Shir­van Williams

Gov­ern­ment wants the pa­tri­o­tism shown by cit­i­zens when Keshorn Wal­cott won his gold medal at the 2012 Lon­don Olympics nev­er to dis­si­pate. In an ef­fort to keep up that lev­el of na­tion­al pride, the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Di­ver­si­ty and So­cial In­te­gra­tion yes­ter­day launched Na­tion­al Pa­tri­o­tism Month at its of­fices on Fred­er­ick Street, Port-of-Spain. Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Di­ver­si­ty and So­cial In­te­gra­tion Clifton De Coteau said the per­fect op­por­tu­ni­ty to launch the ini­tia­tive is now, as the coun­try gets ready for its 50th in­de­pen­dence cel­e­bra­tions. "The Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go cre­at­ed the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Di­ver­si­ty and So­cial In­te­gra­tion with an over­ar­ch­ing man­date to cham­pi­on pa­tri­o­tism, uni­ty in di­ver­si­ty, na­tion­al­ism and the pro­mo­tion of a co­he­sive so­ci­ety," he said. De Coteau said the pro­gramme start­ed last Sun­day and will end on Sep­tem­ber 26, so that the month could co­in­cide with In­de­pen­dence and Re­pub­lic Day cel­e­bra­tions. He said there will al­so be a Na­tion­al Year of Pa­tri­o­tism start­ing from In­de­pen­dence Day.

He said the ini­tia­tive, which, ac­cord­ing to per­ma­nent sec­re­tary in the min­istry Jac­in­ta Bai­ley-Sobers, cost just over $1 mil­lion, will help the so­ci­ety come to­geth­er and take pride in the coun­try. "Cham­pi­oning such a cause will on­ly serve to ma­te­ri­alise the con­cept of uni­ty in di­ver­si­ty, which will as­sist in the de­vel­op­ment of a more-in­ter­con­nect­ed so­ci­ety, which is so vi­tal to na­tion­al progress," he said. Sev­er­al projects were be­ing planned for the month of pa­tri­o­tism to help cre­ate a sense of pride and many oth­er min­istries were join­ing the ef­fort, he con­tin­ued. "The Na­tion­al Month of Pa­tri­o­tism will be cel­e­brat­ed each year com­menc­ing in 2012. This morn­ing we will launch the month with the fol­low­ing items: pro­mo­tion of the Flag in Every Home Project; launch of the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Di­ver­si­ty and So­cial In­te­gra­tion lo­go and Face­book page; and view­ing of a clip pro­mot­ing the spir­it of pa­tri­o­tism," he said. Oth­er ac­tiv­i­ties in the pro­gramme are: the dis­tri­b­u­tion of flags and pro­mo­tion­al items by the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Di­ver­si­ty and So­cial In­te­gra­tion in col­lab­o­ra­tion with part­ner min­istries; a "Uni­ty in Di­ver­si­ty" ra­dio pro­gramme; the ob­ser­vance of a Na­tion­al Day of Prayer in schools; a "Most Pa­tri­ot­ic School" com­pe­ti­tion; and the pro­duc­tion of a na­tion­al he­roes doc­u­men­tary on the 50 icons to be award­ed for the 50th an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tions.

De Coteau said he ex­pect­ed the pri­vate sec­tor and non-gov­ern­men­tal or­gan­i­sa­tions to join in with ini­tia­tives of their own that show­cased the coun­try's tal­ents. He al­so called on cit­i­zens to play their part in cre­at­ing a sense of pride and uni­ty. "Cit­i­zens are urged to go even fur­ther to dec­o­rate their homes in the na­tion­al colours to in­crease a sense of pa­tri­o­tism with­in the home and the com­mu­ni­ty in trib­ute of their rep­re­sen­ta­tions of our vi­tal­i­ty, pu­ri­ty and uni­ty as a peo­ple. I am pleased to an­nounce that to date a to­tal of 13,000 flags have been dis­trib­uted across the length and breadth of Trinidad and To­ba­go for this en­tire week lead­ing up to the 50th an­niver­sary of our In­de­pen­dence and in­deed, for the en­tire Year of Pa­tri­o­tism," he said. "The love which we have for our Trinidad and To­ba­go should be al­most in­trin­sic and even per­son­al. It em­anates from pride that this na­tion is ours...ours to pro­tect, nur­ture, and de­vel­op as it sus­tains us, its peo­ple," he said. The min­istries and or­gan­i­sa­tions that are join­ing the Na­tion­al Pa­tri­o­tism Month and Year are: Plan­ning and Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment; the Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism; Ed­u­ca­tion; Gen­der, Youth and Child De­vel­op­ment; Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment; Tourism; Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment; Min­istry of the Peo­ple and So­cial De­vel­op­ment; Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty; To­ba­go De­vel­op­ment; Sport; Com­mu­ni­ca­tions; To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly. Oth­er groups list­ed as be­ing in­volved in­clud­ed the In­ter Re­li­gious Or­gan­i­sa­tion; Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce; NALIS; Scout and Girl Guides As­so­ci­a­tions; the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies; the Na­tion­al Par­ent/Teacher As­so­ci­a­tion; and Ro­taract Trinidad.