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
An elderly woman
stunned guests at the Annual Mothers’ Day and Arrival Day celebrations of the
Zoomers’ Association of Trinidad and Tobago ( ZATTIC) in Mississauga on Sunday.
Dr Kris Rampersad, a Trinidad-based journalist and author was speaking about
her efforts at ” developing literary and heritage sectors and
creating global connections with Caribbean groups” […]
Olive Sinanan (right) meets Dr.Kris Rampersad,
, journalist and author of LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction
An elderly woman stunned guests
at the Annual Mothers’ Day and Arrival Day celebrations of the Zoomers’
Association of Trinidad and Tobago ( ZATTIC) in Mississauga on Sunday.
Dr Kris
Rampersad, a Trinidad-based journalist and author was speaking about her
efforts at ” developing literary and heritage sectors and creating
global connections with Caribbean groups” when the elderly woman stood up and
interrupted her.
“Excuse
me. I taught at St Julien Presbyterian School. I taught you at St Julien,” the
elderly woman said. She then walked up and embraced Dr Rampersad who exclaimed
in surprise: “Miss Olive. It is so good to see you!”
“I cannot
stay long. I left my family, my children and grandchildren to come here today
to see you. I am so proud of you, my darling,” the woman said to Dr
Rampersad.
“This is
the woman who taught me to read,” Dr Rampersad told the audience which
burst out in loud applause.
Olive
Sinanan, now 80 years old. lives in Toronto.
In her
address, Dr Rampersad explained how the early thirst for reading material which
was scarce when she was growing up in rural Trinidad has motivated much of her
actions even as a journalist, and later as a writer and as an educator.
Dr
Rampersad will be at Windies Restaurant in Scarborough on Sunday to discuss ”
cross cultural connections and opportunities for the creative sectors.
For more
information .visit LiTTscapes on Facebook, @lolleaves on Twitter or email lolleaves@gmail.com.
The ecology,
literature, culture, sustainable development and their convergence in Caribbean
fiction will feature at LiTTribute to LondonTTown to take place in London on
Monday (July 15). The symbolic and actual representations of nature in fiction
from the section NaTTurescapes in LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction from
Trinidad and Tobago by Kris Rampersad will be […]
The
ecology, literature, culture, sustainable development and their convergence in
Caribbean fiction will feature at LiTTribute to LondonTTown to take place in
London on Monday (July 15).
The
symbolic and actual representations of nature in fiction from the section
NaTTurescapes in LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago by
Kris Rampersad will be among the highlights of the literary tribute that aims
at exploring new approaches to culture-centred development.
Among
those to participate in the LiTTribute will be Director of the Commonwealth
Foundation, Vijay Krishnarayan, the Trinidad-born former head of the Caribbean
Natural Resources Institute who has worked with civil society to devise actions
for sustainable development through land-use planning.
BBC World
Have Your Say Host, Ros Atkins and London-based Caribbean author, Lakshmi
Persaud will also present perspectives on cultural linkages across the
Atlantic.
High
Commissioner to the United Kingdom, His Excellency Garvin Nicholas views the
event as an important platform for highlighting the complex history and
fascinating social landscape of Trinidad and Tobago to a British audience and
notes that In ‘Littscapes’, Dr. Rampersad has brought to light Trinidad and
Tobago’s rich literary tradition and unique heritage. This”.
Said
Rampersad: “As has been the vision behind production of LiTTscapes, LiTTous and
LiTTributes, this will demonstrate the connectivities between and among what
may seem widely disparate subjects and disassociated development challenges.
These may be peculiar to our national communities but the also have resonance
internationally. This has been the thread that runs through our activities and
the book itself which explores the natural environment, peoples, lifestyles in
the context of fiction.
As has
been done in LiTTributes held earlier this year – to the Mainland in Guyana and
to the Antilles in Antigua – this will encourage rethinking how we
may better engage with and utilise the rich literary outpourings as represented
in LiTTscapes to develop synergies with the international community for social
and economic development in film, music, entertainment and education sectors.
Rampersad
who is a journalist and educator in Caribbean culture and heritage noted that
LiTTscapes represents this relationship from the earliest writings of Sir
Walter Raleigh to the current day among the 100-plus works by more than 60
writers, including those who made London their home such as Naipaul, Selvon,
Lakshmi Seetaram-Persaud and others.For invitations to
LiTTribute to LondonTTown email lolleaves@gmail.com.
LiTTscapes has been acclaimed as a groundbreaking
pictoral yet encyclopaedic compendium of the lifestyles, landscapes,
architecture, cultures, festivals and institutions in its full colour easy
reading documentary/travelogue/biography representation of Trinidad and Tobago
and its fiction as represented in more than 100 fictional works by some 60
writers.
LiTTribute to
LondonTTown follows
on the recent
LiTTribute to the Antilles staged in Antigua in March, LiTTurgy to the
Mainland in Guyana in February, and LiTTribute to the Republic of
Trinidad and Tobago, hosted by the First Lady of Trinidad and
Tobago, Dr Jean Ramjohn Richards and Dr Rampersad in September 2012. LiTTscapes was
launched at White Hall – one of Trinidad and Tobago’s Magnificent Seven
buildings as part of the islands 50thanniversary of independence in August 2012.
LiTTscapes is Rampersad’s third book and follows
Finding a Place and Through The Political Glass Ceiling; a fourth Letters to
Lizzie, an exploration of empire making and colonialism in the contexts of the
diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II and the golden jubilee of Trinidad and
Tobago’s independence is to be released shortly.
Trinidadian author
and educator, Dr Kris Rampersad has been invited to serve on the consultative
body of the international InterGovernmental Committee on safeguarding
intangible cultural heritage of the United Nations Education, Science and
Cultural Organisation. Rampersad was also elected to serve as Vice-Chair of the
consultative body during its first meeting held in Paris this […]
Trinidadian author and educator, Dr Kris
Rampersad has been invited to serve on the consultative body of the
international InterGovernmental Committee on safeguarding intangible cultural
heritage of the United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organisation.
Rampersad was also elected to serve as Vice-Chair of the consultative body
during its first meeting held in Paris this week.
She is
one of six international experts who will serve on the committee in their
individual professional capacity, following the decision which was taken at
last December’s meeting of the InterGovernmental Committee in Paris, France.
As a
consultative member, she will participate in scrutinising applications to the
UNESCO’s Register of Best Safeguarding Practices, the Urgent Safeguarding List
and requests for international assistance in relation to Intangible Cultural
Heritage.
Dr
Rampersad – an independent media, cultural and literary consultant and
facilitator – is a UNESCO-trained expert towards safeguarding cultural heritage
and strengthening community and national tangible and intangible culture
mechanisms. She has been conducting capacity building exercises in this regard
across the Caribbean, including in countries as Belize, Jamaica, Guyana, St
Kitts & Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada. She has also prepared and
trained Caribbean youths, policy makers, decision makers and cultural
communities in accessing the provisions of the Conventions towards
strengthening mechanism for cultural survival and endurance. She further
participated in the intergovernmental meeting on intangible cultural heritage
in Bali, Indonesia in December, 2011.
Rampersad
has been examining and critiquing national and international policy
instruments, including UNESCO mechanisms, and devising mechanisms and
recommendations for culture-centred development for more than a decade. She has
also been engaged by various international and regional agencies to present her
perspective and coordinate multisectoral examination of development issues,
bringing together policy and decision-makers, academics, private sector, media
and civil society on a range of fields including science, technology,
communications, agriculture, gender among others.
A
journalist, and newspaper editor, her research and recommendations are
represented in UNESCO publications as well as the Commonwealth Foundation’s
Putting Culture First Report; the culture reports of the ACP-EU (Africa,
Pacific, Caribbean-European Union), and the International Who’s Who in Culture
Policy Research among others.
She is
the author of the highly acclaimed LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction
from Trinidad and Tobago; Through the Political Glass Ceiling, and Finding a
Place along with numerous print and new media journals and fora on culture,
gender, literature, media and development.
Rampersad
is the Chair of the Trinidad and Tobago National Commission for UNESCO.
It is only a matter
of time before the next bulldozer razes a next timeless heritage element in the
region, according to literary and cultural heritage educator and consultant Dr
Kris Rameprsad, calling on the region to reexamine its overall approaches to
sustainable development planning, budgeting and education and consciousness
raising programmes. In her blog, […]
Trinidadian author and educator, Dr Kris
Rampersad has been invited to serve on the consultative body of the
international InterGovernmental Committee on safeguarding intangible cultural
heritage of the United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organisation.
Rampersad was also elected to serve as Vice-Chair of the consultative body
during its first meeting held in Paris this week.
She is
one of six international experts who will serve on the committee in their
individual professional capacity, following the decision which was taken at
last December’s meeting of the InterGovernmental Committee in Paris, France.
As a
consultative member, she will participate in scrutinising applications to the
UNESCO’s Register of Best Safeguarding Practices, the Urgent Safeguarding List
and requests for international assistance in relation to Intangible Cultural
Heritage.
Dr
Rampersad – an independent media, cultural and literary consultant and
facilitator – is a UNESCO-trained expert towards safeguarding cultural heritage
and strengthening community and national tangible and intangible culture
mechanisms. She has been conducting capacity building exercises in this regard
across the Caribbean, including in countries as Belize, Jamaica, Guyana, St
Kitts & Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada. She has also prepared and
trained Caribbean youths, policy makers, decision makers and cultural
communities in accessing the provisions of the Conventions towards strengthening
mechanism for cultural survival and endurance. She further participated in the
intergovernmental meeting on intangible cultural heritage in Bali, Indonesia in
December, 2011.
Rampersad
has been examining and critiquing national and international policy
instruments, including UNESCO mechanisms, and devising mechanisms and
recommendations for culture-centred development for more than a decade. She has
also been engaged by various international and regional agencies to present her
perspective and coordinate multisectoral examination of development issues,
bringing together policy and decision-makers, academics, private sector, media
and civil society on a range of fields including science, technology,
communications, agriculture, gender among others.
A
journalist, and newspaper editor, her research and recommendations are
represented in UNESCO publications as well as the Commonwealth Foundation’s
Putting Culture First Report; the culture reports of the ACP-EU (Africa,
Pacific, Caribbean-European Union), and the International Who’s Who in Culture
Policy Research among others.
She is
the author of the highly acclaimed LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction
from Trinidad and Tobago; Through the Political Glass Ceiling, and Finding a
Place along with numerous print and new media journals and fora on culture,
gender, literature, media and development.
Rampersad
is the Chair of the Trinidad and Tobago National Commission for UNESCO.
It is only a matter of time
before the next bulldozer razes a next timeless heritage element in the region,
according to literary and cultural heritage educator and consultant Dr Kris
Rameprsad, calling on the region to reexamine its overall approaches to sustainable
development planning, budgeting and education and consciousness raising
programmes.
She
states: “Bulldozing of the near 2300 year-old-Mayan Nohmul temple in Orange
Walk Belize is only symptomatic of the level of unchecked danger and threats to
significant heritage elements of the region and the degree of short sightedness
in our approach to sustainable development. She cited sites under developmental
pressure in Trinidad, Jamaica Blue Mountains, St Lucia Pitons and elsewhere in
the region.
“The
bulldozer mentality is symptomatic of pervading misperceptions that sustainability,
bio-cultural heritage conservation and development are
polar opposites. This promotes confrontational approaches at the
expense of exploration of very real modes by which the two can successfully and
peacefully co-exist to the benefit of populations. Our budget and economic,
social and environmental planning directorate and bureaucracies should take
note.”
She
stated that while given the ration of its population to size, Belize is perhaps
one of the least pressured countries of the region in terms of the intensity of
competition for land space for development, last week’s bulldozing is testimony
to some of the challenges for heritage preservation facing the region.
She noted
that it was appalling that this happened to a complex that was visible, not one
of the many overgrown Mayan complexes in Belize, and for use as – of all things
– gravel for a road.
“Proper
land use planning with concurrent resourcing, execution and implementation may
be one element of a solution, but without a focussed awareness building
and formal and informal education that inject heritage consciousness from the
cradle through adulthood, it is a tragedy that is certain to be
repeated,” she states.
She noted
that Mayas are still described and treated in the past tense in much of our
history and standard educational material – part of historic misrepresentations
of all the civilisations that comprise our region – although very vibrant Mayan
communities live across South/Central America and not unlike with other
regional ethnic groups, function in active regional diasporas across the globe,
and describe her own education and interactions with members of the Belize
community last year.
“The
bulldozer mentality will stay with us unless mechanisms are built into our
budgeting and physical and mental spatial development planning, as in all other
development plans so we present and project that physical, social and
educational planning not separate silos and never the twain shall meet, but as
a seamless and essentially integrated system that depend on and support each
other.”
To some
degree, Belize has legal and institutional mechanisms: an Act, laws, oversight
institutions which may be challenged by shortage of human resource and
other capacity, but those are also largely reactive mechanisms, as
important as they are, to net culprits after the fact of a bulldoze, for
example, rather than sustainable pre-emptive mechanisms which are where the
focus should be. If we cannot build consciousness and recognise the value these
elements of our heritage, hold to the sense of self and esteem that could
prevent the next trigger happy youngster from bulldozing his own life – value
beyond commercial value, beyond the next access road and the next high rise and
the next exploration for an oil well – which incidentally is another impending
threat to Belize where recent interests in exploitation for petroleum can become
the next international heritage disaster story.
Is that
being taken into account in the current land use planning for sustainable
development currently being undertaken in Trinidad and Tobago and other parts
of the region? Where are the efforts to factor and integrate
sustainable heritage consciousness into all of this, other than the flag
waving mentality? Where are the plans to factor in heritage in the planning for
sustainable development and the strategic educational interventions into that process
that move beyond a few Kodak advertising moments?
Lost,
surely in the cliched excuse about the jostle for space for industry and
agriculture and shelter in the name of development.
Development
does not have to be at the expense of heritage or vice versa. There are enough
successful models of this that can make us confident that we can find the right
balance between feeding ourselves, living with all the modern comforts that one
may desire and at the same time showing respect and pride in the legacy and inheritances
that are ours.
The
alternative is the next regional bulldozer story – while Belize becomes a
footnote, as McLoed house in South Trinidad already has – this is the potential
fate of other sites in the region; like the Banwari and other related sites
in Trinidad; or the Pitons in St Lucia or the maroon and other distinctive
heritage of Jamaica’s majestic Blue Mountains and others across the region can
soon become. Sustainable development requires sustainable planning and
sustainable education and awareness activities.
The Triumph of Gollum in the Land of Shut Up Suicide of the
Fellowship of Partnerships Book 11. A Sequel Futuring the Agenda Forward https://goo.gl/HU3rp3
Celebrating Jamettry The Sacred and the Sacriligious
Review by Herman Silochan, courtesy Caribbean Camera, Toronto
Toronto: Aug 19, 2010: The election of Kamla Persad-Bissessar to the office of Prime Minister in Trinidad and Tobago last May is now being analyzed by regional political scientists. That the new incumbent is a woman, of rural background, of Indian descent, forces academics to work outside the traditional tool box of investigation.
First out the post is Dr. Kris Rampersad, a journalist, lecturer and political observer in her own right. Dr. Rampersad has brought out a selection of Persad-Bissessar’s speeches showing how the path to power was cut and maintained right up to the weeks before that euphoric night of celebration.
What gives the author’s book an insightful quality is that it was launched the week before Persad-Bissessar’s massive electoral win. Few guessed what the result was going to be because commentators, inured by decades of assessing a two-party system along racial lines, hardly bothered to look behind the scenes at a fluid seething electorate, many voting for the first time.
Dr. Rampersad’s opening essay to the book, titled “A Clash of Political Cultures: Cultural Diversity & Minority Politics in Trinidad and Tobago”, sets new interpretations for future elected office holders. This essay could be a good starting point for political scientists taking a new look at the twin island republic’s evolution into its now open accepted multicultural face.
“The whole perception of T&T society is that it is race-based, and projections coming out of this, are false,” she said in Toronto this week to promote her new book. “We inherited a Westminster style system and interpreters of the two party system it posits presents and represents that in terms of race and in the process overlook that Opposition politics was really accommodating elements of the country's diversity that could not seem to find a place in the ruling party.
Both in terms of the physical presentations and in representations of the country as a whole, you get wrong interpretations of what this country is all about. Take for example, our Embassies, High Commissions and Consulates, they do not reflect, or represent the fullness of T&T society; not the kind of society we know of a place where we have moved beyond racial tolerance to a cacualnessand comfortableness with each other and as a result we don’t have the kind of animosities and antagonisms seen in other societies coming to grip with their diversity.”
Dr. Rampersad points out that one of the enduring myths is that in sections of Trinidad there are Indian-only villages, or African-only suburbs. She insists that from times as long as one can remember, there have been peoples of different races living side by side, sharing ancestral values, and cuisines, for examples. Then you have the inevitable process of racial mixing. But it’s more than African or Indian; there’s Chinese, Syrian-Lebanese, European and Taino/Carib/Arawak. “There is no race based community in Trinidad, all are diverse. You must understand this if you want to understand the political face of the Republic and it seemed that the politics of the last 30 years has been unable to catch-up with this reality.”
Dr. Rampersad states with conviction that the evolution to a diverse political representation became more and more evident in the 1970s when cracks began appearing in the People's National Movement when key figures like Karl Hudson-Phillips and ANR Robinson abandoned the party. The victories of the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) in 1986, and the United National Congress (UNC) in 1996 are the manifestations of a broad power sharing.
It was in this period that the young wife of a doctor, Kamla Persad Bissessar was thrust into the role first as alderman, then a parliamentarian, then Attorney General, then Acting Prime Minister. She might have come from a Hindu home, but her parents also had her baptized into the Spiritual Baptist Movement. During her law studies in Jamaica and otherwise, she expanded her cultural appreciation of other societies, strengths and weaknesses. Indeed, through the campaign and on election night, on stage, she danced to Bob Marley’s “One Love”, even as possibly a couple hundred tassa drums reverberated around the party headquarters.
Reading through this selection of speeches, you also see the wordings of broad representations, Persad-Bissessar’s loyalty to her boss, the Leader of the Opposition, and former Prime Minister, Basdeo Panday, in spite of jealousies and putdowns.
Remember too we are working in an outwardly machismo society, yet still inherently matriarchal. Feminists generally call this the “glass ceiling”.
Persad-Bissessar’s speeches, which represents over 60 years of the political history of the country and some 21 years of the political life of Mrs Persad-Bissessarshows she is no fluke to the nation’s highest elected office, that she had been addressing issues and problems when few cared to debate them. That she was not ever afraid to confront her allies or government ministers with blunt language. But she tempered her rhetoric with diplomacy, smiles and a sense of logic that was hard to refute; for example, her action confronting the Speaker of the House with his stupid decision banning laptops in Parliament when every other democracy in the world was incorporating them into the era of information led debate.
For lovers of Trinbago society, this is a good book to have, to appreciate the fullness of its roots, and as the author’s says, a good template for other emergent multicultural societies the world over.
The book is called Through The Political Glass Ceiling, Race to Prime Ministership by Trinidad and Tobago’s First Female – Kamla Persad-Bissessar. Reprinted with permission of The Caribbean Camera, Toronto, Canada. http://www.thecaribbeancamera.com/home-page
Media, cultural and literary consultant Dr Kris Rampersad believes this year's budget should contain the necessary provisions to push T&T's arts and cultural sector from one of dependency to self-sustainability. She said if that was not done T&T would be missing a crucial opportunity to diversify its economy. In a press statement yesterday, Rampersad pointed out that arts and culture were a billion-dollar industry in other countries.
She added: "It is the kind of returns from museums, from performances abroad, from sales and downloads of a range of cultural products in a world hungry for new entertainment on the one hand..."On the other (hand), from fulfilling the cravings from new reflections of self and identity that our multi-culturalism can provide." She added that arts and culture have the potential to help people and communities to have sustainable livelihoods. She noted, however, that the structures, systems and investments necessary which would help T&T to take advantage of that was "sorely lacking."
She said the potential of art and culture was not only found in T&T's music, song, dance, drama or literature but also in outside-the-box industries of fashion and cuisine. "We are sitting down on a multi-million dollar revenue earner in literary tourism, but there are as yet no real facilities by which we can capture this international interest," Dr Rampersad noted. She said it was Government's duty to create an environment that would enable and facilitate that.
She said it was also Government's duty to promote public and private sector partnerships within individuals and groups in the sector, as well as international agencies and to ensure that no one group or groups of organisations had the monopoly and access to these facilities. Dr Rampersad added: "The 2010-2011 budget should present clear measures to provide effective tax and other incentives to the creative sector for the development of talents, products and communities, along with a short, medium and long-term vision that gives culture its rightful place at the centre of national development, not just piecemeal and tokenism."
Trinidad and Tobago would be missing a crucial opportunity for diversifying the national economy if Government’s 2010-2011 Budget does not contain the necessary provisions to propel the arts and cultural sector from dependency to self-sustainability.
Arts and culture is a billion dollar industry elsewhere. It is the kind of returns from museums, from performances abroad, from sales and downloads of a range of cultural products in a world hungry for new entertainment on the one hand; and on the other, from fulfilling the cravings for new reflections of self and identity that our multiculturalism can provide. It has the potential to help individuals and communities to sustainable livelihoods. However, the structures and systems and investments necessary that can help us take advantage of this are sorely lacking.
The potential is not only our music, song, dance, drama, literature but outside-the-box industries of fashion and cuisine. We are sitting on a multi-million dollar revenue earner in literary tourism, but there are as yet no real facilities by which we can capture this international interest. Digitisation of access to these is also crucial. It is the duty of Government to create the environment to enabling and facilitate this; to promote public-private sector partnerships with individuals and groups in the sector, and to ensure that no one group or groups of organisations have the monopoly of access to these facilities.
At a time when the world is rapidly moving towards forms of energy other than petroleum, it is ridiculous to consider further incentives and tax reductions to the oil sector, when efforts should be concentrated at making that sector compensate for the imbalances it has created, and developing those sectors that have longer-term and more sustainable potential, particularly those related to the arts and culture sector. Europe and North America are trying to ‘buy up’ as much world cultures as possible, we seem all-too-willing to sellout our cultural assets and not even to the highest bidder– just look at the Economic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and CARIFORUM.
The 2010-11 Budget should present clear measures to provide effective tax and other incentives to the creative sector for the development of talents, products, communities along with a short, medium and long term vision that gives culture its rightful place at the centre of national development, not just piecemeal and tokenism. That would also include revising the mainstream (preschool/primary to tertiary level) education curriculum, teacher training, and education materials to reflect and enhance appreciation for local arts and multiculturalism, along with intelligently utilising the new arts megastructures to effectively cultivate and provide opportunities for creative enterprise and activities easily accessible to the masses. With this should come review of all ‘national’ competitions to lift the standards and quality of products being awarded by state and private sector funds, while helping to facilitate development of audiences, readers and participants. Where is our National Arts Council that is equipped and resourced to pull together and make holistic and effective the work of the National Carnival Commission, National Archives, National Trust, National Libraries and Museums for instance?
The spin offs are not only tangible economic benefits, but other social spinoffs – reduced crime, poverty, stress on social services and the intangibles of civic ownership, and national pride.
There are enough writers too, more of them erupting into voice year after year, and a nascent publishing industry in the Caribbean moving into its own in spite of direct competition from American TV, videos, the internet and other high tech threats to literacy.
The rosiness of my immediate response to all this is tempered somewhat by the fact that "bookishness" is largely a middle-class phenomenon and that many many Caribbean folk, especially the youth (who are our future practitioners and artists) were not present in large numbers, save for those who were brought in by the schools.
A number of writers live and work in this city - in fact Toronto has been described as the city with the largest concentration of Caribbean writers globally. But the bounty of their presence is not really evident in the life of the Caribbean community except on rare occasions such as that of Book fair week. A pity.
I say "week" because the build up to the Book fair as well as the aftermath increased the overall intensity of the cultural assertion that was taking place. On Thursday, June 26, the Ontario Steelpan Association (OSA) honoured one of the foremost innovators of the Steelpan, Dr. Ellie Mannette, at a function at the Scarborough Civic Centre. And on June 27, at the Monarch Park Collegiate, Ellie Mannette was also featured at a concert including such accomplished steelpan artists as Mark Mosca and Talib Reid-Robinson.This event also showcased rising stars such as Aaron Seunarine and Gareth Burgess, and performances by the Bruce Skerritt Trio, building to a climactic finish by the youth of the Afropan Steel Orchestra.
On Sunday June 22 at the Grand Baccus Banquet Hall in Scarborough, nationals of Trinidad and Tobago gathered to welcome to Toronto their new high commissioner in Ottawa, Mr. Arnold Piggott. Mr. Piggott spoke of the continued economic progress of T&T and its goal of reaching developed country status by the year 2020. He exclaimed too at the capacity crowd that had gathered, their accomplishments, their energy and their "rainbow" appearance.
Other Caribbean territories (14 altogether) also staged their own country events in the lead up to the festival and afterwards. Informal gatherings of writers with friends and family, dinners, ordinary liming, media talks and author interviews added to the buzz. One such interview was done by this writer with Kris Rampersad, whose recent work, Finding a Place: IndoTrinidadian Literature, was launched at a reception at the T&T consulate on June 17. Kris’s introduction states that this work "is about the growth and development of literature and a literary consciousness among Indo Trinidadians between 1850 and 1950, and more significantly, how they came to English and what they brought to it over the 100-year period."
Here are some excerpts from this interview:
Ramabai Espinet: What prompted you to write this book?.
Kris Rampersad: Well, there is much in the book that’s descriptive because the material was disappearing, so I thought that I needed to record what existed.
RE: How will this material be made accessible? Are you thinking of a reader, something like From Trinidad, maybe?
KR: I’ve thought of that. I’m hoping that someone will come up with the funding or the resources to reproduce the magazines and the journals that form the raw material of the book because most of what we have in the Archives are the only copies that exist and they’re in pretty bad stages of disrepair. In fact, some of them can’t even be touched.
RE: What is the real value of this work to you?
KR: It is a very valuable social record. One of the reasons why people have been so receptive to it - not just people interested in literature - is that the raw material is so rich in terms of anthropology, sociology and social and political development. It maps a process in the society that people are unaware of. Much research has been done of the 50s but this crop of journals that I’ve unearthed fills a kind of black hole. There has been a general impression that Indians were not writing at all until probably the 1940s. Also, one of the gaps in the socio-political history is the belief that in all that’s been happening in the development of Trinidad and Tobago, Indians weren’t participating. But what these records show is that they were very, very active and that there was so much collaboration among the groups that somehow the social analysis was ignored. Maybe this was not done deliberately, because they probably weren’t aware that the material existed, but I think it can present us with a more holistic view of the society.
RE: What do you think of V.S. Naipaul’s work?
KR: I think his work is brilliant but its impact probably suffers because of his personality...I don’t think anyone can question what he has achieved. I do think that the role of his father in his work has been largely underplayed.
RE: I agree with that. But what about Letters from Father to Son? Surely the publication of that book paid homage to Seepersad’s role in his writing?
KR: Yes, it paid homage but I wonder what is lost in the editing.
RE: You think it’s too sanitized?
KR: Yes...there is evidence of a wish-fulfillment on the part of his father but the rest is pretty tame.
RE: What about your personal view of Naipaul?
KR: Well, I don’t know him personally but I think that artists ought to be allowed their little eccentricities because I believe that it’s out of that they create - it’s an essential part of the whole creative process. But in a place like Trinidad, with all of the divisions, it’s easy to focus on the negatives instead of the positives.
RE: The disdain for Naipaul is enormous.
KR: I think it’s partly because there has been little understanding of the situations from which he writes...I take real issue with what the film of The Mystic Masseur has done to the book...the character’s evolution from Ganesh Ramsumair into G. Ramsay Muir is watered down...they try to make him into some kind of national hero.
RE: Instead of a mock national hero?
KR: Yes. Because it’s what Naipaul was suggesting - that all these people we create as national heroes are really mock heroes. There is a difference between who the artist is, what he’s trying to do, and what people are seeing of him.
Finding a Place is available at "A Different Booklist" (416) 538-0889.
Toronto — The past week in this Canadian city has been a charged and memorable one for Caribbean people. No matter how settled we seem to be here, the presence of our Caribbean selves within our Can-adian selves always provides an im-mense comfort.
And that comfort has been present in extravagant quantities in the last little while, unusual in these pre-Caribana days when all the excitement is held at bay in anticipation of the midsummer festivities during the August long weekend.
Trinidadian author and educator, Dr Kris
Rampersad has been invited to serve on the consultative body of the
international InterGovernmental Committee on safeguarding intangible cultural
heritage of the United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organisation.
Rampersad was also elected to serve as Vice-Chair of the consultative body
during its first meeting held in Paris this week.
Trinidadian author and educator, Dr Kris
Rampersad has been invited to serve on the consultative body of the
international InterGovernmental Committee on safeguarding intangible cultural
heritage of the United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organisation.
Rampersad was also elected to serve as Vice-Chair of the consultative body
during its first meeting held in Paris this week.
Trinidadian author and educator, Dr Kris
Rampersad has been invited to serve on the consultative body of the
international InterGovernmental Committee on safeguarding intangible cultural
heritage of the United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organisation.
Rampersad was also elected to serve as Vice-Chair of the consultative body
during its first meeting held in Paris this week.
The Noh Mul
temple being bulldozed
