Promoting equal opportunities
By Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ, & Director, CREDI It may be timely to remind ourselves of legislation that exists in T&T to deal with various kinds of discrimination. I am also an attorney-at-law and Lay Assessor on the Equal Opportunity Tribunal (EOT). The Equal Opportunity Act, Ch 22:03, prohibits certain kinds of discrimination and seeks […]
Addressing the needs of migrants and refugees
by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI Recently someone remonstrated stating that the Catholic Church should not “get involved in refugee and migrant issues”. I was floored by her reasoning—particularly as she is also a Catholic. Our Church has always urged us to have a preferential option for the poor and vulnerable. This is […]
Education system needs an overhaul
by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI On Thursday (January 24) the world will observe the first UN International Day of Education. The right to education is enshrined in a number of documents, particularly in article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in The Convention on the Rights of the Child. […]
Get ready for the heat
by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI T&T is caught up in the worldwide change in weather patterns. It is clear that human activities contribute to climate change. Recently Rev Lennox Toussaint and I were talking about Baron’s 1994 calypso ‘Mother earth crying’. Here are some of the lyrics: Mother Earth is crying, she […]
Pilgrims of Faith
by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI Today, Sunday, January 6, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord. The word ‘epiphany’ means ‘manifestation’. Symbolically, the three wise men/the Magi, who travelled from foreign lands, following the star faithfully and bringing gifts for the Christ-child, represent the fact that Christ came for […]
Our hopes for the new year
by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI We have come to the end of another year. Tomorrow, December 31, my sister, Kamala Ramdeen, Attorney-at-Law and the eldest of Balgobin and Ruby Ramdeen’s sevenchildren, will celebrate her birthday. She says that as she grows older she realises more and more the importance of thanking God […]
Moved by the joy of the gift
by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI In two days’ time, on December 25, we will welcome the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Take time to prepare yourself for the greatest gift that God gave to humankind—His only Son. And while you decorate your Christmas tree at home, don’t forget to […]
Moved by the joy of the gift
by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI In two days’ time, on December 25, we will welcome the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Take time to prepare yourself for the greatest gift that God gave to humankind—His only Son. And while you decorate your Christmas tree at home, don’t forget to […]
Moving away from the death penalty
by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI As Chair of the Greater Caribbean for Life, an independent not-for profit organisation devoted to working towards the abolition of the death penalty in our region, I was invited to present a paper on the death penalty in the English-speaking Caribbean at a hearing of the Inter-American […]
Let’s help empower persons with disabilities
by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI “There is no greater disability in society than the inability to see a person as more” (Robert M. Hensel). The world celebrated International Day of Persons with Disabilities last Monday (December 3). Each of us knows persons with some form of disability e.g. intellectual, physical, sensory, and/or […]
