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

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

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Led by Her Excellency Christine Carla Kangaloo ORTT, President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, OTP staff rocked their socks in observance of World Down Syndrome Day 2024. ... See MoreSee Less
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Her Excellency Christine Carla Kangaloo ORTT, President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago recently toured the spanking new Diego Martin Public Library.Specifically, Her Excellency was interested in viewing the exhibit featuring this country’s first President, Sir Ellis Clarke. The Seventh President was impressed by the exhibit as well as the rest of the well-appointed facility. ... See MoreSee Less
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ADDRESS BY HER EXCELLENCY CHRISTINE CARLA KANGALOO ORTT, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGOON THE OCCASION OF A VISIT TO ST. JOSEPH’S CONVENT, SAN FERNANDO MARCH 19, 2024Good morning.I really am quite delighted to be here with you this morning. The occasion is made even more special by your warm welcome; the fact that it is St Joseph’s Day; and the anticipation of the mini concert that I have been promised. Returning to my Alma Mater evokes many different emotions: happiness - in once again walking the halls where I spent so much of my time and made such wonderful memories. Curiosity - at seeing and hearing about the changes that have unfolded in the ‘few’ years since my graduation. And, of course, the overwhelming sense of nostalgia for the ‘good ole school days’ with all their experiences - the great, the good, and the not-so-good. I wish that I could stand here and tell you that I was an amazing student, who excelled at both academics and extra-curricular activities, who always paid full and undivided attention to all of my teachers, and who was the living and breathing embodiment of our motto “Wisdom and Knowledge”. Alas – if wishes were horses!The truth is, that although at some point I am sure I must have tried to be at least some of those things, at no time at all was I ever exactly “Student of the Century”. My report cards would often infuriate my poor father; invariably they would say things like “A pleasant pupil. Can do better. Is too talkative”. One of the changes I noticed in the school this morning is this Auditorium. When I was a student, there was no Auditorium. There was a large tennis court where we would play and lime. There was also a tree, which is no longer here, under which we would congregate and share stories – in other words, gossip. That tennis court and that tree were probably the training ground on which I acquired the social skills and the loquaciousness that gave my father conniptions. A question that I am regularly asked these days when I tour schools, is “In your schooldays, did you ever think that you would be President?”. I have to concentrate very hard to supress a giggle. That thought was as far away from my brain as the East is from the West. My standard answer is “None of my teachers ever thought so”. I can tell you today that in fact one or two of my teachers – none of whom is present today, thank goodness – had predicted only trials and tribulations ahead for me, so exasperating did I seem to them at the time! In many ways, the only thing extraordinary about me as a student was my extraordinary ordinariness. And that, more than anything else, is the message that I would like to share with you this morning. All of the pressures that are put upon us, or that we sometimes put on ourselves, to be this, that or the other – these are not the things that bring us joy and success. The thing that brings us joy and success is when we learn to love and accept ourselves as we are – in the simple and ordinary moments of our lives. Accepting and loving our ordinary selves is the only sure way to lead fulfilling lives, and, as it sometimes turns out – take me as an example - lives that offer us extraordinary opportunities that we can never see coming.As a student, I often lacked confidence in myself. I was never a superstar student. As an adolescent girl, I went through all of the pain and insecurity that girls face in the process of becoming adults. But, in the face of all of the challenges that face young girls as they grow up, I continued to pay attention to my education. With the love and care of some very special teachers, I eventually began to feel more and more comfortable with who I was – with my ordinariness – and eventually, I was able to open myself up to the full experience of school and to the balanced and rounded education that our school offered then, and still offers today. It was the education that I received at this school, more than anything else, that laid the foundation for all of my subsequent pursuits in life. And, as fate – or some might say luck – would have it, one day I found myself taking the oath to be President of Trinidad and Tobago.I want to take a moment here, to express my profound gratitude to one teacher in particular, who saw and loved me in my ordinariness. That teacher is Mrs. Cintra Lucky. I will never forget how kind Mrs. Lucky was to me one day, after I had had a not-so-pleasant experience in another class during my first few years at the Convent. That not-so-pleasant experience was born out of my ordinariness – the ordinariness of the experiences that I had had in my life up to that time. That ordinariness caused me to do something that provoked the great upset of another teacher. Mrs. Lucky saw and accepted my ordinariness, and gave me the confidence to love and accept my ordinariness as well. One of the many blessings that we have in our school, is an abundance of teachers like Mrs. Lucky. Mrs. Lucky has long retired from teaching. But so many others like her continue to bless us at this school with their love and acceptance of the beauty of our ordinariness. And so, I want to encourage all of the students at our school today to accept and love your ordinary selves and, in the face of all of the challenges that face you as you grow up, and to pay attention to, and take advantage of the balanced and rounded education that our schools offers. Open yourselves, most especially, to the training in honing your communication skills that education offers, by teaching you how to read, write, speak and listen better. Open yourselves to the training in that education offers in strengthening your critical thinking. I don’t want to speak for too long; I much prefer chatting with you, one-on-one - which I am hoping I will get to do after the mini concert. And so, let me end my short address to you this morning by thanking the School for inviting me to spend time with you this morning - it is an honour deeply appreciated and gratefully accepted. I want to thank you all for having me on this special day and for coming out for us to spend time together. As I look at you, young women, I am reminded of the many hopes, dreams and passions that stirred within me when I was your age. In my ordinariness, I have been able to love and to live life, and to have some of those dreams come true – and to have and others happen that I never imagined would come to pass. I have the same desire for you – that you will love and accept yourselves for who you are. And that all of your dreams will come true.I thank you. ... See MoreSee Less
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Her Excellency Christine Carla Kangaloo ORTT, President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago has re-appointed Ms Veera Bhajan as a Lay Assessor of the Equal Opportunity Tribunal.Ms Bhajan took the Oath of Office and received her Instrument of Appointment from Her Excellency at President's House this morning.This is Ms Bhajan's second 3-year term as a Lay Assessor of the Equal Opportunity Tribunal. ... See MoreSee Less
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Address by Her Excellency Christine Carla Kangaloo ORTT, President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago at theAMCHAM-TT Women in Leadership Conference – Inspire InclusionGood morning.Permit me to begin by thanking AMCHAM-TT for its kind invitation to address this 10th Women’s Leadership Conference. For the last decade, AMCHAM-TT has, by means of Conferences like this one, provided an important platform for discussion on women’s issues. One of the things that I particularly admire is that these discussions lead to meaningful action, sometimes with AMCHAM-TT itself serving as a model of the very progress to which such discussions call us. For example, from aspiration to actualisation, AMCHAM-TT achieved in 2020, the laudable strategic goal of gender-parity in its own boardroom, with a board consisting of eight men and eight women.It seems to me that the theme of this year’s Conference - “Inspire Inclusion” – is an invitation for us all to consider how far we have come, from aspiration to actualisation, in the struggle for gender equity. I believe that we have certainly moved a long way from merely ‘aspiring’ to gender equity. In many areas of endeavour, statistics do give the appearance that women are not only closing the gap on gender inequity, but that in some cases, are even doing disproportionately better than men. Education is one such area. Not only are girls outperforming their male counterparts academically, but there are more females than boys writing examinations, and therefore accessing an education, in the first place. For example, of the 100 pupils who were awarded scholarships for the 2022 Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE), over 70 per cent were girls. In 2022, more girls than boys were registered to sit the CAPE Unit One and Unit Two examinations – just over 4,600 females, as opposed to just below 3,000 males. In the 2022 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations, roughly 11,500 girls wrote the exams, as compared to just over 9,000 boys. At the 2021 and 2022 President’s Medal Presentation Ceremony (which took place in 2024) 10 of the 13 awardees were girls. A female student topped the 2023 SEA exams. The statistics paint a broadly similar picture with respect to women’s involvement in the professions. In the legal profession, for example, there were more female Magistrates than male Magistrates in 2023; more female Masters than male Masters; and more female Judges than male Judges. In many other spheres of national life - including in politics, business, higher learning and culture - we also see women gaining major ground in the struggle for gender equity. We have had two women Presidents of the Republic and one female Prime Minister. Women have served as President of the Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Leader of the Opposition and as Policitcal Leaders and Chairpersons of two major political parties. Women’s representation in the Parliament has surpassed the 30% ‘critical mass’ benchmark set by the United Nations Economic and Social Council Resolution 1990/15. At present, women comprise 34.2% of our entire Parliament. In the Senate, they comprise 41.9% of the membership. In the House of Representatives, they comprise 28.5% of the membership. The membership figures in both the House and the Senate exceed the 26.2% global average of women representation in national parliaments worldwide. In business, we have female CEOs of two major banks. The University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus has a female Principal; the Hugh Wooding Law School has had female Principals for quite some time now. UWI St. Augustine also recently appointed its first female Professor of Science – Dr Judith Gobin; and in 2021 AMCHAM-TT welcomed its third female President. Recently, Pan Trinbago elected its first female President.All of these statistics would seem to suggest that women are today at the cusp of gender equity. They might well give the impression that the goal of gender equity is closer to actualisation, than it is to mere aspiration.The fact is, however, that despite all of the progress that has been made, and despite all of these very encouraging statistics, there remain serious barriers to the actualisation of gender equity in Trinidad and Tobago. ‘Gender equity’ has been defined to mean respecting all people without discrimination, regardless of their gender. It also has been defined to mean eliminating inequalities in access to health, education and economic opportunity based on their gender. And, it is in relation to these two definitions of gender equity, that I fear that our country has been encountering difficulty in moving out of the stage of mere aspiration. Dealing, first, with ‘respect regardless of gender’ - I do not think it can be said that we are where we need to be. To the contrary, it is both lamentable and unforgiveable that, even today - in the 21st century - decades after they have cemented themselves as a permanent part of the national landscape, women continue to be subjected to gender-based ridicule and contempt in their fields of endeavour and that they continue to be objectified and demeaned on the basis of their sex. I can point to unsavoury experiences in my own life in the public space, as examples. When I was President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House - also a female - and I, were made the subjects of a particularly vile and offensive gender-based attack, by way of a meme that was circulated on social media. I won’t get into the unpleasant details this morning. But, suffice it to say that what stood out in that attack, was that the attack never once condescended to any particulars about our ability. The attack was based solely on our gender. The saddest thing about that experience was that Madame Speaker and I were not unique. A recent European study has found that women are 27 times more likely to face harassment online than men. Another analysis has found that 92 per cent of women reported that online violence negatively influences their wellbeing. Unsurprisingly, that analysis also found that online violence has the tendency to cause women to suppress their inclination to work in the public eye. Being President of the country affords one no insulation from being disrespected by reason of one’s gender. I have had male commentators disparagingly refer to parts of my anatomy, in describing actions that I have taken as President as having been caused by persons “literally or figuratively” being “in my bosom”. My husband has had it suggested to him by a male member of the media that decisions which I have taken as President are “because of him” – as if I have no mind of my own, but am dominated by or beholden to a male spouse in my decision-making. The sad fact is, that for all of the advancements that have been made in the march towards gender equity, women, in all spheres of national endeavour, are routinely subjected to disrespect based on their gender only. The cynic might say that the statistics do nothing but act as a cover for deeply-entrenched, negative attitudes and perceptions about women, that surface, over and over again, in the ways I have described, and in other ways. Far too-often, whenever someone disagrees with an action taken or a decision made by a female authority-figure, recourse is had to negative, subterranean beliefs and attitudes about women. On occasions like these, time-worn, ugly insinuations and implications about women and their gender, borne of this primitive and obsolete worldview, erupt and spill over into our thinking and our actions towards women. Dealing next, with the second definition of gender equity – eliminating inequalities in access to health, education and economic opportunity based on their gender – as I have said, the statistics show considerable improvement in the area of access to education. But what about inequalities in access to health? What about the health risks that are faced by women on the sole basis of their gender, in the first place? Here, the statistics reveal a chilling picture. According to the Crime and Problem Analysis Branch of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS), there were over 15,000 reports of domestic violence between 2010 and 2016. Approximately 72 percent of these reports were of violence against women. According to the recently launched National Strategic Action Plan on Gender-based Violence and Sexual Violence in Trinidad and Tobago, the data suggests that 44% of women have experienced Intimate Partner Violence, a figure that surpasses the global average of 1 in 3 women. The Plan also cites data which shows that between 2018 and 2022, there were 4,667 reports of women and girls who were victims of Sexual Violence. 92% of those reports related to women and girls who were under the age of 35.In 2023, the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services reported that between 2020 and 2021, Trinidad and Tobago recorded a 62 per cent increase in sexual violence against girls under the age of 15, and that up until September 2023, females accounted for 75 per cent of the reports of domestic violence made to the TTPS. For the period January to September 2023, the Ministry reported that 972 calls were made to the domestic violence hotline with women being 95 per cent of the callers seeking help. In 2017, the National Women’s Health Survey for Trinidad and Tobago showed that 13 percent of women experienced sexual harassment at work, in public transport and public spaces. The data suggests that those numbers have been on the rise.The fact remains that, despite all of the attempts that have been made to “Inspire Inclusion’, women are routinely excluded from matters having to do with the general health of the population. Women are often excluded from healthcare research and in clinical studies. According to Forbes Magazine, “because women are unfairly represented in clinical studies, general disease treatments may be less effective for women or have high side effects.” Medical research today is still male-led. For example, ‘The 1982 Physician’s Health Study’ examined the effect of aspirin on cardiovascular disease involving 22,000 patients. None of the patients was female.The result is that, at the same time that they are disproportionately under-represented in health-care research, women find themselves disproportionately represented in terms of the health risks that they face on the sole basis of their gender.Viewed through the lenses of ‘respect regardless of gender’, and of ‘inequalities in access to health, based on gender’, one can be forgiven for thinking that the goal of gender equity is still mere aspiration, and is miles away from actualisation.The power of the theme of this year’s Conference - “Inspire Inclusion” – lies, I think, in its call to us all, as a country, to identify the root causes of the gender inequities that still persist in our society, and to find solutions to them.My experience tells me that one root cause of these stubborn inequities is our antiquated attitudes and perceptions about women – attitudes and perceptions that either denigrate them because of their sex, or diminish them because of their gender. My experience tells me that for all of the advancements made at the surface of the statistics, outmoded attitudes and perceptions about women lie deeply entrenched in the Trinbagonian psyche. My experience also tells me that, if we are to complete the march towards gender equity, we have to confront these attitudes and perceptions and change them. I believe that it is critical for us to work on changing negative attitudes and perceptions about women, by doing everything that we can to engender healthy attitudes and perceptions about women, among our nation’s children. Part of the focus of my Presidency is young people. Consistent with this focus, on International Women’s Day, President’s House held a story-time session for primary school boys and girls. The short stories recounted the exploits of some marvellous women throughout history. There were several common threads throughout the stories about the qualities of these amazing women – about their courage, their confidence in the face of the doubts of others; about them knowing that they were meant for greatness; and about their parents who encouraged them never to give up. In planning the event, we made the conscious and the deliberate decision to invite both girls and boys to the event. We did this because we believe that our nation’s boys need to hear about and to experience – even if only vicariously - the strength and the resilience and the giftedness of their female counterparts. After the stories were read, we invited the young girls, as well as the young boys, to share their views and their impressions of the material. We did this because we wanted to create a space for young boys and young girls to engage with one another in conversations around the empowerment of women. Of course, this is not the only model that there is for exchanging views among young children. There are as many models and ways as there are hearts and minds to conceive of them. Today, I encourage all of civil society to explore ways by which safe spaces can be created for this kind of interaction between our young boys and girls. I do so because I firmly believe that it is in heathy and respectful interactions among our young people that we will find our efforts as a society the most likely to “Inspire Inclusion”.And so, I end where I started, by thanking AMCHAM TT for this opportunity to be with you and to address you at this year’s Conference. I congratulate AMCHAM TT on the invaluable work that it has been doing to “Inspire Inclusion". And I end with the challenge that, although we have certainly moved a long way from mere 'aspiration’ to gender equity, there is infinitely more work to be done. I believe in Trinidad and Tobago. I believe in our country’s ability to do the work. And I am convinced, beyond peradventure, that were we to do it, we will in our lifetimes live in a world in which gender equity is not a mere aspiration, but an actualised reality.I thank you. ... See MoreSee Less
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