At 104, Naomi Rogers has given the secret to long life and one that we may all know good and well.
The retired educator who served in the Teaching Service for over 30 years and a founding member of the People’s National Movement told Guardian Media that sleeping, eating the right foods and exercising are her secrets to long life.
The centenarian celebrated her birthday yesterday at her Maraval home where she had a special visit from the Ministry of Social Development.
“To live a healthy life, you have to live right, you cant destroy your body and expect to live long lack of sleep not eating right and not exercising. If you have a car, you buy a car they give you a manual to go with the car and don’t they and they tell you what you must put into that car to get the car to run properly and for a long time, you are going to put fuel and not water and if you put water it will not last? No. It won’t”, said Naiomi Rogers.
Rogers never married but was loved by many. She was originally from Oxford Street but moved to St James and now she lives in Maraval where she has called home for over 76 years.
She has a message to Trinidad and Tobago.
“I want to send to Trinidad and Tobago, as an educator, that well, fortunately, or unfortunately we are a nation of different ethnic groups and I think that for the good of the country, everybody should consider himself whether you are Syrian, African and Indian. We are not in those countries and we were not born there. We are born in Trinidad. We are all Trinidadians and we should look at each one as a Trinidadians you’re not either this or that or the other. If you leave here and you go to America as an African, they say you are Afro Trinidadian, they would never say you’re an African. If you go to England, they tell you Indo Trinidadian, because more I’m almost certain the people who are in Trinidad and Tobago now, I know that they all have their birth certificate. Am I right? And this will state the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and then they give the details of your birth. So they’re never gonna call you an Indian or for your African or call you a Chinese, we are all Trinidadian and we should be all interested in building the country and not destroying it because I don’t know but strangely everybody wants to be in power and that is not possible”.
Rogers added that the People National Movement was founded by a group called the People’s Education Movement of which she was part.
This group became the first political party in Trinidad and Tobago and formed the first government of Trinidad and Tobago.
“The PNM came about from the PEM, People Education Movement and it was the teachers of yesteryears are those that would have put the PNM in power back then because in those days teachers came out in their numbers to vote the party before they took power the government was called the Legislative Council. The British had already left. Previously the British ruled the country. When they left we took over and the legislative council continued with about eight positions you know, headed by Albert Gomes. There were no political parties in Trinidad. The very first political organisation in Trinidad and Tobago was the PNM. They did it first of everything good in Trinidad and Tobago except the crime,” Rogers said.