Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has urged cit­i­zens to re­flect on the bless­ings of liv­ing in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

In his Christ­mas 2024 greet­ings to the na­tion, the Prime Min­is­ter called on cit­i­zens to “spread peace, love, and joy” through­out their fam­i­lies, com­mu­ni­ties, and be­yond.

Ex­tend­ing greet­ings on be­half of his fam­i­ly and the Gov­ern­ment, he stressed that the true mean­ing of the sea­son lies in em­brac­ing its spir­it of uni­ty and good­will.

“As we cel­e­brate Christ­mas, let us re­mem­ber that it is more than a hol­i­day. It is a mo­ment to pause, re­flect, and re­new our com­mit­ment to each oth­er.”

Row­ley al­so en­cour­aged cit­i­zens to use the sea­son as an op­por­tu­ni­ty to “find the spir­it of Je­sus with­in us,” a mes­sage that tran­scends re­li­gious bound­aries and res­onates with all, re­gard­less of faith.

“The sa­cred­ness of Christ­mas, once cel­e­brat­ed pre­dom­i­nant­ly by Chris­tians, is now em­braced by cit­i­zens of many dif­fer­ent be­liefs. This, in it­self, speaks to the uni­ver­sal pow­er of love and uni­ty,” he said.

How­ev­er, the Prime Min­is­ter ac­knowl­edged the sig­nif­i­cant glob­al chal­lenges that con­tin­ue to af­fect the world, from so­cial and po­lit­i­cal un­rest to eco­nom­ic dis­par­i­ties.

“We live in a world where vi­o­lence, di­vi­sion, and un­cer­tain­ty are ever-present. But at Christ­mas time, we are re­mind­ed that, de­spite these chal­lenges, there are mo­ments when we come to­geth­er, when we rise above the dif­fi­cul­ties of life to seek hope, mean­ing, and so­lu­tions,” he said.

The Prime Min­is­ter said cit­i­zens should re­flect on the bless­ings of liv­ing in T&T in com­par­i­son to the rest of the world, not­ing there are still “in­sti­tu­tions of sta­bil­i­ty, dai­ly ex­pres­sions of tol­er­ance, and gen­uine at­tempts at peace­ful co­ex­is­tence.”

“We are for­tu­nate to live in a land where kind­ness and re­spect for one an­oth­er re­main cen­tral to our way of life.”

PM Row­ley al­so asked every cit­i­zen to car­ry the Christ­mas spir­it be­yond the hol­i­day sea­son.

“Let this be a sea­son of change, where we all strive to make our lives and our com­mu­ni­ties bet­ter. Let us em­body the mes­sage of Christ­mas—‘peace on Earth, good­will to all.’

“Mer­ry Christ­mas to all. As we cel­e­brate, let us con­tin­ue to spread peace, love, and joy, for it is through these ac­tions that we will build a bet­ter Trinidad and To­ba­go and a bet­ter world for all.”