Hansard - Parliament

30
2012.05.08
Prime Minister was invited with a delegation of 10.
Sen. Hinds: Could the hon. Minister indicate, those advertisements that
were published by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago while the
delegation was in India, were they paid for by the Government of
TrinidadandTobago in that $8.8 million figure?
Hon. Dr. S. Rambachan: Mr. President, I believe that is a question best
directed to the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
Sen. Hinds: One further supplemental, or perhaps two. You did
mention as you were going by that there was some Trinidadian who was
training Indians in India in dancing, and you thought it was the first. Is the
Minister aware that in the 1960s and early 1970s, one, Owen Ali, who was
as black and as beautiful as I am, was dancing? His name was Owen Ali,
and he was dancing and teaching Indians to dance in TrinidadandTobago?
Hon. Dr. S. Rambachan: Mr. President, all the more glory for
Mr.Owen Ali.
Sen. Hinds: Finally for me, you mentioned the Prime Minister’s
oblation—if I pronounce like you did—while in India, by bowing to the feet
of the President. Is the Minister aware that we had never seen her do that
before in TrinidadandTobago, neither to Sat Maharaj or Basdeo Panday?
Hon. Dr. S. Rambachan: Mr. President, I have seen the Prime Minister
bow to her personal pundit and touch his feet.
Sen. F. Al-Rawi: Thank you, hon. Minister. May I enquire whether the
Minister is able to assist us in clarifying. As part of his answer he had said
that the Prime Minister increased scholarships above the number of 30—I
could not catch the number that he actually said—to 50, with respect to the
I-Tech programme. Is the hon. Minister able to tell us by what mechanism