The re­cent van­dal­ism of two pri­vate prayer rooms of Hin­du cit­i­zens once more high­lights that our watch­word "tol­er­ance" re­mains a pap­pyshow. It is the most re­cent of sev­er­al in­ci­dents, al­most iden­ti­cal to the van­dal­ism of a na­tion­al mon­u­ment, the Sew­dass Sad­hu Tem­ple in the Sea a few years ago, and comes on the heels of our Op­po­si­tion Leader mak­ing un­for­tu­nate re­marks on bow­ing.

These are signs that ig­no­rance about each oth­er runs deep with­in our so­ci­ety. As a Hin­du I know a lot of my be­liefs and prac­tices may seem strange to many, and may even be con­sid­ered to be pa­gan. They are well with­in their right to be­lieve so. How­ev­er, that right cer­tain­ly should not ex­tend to acts of van­dal­ism of pri­vate prop­er­ty.

My an­ces­tors, whose way of life I now prac­tise, worked tire­less­ly like every­one else to make this coun­try what it is to­day, so why should I or any oth­er cit­i­zen be made to feel less Trinida­di­an be­cause we are Hin­du. We now have a Min­istry of Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism. But this seems on­ly to be a name change rather than a pol­i­cy change.

Our Ed­u­ca­tion and Cul­tur­al Min­istries as well as re­li­gious bod­ies should re­alise that many of these un­for­tu­nate com­ments are due to ig­no­rance and should work on stamp­ing them out, start­ing with our schools. They should grasp at the op­por­tu­ni­ty to pro­vide a cur­ricu­lum where we can all learn about each oth­er (not just about Hin­dus) in a sec­u­lar, non-dis­crim­i­na­to­ry man­ner.

Let our chil­dren learn that while I may not be­lieve what you be­lieve, I would re­spect that your be­lief is im­por­tant to you.

Ve­david Man­ick

San­gre Grande