Thru Novel Lenses! New Vision New Perspectives New Ideas New Directions For the New World! Futuring Sustainable Development in the Post Pandemic Planet From Pre School to Policy Making
I've been plotting the violent crimes in Trinidad and Tobago in red to see what complexion our country will take on if we were to pin the violent crimes and murders and crimes against children, and women. The resulting image is too depressing so I am asking citizens to instead join me and pin your spaces as Zones of Non Violence on this NVZ mapto declare your spaces Non Violent Zones. welcome the Peace initiative of the Inter-Religious Organisation and Ms Ela Gandhi, holder of an international peace award, grandaughter of founder of the Satya Graha movement, Mohandas Gandhi to Trinidad and Tobago.
I share the Prayer for All of the Trinidad and Tobago National Commission for UNESCO for use and adoption by any individual or agency who wishes to do so, an organisation devoted to "Building Peace in the Minds of Men and Women and urge you to create centres of peace in your communities.
Creating Centres for a Culture of
Peace in Trinidad and Tobago
Statement,
Chair, National Commission for UNESCO and
Trinidad and
Tobago Representative on the UNESCO National Commission on creating a Culture
of Peace in Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Kris Rampersad
May 5, 2014
I
invite the national community to reflect on actions that will help promote and
advance the cultivation of a culture of peace and non violence in Trinidad and
Tobago as it works to help the society strengthen its peace-driven defence
mechanisms to counteract what seems to be an escalating culture of violence among
men, women and children in our society.
As the country tries to come to grips with
the most recent of brutal actions on our citizens with the murder of Senior
Counsel Dana Seetahal, we draw attention to the UNESCO programme of action for Culture of
Peace and Non-Violence,and
invite individuals, groups and agencies to work with us to devise positive
actions to cultivate values and practices of peace and non violence in various spheres
of daily national life. The action plan
recognises that legal provisions are necessary to creating the right conditions
and environment for the harmonious development of women, men and children towards building a culture of peace.
We believe more than ever in the relevance of
the principles of a new humanism and soft diplomacy towards creating a culture
of peace and non violence begins with, and in, our daily lives, as espoused by this
action plan.
It states that: “that peace
is more than the absence of war, but living together with our differences – of
sex, race, language, religion or culture – while furthering universal respect
for justice and human rights on which such coexistence depends.”
As such, we also draw attention to the UNESCO
Constitution and Charter to which Trinidad and Tobago is a signatory, and
the commitment made to
advance universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human
rights and fundamental freedoms contained in Article 1, based on which the National Commission is developing
its own Charter for Peace.
We
see these as mechanisms that can be used to sustain hope for the new humanism
that focuses not just on prevention, mediation, reconciliation and law, but also more
proactive promote preventative actions
to cultivating values and culture of peace and non violence in our everyday
lives.
The United Nations has mandated UNESCO as its
line agency to promote a culture of peace. It defines such a culture of peace as
comprising values, attitudes and behaviours that promote “freedom,
justice and democracy, all human rights, tolerance and solidarity, that reject
violence and endeavours to prevent conflicts by tackling their root causes.”
As the line agency of the United
Nations charged with building a culture of peace, UNESCO acts on thedeclaration that “since wars begin in the minds of men
and women it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be
constructed”.
We look forward to the strengthening of national “culture of peace” programmes and
creation of spaces for peace within communities, home, schools and other social
institutions.
Meanwhile, on behalf of the President, Minister
of Education, Dr Tim Gopeesingh, Commissioners and the Secretariat of the
National Commission for UNESCO, I extend condolences to the family and friends and
the Trinidad and Tobago national community so deeply affected by the violence in
our society in general, and the loss of Ms Seetahal in particular. The principles
of law and justice to which Ms Seetahal devoted her life’s work are reflected
in
We note that Ms Seetahal has added, not only
in actions but also in words, considerably to the intellectual stock of
knowledge and efforts at transforming agencies of the judiciary and the society
in generalin the Commonwealth, among them in her work for promoting prison
reform which speak to the environment of a new humanism that UNESCO driven by
its Director General of UNESCO, Ms Irina Bokova has been promoting. Ms Seetahal’s
publication of Law in the Commonwealth Caribbean has become one of the standard
legal texts in international legal practice.
Dr Kris
Rampersad
Chair,
Trinidad and Tobago National Commission for UNESCO and Trinidad and Tobago
Representative on the UNESCO Executive Board
Oct 20, 2013Choosing 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/
Apr 07, 2013Old 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/
Jul 30, 2013Wherever 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/
Oct 25, 2013Some 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/
Oct 14, 2013They 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/
Jun 15, 2010T&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/
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/
Oct 29, 2013An 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/
Oct 16, 2013Sheilah 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/
Oct 21, 2013Ain'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/
Jan 09, 2012New 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/
Statement,
Chair, National Commission for UNESCO and
Trinidad and
Tobago Representative on the UNESCO National Commission on creating a Culture
of Peace in Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Kris Rampersad
May 5, 2014
I invite the national community to reflect on actions that will help promote and
advance the cultivation of a culture of peace and non violence in Trinidad and
Tobago as it works to help the society strengthen its peace-driven defense
mechanisms to counteract what seems to be an escalating culture of violence among
men, women and children in our society.
As the country tries to come to grips with
the most recent of brutal actions on our citizens with the murder of Senior
Counsel Dana Seetahal, we draw attention to the UNESCO programme of action for Culture of
Peace and Non-Violence,and
invite individuals, groups and agencies to work with us to devise positive
actions to cultivate values and practices of peace and non violence in various spheres
of daily national life. The action plan
recognises that legal provisions are necessary to creating the right conditions
and environment for the harmonious development of women, men and children towards building a culture of peace.
We believe more than ever in the relevance of
the principles of a new humanism and soft diplomacy towards creating a culture
of peace and non violence begins with, and in, our daily lives, as espoused by this
action plan.
It states that: “that peace
is more than the absence of war, but living together with our differences – of
sex, race, language, religion or culture – while furthering universal respect
for justice and human rights on which such coexistence depends.”
As such, we also draw attention to the UNESCO
Constitution and Charter to which Trinidad and Tobago is a signatory, and
the commitment made to
advance universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human
rights and fundamental freedoms contained in Article 1, based on which the National Commission is developing
its own Charter for Peace.
We
see these as mechanisms that can be used to sustain hope for the new humanism
that focuses not just on prevention, mediation, reconciliation and law, but also more
proactive promote preventative actions
to cultivating values and culture of peace and non violence in our everyday
lives.
The United Nations has mandated UNESCO as its
line agency to promote a culture of peace. It defines such a culture of peace as
comprising values, attitudes and behaviours that promote “freedom,
justice and democracy, all human rights, tolerance and solidarity, that reject
violence and endeavours to prevent conflicts by tackling their root causes.”
As the line agency of the United
Nations charged with building a culture of peace, UNESCO acts on thedeclaration that “since wars begin in the minds of men
and women it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be
constructed”.
We look forward to the strengthening of national “culture of peace” programmes and
creation of spaces for peace within communities, home, schools and other social
institutions.
Meanwhile, on behalf of the National Commission for UNESCO, and my own behalf, I extend condolences to the family and friends and
the Trinidad and Tobago national community so deeply affected by the violence in
our society in general, and the loss of Ms Seetahal in particular. The principles
of law and justice to which Ms Seetahal devoted her life’s work are reflected
in
We note that Ms Seetahal has added, not only
in actions but also in words, considerably to the intellectual stock of
knowledge and efforts at transforming agencies of the judiciary and the society
in general in the Commonwealth, among them in her work for promoting prison
reform which speak to the environment of a new humanism that UNESCO driven by
its Director General of UNESCO, Ms Irina Bokova has been promoting. Ms Seetahal’s
publication of Law in the Commonwealth Caribbean has become one of the standard
legal texts in international legal practice.
Oct 20, 2013Choosing 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/
Apr 07, 2013Old 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/
Jul 30, 2013Wherever 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/
Oct 25, 2013Some 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/
Oct 14, 2013They 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/
Jun 15, 2010T&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/
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/
Oct 29, 2013An 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/
Oct 16, 2013Sheilah 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/
Oct 21, 2013Ain'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/
Jan 09, 2012New 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/
Oct 20, 2013Choosing 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/
Apr 07, 2013Old 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/
Jul 30, 2013Wherever 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/
Oct 25, 2013Some 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/
Oct 14, 2013They 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/
Jun 15, 2010T&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/
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/
Oct 29, 2013An 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/
Oct 16, 2013Sheilah 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/
Oct 21, 2013Ain'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/
Jan 09, 2012New 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/
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 transformation of the governance of T&T? Do we have a vision for a better framework of governance: made of the people of T&; for the people of T&T; and by the people of T&T? Or are we merely repackaging old casked mercantilist rum in new bottles as we try to forcefit ourselves in one of two already tottering models of governance - the British Westminster system and the US Presidential model. Time to rethink our approach for what works best for us. To begin this probe, let's flash back to an article written in the lead up to the 2010 elections: Have any of these found resolution in the recent rounds of constitutional reform talks; or have they been just that: talk? More in the introduction to Through the Political Glass Ceiling
available on Amazon Kindle and local bookshops:
Constitutional Crisis of Leadership Various analyses tell us that the leadership blunders of the past few decades point to the Trinidad and Tobago's Constitution as the culprit, 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 defined 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.
Executive president?
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 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:
1. The PNM’s challenge of Winston “Gypsy” Peters’ dual citizenship;
2. The 2002 18-18 deadlocked elections which were not catered for in the constitution;
3. Other challenges, mainly related to cockfighting, by Panday and Robinson—appointments through the Senate of people who had been defeated in the polls;
4. 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 of Trinidad and Tobago, as it is, has outlived its usefulness.
To justify his quest for an executive president/US-styled governance system, (Then) 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 constitution—and the Westminster-styled parliamentary system it establishes cannot accommodate that diversity.
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 or 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 has 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 because... 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.
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