 Featuring Local News
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| 1
December 2005 |
| After over 10 years of a stable
currency exchange rate to the US Dollar (floating exchange
rate), the Trinidad and Tobago Dollar depreciated from TT$
6.2999 to TT$ 6.3299, the highest rate change in a decade. The
Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago increased the Repo Rate
just a few days ago to 6%. The banks report states that food
prices have increased by 22% over the past 12 months. In our
opinion the new exchange rate will mean a further increase of
food prices and other goods as T&T is a consumer nation
with a very high percentage of imports. Inflation here we
come! |
| 16
November 2005 |
| The government of Trinidad and
Tobago declared Thursday 17th or November 2005 as a public
holiday, encouraging all citizens of Trinidad and Tobago to
participate in the welcoming celebrations of the returning
victorious T&T football team. Trinidad and Tobago will be
the smallest country ever participating in a FIFA World Cup. A
motorcade from Piarco Airport to Port of Spain will create
Carnival like celebrations in Trinidad. |
| 16
November 2005 |
| The Trinidad and
Tobago football team is writing history. After the Soca
Warriors only achieved a 1:1 against Bahrain on Saturdays
match at the Hasely-Crawford Stadium in Trinidad, today they
defeated the Bahrain team in Bahrain 1:0. The mood in the stadium
got a bit hostile at the end as the Bahrain team feverishly
tried to get the equaliser, which would be the pass to the
Worldcup 2006. Trinidad and Tobago will now participate at the
FIFA
World Cup 2006 in Germany (more). |
| 27
October 2005 |
| Tobago Express, provider of the
the airbridge between Trinidad and Tobago received approval
for a rate increase. Effectively from 1-Nov-2005 the
subsidised return fare will be TT$ 300.00, a 50 percent
increase to the current fare. |
| 15
September 2005 |
| It happens in Trinidad ... After
the new to come Cable Network Channel 3 (CNC3) broadcasted for
a number of weeks a test signal on CCTT cable channel 3 and
just a few hours before the official first broadcast at 7pm,
the newly formed Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and
Tobago (TATT)
put a halt to it. The new station located in the Guardian
building in St. Vincent Street (4th Floor), operated by ANSA
McAl's Trinidad Publishing and Broadcasting Company, is
apparently breaking the law by broadcasting nationwide using
cable only as a medium. Presumably using the Internet as the
broadcast medium and reaching the world instead of the around
100,000 cable subscribers would not have conflicted with the
law. |
| 14
September 2005 |
| Trinidad and Tobago is well on its
way as a developing country. Unfortunately it seems to be mainly in
the crime developing area of expertise. After the now daily
killings (over 250 for the year), very frequent kidnappings, we now also
experience frequent bombings in Port of Spain. Despite the
rising crime, food, real-estate etc. prices are at an all time high.
Just gas prices are more comparable with prices 40 years ago
in the US. |
| 31
August 2005 |
| Trinidad and Tobago is celebrating the
43rd Independence Day. As a former British Colony, T&T gained independence on 31 August 1962 and became a Republic in 1976. |
| 10
August 2005 |
| Tobago Gourmet Jazz Festival 2005
- August 12-14 is scheduled for the Tobago Gourmet Jazz Festival. International stars like Stevie Wonder, Natalie Cole, Shaggy, Babyface, Angie Stone, India Arie, Lalah Hathoway, The O' Jays, Doug E Fresh,
the Tobago All Star Jazz Band and others are scheduled to be present at Fort James in Plymouth, Tobago. An event in the nice atmosphere of the still unspoiled Caribbean Island of Tobago.
(www.tobagojazzfest.com) |
| 3
August 2005 |
| The Federal Aviation
Administration upgraded the safety category for Trinidad and
Tobago to the highest rating of 1. After 4 years in the
downgraded category 2, T&T has again joined world class
standards for aviation safety. (FAA
Press Release) |
| 1
August 2005 |
| Emancipation Day celebrations in
Trinidad and Tobago focus on the African roots of over 40% of
T&T's population. A public holiday in Trinidad and Tobago. |
| 30
July 2005 |
 The
37th Carib Great Race, a 86 miles powerboat race between
Trinidad and Tobago started early Saturday morning and after 1
hour 49 min .... the 'Soul Rebel' reached Tobago in first
position, with Matrix II in second and Dingolay in third. The
first two boats are production class boats. Castrol Extreme reached
after 1h and 15 min in 4th position. Last years winner 'Mr.
Solo Too', came in fifth due to a one hour late start for this
class, with a time of 58 min and 2 seconds, breaking last
years time by 19 minutes and again fastest boat in this race. |
| 21
July 2005 |
| Local telecommunications provider TSTT is troubled again. Since 1am TSTT's
high speed Internet access is non-functioning. Residential and business customers are unable to connect to the Internet
using the ADSL service. Customers have to switch back to the slow dialup service. For most business customers not a possible option. (refer to TSTTproblems.com)
(update: after over 11 hours downtime TSTT was able to fix the
problem) |
| 21
July 2005 |
| Despite a rainy 'Rainy Season', the Water
and Sewage Authority (WASA) of Trinidad and Tobago is unable to supply
water to many households in T&T. For the first time in many years
we are experiencing dry pipes during the evening hours. Beside the
'normal' low water pressure in the morning and evening hours
experienced in the last few years, we a re now left without any water
at all. Households without water tanks are left in the open with dried
up pipes, despite monthly payments to WASA..(refer to vision
2020) |
| 15
July 2005 |
| TSTT's GSM cellular network collapsed for
the second day today. Cellular subscribers were unable to use their
phones for most of Thursday evening and Friday. This is the second
'cell-crash' within four weeks. Despite that TSTT's network is a
mini-network compared to other GSM networks worldwide, the reliability
and availability has never reached world standard. |
| 13
July 2005 |
The tropical storm depression Emily is
threatening the Caribbean. Moving closer to Trinidad and Tobago now,
Tobago is placed under a Hurricane Warning, Trinidad is under
Hurricane watch. Business owners have been advised to close after
12:30pm.
Tobagos' Crown
Point Airport has apparently closed, whilst Trinidad's Piarco
airport remains open.(1:20pm).
Emily got downgraded to a Tropical
Storm Warning (5pm). The Piarco International Airport will be
closed until 11pm. Crown Point will re-open at 8am on Thursday. |
| 11
July 2005 |
| Madness strikes Trinidad. A bomb explosion
in Frederick Street, downtown Port of Spain, injured 14 people.
Authority remain clueless who did this malicious attack to the people
of Trinidad. |
| 3
July 2005 |
| Kidnapped brothers Richard and Ron Nath
have been freed this afternoon by the police and defense force. Two of
the kidnappers are identified as police officers of the Trinidad and
Tobago Police Service. Where has T&T reached? More and more people
are leaving Trinidad due to the crime situation. |
| 1
July 2005 |
  Trinidad's
criminal infestation continues rising! Kidnappers, apparently wearing Muslim
garbs have kidnapped brothers Richard and Ron Nath on Monday on the
way back from their furniture store in Sangre Grande. Kidnapping and
other criminal activities in Trinidad is
putting Trinidad under siege. With another record high for kidnappings
in 2005, authorities seem to be powerless. Despite several government
driven anti-crime activities, crime is affecting more and more people
in T&T. Investors have so far ignored the crime trend in Trinidad
as real-estate prices are far beyond a price level that a 'normal'
person can afford to pay and government incentives to invest in
Trinidad are still attractive.
A private anti-crime initiative is
making rounds at www.trinidadmurders.org.
Sign the petition at : trinidadmurders.org |
| 23
June 2005 |
| Good News for all mobile phone users in
Trinidad and Tobago. Today, the Telecommunications Authority of
Trinidad and Tobago announced that the online bidding process for a
spectrum license was won by Irish Digicel
and local company Laqtel.
Digicel is also in the process of acquiring
the Caribbean operations of Cingular Wireless, the recent AT&T/Cingular
merger. While Digicel has a strong Caribbean base and is already
leader in several Caribbean countries, Laqtel is a local newcomer.
Recent advertisements in the local newspapers were advertising for
CDMA, as the next generation cellular standard. Maybe Laqtel is going
to use CDMA? |
| 1
June 2005 |
| Trinidad and Tobago's GSM cell phone users
got stranded today when TSTT's GSM cell network crashed after a
software upgrade. For most of the day GSM cellular phones could not be
used for any calls. More at TSTTproblems.com |
| 1
June 2005 |
| UNC party leader
and former Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Basdeo Panday spent his
first night in prison after refusing to take bail for corruption
charges in the Piarco Airport project. |
| 30
May 2005 |
| Trinidad and Tobago is celebrating 'Indian
Arrival Day', a public Holiday in T&T. 160 Years since the
arrival of the ship 'Fatel Razack' from India, bringing the first
Indian indentured labourers to T&T. |
| 27
May 2005 |
| We
Beat, The Street Festival in St. James, Trinidad has opened
on Friday 27th and will entertain with a cultural variety of Music,
Food, Party time, Kaiso, Steelbands and more until Saturday 4th June
2005. |
| 21
May 2005 |
Taste T&T the Trinidad and Tobago Culinary Experience
The Tourism and Industrial Development Company (TIDCO) and the Ministry of Tourism
are hosting a Culinary Festival on May 21st & 22nd 2005 at the Hasely Crawford Stadium from 6.00p.m. to midnight. The culinary experience features an eclectic mix of the multi ethnic cuisine of Trinidad and Tobago as well as local entertainers and musicians.
Under the guidance of Chef Debra Sardinha-Metivier, our country’s top chefs will showcase their culinary masterpieces on the two nights of the festival. Caribbean and Latin American fusion, French, East Indian, Arabic, Italian and Asian flavors will all be presented to festival patrons by the chefs at this year’s festival – Khalid Mohammed, Moses Ruben, Paul Mowser, Sharaz Mohammed, Angelo Cofone, Dwane Henderson, Gerard Mouille, Joe Brown, Mona Hadeed, Joseph Habr and Yan Wen Yu.
Menu items include a Pepperpot of Beef Short Ribs nestled between soft Coo-Coo, Pitch Lake Pork dish made of Geera Tarred Pork Loin with a Pineapple Chutney sauce, Smoked Salmon & Green Asparagus Bavarios or a Spicy Tamarind and Guava Chicken with Sherman Bread and Cucumber Raito Gujarati Chicken Tandoori with a coriander yogurt sauce served on Naan Bread.
- Entrance is Free -
$150.00 tickets entitle patrons to sample 6 gourmet dishes. In addition, traditional food delights will also be on sale, including dishes prepared by cooks from Tobago. |
| 20
May 2005 |
| The new fast ferry between Trinidad and
Tobago, "The
Lynx", has reached the port of Port of Spain coming from New
Zealand. After a few days of familiarisation, the ferry will begin
serving customers from Tuesday next week, covering immediately the
peek weekend for Corpus Christi on Thursday 26th and Indian Arrival
day on Monday 30th May. The Australian company Austal,
main competitor of INCAT,
started advertising their 'Trimaran' in the local newspapers as they
started bidding for the new vessel for the inter-island ferry service.
The Trimaran is the companies latest flagship and the largest aluminum
vessel in the world. With a length of 127m and the capacity to carry 1,350 passengers, over 340 cars and a substantial number of trucks
and a travel time of about 2 1/2 hours between the islands, the US$30
Million Dollar ferry might be the future way to go. Austal's first
trimaran, the "Benchijigua Express", started serving in the
Canary Islands on 2 May 2005 (interview
with John Rothwell, Austal Chairman). |
| 5
May 2005 |
 After
just four months in service, the new inter-island fast ferry 'The Cat'
will stop serving travelers between Trinidad and Tobago after May
13th. The Cat made traveling by ferry attractive again. With a travel
time of just about 2 1/2 hours (and not 11 hours or so) and very low
fares, it was a serious alternative to the air-bridge. The
Cat will return to Nova Scotia, just in time for the summer season
to serve between Nova Scotia and Maine. As a full replacement in speed
and capacity, a new fast ferry 'The Lynx', operating in New Zealand,
will continue this excellent service. The Lynx another 'wave-piercer',
just like The Cat ('North America's fastest car ferry') were
manufactured at INCAT
in Australia. The Lynx is five years older (1997) than the younger
sister The Cat (2002)
Due to the more attractive ferry service, the purchase and handling of
tickets was troubled due to insufficient ticket sales infrastructure.
The Port Authority is addressing this problem and they announced a web
enabled ticketing system by July 2005.
The MV Sonia will also continue serving the inter-island route until
further notice. |
| 22
April 2005 |
| Tobago Express is back in operation, with
the first flight departed on Friday afternoon. Investigations into
Monday's crash landing continue. The failing part of the landing gear
of the Dash-8 airplane, manufactured by Bombardier in Canada, is now
in Canada for further investigation. |
| 18
April 2005 |
 Tobago Express, serving the local air bridge
between Trinidad and Tobago, had to make an emergency landing after
approaching Crown
Point International Airport in Tobago. After several attempts to
get the front landing gear out, the landing approach was discontinued
and the flight returned to Piarco
Trinidad to make an emergency landing. Nobody was injured after the
very successful emergency landing. Passengers reported that they just
heard a 'scraping noise' when the nose touched the ground. The Tobago
Express fleet is currently grounded. |
| 16
April 2005 |
| After years of talks and preparation the
Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) was finally inaugurated in Port of
Spain - Trinidad, in a festive ceremony. The CCJ will be the highest
appellate court for the region, taking over partly the role of the
Privy Council in London. CCJ President Michael de la Bastide opened
the ceremony with a speech introducing each Justice of the Caribbean
Court of Justice. The ceremony was followed by a lavish evening at the
President's residence, with fireworks heard and seen everywhere in the
vicinity of Port of Spain. The CCJ is located in the Unit Trust
building at Independence Square, Port of Spain. |
| 9
April 2005 |
| A fire in the downtown area of the capitol
Port of Spain destroyed several businesses, leaving employees without
a job and business owners will millions of losses. The fire department
experienced water supply problems while fighting the fire. |
| 8
April 2005 |
| Cricket: During the first day of
the second test match
between the West Indies and South Africa, former captain Brian Lara
made the West Indies proud with an excellent performance at the Queens
Park Oval
in Port of Spain. |
| 4
April 2005 |
 The 5th Caribbean Investment Forum will be
held at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre on April 4th and
5th.Co-hosted by the Ministry
of Trade and Industry, the Euromoney/LatinFinance
Caribbean Investment Forum is the leading investment and financial
conference for the Caribbean. |
| 1
April 2005 |
| TSTT, the sole telecommunications provider
for Trinidad and Tobago has introduced a new service plan called 'SmartChoice'.
Residential and single line business customers can now benefit from
reduced rates for local and international calls. In addition customers
with High Speed Internet Access (HSIA) or ADSL will get up to 20%
discount. This is a major step forward in the pricing of
telecommunication services in T&T. Presumable it is not an April
fool's Day hoax. See details at www.tstt.co.tt |
| 22
March 2005 |
 The
Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce held it's Annual
General Meeting at the Hilton. Mr. Christian Mouttet was re-elected as
Chamber president (he is also chairman of TSTT) for the 2005 period.
The Honourable Orville London, Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of
Assemblies gave the feature address, of course with a strong focus on
Tobago and its increasing business opportunities. |
| 21
March 2005 |
Environment: Despite the complete
phase-out of leaded gasoline in April 2004, local car dealers (Nissan)
are still selling brand-new cars (Almera) without catalytic
converters. The converter is reducing the toxic car gases from the
engine to reduce air pollution for a better environment. Catalytic
converters require unleaded gas. While many countries around the world
require the converter to be installed, there seem to be no such
regulation present in Trinidad & Tobago yet. The Environmental
Management Authority (EMA) states in a Media Release from
2004: "While catalytic converters are recommended when using unleaded gasoline, a Standard developed for T&T by TTBS in 2001, involves two processes:
- A reduction process that reduces oxides of nitrogen that are harmful to the environment, to elemental nitrogen.
- An oxidation process that oxidizes unburnt hydrocarbons including aromatics, to carbon dioxide.
Catalytic Converters (CC) are normally used to meet exhaust emission standards, which have been developed for T&T, and which are currently being incorporated into domestic legislation." |
| 9
March 2005 |
| Hooters
is coming to town ... another American franchise will soon open in
Port of Spain. Hooters, a well known US restaurant chain continues
expanding worldwide. Hooters got to fame with the now famous Hooters
girls, well 'dimensioned' waitresses serving American food. Started
1983 in Clearwater, Florida, Hooters is now at over 375 locations. Hooters
Trinidad is now hiring. |
| 7
March 2005 |
| Residents and businesses in the western peninsula
of Trinidad suffered a major power outage today. From around 2:30pm
until after 10pm there was no power west of the Westmall including the
Diego Martin valley. A fire in a T&TEC transformer station
opposite of the Westmall, apparently caused by lack of maintenance,
left residents with cold dinners, melted frozen goods and the
knowledge that the T&TEC trouble line staff is in urgent need of
customer relationship training. |
| 11
February 2005 |
| Carnival 2005 Results: Trini Revellers did it again. Elected as Band of the year, Trini
Revellers with 'Conquest of the Indies' made it a second consecutive
year winning this competition. Masquerade
with 'Lion Kingdom in Soca Safari won second and Legacy
third.Road March winner is Sherwayne Winchester. Winner of the
International Soca Monarch 2005 is again Bunji Garlin. |
| 3
February 2005 |
| Gorgeous weather is awaiting everybody in
Trinidad and Tobago. Perfect conditions for Carnival 2005, which is in
full motion and will continue so until Carnival Tuesday at midnight.
Visitors from around the world have again come to this annual Mekka of
enjoyment. Celebrations on Monday and Tuesday will display the zenith
of this spectacle. |
| 19
January 2005 |
| Unusual weather conditions with daily rain
and barely any sun are affecting Carnival festivities in Trinidad.
Despite the current bad weather and a very short 2005 Carnival season,
more foreign visitors and masqueraders are expected than last year.
Hotels and guest houses are fully booked for some time now and the
search for accommodation is a task for last minute visitors. |
| 18
January 2005 |
| Government elections for the Tobago House
of Assembly (THA) on Monday resulted in a landslide victory for the
PNM (People's National Movement). 11 out of 12 seats are going to the
PNM with Orville London and one seat for the DAC (Democratic Action
Congress) party under Hochoy Charles. |
| 14
January 2005 |
 The
era of state owned radio and TV came to an end with the closure of the
Nation Broadcasting Network NBN. TTT, the local TV station (not well
known for transmission quality) transmitted for the last time at
midnight. The antiquated technology can now rest in piece. Most NBN
staff members accepted early retirement packages (VSEP) and some will
continue working with the Nation Carnival Commission and Ministry of
Culture. The formation of a new state owned company "Caribbean
New Media Group" will take at least 6 months before going live on
air.
Carnival visitors will now get into the right mood watching "The
Information Channel" (TIC) as videos from past Carnival times are
played all day long. |
| 13
January 2005 |
| A recent article in the Los
Angeles Times caused some stir in the Government ranks of T&T.
The article published on January 2nd focused on the crime scene of
Trinidad. Government officials requested an apology from the
newspaper. Read for yourself: "Kidnappings Send a Chill Through Sunny Trinidad" |
| 11
January 2005 |
| TSTT's Internet service stopped working
this morning at
2am. The main Internet service provider in Trinidad and Tobago wasn't
available for 3 hours until 5am after a power failure in the Nelson
exchange was repaired. Other independent ISP's did not experience this
problem. For details refer to TSTTproblems.com |
| 9
January 2005 |
The new fast ferry 'The Cat' did the
maiden voyage from Trinidad to Tobago in just under 2 1/2 hours. The
ferry is the second addition of the inter island link within just two
weeks. Up to 800 passengers and 250 cars can be transported in this
record time. Take some 'gravol' to prevent possible sea sickness. The
Cat is usually in operation between Nova Scotia, Canada and Maine,
USA between May and October.
With now three active ferries, transportation bottlenecks should be
something from the past. The new MV Sonia departs from Trinidad at
9am, The Cat at 4pm and the MV Beauport (Mo-Fr cargo only) at 11pm.
From Tobago the MV
Sonia leaves at 11pm, The Cat at 7am and the MV Beauport at 11am. |
| 3
January 2005 |
| The new year immediately started with the
annual Carnival frenzy. Since this year's Carnival season is quite
short. Carnival Monday is on February 7th and therefore the party
activities have to be squeezed into the next 4+ weeks. Radiostations
have switched from Christmas Parang to Carnival Soca and new songs are
released frequently. If you don't have your Carnival costume booked
...you better hurry up as several sections are already completely
sold. |
| 29
December 2004 |
| Just in time to local THA elections, the
ferry service between Trinidad and Tobago got upgraded today. With the
maiden voyage of the new ferry MV Sonia taking just 5 hours.
Apparently the operation of the ferry will cost the T&T tax payer
US$ 24,000 plus fuel a day. The MV Sonia (initially named Adamantios Korais)
was ordered by TTT Lines and operated between Naples, Italy and Olbia,
Sardinia a popular summer holiday destination in the Mediterranean.
After four year building time at the Greek shipyard Atsalakis, the new
ferry went into operation just a few month ago in 2004. Another 'fast
ferry' might get in operation as early as next month, cutting travel
time under three hours. Hopefully the passengers and the maintenance
staff will keep the ferries in good shape to keep the trip enjoyable
for all. |
| 2
December 2004 |
| At 11:16 a.m. an earthquake with a magnitude
of 5.4 on the Richter scale scared many people in Trinidad. Buildings
were shaking and people feared for more. But no damage was recorded.
This was one of the strongest earthquakes since 1997. Piarco Airport
was closed for 15 minutes to check the runway for possible damages. |
| 14
November 2004 |
| The Muslims around the world are
celebrating Eid-al-Fitr, the end of the Ramadan time of daylight hour
fasting. |
| 11
November 2004 |
| Divali, the Hindu festival of Lights, a
public holiday, is celebrated around Trinidad and Tobago. The
celebration marks the triumph of light over darkness and the thousands
of deyas (oil lights) around the country makes it a spectacle of
lights. Families and friends are getting together for the annual
Divali event. |
| 4
November 2004 |
First ever Spam conviction in the USA! There is light
at the horizon. Millions of people around the world are bothered by
the daily flood of junk mails. As it is annoying for people using the
Internet, it is very much affecting businesses. They either have to
invest in proper junk mail protection (like we offer) or every
co-worker has to fish around in their daily mail flood to get their
emails.
Jeremy Jaynes has been convicted and will be sentenced in the state of Virginia,
for 9 years in jail after sending millions of unsolicited
emails with fraudulent content and untraceable routing. We have not
yet recognized any difference and are still catching thousands of junk
mails every day. The main problem might not be the junk mailer alone,
but the person who is actually conducting business with such a
person! |
| 14
October 2004 |
| The 8th European Film Festival has opened
at Movietowne, Invaders Bay, Port of Spain. From today until 2
November movies from France, Germany, United Kingdom, The Netherlands
and Switzerland will be shown at Movietowne.
Entrance per movie just TT$ 10.00. |
| 8
October 2004 |
| The government of Trinidad and Tobago
presented the new budget for the year 2005. It seems the budget fits
again into the trend fighting poverty with the distribution of food
hampers. No clear signs or concepts to actively eliminating existing
problems within the nation. Vision 2020 might remain part of the
distant future. This oil and gas rich country has the opportunity to
drastically alleviate poverty, illiteracy and related problems,
leading the nation into the developed nation state of mind. |
| 7
October 2004 |
 Caribbean
and European business partner met at Profit
Caribbean from 5-7 of October to explore further co-operation for
tourism related projects with the support of the European Union. Over
100 out of 200 Caribbean businesses were selected to participate at
this conference at the Ritz Carlton, Montego Bay, Jamaica. Ultra
Consulting Network Ltd., the architect and company behind the network
of TrinidadShopping.com,
was one of the selected companies and participated at this event. |
| 1
October 2004 |
| TrinidadShopping.com, the network of over
50 websites within Trinidad and Tobago and other Caribbean countries,
is celebrating the 3rd anniversary since it first went online. Growing
every day, in use by many thousands of people from around the world,
connecting local businesses with visitors from over 100+ countries
every month. Providing business services, web sites, email, online
shops and many other products and services (overview). |
| 27
September 2004 |
| Power problems in Trinidad. The month of
September brought not only Ivan the Terrible, but also many power
outages in Trinidad. T&TEC,
the local power distribution company seems to have problems with the
reliable distribution these days. After quite some time of getting a
reliable power supply, nowadays a heavy shower and some lightening
causes major power outages with a duration from 15 minutes up to
several hours. A major loss for the country's economy as most offices
rely on air-conditioning, computer networks and more and more Internet
access. |
| 24
September 2004 |
 Trinidad & Tobago is celebrating the
28th anniversary of the declaration of Trinidad and Tobago as a Republic. |
| 18
September 2004 |
| The remnants of
Hurricane Ivan are still creating damage in the US. Ivan caused
several tornados in several US states. The death toll is close to 90
people within the Caribbean and the US. Grenada needs assistance to
rebuilt the country and the economy. Several plans were laid out
during a Caribbean summit in Port of Spain. Immediate help is required
to fulfill the basic needs like water, food and shelter to the people
of Grenada. |
| 16
September 2004 |
| Hurricane Ivan has reached the US gulf
coast. Devastation continues after over two million people were
evacuated from their homes. Ivan is now a Category 3 hurricane,
targeting now Alabama, while at the same time the tropical storm Jeanne
reached hurricane strength and is passing Puerto Rico. |
| 15
September 2004 |
| Grenada, the isle of spice, received the
most damaging hit from hurricane Ivan within the Caribbean. While
other affected Caribbean countries continue to function, Grenada is
currently 'out-of-order'. Several international help organisations and
a larger help team from T&T will have to do a live-support job for
the people of Grenada. Agriculture, a major income stream for Grenada,
has been wiped out, tourism is currently not an option. Nutmeg,
a major income source for Grenada, takes between 7-9 years from
planting to the first harvest and 20 years to reach their full
potential. Grenada needs
help! |
| 12
September 2004 |
The day after ... Jamaica started cleaning
up the damages of hurricane Ivan. Reportedly 17 people lost their
lives during the long hours under the power of Ivan. Flooding is a
major problem after substantial rainfall brought devastation to the
country. Jamaican's took the warning seriously and therefore major
loss of life was prevented.
After Ivan moved back to category 4 (just 1 mph under the category 5
limit), it passed the Cayman Islands. The Grand Cayman, the main
island of the Cayman Islands was the major target for Ivan, but again
it seems that the eye of Ivan moved in a distance of about 50km
south of Grand Cayman, preventing the experience of the
'reversed' winds on the other side of the eye. |
| 11
September 2004 |
3:30 pm: As Ivan 'spared' Jamaica, the
hurricane gained again strength and is again a category 5, the most
ferocious type of hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.
The eye of the hurricane suddenly took a 'left' in the early morning
hours, just before reaching land and continued 'wobbling' in some
distance from the south coast of Jamaica. The Cayman Islands are
preparing for Ivan for Sunday.
3:45 am: Even as Hurricane Ivan is
pounding Jamaica, it seems that the major disaster might just stay
away from directly hitting Jamaica. The eye of the hurricane is slowly
moving in a distance of about 100km along the south coast of Jamaica
and has already past St. Elizabeth's Parish moving towards the west
side of the island. The local (T&T) TV station Gayelle TV had up
to the minute reports from around the region up till 3 am this
morning. With callers from Jamaica, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago and a
direct link to the National Hurricane Center in Florida. A Caribbean
network of people that works! Great work! |
| 10
September 2004 |
Update 11:30 pm: Latest reports revealed
that Ivan got stronger and is now close to a category 5 hurricane.
Jamaica is already for several hours under the severe storm. Satellite
images revealed that the eye of the hurricane will not pass through
Kingston and will rather move along the south coast. Power has be shut
down islands wide to prevent damage from electrical lines. The
government declared a state of emergency. Cellular networks seems
still to work. Larger hotels and community buildings have been
converted to small fortresses. Ivan will move for several more hours
over Jamaica on the way to the Caymans and Cuba.-
10 am: Ivan has slowed down and is moving with
about 20km/h towards Jamaica. Due to the decreased maximum sustained
winds of around 230km/h, the extremely dangerous hurricane Ivan is now
a category 4 hurricane. Ivan can be expected in Jamaica on Friday
night or early Saturday morning. |
| 9
September 2004 |
Hurricane Ivan is getting stronger and has
now reached category 5 with winds of over 200km/h. The hurricane is
heading now direction Jamaica. Jamaica is feverishly preparing for the
hurricane, which should arrive by Friday afternoon (newspapers: Gleaner
/ Observer).
The Cayman Islands seem to be also in Ivan's path and preparations are
in progress (news).
Contact for donations for Grenada: (868) 624-1084. 627-7212 (Thin
Redline Ltd) and NEMA at (868) 634-4505
|
| 8
September 2004 |
Ivan passed and Trinidad and Tobago
survived. Tobago experienced severe storms and one person died due to
a fallen tree and millions of TT$ in damages. Communication lines are
interrupted. Emergency response teams are working to resolve problems
immediately. Trinidad was again lucky as this dangerous hurricane
appeared to be not more than a normal storm during the rainy season.
Several areas in Trinidad were flooded after the second wave went over
Trinidad.
Grenada was directly hit by Ivan and great devastation was the result.
At least 17 people lost their lives, power and communication lines are
broken and close to 90% of the houses are destroyed. Emergency help is
coming from many other countries including T&T. Information is
coming in slowly. A talk
forum is available at www.spiseisle.com |
| 7
September 2004 |
7:30 am: Hurricane Ivan is moving further
south than expected. This takes Barbados off the Hurricane Warning and
Trinidad on since 5:45am. All schools and banks are closed in Trinidad
& Tobago. People are advised not to go to work today and stay
indoors. Local TV stations are tracking the hurricane. Hurricane
warnings are quite an unfamiliar terrain for most people in T&T.
So far we just had a bit of rain, but nothing yet like a hurricane of
category 3. This might be the calm before the storm. It is expected
that the centre of the Hurricane ('the eye') will arrive around 12
noon north of Tobago. NOAA
Update
Both international airports (www.piarcoairport.com)
and (www.crownpointairport.com)
have been closed until Wednesday morning 6:00 am.
Update 4:00 pm: The worst is over for Tobago as the hurricane is
moving towards Grenada. Very strong winds are currently going through
Trinidad. Tobago is still under Hurricane Warning,
Trinidad now under Tropical Storm Warning.
Update 5:00 pm: The Hurricane Warning for Tobago has been downgraded
to a Tropical Storm Warning. Damages in Tobago are currently assessed.
8:00 pm: As Hurricane Ivan passed Trinidad & Tobago, Grenada and
the Grenadines, the hurricane regains dangerous intensity four, moving
rapidly westward across the southeastern Caribbean. |
| 6
September 2004 |
Trinidad and Tobago and other Caribbean
countries are getting ready for the arrival of Hurricane 'Ivan'.
Trinidad, blessed with being a hurricane free area of the Caribbean
and often used as a hideout for 'yachties' during the hurricane
season, received a tropical storm warning for the morning of 7th
September. Ivan is supposed to pass Barbados by 8am tomorrow morning.
Trinidad & Tobago might feel the outskirts of this hurricane.
Update 9 pm: The tropical storm
warning for Tobago has been upgraded to a Hurricane Warning. Trinidad
however remains on a tropical storm warning. The National Emergency
Management Agency (NEMA) can be contacted at: Tel. 640-1285/8905, Fax.
640-8988. The NEMA
emergency response centre will remain activated tonight. |
| 28
August 2004 |
| For our German visitors: Herzlich
Willkommen bei TrinidadShopping.com. Mit ueber 50 Websites in der
Karibik sind wir wahrscheinlich das groesste Informationsnetzwerk hier.
Wir wuerden uns ueber Ihr 'Feedback', Verbesserungsvorschlaege etc.
freuen. Viele Gruesse aus Trinidad. |
| 21
August 2004 |
 The 36th Carib Great Race just finished in Tobago
and again Mr. Solo Too reached in first
position after the race of 86 Miles and 1h 17m. Again in 2nd place 'Rage', 3rd
'Toyota White Heat'', 4th 'Mobil Heat Wave'. The Party in Tobago is on! |
| 19
August 2004 |
Bronze Medal for Trinidad's George Bovell
in the Men's 200m Individual Medley in Athens.
On winning the bronze medal: "I feel very proud for myself and for my
country." Trinidad is now ranked 16 with Great Britain and
Argentina in the swimming category. |
| 13
August 2004 |
 The
28th Olympic Games have been opened in Athens. 108 years after the
games started in Athens, the games came back with a great and
spectacular opening ceremony. The Trinidad & Tobago delegation of
26 athletes is competing in various disciplines. The games, which will
be watched by over a billion people around the globe, will end with
the closing ceremony on 29th August. |
| 12
August 2004 |
| Monorail transport
system for Trinidad. Within this month a National Transportation Study
(NHS) will be started. The study will take around 18 months to
complete and apparently the government will decide in 2005 if Trinidad
is getting a light monorail transport system, covering the east-west
corridor, the main artery of traffic and daily traffic congestion. The
lowered prices of cars within the last few years brought also a flood
of more cars into the country, but the planned extension of the road
network was never completed. Road expansion was so far limited to
patch work with no visible concept for a system build for the future. |
| 5
August 2004 |
 The T&T Chamber of Commerce invited
members of the business community to another breakfast session titled:
'TSTT in a Liberalized Telecoms Environment. The top TSTT management
team, Mr. Samuel Martin - CEO, Mr. Bernard Mitchell - VP Service
Delivery, Mr. Trevor Deane - VP Infrastructure Development, Mr.
Cleveland Thomas - Product and Service Pricing Manager and Mr. Michael
Wayne - Ag. Executive President Mobile Services, presented TSTT and
future directions to the interested business audience. Questions about
the GSM coverage were raised, customer service related issues and
other items were addressed. TSTT seems to be quite aware that the
competition is at the doorsteps of T&T after the end of the
monopoly had ended. Competitors are awaiting their licenses to start
conducting business in T&T. A new area of telecommunication in
Trinidad and Tobago has begun. |
| 1
August 2004 |
| The Trinidad and Tobago air bridge, a
point of concern and frustration for many travelers between the two
sister islands, got support in form of a leased DC-9 jet. Over 100
additional seats per flight are now available in addition to the
existing service by Tobago Express and BWIA West Indies Airways (Bwee).
Another plain will arrive mid August. |
| 28
July 2004 |
| BWIA
West Indies Airways is again a government airline. After financial
injections to support the airline's operation and missing share
holders financial support, the majority share holder of "Bwee"
is again the government of Trinidad & Tobago, holding now around
75% of the airlines shares. |
| 27
July 2004 |
| 27th July 1990, the attempted coup in
Trinidad, which destroyed several lives and many businesses in the
Port of Spain area has not been forgotten. For five days the Muslimeen were keeping Trinidad under attack. A general amnesty was negotiated at the end and the hostages were released.
Leaders of the coup, Muslim extremists, are still leaders of today's
Trinidad and Tobago and are still
having trouble with the law. |
| 24
July 2004 |
| We are sorry, but we cannot anymore
provide a contact link to Courts Trinidad as contact requests were so
far always deleted by Courts and email requests were not answered.
Please contact Courts directly. Thank you! TrinidadShopping.com |
| 22
July 2004 |
| The Ministry of Tourism
and the Tobago House of Assembly invited to a Leadership forum at the
Hilton Tobago. The two day Tourism Marketing Forum was well attended
from the Trinidad and Tobago business community and politicians. Local
and foreign presenters made this forum interesting and enjoyable. TDC
(formerly TIDCO) presented a three year plan on tourism, which sparked
a controversial discussion amongst some of the participants. This
meeting brought Trinidad and Tobago closer to present itself to the
world as one nation. |
| 8
July 2004 |
| Goodbye TIDCO, Welcome TDC! Trinidad and
Tobago got rid of the Tourism and Industrial Development Company, also
known as TIDCO and formed the Tourism Development Corporation (or
Company). The trade
and investment unit has been split from TIDCO, going back to the
Ministry of Trade and Industry and TDC will now exclusively focus on
Tourism. TIDCO was plagued for years by continued restructurings and
wasn't able to deliver the expected results. |
| 7
July 2004 |
 At the Annual General Meeting of the Trinidad Hotels, Restaurants and Tourism Association held on Wednesday July 7th, 2004, Ernest Littles, Group CEO of the Crewsinn Hotel and Yachting Centre, was elected President of the Trinidad Hotels, Restaurants and Tourism Association. Mr. Littles has been involved in the hospitality industry for over thirty years and was General Manager, Marketing/Business for the New York airports (JFK, La Guardia and Newark), General Manager, Business Development/Marketing at the World Trade
Center, and owners’ representative for Vista Hotel and Windows of the World Restaurant. |
| 29
June 2004 |
| Starting today TSTT
cut rates on international calls in half. Residential, Business,
Mobile and Companion calling card users will now pay just 50% of the
previous rates. The rate cut will not effect inter Caribbean calls,
which are now reduced by 40% after the first 40 minutes. The previous
10-10-335 discount number will no longer be available. TSTT is taken
active steps to face the soon to be in town competition. |
| 24
June 2004 |
 Many
attendees followed the invitation of the Ministry of Public Administration
& Information for the 2-day workshop "fastforward to SME Competitiveness
in Trinidad and Tobago". Presenters from India, South Africa
and Trinidad and Tobago had interesting show cases from successful
Internet entities on their programme. With a very interested audience,
this workshop was very vibrant and successful. |
| 21
June 2004 |
| The Ministry of Public Administration
& Information is inviting businesses (SME's) to attend a joint
workshop with the Commonwealth Secretariat & the Business
Development Company Ltd. The two day workshop on Wednesday and
Thursday this week is titled: "fastforward to SME Competitiveness
in Trinidad and Tobago". |
| 15
June 2004 |
| The new email worm Erkez.B
(or Zafi.B)
is spreading fast in Trinidad and Tobago. Make sure that your
antivirus software was updated after 11th of June. Our virus filter
for our customers caught already a few thousand of these new mass
emailing worms since Monday. |
| 2
June 2004 |
| The government of Trinidad and Tobago
passed the Metric Bill. Following in the footsteps of most other
industrialised countries, the metric
system or International System of Units (systeme internationale d'unites
or SI) will standardise the use of the kilometer, meter, centimeter,
millimeter, micrometer, square meter, cubic meter, liter and so on
instead of the English units. Most countries around the world have
already adopted the Metric System with the exception of the US and a
few other countries. |
| 1
June 2004 |
| Congratulations to Miss Trinidad and
Tobago Danielle Jones, a Top Five Finalist in tonight's Miss Universe pageant
in Quito, Ecuador. Miss Australia Jennifer Hawkins was crowned Miss
Universe in the two hour pageant. Congratulation to Ms. Hawkins!
Australia is currently relocating it's embassy to Port of Spain to
further nurture the relations between T&T and Australia and
recognising T&T as the fastest growing industrial nation of the
Caribbean. |
| 30
May 2004 |
| Trinidad and Tobago is celebrating the
159th Indian
Arrival Day. A long weekend in T&T since the public holiday
falls on a Sunday and Monday is therefore a day off as well. |
| 20
May 2004 |
| After four busy days, the Trade and Investment Convention
2004 (TIC 2004) at
the Trinidad Hilton and Conference Centre closed this afternoon. |
| 20
May 2004 |
 The
Information Technology Professional Society (ITPS)
invited members and the public to a breakfast session at the Chamber
of Commerce. ITPS and the Ministry of Public Administration and
Information presented "The Implications of the Telecommunications
Act". Guest speakers: Christopher Hamel-Smith (M..Hamel-Smith,
Legal Implications), Chris Seecharan (Ministry
of Public Administration and Information, forming the
Telecommunications Authority), Sinead O'Marcaigh, Digicel,
Regional Director), Brian Jahra (Director Association of Independent Internet Service Providers).
The session theme found a large interested group and it was well
attended. |
| 20
May 2004 |
 "Online
Paradise" is the headline for today's article in the Business
Guardian about TrinidadShopping.com. Want to know more about our
business? Either buy the Guardian, read the Guardian
online or contact
us. |
| 17
May 2004 |
| The annual Trade and Investment Convention
2004 (TIC 2004),
the largest trade show in the area, has opened today. Over 150
exhibitors from various countries around the world are attracting
business visitors, buyers from the region and other countries, |
| 17
May 2004 |
| TSTT announced the launch of "TSTT
Lingo Info Text", the SMS (Short Message System) based cellular
service will be commercially launched on 24-May-2004. The content
messaging service will provide news, sports updates, Lotto, stock,
movie schedules etc. Prices ranges between 20 and 80cents (TT) per
message. |
| 17
May 2004 |
| The world is observing the World
Telecommunications Day 2004. The event is organised by the ITU (International
Telecommunication Union). The ITU is helping the world to
communicate since 1865. More emphasis on Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
is of uttermost importance to all countries in the world. For the
global leaders to remain leaders and for developing nations, to become
or being able to compete with the global leaders. |
| 27
April 2004 |
| Rain has come to Trinidad. It seems that
this years Rainy Season got an early start. For the past 10 days
Trinidad received some hefty showers, even spoiling last weekends
Cricket matches between England and the West Indies. But as usual,
there is still plenty of sun and temperatures are as usual around 30
degrees (C) or 84F. |
| 12
April 2004 |
| World Record! Congratulations to Brian
Lara, Captain of the West Indies Cricket Team, for scoring for the
first time 400 runs in a test match. Today he regained in Antigua his
world record (375) from ten years ago, after losing it for just 6
months to Matthew Hayden (380) from Australia. |
| 5
April 2004 |
|
The past weekend was filled with Easter Bonnet Parades around the
countries. Many children, parents and visitors came to attend this Easter
Bonnet spectacle. Stunning costumes resulted this year again in happy winners
of the various sponsored prizes.
|
| 1
April 2004 |
|
Trinidad & Tobago made another step towards 'Vision 2020".
From today leaded gasoline will no longer be sold at the nations gas
stations. Unleaded gas only with 92 Ron (Super) and 95 Ron (Premium) is now a fact.
|
| 20
March 2004 |
|
Second day of Cricket Test Match at the Queens Park Oval. Thousands of
Cricket Fans from around the world are streaming into the Oval (QPCC).
Fans and celebrities like Sir Mick Jagger won't miss a day. So far the
West Indies do not look so good against the leading English Team.
|
| 17
March 2004 |
The Downtown Owners and Merchants' Association (D.O.M.A.)
invited to their first quarterly Breakfast Meeting at the Crowne
Plaza. His Excellency Professor George Maxwell Richards, President of
Trinidad and Tobago was the key speaker for this early morning
session. He pledged for the University of Trinidad and Tobago,
presenting very strong economic indicators, demanding higher
investments into tertiary education. Gregory Aboud, D.O.M.A. President
gave a provocative and interesting introductory address. |
| 16
March 2004 |
| The ITB, the International Travel Bourse (Internationale
Tourismus-Börse) in Berlin closed today after 5 days of hectic
activities around travel and tourism in general. Trinidad and Tobago
was presented by representatives from TIDCO, the Tobago House of
assembly, and a number of local hotels and tour operators. Over
141,000 visitors and 6, 700 Journalists from 84 countries walked
through the exhibition halls in Berlin. New announcements at the ITB
included a new BWIA Saturday non-stop flight from London Heathrow to
Trinidad & Tobago. Lauda Air signed an airlift agreement with
Tobago. Starting from October 2004 the new route will be between
Vienna and Tobago. |
| 16
March 2004 |
| Trinidad in Cricket Fever .... The '2nd
Cable & Wireless Test' from Friday 19th until 23rd of March at
the Queens Park Oval attracts cricketers, visitors from around the
world, which are welcomed by the local tourism industry (more).
After a low in Jamaica, better results from the West Indies team will
be expected at the Oval. |
| 9
March 2004 |
| Some statistics for the interested ... in
the first 21 hours of today our email filters caught 51.7% SPAM (junk
mails) and 9.3% viruses. Only 39% off all emails reached the recipient
and are considered junk mail and virus free and hopefully of content
to the recipient (functionality part of
our OptionPack 1) |
| 8
March 2004 |
There is again a new virus spreading
around (here in T&T) which cannot yet be detected by Norton
Antivirus with the latest definitions. The W32.Sober.D@mm
virus can currently only be detected with the 'beta'
definitions. (4.5MB).
The virus appears to be from Microsoft (e.g. Info@microsoft.com),
Subject: Microsoft Alert: Please Read! with an attached update/patch.
DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENT! Update: Norton has
now updated virus definitions |
| 5
March 2004 |
Attention: Somebody or something is
abusing our email addresses sending the Beagle.J virus using the
non-existent email address "management@trinidadshopping.com"
to other Internet users. They are 'signed' with "The
Trinidadshopping.com team". Please note that these emails/viruses
are not originated from our system.
Many other companies/persons are also affected. Virus infected emails
appear to come from
- management@...
- administration@...
- staff@...
- noreply@...
- support@...
followed by a domain name. The email looks like a legitimate message,
warning about a virus. Do not follow the instruction to open the
attachment under any circumstances! Antivirus software will only
detect this virus with up-to-date virus definitions!
Many people believe that their computers are protected with antivirus
software, not knowing that the software needs to be updated very
frequently. |
| 4
March 2004 |
| The war of the computer viruses didn't
stop in Trinidad and Tobago. Endless computers might now be
infected with the NetSky and Bagle email worms as the virus developer
are fighting with each other. The normal Internet user has to suffer
due to slower Internet speed and some slow websites. Update your virus
protection on a daily basis when your computer is connected to the
Internet! |
| 27
February 2004 |
| The 'Trini
Revellers' were announced this morning as the 'Band
of the Year'. This is a first time for the Trini Revellers
and quite an achievement for the band and its members. Pictures are
still available online at the Gallery at www.PhotoWorldTT.com |
| 25
February 2004 |
 Ash
Wednesday ... Trinidad Carnival 2004 is over. Thousands of
masqueraders and spectators flocked the streets of Port of Spain
during a sunny Carnival Tuesday, the last day of Carnival. Over 500 'Trini
Revellers' photos from Monday and Tuesday are now online at Photo
World's new website. Traditionally many people will today stream
to the beaches of Maracas and Manzanilla and Las Cuevas to celebrate
'After-Carnival'. |
| 24
February 2004 |
| Carnival Tuesday!
The main event and also last day of Carnival 2004. Today is the day of
the masqueraders! Thousands of people will 'chip' slowly through the
streets of Port of Spain, accompanied by the various 'music trucks',
watched by a massive crowd of spectators along the way. This is definitely
the highlight of Carnival 2004 for most of the participants. |
| 22
February 2004 |
| Carnival
Sunday! Tomorrow is Carnival (23+24), two days of hectic activities with
the major attractions in the Queens Park Savannah, Port of Spain.
Visit Carnival
on the Net for further information. With J'ouvert Morning starting
at 4-5am, the streets of Port of Spain will be a colourful spectacle.
With 'Pretty Mas' starting on Monday from around 10am and Tuesday from
7am, this is what all Masquerades (Band Members) were waiting for. And
of course the visitors will have a great time to remember. Carnival
pictures will be available from Photo
World (online). |
| 20
February 2004 |
| Carnival Friday!
Trinidad is ready for a hot and spicy long weekend. With many
businesses closed on Monday and Tuesday, Carnival enthusiasts from
around the globe can enjoy the Carnival 2004 here in Trinidad. This
year seem to be a boom year as many places to stay are already fully
booked for weeks. But there is always a place to stay in 'Sweet
T&T'. |
| 16
February 2004 |
| Gayelle TV is on the Air! The new local TV
station on cable channel 7 and on antenna UHF 23 got on the air
providing local information, entertainment from today. You can reach
Gayelle TV in St. James at 628-3035 |
| 13
February 2004 |
TrinidadShopping.com Upgrade
With a new, faster database server, the TrinidadShopping network of
websites will now provide faster access to our online Business
Database. |
| 12
February 2004 |
 With
less than two weeks of Carnival 2004 remaining, the nights in Trinidad
are filled with music in the air. Daily events with Calypso, Soca,
Chutney, Steel Pan, Comedy are turning local inhabitants as well as
visitors into party lovers. More and more visitors are arriving to
this annual spectacle. |
| 7
February 2004 |
| Members of the Information
Technology Professional Society voted for the new council at the
9th Annual General Meeting the Chancellor Hotel in St. Ann's. |
| 6
February 2004 |
| The Information
Technology Professional Society of Trinidad and Tobago is inviting
to their 9th Annual General Meeting at The Chancellor Hotel, St. Ann's
on Saturday 7th February at 9.30am. (more) |
| 4
February 2004 |
| With today's sod turning ceremony for the Crown
Point International Airport in Tobago, the TT$ 100 million project
finally started with 12 month delay. The project is supposed to be
completed within one year and will provide new facilities for larger
aircrafts and a larger terminal building. |
| 3
February 2004 |
| February 2004 - Carnival in Trinidad -
With just 3 weeks left, T&T is getting ready for the grand finale.
With many events, fetes around the country, surely time for the fun
loving party animals. Several events will be broadcasted life on the
Internet via BBC
1Xtra (RealPlayer required) |
| 31
January 2004 |
Internet SMS Service running again.
After 10 days downtime, TSTT switched on this free service again. You
can now enjoy again sending Short Messages to your loved ones and
business partners in Trinidad & Tobago. |
| 26
January 2004 |
| A new virus
is rampant on the Internet! Since this afternoon the email worm Novarg
also called Mydoom
is running wild. Apparently this email worm will create an outbreak
larger than anything seen before. Update your anti-virus software now!
Novarg/Mydoom is a mass-mailing worm which arrives with an .exe, .pif, or .scr attachment.
The worm has already arrived in Trinidad! The worm will launch a
denial of service attack against www.sco.com,
the company which is running a lawsuit against open software vendors. |
| 26
January 2004 |
| TSTT again seem to be unable to solve the
technical problems with their Internet to SMS gateway. Since Thursday
evening 22-January this popular service, used by many people from
around the world, is out of service. Several requests to TSTT were not
answered as usual. The millions of profit made by TSTT's cell service
should easily pay for this free Internet service offered by TSTT.
Customers are again in the dark. |
| 21
January 2004 |
| BWIA West Indies Airlines started their
bi-weekly schedule to Santo Domingo! The new route between the Dominican Republic and Trinidad
will foster the business relationship between the two countries. The Dominican Republic
is a major European tourist destination for many years. |
| 12
January 2004 |
| Carnival 2004 got the first damper when Peter
Minshall's Callaloo Company send the official 'No' for Carnival
2004. Carnival without Peter Minshall will be a loss for many who
appreciate the difference. Not only are his costumes very different
from the usual 'skimpy' costume design, but also his elevating
selection of music and of course his world famous choreography. Many
loyal masquerades have to look for another band this year. |
| 10
January 2004 |
| With Christmas just finished, the Trinidad
and Tobago 2004 Carnival Season has already kicked in. Hotel rooms are
booked, the carnival bands are getting ready to deliver their booked
costumes, the music trucks will get a new layer of paint, the weekend
fetes have started, new soca sound is in the air and the steelbands
are busy exercising for Panorama 2004. This very hectic time of the
year will calm down just after Ash Wednesday 25th February. With the
peak on Carnival Monday and Tuesday (23+24 February). |
| 4
January 2004 |
 Let's
go 'Phishing': Attention eBay users ... Some fraudsters are trying
to get your account information! They simply send you an mail e.g.
Subject: 'Billing Issues' and ask you to update your records. You will
then be directed to an 'phishing'
ebay site, but all information (username/password) will be
recorded. The email uses the original eBay logo. Be careful when
you see something like this: http://itemgirl.co.kr/sub/.ebay.dll/ebay.php=password-crypted.
Refer to: eBay.
The scam emails are often originated from the domain camscenes.com.
Other companies like PayPal are also target for these malicious
creatures. More at Anti-Phishing.org |
| 2
January 2004 |
| TSTT's NetExpress ADSL customers in the
Diego Martin area experienced a total loss of service on New Years
afternoon. Right after 4:45pm the new high-speed Internet access
ceased completely. Due to the lack of any service during public
holidays, subscribers are without Internet until ... Update: 9:17am All OK again |
| 1
January 2004 |
 Thank
you to all our visitors who made it possible that the network of
TrinidadShopping.com got close to 1,000,000 hits for the month of
December 2003. Visitors came from about 117 countries, with Trinidad
& Tobago in the first place (43%), followed by the USA (31%),
Canada, U.K., Barbados, France, Sweden, Germany, Guyana, Venezuela,
India, The Netherlands, St. Lucia, Antigua, Japan, Italy, Jamaica, St.
Vincent & the Grenadines, Grenada, Mongolia, Finland, Australia,
Norway, Singapore, Spain, China, Bermuda, Denmark, Pakistan and 87
other countries. |
| 1
January 2004 |
A Happy and Prosperous New Year 2004 to
all our customers and visitors!
All the best from the TrinidadShopping.com Team. Let's start fresh for
the new year! |
| 21
December 2003 |
| Today will be the longest night in the
northern hemisphere, commonly known as the winter
solstice. For
Trinidad & Tobago there is not much of a change ... sunny. warm
and definitely no winter in sight. With the sunset at 5:48 pm and the
sunrise at 6:18 am, there is just about 90 minutes different between
the shortest and longest night. |
| 15
December 2003 |
| Trinidad and Tobago is at the verge of a
new Information and Communication Technology Century. With today's
formal launch of the NICT Plan, T&T will 'fastforward' with an extensive
expansion plan to provide the Nation with better Information and
Communication facilities like affordable Internet access to all
Citizens, high speed Internet Access, e-Government
etc. Visit www.FastForward.tt
for further information. |
| 14
December 2003 |
| TSTT will re-open their SMS Internet
gateway on Monday the 15th. After exactly 3 months of implementing
further security measurements, the gateway will be open for free to
the public until a fee structure will be put in place in 2004. The SMS
receiver will have to pay the charges. Cell customer will be able to
enable or disable receiving SMS messages from the Internet. |
| 12
December 2003 |
| TSTT now offers "Internet
Roaming" for their NetExpress customers. Using the over 20,000
worldwide dialup, Wi-Fi and broadband iPass
access points in over 150 countries, customers will be able to use the
Internet by signing a roaming contract with TSTT. A software download
will enable a PC to use this new facility. |
| 9
December 2003 |
| After First
Citizens Bank (FCB), Scotiabank
now also offers online banking in Trinidad and Tobago. Full page
newspaper ads are selling this new service under "There's a mouse
in the house - Scotiabank Internet Banking is here." |
| 6
December 2003 |
 Papa
John's is coming to Trinidad. The US franchise with nearly 3,000 Pizza
outlets will soon be part of the local Pizza menu. Papa John's started
in 1985 in the US state of Indiana and is already in 13 countries
present with a strong focus on the US market. |
| 5
December 2003 |
| TSTT finally launched
the new GSM pre-paid service "mpower beyond voice". With a
delay of over 6 months, the service is now available. GSM customers do
not yet enjoy the same service availability like TDMA customers. This
weeks TSTT advertising for GSM Phase 2 (tender notice) for the
construction of 95 cellular sites means we are on the right track. We
still have to live for several more months with a currently
deficient service. Most of the additional GSM services like GPRS
(Internet) are still not available. GSM is the cheaper solution, but
makes only sense when traveling a lot. Otherwise ... stick to your
TDMA phones!! |
| 26
November 2003 |
Contacting businesses at any website within the network of TrinidadShopping.com has been made easier.
Every 'BizPage' and 'BizLocator' page has now a link to our new 'Contact Us' form (business must have a valid
email address). Therefore more businesses can be contacted now. This is also a very effective way to stop
spammers sending more junk mail by getting email addresses from any of our sites.
Our junk mail filter has been optimized and we now reach a rate of about 60% junk versus 'real' email.
This change includes also a BizPage and BizLocator 'Beautification
Programme'. |
| 14
November 2003 |
  At
a Chamber of Commerce event at the Hilton 'T&T E-Readiness: Are We
Ready to Compete with the Rest of the World", Permanent Secretary
of the Ministry of Public Administration and Information, Ms. Gillian Macintyre
announced for the first time at a public event the transition of the
National Information and Communication Technology plan (NICT)
from the planning stages to a fully ratified NICT plan for the Nation
of Trinidad & Tobago. Head of NICT, Ravindra Ramnarine presented a
selection of the plan. Senior Editor for the Economist
Intelligence Unit (e.g. The
Economist etc.) Les Bourne from the New York office presented
interesting facts about ICT for selected countries around the world
and where T&T fits into the figures. Being often placed in the
midfield, never leading, T&T is falling very much behind when it
comes to e-services (58 out of 61, with 61 for the worst). The NICT
plan is the integral plan to make a positive impact on ICT in T&T. |
| 7
November 2003 |
| Prime Minister Patrick Manning announced
this afternoon the reshuffle of his cabinet. To name a few changes:
Mr. Chin Lee moves from the Ministry of National Security as the head
of the Ministry of Tourism. Attorney General Glenda Morean will be be
the T&T High Commissioner to the U.K. Mr. Colm Imbert moves from
Minister of Health to Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary
Education. Keith Rowley now Minister of Housing. 13 Ministers have
new jobs now. |
| 7
November 2003 |
| Former New York Major Rudy Giuliani
will arrive today in Trinidad, following an invitation from the
Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO). He will attend an event on
Saturday 8 Nov. at the Hilton Trinidad to share his vision on crime. |
| 3
November 2003 |
 Alimuddin Mohammed Receives Another Award from India
Mr.Alimuddin Mohammed was given an Award from Mr.Suhash Goyal, Chairman of the Stic Travel Group Of India. This is the second award from India Mr. Mohammed received this year. Earlier he received an award from
SATTE. He received the award for: "His Contributation In Promoting Cultural Relations, Tourism, Trade, Understanding And FriendShip Between The People of Trinidad & Tobago And The People Of India."
|
| 31
October 2003 |
| Crime fighting a la Trinidad ... Just got
a ticket for 'speeding' on the Audrey Jeffers Highway. $200 for not
driving 50km/h !! The T&T Highway Code was telling me that I am
allowed to drive 80km/h, which I did. When requesting to write down
the allowed speed limit, they refused. |
| 27
October 2003 |
| Do not forget to turn your clocks when traveling! Daylight Saving Time
ended yesterday in most states of the
United States and in Europe. Miami (Eastern
Standard Time or EST) is now one hour behind Trinidad and Tobago (Atlantic
Standard Time or AST). Trinidad and Tobago does
not have DST, but since many businesses are talking about summer and
winter sales, we might see that that here as well. Examples: Trinidad:
3pm; Miami
2pm; London:
7pm; Berlin:
8pm |
| 24
October 2003 |
| In an constant effort in providing added services,
we have completed the upgrade to our new server this morning. The new
server will provider faster access with enhanced reliability. |
| 24
October 2003 |
 Best Divali Greetings or Shubh Divali.
The annual Hindu festival of lights will reach its peak Today on
Friday, a public holiday in Trinidad & Tobago. Beautiful celebrations nationwide with beautiful dressed people at the Divali Nagar site in central Trinidad. The site does not only attract local
Hindus, but also many people from around the world. The centre of the celebrations is in Central
Trinidad |
| 18
October 2003 |
| The ITPS
(Information Technology Professional Society) provided this morning
quite an interesting session titled: "Balanced Score Card and How IT plays a role in Strategy Based Organizations".
Harold Hendrie of SAI
gave a good overview about the Balanced Score Card (BSC) management system that can channel the energies, abilities, and specific knowledge held by people throughout
an organization. |
| 18
October 2003 |
| "You won a prize of 1,500,000.00 Euros"
... sounds to good to be true! And of course it is a scam as you first
need to pay your 700 Euro contribution in order to collect your price.
That money is gone for sure! Be aware of international Lotto Scams ...
we are receiving more and more of these malicious e-mails. (example
of the day) |
| 14
October 2003 |
| Today is World Standards Day 2003. Global
standards in the global community. (more,
TTBS) |
| 14
October 2003 |
| The 2nd annual e-Commerce Essay
Competition by the National e-Commerce Secretariat (NeCS) will run
only 3 more days. The competition, with prizes of over $60,000, is
open to all secondary school students. (more) |
| 14
October 2003 |
| Since exactly one month the TSTT Internet-SMS
gateway is not available. Several requests sent to TSTT remained
unanswered. Apparently TSTT introduced extra security measurements and
is still testing the facility. |
| 9
October 2003 |
| Former local Government Minister Dhanraj
Singh was freed today after no evidence was found almost 3 years after
he was arrested. |
| 7
October 2003 |
| The budget 2003/2004 for Trinidad and
Tobago did not bring many surprises. Claimed to be the budget for the
poor, it failed it's expectations. Instead the increase of the
gasoline prices of about 10% will effect people who are dependent on
public transportation. Taxi and maxi-taxi conductors will soon
increase their prices too. The now lower priced unleaded gasoline will
find more and more fans in the nation. This budget will be a healthy
budget as it will also phase out leaded gasoline by April 2004,
decreasing the risk of the various illnesses caused by lead pollution.
Tobago will receive about 1.3 billion from a budget of about TT$ 22
billion. Money savers are smiling ... no more tax on interest for
savings. The gaming industry might suffer with this hefty tax
increase. |
| 6
October 2003 |
| Today is the annual budget day for the
2003/2004 budget. Starting from 2pm, the budget will be presented in
Parliament. |
| 5
October 2003 |
| The well known site search.co.tt
is currently out of service due to a problem caused by the web hosting
company. The problem will be rectified as soon as possible. In the
interim the site can be reached via this link.
(update: Site is UP again) |
| 2
October 2003 |
| The 7th European Film Festival starts
today at a new location; Movietowne. The previously free Film Festival
moved from the Deluxe theater to the larger facility. For just TT$
10.00 per movie, a selection of European movies in their original
language will be shown. (schedule) |
| 2
October 2003 |
| TSTT, the largest local
Internet Service Provider (ISP) had again a total out of order
condition starting from 1am this morning. TSTT NetExpress customers
were not able to reach any web site outside of Trinidad and Tobago,
visitors from abroad were not able to reach any web site connected to
TSTT's network and no mail could reach TSTT customers. TSTT seem to be
quite far away from vision 2020. And with the extension of the
monopoly situation things are not improving. TSTT independent ISP's
did not experience any problems, e.g. www.carib-link.net,
www.opus.co.tt, www.rave-tt.net,
www.wow.net, www.fiberline.tt
and others. |
| 1
October 2003 |
| The 13th Southex International Expo 2003
started today at the Centre of Excellence in Macoya. The doors are
open from 10am – 9pm daily. The trade show will end on Sunday 5th
October. (SouthEx) |
| 1
October 2003 |
| TrinidadShopping.com is celebrating the
2nd anniversary since it first went online. We like to thank again all
our customers and visitors who have made us as successful as we are.
We promise to continue with our effort promoting local businesses to
the world. We have many plans for our 3rd year in business. |
| 30
September 2003 |
| Trinidad and Tobago hosts the 15th meeting
of the Trade Committee of the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas)
from 30th September until 3rd October 2003. The FTAA consist of 34
nations in the western hemisphere with a population of 800 Million
people. Trinidad and tobago is a possible candidate for hosting the
site of the FTAA Permanent Secretary. |
| 24
September 2003 |
| Trinidad & Tobago is celebrating the
27th anniversary of the declaration of Trinidad and Tobago as a Republic.
Quoting his Excellency President George Maxwell Richards: What is a Republic? It is deemed to be "a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch.". |
| 22
September 2003 |
 Gayelle,
in 1985-1992 known as the complete Caribbean television programme in
30 minutes, has evolved to a full time television programme. Starting
from December 2003, Gayelle will broadcast in T&T on UHF 23 and
cable channel 2. Today's launch at the Chamber of Commerce is a fresh
start for Gayelle. Embracing new digital technology, making the
production of a live community TV station possible. Real Caribbean
Community TV has arrived. |
| 16
September 2003 |
| Verisign, the managing 'authority' for the
.com and .net Internet domain names started abusing their power by
introducing a new trick to lure Internet surfers to their web sites.
Every time somebody is typing a wrong domain name, the surfer get
redirected to a Verisign site (sitefinder). This happens about 20
Million times a day, which calculates in a high amount of possible
advertising dollars. The Internet community is highly irritated and
started already countermeasures ...(more)
(get your
Redhat nameserver bind-9.2.2 with anti-Verisign patch here) |
| 15
September 2003 |
| Many TSTT cellular customers received a
threat via SMS over the weekend. TSTT therefore shut down their e-mail
to SMS gateway. Ronald Lessy, Internet Service Manager at TSTT, stated
that they are currently investigating who is responsible for this
malicious threat. He mentioned that the message, which was sent to
thousands of cellular subscribers, was originated from Trinidad. |
| 13
September 2003 |
| We like to thank our visitors who helped
us with their feedback to have a seamless upgrade of our first phase
of the ongoing upgrade. Phase one has been successfully completed. |
| 12
September 2003 |
First person to swim from Venezuela to
Trinidad.
Jose Manuel Raga is the first person ever crossing the waters between
Venezuela and Trinidad by swimming the 11 Miles distance. It is not
his first long distance he covered in just 10 Hours and 30 Minutes,
but the most challenging due to heavy currents. (more) |
| 7
September 2003 |
| We are currently upgrading all of our over
50 web sites. We believe that there will be no interruption of our
services. We like to encourage our visitors to report
problems they might have encountered while visiting our sites. |
| 1
September 2003 |
How to stop junk mail, also known as SPAM?
There is a very simple recipe for this: Never, ever buy anything from
these Cyberspace con artists, and do not click on any links the mail
contains! Junk mail is the killer of free communication using the
Internet! Make sure that you or your company do not provide any
facility for junk mailers. Our junk
mail filters are constantly upgraded to provide a nearly junk mail
free email experience for our customers. |
| 30
August 2003 |
| Trinidad and Tobago is going to celebrate
the 41st Independence Day on 31st August 2003. As a former British
Colony, T&T gained independence on 31 August 1962 and became a
Republic in 1976. |
| 28
August 2003 |
| The National Information and Communication
Technology (NICT)
Secretariat is again inviting to Open Forum sessions. Starting today
between 5:30pm and 7:30pm at the Hilton, followed by a venue at the
Tobago Hilton on 3rd September and South Trinidad at the Cara Suites
on 4th September. The e-Readiness Assessment and Benchmarking Study
for T&T will be presented and direct feedback can be given. |
| 23
August 2003 |
| The
35th Carib Great Race finished this morning in Tobago with the same
winner as in the previous years. Mr. Solo Too, with new driver Hayden
Charles, reached in first
position after the 86 Miles race in 1 hour and 11 minutes. With 2
minutes behind, in 2nd place 'Rage', 3rd 'White Heat' and 4th 'Castrol
Extreme'. Now it's Party Time in Tobago! |
| 23
August 2003 |
Local businesses are losing out on global
e-commerce! The experience here in T&T revealed that many business
owners are losing business due to the fact that their E-Mail mailbox
is full and new messages are rejected.
They are either not checking their E-Mail account often enough, or
these days it is too cluttered with junk mail or viruses. The E-Mail
originator will receive a message like this:
"I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.
<emailaddress@localprovider.net.tt>:
mail.local: /var/spool/mail/emailaddress: No space left on device"
But the business owner would not know about any lost mails,
since they do not get a notification that their mailbox is full and
that messages are going to be lsot.
TrinidadShopping.com is very much business oriented and offers
larger mailboxes, junk mail and pre-virus filtering, domain
registration, web hosting, Email to SMS forwarding and many more services. Contact
us for further information! |
| 22
August 2003 |
| The Carib Great Race, the annual powerboat
race between Trinidad and Tobago will start as usual around 7:30am on
Saturday 23rd. This time the starting point has moved to Pier 1 to
provide better access to a greater audience. |
| 22
August 2003 |
 Hard
Rock Cafe is coming to Trinidad. Started over 30 years ago in London
(14th June 1971) by two Americans, the over 100+ Hard Rock Cafes are
now in over 40 countries and soon also at the Movie Towne complex in Port of Spain. Serving a
variety of classical American food dishes, all in the ambience of
collected relicts from the Music industry. Hard Rock Cafe T-Shirt
collectors will have one more destination to visit. (Update:
apparently this project has been cancelled) |
| 20
August 2003 |
| Several new computer viruses are hitting
T&T. So far the heaviest ever virus load for us is coming from the
W32.Sobig.F@mm
virus. In just 30 hours our server filtered several hundreds of these
viruses for our customers, amounting to over 50 Megabyte of unwanted
emails, saving our customers many hours of Internet download time. The
virus also caused a slowdown in Internet traffic and it is still going
on! |
| 18
August 2003 |
| Due to a problem with one of our US
services providers, most of our websites are not reachable via the
domain name. Just TrinidadShopping.com and our customer sites are
reachable. We hope the problem will be solved soon. Solved! |
| 18
August 2003 |
| We welcome Mr. Anthony Hart as a new
member of the TrinidadShopping.com team! We are looking forward to
enhancing our customer relations with Anthony and his long term
experience in the information technology industry. |
| 12
August 2003 |
| A new computer virus (worm) started
spreading on Monday. Several businesses in Trinidad and Tobago were
affected. The BlasterWorm
is a newer kind of Internet virus (worm) as it propagates itself using
a network (e.g. the Internet) and is not only using email as a transport
medium. A firewall and a anti virus solution should prevent infection, but once the worm is on a
corporate LAN ... it might spread to all unprotected computers within
the LAN. The worm might destroy data, and forces the PC to
be rebooted once connected to a network. For advanced users ... check
your Windows registry for msblast.exe. But this will only work for the
first BlasterWorm version as there are already several modified
versions on the net.. Use the removal
tool to remove the infection and download the Microsoft
patch. |
| 12
August 2003 |
| To further support TSTT's effort providing
an efficient telecommunication infrastructure in Trinidad and Tobago,
we launched a new online discussion forum at www.TSTTproblems.com.
Customers and interested people are invited to join the discussion
group. |
| 1
August 2003 |
| Today is Emancipation Day in Trinidad and
Tobago with various celebrations around the country. A day to
celebrate the African roots of half the population of T&T. (Read
more) |
|
Pan-Commonwealth Caribbean Workshop on E-Commerce Competitiveness
|
|
|
 The
Pan-Commonwealth Caribbean Workshop on E-Commerce Competitiveness was
opened with a Dinner at the Hilton. Mrs. Jacqueline Wilson, Permanent
Secretary of the Ministry of Public Administration and Information
opened the evening, followed by Mr. Ram Venupersad, Programme Officer
of the Commonwealth Secretariat. The feature address was given by the
Senator Dr. The Honourable Lenny Saith, Minister of Public
Administration and Information . This workshop brought together the
leaders in e-commerce in the Caribbean. The workshop on Monday and
Tuesday will answer and raise questions in the area of e-commerce in
the Caribbean. (27-July-2003) |
|
Election Results
|
|
|
Today's
local government elections are over. Results have revealed that the
current ruling Party won the local Government elections. The UNC lost
in several previously UNC areas the majority. (14-July-2003) |
|
Trini Hackers
|
|
|
Trini Hackers on the rampage! For
the past few days our computers (and everybody else' computers too)
are attacked by hackers from T&T and other countries. Most hackers
(TSTT NetExpress customers) are looking for the "Backdoor/SubSeven
Trojan Horse". It enables unauthorized people to access your computer over the Internet without your knowledge.
Use a firewall to protect your PC/property! e.g. ZoneAlarm
(free) (7-July-2003) |
|
Venezuela Delegations Visits T&T
|
|
|
Recently a team from Venezuela visited
Trinidad & Tobago to create a video for the Spanish speaking
Caribbean and Latin America. Some of the TrinidadShopping.com
customers are now part of this video. See part one here: (modem)
(broadband)
(TriniTobago.com)
(7-July-2003) |
|
Local Government Elections
|
|
|
With just one week (14th July) to the
local government elections, more and more political meetings are on
the agenda of the ruling PNM and the opposition UNC. (7-July-2003) |
|
T&T without Internet
|
|
|
Trinidad & Tobago without Internet
- The largest Internet Service Provider couldn't provide Internet
access for several hours starting early Saturday morning shortly after
4:30 am. TSTT NetExpress informed their customers almost 12 hours
later that the problem was solved and the cause was that one of the
international links was down, resulting in a total loss of
connectivity for most customers in Trinidad & Tobago. Yes, we got
service even on a Saturday! (28-June-2003) |
 |
|
Caribbean
Airlines Holding
|
|
|
During a meeting today at the Central Bank
Building, several country leaders announced the formation of Caribbean
Airlines Holding within 14 days. The new founded organisation will
oversee the airline business in the Caribbean. With a major focus on a
possible merge between T&T's BWIA and Antigua's LIAT. Both
airlines are struggling the aftermaths of the 9/11 event. (22-June-2003)
Update: The name will be:
Caribbean International Airlines (Holding) Ltd also called CIA Holding
Ltd (2-Aug-2003) |
|
Holidays ...
|
|
|
Trinidad and Tobago is enjoying a very
long weekend with two holidays this week. With Corpus Christi
and Labour Day on the same day, T&T will enjoy a Friday
without work as well.. (19-June-2003) |
|
Another Computer Virus
|
|
|
The malicious Bugbear.B virus is still
spreading like wildfire, now using our domain name. Do not open any
messages from/to "Afro-Caribbean travel - Olle" ! (11-June-2003) |
|
High Speed Internet (Broadband Access)
|
|
|
TSTT announced a fee reduction for their
High Speed Internet Access - ADSL. Residential customers can get ADSL
(128/64K) for TT$ 460.00 (incl VAT) a month. ADSL for business customers starts
at TT$ 1,000 (+VAT) per month. (7-June-2003) |
|
Computer Virus
|
|
|
A new flood of computer viruses is
cluttering the Internet. For 2 days now the W32.Sobig.B@mm
virus is on a rampage. Unfortunately there are still too many PCs
not or incorrectly protected against these infections. Protect your
computer, protect your investment! Read
more (we offer server based virus
protection!) (6-June-2003) |
|
Junk Mail - Too Much !
|
|
|
 The
month of May was again a month filled with 'Unsolicited Commercial
Email' or UCE, better known as Junk Mail or SPAM. Our server based
SPAM filters are doing a great job for our customers and for us.
Thousands of these unwanted emails and hundreds of viruses never
reached their destination to do their either harmful or at least
annoying job just for the month of May.
Customers can log in and monitor their junk mails and enjoy filtered
emails (SilverPlus Plan only). Reading emails can again be personal or
work related and a joyful experience. STOP
SPAM (1-June-2003) |
|
News-Later
|
|
|
The monthly TrinidadShopping.com
Newsletter for the month of May will be included in the June
Newsletter. (31-May-2003) |
|
WeBeat Festival
|
|
|
Enjoy the different Rhythms or Beats of Trinidad & Tobago at the
'WeBeat' Festival in
St. James From 30-May until 7-June-2003
(30-May-2003) |
|
Indian Arrival Day
|
|
|
Today is Indian Arrival Day, a public
holiday in Trinidad & Tobago. (30-May-2003) |
|
|
|
|
 Surinam
Airways invited members of the local business community to attend a
presentation of the Suriname businesses, business association the the
Chamber of Commerce & Industry. The Suriname business delegation
started their promotional tour at the Kapok Hotel. The next
presentation will cover Eco-Tourism and will be held at the Cascadia
Hotel. The delegation will next week return to Suriname.
(28-May-2003) |
|
Trade and Investment Convention 2003
|
|
|
The Trade & Investment Convention
(TIC) 2003 starts today at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre.
Over 150 exhibitors from several different countries are showing their
products and services to the visitors from around the world.
(26-May-2003) |
|
|
|
|
|
  At
a Trinidad & Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce luncheon
meeting at the Crowne Plaza, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the
Grenadines, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, gave a speech about the Caribbean
Single Market and Economy (CSME) and the regional airline. Known for
his colourful speeches, With the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas)
in mind, Mr. Gonsalves mentioned that the Caribbean is full of weapons
of mass destruction (WMD) - called 'Ignorance'. He answered the
questions from the introductory speech of Mr. David O'Brien, Chamber
President and Mr. Gregory About, DOMA
President, with a focus on crime. As for the regional airline, Sir
Richard Branson (Virgin Airlines) indicated an interest in
participating in this venture by contacting the Prime Ministers of St.
Vincent and of Trinidad & Tobago.
(22-May-2003) |
|
|
TTPost Launched New International Courier Service
|
|
|
 TTPost
launched their newest international courier service with 'TNT',
one of the world's largest international courier and logistics
companies. TTPost's courier service expanded now to deliver worldwide,
on time and with online tracking of the shipped items. Global delivery
in 2-5 days now at TTPost. Use 800-SEND or 800-TRAK for pick up or
tracking of the package. (20-May-2003) |
|
West Indies Cricket Team defeats Australia |
|
|
Congratulations to the West Indies Cricket
Team to their outstanding Test Match success in Antigua, defeating
Australian, the World strongest Team. Read the news about this event
from around the world: Australia,
Caribbean,
India,
Pakistan,
South
Africa, UK,
US
(13-May-2003) |
|
New Airline comes to Tobago |
|
|
Welcome Virgin Atlantic Airways and Sir Richard Branson on the inaugural flight London - Tobago
(more
info) (5-May-2003) |
|
New Bank Notes for T&T |
|
|
The Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago
released new state-of-the-art bank notes which will have added
security features. After new $ 5 and $ 20 notes were introduced in
August 2002, the remaining $1, $ 10 and $ 100 notes will soon follow this
new security standard as well.
(2-May-2003) |
|
|
Trinidad & Tobago Delegate Honoured In India |
|
|
At the South Asian Travel and Tourism Expo (SATTE), recently held in New Delhi, a Trinidad and Tobago delegation was honoured with the award "Most forward looking and visionary buyer". The Expo was organized by the India Tourism and Air India to showcase India as a travel destination. Mr. Alimuddin Mohammed bagged the award for "the Vision for Increased Tourism between the Caribbean and South Asia." This was the first such honour given to a Trinidadian of Trinidad & Tobago in a South Asian Expo Mr. Alimuddin Mohammed is the son of former Ambassador to CARICOM,
Ambassador Kamaluddin Mohammed, In his acceptance remarks, he described it as an honour for the delegation which visited India and the people of Trinidad and Tobago bestowed by India.
(1-May-2003) |
|
|
West
Mall's Easter Bonnet Parade |
|
|
The largest Easter Bonnet Parade in
Trinidad and West Mall's 17th Parade had close to 200 contestants.
Pictures from this event are available at www.WestMallOnline.com
(courtesy of TrinidadShopping.com) (13-April-2003) |
|
Daylight Saving Time |
|
|
Daylight Saving Time - Most states of the
United States have switched to daylight saving time. Trinidad and Tobago is
now again in the same time-zone as Miami (Eastern
Daylight Time or EDT). Other countries around the world
switched already to DST a few days before. Trinidad and Tobago does
not have DST. (6-April-2003) |
|
Standard & Poor's
Ratings |
|
|
Standard & Poor's ratings on Trinidad & Tobago have been raised as external financial
position continues to strengthen (more)
(2-April-2003) |
|
|
TSTT's
NetExpress (Internet Access) |
|
|
Update:
TSTT reported that they have/had a problem with their 'international fiber systems'
and a team is working on it to resolve this problem. They promised to
update their subscribers ... (2-Apr-2003
1:16pm)
Internet in Trinidad & Tobago came
literally to a standstill at around 9 pm. TSTT, the largest ISP in
T&T seemed again to be 'under attack'. The provider basically
disappeared from the Internet. (e.g. mailhost.tstt.net.tt: No address associated with hostname).
This also affected the DNS server from
other providers like Carib-Link. Tip of the day: Use a foreign DNS
server like 66.27.54.138 (IP Address) as an additional DNS server. TSTT's Internet service was again available
after a 3 hour downtime, but was again down for another 6 hours. There
is still no 24/7 hours service for the largest ISP in T&T
available (31-March-2003) |
|
|
Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce AGM |
|
|
 The
Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce invited to the
annual AGM Luncheon at the Hilton Trinidad. The meeting was well
attended by the local business community. Chamber President David
O'Brien was re-elected in February for a second term until 2004. He
addressed the audience with his known fresh approach. 
Robert Riley, Chairman and CEO of bpTT, the largest oil company in
Trinidad, was the feature speaker. His focus was on the latest
developments in the Energy Sector and future directions. The timing of
this event was outstanding! (26-March-2003) |
|
|
TSTT ready for Global System for Mobile
communication (GSM) |
|
|
At the media launch, TSTT introduced the multi functionality of this
new generation type of cellular phones under the brand name 'mpower'
(just like BMW). This new digital cell system will eventually phase
out TDMA, the current digital system. New services like E-Mail,
Internet access will be available. A new run for new cell phones will
most probably happen as rates are lower with GSM. The old analog
system will be not anymore supported from 1st April. (24-March-2003) |
|
|
DFL's
15th Annual Investment Conference |
|
|
 DFL's
15th Annual Investment Conference was held at the Hilton Trinidad.
With 12 speakers from the business community, CAIC,
former UN, World Bank consultants and other organisations, this
conference was focused on globalisation. Under the theme
"Business Strategies and Development in the Caribbean - on the
wrong path or just moving too slowly?", the speakers presented
interesting views and facts. It was well attended by the business
community. (21-March-2003) |
|
Trinidad and Tobago has
a new President |
|
|
The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago has
a new President. The inauguration of the 4th President Prof. George Maxwell Richards,
was celebrated on Monday. He is the successor of Arthur Ray Robinson, who
was President for the past 6 years. (17-March-2003) |
|
Carnival
2003 Results
(Update: The High Court declares Band of the Year results as null and
void - 5-June-2003) |
|
|
|
Winners 'Band of the Year' 2003:
Large Bands:
Medium Bands:
Small Bands:
| 1st |
Tribal Connections |
Warrior of the Great Plains |
Winners Road March 2003:
| 1st |
Faye-Ann Lyons with: |
'Display' |
| 2nd |
Destra Garcia with: |
'Its Carnival' |
Winners Panorama 2003:
| 1st |
Exodus with: |
'Pandora' |
| 2nd |
Trinidad All Stars with: |
'Pandora' |
| 3rd |
Phase II with: |
'Music in We Blood' |
|
|
|
|
Carnival
2003 - Better than ever |
|
|
Thousands of masqueraders and visitors flocked the
streets of Port of Spain, San Fernando and other areas of Trinidad, as
Carnival 2003 came with the 'Parade of the Bands' to an end of several
days of street festivals. Many visitors participated in costumes as
part of the many Carnival bands. 4-Mar-2003
(more
of our Carnival pictures) |
|
Airport
parking more expensive |
|
|
The Airport Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (AATT) is raising the short term parking fee at the Piarco Airport by 43%, from TT$ 3.50 to TT$ 5.00 per hour and the daily rate to TT$ 30.00 (+4%) starting from Saturday, 1-March-2003.
26-Feb-2003 |
|
Highspeed
Internet in Trinidad |
|
|
The cable company 'Trinidad & Tobago Trans-Cable Co. Ltd' (CCTT) is now the latest Internet Service Provider (ISP) in Trinidad. Internet access via Cable-modem is provided in certain areas of Trinidad. The connection is always on and includes unlimited data downloads. Monthly charges starts at TT$ 399.00 for a 64k up/64k download connection. Further details at 'Fiberline's website
www.fiberline.tt. High speed Internet is coming to T&T with TSTT's DSL and CCTT's cable modem.
26-Feb-2003 |
|
Marriot
is coming Trinidad |
|
|
The construction of a new 124 room Hotel, the 'Courtyard by Marriot', has begun at Invaders Bay, next to MovieTowne. The hotel is a moderately priced lodging brand of the Marriot hotel chain. Courtyard, "the hotel designed by business travelers". It is planned to open before the Carnival 2004 season.
25-Feb-2003 |
|
Trinidad and Tobago
has a new President |
|
|
Prof. George Maxwell Richards was today elected as
the 4th President of Trinidad & Tobago. 14/2/2003 |
|
Trinidad
Hotels, Restaurant and Tourism Association website |
|
|
The Trinidad Hotels, Restaurant and Tourism Association's website www.tnthotels.com was officially launched by the honourable Pennelope Beckles, Minister of Culture and Tourism this evening at the Cascadia Hotel. The website is now part of the TrinidadShopping.com network of Caribbean websites. All members are listed at the site (and at TrinidadShopping.com) and can update their information any time. ...
18/2/2003 |
|
Local
Newspaper 'The Wire' closed their operation |
|
|
The local newspaper 'The Wire', the second ANSA McAL Group paper besides The Guardian, closed their offices with immediate effect. The Wire was last available on Friday 31st January, after just 17 months on the market.
1-Feb-2003 |
|
Flat
$200 Airfare between Trinidad and Tobago with Tobago Express |
|
|
With immediate effect , Tobago Express is charging a
flat airfare of TT$ 200.00 for the return trip between Trinidad and
Tobago. No advanced booking required. 5/2/2003 |
|
New
Airfare between Trinidad and Tobago from 1st January 2003 |
|
|
With effect from the first day in 2003, the airfare
for the T&T air bridge has been reduced from TT$ 300 (US$ 50) to
TT$ 200 for the return trip. To enjoy the reduced airfare the ticket
has to be booked (and paid) one week in advance, resulting that the first reduce
rate flight will be on 8th January 2003. BWIA, Tobago Express and
Caribbean Star are offering the new airfare. 1/1/2003 |
|
TSTT
reduced international calls rates by 40% |
|
|
With immediate effect callers from T&T will
enjoy a lower rate for international calls. The new 10-10-335 service,
that is the number one has to dial before the normal international
number, will allow savings of 40% after the first four minutes of
normal rates. 31/12/2002 |
|
New
TSTT 'Liberty Prepaid' cell phone customers without Lingo (SMS) |
|
|
TSTT published an information today that Liberty
prepaid cell phone customer are experiencing difficulties sending SMS
messages, locally named 'Lingo'. The current system is overloaded and
will be upgraded. A solution is expected for 31 March 2003. New
Liberty customers will not enjoy the Lingo service until the upgrade
is completed. Enjoy it from our website. 30/12/2002 |
|
TSTT
decreased rates to cell phones |
|
|
TSTT decreased the rates for calling from a normal
phone to cellular phones from TT$ 1.00 to TT$ 0.80 per minute with
immediate effect. 20/12/2002 |
|
New
Shopping Malls opened in Trinidad |
|
|
A new shopping mall and a new shopping plaza opened
recently in Trinidad. Priceplaza
in Chaguanas, in the vicinity of Pricesmart opened in November. And
after the opening of MovieTowne,
the 10 cinema complex at Invaders Bay, Port of Spain, the MovieTowne
Mall opened at the beginning of December. 14/12/2002 |
|
McDonald's
closed down operation in Trinidad |
|
|
After trying for eight years to make McDonald's, the
world known Hamburger chain, a profitable business in Trinidad,
workers were left without a job from Thursday 14th Nov: "Restructuring
four countries and closing three countries". Hamburgers couldn't
compete in this Chicken loving nation. 14/11/2002 |
|
TSTT's
NetExpress is causing problems again |
|
|
TSTT's Internet service NetExpress is causing severe
problems when it comes to email delivery. Since August this year
customers experiencing delays in the delivery of their emails. Emails originated
from TSTT to other ISPs (worldwide) are delayed up to 100 hours before
leaving TSTT's email servers. Various reports to TSTT in the past few
months were ignored. 7/11/2002
UPDATE: It appears that TSTT was able to get this
problem under control. Emails are now delivered at normal speeds
(within seconds). 28/11/2002 |
|
Divali
2002 - The festival of lights |
|
|
The Hindu festival of lights reached its peak on
Sunday, 3rd November. With celebrations nationwide and a
concentration at the Divali Nagar site in central Trinidad, the site
attracts many people from Trinidad & Tobago and from around the
world. 5/11/2002 |
|
General
Elections in Trinidad & Tobago for the third time in just 22 month
- 7th October 2002 |
|
|
Monday's general election resulted in 20 seats for
the PNM and 16 for the UNC. Four parties were in the election race: Citizens
Alliance, NAR (Tobago), PNM and UNC, but only the PNM and UNC got
mandated. The last election in December
2001 caused a 18-18 (seats) result and no parliament could be
installed. 8/10/2002 |
|
Trinidad & Tobago celebrated Republic Day, 24th September 2002 |
|
|
After several years without Republic Day, this public
holiday was re-introduced and was celebrated 24th September
2002. 25/09/2002 |
|
Send
your Short Message to any Digital Cell Phone in T&T |
|
|
Send a Short Message (SMS) to any digital cell phone with SMS feature in Trinidad & Tobago from this website for FREE!
Send SMS 8/2002 |
|
Great Race
between Trinidad & Tobago |
|
 |
The 34th 'Carib Great Race', with speedboats almost flying from
Trinidad to Tobago started 24 August 2002 just after 8am at the
Trinidad & Tobago Yacht Club (TTYC). The winner
of this 86 miles annual race usually arrived in just over one hour in
Tobago. Again, like several times before, Mr. Solo is this years winner
with the same winning time of 1 hour and 6 minutes like last year. 8/2002 |
|
Independence
Day 31 August 2002 |
|
 |
Trinidad and Tobago celebrated the 40th
anniversary of independence. A celebration of 40 days has been
scheduled by the government. Fireworks, parades and many other
festivities were highlights of this celebration. 08/2002 |
|
Emancipation
Day was celebrated on 1. August 2002 |
|
| The day the nation commemorates the liberation of
Africans in the English Speaking Caribbean from slavery. Emancipation
celebrations have become once more a great event attracting thousands
of people to street parades, cultural exhibitions, seminars, art
displays and other activities. 08/2002 |
|
Tobago
Heritage Festival |
|
| The annual festival was celebrated this year from
12th July to 1st August. This cultural event is a major attraction in
Tobago. It was created to preserve the cultural heritage of the people
and their island. 07/2002 |
|
Trinidad
& Tobago celebrated 'Indian Arrival Day' |
|
| Indian Arrival Day, celebrated on 30 May, commemorates the landing of the first indentured labourers from India in 1845, after a
adventures 3 months crossing around the Cape and across the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic.
Since this years Indian Arrival Day and Corpus Christi are on the same
day, T&T celebrates Friday as a public holiday too. Nevertheless
many businesses are open on Friday. 30/05/2002 |
|
|
Public
launch of TrinidadShopping.com at the Hilton |
|
Ultra Consulting Network Limited launched TrinidadShopping.com
a network of over 40 websites within Trinidad & Tobago and
other Caribbean countries at the Hilton Trinidad.
D.O.M.A.
(Downtown Owners and Merchants Association) president Gregory Aboud
started with an endorsement of TrinidadShopping.com, followed by a
speech from Selby Wilson, Sectretary General of CANTO
(Caribbean Association of National Telecommunication Organisations).
Mr. Wilson, former Finance Minister of T&T, warned Caribbean
leaders about the digital
divide. Main presentor Gunther Richter, Managing Director of Ultra
Consulting Network Ltd and architect of TrinidadShopping.com
demonstrated how TrinidadShopping.com offers businesses the
opportunity to be at the forefront of a global
trend. 25/04/2002 |
|
|
Government
launched E-Commerce Secretariat |
|
| The National e-Commerce Secretariat (NeCS) was
launched on 11 March 2002 at the Chamber of Commerce, Westmoorings. Established
by the Trade and Industry Ministry it will provide the machinery for
the implementation of e-commerce in Trinidad and Tobago. The website can be reached at http://ecommerce.gov.tt
3/2002 |
|
TSTT
introduced
Short Messaging System (SMS) for mobile phones |
|
| With TSTT's Lingo one can send short text messages to every mobile phone in
T&T. The phone must have SMS or text feature. Send the message either
via E-Mail,
by calling 619-SMS or from this website (Send SMS). Some phones allow send and receive SMS, some
only receive SMS and others do not have this feature. SMS compatible
phones: Nokia 6120i, 5125, 8260, 3320, 3360, Motorola V2300, V60T,
7890, Timeport, Ericsson T16d, A1288, A1228dsi and others 1/2002 |
|
PriceSmart
opened second store in Trinidad |
|
| PriceSmart, the US chain is a volume-driven merchandise and services provider, delivering quality, value and low prices to the rapidly emerging consumer class in Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia.
Now 24 locations in 11 countries. Opened 5 December 2001 in the new Entertainment and Shopping complex 'MovieTowne' in the beautiful ambiance of Invader's
Bay, Port of Spain. MovieTowne will open later this year. 12/2001 |
|
Kmart
in Trincity (Project on hold until further notice) |
|
| The $25 million superstore was supposed to be opened in June 2002 in Trincity
in the proximity of the airport. The project is on hold during the restructuring
of this US giant. 2/2002
|
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Trinicenter.com
|
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| News, Facts & Analysis from local and
international writers.
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