Lawrence and his technical staff, including assistants Stuart Charles-Fevrier, Stern John and Ross Russell (goalkeeping coach), had an hourlong session under cloudy conditions.

“The players are looking forward to get started,” said Lawrence, moments before his session began.

“I am looking forward to working with the players.” The former TT central defender said that his intention yesterday was “more or less, to make an introduction to myself and to the players, to get an idea of how we want to work (and) how things are going to be done from now on.” Trinidad and Tobago are set to face Suriname in a friendly fixture in Paramaribo on March 10 before a pair of FIFA World Cup CONCACAF Zone Final Round qualifiers at home to Panama (March 24) and Mexico (March 29).

“We’re going to be working,” Lawrence pointed out.

“I think it’s important that, no matter what type of session we’re doing, we need to always work on something. So we’ve got particular things – the staff and myself – that we’re going to be looking for. And hopefully players will enjoy (it).

Lawrence called up 27 players for the training squad but central defenders Radanfah Abu Bakr and Julius James were absent from yesterday’s session.

“They had already arranged prior engagements,” said the TT coach. “Radanfah is away, Julius James is away, but apart from that, everybody else is here.” Asked about the chemistry among the technical staff, Lawrence replied, “they all know each other and I think they all know exactly where we’re at.

We had meetings prior to this session and everybody knows exactly what we expect of them.” Sessions will take place daily until Saturday, and will resume on Ash Wednesday, after the Carnival festivities.

Lawrence said he is not adopting a ‘big stick’ approach towards the players during this Carnival period.

“I can’t put a string on them and say don’t go to a party,” said the TT coach.

“They’re all grown men. They’re professionals so they know exactly what I expect of them. I expect them to carry it out.”

TT Head Coach Benny Astorga, speaking before yesterday’s game, said he believed his team was in the best possible shape going into the qualifiers.

“We are in a very good shape right now. We’ve had an extensive period of intense, quality preparations largely due to the efforts of the Association which did its best to get us what we needed, and now we are just ready to get the ball rolling in the Bahamas,” Astorga told TT FA Media.

“The players have worked extremely hard, they have been disciplined and dedicated and now they are all just very eager and excited to take the sand and demonstrate their capabilities,” added the former US Beach Soccer national team member.

“We’ve played a lot of emphasis on correcting our mistakes and trying to make use of our goalscoring chances from the early and not have to wait until the latter stages of the game. We are hoping to take control and settle early,” he added.

In the 2013 qualifiers which were also played in Nassau, TT recorded two wins and two losses, finishing seventh. They advanced to the quarter-finals in 2015, completing four wins in six matches in El Salvador to finish fifth overall. The team’s rise continued in 2015 at the Lucayan Cup in Bahamas which they won, defeating Bahamas 5-3 and Mexico 5-4.

An array of themes and issues were played out by children telling of what life is like, not only in the Caribbean but across the world.

Costumes such as The Spirit of Spring, Victoria and Her Pet Dragons from A Touch of China, Venice Flag Waver, and the Indian mas costume, Grandson of Kicking Bear, danced to attain a place in tonight’s finals at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain. The Senior King and Queen of Carnival will also be crowned tonight.

After giving a history of Invaders, its past players and arrangers, Minister of Tourism Shamfa Cudjoe called for more transparency, more accountability, more honesty and all that is required to reignite and rebuild the true meaning and energy of pan.

She told the gathering last Wednesday evening: “We must not play Monopoly with the heart of our culture, the livelihood of a people and the pulse of our nation. Pan is synonymous with Carnival, pan brings the energy to Carnival.

We have created something great out of nothing. We live pan, we breathe pan, Trinidad and Tobago is pan. Pan and Carnival is critical to our tourism thrust bringing thousands to Trinidad and Tobago.

“But before we can ask the panman to appreciate pan, we must first respect and appreciate pan ourselves, each and every one of us. We must respect our instrument, we must respect our stalwarts who shed their blood, sweat and tears for the advancement of the industry.” Caribbean Airlines (CAL) chairman Shameer Ronnie Mohammed spoke about the relationship between his company and Invaders.

He told members of Invaders that the sky was the limit and CAL was behind them as they worked towards winning Panorama.

Mohammed also boasted about CAL having 200 international flights and bringing 25,000 passengers to TT for Carnival. The evening was not all talk, as MX Prime was on hand with the Ultimate Rejects to perform Full Extreme. He proved to be the hit of the party, as everyone wanted to get a picture with him.

While he was singing, the sound system went down, but Invaders provided the music for the rest of the performance.

MX Prime said he truly appreciated all the love and support the Ultimate Rejects was receiving from the public.

CAL Invaders is going to the National Panorama final on Saturday playing Arddin Herbert’s arrangement of Full Extreme.

This popular expression is actually based on the fact that the hypothalamus is the centre of our emotions.

It also helps the pituitary and thyroid glands in regulating stress. So, whenever you feel frustrated when you see a lot of hair falling out from your head, it means your hypothalamus is overworking, and this is where you should start seeking help from a trichologist.

In past issues I have discussed the endocrine system and its contribution to hair loss and hair growth.

Hypothalamus controls the majority of the endocrine gland of the body. Your hypothalamus is a small, but very important, part of your brain.

It governs several glands with variety of functions. Its scope of control include behavioural, autonomic and endocrine functions.

Remember when I shared with you information about how the pituitary gland controls the physical growth and development? Yes, your hypothalamus has something to do about it too, especially about hair growth.

If the organs of your body are active members in a volleyball game, your hypothalamus is the setter. Once it perceives and receives input from the team, it analyses the information. It then “sets” the ball to the the right member. This member will then give an appropriate response, so on and so forth.

Now, imagine if there’s no setter in your team of organs.

There would be no co-ordinated response system. Your body would also start to manifest many imbalances especially those that are hormone-related.

Two of the major hormones that, if imbalanced, can cause negative effects to your hair are gonadotropin and thyroid hormones.

If the stress levels of your body would start to go berserk (which is supposedly taken care of by your thyroid hormones) and the testosterone would increase because of other hormonal imbalances, this would be a very conducive media for the over-production of dihydrotestosterone (DHT).

To recap, the DHT is the enemy of every hair follicle as it destroys its integrity, making it impossible for healthy hair to survive.

So, how do you keep your hypothalamus in good shape? Simple, ensure proper diet.

Increase your intake of green leafy vegetables. Its antioxidants help repair cell damage that may cause brain disease.

Also, don’t forget your Vitamin B supplement since it is the main brain food especially for your hypothalamus. If your brain is properly nourished, your mental functions will also improve.

Along with the right type of diet, you should also look after your physical routine and environment. If you are constantly exposed to stress and you’re so into the sedentary lifestyle, your brain can only do so much to keep everything in order.

If you want a deeper understanding on how these brain parts and glands help manage the growth of your hair, you can always schedule a session with us.

Just visit my website and once we receive your query, we’ll be more than willing and happy to assist you with your concerns.

Germaine Williams-Beckles is a doctor of trichology (DT) and nutrition consultant (NC), https://www.germainewilliamsbeckles.

com or -627-4659.

Email us your questions at info@drgees.com

The band played Fete arranged by Ken ‘Professor’ Philmore. Hope Pan Groovers placed second with Spankin arranged by Ojay Richards and while Natural Mystic placed third with Breakaway arranged by Rickie Williams

No, I do not think this should apply to blood crimes simply because of the nature of those crimes. But in other instances where people’s lack of opportunities due to a lack of knowledge and education led them down the wrong path and to a life of crime, shouldn’t our criminal justice system be restorative and work to release people back onto the streets better than they were when they went in? Shouldn’t we want to create hope and opportunity even for those who lose their way, and give everyone a second chance at a full and contributing life? Imagine the positive ripples of sending now highly educated men and women back to the communities from whence they came, able to build new and prosperous lives where criminality alone once stood.

And it does not have to be limited to scholastic pursuits but could and should include music, the arts, sport, technical, vocational, any developmental pursuit that taps into the innate abilities and passions naturally inherent in all people, and give them a chance at a real life.

There are both local and international organisations that would be willing to assist in making this a reality, and this as a programme would be a revolution in the way we think and look at our people, and the way the world looks at us.

This is the future of a real and progressive nation, one concerned with the well-being and empowerment of all of its people. And while this will be a manifesto promise and objective of a Progressive Empowerment Party government, like with all of our suggestions, we hope the Government of the day steals the idea and puts it into practice immediately for the benefit of all our people.

Phillip Edward Alexander political leader, PMP

I have been making some suggestions for the past ten years to members of the leadership of the governing body, regarding the downward spiral in attendance at the Panorama Finals show, which seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

Any primary school student, if given the opportunity to solve the equation, would arrive at the obvious conclusion that 20 bands will require no less than eight hours to complete their performances.

I have heard many patrons complaining that they’ve paid money to go to a show but have had to leave without hearing the bands they paid to hear, perform.

This is very unfair because it’s like paying for a gourmet meal and then being served finger-food. It is not satisfying, hence the reason for the rapid decline in attendance at the Panorama Finals show.

In addition, there is almost a sense of being held hostage at the event, while patrons endure long hours waiting to hear their favourite band perform.

Prime time is always reserved for your main act which in this case is the large band category.

The bands should not be playing to a sparse audience during the wee hours of the morning. It is unfair to the musicians, the audience and the sponsors. I know for a fact that some sponsors feel cheated out of the advertising they expect to realise from sponsorship, simply because the audience is greatly depleted when their band finally performs.

It might be too late for implementation to have the medium and large band categories perform on separate nights. However, I would strongly recommend that the large bands be allowed to play first, beginning with this year’s Panorama Finals show on Saturday. Patrons would then leave the Panorama event with a heightened sense of satisfaction in getting their money’s worth.

If there is insistence on having both medium and large bands perform on the same night, obviously one category will suffer and it should not be the large band category as it is the category that the vast majority of patrons pay to hear.

This is just one of the areas in which the Panorama as a major cultural event needs to be reformed.

Ray Holman via email

I find that even more justifiable now as Tobago hoteliers are seeing the wisdom of advertising Tobago separate from Trinidad as a tourist destination. Tobago Carnival could attract tourists from North America, England, Europe, other Caribbean islands and Trinidadians.

Tobagonians would be able to showcase their skills at making mas together with many of the key people who are involved in producing Trinidad Carnival.

Before the Carnival the Tobago steelbands could produce their own Panorama shows, inviting some of the winners of the Trinidad Panorama to take part in the grand final.

It could be a great Carnival, bringing in much needed revenue, and a great time for all participating.

Gerard Duval Petit Valley

The news sent ripples through countries that are rich in natural resources that are extracted by foreign companies and rely on the revenues generated to sustain their economies and provide services to their citizens.

TT is one such country and questions are been asked about the impact of this development on the energy sector and the implementation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) through which revenue payments to the Government are shared with the public in annual EITI reports (www.tteiti.org.tt/eiti- reports).

The impact on TT of Trump’s action will be negative, if only because it strikes a blow against the Government’s policy to bring increasing transparency and accountability to the local extractive sectors (oil, gas and quarrying) by its membership of the EITI since March 2011.

However, the blow is not fatal because the US Dodd-Frank Act that gave rise to the SE C disclosure rule that now has been repealed also gave birth to similar legislation and rules in the European Union’s 28 countries, Norway and Canada, which remain in force.

Therefore, most of the foreign companies that operate in TT ’s energy sector are currently subject to and complying with those disclosure requirements in other jurisdictions.

As voluntary participants in EITI reporting elsewhere and in TT , we can expect no lessening in those companies’ commitment to transparency and accountability and their support to the EITI reporting process.

In viewing this development, citizens must recognise that such an early removal of a key anti-corruption measure of the Barack Obama administration may reinforce the perception being voiced in America’s media that Trump may be soft on corruption as is further evidenced by many allegations of conflicts of interest facing his administration.

We should observe these developments with caution.

Victor Hart chair, TTEITI Steering Committee