Shas­tri Boodan

There is an ur­gent glob­al need to pro­tect the en­vi­ron­ment, says Min­is­ter of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts Ran­dall Mitchell. In T&T, he said, this could take the form of pre­serv­ing our cul­tur­al sites and lo­cal tourist at­trac­tions.

He was de­liv­er­ing the fea­ture ad­dress on the open­ing night of the 35th An­nu­al Di­vali Na­gar Fes­ti­val at the NCIC Na­gar, Ch­agua­nas, on Fri­day.

Mitchell said Hin­duism has al­ways placed the en­vi­ron­ment on the front burn­er. He said Dhar­ti Maataa (moth­er earth), this year’s theme for the Na­gar, of­fers valu­able lessons about every­day life, em­pha­sis­ing the im­por­tance of car­ing for our plan­et through sus­tain­able prac­tices.

He said, “This theme al­so res­onates with me on a deep lev­el as it so­lid­i­fies the need for our na­tion to work to­geth­er in pre­serv­ing our cul­tur­al sites and lo­cal tourist at­trac­tions.”

Mitchell said his min­istry con­tin­ues to view re­li­gious fes­ti­vals and ob­ser­vances as im­por­tant to the growth and sta­bil­i­ty of our mul­ti­cul­tur­al so­ci­ety.

“Let us be re­mind­ed that these in­sti­tutes and ob­ser­vances en­cour­age com­mu­ni­ties to join forces in the fight against the present evils and pro­mote greater cross-cul­tur­al di­a­logue that can win the bat­tle against ig­no­rance, dis­crim­i­na­tion, and vi­o­lence. We stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with our re­li­gious bod­ies dur­ing this time and en­cour­age the gen­er­al pub­lic to let light pre­vail in the form of broth­er­ly love, peace and re­spect,” he said.

He said the Na­tion­al Cul­tur­al Pol­i­cy of his min­istry places arts, cul­ture and the cre­ative sec­tors at the cen­tre of na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment. “The grants and spon­sor­ship fa­cil­i­ty con­tin­ues to pledge as­sis­tance and sup­port through the Cul­ture and Cre­ative Arts Fund to en­sure the suc­cess of these ini­tia­tives. Our man­date con­tin­ues to be to in­vest in the de­vel­op­ment of our na­tion’s fes­ti­vals and to pre­serve the pre­cious tra­di­tions of our di­verse eth­nic groups.”

Mitchell said the in­flu­ence of Hin­duism holds a spe­cial place in T&T’s di­verse her­itage. He said, “It has left an in­deli­ble mark on our tra­di­tions, mu­sic, dance, art, cui­sine, and our way of life. It’s a tes­ta­ment to the har­mo­nious co­ex­is­tence of di­verse cul­tures that we proud­ly cel­e­brate. In ac­knowl­edg­ing the val­ue of the tenets of the Hin­du cul­ture, it is our du­ty to en­sure that these time­less tra­di­tions and cus­toms con­tin­ue to thrive for the gen­er­a­tions to come.”

Mitchell, prais­ing the NCIC and its new head, In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor De­oroop Teemal, said, “The Di­vali Na­gar is much more than a fes­ti­val. It is an in­vi­ta­tion to greater uni­ty de­spite our dif­fer­ences. As this year’s fes­ti­val be­gins, may the light of each deya rep­re­sent the flame of cre­ativ­i­ty, col­lab­o­ra­tion and com­mu­ni­ty-build­ing that burns in all of us.”

Speak­ing on this year’s theme, Teemal said Hin­dus and many non-Abra­ham­ic faiths re­vere the earth as a moth­er that de­serves re­spect and pro­tec­tion in or­der for all to sur­vive. He said, “Un­for­tu­nate­ly what we have right now is the earth her­self be­ing un­der­mined by our sci­en­tif­ic, tech­no­log­i­cal and in­dus­tri­al achieve­ments that are in the abu­sive hands of hu­man and cor­po­rate greed as well as the greed of some na­tions for con­tin­ued world dom­i­nance and as well as those who are try­ing to top­ple those inn dom­i­nance.

The NCIC ho­n­oured Madam Jus­tice Karen Gopee, the first In­do-Caribbean woman to be ap­point­ed a Crim­i­nal Court Judge of New York. She was the chief guest for Di­vali Na­gar 2023. Pa­trons were treat­ed to en­ter­tain­ment from the Shiv Shak­ti Dancer, The First Cit­i­zens Drag­on Boys Tas­sa, Pichaka­ree singer Mo­hip Poon­wassie and vo­cal­ist Shiv­anand Ma­haraj.