TT athletes to train in Germany for ‘worlds’
T&T Newsday.

GERMAN Ambassador Dr Ernst Martens will host a reception tonight to mark the Caribbean Athletics Federations Seminar in preparation for the 12th World Championships in Athletics in Berlin 2009.

For athletes around the globe and their fans the 2009 Berlin World Championships in Athletics will be the highlight of the year. The whole world will be watching as the German capital plays host to the event from August 15 to 23, with its Olympic Stadium in the centre of attention as 2,000 athletes will be competing for titles and medals in 47 competitions.

Anne Hilton reports in T&T's Newsday:

WITHOUT DOUBT the talking point of the Cross Cultural Experience with the Carsten Daerr Trio and Michael Boothman and Friends, under the aegis of German Ambassador Dr Ernst Martens in the Simon Bolivar Auditorium, Venezuelan Embassy last Wednesday, was the debut of the Percussive Harmonic Instrument (PHI), the gleaming, black and white Steinway of Pan — or so the spanking new instrument appears to one who prefers classics to jazz.

The PHI (pronounced, so the website www.panadigm.com informs us, “Fie” — as in Fee Fie Fo Fum) was developed in the Steelpan Research Laboratory in UWI. The Cross Cultural Night was the new instrument’s first official outing. Readers who wish to know more about PHI can check out chapter and verse on the website.

Following the successful cooperation of last year’s Kite Duo Franz Bauer and Dirk Strakhof from Germany with renowned local artists like Clive Zanda, Mikhail Salcedo, Donald Jnr. Noel and many others, the German Embassy is proud to be able to host another cross cultural experience in Port of Spain.

Trinidad will be the last stop of the successful German Carsten Daerr Trio on their tour through the Caribbean and Central America.

The Carsten Daerr Trio will perform at the Simon Bolivar Auditorium of the Venezuelan Embassy on 11 March, 2009 at 7 p.m., also featuring local Jazz icon Michael Boothman.

From the Trinidad Guardian by Indra Dwarka-Koch:

Long worn Trinidad costumes made their revival at a famous and historical German Carnival Fancy Dress Ball last month, coinciding with T&T Carnival. These costumes may have been old for a Trini to wear for C2K9 but not so for Alexandra Carolin Koch and her friends. With much hard work new costumes were created and designed, old ones repaired. These costume pieces, were either collected on the streets or handed down from masquerades from award winning bands in earlier Trinidad Carnivals.

Alexandra and her fun-loving “posse” ventured into the cold and wintry February evening and attended the Prinzengarde Fancy Dress Ball in the city of Mainz, one of the strongholds of the German Carnival. The Mainzer Prinzengarde guild has a tradition of 125 years and they gave Mainz the fame of being an El Dorado for the big carnival ballroom dance with fancy dress. With this year’s event marking its 125th anniversary, the organisers went out their way to make 2009 a special one.

From T&T Newsday:

Abraham, German clash in Newsday 30-lap grind
By Walter Alibey

THE NEWSDAY-sponsored Republic Day Cycle Classic and 5K Run and Walk will have an international flavour today.

It will also present an opportunity for local road champion Emile Abraham to renew rivalry with Stefan Steinweg of Germany in the feature 30-lap event.

This will get underway soon after the run and walk from 3 pm at King George V Park, St Clair.

The venerable heavy metal act from Hanover, Germany, which has toured the world over for more than 30 years, will at last make it's first stop in the Caribbean region. The Scorpions perform in the Queen's Park Savannah in Port of Spain this evening. Local metal act Orange Sky will open the show. More information available at Star Events, Ltd., promoters of the show.

The 2007 Classic Winner relives his experience
Three German teams confirmed for 2008

From the Guardian Arena magazine:

“My best memory of Tobago was ‘winning the race’ !!!!! It was my biggest win of my career. I was happy we came for two weeks so we had plenty of time to go site seeing on our bikes all over the island, get a nice tan and enjoyed many different local foods and drinks.

The organisers of the race made sure we were all comfortable and happy all the time and we also had lots of fun in the glass bottom boat trip to Nylon Pool and Buccoo Reef with all the teams and officials.

The Saturday evening party festival with steel band music and DJ Michael Baker was so much fun. The weather was super perfect and I made some nice friends in Tobago....These memories will always remain with me!”

— Andreas Henig

The inaugural edition of 'Caribbean Summer' took place in Dortmund this past weekend. Several thousands showed up in Westfalenpark to enjoy the festivities on Saturday evening. There were a number of steel bands on hand comprised of 180 musicians including a local band from Dortmund's Pan Kultur, Bäng Bäng, also Delaware Steel from the USA, and Ebony from London.

On Sunday there were workshops for kids and a carnival style parade through the park. Steely Wonder, another steel band from Finland also made an appearance.

This edition of Caribbean Summer was sponsored by the tourist board of the Bahamas. It is hoped that this festival will become an annual event.

A full report in German from Ruhr Nachrichten follows after the YouTube clip. Go directly to their website for promotional photos and pictures from the event itself.

Here's a clip of a performance by PanGang, the youth pan orchestra of Pan Kultur:

On July 2 T&T Newsday reports:


MEMBERS of the Predators Football Club of Cunupia proudly wearing the jerseys adorned in the Deutschland colours handed over by the German Ambassador

Predators Get Football Gear

PREDATORS Football Club recently received football equipment and uniforms courtesy the German Ambassador, Ernst Martens.

The German handed over the equipment to club president Krishna Murity Ramjit, last Thursday at their ground in Cunupia, central Trinidad.

Predators FC, a Cunupia-based team was founded in May 2001 and joined the Central Football Association (CFA) Football League.

The side, formerly known as the Cunupia International All-Stars FC provides a facility by which youths in the community can play and enjoy football as well as develop their skills and technical abilities.

Currently there are 25 members of the team which are training for the 2008/2009 edition of the CFA Football League and preparations are being made for the Predators FC 2008 Youth Camp. The donation by the German Ambassador was made available in the framework of the Sports Promotion Programme of the German Foreign Office. And it coincides with the 2008 European Football Championship — UEFA EURO 2008 — held in the Alpine countries of Austria and Switzerland in which Germany finished second, losing to Spain in the final 1-0 courtesy a Fernando Torres strike.

Lord Melody's Mama Look A Booboo is perhaps one of the most recorded calypsos ever. One version was even recorded in German by Swedish singer Alice Babs. The lyrics, however, have been changed to protect the ugly daddy. Instead, the song's more innocuous wording written by Hans Bradke tells of a happy Caribbean family whose mother is Cuban and father is Jamaican, and who sing cheerful music together as father sails off in his banana boat. It is rather typical of the popularized calypso genre of 1957 and even references Belafonte's singing voice.

To have a listen pop over to the the music page. (Also recently added is another football classic: Lancelot Layne's Target from 1989.)

The lyrics follow below: