Wild Tobago

Even if the costumes are beautiful, Carnival should remind us to be afraid. "If your mas not saying ting or frightening small children or making old men bawl for obeah, what are you even doing?” * according to the facebook post of mas-maker Robert Young. Pat Ganase comments on some features of 2017 Carnival. This was first published in the Tobago Newsday on March 9, 2017 How many times have you played sailor, plain whites or long-nose, fancy with elaborate headdress, or seen a band depicting sea creatures so fantastic that you are certain that they could not exist, and never even thought of the sea? Well, like the ingenious carnival bat costumes that emerged from the rabies outbreak in Trinidad in the 1930s, all carnivals of the sea now need to be cautionary tales, asking us to pay attention to the plight of the waters around our shores, the ocean from which the health of the world as we know it ensues. We are islands after all, and have always looked to the sea for susten...

Anjani Ganase, Trinbagonian marine biologist, continues her appeal to treasure our priceless natural resources, and urges a return to the more entrepreneurial and direct relationship between host homes and visitors, especially in Tobago. This feature "Owning our Paradise" was first published in Tobago Newsday, on Thursday July 21, 2016 Over the last few years, I have been lucky enough to visit coral reef environments across the Caribbean and in the Pacific. I have observed that many people who “live in paradise” are able to benefit and succeed in the tourism industry, when their first priority is to care about their own livelihoods and to protect the coastal ecosystems in their backyards. These fortunate communities are those that know that these natural habitats are their tourism products. And if you are not happy in your backyard, why will anyone else be interested? It also goes beyond that: there is no substitute for home. I often think ba...