Easter Greetings

MEDIA RELEASE

April 13, 2017

THE EMPTY TREASURY, LIKE THE EMPTY TOMB MUST NOT BE A SOURCE OF PANIC AND DESPAIR FOR US

On behalf of all of us at the Ministry of Public Administration and Communications, and in my personal capacity, I wish to extend best wishes to the Christian community as they celebrate this most important event on the Christian calendar – the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

As the country celebrates this momentous occasion though, we are faced with daily reports of lives being lost through acts of violence, of young people going missing from their homes, and a tendency on the part of some adults to ascribe blame for every imaginable ill being experienced onto someone else, rather than accept responsibility for our own actions. Indeed, even those who once cried “Hosanna” are now shouting “Crucify Him!” Additionally, our country continues to grapple with the effects of sluggish oil and gas prices, and its attendant ripple effects on the national economy.

The message of the resurrection though is one of triumph over seemingly insurmountable hurdles, in this case, even death. The empty treasury, like the empty tomb must not be a source of panic and despair for us, but rather a challenge to our faith and hope in something much bigger than we are – the triumph of good over evil and death over life. 

The citizens of Trinidad and Tobago are resilient people, forged as we are in the fires of hope and prayer, and in the belief that there is indeed justifiable and boundless hope in our collective destiny. Just as we believe that not even death could have detained the Christ, so too we must believe that everything is possible for us as a country.

There will always be doubting Thomases but we are confident that the shoots of a revived economy are springing up with the commitment of renewed investment flows to our economy, and the signs of our recovery are beginning to manifest themselves. 

Already the stones of our apathy are being rolled away and the burial cloths of negative economic growth are being cast aside. This is not the time for us then, as citizens of this great Republic to remain staring at the empty tomb, but rather to look toward the promise that Easter represents, the promise of new life and rebirth, the promise of growth and recovery.

May the God of the Resurrection continue to bless us all and may the hope that Easter represents remain forever alive in the heart of each and every Trinbagonian.

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