Michelle Loubon

From lands fa­mous for cedars, bazaars and olive groves, came the Syr­i­an/Lebanese clans. For 100 years, their pres­ence has been felt on the eco­nom­ic, cul­tur­al and so­cial land­scape of T&T. Port-of-Spain May­or Murchi­son Brown laud­ed the Syr­i­an/Lebanese As­so­ci­a­tion for their con­tri­bu­tion, and im­plored them to con­tin­ue prac­tic­ing their cul­ture along­side main­stream lo­cal mores.Brown was de­liv­er­ing the fea­ture ad­dress dur­ing the launch of an ex­hi­bi­tion on the com­mu­ni­ty at Nalis, Aber­crom­by Street, Port-of-Spain, on Fri­day.

His­to­ri­an and writer Louis Homer was re­spon­si­ble for co-or­di­nat­ing the ex­hi­bi­tion with Nalis. It fea­tured art, fam­i­ly his­to­ry and bi­ogra­phies on fa­mous sons like Chair­man Emer­i­tus of ANSA McAL, Dr An­tho­ny N Sab­ga. Brown said: "As mi­grants com­ing from a dis­tant land, you brought with you your cul­ture and tra­di­tion. I im­plore you to con­tin­ue prac­tis­ing your cul­ture and make every ef­fort to sus­tain it along­side that of ours. "I am proud many of you have em­braced our ca­lyp­so, and are pre­pared to sail on the same boat (ref­er­ence to Mighty Tri­ni).

"Many of you have ex­celled in the art of steel­band mu­sic, and as for the sport of kings, you have reigned supreme through the in­volve­ment of Hadeed and oth­ers." Turn­ing to eco­nom­ics, May­or Brown said: "New op­por­tu­ni­ties emerged, and many en­tre­pre­neurs seized the op­por­tu­ni­ties to in­vest their cap­i­tal in goods and ser­vices."

No Moth­er Syr­ia

Brown re­mind­ed them they were not aliens in this land, and like every mi­grant com­mu­ni­ty, they too, had a place. Quot­ing the na­tion's first prime min­is­ter Dr Er­ic Williams, he said: "There must be no Moth­er Africa, no Moth­er In­dia, no Moth­er Chi­na and no Moth­er Syr­ia or Lebanon." He not­ed from 100 im­mi­grants dur­ing World War 1, the cen­sus of 2010 re­vealed there were 10,000 Syr­i­an/Lebanese fam­i­lies liv­ing in T&T.

Ku­dos for Homer

Homer came in for ku­dos for his re­search and the pre­sen­ta­tion of the his­tor­i­cal oc­ca­sion. "Homer has been in the fore­front of iden­ti­fy­ing and 'his­toris­ing' the ac­tiv­i­ties of sev­er­al com­mu­ni­ties, and it is al­ways an ho­n­our for me to be present and wit­ness the pro­duc­tion," Brown said.

The ex­hi­bi­tion al­so boast­ed snatch­es of Ara­bic writ­ings, po­et­ry from Kalil Gibran and Ara­bic cui­sine, in­clud­ing olives (za­itoon). Quot­ing from the Prophet Kalil Gibran, Brown reaf­firmed T&T's pride in the Syr­i­an/Lebanese com­mu­ni­ty and Homer's work.