Manning: TT breaking shackles of crime

PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning declared Trinidad and Tobago was breaking the shackles of crime, unemployment and poverty as it seeks to emancipate its people and create a brighter tomorrow for future generations. Addressing Emancipation Day celebrations at the Queen’s Park Savannah yesterday, the Prime Minister said Emancipation was never consummated in a single event and “it shall never be consummated until all men everywhere, both the oppressors and the oppressed, are free physically, mentally and in spirit.”

He said many nations remain enslaved and TT was not immune to these different forms of bondage. Manning said crime, unemployment and poverty were symptomatic of  “our failure to recognise that individual and group advancement are best realised within a framework of appreciation and respect for the rights of others.” However, the Prime Minister said TT was confronting these and other evils in the society head on. “It is no boast when I say of TT that on many levels we are enjoying unprecedented levels of success.

Here in this country, we continue to forge policies that ensure that every woman, man and child will be better off and not fettered by the debilitating prejudices of the past. We are determined to liberate our people through opportunity. Opportunity rooted in the search for the highest levels of material prosperity and social well being, natural justice, human dignity and practical liberty. It cannot be otherwise,” he declared. Manning said while TT faced many challenges today , “human rights are accorded to all regardless of race, colour, creed, class or ancestry.”