Red House Reopening Friday 24th Jan 2020

[RedVEVO]

Pnm mites feeling the pride today?? how much of you all getting to drink some tea

The red house
Paula house
Rowley house in bago

Make sure n feel the d pride

Stollmeyer Castle ..

A slave owner house , now a castle ..

Will PNM ever learn ?

[Les Bain]

Ah hear he do some of the catering, musbe make real money .

Have to get pep to do an investigation on elite

I sure you go feel bad if the investigation proves he could make a decent tea plate.

[RedVEVO]

Ah hear he do some of the catering, musbe make real money .

Have to get pep to do an investigation on elite

I sure you go feel bad if the investigation proves he could make a decent tea plate.

Black pudding and roast bake was in the minds but after $450M spend it's doubles and mini vege roti

[Redman]

^^^ Joe you feeling the pride at $900000000?

Bursting with it

I guess if UNC had spent that kinda money then riots and protess would have have taken place from the PNM mob

Can’t talk for the PNM mob but I’m ok with it regardless of which party did it. Besides the project spanned many years and administrations. As a independent nation we must have some pride in our buildings and institutions

Why spoil the ting with a practical POV?


https://www.guardian.co.tt/article-6.2. ... 045d9eba50

Losing an architectural treasure

by

Sat Sep 08 2012
An­ge­lo Bisses­sars­ingh

A few weeks ago, the coun­try lost one of its most valu­able ar­chi­tec­tur­al trea­sures. For gen­er­a­tions, the mag­nif­i­cent Friend­ship Hall Great House stood astride the South­ern Main Road, just north of St Mary's Junc­tion in Freeport and re­mind­ed us of an era long gone.

Not on­ly was the struc­ture im­pos­ing in its sheer size, but al­so for its ec­cen­tric style and the sto­ry it bore. Con­struct­ed in the 19th cen­tu­ry, it was ini­tial­ly a prime ex­am­ple of colo­nial plan­toc­ra­cy ar­chi­tec­ture which far out­shone the less sub­stan­tial planters' res­i­dences which dot­ted the sug­ar cane fields of cen­tral Trinidad.

Its own­er was an ec­cen­tric Scots­man named Nor­man McLeod who had served as an of­fi­cer in the British East In­di­an Reg­i­ment in the ear­ly 1900s. Whilst in In­dia he ap­par­ent­ly un­der­went a con­ver­sion to Hin­duism and up­on his re­turn to Trinidad he em­ployed his con­sid­er­able artis­tic abil­i­ty in trans­form­ing his pala­tial home in­to a mandir.

On the ground floor, the god­dess Dur­ga peered forth, while on the sweep­ing por­ti­co, McLeod placed a self-por­trait, wear­ing a tur­ban. He even con­struct­ed a throne with the words "Friend­ship Hall" above it. The Scots­man filled his home with price­less trea­sures rang­ing from a World War I Ger­man bu­gle to in­valu­able sil­ver from In­dia.

Gripped with a grow­ing delu­sion that the young daugh­ter of one of his In­di­an ser­vants was a rein­car­na­tion of his dead moth­er, McLeod willed his man­sion to them when he died in 1965. We live how­ev­er, in a na­tion where all but a few place no val­ue on the lega­cy of the ages. Friend­ship Hall fell in­to ne­glect and af­ter near­ly five decades of de­cay, was bull­dozed in­to the ground to make way for con­crete blas­phemies which are a sad trav­es­ty of the Scots­man's gift to his heirs.

As ap­palling as this as­sault on our built her­itage is to con­ceive, it is but a sin­gle chap­ter in a long his­to­ry of an­ni­hi­la­tion which can­not be blamed on any one per­son or sec­tor, since it is a rep­re­hen­si­ble bur­den we must all bear as a peo­ple. The ba­sic ar­gu­ment which may be prof­fered for the fate of Friend­ship Hall is that with­out le­git­i­mate state sup­port, this is to be the fu­ture of many of our his­toric struc­tures which ex­ist in pri­vate hands which are ei­ther un­ap­pre­cia­tive of their sig­nif­i­cance or can­not af­ford to sus­tain them.

Part of the prob­lem stems from a scarci­ty of com­pas­sion and pub­lic ed­i­fi­ca­tion re­gard­ing the val­ue of her­itage as­sets. There are now two min­istries ded­i­cat­ed to mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism and tol­er­ance, yet noth­ing has been done to in­cul­cate a sense of na­tion­al pride in our past.

Stu­dents are still taught that Colum­bus sight­ed Trinidad from the helm of the San­ta Maria ac­com­pa­nied by the Ni­na and Pin­ta, even though he was bare­ly able to walk from a smart at­tack of gout and all three ships had been sunk years be­fore. I dare say if the own­er of Friend­ship Hall Great House had pos­sessed a cul­tured ap­pre­ci­a­tion for what was gift­ed in­to his care, it would not have been de­stroyed. The whole­sale slaugh­ter of leatherback tur­tles but a cou­ple decades ago has been all but halt­ed, thanks large­ly to the foun­da­tion of a sense of own­er­ship which was in­stilled in the minds and hearts of those who shared a com­mon breath­ing space with the tur­tles.

Most com­mu­ni­ties in pos­ses­sion of her­itage as­sets can­not see the eco­nom­ic op­por­tu­ni­ties which can arise from these trea­sures. This is an­oth­er page we can take from the book of the leatherback tur­tle sto­ry, since tur­tle-watch­ing is now a lu­cra­tive mon­ey-earn­er for sev­er­al sec­tors, spawn­ing down­stream in­dus­try on a mi­cro-eco­nom­ic scale.

Lest it be said that I lam­bast the State too stern­ly, an ex­am­ple must be drawn from the aw­ful con­di­tion of the Mag­nif­i­cent Sev­en. These turn-of-the-cen­tu­ry mas­ter­pieces ap­pear in vir­tu­al­ly every tourist guide­book which beck­ons the un­sus­pect­ing to view a spec­ta­cle which must sure­ly stand as an in­dict­ment against us.

From the board­ed-up win­dows and un­kempt lawns of Mille Fleurs to the thread­bare grandeur of White­hall, suc­ces­sive ad­min­is­tra­tions have glee­ful­ly ig­nored their re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to his­to­ry. Those few pub­lic in­sti­tu­tions ded­i­cat­ed to con­ser­va­tion have con­sis­tent­ly failed in their man­dates and seem quite hap­py to con­tin­ue on their los­ing streaks while our past is tram­pled and lost.

I re­cent­ly vis­it­ed the Na­tion­al Mu­se­um and it pains me ex­ceed­ing­ly to see the vast po­ten­tial for pub­lic ed­u­ca­tion there­in and the de­fi­cien­cy of in­ter­est which is shown in it. The prover­bial ic­ing on the cake in the vis­it was that in one sec­tion, arte­facts were strewn willy-nil­ly with no se­cu­ri­ty, beg­ging the sou­venir hunter to pock­et one of our na­tion­al trea­sures.

There is a Restora­tion Unit with­in the Min­istry of Works and In­fra­struc­ture. Had I not been aware of its pres­ence, I would be as stunned as most peo­ple would be to learn that such a high-mind­ed de­part­ment could ex­ist with­in the wreck­age of our civ­il ser­vice. One on­ly has to look at our com­mu­nal ar­chi­tec­tur­al trea­sures to see the im­pact of the unit on the land­scape: the still-caved roof of Pres­i­dent's House, the fire-gut­ted shell of what used to be the his­tor­i­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant San Fer­nan­do Po­lice Sta­tion and the sapling which threat­ened to grow in­to a mighty tree from the roof of the now dis­mal­ly aban­doned Red House.

The lack of zeal or even pe­ri­od­ic en­thu­si­asm from the pub­lic sec­tor to­wards preser­va­tion is re­al­ly an ex­trap­o­la­tion of a na­tion­al men­tal­i­ty which frowns on the past. Our own first prime min­is­ter, Dr Er­ic Williams, was, most iron­i­cal­ly, a his­to­ri­an. Even more than three decades af­ter his death, the ef­fects of "doc­tor pol­i­tics" still shape the gen­er­al psy­che of the na­tion, where­in he trans­ferred his in­ner demons of his own ex­clu­sion from colo­nial elite so­ci­ety to his peo­ple, teach­ing us that all that was con­nect­ed to mas­sa was bad and should be oblit­er­at­ed if we were to find our­selves.

In this way, we in­dem­ni­fy the Plan­ta­tion So­ci­ety mod­el of the late, great Lloyd Best, since our idea of na­tion­al­ism finds ex­pres­sion in rag­ing against the Eu­ro­pean metro­pole and its relics by ex­ten­sion. We are a plur­al so­ci­ety thrown in­to each oth­er's com­pa­ny with no re­al for­ma­tion of the char­ac­ter­is­tics of a na­tion.

Yet, amid the morass of de­struc­tion and cal­lous ig­no­rance, there are bea­cons of hope. For many years, a small band of ded­i­cat­ed peo­ple call­ing them­selves Cit­i­zens for Con­ser­va­tion has been striv­ing against enor­mous odds (po­lit­i­cal ob­sta­cles be­ing the most fre­quent) to raise the na­tion­al con­scious­ness of our her­itage and to per­suade the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties of each ad­min­is­tra­tion to take a vest­ed in­ter­est in preser­va­tion lest all be lost too soon.

I doubt any of the mem­bers of Cit­i­zens for Con­ser­va­tion throw a good javelin or sing melo­di­ous rum-drink­ing dit­ties, but this is an or­gan­i­sa­tion which tru­ly de­serves a medal for the tire­less com­mit­ment to his­to­ry of its mem­bers. Cit­i­zens for Con­ser­va­tion stal­wart ar­chi­tect Ge­of­frey MacLean has de­vot­ed a life­time to con­ser­va­tion and sin­gle­hand­ed­ly re­dis­cov­ered our great 19th-cen­tu­ry artist Michel Jean Caz­abon and his works.

On­ly re­cent­ly Ge­of­frey and I were be­wail­ing the fact that dur­ing the 1970s and well in­to the 1990s, most of our ar­chi­tec­tur­al her­itage had been de­stroyed in the name of progress. Called to mind were the de­mo­li­tion of Bagshot and Per­se­ver­ance Hous­es in Mar­aval, the Ice House Ho­tel on Aber­crom­by Street, Port-of-Spain, and the old Cus­toms House on the wa­ter­front. The loss to pos­ter­i­ty has tru­ly been im­mense. Our most cur­rent di­a­logue on the demise of Friend­ship Hall Great House had a tone akin to that of lament­ing the demise of an old friend.

There is on­ly so much that can be done by those of us who have spent our lives in fer­ret­ing out for­got­ten his­to­ry and cop­ing with the ever-ex­pand­ing waste­land which our her­itage land­scape has be­come. Gov­ern­ment malaise, ig­no­rance of the gen­er­al cit­i­zen­ry and cor­po­rate greed have com­bined to form a daunt­ing front against con­ser­va­tion and as long as we see no val­ue to cher­ish­ing the lega­cy of our an­ces­tors, we face a very grim fu­ture, for it is from the glo­ries and teach­ings of the past we must draw on to find in­spi­ra­tion for to­mor­row. If this is in­deed our lot, where then can fu­ture gen­er­a­tions turn to find them­selves

?

[rspann]

I agree with the restoration , but I think it should be done transparently. Do we know the facts surrounding the award of the contract and did we get our money's worth?

[pugboy]

there will always be bobol and even if there is a heritage committee to enforce they will still be at the whims of which ever govt and minister of finance in charge.

if bobol can’t be stopped at simple low level projects how can it be stopped at long complicated ones

[Redman]

100% for transparency
100% for the restoration.

What is noticeable is the FACT that the $400M cost was bandied about since 2010/2011- when the RH was supposed to be finished by 2013.
No one here took issue with the cost then-or the fact that it was not done despite annual budgetary allocations since 2011,under both parties.

The project started in 2003.

So lets scratch the surface for political noise while the deeper problems that are obvious remain untouched.

[zoom rader]

^^^ Joe you feeling the pride at $900000000?

Bursting with it

I guess if UNC had spent that kinda money then riots and protess would have have taken place from the PNM mob

Can’t talk for the PNM mob but I’m ok with it regardless of which party did it. Besides the project spanned many years and administrations. As a independent nation we must have some pride in our buildings and institutions

A project that spanned some 17 years under PNM and was tied up so that no other goverment can put a stop to the abuse. And you happy with that?

Where's the media to run investigations on the red house skull? They did a good job on the Panday airport and came up with nothing.

In normal countries that red house would have taken less than 2 years max and cost a 1/4 of the money spent .

The presidents house was purposely left to deteriorate with the roof falling in so that PNM could run skull for a bigger cost.

Same people that feeling pride dont care about the cost and time it took , but they care about kamala theef billions and billions.

Panday airport was built on time and beat up came from the PNM and the media. All sorts of questions was asked and bogus investigations and court cases that led to nowhere as usual.

Now that airport is the best in the region I guess you don't feel the pride since the PNM prime minster said that trinis love to travel.

Seems National pride is only for POS and Tobago.

What about the rest of Trinidad?

Nation pride is when you have a lawfull society and very low crime rates.

The only people feeling the true pride is those whose pockets was well filled with the racket than went on.

[zoom rader]

100% for transparency
100% for the restoration.

What is noticeable is the FACT that the $400M cost was bandied about since 2010/2011- when the RH was supposed to be finished by 2013.
No one here took issue with the cost then-or the fact that it was not done despite annual budgetary allocations since 2011,under both parties.

The project started in 2003.

So lets scratch the surface for political noise while the deeper problems that are obvious remain untouched.

Nice 17 years for a 2 year project.

Well done

I guess the Panday airport took to long to build.

I still waiting for project pride

Redman run figures for Project pride nah

[zoom rader]

there will always be bobol and even if there is a heritage committee to enforce they will still be at the whims of which ever govt and minister of finance in charge.

if bobol can’t be stopped at simple low level projects how can it be stopped at long complicated ones

Redman say

100% for transparency
100% for the restoration

[j.o.e]

If there is evidence of wrongdoing let those in the know bring it forward. If there was bobol in the airport someone brought it forward ..... why draw parallels ?
Also I remember a big part of the red house delay was when the Amerindian remains were found.
Time Trinis grow past the partisan nonsense, either party can do good and either party can do sheit.
Regardless of party affiliation we should be proud of any attempts to protect our historical landmarks especially the seat of our democracy ..... allyuh same mcs does go and pose with building on holiday

[Redman]

Well ZR start a thread-and post your figures and see what happens, you cant do that yourself?

[zoom rader]

Well ZR start a thread-and post your figures and see what happens, you cant do that yourself?

You convently have altered figures for PNM skull projects

Tell us about the $450,000,000 spent on project pride ghost airport

[zoom rader]

If there is evidence of wrongdoing let those in the know bring it forward. If there was bobol in the airport someone brought it forward ..... why draw parallels ?
Also I remember a big part of the red house delay was when the Amerindian remains were found.
Time Trinis grow past the partisan nonsense, either party can do good and either party can do sheit.
Regardless of party affiliation we should be proud of any attempts to protect our historical landmarks especially the seat of our democracy ..... allyuh same mcs does go and pose with building on holiday

Seat of democracy is a fable under PNM.

17 years to remove bones?

[eliteauto]

Ah hear he do some of the catering, musbe make real money .

Have to get pep to do an investigation on elite

I sure you go feel bad if the investigation proves he could make a decent tea plate.

Not one but 2000 to be quite exact

[j.o.e]

If there is evidence of wrongdoing let those in the know bring it forward. If there was bobol in the airport someone brought it forward ..... why draw parallels ?
Also I remember a big part of the red house delay was when the Amerindian remains were found.
Time Trinis grow past the partisan nonsense, either party can do good and either party can do sheit.
Regardless of party affiliation we should be proud of any attempts to protect our historical landmarks especially the seat of our democracy ..... allyuh same mcs does go and pose with building on holiday

Seat of democracy is a fable under PNM.

17 years to remove bones?

https://newsday.co.tt/2019/10/20/60-fir ... red-house/

After six long years the remains of at least 60 of the country’s First Peoples were returned to their resting place at the Red House.

There were tears and solemn faces yesterday during the reinterment ceremony of indigenous human remains which were removed during the restoration of the Red House in 2013.

Shamans and representatives of Amerindians from Suriname, Guyana, Guatemala, Venezuela, Dominica, Canada, and the US participated in the ceremony. They called to the Great Spirits to give peace and rest to the ancestors, and that they continue to guide the decedents through dreams and visions. The ceremony also included songs and the use of tobacco, incense, maracas (chac-chacs), and consecrated water.



It was the right and forward thinking thing to do

[pugboy]

that is before age of internet
so only if you was aware during 80s would u know

Well ZR start a thread-and post your figures and see what happens, you cant do that yourself?

You convently have altered figures for PNM skull projects

Tell us about the $450,000,000 spent on project pride ghost airport

[zoom rader]

that is before age of internet
so only if you was aware during 80s would u know

Well ZR start a thread-and post your figures and see what happens, you cant do that yourself?

You convently have altered figures for PNM skull projects

Tell us about the $450,000,000 spent on project pride ghost airport

It was in the early to mid 1990s and the media saw it fit not to investigate the scam.

Then came the Panday airport in the mid to late 1990s, the media dug every bit of dirt on it and twisted the sheep's lil brains

[Redman]

Well ZR start a thread-and post your figures and see what happens, you cant do that yourself?

You convently have altered figures for PNM skull projects

Tell us about the $450,000,000 spent on project pride ghost airport

Where and when?

Link it.

[zoom rader]

Ah hear he do some of the catering, musbe make real money .

Have to get pep to do an investigation on elite

I sure you go feel bad if the investigation proves he could make a decent tea plate.

Not one but 2000 to be quite exact

The PNM prime minster fed the poor

Nice way to feed the poor you must have "grate" pride

[zoom rader]

Well ZR start a thread-and post your figures and see what happens, you cant do that yourself?

You convently have altered figures for PNM skull projects

Tell us about the $450,000,000 spent on project pride ghost airport

Where and when?

Link it.

100% for transparency
100% for the restoration

Yeah you right

[zoom rader]

I agree with the restoration , but I think it should be done transparently. Do we know the facts surrounding the award of the contract and did we get our money's worth?

Like you want to be fed aswell?

You have to be poor , ask the AG, rohands ,dealsing and elite

[eliteauto]

zoom like you eh wha me add a Breitling to my collection orr?

[zoom rader]

zoom like you eh wha me add a Breitling to my collection orr?

Oh in that case , I all for it.

Get the Super Ocean,

doh bother with rspann he still on Timex

[The_Honourable]

Paula had them politicians twitching with that speech...I am pleased

In her speech, she wanted to talk about "National Pride" but decided nah... another time

[zoom rader]

Paula had them politicians twitching with that speech...I am pleased

In her speech, she wanted to talk about "National Pride" but decided nah... another time

Paula is a PNM and she has to do as she told from the PNM prime minster.

The presents post should be nominated by the house with two independent candidates and a national vote to elect a president.

The system is flawed

[RedVEVO]

Paula had them politicians twitching with that speech...I am pleased

In her speech, she wanted to talk about "National Pride" but decided nah... another time

Paula is a PNM and she has to do as she told from the PNM prime minster.

The presents post should be nominated by the house with two independent candidates and a national vote to elect a president.

The system is flawed

Zoom is correct .

The society is flawed .

You can be educated ( Paula ) but you still take instructions from your tribal chief

[rspann]

I agree with the restoration , but I think it should be done transparently. Do we know the facts surrounding the award of the contract and did we get our money's worth?

Like you want to be fed aswell?

You have to be poor , ask the AG, rohands ,dealsing and elite

It have three kinds of eating. You wait to be fed, you eat the scraps below the table or you take what you want (as much as you could get, even if yuh belly done full).

[zoom rader]

I agree with the restoration , but I think it should be done transparently. Do we know the facts surrounding the award of the contract and did we get our money's worth?

Like you want to be fed aswell?

You have to be poor , ask the AG, rohands ,dealsing and elite

It have three kinds of eating. You wait to be fed, you eat the scraps below the table or you take what you want (as much as you could get, even if yuh belly done full).

$20 million free money for AG, is nice

Meanwhile PNM ppl beating up for food card and hamper

[rspann]

AG people in the take what yuh want category. PNM people eat scraps under the table. Indians Eating good.