I have no doubt that such an endeavor will receive the blessing and support of the Trinidad and Tobago embassy in the United States under the proactive leadership of Ambassador Arneaud and his overstretched but dedicated staff. The global community has changed remarkably over the past two decades and we now live in a world where the immediacy of events everywhere impresses upon us the fragility of those social, economic, political and cultural structures and their attendant rights and freedoms, which we traditionally take for granted. Everyday developments across the world alert us of the responsibility to exercise those rights and freedoms in a constructive and vigilant manner, in order to preserve them. The dangers are quite real and they come from within and without our national boundaries. Organizations like yours can also be of tremendous value in its leadership function within our immediate and extended community.
Leadership plays a very important function in the development of every country.
Also, given current indicators, leaders have the responsibility to prognosticate on the salient features of future national and international economic and social circumstances as they will come to impact on development. In the particular case of organizations abroad, your very circumstance and opportunity allow you to appreciate fully the challenges from within and without Trinidad and Tobago and therefore be able to understand the socio-economic landscape, and the changes in the quality and demands of leadership that are inevitable. This is what I referred to earlier as your intuitive cultural reflections. Today, in keeping with the new phenomena of our times there is no monopoly on leadership. Indeed political leadership has yielded to practical leadership, which must be informed by social, religious and civil groups of the wider society.