Dr Glenville Ash­by

The venue was the Unit­ed Na­tions, and the art­work-the win­ning sub­mis­sions dis­played by sec­ondary school stu­dents of T&T, was en­ti­tled A Show­case of Cul­tur­al Diplo­ma­cy. The brain­child of for­mer For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Su­ru­jrat­tan Ram­bachan, the ex­hi­bi­tion was in­flu­enced by the UN Gen­er­al As­sem­bly 64/169 res­o­lu­tion, which pro­claimed 2011 as the In­ter­na­tion­al Year of Peo­ple of African de­scent. The oc­ca­sion was used by the T&T mis­sion to the UN to com­mem­o­rate the 50th an­niver­sary of the na­tion as an in­de­pen­dent state, and high­light its role as an ex­em­plar of racial and cul­tur­al ac­com­mo­da­tion. Am­bas­sador Eden Charles praised the ini­tia­tive as "in­no­v­a­tive" and "a re­minder of the im­por­tance of cul­ture in bridg­ing gaps," be­tween na­tions. "We are the on­ly mem­ber state to im­ple­ment this par­tic­u­lar res­o­lu­tion through such a tan­gi­ble medi­um as the arts." He said the pri­ma­ry pur­pose of the res­o­lu­tion was to fi­nal­ly recog­nise on a glob­al scale, the work that African peo­ple have done in com­merce, in­ven­tions and over­all na­tion build­ing. He cau­tioned against mis­rep­re­sent­ing the val­ue of the event. "This is more than a re­mem­brance of his­tor­i­cal wrongs," he said. "Re­gret­tably, in to­day's so­ci­ety, the spec­tre of prej­u­dice con­tin­ues to ex­ist and many con­tri­bu­tions by Africans and their de­scen­dants have been ig­nored, for­got­ten, or foot­not­ed," he em­pha­sised.

As the walls of paint­ings re­flect­ed the painful jour­ney of en­slave­ment, the joy of man­u­mis­sion and the hope of so­cial and po­lit­i­cal democ­ra­cy, Per­ma­nent Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rod­ney Charles hailed the di­ver­si­ty of the young artists. "Every race and cul­ture was in­volved in cel­e­brat­ing this," he said, as dis­plays from As­ja Girls Col­lege, Lak­sh­mi Hin­du School, Na­pari­ma Col­lege, Holy Faith Con­vent, among oth­ers, be­decked the walls. Laud­ing the paint­ing More to be done: For­ward nev­er back, by St Bene­dict Col­lege's Azarm Im­ti­az Az­iz, which will be do­nat­ed to the UN, Am­bas­sador Charles stressed the re­mark­able tal­ent and pos­i­tive mes­sage that young peo­ple have pre­sent­ed to the glob­al com­mu­ni­ty. "This is a true re­flec­tion of how well Trinidad and To­ba­go has man­aged re­la­tions among di­verse groups. We have suc­ceed­ed where many coun­tries have failed due to eth­nic and oth­er con­flicts. Vic­tims of these con­flicts in­clude chil­dren....the same age as artists whose work you are view­ing to­day." Am­bas­sador Charles, tak­ing a page from the coun­try's first prime min­is­ter Dr Er­ic Williams, went a step fur­ther. "The fu­ture of Trinidad and To­ba­go as a na­tion and peo­ple is in the school bag, and this ex­hi­bi­tion ful­ly re­flects this fact."