Friday, October 5, 2018

One Moment in Time Story of a Storyteller Extraordinaire


Her Excellency President of  T&T
 Her Excellency Paula Mae Weeks
presents the National Medal for the
 Development of Women,Gold
( Journalism/Development
 of Women) to Dt Kris Rampersad
Today would have been my Pa’s 104th birthday. He passed on just after I began my first degree at the university. He might have been proud to see me receive the Medal for the Development of Women, gold, for Journalism and Development of Women through a career he delivered me onto; or my graduation with a bachelors, first class honours; or doctorate, and the acclaim as the first sitting journalist/editor to have done so, along with all else that is listed in my CV as accomplishments or accolades.
Or he may have simply reiterated as he often did, 'commonsense comes before booksense' and 'help who you can, when you can,' without any great show of emotion.    
Pa, who had brought me to Port of Spain for my first job interview, not only gave me the window on the bus on our four-hour journey there, but also provided the first window to the world outside the village in having me accompany him to sell the produce we grew at the San Fernando market. The amiable, affable, people, character and experiences of the market from when I was just over five years old, would mark on me what I believed to e the national character, and feed the first columns of the Discover Trinidad and Tobago series, that blossommed into the television series Cross Country and more recently, my third book, LiTTscapes - Landscapes of Ficton series which spotlights 'MarketScapes" as one of the defining arenas of nationabuilding.
Pa remained seated in the lobby of the Guardian, as I am whisked away. I left him looking as if it was he who was to be interviewed, in his characteristic guarabara shirt jack, holding his mark of style - his dark brown Homburg felt hat, slightly indented at the top; its one and a half inch ribbon running along its circumference near the brim; its inside lined with Satin that felt cool on the head as I would find out when I sneaked try-ons. Pa wore it as any stately leader might, though he may not have known that it was the style of hat which the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, often wore, made famous by British King Edward VII, the son of Queen Victoria.
Nor would he have known, sitting there casually, that he was handing me over to a new world, a new life, nor that it would earn him a one-paragraph acknowledgement of his passing in the upper editorial pages five years later, Journalist Loses Dad.

I am not related to any of the already famed Rampersads who were then in public life, I would have to tell those who enquired. Rampersad was in fact his first name, which was a practice adopted in Trinidad by some families, rather than passing on last names. Born in the year of the first World War, he carved his own path, giving dignity to every undertaking, whether it was as a market vendor, as cash crop gardener or in his valiant attempts at carpentry and making odd things around the house, with the saw and jackplane he bought himself, having worked, too, as a forester that gave him the head cold that will claim him. And he kept us grounded with his insistence that ‘commonsense comes before booksense’ and never let us forget that!



By the time he watched me disappear up through the doors and up the stairs from the Guardian lobby, he had already set the foundation. It was the glimpse of Trinidad and its people to which he exposed me in those days as a preteen that I accompanied him to the San Fernando market, that shaped my impression of who and what we are as a people. He passed to me his ease among men, women and children of any age, class, colour, ethnicity and religion. Their returned respect and camaraderie with him, gave him the stature of what I envisioned any leader to be.

In his shirt jack and Homburg, he was ‘the Sheriff’ as his friends and the villagers called him. At home in his merino he was storyteller extraordinaire. Night after night we would huddle on Ma’s bed listening as he unraveled fantastic tales pulled from his boundless and prolific imagination as I good find no written, no oral recounts of them.
If Ma shaped my spirit; Pa shaped my social being. The dedication in my first book read, To Ma and Pa: Ma for the gift of Spiritedness; Pa for the legacy of his imagination.  There are many resonances to that influence.
Our journey had begun in the wee hours of what he called ‘foreday morning’, through the territories of his stickfighting, sugar cane planting, market gardening and vending, and then some  (More in upcoming biography, LIFE! Holeheartedly.
Remembering him, I share two earlier excerpts that captures part of Pa’s, and others like his, unrecognized contribution to our times:
Jus Call Me Cooligan: Bois and Bacchanal in Meh Blood https://goo.gl/yTrR9q
My Discoverie- Columbus lost and found https://goo.gl/ixGu7y

See also:
The Walk of Excellence: a life in 60 seconds to receive the National Award for the Development of Women: https://goo.gl/wk4pBx
What My Mother told me: https://goo.gl/CxBJrr

More related links below

If by Rudyyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you   
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;   
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream, and not make dreams your master;   
    If you can think, and not make thoughts your aim;   
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;   
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   
    And,  which is more, you’ll be a Man, my son!




Related Links:
The Walk of Excellence: a life in 60 seconds to receive the National Award for the Development of Women: https://goo.gl/wk4pBx
What My Mother told me: https://goo.gl/CxBJrr
Nobel Blogging: Demokrissy trends with global think tanks https://goo.gl/8cVB8g
The Funeral Scores. Sir Vidia Naipaul final farewell in a fanfare of Naipaulian fictive irony https://goo.gl/NQibgR
Year of LiTTributes to Laureattes  https://goo.gl/oW81Nm
Demokrissy trends with worlds leading think tanks https://goo.gl/ua3rXm
My Collision with Stephen Hawkins: https://goo.gl/Fx47Ak
Reflections on the Death of Nobel Laureate Sir Vidia Naipaul see link https://goo.gl/7eBP5a 
Authors Tete-aTete Dr Kris Rampersad and Sir VS Naipaul  https://goo.gl/gU11Jv 
Noble Tears of a Nobel Bard Death of Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott  https://goo.gl/WXbMpv
Sportscapes Cricket Games We Play LiTTours: https://goo.gl/ENum7X
TheMagic and Realism of gabrial Garcia Marquez RIP https://goo.gl/s7y2oc

Pat Bishop: The Killings, the curfew… https://goo.gl/DgFk9E
Lagahoo tribute to the independent spirits: https://goo.gl/C7kND1

Earth Quake Earthquake
LiTTscapes: Facebook: https://goo.gl/HBJsmM
Five Year Old Child Stars at LiTTribute: https://goo.gl/fn3oTR
One LiTTle bookshop: LiTTscapes and the Nobel Laureate https://goo.gl/cpvr2T
Launch LiTTribute: https://goo.gl/g1mmED
Through Novel lenses Youtube   https://youtu.be/_zWHPEQCqHA
LiTTscapes Child Star Tops SEA: https://goo.gl/iNqt32
Prophesy A.Bourdain and Aboud. Port of Spain and Lebanon :  https://goo.gl/zwtyWq
Devil’s WoodYard, Earthquake Aug 2018 https://goo.gl/myXCAQ
Migrants Motherlands Mothercultures https://goo.gl/MGrnPQ
Heritage a vehicle of understanding against extremism violence https://goo.gl/gpfGPp
Gender Bender Mia Mottley takes political helm in Barbados https://goo.gl/xL3DEd
In the News LiTTributes attract award winning newspaper https://goo.gl/n2GsG9
Bridging Cultural Gaps LiTTribute to ToronTTO. See link https://goo.gl/jLHTBE
Yo Ho Ho Piracy and Heritage: https://goo.gl/TvXOHU
A Diaspora Celebrates: LiTTribute to the Americas See link https://goo.gl/brUkjH
Join us or commission your own Creative Conversations: https://goo.gl/qPBzef
Arresting the Tears Hayti I’m Sorry https://goo.gl/6sy3y6
Towards State of the Art Museum: https://goo.gl/FfHfJL
Murder and the Museum: http//goo.gl/FHs3Fr
Celebrating Nationhood But Can new Save the Nation https://goo.gl/qSqJtT
my-discoverie-columbus-lost-and-found https://goo.gl/ixGu7y
Pat-bishops-last-struggle-killings https://goo.gl/tQUySt
Them-red-house-bones
A-tale-of-two-skeletonsJurisprudence An Ode https://goo.gl/Gmn7l0
Ah Drinking Babash https://goo.gl/GhMncz
Lagahoo-tribute-to-independent-spirits https://goo.gl/P6gP2Q
 Murder and the Museum  http//goo.gl/FHs3Fr
Woman in the mirror https://goo.gl/pvnX9d
The Triumph of Gollum in the Land of Shut Up Suicide of the Fellowship of Partnerships Book 11. A Sequel Futuring the Agenda Forward  https://goo.gl/HU3rp3
Celebrating Jamettry The Sacred and the Sacriligious
The Human face of constitutional reform https://goo.gl/6escjj
Yo Ho ho and a bottle of rumhttps://goo.gl/TvXOHU
 Demokrissy https://goo.gl/FHs3Fr
Changing the World with Ideas  goo.gl/Pa6jAk

http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/2017/08/creating-revolution-through-knowledge.html


http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com /from-beirut-to-port-of-spain-how-west.html
The-price-of-passion-awards-and-rewards

Exploring a World Through MultiCultural Lenses https://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/2017/07/dr-kris-rampersad-exploring-world.html

 Power Failure Media Blackout Brets Muffled Threats and Ransoming Father: https://goo.gl/YjbBgx
my-date-with-narendra-modi-dat-merkel affair
Things-that-make-me-go-steups-stars http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/2016/12/things-that-make-me-go-steups-stars.html
Focus-resources on real crime
The-ghost-of journalism past
Ask About LiTTscapes,

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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