The Thank God Carnival comes around every year to soothe the island’s image of a modern-age Sodom and Gomorra. The point is that watching hip-swaying women dancing in the streets of Port of Spain in G-strings really takes a sound heart. Nevertheless, scores of foreign sunbathers flock to this paradise-like neck of the woods to have fun in the picture-perfect and world-class Trinitarian Carnival, dubbed locally The Greatest Show on Earth.

The 13th edition of the Havana International Book Fair remembered Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904-1971) in his one hundredth birthday with a colloquium and the presentation of a couple of titles, The Winter Garden and The Separated Rose.

The colloquium took place at the Jose Antonio Portuondo Hall in old-timed San Carlos de la Cabaña Fortress, the book festival’s traditional fairgrounds, in an event that will reach out to other 33 cities across the nation beginning next Monday.

The Second Annual National Conference of U.S. Colored Travel Agents will take place from April 21 to 25 at the Denver International Airport’s Renaissance Hotel. Organizers expect the attendance of some 300 colored executives and travel agency owners.

The event will basically gather members of African-American, Indian, Hispanic and Asian communities whose citizens spend as many as $90 billion every year in tourism, the Travel Industry Association indicated in a recent study.

Dominican National Hotel & Restaurant Association (ASONAHORES) and Tourism Promotion Council (CPT) have announced the official dates and locations for Dominican Annual Tourism Exchange (DATE) 2004. This year´s event is scheduled for April 28-30, 2004 at the Playa Dorada, Plaza, 2nd floor Playa Dorada, in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.

"We are pleased to have the opportunity to participate in this event, as it serves as a catalyst for successful business ventures among the trades," said Johnny Bernal, president of ASONAHORES.

Scores of consumers were treated to lively Caribbean music, daily prize draws, Salsa and Merengue workshops, headscarf binding and Rasta hair plaiting at the recent annual Dutch Holiday Fair in Utrecht.

The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) coordinated a program at the event for the tourist boards of Aruba, Bonaire, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Maarten, St. Martin, St. Kitts, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Anguilla, Saba and St. Eustatius.

An international colloquium on the Caribbean’s cultural diversity will take place from February 9 to 13 in Havana in an effort to discuss about the different cultural processes going on in the region. The event is sponsored by the House of the Americas and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).