Charles urges Tobagonians to prepare for autonomy

Chief Secretary Kelvin Charles on Tuesday called on Tobagonians to prepare themselves for autonomy by changing their mindset to take control of their affairs.

Charles also urged Tobagonians to make use of available opportunities to ready themselves for success, referring specifically to training programmes being offered by the Tobago House of Assembly.

Speaking at an Emancipation fashion show, Ukombozi, hosted by the Office of the Chief Secretary on Tuesday in the carpark of the Administrative Complex, Calder Hall, he said:

“I am appealing to you who are here to persuade your brothers, your nephews, your cousins, your parents even, of the need for us to recognise that we must take advantage of the opportunities that are here now. It is said that success is the place where opportunity meets preparedness, so to the extent that we want to be successful, we must be prepared.”

Charles said it was up to Tobagonians to demonstrate attributes consistent with the whole idea of Emancipation, as he quoted the lyrics of Bob Marley’s, Redemption song - ‘Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but yourselves can free your minds.’

“For us in Tobago, that is particularly significant especially as we are seeking at this time to persuade Tobago and Trinidad that we are ready for greater autonomy.

“One of the implications obviously is that to the extent that we are granted greater autonomy, to that extent we must take greater control over our affairs, it means that we have to prepare ourselves for that eventuality.

“We must empower ourselves and one of the ways to do that is that we must change our mindset, we cannot continue to believe that because of our historical past, that is the main reason why we are operating the way we are operating or to put it another way, that is the main reason why we feel that we are deprived.

“It would not help us because the plain truth is if we are not positioned to take control of our affairs, then others will come in and do it for us,” he said.

Charles made reference to two training programmes introduced by the THA that he said were not being utilised by thepeople who needed the training.

“We have a situation where we have the Division of Community Development, Enterprise Development and Labour mounting vocational programmes, and in this year, we have over 900 persons registering.

“You would be surprised to know that the majority of those persons are female, and secondly, the majority of those persons are gainfully employed. And therefore the question arises, those among us who are unemployed because they don’t have the skills, what is it that they are doing because this is largely earmarked for them.

“Earlier this year, the Division of Education, Innovation and Energy launched a programme in the East. There were 60 places available and the idea was because we have a number of informal tradesmen, meaning tradesmen who have the skill but are not certified, we would mount programmes that would allow them to be certified with very little or minimal academic.

“Out of the 60 places available, only 30 places were taken up and we have a number of persons out there who need to do this,” he said.