Dwight Yearwood (born May 3, 1959, in Dibe, Port of Spain) is a long-distance runner from Trinidad and Tobago, who has completed 30 marathons and 33 half marathons in spite of his disability, becoming a symbol of hope to many locals. [1]
Yearwood has represented his country in marathons in New York (1987, 1988, and 1989) and in Barbados (1991, 1995). [2] In 2008, Yearwood received a lifetime achievement award, the Alexander B. Chapman Award from Oliver Chapman, the former Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee President watched by President George Maxwell Richards. [3]
Yearwood developed Polio shortly after his birth. The disease left him with a permanent physical disability and a speech impediment. He was placed in the care of his grandmother who became his source of strength and who taught him to do his best to be self-reliant as far as possible. Dwight Yearwood's inspiring story has been captured in the book, Dwight Yearwood – Polio…He survived and conquered by Anton LaFond. [4]
"Forged from the Love of Liberty" is the national anthem of the Trinidad and Tobago. Originally composed as the national anthem for the short-lived West Indies Federation (1958–1962), this song was edited and adopted by Trinidad and Tobago when it became independent in 1962. It was written and composed by Patrick S. Castagne.
The president of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is the head of state of Trinidad and Tobago and the commander-in-chief of the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force. The office was established when the country became a republic in 1976, before which the head of state was the Queen of Trinidad and Tobago, Elizabeth II. The last governor-general, Sir Ellis Clarke, was sworn in as the first president on 1 August 1976 under a transitional arrangement. He was formally chosen as president by an electoral college consisting of members of both houses of Parliament on 24 September 1976, which is now celebrated as Republic Day.
Dwight Eversley Yorke CM is a Trinidadian and Tobagonian professional football coach and former player who was most recently in charge of Australian A-League club Macarthur FC.
The Trinidad and Tobago national football team, nicknamed the "Soca Warriors", represents the twin-island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in international football. It is controlled by the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association, which is a member of CONCACAF, the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), and the global jurisdiction of FIFA.
The Trinity Cross was the highest of the National Awards of Trinidad and Tobago, between the years 1969 and 2008. It was awarded for: "distinguished and outstanding service to Trinidad and Tobago. It was awarded for gallantry in the face of the enemy, or for gallant conduct." Either nationals or non-nationals were awarded the honour, but no more than five may have been awarded in any year. The President was awarded the Trinity Cross in an ex officio capacity. The award was first presented in 1969, last conferred in 2005, and was subsequently replaced by The Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in the year 2008.
The National Awards of Trinidad and Tobago consist of:
Diego Martin is a town and is the urban commercial center and capital of the Diego Martin region in Trinidad and Tobago. Its location in the region is just on the south eastern border, west of the capital city of Port of Spain and east of the town of Carenage. Diego Martin town in the Northern Range was once filled with a number of small valleys but is now a densely populated area. It was named after a Spanish explorer Don Diego Martín. The area was settled by French planters and their slaves in the 1780s. It consists of a cluster of communities including Congo Village, Diamond Vale, Green Hill, Patna Village, Petit Valley, Blue Range, La Puerta Avenue, Four Roads, Rich Plain, River Estate, Blue Basin, Water Wheel, West Moorings, Bagatelle and Sierra Leone.
Russell Nigel Latapy CM is a Trinidadian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder, and is currently the assistant coach of Macarthur. In a senior career which spanned more than twenty years at both club and international level, he played in Portugal and Scotland.
Earl Wilbert Lovelace is a Trinidadian novelist, journalist, playwright, and short story writer. He is particularly recognized for his descriptive, dramatic fiction on Trinidadian culture: "Using Trinidadian dialect patterns and standard English, he probes the paradoxes often inherent in social change as well as the clash between rural and urban cultures." As Bernardine Evaristo notes, "Lovelace is unusual among celebrated Caribbean writers in that he has always lived in Trinidad. Most writers leave to find support for their literary endeavours elsewhere and this, arguably, shapes the literature, especially after long periods of exile. But Lovelace's fiction is deeply embedded in Trinidadian society and is written from the perspective of one whose ties to his homeland have never been broken."
Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated 11 kilometres off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and 130 kilometres south of Grenada. It shares maritime boundaries with Barbados to the east, Grenada to the northwest, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to the north and Venezuela to the south and west. Trinidad and Tobago is generally considered to be part of the West Indies. The island country's capital is Port of Spain, while its largest and most populous city is San Fernando.
Harold La Borde was a Trinidadian sailor and adventurer who from 1969 to 1973 circumnavigated the world in his 40-ft ketch Hummingbird II. He was accompanied by his wife, Kwailan, and his five-year-old son Pierre. As the first known Trinidadian sailors to cross the Atlantic and later to circumnavigate, Harold and Kwailan were awarded the Gold Trinity Cross.
Oliver Cromwell Cox was a Trinidadian-American sociologist noted for his early Marxian viewpoint on fascism.
Gabrielle Walcott is a Trinidadian artist, model, charity worker and beauty queen who won Miss Trinidad and Tobago World 2008 and placed as the second runner-up in Miss World 2008. She is also titleholder of Miss World Beauty with a Purpose 2008, Miss World Caribbean 2008, and Miss Trinidad and Tobago Universe 2011. She represented Trinidad and Tobago at the Miss Universe 2011 pageant in São Paulo but was unplaced. Gabrielle resides in Petit Valley, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. She is of mixed Carib, Indian, Portuguese, Chinese and English descent
Mairoon Ali was a Trinidadian actress and comedian. She frequently appeared in local theatre for almost twenty years. She was also a history teacher, who retired from Holy Name Convent after 34 years.
Black Theatre Workshop (BTW) is a non-profit theater company headquartered in Montreal, making it one of the most enduring Black English-speaking professional theater companies in Canada. It was founded by Clarence Bayne and Arthur Goddard, who were also instrumental in establishing the Trinidad and Tobago association. Over the years, the Black Theatre Workshop has been renowned for its collaboration with numerous accomplished artistic directors.
General elections were held in Trinidad and Tobago on May 24, 2010. The date of the general elections was announced by Prime Minister Patrick Manning on April 16, 2010, via a press release. The election was called over two years earlier than required by law. Polls showing that the UNC-led opposition coalition was likely to win the election were confirmed by the subsequent results.
The NGC Bocas Lit Fest is the Trinidad and Tobago literary festival that takes place annually during the last weekend of April in Port of Spain. Inaugurated in 2011, it is the first major literary festival in the southern Caribbean and largest literary festival in the Anglophone Caribbean. A registered non-profit company, the festival has as its title sponsor the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago (NGC). Other sponsors and partners include First Citizens Bank, One Caribbean Media (OCM), who sponsor the associated OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, CODE, and the Commonwealth Foundation.
The Church of the Nazarene in Trinidad and Tobago is a part of the international Church of the Nazarene.
Dibe is a village in north Trinidad located northwest of downtown Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The village is home to the poor and the rich, who respectively live on the surrounding hills and meadows, which has been described as living between a rock and a hard place. Upper Dibe, better known as “Cripple Creek” or ‘’’the Creek”’, has had a dark history with incessant gang warfare for over three decades.
Women in Trinidad and Tobago are women who were born in, who live in, or are from Trinidad and Tobago. Depending from which island the women came, they may also be called Trinidadian women or Tobagonian women respectively. Women in Trinidad and Tobago excel in various industries and occupations, including micro-enterprise owners, "lawyers, judges, politicians, civil servants, journalists, and calypsonians." Women still dominate the fields of "domestic service, sales, and some light manufacturing."