Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dave Tan­coo has ap­pealed to all na­tion­als liv­ing abroad to re­turn to Trinidad and To­ba­go to help re­build the na­tion.

Tan­coo made the ap­peal while de­liv­er­ing the fea­ture ad­dress on Sat­ur­day at the open­ing of the 38th An­nu­al Di­vali Na­gar cel­e­bra­tions at the NCIC Na­gar, Ch­agua­nas.

Tan­coo said now was the time for all na­tion­als to come home and up­lift the na­tion. He likened their ab­sence from T&T to that of the Hin­du God, Lord Ra­ma, who was in ex­ile be­fore re­turn­ing home to the city of Ay­o­d­hya.

Tan­coo said, “Across the seas live thou­sands of our sons and daugh­ters—the Trinidad and To­ba­go di­as­po­ra. They are schol­ars in Lon­don, doc­tors in New York, teach­ers in Toron­to, en­tre­pre­neurs in Mi­a­mi, en­gi­neers in Dubai, and pro­fes­sion­als in every cor­ner of the globe.

“To you—our broth­ers and sis­ters around the globe—I say this: your ex­ile is over … and your Moth­er­land, your jan­ma bhoo­mi, calls for you to come home.”

Tan­coo said T&T is call­ing all its peo­ple.

“Raise up this land—with your vi­sion, your gifts, your pres­ence. Re­turn to your Trin­bag­on­ian roots, whether they lie in the hills of Trinidad or the shores of To­ba­go,” he said.

He con­tin­ued, “Let the world see what can be built when a peo­ple, scat­tered across the globe, come home to light up and lift up their na­tion. Let us, like the fam­i­ly of Shri Ram, stand to­geth­er once more —unit­ed in love, in faith, and in pur­pose.”

He urged the di­as­po­ra to come home to in­vest, teach, and men­tor.

“We are ask­ing you to stand shoul­der, to shoul­der with your broth­ers and sis­ters here, to light deyas not on­ly in for­eign lands, but right here, where your navel strings are buried.”

Tan­coo al­so paid trib­ute to de­ceased Sen­a­tor De­oroop Teemal, for­mer pres­i­dent of the NCIC. He said Teemal will be re­mem­bered as some­one who was com­mit­ted to pub­lic ser­vice and to en­sur­ing that tra­di­tions con­tin­ued to in­spire na­tion­al pride and spir­i­tu­al re­flec­tion.

“His lega­cy will live on in every deya lit, and in every act of se­va per­formed in the name of cul­ture and faith.

“May his soul find eter­nal peace, and may we keep his spir­it alive by nur­tur­ing the light he so pas­sion­ate­ly kin­dled.”

Tan­coo added that for decades, the NCIC has car­ried the torch of her­itage, ser­vice, and un­wa­ver­ing de­vo­tion to com­mu­ni­ty.