MPs should champion our culture, says Rhoda Arrindell

Artist rendition of performing arts center

GREAT BAY, St. Martin (August 14, 2014)—“Parliamentarians should be great champions of our nation’s culture,” said educator and author Dr. Rhoda Arrindell.

“Having a modern Performing Arts Center for our culture to be presented in creative and dynamic ways or on a grand scale by our singers, kaisonians, musicians, dancers, gymnasts, capoeiria and other martial arts students and masters, as well as by our playwrights, actors, painters and plastic artists, moviemakers and videographers, poets, rappers, and other spoken word artists, and for the enjoyment and inspiration of our people and our visitors, is definitely an area that I would champion in Parliament,” said Arrindell.

“The Performing Arts Center illustration that the UP party has made public, is a ready part of the vision of my party leader Theo Heyliger, which I wholeheartedly subscribe to,” said Arrindell, who is the #14 UP candidate for the parliamentary election of August 29, 2014.

“Part of the parliamentarian’s job is to do his or her part for that vision to become a reality, by passing the laws that would translate election promises into reality in the form of buildings, jobs and new career and business opportunities, and in services with dignity for our people,” said Arrindell.

Arrindell was herself successful with two cornerstone nation-building legislations in the areas of culture and education during her term as the UP Minister of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs between October 2010 and May 2012.

“It took both leadership and team work within the ministry, the Council of Ministers and Parliament, with researchers, legal people, labor leaders, cultural workers, educators and administrators, and a range of other stakeholders, to make July 1 Emancipation Day a public holiday and to secure St. Martin’s associate membership in UNESCO,” said Arrindell, who holds a doctorate in linguistics from the University of Puerto Rico.

Dr. Arrindell’s newest book Language, Culture, and Identity in St. Martin was published here last June by House of Nehesi Publishers.

More about Rhoda Arrindell

As a linguist and educator with over 25 years in cultural, education, and sports activities and organization, Arrindell also holds a Master’s degree in Education Administration from the University of the Virgin Islands. Her propaedeuse (pre-law) diploma is from the University of the Netherlands Antilles.

Between 1994 and 2008, Arrindell was the coordinator for Turning Point, a drug rehabilitation foundation, an editor for The Progressive, copy editor for The Chronicle, and editor of EnviroNews magazine. She formerly headed the Humanities Division of the University of St. Martin and was an instructor of English Composition, Caribbean Literature, and Elements of Literature.

Arrindell has co-authored chapters in Agency in the Emergence of Creole Languages edited by Dr. Nicholas Faraclas and is the editor of Brother Rich … , Creative Writing in St. Martin.

Arrindell regularly presents scholarly papers on linguistics and St. Martin literature at regional and international conferences. Since 2012, the mother of two has worked as an education consultant; and a volunteer instructor for adult literacy and the GED. She also manages the United Volleyball Club program.

Dr. Rhoda Arrindell recently completed her term as the project manager at the National Institute for Professional Advancement (NIPA) in Cay Hill.

At NIPA she was responsible for the transition of the old SBO programs into the new educational programming at NIPA.

Dr. Arrindell also assisted the NIPA director and Board of Directors in preparing the school and its programs for recognition as a vocational education college by the Minister of Education.