Address by The Author, Dr KRIS
RAMPERSAD at the launch of the book LiTTScapes – Landscapes of Fiction from
Trinidad and Tobago by Dr Kris Rampersad, August 4, 2012, at White Hall, 29
Maraval Road, Port of Spain
You have seen
what some very amateur children from age three can do for our creative
enterprises – the children of the Leaves of Life of LiTTscapes – the Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago.
Given a chance,
we can make every child explore and recognise and build a life around his or
her creative potential – outside the classroom which we know is educating it
out of them.
What you have
heard about the children stories of cultures and festivals and ecology and
prehistory are to come – and yes, we hope that proceeds from this one will go
towards those and more reading matter for preschool to adult to complement the
range of interactive events we have planned.
They form part of
this vision and are being prepared in our Leaves of Life Catalogue to go public
shortly with its range of children’s home grown creative reading and
activities, young adult poetry and fiction, research like this one packaged for
specific user communities in accessible forms, animations/yes cartoon and films
that you and only a few others have been privy to so far – but first this one.
I’m not sure
there’s much left for me to say except please read the book, and visit the
places and show your children this island, this world that belongs to them.
The journey to here
may sound, at times, like a tragedy – the computer crashes, the software
seizures, the false starts, the press stalls; or maybe a comedy – well finding
the humour in the moment has sometimes been the only way to keep sane; and
sometimes a drama.
But in truth and
in fact, it has been a romance … a life long love affair to rival all love
affairs, with reading, with writing, with our writers and writers in general,
and with Trinidad and Tobago.
One memory
emerges from the past. It is the twilight zone - between writing the common
entrance examination and awaiting the results – and not much older than the
children of LiTTscapes here. I am in
front of a wooden bookshelf hanging above the bed. I have gone through the
bookshelf that housed the textbooks of my nine elder siblings – geography,
history, chemistry, agriculture literature – textbooks all because other
reading material would be a luxury my farming parents could ill afford. I have
read them all and am jumping up and down on the bed under the bookshelf in
frustration. What does one do with all this time – and two months of vacation
at age eleven can seem like a lot of time – not many books, little else to do.
The prospect of
picking worms off the ground, adding them to hooks strung on thread and
throwing them into the nearby pond – which my younger brother and nephew were
doing - was not very attractive – though in literature is appears to be so
exotic an activity.
“Storybooks” was
taboo in the house, but literature books were not. Along with the history of
the people who came which were in my sister’s book bag, and agriscience texts
that many years later, I found out were written by my uncle – I was in awe –
really, someone in my family had written and printed a book and it was in
schools? It could be done.
I had read from
my sisters’ schoolbags – Michael Anthony’s Cricket
in the Road and heard the cross talk of us village children playing cricket
in someone’s yard; Samuel Selvon’s Ways
of Sunlight lent a different texture to light in the cane fields and
vegetable garden my parents insisted we help out in.
The first thing
to do when I had a chance to walk the short distant from the post common
entrance school was to detour from catching the taxi home and join the Princes
Town library.
It opened up a
whole new world and a new world of the historical novel, the romance history,
peoples and places I could not even imagine in my village upbringing. It was
only a matter of time before I had covered most of the material on its shelves.
Compare that – to
the world of a virtual unlimited access to knowledge in which we now function -
what a long way we have come in a short decade - or two…
The books were
only a forerunner to participate more fully in that world and - like the first
writers, feeling the pull and call of what’s beyond the frontiers of our
imagination - going there too and then writing about that to – and so to be an
active participant in the evolving global village.
If I may recall,
my first journey outside of Trinidad and Tobago – to take up a one month
fellowship through the government of Japan and striking up a conversation with
the stranger sitting in the plane seat next to me who when he heard I was a
journalist, leaned over, opened a magazine he was reading and by some
tremendous coincidence it happened to be a quote that read:
Writing is like
Prostitution
First you do it
for the love of it
Then you do it
for a few friends
And then you do
it for the money.
I confess that while
I have been trying to do it for the latter and trying to cull an environment
where other writers and creators, like myself, can also confidently do it for
the money, it has often turned out to be more for peanuts, because for writers,
and many of the creators, the first two – the love of it, and for a few friends
and demanding and voracious readers like these young ones here, always take precedence
and it is indeed they who have been pressuring me to put the stories I write in
a book, because they keep them in a folder that seems like a book but not as
attractive as the packed seven shelves of his own fully illustrated, hard cover
bound reading matter has already accumulated.
There is a common
thread that comes through starkly and poignantly through all the writings
represented in this book – and which this book does not really capture (there I
go, the eternal critic, critiquing my own work even, so I do not reserve that
critical mind and tongue only for politicians, believe me).
That thread is a
sense of sterility of the literary environment in which our writers believe
they function and from which many of them flee - to write from more literate friendly
and more receptive societies and that in itself makes almost everything written
by our expatriate writers an indictment on Trinidad Tobago. Two exceptions to
those who have left to write are before us Michael Anthony and Earl Lovelace
who have stayed here and in itself takes a lot of courage and for that I have
asked that they be my special guest here today.
Yes, the
environment has evolved and it is changing, indeed, since the only outlet for
our earliest men and women of letters were through personal letters to family
and friends, and later through letters to the editors of newspapers or at best
as a writer for a newspaper which was a springboard for several of our early
writers – the subject of my first book, Finding
a Place.
Even the
newspapers only grudgingly allowing space for creative writing – well-documented
in fact and in fiction – the most famous of which is of course, Mr Biswas - the journalist Seepersad Naipaul of VS’
Magnum Opus, A House for Mr Biswas;
but also in the writings of Derek Walcott, Earl Lovelace, CLR James all of whom
were a part of that environment.
I do not use the
example of the newspapers because of a pet peeve, but as an example – as an
industry that relies on and whose base raw materials are writings to highlight
the degree of disconnection the sectors of society have with the processes of
its own development. Writings are the basic raw materials by which all sectors
must function – and it now has been endowed with that glamorous title of The
Knowledge Economy.
But we continue
to be consumers of the processes rather than producers – think of our
television stations – how many of them now, at last count about nine - dishing
out cheaply bought sitcoms and imported programmes, or drifting into really
cheap, cheap, cheap talk at the expense of culling an environment and promoting
activities that can impact the level of discourse in the society, of creative
expression, and by extension our development.
There are
countless examples of a similar kind of disconnect in all other sectors –
agriculture and processing for instance – what CLR James and Lloyd Best and
Eric Williams and Naipaul and Walcott and Lovelace couch within the colonial
system that have made us consumers rather than producers.
Except, when it
come to writings, we seem to be more producers rather than consumers.
This effort, LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction from
Trinidad and Tobago which started out to be just an attempt at a creative
capture of the fictional imagination that came out of Trinidad and Tobago. Now,
even before birth, it is assuming larger-than-life dimensions that is awesome
and awe-inspiring, and I am humbled by that.
When I pitched
this – the book - to Sonja Wong who initially came on board as the graphic
designer, but has evolved into so much more – as a mother of three very
creatively talented children – two of whom you have heard today – the third,
one of our most promising poets, will be among an open house to showcase the
work of young writers we hope to hold here, at the White Hall, as one of the
activities planned for this period of celebrations. Sonja and her family have
supported and shared and added to that vision of where this can go, and shared
all the numerous sleepless nights too - as so many of you have since and the
parents who leant their children to today’s event, at such short notice and
going beyond the call of parental duty – Denise and Mr Ali; Mr and Mrs Newton, the
Rajcoomars; my sister in law, Radha; niece Sunita – because they recognise that
rather than just lament about an ineffective education system that is actually
stifling and stamping out the creativity and talent among us – as we have been
doing for decades – take Sparrow’s Dan is the Man, for instance that tells of
how a formal education system borrowed from elsewhere can never speak to our
needs or who we are as a people. So rather than just lament and throw picong,
we are trying to actually do something about it – to effect the kind of change
and create the kind of society we want this to be.
The members of my
team have taken this up as a personal responsibility, in the awareness that
change can only start with oneself – not in waiting for someone else to set the
ball rolling – and then hope that fate shines on us – so while the book has
been in the making for the greater part of a decade – and we refused to
compromise its vision by printing a condensed version or a black and white
version – yes, the chief factor was costs – when Dr Tewarie and his interministerial
committee on the 50th anniversary celebrations were looking for
something that celebrates the essence of us as part of its outputs, we could
have said, ‘here, we have something, and now it was not just a book; we had a
whole vision, a master plan, a business plan, a prototype of a network that
will incorporate all of us working together, all sectors – government, private
sector, creators, NGOS and communities – parents and childen – in a way that
all feel included, not excluded and so we start addressing the social ennui,
the boredom, the disconnect, the discontent.
To redress this sense
that did not start with independence; it has been cultivated from the time the
first Europeans landed here and began massacring the native peoples – and even with
those who landed feeling like rejects from Europe that has made this into a
kind of hostile environment where we view each other with suspicion and
everyone seems to be wlking around with a sense of exclusion, alienation and
disempowerment that is gripping not just writers but so many of our people,
even the ones whom we think have power.
And hence we present
LiTTscapes, to celebrate writers and
ourselves and too, and LiTTours – the journeys through the
landscapes of Trinidad and Tobago where we meet and greet and explore for ourselves
too – and participate, become a part of, claim, belong!
Thus continues
this journey to self hood which our writers have been trying to carve for us,
by picking at sometimes our ugliest features and holding them up to scrutiny so
intense that we wince.
We all seem to be
throwing up our hands at what we call the crime situation – but what are we
really doing about. The politicians feel disempowered; the policemen feel
disempowered, the local authorities feel disempowered which give criminals the
ammunition to disempower our people.
Reclaiming
ourselves can also reclaim our land from the criminals. I have seen how this
has energised young people who would otherwise be thought of as lazy, listless,
witless and yes, wotless – kept them focused and driven and that is a solution
to crime. Here’s a resolution. Let’s start the revolution!
From here begins
a journey - over this jubilee month and
beyond.
We will show how
education does not only happen in a classroom nor does it stop at the
university. We will engage children and adults, readers and writers, creators
and consumers and through Leaves of Life (LOL) – a kind of supportive
administrative umbrella because we envision that such a stimulus needs form and
structure and finance along with passion and ideas and energy.
Look at what we
have done on an almost zero budget! Think of what we can do with the education
budget, the security and crime prevention budget, the infrastructure and public
utilities budget, the environment, the agriculture and food security budgets,
the transport and communications and information and culture and youth and
women and community and local government budgets.
We need each
other to do it.
We as citizens
who pass by the Magnificent Seven everyday; we have even have stopped noticing
them, or their magnificence, because they conjure up only a lament – not just
the painful past of colonialism, but the sad testimony of the state – or lack
thereof, of our development; to disguise our pain that we have allowed them to
deteriorate into oblivion. But are we not all responsible in some way for this
– it’s not just someone elses’ fault. It has to start with what am I not
doing?
So Minister
Emmanuel George’s enthusiastic support when I presented him with the notion of
using this building; of giving me a chance; giving us a chance to show what can
be done if we open up these buildings to the public to capture the creative synergies
they can exude, so our people can appreciate them as part of the public
patrimony; as part of the inheritance of the blood, sweat and tears of history,
and of our spirit of survivalism that neither slavery nor indentureship nor
alien rule could defeat. What little tweaks we need towards cultivating a sense
of social inclusion and to combat the anomie – with animae; to
animate ourselves and what we do.
And there is no
dollar value to that … or there could be, if you weigh it against the costs of
war and strife and instability.
The Minister of
Transport agreed to allow us use of a PTSC bus today for the inaugural tour but
we are to show dollars and cents of continuation; and a request for use of the
ferry which sits idle on weekends is on the brink of being shelved because, I
am told, just running it as it is, it is already heavily subsidised.
Then, May I
suggest, let us make that subsidisation have some other value – social value –
the value of knowledge, of creative stimulus, of leisure and entertainment
activity that can – and I say that with much confidence because I have seen it
in the young people around me – that can provide an alternative to lives of
crime. Weigh the dollars and sense of that!.
We need to inject
some creative vision into the national balance sheet; weigh in the social
factors – I am sure you will find it worth your while. So I retable to this the
2012 -2013 budget a request to providethe facilitationthat can only come from
Government and we will do our part as creators and in engaging the public
sectors and NGOs and communities. To in the first instance allow us the use of
the Port of Spain to San Fernando Ferry to present Trinidad and Tobago from a
different perspective. We promise that the results will be a generation of
youngsters with a different outlook on their past, their present and their
future.
We appeal to you
to look at the larger picture, to factor in the social balance sheet and I can
pull together a team of experts who can show you how the social picture can add
up to the numbers you are looking for. Rethink our approach to heritage – a
heritage-driven economy is one where all find a place and has a sense of a
share of the national pie because it speaks to selfhood.
Thanks to Dr
Tewarie and his interministerial committee for immediately recognising the
vision and the potential of this; and we hope he will share with his team the
interconnectedness that is required if it is to succeed – the public sector,
yes, but the private and NGO and community sectors too.
Some you must
have seen, read, heard, my sometimes-rejoiner to the cliché that came out of
the poem by Shakespeare’s contemporary John Donne that No Man Is An Island -
but Woman Is.New Bok LiTTscapes now in stores
In truth and in
fact, we cannot be an island when we contain the cultures and the creative
capacity of all the continents of the world.
We are not an island – we need each other. We
will be reaching our arms out to all departments of government – law,
education, utilities, tourism, culture, education to do what needs be done to
build the national infrastructure if we are to accommodate the international
audience – the tourists and returning citizens and others.
We have also
asked that our Government and Minister of Finance, Foreign Affairs, and Trade
and Investments address the prohibitive tax regime that immediately makes us uncompetitive
in the much touted e-books market – a 30 percent tax imposed by the US
government on ebooks sales after the 50 percent demanded of Amazon.
That, among other tweaks and creation of an
enabling environment by Goernment that continue to make us unable to compete in
the global market place; and investment by the corporate sector that can help
springboard the range of activities and actions we have planned, and we have a
business plan developed in conjunction with some of the best in the business in
T&T.
And there is
something else we need to do. Get with the times…. It does not take 3 years to
get a plan moving, the wheels of the world are now revolving around
microseconds – if we cannot quicken our pace to match that, and I say to match
that, to be in the moment as is demanded of us, then we are already in a losing
game. It cannot take months and months of pounding and pounding on one door to
get action. That is a thing of the past.
All of us, all of
us in this room, and all of us outside, are what it will take for this
revolution to succeed. We need to not just look for other ways to do it – to do
education, to do leisure, to do finance and planning, and policy making, and crime
fighting and road laying – in new ways.
It is no longer
my book, or this project by Sonja and I; or Sonja and these few parents and
children, and writers and creators and conservationists and I - this is a
revolution for all of us.
Let us begin it,
by reading, and by writing the world as we want it to be. And that is the sum
total of LiTTscapes – the Landscapes of our Fiction from our imagination, the
islands of Trinidad and Tobago.
I thank you.
The LiTTour is an offspring of the critically acclaimed LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago by Dr Kris Rampersad.
