2006 Speeches

2006 Presidential Diplomatic Dinner

November 24, 2006

Dr. Roy L. Austin
United States Ambassador

Your excellencies Professor George Maxwell Richards, President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and Dr. Jean Ramjohn-Richards: The Honorable Patrick Manning, Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and the Honorable Senator Hazel Manning, Minister of Education; the Honorable Senator Arnold Piggott, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Mrs. Wendy Piggott; fellow Chiefs of Missions accredited to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and accompanying spouses; ladies and gentlemen. Good evening!

Having assumed the deanship of the diplomatic corps in March 2006, this is the first time that I have the honor and the pleasure of speaking on its behalf at this annual gathering of ours.  At the outset of my remarks, therefore, may I express to you, Mr. President and Dr. Richards, our profound gratitude and appreciation for again hosting us at what is always a most exquisite affair, much anticipated by the entire diplomatic community.

The changeover in the deanship of the diplomatic corps is mirrored, this year, by a change in leadership at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  So I also wish to take this opportunity to again thank, as I did on October 31, the Honorable Senator Knowlson Gift, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, for his most attentive and valuable service to the diplomatic community, over the past five years.  At the same time, on behalf of my diplomatic colleagues, I want to welcome wholeheartedly the Honorable Senator Arnold Piggott as our host country’s new Minister of Foreign Affairs.  As I recall, Senator Piggott, your swearing-in ceremony on September 29 was heralded throughout the land by a 6.0-magnitude earthquake.  Senator, as you may already know, I originally hail from the volcanic island of St. Vincent, and, I must tell you, even I was impressed by such an awesome display of ministerial strength and power.  Welcome again, Mr. Minister, and I trust that you will keep things relatively quiet for the rest of the evening, at least.

As you probably know, Mr. President, yesterday was Thanksgiving Day in the United States.  Accordingly, as is our custom, I and my colleagues at the American Embassy celebrated the day by giving thanks for our blessings within the warm confines and nurturing environments of our own families.  So it is particularly appropriate for me to offer thanks, today, on behalf of another family to which I and my fellow Chiefs of Mission belong, our diplomatic family.  And indeed, whether we are resident in Port of Spain or have traveled here specifically for this occasion from neighboring countries and beyond, we have, in Trinidad and Tobago, countless blessings for which we are thankful.

Although the people of Trinidad and Tobago may only be 1.3 million strong, every month, it seems, we encounter incontrovertible evidence that this small country, represented by two beautiful dots in the blue Caribbean Sea, is nevertheless a serious international actor with a pivotal role to play not only in the Caribbean region and in the western hemisphere but indeed on the world stage.

Take, for example, the steadily increasing number of countries which have resident missions in Port of Spain.  Chile, which established its mission here last December, brought us to a total of 25 resident missions; and what a pleasure it is for us to be able to officially welcome the Ambassador of Spain, His Excellency Señor Fernando de la Serna, and the Ambassador of El Salvador, His Excellency Señor Carlos Murico Piñada Cruz, who presented their credentials to you, Mr. President, just this week and, in fact, are with us here this evening.  Spain and El Salvador, therefore, bring our number of resident missions up to 27; but, Mr.  President, there are yet others waiting in the wings, ready to follow in Spain’s and El Salvador’s footsteps. I refer to South Korea and South Africa.  So next year, Mr. President, be prepared to employ more cooks to replicate this sumptuous banquet which you have so graciously and generously laid on for our benefit.

There is yet more proof of Trinidad and Tobago’s growing stature and visibility among the nations of the world.  Just last month, we watched you, Mr. President, as you hosted the 11^th annual conference of presidents and governors-general of the Caribbean community.  And in September, we were enormously gratified to learn that early in 2009 this small twin-island nation will host and chair the massive Fifth Summit of the Americas.  Furthermore, who will ever forget our shared euphoria, last June, as we celebrated with the people of Trinidad and Tobago the triumph of the Soca Warriors in reaching Germany and participating in the Soccer World Cup Tournament?  Yes, Mr. President, in this thanksgiving season, we all do indeed have much for which we should be thankful.

However, Mr. President, beyond expressing our gratitude and appreciation to you and to the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, there is one subject which is of such critical importance to all the nations and societies we represent that it deserves our special attention this evening, particularly since it enjoys such resonance with you.  I speak, of course, of education, a subject which, given my own background as an educator, strikes an equally responsive chord in me.

As in any parliamentary democracy, presidential leadership does not depend for its effectiveness on raw executive power.  Rather, it depends on an ability to define a broad vision and a direction for one’s people and an ability to galvanize their energies in the service of a clear and realistic mission.  This is particularly the case when the target audience is the nation’s youth whose objectives in life may not yet have crystallized and whose career compass may not yet be set.  You, Mr. President, have always fulfilled that role superbly, communicating at every opportunity your insatiable passion for education as the key to economic development and social justice; demonstrating, with the clear-eyed analytical skill of an engineer, your keen understanding of the world and of Trinidad and Tobago’s role in it; and constantly urging us all to push the envelope and find our place on our increasingly globalized planet.

What you did, for example, on November 4, barely 3 weeks ago, provides us with a prime illustration of your style and leadership ability.  In accepting your honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of the West Indies (our congratulations, by the way), you told the graduating class what kind of arena they were about to enter, saying: “Increasingly, the world is being made up of societies in which economic value will be derived from knowledge, especially scientific and technical knowledge.  Countries such as ours must therefore look, for their future economic and social well-being, to innovation and technology rather than solely to reliance on the exploitation of their natural and physical resources.”   But, Mr. President, you went further, alerting the graduates to the growing diversity, instantaneous communication and accelerating change associated with a globalized world, and cautioning them against complacency and a false sense of security: “We cannot”, you said, “take comfort or seek security in the box of our own society.”

Your ability to address problems from a broad perspective, Mr. President, and to think out of the box of your own society, as you say, is not an ability which you have just recently cultivated.  Already 21 years ago, when you assumed the principalship of the St. Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies, and before the concept of globalization became the common currency of our international life and lexicon, you recognized the need for students on the St. Augustine campus to broaden their horizons and adopt a regional, West Indian frame of reference rather than limiting themselves by a narrow, single-country mind-set.

Yet, Mr. President, although you are indisputably a man of the age of information technology, you are also a renaissance man who has retained a conception of the academic enterprise which straddles the ages.  It is this grasp of the comprehensive mission of education that led you to say to those graduates: “Not every social value is measured in terms of technological achievement and the relative place of the nation on a ladder of competitiveness.  The traditional role of universities in examining philosophical and ethical questions, in critical analysis of the social order, and in fostering artistic expression, must be re-endorsed at the same time as universities take on enhanced roles in orienting and training students for knowledge-based economic development.”

Mr. President, this year’s crop of graduates at the St. Augustine campus must have been truly inspired by the goldmine of advice and lessons learned which you delivered to them.  However, I can’t help feeling that at least some among them may have been just a little disappointed when you told them: “money is important, …..but if your objective stops at money, you may be setting yourself up for a life of frustration.  It does not buy contentment”.  Mr. President, as tax payer-funded diplomats, we learned that lesson a long time ago.  You’re absolutely right, Mr. President, money does not buy contentment; but of course, in our case, this paradise that is Trinidad and Tobago more than makes up for it.

Mr. President, in large part because of the tone you have set and the vision you have articulated, education is now at the top of the public agenda, and your positive influence on the quality of its delivery is clear for all to see.  Is it any wonder, for example, that this year, 12 out of the 28 open scholars enrolled at the University of the West Indies, 158 out of the 274 national scholars and 18 out of the 30 regional scholars have chosen the St. Augustine campus over any of the university’s other campuses as the preferred campus for their studies? Is it any wonder that, as of January of this year, tertiary education for Trinbagonian students in the country’s institutions of higher learning is free? And is it any wonder that 9 students from Trinidad and Tobago have recently placed in the top 10 positions in the world in the Cambridge A-level examinations across all the subject categories?  By the way, these brilliant students include Nandita Kashavan of St. Joseph’s Convent who placed 1st in the world in English Literature.

Since education is on our minds, may I pay a special tribute to the Minister of Education, the Honorable Senator Hazel Manning, for collaborating with 5 companies in a public/private partnership to create Trinidad and Tobago’s Center for Excellence in Teacher Training.  And, on a more personal note, I want to publicly thank the Minister of Education for yet another of her educational partnerships. I refer now to her partnership with me in the staging of the Ambassador’s annual Song and Verse contest.  This program aims to steer the youth of Trinidad and Tobago away from illegal drugs, other crimes, HIV Aids and other scourges so pervasive in our societies today; and to channel them into healthier, more life-affirming pursuits. 

Mr. President, the true measure of any civilized society is the extent to which it invests in people.  The opportunity to govern, which is entrusted to us as elected or appointed public servants, is premised on the expectation that we will invest in the human resources of our nations.  If we fail in that responsibility, we will lose any hope of achieving economic development and prosperity, and any hope of democratic freedom and social justice.  Through your words and through your actions, Mr. President, you recharge our batteries and inspire us to continue to fulfill our social contract with the governments and nations we represent.  So, may I now ask my fellow heads of missions to raise a glass to Trinidad and Tobago, to the Government of this great Republic, and to you, Mr. President, for the enlightened leadership you bring to your office.