RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt 

Seg­re­ga­tion re­mains a prob­lem in T&T de­spite the break­down of racial and eth­nic bar­ri­ers dur­ing Car­ni­val, says MP for Princes Town Bar­ry Padarath.

He was speak­ing at the 143rd an­niver­sary of Princes Town held on Thurs­day.

Padarath said Princes Town had pro­duced T&T’s first Prime Min­is­ter of East In­di­an de­scent, Bas­deo Pan­day as well as many oth­er pro­fes­sion­als who con­tributed to the de­vel­op­ment of T&T.

“They may be un­for­got­ten in our minds, but by oth­ers, they are not recog­nised. They don’t get pub­lic recog­ni­tion, but they fight for truth, jus­tice and equal­i­ty,” he said.

Mean­while, MP for Na­pari­ma Rod­ney Charles, al­so called for a com­mit­tee to be set up to in­ves­ti­gate and ho­n­our all the peo­ple who con­tributed to the up­lift­ment of the Princes Town com­mu­ni­ty.

Say­ing Princes Town was dear to his heart as his wife was born there, Charles re­called the names of sev­er­al fam­i­lies who lived in co­he­sion.

“Peo­ple of that gen­er­a­tion formed the bedrock of the com­mu­ni­ty. Peo­ple were poor but they were proud and dig­ni­fied,” Charles said.

He chal­lenged the con­stituents to live up to their lega­cy by work­ing hard to im­prove their com­mu­ni­ty and ho­n­our the ones who have con­tributed in re­cent times.

“I un­der­stand that we have the first mosque ever built in Trinidad in this com­mu­ni­ty. Who was the Imam? I need to know that. My grand­chil­dren need to know that!” Charles said.

He added: “We al­so had the first Pres­by­ter­ian Church in Princes Town, the Cana­di­an Mis­sion­ar­ies came down and set up a church. But I don’t know who were the first Cana­di­an mis­sion­ar­ies who de­vel­oped that church.”

“I heard to­day about Lon­don Bap­tist, I am a Lon­don Bap­tist. I know Sis­ter Eva Wag­gott from Liv­er­pool came to this place and a num­ber of poor peo­ple in Princes Town gained sig­nif­i­cant growth.

Jef­fers To­by’s moth­er used to pro­vide wa­ter to feed the pris­on­ers in Princes Town. She had one child—Jef­fers To­by and he went to Na­pari­ma with me.

He is now Dr To­by, a for­mi­da­ble psy­chol­o­gist in Toron­to all be­cause of Sis­ter Eva Wag­gott.

What about Cur­win Cal­len­der? Clifton De Couteau? Sis­ter Wag­gott en­cour­aged us and was the founder of the Princes Town Church in Craig­nish.”

Charles said a mas­ter plan has to be de­vel­oped for the area.

“We are young enough to have a mas­ter plan, a traf­fic plan, a school plan. I look at his­to­ry of Princes Town and I am well pleased,” he said.

Say­ing the area had “great peo­ple.”

“Let us build on the great­ness. May I sug­gest that could we not be brave enough to say let’s set a chal­lenge, one month there will be no mur­ders in Princes Town and let us make it hap­pen. Let us as­pire to be the safest city.”