Trinidad's history is both multi-ethnic and multi-cultural. Contemporary Trinidad society reflects this history; and many ethnicities and cultures can be found within Trinidadian culture. However, advertising media, I have found, usually does not reflect the total ethnic composition of Trinidad. Instead, a 'Brown', racially ambiguous, face is used as a brand ambassador. Viewing this phenomenon through the lens of women in media imagery, this work sought to investigate this phenomenon further.

På Nationaldagen år 1992 utnämndes steelpan till Trinidad och Tobagos nationalinstrument. Världens yngsta akustiska instrument har på några få decennier gjort en klassresa. Syftet med denna uppsats är att utifrån de gällande teorierna om subkultur analysera steelbandkulturens ursprung och dess utveckling från en gräsrotskultur till en representant för en hel nation. Vilka faktorer bidrog till subkulturens uppkomst? Hur var det möjligt för steelbandkulturen att inta en så framträdande position i ett multikulturellt samhälle där den europeiska kulturen värdesattes högst av alla? Och vad händer med en subkultur som blir accepterad av resten av samhället?

Academisch Proefschrift--Universiteit van Amsterdam, 2007. / Publication of book was made possible by a grant from WOTRO (Science for Global Development) of the NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) and AMIDSt (Amsterdam Institute for Metropolitan and International Development Studies, University of Amsterdam. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 279-298).

The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of sustainability storytelling in ecotourism organizations in Cambodia and Trinidad and Tobago. These two countries were specifically selected for a cross-case analysis due to their shared characteristics as developing economies. Ecotourism becomes a significant natural resource in driving the economic growth for both countries. A total of ten ecotourism organizations were chosen to participate in this study. The research analyzes three emerging themes. These themes include storytelling for sustainability, contextual factors in sustainability storytelling (media and setting), and perceived impact of sustainability storytelling in each representing country. Furthermore, the research conducts a comparative analysis of these three emerging themes in these both countries. The findings show that ecotourism leaders in both Cambodia and Trinidad and Tobago employ storytelling techniques as a tool to communicate their sustainability narratives, organizations’ missions, and ecotourism initiatives. Stories developed by these leaders are deeply rooted in personal experiences as founders and co-founders of the participating ecotourism organizations. However, a notable difference is the integration of aspirational elements in the storytelling approach. In Trinidad and Tobago, ecotourism leaders utilize various aspirational elements in the stories such as superhero characters, live-action drama, mascot characters, slogans and taglines, comic books, and graphic novels. On the other hand, Cambodian ecotourism leaders have not incorporated such elements due to challenges such as a lack of understanding in storytelling among internal employees, limited human and financial resources, and a lower level of awareness among community-based ecotourism members. In addition, the findings illustrate that storytelling has raised awareness, empowered the communities, and advocated for sustainable responsible tourism. Although positive impact resulting from storytelling is observed, these ecotourism organizations currently do not have appropriate measurement systems to assess actual impact and changes.

The invasion of individuals into new habitats can pose a major threat to native species and to biodiversity itself. However, the consequences of invasions for native populations that are not fully reproductively isolated from their invaders are not yet well explored. Here I chose the Trinidadian guppy, Poecilia reticulata, to investigate how different population traits shaped the outcome of Haskins's introduction, a well-documented invasion of Guanapo river guppies into the Turure river. I especially concentrated on the importance of behaviour for invasive success. I investigated if the spread of Guanapo guppies is due to superiority in behaviour, life-history and/or genetics, or if the outcome of this translocation is due to chance. Despite the fact that by today the invasive front has passed the Turure's confluence with the River Quare many kilometres downstream of the introduction site, and the original genotype only survives in small percentages, as was revealed by genetic analysis in this and other studies, no obvious differences between invasive and native populations could be detected in any of the tested behavioural, life-history and genetic traits. When tested for mate choice, neither Guanapo nor Oropuche (Turure) males seemed to be able to distinguish between the population origin of females, but courted and mated at random. At the same time, females did not prefer to school with individuals of the same population over schooling with more distantly related females. The formation of mixed schools after an invasive event is therefore likely. Because female guppies showed a very low willingness to mate, even after having been separated from males for up to six months, sperm transfer through forced copulations will become more important. Taken together, these behaviours could increase the speed of population mixing after an invasion without the need for behavioural superiority of the invasive population. When tested for their schooling abilities, offspring of mixed parentage, in contrast to pure breds, displayed a large amount of variety in the time they spent schooling, a circumstance that can potentially influence survival rates and therefore the direction of gene pool mixing. Guanapo fish did not show reproductive superiority in a mesocosm experiment, where both populations were mixed in different proportions. On the contrary, in two out of three mixed treatments, the amount of Oropuche (Turure) alleles was significantly higher than expected from the proportion of initially stocked fish. The almost complete absence of distinguishable traits other than genetic variation between the examined populations that belong to different drainage systems, opposes the recent split of the guppy into two different species following drainage system borders, as is argued in this thesis. However, the successful invasion of the Turure by Guanapo guppies and the nearly entire disappearance of the original population can be explained in absence of differing population traits. Here I demonstrate how behavioural and genetic interactions between subspecies influence the outcome of biological invasions and second, how factors other than population traits, such as the geographic situation, can produce an advantageous situation for the invader even in the absence of population differences.

The productivity of Trinidad and Tobago's public sector workplaces is related to their absorptive capacity for technological adoption. Guided by the technology acceptance model, which suggests that individuals' and institutions' use of technology increases in relation to perceived ease of use and apparent value, this case study explored how Trinidad and Tobago used information and communications technology from 2001 - 2010 to improve public sector workplace productivity. Study data were collected from 22 individual interviews with senior executives from the government of Trinidad and Tobago, members of the e-business roundtable, and local industry experts, and from reviewing the archives of the Ministry of Public Administration and Information. The data were analyzed using keyword frequency comparison, coding techniques, and cluster analysis. The resulting themes include e-legislation, e-infrastructure, e-readiness, government e-services, and e-business. The study findings showed that Trinidad and Tobago's technology agenda centered primarily on connecting government ministries and agencies. It also ushered in a period of telecommunication liberalization, which provided sustainable and cost effective options for government, citizens, and businesses to access broadband technology services. The results of the study showed that this access to low-costs broadband technology provides a platform for digital inclusion by improving workplace productivity, providing access to additional opportunities for education via an online platform, and increasing employment opportunities.

L'espace est hétérogène. Il est donc discontinu. Île et frontière sont des discontinuités fortes, traversées par des systèmes. Ce sont aussi des objets géographiques ambivalents, ouverts et fermés. La frontière implique le frottement plus ou moins rugueux de deux entités politiques. L'ambivalence frontalière est alimentée par des altérités qui se combinent, s'affrontent, s'attirent ou se repoussent selon des intensités différentes et à différents niveaux des échelles spatiale et sociale. Ces altérités sont diverses. Fondamentalement politiques et juridiques, elles sont également culturelles, économiques, fiscales. Deux questions sont posées à propos des trois termes de la comparaison : comment cette combinaison de discontinuités agit-elle sur les relations entre deux espaces terrestres proches, l'insulaire et le continental ? Inversement, comment les systèmes spatiaux mis en œuvre dans l'exercice de la relation agissent-ils sur ces discontinuités ? Par ailleurs, la mer est sous-jacente à la combinaison île-frontière. Son partage entre États est un phénomène géopolitique dynamique et récent. La question de cette appropriation confrontée aux pratiques socio-économiques – la pêche dans les trois cas étudiés, et l'extraction des hydrocarbures, dans deux sur trois – prend ici une dimension particulière. Cette thèse comprend donc une étude des processus d'appropriation de l'espace marin, qui vont des modalités de délimitation d'un espace par essence complexe en raison de sa structure à la fois horizontale et verticale, à son administration et aux mécanismes de transgression négociée, destinés à adapter sa spécificité aux rigidités des constructions territoriales.

This paper investigates the relationship between ethnic conflict, electoral systems, and power sharing in ethnically divided societies. The cases of Guyana, Fiji, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Mauritius, and Trinidad and Tobago are considered. Electoral systems are denoted based on presidential versus parliamentary system, and on proportional representation versus majoritarian/plurality. The paper concludes that, while electoral systems are important, other factors like the power distribution between ethnic groups, and ensuring a non-zero-sum game may be as important.

This research investigates different scenarios of deltaic deposition, both in shelfbreak and ramp settings. I address four ancient cases with particular characteristics: 1) A shelf-margin case from the Eocene Battfjellet Formation, West Spitsbergen, Norway, in which deltas were able to migrate to the shelf-edge during rising and sea-level highstand conditions despite the low-supply character of the system (low progradation/aggradation rates compared to analogous margins), with consequent sand starvation on the slope and deeper areas of the basin. The delta system was overall wave-dominated, with restricted tide-influence at the mouth of the distributaries and more accentuated tide-influence during the transgressive transit of the deltas; 2) A shelf-margin case from the Pliocene paleo-Orinoco Delta System, Mayaro Formation, SE-Trinidad, in which high rates of sediment supply from the paleo-Orinoco River and exceptionally high subsidence rates due to growth-faulting, produced a spectacular stacking of sandstones on the outer shelf and shelf-edge areas, but with apparently limited sand delivery into deeper waters. The delta system was overall storm-wave dominated, with fluvial-influence in the lower segment of the system and some tide-influence in association with the fluvial-influence; 3) A case from a shallow-water ramp, Campanian Rock Springs Formation (Western Interior Seaway), in which deltas accumulated along relatively straight, north-south oriented shorelines highly impacted by wave-storm processes. Tide-influence was limited to the mouth of the distributaries, and fluvial deposits mostly developed within the coastal-plain areas; and 4) A case from the same ramp setting as (3) but in an outer-ramp site, Campanian Haystack Mountains Formation, in which a lowering in sea-level translated the delta system tens of kilometers eastwards into the basin. As a consequence of a shallower and narrower seaway, southerly-oriented tidal currents were enhanced and subsequently skewed or re-aligned the delta system to the south. The key contributions of this research concern (1) the feasibility of shelf-margin accretion during rising and highstand of sea level, (2) the critical importance of shelf width and sediment supply (and not only sea-level behavior) to bring deltas to the shelfedge, and (3) the possible tendency for tides enhancement in the distal reaches of shallow seaway ramps, caused by narrowing of the seaway and fault-topography enhancement during falling sea level. / text

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