The National Youth Awards, organised by the Ministry of Youth Development and National Service under the patronage of Her Excellency Christine Carla Kangaloo O.R.T.T., President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, took place on September 19, 2024. The event which was also attended by Dr. the Hon. Keith Rowley, Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, recognised outstanding young individuals across two age categories, honouring their contributions in over 21 fields.
Her Excellency delivered the keynote address, commending all nominees on their achievements. In her remarks, she emphasised the significance of their nominations, stating, “Being nominated for a National Youth Award is an enduring accomplishment. Whether or not you receive an award tonight, your nomination itself will continue to motivate you to strive for excellence and serve as a testament to your ability to inspire others. It gives you the advantage of being a role model.”
Her Excellency further encouraged the youth to resist the negativity that can often surround them. Drawing from personal experiences, she urged the young audience to embrace the goodness within themselves and to stand firm against external pressures.
The theme of the evening’s celebration was “Unleashing the Potential of Trinidad and Tobago’s Youth.” In closing, Her Excellency called upon the youth to “rise above the challenges of cynicism and doubt. Let your nominations be a stepping stone toward even greater accomplishments. Together, may you lead our country forward, fostering a healthier, more united society, and making Trinidad and Tobago a place where, as the Mighty Sniper once sang, we are all ‘proud and glad.’”
Congratulations to all the nominees, winners, and especially to the Youth of the Year Award recipients: Briana Harricharran (10-17 age group) and Jareem Jeffrey (18-35 age group).
See Her Excellency’s full address below:
Good evening.
Like everything else in life, being President carries with it advantages and disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is that, by convention, I have to speak last and, by that time, much of what I would have liked to say has already been said by those who have spoken before me, far more eloquently than I can ever have said it. That is precisely the position in which I find myself this evening. I am following on from some stirring and inspirational addresses by eloquent speakers who have covered much of what I myself would have wanted to say.
On the other hand, one of the advantages of being President is that I am allowed to take certain liberties, including, I would argue, the liberty of condensing the salutations before starting my speech , and to say instead, as I do tonight, “All Protocols Observed” and “All Points Made by Previous Speakers, Duly Noted”. If I were to push my luck, I suppose I could end things right there, and allow us to move on to the centrepiece of this evening’s event – which, of course, is the Awards Presentation itself.
But, in the end, I thought that, in addition to the very important and poignant messages that you have heard from the speakers who have preceded me, there are just one or two further points that I should spend a short time speaking with you about, this evening.
I started off tonight by speaking of advantages and disadvantages. I believe that this duality is a good foundation upon which to rest what I would like to share with you briefly this evening.
Tonight, we are celebrating our National Youth Award Nominees for 2024, in all of whom we are tremendously proud. While not all of you will walk away with prizes tonight, you are, all of you, the very embodiment of youth excellence.
Being nominated for a National Youth Award, is an advantage. Your nomination is a fact that will live on, long after this evening’s ceremony is over, and whether you receive an award or not. Your nomination will give you the advantage of motivation: it will motivate you to continue doing good work and striving to accomplish great things. Your nomination will also give you the advantage of being a role model. Whether you know it or not, others around you will take notice of the fact that you have been nominated, and they will begin to model their behaviour to resemble yours, so that one day, they too, can be recognized for their efforts. Chances are they might never walk up to you and tell you that you are their role model. But, as sure as night follows day, rest assured that they will be following your example. That is because they, too, like all human beings do, would like to be recognized for their efforts. As the Calypsonian Johnny King sang: “Appreciation plays on the human mind; Everyone needs some, for happiness, All the time”. Your nomination will also give you the advantage of helping to send the message that ours is a society in which there are equal opportunities for all. This year’s nominees span every cross-section of our wonderful, multi-layered, cosmopolitan society. And your nomination is a reflection of the fact that anybody in Trinidad and Tobago can be anything that he or she wants to be.
And so, as I have said, as nominees, you all share a wonderful advantage.
Unfortunately, on the other side of things, you live in a society, and at a time, in which there are several disadvantages. One of the major disadvantages of our time, is that we live in a society that can feel sometimes as if it is dominated by cynicism and criticism. There is, at times, a lack of belief in ourselves and a negativity about our country’s prospects, that we can feel almost squeezing the very breath out of us. If there is one thing at which we have become adept, it is at criticizing everything and everyone around us. As another calypsonian, the Mighty Unknown, sang, a very long time ago: “They criticize the Prime Minister, George Weekes, and Geddes Granger…They even criticize the Reverend Pantin…They will criticize the rain, if the sun shining”. It is no honourable thing that our criticism and our cynicism have metastasized into that demeaning saying: “Trinidad is not a real place”.
It can certainly sometimes feel as if we live in a society of non-believers, and worse, of dis-believers. The disadvantage of that kind of mindset, is that if we sup for too long on the diet of negativity that it offers, we can all become jaded and broken.
Tonight’s Awards Ceremony is a chance for all of our nominees to break free of that kind of mindset, and to start building a healthier, more loving view of themselves. Nobody is saying, for one moment, that ours is a perfect society. None in the history of human existence has ever been. But I truly do believe that ours is a society that is overflowing with talent and ability – perhaps even disproportionately so. I believe that our country has more talent per capita than any other country in the world. The gifts with which our people have been bestowed can sometimes be difficult to appreciate when adversity strikes. But it is tremendously important that we do not allow ourselves to become overwhelmed by the negativity that sometimes surrounds us. And it is tremendously important that our young nominees tonight never lose sight of the fact they have the un-eraseable advantage of having been considered for a National Youth Award, to counter the disadvantage of living in a time in which our society seems on the brink of erasing the reality of all that is good, and right and noble in us.
I can tell you this, because I myself have constantly had to try to strike that balance, in my own life. As one of two sisters growing up, I remember having to fight to strike that balance when, one Sunday morning after church, a parishioner looked at my younger sister and complemented her on her beauty, and then turned to me, with a look of scorn, and asked me “Why you so black”? I remember having to fight to strike that balance when, as a young attorney, now entering the legal profession, I was being introduced by a Senior Counsel to older practitioners at the Library at the High Court in San Fernando, and the Senior Counsel said that although I was my brother, Wendell’s younger sister, I would never be as good a lawyer as he was. And I remember having to fight to strike that balance when, years later, when I first became a Cabinet Minister, and I attended my very first event at President’s House, someone who should have known better – given that person’s line of work – looked at me and said, “Look at what Cabinet Ministers are coming to now”.
All my life, I have had to stand up for what is good inside of me, against all of the negativity that has sometimes been thrown at me by the world outside. It isn’t always easy – in fact, it is often an extremely difficult thing to do. But it is vitally necessary that each of us does it. It is vitally necessary that you, our young nominees do it. And it is vitally necessary that our society learns to do it.
Had I not chosen to stand against the tides of negativity that have often come my way; had I allowed myself to buy into the views that others have chosen, from time to time, to have of me, I doubt very much that I would be standing here, speaking to you tonight.
My wish and my prayer, are that all of our nominees tonight will stand against the negativity of the cynicism that sometimes pervades our society. My wish and my prayer, are that you will all stand against the disadvantage of living in a society in which there is, in some quarters, the belief that every young person carries a gun. My wish and my prayer, are that you will stand for all that is good, and right and noble in yourselves, and prove, not only that Trinidad and Tobago is a very real place, but what a truly wonderful place it can be.
And so, I congratulate all of our nominees tonight for a job well done. I congratulate your parents, friends, counsellors and other supporters, who have loved, supported, and cheered you on to this success and who have been pillars of support for you as you have worked to achieve your dreams. On behalf of a grateful nation, I congratulate and I thank all of you.
The theme of this evening’s celebration is “Unleashing the Potential of Trinidad and Tobago’s Youth”. I close, by urging our nominees to use the advantage of their nominations to unleash the potential within themselves to make Trinidad and Tobago a better place for us all to live in, and to unleash the potential within themselves to rise above the disadvantages of the cynicism and disbelief of the times. Let your nominations be the springboard of even greater achievements. And may you take our country forward, towards a healthier, more loving view of ourselves, and towards making Trinidad and Tobago a place of which, as the Calypsonian Mighty Sniper, sang, we are all “proud and glad”.
I thank you.
