Ryan Bachoo
Lead Editor-Newsgathering
ryan.bachoo@cnc3.co.tt
Dr Marlene Attzs has emerged as one of the most esteemed and trusted faces of economists in the country. She is on the most-wanted list of media houses when budget season beckons and is a useful resource for election cycles.
The economy is central to everyone, from the businessman to the layman, and for the latter, Dr Attzs has emerged as a voice that speaks a language they understand. That was instilled in her by the late Prof Dennis Pantin who lectured Dr Attzs at university and still serves as an inspiration. “He was a brilliant academic who believed that economics was about people. His life’s work was about people in the economy, and that is a maxim that I try to live by. How do you support processes, whatever they may be, that try to improve the lives and livelihoods of the people of T&T?”
A San Fernandian by birth, Dr Attzs has become a frequent on television news, radio programmes and in the newspapers. However, on International Women’s Day, we wanted to go behind the numbers and explore the life of a woman who has risen to prominence in her field of economics.
Mentorship is important
Dr Attzs studied for a PhD in Economics with a focus on climate change, perhaps the first attention to be paid to the socio-economic climate change issues in this part of the world. This year marks 20 years since she attained her PhD and became Dr Attzs. Over the last two decades, her voice has become increasingly sought after to analyse the country’s economic position and outlook.
As a change, we asked her to analyse the life of women in T&T.
Dr Attzs replied, “If you reflect on our history, we have made significant strides. Think about things like how women have higher life expectancies than men (men 73 and women 80), which means that things are improving for women. Our mortality rate has significantly improved compared to decades ago, so life has improved, but of course, there are improvements we would like to see happen in T&T.”
The elephant in the room is domestic violence. Between March 2020 and March 2022, there were 6,250 domestic violence cases. Domestic violence reports have skyrocketed by 42 per cent since 2021. “It is the fly in the ointment,” Dr Attzs said. The economist went further in explaining that some women, because of their domestic circumstances, may not want to advance their careers for fear that their partner may not take kindly to that, or may have insecurities.
Men, she said, play a central role in eliminating such barriers for women. “These are the kinds of issues that we need to look at. It’s really a socialisation. We need to look at how we socialise our boys and our young men so that they recognise women need to be afforded certain opportunities, and career advancement for a woman does not in any way negate her desire to be a homemaker, a wife or a mother but things have changed. Domestic violence must not be something that stymies career advancement, growth or recognition of women in T&T.”
Despite the setbacks, Dr Attzs is encouraged by the level of ambition she sees emanating from women in this country. “At our Office of University Planning at the University of the West Indies, you look at the statistics of enrolment, there are far more females enrolling across the faculties except for engineering and sport, which means they want to aspire to hold high office. They want to aspire to be leaders and game changers in their respective professions. They want to take their place in society.”
However, Dr Attzs warns our young women are particularly vulnerable to the effects of social media in the digital age. She said it was easy to get caught up in the reality TV shows. “I think our access to social media really has created a false sense of reality for our young women and this is why I say I think the mentorship is important. It begins at home. Their socialisation in the home needs to recognise that their core values need to be reinforced at the school level in terms of how you dress and what you post on social media. We have to establish some boundaries.”
Dr Attzs hopes young women in T&T use the occasion of International Women’s Day to understand the strides that have been made, the recognition that comes with being a woman as well as the challenges and embrace them as opposed to looking for shortcuts. “Living life out on social media is not really what it is about,” she added.
Grounded in faith, driven by country
Buoyed by what she sees, Dr Attzs admits she’s a nationalist. “I love my country,” she said with a smile. She goes further in adding there is no shortage of talent and we have the right people, the right minds, the right level of commitment “but there is something in between the commitment and actually executing and implementing that is preventing us from being better than we already are.” She would like us to focus on something–whether it is crime and security or education which ultimately redounds to the benefit of the people of the country.
For someone who has found herself in the spotlight of national attention, when asked if she would consider a life in politics given the 2025 general election is on the horizon, she said, “They say never say never. It depends on what the divine plan is and what plan the universe has for me. They say never say never. If that is God’s plan, he will send me a very clear message because I will need a very clear message about entering politics.”
That divine plan stems from a life deep-rooted in her faith. Dr Attzs is Roman Catholic. “My religion is my core. My religion is my centre,” she said. It is based on her religion she goes about life each day. She added, “It is my guiding light and guiding principles. It is what keeps me going on a weekly basis and on a daily basis because I believe in the divine. I believe there is a divine plan. I believe in God’s plan for my life.”
Dr Attzs would like to see more young people involved in religion as an answer to the many societal ills the country faces. She went further in saying, “At the heart of what is happening, and the disarray and decay that we are seeing with our young people is the fact that they are not grounded and I think religion had provided me and others with a grounding and a perspective in life.”
One of her longtime inspirations was the late Sister Phyllis Wharfe, whom Dr Attzs met during her secondary school days at St Joseph’s Convent, San Fernando. “She represented for me, even then, all that I would want to be; never a nun, mind you, but a good leader, a woman of proper substance and extremely articulate. She was an outstanding female.”
From hobbies to highlights
When Dr Attzs is not crunching the numbers as an economist, she finds pleasure in cooking and is an avid music fan with no particular favourite genre. She jokes, “From Billy Paul, George Benson to Mical Teja to gospel to Buju Banton if you were to turn on my playlist now, any number of things would pop out. You’d ask, ‘How is she moving from Donnie McClurkin to Machel Montano to Benderella?’”
Beyond all of the academic accolades Dr Attzs has racked up over the years, she said it was fulfilling to see some of her students become policymakers and leaders in their own right. One of the highlights of her professional life happened during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She was asked to lead a small team that took responsibility for the Penal/Debe campus which was used as part of the parallel healthcare system. She worked with public servants from the Ministry of Health, T&T Defence Force, T&T Police Service and several other state agencies. “The population didn’t know what was happening, and that experience reinforced and heartened me that we have talent in T&T and we are committed to our country. Here we were in the middle of a crisis and all of these unknown entities that had not previously worked together simply came together and worked tirelessly behind the scenes,” she recalled.
Women must lift women up
As the world continues to recognise the contribution of women post International Women’s Day, Dr Attzs wants women to lift women. “We have to remember that no one must be left behind,” she said. “While we are advancing and some women are at a more advanced level than others, we need to ensure we can help our sisters by their shoestrings. That includes the single mothers who are trying to get their children to school and the single mothers who have to leave home in the dark and return in the dark, and they have safety and security concerns, we have to ensure all of our women have the opportunity to self-actualise so at the end of the day we can say we the women of T&T have advanced.”
