President Anthony Carmona believes there is a crisis in the way the T&T society handles conflicts and disagreements.
Delivering the feature address at the Presentation College, San Fernando, prize-giving and awards ceremony 2015, Carmona called for mediation and conflict resolution to be incorporated within the home and school. “Parents and students should take a course in mediation and dispute resolution because in Trinidad and Tobago we are not very good at resolving conflicts in an affable and effective way,” Carmona said.
He explained that mediation encouraged emotional stability and decreased anxiety. “Mediation is a strategy in ensuring disputes are resolved amicably and that both individuals and the nation can arrive at a solution and devise a way forward to forge a rewarding relationship with each other,” Carmona added.
He said as T&T experienced an evolving democracy, lines of succession must be created in the workplace, the corporate world and in governance. He also lauded the college for moulding upstanding citizens who did not bend to immorality.
“Presentation College, San Fernando, does not train ‘yes men’ and would not add ‘yes men’ to our society. At Presentation College we are not trained to say yes in the face of wrong or when wrong is being done. “That is how we must function in a society now grown weary by its unholy adherence to the negatives of westernisation,” he added.
Carmona said he would continue to believe in the transformation of men and women who were weak. Principal Dexter Charles Mitchell, who also addressed the students, lauded the Open National scholarship winners — Antonio Beatrice, Joel Balkaran and Samuel Seepersad — for making their school proud.
He told the graduates that as they navigated their next moves, they must be mindful of their responsibility to God and his people. “Be the best you can be and believe in your capacity,” Mitchell said. He also urged the students not to compromise the principles of fairness, justice and truth.