By Kerwin De Matas

Sir Solomon Hochoy
Mr.Noor Hassanali


I opened the Trinidad Express today on the internet and was totally taken offguard. Many people would ask, so what. Well,one of our ex-presidents Mr.Noor Hassanali has died. Condolences to his family first and formost. Mr Hassanali for me was an excellent example of how someone´s race or religion dosen´t matter when it comes to more important things, like running a country and trying to maintain it´s moral values. This gentleman was our second president, can you believe it? That´s how young our nation is, we are a developing nation, so young compared to other countries but developing in a way that´s increidibly tremendous. Was it true that he was always on the back burner when N.A.R was in power as the government at the time? Hell no!! Mr Hassanali was very much part in what took place in our country and didn´t live all the protocol as our first Governor-General, Sir Solomon Hochoy,then our first President Sir Ellis Clark. During the second world war he served in the Canadian training corps, maybe he saw action, maybe not, the point is that he had an experience that further developed his insight for future endeavours. He studied law then returned to Trinidad to practice his vocation. Not straying from the topic, but just musing a little bit now. Religion for me has become something I really don´t like elaborating much on, but looking at our present world issues, one would see that the muslims were always in the lime light but even more so now. It´s so easy for everyone now to blame islam for everything that´s happening in the world today, wars, inflation, high petroleum prices etc. But please take into consideration, that not all the members of islam are terrorists...in every religion you have the troublemakers. Al qaida and their angry men as well as other terrorists factions are just that, TROUBLE MAKERS!! They are making life a living hell for all other true believers elsewhere in other countries. The stigma now, muslims are bad eggs...come on. Our ex president surely was no bad egg. Ex laywer, then magistrate, then President in two ruling parties, N.A.R ( National Reliance for Reconstruction ) then P.N.M ( People´s National Movement ). What do you think about that, and he was a muslim!! Thanks Mr Hassanali for your examples, hope our country would remember you and everything that you represented and may you rest in peace.