In 1962, a design committee led by Carlisle Chang and George Bailey created Trinidad and Tobago's Coat of Arms, featuring four bird figures representing three distinct species. The heaviest historical symbolism rests on the Scarlet Ibis and the Cocrico, standing side-by-side as equal guardians holding up the shield.

And we can trace their significance through their unique island roots.

The Scarlet Ibis represents Trinidad, famous for feeding in the Caroni Swamp where gray chicks gradually turn neon-red. The Cocrico represents Tobago, a hardy forest bird native only to Tobago and known for its loud morning calls. Inside the shield, two golden hummingbirds honor "Iere," the ancient Amerindian name for Trinidad meaning "Land of the Hummingbird."

More than just national symbols, these species highlight the country's rich ecological diversity. The Scarlet Ibis holds strict legal status as an Environmentally Sensitive Species, while the Cocrico thrives in island canopy.

All of this heritage stands preserved on the emblem above the nation's motto.

Seeing this posted on independence day and talking about only giving a message to the "UNC family" is just unbelievable.

Today we formally celebrate T&T’s 64th year as a sovereign nation, and though we’ve come a very long way… we still have much further to go.

Our future will remain bright, but only if we aspire to it together. Have a great Independence Day everyone🇹🇹

What are your plans to celebrate?

Can you understand the Venezuelan dialect or is the vocabulary not close enough for mutual understanding between the two languages? Thank you.

Edit: Sorry, I didn’t know you speak English, I thought Trinidad was a Spanish speaking country.

Hello!

I am so lucky that my papa is Trinidadian. He has lived abroad for many years, but he have always wanted me to have a close feeling and relationship to his home country and therefore mine as well.

We have lived there and visited many times.
So last time I was home in Trinbago, I decided to one day apply for dual citizenship by direct descent.
2026 I finally pulled myself together and dove into it.

Now to my question. I have sent all his and my documents to the High Commission in London as requested in June this year. Do anyone know how long time the process take? Anyone who have been in the process?

I know anytime is Trinidad-time, but you know… patience is not always my middle name.
Thank you!

My money is that the Quashqai ran the light.

Belle Smythe near Evans facing north to priority and EMR.

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve noticed a pretty significant degradation in internet connectivity in Trinidad and Tobago, particularly with VPNs, site-to-site connections, and international traffic.

A few things I’ve been seeing:

- Site-to-site VPN performance has become noticeably worse.

- Off-island latency and throughput seem less consistent than before.

- General browsing and services hosted overseas feel slower across multiple ISPs.

- Around 1–2 months ago, performance was noticeably better — international connectivity sometimes felt almost as responsive as browsing from Miami or NYC.

What makes it interesting is that I’m seeing similar behaviour across more than one ISP, which makes me wonder whether something has changed upstream rather than this being an isolated provider issue.

Possible explanations could be changes in international routing, peering/transit arrangements, congestion, submarine cable capacity/issues, traffic shaping, or some other change in how traffic is being handled.

Has anyone else in Trinidad or Tobago noticed this recently?

If anyone has traceroutes, MTR results, latency graphs, VPN throughput tests, or information on recent routing/peering changes, I’d be interested in comparing results.

Tin-foil-hat question: has something changed recently with how international traffic is being routed or filtered out of Trinidad & Tobago?

From claiming Williams wasn't our first prime minister to claiming the country's national flag is a PNM flag?

FIngers crossed that this stays up because I need to figure this out asap.

I've never travelled directly to MH itself so I'm trying to find out how to do so. The only way I've mapped out to get there is PBR --> Stop near SBCS then walk because based on google maps it takes about 14 mins. But I'm not sure how many roads I'd need to cross etc etc, so I'm iffy about that. Please help!

It’s giving moko jumbie vibes

I'm just curious. I've thought about calling a few tikes but never did. I heard stories of people calling and no one answered and I've also heard some people say that it wasn't very helpful. That was a while ago. It looks like they made a lot of changes recently. They're active on social media and it looks like they updated their website and added toll free numbers for bmobile, digicel and flow.

My Grandad came to the UK in the 50s. He married a UK woman and had children. I have taken after him and look just like him, however he passed away before I could talk to him about his life in Trinidad.

I'd love to speak to someone from Trinidad.

increased its fees for inspections and approvals by between 100% and 700%

The 1991 election was the beginning of PNM vs and UNC and the end of the NAR

No. Seriously. 😂

My TT fam! I'm hosting a big 30th birthday party this weekend and running the chunes.

What are your hottest chutney songs?

As well as hottest Bollywood / Indian songs? None of that original or slow stuff... them things put me to sleep. Remix for party the way we West Indians like it is good though 🕺🏻

Anything I can access on YouTube or SoundCloud please!

Interesting stuff happening there. I thought that with the rise of Penny the Manning Wing took control over the party but I guess there are more dynamics than I thought. The most interesting thing to me is how he would have mentioned criminality and corruption being rampant within his party group. What do we think about all this?