Rowley: Many wish to be in TT

He made the comment while delivering an address yesterday at the Government’s “Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving Programme” held at the Grand Stand, Queen’s Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain.

He questioned what would happen in this country if citizens allowed themselves to be so despondent about their own circumstances “which have changed, maybe not for the better” and in response they believe that they are not in the place they want to be. He then theorised what would happen if the country were to open up all restrictions, remove the immigration department and “anybody from anywhere in the world can come and stay as long as you want and find out if anyone would choose Trinidad and Tobago as the place they want to be”.

“I guarantee you that if we open our borders to the rest of the world many, many, many others around would want our circumstances and to be here in Trinidad and Tobago.

That is something to be thankful for,” he stressed.

He said that notwithstanding the fact the land is not as bountiful today as it was yesterday “tomorrow holds out to us a better day”.

He gave the analogy of “the best vehicles in the world” the Grand Prix Formula 1 cars which are not tested on straight tracks but on torturous tracks with long stretches and deep and dangerous turns and this is always the journey to the checkered flag.

“And there are days and seconds when we accelerated as if there was no tomorrow and there was no need for brakes but as we enter the dangerous curves we have to slow down and carefully and very efficiently negotiate the curve then get on to the next straight way and at the end of the race is the checkered flag where only the victor will celebrate,” he said.

He added: “That, ladies and gentlemen, is the route of a nation.” He said that even today in Trinidad and Tobago, regardless of changed circumstance, “there are teachers in all the schools for all our children, there are doctors and nurses in the hospital and there is food on the table”.

“Let us be thankful and let us be grateful people,” he added.

He said he had asked that his address be removed from the programme “because today is not a day for me to address anybody but to be addressed as you have been addressed today by those whose duty it is to call upon us as citizens, regardless of our station, to acknowledge that our land is still good”.

“This land is still good,” he reiterated to rousing applause from the attendees. He said he wanted to remind all that before they can give thanks they must first acknowledge that there is something to give thanks for. “And on reflection every citizen of Trinidad and Tobago who has the authority under our Constitution to claim this land as their home will acknowledge that there is much to give thanks for,” he added. He said a nation is an endless journey and citizens will never arrive at a place where they can stop travelling and say they have reached perfection.

“I can confidently say that in Trinidad and Tobago we are well on our way from the starting point of hopelessness and we do not now reside in the location of helplessness but perfection is a long way away,” he added.

He thanked the leaders of the denominations who prayed at the event and “who have provided us with an incentive to do better and to do so in the name of whoever we pray to”. “Because at the end of the day we are all one people, one nation under God,” he added.

He said as citizens go forward they must take personal responsibility for this land, do their duty “and be proud to be owners of Trinidad and Tobago”.