Carla Foderingham Dynamic CEO Of T&T Film Company

By Walter Greene

Carla Foderingham, CEO of Trinidad & Tobago Film Company Limited is on a mission to see the beauty and diversity of her beloved Trinidad & Tobago plastered on the screens of movie houses, television sets and as well as print ads and editorial photo shoots. Rightfully so, the Caribbean twin island republic, apart from being one of the most picturesque in the region is home of a multi-cultural society and goes way beyond the sun, sea and sand that the Caribbean is known for. “The people of Trinidad & Tobago want this business to come in,” said Carla during a recent visit to New York mainly to lure film, video, commercial and print companies to film their work on island.

With a tight tour schedule that include stops in London, Toronto, Washington DC and Miami, Carla noted that the support of the consulates and missions in the various cities, indicate the level of commitment to the mission of the T&T Film Company. “Now, this leg is to meet with the film community to kick off our focus. We want to have an interactive format with location scouts and film producers, we also want to hear from them as to what makes and breaks a location. Trinidad & Tobago is working hard to establish a film presence in the community, we know it’s a small industry but nothing beats the advantage to have this kind of forum with producers and location scouts. In the past year, we had 15 international television commercials shot in Trinidad & Tobago.”

As of January 2007 the T& T film industry consists of 12 production companies, 33 companies offering production support services and 9 television stations. Altogether, the production companies employ a core staff of approximately 200 full time employees, while the television stations employ over 700 people. “It’s a changing world. Right now, 75% of work come from commercial and still photography. We now need to position ourselves, we need to look at the industry trends and stay ahead of the curve. Not to just do trade shows, but do one on one meetings like we are now engaged in across the country.”

Carla said on the local end they are grooming and training. “We still don’t have the productions to work on, but we’re getting people ready. Readiness for employment opportunities, have staff that is responsive to customers, and for partners to come on board and say, yes! We’re engaging all of them.” Carla emphasized that the diversity of Trinidad & Tobago is a key factor in encouraging film making on the twin island republic. The proximity of locations are all easily accessible. The Magnificent Seven - seven colonial styled mansions are located around the Savannah in the heart of Port-of-Spain. Modern high rise office buildings and quaint houses are dotted throughout the capital city. Beaches, a golf course, the Carouni bird sanctuary, endless fields of rice paddy, exotic Indian mosques and temples, a state-of-the-art airport and a vast highway system are some of the accessible sites ripe for shooting.

In support of this outreach, the Consul General to Trinidad & Tobago in New York Dr. Hon. Harold Robertson touted the government’s interest and support of this venture; “Trinidad & Tobago is the best kept secret and we are about to uncover that secret. It’s about the excellence of the cuisine, a wonderful place to do business and we would welcome your business to encourage and support. We are looking forward to working with you and encourage your support. You will be well received and well respected,” he told the film industry personnel, present at the luncheon/meeting with Ms. Foderingham.

The development of a film industry on Trinidad & Tobago is truly in capable hands with Carla Foderingham as CEO. She has two degrees, her first in Sociology and her second, a Masters in Development Work. “This is a great development opportunity for the country, we want to diversity our cultural economic base, so I understand development.”She spent years working in the media as a News anchor on Prime Time News. Carla has also worked in a senior position in advertising, and started the film desk at TITCO.

“My Masters thesis emphasised culture as it relates to the Caribbean. I always hoped for a day, as a person of color that this actively reflected to us. This is the opportunity that this job will create - we will focus on a world that reflect us where we are all people uplifted as leaders. We need to go to a higher level, you don’t see that reflected on television,” declared Clara. Talking about the need for Caribbean stories and Caribbean settings to become a global reality Carla stated; “We have to be the exporters of great stories, the next generation has to create and not consume...It’s the transformation of a society where all people can participate, its giving a new opportunity for the youth so they can contribute to the social and economic development in the community, to participate and have a rich fulfilling life. We have to give kids a new reality.”

 

Gender Equality, An Elusive Dream Some Countries Doing Far Better Than Others

By Tony Best

Closing the gender gap may be an elusive goal, but some developing nations in and out of the Caribbean and Africa have done a much better job in narrow it than prosperous European states.

For instance, Cuba and Jamaica may not have the energy riches of Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela and Nigeria but they have achieved better overall results than even the Russian Federation, Greece, Singapore, Poland and the Ukraine.

At the same time, Trinidad and Tobago has narrowed the gap in a fashion that France, the SlovakRepublic and Hungary haven’t while the Dominican Republic did better in improving the lot of women than Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Mexico.

That picture of the strides being made to improve the quality of life of women and eliminate the barriers to upward economic and social mobility emerged from an evaluation of the 2007 Global Gender Index of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

“Gender-based inequality is a phenomenon that affects the majority of the world’s cultures, religions, nations and income groups,” the Forum stated. “Yet there are differences in the way gender disparities manifest themselves and how they have evolved over time.”

The experts who prepare the index look at such factors as women’s economic opportunities, their educational attainment, factors of health and survival and their political participation. They also take into consideration such things as exercise of basic rights, employment and earnings and maternity and child-bearing.

Interestingly, Cuba 22nd outranked the United States 31st, while Jamaica, 39th, edged out Switzerland 40th, but earned a higher spot on the Gender Gap Index than Slovenia 49th, the Czech Republic 64th and Brazil 74th.

It may not have come as a surprise that Trinidad and Tobago 46th, the Caribbean’s richest economy, didn’t do better than Canada 18th and the Russian Federation 45th, but it far outpaced Singapore, 77th, a leading global banking center whose economy and quality of life has earned it a place as a developed society.

Suriname, 56th , Caricom’s lone Dutch-speaking member-state usually doesn’t find itself in the same sphere as say Cyprus 82nd but it has surpassed the European country and was ranked in the top half of the 128 nations surveyed. In the process, it came higher than Italy 84th, Japan 91st, and Malaysia, often called a newly industrialized country.

Belize, 94th the only nation in Central America where English is the official language, has made more strides than its neighbor, Guatemala 106th in efforts to close the gap.

On the African continent, both South Africa 20th and Lesotho 26th had a better record than the United States 31st, while Mozambique 43rd showed that poverty doesn’t prevent it from putting distance between itself and Luxembourg 58th , Hungary 61st and Armenia 71st.

“The Index is designed to measure gender-based gaps in access to resources and opportunities individual countries rather than the actual levels of the available resources and opportunities in those countries,” the Forum explained.

The authors of the Index were Dr. Laura Tyson, a former President of the U.S. National Economic Council during the Clinton Administration but who is now professor of business administration and economic at the University of California at Berkley; Dr. Ricardo Hausman, Director of Harvard University’s Center for International Development; Miguel Perez, a research associate with the Forum’s Women’s leaders Program and Saadia Zahida, head of the WEF Leaders Program.

 

New Scholarships For Women

(NAPSI)-A new annual scholarship program, the Ambi Scholarship in Science & Medicine, is now available to African-American and Hispanic women who have a genuine interest in making a difference in the fields of science and medicine.

According to an American Association of University Women report, only 15.3 percent of African-American women and 10.8 percent of Hispanic women hold college degrees.

Ambi Skincare has contributed $50,000 to be awarded to five women, each of whom will receive $10,000 for tuition towards pursuing or continuing her education in any nationwide accredited science or medicine program.

The scholarship is inspired by Karen Morris-Priester, M.D., the first grandmother to graduate from Yale University School of Medicine. Last spring, the scholarship sponsor joined Oprah to celebrate Karen’s academic achievements on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

“The scholarship is wonderful because it encourages minority women to pursue a career in science and medicine, fields in which they are currently underrepresented, and it offers invaluable financial support towards making the dream a reality,” says Karen Morris-Priester, M.D.

To apply for the scholarship, visit www.ambiskincare.com.