’t think anyone was ever arrested for that.”

He said although there had been a consensus in the area that people should stay away from the site, he hoped WASA would intervene and remove it altogether to thwart the thieves and ensure the safety of nearby residents.

“Everyone in the village knows it is not to go up there, you never know who you could meet doing what up there. It used to be a quarry and there was a gate blocking off the entrance, but someone broke it down

“Sometimes, though, children go up there to explore or play and you never know what could happen if that tank decide to collapse one day.”

He said villagers had noticed strange vehicles driving up to the tank on many occasions and he believed those were the persons responsible for vandalising the tank, as well as dumping waste.

“It has to be that they go up there to dump things, those are not vehicles from the area. We want WASA to come and take down the rest of the tank and secure the area so people can’t be doing all of these things in our village.”

The T&T Guardian reached out to WASA Communications Manager Daniel Plenty who promised to investigate the matter.

Even as the murder rate continues to spiral out of control and criticism of National Security Minister Edmund Dillon grows, the Attorney General is commending his colleague for his hard work in fighting crime.

Speaking at the launch of the Local Government Ministry’s clean-up campaign in San Fernando on Saturday, AG Faris Al-Rawi said he needed to publicly congratulate Dillon for his role in a recent million-dollar drug seizure.

The drug bust occurred on February 18 off the coast of Suriname in a joint effort between the T&T Coast Guard and the US Coast Guard. The drugs, weighing a whopping 4.2 tonnes, had an estimated street value of US$125 million.

“I want to single out something to which the country has not been paying attention. Nearly four tonnes of cocaine were seized by T&T Coast Guard in conjunction with the United States, four tonnes of cocaine which equal close to $1 billion in seizure and that doesn’t happen by mistake,” Al-Rawi said.

“And I want to congratulate my colleague, the Minister of National Security, who takes the blows on his back like a man whilst success is being bred on border lockdown for crime and criminality...led by the Minister of National Security, who knew what was going down, who knew the operations were going to happen, who knew about the joint operation between our Coast Guard and the United States.”

He said Dillon knows that border control is where the war on crime should start and described him as a humble man.

“Our Minister of National Security, a very humble man that he is, coordinated the lockdown of our borders in a very real way, by causing a stoppage of supply of drugs. And in case you didn’t notice, the criminality which finds itself in gang warfare, minus an anti-gang act, because we will not get Opposition support, they refuse to give it, the Minister sat quietly while the investigative arm went to work between T&T and the US, he sat on this story for a couple of weeks because the seizure was in February because he could not speak prematurely.”

He said Dillon knows the way to tackle crime, adding: “By putting our offshore patrol vessels into operations in joint measures with the Venezuelans, with the Americans, with the Dutch, with all the agencies that are giving us control, that this is where the war is had.”

People’s National Movement (PNM) Lady Vice chairman Camille Robinson-Regis says the party and its Women’s League are against child marriages and violence against women.

She was speaking to reporters before the start of the PNM Women’s League praise and worship service at Balisier House, Port-of-Spain, on Saturday. The service was titled When Women Pray.

Debate on amendments to the Marriage Act are currently ongoing in Parliament, with both sides arguing the views of various sides of the issue, which continues to divide the country.

Robinson-Regis said: “One of the areas that we feel very strongly about is with regard to the marriage of minors.

“You would see that we did continue with the debate in the House of Representatives (Friday).

“Over the last ten years there have been over 3,000 marriages of minors, particularly young girls under the age of 18.

“We feel that it is time that there be a legislative solution to that issue and we also have a problem with teenage pregnancies and we are looking at that very seriously.”

When asked about her opinion on the recent incidents of violence against women, Robinson-Regis said there had certainly been an increase, but noted violence against women has been taking place for quite some time not only in T&T, but across the world as well.

She said as a political party and as a representative of the Women’s League of the party they had to stand in solidarity with those women and groups that felt something must be done seriously about that situation.

She said prayer was one of the answers and also that men needed to be educated with regard to how they treat women and women on how they valued themselves.

Robinson-Regis said they had expressed their concern before they knew that there had been a problem with domestic violence.

Majority state-owned banking group First Citizens is refusing to disclose the terms of a loan it made to the Government of Barbados, which was first disclosed by that country’s embattled minister of finance, just days before the Caribbean country was downgraded to CCC+ from B- by the S&P rating agency.

In a statement to the Guardian on Saturday, First Citizens said: “As you may appreciate, First Citizens treats all client information as private and confidential and therefore we cannot comment on the details of any transaction with our clients. With respect to the Group’s country exposure to Barbados, we have two entities operating in Barbados: First Citizens Bank Barbados Limited and First Citizens Investment Services Barbados Limited. The operations of these subsidiaries constitute the majority of our exposure in that jurisdiction.”

A normally reliable banking source in T&T told the Guardian that the short-term loan was for US$25 million and was to serve as bridging finance for a loan from the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) for the restructuring of the Barbados Revenue Authority to include the island’s Customs department.

Barbados Finance Minister Chris Sinckler mentioned the loan financing from First Citizens at a press conference in Barbados last Tuesday.

Speaking against the backdrop of the country’s foreign reserves declining to just over two months of import cover, Sinckler said he expected the foreign reserves of Barbados to be boosted by more than US$100 million from three sources:

• Sale of Barbados National Terminal Company Limited, expected to yield over US$$50 million;

• Drawdown of the first tranche of a loan from EXIM Bank of China for the Sam Lord’s Castle tourism project; and

• Release of a First Citizens Bank bridging loan for upgrades to Customs and the Barbados Revenue Authority.

Sinckler said when Barbados received those funds, its foreign reserves would go back above three months of import cover.

First Citizens did not respond to a question from the Guardian as to whether the loan was sourced in Barbados or from Trinidad, where the bank is based, and where many customers are told on a daily basis that the bank has no more US dollars to sell over-the-counter at First Citizens branches.

The banking source opined that it is much more profitable for a local bank to lend a large block of US dollars at an interest rate of over 7 per cent per annum than to retail the foreign currency to many local customers.

The loan was announced just days before S&P on Friday downgraded the long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings of Barbados to CCC+, with a negative outlook, which it said reflected its view that the Barbados government’s “ability or willingness to take timely steps to redress deficit and financing pressures and bolster international reserves will likely deteriorate further.”

According to the S&P downgrade notice: “In our view, a weaker ability to meet its debt-servicing requirements stems from still-high fiscal deficits, limited access to private-sector funding in the local market, as well as a decline in external funding, and with it foreign exchange reserves.” The rating agency considers loans to CCC+ debtors to have “substantial risks.”

Just last week, the First Citizens announced that its board of directors had approved the sale by the government of an additional 48,495,665 shares in the bank in a secondary offering, which was announced by Finance Minister Colm Imbert in the 2017 budget.

In 2016, First Citizens declared after-tax profit of $637.2 million, which was an increase of 1.1 per cent compared with 2015.

The Opposition United National Congress must have realised that its political image will be significantly affected by how it chooses to vote, or not vote, on the amendments to the Marriage Act now being debated in the House of Representatives.

The arguments put forward by those who wish to retain the Hindu and Muslim Marriage Acts in their present form are too specious to respond to, and have already been comprehensively rebutted in the Senate and other forums.

In January, the UNC suffered significant public relations damage by seeming to give such arguments credence through its temporary Senatorial appointments of apologists for child marriage.

At that juncture, the UNC claimed that it was merely attempting to give a voice to the other side in the interests of democracy—a principle that the party had hitherto never articulated. Unfortunately, political gamesmanship is going on behind the scenes on both benches, with Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi’s removal of the three-fifths majority requirement providing the UNC with a fig leaf of justification which that party seems intent on exploiting to the detriment of children’s rights.

The political problem facing the UNC is that the Maha Sabha, which is the largest Hindu organisation in Trinidad and Tobago and therefore representative of the UNC’s core constituency, has been lobbying intensely to retain the Hindu Marriage Act.

So too are almost all Muslim organisations in respect to their Marriage Act and, since Muslims have historically supported the People’s National Movement, the UNC’s strategists must surely be calculating whether this wedge issue will win them Islamic votes in future elections.

The PNM, in its turn, has attempted to downplay the religious aspect, with Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh last Friday asserting: “This is boiling down to a gender issue.”

Mr Al-Rawi in his turn argued, “This is not a Hindu or Muslim phenomenon. The statistical information shows us that Christians are equally in the same category.”

The AG repeated figures which show that between 1996 and 2016, there were 3,478 child marriages in T&T, with 1,796 of them Hindu, 1,156 Christian and 526 Muslim.

But numerical totals give a misleading picture–the proper calculation is the rate of child marriages for each denomination. Among Hindus, the annual average for girls aged 14 to 17 getting married is 30 out of every 1,000; among Muslims, the rate for 12- to 17-year-old girls is 26 per 1,000; and among Christians, the rate for 14- to 17-year-old girls is five per 1,000.

However, since Christians are officially classified into eight denominations, it is necessary to dig deeper into the data to discover whether child marriages are more common among certain sects than others.

Two key points noted by AG Al-Rawi in this regard was that 98 per cent of the child marriages involved girls and most of them were to men in lower-income occupations, ranging from labourer to watchman to truck driver.

This suggests that poverty is a key factor in girls getting married, whether they want to do so or not.

For the UNC politicians, this also poses a political problem since, like the PNM, their hardcore support is generally drawn from the poorer classes.

Nonetheless, the UNC MPs who have spoken in the Lower House have categorically stated that their party supports raising the marriage age to 18.

This suggests that they are bowing to majority public opinion.

When the time comes to vote, this political calculation, along with good conscience, will hopefully guide the Opposition.

​

How about giving up fish for Lent? You may want to consider doing this after scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill disclosed on Ash Wednesday that 90 per cent of predatory reef fish are gone from Caribbean coral reefs due to overfishing.

We already know that the Caribbean has lost 80 per cent of reef cover in recent years.This adds to previous research, from 2003, that found that globally 90 per cent of big fish like tuna are missing from the ocean and warnings from scientists that planetary fish stocks will be depleted by 2050 at present rates of destruction.

Don’t put all the blame on local fishermen for being greedy if they charge $100 per pound of fish. That’s supply and demand.

The problem is that there is not enough fish left in the sea. Put the blame on too many people eating too few fish, the lack of fisheries management, gillnets, bottom trawling, mangrove and other habitat destruction, pollution, acidification and climate change.

Is it ethical or sensible to increase fish consumption for Lent, knowing that the oceans and her inhabitants are in terminal decline? I’m not religious but I understand fasting to be a mindful act that honours creation or existence, whatever that may be according to your own understanding.

Fasting is meant to be a positive and respectful act; participating in extinction is neither. Know as well that there is nothing in the Bible that says that a Christian must eat fish during Lent or fasting.

There are three basic choices about eating seafood, and this goes for during Lent but also for the rest of the year. We can continue to eat fish as we always have until there is none left in 2050, as predicted by science.

Just buy whatever is on sale without regard for species or sustainability. That’s the business as usual model.

We can follow the example of Sylvia Earle, a legendary oceanographer who has spent half a century trying to save the oceans. She makes the choice to eat no seafood whatsoever.

During her lifetime she has seen such a stark decline in fish that she cannot justify eating anything but seaweed from the ocean. This may be the only sane response from somebody who has seen the fish she studies decline by 9/10ths during her lifetime.

The problem with abstinence from seafood is that it takes away the ability to change human behaviour through market forces.

Humans may have great concern for the future of the planet but the single greatest influencer of human choices is: “How much money can I make?”

This is why, paradoxically, we may conclude that we have to eat fish in order for fish to survive.

This is the third option: we educate ourselves about seafood, learn about sustainability, eat selectively and reward fisherfolk who practice sustainable fishing by only purchasing fish from them. We can save our fisheries by giving fishers the incentive to fish sustainably.

The same scientists who found that Caribbean reef predators are down by 90 per cent also found that there are reefs, which they call supersites, that can support up to ten times as much fish if protected.

As mentioned before big fish are also down by 90 per cent in the ocean. A 2016 study by Dr Rainer Froese at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Oceanic Research found that in the EU fish catches could increase by 57 per cent if properly managed. So there you are, fisheries depletion and oceanic extinction can be turned around.

Here’s a possible project for Trinidad or Tobago: create a sustainable fishing community that will prove the economic benefit of proper fisheries management.

The first step should be to find a community that is willing to participate.

Give fishers rights to their fishing grounds and give them the means to enforce those rights.

This will allow fishers to benefit from their efforts and sacrifices. Fishers would have to use sustainable methods and only be allowed to fish approved species, quotas and sizes. This should be a transparent process. Attach to this community a sustainable seafood brand or shop where sustainably caught fish, a premium product, can be sold at premium prices to brand aware buyers who are willing to pay top dollar for the best food. Market it as the best fish that money can buy and wait for the iPhone effect.

In time fish stocks can recover, fishers can build assets through having rights to the natural resources they have learnt to manage.

The ocean—or at least the little bit of sea around T&T—can recover and the marine ecosystem can continue to sustain life on earth.

This is how we can make sure that there will be fish for Lent after 2050. What’s your choice?

The past two weeks have been a watershed for policing. The National Security Minister’s “oops, I didn’t mean crime-free” Carnival holiday saw incidents in Scarborough and La Brea where police officers and a vehicle were attacked by citizens, one officer rendered unconscious. Among Port-of-Spain’s annual Carnival stabbing and violent robbery victims were current and former security force members. The Tuesday before, galvanised by the police shooting of Mikeal Lancaster, with television cameras rolling, Laventille residents openly named for the Police Commissioner and their Parliamentarian officers they described as “savages” and gang-affiliated. The media published their names—the residents, that is, not the policemen.

The collapse of policing and the paralysis of leadership in fixing it aren’t new. But they are now completely unmistakable. On Wednesday Minister Dillon introduced a political spinphrase to engage with this impotence, one so thoroughly ironic you can’t help wonder if its choice isn’t deeply cynical: “We have minimised crime.”

My encounters with the protective services Carnival Monday and Tuesday seem remote from this violence and anarchy. But they do feel intimately linked with the political deafness and disconnect of Edmund Dillon’s Ash Wednesday press release.

Dropping the folks to Jerningham Ave to cross the stage with Ronnie & Caro was a breeze. Unlike pan Saturday, the north perimeter of the Savannah had two-way traffic and police directing it; and Belmont’s streets were unobstructed. But habit took over and, instead of retracing my steps, I took off down Norfolk Street into Observatory, up and down Bath to Piccadilly and Nelson, figuring I’d find a route to Wrightson Rd. At Independence Square, uniformed officers, weighted down by automatic weaponry and sweltering in bulletproof clothing, casually waved to vehicles to turn around.

I pulled up to one, wound down the window, and let the inhumane volume of the passing big truck in. “Good morning, Officer. How do I get to Wrightson Rd?” “You have to turn around and go back so.” As I drove forward to turn, another who hadn’t been paying attention would cooyah his mouth insouciantly at me, word as well that I couldn’t go that way. I didn’t respond verbally; he didn’t move. I would ask the first one a second time: “Yes. But how do I get onto Wrightson Rd?” And as I insisted I needed a solution to the blocked road, and as he offered yet again “You have to go back so,” it would begin to dawn on me that he had no idea how to get there, had nothing to offer me. All his firepower and camouflage and brawn was useless for anything but blocking the road. He eventually made directions up, which got me lost, driving up and down Eastern Main Rd. I found the Beetham—going east—turned around at Maritime Plaza, a manoeuvre for which there is hardly any signage—thinking of European tourists winding up in East Dry River or Beetham Gardens.

I’d had a glimmer of hope on Monday. Stink and dutty and mashup after Jouvay in Woodbrook, I returned to a block full of cars, blocked by a food cart at the northern end, where I’d deliberately chosen to park to avoid music truck traffic. Every vehicle had been wrecked.

No cash. No ATM card. No state for public transport. Almost no charge in the phone. I approached one of three police officers idling by Adam Smith Square, badge-numbers obscured by their bulletproof vests, to gripe—and find out where the car would have been towed. “Either Sea Lots or Movietowne.” The expletives curled around how was I to know and the simple measure of putting up a “No Parking” sign. To which I got that Carnival parking regulations are published in the papers annually for me to read. “So can you tell me where I can park when I come back out later? It’s not in today’s paper.” Her gestures made clear helping me was sooo not her job.

I insisted. “Anywhere off the parade route,” she made up an answer. Which was where I was parked when I was wrecked, of course.

A warning about laws against obscene language. An encouragement to make an arrest—and papers—(maybe I’d get dropped to the impound). But she made clear she wasn’t going to be doing that much work. Fellow officers sidled up to reinforce that I needed to move along, especially since I was so ill-behaved, encouraged her to dismiss me.

Kneeling in the road to show evidence of contrite good behaviour; begging for information. Still no answers for where the car was, or where to park.

Dragging ourselves to MovieTowne, an older officer trying valiantly to block Carlos Street with no barrier and no machine gun said our car was in Sea Lots; and noted since TTPS has started putting Carnival traffic restrictions in the paper, they’ve stopped deploying officers to put out “No Parking” signs.

Over my hour or so in line at the Central Market spillover impound, dozens of us languished, several half-naked, greasy and paint-smeared in the drizzle. Only when I got near the front, an officer informed me I couldn’t enter a government office shirtless; find something to cover myself from my car. I insisted they’d have to find a solution.

One who’d sidled over after the exchange did—enforcing the pointless rule by taking my documents and money and bringing me back the receipt. When the supervisor I’d requested arrived, I was able to congratulate him, and he smiled: “We’re trying.” And then he spoiled it all. An Eastern Caribbean-accented man put on a show of Canadian self-assertion (despite multiple remonstrances from others in line that the protest they were joking about earlier actually achieves nothing), started phone-recording, pitched his money down, and was shoved out the office and promised to be served last of all.

In the face of policing’s collapse, tiny ways two officers made me human seemed enormous. But they point out how even in the smallest things officers can’t bring the simplest measure of empathy or solution-seeking to the job.

Manuela Tesse, another Italian women’s coach, began her duties in the national women’s football programme as head coach of the Under-17s.

Tesse arrived in T&T recently to join director of women’s football Carolina Morace and the rest of her staff, and was first tasked with the responsibility of overseeing tryouts for U-17 players during a two-day session at the Mannie Ramjohn Stadium, training pitch in Marabella on the weekend.

Players were required to register online before turning up at the venue for assessment by Tesse and the rest of the staff. Also involved were Morace and her assistant Nicola Williams, the country’s U-20 coach.

“I wanted an experience outside of Italy and this is an opportunity to serve. I am thankful for the opportunity and thank you to the TTFA (T&T Football Association (TTFA)and the president David John-Williams to believe in the programme and Carolina Morace,” Tesse said.

“This weekend we looked at the players 16 and 15 years old and we looked at their technique and coordination and individual tactical awareness. This was the first objective. We have a lot of work to do but we have much potential.”

Tesse was part of the Italian national team at the UEFA Women’s Euro 1997, 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup and UEFA Women’s Euro 2001. Williams who has been here from the start with Morace said the women’s programme has intensified over the past couple weeks.

“Last week was a very successful week. We had the U-20s play against the senior team and we saw a lot of the work done, in the practice sessions, shown on the field during the game.

“The senior women team trains everyday of the week with one day in the gym. On the other days they have physical preparation and technical where we work on ball possession and non-ball possession,” Williams said.

“The 20s follow a similar model, so what is good is that the work we do with the senior team, the methodology we follow and the types of principles we instill in our team, we follow that with the U-20s and my assistant, Manuela Tesse follows that at the U-17 team. We have already seen some players move between the U-20s to the senior team and they are able then to adapt into the same environment.”

Both the senior and U-20s have separate pools of around 30 home-based players and another 10 that are based overseas.

“The buses are set up in Port-of-Spain for transportation with local connections on the way and they come to Mannie Ramjohn Stadium for training. We also have meals involved. The project is very exciting. There is a lot to do and there is a lot of success that can come with that and so as a coach and as part of the coaching staff, it is very rewarding to be here. The culture and with the players and staff… everyone is very receptive,” Williams said.

Meanwhile the TTFA will conduct screening sessions in Tobago on Saturday from 4 pm-6pm and Sunday 9 am-12 noon as the search continues for the country’s best U-17 and U-20 players at the Courland Ground, Black Rock.

Morace will be accompanied by Williams, Tesse and the rest of her staff. Players are requested to walk with a white T-shirt, black pants and red socks. Players must also register online by 5 pm on Wednesday.

No player will be accepted on the day of the sessions.

Central Sports continued their impressive display this season, when they defeated Alescon Comets by seven runs under the Duckworth/Lewis method at Felicity yesterday in the T&T cricket Board (TTCB) 50 overs competition.

Batting first Central Sports made 180 all out in 28 overs. Jahran Alfred topscored with 46 of 31 balls with five fours and three sixes. Skipper Shazan Babwah made a quickfire 36 and national player Kjorn Ottley, 23.

The pick of the Comets bowlers was spinner Bryan Charles who claimed 4/45. He was well supported by national leg-spinner Imran Khan 2/42 and Stephawn Solomon 2/25.

Spinners Rakesh Maharaj and Kristopher Ramsaran then bowled beautifully to restrict Comets to 150 all out of 27.3 overs.

Maharaj took 4/25, Ramsaran 3/35 and they were well supported by Stephen Shaddick with 2/28.

Two matches were washed out due to heavy rain. At Syne Village in Penal, PowerGen was due to play national champions Queen’s Park but could not get unto the field while at St Julien in Southeast Trinidad, no play was possible between Clarke Road and Tableland.

At Barrackpore, the match between Merryboys and Victoria was affected by rain and reduced to 21 overs per side. Hometeam Victoria United ran away easy winners over Merryboys by 106 runs. Marcelle Jones 43 and Savion Lara 33 took Victoria to 158 for six in their 21 overs.

National player Marlon Richards grabbed 3/35 of five overs for Merryboys. The boys from Diego then struggled to 52 all out.

Spinner Sanjiv Gooljar took three wickets for six runs, Farrell Jugmohan 3/11 and Uthman Mohammed 3/26. (VM)

At Felicity: Central Sports 180 all out (28ovs)(Jahran Alfred 46, Shazan Babwah 36, Kjorn Ottley 23, Bryan Charles 4/45, Imran Khan 2/42, Stephawn Solomon 2/25) vs Alescon Comets 150 all out (27.3ovs)(I Mohammed 36, A Gobin 24, I Khan 22, K Edwards 20, Rakesh Maharaj 4/25, Kristopher Ramsaran 3/35, Stephen Shaddick 2/28) - Central Sports won by 7 runs D/L method.

At Barrackpore: Victoria United 158/6 (21ovs)(Marcelle Jones 43, Savion Lara 33, Marlon Richards 3/35) vs Merryboys 52 all out (Sanjiv Gooljar 3/6, Farrell Jugmohan 3/11 and Uthman Mohammed 3/26) - Victoria won by 106 runs.

At Syne Village: PowerGen vs QPCC - match abandoned due to rain.

At St Julien: FC Clarke Road vs Tableland—match abandoned due to rain.

Tyrone St Clair was voted the fighter of the night after he defeated Tyrell Cadette in an interesting 80kg contest of the Development Boxing card labelled ‘The Arena’ at the Cosmic Boxing Gym, Marabella on Saturday night.

The card which is being used to unearth new talents ahead of the a number of local, regional and international tournaments saw the referee having to intervene to save Cadette from St Clair’s brutal attack.

Kyleron Ruiz of Potential Boxing Gym also triumphed on the night at the expense of Akiel Thomas of South East Port of Spain (SEPOS) in a three-round 65kg fight, while there were also wins for Blessing Waldropt, Levi Richardson of the Youth Training Centre (YTC) Conquerors and Sherkeem Hernandez (YTC).

RESULTS

1 Blessing Waldropt vs Tyrek Weeks (58kg)

WINNER: Blessing Waldropt RSC

2 Denzel Massy vs Levi Richardson (65kg)

WINNER: Levi Richardson

3 Jamal Hinds vs Sherkeem Hernandez (55kg)

WINNER: Sherkeem Hernandez Split Decision

4 Joshua Sylvester vs S Josiah Hunt (68kg)

WINNER: Joshua Sylvester Unanimous Decision

5 Tyrone St Clair VS Tyrell Cadette (80kg)

WINNER: Tyrone St Clair RSC

6 Kyleron Ruiz VS Akiel Thomas (65kg)

WINNER: Kyleron Ruiz

With England reeling on 126 for five chasing 226 for victory, West Indies strike bowler Shannon Gabriel walked off with the side strain. Joe Root and Chris Woakes then posted a century partnership to take England to a four-wicket victory and a 2-0 series win in the Oneindig Cup at the Sir Vivian Richards ground in Antigua, yesterday.

Opting for a number of allrounders instead of strike bowlers, hurt the West Indies who were well in control before Root 90 not out and Woakes’ unbeaten 68, took England home.

West Indies led again by Jason Mohammed’s 50, reached 225 all out and England reached their target with 10 balls to spare. West Indies spinners Ashley Nurse and Devendra Bishoo put the skids on England with a brilliant display of slow bowling.

Jason Roy at the top hammered away for a 48-ball 52 but at the fall of his wicket with the score at 87, the West Indies struck back, taking four more for the addition of 37 runs.

However, they could not deliver the death blow with Root and the right hander from Yorkshire stayed rooted until the end.

His 90 not out came from 127 balls and included just three fours. All rounder Woakes living a charmed life at times got 68 not out from 83 balls with five fours and two sixes.

Earlier, West Indies won the toss and given the fact that this was the same pitch used for the first game, they were of the belief that it would dry out in the second innings, so decided to take first use.

Opener Evin Lewis was not able to give them the flyer he is accustomed to and fell for just eight to Steven Finn, giving him his 99th ODI wicket. With the milestone looming, Finn wanted to get it out the way and found assistance from Keiran Powell, who pulled at one angled across him and was caught and bowled for nine. Two wickets back in the hut for only 21 runs and the West Indies innings was taking a similar shape to that of the first match.

Shai Hope came in and batted with confidence, striking the ball well but his innings was short-lived, falling to Stokes for 16 with the score at 46.

Opener Kraigg Brathwaite was still there and playing well within his means. His gathered most of his runs on the onside as his strong bottom hand was prominent in his strokeplay. He and Mohammed took the score to 118, before Brathwaite was stumped off spinner Moeen Ali for 42. He faced 70 balls, hitting two fours.

England kept breaking potentially good partnerships, to keep the game in check. Mohammed, who slapped his maiden half century for the West Indies in the first game, looked in good nick and was timing the ball sweetly. He took a while to assess the pitch and then got into groove hitting the ball well. He raised his half century with a six, having faced 71 balls, counting two sixes and two fours.

Carter looked as busy as he was in the first encounter and kept the scoreboard ticking away. The attractive left hander was enterprising and added 41 for the fifth wicket with Mohammed before the latter fell for exactly 50.

Carter would go on to score 39 of 36 balls with two fours and a six and later on Carlos Brathwaite would carve 23 from 24 balls, as the West Indies slumped to 225 all out with 13 balls to spare. Finn who started the job finished with 2/38 but it was Liam Plunkett who derailed the middle order to claim 3/32. The right hander has now collected seven wickets in the two matches.

WI vs England

WI inns

E Lewis c Billings b Finn 8

K Brathwaite st Butler b Ali 42

K Powell c & b Finn 9

S Hope c Butler b Stokes 16

J Mohammed c Rashid b Plunkett 50

J Carter c Rashid b Plunkett 39

J Holder c & b Rashid 15

C Brathwaite c Billings b Rashid 23

A Nurse b Plunkett 13

D Bishoo not out 0

S Gabriel run out 1

Extras: 1b, 2lb, 6w 9

Total: all out (47.5) 225

Fall of wkts: 11, 21, 46, 118, 159, 173, 199, 219, 224, 225.

Bowling: S Finn 8-1-38-2, C Woakes 8-1-26-0, L Plunkett 7.5-1-32-3, B Stokes 5-0-29-1, A Rashid 9-0-53-2, M Ali 10-0-44-1.

England inns

J Roy c C Brathwaite b Nurse 52

S Billings c Powell b Gabriel 0

J Root not out 90

E Morgan lbw Nurse 7

B Stokes c Hope b Bishoo 1

J Butler c Hope b Bishoo 0

M Ali b Nurse 3

C Woakes not out 68

Extras: 1lb, 4w 5

Total: for 6 wkts (48.2) 226

Fall of wkts: 1, 87, 108, 113, 117, 124.

Bowling: S Gabriel 3-0-17-1, J Holder 10-0-46-0, A Nurse 10-0-34-3, D Bishoo 10-0-43-2, C Brathwaite 4-0-38-0, J Mohammed 4-0-15-0, K Brathwaite 5.2-0-22-0, J Carter 2-0-10-0.

Result: England won by 4 wickets to take series 2-0.

Man of the match: Joe Root.

 It’s the fourth year running for the little Carnival Tuesday venue that could, and while it continues to be plagued by the same problems, the organising team hasn’t been deaf to the issues and rallied very well this year.

For anyone tuning in late, the Socadrome was a project initiated by a coalition of some of the largest bands on the road on Carnival Tuesday. In 2017, that was Tribe and its sister bands Bliss and The Lost Tribe, Yuma and Harts.

Together these bands were notorious for contributing greatly to the congestion leading into the Queen’s Park Savannah judging venue and only slightly less so at the other venues in Woodbrook and Downtown Port-of-Spain.

While nobody in the bands particularly seemed keen on missing their moment on the Savannah stage, they were increasingly less enamoured of hours spent at a standstill heading northward to the entrance to the Savannah.

So the leadership of the bands, which included Passion in 2014, decided to design a space at the Jean Pierre Complex large enough to accommodate a large pretty mas band comfortably, equipped it with a high-definition video feed and offered spectators access at a peppercorn fee.

Winning crowds proved a slow process, much harder than crowding winers into the complex, and eventually the Socadrome team, led by the Tribe bandleader, dropped the admission fee, since it probably cost more to collect it than they were earning at the gate.

But the Socadrome isn’t immune to the considerable vagaries of Carnival Tuesday scheduling, despite the organisational chops that these bands have invested in managing their costumed troop movements.

That led to two of the biggest snafus of this year’s event, the nonappearance of Tribe itself, which is pretty much like scheduling a heavyweight championship and sending the audience home before the title bout, and a staggering lull between bands of almost three and a half hours.

An earlier gap was handled smoothly by an extended a cappella extempo session featuring Lingo, Gypsy and Black Sage and a brief appearance by Calypso Rose, who offered up a lively rendition of her popular lavway Leave Me Alone to an appreciative crowd and interacted spicily with the young people playing traditional characters during this first intermission.

I’d started out indifferent to this group of youngsters, who sported budget versions of traditional costuming and were, well, just too young to be doing the stuff they were doing.

The Pierrot Grenade and Midnight Robber may not have had any speeches to offer, and the Jab Jab may not have been any good at cracking the rope whip, but the young cast worked with genuine commitment and a tireless enthusiasm that kept them onstage and among the audience, performing for hours.

The group, from NA Productions, apparently a performing arm of Necessary Arts, won the audience over with their energy and warmth, making it almost embarrassing to think of leaving while they were working so hard.

The planned entertainment was quickly sucked into a black hole of apparently endless time, but along the way we were offered quite pleasing extended sets by Baron and David Rudder and lively interludes by Omardath Singh, Ravi B and Singer Boi Sergio.

Rudder took advantage of a steady rain that ruled out stage performances to do his trademark walk among the crowd, stoking the audience into a memorable fervor with a range of past hits and his 2017 offering, This is Trinidad.

Add in a series of beer giveaways, a crowdsourced extempo competition that collapsed into good-natured shambles and nimble hosting work from a ceaselessly game Nikki Crosby and you have a mix that held most of the crowd together, astonishingly, until 3:30 when the final band of the day, The Lost Tribe, appeared. 

The team running the Socadrome did a remarkable job of working through the issues that have plagued the venue since its inception. Most days at the Socadrome ended early, but this fourth effort ran its course from an early start right through to its end.

In much the same way that Tribe did when it chose the Savannah over its own venue, the Socadrome must choose between placid rebellion and pushing for organisational change.

There is a livestream from the venue, an audience and a stage—but the NCC refuses to acknowledge the space as anything more than a release valve for its parade route, missing opportunities to use the space to provide an additional showcase for aspects of the festival that are often given short shrift at the competition venues.

The Minstrels, Bats, Jab Molassies, small bands and individuals that go largely unnoticed on the Savannah stage could have found an appreciative audience and the time to deliver a real performance at the Socadrome.

The NCC and its stakeholder cronies will have to be prodded into rethinking what’s possible, despite having staged Carnival in the same space themselves once before.

There is only so much space in Port-of-Spain. There is only so much time on Carnival Tuesday. An international livestream feed that could cherrypick between action taking place at the Savannah and its feeder venues and the Socadrome with a nod at actual stage management and direction could be the start of something of commercial value to more than the diaspora.

Despite the resistance to the idea of the Socadrome that accompanied its establishment and lingers still, using the space more formally can only open Carnival’s potential and provide more opportunities for more creative expression and broadcast opportunity.

Fringe event to Tobago Jazz Experience promises a special culture/fashion/cuisine Caribbean experience

Leve 2017 was launched at Dianne’s Tea Shop on Long Circular Road in Port-of-Spain last Thursday (March 2) and promises to be an event to highlight Caribbean fine art, fashion, cuisine, culture, rum, rhythm, and even chocolate (Cocoa Republic has signed on) in one space — all as a forerunner fringe event leading up to the Tobago Jazz Experience, which takes place April 22-30.

This year the Tobago Jazz Experience includes a performing lineup of singers including Shabba Ranks, Grace Jones, Morgan Heritage, and D’Angelo. The festival celebrates jazz as well as T&T and Caribbean indigenous music.

The Leve event will take place on April 22 at Villa Being in Arnos Vale, Tobago, and is an invitation-only, three-hour event on the first day of the Tobago Jazz Experience.

The event launch last week was led by Dr Auliana Poon, an economist, the owner of the luxury villa, Being, located in Arnos Vale, Tobago, and the brainchild behind the Leve event. Poon, born in Morvant-Laventille and now based in Santa Cruz, is a passionate advocate for sustainable tourism.

Leve is the patois or creole word for “lift up”. The Leve idea, Poon said, seeks to harness the island’s gems in the form of products, people, brands, services and location. It aims to be the forerunner event that preps the Tobago Jazz Experience, and wants to brand Tobago as a five-star destination.

Poon loves her Caribbean roots so much that while living in Germany, she commissioned top fashion designer Meiling in Trinidad to make her wedding dress for her — there was just no way she was about to walk down the aisle in an Alexandra Fischer-Roehler, Johanna Kühl, or even a Karl Lagerfeld wedding gown; she preferred home-made Caribbean brands.

Poon is the force behind the tourism consultancy company Tourism Intelligence International (TII), which serves government and private sector clients in over 50 countries, with clients from South Africa, Palestine, Mozambique, Jamaica and Abu Dhabi. In a past press interview, Poon said: “For more than a decade, my consultancy, Tourism Intelligence International (TII), has been helping governments and tourism agencies around the world (Japan, Germany, Botswana) to develop blueprints for sustainable tourism. Indeed, sustainability is at the heart of every programme and initiative we develop or recommend.”

Poon said these countries understood how to expand through tourism and the export of talent, and we too must learn and understand that we are more than just energy in the ground.

“We cannot do what the Chinese did. We have to do what we know how to do and use what we have. And together we can build a bigger pie,” she said at last Thursday’s Leve launch.

“As an island, a Caribbean destination, we are not just about wearing short pants and drinking coconut water. That is not the image we want in the minds of people. The Caribbean is a brand and we want to sell brand Caribbean to the world,” said Poon.

“It is the energy of the people that will drive this country, this economy, and not the energy in the ground. We have got to get to that place where we are successfully exporting creativity, exporting talent, cuisine, art. It is just too easy to import and copy everything!”

“Life does not need another Rolex watch. Life needs the Caribbean. It is not just about selling talent, it is about selling a story as well. People love talent that comes with a story. We need… to believe in us.... Are we always going to wait until Forbes tells us we have something fantastic or unique? Could we not have seen that for ourselves?”

It was this spirit of Caribbean pride and a belief that what really constitutes culture is not part-time or annual festivals, but the ongoing movement, vibe and lifestyle of a people and a country, that Poon says she has incorporated in the creation of Leve, where luxury meets lifestyle in the sister isle of Tobago.

The pre-jazz fringe event Leve began in 2016. And already, it claims to be a prominent event on this year’s Tobago Jazz Experience schedule.

At the launch, German manufacturer Dr Christian Pottof-Sewing said what attracted him to the charitable initiative as an investor was the need to get away from the incestuous, self-congratulatory pose that most countries and cultures find themselves in, causing them to move backward when they should really be expanding and marketing the creativity that exists within as a brand. He said it’s not enough to just showcase T&T as a source of crab and dumplings or pan, but to showcase a much wider range of what and who this island produces.

The first Leve brought together creative personalities including fashion designer Claudia Pegus, decorated chef Debra Metivier, mas designer Brian MacFarlene and painter Leroy Clarke. This year, the talent includes Trinidadian-born master tailor and knighted designer, Sir Andrew Ramroop, in collaboration with DWW Creations (Distinguished When Wearing) and Ecliffe Eli Designs. Also participating are artist and teacher Shastri Maharaj, and one of the Caribbean’s top chefs and captain of the T&T Culinary Team, Adrian Cumberbatch, who will be making authentic local cuisine, including his famous chow lollies and his Plymouth Rock lobster chow shots.

Creative directors of the evening will be designers Richard Young, Dominic Laroche, and Diane Hunt. T&T’s very own YouTube sensation Rodell “Ro’dey” Cumberbatch will chaperone the event as MC. Trinidadian-Amsterdam based photographer Keron Riley will photograph the event. (With reporting by Bobie-Lee Dixon)

MORE INFO

For more information on LEVE, call 676-6165.

A week after reporting a 21 per cent decline in profitability for the 12 months ended November 30, 2016, Prestige Holdings Ltd (PHL) announced an adjustment to the menu at its popular KFC franchise.

The company said it would be introducing three new affordable meals to its menu.

“For only $19 you can get the delicious taste of KFC with the Munch Pack, one piece of chicken and a regular side.

“For a more complete meal at the amazing price of $25 there is the Supa Deal, 1 piece of chicken, two regular sides and a large drink,” the restaurant management company said in a statement.

“Plus for a limited time, there’s the Supa 6 with more options, six pieces of chicken, six regular sides and a two litre drink for $99.”

The new Munch Pack, Supa deal and Supa 6 were added to the value offers that are already on its menu. There would also be the Terrific Tuesday special of six pieces of chicken for $49, the company said.

“While all our own costs have gone up especially chicken, fries and soft drinks, and we have been impacted negatively by a declining $TT, we have introduced these new combos at affordable prices, two as permanent menu items, to make sure that you can still get your hands on the finger lickin good food you crave.”

“We need to let you know that in order to keep our prices the same, our Dinner Special, Big Meal Deal and Six-piece and Eightpiece mega meals wil no longer come with biscuits but you can still purchase one as a side.

“The Real Deal Meal will no longer be on the menu but our new value offerings the Munch Pack and Supa Deal should make up for it.”

In reporting the 21 per cent decline in PHL profits, the company’s chairman Christian Mouttet said it was driven by three main factors.

“Pre-opening and other costs associated with the establishment of the Starbucks brand, higher costs as a result of the movement of the exchange rate and higher food costs due to an increase in commodity food prices.”