Those hospitalised have been identified as driver Jamie Loubon, 28, his girlfriend Cassie Fonrose and their three children, four-yearold Emmanuel, two- year-old Candy and ten-month-old Jamieson all of Penal Rock Road, Moruga and Private Denzil Toussaint. Jamie is reported to have lost his right arm.

Fonrose along with Privates Kendall Morris, Jonathan Mohammed, Kevin Carter and Jerome Samaroo were all treated and subsequently discharged.

A police report stated that around 8.20 pm on Monday, an army jeep was travelling along Moruga Main Road, Bois Jean Jean, Moruga when the driver swerved to avoid colliding with another vehicle that came into its path. The jeep crashed into Loubon’s car, injuring his girlfriend and children.

Studies show that there are influencing factors associated with food choices among children and adolescents, which include hunger, appetite, taste, money, food prices, education, preparation, media messaging/ marketing, cultural practices, parental attitudes, nutrition knowledge and living conditions, just to list a few.

In focusing on children and teens, poor nutrition affects their growth and development, cognitive functions, contributes to disease, academic performance, productivity, and one’s health and nutritional status.

Dietary intakes during these early years of the lifecycle remain critical for supporting growth and development; for example, in childhood, adequate nutrition is required for developing bones, teeth, muscles, and blood. Similarly, during the period of adolescence, there is rapid growth and development that affect physical and psychosocial aspects of health, and increase nutrient needs.

Nutrition education Having knowledge of nutrition during childhood and adolescence can be beneficial; therefore, nutrition education is an essential key in promoting health and wellness in populations.

Healthcare professionals can work together collaboratively.

Nutrition education should be provided by trained food and nutrition professionals (registered dietitians and nutritionists) to children, adolescents, parents/guardians, educators, and to persons in various community settings, such as schools, community and/or health centres, and churches, which can make a big difference.

This of course can include teaching children and adolescents about nutrient content of foods, explaining why making healthy foods choices are better, for example, choosing foods that are less salty, choosing water and limiting sugary beverages as well as helping children and parents/ guardians to understand the life-long implications associated with poor eating habits in childhood and adolescence leading to adulthood.

Childhood obesity Studies show that obesity in children and teens, can possibly lead to obesity in adulthood.

Energy imbalance, simply meaning, consuming more food than the body needs for growth, functioning, and physical activity; the extra calories consumed can lead to weight gain. Other factors contributing to childhood obesity include genetics, metabolism, lack of physical activity, environmental factors, and social and individual psychology.

Childhood obesity remains a major concern in the Caribbean; it contributes to the onset of chronic non-communicable diseases and other challenges. Obesity can have long-term impact on one’s physical, social and emotional health.

In TT , from a study conducted by the Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute, 2009 to 2010, it reported that among primary schoolchildren and secondary school students, 23 per cent and 25 per cent, respectively were overweight and obese, and 14 per cent underweight (Ministry of Health, 2011).

From a global perspective, the World Health Organization documented that large numbers of children who are overweight and obese reside in developing countries, and the rate increase noted to be more than 30 per cent higher, than in developed countries. A continuation of these current trends, show that overweight and obese infants and young children will increase to approximately 70 million by the year 2025. They also emphasised that without intervention obese infants and young children, may more than likely continue to be obese during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.

Overall, you should note that nutrition education will more than likely contribute in reducing or lowering one’s potential risk for chronic diseases childhood obesity and aid in promoting healthy lifestyles.

From this brief overview, nutrition education programmes are designed to help students and their families make changes in dietary practices; with the aim of adopting healthy eating behaviours and improvement in physical activity habits. Through effective nutrition education children learn about healthy eating through action, experience, and participation.

Also, nutrition education needs to be linked with life outside of the classroom.

Claudette Mitchell, PhD, RD is an Assistant Professor, University of the Southern Caribbean, School of Science, Technology

Al-Rawi made this point as he concluded debate on the Indictable Offences (Pre-Trial Publicity) Bill 2017.

Referring to statements made by Chief Justice Ivor Archie at the 2017- 2018 ceremonial opening of the law term on Monday, Al-Rawi said Government supported Archie when he went to Nigeria and received computer software from the Nigerian government.

He said this software is being used in the Family and Children’s Division of the High Court and, “has been bettered by the Government of Spain.” Al-Rawi said this country has been able to shift from spending millions of dollars in software management and other expenses to, “ a glorious US$5,000 full stop for the year.” He also said under the People’s National Movement (PNM), a computer system is now being applied to the Magistracy, “for the first time ever in the history of TT.” Al-Rawi also said efforts are being made to improve transcription services in the court and it underscores Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s approach that, “ the position of readiness for us is a matter of getting the minutia dealt with.” Al-Rawi said there is regular dialogue with the DPP about filling critical positions in his office. Saying no such conversation took place under the former People’s Partnership (PP) government, Al-Rawi said the PNM acknowledges the independence of the DPP and the importance of the DPP in having an input regarding the individuals who fill these positions. Saying his permanent secretary writes and calls the DPP “every single Monday morning” on this, Al-Rawi said, “I can only do my part.” He rejected claims that Section 22 of the bill was the “new Section 34.” Referring to the 2011 legislation which contained the infamous clause, Al-Rawi reminded senators that Section 34 indicated that matters shall be discharged after a particular period of time. In contrast, he said Section 22 in the current bill used the word “may” regarding the discharge of matters.

“How on earth could shall and may be the same?” Al-Rawi asked.

He recalled that Section 34, “came alive by virtue of a Cabinet decision on August 9, 2012.” Al-Rawi said that decision was confirmed on August 16, 2012 and both decisions were signed off by then prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

He identified Winston Dookeran, Prakash Ramadhar, Jack Warner, Dr Roodal Moonilal , Dr Tim Gopeesingh and Dr Bhoe Tewarie as some of the other former Cabinet ministers who agreed to the proclamation of Section 34.

Good job, Ministry of Works .

Some people say it’s too much money to be spent in this recession but I think it will help the economy by beautifying the area and making it better for tourists .

So glad you took this project over from the Ministry of Tourism .

Maybe things will really get done. Maracas Beach is the best place to bathe in my opinion and when friends and family come from abroad, I always take them there for bake and shark .

LISA M GASPARD via email

The issue of a lease operator allegedly swindling $80 million from state-owned Petrotrin by over-billing the company for oil it never provided to Petrotrin, was first raised by Persad- Bissessar at a UNC meeting on September 10. At the party’s Monday Night Forum at the Union Presbyterian Primary School in Claxton Bay, the fake oil scandal was again her main focus.

Persad-Bissessar also weighed heavily on the fact that Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley had publicly acknowledged that he was friends with the owner of the company at the centre of the scandal. She said that a telephone call by a senior member of government, to the owner of the lease firm, raises serious questions and to her, suggests that the government official is guilty of misconduct and misbehaviour in public office. She said that it was passing strange at the government official did not call Petrotrin’s line minister Franklin Khan or Petrotrin chairman. Instead, the official chose to call the owner of the lease company.

“This phone call raises some serious questions and the question arises as to whether the (name called) may be guilty of misconduct and misbehaviour in public office,” Persad- Bissessar said. “The question arises as to whether (name called) may be guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice,” she added.

Persad-Bissessar also condemned recent attacks on media by personnel associated with the company and wondered whether the “perpetrators felt emboldened because they have a friend in high office.” She also condemned a police raid on Monday at the television studio offices of crime watch host Ian Alleyne, saying the nation is witnessing Gestapo tactics by the government.

Michael Anthony’s nostalgic 1967 classic novel, Green Days by the River, dealt with issues of poverty, race and intermarriage, but, told through the lens of 15-year-old Shell, naivety softened some of the brutality lurking behind the peaceful façade of rural Trinidad.

Fifty years later, Michael Mooleedhar’s adaptation reproduces that fine balance between innocence and menace, freedoms and bonds, kindness and cruelty, love and hate.

Visually stunning, with lush photography, his debut feature opened the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival last night, and it gets almost everything right.

Brilliantly acted, it features a richly expressive soundtrack and has a costume department with an impressive eye for detail.

This is the mid-20th century British West Indies of your grandparents’ youth, a blissful idyll before guns and drugs, when colonialism began to diminish and depopulate, and the new mechanisms of TT ’s emerging nation replaced centuries of institutionalised racism. Access to greater opportunity, wealth and power was opened to more and more non-white Trinidadians –as the stratification of society eased and a generation who did not know servitude emerged.

But as this new society grew, so too did new problems.

After beautiful opening frames of the beautiful wide river and its wildlife, with the ominous sound of drums being cracked with throbbing hands, Shell (played faultlessly by Sudai Tafari), the only child of poor, black parents, Ma Lammy and bed-ridden Pa, spies the alluring Rosalie, daughter of Indian landowner Mr Gidharee and his Creole wife. As tempting, though not as scornful, as Estella Havisham in Dickens’s Great Expectations, Rosalie playfully teases him.

Initially Gidharee (Anand Lawkaran) takes more of a shine to Shell than his much-admired daughter does. It’s not until Shell meets an elegant and clever black girl –Joan (Vanessa Bartholomew) from Sangre Grande –that Rosalie’s intentions towards him become genuinely amorous.

Gidharee takes Shell and a pack of huge dogs to work and hunt the plantation. He sees Shell as a future son-in-law and himself as a stepfather ready to replace the boy’s seriously ill father.

Eager to please, Shell climbs trees and rains down oranges on his new mentor. In return, Gidharee teaches him bush survival tips, like how to handle a cutlass and which water to avoid (“in here have alligators like peas, boy”). Above all, he imbues Shell with a connection to his physical surroundings.

“I believe in land and planting the land,” he says in one eloquent and expressive monologue.

And why wouldn’t he? The nature is abundant and fruitful.

There are soaring scarlet ibis, wading water buffalo, dormant egrets, hunted caiman. Chadon beni grows wild, sapodilla trees are ravaged by corn birds, rich cocoa pods are harvested and their beans trodden like grapes in a vineyard. The dogs, Tiger and Hitler at the fore, catch wild meat, pigs and alligators and Gidharee slits the beasts’ throats.

A dissolve from a bleeding caiman into a snow cone dripping with red syrup opens the scene of a Discovery Day fete, as evocative a depiction of a bygone Trinidad as any I’ve seen. Trumpets ring out old-time jazzy dances – the mambo, the foxtrot, the cha-chacha – and the young adults are in heaven.

Scene by seamless scene, seductive sound and vision spill from the screen – like the gentle clopping of horses’ hooves, the soft gurgle of running water, the way Trinidad is transformed into an authentic piece of the past.

Is Mooleedhar hypnotising us, to disguise a thin script? Maybe.

But who cares when it’s so sumptuous? This may not be the most socially impactful film to have come out of Trinidad – how could it be, when it speaks of the past, not the present? – but it is the best film to have come out of this country and is certain to be enthusiastically received by film festival audiences worldwide.

So at the risk of being considered heartless, I am not amused that so much time, effort and resources are being expended to bring home the “foreign” nationals from hurricane-ravaged countries. I also speak for many who share this opinion but wish to remain silent.

Let me be clear. I have no problem with helping any citizen who is ordinarily resident in TT but who might have been away on vacation or on a shortterm work assignment and just happened to get caught in the storm.

My problem is with those who choose to live/work abroad and, at the first sign of trouble, beg to be brought “home.” Not all, but many of them (I know some) are quick to badtalk TT , wondering at the “stupidity” of those who choose to love TT no matter what.

The Government and others would do well to use their energies and resources to help those who live here and who are really “ketching their tail” to eke out a living.

Heaven knows, there are many patriotic citizens who need help.

Why waste resources on less patriotic ones?

A CHARLES Mt Hope

NP says that as of 11 am yesterday (Tuesday), “We have not been able to make contact with anyone on the island but we remain hopeful that all of our employees and their families are safe, and our main concern is getting whatever they need most, to them as soon as is feasible.” The company added that once give the allclear, it will mobilise a team to go to Dominica “to ascertain the extent of the damage to property at our service stations, offices and Jet fuel facilities.” NP also intends to develop a plan as to how best it can recover and assist its employees on the island.

“We join with our NP family throughout Trinidad and Tobago in praying for all of Dominica at this time,” the company said.

The free CNG is being administered via a Scotiabank fuel card.

Drivers in receipt of the incentive simply have to fill up with CNG and then swipe their card at CNG service stations.

The September 6 distribution ceremony was part of NGC CNG’s ongoing efforts to encourage more drivers to switch from traditional diesel, super and premium gas to the more eco-friendly CNG.

State-owned NGC CNG is mandated by Government to accelerate the use of CNG as a vehicular fuel, as well as increase the number of CNG fuelling points across the country.

Earlier this year, the company offered the following incentives to vehicle owners to encourage them to switch: $5,000 in free CNG for taxi drivers who convert to CNG; $30,000 (large maxi) or $20,000 (small maxi) in free CNG for maxi taxi drivers who convert to CNG; $7,500 in free CNG to registered members of the Private School Transport Association of Trinidad and Tobago (PSTATT) who convert to CNG; and $15,000 in free CNG to registered members of the Private School Transport Association of Trinidad and Tobago (PSTATT) who purchase an OEM CNG vehicle.

NGC CNG said taxi driver, Ashmeed Mohammed, was elated to receive the card. “When deciding to make the switch to CNG, this incentive tipped the scales heavily in favour of my decision. I’m now looking forward to reducing my fuel bill, now that I’m on CNG,” Mohammed said.

NGC CNG said it “expects to offer hundreds of these incentives to approved applicants before the end of 2018.” The company also offers grants to registered maxi taxi owners who dispose of their existing vehicle to buy a CNG powered replacement

She also called for improved dialogue between business and labour, saying this was the time “for all hands to be on deck.” Thomas-Felix, later, welcomed the decision of the Labour Movement to rejoin the National Tripartite Council of Trinidad and Tobago (NTAC).

She said, “These relationships should be aimed at developing strategies that can impact on the survival and profitability of businesses and the promotion of sustainable, equitable economic growth in Trinidad and Tobago.” Speaking on economic inequality in TT, she said that as the country deals with the fall in energy prices and other challenges, “The gap between the haves and the havenots is widening.” Thomas-Felix talked about the possible link between poverty, inequality and crime, saying that crime and poverty have always been closely linked in this country, adding, “Despite our gains made in development, there is a shrinking middle class and an increasing number of poor citizens, including those who can be defined as the ‘working poor’–those who are employed but are still living below the poverty line.” She said crime created instability and fostered a semi-permanent culture of fear among citizens.

“Critically, this instability and fear also permeate specific sectors, particularly the business sector as they depress the entrepreneurial spirit, incur tremendous costs in terms of security provisions, limit customer activity and purchasing power and work to generally prevent businesses from thriving, particularly small businesses.” She said the country must “collectively and urgently address the root causes of this crisis.”