Balgobin Ramdeen: "I remember the day. I was in Parliament when we got our Independence and I stood in the front of the Parliament building there and saw the Union Jack come down and our flag - the Red, White and Black, go up and flutter in the breeze. And I told my wife, I said, "When I spoke to you for the first time I thought love was a bad thing because my heart was beating so much that I thought I'd die, and when I saw that flag go up I felt the same way."
.............................................................................................................................. "Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.
Blessed is all of creation Blessed be my beautiful people Blessed be the day of our awakening Blessed is my country Blessed are her patient hills.
If you haven't already seen Carlisle Chang's account of how the colours were chosen for the national flag of Trinidad and Tobago, then have a listen to the video below.
Outside of our national flag, I first heard this particular combination of red, black and white being referred to in Juan Luis Guerra's song,"Naboria daca, mayanimacaná"- a song about Caribbean First Nations conquest and genocide - where he uses the Taino words "ris, yu, peiti" meaning "red, black, white."
More recently I was reading an article by the archaeologist Arie Boomert, "Crossing the Galleons' Passage: Amerindian interaction and cultural (dis)unity between Trinidad and Tobago." Journal of Caribbean Archaeology, 2010, and I discovered more mentions of red, black and white, this time referring to the colours found on the pottery of First Nations peoples in Trinidad and Tobago"
"Pre-fired painting in red, white and black remains typical...."
"In Trinidad the earliest Saladoid pottery is known only from the southwesternmost part of the island. This Cedros complex is typified by relatively thin, well made ceramics including predominantly round or oval flaring open bowls and dishes, restricted bowls or jars, inverted bell-like bowls, keeled bowls or jars, and bottles showing painted, incised and modelled decorative motifs, for instance comprising white-on-red and rarely white-and-black-on-red painted designs..." SOURCE
I pleases me, even if the similarity is only coincidental, to think that the choice of colours for our flag was not a coincidence but proof of guidance by a persisting Amerindian esthetic or spirit. This land is red, white and black on so many levels.
Creation of the National Flag of Trinidad and Tobago Carlisle Chang
.............................................................................................................................. "Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.
Blessed is all of creation Blessed be my beautiful people Blessed be the day of our awakening Blessed is my country Blessed are her patient hills.
Lord, Please walk beside me through this day. Clear the heavy air with the lightness of Your Presence. Guide my hands and steady my heart that I may give comfort when I cannot give hope, that I may give relief when I do not have a cure, and that I may radiate Your healing peace when the limits of science, time, and the human body overwhelm us all. Amen
Source
Sáncte Míchael Archángele, defénde nos in proélio, cóntra nequítiam et insídias diáboli ésto præsídium. Ímperet ílli Déus, súpplices deprecámur: tuque, prínceps milítiæ cæléstis, Sátanam aliósque spíritus malígnos, qui ad perditiónem animárum pervagántur in múndo, divína virtúte, in inférnum detrúde. Ámen
