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STREET life in St James, a suburb of Port of Spain, Trinidad's capital, that likes to call itself the “city that never sleeps”, normally blasts on until the early hours. But now all is deathly quiet. Customers and staff scuttle home early to beat a 9pm curfew that started on August 21st in Port of Spain and three other towns as part of a nationwide state of emergency imposed by Trinidad and Tobago's prime minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
The aim of the emergency, which grants special powers to the police and army, is to try to break the island's violent criminal gangs. Most Trinidadians support the measure. “Long overdue”, says Ken Gordon, a businessman who chaired a crime task-force for a former government. The four days preceding the announcement saw 11 killings, in a country of just 1.3m people. The murder rate last year was 36 per 100,000, around seven times that in the United States. Recent drug busts raised fears of more deadly turf battles.... Read More
‘Barefoot and pregnant’ is an image that has been associated with disempowered women, dependent and entangled in a cycle of poverty, frustration and self-negation from limited life chances resulting from unplanned, unaffordable pregnancies. Similarly, aspects of the feminist movement have also frowned on lengthening and thinning heels on women’s shoes as similar representations of internalised repressions. In fact, shoes and rising heels have been associated with improved standards of living and lifestyles that allow persons to afford shoes to protect themselves from dreaded poverty-associated diseases, and the roughness of the ground.
Now leading women in the civil society movement have adopted the metaphor – at least half of it, ‘barefoot’ – and extended it, to remind the world of the violations of human rights around the world. Go barefoot – lose your shoes is the rallying call to the world to remind ourselves of these violations. Led by CIVICUS - a world alliance of civil society interests, based in South Africa and headed by Ingrid Srinath – men and boys, women and girls shed their shoes and trekked barefooted through most of the CIVICUS World Assembly activities in Montreal recently, to signal their commitment to defending the rights of persons around the world.
On Human Rights Day, December, 10 – mark the date - the CIVICUS led campaign - Every Human Has Rights – will rally people to focus, even for a few moments, to think about other people whose rights have been violated in the hope of building understanding and to begin to make the fight for human rights part of everyone’s lives. This year’s rally around the slogan Go Barefoot – Lose Your Shoes, will zero in on people living in poverty – people who don’t have food to put on their table, let alone shoes to put on their feet.
In particular, we may want to think of the women and children in the some 20 percent of the population of Trinidad and Tobago whose existence hover around the ‘poverty line’.
I have found that more horrifying than what is conjured by the metaphor of ‘barefoot and pregnant’, is the statistic – of 20 percent of our population being barely able to afford life’s basics , given that T&T’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per head is said to be some USD 20,000. In lay terms, that means, that if this country’s wealth was more equitably distributed, every individual will be earning some TTD 120,000 a year.
Human Rights day was introduced to keep focus on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the anniversary of this Declaration with its 30 Articles of the rights of men and women. In printed form, the 9 cm by 12 cm booklet of 15 pages defines human rights as right to life, liberty, security, property, education, equality before law, freedom of thought, religion, opinion, peaceful assembly, political participation, equal pay for equal work, right to join trade unions, right to a standard of living adequate for health and well being.
Other less known, are ‘right to nationality’, family, equal access to the public service, free development of personality and right to protection of moral and material interests from any scientific, literary or artistic production.
Trinbagonians, with the endemic liming culture would be pleased to know it also includes the right to participate in cultural life, enjoy the arts, share in scientific achievement as well as – note this –“rights to the freedom to rest and leisure and periodic holidays with pay.”
It is clear that many of these rights still point to the unequal status of women in many parts of the world where women still do not enjoy right to property, freedom of thought, equal pay for equal work, and right to enjoy adequate standard of living for health and well being and access to social and public services and utilities, and many have no prospect of experiencing “rights to the freedom to rest and leisure and periodic holidays with pay.”
Go Barefoot, lose your shoes, is based on the belief that the world would be a better place if every person walked a mile in another person’s. Wouldn’t it? Try it and at noon on December 10, take off your shoes, step out onto the street and walk around the to reognise that Every Human Have Rights. Some details in the box on what you can do.
Dr Kris Rampersad is a media, cultural and literary consultant, and author of Through the Political Glass Ceiling – Race to Prime Ministership by Trinidad and Tobago’s First Female.
For Gender and Culture Sensitive Analyses, Strategy, Education, Facilitation, Workshops, Outreach, Advocacy and MultiMedia Materials make contact at the GloCal Knowledge Pot
What you can do:
1. Raising profile of rights
Lose your shoes and walk around your office, church, school etc, barefooted. Take pictures and videos to upload onto the Lose Your Shoes website.
2. Raise awareness
Stories and case studies online and used in digital promotions will help demonstrate that violations of human rights are one of the biggest obstacles to eradicating poverty and people action to uphold Universal rights.
3. 12 steps for human rights
Take the pledge to take the12 STEPS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS by starting with actions on the day and then throughout the year – one each month, simple actions from signing a petition, to attending an event or watching a video and sharing with friends.
For more actions, see http://loseyourshoes.org/
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That the new incumbent is a woman, of rural background, of Indian descent, forces academics to work outside the traditional tool box of investigation.
First out the post is Dr. Kris Rampersad, a journalist, lecturer and political observer in her own right. Rampersad has brought out a selection of Persad-Bissessar’s speeches showing how the path to power was cut and maintained right up to the weeks before that euphoric night of celebration.
What gives the author’s book an insightful quality is that it was launched the week before Persad-Bissessar’s massive electoral win. Few guessed what the result was going to be because commentators, inured by decades of assessing a two-party system along racial lines, hardly bothered to look behind the scenes at a fluid seething electorate, many voting for the first time.
Rampersad’s opening essay to the book, titled “A Clash of Political Cultures: Cultural Diversity and Minority Politics in Trinidad and Tobago”, sets new interpretations for future elected office holders. This essay could be a good starting point for political scientists taking a new look at the twin island republic’s evolution into its now open accepted multicultural face.
“The whole perception of TT society is that it is race-based, and projections coming out of this, are false,” she said in Toronto to promote her new book.
“We inherited a Westminster style system and interpreters of the two party system it posits presents and represents that in terms of race and in the process overlook that Opposition politics was really accommodating elements of the country's diversity that could not seem to find a place in the ruling party.
Both in terms of the physical presentations and in representations of the country as a whole, you get wrong interpretations of what this country is all about. Take for example, our Embassies, High Commissions and Consulates, they do not reflect, or represent the fullness of TT society; not the kind of society we know of a place where we have moved beyond racial tolerance to a casualness and comfortableness with each other and as a result we don’t have the kind of animosities and antagonisms seen in other societies coming to grip with their diversity.”
Rampersad points out that one of the enduring myths is that in sections of Trinidad there are Indian-only villages, or African-only suburbs. She insists that from times as long as one can remember, there have been peoples of different races living side by side, sharing ancestral values, and cuisines, for examples. Then you have the inevitable process of racial mixing. But it’s more than African or Indian; there’s Chinese, Syrian-Lebanese, European and Taino/Carib/Arawak. “There is no race based community in Trinidad, all are diverse. You must understand this if you want to understand the political face of the Republic and it seemed that the politics of the last 30 years has been unable to catch-up with this reality.”
Rampersad states with conviction that the evolution to a diverse political representation became more and more evident in the 1970s when cracks began appearing in the People's National Movement when key figures like Karl Hudson-Phillips and ANR Robinson abandoned the party. The victories of the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) in 1986, and the United National Congress (UNC) in 1996 are the manifestations of a broad power sharing.
It was in this period that the young wife of a doctor, Kamla Persad-Bissessar was thrust into the role first as alderman, then a parliamentarian, then Attorney General, then Acting Prime Minister. She might have come from a Hindu home, but her parents also had her baptised into the Spiritual Baptist Movement. During her law studies in Jamaica and otherwise, she expanded her cultural appreciation of other societies, strengths and weaknesses. Indeed, through the campaign and on election night, on stage, she danced to Bob Marley’s “One Love”, even as possibly a couple hundred tassa drums reverberated around the party headquarters.
Reading through this selection of speeches, you also see the wordings of broad representations, Persad-Bissessar’s loyalty to her boss, the Leader of the Opposition, and former Prime Minister, Basdeo Panday, in spite of jealousies and putdowns.
Remember too we are working in an outwardly machismo society, yet still inherently matriarchal. Feminists generally call this the “glass ceiling”.
Persad-Bissessar’s speeches, which represents over 60 years of the political history of the country and some 21 years of the political life of Mrs Persad-Bissessar shows she is no fluke to the nation’s highest elected office, that she had been addressing issues and problems when few cared to debate them. That she was not ever afraid to confront her allies or government ministers with blunt language. But she tempered her rhetoric with diplomacy, smiles and a sense of logic that was hard to refute; for example, her action confronting the Speaker of the House with his stupid decision banning laptops in Parliament when every other democracy in the world was incorporating them into the era of information led debate.
For lovers of Trinbago society, this is a good book to have, to appreciate the fullness of its roots, and as the author’s says, a good template for other emergent multicultural societies the world over.
The book is called Through The Political Glass Ceiling, Race to Prime Ministership by Trinidad and Tobago’s First Female – Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
(Reprinted with permission of The Caribbean Camera, Toronto, Canada).
The only woman among 15 regional leaders, Persad-Bissessar on Sunday celebrated her ties with the host country of the 31st Caricom Heads of Government Meeting, saying Jamaica, where she lived for 14 years, influenced her career in politics. She also found love in this country, but did not say who had won her heart.
“Jamaica was once my home for some 14 years. I studied here, fell in love here, taught here and attended my first political meeting right here in Jamaica. So in a sense one can say that Jamaica helped prepare me in becoming Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. I guess if my political opponents knew this would occur they would have done everything in their power to ensure I stayed right here,” Persad-Bissessar said in her debut address to Caricom leaders at the Half Moon Hotel at Montego Bay.
She observed she had a personal connection to another Caricom country, Barbados where her son Kris was born.
“May I add that I also spent a few years in Barbados as well, in fact, my son is Barbadian born. And I believe such experiences help to sharpen an understanding of that unique Caribbean identity and perspective,” Persad-Bissessar said, who is married to Dr Gregory Bissessar.
She learnt many life lessons from her years in Jamaica and Barbados which contributed to her ascendancy as a leader in Trinidad and Tobago.
“During those early periods of my life I never dreamt I would be one day addressing such an esteemed group of Caribbean leaders at all, much less as Prime Minister of my nation.
But I guess one can never underestimate the education of a Caribbean experience, especially that of a woman who encounters it,” she said.
Although she leads a new government in Trinidad and Tobago, Persad-Bissessar assured this country remains committed to supporting its Caricom neighbours, pausing to extend her sympathy to President of Haiti Rene Preval over the devastating earthquake which killed thousands in the impoverished nation on January 12.
“The fortitude, dignity and resilience demonstrated by the people of our sister isle state of Haiti in the wake of this terrible event have won profound respect,” she said, renewing a pledge to continue to provide aid to Haiti.
Persad-Bissessar said Caricom remains a symbol “for an improved quality of life for all in the region”, and made an appeal for leaders to “reduce poverty throughout the community so that all our people can enjoy a higher standard of living”.
She held up several early initiatives of her government as examples, such as the $100 million Life Fund, proposing a similar Caricom Life Fund to help provide better care for sick children. President of Guyana Bharrat Jagdeo welcomed this proposal yesterday saying his country is now pursuing similar initiatives. Jagdeo also said greater effort must be made to protect women who are single heads of households in the region.
Jagdeo himself came in for praise from Persad-Bissessar, who commended him for receiving the Champion of the Earth award from the United Nations for Guyana’s low carbon emission programme.
As Guyana has done, Trinidad and Tobago too is adopting measures to protect the environment, such as the Clean Up and Beautify initiative which the Government launched on June 27, Persad-Bissessar told the leaders.
Stating it was the “largest collaborative effort between government and the private sector ever introduced”, Persad-Bissessar also disclosed plans to introduce tough anti-littering legislation, and again held such programmes up as examples that could be implemented across the Caribbean.
“I long for the day when I can learn of a pan-Caribbean approach within a specific initiative in dealing with environmental issues,” she said, further stating that the resources of the Petroleum Fund should be allocated to promote sustainable development of the region, as well as education. It can also be used to support a Caricom Life Fund, she suggested.
Noting her role as lead Caricom Prime Minister with responsibility for matters relating to Crime and Security, Persad-Bissessar again called for cooperation among states to “strengthen the peace and security of the region”.
“In the Caribbean, guaranteeing public safety cannot be confined to military and police action. The dimensions of criminal activity are increasingly associated with human trafficking, repatriation of deportees, money laundering, the trade of illicit drugs and firearms and other forms of organised crime and terrorism.
“Trinidad and Tobago remains committed to bolstering the security of the region as it is one of the cornerstones which must be strengthened to ensure that the foundation for the collective prosperity of our region remains solid,” she said.
Commending Persad-Bissessar, Prime Minister of Jamaica Bruce Golding said Caricom is fortunate to have her as one of its leaders as the regional body faces a defining moment in its history.
“I want to congratulate her on her historic achievement. My colleague Heads and I look forward to the wisdom which she will bring to our deliberations. Trinidad and Tobago has always played a significant role in Caricom and we have every confidence that it will continue to do so under her leadership.”
Golding thanked Persad-Bissessar for accepting his invitation to remain in Jamaica after the Caricom meeting ends tomorrow for a two-day working visit. “We have so many things to discuss,” he stated. Persad-Bissessar is expected to discuss the Caribbean Airlines-Air Jamaica arrangement when she meets Golding.
Following her election victory, continuing to break the glass ceiling
Trinidad's PM breaks the cultural mould
By Nazma Muller Trinidad
Published
Image caption,
Ms Persad-Bissessar is a devout Hindu
Barely 24 hours after she was sworn in as the first woman prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar donned a life jacket and waded into the flood waters to tour areas affected by torrential rains sweeping across the Caribbean.
A devout Hindu, she swore on the Bhagavad Gita - the Hindu holy book - to do her duty to her people.
Even as congratulations poured in from around the world, she remained focused on "dealing with the people's business".
It was the most important task at hand, she told her 1.3m citizens during the live televised address of her historic swearing-in ceremony.
A descendant of Indian indentured labourers who came to Trinidad to work the sugar plantations from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar between 1845 and 1917, Ms Persad-Bissessar grew up with traditional Indian values and strong religious ties.
'No novice'
The landslide victory of the coalition led by her United National Congress (UNC) party in last month's election has brought a sense of euphoria and feeling of hope to this incredibly wealthy republic.
Trinidad and Tobago has sailed smoothly through the global recession, cushioned by a sea of oil and natural gas.
Image caption,
Ms Persad-Bissessar ran a high-profile election campaign
The squandering of billions of dollars by the former government and alleged corruption helped bring this 58-year-old grandmother-of-two into power.
She unseated former PM Patrick Manning whose People's National Movement (PNM) party had governed the country for 42 of the 48 years since its independence from the UK.
An attorney by profession, Ms Persad-Bissessar is no novice to politics having been the MP for her area Siparia, a rural town in the south of the island, since 1995.
In the last 15 years she has weathered many political storms, even as she broke gender barriers.
Former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday (1995-2001) appointed her attorney general and education minister during the UNC's first stint in office, and she even acted as PM.
But in 2007, in the lead-up to a general election, when it was clear that she was the best person to lead the party, Mr Panday refused to resign.
Ms Persad-Bissessar, who is married to a doctor and has a son, swallowed the humiliation, even giving a famous speech to the theme of Bob Marley's No Woman No Cry, in which she declared her undying support for her political guru.
But all that changed last December.
As then Prime Minister Manning became increasingly unpopular, Ms Persad-Bissessar saw a golden opportunity for the opposition forces to unite to topple the ruling People's National Movement.
'Smear campaign'
But as she launched her bid to take over the UNC, Mr Panday unleashed an attack on her reputation, suggesting that she was an alcoholic.
Ms Persad-Bissessar called the accusation "total falsehood".
Image caption,
Ms Persad-Bissessar is of Indian origin
"It is a smear campaign of lies, half-truths and innuendoes. Smear campaigns do not win elections. Sticks and stones may break my bones but words cannot hurt me."
Indeed, they did not.
On 24 January, Ms Persad-Bissessar became leader of the UNC with a landslide victory.
When Mr Panday refused to step down as leader of the opposition, she dealt with that too - persuading his loyal MPs to cross over to her side.
After she was appointed leader of the opposition, she hired the strategist who worked on Barack Obama's presidential campaign to assist her.
After a blistering, hugely expensive campaign that used high-tech, slick advertisement in all the media, including the internet, Ms Persad-Bissessar and her coalition emerged victorious.
And on 24 May she became prime minister.
Ms Persad-Bissessar has shown admirable political savvy in the last few weeks, openly courting the media and reacting swiftly to public opinion.
In her 30 May Indian Arrival Day speech she touched on "soft" issues such as race, gender and class inequality.
"As a child in the rural district of Penal I remember sharing meals from the same pot with neighbours of different racial, ethnic, social and economic backgrounds," she said.
"We all managed. If one had, then all had. Because then we were intuitively and instinctively our brother's keepers.
On her terms
"Time and circumstances have allowed many factors, including the divisiveness of some politicians, to keep us apart. But to go forward, we must go back.
"We need to rekindle those values, those strengths as a nation and as a people… And we must do so as one people with one goal."
Image caption,
Ms Persad-Bissessar unseated former PM Patrick Manning
She is intensely aware of the chance she has to make and change history on these islands.
She has already shown that she will be a prime minister on her own terms.
She declined the opportunity to meet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton because parliament had not yet been convened.
She graced the catwalk at Trinidad and Tobago's annual fashion week at the end of May.
And she also made an appearance with local chutney musicians at a show.
Ms Persad-Bissessar, who graduated top of her class from law school, also confronted the delicate issue of gender tensions.
"Looking towards the future, one of the most important issues the national community must face is the widening gap between the liberated, modern, independent women and our traditional men who are being left behind," she said.
"Women are outperforming men in almost every sphere of life in our society and the women of east Indian ancestry are no exception to this rule. They have broken the cultural mould," she said.
Culture, gender and geography in the arena of politics - A new book by Dr Kris Rampersad
From the Trinidad Guardian
Book on Kamla launches today
by Shaliza Hassanali
A book highlighting the quest by the country's first female leader of the United National Congress, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, for prime ministership is to be launched today
Written by journalist, researcher and publisher Dr Kris Rampersad, the book entitled Through The Political Glass Ceiling–Race to Prime Ministership by Trinidad and Tobago's First Female is a compilation of selected speeches of Persad-Bissessar against the backdrop of contending minority-versus-dominant factors of culture, gender and geography, as T&T struggles for articulation and definition of a truly encompassing national identity. The book is expected to be launched at MovieTowne, Port-of-Spain, with the blessing and presence of Persad-Bissessar. Rampersad says the book presents the paradox of politics and society in T&T in the context of the contest for leadership between the country's longest standing political identity, the PNM, and Persad-Bissessar, who is vying for the office of Prime Minister. The book, consisting introduction, context and analyses ranges through the country's experiences with political parties under Dr Eric Williams to the period of voting deadlock at the turn of the century, involving Basdeo Panday and Patrick Manning.
Book on Kamla launches today, 20100515 by Shaliza Hassanali
A book highlighting the quest by the country's first female leader of the United National Congress, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, for prime ministership is to be launched today
Written by journalist, researcher and publisher Dr Kris Rampersad, the book entitled Through The Political Glass Ceiling–Race to Prime Ministership by Trinidad and Tobago's First Female is a compilation of selected speeches of Persad-Bissessar against the backdrop of contending minority-versus-dominant factors of culture, gender and geography, as T&T struggles for articulation and definition of a truly encompassing national identity. The book is expected to be launched at MovieTowne, Port-of-Spain, with the blessing and presence of Persad-Bissessar. Rampersad says the book presents the paradox of politics and society in T&T in the context of the contest for leadership between the country's longest standing political identity, the PNM, and Persad-Bissessar, who is vying for the office of Prime Minister. The book, consisting introduction, context and analyses ranges through the country's experiences with political parties under Dr Eric Williams to the period of voting deadlock at the turn of the century, involving Basdeo Panday and Patrick Manning.
