Ryan Ba­choo

News­gath­er­ing Ed­i­tor

ryan.ba­choo@cnc3.co.tt

Port-of-Spain May­or Chin­ua Al­leyne has an­nounced that the em­blem of the cap­i­tal city will now al­so fea­ture the steel­pan.

He made the an­nounce­ment at the Pan and Pow­der Pa­rade on Wednes­day, a re­lease said yes­ter­day. It comes on the heels of Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s an­nounce­ment, at a PNM Na­tion­al Con­ven­tion on Sun­day (Au­gust 11), that Christo­pher Colum­bus’ three ships on the Coat of Arms will be re­placed by the steel­pan.

In a sur­pris­ing an­nounce­ment, Al­leyne said the steel­pan would now be fea­tured on the city’s em­blem. Present­ly, the em­blem fea­tures a light­house, ship and whale.

It is un­clear what the re­designed lo­go with the steel­pan added will look like. At­tempts to con­tact the may­or for clar­i­fi­ca­tion yes­ter­day were un­suc­cess­ful.

Pan Trin­ba­go hailed the de­ci­sion, say­ing, “This his­toric de­ci­sion high­lights the steel­pan’s deep-root­ed con­nec­tion to Trinidad and To­ba­go’s cul­tur­al her­itage. The in­clu­sion of the steel­pan on the city’s em­blem not on­ly ho­n­ours the in­stru­ment’s rich his­to­ry but al­so cel­e­brates its role as a sym­bol of na­tion­al pride and uni­ty.”

Mean­while, speak­ing about the Pan and Pow­der Pa­rade, Pan Trin­ba­go said it was a show­case of ex­cite­ment, joy and com­mu­ni­ty spir­it. It added that the an­nounce­ment by Al­leyne added a pro­found lay­er of sig­nif­i­cance to the fes­tiv­i­ties, rep­re­sent­ing a ma­jor vic­to­ry for the T&T steel­pan move­ment.

“This de­vel­op­ment un­der­scores the en­dur­ing im­pact of the steel­pan and its place as an in­te­gral part of our na­tion­al iden­ti­ty,” the state­ment said.