Pages
- Home
- About Dr Kris Rampersad
- Kris' Earth Travels
- Courses Workshops & Seminars
- Books & Publishing
- Fiction, Stories & Scripts
- Videos & Productions
- Research & Readings
- Conference Papers
- Contact & Feedback
- Links, Partners & Associates
- Environment Gender & Culture Sensitive Knowledge Research Information Services
- Children's Stories by Dr Kris Rampersad
- Demokrissy
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Updates: Through the Political Glass Ceiling
Through the Political Glass Ceiling in Britsh Library
Now in Britsh Library: Dr Kris Rampersad, author, presents a copy of her book Through the Political Glass Ceiling - Race to Prime Ministership by Trinidad and Tobago's First Female, Kamla Bersad Bissessar to the Caribbean Collections at the British Library, London.
And Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar presents a copy of Through the Political Glass Ceiling - Race to Prime Ministership by Trinidad and Tobago's First Female, Kamla Bersad Bissessar by Kris Rampersad to Al Gore...
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Caribbean media Features Demokrissy Tombraiders
TRINIDAD-CULTURE-Tomb raiding in Trinidad and Tobago
9 hours ago
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Oct 23, CMC - – Consultant on culture conventions for safeguarding Caribbean culture and heritage, Dr. Kris Rampersad laments the fact that these islands have little or no mechanism in place to safeguard their heritage.
“That’s the danger we face without adequate laws, with deficient infrastructure, without bilateral agreements and protections, without connected institutions, without proper monitoring, regulations and punishments, without informed co-ordination and without empowered communities,” she wrote in her blog “Demokrissy”, after encountering what she described as “heritage piracy” in Trinidad and Tobago.
See also:
http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/2012/10/centuries-old-heritage-tomb-spanning.html
http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-tomb-raiders.html
https://sites.google.com/site/krisrampersadglobal/home/about-me/books
See also:
http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/2012/10/centuries-old-heritage-tomb-spanning.html
http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-tomb-raiders.html
https://sites.google.com/site/krisrampersadglobal/home/about-me/books
Monday, October 22, 2012
Caribbean step further towards implementing UNESCO conventions
Consultation on UNESCO’S cultural convention gets impressive supportkrisrampersadglobal/home/conferences/culture-conventions-unesco |
A wide cross section of stakeholders turned out to learn more regarding two cultural conventions which the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis hope to ratify in the near future.
The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage as well as the Convention for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions were discussed at a National consultation on Thursday.
Dr. Kris Rampersad, Media, Cultural and Literary Consultant for UNESCO, facilitated open discussions on both Conventions sharing the benefits of signing on to such and expressing the view that there are really no negative consequences of becoming party to such conventions.
She said apart from the obvious availability of funding for countries that adopted the conditions of these conventions, there are also the benefits of strength garnered from participation in the deliberation of international issues.
Responding to the concern of some participants that International Organizations do not adequately express the views or address the concerns of small countries in their conventions, Dr. Rampersad explained
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Media devotes special reports to Demokrissy blog focus on Heritage
Newspaper Reports arising from Demokrissy:
Mainstream media has taken an interest in Demokrissy's expose of tombraiders .... to read more visit www.krisrampersad.com
Mainstream media has taken an interest in Demokrissy's expose of tombraiders .... to read more visit www.krisrampersad.com
Monday, October 15, 2012
The Power of We Blog Action Day #blogactionday ##BAD12
If you have not yet done a blog now's the time to do it to feel the power of communication and outreach now available to all those who have access to a computer/phone or social media tool.
Blogging gives you direct access to a world audience no matter how small a place you may come from.
From Trinidad and Tobago, one of the most powerful voices in mainstream media, Trevor McDonald, has often told of how he came from a small backwater island in the Caribbean and became the toast of the media world through moving to London to to work for the BBC and then for ITN. He has had a significant impact on perceptions of the role and place and power and influence of media in shaping society. Now, through blogging, that power is in the hands of social media users everywhere ......
Blogging gives you direct access to a world audience no matter how small a place you may come from.
From Trinidad and Tobago, one of the most powerful voices in mainstream media, Trevor McDonald, has often told of how he came from a small backwater island in the Caribbean and became the toast of the media world through moving to London to to work for the BBC and then for ITN. He has had a significant impact on perceptions of the role and place and power and influence of media in shaping society. Now, through blogging, that power is in the hands of social media users everywhere ......
VisitDemokrissy's new home: the GloCal Knowledge Pot
Thursday, October 11, 2012
The Tomb Raiders .... Return to the Quest for El Dorado
Please respect our copyrights
You can support our efforts by purchasing copies of LiTTscapes, commissioning LiTTours & LiTTevents; or ask about collaborating on our upcoming publications on Caribbean heritage for ages 3-103. That way we all win through sharing knowledge and information. See krisrampersadglobal/home/about-me/books
For collaboration details email lolleaves@gmail.com or call 1-868-377-0326
Tombraiding has been Hollywood glamourised through the Indiana Joneses and Lara Crofts and a range of new video games that play on this land-based version of the kind of piracy that used to prevail on the high seas around the Caribbean. And it dates back to the Caribbean as a target in the quest for El Dorado so many millennia ago. Not
to be confused with body snatchers, it ranges from the activities of hobbyists seemingly
innocently eager to hoard a bit of history so they comb graveyards to gather
bits and pieces from or off tombs, to petty thieves looking to earn a quick
shilling, to highly organised crime networks trading in black market heritage
goods with complicity by individual collectors or even museum dealers
participating in a very lucrative heritage trade market.
It
has been a raison d’etre of interest in the Caribbean since
See Also: http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/2012/10/centuries-old-heritage-tomb-spanning.html#more
https://sites.google.com/site/krisrampersadglobal/home/about-me/books
See Also: http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/2012/10/centuries-old-heritage-tomb-spanning.html#more
https://sites.google.com/site/krisrampersadglobal/home/about-me/books
Labels:
book,
British Museum,
culture,
Diversity,
Elgin Marbles,
French Caribbean Heritage,
Ganteaume,
heritage,
Kris Rampersad,
LiTTscapes,
mayaro,
multiculturalism,
Sphinx,
tomb raiding,
Trinidad Tobago,
UNESCO
Sunday, October 7, 2012
VANDALISED Centuries-old heritage tomb spanning Caribbean global diaspora in 5 continents vandalised
Please respect our copyrights
You can support our efforts by purchasing
copies of LiTTscapes, commissioning LiTTours & LiTTevents; or ask about
collaborating on our upcoming publications on Caribbean heritage for ages 3-103.
That way we all win through sharing knowledge and information. See krisrampersadglobal/home/about-me/books
For collaboration details
email lolleaves@gmail.com
Defaced & Vandalised
Historic
tomb of prominent T&T families in pieces
The marble tombstone of one of Trinidad and Tobago’s oldest,
wealthiest and most influential lineages involving the genealogies of some 20
prominent families with ancestral ties through European, North and South
American, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, has been vandalised and defaced.
We discovered this on the inaugural LiTTour – Journeys Through the
Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago, on our way to ‘save’ another
heritage building - the old Mayaro Post Office which is represented as a key
literary house in my book LiTTscapes
– Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago as the setting of several of the
novels and short stories of Michael Anthony.
See also: http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-tomb-raiders.html
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Inaugural LiTTour initiates literary heritage tourism in two districts
At least two communities have committed to taking charge of
their heritage elements following the inaugural LiTTour – Journeys Through the
Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago - last week.
The Mayaro Historical Society has committed to take actions
for completing renovations of the historic old Mayaro Post Office, including
setting up a restoration fund, “rather than sit and wait” as they have been for
some eight years for some other body to repair the building.
This breakthrough follows a meeting with participants in the
inaugural LiTTour, led by author Kris Rampersad, who offered suggestions on how
the community could move forward to realise plans for the building while
engaging with other bodies and authorities in the effort.
The building is identified as part of the literary heritage
of the island in Rampersad’s book
LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago and elsewhere.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
The First LiTTour - Journeys Through the Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago
The Sangre Grande local authorities welcomed our initiative as in keeping with their heritage developmental plans and promoting heritage tourism and will be working with us to develop the ground infrastructure. In Mayaro, th Historical Society that has been somewhat in stasis for the last eight years felt rejuvenated to engage in its own actions that will reawaken the Old Mayaro Post Office ... truly, truly encouraging and energising all of it! How important is ground action and community engagement while attempting to motivate the decision and policy makers too!!!! Photo by Kriston Chen of Artist Anthony Timothy sketching elements of LiTTour - JourneysThrough the Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago
Now, LiTTours .... by request only.... cntact lolleaves@gmail.com
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/538801_10151243571651800_1784574311_n.jpg
Friday, September 28, 2012
First LiTTour traverse T&T Landscapes of Fiction
First LiTTour leaves Port of Spain for Mayaro
via Sangre Grande
The inaugural LiTTour - Journeys Through the
Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago will kick off at 8 am Saturday September 29,
2012 from the historic South Quay in Port of Spain. South Quay is a landmark point
of migration - entry and departure - in Trinidad and Tobago’s fiction.
LiTTours follows the successful book launch
of LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago by Kris
Rampersad and LiTTribute to the Republic with the aim of connecting literary
with built, natural and cultural heritage and engage communities in
appreciating, connecting with and taking ownership of local literature, writers
and heritage.
Led by Rampersad, will feature author/historian
Michael Anthony, and engage children and adults in both communities.
The inaugural LiTTour partners with the
Public Service Transport Corporation Know Your Country tours and will involve a guided tour from Port of
Spain to Mayaro with a PiTTstop (the local term for a refreshment break) in
Sangre Grande. Enroute and at both stops there will be readings and
presentations on the landscapes of fiction, and entertainment that draws from
local community talent. The LiTTour will also pay particular attention to two
heritage buildings represented in LiTTscapes – the former Sangre Grande and the
Mayaro Post Offices. The Mayaro building features in many of the works by Anthony,
who will guide tour participants through the districts represented in hisworks
such as Green Days by the River, Sandra Street and A Year in San Fernando.
LiTTours is intended to generate awareness among residents and
stakeholders to claim their heritage while bringing the writings about T&T
closer home to readers in the hope of awakening communities and facilitating
rural regeneration through literary heritage tourism.
For Further information email lolleaves@gmail.com
Editors, for photos visit: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151238027306800.519613.686406799&type=3
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
LiTTribute from Other Events - Office of the President, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
Other Events - Office of the President, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
http://www.thepresident.tt/media/fs_f5bb3_2012_09_15_dsc_2575.jpg
http://www.thepresident.tt/events_and_ceremonies.php?mid=189&eid=1002
http://www.thepresident.tt/media/fs_f5bb3_2012_09_15_dsc_2575.jpg
http://www.thepresident.tt/events_and_ceremonies.php?mid=189&eid=1002
Five Year Old Child Stars at LiTTribute to the Republic
By Saiesh Rampersad (5-years old)
at LiTTribute To the Republic with readings and performances inspired by LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago, at Knowsley, September 15, 2012
Good day ladies and gentlemen, and children too. I am here to tell you about my Auntie Krissy. I call her Krissy-wissy.
Sometimes, when I want to be naughty, I call her Christopher.
My auntie reads my story books with me. Sometimes we read the dictionary too! It is so much fun. You, and you, and you should try it sometime.
She worked there too. “For peanuts,” she said.
“Why peanuts and not for money like Dad? I asked.
“Because people think writers are monkeys,” she said.
I laughed till my belly hurt. My peanut-crunching monkey-auntie is so funny!
I went to the library in Port of Spain for the first time with auntie Krissy wissy.
She tried to join me in the library so I could get books with a card.
Can you imagine the librarian asked ME for a utility bill?
I wondered what was wrong with her.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
A LiTTribute to the Republic | Trinidad Express Newspaper | Featured News
Related Links:
See online profile Research Writings Documentaries: https://goo.gl/bqk1Tq
Musical and Poetic Biography Tributes
Carnivalising the Constitution: People Power and the Pursuit of Happiness Congratulations to Dr Machel Montano: https://goo.gl/Phk7HN
Jus Call Me Cooligan Bois and Bacchanal in Meh Blood: https://goo.gl/MJwgML
Ode to JurisPurdence: https://goo.gl/qm3m3J
Letters to Lizzie: Nikki Minaj/Maharaj Pound the Alarm: https://goo.gl/JXZ442
Like coochoor? The Funeral Scores musical and otherwise: For Sir Vidia Naipaul https://goo.gl/XjtMNs
Reflections Death of Sir Vidia S Naipaul https://goo.gl/o3xVTU
Nobel Tears: Nobel Bard: Derek Walcott Sower in the Sky: https://goo.gl/aKR5pD
Yo Ho Ho Piracy and Heritage: https://goo.gl/TvXOHU
Monday, September 17, 2012
Rampersad: Claim our writers, recognise our heroes
We cannot continue to view ourselves through the shattered lenses of the past.” Dr Kris Rampersad, author of LiTTscapes Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago, made this comment at LiTTribute to the Republic. The launch was also twinned with Tea Readings with the First Lady Dr Jean Ramjohn-Richards. She was joined by her daughter Maxine Richards and daughter-in-law Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards.
Rampersad said: “The creating of the society we want has to read more below
Want to tell your life story contact us biography musical and other culture speifc and relevant forms See related Links:
Want to tell your life story contact us biography musical and other culture speifc and relevant forms See related Links:
Related
Links:
See online profile Research Writings
Documentaries: https://goo.gl/bqk1Tq
Musical and Poetic Biography Tributes
Carnivalising the Constitution: People
Power and the Pursuit of Happiness Congratulations to Dr Machel Montano: https://goo.gl/Phk7HN
Jus Call Me Cooligan Bois and Bacchanal
in Meh Blood: https://goo.gl/MJwgML
Ode to JurisPurdence: https://goo.gl/qm3m3J
Letters to Lizzie: Nikki Minaj/Maharaj
Pound the Alarm: https://goo.gl/JXZ442
Like coochoor? The Funeral Scores musical
and otherwise: For Sir Vidia Naipaul https://goo.gl/XjtMNs
Reflections Death of Sir Vidia S Naipaul https://goo.gl/o3xVTU
Nobel Tears: Nobel Bard: Derek Walcott Sower in
the Sky: https://goo.gl/aKR5pD
Yo Ho Ho Piracy and Heritage: https://goo.gl/TvXOHU
Michael Anthony - save Mayaro post office
The destruction of McLeod House, Chase Village, Chaguanas, sparked a lot of furore recently. Historian Michael Anthony is now appealing to the relevant authorities to act swiftly to save the landmark Mayaro Post Office which he claims is at the point of collapse in his hometown.
Anthony noted legislation was being worked upon to save these heritage treasures. “When it is enforced the people who live in these houses will have to look after them. I am hoping something would be done too because the house would collapse.” In the aftermath of the McLeod House demolition, Vel Lewis, National Trust and Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism, says Minister of National Diversity and Social Integration Clifton De Coteau plans to meet with with Attorney General Anand Ramlogan to “follow up on the listing.” Lewis said while “properties of interest” had been identified, there was an urgent need to concretise the formal listing. https://sites.google.com/site/krisrampersadglobal/home/about-
me/bookshttp://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2012-09-16/michael-anthony-save-mayaro-post-office
me/bookshttp://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2012-09-16/michael-anthony-save-mayaro-post-office
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
LettersToLizzie#17Amongdpowerful
Dear Lizzie, Dunno if 2 say congrats or condolences ie on
Forbes listing u among d 100 most powerful women of d world: to think that d
list is topped by that German woman, and you, way down the line at number 25, after two wives of US Presidents, a pop
singer, two TV hostesses and even some leading minions of your own empire – oh the
horror, the horror! Is the sun setting on the British Empire? https://sites.google.com/site/krisrampersadglobal/home/about-me/books
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Finding the nexus between literature, culture, heritage, tourism, development and leisure
http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2012-09-09/rampersad-friends-pay-literary-tribute-public
Finding the nexus between literature, culture, heritage, development and leisure
Rampersad, friends pay literary tribute to the public
Published:
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Her Excellency Dr Jean Ramjohn Richards will collaborate with author, educator, and cultural heritage facilitator Dr Kris Rampersad and friends to host LiTTribute to the Republic on September 15, at Knowsley building in Port-of-Spain. The event is in commemoration of Patriot’s Month—that spans 50 years of Independence and the 36th anniversary of T&T.
The fund-raising tea readings are part of a number of events and activities planned to stimulate and renew interest in local writing, reading and literacy. It follows the August 4 release of Rampersad’s book LiTTscapes—Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago at White Hall, another heritage icon and is part of the commemorative activities of the jubilee year of independence.
LiTTscapes celebrates the creative imagination and the writings of more than 100 works by more than 60 T&T authors. “It is meant to recreate reading as a leisurely and enjoyable activity for all ages through various interactive events and activities including readings, tours, and shows. It also hopes to stimulate collaborations between and among the creative industries including music, performance, art, drama and film along with renewed appreciation of our built and natural heritage,” Rampersad explained.
Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie, Minister of Planning and Sustainable Development, said LiTTscapes derived out of the literature of T&T and the inspiration that our land, our people, our culture and our heritage had provided to our writers. LiTTscape is available at Metropolitian Books Suppliers and other book stores.
• For LiTTribute bookings, tickets and details contact lolleaves@gmail.com or call 377-0326.
Heritage can bring tourist $$
Dr Kris Rampersad
Neighbouring Caribbean countries like St Kitts and Barbados are “attracting the tourist dollars,” since they have done the groundwork and prepared their national heritage infrastructure so that they have been placed on the Unesco World Heritage List. Interviewed on Friday, Dr Kris Rampersad, chair of the T&T National Commission for Unesco, said T&T should do well to emulate those countries who have done the groundwork and are reaping the economic benefits.
Rampersad said, “T&T is a signatory to several Unesco conventions and by these conventions, we commit to implementing actions that would safeguard and protect such heritage—one of which is the convention and the protection of natural and cultural heritage sites. Although it has been in place since 1972, T&T does not yet have any site on the world list.”
She said despite our high Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and rich cultural resources, we do not have a site on the Unesco Heritage List. Rampersad cited examples like St Kitts and its Brimstone Hill, Barbados, Curacao and Cuba.” She felt those countries had advanced because they took the time to put in place some of the rigorous measures and standards set by the World Heritage Centre.
Those islands and cities and countries are now reaping the economic benefits of the kind of recognition and attention that countries that are on the world list get. Rampersad said occurrences like the demolition of the Mc Leod House could be pre-empted and avoided if some of those safeguarding measures are followed: “Unless we set our national house in order and take care of those properties like Mc Leod House by instituting specific safeguarding measures such as a properly constituted list of national cultural elements that are in danger or in need of safeguarding, we cannot expect to reap the benefits of being admitted on any of these international listings. We need public and private and sectors and NGOS and communities to come together for this effort.”sites can rake in tourist$$ rampersad
Friday, August 31, 2012
LettersToLizzie#16 We IS Trini
Permission pls, yuh Majesty, to mash up yuh language, to break up the Queen's English 'cause We IS Trini. True, it would be another 50 years before your Great Britain would understand how We, the many, can become a singular Trini verb. We is Trini, free to write and sing in we own diverse idioms. In fifty years, Lizzie, we would be helping you to become one; we will show you, how, out of many disparate people, you too can create one nation, because We IS Trini, Lizzie. I hoist meh national flag to you ....details of the feting and the liming in Letters to Lizzzie coming to a bookshop near you, soon...https://sites.google.com/site/krisrampersadglobal/home/about-me/books krisrampersadglobal books
Thursday, August 30, 2012
LettersToLizzie15 Out With the Old In With?
Dear Lizzie,
I am sitting here at the Premier's desk at White Hall penning what I will say to my people tonight as we claim this our National Coat of Arms; as we hoist this red white and black flag for the first time. I am listening to what would become our National Anthem, with boundless faith; what would I say? Almost like a true Trini, you couldn't come, so you sent your sister. Do you feel the significance of this day, the burden of responsibility; the springboard of hope....Read all about it in Letters To Lizzie, coming soon... https://sites.google.com/site/krisrampersadglobal/home/about-me/booksRead about Letters to Lizzie and much more
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
LettersToLizzie#14Rainy Season Washout
Dear Lizzie,
I felt such a sense of accomplishment today as I put out the garbage. For 50 years it had accumulated not in corners and creases but in films of growing thickness that were beginning to suffocate, and that, of course, after more than two centuries of build up of other muck, untl the rains came in torrents and began, drop by drop to wash away ....only a matter of time when Letters to Lizzie will be in a bookshop near you see
https://sites.google.com/site/krisrampersadglobal/home/about-me/bookshttps://sites.google.com/site/krisrampersadglobal/home/about-me/books
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Diversity and culture of Ministries
Diversity & the Culture of Ministeries
by Dr KRis Rampersad
(Part II)
Whereas we can learn a thing or two from the structures and systems the developed world has evolved for arts infrastructure, education, support and patronage, when it comes to culture, and indeed multiculturalism, few, if any, can hold a candle to us. Our confidence in this fact that usually only surfaces through chest-thumping pierrot grenades or robber-type talk have not found full expression because of justifiable dissatisfaction with the state of the arts, and the unholy alignment of arts and culture in our governance system.
Just as growth and development of our arts and recognition of their universality have been overshadowed in the jostle for ethnic and cultural space, our appreciation and confidence in the diversity and multiculturalism we have evolved since we joined the indigenous peoples in this land have been curtailed from full independent flight.
The former Minister of Arts and Multiculturalism, during our sitting at the international heritage meeting in Bali last December, asked my opinion on the place of legislation in culture, reflecting the doubts all his predecessors have shown on this subject—similar to the question posed from the global floor to the now erstwhile T&T UN ambassador, oblivious to the new international awakening and probing on this subject.
This unease that has plagued culture ministries of yore stem from nervousness about legislation and policy pronouncements on our culture. In general definition, culture is “our way of life” that includes, but is not contained in, just the arts of music, dance, performance, painting etc to include elements as cuisine, fashion, walk, talk, religious practices—any number of traits that identify a people who have evolved in a particular environment. I have presented extensively abroad (Sans Humanite Sans Policy in relation to the Carnival Creative Arts (Turkey); Trini Lime Time: Attitudes to Cultural Policy in Rebel Cultures (France) among them—on the rebel nature of our cultural heritage and beliefs held, even by some judges, that the law has no place in culture.
The roots and raison d’etre of our cultural evolution—defying explorers, buccaneers, slave masters, police, schoolmasters, privateers, any authority figure—as the also erstwhile Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs would have oh too painfully, shockingly, recently discovered—inhibits surrender to any (even just perceived) impositions of structure, rules/codes.
The inability of our governance to date to grasp this; its significance; the need to fully appreciate and understand it, is couched in the last regime’s “situational analysis” on culture on the Vision 2020 Committee Report:
• Attitudes of selfishness, lawlessness, greed, dishonesty, indifference to others.
• Violent manifestations in the home, community, workplace, language of leadership, music.
• Tendency to describe ourselves through notorious deeds.
• Negative “languaging” of our space.
• Attitudes of selfishness, lawlessness, greed, dishonesty, indifference to others.
• Violent manifestations in the home, community, workplace, language of leadership, music.
• Tendency to describe ourselves through notorious deeds.
• Negative “languaging” of our space.
The visionaries therein seemed oblivious to their own negative imaging of what is essentially our sense of freedom and the inherent liberating effect this has had on our culture that is quintessential to who and what we are. Furthermore, the drive to urbanise our cultures and make them “economically viable” (duh?), through instruments like the European Union-Cariforum Economic Partnership Agreement, for instance, loses its sense of direction about the nature of culture in a society in mad-hatter pursuit of the almighty dollar.
Herein is the national, regional, international contexts for a Ministry of Diversity and Social Inclusion which itself incorporates the multiculturalism mandate—hence my recommendation that this word be dropped and a Ministry of the Arts exist in its own right, just as a Ministry of Multiculturalism/Diversity and Social Inclusion can exist in its own right; as other appendages to the once Ministry of Arts and Culture—Sports, Women/Gender, Community/Social Affairs et al—have evolved identities and mandates of their own towards a more people-centred approach to governance.
In a culture-centred approach to development, there is more than enough for such an infrastructure with a diversity mandate to: harness our substantial experiences of multiculturalism for the benefit of a world reeling from escalating impacts of new migrations; build confidence in this experience and knowledge to benefit us and the international community; reverse the hurts and dissatisfaction of having our cultural selves forcefitted into the corsets of alien governance models and administrations. It seems opportune, then, that in this the jubilee year of self-rule, we begin to redress this so every creed and race can find an equal place in a substantive and pragmatic way.
For more visit www.krisrampersad.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Featured Post
Confronting Colonial Mindset Happy Global Girls In ICT Day With BBC Gone Who Goin Tek Over Town
With escalating evidence of the persistent colonial mindset inhibiting the development agenda introducing a new Demokrissy Series to confron...