Michelle Loubon

Three mem­bers of the ca­lyp­so fra­ter­ni­ty were ho­n­oured with na­tion­al awards on In­de­pen­dence Day. Busi­ness­man Williams Munro, a tire­less pro­mot­er of ca­lyp­so and so­ca mu­sic, was award­ed a Hum­ming­bird Medal (Gold) for cul­ture, while ca­lyp­so­ni­ans Broth­er Valenti­no re­ceived their medals for their con­tri­bu­tions to the art form. Munro said he re­mains com­mit­ted to be­ing a cul­tur­al de­vel­op­er. "I have worked tire­less­ly for cul­ture over the years. I have nev­er stud­ied it. It just came nat­u­ral­ly. I see my­self as a cul­tur­al de­vel­op­er. It's nice to know the state recog­nis­es you for your work." The chair­man of Caribbean Pres­tige Foun­da­tion (CPF), de­scribed get­ting the In­de­pen­dence Day award as a "dou­ble wham­my," since he cel­e­brat­ed his birth­day on Au­gust 20.

"I got a good birth­day gift. It is a bless­ing. I am a proud Leo," he said. Ca­lyp­son­ian Broth­er Ve­lenti­no (An­tho­ny Em­rold Phillip), best known for his clas­sic Life Is A Stage, dread-locked said: "It is like a dream come true. It is one of the great­est achieve­ments of my life. It is a spe­cial feel­ing no mon­ey can buy. I am over­whelmed." Rik­ki Jai (Sam­raj Jaimun­gal) Rik­ki Jai, said he felt hum­bled and ho­n­oured to be giv­en the award dur­ing T&T's gold­en Ju­bilee. "It gives me a feel­ing of in­ner pur­pose for the mu­sic and the time I de­vot­ed to the in­dus­try. It's very re­ward­ing when a na­tion reach­es out to you. I feel proud of my coun­try," he said.

Pro­fes­sor Red­dock: There is a lim­it­ed un­der­stand­ing of women's is­sues

Pro­fes­sor Rho­da Red­dock, who re­ceived the Medal for the De­vel­op­ment of Women on In­de­pen­dence Day, says more work needs to be done on women's and gen­der is­sues. Prof Red­dock, Deputy Cam­pus prin­ci­pal at UWI St Au­gus­tine and a Pro­fes­sor of Gen­der, So­cial Change and De­vel­op­ment said: "I think Trinidad and To­ba­go has a lot of re­flect­ing to do be­cause we need new re­solve to ad­dress the many is­sues that con­front our so­ci­ety. I think the gov­ern­ment can do a lot more. There is a lim­it­ed un­der­stand­ing of women's and gen­der is­sues. It is about chang­ing so­ci­ety.

"Every hu­man be­ing has the po­ten­tial to de­vel­op to their fullest po­ten­tial, with­out dis­crim­i­na­tion on the grounds of class, colour, race and age. There should be no dis­crim­i­na­tion on the grounds of sex­u­al­i­ty and gen­der. "The tra­di­tion­al prac­tice of women's sub­or­di­na­tion be­comes the mod­el for oth­er forms as the strug­gle con­tin­ues. It is not just dis­crim­i­na­tion by not enough hous­es or jobs. But it the low­er val­ue of the fem­i­nine in re­la­tion to the mas­cu­line in all as­pects of life." Re­flect­ing on her award, Prof said: "I was hap­py to re­ceive it. I was nom­i­nat­ed by women's groups and women's or­gan­i­sa­tions. I am mo­ti­vat­ed by the work that lies ahead. Get­ting it on the 50th an­niver­sary makes it even more spe­cial." She ded­i­cat­ed it to the mem­o­ry of her late par­ents, Rosie and Bertram Red­dock.