The awards cer­e­mo­ny, held on Sun­day, Sep­tem­ber 20, at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA) in Port-of-Spain, cel­e­brat­ed the rich­ness and di­ver­si­ty of Caribbean mu­sic and cul­ture. Be­yond the per­for­mances and ho­n­ours, the red car­pet be­came a vi­su­al cel­e­bra­tion of fash­ion, glam­our and cre­ativ­i­ty.

Trinidad and To­ba­go film­mak­er Teneille Newal­lo’s DANM opened the 20th Trinidad AND To­ba­go Film Fes­ti­val with a world pre­miere and left the fes­ti­val with two ma­jor awards, in­clud­ing Best Film Made in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The 86-year-old Ca­lyp­so and So­ca icon re­turned to Trinidad last week­end to re­ceive the Elite Ca­lyp­so Ho­n­our at the Caribbean Mu­sic Awards, her lat­est ac­co­lade in a globe-trot­ting ca­reer that be­gan in Barataria decades ago.

An ode to women, and to how they ought to be treat­ed by their sig­nif­i­cant oth­ers, can be heard in en­ter­tain­er Stephen Mar­celle’s sul­try vo­cals, David “Nyce­Na­tion” Pareira’s pen and Randy Williams’ vi­su­als. To­geth­er they have pro­duced Hap­py Birth­day, a lo­cal birth­day song for our ladies.

Long be­fore bake and shark be­came one of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s most recog­nis­able culi­nary cre­ations, shark was hard­ly con­sid­ered food.

While we may be ac­cus­tomed to the sweet­ness and rich­ness of our lo­cal desserts, one Trin­bag­on­ian bak­er is bring­ing the re­fined taste of France to lo­cal palates, tak­ing her mo­bile patis­serie across the coun­try.

Toss­ing that car­ton of sour milk or a pot of left­over rice in­to the trash might feel like the right thing to do, but hold up a sec­ond. The bin doesn’t al­ways have to be the end of the road. Plen­ty of items past their prime can eas­i­ly trans­form in­to a new meal, a pantry sta­ple, or a clever house­hold helper.

Chow is a snack close­ly as­so­ci­at­ed with the Caribbean. For Bar­ba­di­an busi­ness­woman Sami­ra Abed, man­go chow is dis­tinct­ly Tri­ni.

Long be­fore the in­ter­na­tion­al stages, the Car­ni­val crowns and the ti­tle “Ca­lyp­so King of the World”, Slinger “Mighty Spar­row” Fran­cis­co was part of every­day life on Sime­on Road, Pe­tit Val­ley.

In 1984, two young peo­ple from Wood­land – one Hin­du, one Mus­lim – de­cid­ed that love mat­tered more than dif­fer­ence.

In­toe­ing hap­pens when the feet turn in­wards when walk­ing. It is al­so known as pi­geon toes for ob­vi­ous rea­sons. It is very com­mon and oc­curs in about one in every four chil­dren un­der the age of six years, when it spon­ta­neous­ly dis­ap­pears. On the whole, no treat­ment is ever need­ed. How­ev­er, it’s an­oth­er of those pesky leg ap­pear­ances that make par­ents con­cerned.

To­day is World Heart Day and this year’s theme, “Heart Dis­ease Can Hide in Plain Sight: Don’t Miss a Beat”, warns that it is a mas­ter of dis­guise. The World Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion es­ti­mates that car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease is the lead­ing cause of death world­wide.