Updates: Through the Political Glass Ceiling

Through the Political Glass Ceiling in Britsh Library

Now in Britsh Library: Dr Kris Rampersad, author, presents a copy of her book Through the Political Glass Ceiling - Race to Prime Ministership by Trinidad and Tobago's First Female, Kamla Bersad Bissessar to the Caribbean Collections at the British Library, London.

And Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar presents a copy of  Through the Political Glass Ceiling - Race to Prime Ministership by Trinidad and Tobago's First Female, Kamla Bersad Bissessar by Kris Rampersad to Al Gore...

Caribbean media Features Demokrissy Tombraiders

TRINIDAD-CULTURE-Tomb raiding in Trinidad and Tobago

9 hours ago

Font size:  

Kris Rampersad and LiTTour participants at Mayaro defaced tombstone (Photo courtesy LiTTours (c)

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Oct 23, CMC - – Consultant on culture conventions for safeguarding Caribbean culture and heritage, Dr. Kris Rampersad laments the fact that these islands have little or no mechanism in place to safeguard their heritage.

 “That’s the danger we face without adequate laws, with deficient infrastructure, without bilateral agreements and protections, without connected institutions, without proper monitoring, regulations and punishments, without informed co-ordination and without empowered communities,” she wrote in her blog “Demokrissy”, after encountering what she described as “heritage piracy” in Trinidad and Tobago.
See also:
http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/2012/10/centuries-old-heritage-tomb-spanning.html
http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-tomb-raiders.html
https://sites.google.com/site/krisrampersadglobal/home/about-me/books

http://cananewsonline.com/features/83813-cmcfeature-trinidad-culture-tomb-raiding-a-new-phenomenon-in-trinidad-and-tobago.html

Caribbean step further towards implementing UNESCO conventions

Consultation on UNESCO’S cultural convention gets impressive support krisrampersadglobal/home/conferences/culture-conventions-unesco

A wide cross section of stakeholders turned out to learn more regarding two cultural conventions which the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis hope to ratify in the near future.


The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage as well as the Convention for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions were discussed at a National consultation on Thursday.
Dr. Kris Rampersad, Media, Cultural and Literary Consultant for UNESCO, facilitated open discussions on both Conventions sharing the benefits of signing on to such and expressing the view that there are really no negative consequences of becoming party to such conventions.
She said apart from the obvious availability of funding for countries that adopted the conditions of these conventions, there are also the benefits of strength garnered from participation in the deliberation of international issues.
Responding to the concern of some participants that International Organizations do not adequately express the views or address the concerns of small countries in their conventions, Dr. Rampersad explained

Media devotes special reports to Demokrissy blog focus on Heritage

Newspaper Reports arising from Demokrissy:

Mainstream media has taken an interest in Demokrissy's expose of tombraiders .... to read more visit www.krisrampersad.com  

The Power of We Blog Action Day #blogactionday ##BAD12

If you have not yet done a blog now's the time to do it to feel the power of communication and outreach now available to all those who have access to a computer/phone or social media tool.
Blogging gives you direct access to a world audience no matter how small a place you may come from.
From Trinidad and Tobago, one of the most powerful voices in mainstream media, Trevor McDonald,  has often told of how he came from a small backwater island in the Caribbean and became the toast of the media world through moving to London to to work for the BBC and then for ITN. He has had a significant impact on perceptions of the role and place and power and influence of media in shaping society. Now, through blogging, that power is in the hands of social media users everywhere ......

VisitDemokrissy's new home: the GloCal Knowledge Pot

The Tomb Raiders .... Return to the Quest for El Dorado

Please respect our copyrights

You can support our efforts by purchasing copies of LiTTscapes, commissioning LiTTours & LiTTevents; or ask about collaborating on our upcoming publications on Caribbean heritage for ages 3-103. That way we all win through sharing knowledge and information. See krisrampersadglobal/home/about-me/books

For collaboration details email lolleaves@gmail.com or call 1-868-377-0326

Tombraiding has been Hollywood glamourised through the Indiana Joneses and Lara Crofts and a range of new video games that play on this land-based version of the kind of piracy that used to prevail on the high seas around the Caribbean. And it dates back to the Caribbean as a target in the quest for El Dorado so many millennia ago. Not to be confused with body snatchers, it ranges from the activities of hobbyists seemingly innocently eager to hoard a bit of history so they comb graveyards to gather bits and pieces from or off tombs, to petty thieves looking to earn a quick shilling, to highly organised crime networks trading in black market heritage goods with complicity by individual collectors or even museum dealers participating in a very lucrative heritage trade market.

It has been a raison d’etre of interest in the Caribbean since

See Also: http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/2012/10/centuries-old-heritage-tomb-spanning.html#more

https://sites.google.com/site/krisrampersadglobal/home/about-me/books

VANDALISED Centuries-old heritage tomb spanning Caribbean global diaspora in 5 continents vandalised

Please respect our copyrights

You can support our efforts by purchasing copies of LiTTscapes, commissioning LiTTours & LiTTevents; or ask about collaborating on our upcoming publications on Caribbean heritage for ages 3-103. That way we all win through sharing knowledge and information. See krisrampersadglobal/home/about-me/books

For collaboration details email lolleaves@gmail.com

Defaced & Vandalised

Historic tomb of prominent T&T families in pieces

The marble tombstone of one of Trinidad and Tobago’s oldest, wealthiest and most influential lineages involving the genealogies of some 20 prominent families with ancestral ties through European, North and South American, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, has been vandalised and defaced.

We discovered this on the inaugural LiTTour – Journeys Through the Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago, on our way to ‘save’ another heritage building - the old Mayaro Post Office which is represented as a key literary house in my book LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago as the setting of several of the novels and short stories of Michael Anthony.

The lineage represented by the tombstone of the first family of Ganteaumes in Mayaro includes admirals and captains, planters and slaves, legislators, ministers of government and the church, clergymen, businessmen, judges, media moguls, derby winners, sportsmen
  See also: http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-tomb-raiders.html

https://sites.google.com/site/krisrampersadglobal/home/about-me/books

Inaugural LiTTour initiates literary heritage tourism in two districts

At least two communities have committed to taking charge of their heritage elements following the inaugural LiTTour – Journeys Through the Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago - last week.

The Mayaro Historical Society has committed to take actions for completing renovations of the historic old Mayaro Post Office, including setting up a restoration fund, “rather than sit and wait” as they have been for some eight years for some other body to repair the building.

This breakthrough follows a meeting with participants in the inaugural LiTTour, led by author Kris Rampersad, who offered suggestions on how the community could move forward to realise plans for the building while engaging with other bodies and authorities in the effort.

The building is identified as part of the literary heritage of the island in Rampersad’s book LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago and elsewhere.

The First LiTTour - Journeys Through the Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago

The Sangre Grande local authorities welcomed our initiative as in keeping with their heritage developmental plans and promoting heritage tourism and will be working with us to develop the ground infrastructure. In Mayaro, th Historical Society that has been somewhat in stasis for the last eight years felt rejuvenated to engage in its own actions that will reawaken the Old Mayaro Post Office ... truly, truly encouraging and energising all of it! How important is ground action and community engagement while attempting to motivate the decision and policy makers too!!!!  Photo by Kriston Chen of Artist Anthony Timothy sketching elements of LiTTour - JourneysThrough the Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago
Now, LiTTours .... by request only.... cntact lolleaves@gmail.com
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/538801_10151243571651800_1784574311_n.jpg

First LiTTour traverse T&T Landscapes of Fiction

First LiTTour leaves Port of Spain for Mayaro via Sangre Grande

The inaugural LiTTour - Journeys Through the Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago  will kick off at 8 am Saturday September 29, 2012 from the historic South Quay in Port of Spain. South Quay is a landmark point of migration - entry and departure - in Trinidad and Tobago’s fiction.

LiTTours follows the successful book launch of LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago by Kris Rampersad and LiTTribute to the Republic with the aim of connecting literary with built, natural and cultural heritage and engage communities in appreciating, connecting with and taking ownership of local literature, writers and heritage.

Led by Rampersad, will feature author/historian Michael Anthony, and engage children and adults in both communities.

The inaugural LiTTour partners with the Public Service Transport Corporation Know Your Country tours  and will involve a guided tour from Port of Spain to Mayaro with a PiTTstop (the local term for a refreshment break) in Sangre Grande. Enroute and at both stops there will be readings and presentations on the landscapes of fiction, and entertainment that draws from local community talent. The LiTTour will also pay particular attention to two heritage buildings represented in LiTTscapes – the former Sangre Grande and the Mayaro Post Offices. The Mayaro building features in many of the works by Anthony, who will guide tour participants through the districts represented in hisworks such as Green Days by the River, Sandra Street and A Year in San Fernando.  

LiTTours is intended to generate awareness among residents and stakeholders to claim their heritage while bringing the writings about T&T closer home to readers in the hope of awakening communities and facilitating rural regeneration through literary heritage tourism.

For Further information  email lolleaves@gmail.com

https://sites.google.com/site/krisrampersadglobal/home/about-me/books

Editors, for photos visit: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151238027306800.519613.686406799&type=3