21 May

Golden Garland of Gifts

NGC Connects Communities and interests in a National Celebration of T&T’s 50th Independence Jubile.

Its core business is natural gas, but in the year of Trinidad and Tobago’s 50th anniversary of independence, The National Gas Company threw the spotlight on the “national” aspect of its name as it rose to the occasion of a golden celebration of an historic event in the life of its country and people.  Across the length and breadth of Trinidad and Tobago, NGC responded to the call of communities, organizations, associations and interests of every kind in what might possibly be the single most broad-based corporate jubilee celebration of 2012.

Connecting the country in a network of national celebration was indeed NGC’s gift to Trinidad and Tobago on its golden anniversary of independence. The year 2012 began like every other year in this Republic–with the rhythm of Carnival coming, heralded by the sound of steelbands rehearsing for the big showdown in the annual national Panorama competition in February. The year 2012 was special year for Panorama which, like the country itself, was also marking its 50th anniversary.

In the heady Carnival atmosphere of the first two months of the year, the music of 39 steelbands filled the night air. Together, these steelbands represented a broad spectrum of bands across the national landscape, including NGC’s neighbourhood band, Couva Joylanders, Gonzales Sheikers from Belmont, Port of Spain; La Brea Nightingales from south Trinidad, and Dem Boyz of Tobago.  After supporting yet another successful steelband season, NGC turned to the celebration of the written word with its title sponsorship of the Bocas Literary Festival in April.

Connecting the country in a network of national celebration was indeed NGC’s gift to Trinidad and Tobago on its golden anniversary of independence.

Devoted to promoting the joy of reading, celebrating excellence in Caribbean literature and encouraging and nurturing the efforts of young writers, the NGC Bocas Lit Fest has established itself as a not-to-be-missed event on the national and regional calendar. For NGC, supporting literature is an investment in the creative imagination of our people, the economic possibilities of the arts and the diasporic connections of the Caribbean family.

For four days in late April (26-29), the NGC Bocas Lit Fest in Port of Spain was the regional axis around which some of the Caribbean’s most fertile minds assembled, elevating the power of the written word while creating an opportunity in which the average lover of books could share.

Meanwhile, closer to the company’s Point Lisas home, a new landmark was taking shape which, with NGC’s support, would add a new aesthetic to highway infrastructure in central Trinidad.

Since its construction in the early 1970s, the Preysal intersection of the Solomon Hochoy Highway had transformed the once fully green, sugar cane landscape into a motorway. Cut through the undulating beauty of the lower regions of the Montserrat Hills, the intersection retained the breeziness of the open highway until expanding industrialization began to outstrip the early infrastructure, resulting in traffic congestion and wear and tear of the existing arterial access roads to and from the highway.  Responding to the situation, the Ministry of Works initiated a major reconfiguration of the highway access routes which has succeeded in relieving congestion and improving road conditions.

To complete the improvement, NGC stepped in to support the enhancement of the environment with the Couva/Preysal Interchange Beautification Project, an initiative that will lift the surrounding area into the ranks of a landmark of note.

By early May, NGC was once again throwing its weight behind yet another pioneering event. The inaugural SteelFesTT 2012 was a hugely ambitious initiative in its attempt to establish itself as the world’s premier steelband event, with a focus on all things steelpan. Billed as the global focal point for Pan, SteelFesTT ran in Port of Spain, San Fernando and Tobago from May 4th to 13th. Over the course of this period, every aspect of the steelpan was brought under a single SteelFesTT umbrella of events. For those who came from all over Trinidad and Tobago, the wider Caribbean, the West Indian diaspora and beyond, SteelFesTT 2012 was a cornucopia of pan at its best, showcasing the steelpan as music, culture, creative enterprise, scientific innovation, economic opportunity and subject for academic research and study.

With NGC at its side, SteelFesTT succeeded in expanding the focus on the steelpan beyond the boundaries of the Carnival season, positioning it as the centerpiece of an international event, strategically located in the birthplace of the steelpan, where the pan tributaries of the world connect.

To the large numbers who came, SteelFesTT seemed to hit the right note in its dedication to the legacy and memory of Pat Bishop, the grande dame of pan who passed away shortly after selecting the festival’s theme of “Steelpan–Uniting the Sounds of The World.” For Ms. Bishop–musician, artist and tireless advocate for the steelpan–the national musical instrument represented a convergence in which people are united musically, geographically and culturally.

In SteelFesTT, pan’s identity as an instrument of convergence was brought to life through a series of concert collaborations between visiting bands and local steelbands at locations throughout Trinidad and Tobago.

The Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force appeared with the Brazilian band Patubate at NAPA in Port of Spain; Tobago’s Katzenjammers Steel Orchestra teamed up with Cuba’s all-woman band, Obini Bata in Black Rock, Tobago; The National Steel Symphony Orchestra of Trinidad and Tobago and the visiting Drums of India led by Pervali Jaya Bhaskar performed together at Naparima Bowl in San Fernando and at NAPA, Port of Spain; and Neal & Massy Trinidad All Stars took the NAPA stage with the Chinese band Shenzen.

Offstage, the action was inside the NAPA auditorium at the four-day SteelFesTT Conference titled ‘Pan Globalization and Its Possibilities”. The selected topics spanned a great breadth of issues relevant to pan: Pan Globalization-Progress and Possibilities; Pan in Education; The Technology of Pan; Steelpan Music and Its Development; and The Evolution of Steelpan.

As SteelFesTT drew to a close, NGC moved, almost seamlessly, from steelpan to the much-loved national sport of cricket.  In June 2012, in an unprecedented move, NGC signed an historic Memorandum of Understanding with the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board committing to a disbursement of $10 million for the period 2011-13 in support of the Cricket Board’s programme.

Dubbed “The Ultimate Powerplay”, the deal was hailed as the single largest sponsorship in the history of T&T cricket.  TTCB president Azim Bassarath was ecstatic about the collaboration, declaring that the Board was “very fortunate” to have NGC assist in building Trinidad and Tobago’s cricket brand.  NGC President, Indar Maharaj, said his company’s decision to support the TTCB’s work was motivated by the “talent and passion        for cricket” shown by the nation’s youth, and by the power of sport to develop human potential. Citing the example of cricket writer and philosopher CLR James, Mr Maharaj noted that the cricket grounds had been a place of learning for James, teaching him the values and discipline that would later guide him through life.

“This is the critical role that sport plays in human development and this explains NGC’s support for sporting activity especially when young people are involved,” said Mr. Maharaj.  NGC’s $10 million sponsorship will cover TTCB’s preparation and participation in the 2012 and 2013 Nokia Champions League; the TTCB grassroots developmental programme; the regional and local T20 competitions; the National Cricket Academy, eight cricket zones and women’s cricket as well as other developmental activities, including the production of a coaching DVD.

Meanwhile, on May 22, in Chaguanas, the single largest science exhibition ever to come to the Caribbean opened at the Divali Nagar site with sponsorship from NGC. “India: A Science of Culture”, one of India’s top science and technology exhibitions, was presented by the National Institute of Higher Education Research Science and Technology (NIHERST), in collaboration with India’s National Council of Science Museums (NCSM). The exhibition ran for two months until July 20th, during which time it drew thousands of visitors including a large number of students. The initiative was part of NIHERST’s wider science popularization, public education and literacy programme designed to promote the development of a more diversified knowledge-driven economy.

As the year crossed the midway mark and turned into July, the country’s mood turned decidedly upbeat in anticipation of the London Olympics 2012. With the attention of the entire world on Caribbean athletes, especially in the exciting track and field events in which the region had made its mark in the Beijing Olympics of 2008, it was clear that this could be our chance to shine.

To ensure that we made the most of the opportunity of basking in such invaluable global attention, NGC put substantial financial support behind Trinidad and Tobago’s Olympics Village at the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn. Under that roof, every potential global brand from Trinidad and Tobago went on display for all the world to see, including a full contingent of artistes in a variety of genres, supported nationals with products and services to offer.

The five-week Trinidad and Tobago extravaganza drew the attention of top British media, especially after Toco’s Keshorn Walcott threw his javelin and struck Olympic gold, lighting up the NGC-supported Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Village in Kilburn.

With our Olympic Gold Medal now secure, NGC’s efforts turned to initiatives back home for the novel Side By Side community film project, an Independence Jubilee production of the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival in collaboration with the Ministry of Planning and Sustainable Development.

To help ensure that Trinidadians and Tobagonians in every corner and community got the chance to see some of the best local films ever produced, NGC provided financial support for screenings in Tobago, San Fernando and Point Fortin.

In Tobago, audiences were treated to Fire Down Below, a Hollywood blockbuster filmed in Trinidad and Tobago, and Hurricane Flora, a documentary produced by the T&T Government Information Company about the hurricane that had devastated Tobago in 1963. This was followed by Bim, a movie that many consider to be the gold standard for local action films, and Best Village Finals 1967, another production taken from the Government Information Division’s film vault. The NGC-sponsored trio of screenings was rounded off with the showing of the action-packed Men of Grey II: Flight of the Ibis and the GIS production The Louis Brothers at the Point Fortin Public Library. All shows were free and open to the public.

As it entered the final quarter of 2012, NGC continued to keep the faith with the many civil groups that have been quietly making their contribution to improving the society, through a broad range of projects, from concerts to skills training, health education and literacy programmes.  In supporting the work of others, big and small, in this Jubilee Year, NGC takes pride in knowing that it has played its part in not only commemorating this milestone event, but in helping the rest of the nation to make its contribution by expressing its own joy and shining in its golden jubilee year of independence.