Tremaine So­ca Warn­er

Mu­sic and dance filled the Cen­tral Bank Au­di­to­ri­um yes­ter­day as the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Di­ver­si­ty and So­cial In­te­gra­tion launched Pa­tri­o­tism Week which ends on Sun­day.It is an ini­tia­tive of the min­istry with the aim of in­still­ing na­tion­al pride while pro­mot­ing the em­pow­er­ment of cit­i­zens through­out T&T.The launch fea­tured per­for­mances by sev­er­al lo­cal artistes and groups, in­clud­ing Neval Chate­lal, Mavis John, Kees Di­ef­fen­thaller, Mal­ick Folk Per­form­ers and the Shiv Shak­ti Dance Group.

De­liv­er­ing the fea­ture ad­dress at the launch was Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Di­ver­si­ty and So­cial In­te­gra­tion Clifton De Coteau.In his re­marks, De Coteau re­ferred to the "ex­hil­a­rat­ing and very pa­tri­ot­ic" re­marks made by Pres­i­dent An­tho­ny Car­mona at his in­au­gu­ra­tion cer­e­mo­ny on Mon­day at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Port-of-Spain.He said his min­istry shared Car­mona's be­lief that tol­er­ance and re­spect for each oth­er were es­sen­tial com­po­nents in a coun­try as di­verse as T&T.

"Pa­tri­o­tism," he added, "is that in­ex­plic­a­ble, in­trin­sic love and loy­al­ty for your coun­try. It is that sense of be­long­ing which we feel. It is know­ing that here is our home."At many oc­ca­sions dur­ing his ad­dress, De Coteau in­vit­ed mem­bers of the au­di­ence to chant the mot­to at­tached to Pa­tri­o­tism Week: I am, you are, we are Trin­ba­go.He al­so took the op­por­tu­ni­ty to un­veil a poster of what the min­istry is re­fer­ring to as its sig­nage project of the na­tion's mot­to, to­geth­er we as­pire, to­geth­er we achieve.

He said these words would soon be erect­ed on the hill­side over­look­ing the La­dy Young Road.An­oth­er ini­tia­tive, he said, was that the third Fri­day of every month would be recog­nised as Pa­tri­o­tism Day from March to Au­gust of this year.De Coteau al­so an­nounced the list of lo­cals cho­sen to be pa­tri­ot­ic cham­pi­ons which in­clud­ed main­ly mu­si­cians, per­form­ers and ath­letes.

He said his min­istry be­lieved a more pa­tri­ot­ic so­ci­ety would spark pos­i­tive change, in­clud­ing eco­nom­ic growth, a greater pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, a sense of vol­un­teerism and a re­duc­tion in lev­els of crime.

Events

Oth­er events card­ed for Pa­tri­o­tism Week in­clude a com­pe­ti­tion for the best na­tion­al mas­cot de­sign; the Flag in Every Home Com­pe­ti­tion; the na­tion­al day of pa­tri­o­tism in schools which takes place to­day and na­tion­al flag give­aways card­ed to take place to­mor­row. On Sat­ur­day the min­istry will host a her­itage walk around the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah.

The min­istry's pa­tri­ot­ic cham­pi­ons:

�2 Mun­gal Patasar–mu­si­cian and re­cip­i­ent of the Hum­ming Bird Gold 1994.

�2 Rik­ki Jai–chut­ney so­ca artiste.

�2 Meris­sa Aguillera–cap­tain of the T&T na­tion­al crick­et team.

�2 Shur­wayne Win­ches­ter–so­ca artiste.

�2 Kees Di­ef­fen­thaller–so­ca artiste.

�2 Neval Chate­lal–singer.

�2 Michael Sa­likram–artis­tic di­rec­tor Shiv Shak­ti Dance Group.