Bring national Panchyat

In his Indian Arrival Day message Carmona said the Panchayat system is a hallmark of Indentureship and is one the earliest manifestations of Mediation and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). He says it represents a cultural solution to resolving conflict in communities.

He said the Panchayat was a forerunner that actualised a restorative justice that can ameliorate individuals or a community enveloped in conflict and burdened by discord.

Carmona said through the “vagaries of Indentureship” the country is now able to embrace the positives of East Indian culture.

He said some of the very solutions that the country seeks can be sourced from traditional philosophies and practices.

“Philosophies of food sustainability and food security are increasingly pertinent in this time of economic uncertainty and financial downturn.

That philosophy of self-sustainability and that buzz expression, food security may well have emanated from the planting culture of the East Indians, involved in sugar, rice and cocoa production.

The concept of food sustainability, intrinsic to the culture of the indentured, foreshadowed that new vaunted philosophy of food security.” He said food sustainability and food security dictate that citizens in some form or fashion engage in a planting philosophy in their homes, schools, offices and communities.

“This practice and this philosophy were embedded in our East Indian brothers and sisters from arrival and there was and there is a well-grounded recognition that it did and can lead to sustainable wealth, individually and collectively.

“This much needed connectivity to the land is even more relevant and timely today in this recessionary period.”