Often, though, he’s more profound.

“Anything that can happen does happen,” he tells her, philosophising about parallel universes.

Sometimes those universes seem to overlap in Moko Jumbie, an oblique, dreamlike film, where the everyday life of a sleepy, remote village can encompass unexpected drama and romance and even the supernatural.

Asha (Vanna Girod) grew up in England, and has fond memories of coming to stay in this house as a child, when her grandparents were alive. But her cousin doesn’t share those memories, and her aunt Mary (Sharda Maharaj), who now lives in the house alone, is guarded and suspicious. She teaches Asha what to do if wild dogs come into the yard, warns her not to stray too far from home, tells her who she shouldn’t speak to.

Asha smiles at the old family photos, and is thrilled when her aunt gives her one of her grandmother’s necklaces, brought from India many years ago. She’s fascinated when she sees the boy next door, Roger, catching crabs in the road. She enjoys her short, unplanned meetings with Uncle Jagessar (Dinesh Maharaj) and his reminiscing about what she too thinks of as the good old days.

But her nostalgia doesn’t last for long when Aunt Mary’s beloved stash of family jewelry is stolen.

Her aunt laments the state of the country, and the fact that “we Indians and they Africans always fighting”—but she constantly warns Asha not to have anything to do with the black people who are her tenants in the ramshackle old house across the road. They’re criminals, she says—and don’t eat or drink anything that the woman of the house, Gloria, gives you.

Towards the end of Moko Jumbie there are abrupt, brief indications that the country as a whole is in an equally precarious, hostile state.

But sometimes the viewer—like Asha—can’t tell what’s real and what isn’t. She sees visions; sometimes other people see them too, but at other times she can’t tell if she’s imagined them. Even the deep-thinking Uncle Jagessar can’t say what it means when she sees the moko jumbie. One thing is clear, though: the Trinidad of her childhood no longer exists, and whether or not her cousin means it unkindly when she tells Asha, “This is not your country,” she’s right.

Still, in her city-girl make-up and fashionable boots, Asha can still enjoy some of the simple pleasures that remain: the view of the sea from the cliff; the village single- pan steelband for which Roger plays, practising under a tree at night; dancing to soca with Roger in the village rumshop.

It’s with her uncle and with Roger (Jeremy Thomas) that Asha is happiest—much to the disapproval of her aunt. Trinidadian-American director Vashti Anderson’s story—some of it autobiographical— mingles memory and longing, the real and the imagined, in this elliptical story of family, race, class, and the quest for home.

Screening times September 23, 8.30 pm, MovieTowne POS Screen 8 September 24, 6 pm, MovieTowne San Fernando September 25, 8.30 pm, MovieTowne Tobago

The tree-planting was in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the expansive area dubbed by creative citizens as “the biggest roundabout in the world.” I am in a bit of historical confusion because as a boy I was under the impression that this former sugar estate was given as a “gift” to the people of TT by the Peschier family. Now I keep hearing it was purchased by the then town council for the people.

Nevertheless, I have fond memories of the Queen’s Park Savannah which I trampled as a boy, playing football and cricket.

I had the pleasure of witnessing great football teams and matches in front of the Grand Stand involving teams such as: Malvern, Maple, Colts, Providence, Sporting Club, Notre Dame, Dynamos, Casuals, Shamrock, Luton Town, Queen’s Royal College, College of the Immaculate Conception (CIC) and Fatima. Some players of these teams went on to wear national colours.

I also witnessed epic horse racing battles and rugby, as well as first class cricket matches. The Savannah is also an exciting space for walking, exercising and for “bird watching” — and I am not talking about the feathered kind.

Among my favourite vendors was “Georgie,” a coconut seller and street philosopher who could expound on any topic under the sun. Another joy is coming down the “bulltrack” or the paved “Carlos John highway” at Panorama semi-finals doing a slow wine.

I could go on and on like a “rah-rah” about the Savannah which is a place of great joy. Long may it live.

KEITH ANDERSON via emai

Speaking at the third instalment of the ‘Conversations with the Prime Minister’ series in St Augustine, Rowley said the greatest challenge he has faced as leader of Government is the level of corruption which permeates society .

His declaration that the corrupt will find “no solace” in his government, comes amid allegations that almost $100 million in fraud was perpetrated against state-owned oil company Petrotrin, by a drilling company whose principal owner is allegedly a friend/financier of the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) .

On Sunday, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced at a UNC rally, that there was a ‘fake oil’ scandal as she quoted from an internal audit report that questioned the shortfall between oil produced at the company’s leased fields in South Trinidad and what was sold back to Petrotrin. On Monday, the report was leaked online .

Payment for non-existent oil was in the area of $80 million .

“The most difficult challenge I had as Prime Minister is the level of corruption that permeates Trinidad ad Tobago as a society. Persons who engage in corrupt practice.. .

whoever you are, wherever you are, whether you are PNM or not, you will find no solace in this PNM government .

As far as I am concerned, corruption wherever it occurs, anywhere in TT…every person in this country must want to know who is corrupt and must hold them accountable,” Rowley declared .

Turning to the state of the economy, he declared, “You did not elect me to be popular. It is popular politics that got us to where we are today.” In his election campaign, Rowley said, he did not promise, ‘I gone give you this. I gone give you that’ .

“So even if I wanted to conduct public business in the Prime Minister’s office like the last prime minister, the means and the wherewithal are not available for that kind of politics and that kind of leadership.” The current circumstances, he said calls making tough decisions in difficult situations to ensure that the difficult situations are temporary and down the road there will be a brighter future Speaking on a number of issues before opening the floor for discussions, Rowley said he met with members of the labour movement and the first thing they put to him was the issue against wage freeze .

Managing the gap between expenditure and revenue by mass retrenchment, mass lay off and simple reduction of the public service, he said, “is an option which Government has not pursued.” He told labour, he said, that the only employees in Trinidad and Tobago who are under an announced wage freeze are members of Cabinet and Members of Parliament and that there will be no upward increase in their salaries until the economy of the country improves .

While there is no wage freeze announced, he said, “there are circumstantial conditions which even if we want to be generous or overly generous the circumstances would not allow it.” Government is trying to keep some food on the table, keep people in jobs and stretch the country’s ability as far as possible, he said, “to allow moving circumstance from a national budget of $63 billion having lost $20 billion, to see how we can easily bring our expectations and our needs and our consumption down nearer to a level where our revenue is being pitched at, at the moment .

“Those or not environments in which one wins a popularity contest,” he said. To be told by labour that Government was engaged in mass lay-offs, Rowley said, “One of the policies that Government has pursued is as far as we are able to is to maintain as many public sector jobs as possible.” Government’s payroll, he said, is the number one priority for the Minister of Finance. The size of the public service is 89,000, many of whom assume that their pay packet at the end of the month is guaranteed, he said, “because Government has made sure that we move heaven and earth, push around, adjust, borrow and in some instances delay to ensure that people remain at the centre of these adjustments that we are making.” The 89,000 in the public service, he said, include 39,000 civil servants, 5,500 in the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force, another 13,000 of the protective services including 7000 police, 2,000 prison officers, 2000 firemen, 16,000 teachers. In addition there are 22,000 daily paid workers. “We are trying to keep them all in jobs,” he said .

If five, 20 or 100 jobs are lost in this kind of environment, he said, “that in no way should create a national debate about mass lay off and mass retrenchment. There might be some contracts that come to an end and based on priority and needs we may not renew those contracts.”

He gave this prediction while addressing a pre-budget forum hosted by the Penal/Debe Chamber of Commerce at Powergen Sports Club in Siparia.

Arjoon also predicted that another deficit budget is in the making as Finance Minister Colm Imbert would once again engage in borrowing to finance state expenditure. “It is quite likely government will continue to borrow to fund the budget, but the question is how much will he borrow,” Arjoon said.

He suggested that one method of increasing agricultural production was to move away from the CEPEP programme to one where the focus is on agriculture.

He said the agro-intensive initiative could be called FARMPEP.

Also addressing the forum was former Minister in the Ministry of Finance Mariano Browne who observed that the Budget would be one in which the nation would have to face its Maker. “We are in a very difficult situation and government has become bloated over time and it is quite clear oil is not going to rise. So this budget is one where we have to face our Maker,” Browne said.

He predicted that government revenue for 2017 was in the range of $35 billion after falling from $60 to $42 to $38 billion in previous years. Browne said that ministries which would continue to receive the lion’s share of allocations are Education, Health, National Security and Finance.

For his part, Opposition Caroni Central MP Dr Bhoe Tewarie identified lack of confidence as the main hindrance to economic growth, saying high crime and murders are impeding foreign direct investment. “We have now surpassed Jamaica as the most dangerous in the region and this is causing a lack of confidence in the economy,” Tewarie said.

The phenomenon of natural disaster demonstrates no affinity for discrimination, whilst impacting upon all walks of life, and territory.

The outcome has seen devastation ranging from loss of human life in St Maarten, Cuba, Barbuda and other areas, to 95 per cent infrastructural damage in Barbuda, to untold destruction in many other areas. The impact of these natural disasters is made more challenging as there seems to be no ‘let up’ considering they present one immediately following the next.

This series of disastrous events naturally leads to the outpouring of support and relief efforts aimed at alleviating the hurt, trauma and suffering. The issue remains, as is heard on a number of occasions, people are not clear as to the measures that can be taken to become part of the process to assist. And as a direct result of this, many ‘not for profit’ organisations pop up, that may be utilising the resources collected on administrative and other expenses, with limited getting into the hands that require the support.

The thing is, the majority of people are intrinsically good, and will want to become part of a process to aid their fellow man, particularly in times of great despair.

However, there are those who are intrinsically bad, and may utilise the despair of others toward their own end. As a result, I strongly recommend the compilation of a resource listing that can be tapped into for the consistent co-ordination and channelling of resources for these purposes.

Once the organisation which you will be using to channel your relief has accepted same, it is always useful to be appraised of the distribution channels, and end result of such relief – in other words, how many people were actually reached.

I recall recently, when we in Trinidad and Tobago experienced severe flooding, particularly in the Central district, a particular non-governmental organisation (NGO) called SEWA TT, began a food drive in collaboration with a particular restaurant, and what was particularly noteworthy, is that this organisation reported almost on a daily basis on the number of people who were reached and who received a meal. This measure of accountability is exactly what must be encouraged.

There are many similar distribution organisations operating in Trinidad and Tobago including, the Foundation for the Enhancement and Enrichment of Life (FEEL), Living Water Community, Is There Not a Cause (ITNAC), Network of NGOs among others, as well as hundreds of smaller NGOs that also operate with the best interest of assisting and supporting others in utilising the distribution model. The point is, that giving to and supporting others in their time of need should also be part of a moral mandate measured only by one’s ability and conscience.

I say this as there are those who choose to give with the expectation of getting something in return at some future point.

The protocol of giving includes the measure of being selfless, and not anticipating any favours in return. It also includes a measure of humility in positioning. Another very important factor of giving is doing so without judgement of others. In other words, if you choose to give to a cause, do just that – give. Do not give to be thanked, or recognised, or promoted, or publicised, or favoured. Do not give and then judge what others may have given – you never know the circumstance of others.

ONE of the popular events of the parang season, Start De Parang, was held at the Lions Cultural centre last Sunday. The event, was hosted by the reigning national parang champions Voces Jovenes

In a release on Tuesday, BATT announced that it has collaborated with United Way to establish the United Way TT-Hurricane Relief 2017 fund to assist with relief efforts “for our Caribbean counterparts that have been severely affected”.

BATT offered “its deepest sympathy to everyone affected by Hurricane Irma, which has had devastating impacts on several Caribbean islands.” BATT said that the member banks have each opened an account under the same name and invited the public to contribute with the recovery process.

“All funds raised will be donated to the United Way Trinidad and Tobago, who will ensure the funds are used for the purpose of helping those in need in the Caribbean. The banks where donations can be made are as follows: Scotia Bank Trinidad and Tobago Limited, Republic Bank Limited, First Citizens Bank Limited, RBC Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, JMMB Bank and First Caribbean International Bank (Trinidad and Tobago)

The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) celebrates World Food Day to commemorate the founding of the organisation in 1945. Events are organised in over 150 countries across the world, making it one of the most celebrated days of the UN calendar.

These events promote worldwide awareness and action for those who suffer from hunger and for the need to ensure food security and nutritious diets for all.

World Food Day is a chance to show the FAO’s commitment to achieving Zero Hunger by 2030.

It’s also a day to celebrate the progress we made towards reaching #ZeroHunger. #ZeroHunger is important because the right to food is a basic human right. Additionally, investing in sustainable food systems and rural development means addressing some of the major global challenges – from feeding the world’s growing population to protecting the global climate, and tackling some of the root causes of migration and displacement.

The theme for this year is: Change the future of Migration: Invest in Food Security and Rural Development The world is on the move. Hunger, poverty, and an increase in extreme weather events linked to climate change are important factors contributing to the challenges faced by countries. Three-quarters of the extreme poor base their livelihoods on agriculture or other rural activities.

Creating conditions that allow rural people, especially youth, to have more resilient livelihoods, is a crucial component of any successful country.

Rural development can address factors that compel people to move by creating business opportunities and jobs for young people that are not only crop-based (such as small dairy or poultry production, food processing or horticulture enterprises). It can also lead to increased food security, more resilient livelihoods, better access to social protection, and reduced conflict over natural resources and solutions to environmental degradation and climate change.

Agriculture and rural development can address issues such as rural poverty, food insecurity, inequality, unemployment and natural resource depletion. Rural poor, especially small holder family farmers face considerable difficulties in accessing financial support, services, technologies and markets which would allow them to improve the productivity of their natural resources and labour. This can lead to unstable incomes, poor safety and health conditions, gender inequality in pay and opportunities and limited social protection. These issues, combined with restricted access to training, financial and extension services and processing facilities can make migrating to a more urbanised area and choosing a more conventional career choice a much more attractive prospect.

What is CARIRI doing? As part of CARIRI’s mandate to develop the agro-based sector and to build capacity in the food and beverage sector we will be providing a platform for these issues to be addressed at our World Food Day TT 2017, on September 23, at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya.

By reaching out to different facets of society throughout Trinidad and Tobago we can garner interest under the umbrellas of rural development and food security to create to create a catalyst of Inclusive Innovation and Sustainable Growth. Investments in rural development can harness the development of Food Security and also build the resilience of communities throughout Trinidad and Tobago.

CARIRI is working with Government agencies, the private sector, civil society and local communities, in building Trinidad and Tobago’s capabilities with a thrust towards strengthening our food security.

Attendees include government ministries, State enterprises, food and beverage manufacturer, food equipment suppliers, food and beverage suppliers, food wholesalers and retailers. Everyone from producer to consumer has a role to play to ensure our food security. We welcome the food production chain – from farmers and manufacturers to vendors and consumers for handling and preparing food are welcome to attend.

How can you participate in CARIRI’s World Food Day TT 2017? Poster Competition “Hunger and food security is equally important for everyone, everywhere.

Since the majority of the country’s population is young, it is important as well as challenging to engage youth in different social issues like, rural development, education, health, poverty, and food security.” CARIRI’s World Food Day TT 2017 Poster Competition calls on children and teens from ages five -19 to harness and apply their creative instincts to express their ideas on our World Food Day 2017 theme. CARIRI believes creative artwork is powerful and can be as important as literacy. The poster competition is an avenue which can stimulate innovative thoughts and ideas of students throughout Trinidad and Tobago.

The poster competition also urges them to support the global fight to reach Zero Hunger – a world free of hunger and poverty. The fight for Zero Hunger is now, and our younger generation plays a crucial role in this.

The more we engage them in the dialogue surrounding their future and stimulate their thoughts and opinions, the more we can prepare them to take informed decisions and actions to contribute to a more sustainable and fairer world.

The competition is open to students throughout the country with all skill levels. Posters can be drawn, painted or digitally designed and uploaded to our World Food Day TT website.

Three winners in each age category will be selected by our jury. The results will be announced on the day of our World Food Day TT 2017 celebrations at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya. All final participants will have the ability to showcase their final pieces at our exhibition.

The deadline for entries is September 18.

Food Safety Champion Competition Do you consider yourself a food safety expert? Then come test your knowledge at CARIRI’s Food Safety Champion CARIRI’s Caribbean Food Safety Centre (CFSC) is hosting CARIRI’s Food Safety Champion 2017 as an opportunity for companies, regardless of size, to showcase their knowledge of food safety. Food safety is essential to good nutrition and health, which are vital to sustainable development.

Food safety is a shared responsibility.

Food can become contaminated at any point during production, distribution and preparation. Everyone along the production chain, from producer to consumer, has a role to play to ensure the food we eat does not cause diseases. Being a Food Safety Champion is everyone’s responsibility.

Some of our sponsors for World Food Day include Agricultural Development Bank, Carib Brewery, Caribbean Airlines, Chuck E. Cheese’s, Magdalena Grand Hotel, Mario’s Pizzeria, Movie Towne, National Flour Mills, Charles Chocolates, Charrans Book Stores Chaguanas, Marilisa Farms and Blue Waters Limited.

Our exhibitors include EXIMBANK, RODCO Home Essentials, Aurora Bitayson Limited, Arawak, Eco Truffles, Caribbean Concoctions, De Jeunesse Bath and Body, King’s Specialty, Unit Trust Corporation, Alliance of Rural Communities and many more.

There will also be food trucks present on the day. For the children there will be bouncy castles, face painting and many more activities, including a visit from Chuck E.

Cheese’s.

For more information on CARIRI’s World Food Day contact: Tel: 299-0210 ext. 5687/ 5679/5048.

Email: jramoutar@cariri.com

Launched at the Activity Centre, Caura Valley on September 6, the Tank Farm consisting of ten 1,000 gallon water tanks came to fruition through the collaborative effort of the community group, WASA , the MP’s office, the regional corporation, CEPEP and the Digicel Foundation. In congratulating members of the council, foundation CEO Penny Gomez stated, “The proposal of a tank farm really blew us out of the water. We were impressed by the originality and by the fact that a project of this nature really addressed a basic need for the community. What made it even more special for us, was the element of sustainability by having WASA as a strategic partner.”

Driving the village council to continue its good work in developing Caura, Sen Clarence Rambharat, Minister of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries in his address encouraged the group to “build Caura around good leadership,” a media release stated. Also addressing the crowd was Deputy Speaker of the House and MP for Tunapuna Esmonde Forde who thanked the foundation for the private sector partnership noting that Digicel is in the business of “linking communities.”

The project was done through the foundation’s Extraordinary Projects Impacting Communities (Epic) programme, which funds indoor and outdoor community initiatives. Seeing the opportunity to further develop the community and its environs, the village council, and the MP’s office applied for an Epic grant to implement the project. “While our financial input in this project rang to a tune of $40,000, it is this public private sector partnership that is the real win for us at the foundation, because we know that with the additional support, the village of Tumbasson will continue to flourish. This project acts as a model for other community groups to emulate,” Gomez said.

We are yet to assess and quantify the full impact of this hurricane on the Caribbean. The small island of Barbuda is said to now be “barely habitable” with recovery efforts expecting to take years. Other Caribbean islands also severely impacted include Anguilla, St Kitts and Nevis, the British Virgin Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas, Haiti and the Dutch and French dependencies. Trinidad and Tobago has already pledged to aid some of these countries.

The Caribbean is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to natural disasters, which are also a major source of macroeconomic vulnerability. Intense hurricanes can cause damage that that can in turn wipe out an entire year of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) output, leaving countries with a fractured infrastructure, thousands of people affected, and governments scrambling to put together the necessary resources to finance emergency assistance and relief, recovery, and reconstruction.

The small countries that make up the Caribbean are especially vulnerable since their limited budgetary capacity prevents them from establishing sufficient financial reserves to absorb a relatively large negative shock. Additionally, the high debt level of most small economies limits their ability to access credit in the aftermath of a natural disaster, high transaction costs associated with the relatively small market limits access to private catastrophe insurance, and international assistance is often insufficient to cover the total losses. For example, when Hurricane Ivan struck the island of Grenada in 2004 causing over US $800 million in damages, the country was no longer able to finance its public service bill and was forced to introduce a number of revenue enhancing measures and delay efforts of recovery and reconstruction in order to deal with the immediate problem of the fiscal shortfall, thus likely further amplifying the long term effects of the hurricane.

According to a 2016 IMF Working Paper entitled Gone with the Wind: Estimating Hurricane Climate Change Costs in the Caribbean, the total damages experienced in the region over the past 65 years amount to US$52 billion for the 148 disasters that actually had information on damages. The average disaster caused damage of US$352 million with damage from more intense storms normally causing larger damages as expected. Those storms caused damage of 82 per cent of GDP on average, and for most islands, account for more than half of all the damage they have experienced over the last 65 years.

Some of the largest disasters in each island, particularly for the smaller territories, caused damage well above 100 per cent of GDP, with Montserrat leading the pack with 434 per cent of GDP in damage after hurricane Hugo hit the country in 1989.

The impact of a hurricane is felt mostly in the destruction of the capital stock; that is, damage to housing, agricultural crops, roads, buildings, etc. Since the capital stock, in monetary terms, is usually larger than the total production of a country on any given year, it is possible to have disasters that destroy more than a 100 per cent of GDP.

As large as tropical cyclone costs have been over the last century, they are expected to increase in this century with climate change. Climate scientists believe that there is a connection between climate change and tropical cyclone intensity. Emanuel (2005) finds a strong correlation between the potential destructiveness of hurricanes and warmer sea surface temperature. Furthermore, tropical cyclones need a deep layer of warm sea surface temperature above 26.5°C to form (Landsea, 2004). Therefore, as the climate warms, and sea surface temperature warms, it is expected that the average intensity of tropical cyclones will increase.

At present, there is a Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), but operationally this is inadequate to meet the needs after a major Caribbean disaster. In addition, premium payments have to be made each year if there is no disaster after a year. This represents a loss of precious foreign exchange. More targeted solutions have to be adopted.

The Caribbean needs to consider three important concepts to treat with natural disasters. First, the adoption of a stabilisation fund. The purpose of this fund is to provide fiscal stability from falling revenues brought on by natural disasters for the countries of the Caribbean, that helps them address the issue of volatile and unpredictable revenues that can arise from these disasters which destroy part or all of their productive capacity. The benefit of a Caribbean fund versus an individual fund is that it pools resources and spreads risks thus allowing access to higher levels of financing. It can be viewed as a safety net for the Caribbean given their vulnerability to natural disasters.

Second, the establishment of a catastrophe fund in which Caribbean countries will contribute with assistance from international donors to address the replacement of destroyed infrastructure after a disaster without an increase in national debt. At present when a disaster hits the Caribbean and destroys infrastructure, the government in most cases must borrow to replace these. It is made worse if the government had a loan on the destroyed infrastructure.

Third, authorities throughout the Caribbean must start preparing for the current and future costs of storms with efforts needed to adapt the current infrastructure to sustain the more intense conditions as well as better building codes and stricter enforcement of these. The extent to which a hazard manifests itself as a disaster inevitably depends on the capacity of a country to cope. Indeed, the economic cost of disasters in the Caribbean is high; however, the cost of inactivity is even higher.