Budget Cuts Affect Tobago Carnival Launch

Well 'affect' here is rather misleading. There actually will be no Carnival Launch in Tobago this year, due to what has been described as a 'drastic' decrease in the funding normally given to the Tobago Festivals Committee. (Much to my disappointment, since I was going to be part of the street parade, and was taking much pride and glee in putting together my 'Paper Doll' costume).

Instead, the committee is planning a press conference, to introduce the various carnival bands and their costumes to the public. Hopefully the budgets cuts to all of THA's departments have not been so drastic as to affect the regular Carnival Caravan, done by the Department of Culture; but to date, there has been no word of this much anticipated annual event. Certainly seems a bleak year all round, but I wonder how Carnival in Trinidad has been affected compared to us here in the Sister Isle? Hmmm....

T&T Film Festival: Call for Submissions

The annual Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival returns this September 16-29 at MovieTowne and select venues across the islands, and is now inviting submissions for the fourth edition of the festival.

TTFF 2009 seeks to highlight excellence in filmmaking and to expose Trinidad & Tobago audiences to films made anywhere in the Caribbean region, by Caribbean people in the diaspora and by international filmmakers whose films are in the Caribbean spirit. In addition, in keeping with Trinidad & Tobago’s rich ethnic mix, in 2009 the submission criteria is being expanded to include films from and about Latin America, India and Africa.

FLOW and the Trinidad & Tobago Film Company (TTFC) are presenting sponsors of the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival with supporting sponsorship from the Tourism Development Company (TDC) and Atlantic LNG.

The Festival will screen films in 35mm, NTSC Digi beta or NTSC mini DV formats. Entries of various lengths will be accepted. All initial submissions should be in NTSC DVD and must be in English or with English subtitles.

All the films screened at the Festival will be eligible for a People’s Choice Award and in addition TTFF 2009 will introduce three Jury Prizes for Best Dramatic Feature Film, Best Documentary Feature Film and Best Short Film (under 30 minutes), with a cash prize awarded in each category.

All submissions must be accompanied by:

• Synopsis
• Running time
• Year of production
• Country of origin
• Language and if subtitled
• Genre
• Producer, Director and cast if appropriate
• Short biography of director
• Festivals/Awards (if any)
• Contact information

The deadline for the submissions is 15th May 2009. There is no submission fee. Please submit your entries to:

Annabelle Alcazar
Programme Director
Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival
3 Pelham Street
Belmont, Port of Spain
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

Visit www.withoutabox.com, Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, in order to submit online.

For inquiries, email annabelle@trinidadandtobagofilmfestival.com.

Soca Under The Samaan Tree X

Tobago's Radio Tambrin, the island's only radio station, is in the midst of celebrating its tenth anniversary. A full year of celebrations began on the June 8 2008 and activities included a church service, a supplement in the Express newspapers, a Santa Parade for Christmas, a Tobago Heritage Show, a Wake Up Tobago Caravan (the Wake Up Tobago Programme was broadcast from villages throughout Tobago), and an Elder's Day (in which the elders from various communities ran the radio station for the day, doing everything from announcements, to hosting programmes and DJ-ing).

This year, Tambrin's annual soca show, "Soca Under The Samaan Tree" continues with the theme of the number '10' and as fate would have it, the show will be held on the January 10, and will feature 10 Trinidadian and 10 Tobagonian artists. The Tobago line up is not a done deal. Tambrin is currently running a competition in which songs from the Tobago artists are played and the listening audience phones in and votes for the artists that they want to perform at the show. The final performers will be announced today.

The venue is of course under the large samaan tree at the Old Market Square, uptown Scarborough. The show is free and as usual draws a huge crowd every year and marks the official opening of the Carnival season in Tobago.

So far the comfirmed performers include: Patch, pelf, Blackie, Impulse, Blaxx, Trini Jacobs, Olatunji Yearwood, Euphonics Steel Orchestra and of course Tambrin DJs.

American People's Choice Awards with a Caribbean connection

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeThe 35th People's Choice Awards in the United States takes place tonight on American broadcast network, CBS.

Superstar songstress Rihanna is the Caribbean's only nominee at the awards, which are the only ones voted on by fans and viewers and not by judges.

The Grammy-winning Barbadian singer is nominated for Best Female Singer and Best R&B Singer, as well as for Favourite Pop Song.

The awards will be hosted by someone else with a Caribbean connection – actress, singer and rapper Queen Latifah (born Dana Owens), who's just back from a headline-making vacation in Tobago.

Some thoughts on the year gone

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeTwo outstanding websites have broad and comprehensive perspectives on the year gone in and for the Caribbean:

• BBC Caribbean's Pick[s] of the Year: BBC Caribbean's pick of the year was Usain Bolt's phenomenal rise to sporting fame, with special coverage of diaspora business; the tourism crisis; crime; homosexuality; soca music; and interviews with high profile regional figures. It also features coverage of some of the year's major events, including Guyana's hosting of Carifesta X; the deaths of Byron Lee and David De Caires; and the region's chronic cricket problem
• Caribbean: 2008 in Review at Global Voices: Janine Mendes-Franco reviews the year in politics; freedom of speech; human rights; crime & health; disasters; the economy; sport; and fond farewells

CaribWorldNews.com also has two stories on Caribbean Americans in 2008:

• CWWN's Caribbean American People of the Year: their picks, all from the political realm, include second generation Barbadian and Barack Obama Attorney General nominee Eric Holder Jr.; Haitian-American political director for Obama Patrick Gaspard; and Caribbean-descended New York Governor David Patterson
• Caribbean American Year in Review: an overview, from the high points (record Caribbean voter turnout and involvement in the US political process; the Caribbean's success at the Olympic Games; and the inclusion of a Caribbean designation – CARIBID – on the US census form), to the low points (Caribbean-Americans lose savings and investments on Wall Street, face retrenchment, and a cut in remittances back home as global recession hits; a Jamaican psychiatric patient dies from negligence at a Brooklyn Hospital; a Haitian-American Walmart employee is trampled to death on Black Friday in New York; disappointment around the relocation and reorganisation of Caribbean Week in June; and New York Governor David Patterson's slow response to aiding Haitian hurricane victims)

We tweet. Do you?

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We're just saying... ;)

Thirteen West Indians for ICC Hall of Fame

Thirteen West Indies cricket legends have been inducted into the new International Cricket Council's (ICC) Cricket Hall of Fame: Lance Gibbs, Gordon Greenidge, George Headley, Michael Holding, Rohan Kanhai, Clive Lloyd, Malcolm Marshall, Vivian Richards, Andy Roberts, Garfield Sobers, Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes, Frank Worrell.

The West Indies greats were among 55 total inductees for this inaugural induction.

The new Hall Of Fame is a collaboration between the ICC and the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations (FICA).

Each year, a select group of cricketers will be added to the Hall of Fame during the ICC Awards ceremony.

Unexpected farewell: boxing sensation Giselle Salandy passes in Trinidad

We've been covering Trinidadian boxing sensation Giselle Salandy in Caribbean Beat since 2003. Just a few months ago, she was featured in our popular boxing issue (March/April 2008).

The world record-breaking reigning WBA, IWBF, WIBA and WBC World Light Middleweight champion and holder of the Trinidad & Tobago Chaconia Medal (Gold) – T&T's second highest honour – recently made another successful defence of her titles just over a week ago on Boxing Day (December 26, 2008) in Trinidad.

Born Jizelle Joseph, Salandy was arguably the greatest female boxer the islands have ever produced, and seemed sure to continue shining as an international boxing star.

It is with great sadness, then, that we report she passed away early this morning after sustaining injuries in a vehicular accident on the Beetham Highway near Port of Spain, Trinidad, just weeks short of her 22nd birthday.

Our sincerest condolences to her family and loved ones. Rest in peace, Giselle. You will be missed.

Photo courtesy Trinidad Publishing Company. Published in Caribbean Beat, March/April 2003

US boxer Dakota Stone, left, fights Giselle Salandy at the Jean Pierre Complex, Trinidad.
Photo: Anthony Harris (published in Caribbean Beat, March/April 2008)

More on Giselle Salandy (January 25, 1987–January 4, 2009):

• Slugging Her Way to the Top (Kwame Laurence, Caribbean Beat, March/April 2003, Issue #60)
• Fighting Out of the Box (Laura Dowrich-Phillips, Caribbean Beat, March/April 2008, Issue #90)
• RIP Giselle (Discover TnT Blog, January 4, 2009)
  
• Salandy Scores Record Win (Discover TnT Blog, April 2, 2008)
• Giselle Salandy Profile on Women Boxing Archive Network (WBAN)
• Salandy Wins Boxing Day Bout With Hernandez (CTNTWorld.com, December 27, 2008)
  

RIP Giselle

In the current issue of Discover Trinidad & Tobago, we made special mention of T&T's sporting icons.

Among them was rising star, world record-breaking and reigning WBA, IWBF, WIBA and WBC World Light Middleweight champion Giselle Salandy. She recently made another successful defence of her titles just over a week ago on Boxing Day (December 26, 2008) in Trinidad. She was also the recipient of the Chaconia Medal Gold, Trinidad & Tobago's second highest honour.

Salandy (aka Jizelle Joseph) was arguably the greatest female boxer the islands have ever produced, and seemed poised not only to continue making history internationally, but to give new life to the field of female boxing in T&T.

Salandy also boasted a heart as big and powerful as her punches in the ring, with a true commitment to empowering young people and giving back to her country. News of her death shattered not only close friends and family, but the Fyzabad and Siparia communities in southern Trinidad where she grew up.

There is no way we would have believed that early in this new year, the nation would be mourning the loss of this tremendously talented young woman. She passed away early this morning after sustaining injuries in a vehicular accident on the Beetham Highway near Port of Spain, just weeks short of her 22nd birthday.

The news has stunned and saddened both boxing fans and the Trinbagonian public at large, in a country beseiged by road fatalities and senseless crime, and in need of promising young people to carry the nation forward. Her death comes just days after another car accident that left Olympic medallist Richard Thompson and fellow Olympian Monique Cabral hospitalised. They both now have been released.

Giselle Salandy has done her nation proud and remains a a record-breaking exemplary figure on the national stage. We only wish she were still with us to achieve all she seemed so poised to, and to touch many more lives. We will miss this shining example of what hard work, humility and determination can accomplish, and send our sincerest condolences to her family and loved ones. Rest in peace, Giselle. You shall not be forgotten.

US boxer Dakota Stone, left, fights Giselle Salandy at the Jean Pierre Complex, Trinidad.
Photo: Anthony Harris (published in Caribbean Beat, March/April 2008)

Boxer Giselle Salandy trades punches with Moroccan-born Mariem Brakache.
Photo: Anthony Harris (published in Discover Trinidad & Tobago 2008)

More on Giselle Salandy (January 25, 1987–January 4, 2009):

• Slugging Her Way to the Top (Kwame Laurence, Caribbean Beat, March/April 2003, Issue #60)
• Fighting Out of the Box (Laura Dowrich-Phillips, Caribbean Beat, March/April 2008, Issue #90)
• Salandy Scores Record Win (Discover TnT Blog, April 2, 2008)
• Giselle Salandy Profile on Women Boxing Archive Network (WBAN)
• Salandy Wins Boxing Day Bout With Hernandez (CTNTWorld.com, December 27, 2008)
  

Trinbago newspapers online: Guardian launches new website (in beta)

The Trinidad Guardian is the oldest newspaper in Trinidad & Tobago, with a deep and comprehensive archive...but until recently, a sometimes frustrating website.

I won't dwell on the issues of the old website, but the new website – still in beta – is a breath of fresh air and brings the paper in line with current web design and web 2.0 trends: simpler horizontal navigation; cleaner layout; social networking share features; user accounts; and an in-site search (powered by Google, I believe) that's actually working. All in all, the design works much better and much more closely resembles what typical news junkies have come to expect from international information hubs.

The biggest item on my wishlist (though I know how challenging it is, as we at MEP labour to put all past issues of Caribbean Beat magazine online) is having more Guardian archives online and accessible by site search. Several items which also were online on the old site are not appearing (at least not that I could find) on the new site, but as it's still in beta, I imagine and hope these will be transferred in time.

At the moment, Newsday – the youngest of the Trinidad-based daily papers – leads local newspapers in terms of their content coming online quickly and being easily accessible via search. (I won't mention some of the misinformation that was published therein regarding a certain incident in Tobago with a certain high-profile American star over the last week...) Hopefully the Guardian has the resources and the commitment to keep pace. It would be a tremendous national resource if they did. And we say nothing about the Express website, which brings up the rear on most fronts.

Of course, I'll take the opportunity to remind our readers that Discover TnT will be launching a new website in beta within the next few weeks... So stay tuned. ;)

Readers, what do you think of the news and information sites out of Trinbago, and the Guardian website in particular (see screenshot below)?

Jamaica remains top visitor destination; Cuba breaks tourist arrivals record

Image by caribbeanfreephoto via FlickrJamaica's tourism officials seem to have good reason to remain confident about their tourism outlook.

Despite the bleak economic outlook worldwide, Jamaica saw over 70,000 airport arrivals during the first three weeks of December, up 7.3% over the previous year.

What's more, popular travel site TripAdvisor has ranked Jamaica among the Top Ten Holiday Dream Escapes. Jamaica came in at number seven, beating out European escape Rome, Italy; popular Caribbean getaway the Bahamas; and Tahiti, which rounded out the top ten. Hawaii came in at number one.

The rankings were based on a survey of 1,800 travellers on the TripAdvisor website during the month of December.

Meanwhile, northeastern Caribbean neighbour Cuba broke its tourist arrival figures in 2008, welcoming over two million visitors – a 9.3% increase over the previous year. This despite being hit by several hurricanes which closed 6,000 hotel rooms, and cancellations at the beginning of the global economic downturn.

Cuba's tourism ministry projects 8% growth for 2009, with growing numbers of visitors from Canada and Europe. The inauguration of President-elect Obama in the United States later this month brings the potential for a lifting or easing of the embargo against Cuba, also opening up the US tourist market.