 Thank you, Mr. Piccolo. And just to add to what he said, what he didn't mention. In this square, we had a statue of King George that was taken down after the revolution. So a lot of history that we're standing on today. So our mayor just arrived. And simply so that I could continue moving the program along, I'm going to introduce us to our commissioner. Our commissioner today is Mr. Manuel Castro. Familiar name for the Caribbean, although he's not Cuban. He's Mexican. Mr. Castro is New York's first Mexican-American. And he's a dreamer. We all know what a dreamer is, right? Not a daydreamer, but a dreamer. He was appointed commissioner by the mayor in the office of Immigrant Affairs. He's a Brooklynite. He grew up in Sonset Park. So I'm going to introduce Mayor Castro. Commissioner Castro. I am promoted. Thank you, Astra. Thank you, Astra. Thank you, Astra. And thank you to the Bowling Green Association for this important partnership to be able to celebrate and uplift our immigrant communities. Because immigrants are just as important to the city's economy as any industry represented in Wall Street. And so I'd like to especially thank the community organizations and community leaders here today because without them, our city couldn't do the work to support our immigrant communities. So please, a round of applause for our community organizations represented here today. Thank you, Astra, for your leadership and bringing us all here together to celebrate our Trinidadian community. Just a quick edit to my bio. Although I grew up in Sonset Park, I've lived in Flatbush for the last 20 years. And I've always looked forward to September to celebrate with my Caribbean brothers and sisters. And of course, as the Commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, I serve proudly with Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Eisen, who is Trinidadian American and is here with us today. And so with that, I'd like to introduce the Commissioner of International Affairs, Commissioner Mermelstein. Thank you so much, Commissioner Castro. My name is Edward Mermelstein. I'm the Commissioner of International Affairs for New York City. And I am happy to join Mayor Adams, members of our administration, Council General LeVaux, all the other Council Generals that are here, the Bowling Green Association, and all of you here to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Trinidad and Tobago's independence. New York is proud to be home to more than half a million Trinidadian and Tobago. I'm going to get this right. Tobagonian, thank you, Tobagonian nationals, and descendants who continue to contribute immensely to this city. Caribbean Americans contribute to our medical care and many, many industries in New York City, including educators, hospitality, and service professionals. Caribbean Americans serve as our first responders and police officers and help to lift the city up during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Caribbean international community has been essential as a partner to our office, and we look forward to advancing our relationships. I look forward to working with the Council, my colleagues, and the Trinidadians and Tobagonian communities. I'm going to get this right. To achieve Mayor Adams' vision, congratulations to Trinidad and Tobago on this great, great day celebration of 60 years of independence, and thanks to the community for your continued partnership. Thank you, Commissioner Mermelstein. And before I introduce our distinguished guest, I'd like to give a big, big thank you and shout out to Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson here with us today. I know she shared a few words earlier, but Bronx Borough President has been a tremendous champion of all immigrant communities, especially those asylum seekers that are seeking refuge in our great city. So thank you, Borough President. So with that, I'd like to introduce Council General of Trinidad and Tobago, J. Andrew Lavey, who has served as Council General since 2018 and has served in the Foreign Office since 1993. So Council General, thank you so much. The Honorable Mayor, Eric Adams, representative from the Office of the Governor. This is Padma Simangal. I think she's here. Borough Presidents, city council members, I'd like to recognize especially my ambassador, Philip Spence. He's come all the way. He's going to be eight hours on the road just to be here, OK, from Washington. And his dear wife, Joanne, I must recognize. I have a home to go to, so I have to recognize. My own wife, Hailey, she's been at my side always. This, I've been in the Foreign Service for 30 years. I have never seen such a long list of salutations, a long list of important people. All of you are so important, so important to Trinidad and Tobago. It's amazing. And I know a lot of you here made a big sacrifice to be here, OK? As Borough President Gibson said, you know, Trinities work hard. Everybody know how Trini does walk, walk, walk, walk, walk. All right? We do, we do. When I was in Belgium, I spent about seven years there. I used to tell Europeans, of course, when they go on holidays, they go for this long period. I say we take holidays every single day. We work hard, hard, hard. And then in the evening, you chat with a friend, you just unwind, and that's what keeps us sane. We don't take these big long holidays, you know? So we work hard. We might be an island paradise, but we work hard, yeah? And talk about hard work, well, look at this. Couldn't this be more appropriate? Is this, is this, is this a, yeah, you need to look at that. Nothing, nothing this, yeah. Well, nothing describes our mistress of ceremonies like this, like this, these words right here. And I just, I'm just so grateful to Hazra Ali. She really gets things done, yeah? 60 years, 60 years is really, really big news, okay? 60 years, Diamond Jubilee? Yeah, we've been, we feeling like diamonds. We got pressure and we diamonds now, yeah? We are diamonds, we look, we look in great. Some of y'all look incredible. I mean, all of you look incredible. Somewhere between incredible and amazing. You look great, you look great, yeah? And I just wanna say a big thank you. I wanna say through the Honorable Eric Adams, this has been on my heart so much lately. I just wanna say on behalf of all Trinidad and Tobago Nationals, all hundreds of thousands of us that might be here, and all those who have been coming here since, I don't know, since the 50s, 60s, I want to say from Trinidad and Tobago, from the government and people of Trinidad and Tobago to you, Mayor Adams, a big thank you to the state, the city and the state of New York for welcoming so many Trinbegonians over the last several, several decades. Thank you very much. I think we need to give applause. We don't, we don't, we don't, we don't take this for granted at all. You know, there's some places where immigrants are welcome for 50 years, 60 years, and then overnight something happens and all of a sudden everything is blamed on them. That doesn't happen here, and it will never happen here. Not, certainly not under this Mayor, who we wish a long, long tenure. All right, don't we? Yeah, this, this is no ordinary Mayor, as you heard just now. This Mayor, this Mayor is a Trini, you know, he's a Beijing, you know. He is everything. You know, I think he has a real weak spot, a real weak spot for the steel pan. All right, and we love him daily. You know, so from the consulate to you, I wish you all the best. I must say before I go, in terms of, in terms of good things to remember, because we have a lot of Caribbean people here. Next year is a, is a massive year for the Caribbean. You know that because Karakum, Karakum, our political joining, our political grouping, is gonna be 50 years. All right, we, listen, all of us have a duty to celebrate that and make our mark. We wanna line these streets. We wanna, we wanna, we wanna line the airwaves, the television stations, everything, and celebrate this thing in the biggest of ways. 75 years, okay, are you, you WI? Any UI graduates here? Yeah, yeah, yeah, all right, so am I. Okay, UI is 75 years next year. So that is big news, right? Don't forget it. We're gonna celebrate that. So we love you all. We want all of you back. I know some of you might not be able to stay, but we want all of you back at the Consulate because you gotta taste it just now, okay? We have, I don't wanna say too much, but we have the most infectious, infectious steel pan player anywhere in the world. He is the best, okay? And he has found, he's found a gem, a treasure in Carol Addison. Most of us, many of us grew up listening to Carol Addison. She's an icon. I mean, there's so many artists today. They owe their existence. They owe their success to her. They don't even know it, you know? So Carol, we love you, we're glad you're here. We're glad all of you are here. I just wanna continue talking, but I gotta be respectful, okay, okay? So we love you all, and I must recognize Medgar Evers. Medgar Evers is home to so many trainees, okay? Trainees and Caribbean people. You've done so well. You've trained so many, good to see you, Derek Scape, the president of the university. Yeah, and the president of the university. Thank you, and God bless you, and all my old friends who I haven't seen in 30, 35 years. You know how much I love you. Great to see you. Bless you. Thank you so much, Councilor General. And now I'd like to welcome his excellency, Bridget General Anthony W.J. Philip Spencer, Ambassador of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to the United States and Mexico. Welcome, sir, for a few words. Good morning, New York. Honorable Mayor, thank you for this welcome. It's good to get away from Washington, D.C. I noticed you just pop in, but you come back here. Very good. Before I start, I was listening to Mr. Luke from Sesame Flyers, and he was trying to understand what happened last night with him on Dane. Well, just let me remind you, when you want to spot a Trini, don't worry, the farewell is longer than the visit. Mr. Mayor, my farewell will not be hastened. Thank you very much for this welcome to New York City. I want to acknowledge, please, first of all, I think our very, very hard-working... I've heard about Hazra Ali for the last couple of months, and all that she's been doing to help us celebrate this sixth-year anniversary. Thank you very much. I want to also acknowledge the presence of the borough president from the Bronx, borough president Gibson. We've exchanged our contacts, we'll be in touch. Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, Anne Williams-Issam, all of the other dignitaries and officials from the municipal governments across New York City. I must, of course, acknowledge the presence of our CARICOM Consul General and other members of our CARICOM Consular Co and other members of the consular, and if there are any, diplomatic co-representatives. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, fellow trainees, happy sixth-year anniversary of independence. Mayor Adams, I have the honor to express to you and your entire municipal government, and by extension to the governor of New York and the state government, on behalf of all of us and the Trinidad and Tobago diaspora community here in New York, and in case anybody wasn't sure, our largest assembly of Trinidad and Tobago diaspora citizens anywhere in the world, including those of us across the United States, our deepest gratitude for this wonderful welcome, this history-making occasion that we have a mayor here with us to witness our flag-raising ceremony on what is a milestone memorable, never to be forgot, sixth-year and diamond jubilee anniversary of our independence. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. You know, the National Anthem of Trinidad and Tobago reminds us that our country was forged from the love of liberty. The Anthem reinforces our confidence in the approach to life that you see from us, which is inspired in the fires of hope and pro. And our Anthem reinforces that, collectively, we pursue our interests and our relations with our most enduring partner, the United States and particularly here in New York City, with boundless faith in our destiny. We believe that our destiny is connected deeply to the destiny of New York City. On every occasion, when we sing our National Anthem and make those solemn declarations, every time we do it, as citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, we celebrate all that we have achieved, all that we have aspired to during the past 60 years of our journey to nationhood. And let me point out one of our national heroes, one of the members of our country's distinguished society of citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, the one and only Lord Nelson, President here with us. That's a national hero. During our 60-year journey, many of our citizens have realized their aspirations and achievements right here in New York City. Therefore, be assured, Honorable Mayor, that the people and government of Trinidad and Tobago and our large New York City diaspora in this global metropole of our shared strengths, of creativity, you'll see that in the next week, diversity and vitality, we place the highest value on advancing and promoting our mature and strong bilateral relations. This milestone diamond jubilee anniversary of our independence is being celebrated and commemorated with a focus on the theme of forging forward together. That theme, if you didn't notice, invokes our love of liberty. And that, I'm sure, is particularly resonant in this heralded land of the free, our principal, cultural, economic, educational, and at that point I pause to recognize the President of Medgar Evers, good. And our security, our security cooperation partner globally. Our team exercises also the importance of aspiring, all of us have aspired. In New York City, all of us have aspired. And not only have we aspired, we have achieved what we have aspired to together. And that's forcibly reiterated in our national motto. One of our nation's greatest achievements is our gift of cultural diplomacy to the world, the steel pan. That instrument has been invented, it was invented, and has been continually innovated on in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago during the past century. Reflective of our national motto, together with the municipal leadership and the community leadership here in New York City, we have advanced and promoted steel pan music during the past six days. You'll see that in the next couple of days again. Mayor Adams, your leadership in promoting the inclusion of the steel pan on the music curriculum in schools in New York City will further strengthen our bilateral relations. Thank you. And I must extend to everyone, happy steel pan month greetings. Together with our investment partners from the U.S., including New York City, Trinidad and Tobago has also led in industrial development with our transformational point leases industrial port, development estate, and more recently our Phoenix spark industrial estate. We've also created many internationally adopted innovations in the natural gas and petrochemical industries. During the last two decades of our independence in this 21st century, our resolve and resilience have been increasingly required and revealed amidst the newer challenges to our safety and security, to our democracy, to our diversity and sustainability, and our creativity and vitality as a shared humanity. This has been very evident during the ongoing pandemic. As I conclude, on behalf of the people and government of Trinidad and Tobago, I reiterate our deepest gratitude to you honorable mayor and the New York City municipal government to our diaspora leaders, many who I recognize here present today, and to the members and friends of the Trinidad and Tobago diaspora community in New York City, you have been dedicated, you have been devoted to preserving and promoting the rich national heritage of our beloved Twin Island Republic. Again, happy six year independence anniversary. As we celebrate this diamond Jubilee, be assured honorable mayor that in forging forward together, Trinidad and Tobago regards New York City as a key partner and a center of gravity for our peace, productivity and prosperity in the future. Amidst the complexity of our shared human experience, may God bless and continue to prosper even further. The strong relations that already exist between the United States of America and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, particularly here in New York City. I thank you and happy independence day again. Thank you. Thank you so much, ambassador. And with that, it is my honor to introduce to you champion of all New Yorkers and champion of all immigrants, whether you arrived here recently or decades ago, the mayor of the city of New York, Mayor Eric Adams. Thank you so much. And I add my voice to thanking my sister Ali for her contribution and wrote. This is a significant moment, not only on the Jubilee 60th anniversary as both the council general, Andy and Tudor have both indicated, but it's also a moment on all of us in reflection, as we are in the midst of all of the noise, all of the pain, all of the uncertainty, all of the calls from all around. If you are not rooted in something principal and grounded and your religious belief, you will be distracted and you will be pulled off of your purpose. But if you are focused, if you are driven, if you are true to your purpose, all the noise around you is just deafening and you don't even hear it because I know my mission. And by the time I finished my run as mayor, you are not only going to see still bands in our school, you are going to see people that understand communities and places of government to impact the lives of people. And no one personifies that more than the Trinidadian community. You do not take from America, you give to America. You have to be on the ground to really analyze and understand the full commitment of the Caribbean diaspora and those from immigrant groups from across the globe. When businesses close down during the height of COVID, do you know what businesses remain open? Immigrant businesses. When people fled the medical system and was not willing to put themselves on the front line, you go look at the Trinidadian Nurses Association, Barbarian Nurses Association, Puerto Rican, Dominican Nurses Association. So when I hear people say that they don't understand the fullness and how better we are as a country because of our immigrant population, they just don't get it. And we all came from somewhere. So if someone tell you to go back where you came from, tell them you will when they go back to where they came from. New York is America's city. And this Trinidadian population, the largest in America is right here. And we all know that we're gonna mash up the parkway. But it's more than that. It's what you do every day in the area of education, health, small businesses, dealing with mental health issues, law enforcement. You contribute so much to this city and country. And I'm proud to be here today at the foot of our business district to raise this flag, but also to raise our spirits. We've allowed COVID to beat us down. We've allowed us to feel as though we're not resilient. We are invincible. Our resiliency is unbelievable. And the beauty of our invincibility lies in the uniqueness of this country. This is the only country on the globe where you're told not to abandon your motherland to embrace your new land. You are told just the opposite. Where will we be if we didn't have the diversity of the cultures all coming together to make this unique experience of a humanistic approach of how we live together? We learn from each other. You remove that from the American experience, we're no longer different than any place else. That is our secret weapon. And so today when we raise this flag, we raise our consciousness. We send a message across the country and say, Governor Abbott, you are not representative of what we represent. You are not representative. We're representative of inclusiveness. We're representative of being a city of immigrants and a beacon of freedom. We're representative of understanding how we come together. Just like Trinidad, we're made up of many small islands, but we have a big heart just like Trinidad. And when I was in Trinidad and Tobago several years ago, I was blown away about the uniqueness, the friendship, the caring, the loving spirit of the Trinidad people. Even when you pronounce it wrong, they still love you. And when I had to look at the first time in history, bringing together five woman deputy mayors, I looked and said, if I'm going to have the best for the human services aspect of my administration, I need to look towards the Trinidadian community. And I found the amazing deputy mayor, William Isom, to be part of our team. So we are proud to be here together. And grateful you have brought your dreams, ambition, and island spirit here. You have contributed so much to the city and I want to officially recognize you. So now, may I have my proclamation? Now as the mayor, come on ambassador, come on up. Nothing makes me look better when I'm standing next to two good-looking brothers. I proclaim Wednesday, August 31st, 2022, in the city of New York, Trinidad and Tobago Heritage Day. I, Eric Adams, mayor of the city of New York, thank you very much. Mr. Mayor, the council general has a little token from Trinidad and Tobago to hand over to you. Thank you. Just a brief, brief interjection. We all know that the mayor that we have would look good in anything, but we think red is his best color. Is that right? Yeah, yeah. So I'm just going to present this to the mayor. This is... Six years. Yeah, six years. It's got two sides. Come on, come on, come sit down. Yeah. It says, thankful and thriving. Okay, and that's TNT. Yeah, okay. And... Yes. Yes, yes, please. Yes, yes, please. Come on in. Come, come, come. Come on in, come on in. Come on in, come on in, come on in. Ha ha ha. My brother. Can you give them a little bit of lava? I'll give you a little bit of everything if you want. Can you pick me this thing? Thing, thing, thing. Thing, thing, thing. Thing, thing, thing. Thing, thing. That's enough. Just one more thing, and this bag of goodies, we all know that Trinidad and Tobago has... This is not a boast, okay? There's a fact. Trinidad and Tobago has the best chocolate in the entire world. Now, this chocolate is so good. You don't put this chocolate in chocolate bars. It has to go in some kind of elite desserts. You know what I'm saying? All right, so this is what I'm going to give him, and you notice it's in the form of a steel pan. Yeah, okay. Yeah. And he's got some bandanas. Oh, yes. Oh, that's my department. Yes, yes, exactly. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. I told him, he looks good in anything. Anyway. Like, raising ceremony by first singing the American National Anthem. I guess I need to get something to do with it. We're family, so... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But the plan was really, really good. The plan was really, really good. Oh, my God. Yeah, I didn't say anything. I didn't say anything.