Message to the Nation from the Honourable Patrick Manning Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago on the Celebration of Divali 2009
Speech |
October 17, 2009 |
Honourable Prime Minister Patrick Manning's message to the nation to mark the celebration of Divali 2009.
Trinidad and Tobago joins the global Hindu Community in the annual celebration of Divali. We are at a time when the world needs the light of deliverance from the very serious and common challenges facing all nations.
Your government will continue to do its best to ensure the ongoing contribution of our nation to a progressive and stable world. We will persist in our emphasis that the light of discipline and high ethical standards permeate all aspects of national life. We will maintain our rejection of all ideas and approaches that have been responsible for the now heightened threat of calamitous consequences for all humanity.
The evidence is abundant before us. Problems spawned by the global financial crisis linger, stymieing individual and national development, creating the new poor, and pushing hundreds of millions back into conditions of poverty. The effects of climate change are becoming more acute with unprecedented natural disasters and increasing food and water shortages; and transnational crime, including terrorism, stretches nerves and resources in almost every country of the world. It is only the light of cooperation that can save humanity from the cataclysmic consequences that will result if we do not deal with these problems. At this time of Divali, let us pray for enlightened collaboration in the interest of our common survival; and let us resolve to each play our part for the triumph of light over darkness.
Therefore let all nations and each individual continue to cherish the reminder provided by Divali and all our other diverse religious observances, that it is character and values that truly determine the quality of our lives. Let us all, at this time, be instructed by the potent symbolism of the deya that, with very little material resources, we can each, with our inner essence, provide light wherever we are.
Happy Divali to all.