The interception which took place on February 16 in international waters north of Paramaribo, off the coast of Suriname, resulted in a find of 4.2 tonnes of cocaine with an estimated street value of US$125,000,000 (TT$837,000,000) one of largest in the Atlantic since 1999. According to Dillon “this successful joint operation is demonstrative of the significance of maintaining close international and regional cooperation and coordination in addressing issues related to the transshipment of illegal drugs across borders.

“The Ministry of National Security will continue to engage our international and regional partners on strategic and cooperative initiatives in several areas consistent with efforts to mitigate against cross-border crimes.”

Question:

Dear AFETT. I am about to finish my education and begin my working life / professional career. How do I prepare for this important next step to ensure that I am successful?

Unsure Where to Begin

Dear Unsure Where to Begin,

As a professional woman in leadership, I’ve taken a particular interest in understanding the perception of women in the workplace. Throughout my career, I’ve attempted to identify and emulate how women overcome obstacles in their careers. That’s why I’ve formed a number of important relationships outside of my work environment.

In my capacity as Immediate Past President of the The Association of Female Executives of Trinidad and Tobago (AFETT) I have, among other things, been working with various ministries, businesses and several other civil society organisations, developing programmes for female students geared towards addressing issues that women face in workplace.

Now, I believe it is important to prepare our young women for a career and this is a lot more than just taking classes. How therefore do you prepare for this important transition?

As I look back, I think there are four key things every female student seeking a career in any industry must do to get ready for her professional life:

Practice Confidence and Build your Leadership skills by Asserting Yourself:

Your academic institution offers the perfect opportunity to learn from your mistakes without affecting work performance. By volunteering for leadership positions in various groups and societies and getting involved in projects that force you to use skills you’re less experienced with, you start to develop a certain level of comfort and confidence that will prepare you for the world of work.

Form Connections with Classmates and Teachers:

It’s especially helpful if the classmates are women, because this is the beginning of your personal network moving forward. As students, we learn that our careers will often be driven by our relationships with the people in our company and industry.

At this stage, you are building your network. Your generation will eventually become the future leaders, so learn to connect from now. Your teachers can also refer you for future internships and job opportunities, so do not be afraid to form lasting relationships with them.

Make the Most of Student Events:

The best events usually bring in speakers at conferences and symposiums. Listening to the experiences of successful leaders prepares you for the current business environment. Do not miss out on the opportunities to learn from confident, charismatic leaders, as they can potentially motivate and inspire you.

Get involved in an internship:

Starting out as a millennial in the workforce can be scary, however, interning is a good way to get one foot in the door and puts you on the right path to success. Research done by The Huffington Post shows that people who complete at least one internship during their university or college years are 13% more likely to find full-time employment as compared to those who did not have an internship. Not only does having an internship look great on your resume, it also gives an advantage in the hiring process, and will help you determine if you like a specific area of work.

Internships/vacation programmes are not difficult to find. Most universities and organisations provide students with internship opportunities during the vacation periods. Visit their websites and read the daily newspapers to apply for these programmes.

Word of mouth can also be utilized to help find an internship – talk to friends, family members, neighbours and tell them what kind of experiences you are looking for, and who knows, they may have a great connection for you! And don’t be afraid to send in your resume to see if companies have any internship opportunities available. Many companies will be impressed by your “go-getter” spirit.

In closing, I believe that the above tips will certainly help you to build your confidence and prepare you for the world of work. Remember, you are currently developing a wonderful set of skills inside the classroom, so let’s get you ready for the workforce.

AFETT is a not-for-profit organization formed in 2002 with the goal of bringing together professional women and engaging in networking opportunities, professional training and business ideas. ASK AFETT is a column meant to address issues and concerns of professionals seeking advice to assist in progressing in their careers. Today’s response was written by Cavelle Joseph, Human Resource Practitioner and AFETT’s Immediate Past President. Learn more about AFETT at www. afett.com or by contacting the Secretariat at admin.afett@

During his homily at the Ash Wednesday Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Port-of-Spain, Fr Harris said, “my dear friends, I am not a person who sees God’s punishing hand in every unfortunate circumstance of life. But history does say to us that some unfortunate circumstances are indeed the punishment of God for our unrepentant wickedness.” Citing the story of Fatima and World Wars I and II as evidence, Harris urged worshippers to pray to God, “to spare us.” “As Ambassadors for Christ let us proclaim the message of seeking reconciliation with God, not only by our prayer, our words and advice but much more by our way of life.” He urged the congregation to reconcile with those they may have offended or been offended by.

“Let us as disciples and imitators of Christ Jesus take up the cross for our nation. Let us do this as the Gospel reading suggests, not to impress others but so that the heavenly Father will see the likeness of His Son in us and redeem our land.” Harris said the Ash Wednesday liturgy of placing ashes on the forehead echoes the Ancient Jewish tradition of wearing ashes to represent mourning, fasting and repentance.

“It symbolised grief especially grief over sin that causes division from God and destruction of self as an individual and a nation. My dear friends come to have the ashes put on your heads if you are genuinely grieving for the state of our nation and wish to do whatever is necessary to turn things around. “This is a commitment to carrying the cross of each day as you strive to forget self and live seeking the good of others and that of our nation.” Earlier, Harris said that after the good and bad of Carnival, now is the time to take stock of who we are. “My dear friends, these two months of the year 2017 have been the bloodiest in our history. The recession has hit us with ensuing job losses and the gap between rich and poor widening every day.” While some of us live very well, he added, an increasing number of persons, many of them our relatives and friends, are finding it extremely difficult to make ends meet.

“There is a rise in hopelessness but as Christians we do not allow ourselves to lose heart. We turn to God and listen to His Word, so that this Word may remind us of who we are, may strengthen us, may give us courage and ultimately fill us with joy.” Quoting the First Commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”, Harris said that TT has created other gods of money, pleasure and power.

Money has led TT into problems such as illicit drugs, arms and human trafficking and corruption.

“We have forgotten the scriptures which say to us, ‘the love of money is the root of all evil’, and that, ‘we cannot serve God and money’. Despite all that afflicts us, because we are ambassadors for Christ, we bring a message of peace from our God, the true God, who in spite of our infidelity still reaches out to us.” Harris said God is calling us. “Come back to Me with all your heart, fasting, weeping and mourning. Let your hearts be broken, not your garments torn.

Turn to the Lord your God again, for He is all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness and ready to relent,” he said as many in the congregation said, “Amen.”

The previous record holder was Super Blue (Austin Lyons) with his song Fantastic Friday, which was 511 times during Carnival 2013.

President of the Trinbago Unified Calypsonians Organisation (TUCO) Lutalo “Bro Resistance” Masimba made the announcement yesterday. “The song relates directly to the times, the song brings a breath of fresh air where the music is for the road. It also shows that any composer could have an opportunity to win a Road March title,” he said.

When Newsday spoke to MX Prime yesterday he said records were made to be broken. “Someone would come and break that record but for now we are humbled that the DJs played the song that much and that people requested the song.

The number of times is not all that important, it’s a humble achievement to add to our hard work that we put out,” he said.

MX Prime also thanked the fans and their supporters. “We worked hard in the last two years to try and build not just for the people of Trinidad and Tobago but for the people outside. What we focus on is Caribbean dance music and we entered the soca season with a positive mindset and through the grace of God, good things happened,” he said.

Asked how he and the other members of Ultimate Rejects planned to celebrate their success he said, “our celebration is to keep working. After you win a football game a good coach will sit down with the team and tell them to run some laps, do some push ups and that is to develop a certain discipline.

You don’t want to lose to make adjustments to improve. You have to keep working hard so you get better day by day.” Second and third place went to 2016 Road March champ Machel Montano with his songs Your Time Now and Beat It, which played a distant, barely visible 72 and 18 times respectively.

Meanwhile, the Together WI collective, with one of its core members Anya Ayoung Chee, will also use aspects from the Road March song Full Extreme to carve a campaign showing that TT does, in fact, business and does in fact care.

Upon the announcement of Full Extreme being crowned this year’s Road March song-having been played 556 times- Ayoung Chee the Together WI’s next step will utilise the message of the song and the conversation generated around it to show that TT does care about its country.

In response to questions posed by Newsday, Ayoung Chee said, “We believe that Full Extreme has captured our imagination as a country and can become a wake up call for us. “We believe in re-framing the message message to shine a positive light on our society by saying that we do business, we do care about the state of things in our country; and we believe we can build on our history of activism in this region and stand up as individuals for what we imagine to be a better society.

She continued, “Together WI is using our collective skills and resources to create messaging that makes the act of standing up for our beliefs accessible and unifying.” The group of creatives began a campaign during the Carnival season based on Calypso Rose’s song entitled Leave Me Alone. The campaign anti-gender based violence.

Ayoung Chee could not give the exact start date of the campaign but indicated that it was scheduled to start soon and would be one of several rolled out by the group.

The Leave Me Alone campaign featured specially printed t-shirts, asked if that would be the medium used again, Ayoung Chee said a similar approach would be taken by the group.

NCC executive chairman Kenny De Silva and his team issued the results to media yesterday.

The band led by Ronnie McIntosh won the title by 1,242 points. The Lost Tribe, led by Valmiki Maharaj came second with a score of 1,234. One of the band’s co-creative director’s Anya Ayoung Chee said it was an amazing feeling and achievement for the only two year old band.

McIntosh in a phone interview with Newsday said, “It is a great feeling to win again and of course we got Downtown again. We have four consecutive years in downtown and the consecutive year in NCC.

It is a good feeling. We give thanks to God for all the blessings.” He said the band’s team did an excellent job in its portrayal of the Fearless ten which celebrated the band’s ten years in the mas business.

He also thanked his masqueraders who he said brought friends and were loyal to the band. McIntosh also added that the band’s road experience went well with security running smoothly

Students’ average attendance at the secondary level was 18.28 percent this year compared with 22.8 percent last year.

At the primary level it was 26.3 percent this year as against 31 percent last year. Poor attendance after Carnival, Seecharan said, is a perennial problem.

This year the average attendance of secondary school teachers was 77.6 percent and 81.2 percent for primary school teachers.

Education Minister Anthony Garcia, who disclosed the statistics said, “We must be concerned and we have to arrest the situation one way or the other.” Garcia, Seecharan and Minister in the Ministry of Education Lovell Francis, who addressed the media yesterday on the issue of school attendance on Ash Wednesday at the Education Towers, Port of Spain, commended the teachers for their attendance, but expressed concern at the poor attendance of students.

They appealed to parents to send their children out to school today and tomorrow.

Francis expressed concern that students not attending schools when they should, was engaging in low productivity which is “a cultural phenomenon” that could be taught indirectly to children.

This situation is not acceptable, he said, “and it is not something that we want to translate to our children.” Noting that the issue of absenteeism after Carnival was longstanding, Seecharan said the Ministry in the past engaged stakeholders, teachers, principals and the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) to look at the issue.

“We need to bring back on the table, the issue of the week of Carnival, and whether in fact it may be more feasible for us to not have school during the Carnival week,” Seecharan said. The recommendation is that the school year will be extended by an additional week to maintain the 39 weeks required for the school year. It is one of the suggestions the Ministry will pursue and hold further discussions with the other stakeholders including the National Parent Teachers Association (NPTA) and TTUTA, he said.

“At the end of the day, notwithstanding what we do at the school, it is up to the parents to send their children to school.” In the past, he noted that schools modified their programmes to encourage students to attend classes after the long Carnival weekend but without much success. Somewhere at the back of the minds of parents and students, he said, is the feeling that if children do not go to school they would not miss anything.

The Ministry’s instructions to schools, he said, is that they proceed with teaching as a normal school day.

Former education minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh said that the recommendation of giving students the one week off during Carnival and taking the week back later in the year had been raised again during his tenure.

However, in discussions with stakeholders, he said, it had been shut down.

It is an idea that he will support, he said, because students should have 195 teaching days.

Due to national holidays, ten bank holidays given to teachers, principal’s holidays, denominational and other incidental holidays, he said students end up with less than 150 teaching days.

Students not turning up for classes after Carnival, he said, added to the problem.

Concerned over the fact that so many of our students chose to remain at home, Garcia said, “Of course all our students are under the jurisdiction of their parents and the question must be asked, ‘Why do the parents find it necessary to allow so many of their children to remain at home today?’ Is it because they fear that the teachers would not be in attendance? That fear is unfounded.”

At first, it was met with mixed reaction. Some saw it as an attempt to move mas away from the city of Port-of-Spain, as a threat to downtown mas at venues like Broadway and the Piccadilly Greens. Others welcomed the chance to shake things up: a new venue and a reorganisation which could help reduce bottlenecks that plague the Queen’s Park Savannah yearly.

Four years later, the Socadrome is still here and it is showing signs that it is here to stay.

According to the event’s organisers, the crowd this year was about 2,200. Whether this is an increase or not is beside the point (a Socadrome spokesman said the figure represented an increase of about 1,000). The fact is 2,200 is not a negligible number.

In fact, it probably compares favourably to the size of the audience at other venues, some of which do not have the capacity of the Jean Pierre Complex.

We say the time has come for Carnival to formally embrace this private initiative, roping it in and integrating it more fully into the overall experience as part of a dynamic tourism product.

There are clear advantages to the Socadrome. In the first place, it addresses issues which are important to the Carnival audience.

For many safety is a factor and there is a perception that the Jean Pierre Complex is a more secure venue than stands in the city.

Another advantage has been the relatively good condition of the seating and accommodations at the complex. While these could still be better, they compare favourably with other venues where there is little sense that any effort is made for the ease and comfort of the audience.

Utilising the Jean Pierre Complex for Carnival is also an ingenious way to make our sporting facilities more sustainable. By thinking outside of the box, the organisers have managed to utilise a space that would have otherwise been left empty, a space constructed and maintained – at a cost of millions – by taxpayers.

We laud the fact that this year the Socadrome was free, allowing people who may not have otherwise been tempted to try it out. This was a clever way to drive future profitability.

A similar tactic was used at the Queen’s Park Savannah this year, with the North Stand being free of charge to the public as well.

But that effort notwithstanding, little else seems to have been done to draw the crowds there.

Certainly the time has come for an update of the Carnival venues and a redesign of the overall Parade of the Bands. How can existing facilities be made more enticing? The irony is that both of the major spectator venues opened up for free to draw the crowds, yet there was relatively little for them to see. Mind you, there were positive reviews of some bands, such as The Lost Tribe, and for the bands presenting traditional mas. But the deeper issue is the need for something to bring the crowds in with.

Crime is also affecting the perception of Carnival. While many downtown venues have a bad reputation, the fact is they are relatively well-policed and secure. Yet, such is the rampant nature of serious crimes overall that the public is fearful and rightfully vigilant.

The issue of the venues is also just a stand-in for the fact that there is a need for a regeneration of the city as a whole. The Carnival experience should be a consistently high-quality one at all its points.

Still, it would do the State well to learn lessons from Socadrome and to include it within its overall strategy. For now, it is clear that, among the many winners that are to be congratulated today, the Socadrome has clearly won a place in the hearts and minds of those who attend it.

There are various DNA testing services on the market but I chose the Geno 2.0 Next Generation test because it forms part of a wider scientific research project in which around 300,000 DNA markers are analysed. It shows the migration paths of one’s ancient maternal and paternal ancestors, and tells you if you have Neanderthal DNA in your genome. It also allows you to engage in the interactive Genographic Project that offers extra information, including about the broader historical context of your DNA map .

There were only a couple of surprises since I knew, anecdotally, that my ancestry was European (I thought more French than British, but it turned out to be the other way around) and African, with indigenous heritage, in that order. Some Asiatic ancestry was unexpected, but I was thoroughly amazed to discover that I also have Neanderthal ancestry .

I started reading about Neanderthals because, like most people, I thought that the ancient sexual encounters of humans and Neanderthals was just that: ancient. But the sequencing of the Neanderthal genome revealed that about two percent of the ancestry of each European and Asian modern human traces to ancient gene flow from Neanderthals .

Therefore, most non-Africans have Neanderthal DNA, while present- day Africans do not .

We know that humans originated in Africa and started on their different migratory routes around 60,000 years ago. At that time Neanderthals, who have been extinct for about 30,000 years were still living in Eurasia, having left Africa 300,000- 400,000 years ago. It is clear that the two species had no problems with each other when they came into contact. The result of their mating has been long lasting, leaving an important trace of Neanderthal DNA in modern humankind .

On the website Cell.com, I read that “Neanderthal-inherited sequences are not silent remnants of ancient interbreeding but have measurable impacts on gene expression that contribute to variation in modern human phenotypes.” It’s to say that your Neanderthal DNA inheritance would predispose you to being able to live at high altitude, for example, but also to certain illnesses, including depression, tobacco addiction, auto-immune diseases and risk of blood clots .

Neanderthals were a small population for hundreds of thousands of years and became inbred, accumulating harmful mutations. The benefit of Neanderthal-human hybridisation is that human natural selection purged those mutations and, although some residual Neanderthal weaknesses endured, made for a human being better equipped for the environmental challenges that lay ahead, having left Mother Africa .

If today’s advocates of racial purity — something that hardly exists — understood the facts it might temper their stupidity. But then, race is a social, economic and political construct and there are always those willing to exploit fear and maintain ignorance to dominate others. Of course, the Atlantic slave trade was the most reprehensible episode of sustained and systematic dehumanisation of any group of people for purely economic gain, using those very methods of control. “Neanderthal” name-calling is insulting, I imagine, partly because white racists are uninformed of their own close relationship with the species. An Internet search reveals some pretty bizarre, racist ideas about ethnic types .

And the poor Neanderthal gets some terrible PR, too, although we now know that they were a lot more human than ape-like .

The time has come to defend our ancient cousins whose DNA has helped make so many of us who we are. It is interesting to note that the biblestudy website has come out supporting Neanderthal man as a legitimate descendant of A d a m and Eve and not a product of e v o l u – tion .

Fr Rodney Eugena told the children that those two days are Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and that on those days they should not eat any meat.

Prompted by the priest, many of the boys said they were also giving up video games for Lent.

Eugena was delivering the homily at the school’s Ash Wednesday mass held at the Sacred Heart Church, next to the school.

He told the students that during the Lenten period they have to fast and pray, share and give alms. He said the Lenten season is an invitation to stop what they liked to do and buy fewer of the things they liked so they would have money to give alms. “For instance if we love ice cream, for the Lenten season we have to eat it less. If we love KFC, for the Lenten season we have to eat it less and buy it less also so that we will have money for alms giving.” He reminded the students that Lent starts on Ash Wednesday and is a preparation for Easter, adding that this period takes the penitent through the passion, suffering and resurrection of Christ.

Eugena said that the ashes reminds the faithful that they are dust and to dust they shall return and is a reminder that they should live a good Christian life and everything that they do should be Christ-like.

The first reading of the mass, which was taken from the Biblical book of Joel, called on the people to repent and return to God.

There was also a reading from Matthew, done by a student, in which Jesus warned his disciples and followers not to parade their good deeds in public as the hypocrites did and that when they prayed, they should do so in private, not making a public spectacle of themselves.

The reading also included a passage about fasting, reminding the congregation that when they fast they should not put on a gloomy look to announce their fast to the world but that they should put oil on their heads and conduct themselves in a way that only God would know that they are fasting.

Bolt who is into the final lap of a glorious career and who will retire from the sport after the World Championships later this year, made world news on the weekend not for his speed on the tracks but for his wining skills on the road before a bevy of willing, gyrating women during celebrations on Carnival Monday and Tuesday.

British media outlet the London Daily Mail carried a story in its online edition yesterday which showed photos of Bolt having a whale of a time wining and grinding on a string of women.

Bolt has been dating 26-year-old Kasi Bennett since 2014, and she has remained with him throughout his global cavorting with the ladies which courted controversy at the post-Rio Olympics when photos emerged on social media which appeared to show him spending the night with 20-year-old student Jady Duarte following his 30th birthday celebrations. The following are images of Bolt enjoying himself in Trini Carnival as published in the Daily Mail.