标签： Trinidad and Tobago

In the serene fishing village of Charlotteville, Tobago, 69-year-old Rastafarian Irwin “Jaba” Hercules has emerged as an unexpected peace advocate, channeling personal tragedy into community transformation. Known locally as “I Lion Jaba,” the square-shouldered elder operates Ayo Restaurant while simultaneously serving as an informal conflict mediator for villagers grappling with disputes.

Hercules’ commitment to peace originates from profound personal loss. His son Ayo, then 25 and preparing to attend Boston University, was murdered in Trinidad years ago after inadvertently crossing paths with criminal elements. Rather than succumbing to bitterness, Hercules transformed his grief into a mission to prevent similar tragedies.

Together with cousin Winston Irving Sawyer Jr. in Canada, Hercules co-founded the Charlotteville Beachfront Movement—a community initiative focused on youth engagement through cultural events and economic opportunities. Their post-carnival festival provides free meals while showcasing local talent, representing what Hercules describes as “giving back to the community that has supported us.”

The movement specifically targets youth violence prevention through constructive alternatives. “Our young people tend to gravitate towards violence for some reason,” Hercules observes. “As elders, we’re trying to encourage them toward small businesses, agriculture—anything besides sitting on street corners daily.”

Hercules’ resilience stems from early hardship. Forced to abandon education at 13 after his father’s fatal car accident, he became primary caregiver for seven siblings when his mother suffered a breakdown. Through hunting, fishing, and eventually waterfront produce sales, he sustained his family in what he calls becoming a “force-ripped man.”

Now, his advocacy extends beyond local concerns to international affairs. Expressing concern over tensions between Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, and the US, Hercules declares: “I am totally for peace. Let’s stop these stupid wars and share love among one another. This place remains a zone of peace, and we want to keep it like that.”

The Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain transformed into a vibrant hub of community engagement on November 29 as Guardian Group hosted its annual SHINE 5K and 10K charity event, aptly named “Heart and Sole.” The early morning event attracted diverse participants ranging from competitive runners to families with young children, all united in their support for charitable causes.

Photographer Ayanna Kinsale documented the spirited atmosphere, capturing images that reflected the event’s inclusive nature. Participants flooded the streets surrounding the historic cricket ground, with many displaying visible enthusiasm throughout the course. The event showcased intergenerational participation, with numerous runners accompanied by young children in strollers, highlighting its family-friendly approach.

The photographic evidence reveals participants exhibiting genuine excitement and determination, from energetic trios posing pre-race to individual runners demonstrating focused preparation. The presence of smiling attendees throughout the course underscored the event’s positive community impact. Guardian Group’s initiative successfully combined physical activity with philanthropic purposes, creating an environment where fitness and social responsibility intersected seamlessly.

The Heart and Sole event represents a growing trend of corporate-sponsored charity runs in the Caribbean region, demonstrating how private enterprises can effectively drive social engagement while promoting health and wellness within local communities.

Amidst one of the most severe financial crises in decades, Pan Trinbago president Beverly Ramsey-Moore has pledged unwavering commitment to safeguarding Trinidad and Tobago’s steelpan heritage. The declaration came during the 2026 Panorama Single Pan finals at Queen’s Park Savannah on November 29, where the cultural event proceeded despite devastating sponsorship withdrawals and diminished government support.

The crisis deepened recently when state-owned Heritage Petroleum terminated its sponsorship of Skiffle and Siparia Deltones steelbands, following similar withdrawals by NGC months earlier. This funding collapse has left multiple community bands struggling to prepare for upcoming medium and large band categories, threatening both their competitive viability and organizational survival.

Ramsey-Moore addressed a modest but devoted audience with defiant rhetoric, emphasizing the steelpan’s profound social significance. “Pan keeps our youths in line and out of trouble. When you invest in pan, you invest in our future,” she asserted, highlighting how young people now constitute the majority of players, finding discipline and purpose through the instrument.

The Single Pan finals proceeded with remarkable resilience, featuring 25 finalists from 48 auditioning bands—the highest participation in recent years. Defending champions San Juan East Side Symphony secured their ninth title, maintaining the unchanged first prize of $275,000 despite the financial turmoil.

Ramsey-Moore invoked the instrument’s revolutionary origins, born from discarded oil drums by visionary pioneers who created the twentieth century’s only invented acoustic instrument. “The steelpan is a living monument of resilience, creativity, and community,” she declared, framing the current struggle as continuation of a legacy “built with fire, forged with courage, and sustained through generations.”

With cultural allocations shrinking, the president issued a direct appeal to corporate Trinidad and Tobago: “Support a steelband in your community. Invest in our heritage.” She emphasized that sponsorship represents not luxury but necessity for community-based bands.

National Carnival Commission chairman Peter Kanhai reinforced institutional support, acknowledging the single pan category’s significance despite its modest size. Linking to the 2026 Carnival theme ‘Yuh Go Love Dis’, he affirmed the steelpan’s role as a foundational element making Trinidad and Tobago’s festival globally captivating.

As Panorama preparations continue, the community confronts the paradox of artistic excellence amid financial precarity, testing whether corporate Trinidad will answer the call to preserve this unique cultural legacy.

Amanda Ackbarali, a 44-year-old mental health practitioner from San Juan, has dedicated the past 15 years to supporting survivors of gender-based violence and trauma. Her work coincides with the global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (November 25-December 10), an annual campaign addressing violence against women and girls worldwide.

Ackbarali’s approach to mental health care stems from childhood experiences rather than academic training alone. Growing up witnessing her mother’s exceptional compassion toward neighbors and friends on their family porch taught her that “if you can be kind, then be kind.” Her own struggles with severe atopic eczema from age three provided early lessons in vulnerability and empathy for those on society’s margins.

Armed with a psychology degree and master’s in mediation studies from UWI, Ackbarali became board-certified as a civil and family mediator in 2013. Her frontline experience with institutions like the Rape Crisis Society, Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Children’s Authority, and Prison Service shaped her understanding of systemic challenges in trauma care.

During her tenure at the Children’s Authority (2015-2018), Ackbarali played pivotal roles in establishing the Child and Family Services Unit and developing protocols for child trafficking victims. She describes child protection work as profoundly humbling: “You are often the person standing between danger and safety, between chaos and stability.

The most emotionally challenging aspect of her work hasn’t been the clients themselves, but navigating “overburdened and under-resourced systems moving more slowly than the urgency demands.” This systemic pressure, she notes, causes practitioner burnout, making caregiver support essential rather than optional.

In 2018, Ackbarali founded The Opening Lotus, a virtual mental health practice emphasizing culturally grounded care. The practice incorporates small rituals like ringing bells during breakthroughs to “make the invisible visible” and help clients recognize their growth. The lotus metaphor reflects her philosophy: “Healing, like the lotus, is a slow unfolding. It doesn’t ignore the difficulty, it grows through it.

Reflecting on Caribbean women’s struggles during the activism period, Ackbarali identifies the pressure to achieve balance as a major emotional burden, exacerbated by cultural expectations placing disproportionate caregiving responsibilities on women.

She challenges misconceptions about trauma presentation, explaining that responses vary from hypoarousal (withdrawal) to hyperarousal (high functionality), both being adaptive nervous system responses. “You can’t read trauma from the outside,” she emphasizes. “You understand it by listening to the person’s story.”

Despite Trinidad and Tobago’s developing mental health system with gaps in education, service delivery, and referral pathways, Ackbarali remains optimistic. She advocates for better emotional literacy for children, training for community gatekeepers (teachers, police, coaches), and more intentional support for underserved groups including men, rural communities, and people with disabilities.

Her career has demonstrated that “people are capable of rising through things that should have broken them,” and with proper support and compassion, they invariably “find a way to bloom again.”

In a remarkable display of literary talent, 12-year-old Catherine Teemul from Trinidad and Tobago has achieved international recognition by securing second place in the prestigious Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition 2025. The St Joseph Convent student’s exceptional creative writing skills earned her a silver award among 53,434 entries from across the Commonwealth nations.

Catherine’s journey to this achievement began unexpectedly when she discovered the competition through social media while attending Curepe Presbyterian Primary School. Driven by curiosity and her longstanding passion for storytelling, the then 11-year-old decided to enter on a whim. ‘I have loved reading since I was in standard three,’ Catherine recalled, highlighting her early connection to literature that paved the way for this accomplishment.

Her award-winning essay, titled ‘Through the Pages,’ presents a captivating mythical narrative written in first person perspective. The story follows a young girl who discovers a mysterious leather-bound book with gold specks, leading her through a glowing doorway into another dimension. The protagonist finds herself trapped in her favorite book, pursued by a knife-wielding villain through a forest, before executing a thrilling escape back through the colorful portal.

Catherine described being ‘overwhelmed with joy’ upon learning of her achievement. ‘It came as a surprise. I was overjoyed when I found out,’ she shared, expressing gratitude for her previous studies that contributed to this success.

The competition, organized by the Royal Commonwealth Society in the United Kingdom, annually challenges young writers to engage with pressing global issues and Commonwealth values, fostering empathy and open-minded worldviews among youth participants.

This literary achievement follows Catherine’s previous success in Trinidad’s Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) exams, where she also received recognition for creative writing at her graduation. Now attending her first-choice school, St Joseph Convent, Catherine follows in the footsteps of her eldest sister Chelsea-Marie while pursuing her artistic passions.

The young writer credits her former teacher, Valine Sewlal-Hamid, for playing an instrumental role in nurturing her writing talent. Her parents, Arvind and Nadia Teemul, along with siblings Chelsea-Marie and Celine, expressed profound gratitude for the teacher’s encouragement and believe this prestigious award has given Catherine ‘the proverbial push’ to further believe in herself as she embarks on her secondary education journey.

Despite her literary talents, Catherine reveals that Art is currently her favorite subject, with aspirations to become a fashion designer, combining her creative imagination with her eye for design that her mother describes as exceptional.

In a significant address to legal professionals, Chief Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh has outlined an ambitious reform agenda for Trinidad and Tobago’s judiciary, emphasizing three critical priorities: reactivating underutilized court facilities, enhancing judicial efficiency to ensure public value, and fostering collaborative leadership through consultation.

The Chief Justice’s declaration comes against a backdrop of pervasive systemic challenges that have long plagued the justice system. Chronic trial delays have created what commentators describe as a ‘human-rights nightmare,’ with citizens enduring repeated postponements, jurors facing unnecessary inconveniences, and remanded inmates awaiting resolution of their cases indefinitely. These delays are compounded by institutional failures—including state agencies disregarding court orders and frequent absenteeism among police witnesses.

Further complicating matters is the controversial process for appointing Senior Counsel, which has drawn criticism for being overly politicized and lacking transparency. This has, according to observers, tarnished the reputation of deserving recipients and undermined public trust in legal institutions.

Historical context reveals that these issues are not new. Over the past three decades, multiple committees—including those chaired by Sir Ellis Clarke and Dennis Gurley—have proposed solutions to reduce case backlogs and improve court efficiency, yet implementation has consistently fallen short.

Despite these challenges, Chief Justice Boodoosingh’s commitment to timelines for case hearings and determination has been met with public optimism. His reputation for integrity, humility, and judicial excellence positions him as a potential catalyst for meaningful change. However, achieving these reforms may require confronting deeply entrenched interests within the legal establishment.