President falls at his first event

President George Maxwell Richards fell down last night on his first official engagement as the country’s fourth Head of State, as he attended the opening of the new National Library Complex on Abercromby Street, Port-of-Spain.

The incident occurred after the 90-minute opening ceremony. In an apparent mix up of protocol, Prime Minister Patrick Manning and other Cabinet Ministers had left their seats in the front row of the amphitheatre, to unveil a plaque, leaving the President and the First Lady Dr Jean Richards awkwardly seated. After half-minute Richards rose too. Ascending from the amphitheatre, he climbed two steps but suddenly lost his footing and fell forward. He reached out, his two hands onto the steps, to break his fall. He was helped by other guests seated nearby. Few persons witnessed the mishap. President Richards then made his way inside the library building. He led a select party that was given a tour of the facility including the children’s library.

For the rest of the tour President Richards betrayed no sign of being affected by the accident, even politely and formally greeting reporters. In the formal opening ceremony Manning had described the evening as a “truly great event” saying he felt extremely gratified. Saying he had turned the sod on the site some nine years ago, but that the project had met political opposition and fallen into abeyance, Manning said: “It was only the vigilance and persistence of this Government while in opposition, and I hasten to add not civil disobedience or some variation of it, that saw the resumption of construction of the national library building.” Manning justified the project saying  that educated minds were required if we were to eradicate poverty, to make rational judgments, to argue dispassionately, and to make scientific and other breakthroughs. He said the Government in 1993 had seen the library as necessary for the invigoration of our intellectual and cultural life, and the positive social evolution and economic transformation of our country.

Saying the library was part of the capital’s new city centre already established by the Brian Lara Promenade and City Gate, Manning added: “Phenomenal things are in line for Port-of-Spain”. But Manning warned that a new library building was not enough to create an information-culcating and knowledge-based society. He said: “We need a cultural revolution.” He explained there was a challenge for the library to nurture a taste for quality material ranging from ancient classics to keeping abreast of global trends, and to develop a capacity for clinical examination and dispassionate analysis. Manning also urged librarians and teachers to promote the habit of reading.  “The business of reading is seeing difficult times in Trinidad and Tobago. Too many of our citizens, both young and old, hardly do much of it perhaps confining themselves to newspapers, light novels and magazines, television and other entertainment media. This has a bearing on our capacity for discernment and rational discourse”.

Earlier NALIS chairperson Prof Bridget Brereton announced that the library would open to the public today at 8.30 am. It will offer facilities including free public  Internet access via 121 computer terminals. The ground floor holds a  children’s library including a section for babies, and a section for teenagers and  young adults. She vowed: “Inclusion is our watchword”. She explained the library catered for different groups of people, including facilities for the differently-abled.  The library has voice-activated computers and braille facilities. She said the library also has commercial facilities like a cinema, restaurant and amphitheatre. Architect Colin Laird described the building as being both “green” in utilising its own water supply to cool it and being well-insulated, and as “smart” in being controlled by advanced computer technology, including electronic sensors to activate reading lights.