What my mother told me Your Wealth Is Your Mind

The National Award for Development of Women/Journalism to me represents an acknowledgment of the sometimes nameless and voiceless women and others I have tried to represent; whose stories I have written, and whose views I have tried to articulate variously as a journalist, as an advocate and activist, as an author, educator and media practitioner in the quest for equity and inclusion, to open up spaces for women and advance a level playing field for all.

We who are given opportunities have a responsibility to give back and to leave our sphere better for those who come after. The wind beneath my wings has always been my now octogenarian mother, who had little such opportunity as what she tried to provide for my siblings and I, who inspires with her humility and abundant love; who gives and asks for little in return and who instilled in me that my wealth is my mind. It is to her courage and resilience and quick wit that strengthens my resolve in substituting the pursuit of material wealth for the pursuit of knowledge. It has energized me in the most trying of times. I must thank all those who have believed in me and shared the journey with me, because we are not an island in ourselves. The world in return, has given back, particularly the close friends and relatives whose prayers, with the endeavours of some very dedicated medics, unearthed a long buried dilemma and returned me to life in the most miraculous way with a restructured heart to beat a few more beats to enjoy this day.
 The engagement with learnings and knowledge and the impulse to share has been a vocation rather than a career.

Sharing some highlights below and some brief brief preview bits of Ma, from my upcoming autobiography, Life! HoleHeartedly!

To all the amazing women and girls and other peoples who have inspired me and whom I have and hope to inspire; to my sisters who make sure I have food in my stomach while I try to save the world; to my neices who motivate me to aspire to achieve a world of equity balance and inclusion Happy International Day of the Girl Child ... 

Celebrating Jamettry: Celebrating Jamettry The Sacred and the Sacriligious

https://goo.gl/oCk1PB

See also: The Walk of Excellence: https://goo.gl/wk4pBx
 Migrants Motherlands Mothercultures https://goo.gl/MGrnPQ

Women Power Leadership Inauguration of Trinidad and Tobago's First Female President Paula Mae Weekes.

https://goo.gl/k8FNVU

https://goo.gl/oCk1PB

Ma and me

Ma surprises me one day.

I thought the battle was won.

It is no mean feat to decondition centuries of tradition of the notion that marriage is not the ultimate goal for a woman’s self-fulfillment but I believe I had convinced Ma. I wasn’t in anyway averse to the notion. But life gets in the way. So much to do and so little time to do it in.

The hints and suggestions of appropriate life partners were becoming less frequent.  It was a long time since I heard her speak of it. Perhaps she has resigned herself, I think.

Then Ma surprises me. We are talking now about my career. It is difficult to explain. I do not have a career. I do not really have what people consider a real job. The demands of the NGOs had escalated. It left little time to visit, to talk. The schedule was getting hectic, one international NGO meeting after the other  I was beginning to feel the strain. There was little time to earn a living and there were bills to pay. One December, I was invited to a meeting to design international policy for Information and Communication Technology in Geneva – a follow-up meeting to the first WSIS meeting held in Tunisia some years earlier, to assess the distance travelled in ICTs and the way forward. I had presented on the need for gender-sensitive ICT policy, with a critique of gender blindness in ICT policy. Rewind! FastForward, it was entitled. Fastforward was the name of the national ICT policy.

My friend Gail turns up to take me to the airport. I was growing weary of the number of trips she, my friend Yma and Yasmin and Ganesh made to the airport. I could take a cab, but they wanted to give me a sense of homecoming, and warm send offs. But it was taking its toll on all of us. Suitcases stepped over from previous trips to get on the other one. The world thought it was glamorous, this jetting. I never thought that the air travel was impacting my yet unknown condition.

Gail finds me sitting, half-dressed, my winter booths next to me, pensive.

“Come on. You are going to be late!” She bristles, as I slowly pull on my clothes. She sits me down and pull my boots on.

“I don’t think I should go,” I tell her. “Ma’s not feeling well.” Ma had just turned 80. I told Gail of my visit with Ma the day before. The tears in Ma’s eyes when I was leaving, tears that would never flow because she would not let them. She celebrated the paths of all her children but she wasn’t feeling well. She was weak.  I could tell that she was beginning to feel that every meeting and departure would be the last we would see each other. But her tears never flowed, nor mine. I left to get ready for my trip, but my thoughts were on Ma’s uncomplaining farewell.

“It’s only for a few days. You will be back soon. She will be okay,” Gail reassures me. She pulls the boots on and zips my luggage. “Come on, you are going to be late.”

The meeting saw me get locked into the Geneva headquarters of the United Nations as long after the meeting ended and everyone had left, I as dealing with emails and responses to things everyone thought was urgent, losing track of time.  As with many of these meetings, it was one where I hardly saw outdoors. In the winter month of December, I left the hotel in darkness and returned in darkness, not seeing much of the outdoors or the place. If I wanted to do that I had to book in extra time.

There were many family occasions missed too. I felt that my nephews and nieces knew of me from what they read of and by me. For many years my birthday went uncelebrated or in other lands. In Uganda, coordinatng the outreach for the Women's Affairs Minister's Meeting, the women came together because Hazel Brown insisted that my birthday be noiced with a cake. 

In the weeks that I tried to pull together my second book, Through the Political Glass Ceiling so it could be out before the general elections. I felt a launch before the elections was crucial, because for me there were prophetic elements in the introduction, The Clash of Political Cultures: Cultural Diversity and Minority Politics in a Small Island with its inside into intangibles of political ideology that has often been overlooked in political and sociocultural analysesthat generally focus primarily on overt factors with which I wrapped the chronology of speeches by the woman who was in line to shatter the political glass ceiling as the first woman Prime Minister. When my family gathered for Mother’s Day, I had to beg leave. The book had to get to the press; the launch was in a few days. And a few days after that the elections. Ma understood. She encouraged me to get it done. I took comfort that she would be at the launch. How much we take our mothers for granted.

It was after the launch of Through the Political Glass Ceiling that we are sitting. I had just finished giving her a massage, with coconut oil, as she liked.

 “When you going settle down, girl?”

Oh dear. The conversation again, I think:

“But I am settled Ma.”

“But who you going to leave your wealth to?”

“What wealth Ma? I asked. Startled. I explained to her that I generally worked for just stipends to cover daily allowances, and when time permits, a few contracts that would have to cover the expenses of the months not formerly working.

“I am doing what I am called to do,” I tell her.

That’s when Ma surprised me.

“Your wealth is your mind. Who you going to pass that on to?” Ma says.

At the grinding stone

‘Everytime I passing gyul you peesaying masala….’

I discover the world in Ma’s kitchen: the crossroads of new and ancient Asian, Arabian, African, American European culinary delights. The scents in Ma’s kitchen are like the convergence of global force winds and waters at the crosscurrents of the world.

Ma is humming, ‘Everytime I passing gyul you peesaying masala’ as she presses out ancient family culinary secrets from the mystical Orient beyond the Middle Passage through Pacific-Atlantic Spice Routes, rerouted and rerooted. Like tantalising tall tales of the Arabian Nights they tease my senses out of my comfort zones of fairytales through Tunisia and Turkey, Venice and Manhattan to discoveries that will overturn histories and empires and turn pages, heads and square, oval and round tables of global diplomacy.

Everytime I passing gyul you peesaying masala, Ma hums.

From the bowls of spices surrounding her, ancient unrecorded lore transfers an exotic and erotic past from the perfumed gardens of the ancient new world. Silken curtains swish against each other sinuously and in sensual whispers seduces me to board closely guarded camel-drawn caravans laden with dhania, pippali, nutmeg, cloves, maithi, nigella, cinnamon, cardamom, mace, turmeric, across the deserts from Dravidian civilisations; aboard Persian carpets of Iran and Iraq; pausing for refueling at the intersection of shipping ports via the Arabian Sea into the Egypt’s Nile and the courts of Ramses; then onward through to Mediterranean parts, Turkey, swashbuckling with the Ottomans to enter Greece, to join Marco Polo through Rome, Venice; and Vasco De Gama then Magellan in Portugal, and onto Spanish, French, Dutch Europe, and to the British Empire.

Peesaying masala, peesaying masala

Everytime I passing gyul you peesaying masala….

Ma’s humming is casual, in three notes, the Holy Trinity, a Trident of notes; the beginning, middle and end as the keys of AUM evoked on a harmonium. Ma’s peesaying is a havan to the deities of spices and aromas.

Everytime I passing gyul you peesaying masala….

Ma is a musical being. I would see that more clearly much later. When we are grown and she as not as busy tending the house, tending the crops, tending the animals and tending to us, her love for music is drummed out in dholak-speak. As most of us have left home spread across the diaspora in the Americas, she entertains herself recording old Bhojpuri songs of her days of yore, spiced with lyrics composed of the chutney of her own experiences.

Outliving many of her contemporaries, Ma drums up their memories in strains that stretch into once upon a time and a long long time ago…

The years shed away.

‘Everytime I passing gyul you peesaying masala,’ Ma hums.

Like the refrain, it’s an image indelibly impressed on my mind - Ma’s pressing on spices and herbs. Ma is sitting on her peerhah – a low bench just about one foot off the floor. She bends over a somewhat flat slab of stone that sits on the ground to a height of about half a foot, a sill, or seel, she calls it.

Self-sacrifice and surrender, Ma’s posture inspires metaphor: at the grinding stone - routine, the daily grind – toil; grind it out/stick to the grind – persistence, are all in Ma’s body bent over her sill and lorha, cradling me in her womb, protecting me, murmuring to me the secrets cures in her spices.

Ma is making her own masala. Ma is the Queen of masala-making. In one hand, Ma holds the lorha, which, when not in use, sits as a constant companion on the sill. It is a smooth, somewhat round stone.

The sill and lorha do only Ma’s bidding. Like Sita’s bow destined only to be broken by her Lord Rama, the sill will not budge later when I try to move it to sweep away dust and cobweb with my cocoyea broom.

The sill is glossy, as is its lorha, reflecting the stains of its years of service to spice routes.

Ma is surrounded with portions of her potions of parched pippali, dania, maithi/fenugreek, geera, dalchini/cinnamon, mace, nutmeg, cardamon, nigella, ginger, kolonji, turmeric, mustard …

‘Everytime I passing gyul you peesaying masala,’ Ma hums with her lorha.

The singing invade the twisted veins of my heart and they relax in confort, to hide their secrets for many years to come. Comforted in her womb, I am enveloped in scents sublime. Like the wafts from the havan pyre as the pundit performs puja, Ma performs her culinary ritual for harmony of the domestic spheres with a heart full of melody and a spirit overflowing with song. Household harmony is the Holy Trinity of three notes pressed out with a sill and lorha for world peace.

Ma’s lorha hums in harmony with the sill:

Peesaying masala, peesaying masala

Everytime I passing gyul you peesaying masala.

 Ma hums, a musical mixture of mystical melodies spiced with the rhythm of the lorha sliding over the sill. Holding the lorha with one hand, she scoops up some more grains. The seeds surrender their scents to Ma’s lorha, like Ma’s posture over the sill, cradling me in her womb. I feel the muscles of her stomach move around me as she grinds, and I sing with her lorha

Everytime I passing gyul you peesaying masala

She deftly moves her hand closely up and down the sill, applying pressure so the bits that are finely ground moves to the upper edge of the sill, and the coarse bits move back down the end closest to Ma, get a second roll of her lorha.

Everytime I passing gyul you peesaying masala, Ma hums, with her lorha.

The emerging strains linger on the senses from the scents, secrets of spirits escaping from Ma’s spice bowls onto the sill in rhythm to the lorha, humming, with Ma, this whimsical refrain:

‘Everytime I passing gyul you peesaying masala.’

‘Everytime I passing gyul you peesaying masala,’

Clan-destine confessions

I am a bastard. The name I carry is not the one I was born with. And I do not refer only to the truncated byline that accompanies this article.

(That was the Guardian’s doing. Days into what would turn out to be a career, not many moons ago, a dashing sub-editor faced me with the ultimatum of truncating my name or run the risk of not being credited for my articles. My given name would take up an entire paragraph, and space was a valuable newspaper asset, he argued, rather convincingly. I acquiesced. It reincarnated into Kris, his option over Krissy – that one had come in the late years of primary school, so christened by a teacher from “town,” fresh out of Training College.)

For years I harboured clandestine thoughts that I was a bastard. In times when I wanted to disown my family, I convinced myself I was orphaned; on better days I savoured my secret – that I was a love child!

While I combed her hair, made wavy from decades of plaiting, or massaged her back, I would smilingly indulge in this little secret I shared with my Ma. She groaned approvingly every time I massaged an ache out. I dread to think what her real reaction would have been had I voiced my thoughts…

But it was not just my imagination running wild. My bastardisation was the doing of the State.

It began when I discovered my birth certificate a few weeks before sitting the Common Entrance examination.

Under the column “Father’s name” there was a dash. Nothing else. A dash, then blank. Everyone assumed I was Rampersad because my many, many brothers and sisters carried one of my father’s names, and when you’re number 10 on the list you can’t really choose your name, or so they thought. I’d disprove it! Trice!

Though all my official records made me his, his name was not on the birth certificate. Instead, that carefully rolled, still crisp but yellowing piece of paper Ma kept in her secret place stated I was a S.....

Even when Rampersad went to the Red House in Port-of-Spain to swear I was his, I reserved the option of being S...j when I wanted. Really, I should be Kris (blank) or Kris — (dash).

Three years ago, I again saw S...j’s named on paper. One then long-unknown cousin, Nelson Ramdeen, was tracing his maternal ancestors and it led him to my mother. He jotted down all our names, and the names of the children of my siblings, and the names of ma’s siblings, and their children, and her mother’s name, and her father’s name: S...j, a grandpa I had never known.

Her unregistered Hindu marriage to my father not being recognised by law, not even 10 children later, I was stuck with her father’s name, her maiden name, hence her love child, and my romanticised bastard status.

So Rampersad is the name that defines my place in a place that didn’t recognise my parents’ cultural relationships – an oral culture – in a place where the emphasis is on things written.

Writing made things real.

In that way too, Moneah became real.

From Ramdeen’s research, she popped to life. He traced my mother’s lineage to this faceless woman, who, for whatever reason, at age 22, from a village in India, packed her husband, Ramchurn, and her Jahaji bundle; boarded the Hougoumont on October 13, 1870; braved four months of treacherous, unfamiliar kala pani, to arrive in Trinidad on February 15, 1871, one day after what would come to be known as Valentine’s Day.

Thus began her love affair with Trinidad, which would outlive two husbands, spawn 10 (known) children, some 50 grandchildren (and counting, some blanks still exist); each of those had on average 40 grandchildren; each of those some 30 grands.

Five generations later, I need a better capacity for math than I now possess to calculate Moneah’s contribution to Trinidad and Tobago’s voting and working population and to the Trinidad diaspora in North America, Asia, Australia, Europe and the Caribbean, which in a rough estimate is beyond 5,000 human souls in various places, professions.

(All except politics, the family jokes, and on the agenda is a motion to disown from Moneah’s lineage any who enters that profession at the next clan gathering – the first was 130 years after Moneah’s arrival, so the next might not be until another century or so.)

Moneah now lives: In the faces and the mannerisms and quirks of character of the some 3,000 women who can trace a bloodline to her.

From what I know of some of those women in her lineage, I could see her, on Ramchurn’s death two and a half years after their landing, pulling her widowed orhini over her head and shrugging off considerations of becoming Suti and being burned on a pyre with her husband, a tradition that died in the New World with the dying embers of the Suti practice. I could hear her saying, “Sati who? Mere nam, Moneah” (Meh name’s Moneah!).

She would mourn him properly in the traditionally defined ways, and two years later consort with our grandsire, Shewpersad, who said farewell to his cows and his village, boarded the Brechin Castle (ship) on December 26, 1874, to Trinidad and 25 years of Moneah.

Those two would seed Trinidad soil with cane and cabbages, pumpkins and pawpaws, and offspring like peas.

Though only one of her sons, one great grandaughter, and two great, great grandsons would demonstrably exceed her level of fertility, the average offspring of each of the descendants over five generations stands around six.

Several have inherited her genes of outliving husbands.

They include beef-eating Hindus, pork-eating Muslims, bhajan-singing Christians; through their veins have flowed T&T’s coconut water and Carib, French wine, Scottish whisky, Japanese sake, India’s lassi, and whatever other beverages rage in the places they have settled and spawned their own dynasties – in the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and India.

A solid bridge now stretches seven generations – each step boldly labelled – towards. Because we know her name.

(Adapted from article fist published, Trinidad Guardian, June 1 2003. Elaborated in upcoming autobiography, Life! HoleHeartedly)

Dr Kris Rampersad work has spanned the arenas of Education; Literature, the Arts and Culture; Media Communications and Information; and Gender Equity, Empowerment and Advancement for access to opportunities from grassroots to high level agenda setting international arenas. This has enhanced the impact and ability to envision and advocate for meaningful gender and culture-sensitive approaches to sustainable development in ways that bridge and span gaps between and among fields and disciplines from agriculture, culture, industry, education, governance and ICTs for all ages and across gender divides.

She functions as an Independent educator, researcher, author, advocate, activist, advisor, mentor, facilitator and consultant.

Highlights of Media/Journalism Career: Spans print, television, education and advocacy across spheres of conventional and new media prnt and production 1988-2018.

v  Blog Demokrissy is a widely read by international think tanks, including the UN community. It won the BBC/UNESCO Communication Initiative policy development blogging for new media

v  Coordinated international media for Summit of the Americas and Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings

v  First sitting journalist to complete doctorate. Inspired many journalist to pursue higher education.

v  Articles and columns have occupied and guided public opinion from editorial pages for some 30 years

v  Doctorate on process of literary development and influences of journalism on award winning writings considered seminal and ground breaking in its depth and scope that spans 100 years of socio-cultural-political evolution of Trinidad and Tobago. Published as Finding A Place

v  Wrote first book on the first female Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Through the Political Glass Ceiling,  released on the eve of election of 2010 with prophetic insights into premiership of Kamla Persad Bissessar.

v  Third book  LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago represents almost everything written in fiction from Sir Walter Raleigh 1595 to the turn of the 21^st century was commemorative publication of 50^th Jubilee Anniversary of Independence;

Presented ground breaking research at first World Summit on Information Society in Tunisia on engendering ICT policy. Has helped develop media, information and communication policy as integrated into achievmeents of Millennium Development goals and Sustainable Development Goals at global levels of agenda setting and policy making of the UN Commonwealth and OAS agencies.

Pioneered research on  gender sensitive policy making in areas of Freedom of Information, Access to Information, and other spheres for hemispheric, commonwealth and UN bodies   

v  Served as Editor of Sunday Guardian and presided over the transition from broadsheet to tabloid.

v  Founding journalist of Newsday – wrote first lead story, ‘5000 Lives Saved, dubbed ‘the good news reporter’

v  Youngest journalist to win BWIA media award for excellence in journalism. Won in social and economic commentary category for gender bender article, War of the Sexes Goes to the Calypso Stage from Discover Trinidad and Tobago series

v  Won Pan American Health Organisation Award for Excellence in Health Reporting

v  Top student of diploma course in international journalism , Rajasthan Patrika Award from Indian Institute of Mass Communication (Scholarship).  

v  Research and Writer of programmes of Cross Country for AVM Television (as well as AVM Special Report, Survival (food programme) Booktalk among others. Cross Country became rated as the number one local programme that held prime time television spot for its duration and won several BWIA Media Awards.

v  Awarded Nuffield Foundation Fellowship to Wolfson College, Cambridge

v  Awarded fellowship by Foreign Press Centre of Japan

v  Commonwealth Professional Fellow

Highlights of Gender Actions

For almost three decades Dr Kris Rampersad has been devoted to leveling the playing field for women and girls in pursuit of:

•Gender equality in the work place

• The elimination of all forms of discrimination against women by the promotion of gender equity.

• Legislative and cultural reform to ensure gender equity.

• Institutional mechanisms for the advancements of women.

• Economic empowerment by: overcoming marginalization, oppressive social norms access and rights to resources;

• Incentive and awards based initiatives encouraging women to fulfill their potential and

• Education- based programs, initiatives or personal action that offer and afford women broader choices & enhanced opportunities

Highlights of Gender Actions & Achievements

Highlights of such achievements in pursuit of implementation of the CEDAW recommendations  for the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and promotion of gender equity include:

1.       Research, preparation of the pioneering comprehensive national report and spearheaded follow up action in the InterAmerican system to encourage State bodies to implement the CEDAW convention provisions and recommendations that informed the Summit of the Americas, Commonwealth and UN processes.

2.       Her work in awareness raising and building capacities to understand gender sensitive policy and legislation to strengthen the capacity of institutions in addressing gender inequalities as for reform to the child marriage act, gender sensitive budgeting and engendered political processes.

3.        She coordinated the outreach and advocacy for the Commonwealth Foundation’s campaign for gender equality for Commonwealth Women Affairs Ministers Meetings. This fed into the Commonwealth Head of Government Meetings to build acceptance of the Commonwealth Campaign on the slogan, ‘Where’s the Money for Gender Equality.’ It spotlighted and propelled the movement of gender equity beyond rhetoric to actioning developmental programmes.

4.       Her impact on gender equality in the workplace has been not just in pursuing the rights of colleagues in the workplace but for across-the-board equity in treatment, equity in promotions and remunerations; representation of women at higher levels of administration and decision making.

5.        She has been a strong advocate to removal of discriminatory practices and revisiting entrenched notions of gender roles within social systems and cultural practices through her work with traditional and grass roots communities across the Caribbean.

6.       She has herself blazed a trail for women in the media and has filled several senior level positions as well as being the first sitting editor to have completed a PhD while in the demanding and high-stressed environment of the newsroom, as well as in her actions in supporting women journalists.

7.       From the inception of her career as a journalist Dr Rampersad supported the global mandate for equality of women that came out of the Beijing Platform for Women, and has a substantial portfolio of articles, columns as Woman to Woman, interviews, investigations, that tell women’s personal stories of trials and triumphs, revealing discrepancies and imbalances from data, highlighting the plight of the underprivileged, unearthing inequalities in national life, in the homes and in the work place, and the campaign against domestic violence.

8.       She has also been actively involved in supporting and encouraging women’s development from community to international policy arenas.

9.       Her writings, from profiles of achievements to policy critiques have encouraging women in public , civic and entrepreneurial arenas, utilizing all her roles to this end.

10.   She has initiated and developed a number of awards for women.

i.                    As editor she partnered with the United Nations, corporate community, NGOs and others to spearhead the Woman of the Year Award. S

ii.                  She conceptualized and piloted to national and international acceptance the Commonwealth Caribbean ‘Women Agents of Change’ Award, which was the forerunner to introduction of the Medals for Women in Trinidad and Tobago.

iii.                She identified women to be recognized among others for the Trinidad and Tobago Publishers’ and Broadcasting Association Awards for Media Excellence.

11.   She created & produced television documentary as the series That is Woman that features leading women figures in national life to showcase women’s achievements and have them tell their stories in their own words, and researched and scripted many other stories of women for radio, television and print.

12.   For the most part of the last fifteen years she has been the spokesperson on women’s issues and gender parity, shaping and supporting the work of local and international Networks for gender equity and the advancement of Women of Trinidad and Tobago.

13.   As an educator, she also trained women in gender sensitive approaches to policy making, understanding and engaging with media.

14.   Among organisations that have benefitted from her input are UN Women/UNIFEM; UNESCO dedicated programme actions on its priority focus on women,  the Caribbean Institute for Women and the Commonwealth Women’s Organisation; CIVICUS – World Assembly for People’s Participation.

15.   She was researcher and lead spokesperson for gender equality for the OAS Active Democracy Network in the build up to and through the Fifth Summit of the Americas and presented pioneering research on gender sensitive approaches to changing development policy agenda in areas of Freedom of Expression, Access to Information .

16.   At national level, she articulated to build awareness as the Outreach and International

Relations Director of the Network of NGOs for Women and articulated the vision around the Put A Woman Campaign of the Network of NGOs for the Advancement of Women, which drew from the UN resolutions for gender parity in national decision making. It included the slogan, A Woman’s Place is in the House – Of Parliament, that saw the .drive for fulfilment of the quota of women in Parliament along with women in the positions of Speaker of the House and President of the Senate. The same campaign also supported the ascension into office of the First Female Prime Minister and first Female President of Trinidad and Tobago in one decade.

17.   She wrote the pioneering book, Through the Political Glass Ceiling, that along with mapping the journey of the First Female Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago through her speeches also includes revisionary research, study and analysis of the national politics of the day through gender and cultural sensitive lenses that has become a text for gender studies and analyses. This has become an important global text in appreciating the challenges of women in ascension public office.

18.   These contributions spilled over to her functions in other arenas. As the Co-Chair of the UNESCO Executive Board’s Public and External Relations Commission responsible for programme actions she drove and supported international actions and motions to strengthen UNESCO’s priority focus on women and gender equality as well as in championing rights of journalists and others and for injecting gender sensitive approaches to decision making in culture, education, information and other spheres.

19.    She was herself acknowledged and featured in Hazel Ward Redman’s celebratory series as CentreStage and Woman of Substance and has been featured in articles as Express Woman, ‘Helping Dreamers Dream’ and Newsday Woman’s Weekly as Changing the World With Ideas.

20.   She has mentored many at national and international levels

Pioneering Work

Dr Kris Rampersad's work is pioneering in relation to her research and fearless and courageous and selfless advocacy and actions in the face of tremendous odds and challenges of a small island society. She has enhanced the image of Trinidad and Tobago and women both in the national arena and abroad as a  flagbearer of national development interests through all her endeavours as journalist, editor, advocate, educator, development specialist.

Through her work and in networking with others she has actively created and improved the availability and accessibility of spaces for women in the public sphere and has helped spotlight challenges and streamline the focus on perceptions of their roles and functions in the private/domestic spheres.

Her groundbreaking research offer new insight into national phenomenon within local and international contexts to enlighten approaches to agenda setting, policy and decision making encompassing research, production, advocacy, institutional capacity building and enhancement through to face to face and hands on leadership and youth development initiatives in education and awareness and skills building for women and girls.

Her life and work putting service before self, often at little or no remuneration and at the expense of her health and a life threatening medical condition, she has given up many personal and professional comforts and security in her efforts at creating opportunities and advancement of women

Through her passion, energy, devotion, and commitment to actions for meaningful change, she has inspired women and girls of all ages and across national to international spectrums as an inspiration to women educators, women leaders, women in the media and in the sphere of arts and culture.

Awards/Recognitions & Service

Education

St Julien Presbyterian School New Grant Princes Town - Primary School:

St Stephen’s College, Princes Town - Secondary School:

PhD in Literatures in English University of the West Indies

BA Literatures in English, sociology, politics,  University of the West Indies

Diploma in Mass Communication - Indian Institute of Mass Communication, India and its highest award  Rajasthan Patrika Award;

Fellow, Wolfson College, University of Cambridge UK (globalisation);

Commonwealth Professional Fellowship

Participated and benefitted from numerous courses, lectures, workshops in  multimedia, information technologies, leadership, management, computing, managing diversity, and conservation and safeguarding of cultural heritage.

Scholarships and Fellowships:

Wolfson (Journalism) College, University of Cambridge UK;

Foreign Press Centre of Japan (journalism fellowship);

Association of Commonwealth Universities, Professional Fellowship;

UWI Post Graduate Scholarship;

Awards & Commendations:

Ø  Trinidad and Tobago Luminary Award 2015/2016

Ø  Winner Development Policy Blogs on New Media (BBC Trust/UNESCO Communication Initiative); 2011

Ø  Award for Excellence in Health Reporting 1994 (World Health Organisation/Pan American Health Organisation)

Ø  Award for Excellence in Journalism (BWIA) 1987;

Ø  Moms for Literacy Award for Literary Achievement

Ø  International Who’s Who in Cultural Policy Research (ConnectCP)

Ø  Award for Contribution to Literature and Culture; (Global Organisation of Peoples of Indian Origin)

Ø  Rajasthan Patrika Most Outstanding Student Award (Indian Institute of Mass Communication)

Ø  British High Commission Award for English Literature

Ø  UWI Award Student Awards.

Organisation Affiliations – International/National

Ø  Founding Adviser, International Institute for Gastronomy, Culture, Arts & Tourism

Ø  Founding Member, U40 Coalition on Promotion of Diversity of Cultural Expressions

Ø  Founding Member, Scientific Committee, International Culture University

 Served on numerous committees and boards, including  

Ø  UNESCO General Assembly, Chair Education Commission

Ø  UNESCO Executive Board, co-chair Programmes and External Relations Commission, member of Special Committee

Ø   Chair, National Museum and Art Gallery;

Ø  Chair, National Commission for UNESCO of Trinidad and Tobago 

Ø  Member Trinidad and Tobago Government Expert Panel on Arts and Culture Member, Trinidad and Tobago Registry of Cultural Workers Committee

Ø  Member, Trinidad and Tobago Heritage Tourism Committee

Ø  Founder,/Coordinator Awards for Agricultural Journalism

Ø   Founding member, Friends of Mr Biswas – St James House for Mr Biswas

Ø  Founder/Coordinator, Trinidad Theatre Workshop Fund for Literature, Drama, Film

Ø  Outreach & International Relations Director, Network of NGOs of Trinidad and Tobago for the Advancement of Women

Other Career Highlights

International Development Educator, Lecturer, Facilitator, Consultant: 21 years

MultiMediaMedia/Journalism: 30 years: editor, manager, investigative reporter, script and storyboard writer, producer/publisher in print, electronic and new media

Author: Finding A Place (Ian Randle Publishers, 2001); Through the Political Glass Ceiling; LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago

AudioVisual Producer/Director/Writer/Researcher:20 years

Academia - lecturing at tertiary level formal, non-formal and informal sectors, course design, development and evaluation - 22 years

Some 30 years’ experience in developing formal and informal education sectors as a researcher, writer, educator, outreach and communication specialist and analyst of culture, migration, rural and urban development, diversity, multiculturalism and related areas of cross sectoral sustainable development;

Holds a PhD in Literatures in English. Doctoral theses examined issues of globalization, migration processes of adaptation and society-formation drawing from global-local knowledge and experiences of media and literary development of a small island state.

Have written and published extensively on themes of identity, migration, adaptation, urbanisation, and rural development in contexts of youth, gender, trade, crime, ecology, education and other topics;

 Numerous peer reviewed articles and conference presentations, including three books that approach the issues of migration and social adaptations from various angles: journalism/information and communication (Finding a Place, Ian Randle Publications, 2002); gender appreciation (Through the Political Glass Ceiling - Race to Prime Ministership by Trinidad and Tobago’s First Female Kamla Persad Bissessar (2010) and popular culture (LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago (2012);

Educator/Train the Trainers & Capacity Building :

a: UNESCO: Training of Caribbean Stakeholders in diversity appreciation, activating Cultural Heritage and Creative Sectors: Belize, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana, Grenada, St Kitts/Nevis. UNESCO..

b. Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI). Training of Caribbean Agriculturalists in Outreach, Education and Development of Academic Journals and Publications:

c. National Institute of Higher Education Research, Science and Technology (NIHERST): Development of Outreach Initiatives for Science Popularisation:

d. Caribbean Institute of Women in Leadership: Develop Course Materials and Train Caribbean Women Leaders in Gender Sensitivity, Diversity Appreciation, Engagement & Outreach:  Guyana, Antigua, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada

e. The College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago (COSTAATT):  Development and Delivery of Journalism and Literature Courses

f. Part Time Lecturer: Literatures in English; Foundational Courses; Literature and Caribbean Society: University of the West Indies.

g. External Supervisor, MSc Thesis Cultural Diversity Management: Institutional Reform

h. External Thesis Editor/Publication Adviser

i. Guest Lecturer: Literature, Culture, Media, Civic Empowerment for Sustainable Development, University of Catalona, Barcelona, Spain

Career Highlights: Education & Culture:

Educational Policy Development: Formal and Informal Education, Literature, Media Outreach, Lifelong Learning and Global Citizenship Education:

a. Capacity development for cultural and civil society communities across the Americas Successful trained stakeholders of all three Caribbean Small Island Developing States which achieved World Heritage status over the last five years (Antigua and Barbuda, 2016; Jamaica, 2015, Barbados, 2011 prior to this last inscription was in 1998).

b.       Pioneered several international level policies through UNESCO/other international agencies for relevant actions for integrated and transboundary approaches to positively impact the Sustainable Development Agenda and integrate culture in development, promote global citizenship, rationally explore issues of migration and adaptation.

c.        Devised models for multisectoral media and cultural outreach including one adopted from a model developed for the Caribbean for ACP-EU Seminar on Media and Agriculture, Brussels;

d. Development of the blue print of the action plan being used English speaking Caribbean countries for implementation of UNESCO Conventions; culling appreciation and development of incentive and award schemes; integrating developmental approaches across sectors and national boundaries and developing transboundary connections.

e.       More than 15 years’ hands on experience in development and implementing policy programmes and actions in the global to local cultural heritage and creative industries spheres in UN agencies, UNESCO, OAS, ACP-EU, Commonwealth and civil society glocal organisations;

f.       Keenly committed to working on realization of the sustainable development agenda, even beyond its stated goals to proactive engagement of culture-centred development for equity and fairness in all spheres and have participated in its development globally & locally;

g.         Lifelong experiences of NGO work and community level experience in cultural development and have both culled international policy and worked on implementing such areas as Creative Cities, World Heritage, Intangible Heritage, Diversity of Cultural Expressions, Creative Industries, Copyrights, Trade and Development;  Slave, Silk and Indentured Indian Immigrant Routes, Memory of the World, Rural and Urban cultural development, policy and legislative reform, civil society, youth and gender participation, empowerment and equity

Career Highlights: Journalism, Media, Information and Communication

j.         More than 30 years as a communicator and journalist and about a decade as producer and publisher in multimedia forms exploring comparative cross-cultural and issues;

k.          Extensive experience in research,  writing for multimedia forms and presentation of messages on  migration, diversity, inclusion for sustainable development, with intimate knowledge of most of international policy instruments in these regards and devising, developing, implementing and evaluating policies and strategies, advice and technical support, managing the process and content, transactions and operations in these areas and combined experiences in Management, having been a staff manager of a major media house before an independent career in cultural project management and policy development in the cultural and allied spheres of education and communications

l.     Extensive experience in networking and collaborations both internally and externally, across boundaries, sectors, stakeholder interests, institutions and agencies with considerable successes in devising and developing networks around cultural matters, working with the diplomatic community, embassies, intergovernmental agencies, regional and international organizations, the European Commission and the European Council, Organisation of American States, Commonwealth Secretariat and commonwealth Foundation, InterAmerican Institutions and other organisations of  the UN system, and Africa, Caribbean and Pacific Regions.

Find Dr Kris Rampersad on Social Media as:

KrisRampersad: LinkedIn/Instagram/YouTube/PInterest/

KrisRampersad1: Facebook; @krisramp – Twitter;

Blog Demokrissy – www.krisrampersad.blogspot.com

Related Links:

Contact: Website. FB KrisRampersad1. T @krisramp. LinkedIn. InstaGram. PInterest. YouTube

Website: https://goo.gl/FDLQdg:

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

Earth Quake Earthquake

Youtube video: https://youtu.be/A8TgWZPuEkE

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

https://goo.gl/oCk1PB

Demokrissy https://goo.gl/FHs3Fr

The Human face of constitutional reform https://goo.gl/6escjj

Pat-bishops-last-struggle-killings https://goo.gl/tQUySt

Them-red-house-bones

A-tale-of-two-skeletons

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

Yo Ho ho and a bottle of rumhttps://goo.gl/TvXOHU

 Demokrissy https://goo.gl/FHs3Fr

Changing the World with Ideas  goo.gl/Pa6jAk

Lagahoo-tribute-to-independent-spirits
Nationhood in contestation with globalisation: http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/2017/08/nationhood-in-contestation-with.html    https://goo.gl/KWdUtx

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

http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/2015/08/a-world-inspired-littscapes-turns-3.html   https://goo.gl/J1EFn5

http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com /from-beirut-to-port-of-spain-how-west.html

The-price-of-passion-awards-and-rewards

 https://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-price-of-passion-awards-and-rewards.html

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

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

Things-that-make-me-go-steups-stars http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/2016/12/things-that-make-me-go-steups-stars.html

The Walcott Files
LiTTscapes for Littribute to the Antilles 
A LiTTribute at UNESCO 
Inscription by UNESCO of Poems
Small only in Size UNESCO Executive Board told
World in a Fishbowl
A Musical Heritage walk UNESCO Creative Cities

Breezes-of-tropical-arab-spring

In-war-and-peace-from-hiroshima-to-home.html

A-path-out-of-mayhem-and-murder

Turning-our-dreams-to-shame-rip-asami

Focus-resources on real crime

jus-call-me-cooligan

The world-in-fishbowl

The-other-magnificent-seven

Tribute-to-literary-mentor

The-human-face-of-constitutional-reform

The-ghost-of journalism past

OverCopulation - The Archbishop The Priest The Politician & The Journalist

Ask About LiTTscapes,

Ask about LiTTours and LiTTributes

Diplomats get stimulating LiTTour 

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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