Professor Selwyn Cudjoe yesterday thumbed his nose at his detractors after accepting the Order of the Republic of T&T (ORTT), even as he thanked Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar for insisting the highest national award be conferred on him.
Expressing surprise that citizens could suggest he was not worthy of the honour, it was a beaming Cudjoe who said, “I was very thankful for the Prime Minister to have insisted that this be awarded. And for that, I’m very thankful. It’s really a culmination of a long career, so that feels good.”
Cudjoe dismissed those who were quick to discount his career contributions and instead suggest his support of the United National Congress had helped him earn the honour.
“I’m not trying to be mischievous here, but as you mentioned, the Prime Minister, a lot of people on social media were saying you only got it because you rallied with the UNC,” he said.
Asked if he felt hurt by this, he said, “They cannot take away from what I have done over 80 years. They could say nonsense, which it actually is, but it must give them one concrete reason why they say it. So, I don’t bother with them, they’re not important in my life. My work continues regardless of where I am. So, I’m not concerned about the detractors.”
He added, “There’s nothing to say. I’ve taught at Harvard University. I’ve taught at Cornell University. I’ve been at London University. I’ve lectured all over the world. The haters just are not very, what I would say, I say nothing to them.”
Instead, he urged them, “Go and read.”
Asked what message he had directly to T&T, he said, “I think that we are a wonderful and marvellous country, and that we have to keep on doing the work to bring us all together to make us one.
“So, I think we should keep on striving for excellence and doing the best we can in every field of endeavour in which we find ourselves.”
Meanwhile, Professor Kenneth Ramchand, who also received the ORTT, said he was stunned after receiving a letter from the President’s Office informing him that he would be awarded.
“I wouldn’t say I didn’t believe it, but I wasn’t expecting it, so I was very pleased,” he said.
“Not that I felt that I didn’t deserve it but you know, with these things, you could deserve as much as you want, you don’t necessarily get.”
He added, “I felt honoured that after all these years of working in obscurity as it were, not having had any national recognition, although I did get the Chaconia Gold in 1996, but since 1996, being in a kind of wilderness where the government of the day hardly knew I was there, and so I felt at long last I’m being recognised by my country for my work, not because they like me or on their side or anything but for my work.”
However, Ramchand said the award would not change how he does anything.
“You don’t pick political sides, you’re a man of the country. As a senator, that is how I was, an utterly independent senator,” he said.
Mboya Charles, who accepted the posthumous ORTT award on his father Hochoy Charles’ behalf, expressed his gratitude and pride for the recognition of his father’s decades of service in politics and nation-building.
“We were first quite surprised,” he said, recalling the moment he was informed of the award.
“But I do believe it has been time. After the end of such a long career and given his whole life for it, it came down to this that he was celebrated in this way and honoured in this way. We are quite heartened and grateful for this honour.”
Reflecting on his father’s approach to life and public service, the younger Charles said he gained a deeper understanding of his father’s strict but principled ways after his passing.
“He set a plan and worked with that plan, and sometimes we could not see it,” he explained.
“But his whole life was to follow a path, a path of nation-building. He would always say that Tobago must receive its autonomy. It’s not yet done, but his legacy has passed, so he did his part, and it’s just for someone else to take up and go again.”
Speaking about the personal lessons he drew from his father’s life, Charles said, “I recognise that he was really great in truth, because a person’s life must reflect a certain way, a way that causes you to walk a path of honesty, of earnest sacrifice, to whatever you set your mind and heart to do.”
When asked about the award’s future, he said the family had not yet decided where to place it.
Blackmans proud Ras Shorty recognised for soca
Commenting on the posthumous award of the Hummingbird Medal (Gold) award to his father, Garfield “Ras Shorty I” Blackman, who is credited as the originator of soca music, Isaac Blackman said, “He thought about something that was bigger than himself, and he knew that it would outlive him.”
Proud and happy, the younger Blackman said the family was very patriotic, with a sense of duty and service to country.
He said, “We put Trinidad and Tobago on the map in an international way, and soca is, you know, the voice through many different people. Soca is representing. So, we always know that it is not just us. We, the family, are happy, but this is for the music industry. This is for Trinidad and Tobago. We are really happy.”
He compared the award to that of ripening fruit.
“I would say everything in the fullness of time because it is like a mango. If a mango falls off the tree before time, it is not good for seed and it is not good for food. So, sometimes you just have to wait until it is ripe.”
“He would say a family is blessed sometimes through the channel of one man, and a nation is blessed through the channel of one man. And today, the nation is recognising the blessing that came through one family, but it is a blessing. So, I think that is what he would say.”
