Dear All,

Unfortunately for the first issue of TLM Magazine I was not on board as yet as the

editor. However I am happy that I have been given the opportunity. Interviews had to

be conducted, articles had to be chosen, many photographs were taken and on and

on the list went. However, every obstacle passed, there was growth . The magazine

should reflect laughter, advice and most importantly, an instrument for the voice of

the youth. It should also mirror their lives in aspects such as portraying their talents

ranging from the photographers, writers and even the interviewees. Furthermore

the magazine helps shape who we are as youth and their role in society.

Hopefully, TLM will give each reader a glimpse of who the youth are and broadcast

what they have to bring to the table. Thanks for all the help and support to everyone

who assisted with the second issue, as it would not have been possible without each

and every one of you.

Enjoy!

Editor: Chanice Abraham

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagine.”- Henry David Thoreau

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Photography is an art that requires several years of training. It takes a keen eye and scores of photography frames to produce one shot that captures the attention of an audience. An Ameri-can technocrat Tyler Cowen once noted that, “we live in an age of a technological plateau where we have invented everything.” Short of the flying car, we have everything we need and could possibly think about at our fingertips.” We now seek to become masters of that technology we have har-nessed. In the world of photography, this means for the ten persons that have camera phones, five of them fancy themselves as photographers.In this age where YouTube replaces a classroom in many fields, it is no surprise that most persons in the field of photography are self-taught. How-ever, being self-taught does not always equate to a camera phone snapping an unflattering picture of a “wannabe” model flashing a peace sign. A proud self-taught photographer who has been in the field for five years,

says she did not seek academic train-ing to pursue her dream. However, she sought every avenue to perfect her craft by researching new styles of photography. She says she takes her inspiration from things she sees online and imagines while listening to music. She then seeks the most creative way to bring it to life. This goes to show that imagina-tion cannot be taught. Sometimes having the academic backing in the field of photography can help in getting employed in the mainstream media. One Trinidad Guardian photographer did not always have her eye pointing through a lens. She had three separate so-called real jobs that did not make her happy. She decided to turn her part-time hobby into a bill paying job when she saw YTEPP offered courses in photography. She admits, “being in the newspaper industry

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does have its fallouts. In the media you some-times have to face being scooped by Facebook and online bloggers who have the luxury to up-date their profile anytime and anywhere. Being a newspaper photographer there is also the limita-tion of assignments by editors and the final say is not always in the hands of the photographer.” Nevertheless, she says after nine years in the in-dustry no two days are the same and she feels complete contentment behind a lens.One self-proclaimed “photo-taker-out-ta” says he finds contentment as an amateur photographer snapping photos as a hobby. He, like most photographers, is grateful for the plat-form provided by social media all the same he noted the market has been saturated with poor quality photos. He admits though the optics in some camera phones have become surprising-ly good and makes it easier to capture images when his Nikon D60 is not in hand. Having been shooting for the past five years he admits pho-tography requires a lot of hard and dedication.

He says the field has to do with a wide range of factors including composition, lighting and having that trained eye to see the angles that he learnt through trial and error. Another “photo-taker-outta” says it was her first camera phone that sparked her love of photography. With only two years under her belt and a Nikon CS6, she wants to start her classes in September in the hopes to be taken seriously. She says her talent shines through in her photo-editing and playing with tints and colours of the image on the computer. Like most aspiring pho-tographers she took advantage of Facebook and Tumblr as portals to showcase her photos and her colourful edits. The consensus from both photographers and ‘photo-taker-outtas’ is photography demands a passion that cannot be manufactured or taught in a classroom. Though the skills needed to per-fect it requires years or research and training, that training can be ascertained from snapping a few blurred photos before getting that key shot.

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Promotional Items and Recycled Plastic and Cotton Clothing

This is a touchy topic, so I will attempt to write on it with-out sounding like a chauvinist pig. Firstly, I would like to applaud you on your stellar use of a dictionary. Second-ly, I haven’t seen someone avoid speaking about a topic so skillfully since our last general election. Moving along, equality in the sense that you are referring to, of is a fig-ment of our collective imagination. It may be wonderful in theory but nearly impossible to practice. You are born into inequality, just as someone can be born into money. History has repeatedly shown that while we are all cre-ated with equal body parts, our mindsets are different. Race, religion, social class and yes gender, all contribute to how we are treated. Does this make it right? No. Can we change it? With time, yet I believe in the singular case of women’s rights they are requesting what they have had for several decades now. Sorry ladies but you already have a level playing field, I will go so far as to state that you have more ‘rights’ than men in most countries; I will at-tempt to list some. 1) In a divorce a woman usually has the right to a portion of her husbands assets even if she did not contribute to obtaining any of them financially (apparently making pb&j sandwiches is a full time job.)2) There are almost no laws protecting a man from sexu-al harassment and or discrimination in a work place from a female co worker. When last have you heard of a guy being raped?3) Even if a woman has proven herself grossly unfit to parent the courts will often place children in foster care rather than place the child in sole custody of the father. This is a “WTH” matter for me. 4) Female law breakers are often given less harsh sen-tences than their male counter parts. I’d like to see you serve eighteen months “hard labour”.5) Excepting Canada, men are not legally entitled to take time away from work and form a bond with their new born babies. I also need a rest after nine months of your hor-mones and cravings.

See what I did there, I silenced the entire feminist movement and didn’t break a sweat. My fiancée is often annoyed when I refer to feminists as an evil, militaristic group bent on world domination. Howev-er the proof is there for all to see. Women are now given as many and some times more opportunities than men. One can even go so far as to say they have been given an unequal advantage over men in most instances. I have yet to see a man file a law suit against a firm on the grounds that he was not hired because he was male or wasn’t given a pro-motion for the same. So what has happened inadvertently is that while striving for equality we have simply tipped the scales in the favor of the new first class citizen men are the second class citizens of the twenty first century, which brings me back to my original point “equality” is a figment of our imaginations

TOPIC: EQUALITY

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e• qual • i • ty[ih-kwol-i-tee] noun 1. The state or quality of being equal; correspondence in quantity, de-gree, value, rank, or ability. (Dictionary.com)

This single word represents a burden of meaning, throughout history among race, sex, gender and country. Though the battle of gender equality is one that may seem trivialized as we joke about the views that ‘we women’ want equality, yet call on ‘the men’ to pay the bills, take out the garbage, and lift anything that even LOOKS heavy. I choose not to rant on about that disparity as I genuinely believe my generation of men and the generation before me are stepping up in the home and doing their fair share of work.

Men are motivated breadwinners, extraordinary fathers, perceptive husbands and responsible friends. While women, are exploring the dynamic world outside the home and making remarkable strides and contributions within the world of work. *cue applause*

However, we still have a lot of ‘glass ceilings’ to break through as women’s fight for equality or any fight for that matter is not SIMPLY about, ‘who should wear the pants’, but one of opportunity. The right or freedom of access to the same options available to men is ultimately what the ‘fight’ is really about, to not be stigmatized and stereotyped based on an image of one’s perception of what a woman represents but by the simple definition of equality.

Theoretically, if I have the ability and demonstrate the same measure of value, then rank should be equivalent. Therefore, in an era where we speak with our thumbs and shop internationally without leaving one’s home, I pray that I live to see ‘equality of opportunity’ before I witness the re-evolution of dinosaurs. *fingers crossed*

Sonia A. Walker

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I am of the opinion that there is a magical group on Face-book consisting of fairytale creatures whose sole duty is to make themselves appear even more stupid than they already look or behave. There I was perusing the halls of this enchanted kingdom when I came across a character whose name paralyzed me with shock. What on earth is a HOTTIE MAMPY? So I decided as a character myself educating the fairytale pub-lic is my responsibility. According to Dictionary.com a hot-tie is “a sexually attractive person” and according to most dancehall artistes (and a few people who tend to get on the disrespectful side) a mampy is a gargantuan, colossal, obese, abdominal region covering genitalia, flapping body parts of possibly feminine origin. So there I was trying to figure out if this young lady was testing my knowledge of literary/ rhetorical devices because the word hottie and mampy is like the word bitter and sweet. Upon seeing this I decided to further investigate the Face-book culture and started typing random names such as gaza and there I saw gaza slim, gaza princess, gaza beast, gully creature, then there was chocolate thunder, bess wine, real n***a, star boi, stargirl, living wild, sh***ed on em, kitty girl, c**kman and so many more moronic and nauseating nom de plume’s. It was obvious to me after this point that people are not aware that something as simple as a name choice can have an impact on how you are perceived or judged. Trust me you may say you don’t care what people think about you but first impressions

especially on Facebook is lasting.An employer for instance is not going to appreciate that his clerical assistant has a “bess wine” unless he is “A pimp named slick back”. Employers want to work with people who can balance their professional and social life. You may not be able to please everyone all the time but when it comes to making a better future for yourself present yourself with a bit of class. Some may argue that Facebook is a social network and it’s not meant to be taken seriously, however if your job is just a job and you want to have a career market yourself but be vogue not swanky.

Finally these street names seem to be a representation of low self-esteem and total vengefulness against par-ents and the Registrar General of Trinidad and Tobago because you definitely have to hate your birth name in order to spend that much time meditating on how to make yourself look and sound like a supersonic gluteal maximus/anus.

Ms Vogue

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YES. Did bills start paying themselves in 2012?? Did I miss something??? Ladies, being independent does not mean you cannot carry the dead weight of any man. If he’s eating at your home, he should assist with the grocery bills. If he’s sleeping over more than often, he should help with the rent. Some men believe that a woman gaining indepen-dence means that they are losing theirs... this however is not so.

Traditionally, a man’s role was to provide and protect and a woman was expected to nurture and support. Those four functions are still essential in today’s homes and relation-ships, however they should be split evenly!

One young lady stated she’s afraid to ask her boyfriend for financial support because he loves an independent woman. He constantly belittles women who cannot support them-selves totally, referring to them as “Undercover Gold Dig-gers”. A gold digger can be referred to any woman whose primary interest in a relationship is material benefits; a woman who cares more about a man’s bank account than she does about him.

Guys, if you meet this type of woman, there are two basic options. 1. Spend your money OR 2. walk away and look for a balanced woman to fit your lifestyle. Be aware how-ever, that at some point, you are going to have to spend the money.

Ladies, the term “gold digger” has a specific mean-ing and it doesn’t apply to every female. However, frugal and immature men MISUSE this term in an effort to get away from their basic responsibility as a man, which is to provide and protect. Men prey on women who do not wish to be labeled as a gold digger, taking advantage and in turn place the financial burden on her.

I consider myself an independent woman. I do support myself, but life throws you twists and turns you cannot prevent. So should my life hit me a twist that pushes me back financially, shouldn’t the man I love and devote my-self to not step up and assist me??A real man wouldn’t see his woman struggling and not contribute.

There are so many needs in relationships so why is the financial need an issue? All in all, a man should take care of his woman, just as she should take care of him. A relationship is a TEAM effort and as granny always says, “One hand doh clap…”

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“Completely self-taught”, she said, no doubt with a smile when asked whether she went to school to learn pho-tography. Laura Ferreira’s inspiration to delve into the shark infested waters of photography came from a pic-ture she stumbled across while surfing the internet. Five years later, she became her own brand. She elaborates that never stopped to think about what she wanted to do , she just did it. The very private photographerstates when it came to pursuingher dream she did not seek approval from her family or anyone to get where she wanted. The passion that drove Ferreira would trump any reasoning for a mundane career behind a desk. She describes creating an image with her lens as “the best feeling in the world when I am shooting something that I have put a lot of planning into. Seriously, nothing feels better.” The St. Joseph Convent alumnus has worked

with heavy hitters in music, fashion, advertising, movies and publishing. Her photographs made it from the billboards on Frederick Street to the streets of England. She reminisced on a photo-shoot with the HD family, she was losing natural light which is vital for a good image. This was in the early days when she still did shoots in her bed-room in her Woodbrook home with her son’s crib pushed to the corner. “Everything ran late and the sun was pretty much gone. I was freaking out! I got someone to lend me a hot light for the shoot. She said, “I never used such lighting prior to that, but I was great at pretending that I had worked like that before.” The shoot was a success and she went on to work with Project Runway Season nine winner, Anya Ayeong Chee for the former beauty queen’s

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segue into the world of Carnival costume design. Fer-reira states that Ayeong-Chee was her favorite client. The glamorous world of photography does not open by accident, like most career paths require a lot of dili-gence. Ferreira says turning this perceived hobby into a business was a learning process for her. “There was a lot of hair pulling,” she says. She continues to state that Facebook helped her in getting her photos out to the public and build her clientele. Furthermore says she came on Facebook just before the flux of “facebook photographers” flooded the network. She noted, “There are those who are trying the professional photogra-pher thing out, and I think it’s great to try new things. However, those who don’t know how to price their work tend to grossly undercharge, and that pulls everything down for everyone.” The saturated market makes it hard to identify the quality. She does not take it to heart though but makes light of the situation. She giggles, “I find it pretty funny because everyone now has a copy-right watermark on their picture, even if it’s a picture of their big toe. No one is going to steal your big toe picture, ever.”The 26-year-old mother says preparation for a photo-shoot involves poorly executed sketches on the back of Hi-lo bills and web-surfing to garner inspirational ideas. She says “I browse a lot of images online, but paintings and music inspire me the most. The paintings spark the idea, the music carries it through.” She says if it were not for photography she would have been a musi-cian or even a web-designer. Having worked so closely with all stars in these fields, she has the connections to make the leap into becoming a triple threat.She says her key to success in the field is to stay origi-nal. She advises upcoming photographers constantly practice. “Look at other photographer’s work and pick up on the techniques that they have used, try to figure it out, but NEVER copy their work.” With such an imagi-native eye, she has no need to duplicate anyone’s work.

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Ok, so we all have that annoying person(s) in our work-place. You know who I’m talking about; the guy in the cu-bicle next to yours who insists on talking to all his clients on speaker phone, the girl who talks on her cell phone in the lunch room at the top of her voice , the one with the aunt with the boil in that inconvenient place, which we know about by forcibly overhearing her conversations because she chooses to speak at the top of her lungs in your company’s lunch room, while you try to eat your crix and tuna in peace. Of course let’s not forget the coworker who is rude to the point that you loathe conversations with them, the one who takes things way past sarcasm and cynicism to a mean level. Lastly but not least the lazy colleague who avoids work and instead lets it circle around the office until it ends up on someone else’s desk . I am not an office guru. However after some minimal research and time spent with my good friend Google, I be-lieve I have found some simple steps that can break your coworkers bad habits or simply some methods that can avoid it affecting you.The speaker phone guy – when you are at your desk and he puts the client with the horrible Grenadian accent on speaker phone, raise your head with a look of discomfort and say “hey if you don’t mind I am on a call as well, could you just lower the volume?” You see, the average person will know that his actions are wrong, but no one has con-fronted him about it, therefore so he continues to do it. If

you let him know that his behavior is disturbing you, he will stop.The mean girl- I have discovered that the best ap-proach, is simply avoid them if it is not work related. Eventually they will realize no one converses with them outside of the work related topics. People can tell when they are being ignored. Always keep in mind, that a person’s behavior isn’t going to change but the less you associate, the better.

The lunch room public speaker - always seeking attention. They usually are uncomfortable around people they are not familiar with and try to indirectly initiate conversation amongst their co-workers. He/ she hopes that by speaking loudly on the phone, someone may ask them about the conversation over-heard. Usually this person is lonesome in the work place. My advice; try to befriend them or carry head-phones to the lunch room.The bum- stop doing their work.When something with their name lands on your desk, get up and walk over to his/her cubicle, lay it on their desk and say in your best ‘ not trying to start an argument voice’, “ I saw this on my desk and realized you weren’t finished with it” , then walk away you don’t want to be taken advantage of, so simply stop doing their work.Mikhial Morton is currently studying at the Jedi Acad-emy and is looking for more people to practice his mind tricks on. L like his Face book page www.facebook.com/tntvoice

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