Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

The Cou­va Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal is set to re­ceive its first in­take of young pa­tients in the com­ing weeks. This was an­nounced by Cou­va South MP Bar­ry Padarath as he de­liv­ered the fea­ture ad­dress at Bach­he Kaand 2025 – The Chil­dren’s Chap­ter. The event was held on Sat­ur­day at the ISHA Ashram, Isha Heights, Sew­dass Road, Freeport.

Bring­ing fur­ther good news, Padarath—who al­so serves as Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties—said that com­put­ers be­ing pro­cured for stu­dents through TSTT should ar­rive in Trinidad and To­ba­go by De­cem­ber.

Ad­dress­ing the gath­er­ing, which con­sist­ed large­ly of young peo­ple, Padarath urged them to step up, make their voic­es heard, and take their place as the lead­ers of to­mor­row.

He said he is un­afraid to de­fend the UNC or the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go be­cause he re­mains un­at­tached to the trap­pings of of­fice. This sense of in­de­pen­dence, he added, gives him the strength and plat­form to speak freely.

“Many times peo­ple ask us, how do you do it? Why are you big and bold and con­fi­dent in­side and out­side of Par­lia­ment? For too long, we have adopt­ed a cul­ture of be­ing weak, stand­ing for noth­ing or stand­ing for lit­tle, and on­ly look­ing af­ter self-in­ter­est.

"There­fore, as a com­mu­ni­ty, this event, Bach­he Kaand, in­spires me. It re­minds us not just of our dhar­ma in terms of re­li­gious teach­ings, but al­so our dhar­ma in terms of how we live our lives.

"One day, Jear­lean John told me, ‘I like you, Mr Padarath.’ I asked why, and she said, ‘Be­cause in Par­lia­ment, when they shout at you, you shout back. When they jump up, you and all jump up. You must have the fire in your bel­ly. Peo­ple among us must not equate acad­e­mia with in­tel­li­gence. In­tel­li­gence is about ed­u­ca­tion in the books, yes, but it is al­so about stand­ing up for what is right be­cause it is the right thing to do.’”

Padarath said sev­er­al or­gan­i­sa­tions in Trinidad and To­ba­go have dis­tanced them­selves from the UNC when­ev­er the par­ty is out of of­fice, de­spite past UNC ad­min­is­tra­tions and lead­ers hav­ing paved the way for na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

He called on or­gan­i­sa­tions to de­vel­op the courage to speak out in the na­tion­al in­ter­est.

“The pop­u­lar de­ci­sion is not al­ways the right de­ci­sion. For 10 years, a few of us stood by to­day’s Prime Min­is­ter, whom every­one wants to em­brace now. Let me re­mind you, there were days of dark­ness. But fight­ing for an ide­ol­o­gy that ben­e­fits the ma­jor­i­ty is not al­ways a pop­u­lar choice.

Padarath al­so urged the faith­ful to keep the Prime Min­is­ter in their thoughts and prayers. He en­cour­aged them to re­main strong in the face of de­trac­tors.