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Island Stories from Trinidad and Tobago
Published Sunday December 21, 2008
By Nicole & Dion
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad
 Zuri On the first Monday of May 2008, 3-year old Zuri came down with a high fever. By Wednesday she was hospitalized and by the following week, she had lost her hearing.
Turns out Zu had contracted bacterial meningitis and the infection had damaged both of her cochlea so they are now unable to interpret and transmit sound coming into her outer ear to her brain. In the space of a week, her world went silent.
Both the audiologist and the ENT specialist agree that she would do well with cochlear implants, a device which acts as a kind of middle-man, receiving sound directly and transmitting the signals directly to the brain.
This would allow her to hear again - not in the same way as before, but she would be able to recognize sounds, speech, music etc.
No! - hearing aids would not help her. They act like speakers, amplifying sound, but the degree of amplification she needs is too great.
Through the quick action and interest of a friend (thanks sooooooo much Sonja!) we have been in touch with the NYU Med Centre, a leading institution in the field of cochlear implants and research. Doctors there agree that Zu seems a perfect candidate and they are working with us to get her up there as soon as possible.
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Published Sunday December 07, 2008
By Jane Lopez
POINT FORTIN, Trinidad
But, truly, I have wept too much! The dawns are heartbreaking. Every moon is atrocious and every sun bitter! Sharp love has swollen me up with heady langour. O let my keel split! O let me sink to the bottom.
- From the poem; The Drunken Boat
by Arthur Rimbaud
True love, in this life, is hard to find and twice harder to get over. For anytime you put all your trust and love into someone, this is your assurance that they will break your heart and it possibly changes or damages you forever.
I was in this situation a few years ago, and it was damaging. I had an unfortunate experience with love and I write about it now because; I feel by putting it all down on paper, I let go of my pain, hurt and disappointment. I pray in return for letting go; it will let go of me so that I can possibly get some peace and put it to rest.
Kellon and I grew up together on the same street. Our families knew each other. He was two years my junior, and a friend since we were little.
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Published Sunday, September 30, 2007
1971-2007, ST. JAMES, Trinidad
By Charles Kong Soo
I experienced my first encounter with prejudice when I was a little boy growing up in St. James. I was playing with two neighbourhood kids when an acquaintance of their family, an African male, came and asked if they wanted to go for a ride in his car. The twenty-something African male told me, "I don't want any Chinee in my car."
That incident didn't scar me psychologically, or affect my fragile, undeveloped psyche negatively. I didn't turn out racist. I grew prejudiced. I grew up prejudiced against prejudice. That was the beginning of the many adversities that I faced, which many Chinese have had to endure while growing up in Trinidad.
Nietchze's quote has served me well in good stead: "That which does not kill you makes you stronger."
An Indian fruit vendor wanted to try out his racist comedy routine on me by telling me bad racist Chinese jokes in Pidgin Chinese, and expected me to laugh. I piled his counter high with fruits and after he totaled the large bill, I told him I had changed my mind and left, letting him know I was a Trinidad Chinese by cussing him in Hindi, and that was for him being racist.
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Published Sunday, September 16, 2007
1980, CHAGUANAS, Trinidad
By Alisha Maharaj
It was always my dream to have an older brother, so when I found out that mom was dating a man who had a 14 year old son I was more than happy. I did all I could to encourage mom, although I have to give credit to John, he was indeed a very nice man. I was very pleased to call him dad and I was looking forward to the day when we would all live in the same home as one happy family.
My father died in a motor vehicle accident when I was seven years old. Things were extremely hard for mom and I after his death. My dad's relatives did not like mom; and after dad died they said they didn't want to have anything to do with us. They blamed mom for dad's death. He was returning from work in the early hours of the morning when his car ran off the road killing him. They say if he wasn't working so hard to take care of us he would still be alive.
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Published Sunday, September 2, 2007
2005, PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad
By Desmond Brown
 This past Friday, Trinidad and Tobago celebrated 45 years as an independent nation. I had the pleasure of living in Trinidad up to April 2006. During the time I lived there I also had the pleasure of interviewing one of T&T's most noted sons. The interview was done as the country celebrated Independence in 2005. This week I share with you that interview which was done with Sir Trevor McDonald.
For years, Trevor McDonald was the comforting face of night time news in Britain. Not only was he one of the most respected elder statesmen of news broadcasting, but has was an abidingly positive role model for countless young black Britons growing up in a society where skin colour still matters. He left Trinidad in 1969 to work for the BBC World Service and joined ITN a few years later as its first black reporter. He quietly got on with doing his job, courting neither controversy nor fame, but a settled life doing what he does best.
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