The most common types of arthritis are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In osteoarthritis, the cushions on the ends of your bones, called cartilage, wear away.

That makes the bones rub against each other. You might feel pain in the affected area namely your fingers, knees, or hips. Rheumatoid arthritis affects the joints. It causes pain, swelling, and stiffness. This disease often occurs in more than one joint and can affect any joint in the body.

Arthritis mainly causes pain around your joints. The symptoms can be constant, or they may come and go. They can range from mild to severe. More-severe cases may lead to permanent joint damage. You may also experience: One or more joints that are swollen or stiff Joints that look red or feel warm to the touch Tenderness Trouble moving Problems doing everyday tasks There are several exercises that you can do in managing your arthritis. These include:

Gardening This is a fantastic method of exercise for people who enjoy recreational exercise. Gardening burns calories and boosts pleasure-enhancing endorphins, easing depression that can be associated with RA. However, you will have to pace yourself especially if you have RA in your wrists as you can experience a flare-up if you dig for hours at a time.

Cycling This form of exercise avoids putting weight on the knee joint, can help maintain knee joint mobility and strengthen leg muscles. Stationary cycling is a good option for persons who have less balance and are just starting. As your leg strength increases you can begin to ride a non-stationary bike which can be a good social activity that you and your friends can enjoy.

Swimming This will assist in maintaining your strength and stamina without putting too much pressure on your joints. Also in a lap pool (usually four-feet deep), you can walk from one side of the pool to the other at a brisk pace. The buoyancy of the water relieves pressure on your joints. This is an excellent exercise for persons with acute joint pain.

Strengthening exercises This is an excellent way to improve your mobility and flexibility by strengthening the muscles that support your joints. However, it is advisable to begin with a trained instructor. Ensure that you inform your instructor of your limitations and affliction, thereby enabling him/her to develop a workout plan specific to your needs.

There are some exercises you can do at home that will improve your muscle strength and flexibility. These include the following:

Chair stand This exercise is good for people who want to build leg muscles. Sit on a normal-height chair, stand up, and sit down gently. Focus on controlling the motion, using your arms to assist you if needed. Try doing ten to 15 reps, for added resistance or difficulty try a lower-height chair and control that motion more with your legs omitting the use of your arms.

Shoulder Bridge The basic bridge exercise primarily target your rectus abdominis and your gluteus maximus. As we get older it is important to tighten your abdominal muscles as it is the muscle that acts as a girdle assisting us in maintaining good posture.

Lay on your back, bend your knees and place your arms along each side of your body. Exhale through your mouth as you contract the abdominals and lift your pelvis. (Don’t arch your back or over flex your knees.) Inhale through the nose and hold the position. Exhale to lower your pelvis back to the ground and repeat the exercise.

Bicep-Curl This exercise will assist with the everyday activities such as lifting a mug of water or your laundry basket. You should start this exercise with one to two-pound weights and as you become stronger you can increase the weight.

Hold a dumbbell in each hand and stand with your feet wide apart as your hips. Let your arms hang down at your sides with your palms forward. Pull your abdominals in, stand tall, and keep your knees slightly bent. Curl both arms upward until they’re in front of your shoulders. Slowly lower the dumbbells back down and repeat.

Exercise is a wonderful place to start when attempting to regain your mobility, although it may be the last option you choose to explore when you are in pain. Exercise is beneficial for managing arthritis and your overall health.

It can strengthen muscles that support your painful joints, preserve and increase joint range of motion, improve sleep quality, boost your mood and sense of well-being and help you lose excess pounds that add stress to painful joints.

Exercise can only add to the quality of your life so you should consider giving it a try.

Their concert, The Blackman Legacy, at Kaiso Blues Cafe on April 28 was living proof that the children have learned well.

The concert was by far the best held at that venue since its inception two years ago. It featured big brother OC who together with his band performed a rock version of his father’s Who God Bless. The performance sent the sold-out crowd wild and OC received sustained applause.

Each member of the family performed a Shorty I song along with several of their own compositions.

The evening began with Eldon who did an acoustic performance on guitar with his brother Sean on congas. His choice was You Push the Creator Out and he had the audience singing along with him.

Next up was Nehilet who performed with her all-female band and they chose Sweet Music; they were joined by a horn section. OC followed with his performance making way for Abbi. With her two daughters on stage, Abbi was different, she performed a song her father wrote for her 20-plus years ago –House of Calypso. She also pulled one out of her mother’s favourite collection.

The Cafe’s audience erupted as Abbi started the Willie Nelson composition, Crazy, made popular by Patsy Cline in 1961.

Abbi put a twist to the lyrics and the performance was awesome.

SOCA/Jamoo creator Ras Shorty I and his wife Claudette must have been smiling to see their had work in their children was paying great dividends.

Their concert, The Blackman Legacy, at Kaiso Blues Cafe on April 28 was living proof that the children have learned well.

The concert was by far the best held at that venue since its inception two years ago. It featured big brother OC who together with his band performed a rock version of his father’s Who God Bless. The performance sent the sold-out crowd wild and OC received sustained applause.

Each member of the family performed a Shorty I song along with several of their own compositions.

The evening began with Eldon who did an acoustic performance on guitar with his brother Sean on congas. His choice was You Push the Creator Out and he had the audience singing along with him.

Next up was Nehilet who performed with her all-female band and they chose Sweet Music; they were joined by a horn section. OC followed with his performance making way for Abbi. With her two daughters on stage, Abbi was different, she performed a song her father wrote for her 20-plus years ago –House of Calypso. She also pulled one out of her mother’s favourite collection.

The Cafe’s audience erupted as Abbi started the Willie Nelson composition, Crazy, made popular by Patsy Cline in 1961.

Abbi put a twist to the lyrics and the performance was awesome.An intermission was forced on the show as police officers stopped the proceedings as the neighbours complained about the noise.

After an agreement forged by soca star Machel Montano the show continued.

New singing sensation Nailah Blackman started off, was followed by Marge and then Isaac Blackman who all performed to the delight of the patrons who stood their ground.

The show ended with the siblings all on stage singing the classic“Watch out My Children.

Machel Montano and extempo artiste Abebele were asked to join the Blackman clan on stage to complete an evening of great music.

We are now in a situation where our oil and gas economy can no longer sustain us, and as such I welcome all the initiatives put forward by the Education Ministry on how we can deal with this phenomenon.

I would like to suggest to the goodly ministers that the focus must be skills-driven and TVET (technical and vocational education and training) centred. We must move away from the notion that academics is the be-end and end-all for this nation’s prosperity.

Minister Garcia, you are doing a fantastic job. Please continue your good work and listening to the educational stakeholders who are paramount to the success of the education system.

JENNY BOURNE via email

In the end, Justice Carrington won the crown. She also copped the Most Dedicated Delegate and Best Evening Gown. Carrington who represented Egypt Village wore a beautifully-designed, royal blue and silver gown. An overjoyed Carrington cried with joy on hearing the result. She also copped the Most Dedicated Delegate and Best Evening Gown awards.

“It has always been my dream to become Miss Point Fortin and believe me I will wear this crown with pride,” she said. She wants to improve her village and inspire young women to go after their dreams in life. Carrington says she is looking forward to the year ahead and hopes to work with the pageant committee and other delegates to bring improvement to the borough.

“I really want to reach out to the youths and help them to deal with any issues they may face,” she said. She noted that young women have to deal with a lot of problems such as finding employment and also being able to advance in academics.

At the end of her reign, she said, she would like the people of Point Fortin to remember her as someone who contributed positively to the community, especially those from her districts of Egypt and Southern Gardens.

The pageant which was held at the Point Fortin East Secondary school on April 28 and saw a packed auditorium with tremendous support for the respective delegates from villagers. The most vocal being supporters from Ma Pau Members Club who came to support Precious Lambert, the delegate for New Lands/Self Help and Lake View.

At the start of the contest the delegates were asked to describe the Point Fortin districts they represented and they all spoke highly of their community. The audience heard that Point Fortin has the most talented people in sports and calypso as well the best in beaches and liming spots.

Prior to pageant night the delegates submitted videos about their districts on the Miss Point Fortin website. Jada Cornwall’s video received over 20,000 views thus far.

Her presentation was on the Cap de Ville/Buenos Ayres and Erin districts.

Cornwall was the second runner- up and also walked away with the Miss Intelligent prize. Precious Lambert, the first runner-up, also won Best Video Presentation and Miss Congeniality. Karen Rampersad won Miss Photogenic and Miss Physique went to Shakura Hernandez.

Executive producer of the pageant Denzil James said despite the issues of sponsorship and support from corporate businesses, the show was a success. He said the delegates were easy to work with as they were all excited to represent their respective villages. James expressed appreciation to them for bringing such high standards to the show.

“I am now motivated to begin preparations for 2018 almost immediately so that even a higher standard can be achieved,” James said. The Miss Point Fortin Borough Pageant Committee will be on the ball regarding developing this beauty pageant, giving the young women an opportunity to participate in the best in TT .”

Not surprisingly, politicians on both sides missed another opportunity to elevate the level of national discourse, and channel our culture of chaos more constructively.

On the one hand, information about the tax was not communicated to the society in a timely manner, providing fodder for the idea to be “ripped apart.” We continue to confuse political street theatre with good governance. I guess that is why artists always recommend that politicians leave the performing to us.

Globally, property taxes are collected for the enhancement of communities — schools, parks, roads, basketball courts. I imagine that this would be the priority for the tax as well? I’m not sure, another serious flaw in the communication about what the money will be used for.

I listened to Ministry of Finance representatives and reviewed the calculations. In my view, the payments are not onerous if you have one property. So, I imagine the people who are having difficulties with paying are those with numerous obligations? Or, indeed, those people who own agricultural land, but are using it for industrial purposes? Or people like the ones I watched as I grew up transform a home in a residential area into an emporium with dancing girls, mechanic shop, Lotto booth and sundry other dealings — I imagine people like that would have a problem with someone looking deeper into the specifics of their ownership.

But our culture is so hypocritical.

I was not aware that a property tax existed even before independence, until all these fake protests started.

Further, we complain that we want our society to improve. We see our neighbours in the Caribbean and smaller, less wealthy nations around the world doing well, with not even quarter the talent we have just walking down Frederick Street.

How do we get there? We must become more structured, more disciplined, honest and focused on building our communities.

The discourse must now centre on one core goal. Given that the tax is coming anyway, how do we use people power to ensure that monies collected are used to fix our communities and not to pay for other types of government bills and responsibilities.

All over our nation, neighbourhoods need to be fixed, organised and run properly. Simple things.

Repairing broken street lights, installing street signs, and painting yellow lines to deal with wrecker lust and driver ignorance. We need green spaces, clean villages, cycling lanes, pedestrianised towns and cities, roads without potholes, cafes.

Our blue passport entitles us to enjoy the bounty of our country.

And yes, our elected officials are accountable to us. But we seem to have missed the point that we still have a responsibility to make sure that our society is functional, ordered and equitable.

I get it. After all the taxes and after all the oil, natural gas, pitch, cocoa, breadfruit, coconuts, flying fish, scorpion pepper, Carnival, pan, kaiso, chutney — after all of it, we still cannot feed ourselves.

Meanwhile, the world watches on as citizens burn tyres to get water and roads so they can go about their daily lives in comfort.

I think the real test of our citizenship is yet to come. Will we allow people with agendas other than country to confuse us, or will we see this as a chance to quiet our chaotic existence and improve quality of life for all? For me, the choice is really not that taxing after all.

D a r a Healy is a perform a n c e a HE PROPERTY tax brought out the worst in us this week. I like to think that Mother Nature sent us a little rain, perhaps as her way of telling us to “cool it,” literally and figuratively.

Not surprisingly, politicians on both sides missed another opportunity to elevate the level of national discourse, and channel our culture of chaos more constructively.

On the one hand, information about the tax was not communicated to the society in a timely manner, providing fodder for the idea to be “ripped apart.” We continue to confuse political street theatre with good governance. I guess that is why artists always recommend that politicians leave the performing to us.

Globally, property taxes are collected for the enhancement of communities — schools, parks, roads, basketball courts. I imagine that this would be the priority for the tax as well? I’m not sure, another serious flaw in the communication about what the money will be used for.

I listened to Ministry of Finance representatives and reviewed the calculations. In my view, the payments are not onerous if you have one property. So, I imagine the people who are having difficulties with paying are those with numerous obligations? Or, indeed, those people who own agricultural land, but are using it for industrial purposes? Or people like the ones I watched as I grew up transform a home in a residential area into an emporium with dancing girls, mechanic shop, Lotto booth and sundry other dealings — I imagine people like that would have a problem with someone looking deeper into the specifics of their ownership.

But our culture is so hypocritical.

I was not aware that a property tax existed even before independence, until all these fake protests started.

Further, we complain that we want our society to improve. We see our neighbours in the Caribbean and smaller, less wealthy nations around the world doing well, with not even quarter the talent we have just walking down Frederick Street.

How do we get there? We must become more structured, more disciplined, honest and focused on building our communities.

The discourse must now centre on one core goal. Given that the tax is coming anyway, how do we use people power to ensure that monies collected are used to fix our communities and not to pay for other types of government bills and responsibilities.

All over our nation, neighbourhoods need to be fixed, organised and run properly. Simple things.

Repairing broken street lights, installing street signs, and painting yellow lines to deal with wrecker lust and driver ignorance. We need green spaces, clean villages, cycling lanes, pedestrianised towns and cities, roads without potholes, cafes.

Our blue passport entitles us to enjoy the bounty of our country.

And yes, our elected officials are accountable to us. But we seem to have missed the point that we still have a responsibility to make sure that our society is functional, ordered and equitable.

I get it. After all the taxes and after all the oil, natural gas, pitch, cocoa, breadfruit, coconuts, flying fish, scorpion pepper, Carnival, pan, kaiso, chutney — after all of it, we still cannot feed ourselves.

Meanwhile, the world watches on as citizens burn tyres to get water and roads so they can go about their daily lives in comfort.

I think the real test of our citizenship is yet to come. Will we allow people with agendas other than country to confuse us, or will we see this as a chance to quiet our chaotic existence and improve quality of life for all? For me, the choice is really not that taxing after all.

D a r a Healy is a perform a n c e artist and founder of the NGO, the Indigenous Creative Arts Ne twork – ICAN rtist and founder of the NGO, the Indigenous Creative Arts Ne twork – ICAN

And so, steps must be taken to ensure there is no repeat of the kind of errors which affected Thursday’s Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) examination.

According to various accounts, three questions were defective.

While it is difficult to quantify exactly how the defects would have impacted students, it is not hard to envision how some students would have wasted time pondering over the flawed questions in vain. So preoccupied, they would have had less time to handle other questions.

Unfortunately, it is impossible for the simple removal of the three marks from the exam to evenly account for this kind of impact. However, in the circumstances it is probably the easiest remedy.

On the other hand, some might argue that the flaws did not have as adverse an impact as we have been led to believe.

In fact, they may have benefitted better students. Those students unable to break the backs of the questions may have opted to move on to others. This is the kind of prioritising which should be rewarded, not penalised.

But because the SEA is such an emotional issue we cannot afford to have such carelessness, even if it benefits smarter students or students with better time management skills. Students prepare for a long time and there is much expectation over their performance. The State should do what it can to minimise the great social pressures which are already in play, not contribute.

Judging from the accounts given by the Ministry of Education, however, it would appear the problem originated at the level of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC). Perhaps as a precaution against leaks, examination papers are not opened locally but rather all checks are done by CXC officials abroad.

This means the State is only made aware of defects when it is too late.

Efforts must be made to ensure the system of checks in place at CXC is up to the task.

Because of the considerable trust placed in CXC’s hands it must be able to assure that its processes are watertight. If we cannot have confidence in CXC to prepare a faultless examination paper, can we depend on CXC to handle scores? To correct papers? To manage private information? CXC has lost marks and must now make up for it.

Aside from the issue of the examination script, other aspects appeared to have gone smoothly.

Administratively, the process — involving 18,000 students — seems to have been a success.

The ministry should be congratulated in this regard. However, CXC must be urged to improve its overall system.

The Ministry of Education should also look into a system of control that balances the need for confidentiality and for quality.

While it may be reluctant to impinge on the jurisdiction of the CXC officials, clearly there may be need for more cooperation.

Should it really be the case that the ministry does not see the examinations script? The National Primary School Principals Association and the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association should be consulted with a view to possible recommendations in this regard.

We also wish all students best of luck and remind them that — examination error or no — the SEA is just an examination.

It does not define worth and cannot limit any student’s true potential. We also hope there will be no errors when the time comes for results.

He added, “the ministry does not set the examination slips.” Garcia also said the Chief Education Officer attends meetings with CXC with respect to all exams under its ambit. Opposition MPs expressed their disgust as Garcia said, “I am not aware that students were traumatised yesterday.” He chided his predecessor, Caroni East MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh, who he said was fully aware of the procedures involved in these matters.

On Thursday at a press conference, Garcia placed blame for the errors on the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC). In a statement to the media yesterday, Gopeesingh said Garcia has direct and total responsibility for the education sector and cannot “pass the buck” to a regional institution. He said the ministry has representation, at a senior administrative level, at the Barbados-based CXC and ought to have ensured the crucial examination was error-free.

“In fact, on the eve of the examination, Mr Garcia confidently assured that everything was in place for a smooth running of the test and that the ministry had played its appropriate role,” Gopeesingh said.

He said the ministry’s Division of Education Research and Evaluation and Chief Education Officer Harrilal Seecharan, should have ensured an error-free examination.

He said the errors added further stress to the more than 18,000 students who wrote the examination and, “raised burning questions about the integrity of the examination process.” “Mr Garcia must apologise to the students and must launch a full and complete investigation into the obvious and critical failure of the ministry’s officials who serve at the CXC. This foul-up in the latest in a series under Mr Garcia’s watch, which have served to undermine and otherwise negatively impact the education sector in Trinidad and Tobago,” Gopeesingh said.

“Banks are not price-fixing, and fees and charges are reflective of the cost for providing the services,” she said. Schnoor yesterday told the Joint Select Committee inquiring into finance and legal affairs at the Office of the Parliament, Port of Spain that bank fees and service charges “were adjusted” only three times over the last ten years. Some banks had no increases during the same period, and online and mobile banking options have remained free, she said.

For many fee categories, she said, “the inflation adjusted fee increases have actually been negative over the last ten years.” In preparation for the inquiry, Schnoor said, “because BATT does not collate or have knowledge of the strategic decision making process of any individual member bank, we engaged the services of an international accounting firm to collate information in aggregate on the industry.” Compared to similar services provided by banks in the region, Schnoor said, almost all fee categories in TT were lower. She noted that the survey carried out by the accounting firm found that fees and charges represent seven to 11 percent of total revenue of all banks, and the banking sector’s profitability per customer and per account has declined over the last ten years.

There were many reasons for the decline in profitability with the main reason being, she said, “tremendous increases in operating costs in all banks over the same period.” The firm also found, she said, that net interest margins in the banking industry are at their lowest levels in over a decade and all loan major categories, current interest rates are lower than they were a decade ago.

Deposit rates have also declined over the same period, she said, “this is directly due to a build up of liquidity in the sector.” She added, “As a reference point deposits have grown from $50 billion to now over $110 billion in the last decade.” She said that profitability in the banking industry has marginally increased “at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 1.2 percent over the last decade with declines in key metrics such as ROA (return on assets) and ROE (return on equity).

Schnoor said that over the past decade the eight commercial banks (BATT’s membership) have provided over $4.6 billion in taxes to Government and over $11.8 billion in dividends to shareholders, the majority being TT nationals. Asked if $4.6 billion in revenue over the past 10 years was not low given profitability, Schnoor said, that the banking sector is the second largest contributor to the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in the country.

Noting that it was important for clients to have access to information, she said, there was need for financial education and financial literacy

Lochan pleaded guilty to the charges of warehouse breaking and larceny.

Prosecutor Cleyon Sedan told the court that at about midday on April 10, a business owner secured his warehouse along Farrah Street, San Fernando and left for the day. When the businessman returned at about 5 pm on April 24, he observed that the warehouse was broken into.

Sedan said a door was prised open.

Checks were made and $57,300 in equipment and other items were missing. Following investigations by PC Mohess, Lochan was arrested on April 5 and subsequently charged. He confessed to police that he along with another man stole the items over a period of days. Lochan said he sold the items on the streets.

Lochan who was unrepresented asked the magistrate to be placed on a bond so he could work to compensate the warehouse owner.

The magistrate declined his request. In reviewing Lochan’s criminal record Magistrate Antoine said he has 17 convictions over the last ten years.