Michelle Obama fired up the Democratic campaign with a heartfelt emotional and sizzling endorsement of Hilary Clinton...wonder if the US Presidential candidate could match that herself #FLOTUS for #USPresident....powerful endorsement of #HilaryClinton #USElection #GenderBender @flotus @potus @krisramp @lolleaves @glocalpot #Demokrissy #LeavesOfLife
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Showing posts with label leadership. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leadership. Show all posts
Monday, July 25, 2016
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Simple math for value in leading for literacy and numeracy Speech to UNESCO National Commission launch
Remarks at Leading for Literacy and Numeracy phase 2 launch by Dr Kris Rampersad
Chair of the Trinidad and Tobago National Commission for UNESCO,
Trinidad and Tobago Representative on UNESCO Executive BoardA recent IDB report that notes the sad fact ‘that too many Caribbean students finish primary school without acquiring levels of literacy and numeracy sufficient to equip them to succeed in secondary school or in an employment market that is increasingly complex and competitive.”
That report also
notes UNESCO’s definition of literacy as the ability to identify, understand,
interpret, create, communicate, compute, and use printed and written materials
associated with varying contexts. UNESCO recognises that literacy is both a
right in itself and an instrument for achieving other rights and that it is
impossible to separate the right to literacy from the right to education.
That IDB report on
literacy and numeracy in the Caribbean takes its definition of numeracy from the
Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers: that to be numerate is to use
mathematics effectively to meet the demands of life at home, in paid work, and
for participation in community and civic life. Numeracy is to mathematics as
literacy is to language. It states:
From these definitions emerge a picture of literacy
and numeracy as the fundamentals of education and a means for social and human
development. Such definitions are contextual and influenced by the practical
necessities of life. In the area of literacy, for example, terms such as
functional literacy, cultural literacy, quantitative literacy, and computer
literacy, among others, have emerged in recent years, a direct result of attempts
to articulate the higher demands of literacy imposed by contemporary society.
Similarly, what sufficed for numeracy 20 years ago cannot be adequate today.
The common calculator now includes keys for functions that were previously only
understood by scientists and engineers. (IDB Regional Policy Dialogue on Education: Literacy and Numeracy in the Caribbean
Report )
When the Trinidad
and Tobago National Commission of UNESCO met to consider this project,
following the mandate of the Commission’s President, the Minister of Education,
Dr Tim Gopeesingh, in our general
discussions there were numerous examples from commissioners about the various
challenges they faced in learning mathematics – ‘math anxiety’ among them,
which could itself fill a story book.
I had my story,
too, about learning to read and learning mathematics.
As a child I read
everything I lay my eyes on. Everything, no exaggeration. Reading materials
were limited in the country districts, you know. My reading materials came from
signboards passing by on a drive, to labels on cans, and of course books
whether they were mine or of others, whether they were text book, story books,
newspapers. One of my earliest memories as a preteen is jumping up and down in
frustration for want of reading matter as I had read everything on the bookshelf
which largely contained text books from agriscience, science to social studies
etc of my elder siblings. The nearest
library was miles away in the nearest town and inaccessible until I started
high school. 
My story of
mathematics is a different one. I could calculate almost any sum or
measurements in my head – my father who was a part time market vendor loved
taking me to the market because I calculated costs of his whole sale and retail
goods and the special discounts he wanted to offer to special customers
instantly in my head. Calculations of weights and measurements, distances, and
the like in my head came easily.
And yet I
struggled with text book maths and for exams it took extra effort to make the
grades.
I - what we call
crammed - for my O-Level mathematics exam with an intense focus in the few
weeks before the exam. I gritted my teeth on the deadline crunch and made out a
lesson plan of the different modules and mapped out a path to learning each and
the formulas associated with them. That meant, actually having to write out in
words, and create a story around each formula and their connected components -
for real. I turned my maths text into a story book: and that’s how those remote
and alien formulas jumped to life, and made sense to me so I would remember
them in an exam room.
Mathematical
formulas were not the English language, like my story books, so I needed to
dedicate special time with lots of coffee at exam crunch to interpret formulas
into the language that I knew. I came to that understanding that I needed to
understand mathematics in the context of some correlation to reading. If I
hadn’t, I could have easily fallen through the cracks too, because text book
teaching did not provide that approach I needed, and which perhaps can also
account for many of our so called failure at maths - that students’ approaches
to learning mathematics, as with learning language can vary, so teaching methods
and tools must incorporate the kind of variety we are trying to include in the
teaching of literacy.
The problems and
challenges we have uncovered in the pilot leading for literacy programme may be
very applicable and relevant and similar to what is needed for numeracy.
My story of
learning is just one such story and I’m sure is like one which as educators you
might have heard several times over.
As we embark on
this, the second part of the National Commission for UNESCO Leading for Literacy
– and now Leading for Numeracy project
I have a few
things I want to lay on the table for your consideration:
1.
That
this project offers an ideal opportunity to explore the possible points of
intersection between the challenges we face in teaching language, the English
language included – which we erroneously consider our first language, but which
educators are now discovering need to be taught as a foreign language and
teaching the language of mathematics, which may also be considered a foreign
language: that can help bring text book learning closer home to the applied,
oral traditions approach that is more natural to our people.
My analogy of the
need for literacy in numeracy is just a component of that general right to
literacy recognised by UNESCO which precedes the right to information: about a
decade ago some of us in the civil society movement fought to have that right
to information recognised as a basic human right across the Commonwealth and UN
systems.
All of these
rights now converge in the computerized age in which we function: HTML/Computer
language is an amalgam of competencies in numeracy, literacy and everything in
between and has brought startlingly home to us the need for unification of the
humanities and the sciences – the former represented in literacy – the latter
in numeracy: a separation that has for long been perpetuated by our school
system, in the creation of subject grouping that separate those in the arts from
those in the sciences and which still persist in terms of the awards and
scholarship systems.
O we must consider
the areas of convergence in the teaching of literacy and numeracy: as not to be
treated as separate competencies, but intertwined – and in treating here both
numeracy and literacy together, we have in this room the beginnings of the
formula to do so.
So now I want to
leave with you a little bit of homework: some numerical calculations that came
to me in reviewing the distance travelled with the leading for Literacy pilot
exercise still in progress: 40 principals and 80 teachers trained in literacy
and numeracy; and class loads of infant 1s and 2s receiving their badges ‘I am
learning to read’ and their parents engaged also in the parenting for literacy
initiative.
Some of the
feedback from our trained educator leaders were: Students have been making great progress with Letter Recognition and
Sounds of Letters. There are a few struggling along, mostly the ones who never
attended preschool. They are still adjusting to school. Learning is taking
place, some who were answering in one word sentences are now describing what is
happening in pictures. Oral Language has improved. Students are enjoying the
singing, actions and dancing …
The teacher did a concept lesson on the letter m. The
objectives of the lesson were achieved. The children were able to give the
sound of the letter m with the motion and gave words that begin with that
letter sound. They were also able to identify pictures and words with that
letter sound as their evaluation. The children were also able to trace and
write the letter. The teacher also integrated maths in the lesson using the
thematic approach. As a follow up, the
teacher was advised to build a wordwall with pictures and matching words of the
letter m. Another follow up will be
using m words in sentence strips for reading.
The students are visibly having fun as they learn!
Their laughter and sometimes giggles must make one smile.
Even those with whom we could not have gotten through last year are showing some progress. Unfortunately their progress is a bit slower than the younger children. All however are saying the sounds, doing the actions and completing the written assignments.
The teachers also continue to add resources to develop their model classrooms.
The teachers know what they are doing and are given autonomy in their classes since they also have had to struggle with slow learners, Curriculum Rewrite training and a multitude of other challenges.
But as I always tell them, challenges make us stronger and better!
Even those with whom we could not have gotten through last year are showing some progress. Unfortunately their progress is a bit slower than the younger children. All however are saying the sounds, doing the actions and completing the written assignments.
The teachers also continue to add resources to develop their model classrooms.
The teachers know what they are doing and are given autonomy in their classes since they also have had to struggle with slow learners, Curriculum Rewrite training and a multitude of other challenges.
But as I always tell them, challenges make us stronger and better!
There are
challenges too. Another comment from among those trained:
We have two first year classes with a total of
forty-eight students (25 and 23 boys). My teachers are working overtime with
the students. The class with twenty-five students seems to be so cramped and
the students are restless with the humidity. My heart goes out to these two
committed teachers so I visit regularly and have discussions, and offer
suggestions of encouragement. In both classes there are five year old students
whose developmental levels are not ready for primary school. There are many
individual differences within the classes and there are even cases where
parents have already given up on their sons. Grandparents are forced to take
the role of the biological parents and for various reasons. Some of them are
unable to cope with these energetic grandsons. I have, however, taken the names
of such parents and have been chatting with them on the phone appealing with
them to assist their sons in the observed areas of weakness e.g., hand
exercises to develop his motor skills, forming his letters with the hook, proper
way to hold a pencil, correct way to hold his exercise book, revising the
letter sounds etc. The teachers have even observed bullies within their classes
so I have contacted those parents via phone and have asked them to visit for
further discussions. Despite the various challenges, my teachers continue to be
passionate, working extremely hard, and I am walking the journey with them for
we want this experiment to be successful. The school disruptions are regular
but we are trying to cope and at the same time encouraging our parents to work
with us. With our sale of "milkies and freezies" for the month we
have purchased a pack of laminating envelopes to laminate and preserve our
letters and pictures, pretty expensive though but we are hoping to reap the
benefits of our sacrifice in the future. God bless, hang in their colleagues
and we all will be proud of our efforts!
The spin-off
benefits are yet to come when these infant ones and twos impact on their
parents and peers and siblings and communities.
Another comment:
The year-1 pupils showed the ability to correct their peers
if any letter was sounded incorrectly. The Year 1 students were very eager to
offer sentences when called upon.
That’s what we at
the Trinidad and Tobago National Commission for UNESCO did with around half a
million dollars, one quarter from UNESCO and the rest from the Ministry of
Education and various sponsors: 40 principals, 80 teachers, loads and loads of
infant ones and two and their parents learning to become leaders and readers.
For this, Leading
for Literacy and Numeracy for Secondary Schools, the second component of the
programme, our budget is just over one million dollars (TT). Your home work is
to calculate what may be achieved with this million more; and then further on,
what we could achieve with 34 million, or 36 million, for literacy and numeracy;
and then with the additional permutations of all these infant one and twos
passing on their learnings and their excitement and enthusiasm for reading to
siblings, parents and peers in the communities, for not just 2250 boys but several
communities and families and the permutations and spin off benefits ofthat.
That’s the multiplication
we need to do: from an investment of just about half a million that’s what we
got, and that is only in the preliminary stages, and within just about one year
– using existing infrastructure, which, I note from your reports, are plagued
with numerous problems and challenges of their own. On which note, might
I add that it continues to puzzle me – and perhaps those from Chaguanas can
help me understand the logic and calculations in this: when does a court house
become more important than a library? To my mind, it
seems if we had more libraries, we will need less court houses, not so? Isn’t
that the simple arithmetic?
As curriculum
officers, principals and teachers being taught to lead for literacy, take these
learnings and take charge of your communities. That was the challenge I threw out
to the first guinea pigs of our project when we launched around this time last
year, August 2013. And now I challenge you to, too, take charge! Lead. Return
us to the time when the school was the centre of the community and principals
and teachers were indeed respected heads and leaders of our society.
With that, I leave
you to your homework. Happy learnings, and I look forward to return at the end
of this week to witness the results of this exercise then, and beyond,
I thank you.
August 18, 2014
Port of Spain, Trinidad
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
Death of Knowledge & social Conscience
A Musical Heritage walk UNESCO Creative Cities
August 18, 2014
Port of Spain, Trinidad
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
Death of Knowledge & social Conscience
A Musical Heritage walk UNESCO Creative Cities
Murder She Wrote: Death Written in Stone in Dana Seetahal Assassination
Creating Centres of Peace in Trinidad and Tobago
The Price of Independence:#DanaSeetahalAssassination
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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/
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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/
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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/
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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/
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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:
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/
Apr 30, 2013
Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2.
http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
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/
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/
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/
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/
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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Thursday, February 17, 2011
Letter to UN Women
Dear Michelle Bachelet,
Congratulations on your appointment as the first head of UN Women.
Congratulations on your appointment as the first head of UN Women.
Like others in this forum, I am thrilled to learn of the creation of a new space for women’s voices and activities within the UN system.
Indeed, it signals a broadening of the approach to international governance and for recognition of the contribution and potential contribution of women to the process and to balancing the equation for nearing the millennium development goalposts.
However, I believe there is need for significantly deeper interrogation and analyses on the capacity of women leaders for change; to identify challenges and come up with solutions given that there is widespread belief that even where women’s leadership and participation have increased, there have not been concurrent reflection related to their impact on their spheres of leadership.
I may refer to a recent analysis, for example, which highlighted the clear disjoint between increased women’s participation, in this instance, political participation, and the impact they have had on their areas of jurisdiction in the Caribbean where, not only efforts at increasing participation are sporadic and piecemeal, research and documentation in this area are also poorly lacking.
That report looked at efforts by the Network of NGOs of Trinidad and Tobago for the Advancement of Women, of which I am international relations director, in increasing political participation by women through training, networking, funding and documentation.
It found that representation of women’s interests by women in power did not increase, despite increases in their numbers and the exposure to ideas and tools of gender equity. Women MPs and decision makers are not raising issues of concern to women as they should.
For this, there may be several reasons. These are the reasons that UN Women needs to unearth and turn its focus on. Not to discount the fact that in several societies, including our own, there are substantial numbers of disadvantaged, disempowered women, it seems for too long we have hid behind the victims’ veil; as recipients rather than shapers and molders of modes and models of governance whether at the domestic, national or global levels.
But there is an inherent paradox that most of the societies where the problems seem most endemic, boast of matriarchal systems. There is another paradox that UN Women can lead the way in deciphering: that while women – stereotyped as we are – have for centuries formed the majorities in the nurturing category and hence part of the baseline in shaping character, habits, beliefs and behaviour – as care givers, mothers, teachers, nurses –there does not seem to have been any equivalent transference of notions of gender equality, equity and respect for women across the board in our societies.
In effect, it seems to me that as architects of the perspectives and outlooks of boys as much as we are of girls and as primary transmitters of culture, knowledge and education, women have not been changing, but replicating and transferring habits, beliefs and practices that promote inequalities to the boys as much as the girls who grow up to become leaders.
We need to examine more deeply and find means of addressing perceived lack of impact women leaders have been making in their spheres in a more holistic manner. Commendations to the Organisation of American States for organising the upcoming symposium on women’s leadership in collaboration with your organization, UNIFEM and others, but unless the outcomes of this are not collated and critically analysed and set before the global public, it runs the danger of becoming another talkshop.
What are the anticipated outcomes of this forum? Increasing numbers and increasing awareness are clearly not enough. There must be deeper focus on targeted programmes and actions that can bring desired results for gender equity, as well as for women to not just pass on responsibility for shortcomings and failures on historical and/or patriarchal systems and beliefs, but also to come to terms with and admit our own failures as well as part of the process of mapping a way forward.
I would like UN Women to deepen the introspection and interrogation of the intrinsic ways women have been shaping our societies – to unearth both the negatives and the positives and so advance and evolve more meaningful solutions for new directions. In doing so we can celebrate successes, but we also need to own our shortcomings.
Qualitative is as important as quantitative change. Are we owning-up to our own responsibilities for the gender gaps and development divides? What have we as women, mothers, as executives and leaders not done? Where have we fallen short? This seems to me to also be a crucial element in the way forward.
However, I believe there is need for significantly deeper interrogation and analyses on the capacity of women leaders for change; to identify challenges and come up with solutions given that there is widespread belief that even where women’s leadership and participation have increased, there have not been concurrent reflection related to their impact on their spheres of leadership.
I may refer to a recent analysis, for example, which highlighted the clear disjoint between increased women’s participation, in this instance, political participation, and the impact they have had on their areas of jurisdiction in the Caribbean where, not only efforts at increasing participation are sporadic and piecemeal, research and documentation in this area are also poorly lacking.
That report looked at efforts by the Network of NGOs of Trinidad and Tobago for the Advancement of Women, of which I am international relations director, in increasing political participation by women through training, networking, funding and documentation.
It found that representation of women’s interests by women in power did not increase, despite increases in their numbers and the exposure to ideas and tools of gender equity. Women MPs and decision makers are not raising issues of concern to women as they should.
For this, there may be several reasons. These are the reasons that UN Women needs to unearth and turn its focus on. Not to discount the fact that in several societies, including our own, there are substantial numbers of disadvantaged, disempowered women, it seems for too long we have hid behind the victims’ veil; as recipients rather than shapers and molders of modes and models of governance whether at the domestic, national or global levels.
But there is an inherent paradox that most of the societies where the problems seem most endemic, boast of matriarchal systems. There is another paradox that UN Women can lead the way in deciphering: that while women – stereotyped as we are – have for centuries formed the majorities in the nurturing category and hence part of the baseline in shaping character, habits, beliefs and behaviour – as care givers, mothers, teachers, nurses –there does not seem to have been any equivalent transference of notions of gender equality, equity and respect for women across the board in our societies.
In effect, it seems to me that as architects of the perspectives and outlooks of boys as much as we are of girls and as primary transmitters of culture, knowledge and education, women have not been changing, but replicating and transferring habits, beliefs and practices that promote inequalities to the boys as much as the girls who grow up to become leaders.
We need to examine more deeply and find means of addressing perceived lack of impact women leaders have been making in their spheres in a more holistic manner. Commendations to the Organisation of American States for organising the upcoming symposium on women’s leadership in collaboration with your organization, UNIFEM and others, but unless the outcomes of this are not collated and critically analysed and set before the global public, it runs the danger of becoming another talkshop.
What are the anticipated outcomes of this forum? Increasing numbers and increasing awareness are clearly not enough. There must be deeper focus on targeted programmes and actions that can bring desired results for gender equity, as well as for women to not just pass on responsibility for shortcomings and failures on historical and/or patriarchal systems and beliefs, but also to come to terms with and admit our own failures as well as part of the process of mapping a way forward.
I would like UN Women to deepen the introspection and interrogation of the intrinsic ways women have been shaping our societies – to unearth both the negatives and the positives and so advance and evolve more meaningful solutions for new directions. In doing so we can celebrate successes, but we also need to own our shortcomings.
Qualitative is as important as quantitative change. Are we owning-up to our own responsibilities for the gender gaps and development divides? What have we as women, mothers, as executives and leaders not done? Where have we fallen short? This seems to me to also be a crucial element in the way forward.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Protocol training for local govt women
Protocol training for local govt women
Mon Jul 19 2010
Female candidates in the upcoming local government elections will participate in a protocol training programme for women. It takes place today at the International Relations boardroom at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine.
A release from co-ordinator (sic - read Director) of the Network of NGOs for the Advancement of Women, Dr Kris Rampersad, said: "One of the major issues that surfaced in the recent national election and that is likely to surface in the current local campaign has been how women impact upon the political environment and sphere." Rampersad said the workshop would help sensitise women candidates to issues, prepare them for potential challenges and provide strategies on how to avoid and positively impact on the political sphere in which they function.
The programme will be facilitated by protocol consultant Lenore Dorset, network co-ordinator Hazel Brown and Rampersad. The programme is part of the network's campaign to "engender" local government and increase, not just the numbers, but also the quality of women candidates in the elections. For more on training visit www.krisrampersad.com
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Press Releases - Women’s roles revisited…..Dr. Kris Rampersad
Press Releases - Women’s roles revisited…..Dr. Kris Rampersad
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Political parties should discuss women issues during campaign
Friday, April 30, 2010
To vote, just how we party … Towards culturally relevant representation for T&T
‘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. Then we go back to sipping - rum, Guinness and Puncheon if one is UNC and believe in the Prime Minister, and if one is PNM - something else, yet-to-be-named by Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s united Opposition camp.
Our cultural repertoire has for long upheld our social underpinnings in unity, tolerance and camaraderie evident in part in Carnival, the ‘greatest show on earth’; while our political pundits continue to pronounce that voting in Trinidad and Tobago has largely been along ethnic lines, because the two major parties have largely ethnic bases.
We have accepted the validity of each posture and their nauseous compendium of evidence, giving little effort to understanding or explaining the paradox.
Absent in the political analyses is the fact that our politics makes us reluctant brides and bridegrooms of the PNM or UNC. Whether one is or wants to be one or the other, it stereotypes IndoTrinidadians as affiliates of the UNC and Afro-Trinidadians as loyal to the PNM. Any aberration to this - non-IndoTrini support for UNC and non-Afro Trini support for PNM - is dubbed the ‘cross-over’ vote of the ‘mixed’ population and the ‘floating’ (‘intelligent’) vote that is looking for a third party to latch on to whether it takes them into government or not (implying too that intelligence does not characterize either the PNM or the UNC, and if there are such elements, they too are aberrations).
Those (third) political parties that have failed to win seats have also dismissed the population as racially-driven on this basis of our two-party mentality, with little studied attempts to seriously identify why they failed to make the political grade, or seriously analyse their failures to adequately identify with and reach out to the populace in a manner that can swing voters out of the traditional, unappetizing, offerings.
The simple reality is in the two-party system that has developed in T&T, one is almost forced (so much for democratic right) - to choose one of the two political offerings. The alternative is to abstain, and deny oneself the option of franchise – only an option if one does not subscribe to the right to vote as the ultimate power in a democracy.
The National Alliance for Reconstruction’s victory in 1986 seemed poised to break the two party mould. Riding on its all inclusive ticket of ‘one-love’, the NAR – a coalition government – promised to prove that how we vote can be how we party with its overwhelming sweep of 33-3 seats. Unfortunately, it collapsed unto itself before it could so do.
It’s the Constitution, stupid!
Various other analyses tell us that the culprit is the T&T Constitution and there is an indisputable need for Constitution reform, given evident flaws in T&T Constitutions past and present. Both the 1961 (Independence) Constitution and the 1976 (Republic) Constitution were clearly already obsolete from their inception, with their unworkable British import of the first-past-the-post/winner-take-all-model and evident failure as they disenfranchise large numbers of voters as occurred in the 1981, 2001, 2002 and 2007 general elections.
The alternative, proportional representation, which offers each party numbers of seats in parliament according to the proportion of votes they command, has received some attention, but, like first-past-the post, it upholds a party-based system that gives politicians divine status and places them at the centre of decision-making, which we have seen, with demands for a bottoms-up approach, itself cannot hold.
The Wooding (1971) and Hyatali (1974) Commissions set up to explore Constitutional reform, proposed another, a mixed system drawing from first past the post and proportional representative models. This has been rejected by the PNM’s Williams and Manning, though all – PNM and the Commissions - premised their arguments on our diversity which they define largely as ethnic diversity.
Manning put forward in 2006 a ‘working document’ on Constitutional Reform, drawn up primarily by a one-man Commission (former President Ellis Clarke) and after-the-fact staged some public ‘consultations’ – an approach interpreted as paying lip service to public opinion. His draft provided for an executive President as in the USA which would give even more executive powers to an already maximum leader of the first-past-the-post system, without correcting (but rather further emasculating) those instruments and institutions that provide checks and balances on such ‘Massa’ power. These include the judiciary and the legislature, and others as the Ombudsman, the Director of Public Prosecution, the Commissioner of Police, the magistracy, Commissions for Integrity, Judicial and Legal Services, Police Service, Public Service, Teaching Service etc. It also proposes to restrict the principle of Freedom of Expression (the the Media) by altering the Bill of Rights.
Another Constitution, drafted by the self-assigned 2006 Fairness Committee of four leaned on a further amalgamation - of the Manning model (though produced before Manning’s) supporting an Executive President, along with a mixed system of proportional representation and first-past-the-post as recommended by the Wooding and Hyatali Commissions.
One challenge after the other to the Constitution has surfaced since the NAR to show that the Constitution is not just dog-eared, but coming apart at the seams and irrelevant in a rapidly changing world:
• The PNM’s challenge of Winston ‘Gypsy’ Peters dual citizenship
• The 2002 18-18 deadlocked elections which were not catered for in the Constitution;
• Other challenges, mainly related to cockfighting by Panday and Robinson - appointments through the Senate of persons who had been defeated in the polls;
• The chicken-and-egg crisis precipitated by the Standing Order for electing a Speaker before convening the House when neither party wanted to propose a Speaker
The Constitution, say the experts, has outlived its usefulness.
To justify his quest for an Executive President /US styled governance system, PNM leader Patrick Manning has sought to justify his high-handed approach to decision-making with arguments that the extremely diverse nature of the society and their many competing interests made it difficult to govern and needed ‘strong’ leadership.
But at the risk of sounding like a prophetess, the diversity of T&T is indeed its primary character, and anyone who cannot manage our diversity is doomed to failure! Anyone who wants to govern effectively must unite the diversity rather than seek ever more exclusive power to overrule it; (the consequences of ignoring the public over an extended period have been graphically illustrated by the events of recent weeks).The experts tell us that the Constitution - and the West Minster styled parliamentary system it establishes cannot accommodate that diversity; others, like the PNM - undeniably the most experienced party in T&T – argue that neither could proportional representation. Both, it seems are partly in the right; but wholly wrong.
Leadership crisis – single party and coalition
The search for the ideal model has been around the debate of whether the single party or coalition government is the better model. Both have been tried and tested and found wanting. As analyst Dr Bishnu Ragoonath observed, the three occasions when our governments prematurely collapsed have been as single party governments – Panday’s in 2001 and Manning’s in 1995, and 2010. Majority rule by a maximum leader with powers equivalent to the Divine Right of Kings in a single party is losing sway on a population becoming more astute and unwilling to continue as blind, unquestioning sheep-like followers. Governance by any one majority ethnic group is become unsavoury to growing and more vociferous elements, demanding recognition of our cultural and other diversity, denied in Williams ‘No Mother India, no Mother Africa’ maxim which seemed not to grasp the complexity of the identity issue.
Nor have coalitions worked either; not two examples, the alliance governments of 1986 and 1991 - both of which evolved out of forces opposing the PNM and including Panday’s UNC, Robinson’s Democratic Action Congress, Karl Hudson-Phillips’ Organisation for National Reconstruction, Lloyd Best’s Tapia and various others.
They failed not because the structure of the coalitions was tested, nor because of challenges of managing our complex diversity – they never got a chance. They failed because - as with the maximum leader mode of single party politics - managing the diverse egos of a man-rat driven political culture, continuously tested the Constitution and the governance model, promoting the eminence of constitutional lawyers and legal messiahs.
They failed because of unenlightened or misguided leadership that failed to respect the needs and wishes of its people.
Kamla’s People’s Partnership option
Now, Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s bid for the premiership proposes a People’s Partnership, in which the partners acknowledge and commit to her leadership. It presents another option for development and progress.
The People’s Partnership seems neither of the winner-takes-all, nor of the proportional representation models, nor a mix of both. It appears to be a significant departure from all the models discussed above, no wonder many are still trying to come to terms with it.
By making all the diverse elements of the population potential winners: civil society, NGO, labour, youth, academics, opposition forces, the elderly, women, with the potential that they can all be represented in the Government, even without changing the Constitution , it has presented a platform closely representative of our diversity.
It seems a bold way of circumventing the limitations of the Constitution’s winner-take-all modem, without the need to undertake the labourious and time-consuming Constitutional change or reform being posited. It answers the call for a new political paradigm in which people have a central and more active voice in governance; of a government driven from the ground up, rather than the top down. It is an expression of political will guided by the will of the people, which speaks directly to the leadership void. With each partner expressly, publicly and emphatically committing to recognising her as leader, one envisions she will rule the roost as a mother would her nest of clamouring, sometimes self-absorbed, chicks. She has proven herself not incapable of the task, having manoeuvred through the UNC’s macho-driven shenanigans of the last two decades, and obviously also out-manoeuvred her formidable competitors to inherit the coveted crown of leadership of the party while defying her predecessor’s threat that ‘none shall escape unscathed’ by effectively emerging ‘unscathed’ herself.
Where this will go, remains to be seen, but meantime, anticipating revisions to the strains of Rudder’s ‘how we vote is how we’ll party, I’ll drink to new directions.
Dr Kris Rampersad is an Independet thinker and Media Cultural and Literary Consultant
kriscivica@gmail.com;
Exploring a World Through MultiCultural Lenses
https://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/2017/07/dr-kris-rampersad-exploring-world.html
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. Then we go back to sipping - rum, Guinness and Puncheon if one is UNC and believe in the Prime Minister, and if one is PNM - something else, yet-to-be-named by Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s united Opposition camp.Our cultural repertoire has for long upheld our social underpinnings in unity, tolerance and camaraderie evident in part in Carnival, the ‘greatest show on earth’; while our political pundits continue to pronounce that voting in Trinidad and Tobago has largely been along ethnic lines, because the two major parties have largely ethnic bases.
We have accepted the validity of each posture and their nauseous compendium of evidence, giving little effort to understanding or explaining the paradox.
Those (third) political parties that have failed to win seats have also dismissed the population as racially-driven on this basis of our two-party mentality, with little studied attempts to seriously identify why they failed to make the political grade, or seriously analyse their failures to adequately identify with and reach out to the populace in a manner that can swing voters out of the traditional, unappetizing, offerings.
The simple reality is in the two-party system that has developed in T&T, one is almost forced (so much for democratic right) - to choose one of the two political offerings. The alternative is to abstain, and deny oneself the option of franchise – only an option if one does not subscribe to the right to vote as the ultimate power in a democracy.
The National Alliance for Reconstruction’s victory in 1986 seemed poised to break the two party mould. Riding on its all inclusive ticket of ‘one-love’, the NAR – a coalition government – promised to prove that how we vote can be how we party with its overwhelming sweep of 33-3 seats. Unfortunately, it collapsed unto itself before it could so do.
It’s the Constitution, stupid!
Various other analyses tell us that the culprit is the T&T Constitution and there is an indisputable need for Constitution reform, given evident flaws in T&T Constitutions past and present. Both the 1961 (Independence) Constitution and the 1976 (Republic) Constitution were clearly already obsolete from their inception, with their unworkable British import of the first-past-the-post/winner-take-all-model and evident failure as they disenfranchise large numbers of voters as occurred in the 1981, 2001, 2002 and 2007 general elections.
The alternative, proportional representation, which offers each party numbers of seats in parliament according to the proportion of votes they command, has received some attention, but, like first-past-the post, it upholds a party-based system that gives politicians divine status and places them at the centre of decision-making, which we have seen, with demands for a bottoms-up approach, itself cannot hold.
Manning put forward in 2006 a ‘working document’ on Constitutional Reform, drawn up primarily by a one-man Commission (former President Ellis Clarke) and after-the-fact staged some public ‘consultations’ – an approach interpreted as paying lip service to public opinion. His draft provided for an executive President as in the USA which would give even more executive powers to an already maximum leader of the first-past-the-post system, without correcting (but rather further emasculating) those instruments and institutions that provide checks and balances on such ‘Massa’ power. These include the judiciary and the legislature, and others as the Ombudsman, the Director of Public Prosecution, the Commissioner of Police, the magistracy, Commissions for Integrity, Judicial and Legal Services, Police Service, Public Service, Teaching Service etc. It also proposes to restrict the principle of Freedom of Expression (the the Media) by altering the Bill of Rights. 
One challenge after the other to the Constitution has surfaced since the NAR to show that the Constitution is not just dog-eared, but coming apart at the seams and irrelevant in a rapidly changing world:
• The PNM’s challenge of Winston ‘Gypsy’ Peters dual citizenship
• The 2002 18-18 deadlocked elections which were not catered for in the Constitution;
• Other challenges, mainly related to cockfighting by Panday and Robinson - appointments through the Senate of persons who had been defeated in the polls;
• The chicken-and-egg crisis precipitated by the Standing Order for electing a Speaker before convening the House when neither party wanted to propose a Speaker
The Constitution, say the experts, has outlived its usefulness.
To justify his quest for an Executive President /US styled governance system, PNM leader Patrick Manning has sought to justify his high-handed approach to decision-making with arguments that the extremely diverse nature of the society and their many competing interests made it difficult to govern and needed ‘strong’ leadership.
But at the risk of sounding like a prophetess, the diversity of T&T is indeed its primary character, and anyone who cannot manage our diversity is doomed to failure! Anyone who wants to govern effectively must unite the diversity rather than seek ever more exclusive power to overrule it; (the consequences of ignoring the public over an extended period have been graphically illustrated by the events of recent weeks).The experts tell us that the Constitution - and the West Minster styled parliamentary system it establishes cannot accommodate that diversity; others, like the PNM - undeniably the most experienced party in T&T – argue that neither could proportional representation. Both, it seems are partly in the right; but wholly wrong.Leadership crisis – single party and coalition
The search for the ideal model has been around the debate of whether the single party or coalition government is the better model. Both have been tried and tested and found wanting. As analyst Dr Bishnu Ragoonath observed, the three occasions when our governments prematurely collapsed have been as single party governments – Panday’s in 2001 and Manning’s in 1995, and 2010. Majority rule by a maximum leader with powers equivalent to the Divine Right of Kings in a single party is losing sway on a population becoming more astute and unwilling to continue as blind, unquestioning sheep-like followers. Governance by any one majority ethnic group is become unsavoury to growing and more vociferous elements, demanding recognition of our cultural and other diversity, denied in Williams ‘No Mother India, no Mother Africa’ maxim which seemed not to grasp the complexity of the identity issue.Nor have coalitions worked either; not two examples, the alliance governments of 1986 and 1991 - both of which evolved out of forces opposing the PNM and including Panday’s UNC, Robinson’s Democratic Action Congress, Karl Hudson-Phillips’ Organisation for National Reconstruction, Lloyd Best’s Tapia and various others.
They failed not because the structure of the coalitions was tested, nor because of challenges of managing our complex diversity – they never got a chance. They failed because - as with the maximum leader mode of single party politics - managing the diverse egos of a man-rat driven political culture, continuously tested the Constitution and the governance model, promoting the eminence of constitutional lawyers and legal messiahs.They failed because of unenlightened or misguided leadership that failed to respect the needs and wishes of its people.
Kamla’s People’s Partnership option
Now, Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s bid for the premiership proposes a People’s Partnership, in which the partners acknowledge and commit to her leadership. It presents another option for development and progress.
The People’s Partnership seems neither of the winner-takes-all, nor of the proportional representation models, nor a mix of both. It appears to be a significant departure from all the models discussed above, no wonder many are still trying to come to terms with it.By making all the diverse elements of the population potential winners: civil society, NGO, labour, youth, academics, opposition forces, the elderly, women, with the potential that they can all be represented in the Government, even without changing the Constitution , it has presented a platform closely representative of our diversity.
It seems a bold way of circumventing the limitations of the Constitution’s winner-take-all modem, without the need to undertake the labourious and time-consuming Constitutional change or reform being posited. It answers the call for a new political paradigm in which people have a central and more active voice in governance; of a government driven from the ground up, rather than the top down. It is an expression of political will guided by the will of the people, which speaks directly to the leadership void. With each partner expressly, publicly and emphatically committing to recognising her as leader, one envisions she will rule the roost as a mother would her nest of clamouring, sometimes self-absorbed, chicks. She has proven herself not incapable of the task, having manoeuvred through the UNC’s macho-driven shenanigans of the last two decades, and obviously also out-manoeuvred her formidable competitors to inherit the coveted crown of leadership of the party while defying her predecessor’s threat that ‘none shall escape unscathed’ by effectively emerging ‘unscathed’ herself. Where this will go, remains to be seen, but meantime, anticipating revisions to the strains of Rudder’s ‘how we vote is how we’ll party, I’ll drink to new directions.
Dr Kris Rampersad is an Independet thinker and Media Cultural and Literary Consultant
kriscivica@gmail.com;
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Demokrissy: T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian
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Related:
Demokrissy: To vote, just how we party … Towards culturally ...
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Demokrissy: Cutting edge journalism
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http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/
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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/
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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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