For two hours, be­tween 6 pm and 8 pm on Re­pub­lic Day, it was the pos­i­tive con­tri­bu­tions of a group of cit­i­zens, rather than the neg­a­tive, that took cen­tre stage.

Their stage was the Pres­i­dent’s House in Port-of-Spain, proud­ly lit in red.

Yes­ter­day evening, 65 na­tion­als were con­ferred with na­tion­al awards, com­mem­o­rat­ing their out­stand­ing ser­vice to the coun­try in fields rang­ing from cul­ture and the arts, sport, pub­lic ser­vice to med­i­cine. Al­though the coun­try was cel­e­brat­ing 48 years of be­ing a re­pub­lic, it was the 55th edi­tion of the na­tion­al awards.

To rap­tur­ous ap­plause from Cab­i­net mem­bers and in­vit­ed dig­ni­taries, the awardees’ bi­ogra­phies were read by 14 sec­ondary school stu­dents - a change im­ple­ment­ed at last year’s cer­e­mo­ny.

The first name read pro­vid­ed the most touch­ing mo­ment of the evening. As Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo ap­proached to put the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go around his neck, for­mer Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny Pres­i­dent Mark Lo­quan broke down in tears and wept. For Lo­quan, left bald and wheel­chair-bound by his fight against brain can­cer, the mo­ment marked ar­guably the most emo­tion­al time of his dis­tin­guished pro­fes­sion­al ca­reer. 

Ab­sorb­ing the mo­ment, Lo­quan posed for pic­tures with his wife and son af­ter the cer­e­mo­ny.

“It’s very re­ward­ing when you get recog­nised,” Lo­quan said in a soft voice with a smile, adding that he def­i­nite­ly felt the warmth of the coun­try.

His son said the award made him gen­uine­ly hap­py, while his wife said, “Let’s put it this way. It’s been a chal­lenge re­cent­ly, so it’s good to have good news.”

Lo­quan has more than 40 years of ex­pe­ri­ence in the en­er­gy sec­tor and is an award-win­ning mu­sic com­pos­er. He served as an en­er­gy ex­ec­u­tive in Eu­rope, Africa, the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean.

Re­cip­i­ents want to

con­tin­ue to serve

Pro­fes­sor Patrick Ho­sein, who re­ceived the ORTT for tech­nol­o­gy and en­gi­neer­ing, was the first re­cip­i­ent to walk the stage. He ded­i­cat­ed his award to his moth­er, Merl Ho­sein.

“It’s very re­ward­ing. I re­turned to Trinidad about 14 years ago with the in­ten­tion of help­ing stu­dents and de­vel­op­ing re­search, etc.

“My kids has gone up to Uni­ver­si­ty and I de­cid­ed, look, I can do some good here in­stead of con­tin­u­ing work­ing in the US for these big tech com­pa­nies. It was a big step be­cause it was a big change, but since re­turn­ing, I think it has been quite re­ward­ing. So no re­grets,” the UWI pro­fes­sor said.

Be­fore re­turn­ing to T&T, he was the prin­ci­pal en­gi­neer for Huawei and Er­ic­s­son.

He said in some in­stances the lo­cal tech­nol­o­gy in­dus­try is mov­ing too slow­ly. Pro­fes­sor Ho­sein said giv­en the cur­rent pace of tech­nol­o­gy, there is a need to speed up. He said there’s a need to put mech­a­nisms in place for the coun­try to col­lect its own da­ta.

When asked if the State has ap­proached him to as­sist with dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion, he said no, but added that he was will­ing to as­sist.

The third ORTT re­cip­i­ent Syd­ney Rus­sell Mar­tineau, SC, was un­avoid­ably ab­sent and his name was read at the end.

Among the awardees were two for­mer com­mis­sion­ers of po­lice: James Philbert and Stephen Williams. They both re­ceived the Cha­co­nia Medal Sil­ver medals.

Philbert said it was a proud mo­ment for him.

The for­mer CoP ex­pressed his be­lief that some as­pects of mod­ernising the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice are mov­ing too slow­ly. He ref­er­enced the use of body cam­eras as an ex­am­ple.

“Stand­ing in the pavil­ion, I some­times feel that we should move a lit­tle faster, but then I don’t know what’s hap­pened be­hind the scenes.

“We are go­ing to get there and there’s some im­pa­tience to do that, but it takes time to get there be­cause there is a whole grad­u­a­tion and cul­ture shift,” he said. Philbert served as act­ing CoP be­tween 2008 and 2010.

Hum­ming­bird medal sil­ver win­ner Du­vone Stew­art called for the steel­pan to be in­tro­duced in all schools in place of recorders.

The BP Steel Or­ches­tra Rene­gades arranger and com­pos­er ded­i­cat­ed the award to all pan play­ers and arrangers.

“This in­stru­ment is the key to solv­ing crime in Trinidad and To­ba­go, so all the kids, all the young ones, every­body in T&T, they should take time to be part of what is ours. It was a gift giv­en to Trinidad and To­ba­go. Let us utilise it.

“It is a re­al­ly great ho­n­our and priv­i­lege to rep­re­sent one of the great­est in­ven­tion God has placed on plan­et earth in Trinidad and To­ba­go, the steel­pan. And it’s not just for me, it’s for the fra­ter­ni­ty by ex­ten­sion … It’s re­al­ly, re­al­ly a great ho­n­our and priv­i­lege to rep­re­sent the thou­sands of peo­ple that have this in­stru­ment at heart to per­form and spread the gospel of the mu­sic glob­al­ly,” he said.

Cha­co­nia Gold re­cip­i­ent Karen Dar­basie, who was re­ward­ed for more than 30 years of ser­vice in the bank­ing sec­tor, joined two oth­er rel­a­tives, an un­cle and her fa­ther, in be­com­ing a na­tion­al award re­cip­i­ent.

“My fa­ther was ac­tu­al­ly an awardee for the Cha­co­nia Hum­ming­bird Sil­ver Medal, so it was par­tic­u­lar­ly touch­ing for me. I come from a line of pub­lic ser­vants, so it’s very touch­ing for me to be con­sid­ered for this award and to have ac­tu­al­ly re­ceived it,” she said the First Cit­i­zens Bank Group CEO.

Asked what ad­vice she had for young pro­fes­sion­al women, she said, “Be­lieve in your­self. Work hard. Hard work al­ways pays off, but re­main true to who you are.”

Six awards were grant­ed posthu­mous­ly to Dr Anne Mar­i­on Os­borne, Ruth Lindyann Bod­den-Ritch, Lin­da He­witt, Dr Gillian Paul, Na­ri­man Ho­sein Ah­mad and Fitzger­ald Jef­frey.