Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says Trinidad and To­ba­go must take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for its post-In­de­pen­dence fail­ures in­stead of con­tin­u­ing to blame its colo­nial past.

For all 64 years of this coun­try’s time as an In­de­pen­dent na­tion, the oil and gas sec­tor has been the back­bone of T&T’s econ­o­my.

There is al­ways a dif­fer­ent feel­ing when the com­pet­i­tive games in foot­ball come around. And there is cer­tain­ly some­thing dif­fer­ent about the up­com­ing in­ter­na­tion­al win­dow.

More than a cen­tu­ry ago, in the streets of Port-of-Spain, peo­ple seek­ing re­lief from ill­ness could find them­selves mov­ing be­tween worlds.

In­de­pen­dence means more than free­dom from ex­ter­nal con­trol. It places up­on a na­tion the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of gov­ern­ing it­self, man­ag­ing its re­sources, pro­tect­ing its cit­i­zens and ad­dress­ing the so­cial, po­lit­i­cal, le­gal and eco­nom­ic chal­lenges it faces. Gov­ern­ments are elect­ed to con­front these prob­lems re­gard­less of how they orig­i­nat­ed. They ex­er­cise au­thor­i­ty over na­tion­al bor­ders and in­sti­tu­tions and are ac­count­able for what oc­curs with­in them un­der the rule of law.