Overall market activity resulted from trading in 11 securities of which none advanced, four declined and seven traded firm.

Trading activity on the first tier market registered a volume of 125,107 shares crossing the floor of the Exchange valued at $653,557.51. JMMB was the volume leader with 61,357 shares changing hands for a value of $78,536.96, followed by FirstCaribbean International Bank with a volume of 47,380 shares being traded for $431,973.00.

LJ Williams B contributed 5,000 shares with a value of $4,000, while Guardian Holdings Ltd added 3,300 shares valued at $46,203.

Guardian Holdings Ltd registered the day’s largest decline, falling $0.70 to close at $14. Clico Investment Fund was the only active security on the mutual fund market, posting a volume of 26,930 shares valued at $606,038.44.

Clico Investment Fund remained at $22.50. The second tier market did not witness any activity.

The Sunday Guardian story on the decision by Methanol Holdings Trinidad Limited (MHTL) to mothball two of its five plants will no doubt worry those who work directly and indirectly for the company. However, it is also another warning shot to the Government and society as a whole that T&T will be facing very difficult times ahead if it does not get its energy act together and very soon. The reality is that, even if it does, the easy days of high gas production are almost certainly over.

Those who attended January’s Energy Conference may have seen a sobering graph presented by Mr Kjetil Solbraekke, senior vice president for Rystad Energy, a consultancy firm. The graph shows T&T’s steep increase in gas production from the 1990s to its peak just before 2010.

However, instead of a comfortable and long plateau ahead, what the graph shows is an equally steep drop starting after 2013, with the prospect of even steeper falls into the next few years, especially if no action is taken. He called it Mount Trinidad and hikers know that walking down a steep hill can be as challenging and risky as climbing it all the way to the top.

According to the consultancy, gas production has already declined by around 20 per cent since 2013, with producing fields’ output expected to continue to decline by an annual average of 14 per cent from now to 2030. This is due to a combination of slower rates of new discoveries and the natural reduction in output from existing ones.

The challenge is that lower gas output not only hurts government receipts but also threatens the viability of local industrial development—after all, MHTL’s management is blaming the mothballing of production at the two plants on their inability to negotiate new gas supply contracts with NGC for four of their five methanol plants at Point Lisas.

The irony is that the methanol market at this time is quite robust, as producers have been earning US$500 a tonne, which is double the price of a year ago.

There is little doubt, however, that the gas supply scenario in the Western Hemisphere has been transformed by the fact that the US, once an importer of LNG, is now exporting the commodity as a result of the technological developments in the production of shale gas and oil. Last month, Cheniere Energy sent an LNG cargo to Brazil, which is currently the largest market for Point Fortin’s Atlantic LNG. And the US is also expected to reduce its dependency on imported ammonia and methanol as its own production goes up.

There is a distinct possibility that these developments in the US, along with aforementioned natural declines in T&T’s natural gas production and the lethargic, even comatose, pace of decision making by the Rowley administration, could lead to the disappearance of the liquefaction facilities at Point Fortin and the petrochemical plants in Point Lisas.

In the shorter term, both the Government and energy sector can act to at least slow down the decline by working on how to make the most of older discoveries, as long as overall costs are reduced by more efficient production processes and with the appropriate level of royalties to make extraction viable.

This should buy us time to complete the agreement with Venezuela for its gas whilst also seeking new discoveries in shallow and deep areas around Trinidad and Tobago.

None of this will be possible unless the Government—both as the policymaker and main shareholder of NGC—is willing to acknowledge that the natural gas industry across the globe has undergone profound structural changes, which may require a substantial, and painful, paradigm shift in this country.

Failure to do so will lead us to a rough, painful and potentially fatal tumble down Mount Trinidad.

Philosophers say that our impression of our surroundings at any moment in time is heavily influenced by our inner feelings.

If so, I must have been feeling very contented last week because it seemed to me that the country had a good Carnival one.

There were at least five soca tunes I enjoyed this year. That’s an increase of 500 per cent from years past.

The best calypso of the year, I Carmona, was not heard enough but the goodly gentleman again courted controversy of his own accord.

Pan came good with lots of young players but crowds at the pan events seemed familiar. I am afraid it’s the same old people year after year.

The most common comment one heard on the Drag was: “Aye aye, you still alive!”

Apart from the Dimache Gras debacle, the NCC did a good job. Their events were well organised. The atmosphere was friendly, clean and refreshing. I thought there was a lot of assistance available to the public, especially from the lady ushers who were wonderful.

The policeman who frisked me at a gate actually made a joke while doing so.

Most of these events were attended by a middle aged crowd so there was much less of the usual pushing and shoving nonsense.

It was pleasant to know that you could go to a public event in T&T, apart from Test cricket, and feel at ease.

Work ethos stems from the top. Mr De Silva and his team must be congratulated.

Crime took its customary vacation during Carnival week. Police were everywhere doing their usual efficient Carnival job.

The police reported an 11 per cent reduction in serious crimes this year compared to last year, with not a single reported incident of a sexual offence against a woman.

Isn’t it time we see some articles in the press about how Carnival duty affects police officers? I mean to say, everybody else in the country is getting on, drinking, wining, shouting and laughing and they have to remain calm, cool and collected whilst putting in what must be a tiresome shift.

How many hours do they work by the way? Do they get overtime? Why don’t we know these things?

Along the same lines, what about some articles on the nurses and doctors and firemen and women on call at the public institutions?

Babies don’t stop birthing and nursing. Emergencies continue. People will take advantage of the dry season and absent neighbours, to set fires to the empty piece of land up the hill where they intend to plant a garden or build a shack. How does being on call affect family life during the two days of Carnival?

What do the children of police officers, firemen, doctors and nurses think of their parents having to be on call during these holidays?

This is turning into a plea for more and different kind of reporting from the press. Something other than repeated columns about what is wrong with Carnival and how much it costs? All written with no evidence except a study done in 1998 (1998!) and personal opinions some of which are acceptable—but year after year? By the same commentators? Or the many hilarious Carnival court cases that are repeated ad nauseaum? Or boring pictures of the beauty of female masqueraders in skimpy costumes and how the women compare with Brazilians or Las Vegas showgirls?

Perhaps the most fascinating thing about these vedettes is the new custom of wearing high heels. Do they really keep them on once the prance over the Savannah stage is over? Talk about narcissistic personality! One sight of them is enough to give Mr Trump a run for his money.

Can we not start seeing pictures of ordinary Trinidadians at work? What about those people selling corn soup, nuts, pelau, souse, fried chicken a la Trinidade, beer? Who are they? Where do they come from? What do they do after Carnival? Did they make money? Are masqueraders going back to buying food and drinks from them? Is the all-inclusive on the back foot? I hope so.

Leaving the band to buy something from the sidewalk vendor was an integral part of the Carnival experience. It gave you a momentary rest from the jamming and noise, a chance to refresh and look on at the mas as well as enjoy the old talk from the vendor and his or her friends.

Talking about beer, why was one booth selling Carib at $15 a bottle whilst a hundred yards away the price was $10? And did the smartman who advertised his beer at $9 a bottle and when you went up to buy only to find that it was really $9.99 and there was no one cent change available, make a profit?

That too is part of the Carnival experience.

There was common agreement that band sizes were generally down.

Economics and immigration issues were the usual explanations.

What about the scarcity of spectators at the Savannah and on Ariapita Avenue on Tuesday? What’s the reason for this? I think spectatorship has been decreasing over the last ten years.

Some years ago I drove to Maracas on a Monday and was amazed at the size of the crowd. So how many people really participate in Carnival Monday and Tuesday?

Are entrance and departure figures kept at City Gate for these days?

Finally wouldn’t it be fascinating to see a breakdown of bands by skin colour, something like what CLR James did for cricket in Trinidad, in his classic, Beyond a Boundary? Carnival, the great equaliser? Huh!

The BP statistical review of world energy tells us that of the three fossil fuels (oil, coal and natural gas), oil remains king. The world gets 33 per cent of its energy from oil, 29 per cent from coal and 24 per cent from natural gas.

The three collectively account for 86 per cent of global energy consumption and remain the basis of modern civilisation.

Many “experts” like to forecast the oil price. No one has ever been totally successful at doing that. There are simply too many variables to consider and information is never perfect.

There is supply, demand, geopolitics, market sentiment, weather and the strength of the US dollar.

In the last three years, the oil price has been on a roller coaster. On July 30, 2014, the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was US$104.29 per barrel.

The next day it fell below US$100. A month later, the world’s major reference crude Brent North Sea followed and slipped below US$100 per barrel.

Both WTI and Brent then went into free fall mode until they hit the mid to high twenties in February 2016. They have since recovered but are nowhere close to what obtained in mid-2014.

There are some, like Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, who argue that oil will never return to over US$100 per barrel. I have learned to never say never. The ups and downs (more downs) of the oil price in the last two-plus years have impacted on this country significantly.

When oil prices fall there is also a fall in LNG prices in places where we sell LNG.

On the supply side, the world is not running out of oil and the “peak oil theory” has been rubbished. In the last 15 years, there have been discoveries of massive oilfields in Brazil’s deepwater and huge discoveries of natural gas in Turkmenistan and in East Africa.

In the same period, American oil men led by the late George Mitchell (the Father of Fracking) have unlocked vast stores of oil and natural gas that had been hitherto locked in shale rock.

In reaction to the shale revolution, Saudi Arabia refused to cut production in a strategy to maintain its market share and kill off the shale oil industry of the United States.

Admittedly, some shale oil companies filed for bankruptcy but overall the US shale industry has survived.

They survived by becoming more efficient and lowering the breakeven cost of producing a barrel of shale oil.

In 2015 one leading US shale oil company told me that they could have survived with oil at US$30 per barrel and still make a ten per cent rate of return.

This is the genius of American capitalism—the ability to evolve and adapt.

Interestingly, around the time the price of oil started to collapse, ISIS was wreaking havoc in Syria and Iraq and there was tension in the Black Sea related to Russia’s annexation of the Crimea.

One would have thought that increasing instability in the middle east and geopolitical tension involving Russia would have caused the oil price to increase. What happened was the reverse–prices continued to fall.

A major reason for that was the supply side of the market.

In 2010, the United States produced a modest 7.6 million barrels of oil and other liquids.

By 2015 that number had risen 68 per cent to 12.7 million barrels of oil and other liquids. That massive increase in a five-year period was almost totally due to shale oil production from places like North Dakota.

Last November, the Saudi’s and OPEC blinked and announced they would cut 1.2 million barrels per day from their output.

That signalled that the shale producers of the USA had won the war of attrition.

The falling price of the last two years saw drilling rig related activity fall in the United States.

Recently with the oil price back in the fifties, the intrepid shale oil producers have started to increase investment and rig count is rising.

The bottom line is as oil prices recover into the mid 50’s US shale oil production will recover and this will again over supply the market.

The good news (for those countries that like high oil prices) is demand is linear and will continue to increase as long as the world population continues to increase and more and more people in India and China move into the middle class.

In 2015 and 2016, oil supply was ahead of demand. The results were lower prices and build-up of inventory. In the first quarter of 2017 the situation seems to be re balancing.

According to PIRA, in the first quarter of 2017, the world will demand 98.1 million barrels of oil per day while supply will be 97.9 million barrels per day.

It is expected that global demand for oil will tip into the 100 million mark in the third quarter of this year.

There is however a big inventory of over three billion barrels of oil that has to be gradually unwound.

In the short and medium term, demand for oil will continue to rise.

In the long term, we can think of the impact of the mass commercialisation of the electric car which may cause demand for oil fall.

For now, at least, oil remains king of the world.

Kevin Ramnarine is a former Minister of Energy of Trinidad and Tobago

The 1956 Calypso by Harry Belafonte was the first musical album in the United States to sell more than one million copies.

The record, which featured the quirky Banana Boat, topped the Billboard charts in March, September and November that year, outshining Elvis Presley, then at his peak, Doris Day and others.

Calypso, we all know, wasn’t quintessential calypso, although Belafonte’s commercial success has never been matched, not even by the internationally acclaimed genius Sparrow.

Belafonte fed richly off the creativity of Melody, who died a pauper in 1988, and Sparrow, in a tribute song to his fallen pal, asked the New York crooner to say “what happen to Melo’s millions.”

The year 1956 was a watershed one in T&T, with the birth of its most successful and enduring political party and launch of organised self-government.

In the succeeding 61 years, no T&T calypso artiste has matched Belafonte’s historic business success and international branding, even with larger, more inter-connected and diverse communities to entertain.

And, from the evidence of 2017 and recent years, there is little chance of the world craving T&T’s current calypso fare.

Many diehard calypso aficionados are shying from acknowledging that the treasured native art form is on life support, having fallen on its own sharp sword.

The just-ended Carnival season saw more artistes than patrons at some calypso tents, while there are few recordings, little material deserving of encore airplay and virtually no international gigs.

Fans would be hard-pressed to sing a verse of any renditions over the past, say, five years.

T&T’s indigenous cultural expression has been in hasty retreat since its prior salad days, then indicated by imaginative subjects, original music and lyrics of subtlety, bravado and artistry.

Today, hackneyed themes, barren melodies, timeworn lyrics and poor artistic stagecraft–on lavish display at the Dimanche Gras final–define calypso.

In a lack-lustre event, Chalkdust was the obvious 2017 winner, but he opted for calypso’s softest target–the conflict-ridden Sat Maharaj–instead of a hot button social issue, such as the crime plague, national unease or the Prime Minister’s loose lips.

Chalkie has long got the memo: That calypso dramatically changed course two decades ago, after Basdeo Panday assumed national leadership.

The evidence is crystal clear, to the point that Alvin Daniel, a calypso stakeholder, said during the television Dimanche Gras commentary that Lady Gypsy was “brave” to challenge the political status quo.

There now appears no place for critical thinking and balanced political commentaries, which were essential and enduring hallmarks of the discipline.

One exponent won the crown some years ago after he brought the party’s leader on stage and brandished the organisation’s symbol.

Chalkie’s reversal is particularly unfortunate.

He is not only a student of the art’s long and historic struggle, but he overcame strident efforts by then-maximum leader Dr Eric Williams to have him silenced.

For his courageous and withering calypso offerings, Chalkdust was targeted, on the spurious grounds that he was a public servant, a teacher.

He held strong against the all-powerful Williams, intoning at one time: “If dey want to keep me down/Tell dem to cut out mih tongue.”

Frustrated, Williams famously uttered: “Let the jackass bray!”

For years, Chalkdust held true to calypso’s fierce autonomy, challenging draconian Attorney General Karl Hudson-Phillips (Ah ‘Fraid Karl), ANR Robinson (Driver Can’t Drive) and Patrick Manning (Selwyn in the Garden Hiding).

To be sure, Chalkie is a significant long-serving calypso raconteur, but now a mere shadow of his take-no-prisoners persona.

It’s almost lamentable that he has overtaken Sparrow as the most decorated monarch, the latter acknowledged for the courage of his convictions as much as his unparalleled artistry.

Birdie supported Williams’ tax plan and other early measures, but turned sharply over the Patrick Solomon affair and documented his anti-PNM angst with the seminal 1982, We Like It So.

Intellectual honesty is a vital aspect of his legacy.

“By calypsos are stories are told,” Sniper observed, and David Rudder heralded its tradition of “lyrics to make a politician cringe.”

But today’s version generally lacks the creative honesty, flair, ingenuity and poetic mastery which had pitch-forked calypso as an outstanding creative expression.

There surely must be a national clamour for a calypso renaissance, and TUCO must assure there is a place for practitioners who call a political spade a spade.

Also, Sparrow, Stalin, Shadow and other accomplished bards must be recruited–by the Ministry of Culture, the university, TUCO or any other authority–to lecture on the fine art of lyrical composition, musical originality and stagecraft.

We cannot afford another year of calypso decay.

As for calypso’s future, it would be great to hear Chalkdust’s thoughts–in song.

Ken Ali

Over the years I have listened to calypsoes sung by the educator, The Mighty Chalkdust. His political commentaries have always come across as clean, clear, well put-together message, witty, imparting good advice etc.

Chalkie is, many times, ahead of the pack and he has earned my respect and I believe that of many in T&T.

This year, though, it was quite different as while I fully understand that he was singing on the topic of child marriages, the choice of lyrics and suggestions took me by surprise.

I must say I expected more from the The Teacher. Where did all this “Vaseline” and the like, suggestions come from? There are much better ways to bring across a point of view on an issue, for if we see calypso as an art form it is important that it is portrayed with dignity and respect.

The Mighty Chalkdust and all others involved in this field must understand everyone has access to what is being sung, including children. I ask the question, is what is being sung a good representation of that art form? Can everyone listen and be helped or are made to blush because of what is being said?

I do hope in the future that Chalkie will return to his “clean” style of singing yet dealing with relevant issues in the witty way which he is well able to do. Remember, when it is all said and done, the students still learn from the teacher. Being that example is important.

Arnold Gopeesingh,

San Juan

Head of the Political Sciences Department at UWI Dr Bishnu Ragoonath believes that having a lobbyist in the United States “worked for Trinidad and Tobago, after all the President called the Prime Minister,” he said.

The lobbyist, The Group DC (LLC), was said to have been retained in October 2016 for a two-year period at a cost of US$2.4 million.

Among its deliverables is to raise this country’s profile in Congress, establish relationships with the relevant members of Congress and track and advocate on behalf of the government’s legislative priorities.

It also commits to raising the visibility of this country establishing T&T as a steady and consistent presence in Washington and engaging the legislative and executive branches of the US government on a regular and frequent basis.

The country’s trade profile, advocate for policies that grow and diversify the T&T economy, identifying potential private sector partners for investment and seek public-private partnerships.

Ragoonath said he believes that the call from the US President Donald Trump to Prime Minister Keith Rowley “was part and parcel of the lobby group.”

In the US, he said, lobbyists “are the order of the day, it is the norm in their society and if Trinidad and Tobago feels the need to have the eyes and ears of the US open to them and it believes that the lobbyist is the most effective way to do it, then there is nothing wrong if we can afford it.”

But economist Valmiki Arjoon questioned whether the country was getting value for money.

“What is really the benefit of that exercise?” he asked.

Arjoon said “a substantial amount of money was spent on lobbying and we need to ask ourselves what will be the tangible returns out of that. That is the big question,” he said.

Arjoon wondered whether in that “very expensive phone call” did the two leaders discuss the strengthening of trade relations and trade ties between T&T and the United States, did they discuss the FATCA legislation and bilateral arrangements, can we have access to US resources to use in the manufacturing sector at a discounted rate for example? Did they discuss the possibility of other US based energy companies taking a greater role in our energy sector. As it is, he said, Exxon Mobil is investing heavily in Guyana.”

If these issues and the possibility of US direct foreign investment in T&T were not discussed, he said, “then one can deem it to be a wasted opportunity.”

But Dr Ragoonath said it may well be that the lobbyist is working to “win direct foreign investment” for the country.

He said the “Rowley government may believe they needed to use the lobbyist to make sure that they got their message across and that T&T is kept in the sights of who they feel it important to be kept in sight of.”

Asked about the success of lobbyists, Ragoonath said, “because governments don’t really tell us all that we need to know, there is no way to gauge the success of lobbyists.”

UNDER MANNING REGIME

In 2004, the then Patrick Manning government awarded a US$1.2 million contract to a Washington based firm to lobby the George Bush administration on this country’s behalf.

The tender officially awarded by the Central Tenders Board, was won by Ainsley Gill and Associates, after the firm beat out one other lobbying group for the contract.

The objective back then for the Manning government was for this country to get duty free access to the US market for goods pre-packaged in Trinidad and Tobago.

Gill was a Trinidadian and served as the Secretary of the Trinidad and Tobago Association in Washington DC. Gill said he met Manning at a cocktail party at Howard University in December 2003 during Manning’s trip to Washington DC.

He said “If Trinidad and Tobago wants something done in Washington DC and we cannot do it then nobody can,” but there was no disclosure on the scope of work to be done by Gill because of the issue of confidentiality.

President of National Gas Company (NGC) T&T Ltd, Mark Loquan, assured yesterday that negotiations between Methanol Holdings Trinidad Ltd (MHTL) and NGC are being conducted in “good faith and quite professionally.”

This comes as MHTL, through its operator Industrial Plant Services Ltd (IPSL), mothballed two of its five methanol plants and prepared to separate 100 affected employees.

Negotiations between MHTL and NGC for new gas supply contracts for four of MHTL’s five methanol plants have been ongoing since 2013.

Speaking to reporters yesterday after the launch of the 2017 Energy Map of T&T which was held at the Radisson hotel, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain, Loquan said that part of NGC’s mandate was to aggregate natural gas from different suppliers and sell it to different users.

Loquan said: “The time when you are negotiating a shortage of molecules, so to speak, it is important that we are doing that in a very reasonable and fair manner.”

In an Ash Wednesday letter to Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste-Primus, IPSL’s corporate services manager Collis Williams stated that the company’s external environment had become more challenging in 2016 and that negotiations with NGC to extend the gas supply contracts in respect of four of the five methanol plants “have not been settled after beginning discussions on the first contract in 2013.”

While Loquan could not speak specifically about the contracts, he did confirm that the contracts between MHTL and NGC had expired between 2013 and 2017.

According to the Williams letter, which was published exclusively by the Guardian on Tuesday, MHTL was receiving gas even though their contracts with NGC had expired but they were not receiving enough. The letter stated, “the volumes that NGC has imposed are far below that which previously obtained under the previous gas supply contracts with NGC.”

Asked why the contracts with MHTL have not been renewed Loquan said: “There have been alot of issues when it comes to gas supply. The fact is that we have been in a shortfall since 2010, and we are trying to work assiduously with the upstreamers to negotiate future supplies and we are in advanced negotiations for that.”

The NGC president said the problem of natural gas supply cannot be solved tomorrow or next week. Already there are calls for the gas masterplan to be implemented, but Loquan who did not want to publicly join the chorus of voices calling for its implementation, said he was aware the Government had stated that the plan was a priority and that it would be dealt with through the normal processes.

Asked about the possibility that a third MHTL plant may be shut down, the energy executive said: “The NGC is looking at all possible solutions locally. That involves future negotiations with the upstreamers. It involves looking at cross border initiatives in Venezuela. It also involves looking at creative solutions but its a bit too early to comment on those issues. We are leaving no stone unturned.”

He declined commenting on the impact MHTL shutting two plants would have on NGC’s revenue.

Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries, Selwyn Lashley, said yesterday that the government is planning to issue a competitive bid round for hydrocarbon prospects, but he did not disclose when it is likely to happen. suggested yesterday that activity in the energy sector is expected to increase and change this year.

Competitive bid rounds occur when acreage is put out by the Ministry for Energy for stakeholders to bid on, so that they can conduct exploration drilling.

Delivering remarks at yesterday’s launch of the eighth edition of T&T’s Energy Map Lashley said, “because of the activity we’ve planned this year, the energy map is going to have to change. The map is a snapshot of today (and does not reflect the coming changes).”

Lashley said: “The Ministry intends to have another round of competitive bidding this year which significantly changes the landscape and the map in terms of new players coming in, and in terms of change in ownership and that sort of thing, but its certainly part of the business.

“It is something that all of the stakeholders look forward to in terms of the map evolving and growing, it is a living product so certainly, as we move forward to the next edition of course we would capture all of those things.”

Since 1994, NGC and companies in the local energy sector have been updating and refreshing the map every two or three years so it reflects the energy landscape of T&T. This year the map was sponsored by NGC, Shell Trinidad Limited, BHP Billiton T&T and Petrotrin.

Petroleum Economist Ltd of London is the publisher of the T&T Energy Map and one of the main institutions involved in the creation of energy maps worldwide. In T&T, the map is used by the sponsors as a marketing tool that highlights the strides made in the energy sector.

The map provides comprehensive statistical information on the energy sector, the location of T&T’s oil and natural gas fields, associated pipelines and offshore facilities, key ports and the territorial waters including the deep water horizon for exploration and development.

President, National Gas Company T&T Ltd, Mark Loquan said the map is a “staple” for the energy sector. He added that it represents T&T’s history when it comes to the energy sector and its therefore a key component of T&T’s economy

Be Bold for Change, a theme for today’s observances of International Women’s Day, has a particular resonance in T&T where there are so many shortcomings in the areas of safety and economic empowerment as they relate to women.

Even as this country joins in celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, the observance is overshadowed by concerns about violence against them. In just the last few months, this country has been left reeling by increases in brutal killings of women and girls, as well as escalating sexual violence.

The ongoing child marriage debate and attempts by some religious and social leaders to defend a practice that condemns so many girls and young women to lives of poverty and servitude, illustrates the extent to which patriarchal control still hinders progress in this country.

However, it hasn’t been all doom and gloom. There has been progress in the areas of law, social services and education. Women are well represented on tertiary level campuses across the country, although those numbers are still not reflected in board rooms, or high level public sector positions.

In 21st century T&T, too many women are still trapped in the low-wage jobs, or restricted to lower administrative positions where they are not allowed to influence policy formulation and decision-making.

There have been some landmark achievements by and for women in this country over the years but sadly, those advances have not been sustained.

In politics, the fact that Kamla Persad-Bissessar once served as prime minister and is the political leader of a large and influential party has not necessarily translated into equality of influence and opportunities for women in that sphere.

Had there been real progress in that area, by now there would have been more meaningful legislation such as amendments to the Domestic Violence Act. Such matters are still not as high on the national agenda as they ought to be.

Just a few short years ago, gender affairs was considered important enough to be a full ministerial portfolio within the Cabinet of this country. Now it has been relegated to a space under the Office of the Prime Minister serviced by a junior minister.

Even in the matter of formulating a gender policy, T&T has lagged behind. The matter, derailed by contentious debate over reproductive rights and failure to even agree on a definition of gender, was mothballed more than a decade ago and promises to revisit the policy and restart the process have not been kept.

So while official data, which is hardly ever consistent or up-to-date, might tend to give this country a passing grade on the progress of women, they don’t give an accurate picture.

In fact, progress has slowed in many areas and even stagnated or regressed. As such, bold action is needed to bring about positive change to accelerate gender parity.

As T&T commemorates the inspiring role women have played across so many sectors and sphere in the quest for a more equitable society, it is important to remember that the struggle continues.

Creating a safer more progressive space for the women of this land cannot be limited to the flurry of activities that tend to be concentrated around March 8 every year. More than ever, the challenge is to do away with beliefs, practices and cultural norms that are so often used to silence the voices of women and hinder them from securing their rights and realising their full potential.

The call to be Bold for Change, expressed so eloquently by Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar last weekend, should serve as a rallying cry to influence more urgent action by policy and decision makers to improve the status of women.

The change will not be easy or swift but it is necessary and must be undertaken with boldness and determination.

It is time to be Bold for Change in T&T.

Just when you think Carnival is over and you’re swimming away, a fin pops up in the water. This fin is a letter to the editor by Mr Aiyegoro Ome, former president of NJAC and the NACC, headlined “Critics Essential to Developing Our Creative Arts” (March 1). Mr Ome wants (inter alia) “a consistent body of work from critics who can rouse people to visit calypso tents where the attendance has been declining for years.” He includes pan and chutney and so forth.

Such critics did exist, he continued, like Derek Walcott and a few others he names (two of whom are dead) in present and past times who met the standard. To top it off, he links the necessity to write about “our” culture to the imperative of developing the “creative arts industry” in the interests of economic diversification.

Well. If I were a more delicate sort, my feelings might be hurt. I’ve published seven articles on calypso tents, a review of a Carnival play, and Carnival economics recently. Also in the Guardian, Franka Philip and Nigel Campbell did a review and lead-in to Etienne Charles’ show. Shivanee Ramlochan reviewed 3Canal’s yearly hiss-fest. The ever-reliable Peter Ray Blood is all over Carnival year round. CNC3’s Carnival lead-in show, Vintage Unplugged, featured senior calypsonians one-on-one.

As I can’t speak for of my colleagues, and as I’ve published the most articles that directly address the issues he raises, I’ll assume it’s all about me and Mr Ome is speaking bigly (as President Trump might put it) to me when he says there’s been “no evaluation” of the calypso tents.

It could be that having seen my attempts, Mr Ome does not believe them to be of sufficient quality to merit notice. It’s a popular opinion, I’m told. But by refusing to even acknowledge them, not even to decry them, Mr Ome behaves in a predictable manner. It seems he simply pretends things he does not like are not there–a popular strategy in Carnival economics, politics, and in the former Soviet Union.

Apparently there are many things Mr Ome and those for whom he speaks do not like and therefore do not see. Applying a popular critical technique to his own letter (close reading), you might discern that Mr Ome’s agenda is not as high-minded as it seems. He wants critics who can “rouse people to visit calypso tents”. But this is a paradox. (Or is it an oxymoron?)

It’s not the critics’ job to get people to go to events. It’s their job to describe, analyse and evaluate. The public then decides. And evidently the public is deciding to stay home. So what Mr Ome wants is not critics, but publicists and cheerleaders. He also conveniently forgets that calypso tents’ attendance began to decline sharply during the UNC era (c1997) when calypsonians began washing their mouths on Indians in a way that would be classified “hate speech” in other countries. The tents never recovered (or changed), and have been on government welfare ever since.

Mr Ome also links creative arts to economic diversification. This is the old, “Carnival makes money and is a tourist thing” argument. I’ve wasted enough ink on that, suffice to say, it might make money, but it costs more than it makes. And no one has provided any verifiable proof of this money-making.

On the CNC3 News on March 2, Dr Vaalmiki Arjoon of UWI said the ACS had determined Carnival generates about “US$100 million”. Actually they didn’t; an ACS blog post said, “Government reports indicate that revenue from Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival exceeds on average US$100 million.” So they’re just recycling locally generated rubbish.

In sum, then, to respond to Mr Ome’s desire for critics and criticism applied to Carnival, here are a few facts can which directly contribute to a critical response to Carnival in the last decade:

• The Ministry of National Security had a press release prepared in advance of the Carnival that it was crime free, which it had to retract;

• School attendance for Ash Wednesday, and the two days after, was around 25 per cent and 20 per cent for primary and secondary schools;

• The Employers’ Consultative Association (ECA) in the Business Guardian on March 2, reported a decline in productivity and rise in absenteeism for Carnival;

• Carnival data mainly come from CSO survey data (ie, they ask people, not crunch numbers from hotels, banks, and immigration statistics). The data report that for 2016 visitors spent (TT$) 340 million versus $270 million in direct subsidy was handed over to the NCC;

• No data are provided on how many nationals leave the country over the season, and how many actually participate in Carnival;

• Calypsonian Valentino at Kaiso House sang that the way to get to Dimanche Gras was to be anti-UNC, and (he sang) one composer wrote most of the songs. A number of the Dimanche Gras calypsoes explicitly addressed the black urban proletariat, and their racial worries, not the population as a whole.

Looking at these facts versus the conception of Carnival, I would invite with Mr Ome to consider two conclusions: first, Carnival is neither creative, nor national, nor economically viable and its claims to these cannot withstand scrutiny. It’s just a bad national habit. Second, the techniques used to distort the facts of Carnival are similar to those used by the tobacco companies for decades with success. (To be continued.)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made a clarion call and a tacit demand to the world in his 2017 International Women’s Day message when he stated, “Let us all pledge to do everything we can to overcome entrenched prejudice, support engagement and activism, and promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.” We have therefore been given a roadmap to effect the UN theme for International Women’s Day 2017, “Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030.”

It speaks to the creation of a holistic environment that lends itself to the empowerment, upward mobility and progression of women around the world. This thrust must not only be institutionalised through our governance structures but also be an intrinsic tenet in our daily lives. Female empowerment must be a lived philosophy actualised through our actions at home, in the education system, and in the professional realm.

At the heart of this United Nations mandate, Planet 50/50 by 2030, is the full and effective participation of women in the workforce, with equal opportunities and real access to leadership at all levels of decision-making, in economic, political and public life. This goal of equality and parity for women in the workplace—‚whether that “workplace” is the office, the boardroom, the kitchen, the home or the garden—will only be fully realised when the need for comparison is no longer the “male” standard, but the standard of our own humanity.

Against the backdrop of the significant progress women have made on that long road to justice and equality, there is much yet to be done. The culture shift from gender bias to gender equality must begin at home, from day one. The home must become the catalyst of change and girls must not be considered less or taught to be less than boys and we must inculcate in them as we do in our boys, the value of having big dreams and great vision. Our homes must culture philosophies of genuine inclusivity, fairness and mutual respect for all.

International Women’s Day must therefore be a celebration of the resilience and foresight of the many women who struggled and suffered to attain adult suffrage, social equality and basic fundamental human rights. The struggle continues and women must guard against being their greatest foe.

Women must encourage, inspire and uplift each other by their words, deeds and actions, demanding respect and not disrespecting each other. It is becoming the norm for women to engage in denigrating each other on social media and even mainstream media and other females and even the men in our society look on and simply laugh.

This must not become the standard of our social dialogue. Women must be their sister’s keeper and offer encouraging and inspirational words to other women who engage in critical analysis and speak out against social injustices facing women and young girls. Cohesive and collective collaboration between and among women of the world, can create that tour de force needed to effect that revolutionary, transformational change that every society seeks.

In T&T, the debate to standardise the age of marriage, bearing upon the archaic practice of child marriage, persists in and out of our Parliament. A society can only boast of civilised standards and progress, concomitant with Goals 4 and 5 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—when it treats its women and girls with the same dignity, equality, respect and honour as its men and boys.

This means ending child marriages; protecting our women and girls against all forms of discrimination and abuse including domestic violence, human trafficking and other forms of suppression; and providing our women and girls with equal access to quality education and healthcare.

It means, in T&T, individual and collective leadership in showing, by action and example, that in the atrocity of inequality and scant disregard for women and violence against women, there exist no grounds for tolerance, lame excuses or skewed reasoning.

Men must also take up that mantle of responsibility to fight for women’s empowerment. Women’s empowerment is not about emasculation or challenging or testing the innate strength of our men folk. It is a unifying force based on what is fair, just and real for a society to progress.

This is the purpose of our joint statement on the occasion of International Women’s Day 2017-to celebrate women and to celebrate young girls, to emphasise the support and solidarity of the male voice in our collective, national quest for achieving equality of treatment for our women and girls in T&T.

This goal of gender equality and treatment will not happen by will alone, but as well, by reformed practices, implementable policies, the ratification and implementation of international labour standards, human rights conventions and protocols and by way of enforceable legislation, that place women on par with men, in and out of the workplace.

To every woman and girl of this great Republic, we are proud of you; we salute you and we urge you on in your various fields of endeavour that you will excel on the wings of equality, as together we build upon a strong, harmonious and beautiful Trinidad and Tobago.

Across the world, too many women and girls spend too many hours on household responsibilities—typically more than double the time spent by men and boys. They look after younger siblings, older family members, deal with illness in the family and manage the house. In many cases this unequal division of labour is at the expense of women’s and girls’ learning, of paid work, sports, or engagement in civic or community leadership. This shapes the norms of relative disadvantage and advantage, of where women and men are positioned in the economy, of what they are skilled to do and where they will work.

This is the unchanging world of unrewarded work, a globally familiar scene of withered futures, where girls and their mothers sustain the family with free labour, with lives whose trajectories are very different from the men of the household.

We want to construct a different world of work for women. As they grow up, girls must be exposed to a broad range of careers, and encouraged to make choices that lead beyond the traditional service and care options to jobs in industry, art, public service, modern agriculture and science.

We have to start change at home and in the earliest days of school, so that there are no places in a child’s environment where they learn that girls must be less, have less, and dream smaller than boys.

This will take adjustments in parenting, curricula, educational settings, and channels for everyday stereotypes like TV, advertising and entertainment; it will take determined steps to protect young girls from harmful cultural practices like early marriage, and from all forms of violence.

Women and girls must be ready to be part of the digital revolution. Currently only 18 per cent of undergraduate computer science degrees are held by women. We must see a significant shift in girls all over the world taking STEM subjects, if women are to compete successfully for high-paying “new collar” jobs. Currently just 25 per cent of the digital industries’ workforce are women.

Achieving equality in the workplace will require an expansion of decent work and employment opportunities, involving governments’ targeted efforts to promote women’s participation in economic life, the support of important collectives like trade unions, and the voices of women themselves in framing solutions to overcome current barriers to women’s participation, as examined by the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment. The stakes are high: advancing women’s equality could boost global GDP by US$12 trillion by 2025.

It also requires a determined focus on removing the discrimination women face on multiple and intersecting fronts over and above their gender: sexual orientation, disability, older age, and race. Wage inequality follows these: the average gender wage gap is 23 per cent but this rises to 40 per cent for African American women in the United States. In the European Union, elderly women are 37 per cent more likely to live in poverty than elderly men.

In roles where women are already over-represented but poorly paid, and with little or no social protection, we must make those industries work better for women. For example, a robust care economy that responds to the needs of women and gainfully employs them; equal terms and conditions for women’s paid work and unpaid work; and support for women entrepreneurs, including their access to finance and markets.

Women in the informal sector also need their contributions to be acknowledged and protected. This calls for enabling macroeconomic policies that contribute to inclusive growth and significantly accelerate progress for the 770 million people living in extreme poverty.

Addressing the injustices will take resolve and flexibility from both public and private sector employers. Incentives will be needed to recruit and retain female workers; like expanded maternity benefits for women that also support their re-entry into work, adoption of the Women’s Empowerment Principles, and direct representation at decision-making levels.

Accompanying this, important changes in the provision of benefits for new fathers are needed, along with the cultural shifts that make uptake of paternity and parental leave a viable choice, and thus a real shared benefit for the family.

In this complexity there are simple, big changes that must be made: for men to parent, for women to participate and for girls to be free to grow up equal to boys. Adjustments must happen on all sides if we are to increase the number of people able to engage in decent work, to keep this pool inclusive, and to realise the benefits that will come to all from the equal world envisaged in our Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.

MESSAGE BY UN WOMEN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR PHUMZILE MLAMBO-NGCUKA ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY, MARCH 8, 2017

I refer to the column in the Guardian of March 6 where it refers to the Tax Appeal Board as a tribunal. Regrettably, this is not correct in the sense in which it seems to be intended.

By Section 3(3) of the Tax Appeal Board Act, Chap.4:50 of the Laws of Trinidad and Tobago, the Court is referred to as a “superior Court of record”. Moreover, by virtue of Section 6(7) of the said Act, the Court exercises for the specified purposes being the attendance of witnesses, the production and inspection of documents, the enforcement of its orders, the entry on and inspection of property and “other matters necessary or proper for the due exercise of its jurisdiction...all the powers, rights and privileges as are exercised in the High Court of Justice on the occasion of an action.”

It is unfortunate that the article appears to give the impression that bodies such as the Tax Appeal Court “are an alternative to settling disputes in court....” This is particularly misleading since the Court is a superior court of record in its own right but is also a designated mediation agency under the Mediation Act 2004. Thus, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is in fact intended to be an alternative and complementary process to the legal and judicial services offered by the Court.

HH JUDGE ANTHONY DJ GAFOOR,

HON CHAIRMAN,

TAX APPEAL COURT OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

This is a book about women’s progress, but of a very select set of women. British sociologist Alison Wolf writes: “Whereas through most of human history it made sense to talk about ‘women’ en masse, today it very rarely does...Today, elite and highly educated women have become a class apart...they are now more like men of the family than ever before in history. It is from other women that they have drawn away.”

Wolf’s book deals mainly with women in developed nations, but much of what she says also applies to upper-middle and upper-class educated women in Trinidad. “Today’s highly educated and professional women, the top 15 or 20 per cent, not only have different jobs from other women; they also have quite different patterns of lifetime employment from other women,” Wolf writes.

“They are different in when and how much they work. They have quite different marriage and child-bearing patterns, and very different divorce rates. They bring up their children differently and they differ in how they run their homes.”

The book has two sections, the first titled Women In The Workforce—A House Divided and the second Domestic Spheres Made New—Women, Men and Families. The first section is divided into seven chapters, dealing with the gap between the rich and the rest, the importance of fast food to the modern woman, and the return of a servant class. This last is an ongoing theme of the book, with Wolf’s basic point being that, since professional women are so busy, they have to hire help to manage their homes and take care of their children. “Feminists once talked of ‘the sisterhood’, but educated successful women today have fewer interests in common with other women than ever before,” Wolf points out.

The second section has five chapters, which deal with sex and the single graduate, prostitution, and having children.

With respect to marriage, Wolf has some counter-intuitive statistics, such as marriage rates staying constant even though most of the traditional reasons for getting married have now vanished or diminished. Moreover, the cohort most likely to get married and stay married are the most educated and highest-earning women. Additionally, and again contrary to conventional wisdom, elite men prefer to marry women of equal status. With respect to women, however, conventional wisdom has it right: women prefer to marry men who earn more or have higher status than themselves, and that includes the highest educated high-earning women.

At the same time, women still show a predilection to prefer the domestic over the professional sphere. “The highest levels of gender segregation anywhere in the developed world are found in the labour markets of egalitarian welfare-state Scandinavia,” Wolf notes.

So women choose to work in lower-paid or part-time jobs, meaning that any wage gap or gender segregation is the outcome of women’s choices, not sexism.

“Women now hold jobs that were the preserve of husbands, brothers, sons and fathers...In the developed world, they enter professional and business occupations just as often as men; and, among younger cohorts, they do so on equal terms,” writes Wolf.

And, she notes, the changes that took decades to happen in the developed nations are occurring much faster in developing countries.

​Review by

KEVIN BALDEOSINGH

​BOOK INFO
THE XX FACTOR
ALISON WOLF.
CROWN, 2013.
ASIN: B00C8S9UUIL; 416 PAGES.

In celebration of International Women’s Day which was celebrated globally yesterday, Life in Leggings TT will be hosting a Solidarity March and Rally for Women’s Rights at the Hollows, Queen’s Park Savannah on Saturday from 3 pm to 7 pm.

This event has been organised by a coalition of NGOs, CSOs and other organisations and individuals, namely the Institute for Gender & Development Studies UWI St Augustine, Womantra, I Am One, Conflict Women Ltd, Firecircle!, Winad, Cafra T&T, The 2 Cents Movement, Say Something T&T, Caiso: Sex & Gender Justice, The Amalgamated Workers Union, Women Everywhere, the Network of NGOs of Trinidad & Tobago, and the Organisation for Abused and Battered Individuals.

A release said the march and rally takes place under the theme Women’s Rights are Everyone’s Issues. Bring Yuh Message and Come.

The Life in Leggings: Caribbean Alliance Against Gender Based Violence movement seeks to raise awareness around violence and empower women and girls to share stories of survival, sexual assault and harassment in the Caribbean region and diaspora.

The rally is the local installment of a broader regional movement carded for the same time and same day in Barbados, Antigua & Barbuda, T&T, Dominica, the Bahamas, Guyana, and Jamaica.

Amanda T Mc Intyre of Womantra says: “With the increase in violence perpetrated against women and girls, we show solidarity with the other countries regionally that are marching on Saturday. We invite all interested people and community groups to join us in this initiative. We need your voices.”

The organisers are urging organisations and individuals to bring concerns and messages for action and change. Community groups are invited to speak during the rally and/or create placards with your messages.

If you are unable to attend in person, you are invited to share solidarity messages on the Life in Leggings TT: Women’s Rights March & Rally Facebook event page, where you can also access further information about this initiative and movement.

More info

For further details surrounding the March and Rally, please contact:

Renuka Anandjit at (868) 475-1951 or Amanda T McIntyre at (868) 491-1249, or email: womensrightsrally@gmail.com.

The main reason people hesitate to come to Alta is the stigma associated with not being able to read and write. Our students struggle with shame and fear before attending Alta and it takes great courage to sign up for and attend the classes.

Shaming someone with poor literacy skills is something that is unfortunately too common in our society. The shame of low literacy is something we, the literate, introduce when we disregard the feelings of others who lack the skills.

Unfortunately we don’t realise the value of empowering and encouraging people rather than shaming them. Many of our students already struggle with internalised shame and stigma therefore shaming them in person or even on social media often results in them keeping their poor literacy skills a secret rather than coming to Alta’s free reading and writing classes.

Think twice before sharing anything that shames people who struggle with reading and writing. Care should also be taken to respond appropriately to non-readers who may need Alta. Avoid saying, “How come you can’t read?” It implies something is wrong with them, which they are often already thinking. Someone saying they don’t read well should be like saying you don’t sing well. Begin to eliminate stigma for non-literate adults by suggesting they get lessons if they want to improve, as with anything else—that it’s okay to start, whatever their age.

Today we have a short piece from Kerwin, one of our Level 2 students who shared their journey:

“As a child growing up I was diagnosed with a sickness that prevented me from completing my primary school education. Most of my life as a child was spent in and out of hospitals. School was the furthest thing from my mind. As I got older, married and had kids who now attend school and need help with their school work my desires to go back to school became a must not just for my children, but for myself. My family needed help which I could not have given to them. How could I answer questions and spell words that I don’t know?

With my low self-esteem and lack of confidence, my biggest fear was to let my kids know that I, their father, cannot read and spell words that they may ask me. Then Boom! I was introduced to Alta.

At first, I was ashamed to go and register for classes because I ask myself, ‘What a big man like me could learn in this day and age…’

‘Who was I fooling?’

But, when I started classes it was different. The teachers were amazing! They taught me how to use words, like to…from…and how to sound letters. I was taught grammar: how to use nouns, adjectives, verbs…What are syllables and how to use them to pronounce words.

Alta is now the best thing in my life. Alta has given me confidence to be the best that I can in life.”

More info

Do what you can to educate, empower and encourage those around you who may be poor readers, spellers and writers. Be sure to tell them about Alta’s free reading and writing classes around the country. If you’re interested in volunteering with Alta, we’re currently looking for volunteer tutors. Give us a call at 624-2582 or email Altapos.tt@gmail.com for more info. Keep up to date with Alta on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: Alta TT.

In 1960, local drama created history when two of the major amateur theatrical companies at the time—The Company of Four and The Whitehall Players—came together to form the Company of Players. According to playwright, actor and director Ronald Amaroso, at its height, The Company of Players was one of the major black theatre troupes in North Trinidad in an industry dominated by groups comprised mostly of white T&T citizens and expatriates performing classical theatre works.

In its early years, more than 110 people were members of the Company of Players – a size unheard of in today’s theatre industry. They included such well known names as Dr Errol Hill, Errol Jones, James King, Horace James, Barbara Assoon, Albert La Veau, Freddie Kissoon, Wilbert Holder, Jean Sue Wing, Eunice Alleyne, Gabriel Francis, Reginald Dumas and Juliana Chambers.

Some 47 years later, past members—including Amaroso, along with Beverly Alleyne, Norvan Fullerton and Sarah John—are organising a “Reunion” event on Sunday, March 12, at 6:00 pm, at the Trinidad Theatre Workshop in Belmont, Port-of-Spain.

The Reunion event will include a meeting for former Company of Players members; an exhibition of some of the troupe’s archival photos, programmes, newspaper clippings and reviews; and readings from some of the group’s signature hit plays. The event is open to the public via formal registration.

“One of the main reasons for the Reunion is that amateur theatre in Trinidad has a history of which the country should be proud,” said Amaroso, adding: “A lot still needs to be done to document and promote that history.”

About his own theatrical career, Amaroso said despite following the expectations of his parents into the field of engineering, he found himself drawn back to his first loves—writing, acting and directing.

He said that in the early years, the Company of Players did classic plays and the works of local playwrights like Douglas Archibald and Clifford Sealy. The immediate post-Independence (1962) period saw a significant drop in membership due to emigration abroad and marital duties. Major talents like Dr Errol Hill, Horace James and Barbara Assoon also left, going on to make their mark internationally. With the establishment of the Trinidad Theatre Workshop by Derek Walcott in 1959, several players from the troupe—such as Errol James, Albert La Veau, Wilber Holder and Eunice Alleyne—were courted and left the Company of Players.

However, under the guidance and support of Jean Sue Wing, Gabriel Francis, Billie St Hillaire and Cuthbert Pantor, Amaroso said new talent emerged. It was during this rekindling that Amaroso, along with others like Shirley De Gannes, Winston Cooper, Peter Smart (Thabiti), and Lloyd (Norvan) Fullerton, were soon associated with the troupe.

“At the time, radio plays and serials were written and produced at Radio Trinidad for transmission over the airwaves. Then with the advent of television, the Company of Players was responsible for the second play ever produced at Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT).” This historical made-for-local-TV play was an adaptation of Clifford Sealy’s The Professor, and starred Verna Andrews and Amaroso in the lead roles. Several others followed.

Between 1966 and 1972, the troupe performed many foreign plays, including The Father (Sweden), An Enemy of the People (Sweden), A Streetcar Named Desire (USA), Sabrina Fair (USA) and A Raisin in the Sun (USA).

Then came three big hits in the 1970s and 1980s, including locally written The Master of Carnival—a one act play written by Euton Jarvis and Amaroso.

“It had a superb cast led by Peter Smart (Thabiti), Shirley De Gannes, Lloyd (Norvan) Fullerton and Jackie Hernandez. At an international drama festival in Caracas, Venezuela, it also won the prize for the Most Original Play,” said Amaroso.

The second big hit was The Dry Season, one of Amaroso’s best known plays based on the Black Power uprising in 1970s Trinidad. The play combined serious drama with comic turns.

The third hit was One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Amaroso said at the time of the play, the 1975 film version of the novel was showing in cinema. Their play became “wildly popular and had to be repeated more than once,” he recalled.

Some years later, more well-trained actors began emerging from the Tent Theatre and from the newly established Creative Arts Centre at the University of the West Indies in 1986. So the Company of Players focused on theatre training, offering a space that offered ready experience in theatre production. Sadly, the number of participants gradually dwindled, and the Company of Players faded into history.

MORE INFO

To register for Reunion activities, call 377-1198 or 637-7561 (11 am to 2 pm)