Skip to main content

we fraid history



Spoke with the family today living in the cold north and was told that even though the temperature was 03.C they were still heading out for a long walk because the sun was shining. I can so appreciate people adapting to their surroundings, it is what it is. So often you hear people saying 'I cyar live there because.....'. It is your home, this is where your family lives and like everywhere else there will be mosquitos or some other flying nuisance, that is if you are not living in the Antartic, but then there is penguin poop.

Went to the 48th Anniversary of the State of Emergency in 1970 at an NJAC held forum last night. It is good that the organization continues to commemorate the occasion. Last night was actually organized by the daughter of one of the persons heavily involved in the modern day revolution. It is so sad that government after government refuse to acknowledge that 1970 actually happened. Just like the 1937 Butler Riots. My father told me that if it was not for Butler his life might have been slightly different. He was then working for the newly arrived PanAm flying boats at Cocorite and his pay scale was very different to those expats who were doing the same job.
It seems that we are scared stiff of history or may I say the true history. '1970' is one of those periods that every modern day government seems destined to hide for fear of a repeat. Will '1970' be repeated, you never know, but for sure if you do not understand the real significance of what happened it may just come back to bite you. The issue of 'Black Power' was very different to the mutiny with the army. We did the documentary '70 the Revolution' and after taping over 65hrs of interviews with persons who were directly involved with '1970' we still cannot find a suitable repository for this historic information. Why? we fraid history!

Over many years there has been a 'migration' from the neighboring islands. I have had people coming to me telling me how they arrived here, once you reached you were given a Trinidad and Tobago ID Card and therefore you were eligible to vote. Over the weekend some 80 Venezuelan nationals were repatriated to their homeland. Apparently, many of them had applications for asylum as they considered themselves as refugees. These applications had actually been filed with the relevant authorities. What does T&T do, we march them off to Piarco and deport them. The legal counsel handling their case was not even given permission to meet with his clients.
We have the PMOTT meeting with the Queen talking about the plight of the 'Windrush' people and how wicked the United Kingdom is to even be thinking of repatriating that group of West Indians back to their original homeland after 60 years.
We are truly a wrong side country, we have no position on anything, we deal with things on the spur of the moment, whatever sounds good at the time that's our policy.
It could be immigration, refugees, repatriation, LBGTQI, domestic violence, sexual harrasment you name it. If it sounds like it will create a problem for us then simply shove it under the carpet or like in the case of the Venezuelans, do it in the most clandestine way.
 People are running from a most opressive regime and what do our courts do, fine them, jail them and now illegally deport them. Nice, PMOTT tell the Queen what you are really doing!

In two years time we will be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the 1970 Black Power Revolution. How will we recognize this event that actually changed Trinidad and Tobago? It will probably fall on a Tuesday so no holiday and therefore no long weekend, for what?.... Black Power?

People of the Rock, I do not know what to say. The future of the Rock is very much up to all of us understanding who we are, learning from our history, more so understanding our history, removing ourselves from real bondage - our broken political system, and creating a real society that the riots for water in 1903, labor in 1937 and 1970 longed for. It's all about equal opportunity!

Another brilliant day on the Rock, good night and good luck!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

R&R

We had two of the four grands spend the weekend with us whilst the parents went off to the North Coast for some rest and relaxation. From all reports, the sojourn was well spent with both singing the praises of our North Coast, no beach, just R&R. We are ten minutes from the coast and I hate to admit it but it is rare that we venture north. One of the selling points of coming to live in the wilds of Maraval in 1983 was the fact that Maracas Bay was a mere 30 mins away. Maracas could have been next door it did not matter, we just do not do it. Having grandchildren I think puts you in a very different place. When our kids were growing up we were struggling with building a business from scratch, living off of a teachers salary, impossible then as it is now, and generally ketching. But as it is with all things in life we survived. Looking back at those years it was difficult, kids, dogs, mortgage and other loans, but you knew why you were putting yourself through all this hard...
Post a Comment
Read more

the Grand Pooba! The Constitution 101 [6[

The distance the Tobago ferries have to travel between the islands is approximately 80 miles. For safety reasons the First Bocas cannot be used so the ferries sail through the Second Bocas which adds time on to the sailing schedule. The water or wave pattern is different on the sailing to Tobago as the wave comes at an angle to the sailing direction of the ferry that does not provide the passengers with the most comfortable ride. At certain times of the year, November to March in particular, the seas can get extremely rough. There have been cancellations of the service because of adverse sea conditions. The current design of the passenger ferries being used, the Incat hull, have proven to be the best to date. They are fast, in excess of 35 knots, which should give a sailing time of just over two [2] hrs. Being a catamaran type design, with a wave piercing capability, it is probably one of the best vessels for the service. There are newer designs of the same basic hull that can take...
Post a Comment
Read more

'goose or Ghana'

One of the biggest news stories tonight is of course the Anand Ramlogan issue. A former Attorney General - the only other member of the PPG Cabinet [ all other members are invited], Senior Council, Senator and well known Constitutional lawyer. I am not going to pronounce on Attorney Ramlogan's issue with the police and the DPP. What I am concerned about is the third world handling of the entire affair to date. A barrage of police, reportedly ten vehicles of armed officers, six o'clock in the morning, off to TTPS Headquarters, 36 hrs of questioning. What absolute BS is this? Until the TTPS start using their brains and not there obvious brawn then maybe we can start becoming a civilized people and not the law of the jungle. So what, you want to embarrass the former AG? Embarrass his wife and family, for what? To show that you are that brilliant that it takes 36 hrs of questioning to determine 2 charges? What exactly did you say that convinced someone to issue a warrant th...
Post a Comment
Read more