From the Old to the New a decade in heritage

Happy New Year 2015!

The Ancient New World....more www.krisrampersad.com

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UNESCO Caribbean experts meet to plan actions to secure World Heritage

Trinidad and Tobago joins Caribbean in preparing action plan for managing World Heritage

Published on November 24, 2014 

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad -- Trinidad and Tobago’s Dr Kris Rampersad will participate in the preparation of a five-year action plan on World Heritage for the Caribbean this month.

Hosted by Cuba, the meeting will bring together the focal points for World Heritage in 20 member and associate states of the Caribbean, representatives of the advisory bodies to the UNESCO Convention, universities, and specialists of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the UNESCO offices in Havana, Kingston and Port-au-Prince. It is being supported by the Nehterlands-Funds-in-Trust.

kris_rampersad_unesco.jpg
Heritage Educator, Dr Kris Rampersad, Trinidad and Tobago Representative on UNESCO Executive Board
Rampersad will lead discussions on strengthening the role of local communities in the identification, conservation and management of heritage, drawing from experiences in working across the Caribbean in preparing multisectoral stakeholders in government, academia, media, civil society, local government, tourism actors among others.

A heritage educator, researcher and advocate, she was also part of the team preparing the regional action plan for Latin America and the Caribbean earlier this year. She is also the Trinidad and Tobago representative on the UNESCO Executive Board, Chair of the Trinidad and Tobago National Commission for UNESCO, and member the executive advisory bodies of the International Culture University and the International Institute on Gastronomy, Culture the Arts and Tourism.

With the aim of devising a Caribbean Action Plan for World Heritage 2014-2019, the meeting will review Caribbean actions on heritage and develop strategies to build capacities of persons engaged in conserving, managing and monitoring heritage elements and address challenges of small island developing states, risk management for climate change, harnessing community knowledge, building cross sectoral partnerships and networks between and among actors and sectors as with education, science, communications, tourism, and others.

It intends to enhance coordination of efforts by the World Heritage community, strengthen the inter-university network, and promote Caribbean-Pacific coordination within the framework of the International Year of Small Island Developing States.

According to the organisers, “In a period of rapid social and environmental changes, the value of heritage in human development, as a repository of knowledge, an engine for economic growth and a symbolic force that brings stability and direction to meet the challenges of an increasingly complex world, becomes crucial.”

Sub-Regional meeting on the Caribbean Action Plan for World Heritage 2014-2019 | UNESCO

Sub-Regional meeting on the Caribbean Action Plan for World Heritage 2014-2019

Reunion_Sub_reg_TYPO_NICE.jpg

When, local time: 

Wednesday, 26 November 2014 - 9:00am to Friday, 28 November 2014 - 6:00am

Where: 

Cuba, Havana

Type of Event: 

Category 7-Seminar and Workshop

Contact: 

f.brugman@unesco.org; v.marin@unesco.org; b.guzman@unesco.org;

Sub-Regional meeting on the Caribbean Action Plan for World Heritage 2014-2019 as a follow-up to the adoption by the World Heritage Committee of the Action Plan for World Heritage in Latin America and the Caribbean Region (Decision 38 COM 10B.4).
UNESCO Offices in Havana (Cuba), in Kingston (Jamaica) and UNESCO World Heritage Centre, in cooperation with UNESCO Office in Port au Prince (Haiti), and with the financial support of the Netherlands Funds-in-Trust are organizing this meeting.

The meeting will be attended by representatives of 22 Caribbean Member and Associated States, the 3 advisory bodies to the World Heritage Convention (ICOMOS, ICCROM and IUCN) and Caribbean universities, as well as specialists from UNESCO Offices in Havana, Kingston and Port-au-Prince, and the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. In the framework of the International Year of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Adi Meretui Ratunabuabua, Pacific Heritage Hub Manager, University of the South Pacific, will participate in the meeting, which will also contribute to strengthening South-South cooperation.

Objectives:

- To develop and approve a Sub-regional Action Plan for the Caribbean (2014-2019), based on the Regional Action Plan for Latin America and the Caribbean, approved by States Parties in Brasilia in May 2014 and by the World Heritage Committee in Doha in June 2014;

- To discuss and approve the follow-up action to the second phase of the Caribbean Capacity Building Programme, as part of the Sub-regional Action Plan for the Caribbean 2014-2019 to strengthen professional capacities at the sub regional level for better implementing the 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of the of World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972);

- To enhance the cooperation with the Caribbean University Network.

Links: 

Portal of Culture of Latin America and the Caribbean

Portal of Culture of Latin America and the Caribbean

- See more at: http://en.unesco.org/events/sub-regional-meeting-caribbean-action-plan-world-heritage-2014-2019#sthash.TjGVmUDK.dpuf

Comments:

YAEESH ABDUL-WAHID:

I OF AM A MEMBER OF EAST PORT OF SPAIN HERITAGE ASSOCIATION.ALSO OUR GROUP LAVENTILLE AND ENVIRONS ACTION DEVELOPMENT ATTENDED A FIVE SATURDAY WEEK END HERITAGE WORKSHOP AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO BY THE BELMONT FREETOWN FOUNDATION 2014 AND OTHER CAPACITY BUILDING INCLUSION INTERVENTION RELATED EVENTS FROM APRIL 2013 TO PRESENT. WE KNOW THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS INITIATIVE IS FOR THE PURPOSE OF ESTABLISHING A SUSTAINABLE MANDATE FOR GLOBAL HERITAGE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT.

Back...
http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/headline-Trinidad-and-Tobago-joins-Caribbean-in-preparing-action-plan-for-managing-World-Heritage-23765.html

Trinidad and Tobago at UNESCO 195 in news

http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/topstory-Trinidad-and-Tobago-vice-chairs-UNESCO's-programmes_external-relations-commission-23366.html

Trinidad and Tobago vice-chairs UNESCO's programmes/external relations commission
Published on October 25, 2014

PARIS, France -- Dr Kris Rampersad, Trinidad and Tobago’s representative to the UNESCO executive board, was elected unopposed as the vice-chair of UNESCO’s programmes and external services commission (PX) to the board for the second consecutive time. The PX Commission is one of two commissions of the UNESCO executive board and is charged with examining and directing UNESCO’s programmes. It is chaired by Porfirio Thierry Muñoz Ledo of Mexico.

kris_rampersad.jpg
Dr Kris Rampersad
Now chaired by Egypt’s Mohamed Sameh Amr, the 58-member executive board, currently in its 195th session in Paris, is one of three governing organs of UNESCO with the General Assembly and Secretariat. It is responsible for appraising and informing UNESCO’s work programme and budgets. This is the first year of Trinidad and Tobago’s term on the board since it was elected by the 2013 General Assembly, when it polled the highest number of votes among candidates for the Latin American and Caribbean (GRULAC) region.

Rampersad, a cultural heritage researcher, educator and multimedia journalist, is a former independent member of the consultative body of UNESCO Inter-Governmental Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage, and chair of the Trinidad and Tobago National Commission for UNESCO.

She also serves on the advisory boards of the International Culture University and the International Institute of Gastronomy, Culture, Arts and Tourism, and has worked across the UN, Commonwealth and OAS regions working with multisectoral partners in civil society, government, private sector, academia and intergovernmental agencies to devise multidimensional approaches to addressing challenges of change sustainable development.

She has devised and conducted creative interactive courses, seminars and education programmes that encourage critical interrogation of development agendas to stimulate people-centred, gender and culture-sensitive paths to progress.

These include evaluations and assessments of north-south relations and particularly the small island developing states of the Caribbean in international policy arena, particularly in relation to gender, governance, culture and education at such forums as Commonwealth and OAS Summits; World Summit of Information Society; World Summit on Arts and Culture, Commonwealth Diversity Conferences, International Conferences on Cultural Policy Research, Brussels Briefings on Agriculture of the ACP-EU, among others.

Her successful pilot strategy for such round-table engagements to explore solutions towards food security was adopted as the model for the ACP-EU International Seminar on Media and Agriculture in Brussels.

Rampersad is the author of the three acclaimed seminal groundbreaking works: Finding a Place on the Indo-Trinidadian literary history of Trinidad and Tobago; Through the Political Glass Ceiling – Race to Prime Ministership by Trinidad and Tobago’s First Female and LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago which features its literary heritage through more than 100 works by more than 60 writers since 1595.
http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/topstory-Trinidad-and-Tobago-vice-chairs-UNESCO's-programmes_external-relations-commission-23366.html

Towards consensus in protecting our global heritage and legacy

Heritage can drive consensus and collaboration for sustainable development 

‘T&T world heritage status at risk

...fiddling while Rome burns, political imbroglio leaves custodians mum

Published: 

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Dr Kris Rampersad

The Banwari archeological site is not yet a world heritage site and its potential to become one is in jeopardy with “unchecked and undermanaged development initiatives.” Speaking from Paris where she is attending the meeting of the biannual Unesco executive board, heritage educator Dr Kris Rampersad said misinformation was being bandied about concerning T&T’s world heritage status. “No one, on any side, has taken the time to check the information being presented,” she said.

Rampersad, who is a Unesco-Commonwealth trained heritage facilitator and the Unesco focal point for World Heritage in T&T, told the Sunday Guardian it was unfortunate the issue is being politicised and has become something of the rope in the tug of war between the State and the Highway Re-route Movement.

“That prevents the consensus building and nation building that occurs around a country’s preparation for world heritage status. I remain flabbergasted that with the significance and potential of heritage as a core growth sector as the alternative to petroleum and our best bet for diversification, that these most valuable timeless assets and heritage, in general, remain so low on the national action agenda,” she said.

Rampersad has been blogging about what she calls “The Other Magnificent Seven of south Trinidad/South America and the Global South” and has written to President Anthony Carmona and Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar (goo.gl/Um7YkU) asking them to take the lead in securing these assets which hold enormous value for T&T’s economic diversification, its knowledge economy, and its place in our global civilisation (www.kris-rampersad-blogspot.com).

In her latest Demokrissy blog post, The Politics of Disempowerment, Rampersad noted that while she has received encouragement and agreement by various sectors, some key custodians and line agencies of heritage have gone mum because the elements in focus are in the districts earmarked for the controversial highway extension, also the home districts of the President and the Prime Minister, and they do not want to get embroiled in what may be interpreted as the hype around the highway. 

“Trustee organisations and officials just don’t want to get embroiled, so it’s a case of fiddling while Rome burns.”  That has also been the fate of a change.org petition (goo.gl/tNAwm6) in circulation on the issue, said the outspoken Rampersad, who is also an author and independent multimedia journalist.

“The fact is that neither the site, nor any of the several unique invaluable heritage elements of south Trinidad are secured in world heritage terms so as to facilitate them acquiring world heritage status as they are. “Banwari is not a world heritage site as is being claimed. It is on a tentative list which is a list that includes items states submit that they intend to prepare for such status.

“The concept being promoted of the site—the half-acre plot of where the skeleton remains were found—is itself erroneous, as a heritage site involves broader association of factors. We have not yet done the investigations nor groundwork that will consolidate the scope and value, though my preliminary independent research suggests that it is just the tip of the iceberg of more fundamental discoveries that could substantially revise how this region’s evolution and migration among others have been viewed.”

Rampersad said heritage was not a footnote in national development. “It is likely to be the lifeline to which we would have to turn in the next two decades when the oil dries up.

http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2014-10-19/%E2%80%98tt-world-heritage-status-risk%E2%80%99

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/commentaries/The-price-for-progress-279732112.html?m=y&smobile=y

Shining light of cultural heritage knowledge over ignorance from UNESCO

Lord Shiva Temple in Cambodia gets Happy Divali present from UNESCO #195EX

Happy Divali from #UNESCO #Paris Where #UNESCO #195EX unanimously support UNESCO efforts in safeguarding cultural heritage of Cote d Ivoire Iraq, and other zones of conflict or heritage in danger.
Today, Divali Day, the Programme and External Affairs Commission of the UNESCO Executive Board, co-chaired by Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago also unanimously passed a resolution for establishment of an International Coordinating Committee for the Preah Vihar Temple which was subject to prolonged dispute between Cambodia and Thailand but which after a long process came to an agreement that found consensus between the two parties and was unanimously supported by the PX Commission.
Congrats to colleagues who worked on the difficult drafting and negotiation process of this and the State parties Cambodia and Thailand for this exemplary collaboration.

Temple of Preah Vijeah of Cambodia via
UNESCO World Heritage Committee

Let's also take pride in and protect ours.


Get Involved http://goo.gl/tNAwm6
Get Informed goo.gl/Um7YkU     
Get Enlightened  http://goo.gl/zUbDJy
Know more http://goo.gl/rU0DTn

The Politics of Disempowerment

The Banwari archeological site is not a World Heritage site and its potential to become such is in jeopardy with unchecked and undermanaged development initiatives.

It is unfortunate that the issue is being politicised and has become something of the rope in the tug of war impasse between the State and the highway reroute movement that prevents the consensus-building and nation-building that occurs around a country’s preparation for World Heritage status. 

I remain flabbergasted that its significance and potential as a core growth sector, as the alternative to petroleum and our best bet for diversification, that these most valuable timeless assets and heritage, in general, remain so low on the national action agenda.

While in all cases I have received encouragement by all parties to whom this has been addressed – heritage, tourism, development planners, local authorities etc that this is a direction Trinidad and Tobago wants to pursue, key custodians and line agencies have gone mum because the elements in focus are in the districts earmarked for the controversial highway extension, also the home districts of the President and the Prime Minister, and they do not want to get embroiled in what may be interpreted as the hype around the highway.  That has also been the fate of a change.org petition (goo.gl/tNAwm6) in circulation on the issue.

The fact is that neither the site, nor any of the several unique invaluable heritage elements of South Trinidad, are secured in world heritage terms so as to facilitate them acquiring world heritage status as

.For more on this article and further information email lolleaves@gmail.com

To sign the letter to the President and Prime Minister go to goo.gl/tNAwm6)

Related links:

Open Letter to President Anthony Carmona and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar

goo.gl/Um7YkU

Impacting the Suicide Pact: Government and Activist in suicide pact, http://goo.gl/zUbDJy,

Rio Claro Through the Kristal bowl SIDS 2014 Rural Regeneration and Sustainable Development, http://goo.gl/GH5tYR,

Caricom must use UNESCO agreement to leverage Caribbean Cultural Heritage: http://goo.gl/yXwr7b

Vandalised: centuries-old heritage tomb spanning global generations, http://goo.gl/B3BYSR,

Unesco doing more with less

Budget debate unesco executive board more effective n efficient #195EX @UNESCO_ExBChair @unesco @krisramp @lolleaves

cuts from $653m to $507m hamper work

See statement on #195EX here http://www.unesco.org/new/index.php?id=123951

Impacting the suicide pact

‘Govt, activist in suicide pact’

See Link: Sunday Guardian News:

Impacting the suicide pact Changing confrontational mode between development and heritage conservation bridging equity divide towards sustainable development http://goo.gl/sg4StA

..Dr Rampersad calls on PM, Pres in her mission to protect T&T’s national heritage

Published: 

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Dr Kris Rampersad

An online petition has been started by heritage educator, author and researcher Dr Kris Rampersad as well as open letters to President Anthony Carmona and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar calling for the safeguarding of T&T’s natural heritage, the “other Magnificent Seven of the South.”

“It is something of a suicide pact if a state opens the doorway for destruction of its natural heritage without proper safeguarding as it is for an activist to embark on a fast to the death,” said the outspoken Rampersad, who refused at this time to specifically name the other Magnificent Seven given the sensitive and exclusive nature of her research.

Evidence of what may be clues to the ‘missing links’ in the story of human history and evolution may lie in south Trinidad are in danger of disappearing by negative development actions, she said. Rampersad has been piecing together the comparative pre-and post-colonial heritage of T&T in the context of the Caribbean, South America and its global connections. 

She is also the T&T representative on the Unesco Executive Board in Paris and chair of the National Commission for Unesco. An independent multimedia journalist, Rampersad is also a Unesco/Commonwealth/Caribbean trained heritage educator, and member of the scientific committee of the International Culture University and the International Institute of Gastronomy, Culture, Arts and Tourism. 

Rampersad has written an impassioned letter in her blog Demokrissy (www.kris-rampersad.blogspot.com

) to Carmona and Persad-Bissessar to safeguard these valuable heritage elements in their home districts of south Trinidad, which she calls “The Other Magnificent Seven”—of south Trinidad/South America/Global South and the globe. 

She said these efforts must be part of and contribute to a holistic approach to reviewing and revising misrepresentations of the islands in national symbols as the Coat of Arms and the National Anthem. The open letter calls on the President and Prime Minister ‘to lead’ in safeguarding the endangered and neglected heritage including these valuable assets which she claims have outstanding universal value. 

The blog which is receiving the thumbs up across her extensive social media network, has inspired a Change.org petition to Carmona and Persad-Bissessar (http://goo.gl/EEzSc6) calling on them to act now, before all is lost. 

Banwari site and other Magnificent Seven of the South
Rampersad, who is the author of the first book on Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Through the Political Glass Ceiling, that maps the PM’s journey from rural Trinidad to Prime Ministership from speeches, said the letter was inspired by her own impulse to act because it was the responsibility of citizens to motivate and encourage public officials to act in the best interests of the country.

She said, “While a responsible citizenry has a duty to hold officials to account, we also must take responsibility for our actions that impact how authorities may react or act.

 

“There has been an increasingly hyped national environment that makes it almost impossible to recognise what is empty noise and what may be constructive criticism. “It is on us to find the tone to make the authorities listen. I hope my blog achieved that.” 

Speaking to the Sunday Guardian on her way to the biannual Unesco Board meeting in Paris, Rampersad said unplanned and unchecked development actions can cost us valuable evidence contained not just around the Banwari site—the 7,000-year-old humanoid skeleton discovered in 1968—but of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ elements that span across the entire peninsula for southeast to southwest Trinidad. 

Much focus on PoS and city heritage
She said there had been much focus on Port-of-Spain and the city heritage that included the seven European-styled buildings in disrepair, but the fundamental and valuable heritage of global scale importance have been overlooked as part of general neglect in development planning for the South. 

“Maybe that has been a good thing and it has allowed these assets to remain undisturbed, but development focus in this district now means we have awakened a sleeping giant, and we must pause, take actions to secure and safeguard, document and explore what really we are sitting on before we allow what may be another course of development.” 

She said focus on heritage had contributed to enhancing national revenue, employment and substantially diversifying economies of many countries which is why so many hanker after being admitted to the Unesco World Heritage lists or any of the recognition Unesco offers on the global value of tangible and intangible heritage. 

“But there are steps to be taken which we have not been entertaining,” she said, claiming her research included interviews and examination of oral and literary culture, maps, comparative charts and other evidence from across more than 50 countries. Rampersad said, “The traditional confrontational stance between development and conservation has resulted in a kind of public fear and deafness. 

“One such I have encountered, apart from a general apathy and indifference to act, is the erroneous belief that the operations of the oil sector or Lake Asphalt may be negatively affected. “This is very far from the truth as the model I am developing has a central place for the oil sector and other industrial heritage.”

Win-win model

She said that there was an absolute win-win model that had been workshopped at various regional Unesco and other forums and to senior officials of the World Heritage Centre, all of whom had urged and were eager to see us step forward. Rampersad said that will be quite a breakthrough for many other societies also trying to strike the balance between meeting the needs of growing populations while conserving for the future. 

“I have many examples of our working successfully with governments, industry and communities to find the perfect fit between what has traditionally been seen as competing actions. “As a small island, T&T with its wealth of human, natural and industrial financial, intellectual and other resources is ideally positioned to impact on and make a difference on the world’s drive for sustainable development.” 

Rampersad said that she feared that “the trigger effect of one kind of development to others can now destroy valuable evidence that has not been thoroughly investigated and so unless we move to safeguard them and establish parameters where this can co-exist with development, we stand to lose a legacy that is of value to not just us in the islands, in the region, but also in defining and establishing our pre-and post-colonial connections to the world. 

“We have the resources, financial and human and intellectual to position T&T as a model small island nation that effectively strikes the balance between development and conservation—that was the goal of the recently held United Nations Summit which Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar attended. “So I am asking the President and the Prime Minister to lead us and take the necessary steps to do this.”

—reporting by Charles Kong-Soo

• Rampersad’s blog can be accessed at http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/;and the Petition on Change.org at http://goo.gl/EEzSc6. 

For more current updates visit www.krisrampersad.com Media, Cultural and Literary Consultant, Educator, Producer, Author LiTTscapes

Related: See blog below the deficit of curious

The other Magnificent Seven Open Letter to President Carmona and Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar

What is Wrong with this picture:
Heritage & The Trinidad & Tobago
National Coat of Arms

The Deficit of Curious - the Other Magnificent Seven of the Global South

Open Letter to President Anthony Carmona and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar

Honourable Leaders, Your Excellency Mr President and Dear Prime Minister,

I again interrupt my writing of Letters To Lizzie - tete-a-tete correspondences to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on explosive matters of our common interests, history and destiny based on 500 pieces of accumulated outstanding universally valuable pieces of evidence - to write to Your Excellency, Mr President and your honourable self, Madame Prime Minister, citizen to citizen: me as a citizen and a daughter of South Trinidad and to you also as a son, Mr President, and a daughter, Madame Prime Minister, of South Trinidad; to you both as our First Citizens and simultaneously as respective holders of the highest offices in our land and as our leaders to whom have been entrusted the fragility of - be it burden or boon,  mantle or mission, yoke or instruments of liberation - the hopes and the dreams and the aspirations of our nation...
 For more contact lolleaves@gmail.com

‘T&T world heritage status at risk’

...fiddling while Rome burns, political imbroglio

 leaves custodians mum

Published: 

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Dr Kris Rampersad

The Banwari archeological site is not yet a world heritage site and its potential 

to become one is in jeopardy with “unchecked and undermanaged development 

initiatives.” Speaking from Paris where she is attending the meeting of the 

biannual Unesco executive board, heritage educator Dr Kris Rampersad said

 misinformation was being bandied about concerning T&T’s world heritage status.

 “No one, on any side, has taken the time to check the information being presented,” 

she said.

Rampersad, who is a Unesco-Commonwealth trained heritage facilitator and 

the Unesco focal point for World Heritage in T&T, told the Sunday Guardian it was 

unfortunate the issue is being politicised and has become something of the rope in the

 tug of war between the State and the Highway Re-route Movement.

“That prevents the consensus building and nation building that occurs around a

 country’s preparation for world heritage status. I remain flabbergasted that with the

 significance and potential of heritage as a core growth sector as the alternative to 

petroleum and our best bet for diversification, that these most valuable timeless assets 

and heritage, in general, remain so low on the national action agenda,” she said.

Rampersad has been blogging about what she calls “The Other Magnificent Seven 

of south Trinidad/South America and the Global South” and has written to President 

Anthony Carmona and Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar (goo.gl/Um7YkU) 

asking them to take the lead in securing these assets which hold enormous value for 

T&T’s economic diversification, its knowledge economy, and its place in our global

 civilisation (www.kris-rampersad-blogspot.com).

In her latest Demokrissy blog post, The Politics of Disempowerment, Rampersad noted 

that while she has received encouragement and agreement by various sectors, 

some key custodians and line agencies of heritage have gone mum because the 

elements in focus are in the districts earmarked for the controversial highway extension, also the home districts of the President and the Prime Minister, and they do not want to get embroiled in what 

may be interpreted as the hype around the highway. 

“Trustee organisations and officials just don’t want to get embroiled, so it’s a case 

of fiddling while Rome burns.”  That has also been the fate of a change.org petition 

(goo.gl/tNAwm6) in circulation on the issue, said the outspoken Rampersad, who is also an author and independent multimedia journalist.

“The fact is that neither the site, nor any of the several unique invaluable heritage elements of south Trinidad are secured in world heritage terms so as to facilitate them acquiring world heritage status as they are. “Banwari is not a world heritage site as is being claimed. It is on a tentative list which is a list that includes items states submit that they intend to prepare for such status.

“The concept being promoted of the site—the half-acre plot of where the skeleton 

remains were found—is itself erroneous, as a heritage site involves broader 

association of factors. We have not yet done the investigations nor groundwork 

that will consolidate the scope and value, though my preliminary independent research

 suggests that it is just the tip of the iceberg of more fundamental discoveries that could

 substantially revise how this region’s evolution and migration among others have been 

viewed.”

Rampersad said heritage was not a footnote in national development. 

“It is likely to be the lifeline to which we would have to turn in the next two decades when the oil dries up.

Dr Kris Rampersad In The News: http://rg-59fcf77b2f6d0287cd0789d2810e8400.port2408.net/news/2014-10-19/%E2%80%98tt-world-heritage-status-risk%E2%80%99

Related Links:

https://www.change.org/p/kristt-to-preserve-the-other-magnificent-seven-of-t-t-s-heritage-legacy-of-the-global-south/c?source_location=petition_show

to Preserve the other Magnificent Seven of T&T's Heritage Legacy of the Global South

C T started this petition to KrisTT

A Global legacy Pls sign, circulate and share Open Letter to PM Kamla and President Carmona Safeguarding the Other Magnificent Seven of #TTGlobalSouth the link between island and continental American South. They are a universal legacy pls sign the petition. Details of what’s at stake in the link   http://goo.gl/EEzSc6 and in the blog: Demokrissy The Deficit of Curious - the Other Magnificent Seven of the Global South Open Letter to President Anthony Carmona and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar Let's discuss ways forward

 We all know about the Magnificent Seven, the seven European-styled buildings in various stages of disrepair around the Queen’s Park Savannah in our capital city, the seat of our administration, of power and of our influence and those who purport to have influence and power, and which has attracted attention and fame over the last near half a century. Mr President, Madame Prime Minister, as a child of the south,   I understand - indeed I do, how could I not - the ignominy, the sense of invisibility, the lack of investment, and the deficit of curiosity about South of the Caroni that seemed to drive those who possessed the seat of power in the far off capital city. I speak of the districts that hold your birthstrings, and mine, as it does the 7000 year old ancestor we have named Banwari found in the year I was conceived and largely since ignored into ignominy in a place that purports to be our highest seat of learning; and the even more ancient genetic matter of the Pitch Lake; the land that nurtured us with food from its soil, and milk from its mammals; that fed your imaginations to reach and to excel and to aspire and to achieve the highest offices of the land, that remain ignominous, unaccounted in recounts and recalls of national excellence.   What about the Other Magnificent Seven of ancient and modern Trinidad and Tobago, lie in quiet repose, undisturbed until now by the threat of bulldozers and an impetus that we want to call development.
They are right there, in the southern districts of Trinidad that nurtured us – you, Citizen President  Carmona, and you too, Citizen Kamla and me too. But we remain uncurious. They are waiting for us to identify them, claim them, sound their greatness to the world. 

Updates

Target 100 reached but keep on adding your voices

Dear Friends, This petition was started by a reader who wa passionate enough about the nature of the appeal to believe others felt the same. Clearly the 100 target mark shows this. You may keep sharing with your n...

C T

6 years ago

View all updates

Reasons for signing

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Inspired Speakers Toastmasters Club·6 years ago

hmm?

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Kris Rampersad·6 years ago

I believe we should investigate, research and document these to understand our past and inform our futute before development actions or natural forces erode or destroy them

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Jurisprudence-rip-obituary-walcott.html

my-date-with-narendra-modi-dat-merkel affair

Of-diasporas-migrations-arrivals.

Elixirs-of-entrepreneurship-The Emperor and I 

Ah-drinking-babash-in-this-fo-rum

Nobel-tears-of-and-for-nobel-bard
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Small only in Size UNESCO Executive Board told
World in a Fishbowl
Death of Knowledge & social Conscience
A Musical Heritage walk UNESCO Creative Cities

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Arresting-tears-for-us-and-haytian-globe

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OverCopulation - The Archbishop The Priest The Politician & The Journalist

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Murder She Wrote: Death Written in Stone in Dana Seetahal Assassination
Creating Centres of Peace in Trinidad and Tobago
The Price of Independence:#DanaSeetahalAssassination
Conceive. Achieve. Believe
Demokrissy: Wave a flag for a party rag...Choosing the Emperor's ...
Oct 20, 2013 Choosing the Emperor's New Troops. The dilemma of choice. Voting is supposed to be an exercise in thoughtful, studied choice. Local government is the foundation for good governance so even if one wants to reform the ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Demokrissy - Blogger
Apr 07, 2013 Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Towards Constitutional Reform in T&T. So we've had the rounds of consultations on Constitutional Reform? Are we any wiser? Do we have a sense of direction that will drive ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Demokrissy: Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2
Apr 30, 2013 Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2....http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
See Also:
Demokrissy: Winds of Political Change - Dawn of T&T's Arab Spring
Jul 30, 2013 Wherever these breezes have passed, they have left in their wake wide ranging social and political changes: one the one hand toppling long time leaders with rising decibels from previously suppressed peoples demanding a ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Demokrissy: Reform, Conform, Perform or None of the Above cross ...
Oct 25, 2013 Some 50 percent did not vote. The local government elections results lends further proof of the discussion began in Clash of Political Cultures: Cultural Diversity and Minority Politics in Trinidad and Tobago in Through The ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Demokrissy: Sounds of a party - a political party
Oct 14, 2013 They are announcing some political meeting or the other; and begging for my vote, and meh road still aint fix though I hear all parts getting box drains and thing, so I vex. So peeps, you know I am a sceptic so help me decide. http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Demokrissy: T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian
Jun 15, 2010 T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian · T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian. Posted by Kris Rampersad at 8:20 AM · Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Related:
Demokrissy: To vote, just how we party … Towards culturally ...
Apr 30, 2010 'How we vote is not how we party.' At 'all inclusive' fetes and other forums, we nod in inebriated wisdom to calypsonian David Rudder's elucidation of the paradoxical political vs. social realities of Trinidad and Tobago. http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Demokrissy: DEADLOCK: Sign of things to come
Oct 29, 2013 An indication that unless we devise innovative ways to address representation of our diversity, we will find ourselves in various forms of deadlock at the polls that throw us into a spiral of political tug of war albeit with not just ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Demokrissy: The human face of constitutional reform
Oct 16, 2013 Sheilah was clearly and sharply articulating the deficiencies in governmesaw her: a tinymite elderly woman, gracefully wrinkled, deeply over with concerns about political and institutional stagnation but brimming over with ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Demokrissy: Trini politics is d best
Oct 21, 2013 Ain't Trini politics d BEST! Nobody fighting because they lose. All parties claiming victory, all voting citizens won! That's what make we Carnival d best street party in the world. Everyone are winners because we all like ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age - Demokrissy
Jan 09, 2012 New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age | The Communication Initiative Network. New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age | The Communication Initiative Network. Posted by Kris Rampersad ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Demokrissy: T&T politics: A new direction? - Caribbean360 Oct 01, 2010 http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Oct 20, 2013 Choosing the Emperor's New Troops. The dilemma of choice. Voting is supposed to be an exercise in thoughtful, studied choice. Local government is the foundation for good governance so even if one wants to reform the ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Demokrissy - Blogger
Apr 07, 2013 Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Towards Constitutional Reform in T&T. So we've had the rounds of consultations on Constitutional Reform? Are we any wiser? Do we have a sense of direction that will drive ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Demokrissy: Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2
Apr 30, 2013 Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2....http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
See Also:
Demokrissy: Winds of Political Change - Dawn of T&T's Arab Spring
Jul 30, 2013 Wherever these breezes have passed, they have left in their wake wide ranging social and political changes: one the one hand toppling long time leaders with rising decibels from previously suppressed peoples demanding a ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Demokrissy: Reform, Conform, Perform or None of the Above cross ...
Oct 25, 2013 Some 50 percent did not vote. The local government elections results lends further proof of the discussion began in Clash of Political Cultures: Cultural Diversity and Minority Politics in Trinidad and Tobago in Through The ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Demokrissy: Sounds of a party - a political party
Oct 14, 2013 They are announcing some political meeting or the other; and begging for my vote, and meh road still aint fix though I hear all parts getting box drains and thing, so I vex. So peeps, you know I am a sceptic so help me decide. http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Demokrissy: T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian
Jun 15, 2010 T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian · T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian. Posted by Kris Rampersad at 8:20 AM · Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Related:
Demokrissy: To vote, just how we party … Towards culturally ...
Apr 30, 2010 'How we vote is not how we party.' At 'all inclusive' fetes and other forums, we nod in inebriated wisdom to calypsonian David Rudder's elucidation of the paradoxical political vs. social realities of Trinidad and Tobago. http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Demokrissy: DEADLOCK: Sign of things to come
Oct 29, 2013 An indication that unless we devise innovative ways to address representation of our diversity, we will find ourselves in various forms of deadlock at the polls that throw us into a spiral of political tug of war albeit with not just ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Demokrissy: The human face of constitutional reform
Oct 16, 2013 Sheilah was clearly and sharply articulating the deficiencies in governmesaw her: a tinymite elderly woman, gracefully wrinkled, deeply over with concerns about political and institutional stagnation but brimming over with ... http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Demokrissy: Trini politics is d best
Oct 21, 2013 Ain't Trini politics d BEST! Nobody fighting because they lose. All parties claiming victory, all voting citizens won! That's what make we Carnival d best street party in the world. Everyone are winners because we all like ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age - Demokrissy
Jan 09, 2012 New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age | The Communication Initiative Network. New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age | The Communication Initiative Network. Posted by Kris Rampersad ...http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Demokrissy: T&T politics: A new direction? - Caribbean360 Oct 01, 2010 http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Others: Demokrissy: Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 ...
Apr 07, 2013
Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Towards Constitutional Reform in T&T. So we've had the rounds of consultations on Constitutional Reform? Are we any wiser? Do we have a sense of direction that will drive ...
http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Demokrissy: Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2
Apr 30, 2013
Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2. 
http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Wave a flag for a party rag...Choosing the Emperor's New ...
Oct 20, 2013
Choosing the Emperor's New Troops. The dilemma of choice. Voting is supposed to be an ... Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Towards Constitutional Reform in T&T. Posted by Kris Rampersad at 10:36 AM ...
http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Demokrissy: Carnivalising the Constitution People Power ...
Feb 26, 2014
This Demokrissy series, The Emperor's New Tools, continues and builds on the analysis of evolution in our governance, begun in the introduction to my book, Through the Political Glass Ceiling (2010): The Clash of Political ...
http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Envisioning outside-the-island-box ... - Demokrissy - Blogger
Feb 10, 2014
This Demokrissy series, The Emperor's New Tools, continues and builds on the analysis of evolution in our governance, begun in the introduction to my book, Through the Political Glass Ceiling (2010): The Clash of Political ...
http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Demokrissy: Futuring the Post-2015 UNESCO Agenda
Apr 22, 2014
It is placing increasing pressure for erasure of barriers of geography, age, ethnicity, gender, cultures and other sectoral interests, and in utilising the tools placed at our disposal to access our accumulate knowledge and technologies towards eroding these superficial barriers. In this context, we believe that the work of UNESCO remains significant and relevant and that UNESCO is indeed the institution best positioned to consolidate the ..... The Emperor's New Tools ...
http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
Demokrissy: Cutting edge journalism
Jun 15, 2010
The Emperor's New Tools. Loading... AddThis. Bookmark and Share. Loading... Follow by Email. About Me. My Photo · Kris Rampersad. Media, Cultural and Literary Consultant, Facilitator, Educator and Practitioner. View my ...
http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/

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