There are mo­ments that re­mind us just how deeply the roots of Caribbean and African cul­tures are in­ter­twined, long be­fore we ever cross oceans to meet.

There are eas­i­er ways to spend a hol­i­day than hik­ing through freez­ing tem­per­a­tures, gasp­ing for breath at 12,500 feet above sea lev­el and stand­ing with­in sight of one of the most ac­tive vol­ca­noes in the world.

The promise sounds ir­re­sistible be­cause of the thought of los­ing weight quick­ly and curb­ing your ap­petite to achieve the body you’ve been chas­ing for years. Weight loss drugs have def­i­nite­ly gained pop­u­lar­i­ty over the past few years. Mar­ket­ing is high­ly fo­cused on us­ing in­flu­encers and celebri­ties to pro­mote prod­ucts.

And the Lord said, “I have sure­ly seen the af­flic­tion of my peo­ple, which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by rea­son of their taskmas­ters, for I know their sor­rows. And I am come down to de­liv­er them out of the hand of the Egyp­tians and to bring them up out of that land un­to a good land and a large one, un­to a land flow­ing with milk and hon­ey, un­to the place of the Canaan­ites, and the Hit­tites, and the Amor­ites, and the Per­izzites, and the Hivites, and the Je­busites.

When you walk down the au­to­mo­tive aisle or pull in­to a ser­vice sta­tion, you are im­me­di­ate­ly con­front­ed with a dizzy­ing wall of en­gine oils. You will see dif­fer­ent brands, dif­fer­ent coloured bot­tles, and cryp­tic num­bers like 10W-40 or 0W-20. It is in­cred­i­bly tempt­ing to just grab the cheap­est bot­tle on sale and as­sume that “oil is oil.” How­ev­er, mak­ing this as­sump­tion is one of the most dan­ger­ous and ex­pen­sive mis­takes you can make for your ve­hi­cle’s longevi­ty.

For six years, a col­lec­tion of po­ems, mono­logues and short scenes sat un­fin­ished, wait­ing for its mo­ment.

Azaria Bis­sooon­dath has al­ready learned lessons in brav­ery, dili­gence and re­silience that many adults spend a life­time try­ing to mas­ter. Bis­sooon­dath, hail­ing from Princes Town, cel­e­brat­ed her 13th birth­day on June 11 and is prepar­ing to em­bark on a new chap­ter of her life as she tran­si­tions to sec­ondary school. With an im­pair­ment that many may view as in­sur­mount­able, Bis­soon­dath has faced some of the great chal­lenges of child­hood, such as the Sec­ondary En­trance As­sess­ment, with courage and con­fi­dence.

From a sin­gle ice-cream cart and a dream to a thriv­ing store­front in Brook­lyn’s Lit­tle Caribbean, the sto­ry of Mr P’s is as much about fam­i­ly as it is about frozen treats.

Many dads out there may be con­cerned about their lev­el of fit­ness. Fit­ness is not about weight lift­ing but about the ex­er­cise rou­tines to en­sure you're healthy and able to move with­out any is­sues or chal­lenges. So for this Fa­ther's Day, Keeon Tay­lor pro­vides some guid­ance.

Stan­dard Five stu­dents of St Mary’s An­gli­can Pri­ma­ry School pose for a pho­to dur­ing their grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny at the school’s com­pound in Tacarigua on Wednes­day, June 17.

For men who show up with­out fan­fare, An­cel Mal­oney’s “Salute” feels like a much-need­ed pat on the back — a hip-hop gospel re­lease cen­tring on fa­thers, step­fa­thers and men­tors in fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties.

There comes a sea­son in many women’s lives when they ask them­selves, “What am I meant to build next?”