TT can produce the best

THE EDITOR: The appointment of a retired judge from TT to the highest British court, and the previous appointment of Carl Hudson-Phillips to the International Criminal Court, show that we in TT are producing scholars of the highest calibre, as well as athletes and mas’ making of similar quality. As a young nation, we can do anything we put our minds to, as individuals and as a group. Once we believe this to be true. Of late, our faith in ourselves seems to be slipping. May this appointment remind us that there is no substitute for high quality work, and for the academic rigour that goes with it.

Young people could do worse than to study the lives of great achievers in our society, and model their lives after them. Whoever has achieved something noteworthy, in scholarship, jurisprudence, medicine, mas, pan or sports, has had the internal self-discipline of which our founding father Eric Williams spoke. True discipline is internal, and leads to productivity. True discipline fosters tolerance, and allows others to be productive.

LINDA EDWARDS
Port-of-Spain