Trinidad and Tobago’s New York Consul General, J. André Laveau has saluted the Brooklyn-based Trinidad and Tobago Alliance (North America), Inc., applauding the group’s “efforts and successes in the education of many young people for development.”
“You continue to make a sterling contribution to the preparation of the citizens, future committed servants and friends of greater Trinidad and Tobago that is territorial and Diasporic,” said Laveau in delivering the keynote address Sunday during the Alliance’s 43rd Annual Scholarship Awards Luncheon at El Caribe Country Club in Brooklyn.
“There can hardly be a greater investment by a Diaspora organization in the evolution of its own country and its adopted community,” he added, invoking the words of one of America’s founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin: “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest”.
In a richly endowed educational environment, such as North America, Laveau said the Trinidad and Tobago Consulate General has “its role to play in supporting the acquisition of world class skills and capacities to drive our nations advance.”
“The vigorous pursuit of economic diversification, of which the bedrock is the development of ideas and innovation, squarely depends on this,” he said.
The consul general said the partnership between the Alliance and the Consulate General will, therefore, “surely endure as long as we exploit synergies in providing the means for students of the Trinidad and Tobago Diaspora to carve their space and leave their mark on the limitless landscape of human endeavor.”
In extending congratulations to this year’s awardees, Laveau urged them to “dream big, always pursue solutions; and, in the words of Mahatma Ghandi, ‘Learn, as if you will live forever.’”
