Early in her life, her parents played pivotal roles in her drive and direction; each parent guiding her to pursue academics and sports, individually.

Shimonah credits their drive with motivating her to continuously improve on all aspects of her life.

For ten years, Shimonah swam on the National team. She was also the kids’ triathlon champion twice and placed in the top three at the national junior aerobics competition. She also took part in Math Olympiads.

“To balance academics and my sporting career was always a challenge which I managed to handle well,” she says of her natural ability to excel in both spheres. “This created the foundation for me becoming self-motivated, disciplined, and enabled me to achieve my goals and improved my time management skills.” These skills have equipped her with the ability to study, work, and manage her family and social lives to this day.

Today, she has a career in the energy sector’s supply chain field where she has been for the past five years, strictly in procurement for the last three. Her job in the Materials Department focuses on procuring both plant and non-plant items. Procurement, as she explains, is the sourcing, purchasing, and arranging of logistics from the vendor to the worksite, both locally and internationally.

Shimonah recalls watching “G.I. Jane” with her father as a child and being in awe of the lead character – the only woman in the army – also being one of the best in her field. “In particular, I remember how hard she worked for what she wanted and how she proved so many people wrong; I’ve always liked movies with strong leading women roles and an underdog story,” she says, relating this to the energy sector, a very male dominated arena. But she says her strong and diverse upbringing never taught her to view being a woman as an “obstacle”; she was not brought up to see her womanhood as a disadvantage or hindrance, and to always put her best foot forward.

Her work in the energy sector is closely linked to her father’s legacy; she reveals he himself worked in the energy sector for over 30 years. She and her family lived in Couva, and their proximity to the estate always left Shimonah dreaming of working there someday. Her first degree at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine – spurred by her father’s experience and support – was in Environmental Science and Nature Resource Management, with Minors in Biology and Entrepreneurship. Her intention at the time was to pursue a career in Health and Safety, but midway through her degree she felt a different calling.

“I discussed with my dad who worked in procurement and suggested I try to break into his field,” she says of her inspiration to follow in his footsteps. She pursued the professional procurement certification, CIPS (Certified Institute of Purchasing and Supply) and the rest, as they say, is history.

“I’ve always seen my dad as a super hero,” she shares of the bond between father and daughter.

“I wanted to be like him! He gave me the structure and framed my life as a child. He was responsible for me being more disciplined and determined, which I’ve now applied to my business life.” The “business life” she speaks of took root in September 2015 when she started her MBA in Trade Logistics and Procurement at the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business. It was her enrolment here that awakened her “entrepreneurial spirit”. “Being at the school unlocked innovation and creativity to be a profitable venture,” she says of the new path her life was about to take.

“My husband had friends who were having babies and he always gave me the task of finding ‘cool and unique gifts’ for them. I always felt like it was a challenge to find something great and affordable; I’ve seen stores sell some items but it never seemed to be a one-stop-shop for babies and mummies,” she says of the other occurrences in her personal life happening around this time. It seemed to click.

“The idea came to me in June 2016. In July 2016, I started doing research and found the idea was feasible and potentially profitable,” she says coyly. “I found my niche.” That niche is her maternity store Baby & You in Mind, a boutique that offers a range of maternity and baby items for expectant or new parents, in a variety of brands for just the right fit. Shimonah says she has heard many people complain of not being able to find quality baby care items at reasonable prices locally. Even in her own experience as a shopper, she has scouted for presents for baby showers and came away with items she was not entirely satisfied with.

“When I found something, my curiosity of the online price would be piqued,” she says – possibly a relic from her career in procurement. “Sometimes when you see the mark up of items, you feel taken advantage of.”

Thus, her goal with Baby & You is to provide a one-stop space for both parents and babies with quality items that do not make the pockets weary. The store offers top brands in clothing, travel, feeding, health and hygiene systems, furniture, brain stimulation, and toys for babies. For mothers, it offers2 breast pumps, storage options, nursing covers, pads, and carriers. Baby shower registries, gift baskets and certificates, as well as baby shower planning services are also available.

With its genesis as an online store, Baby & You in Mind moved to its physical location at Gaston Street, Chaguanas in March of this year. Shimonah is proud and says business is picking up as more people get acquainted with the store and its services.

She also feels a corporate social responsibility to develop local content and manufacturing in TT. While many of Baby & You’s products are imported, the business hopes to provide a platform for local makers. “Preference will be given to crafters that can make items that are tailor-made to our local market,” she says of her goal to give local manufacturers a space to sell their creations.

“At this time, we have one local crafter who makes handmade cards that were customised for birthdays and baby showers. We are also working with joiners to make local and customised nursery furniture,” she says, adding that she hopes this will reduce the amount of imported goods while encouraging and providing more consistent work for skilled local artisans.

Her ultimate dream is of having a sustainable store that fits all parents – mothers and fathers alike – and their babies. She would also like to distribute regionally in the future. “We hope that it grows into that one-stop store to buy all premier products for our babies. To become THE baby store in TT,” she says proudly.

She also shapes her business and personal life around mindfulness, clarity, and love. “I don’t think our lives should only be hoping to gain wealth or worldly success,” she explains, giving an example of a quote by Bob Marley: “Some people feel the rain, others just get wet.”

“I’ve always felt as though the quote was very profound. Sometimes with our busy lives we get caught up and forget to enjoy those precious moments with our loved ones. It’s important to remember our time on this world is short; we ought to contribute to society in a positive way – not only with our loved ones – but society at large.”

For more information visit

“Baby & You in Mind” on Facebook.

The man, identified as Lionel George of Oxford Street, Port of Spain, by a form of ID on the body, was discovered by a fisherman at about 9.30 am.

The police and Coast Guard were notified and the body was removed from the water.

It was viewed by a district medical officer and transferred to the Forensic Science Centre in St James where an autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday.

According to police, an autopsy was necessary to confirm a cause of death as the body had no visible marks of violence.

Mervyn Taylor’s Voices Carry and Shivanee Ramlochan’s Everyone Knows I Am A Haunting respond, each in their own way, to issues plaguing our society.

I know both authors. My third book, Pitch Lake, is dedicated to Taylor; and was recently reviewed by Ramlochan. I would not want to pretend to review these titles as an independent critic might. Instead, I refer to both books as part of an overall argument about the right of the poet to speak out in the manner of their choosing.

Let me be clear. The poet has no duty to anyone. Yet, no poet lives in a vacuum.

Each is a product of a society or societies.

Though we sometimes disagree on what poetry is, we do not quibble over who poetry is for. It is meant for an audience.

That audience, too, is comprised of sentient individuals: beings whose lives have been coloured by factors that shape our understanding of the world. On this pulsing theatre stage, what is the place of the poet?

At the very least, poets who choose to directly engage with the issues of their time; who seek to express truths; who sincerely advocate for justice and equality should not be vilified. Nor should their work be, for these reasons, deemed inferior or dismissed as simplistic. Plato and Socrates questioned virtue, but poetry reassembles it with both crystal-clear water AND mud. Remember, poetry is a true democracy. It is often said in debates about poetry that the idea of a poet having an agenda is distasteful or distracting. But it is not about the poet having an agenda.

It is about the poet having the freedom to express their moral conscience. It is about an individual’s willingness not to turn a blind eye to suffering. A desire to express our dream for a better world, presenting the world in all of its beauty and its ugliness. If a poet is dismissed as being fashionable due to her awkward quality of having integrity, then so be it.

Taylor’s previous books include The Waving Gallery, No Back Door, and Gone Away. Like these works, Voices Carry examines the shifting individual, moving across boundaries and time, coming to terms with bitter social realities. The collection is nostalgic about the past, in love with memory, drunk on music and literature, ever mindful of the shifting times; the changing world. His poems achieve great clarity but not at the expense of freshness. They feel like fables but are completely modern. If at times they veer into the surreal, that is because life in Trinidad and Tobago is surreal (consider Blue Lights, Bad Dream).

Crime is the villain of theses poems, stalking them, made more horrific by how Taylor casually incorporates suffering. In Alma’s Advice he writes: Who are the boys we’ll root for, when they’re all dead or gone away? Where is the cluster of houses We’ll indicate with a wave, meaning where we grew up, where we had our first glimpse of secret flesh, covered with fur.

But for all the fine poems, it is A Kind of Valentine that lingers in the mind long after we close this book. Taylor writes of murdered Japanese steel pan player Asami Nagakiya, found dead on Ash Wednesday, 2016, in her Carnival costume.

The poet gives us, “the Carnival that so went to a man’s/ head, he tried to hide her/ among the yellow blossoms”. The concluding lines: I will walk you round this Savannah… I will show you where not to go at night.

But I cannot help during the day, when it is bright, and a hundred thousand people offer invites, and behind the masks, men are not always who they say they are.

In this book, voices bring us news.

They carry—meaning they go far and wide; they endure. They carry— meaning they contain multitudes, bring us gifts.

In a similar vein, Ramlochan’s rich début, Everyone Knows I Am A Haunting preaches truth. There is a sense of a poet luxuriating in language. Elegant lines are dipped in Gothicism and folklore; incandescent monologues are spiked by the poet’s imperatives. There is the play of magic realism, the personal is made mythological yet the sense of intimacy, of secrets being revealed remains. In this way social concerns, such as those relating to gender and violence, are woven into a beautiful tapestry. Ramlochan’s mosaic leaves us with the bristling sensation of a yearning for justice. And so the complex Materna: I am not your mother but in my womb there is knowing of you.

The dome of my head is shorn close, ‘til it hints of marrow.

These years and years of hair carpet your dreams.

Also consider the irresistible Shepherdess Boxcutter sequence where the traumatic and fertile are allied.

Everywhere we find the body of the abused, the marginal, the silenced – now strangely brought back to life by the poet’s scalpel as though we are privy to a miraculous post-mortem. Translate “Everyone knows I am a haunting” and you get everyone knows I am a-hunting; everyone knows I am a ghost; everyone knows. All should be afraid.

These books respond to the immediate needs of the world around them in ways that are compelling, beautiful and, in my view, necessary.

Taylor and Ramlochan approach social realities differently, yet those realities are present all the same.

They demonstrate John F Kennedy’s famous declaration: “If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.”

This is so not only because it comes on the heels of similar action by four girls at the St Dominic’s Home for Children in Belmont, but also it points to an unacceptable level of vulnerability when it comes to security at these establishments where young people are held at the State’s pleasure, and are themselves vulnerable to the societal ills that befall us, hence their presence at those institutions in the first place.

The situation, especially in the case of the St Michael’s centre demands a most thorough investigation. And it must not result in another of those documents that find their way as mere information pieces for some relevant ministry and satellite bodies, and then consigned to some drawer somewhere to be dusted off only when the next incident takes place. It must be the basis of resolute action, so that all parties concerned – the responsible ministries and those whose duty it is to report to the authorities on these institutions, the inmates and their relatives – could be in a better place to avoid the recurrence of these great escapes.

If the observations of people living within earshot of the home for boys are true, then someone is guilty of a great dereliction of duty and nonchalance.

One “neighbour” told the media that it is customary for the boys in their teens and being held for a variety of offences, some of them quite serious, to scale the fence back into society.

Newsday which broke the story of the boys’ escape in last Friday’s edition reported that they may have done so via a large ravine behind the home, from which they could have accessed several different streets within the Diego Martin area.

One person confirmed that residents have been terrorised by the boys in the past, as several homes have been broken into and vandalised. He says that despite calls for greater security measures at the home, nothing has been done to ensure the safety of residents, adding that the escape should serve as a “wake up call” to those in authority to finally take the resident’s pleas seriously.

But the boys also have complaints themselves if we are to believe a relative of one of them.

She says he has broken out of the institution on previous occasions, citing dreadful living conditions including being subject to physical beatings and verbal abuse from other boys as well as from security and other staff. For their sins, the boys should not expect a room at the Hyatt, but surely the time has come for all these matters to be looked into if we accept that the establishments are for rehabilitation and not merely for keeping bad boys locked away.

The issue of who should be at these institutions is another matter of grave concern. One of the boys occupying the premises and who is among the escapees was brought to the home for his involvement in the robbery and murder of former soldier Calvert Dexter James on J’Ouvert morning, this year. This cannot be a good mix, although we emphasise that even for a teenager, everyone remains innocent until proven guilty.

The Joint Select Committee on Human Rights, Equality and Diversity of the Parliament in a report earlier this year pointed to findings of staff shortages and culture as major challenges to management, and there was an absence of a human resource policy to deal with the reports of abuse at the different juvenile facilities. The time for action is now. As a start there should be no more great escapes.

The Art & Design Exhibition celebrated its ninth year of showcasing the joint expression of art and fashion, which is the foundation of sketching and design.

In spite of the rainy weather, a steady stream of students, fellow designers, art, fashion and design enthusiasts along with family members and supporters from the general public visited the exhibition location at the Hotel Lobby of National Academy of the Performing Arts (Chancery Lane entrance) Port-of-Spain to view a selection of fabric pattern designs, surface treatments, upcycled and recycled jewelry design, shoe design, art sketches, paintings, collages as well as one-of-a-kind clothing designs all curated from the work of the students from across the CAFD programme’s 1st to 3rd year groups.

The Designer Spaces event took place on Wednesday at the UTT John S. Donaldson Creativity Campus on Wrightson road, where 17 students were challenged to share their fresh perspectives on the design of a retail space for their final thesis collections. The event offered the many attendees visiting throughout the day an opportunity to browse ad window shop the debut collections of each fashion student in ‘live’ mock-up of a creatively styled retail space of each student’s choosing.

From the floating paper butterflies of Rueben Gonzales’ Ixoras in Dance collection, to the detailed Origami-inspired precision of Keri Bazzey and the Citrus Juice, Mod-influenced collection by Nedra Waldron, the Designer Spaces exhibition gave each of the 4th year fashion students a chance to share intimate anecdotes surrounding the design choice for their thesis collections.

UTT Fashion Week 2017 ends with ‘Eclectic – A Caribbean Fashion’ – the finale runway event, which takes place this evening from 7 pm, Under the Trees and Under the Stars @ John D on Wrightson Road, where all 17 final year students will debut their thesis collections to the world.

Briskly following Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s outcry of “shame” upon the “three able-bodied, gun-toting men” who wickedly robbed and tied up Fr Clyde Harvey last Tuesday, many commentators express worry over the reckless shamelessness of so many young men today.

Added Dr Rowley: “These miscreants have parents and I hope that somewhere in this country there are a few parents who are hanging their heads in shame over what more they might have done.” A society is as lawless as its citizens are shameless. This requirement of “feeling shame for doing something wrong” is a key element in reducing crime and delinquency.

Forgiveness without contrition or shame is ineffective, especially in restorative justice and rehabilitation programmes. Being sorry and ashamed for wrong-doing must come before forgiveness if change is the objective. That is why for example, Catholics have an Act of Contrition to earn forgiveness for sins.

Shame is a mental prophylactic.

Its moral power is to restrain.

Examples: One youth says, “I am ashamed to do it.” Another: “I am ashamed I did it.”Another: “I will be ashamed if they catch me doing it.” On the dark side, a youth says, “Come let us do it, nobody will know.” Shame emerges from a good conscience. In building a democratic society, there are critical social and state institutions. The key social institutions to shape good conscience, that is, to inculcate values of respect, lawfulness, shame for wrong-doing are firstly, the family; secondly, the church, and thirdly, the school.

The key state institutions to maintain law, order and justice are the police and the courts.

Government and parliament, of course, create the laws and systems.

So why have shamelessness and lawlessness become so? Taking a priestly view, Fr Harvey said: “Some would tell you just look at them as little black boys who should go to hell. Those who are currently bleeding the society will get there before them.” Yes Father, there are many corrupt, shameless ones, adults, prospering in untouchable zones.

Why you think so many are lawlessly throwing rubbish all over the place and still without the required dustbins and effective litter wardens? Why you think a young man could go in broad daylight, without any mask, and shoot down people? Why you think lawless vendors now prepared to fight police officers? Shamelessness.

Why you think so much inefficiency and incompetence can be regularly exposed at Joint Select Committee meetings, and it continues to be business as usual? Our culture of lawlessness is inspired by shamelessness – both poisonous to the soul of the nation.

And right-thinking citizens must understand that the sociological and institutional roots of crime and delinquency began years ago. It is naive to expect solutions tomorrow. The toxic twins – shamelessness and lawlessness – grew slowly. Reduction can come from law enforcement that supports a combined and phased social, educational and legislative programme.

If you think another law alone will help cure such things tomorrow, you might be mistaken.

Shamelessness is immune to the law. In fact, it sometimes makes an ass of the law.

Check out how many laws have been already made in parliament – and yet corruption and tiefing thrive. Even with that package of bank forms.

A few years ago I was given details about kickbacks in one particular ministry such that will give you an education in corruption.

The 1962 promises continue to suffer from corruption, even from some who went to university.

The Land Settlement Agency will tell you that hundreds of people, already with houses, now rush to install structures on state land, expecting the promised regularisation.

If shamelessness and lawlessness are rewarded – even by public policy – what do you expect? The challenge now is for Dr Rowley, the Opposition and Parliament to use courage and authority to pull this country back, with some focus on the growing number of shameless, reckless young men and their parents. As my friend, Ferdie Fereira advised, country first, party after.

L e t ’s h e l p save our “shamel e s s ” y ou n g m e n f r o m t h ems e l v e s now.

This is the highest ranked junior tennis event to be staged in Trinidad and Tobago and this is undoubtedly due to the improved range and quality of sporting facilities.

Commenting on the presentation of Government support for the event, Darryl Smith, Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs, noted with pride that Trinidad and Tobago was again able to successfully bid for a major international tournament.

“In the past six months, we’ve had cycling, hockey, aquatics in the coming days, cricket in a matter of months, and now tennis.

I am pleased at the high level of tournaments we have been able to attract, placing our athletes and sports event management resources on display for the public.

“Our sports tourism thrust, using these facilities is beginning to bear fruit and I’m excited about the direction we are heading,” continued Smith. “The mega facilities in Couva and Tacarigua are reaping rewards for the athletes, governing bodies and the sport-loving public in Trinidad and Tobago.” Equally pleased was Tennis Association president Hayden Mitchell who added that the governing body is poised to make Trinidad and Tobago a regional hub for tennis.

“Trinidad and Tobago welcomes the best Under-18 tennis players from the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico for an ITF Grade III tournament.

With our local athletes having the opportunity to play against stellar opposition, we see this year’s JITIC as a major step towards our goal of having a top 150 ranked player from Trinidad and Tobago by 2026.” Smith presented the Tennis Association last week with support in the amount of $306,000 towards the hosting of the tournament. The public is also encouraged to come out to see the best of the region’s junior tennis.

Whereas company stocks and dividends therefrom are vested to a few satellite investors who are preferentially allowed to buy what ought to be publicly owned shares, since by name public companies ought to belong to the general public if their liabilities automatically belong to the general public.”

B JOSEPH via email

We have now done what India did in 1978, when it passed the Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Act, which raised the minimum age of marriage to age 18 for women and age 21 for men, thereby amending the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, which then had minimum ages of 18 years and 15 years for boys and girls, respectively.

India went even further in 2006, when it passed the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, under which a parent, guardian or anyone found guilty of promoting or solemnising child marriage, or being a male adult engaging in child marriage, can be imprisoned for up to two years and be also liable to be fined a lakh rupee, the equivalent of which is about US$1,500.

Last year April, I was in London attending a meeting of the Executive Council of the International Society of Family Law, when the UK High Court denied a father’s application to have his young sons circumcised on religious grounds. The mother opposed the procedure.

The court made it clear that religion must not be allowed to trump child rights and pronounced that the children themselves, when old enough, should make that decision.

Instead of further enriching wealthy lawyers in an attempt to challenge the new law, intended litigants should make a financial donation to some children’s homes. All of our children’s homes are in dire need of resources to properly provide the care, sometimes specialist medical care, our children so desperately need. Marriage is not what they need.

HAZEL THOMPSON-AHYE child rights advocate

Matches were played at the Queen’s Park Savannah in Port of Spain and at Canaan Grounds in Tobago.

Youngsters braved heavy downpours at the Queen’s Park Savannah.

In the Under-11 quarter-finals Hawks crushed Trincity Nationals 7-0 at the Savannah, while Hawks edged Jaric Titans 1-0 in Tobago in the Under- 13 division. Hawks got past FC Santa Rosa 5-2 in the Under-15 division with Hawks getting goals from Malachi Celestine, Josiah Edwards, Daniel David, Christian Smith and Kaihim Thomas.

The North Zone Under- 19 final was also scheduled to be held yesterday between Trendsetter Hawks and St Ann’s Rangers.

Unfortunately that match was postponed to allow the Under-15 match between Hawks and Santa Rosa to be played.

The Under-15 clash between Police and Petrotrin Palo Seco was postponed because of a water-logged field.

The semi-finals will be held next weekend at Constantine Park, Macoya, while the finals are set for July 1 at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo.

Event co-ordinator Anthony Harford told Newsday that 90 teams have participated in the league. He said this will ensure the youngsters are well-prepared and they will graduate to adult level by way of the feeder programmes run by each club.

RESULTS – Under-11: Queen’s Park 3 vs Jaric Titans 0; San Fernando Soccer Academy 0 vs Defence Force 2; Trendsetter Hawks 7 vs Trincity Nationals 0; Santa Cruz FA 1 vs Jabloteh 2.

Under-13: Trendsetter Hawks 1 vs Jaric Titans 0; St Madeline Strikers 0 vs FC Santa Rosa 3; Cunupia Extreme 3 vs Santa Cruz FA 0; Central FC 5 vs Trincity Nationals 2.

Under-15: Trendsetter Hawks 5 (Malachi Celestine, Josiah Edwards, Daniel David, Christian Smith, Kaihim Thomas) vs FC Santa Rosa 2; Queen’s Park 1 vs Jaric Titans 0; Petrotrin Palo Seco vs Police FC – postponed due to rain; RSSR 0 vs Crown Trace 0 – RSSR won 7-6 on penalties