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  • 10 months ago
The National Emblems Bill was passed in the senate on Tuesday night, awaiting only proclamation for the removal of Columbus' ships on the coat of arms.
Transcript
00:00The changes made to the coat of arms are significant, says the minister who piloted the bill.
00:06A coat of arms is a symbol that represents the identity, history, values and sovereignty
00:12of a nation.
00:13It serves as an official emblem.
00:16It encapsulates the core identity of a country and it seeks to represent the nation's culture,
00:22heritage and values in a single cohesive image.
00:27But for the opposition, while supporting the move, making the announcement at a PNM
00:32convention without consultation lacks national input.
00:36Now, isn't that a partisan approach?
00:40Isn't that a partisan approach?
00:44That is the kind of conduct and behaviour that emperors and kings are made of.
00:54It's like a general congress meeting.
00:57It's like a general congress meeting.
00:59So I want stoke and I must get stoke.
01:02And everybody has to give in.
01:04Moot Point argues the government bench, which sells the PNM, is not the UNC and the convention
01:11was an avenue for the membership, who are citizens too, to share their perspectives.
01:17They don't have any conventions.
01:19They must have curry duck, lime and cookout.
01:25When you have it, just like in the United States and in the United Kingdom and in Jamaica,
01:32where there are serious parties, you would find major government policy being announced
01:39and put forward, whether it is a manifesto when you're in opposition or when you're in
01:46major government policies being announced.
01:49So we make no apologies about that.
01:51And the absence of input, collaboration and consultation, Senator Mark says, resulted
01:57in a substandard emblem.
01:59You have statements coming from two important graphic designers saying this thing was lazily
02:06done.
02:07It was a cut and paste job.
02:09It's ugly.
02:10From the independent bench, a view was expressed that in this period of uncertainty, there
02:15could have been better use of the limited parliamentary time left.
02:19Not to diminish the importance and the value of this debate, but in the grand scheme of
02:26things, this legislation strikes me as something nice to have rather than as something urgent
02:33and necessary.
02:34One feels as though we are just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
02:39Senator Vieira cautions there is also a danger when one starts using all this anti-colonial
02:45rhetoric.
02:46I am confident that when the Honourable Prime Minister and the mover of the bill uttered
02:52those words, they never intended to suggest that citizens of English and European descent
02:57no longer have relevance or place in our society.
03:00Now, that would contradict the notion that here every creed and race has an equal place.
03:07Unfortunately, for those who don't know better, those words could give the wrong impression.
03:13Minister Mitchell in his wind-up said they were referring to painful colonial vestiges.
03:19Senator Vieira, your ancestors came here as shopkeepers or as indentured labourers from
03:25Madeira.
03:27I did my own DNA testing.
03:31I have some Portuguese in me from the Iberian coast.
03:35And I did the research.
03:36I know that you came here as shopkeepers or indentured labourers.
03:42That's not painful.
03:44How does that compare to Christopher Columbus and his ships and his rediscovery, his landing
03:53in the Caribbean bringing disease, rape, genocide, the beginning of slavery.
04:01The bill was passed in the both Houses and awaits proclamation.
04:05Urvashi Tewari, Rupnay Rai, TV6 News.
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