09/01/2026
As we step into a new year, we as a nation have important choices to make.
One choice we need to make is that we can choose to embrace the politics of hate, malice, vindictiveness and division, the kind that’s become fashionable among those who believe they are monarchs, treating citizens like subjects to rule over.
Or we can choose the politics and conviction of courage.
The politics of division is easy. It requires no thought, no vision, just unbridled rage, carefully aimed and constantly fed. It turns every disagreement into conflict, every neighbour into an enemy, and every hardship into a reason to blame somebody else.
The politics of courage, however, requires real strength. The strength to stay calm when others want chaos, to speak truth without cruelty, to fix what’s broken without breaking each other, and to lead with discipline instead of drama.
Trinidad and Tobago, like every nation, has serious problems for us to fix, and nobody should pretend otherwise. But we must never confuse honest concern with national self-contempt.
While many other societies are currently struggling to hold together multi-ethnic, multi-religious communities, we in Trinidad and Tobago have been living it , and proving it can work, for decades.
Here, Churches, Mosques and Mandirs sit side by side on the same street without us even giving it a second thought. We are blessed to live in a country where descendants from Africa, India, China, Europe and every other part of the world coexist while celebrating the best each has brought to our national story.
It’s a peaceful, effortless reality we Trinbagobians sometimes hardly notice, but which people elsewhere genuinely marvel at.
Our diversity has never been a “problem to manage.” It is simply who we are. It’s a strength we’ve built a unified, peaceful culture around, and that’s something every citizen should be proud of, and something the rest of the world could learn from.
So as we enter 2026, I urge all of my fellow citizens: never let anyone, or any agenda, push you towards divisiveness and hate. Whether it’s hating our Caribbean brothers and sisters, hating your neighbour, or even hating our own country.
We can disagree and still belong to each other. We can demand better for our nation and still love each other, and love where we come from.
Trinidad and Tobago is not, and has never been, a “dump.” Despite its flaws, it remains a beautiful land filled with a unique people of promise and potential.
But more importantly, sweet T&T is my home.
It’s OUR home.
And it’s worth fighting for.
I wish for us in 2026 to truly begin living those words of our Anthem, “may every creed and race find an equal place and may God bless our nation.”
I love my country, I love T&T and I choose courage.
Happy New Year Trinidad and Tobago.
In continued service,
Stuart R. Young, SC, MP
December 31, 2025
