“Energy Minister Under Fire from OWTU” – Renuka Singh
Page 16 - Daily Express – Thursday 9th February, 2012
Members of the Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) converged outside the Ministry of Energy in Port-of-Spain this week demanding a meeting with the Minister of Energy Kevin Ramnarine. This protest action created a temporary autonomous zone that exceeded the normal flow of life at the Waterfront (Firat & Kuryel, 2011) where the Hyatt Regency hotel and numerous Government offices are located on Wrightson Road, the always active main road passing through Port-of-Spain.
Not only were the visual and sonic compositions of the spaces disrupted with the chanting, drum beating and horn blowing by the OWTU supporters, but participants brought new meanings and messages to this relatively public space that may soon be a popular event. This unexpected “eruption of dramatic intensity” (Shawyer, 2008) that confused and subverted dominant cultural codes (Firat & Kuryel, 2011), seems to be the new action being taken by groups who have perceived pressing issues with the Ministries and Ministers who occupy this urban space.
Perhaps it is the centrality of the newly relocated Ministry centres to one location that has highlighted protests more recently but this now allows protesters, as well as anyone with any form of Ministry business, to access and address Ministers and issues in different Ministries almost simultaneously with more ease that before. The OWTU representatives were able to meet with Minister of Labour Errol McLeod on his way into his Ministry as well.
This gathering not only affected and disrupted the social codes around the work space of the Ministries and the transit space of hundreds but coincided with the last day of the Trinidad and Tobago Energy Conference held at the Hyatt Regency and the unexpected meanings, messages and images would surely have impacted upon those in attendance.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Firat, B. Ö., & Kuryel, A. (2011). Cultural Activism: Practices, Dilemmas, and Possibilities - Issue 21 of Thamyris/Intersecting: Place, Sex and Race. Rodopi.
Shawyer, S. E. (2008). Radical street theatre and the Yippie legacy: A performance history of the Youth International Party, 1967--1968. ProQuest.
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