Her Excellency expresses condolences on the passing of Mr. Robert “Robbie” Greenidge

Jun 9, 2026

Her Excellency Christine Carla Kangaloo, O.R.T.T., President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, expresses her heartfelt condolences on the passing of Mr. Robert “Robbie” Greenidge, internationally acclaimed steelpan virtuoso, arranger, composer and cultural ambassador.

Robert Greenidge was widely regarded as one of Trinidad and Tobago’s foremost ambassadors of the steelpan, carrying the sound of the national instrument to audiences across the globe. Hailing from Success Village, Laventille, Mr. Greenidge began playing pan at an early age and went on to build an extraordinary career spanning more than five decades.

A celebrated soloist and performer, Mr. Greenidge collaborated with numerous internationally renowned artistes and appeared on some of the world’s most prestigious stages and recordings. His exceptional artistry and versatility helped showcase the steelpan as a respected and dynamic instrument in contemporary music, while his long-standing association with the Desperadoes Steel Orchestra and his contributions to Panorama reflected his untiring commitment to Trinidad and Tobago’s steelband movement.

In recognition of his outstanding contribution to culture, Mr. Greenidge was awarded the Hummingbird Medal (Silver) in 1993.

Her Excellency joins the steelpan fraternity and the national community in celebrating the life and extraordinary legacy of Mr. Robert Greenidge.

May he rest in peace.

Photo credit: The Trinidad and Tobago Guardian

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6 days ago

Speech delivered by Her Excellency Christine Carla Kangaloo ORTT, President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago for the Girl Guides Association of Trinidad and Tobago Awards Ceremony 2026 on 6 June 2026I am very pleased to join you this afternoon at this Awards Function of the Girl Guides Association of Trinidad and Tobago, and to do so as Patron of an organisation that has helped generations of girls and young women to discover confidence, discipline, courage and a life of service.Today is not only an occasion for the presentation of awards. It is an occasion for remembrance: remembrance of decades of steady leadership; of weekends given, meetings prepared, journeys supervised, anxieties calmed, talents noticed, and young lives gently guided towards possibility.The women whom we honour today have served without parade. They have given from the substance of their lives: their time, judgment, patience and care. In doing so, they have shown us that leadership is not measured only by office or title. Leadership is measured by the lives made stronger because someone chose to be present, dependable and fair.Guiding has always understood something that every society must remember: young people are not shaped by instruction alone. They are shaped by example. They learn from the adults who listen before judging, who hold standards without harshness, who encourage them to stand tall without causing others to stoop. In a world of restless noise and instant attention, such example is rare and precious.This is especially important for girls and young women who are learning what leadership can and should look like. One of the great challenges of modern leadership is not simply for women to enter spaces of influence, but for women to help redefine those spaces. It is not enough to occupy positions once denied to them if, having arrived there, they are expected to imitate the harshest habits by which authority was once exercised. Our young women desperately need to understand this.And this is where the Girl Guides movement offers a better lesson. It teaches that strength does not require cruelty; confidence does not require contempt; authority does not require aggression; and conviction does not require the abandonment of decency. The young women who pass through this movement must never be made to believe that, in order to be heard, they must wound; that, in order to lead, they must humiliate; or that, in order to be strong, they must become destructive.For more than a century, the Girl Guides Association of Trinidad and Tobago has been teaching young girls that better way, and has been gently guiding them into a more impactful way of leading. In so doing, it has helped girls and young women to build skills and self-belief. But its deeper achievement has been to teach them that success is not a private possession. It is a responsibility: to family, to community, to country, and to those who come after us.We gather at a time when our nation, like many others, must choose carefully the spirit in which we will speak to and about one another. A Republic is not held together by law alone, nor by institutions alone, important as both are. It is held together also by restraint, respect, and the quiet discipline of remembering that every word we use either repairs the fabric of our common life or tears at it.Disagreement will always have its place in a free society. Scrutiny has its place. Firm conviction has its place. But contempt cannot build what service builds. Cruelty cannot protect what duty protects. And no country is strengthened when dignity is treated as weakness, when insult is mistaken for candour, or when the institutions that belong to all are made the casualties of passing quarrels.The example of the Girl Guides offers our country’s young girls a different path. It tells us that we can be firm without being bitter, principled without being unkind, and ambitious for our country without becoming divided from one another. It reminds us that leadership is not proved by the volume of one’s voice, the sharpness of one’s attack, or the destruction of another’s standing. True leadership is proved by discipline, service, fairness and the capacity to lift others, even in moments of disagreement.That lesson matters for every citizen. It matters particularly for the young women watching the conduct of those in authority and deciding, quietly, what kind of leaders they themselves will become. We owe them examples worthy of imitation. We owe them the assurance that dignity is not old-fashioned, that restraint is not weakness, and that decency remains one of the strongest instruments of public life.The awardees before us have spent years teaching that truth, not by proclamation, but by practice. They have not merely supported an Association. They have strengthened the Republic. They have helped form young women who will become leaders in their homes, workplaces, communities and national life. They have shown that service is one of the most persuasive forms of patriotism.In a time when many are tempted to confuse attention with achievement, and outrage with courage, the quiet, sustained work of volunteers reminds us of what endures. Noise may command the moment. But it is character that shapes the future.To each awardee, I offer the gratitude of a nation. Thank you for the years no certificate can fully record, for the sacrifices no programme can list, and for the hope you have planted in lives you may never fully know.As Patron, I am proud of the Girl Guides Association of Trinidad and Tobago, and I commend all who continue to carry its mission forward. May this Association remain a place where girls and young women learn not only how to achieve, but how to serve; not only how to lead, but how to lift others; not only how to speak with confidence, but how to do so with conscience.May the young women of this movement go forward knowing that they need not borrow the worst habits of power in order to exercise power well. May they lead with courage that is disciplined, strength that is humane, and conviction that never forgets the dignity of others.And may your example summon the best in all of us: duty over indifference, unity over division, dignity over discord, and service over self.Happy 112th Birthday. I congratulate you warmly, and I wish the Girl Guides Association of Trinidad and Tobago every success in the years ahead.Thank you.-END- ... See MoreSee Less

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The Office of the President of the Republic of T&T

6 days ago

"True Leadership Is Proved by Discipline and Service" — President Honours Excellence in GuidingYesterday, June 6, 2026, Her Excellency Christine Carla Kangaloo, ORTT, President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and Patron of The Girl Guides Association of Trinidad and Tobago, addressed the Association’s Recognition of Excellence in Guiding Awards Ceremony at the Dr. Sis Phyllis Wharfe Auditorium, St. Joseph’s Convent, San Fernando.The ceremony celebrated the dedication and service of Girl Guides and Guiders who have devoted between 10 and over 50 years to the movement, including six outstanding women who were recognized for more than five decades of service. Bronze and Silver Shamrock Awards were also presented, while Her Excellency had the honour of presenting the Samaan Gold Award to 14 Guides.In her address, Her Excellency reflected on the enduring values of the Guiding movement and its importance in shaping future generations of women leaders:"The example of the Girl Guides offers our country’s young girls a different path. It tells us that we can be firm without being bitter, principled without being unkind, and ambitious for our country without becoming divided from one another. It reminds us that leadership is not proved by the volume of one’s voice, the sharpness of one’s attack, or the destruction of another’s standing. True leadership is proved by discipline, service, fairness and the capacity to lift others, even in moments of disagreement."The Office of the President extends a Happy 112th Birthday to the Association, heartfelt congratulations to all awardees and thanks The Girl Guides Association of Trinidad and Tobago for its continued contribution to youth development, leadership and service to country.#GirlGuidesTT #LeadershipThroughService #RecognitionOfExcellence#GuidingValues #OfficeofthePresidentt ... See MoreSee Less

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1 week ago

On Wednesday, June 3, 2026, Her Excellency Christine Carla Kangaloo ORTT, President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, received a courtesy call from His Grace, the Most Reverend Philip Wright, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Church of the Province of the West Indies.The Most Reverend Philip Wright, who also serves as the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Belize, was recently installed as the 14th Primate of the Church of the Province of the West Indies during a service held on April 26, 2026, in Belize City, Belize.Also present was The Right Reverend Claude Berkley, Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Trinidad and Tobago. ... See MoreSee Less

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The Office of the President of the Republic of T&T

1 week ago

𝐌𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐇𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐚 𝐊𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐨 𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐓, 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐠𝐨 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐜𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐩𝐮𝐬 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢 Fellow citizens,I extend warm greetings to Roman Catholics across Trinidad and Tobago, and to all citizens who pause today, in a spirit of reverence and peace, to reflect on and to observe the occasion of Corpus Christi.For Catholics, this solemn feast honours the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. In bread broken and shared, and in the cup received in faith, the Church contemplates a mystery at once humble and profound: that God draws near as presence, sustenance and gift.Corpus Christi asks for more than mere remembrance. It calls the faithful to allow worship to shape character; to let reverence become service; and to make the sacred visible in mercy, restraint and self-giving. A table of communion cannot leave us content with division. A sacrament of gift cannot leave us at ease with indifference. And so, what the faithful receive, they are called to reflect in the world: a life that nourishes, rather than diminishes the life of others.Although Corpus Christi belongs in a special way to the Catholic tradition, Trinidad and Tobago understands that the lessons of our country’s many faiths speak across the lines that differentiate us. Our national calendar carries the sacred memories of many communities—Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Orisha, Spiritual Baptist and others. It reminds us that differences do not weaken belonging, and that a central lesson of all of our respective devotions, is that our devotions must bear fruit in our conduct.At this time in our country’s public life, our nation needs that lesson. We do not serve Trinidad and Tobago when we choose suspicion over fairness, noise over truth, or contempt over disagreement. Our Republic asks no citizen to surrender conviction. It asks only that conviction keep faith with decency, and that the offices and institutions we share be treated with the care due to their common inheritance.May Corpus Christi renew in us the discipline of unity: not sameness, but shared purpose; not silence, but speech worthy of a free people; not private devotion alone, but public virtue. May it move us from concern to duty, from distance to neighbourliness, and from division to the patient work of national renewal.I wish the Roman Catholic community, and all the people of Trinidad and Tobago, a blessed and peaceful Corpus Christi. May this holy day leave us less eager to wound, more ready to serve, and more worthy of the Republic we hold in trust. ... See MoreSee Less

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1 week ago

Visitors from our sister isle of Tobago recently made a special stop at The President's House as part of Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly, the Hon. Farley Augustine’s Post-SEA Jamboree.The group was warmly welcomed by Her Excellency Christine Carla Kangaloo, ORTT, President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, before touring the House and grounds and learning more about this important national landmark.📸 For more photos from their visit, please click the link below.🔗https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCV5Ng ... See MoreSee Less

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Her Excellency expresses condolences on the passing of Mr. Robert “Robbie” Greenidge

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