Turning Our Dreams To Shame RIP Asami Nagayika‬ u walked our mile and a half

Call it cultural illiteracy, because beyond the gender insensitivity that has engendered the storm over the murder of Japanese Steelpannist at the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival 2016, we have been ripping our hearts out to teach, to spark some knowledge so others may understand the meaning and place of culture, in national development, and in not just the soft spots of dance and jump up and make people feel nice in bikini and beads, but as an economic earner, in cultural diplomacy, in cultural politics, in sustainable development, in our place in the world and for cultural understanding -  walking the mile and a half (listen to Asami playing one of Trinidad and Tobago's classical folk pieces...

 AsamiNagayika‬ is just another one in a graveyard of cultural icons sacrificed on the alter of ignorance to narrow and myopic interests, turning our dreams to shame. RIP ‪#‎AsamiNagayika‬  For love of‪#‎TrinidadandTobago‬ and ‪#‎Steelpan‬ Just another day in our paradise in pain.

Japan understands cultural diplomacy and cultural economics ‪#‎Japan‬ was the first country to invite me in, and open my life up to other journeys ‪#‎LenBoogsieSharpe‬ may remember the spark of cultural connection that inspires three decades hence. The‪#‎JapaneseGovernment‬ also sponsored our ‪#‎UNESCO‬ workshops for strengthening Trinidad and Tobago's and the ‪#‎Caribbean‬'s ‪#‎CulturalHeritage‬ see my photo albums though they were heavily resisted by like forces of ignorance. So we reap the whirlwind. 
My heart goes out to your family and country of Asami. You are not the first. Would you be the last? 
I am sharing one of your love notes of my country here, with some of my own. Perhaps when we would compare our love notes in the other place. Let my people awake! 
 ‪#‎LiTTscapes‬ ‪#‎Demokrissy‬‪#‎LeavesOfLife‬ ‪#‎GlocalKnowledgePot‬ @krisramp JapanEmbassy Trinidad@lolleaves
Coming Up: In War and Peace From Hiroshima to Home: My 30 year journey through the landscapes of global cultural diplomacy  
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Focus Resources from citizen surveillance to real crime

One would think that given the need to focus all possible resources available into finding the murderer of #Japanese Steelpannist ‪#‎AsamiNagayika‬ at #TrinidadCarnival2016 that all hi-tech surveillance equipment will be redirected into that effort rather than wasting time, energy and resources on private citizens' accounts, online and offline, and running interference with citizen's social media and online and offline media and other business eh? #SignOfTheTimes.
Any details one wants can find in READING rather than snooping and emerge from Cultural Illiteracy.
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A path out of mayhem and murder

On my way to a river lime ('cause it In We Blood, if you know what I mean), but since you asked for a quick statement, here is, until I have time to review what is being said.

The Paris experiences in the midst of the attacks both within and outside UNESCO have made very real to me how fragile is a democracy, and how one or a few misguided individuals can precipitate violent extremist behaviour that is damaging to an entire country or the world. On the other hand, it also brought home to me the need to focus on areas of my much neglected private life, which I am trying to do, for there were times, caught near the attacks and in the ensuing panic aftershocks following the November 13th Paris attacks, I was not even sure if I would make it back home.

I am not a political football, nor ever envisioned being the subject of the latest episode of the national soap opera of slash and burn when I accepted the requests and nominations to serve by legitimate established processes including to serve as Chair of the Education Commission in a process that began at UNESCO in April 2015.

At a time when school children are being murdered, butchered, brutalised, raped and executed on our streets, and schools are increasingly becoming zones of violence and bullying, amidst a host of social ills and economic woes, it is astounding that persons have the time to train rhetorical and metaphorical guns on me, a citizen.

There seems to be a lot of misinformation in circulation that could easily be resolved through dialogue if officials wish to be so engaged, without turning all into a national and international circus. As our leaders set the national agenda, they ought to be sensitive to how their actions impact the society and youths and those who are looking for role models and patterning their behaviours on what they see being played out at senior levels.

I have not yet had the opportunity to examine what was said from the Hansard and I have no intention of engaging with anyone in a ‘he said, she said’ battle as I have been trying to recoup my energies as it was an extremely traumatic situation within UNESCO and outside with the Paris attacks.

When one is abroad it is the national flag one waves. I assure the national community that at all times I sought and received the best possible guidance from UNESCO officials and colleagues to manage some very precipitous situations not just in relation to the Trinidad and Tobago delegation, but other countries’ as well, with internal issues and strife much greater than what we profess to have.

UNESCO has a vast array of experience as a competent organisation charged with ‘building peace in the minds of men and women’ with a lot of experience in managing such situations and I was fortunate to benefit from that expertise in piloting through the challenges being presented as a national in an international environment and I thank the UNESCO officials for this. This was to ensure that the integrity of the established processes were maintained for shaping the UNESCO Global Education Agenda to 2030, which included addressing the rising violence and extremism in societies, failure and drop out rates, the digital divide, illiteracy, and poverty and disempowerment. To all reports those interventions were well administered and well received and there is a solid and forward looking global education agenda to the year 2030 with budgetary provisions that was adopted by international consensus.

UNESCO is a rich arena for workable solutions to many of these social ills that are not just localised to Trinidad and Tobago and energies of those attending the meetings should have been focused on harnessing those opportunities to maximum benefits they could bring home. Perhaps there could have already been pre-emptive interventions implemented to begin stemming this haemorrhaging of our youths in bloody attacks. Perhaps one or two of those lives that have been taken over the past weeks could have been saved, had such energies been redirected to find solutions. Paris itself is a city with a history of struggle in carving, developing and building the world's democratic traditions, as Trinidad and Tobago could well be too.

 One expects that when there are so many demands on our resources, that our country and its leaders are refocusing energies to harvest every opportunity and harness every talent, skill and experience in trying to tide through very challenging social and economic situations and utilise the invaluable opportunities of being at a space as UNESCO, overflowing with visionary solutions for many of these social ills and help positively impact the national psyche.

This is what I am trying to do at the moment, drawing on international knowledge and experiences, those within UNESCO and in the context of the Paris attacks to examine and identify avenues for impacting the levels of violence and extremism and other social ills in our societies. One’s perspectives on life changes when one comes so close to near death, you see, and there were times I was not sure that I would see home again so I have never been so appreciative of meh friends and family and dem, and meh people, people.

As with all my other undertakings, I have tried to perform tasks assigned to me in relation UNESCO to the best of my abilities and to hold up my country in the best possible light in those functions. I hope that I would have contributed something to enlightening and enriching those spaces as they have augmented my life experiences.

None of my work over the last three decades, as a journalist, nor my involvement in strengthening civil society, national and international multilateral and international processes is dependent on the politics of the day, nor the office, nor title I hold which I view as mere transient spaces to be utilised, not to own as one’s private or individual serfdoms, although it is important that the political process understand, engage and dialogue to ensure that benefits are consolidated for the best roll out for the society. I imagine that that was how they have been using the time in Parliament.
I continue to wish the Honourable Ministers and Government every success

Postscript:  I am on private time at the moment, much needed after some 30 uninterrupted years in public virtually round the clock. Could hardly bring myself to listen to the Parliamentary records just based on the feedback I am getting. My work speaks for itself. 

Devoting much needed time to close friends and family only for some much needed regeneration of spirits and re- immersion in my country in perhaps the best season to so do, Carnival.

Hope and trust the public can respect that. Will revert with responses when I feel sufficiently renergised to resurface.

I continue to wish the Ministers and Government every success, and a happy Carnival to all.

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Weeding out violent extremism Message from UNESCO Chair Education Commission Attacks in Paris

(l-r)Chair, UNESCO Education Commission, Dr Kris Rampersad  consults with
Commission Secretary Head of Education Section at UNESCO Borhene Chakroun
at UNESCO 38th General Conference, Paris, France

Education towards building a culture of peace in our societies

Immediate implementation of the UNESCO Education Agenda to 2030 which includes measures to weed out violent extremism both inside and out formal school arenas becomes more imperative than ever.

The time is now for public officials, politicians, academics, media, the private sector and civil society to come together in solidarity and consolidate to impact the environment of extremism which devastated Paris.

My sympathies and heartfelt condolences go out to the French people and indeed all in our global communities who have been rocked by the violence in Paris and in which I was myself caught over the past few days.

The effects of violent extremism we have all witnessed in Paris these past few days show none of us are immune and signals more than ever the relevance and significance of the work of our Commissions and our efforts through UNESCO and otherwise of reaching into its root causes to grow a culture of peace both inside and outside of schools.

More than ever we see the need for public officials, politicians, academics, the media, the private sector and civil society to consolidate and band together against hate, discrimination, prejudice at local, national levels that feed and lead to violent extremism. The time has passed for rhetoric and postering and for more specific action and leadership by example, for role models to youths in schools and communities.

We know the powerful educational influences of the informal arenas of culture, information and social spaces as communities, places of worship, homes and families.

In addition to focussing on reform and revisioning the education programmes, budgets, systems and structures, is the need to engage the equally powerful formal and informal systems of the families, homes, communities and social relations at national and global levels. The Education Commission commands the largest share of UNESCO’s programme budgets and premiere programme focus among UNESCO’s aligned functions in Culture, Human and Social Sciences, Science, and Information and Communication.

It is not business as usual.SDG4 as a central mandate of UNESCO as the lead UN agency for Education, to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”

We must nurture generations who can rise above prejudice and discrimination whether it is at political, social or economic levels that are responsible for so much of the social strife that occupies UNESCO’s attention today.

The new Education agenda mandates us to recognise that most of learning occurs not inside a classroom wall, but outside: not within school hours but outside on the streets, in communities, in religious institutions, in families, among gangs and peers as my friends from the UNESCO Youth Forum can testify.

The purpose of our education agenda is not just to form or inform, but also to remake, reform and transform; to break down the barriers of prejudice, discrimination, and conflict to respect the natural human rights as citizens and as global beings

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