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David grew up hard, in the hardest part of La Brea—a village of houses near the coast left crooked by the movement of the land caused by the famed Pitch Lake. He didn’t know his mother, and grew up in a home filled with step-­siblings, getting a primary school education considered enough in the 1970s to go find a work and make a life. And work he did, selling coconuts roadside and learning to craft hats and baskets from coconut palm leaves, bought by tourists visiting the lake, making enough to live by after his caregivers died. Then cocaine found him, and the long decline began. Every action thereafter was meant to earn the ten dollars for a foiled-wrapped ball of the drug. The candles he used to smoke the cocaine burned down the house, and his life on the streets began; his neighbours seeing the gifted boy, and not the ragged shell of a man dragging around a suitcase containing his entire life. For some time, he lived under a tent near a dam in the village. Then he would find a bed at the San Fernando General Hospital for several weeks after a fall from a coconut tree left him with internal injuries that never healed. But he checked himself out of hospital and returned to Brighton, La Brea, to find his cocaine, living in pain so agonising that he would beg people to buy him the poison so he could end it all. But David would not remain homeless. About ten years ago, he moved into his finest residence—eight sto­reys high, with a staircase taking you to a lookout 200 feet (61 metres) above sea level, with an unimpeded view of the entire arc of the Gulf of Paria, and Venezuela. His friend since childhood, Vincent Anthony, told us: “It was a place with rooms. He put down a bed, chairs, had a place to lie down, a little fireside. Nobody to bother him, no rain to fall on him. He lived there for years and nobody know when and how he died”. You can read more about what we found by clicking the link in our bio or stories

January 12, 2022

The National Trade Union Centre hosts a media conference to present its policy paper in response to the Government of Trinidad & Tobago's vaccine mandate for public sector employees: 11th January 2022. Express photographic editor Robert Taylor is present and captured this footage. #trinidadandtobago #trinidadandtobago🇹🇹 #trinidad #trini #trinidadnews #trinidadexpress #expressnews #expressnewspaper #news #current #pandemic #covid #instagram #coronavirus #follow #like #media #breakingnews #viral #trending #politics #noticias #new #corona #sports #tv #photography #currentaffairs

January 12, 2022

What the heck is CCN's reporter Richard Charan doing here? He went searching for the history behind a World War 2 watchtower in La Brea this week, and found something equally interesting. You may want to read about it in the Wednesday edition of the Trinidad Express. #trinidadandtobago #trinidadandtobago🇹🇹 #trinidad #trini #trinidadnews #trinidadexpress #expressnews #expressnewspaper #express #news #current #photography #photooftheday #instagram #like #photo #picoftheday #follow #nature #art #photographer #travel #naturephotography #portrait #trinidadphotography #newsphotography #photojournalist

January 12, 2022

Here we see a cluster of Mangrove trees with their distinctive visible roots in brackish water, just off the roadside in Manzanilla, in the vicinity of the river mouth. Mangroves protect shorelines from damaging winds, waves and floods. They also prevent erosion by stabilising sediments with their tangled root systems. This photograph was taken by Express photographic editor, Robert Taylor. #trinidadandtobago #trinidadandtobago🇹🇹 #trinidad #trini #trinidadnews #trinidadexpress #expressnews #expressnewspaper #express #news #current #photography #photooftheday #instagram #like #photo #picoftheday #follow #nature #art #photographer #travel #naturephotography #portrait #trinidadphotography #newsphotography #photojournalist

January 12, 2022

One December day in 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, 38 minutes after takeoff from London. All 259 people on board the New York-bound flight died. A Trinidadian man was one. This is his story. Long before 9/11, Trinidad and Tobago knew about terror, through the shame of the 1990 attempted coup, the destruction of property and the deaths of at least 24 for whom there was never any justice or retribution. But you may be surprised to know that long before the evil deeds of al Qaeda and the Jamaat al Muslimeen, terrorists had killed one of our citizens. It was an attack which, 30 years later, is still the subject of criminal investigation by people intent on pursuing justice for this Trinidadian and 269 others murdered when a passenger plane exploded above Scotland and fell to the village below. Names have potency so let’s speak his. Anthony Selwyn Swan - Trinidad born, US resident, 29-years-old. Sitting in seat 44K, on the right side, a window seat, at the rear of the double decker Boeing 747 – Pan American Flight 103, as it prepared to head out over the Atlantic. Swan had boarded with the others at London’s Heathrow Airport, destination New York. Among the passengers – 35 America students, twelve children, a baby, a 79-year-old woman, 21 countries represented. The flight took off at 6.25p.m. December 21, 1988. At that point, they had 38 minutes to live. The aircraft reached cruising altitude six miles above the town of Lockerbie, Scotland when the bomb exploded in the cargo compartment at the front of the plane. The nose and cockpit peeled away. Passengers would have been stunned by the cold, roar and darkness, the decompression knocking them unconscious as the beheaded plane began to fall, the engines still at full throttle. A minute after the bombing, a fuel filled wing, part of the passenger compartment attached, came down in a residential area, killing eleven on the ground, setting fire to the houses. Wreckage fell in and around the town, the cockpit in a sheep pasture. Anthony Swan was one of the people who fell on the town of Lockerbie.  You can read his story at the link in our bio or stories.

January 07, 2022

Imagine it was you. A 60-foot fall off a seaside cliff. Body broken on the rocks below. Unable to move, face to the sky. Too far from the bathers to call for help. Surviving through that first cold night. Nothing but the sound of the wind and waves. Then the high tide surging around you. Every lash of the water bringing a fresh pain to broken arms and legs, and salt in the wounds. Cries heard only by the patient corbeaux. Seeing a new day come, bringing with it a new hope of rescue. But bringing too, the sun, burning and blistering. But no rescue coming. Living through another night, and another tide. So much water, but not a drop to drink. Every receding tide carrying away a bit of your will to live. Knowing that down the beach are happy people with food and drink and music. And a life to go home to. Wondering when death will come. Willing it to happen, to end the misery. But body living on, every cell working to survive. Then being found, three days later. Your discovery sparking a heroic effort by beachgoers, a stretcher made of branches. Helping hands taking you to hospital. Surviving all of that... to die a day later, in a hospital bed. This is what quite possibly happened to Peter Carabai back in April 1999. The truth of how he ended up on the rocks near Quinam Beach on Trinidad’s south coast may never be known. Police first said it was a case of death by misadventure. But the people living in the villages near the beach are sure it was murder. Peter’s family are also convinced he was left on the rocks to die by people he angered. But three men who many believed knew the truth behind Peter’s death are all gone.Two died. One has vanished. To read more about Peter’s story, check the link in our bio or stories #trinidadandtobago #trinidadandtobago🇹🇹 #trinidad #trini #trinidadnews #trinidadexpress #expressnews #expressnewspaper #express #news #current #photography #photooftheday #instagram #photo #picoftheday #thehisttoryproject #nature #art #photographer #travel #naturephotography #history #trinidadphotography #newsphotography #photojournalist

January 06, 2022

A Red-Headed Woodpecker is seen perched on the stump of a tree in San Fernando. This image was captured by Express Chief Photographer Dexter Philip on Monday. #trinidadandtobago #trinidadandtobago🇹🇹 #trinidad #trini #trinidadnews #trinidadexpress #expressnews #expressnewspaper #news #current #pandemic #covid #instagram #coronavirus #follow #like #media #breakingnews #viral #trending #politics #noticias #news #tv #photography #currentaffairs

January 04, 2022

Even before the shocking news of the death of the Mighty Bomber could be processed, another calypsonian’s sudden passing stuns the nation. Kenny J (Kenwrick Joseph) yesterday afternoon, passed away while being treated in ICU for COVID-19. He had been warded for a few days. We have not yet confirmed whether or not Kenny J, a retired police officer, had been fully vaccinated, but he was involved in a “Get Vaccinated” campaign led by promoter, Randy Glasgow. Throughout the Christmas season several artistes and other well-known personalities including Kenny J appeared in a series of video clips advising citizens to get vaccinated to protect themselves and their loved ones, as well as to allow the nation to return to some measure of normalcy. “This one is hard to swallow. Kenny was a good person. My condolences to his family,” Glasgow told the Express. “Boy, ah can’t say anything, but is true. De man gone,” said fellow calypsonian and friend, Myron B. Kenny J’s most popular song was his soca-parang classic, “The Paint Brush,” which he recorded in the 1990’s. Another classic was “Alexander,” both songs remaining radio and lime standards to this past season. #trinidadandtobago #trinidadandtobago🇹🇹 #trinidad #trini #trinidadnews #trinidadexpress #expressnews #expressnewspaper #express #news #current #photography #photooftheday #instagram #like #photo #picoftheday #follow #nature #art #photographer #travel #naturephotography #portrait #trinidadphotography #newsphotography #photojournalist

January 03, 2022

HEERALAL'S PATH TO HEAVEN: (Express readers, we have an update on the story of double amputee Chris Heeralal, whose life was chronicled in our newspaper over the past few months. Take a bow, because this is what you accomplished.) Chris Heeralal sat alone in a rusting wheelchair outside his single room hilltop home at the end of a cratered canefield access road at Second Coryal, Princes Town. From the road to his room was a path of loose cinder blocks leading up the muddy slope that the double amputee had laid to get to and from his home. And this was how we first saw him that rainy morning in October, smiling as he looked down at his severed legs and that muddy path. How could a man with a physical disability live here? How, in 2021, could he be so shut off from the world around him? Was he trapped? Did he ever leave? But to Chris, this slippery trail had served as the only form of entry to his home, and one he had traversed countless times in the space of the eight months he learned to live without his feet. It has been less than three months since the Express first visited Heeralal at his home in Iere Village. And in the space of these weeks, he says, his life has been completely changed, its course diverted by the actions of a few generous citizens. Last week, Heeralal sat again in his wheelchair atop the muddy hill. He no longer needs to dismount and crawl to the roadside. The path of mud and loose blocks he once navigated in distress has been replaced by a sturdy concrete walkway, funded by these citizens. “I am lost for words. I really am, I don’t know how else to describe it, the things that these generous people have done for me, my life has changed completely,” he told the Express last week, before taking a ride in his wheelchair down the walkway. Check out the link in our stories or bio to read more #trinidadandtobago #trinidadandtobago🇹🇹 #trinidad #trini #trinidadnews #trinidadexpress #expressnews #expressnewspaper #news #current #pandemic #covid #instagram #coronavirus #follow #like #media #breakingnews #viral #trending #politics #noticias #news #tv #photography #currentaffairs

January 03, 2022

A fire this morning along Quarry Street, Port of Spain, damaged or destroyed four homes, gutted two cars, and knocked out the electricity supply to the area. Twenty five people are directly affected, and a woman sustained minor injuries while escaping her home. She was treated at the Port of Spain General Hospital and has since been discharged. Minutes after midnight, police and fire officers were told that a home along Quarry Street were on fire. Appliances from the Wrightson Road HQ, the Belmont fire station, and the Four Roads fire station responded, under the supervision of divisional FSO Stewart. A statement from Member of Parliament Stuart Young today says, “Unfortunately, minutes after midnight this morning I was informed of a fire that engulfed a number of houses along Quarry Street, East POS.” “Having visited the site and spoken to some of the fire victims this morning, as well as other members of the community, I was upset, and saddened to learn that it seems like the source of this fire, that has caused over 20 people to now be homeless, was started by a type of firework landing on one of the houses.” “I would like to thank Councillors Clint Baptiste and June Durham, Chairman Chinua Alleyne, Ms Sharon Cedeno, the TT Fire Service, T&TEC and all members of the community for assisting those affected by this disaster. Fortunately no lives were lost. This incident highlights how the irresponsible actions of a few, can in a split second, negatively affect the lives of many innocents.” “As we go into 2022 I pray and hope that we will be our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers and be more thoughtful in our actions and inactions.” “May God bless us as a people and may God bless our Nation as we begin 2022. “ #trinidadandtobago #trinidadandtobago🇹🇹 #trinidad #trini #trinidadnews #trinidadexpress #expressnews #expressnewspaper #news #current #pandemic #covid #instagram #coronavirus #follow #like #media #breakingnews #viral #trending #politics #noticias #new #corona #sports #tv #photography #currentaffairs

January 02, 2022

The year 2021 began with hope and promise as Trinidad and Tobago, along with the rest of the world continued its battle with the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. In 2021, we hoped for a year that was better than the last, one in which we could return to normalcy. But the year was littered with turbulent moments. In February thousands of citizens lined up for a chance at a better life with the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine. The nation united in prayer as 23-year-old Andrea Bharatt, who had been missing, was found murdered and thrown down a precipice in the Heights of Aripo. Her deaths triggered a series of candlelight vigils in communities across the country.  There was widespread flooding in July and August when flood waters overflowed into homes and the roadways, destroying crops and livestock.  In October, for the first time since this country achieved Independence status in 1962, Trinidad and Tobago did not have either a Commissioner or acting Commissioner of Police. Throughout the year residents protested by blocking roadways to highlight bad roads, lack of pipe bourne water, unemployment and late payment of salaries.  In December, Tobagonians moved for historic change when they elected the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) headed by Watson Duke and Farley Augustine in the Tobago House of Assembly elections. The Express has compiled a year in review in photographs, moments captured by our photographers Robert Taylor, Dexter Philip, Trevor Watson, Jermaine Cruickshank, Curtis Chase and Ishmael Salandy. These are our top photos. #trinidadandtobago #trinidadandtobago🇹🇹 #trinidad #trini #trinidadnews #trinidadexpress #expressnews #expressnewspaper #express #news #current #photography #photooftheday #instagram #like #photo #picoftheday #follow #nature #art #photographer #travel #naturephotography #portrait #trinidadphotography #newsphotography #photojournalist

December 31, 2021

THE teeth belonged to someone who survived childhood. Still attached to the lower jawbone, the molars showed signs of a hard life—deep cavities, worn enamel and gum disease. The jaw was part of the skull and skele­ton unearthed and dismembered in 2015 by a bulldozer carving land near San Fernando for a housing development. The excavator would go on to expose the remains of an unknown number of people. The find led to a police response, caution tape, a visit from the district medical officer (to officially confirm death), and the collection of some of the bones. And then it was forgotten. The bulldozers resumed work on the lucrative business of hou­sing lots. How many were buried there will never be known. Rarely could the poor afford a grave monument to mark their lives, leaving only the rich, white and elite to be remembered in cemeteries across the islands. It was no different here because on a hilltop overlooking these unmarked graves is the still-intact tomb of the man who caused all this misery. To read more visit the link in our stories. Swipe for video. #trinidadandtobago #trinidadandtobago🇹🇹 #trinidad #trini #trinidadnews #trinidadexpress #expressnews #expressnewspaper #express #news #current #photography #photooftheday #instagram #photo #picoftheday #thehisttoryproject #nature #art #photographer #travel #naturephotography #history #trinidadphotography #newsphotography #photojournalist

December 22, 2021