Shir­van Williams

Scores lined Port-of-Spain streets yes­ter­day to join in the Min­istry of Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism's "Rhythm Pa­rade" which formed part of the coun­try's 50th an­niver­sary of In­de­pen­dence cel­e­bra­tions. The pa­rade, which be­gan at ap­prox­i­mate­ly 3.30 pm at the Bri­an Lara Prom­e­nade, went up Aber­crom­by Street, on­to Knox Street and then to the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts, Fred­er­ick Stret, Port-of-Spain. Bad weath­er failed to damp­en the Car­ni­val at­mos­phere as mas­quer­aders chipped to so­ca mu­sic, com­ple­ment­ed with Dame Lor­raines, jab jabs, sailors and wild in­di­ans. Pro­vid­ing mu­sic were were Petrotrin Boodoos­ingh's Tas­sa Group, Laven­tille Rhythm Sec­tion, Siparia Rhythm Sec­tion and Diego Ville Drum­mers

Min­is­ter of Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism Lin­coln Dou­glas, who led the pro­ces­sion, in a brief in­ter­view, said he be­lieved the cel­e­bra­tions would be good for the coun­try's morale. "This is what we need. We need some more pa­tri­o­tism," he added. He said it was nec­es­sary be­cause "it is im­por­tant to re-ig­nite peo­ple's com­mit­ment to their coun­try." Fr Clive Har­vey, who was at the pa­rade, said he did not feel pa­tri­ot­ic de­spite the over­whelm­ing red, white and black colours around him. "A di­vid­ed coun­try chal­lenges every ounce of my pa­tri­ot­ic en­er­gy," he said. At­tor­ney Om Lal­la said it was good to see such a strong sense of pa­tri­o­tism among the peo­ple. He said peo­ple ought to re­alise the sig­nif­i­cance of a democ­ra­cy op­er­at­ing for 50 years. The many peo­ple who lined the streets, dressed in red, white or black and some­times a com­bi­na­tion of all three, shared sim­i­lar sen­ti­ments. Suresh Ke­mar, of San­ta Flo­ra, said: "I feel very proud as a Trin­bag­on­ian to see that our coun­try can unite to­geth­er un­der one um­brel­la to cel­e­brate a great his­toric day... our 50th In­de­pen­dence cel­e­bra­tions. I hope it con­tin­ues in a a more ed­u­ca­tion­al way." Ken­neth Joseph, 65, who cel­e­brat­ed the coun­try's first In­de­pen­dence in 1962, said while he en­joyed the cel­e­bra­tions, noth­ing com­pared, nor would any­thing ever com­pare to the first In­de­pen­dence Day.