Newsday was told that several commuters who went early, left the terminal to return closer to the 6 pm departure time. Passengers were also worried that there may not be enough room on the ferry, to accommodate 6 am passengers as well as 6 pm passengers.

If the troubles with the commercial ferry were not enough, food suppliers are still complaining about the conditions in which they have to transport their goods. The cracks to the seabridge daily continues to widen.

One trucker, Wilbur Simon, said commuters and truckers alike are stuck between a rock and a hard place, when it comes to tranport on the seabridge.

Simon was carrying 40 cases of chicken to Tobago, but he said he is not sure whether the cargo would make it to Tobago. He said that while perishable goods like chicken would usually get first preference, his cargo was not allowed on the boat. He was told to wait until the 4 pm departure. “They are sending sand and blocks to Tobago, but people cannot eat that. My cargo of chicken should have been given first priority,” he said.

Trinidad and Tobago won the rights to host the major junior event, scheduled from June 24 to July 2 at the National Aquatic Centre in Couva, on the strength of the nation’s newest swimming facility, which managed by the Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SporTT ).

The CCCAN Championships is currently the largest aquatics event in the western hemisphere and features a variety of disciplines including Swimming, Diving, Water Polo, Open Water and Synchronised Swimming.

Athletes, coaches and spectators, from 33 Caribbean and Central American countries, will be arriving on our shores for the auspicious event.

With the intentions of the Sport Ministry to regenerate and enhance a sustainable sport tourism industry, taking advantage of this opportunity to market the facility and its services – to tap into the niche of aquatic sports- is of utmost importance in propelling sports tourism.

Sports Minister Darryl Smith was delighted to offer the financial support as he presented ASATT president Wendell Lai Hing, with the million- dollar cheque and encouraged corporate TT to follow suit.

During a media conference yesterday at the Ministry’s Head Office in St Clair, Smith stated, “Since the opening (last year), all areas of the Aquatic Centre have been utilised extensively.

“It has undergone routine maintenance and is prepared to host an event of this magnitude.

“I assure corporate sponsors that they will get ‘bang for their buck’ if they choose to invest in the tournament.

“With over 1,500 visitors expected, plus local spectators and viewing audiences across the region, there are unlimited opportunities to promote your product or service. I also have full confidence in ASATT to deliver on the promise of an efficient and exciting tournament in all four disciplines – swimming, diving, water polo and synchronised swimming.” Team TT will number over 60 athletes and entails a blend of experience and youth, leaving all eyes focused on Joshua Romany, Kristin Julien, Cherelle Thompson and Olympian Dylan Carter as they are all expected to successfully compete in the swimming events.

According to Lai Hing, the talent pool is extensive as the entries are coming in thick and fast. He said, “I wish firstly to thank the Minister and SporTT for the financial and other support, and assure you that we won’t let you down.

“We are excited at the prospect of hosting CCCAN and making it a truly national event of which every citizen can be proud.” The national team will participate in four out of the five disciplines with Syncronised Swimming being the only discipline where the local athletes will not be competing.

Lai Hing added, “We will also have two divers representing TT and we thank SporTT for facilitating the athletes, in all disciplines, to train at the Aquatic Centre, familiarise themselves with the space and ensure we have a ‘home court’ advantage. This will certainly come into play as the event is FINA-sanctioned, meaning those in Open categories can qualify for the FINA World Championships.” The main events at the 2017 CCCAN Championships will take place at the National Aquatic Centre, with the exception of the Open Water events on June 24 and 26, which will be held at Turtle Beach in Tobago, as a form of sporting partnership with the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) and the Tourism Development Company (TDC).

Garcia made this statement in response to a question from Opposition Senator Wade Mark in the Senate. Referring to a May 21 Sunday Express article in which the claims were made, Garcia said, “At this stage, the matter can only be treated as allegations in the absence of fact.

“If Senator Mark can provide me with hard facts that are in his possession, I will be very happy to ensure that an investigation is conducted.” Mark asked Garcia if he was disputing or dismissing the article.

The minister reiterated, “At this stage they are only allegations, I have no evidence.” Mark then asked Garcia if he was prepared to initiate legal action against the Trinidad Express, “for falsely misleading the nation on this matter.” Senate President Christine Kangaloo disallowed that question, telling Mark it did not arise.

Later in the sitting, as he opened debate on a motion on parliamentary autonomy, Mark called for the EFCL to be brought before the Joint Select Committee (JSC) on State Enterprises to answer the questions which Garcia did not.

The chairman of that JSC, Independent Senator David Small, was not in the Parliament Chamber when Mark made the call.

The inaugural 2017 tournament, which concluded on Friday, featured KJ Sports Eastern Diamonds, Sacha Cosmetics Northern Starblazers, TECU Southern Titans and Central Gladiators. The Starblazers won the tournament with a seven- wicket win over the Titans in the final at the Brian Lara Academy in Tarouba.

Browne-John, who is also an executive member of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TT CB), said the success of the tournament was a pleasant surprise as she was apprehensive leading up to the competition.

“I thought it was a very successful tournament,” she said in an interview yesterday. “When we had these thoughts of trying to hold a women’s T20 (tournament), we just had the thought.

We wondered if we could put on something like this, we wonder what will be the response, we wondered if it will be successful.

“We said ‘let us try it’,” she continued.

“It was just a trial and it surpassed our wildest expectations.

We never anticipated the enthusiasm from the players, the public, the media. When we had that media launch at the National Cricket Centre (in Couva) and I saw the number of media people there I was pleasantly surprised.” Each team were allowed to have two regional players on their team and Browne-John said their response was overwhelming.

“The response we got from the West Indies players, nearly everyone of them was interested in coming.

It is just two people said they could not make it. When I looked at the crowd there on Friday night at the final, I have never seen a large crowd of people for a women’s cricket game in Trinidad and Tobago like that before.” Browne-John said plans have already started for the next tournament and ways to improve the standard, both on and off the field.

“We have already started to discuss next year and going forward,” said the current WI women’s team manager. “We hope that next week we will be able to hold a post mortem and look at the positives that we had, and the things that could be improved.

“How could we bring it more on a line with a franchise tournament? How could we get the owners of the teams to be more involved? All the players who were here, the overseas players, everyone have said to us already ‘Please don’t leave us out for next year.

We know that other people will want to come next year, but please remember us’.” The former West Indies Women’s cricketer said a number of people are asking if more teams will compete in the next tournament, but Browne-John does not want the standard to fall. “We have already said from next year we need to bring in more regional players.

People have been asking me if we don’t think we should have more teams. We don’t want to increase the teams and lower the standard of the tournament.

We want to maintain a very high standard. What we will have to do is bring in more foreign players, lift the standard and probably just have more matches.” One round was played in the 2017 edition, with the top two teams advancing to the final.

Browne-John said hopefully in the future two rounds of matches will be played before the knockout phase, which will give each team the opportunity to play six matches instead of three in the preliminary round.

According to the Brain Aneurysm Foundation in the USA, a brain aneurysm also referred to as a cerebral aneurysm or intracranial aneurysm, is a weak bulging spot on the wall of a brain artery very much like a thin balloon or weak spot on an inner tube. The foundation explained that over time, the blood flow within the artery pounds against the thinned portion of the wall and aneurysms form silently from wear and tear on the arteries.

Most aneurysms produce no symptoms and may only be found during tests for another usually unrelated condition. The brain foundation admits that symptoms of a ruptured brain aneurysm often come on suddenly. If you have any of these symptoms and/or notice them in someone you know, notify the medical emergency services immediately – a sudden severe headache that is different from the norm, neck pain, nausea and vomiting, sensitivity to light, fainting or loss of onsciousness or seizures.

Based on medical research studies, it is unlikely that you are born with a cerebral aneurysm; they usually develop as you advance in age and are more prevalent in women. Research further suggests that in the brain, causes are linked to specific factors including traumatic injury such as a blow to the head, an infection termed a mycotic aneurysm, a hereditary predisposition, cigarette smoking and hypertension or high blood pressure, use of drugs such as cocaine and amphetamines and certain blood vessel disorders, fibromuscular dysplasia, cerebral arteritis and arterial dissection.

In the same way that we take precautionary measures to protect and nourish our bodies, the same approach must be used to protect and nourish our brain. Starting with our food intake which should include whole foods such as fish, nuts and vegetables rich in vitamins, nutrients, and omega-3 fatty acids.

Ensuring that you get enough sleep is critical to good health, as inadequate sleep contributes to brain decline and may also increase your risk of Alzheimer’s.

Establishing a bedtime routine sleep schedule puts you on the right track in both resting and protecting your brain.

A regular exercise routine is also important as it protects against brain ageing and improves mental function. Prolonged periods of stress are also harmful to the brain, as you may experience fatigue, poor concentration and memory loss. Remember your brain is as equally important as your mind, body and soul so treat it well! Sandrine Rattan is a communications/branding consultant, author and president of the International Women’s Resource Network (IWRN). Contact: thecorporatesuitett@gmail.

com or intlwomensresourcenetwork@ gmail.com or 283-0318

The positive identification was made at the Forensic Science Centre in St James where an autopsy revealed he had been stabbed 14 times.

Relatives said he was found dead shortly after being involved in an altercation at a bar in Princes Town.

When he left the bar at 6 am on Saturday, Gittens was never seen alive again.

On Sunday, relatives received a telephone call from police asking that they go to the Centre on Monday to identify a body that had been found in the Devil’s Woodyard. In an unrelated case, an autopsy done on the body of Bishnu Jagmohan, 61, who was found at the Chase Village Bye-Pass on the Solomon Hochoy Highway yesterday, confirmed he died from suicide.

Pathologists determined that Jagmohan ingested a toxic substance. A relative said Jagmohan was a father of three who worked as a surveyor, until his retirement.

Relatives believe news of a potentially fatal medical condition is what led him to getting depressed and taking his own life.

Family members said Jagmohan planned his death.

“He came to me on the Tuesday before his death and brought his driver’s permit and birth certificate,” said a relative.

“When I asked him why he brought them for me, he said I would need it later.

I asked him what was going on and he said not to worry, I would be getting a call soon.

He wasn’t perfect, but he was a good man and a good father,” the relative said.

Gopeesingh claimed there are gross irregularities in the award of contracts by the EFCL that sugests rank corruption through bid-rigging and insider trading. He said there were also issues with the Central Tenders Committee that have undermined the role of the executive and breached official regulations and procedures outlined in the State Enterprises Performance Monitoring Manual.

Gopeesingh alleged that people within the EFCL were major general election campaign operatives for a sitting Cabinet member. He said this was clearly a case of jobs for PNM “party hacks”, who in turn, award contracts to the “boys”.

In agriculture, data is more important than any other piece of information for production planning, he added, saying decisions cannot be made by, “cut and paste and guess.” Production data provided by the Central Bank, which dedicates “three lines” to agriculture in its quarterly bulletin, he said, “is derived from a single physical market in the country, Namdevco market in Macoya.” Rambharat made these claims yesterday as he delivered the main address at the opening of a five-day regional roundtable on the World Programme for the Centre of Agriculture 2020 at the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel, Invader’s Bay.

The forum was sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organisation.

On the issue of Namdevco’s data collection, Rambharat said agricultural economist Omardath Maharaj has been assigned to review this data and present a report by the end of June.

“That will be the basis on which I determine the next step in terms of data collection in agriculture and fisheries in Trinidad and Tobago,” Rambharat said. What really matters, he said, is the numbers which would assist the ministry in making long-term investments in agriculture.

Not a lot of people get excited with data and statistics, he opined.

Across the Caribbean, Rambharat said, when it comes to farmers, fisherfolk and people involved in the production of food, the talk is only about rural access roads, cost of chemicals but very rarely do they talk or argue about lack of data and unreliability of data.

Noting that agriculture is not like the normal manufacturing process where production is not exposed to the forces of nature, Rambharat said, “It is mainly because agriculture is so different and so vulnerable to forces that is not within our control that it becomes very important that we introduce even more measures to plan production, and in particular to manage risks.” The lack of data, he said, is no different in Dominica than in TT or the other islands. “All of us face the same deficiency in the sense that agriculture is treated as an ad hoc activity, and not as an activity that relies heavily on production planning and numbers,” he said.

The Planning Ministery, in a statement yesterday, said this was one of the findings of the State of the Marine Environment TT 2016 (SOME) which was presented to Planning Minister Camille Robinson- Regis on May 18. The Report said this pollution problem is mainly land based, where run-off and effluent from terrestrial sources and activities have negatively affected coastal sediment and water quality.

The SOME Report is the first of its kind in TT and provides a scientifically grounded understanding of the condition of some of the country’s important coastal and marine ecosystems, habitats and species. At the launch of the report, Robinson- Regis said, “It is estimated that almost 80 percent of all socio- economic activities and 70 percent of the’s population are located either along, or in close proximity to the coast.” The report also said suspended solids, hydrocarbons, nutrient pollution, heavy metals, and factors affect bathing beach water quality. Climate change, sargassum and lionfish were also identified as issues in the report. The ministry said the information in the report,” will be used for policy intervention among other actions to contribute to the resuscitation of our marine environment.” Actions to be taken in the near future include the appointment of an Inter-ministerial Committee to oversee the Action Plan for implementing the Integrated Coastal Zone Management Policy Framework, installation of the Water Quality Monitoring Buoy in collaboration with Microsoft in the Central Gulf of Paria, production of education material on land-based pollution and waste management and the development off a Marine Spatial Plan for the Northwest Peninsula of Trinidad.

There are two joint select committee public hearings tomorrow. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meets in the J Hamilton Maurice Room of Tower D at 10.30 am to discuss concerns raised in the Auditor- General’s Report with respect to the Land Settlement Agency, for the period 2008 to 2009.

At 10 am, the Local Authorities, Service Commissions and Statutory Authorities Committee meets in the ANR Robinson Meeting Room to deal with operations of the Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA). The House of Representatives sits at 1.30 pm on Friday to debate a private motion on crime.