The Ari­ma Hin­du School on Tem­ple Street, has been or­dered closed fol­low­ing an up­surge of crime in the com­mu­ni­ty where it is lo­cat­ed. On Fri­day, Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion of­fi­cials told the prin­ci­pal and staff no one should en­ter the school com­pound un­til fur­ther no­tice. A meet­ing with all stake­hold­ers will take place at the Ari­ma Town Hall on Sorzano Street at 5 pm to­day.

Par­ents had ex­pressed con­cern fol­low­ing the mur­der of a res­i­dent out­side the school last week Thurs­day. Do­minic Houl­li­er Almerales, 37, was killed and Deis­ree Sparkle Layne, 39, was in­jured when they went to col­lect rent at a two-storey apart­ment com­plex on Tem­ple Street. Po­lice said Almerales slapped one of the men, who then shot him mul­ti­ple times. Layne was al­so hit, sus­tain­ing gun­shot wounds to her shoul­der and leg.

Min­istry of­fi­cials and po­lice sub­se­quent­ly or­dered a lock­down of the school with stu­dents and staff in­side the build­ing. Since then, par­ents have not been send­ing their chil­dren to school out of fear for their safe­ty. The burn­ing of a car and fire­bomb­ing of apart­ment and a house near the school in the days af­ter the mur­der have fur­ther com­pound­ed the fear of teach­ers, stu­dents and par­ents. As a re­sult, the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion has sus­pend­ed class­es un­til fur­ther no­tice.(Trinidad Guardian)…[+]

Barbados – The opportunities and challenges of digitatisation will be in focus at the 20^th William G. Demas Memorial Lecture on June 4 in Trinidad and Tobago. Keynote speaker, Mr. Calum Cameron of Proud Engineers in Estonia will speak on the topic, “Transforming to a Digital Society: Principles and Challenges.”

Scheduled to take place at the Auditorium of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, during his keynote address, Mr. Cameron will share lessons from the digital transformation journey undertaken in Estonia, and elsewhere. The Lecture will be attended by more than 200 delegates to the Caribbean Development Bank’s (CDB) 49^th Annual Meeting, officials from the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and representatives from the private sector.

“Our Borrowing Member Countries are facing myriad and complex challenges. They must be prepared, therefore, to adopt innovative solutions to advance the Region’s development agenda. The topic of the Lecture is both timely and relevant to the theme of transformation for this year’s Annual Meeting,” said Dr. Warren Smith, President, CDB. “We are pleased to add Calum Cameron to the roster of distinguished William G. Demas Memorial Lecture speakers and look forward to his presentation,” he added.

Mr. Cameron has over 20 years’ experience in building and leading digital project teams transforming financial services enterprises. He has also been a key influencer in the development of the Estonian startup ecosystem. As Head of Europe’s premier B2B and B2G startup accelerator, he leads the marketing of Estonia as a startup incubator and sandbox for disruptive businesses, and has worked closely with many of the companies which now deliver Estonia’s digital society. His mission is to build digital societies with adaptive governments around the world, leveraging the people and solutions that built e-Estonia…[+]