Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar of­fered apolo­gies to the Eman­ci­pa­tion Sup­port Com­mit­tee (ESC) Thurs­day for her non-at­ten­dance at Eman­ci­pa­tion cel­e­bra­tions on Au­gust 1 as she treat­ed mem­bers to a lav­ish lun­cheon and en­ter­tain­ment at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre in St Ann's.The PM's fail­ure to show at Eman­ci­pa­tion cel­e­bra­tions came af­ter the UNC's crush­ing de­feat in the Ch­agua­nas by-elec­tion on Ju­ly 29 and prompt­ed com­ments from par­tic­i­pants.

"I was there last year and God will­ing I will be with you next year," she promised to loud ap­plause.The PM, dressed in full African wear, told the gath­er­ing that the spir­it of Africa res­onates with­in the heart and soul of T&T.Re­call­ing the Ju­ly 27, 1990, at­tempt­ed over­throw of the Gov­ern­ment by Ja­maal al Mus­limeen in­sur­gents, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the event was the great­est chal­lenge to T&T's democ­ra­cy since the eman­ci­pa­tion of slaves in T&T in 1838.

She said the coun­try's democ­ra­cy was tru­ly test­ed and com­mend­ed the T&T De­fence Force for its suc­cess­ful quelling of the up­ris­ing.Min­is­ter of Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism Dr Lin­coln Dou­glas said peo­ple of African de­scent have been sub­ject­ed to a pro­gramme of cul­tur­al in­va­sion by the pre­vail­ing pow­ers which de­grade and den­i­grate them and fill them with de­spair, doubt and self hate."We come from a place of pain, vi­o­lence and dis­en­fran­chise­ment," he said.

Dou­glas ex­pressed hope in the African youth of the fu­ture and em­pha­sised the need for ed­u­ca­tion, spir­i­tu­al­i­ty and a good fam­i­ly life."To recog­nise God is to recog­nise Him in every hu­man be­ing and de­nounce racism and eth­nic cleans­ing. We are say­ing these things are un­god­ly."ESC pres­i­dent Khafra Kam­bon thanked the Gov­ern­ment and Per­sad-Bisses­sar and said his or­gan­i­sa­tion had good re­la­tions with the Min­istry of Tourism.

Kam­bon said the ESC would like Eman­ci­pa­tion cel­e­bra­tions to be­come a ma­jor tourism event. He al­so con­grat­u­lat­ed the cur­rent head of Cari­com, Per­sad-Bisses­sar, be­cause of its de­ci­sion to sup­port the call for repa­ra­tion for for­mer slaves.Mem­bers of the ESC were treat­ed to lunch and en­ter­tain­ment from ca­lyp­son­ian Broth­er Valenti­no, the Wasafoli Dance Group and oth­ers.The PM had a busy day at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre on Thurs­day, start­ing with the Cab­i­net meet­ing.

Af­ter host­ing the Eman­ci­pa­tion lun­cheon, she met with en­vi­ron­men­tal ac­tivist Dr Wayne Kublals­ingh fol­lowed by a meet­ing of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil.Per­sad-Bisses­sar avoid­ed the me­dia but Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Min­is­ter Ja­mal Mo­hammed, asked about fill­ing the va­cant po­si­tion of Sen­ate vice-pres­i­dent, said the PM is ex­pect­ed to ad­dress that mat­ter in the new par­lia­men­tary term.Lyn­di­ra Ou­dit re­signed from as Sen­ate vice-pres­i­dent and from the UNC last Mon­day and joined Jack Warn­er's In­de­pen­dent Lib­er­al Par­ty.