Shane Su­perville

Se­nior Re­porter

shane.su­perville@guardian.co.tt

World Peace Day was cel­e­brat­ed with a dis­tinct­ly lo­cal flavour yes­ter­day, as mem­bers of the pro­tec­tive ser­vices, gov­ern­ment work­ers and passers-by in down­town Port-of-Spain were served com­pli­men­ta­ry dou­bles as a ges­ture of ap­pre­ci­a­tion for their ef­forts in pro­mot­ing peace.

The ini­tia­tive, fa­cil­i­tat­ed by the Unit­ed Na­tions De­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme (UNDP), saw four dou­bles stands set up at Janelle Com­mis­siong Street from as ear­ly as 6.30 am, of­fer­ing the lo­cal del­i­ca­cy with vary­ing de­grees of spice to the pub­lic.

The ini­tia­tive at­tract­ed throngs of work­ers from near­by build­ings, mem­bers of the pub­lic and oth­er fre­quent vis­i­tors ea­ger to sam­ple the dou­bles while learn­ing more about the na­ture of the to­ken.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, the UNDP’s res­i­dent rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ugo Blan­co said the ges­ture, while sim­ple, was one way of con­nect­ing with mem­bers of the pro­tec­tive ser­vices to show their ap­pre­ci­a­tion for the dai­ly sac­ri­fices they make.

“I am de­light­ed to be part of In­ter­na­tion­al Peace Day in Trinidad and To­ba­go be­cause peace is every­body’s busi­ness. We need all hands on deck be­cause in­vest­ing in peace is in­vest­ing in the fu­ture; it’s in­vest­ing in com­mu­ni­ties, our house­holds and our youth.

“So we’re de­light­ed to ap­pre­ci­ate the work that every­body does to build peace in Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

Blan­co added that the ini­tia­tive was one part of wider ef­forts by the UNDP to pro­mote peace and sta­bil­i­ty in Trinidad and To­ba­go through a stronger, more ef­fi­cient and ac­ces­si­ble jus­tice sys­tem.

“We are sup­port­ing what is good gov­er­nance and the rule of law.

“We are work­ing with jus­tice to re­duce the back­log and bet­ter jus­tice ser­vices with po­lice, the pris­ons, the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions, in or­der to cre­ate the best ser­vices for our cit­i­zens.

“We work with youth through the Na­tion­al Youth Fo­rum, we work with the Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty... a lot is go­ing on, but some­times we don’t share it.”

Al­so at­tend­ing the pop-up was at­tor­ney-at-law Om Lal­la, who com­mend­ed the UNDP for the ini­tia­tive and thanked law en­force­ment for their ef­forts in cre­at­ing safer com­mu­ni­ties.

“Peace af­fects all of us; it’s not an in­di­vid­ual is­sue or an in­sti­tu­tion­al con­cern. The UNDP plays an im­por­tant role in the main­tain­ing of peace glob­al­ly.

“We ap­pre­ci­ate your ser­vice, we val­ue your ser­vice. It’s in­te­gral for Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“Very of­ten they are not recog­nised, they are crit­i­cised a lot but the coun­try can­not func­tion, peace can­not be held with­out those peo­ple and the con­tri­bu­tion they make, so in spite of the ten­sions we may face as a coun­try, we need them and are sup­port­ed by them.”

Part of Queen Street was blocked off to fa­cil­i­tate the dis­tri­b­u­tion of the treats, as crowds gath­ered for the event, which al­so fea­tured a pho­to booth and props high­light­ing the UNDP’s role in pro­mot­ing peace.

The event, while cen­tred around peace and lo­cal cui­sine, al­so con­nect­ed peo­ple as work­ers so­cialised be­fore re­turn­ing to their re­spec­tive of­fices.