For some stu­dents prepar­ing to write CSEC O-Lev­el ex­ams next year, Eng­lish A as a com­pul­so­ry sub­ject is just one of sev­er­al aca­d­e­m­ic hur­dles to over­come.

Mu­si­cian, for­mer pan­nist and for­mer sec­ondary school teacher, Mar­cus C Bap­tiste MA, BA, CFM, said he had two big dreams, and when they ma­te­ri­alised, it was amaz­ing.

In May 1961, Dr Er­ic Williams, Pre­mier of T&T, in a lec­ture at Queen’s Hall in Port-of-Spain, said “The world is tired of our po­lit­i­cal clown­ing with in­de­pen­dence, so even that is be­com­ing tire­some.” When we re­flect on the past 64 years, it ap­pears that our na­tion is still ‘po­lit­i­cal clown­ing’.

Born on Sep­tem­ber 1, 1926, in a very sig­nif­i­cant com­mu­ni­ty in Trinidad to hum­ble moth­er Lucy and mul­ti­fac­eted fa­ther Isaac Gid­dings, Mar­garet Mon­i­ca Es­delle (née Gid­dings) was one of the pret­ti­est ba­bies born in Wood­ford Lodge, Ch­agua­nas. She is pas­sion­ate­ly called Mam­my Es­delle by her chil­dren.

In the days be­fore the new aca­d­e­m­ic year be­gins, the quest for books, uni­forms and shoes con­tin­ues. Health is of­ten ig­nored but a child who is ex­haust­ed, hun­gry, anx­ious, de­hy­drat­ed or strug­gling to see the board can­not suc­ceed.

Wak­ing up in the ICU can be a ter­ri­fy­ing ex­pe­ri­ence. You’re un­sure of what’s hap­pen­ing, you don’t know what your chances of sur­vival are and you’re pos­si­bly in pain. But, in ad­di­tion to prop­er med­ical treat­ment, the kind­ness, ex­tra care and con­sid­er­a­tion shown by staff can pro­vide great ease. And this was the re­al­i­ty for one Ari­ma nail tech­ni­cian at the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.

For some rea­son, peo­ple al­ways laugh when I ask if their child snores.  “Of course he does; he like his fa­ther” is the com­mon an­swer. 

The hu­man body is an amaz­ing piece of work. It reg­u­lates your tem­per­a­ture, heals a cut and keeps the heart beat­ing while you are asleep. It is al­so down­right strange.

Whether flown in packed sta­di­ums at lo­cal foot­ball games, car­ried through the streets dur­ing re­gion­al Car­ni­val pa­rades or draped across the shoul­ders of Olympic ath­letes on glob­al podi­ums, the na­tion­al flag rep­re­sents Trin­ba­go.

Mu­sic pe­ri­od at Preysal Sec­ondary School is nev­er just an or­di­nary class. An­dre Fred­er­ick, who teach­es steel­pan to Forms One to Five, en­sures it is an en­joy­able ex­pe­ri­ence filled with prac­ti­cal life lessons.

The mid­night hour that sig­nalled T&T’s in­de­pen­dence has been re­count­ed count­less times. But the road to that his­toric mo­ment was paved long be­fore the clock struck twelve, shaped by a re­lent­less se­ries of meet­ings, metic­u­lous plan­ning and com­mit­ment.

Laugh­ter and sus­pense took over the Samaan Es­tate in St Clair on Au­gust 8 as Teatro Journee host­ed Served—its first din­ner the­atre—tak­ing guests on a mys­tery-filled im­mer­sive the­atre ex­pe­ri­ence.