THE INTENT

I made it back to the United States safely and without hassle despite what the masses were saying.  It was a concern of mine because of the rumors regarding reentering the country while using multiple passports.  Well, I'm here and can tell you that people are full of shit! Nothing new over here. Whoever  shared experiences of getting held back or had to go into a 'little room', they left out the part of what they really did to end up there or were just repeating things they didn't experience first hand. I can assure you that those negative experiences had nothing to do with traveling with multiple passports.

With that being said and out the way.....

Trinidad carnival 2025 and Tobago owes me nothing!

In fact, I may owe Trinidad and Tobago some money!

Tobago was intentionally separated from Trinidad carnival because Tobago has their own carnival and my trip to Tobago was not a "carnival" experience.

Anywho... Everything from my band choice, to each fete and excursion were great decisions!

I am gradually coming back to the land of the living so please, allow grace.  From upfront, I will let you know that my pace will be that of one who almost died yet didn't. The intent is to however do one review/experience per day but don't hold me. I've realized that the content is received better once I've posted them individually rather than do one long post so... The list of events that I planned on going to were as follows:

2/21 Fri  LAND ✅

2/22 Sat Stink and Dutty ✅ 

2/23 Sun Maracus ✅ 

2/24 Mon Private Parts Boatride ✅ 

2/24 Mon Monday Madness ✅ 

2/25 Tues Shhh ✅ 

2/25 Tues KES ✅ 

2/26 Wed CITRUS ✅ 

2/26 Wed Punchy Punch ✅ 

2/27 Thur Lyro and Ding Dong's All White Hennessy Boatride✅ 

2/28 Fri Colors ❎

3/1 Sat AMBush ✅ 

3/1 Sat Soca Brainwash ✅ 

3/2 Sun (Brunched at home) ✅ 

3/3 Mon SPIRIT MAS ✅ 

3/4 Tue  SPIRIT MAS ✅ 

3/5 Wed Maracus Lime ✅ 

3/6 Thur Boat/Ferry to Tobago ✅ 

3/6 Thur Argyle Waterfalls ✅ 

3/6 Thur Beach Bonfire ✅ 

3/7 Fri Tiki Tiki ✅ 

3/8 Sat Trinidad via flight ✅ 

3/8 Tribe Last Lap ✅

3/9  Sun HOME  ✅💀

The only event that I just couldn't make was DJ Stephen's Bright Colors boat ride.  As time goes on, you will come to understand why. 

ULTIMATE REJECTS TAKE WIN!

ULTIMATE REJECTS
TAKE WIN!

With all the politricks and bribing that goes on in Trinidad when coming to soca music I was skeptical but after reading this article in The Guardian, I was more than a bit concerned but naturally worried. Imagine the Master of Ceremonies requested ON THE MIC, IN PUBLIC for DJ's to please play something besides "Full Extreme".

GASP!!!

No matter where you played mas whether it was in town or in south, all you heard was #HolDemAnWukDem singing in the streets.  The people didn't business!  I ain't lying to tell you, I feared seeing the results this morning.  I thought all sorts of things including Machel paying DJ's to play "Beat It" all day on the road.  Regardless of what I thought or what happened, the bottom line is Ultimate Rejects prevailed and took the Road March for 2017 and I'm excited for them!  They worked hard for this and they deserve it.

Check the numbers though, "Beat It" played only 18 times meanwhile "Full Extreme" came in at a whopping 556!!!

Now dat is cutass!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO!!!!

"Trinidad has radiance, Trinidad is nice
When come to the heroes, we got to think twice
We've got to learn, how to bridge the gap
Because there are people, make us powerful on the map
The way we treat we heroes with scorn
And also wish, they were never born
In other countries I realize, their heroes are the ones who they idolize ah ha"

-  Heroes, by Winston "Explainer" Henry

This chune is embedded to memory because Explainer is my Godfather so his music was consistently played in our home.  It was released in Trinidad and Tobago in 1982 and sadly, still applies.  Every verse, hook and chorus Google or YouTube it.  Today marks 53 years of independence for the twin island and it's time that the country clean up.  Don't get me wrong,  at this stage in my life I would happily pack up, sell my home and move to Trinidad and I'd do it in a heartbeat but as a nation it's time to do better.

Happy Independence Day 

Trinidad and Tobago

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

Trinidad & Tobago

1. The Steelpan: The only new acoustic instrument to be invented and accepted worldwide in the 20th century originated in Trinidad and Tobago.

2. Trinidad and Tobago is home to the world’s largest traffic roundabout around the Queen’s Park Savannah.

3. In 2006, Trinidad and Tobago became the smallest country ever to qualifier for the 2006 Football World Cup.

4. Trinidad and Tobago contestant Ms Janelle “Penny” Commissiong was the first Black Miss Universe in 1977.

5. Trinidad and Tobago’s Brian Charles Lara holds the record for the highest individual score in a test innings (400 not out against England, Antigua 2004). He is also the only batsman to have ever scored a hundred, a double century, a triple century, a quadruple century and a quintuple century in first class games over the course of a senior career.

6. Trinidad and Tobago is one of the oldest hydrocarbon producers in the world, with commercial production dating as early as 1908. Trinidad and Tobago is also a major petrochemical hub and is the one of the world’s largest exporters of ammonia, ethanol and liquefied natural gas. The two largest methanol plants in the world are found in Trinidad.

7. The Leatherback Turtle: the largest of all living turtles chooses the shores of Trinidad and Tobago as one of its nesting grounds. Trinidad and Tobago is one of the most important leatherback nesting sites.

8. The Pitch Lake: The Pitch Lake in South Trinidad is the largest natural deposit of asphalt in the world.

9. Trinidad and Tobago is the birthplace of calypso, a style of Afro-Caribbean music that gained international popularity in the 1950s, primarily through the music of Harry Belafonte.

10. Trinidad and Tobago Carnival has been consistently ranked as one of the top ten Carnival celebrations in the world. It is popularly known as “The Greatest Show on Earth”. The founder of the Notting Hill Carnival, Europe’s largest street festival, Claudia Jones, also hails from Trinidad and Tobago.

11. The limbo dance originated as an event that took place at wakes in Trinidad and Tobago, but became internationally renowned through the work of Julia Edwards and her dance company in the 1960s.

12. The oldest rainforest reserve in the Western Hemisphere is located in Tobago. Little Tobago is home to the world’s largest brain coral. Trinidad and Tobago has over 400 species of birds, making it one of the richest birding countries per square mile.

13. Tobago was the location of Daniel Defoe’s classic Robinson Crusoe. Tobago is also widely believed to be the place Robert Louis Stevenson had in mind when he penned Treasure Island.

14. On August 1, 1985 Trinidad and Tobago became the world’s first country to declare a public holiday in commemoration of the abolition of slavery.

15. Trinidad and Tobago-born Stokley Carmichael (also known as Kwame Ture) was a member of the United States Civil Rights Movement who rose to prominence as the Honorary Prime Minister of the Black Panther Party. He popularized the term “black power” as a social and political slogan.

16. The only national to serve as Prime Minister and President of Trinidad and Tobago, ANR Robinson was instrumental in the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) during his tenure as Prime Minister from 1986-1991. In 1989, during the 44th session of the UN General Assembly, Prime Minister Robinson proposed the creation of the court, which was eventually inaugurated in 2002 to hear cases of crimes against humanity.

17. Trinidad and Tobago’s Dr Joseph Lennox Pawan achieved international acclaim for the discovery of the transmission of the rabies virus by vampire bats. This led to the development of a vaccine for the virus.

18. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Eugene Chen left behind a successful career and moved to China where he founded the Peking Gazette. Chen later became the Foreign Minister to four successive governments and the personal adviser to Sun Yat-Sen, the founder of Nationalist China.

19. The Trinidad accent ranks 10th on the CNN’s top ten sexiest accents in the world.

20. The Trinidad Moruga “Scorpion” Pepper has officially been ranked as the world’s hottest pepper by the Guinness Book of Records.

YUMA. READY TO "REIGN" TOMORROW!

(Medici)

Countdown ends tomorrow.

Read more from the Trinidad Guardian HERE.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE TRINBAGO!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!

Happy 50th Independence to the beautiful Twin Island Republic of Trinidad & Tobago. The people of the country may not be where they want to be but they are still present and where there is life there is hope. Let us show our true patriotism, which is looking out for ourselves by looking out for our country. Here, every creed and race finds an equal place and may God bless our nation.

TAKE A LISTEN!

EMANCIPATION DAY IN TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

 TOGETHER WE ASPIRE,

TOGETHER WE ACHIEVE.

We need to start taking these words seriously. Not only in Trinidad and Tobago. Our society on the whole is too divided. Divided we stand, divided we shall fall.

NICKI MINAJ'S T&T VIDEO SHOOT

“Ever wanted to be an extra in an international video? Here’s your chance…. Nicki Minaj will be shooting her latest video right here in TnT

If you would like to be a part of this amazing opportunity, please send an email to nickiminajvideo@gmail.com, with a picture of you in your full costume. You will have to bring it with you for the shoot”

N.B. Please note that all queries and comments should be sent to nickiminajvideo@gmail.com

For more facts about the video shoot visit the 

Trinidad Express Online.  

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

I don't know about you, but I plan on landing TOMORROW!

STATE OF EMERGENCY FOR TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

When I was first told about this lock down, I thought it was because of the dengue fever that has been spreading throughout the nation (sorry about the bbm blasts but that's what they told me LOL). Who woulda thought this little Indian woman woulda have it in her? I had no idea that she would have the balls to actually put Trinbagonians in their 'place'. Personally I didn't think she had it in her. Although people are saying that Kamla is this an an that, oh how she worse than Manning.  I fine, that the woman is right.  She is right to shut down the 'troubled areas' of Trinidad and Tobago. It is unfortunate that innocent people have to suffer for the few that just refuse to obey the law but maybe this kind of regulation would enrage people enough to either take a stand for the greater good. Its not to say these people don't know how to conduct themselves because for the carnival season you don't hear all the madness that you hear for the rest of the year, guess everybody is too busy getting drunk and feting.  So why cant they have some behavior throughout the year?  Hmmmm.  I don't know, maybe I'm just rambling.  Too many mixed up emotions for one day.

For a listing on each individual city, borough or region click HERE

For the news article you can click HERE

A little Trini humor
(don't take offense)

TRINI PM HAS DENGUE FEVER!!

WELL YES!
On a much lighter note, (not a more serious one seeing as carnival is VERY serious to me).  Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar was diagnosed with dengue fever.  I will not jump for joy for this happening to the Prime Minister right now especially since they're saying that its a less severe strain.  But God don't like ugly and he never sleeps. This may just be her warning, next time she may not be so lucky.  She refused to help victims in the Caribbean when they were badly off due to hurricanes and that was just the tip of the iceberg. We wont get into what she is doing to the people within her own country!

For the full story, click 

HERE

TRINIDAD'S CANCER SHOCKER

223 CANCER PATIENTS OVERDOSED WITH

RADIATION!!!

I'm no lover of doctors no matter WHERE the doctor is but I'm even more skeptical of doctors/ health providers practicing in the caribbean. In this case, it may not have been the fault of the doctors but of those that obtain machines/medicines for these centers and hospitals. Maybe if a radiation machine was obtained at a 'steal', a 'good deal' or was too good to be true, maybe it was and more money should have been spent. I've gone with my sister to her prenatal clinic appointment and she was given expired samples to take home. Samples that were gotten from the U.S.  Sorry, but that is a matter of my own opinion and I think they should just spend the money and get appropriate machines and medicines for the people of the country!  

The entire story is printed HERE for your own reading pleasure.

MUST GO AND MUST SEE!

While reading a Caribbean Travel + Life magazine I bumped into TWO very interesting articles.

The article read:

BEST OF THE 

C A R I B B E A N

From reading, it basically said that if you are planning to take a Caribbean escape this year, they polled 17,000 readers whose passion for the region is matched only by their desire to share it.  GUESS you just GUESS what/ where the hottest destination picks, resorts and attractions were for 2011?

BEST FESTIVAL was given to: Trinidad Carnival

They said, and I quote "To truly appreciate the Caribbean's most riotous pre-Lenten celebration, join a band and parade through the streets of Port-of-Spain in all your headdress-wearing, body-painted glory.  A soundtrack of the season's hottest soca hits keeps energy levels high."

OH I AM SOOOOO LOVIN IT!!!!!

THE RUNNERS-UP: Reggae Sumfest, Jamaica and St. Lucia Jazz

BEST ISLAND TO LIVE ON was given to: St. John, USVI

THE RUNNERS-UP:  St. Thomas, USVI and Grand Cayman

Then there was the TOBAGO JAZZ EXPERIENCE!   Explaining how the events buzz around Pigeon Point. They said that the Jazz festivals 'main dish' was Trinbago's own musical heritage-legend Machel Montano who performs pan, calpyso and soca with more mainstream R&B acts like Chaka Khan and Erykah Badu.  They go on and on about how Trinidadians and Tobagonians party, how we snack post-party and that it's an art form of T&T natives.  That things like flying-fish sandwiches, (which I think they meant bake an shark) and spicy doubles and corn soup are favorites among the post-party treats.  I dont think they left too much out.

PIGEON POINTE- TOBAGO AT SUNSET

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO!

TODAY MARKS THE 28TH YEAR TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO HAS BEEN AN INDEPENDENT COUNTRY!!!!

Live in the moment, bask in the glow, be safe, be merry and don't drink and drive!