Michael Manswell Artistic Director Something Positive Inc talks to Rally Round the West Indies Virtual Fundraiser Benefit

Healing with Horses Tobago WELLCOME EASTER EXTRAVAGANZA sat Apr 10 2021

TATIANA SINDASS From CAFE Student to CAFE Board Secretary

Using Tiktok for Education, Building Your Brand, and Research Information

Watch Kamilla Salandy Diego Martin Trinidad to NYC RN MSc

SKIN CARE TIPS FROM DRS OF TIKTOK

The Gift of Surrender..When my Sister Vicky Died

Lesson learned  The Gift of Surrender

it is the hardest most painful experience one can imagine
when you have been blessed with a large family like ours
we get to see ourselves in each other

we were blessed.. there are so many who have siblings and often find themselves trying to learn each other as unique and very different individuals

i have always had siblings that i looked up to for my soon to be 65 years because of being the last of this family of 10 or 11.. because my youngest brother died at 5

losing our oldest sister is like losing part of the air I breathe since day one

i grew up with my nephew Curtis Martinez and nieces as if they were the extended siblings all my life

all my life memories are shaped by what this family of characters, that can often get on each others nerves, that can be ever so theatrical, that are very different in each of our personalities, that share a devotion and reverence for each other, in spite of our ups and downs and even our quarrels.  

Daddy was that happy provider and gave us all an anchor of love, joy, jubilation, laughter, music, dance, theatre, and proud legacy of protection to and for each other.

Mammy was the fierce, stern, strict and the most courageous family cornerstone, moral compass, rule of law, and showed us that nothing or no one could or would try to come between her love and her children.  She was that... she did not allow anyone the right to disrespect her children.  

And after Daddy died, she was that fortress that each one of us had to come home to, to know that her love was her lifetime sacrifice for us.

To say the least, when Vicky was diagnosed with final stage terminal pancreatic cancer less than 2 months ago, none of us was ready.    I was in denial.   My friend Chantal had just died.  This is not happening.  This couldnt be.  Not to Vicky.  

Vicky was to me that good girl all her life.  She just wasnt wayward like me  or the rest of us.  She was to us this paragon on virtue.  She was always demure.  As a matter of fact,  she had only lately started to wear red  and loved it  even though, she would see me in all my flamboyance, and remark under her breadth,  how coskell i could be.  But somewhere along the way, she got used to it, and would actually, enjoy it 

She loved her, some Sonny.  Her dearly departed husband.  Both she and Sonny were my godparents.  And she so loved her children Curt, his wife Dianne, Lisa Gylla,  and her grans and her great grans with a knowing that was so intimate.  She knew each one to her soul.

More than most she loved to pray. We grew up in tradition and faith. She was so devout in her faith journey.  

I knew she prayed unceasingly for me,  and each of my loved ones, just like she did for her children, her grandchildren and great grans.  

Without overt demonstration, she was there to take care of us,  of me.  With a call ever so often,  Grace how are you,  how is Daryean,  how is,  and she'll list all the names of our brood.  and say I'm praying for each of you in my thoughts.

And that is how I just know... love is prayer.. someone holding you up, wishing only for your wellbeing,  sharing kindness, blessings and always present.. just a prayer away , and  a visit.

And in her own intimate and unobtrusive way,  she gifted me the meaning of Surrender.

It was not about how,  whether I was a religious, or not, whether I chose to or not to practice tradition, whether i might not or choose to attend Church.   In her own simplistic way,   she was a source of peace, comfort, respite, hospitality, feeding the hungry, teaching, sharing, caring, and giving to each and everyone she loved and met along the way.

In the end, her wishes were to make things as simple as possible. 

Nothing grand.  Nothing too obvious.  Her privacy was particularly important to her, because she did not want to be a worry to others.

And what a gift to me, and to all of us, is How to Surrender.

None of our presumed fixations with what is conceived, perceived or believed,  just Let go and Let God.

One of the last songs she enjoyed was one our Mother Rosie would sing at our family gatherings.  I so dedicate to our Queen,  Vicky,  Victoria Clare ... Love Continues

Ill be loving you Always
With a love that true Always
When the things you plan 
Need a helping hand
I will understand Always, Always
And when things arent clear Always
That's when Ill be there Always
Not for just an hour
Not for just a day
Not for just a year
But AlwaysNot for just an hour
Not for just a day
Not for just a year
But Always

Cuba, a vacation exploration for the curious traveller to discover hospitality and fresh culinary cuisine , Salsa, Afro Cuban Jazz and the best Cuban cigars for unbeatable prices

Welcome to Cuba!  a local  vendor cheerfully poses

 "What I know deep in my bones is that when you have done the same thing for 50 years and nothing has changed, you should try something different if you want a different outcome," Obama said during a televised news conference. "And this gives us an opportunity for a different outcome."

The Cuban Capitol 

With this announcement from President Obama in December 2014, the tides of change for Americans to court friendship with an exiled neighbor after 50 years of defiant discord sent waves of excitement, anticipation, suspicion and mystery to curious travel seekers within the US and its outlying hemispheres.

For me it was enough to hasten travel plans to get to the picturesque antiquity of Cuban life before the influx of curious tourists  scour its native surroundings.
 My visit to Havana, Cuba is a dream fulfilled.

Social Media Scams The Anti Aging 3 Min video Wrinkle Cream Makeover on Facebook

this is with the bags  and the gentle application

OMG  the Bags have disappeared in under 3mins

#SocialMediaScams   While the internet affords everyone who is so inclined a platform to sign up and be present for a thrilling moment of virtual identity, that 20 second momentary glorification, when someone actually takes the time to Like, or Comment, or Share a Post, has also opened the floodgates to the paranoid, the selfserving, the pontificating, the opinionated, and the biggest of all theatre, the art of thievery and deception.

While most of you may never encounter the routine of ill begotten scams on social media, I admittedly have been folly to some of the most egregious.  But then again, you cyah play mas and fraid powder.  (Translation for my non Trini audiences,  if you are as engaged on social media, as I am in my daily work,  then you will be subject to the  scams, flams and ill begotten maladies that come with the territory)

Social media will follow you into your bedroom habits.  Technically Google, Facebook Twitter and every other social media portal have compiled their algorithms,  really as a Trini will say, -  how to maco yuh business- , from the posts you share to what is the last thing you do before bedtime.

Thus, for a neophyte like me, I am virtually,  a social high profile engager.  People I don’t even know, know more about me through my social media activity.  If you really need to find me, most likely a message on Facebook, would be the quickest way to get my attention.

With my engagement I share about social media.  I share  my experiencegrace.info The Social Media Entrepreneur business updates,  and highlight new client services,  I share updates on things of interest.   I share stories that may be of public interests.   I share about my nationality, my family, my beliefs and my fancies.

Here is the actual theatre of a scam The Anti Aging 3 min video   Wrinkle Cream Makeover on Facebook #InstantlyAgeless https://www.facebook.com/840217082700704/videos/843272062395206/

Now for every #60ish, or maybe those like me, who will admittedly share that they still would like to preserve any fragment of youthfulness to their dying day.. oh yes ! Such vain glory!  If a video is so believable to depict a creased up face becoming almost 20 years younger in under 3 mins, then there must be valid truth to it. 

So in my threads, I see these older women wrinkled and using a dab of face cream and all the wrinkles disappear in less than 3 mins of video airplay.

In social media, video is the most convincing merchandizing advertisement for reaching large audience following.

I who share my business endeavors as a social media entrepreneur find this to be a curious offer.  And I who am closing in on my flourishing 60s would love to restrain any folds and swells and curls of maps of wrinkles on this artifact of human display, the face of the aging woman.

For suspecting individuals ONLY, as I know most of my #60ish friends, just happen to be... well just too intelligent and sophisticated...   would you be inclined to investigate if your read a headline like this?  This is an article feature and in it the typical video on facebook is shared.

Miracle' skin cream remove wrinkles in just a few seconds in this remarkable video

14:24, 14 JUL 2015 UPDATED 15:36, 14 JUL 2015

BY KARA O'NEILL

The serum appears to remove eye bags and wrinkles in just minutes of application

The Social Media Scam Heist Effect

Facebook streams this sponsored video and it just incidentally populates my feed repeatedly.   This is called the psychology of social media mind games. 

The video is less than 3 mins.  In social media, this is about the typical grab attention span of most of the social media visuals.  If you can’t tell the story in under 3 mins, you will lose your audience

It is very credible.  You are seeing what looks like the actual face of a pretty aged looking female, transform from bloated under eyebags to seemingly no bags.  This is called the Blaine effect!  It is beyond magical

Then you are enticed... Or bamboozled   The reality is, to try this for only $4.95

The Scam FuXXery

I did it. I placed the order $4.95 for this sample.  OK.  I felt compelled to prove the theory.  It was part of my social media research.

The ominous signs were as follows, and I should have just stopped.. But I was in research mode... nothing to do with vanity... Right!!

To place the simple order, there were multiple pages of additional services to add on… which I declined

Then even at the last page of the ordering process, after completing the first payment by card of $4.95 there was an additional incentive to get more service as a subscription.

After a final NO to service add ons, the order was placed

Then the follow up customer service call came.   The  representative  requested  a confirmation of the credit card used so that I  will be eligible for an add on of $6.95.for the extra bonus eternal youth potion.

The plot thickens... so with a firm NO... I defer to give any card number

Within 2 weeks a package is delivered by USPS  and unlike the sample item,   it is a cream in a jar

Using the same techniques shown on the facebook video, with just a spot on the finger, and a dab on the eyebags, the cream sample is applied

3mins, 5 mins, 20 mins,  4 hours , 5 days, 3 weeks .. NOT A DAMN CHANGE IN MY 60ISH face aging contours

But, after my morning online bank review about 30 days after the Anti Aging product purchase an $88.95 deduction is posted from some unknown IN BEAUTY Service

Called  the Customer Service Number provided by the bank, and the hired help is adamantly stating that the order I placed was for a monthly subscription

With every effort to refrain from screaming into the CSR’s ear, but realizing, he is trained to be call support at his daily, hourly wage,  I tell him to please find himself a new job.  That the company he works for is being reported to the Federal Trade Commission for fraudulent marketing.  It would in his and his family’s best interest to look for a new job before the holidays

The Social Media Entrepreneur ReAction

#BUSTED

File Fraud Report with Bank

Cancel Bank Card, Just in case, the anti aging company intends to resubmit for my aging subscription at $88 per month

Request refund from bank, which could take up to 2 weeks

Report the company online to Better Business Bureau

Report the company online to Federal Trade Commission

IF IT LOOKS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, THEN IT PROBABLY IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE

Experience Grace The Social Media Entrepreneur Intro

Trinidad and Tobago Carnival! a Tsunami of Revelry, Music, Dance, and the Best Escape to Reality

Where the Prime Minister, the Beggar, the Thief and the Priest Converge and Fete Together as One. Dat is Carnival!

For epicurean pleasure in the splendor of masquerade, Trinidad and Tobago Carnival is the world's jeweled oyster. Without this annual feast of gluttonous music symphony and untamed insanity, our people will perish. We are Carnival and our life is Theater

Trini Bacchanal

The first element of Trini (abbreviation for Trinidad & Tobago) Carnival is Bacchanal. It is an occasion of wild and drunken revelry.  It is spectacular costumes, it is infectious music, it is partying "all night long" and it is wanton and carefree abandon.

The Carnival Vapse.

Whether Carnival falls in late February or early April, a universe of carnival followers becomes swept up in the momentum,  loosely termed the Carnival vapse.

Behind the closed curtains of Trini Caribbean families, being Carnival whipped, is as bad as being caught up in a cyclone. The sudden impulsive urgency to leave home, family, responsibility and flee to the shores of Trinidad and Tobago have wrecked many a happy marriage. Hot and torrid romances have been dissolved by the sleuth of a Carnival vapse

In the monsoon of emotions to get to Steelband Panorama preliminaries, to attend the Calypso competitions, or play de mas, brave and upstanding citizens have been leveled to warahoon status .
In urban dictionary, warahoon describes dem wild indian who use to live in trinidad long time ago look at them warahoon running like asses. 

Unless, you get to the soil of Mother Carnival, Trinidad and Tobago, and suckle in her bounteous pleasures, you find no remedy for relief.

Carnival, The Energy, the Music, the Mas

Carnival is as an energy force. There is paranormal feteing.   Prior to Carnival Mardi Gras Monday and Fat Tuesday, as celebrated by our New Orleans reveler compatriots, there are band launchings, there are celebrity events.    There are all inclusive parties, there are offshore, onshore, by the pool, around the Savannah, in the North Stand and through the Grand Stands, parties to attend. 

As the solemnity of Christmas ends, by the dawning of the New Year, Carnival is the most practiced community fellowship for Trinis inside and outside the island grounds.

Calypso and Soca are the popular musical songs and melodies exchanged between the performers and their devoted fans.

Wining

Wining is not  sipping  Merlot,  Chardonnay or Pinot Grigio.  Nor is wining, "Whining" as is proverbially misappropriated.. 

Wining is the roll of the waist, with the cock of the back, gyrating to the right, left and centre, The lower body swerves at the hips in downward and circular pelvic motions, and rhythmically oscillate to the dance of the pagans.

Carnival is Culture

The feteing starts on the heels of the Christmas season.  The national musical instrument of Trinidad and Tobago, the steelband features prominently in panyard exhibitions to orchestral competitions.  It all culminates on the Savannah stage in the most symphonic rivalry of musical showmanship.  

Panorama is when  steelband orchestras from the north and south corners of the island compete for the best arrangement, acoustic sound, tune and delivery to their most discriminating audiences. Renowned world musicologists are invited to judge at Panorama semi finals and finals. 

Hugh Masekela shared these words during his 2014 visit to a Trinidad panyard:

"You sounded great…thank you very much…you do not know how lucky you are …there are very very few countries in the world where people get opportunity to do this much music together… I know you take it for granted…but it's a wonderful situation…I hope it never dies…it's a very very rich heritage. Thank you very much.

Carnival the Celebration

- Sometimes when yuh at Carnival, yuh partying non stop. The weekend of Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago yuh start feteing from Friday, Saturday, Sunday till Jouvert Morning. Sometimes, you doh even have time to check yuh own pulse -.  describes a good dose of the Carnival celebration

• Jouvert

Jouvert is the early morning beginning of the Carnival Monday Mas. Much like the Halloween ghouls, ghosts,and goblins in the United States, but without the religious pandering, everyone gets dirty, nasty, slimy and muddy. There is black face, white face, blue and orange face.

 Body mud color is the costume du jour. There is no political correctness. You can be a celebrity, or not. Everyone, black or white, Indian, Hindu, Muslim, Chinese, Greek, Lebanese, or Syrian, become a nobody-anybody. 

The only criteria of normalcy required is to be insanely festive and happy. 

• Monday Mas

Trini Carnival is the The Greatest Show on Earth. Monday Mas is where the sightings of pretty Mas is premiered. The talents of the great colony of artists who design costumes for masqueraders in Carnival bands come alive. The epic stories of Greek mythology, the ancient wars of the Roman empire, the fallen Dynasties, the Sea Monsters, the Galaxies of the World, the indigenous Indian Tribal dress, the kings and warriors of Africa are depicted as Mas costumes. The largest masqueraders ball in any part of the world takes place in Trinidad and Tobago on the streets of the capitol city Port of Spain, and its outlying towns and rural venues.

The landscape of people, colors, sounds and gaiety are intoxicating. No one is a spectator. Everyone, whether in costume or not, is consumed in the drunkenness of fun, dance and non stop merriment.

• Tuesday Carnival Laniappe 

On Carnival Tuesday, there is profusion of every type of synergy and harmony and a myriad kaleidoscopic colors in every shape, form and fashion. Bands of thousands of masqueraders come out in full regalia. Accompanying the thousands of masqueraders are the trucks with the music. Alongside the trucks, and the masquerades are the people, the tourists, the spectators, and the Carnival jumbies. It is an orgiastic explosion of fun.

Then by Tuesday nightfall, Carnival takes her leave. Along the streets, remnants of glitz, glitter, wings, headpieces, lifeless and strewn are swept up by the engines of trash collection vehicles.

The feast of the Gods of Bacchanalia takes a purging exit. The Carnival is Over.

Carnival is the Experience

Brazil Carnival showcases their Samba Dance Schools, New Orleans glams the avante garde and fierce outrageousness during their Mardi Gras celebrations, Trinis Play Mas without ceasing.

Trinis have a World Treasure Resource. its the Majesty of Carnival.

What happens at Trini Carnival stays with you for lifetimes..