I arrived by birth

By Raffique Shah
May 30, 2017

Raffique ShahThere was a minority view back in the 1980s/1990s when the lobby for a holiday to mark the presence of Indians in Trinidad & Tobago was loudest, that the termination of indentureship in 1917, not their arrival in 1845, should be celebrated. If that had prevailed, this year the Indo-Trinidad community would have marked the centennial of end of their semi-slavery. But the very vocal majority had their say and their day, hence the declaration of a public holiday on Arrival Day, May 30, the date when, in 1845, the Fatel Rozack docked in Port of Spain and deposited 200-odd wretched Indian souls on these shores.

Without doubt, it was an historic occasion, the beginning of the mass migration to this British colony (as it then was) of approximately 150,000 Indians, the vast majority of them “indentures”, which saw them bound to mainly sugar estates for a minimum of five years, under working and living conditions as punishing as those endured by the recently-emancipated African slaves.

The 72-year transplanting of Indians in the West Indies—Guyana and Trinidad accommodated the bulk of them—structurally altered the social, economic and cultural construct of the two largest recipient-countries in ways that the British architects of the scheme, the migrants themselves, and populations of Guyana and Trinidad, could never have imagined.

What began as an exploitative business venture, the planter class sourcing cheap, bonded labour to fill the void left by the freed slaves, soon degenerated into a society comprising two major ethnic groups, each conditioned to dislike the other, thereby sowing the seeds of distrust and disunity that would linger and haunt Trinidad & Tobago and Guyana almost two centuries later.

In their textbook divide-and-rule colonialism, the British pitted Indians against Africans by branding the Hindu and Muslim Indians pagans, which was poison to the now-Christianised African ex-slaves. And they portrayed the Africans as sub-human savages, which the Indians swallowed and digested. Neither race understood that they were joint victims of two dominant global governance systems, capitalism and colonialism.

So, rather than partner with each other to demand, and if necessary, fight for their rightful space in an alien country they had both built with their blood, sweat and tears, the ex-slaves and indentures fought each other, not physically, but by every other means possible, thereby gifting “Massa” choice chunks of the economic bread, leaving them fighting over the crumbs.

Hundreds of years after slavery and indentureship, look around and see who own and control the real commanding heights of the economy. Sure there are some successful Indo- and Afro-Trinidadians. But their successes pale when compared with the holdings of other ethnicities, the most powerful being the descendants of “Massa”, followed by other groups who came to this country long after the blood of slaves and indentures had fertilised its soil.

But I digress. The focus is on Indian Arrival Day, a holiday over which I should be excited, even passionate. After all, my forebears were all “Jahajis”, my great grandparents on both sides having made the long journey from India to Trinidad. In fact, an uncle told me that my mother’s maternal grandfather arrived here on the Fatel Rozack. He is said to have been instrumental in establishing one of the earliest mosques, in Calcutta, Freeport.

With such lineage, I suppose I should experience some emotion today. Truth be told, if anything, I feel sad. Because wherever there are celebrations, except for a few token Afros, mostly politicians who need to dress accordingly and show their faces, they will be all-Indian affairs. Similarly, on Emancipation Day, the non-Afros will be fewer.

There is nothing wrong with a people showing pride in their ethnicity, their ancestry, their history, especially after colonialism denied them their rights and distorted their history. I am especially happy for my brethren who had been Europeanised at some point, by names, religions and garments, and who belatedly re-discovered their roots.

However, I find these “ethnic holidays” tend to be more divisive than unifying, at a time when our nation needs all hands on one deck, rowing in unison, all of us putting country before selves. While we live in relative harmony, increasingly I find leaders inserting the thin, near invisible wedges of race. Listen carefully to their speeches and messages today, and on other ethnic and religious holidays.

They cannot penetrate my patriotic armour: I am first a citizen of T&T, thankfully a discerning, informed, maybe even educated one. Anything else, any other beliefs or loyalties, falls behind that.

So yes, I am proud of my Indian roots, but I’m happy that my forebears chose (or were coerced) to come to Trinidad, for who knows what my fate might have been had I been born and raised in India?

Indeed, when I arrived by birth 101 years after my great-grandfather came on the Fatel Rozack, the burial of my navel string in this land signalled the severing of ancestral loyalties.

31 thoughts on “I arrived by birth”

  1. I must agree with Raffique wholeheartedly. Yes, I am proud of my Indian roots. Yes, generations of my family have lost the ancestral language and no one is making any moves to relearn Hindi. Yes. We have even lost our ancestral religion and now claim neutrality or Christianity. And above all, we are comfortable in our own skins, despite the occasional rebuke by some of our counterparts.
    Happy Indian arrival day!

  2. ”…each conditioned to dislike the other…”
    Raff if my history is correct and I have no reservations about that the newly emancipated African slaves of 1834 who lived on the barracks saw the the Arrival of the Indians as low-wage earners who hindered their negotiating leverage with the planters to demand higher wages in the post-emancipation sugar industry and adopted a level of hostility towards our forefathers who endured many humiliation from the host Africans especially those Indians who gravitated towards St James. You are suggesting that the white man orchestrated Indian-African hostility but remember that the Indian indentures were essentially less violent, did not speak English and were relegated and separated in the estates with little interface conducted with the urban Africans especially since the indentured PASS restricted extra-estate peregrinations and the Africans since 1845 held a superiority complex towards the Indians. How could the English, French and even the Spanish planters fuel this hostility since Indians tend to keep by themselves and only recently developed outreach to the urban-sub-urban bothers who are still very ignorant of the cultural values and mores of the Indians and therefore are only now going to Divali and other expressions.
    Just yesterday in Parliament on the Marriage Bill both Rambachan and Tewarie had to embark upon lectures on both Hindu and Moslem cultural complexities which were being deemed irrelevant but were allowed by the Deputy Speaker my student Esmond Forde to be heard by all.
    So that when the PNM Government refused to entertain representations made by all the Opposition speakers to permit a legal window for unforeseen contingencies in relation to a few who may be forced to marry at say 16 that was shut down symbolising insensitivity to the cultural reality and indeed complexity and a persistence of the past period of hostility and lack of respect for a different way of life in 21st Century T&T. I will say nothing of the Calcutta ship image and how it united Tobago behind their tribal vehicle of choice without the condemnation of the current PM. Tobagonians prefer the Germans to buy up the land- not the Caluittians who will eventually have to develop the agricultural potential of the sister-isle.

  3. “So yes, I am proud of my Indian roots, but I’m happy that my forebears chose (or were coerced) to come to Trinidad, for who knows what my fate might have been had I been born and raised in India?”

    Interesting…

    1. That is the encapsulation of the reason why Indian Arrival is celebrated by the Indian Community. It a celebration of gratitude and not attitude towards all,

  4. Once again, Brother Shah continues to be on the ball speaking truth, but truth as it stands, will always be distorted to satisfy devious means. Mr Kangal is wrong in totality with his comments,the Africans had no bargaining leverage, laws were enacted soon after emancipation forcing them back to the plantations, e.g the scatters act, there are no recorded documentation showing hostility towards your forefathers, there may have been instances of culture shock in certain colonial communities, apparently, it is still nestled in your subconscious.Mr Kangal, prior to 1947, wasn’t India a beautiful nation? is it not England after 200yrs of mass exploitation, creating hate and division causing the country to be partitioned with Pakistan being formed? the mass migration of the people leaving India to create Pakistan, is one of the most inhumane act in the history of human kind.Mr Kangal, there have never been any form of superiority complex on the African side, his lack of knowing his history, puts him at a disadvantage not realizing that his past history as true Africans,not slaves,is directly related to yours.Some years back, when Black Stalin sang the Caribbean man on the shame ship making the same trip, letters was written to the editors debunking his song, it was heart wrenching for me then, forcing me to know my history, and also get to know yours.Yes, African captured through contraband slavery pirating, was held on St Helena island off the coast of the African mainland the ships bringing your forebears to T&T,Guyana ect docked in St Helena taking Africans aboard. Here are the names of the ships,june,16th 1847, name of ship, the cornwall 286 East Indians, 120 Africans,Madras was the port of embarkment for the east indians,february 1853,ship name the Harkaway,200 east indians from Calcutta, 80 Africans, march 4th 1860 175 east indians from Calcutta, 78 Africans name of ship the Tyburnia, the Bangalore, also stopped in Sierra Leonne picking up Africans who made the same trip on the same ship. These Africans were termed the new Negroes, they were also indentured, never assimilated among the slaves on the plantation, instead , was made apprentices and planted along the east west corridor, St James.Belmont, Tunapuna, Aruca, Traguariga, why no arrival day for these Africans? speech was a barrier on the long voyages, but the language of stretching the hand to give or to help is the Africans forte’, history has shown us that the African is willing to hate his own and love someone else, rather give or help someone else but his own.Mr Kangal, it is England, the Catholic church, the Anglican church, they are the country and institutions that have rubber stamped the devision we are now experiencing.Past history is grounded in the present, i would expect you as a commentator to know these things, but again minimal education makes us fools to truth, and the more one knows , is the more there is to know, the research has to be made. In ancient KEMET, one had to study for 40yrs to be a true GURU, some of your greatest indian writers told us that their SAGE was taught by Africans in ancient Kemet, there was no division then.The religion of India before the Arayans invaded and distorting it was Kemet base, as a matter of fact most of the Gods an Goddesses are prototypes of ancient Egyptian religion. Race and Division as we know it only came into being in 1492 when the African Moors was over thrown in Spain by the Catholic church prior to that, racism did not exist.Hotep.

    1. I won’t take Stephen too seriously… He know too much to go back and pretend.

      *Stephen Kangal: Indian Arrival Day Speech
      Posted: Tuesday, May 31, 2005

      UTHO FROM SAPNA AND KARMA

      By Stephen Kangal

      I do not want the Indian community to continue to subscribe to the con job foisted on us by the caste-based ruling Brahmin and priestly class of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. These opportunists believed and arranged the caste system. The pundit gave my paternal grandfather the name Kangal. It means poor and bankrupt. It was intended I must remain poor and destitute in India because both my name and the environmental and cultural norms and standards would have conditioned me to accept being down trodden, mendicant, second class citizen.*

      http://tinyurl.com/y8jtb4ea

  5. The Indian day Arrival celebrations is important for the nation. Out of it there has been a great deal of awareness as to the very important contributions to the economic development of TNT by Indians.

    My ancestors were some of the hardest working people. The British observed this in India and realise they would fit in with harsh topical climate. My father and mother were the hardest working people I knew. Dad got up at three in the morning rode his bike for several miles and was required to cut thirty feet of grass, which he did in a few hours. The grass was thick tall and very hard to cut. He used a swiper blade which he sharpen diligently. When he came home he would head off to the cane land to clear the grass and plant or salt sugar cane. During harvesting season he would cut sugar cane in the boiling hot Sun and Laos the cart or the trailer. He would plant rice in the lagoon. My mom did the same working very hard. She planted rice, did the house work, cut sugar cane, plant the land with various legumes. I and my eldest sister still continue the practice of planting the land. I have a backyard garden. I Learn how to plant from mom.

    There should be a monument somewhere honoring the hard work of our ancestors a bronze statue or some kind or memorial to honor the Labour of these past generations. And it should be place in the borough of Chaguanas. I appeal to the culture minister to make it so…

  6. Shah you are still one of the lucky ones. I was born a Trini and will always be a Trini till ah dead I suppose. But with my ancestry part African, part Chinese, part French, part Middle Eastern, part Spanish, part Jew and part Indian it was never easy growing up in arrogant class oriented Trinidad and Tobago. On my father side, the middle eastern with the warm gentle Hindu lady .. my grandmother who was cast out from her Hindu roots by sheer poverty. Her father could not keep his business in his pants too long, sad as it was. In St James a mud town life with life difficult with no time for racism but survival. My Muslim grandfather whose ancestry was directly from Ali husband of Fatimah beloved daughter of the Great Prophet Muhammed. On my mother side the french slave owner chose my great grandmother to bed down with. And from that a daughter grew up and linked up with a Chinee from China and gave birth to my grandfather Charie Newallo of Newalloville fame in San Juan. And my dear grandmother a Spanish Missionary running from Hitler back in the day. Having said all of that I was faced with all kinds of discrimination as a youth growing up in T&T and knowing what “pull string” even with house parties and fetes. I grew up in Cocorite near Diego Martin where all the poor discards once lived. So, Shah I hear you but your life (even from your bro Bazie) I am sure had its share of drama but mine own was constant discrimination and victimisation in sweet Trini land. The current Boss in Yara was once trained by me and was chosen since he was at a University in Canada. I did not know then but that shows how certain parts of the society do not have to work hard to get what they want while others even despite endless hard work gets no recognition or benefit. My father decided to move to Canada. But all our ways were copied by what pertains here. There is a fight in the Canadian Parliament re “second class citizens” …this we have become. So I am still a Trini …not a PNM or a UNC. Unrepresented throughout the years in my country and it huts as I have children and grans and they ask some painful questions. So I know most PNMites And UNCnites will pay for all their misdeeds over the years. They have raided my country over the years with absolutely no mercy in their hearts. You know what is happening in the UK is absolutely no surprise to me. You need to atone for your sins and when God turns his back on you…the devil has his time…as they used to say doh bawl now. The G8 literally bulldozed all the wealth from the third world mercilessly and now Judgement Day is here.

    1. Jerry, one of your best contributions so far. Thanks for sharing your personal story.

  7. Raff,

    While I take issue with some of what you say, I recognize and credit the honourable position you take. No immigrant anywhere is required by the host country to forget or to dishonour his ancestral home. But the immigrant/stranger in a new land has an obligation to give his adopted home its claim upon his loyalty.

    If he cannot in good conscience freely give that loyalty, then he ought to leave and return to that ancestral land to which his loyalty remains attached. That was an option available to the East Indian indenture that was not available to the emancipated ex-slave.

    Therefore, I object to any characterization of indentureship that equates it with slavery. The coolies –(I use this as a neutral term of caste/occupation in the manner it was used at the time of indenture, and is still used within India, not as a term of derogation)– were not impressed into service; they signed an indentureship contract. History does not record any failure on the part of the British in terms of honouring that contract. The ex-indentures were PAID, either in money or land, and some exercised the option of paid passage back to India at the end of their indentureship.

    Interestingly, there were Irish indentures that also made it to the Caribbean,– notably to Barbados, Jamaica, Grenada, Antigua, Bahamas–, who unlike the East Indian were impressed into service, that is, kidnapped in effect. The Royal Navy used this method of filling its ranks in those days. Those Irish may have a claim to having suffered effective slavery, as did the Negro, but not the East Indian indentured.

    I do not say so to minimize the suffering of the East Indian indentureds, rather merely to deny that that suffering was in any way equal to slavery. Again, the East Indian indentureds were PAID in land and treasure. Moreover, those who had been enslaved prior to East Indian arrival had a prior, and therefore superior, moral claim to the land and treasure paid to the indentureds.

    One would have thought that when the decision was made by the ex-indentured to let his bucket down here in Trinidad, rather than exercise his option to return to India, the claim of this country on his loyalty would then also have been given precedence over that of the ancestral home. For most, under the guidance of the Maha Sabha and forerunner organizations, that is not what happened.

    Still today, five or more generations after “arrival”, that psychic shift has not taken place. Such is the hold of the ancestral land on the psyche of the East Indian, even a T&T Prime Minister, on a visit to the Indian ancestral home, found herself compelled to goar laghay at the feet of the Indian President, … to the latter’s dismay and discomfort, the gesture was so inappropriate.

    Sat’s Maha Sabha has a lot to answer for, in keeping the indo in this land in fact East Indian, rather than indo-Trinidadian. They consciously opted for non-assimilation with the creole host. The assimilationist course adopted by the East Indian in Jamaica was consciously rejected by the East Indian leaders in Trinidad.

    The first political vehicle for the East Indian was thus called the “East Indian National Congress”. When the United National Congress was later formed, one must assume that the reference to “United” was not an invitation to T&T countrymen across all ancestral groups, rather only to unity amongst East Indian groups. The appeal was to unity across the cleavages of religion (Hindu, Moslem, Christian) and caste. The UNC and its predecessors are apan jhat parties resting on sectarian voting-bloc politics.

    The erstwhile enslaved Negro gravitated to the PNM, yes. But the call of the PNM was to a “national” movement cutting across race and class. Therefore, there is not an equivalence in “conditionings” between the two major “races” in T&T. Neither has the Negro been conditioned to hate any other race or set of people. Quite the opposite, as Leladharsingh well knows, the Negro is if anything “gullible” to a fault.

    There was, though, malice aforethought in the British policy of East Indian indentureship. The intent precisely was to weaken the position of the Negro in the colony. That history has been written. As to this invidious intent of the British, Dr. Cudjoe I seem to remember has given us some documentation. These matters were discussed out in the open, even as late as 1888, when the related question of West Indian self-government was being discussed by such as James Anthony Froude in The English in the West Indies (1888). My own forefather, J. J. Thomas, Froudacity (1889) wrote a devastating rebuttal of Froude’s racist assumptions. In choosing the East Indian, the British anticipated that the two races would forever be at loggerheads, achieving their objective of weakening the Negro position.

    This obviously, post-Independence, would also facilitate the imperial objective of continued neo-colonization. Divide et impera. This program was adopted everywhere adopted the strategic and tactical stance of “decolonization”. Such countries as Nigeria and Sudan were deliberately created as a collection of mutually-suspicious tribes that were always going to have difficulty getting along. Later political and ethnic instability surfaced soon after Independence, and decades later the problems still simmer. That was intentional.

    There is a long story here when once the prophetic dimension is brought consciously into view. In broad outline, the simple aspect of this prophetic dimension is that there is a struggle between two twins that were warring from the womb: Esau (aka Edom), and Jacob (aka Israel). That is being played out in T&T, and indeed in other countries where perfidious Albion had some say in the matter.

    The prophecy was that these two twins, sons of Abraham and Isaac, would father two different “manner of nations”. Moreover Esau hated Jacob because the blessing and birthright passed to Jacob, although Esau was the elder twin; Genesis 27:41. Moreover Esau would hate Jacob with a “perpetual” hatred; Ezekiel 35:5.

    The struggle lies in the fact that Jacob is to rise to rule “forever”, but Esau has been given rulership for a “time, times and a half” (approx. 2,500 years) which is now up. Britain and the colonizing powers have themselves been colonized by Esau, who now comes in the range of colors from black, to brown, to white.

    Elsewhere, in places such as Fiji, the British again imported East Indians as indentureds, and for the same invidious purpose, to build-in tribal division in the new Independent state, that the decolonized state might be more amenable to continued post-Independence neo-colonial predation.

    The prophetic fact of the matter that explains the antagonism between the major races in T&T is that the East Indian in T&T is a branch of the Edomite family tree, seized, perhaps unbeknownst to himself, of a “perpetual” hatred against his brother, Jacob. The latter was kidnapped, enslaved, and brought to this land, where he has variously been misnomered as “Negro” and now “African”. These mislabelings hide the prophetic unfolding that is taking place. In the colonizing mother country, British Edomites enslaved British Israelites, although both appeared to be indistinguishably “white” Anglo-Saxons. In America, again, the Anglo-Saxons were divided by seedline, with Eastern Establishment “Boston Brahmins” in charge, and the crakkas, cowboys, hillbillies, etc. in subordinate position. Some of the latter, though “white”, are in fact seedline Israelites, as are the “Negro”.

    The matter is complicated. And its exposition is rendered more difficult by the deliberate blurring of the relevant seedline categories, by confounding red herrings of skin colour and of land-mass “origin”. Seedline identity is the invariant that endures; land-mass of sojourn may come and go; and even skin-colour, although a heritable trait, we know likewise can vary depending upon out-mixing, and also upon genetic phenomena that give rise to albinism, vitiligo (called leprosy in Holy Scripture), and to the “mark of Cain” (white skin) that attaches to serpent-seed infiltration. This latter is another long story. The matter is indeed involved, but none-the-less we may be sure that the one invariant of identity is seedline. Other ephemeral variables such as land-mass of sojourn (e.g Africa), or skin-colour, are not invariants of identity. In any phenomenon of inquiry, it is always best, like the physicists do, to search for the invariant; anything else will lead eventually to an analysis confounded by the merely ephemeral.

    With that understanding, the Edomites, of whatever the skin-colour, of whatever the land-mass of sojourn, have risen above and been busily metaphorically screwing the Israelites. Even when the Israelites went off by themselves, the Edomites and their various allies, including notably seedline Ishmaelites, other Arab seedlines, and sundry Hamitic tribes, including KEMETIC ones, have chased after the seedline Israelites seeking to bring them into captivity and under parasitic exploitation.

    That agenda is actively being pursued by the East Indian in T&T today. “Make the niggahs your slaves” is an item of the Indian Policy agenda.

    That is also why Kangal speaks of “humiliations” suffered by the East Indian under the “Negro”. Any Negro in superior social position relative to the East Indian is taken viscerally as insult, to an Edomite of seed forced into that position vis-a-vis an Israelite. They themselves don’t even understand why they feel that way, but certainly it was ingrained by brahminist Hindu teachings, the Manu Smriti and etc, wherein even the notion of caste was given an intrinsic colour ascription. They have no problem subordinating themselves to fellow Edomites of the seed, especially to those of whiter skin.

    It is interesting that in prophetic terms, there is indeed a “food chain” of parasitic exploitation. The Isrealite yoke upon the Edomite was overthrown ca. 600 BC, when the Babylonians invaded and expelled Judah — the real Judah who was Negro of phenotype — from his land, the southern kingdom. The Edomites sidled in and took over.

    They became camp followers of Empire: Babylon (1st kingdom), Medo-Persia (2nd kingdom), Greece (3rd kingdom). By the 4th kingdom, the Edomites, by them impostor “Jews” of conversion, were rulers behind the scenes, and some of them had morphed into a hybrid people, that came to be called “Aryan” (literally: mixed multitude of Yahweh’s people. Originally of Edomite fathers and Israelite mothers, mixing in turn further with the Babylonians, Medes, Persians and Greeks, lightening thereby in skin colour, and arriving in India as camp-followers of Persian and Greek Empire). They became the financial power behind the Ptolemies, the Seleucids, the Romans, and on down to the present. In India, they fabricated a religion that succeeded in putting themselves at the top of the “food chain”, ca 400 AD, as the “chosen” people that come from the head of Brahma (Abraham). In the West, in accordance with prophecy, they wielded power, but not by their own power. They were the behind-the-scenes power of the British Empire, now the American Empire, and earlier behind the Dutch Empire, Spanish Empire, French Empire and etc. back to even before Rome.

    The difference now is that the Khazar Jews, also a race of converts, have done to the Edomite Jews what the Edomites did to the Israelites of Judah ca. 600 BC; they have taken over so-called Jewry. So the colonizer has himself been colonized.

    Indeed, the Khazar Jew, together with the Edomite Jew, and their lesser brethren such as the Edomite brahminist Hindus, have been colonized by Satan himself. Negro Judah is for the moment at the bottom end of the food chain. The East Indian in T&T is seeking to enforce that food-chain ordering in the face of the apparent anomaly of Negro rule. The opportunity was made possible by perfidious Albion with his doctrine of divide et impera. The same applies in Fiji and elsewhere where the indo-Edomite was sent, as agents of their anglo-Edomite brethren of seed.

    The matter is truly complicated, but all written. It is there to be discerned by those whose eyes have been opened for the purpose.

    The further prophetic inevitability is that the Negro will be raised up to rule, and he who led into captivity will find himself led into captivity. It is now approx 2,600 years since (Negro) Judah was brought down. Therefore, his prophesied restoration is near at hand. Esau’s time (“time, times and a half”) is now essentially up. We are actually now in the time of “tarrying”, the bell already having been rung for the metaphorical final lap.

    As the Flood came and took away the unrighteous, so soon the Fire. T&T is a relative backwater in that larger scheme, but also microcosm. Esau, in self-adulation, celebrates his “arrival”, giving scant respect to the Israelite, Negro host. A scant few, perhaps including such as you, Raff, see the folly of that posture. But prophecy assures us the rest will certainly not see it, even after the Fire comes, let alone before that.

    Nevertheless, to all with the requisite largeness of heart and spirit, I say,

    Shalom.

    “And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of the Most High, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.” (Revelation 16:9)

  8. Many seem to derive sadistic delight in questioning the loyalty and patriotism of Indians to their birth-place Trinidad and Tobago. Even in Parliament these days when the UNC refuses to vote for the FATCA Bill or to support willy-nilly any foolish Bill introduced by the PNM including the property tax the UNC Parliamentarians are subjected to false and self-serving accusations by the other side of being disloyal, unpatriotic and even seditious as if they that is the other side knows what it is to be a True Trinbagonian. Some of the commentators are also very quick to tell us to go back to India as if they have that right since Indians have an inalienable right to this place. They confuse political India with cultural India in their ignoramus.At the same time the celebration of Motherland Africa continues and continues unabated. They cannot conduct a decent argument or exchange of views dispassionately and without rancour. Indians must not even think and write as they feel unless their thoughts are pre-sanctioned by the owners or validated by the validating urban elites to gain currency and acceptability.

    1. Stephen Kangal:

      Many seem to derive sadistic delight in questioning the loyalty and patriotism of Indians to their birth-place Trinidad and Tobago.

      If this is a response to what I wrote, then “delight” is the wrong word, and “sadistic” even more so.

      The ruling emotion in my case is offence: I am offended when the leader of the Opposition threatens the country with a remark such as “BLOOD will flow in the streets”. That is a contempt of the Constitution and social contract under which we all may enjoy peace, tranquility, and certain agreed “constitutional rights”.

      I also take offence when I read an Indian Policy document, calling among others to “make the niggahs our slaves”. The document talks about “our personnels”, and “our SEA marking groups”. This is the talk of a SEDITIOUS sectarian minority.

      You cannot in one breath talk about “inalienable rights” guaranteed under the Constitution, and at the same time urge sectarian sedition which in its nature is a contempt of the Constitution. That Indian Policy document might be dismissed as the voice of some lunatic fringe. But not when all what is urged in the document is fully consistent with what utters from the mouths of the public leaders of the sectarian minority: the author of the afore-mentioned threat about BLOOD in the streets, plus the leader of the Maha Sabha, the only group that would be in a position to have “our SEA marking groups”.

      So “sadistic delight” is far from it; I feel offended, disappointed, disgusted. That is why I have not let go of this issue.

      It was re-ignited when I read of the SABOTAGE of Brian Lara Stadium. Then I read of the SABOTAGE of the inter-island ferries; the engines were interfered with since “foreign” bolts (i.e. not part of the original engine) were found to be the cause of engine malfunction.

      Then I read of the SABOTAGE, albeit legalistic, of the Government’s efforts with respect to Land and Property Tax. I do not object to a LOYAL Opposition making useful and constructive contributions in Parliament aimed at achieving a more perfect society. But it is clear that the intent of these obstructionist efforts is in keeping with Item #1 of the Indian Policy: “make the country ungovernable”.

      Moreover, we all know that that objective does not stem from a lunatic fringe of the sectarian minority you represent, but from the very top of the UNC, because these are the very words uttered by one Basdeo Panday, whenever that was, in his capacity as Leader of the UNC.

      So no, when I question the loyalty of the sectarian minority guilty of this SEDITION, I do so, not out of “sadistic delight”, but out of a sense of patriotic disgust, well justified by the evidence just outlined above. I am OFFENDED by such behaviour.

      Don’t trivialize the matter. This is serious business, even for a generally insouciant people such as we are here in T&T. But even for all that insouciance, we are well capable of being aroused to action, indeed violence. Do not make the mistake of under-estimating the depth of feeling that the misbehaviour, and yes, DISLOYALTY, of the Opposition, arouses.

      Indians have an inalienable right to this place.

      Actually, no.

      No sectarian minority has inalienable rights to any place. The so-called (and impostor) Jews have suffered pogroms and been kicked out of about 100 countries. Your co-ethnics were kicked out of Uganda. And history is replete with sectarian minorities all over the world that have simply worn out their welcome. Understand that clearly.

      The Constitution provides guarantees under a social CONTRACT. When that contract is broken, the associated rights likewise are surrendered. That is how any contract works; if you keep up your obligations, you may enjoy the rights, but not if you break the contract.

      So no, you have no inalienable rights. You have rights for as long as you are of good behaviour. If, as a sectarian minority, you engage in SEDITION, your inalienable rights should be considered put in check. When you engage in SABOTAGE or other forms of INSURRECTION, consider carefully, that your inalienable rights may be subject to REVOCATION. Not by any court of law, understand clearly. There comes a point in the affairs of men when MOB RULE takes over. Consider the French Revolution and the Reign of TERROR that it unleashed. Consider the Russian Revolution. Consider the afore-mentioned pogroms. Etc.

      Your inalienable rights are in fact CONDITIONAL, whatever the Constitution may say. Keep the social contract, and enjoy the peace and tranquility that this land has for the most part provided its inhabitants. Break the social contract, and all bets are off.

      Word to the wise.

      I withhold my peace from you, but to others I say,

      Shalom.

      “Deliver me, O Most High, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man; 2 Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war. 3 They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. Selah.” (Psalm 140:1-3)

      1. The “sabotage” of the Brian Lara stadium ,if it indeed occurred was vandalism pure and simple. To associate this mischief with some sort of sedition resulting from this so called “Indian Policy” is really stretching it.
        The alleged sabotage of the inter island ferries was a carefully contrived and conveniently leaked piece of misinformation designed by mischievous miscreants wishing to shift the blame and responsibility for delivering a competent service to others.
        Even the PM in a news conference made an ass of himself by repeating this phoney sabotage story. The Canadian company responsible for the ferry maintenance was fired by the present government. The contract went to a local incompetent company , probably supporters of this present incompetent regime which also failed to negotiate a new contract with the freight ferry. Tobago now has to deal with two passenger ferries in need of proper maintenance and no reliable means of transport for freight and trucks. Inexperienced neophytes are simply screwing up.
        The legal challenges regarding the CJ, another incompetent, will be resolved in legitimate courtrooms.
        And by the way we are not a sectarian minority in T&T, we are the largest ethnic group in the country, so unshackle your racist views and breathe. You will feel a lot better!

        1. Your hypotheses of vandalism/incompetence are less credible than the hypothesis of sabotage pursuant to a an accidentally exposed sectarian plan to recapture political office, enslave the Negro, and loot the Treasury.

          The incompetence of the present political incumbent is precisely what the perpetrators seek to convince the body-politic of, when in fact the conscious PLAN is to resort to SABOTAGE to achieve that effect.

          What makes the difference in the competing hypotheses is Item #1 of the Indian Policy: “Make the country ungovernable”.

          I do not assert that as speculation. I did not write that. And the authors of the Indian Policy, sure of sectarian solidarity, did not expect the document would come into the wrong hands. It was inadvertently made public outside of the sectarian minority.

          This was part of a plan circulated a mere week or so after electoral defeat. Its stated purpose is to regain office. Aspects of the plan obviously were of long standing, such as t’iefing in SEA school placements, controlling access to UWI, its medical school, etc.

          Everyone with eyes to see can see ACTUAL correspondence between the plan and what has been going on in the society on the ground.

          There is too much happening on too many fronts, involving your “personnels”, for your hypothesis of anonymous “vandalism” to be more credible than the hypothesis of deliberate SABOTAGE, pursuant to the actionable SEDITION that is the Indian Policy document.

          For example, when a Minister deposits $90,000 in First Citizens, it’s in the paper the next day. When the Sports Minister leads a team to Tobago, we again learn next day in the papers what was the cost of the trip and who all were there that lent questionable optics to the trip. Etc.

          These align with Item #2 of the Plan which calls for relentless ESPIONAGE from within the Ministries and public enterprises. ALL the major dailies now cooperate in the exposes which then are breathlessly leaked.

          Obviously, I cannot prove anything conclusively sitting in an armchair. I can merely put two and two together, and advance a coherent hypothesis of the matter, based on the EVIDENCE of the accidentally exposed Indian Policy document.

          It would take good police work to make the matter conclusive. That is beyond my competence, but I can well imagine how a committed Minister of National Security might get the job done using the abundant resources at his disposal.

          As to the CJ, his opinions in the Elections Petitions matter, were far superior to those of his colleagues on the Court of Appeal, both in terms of cogency of argumentation, and in terms of judicial gravitas and balance. The UNC “personnels” will consider him an enemy, precisely because of his competence, and his refusal to play along with UNC partisan nonsense. Obviously he is an impediment to capturing the commanding height of the Judiciary. If that commanding height is captured, the Executive would be put effectively in check.

          That also is just one of many initiatives on the judicial front, all involving evident UNC “personnels” and fig-leaf judgments all tending in a certain direction, and all contributing to the objective of “making the country ungovernable”.

          All considered, there is only one credible hypothesis. The East Indian as a sectarian minority is working the plan to “make the niggahs their slaves” (Item #3). All East Indians are not necessarily party to the plan, but the leadership (UNC and Maha Sabha) evidently have succeeded in watering every imagined grievance against the kneee-gah. Hence the grass-roots Indian can be relied upon to go along with this open-secret of an Indian Policy.

          Whether or not the East Indian is the “largest ethnic group”, they still are a sectarian minority. Otherwise, the UNC would not have lost the last election.

          No other ethnic group in the country is a sectarian minority.

          With your 13 radio stations, and hindu schools, regrettably, your people are for the most part culturally set apart. That is why the UNC may count on a reliable voting bloc, regardless of the scale of the thievery, corruption, incompetence, and rank racism that they brought to government.

          That is why as a sectarian minority, they consider it essential to control the organs of media. Had it not been for Jack Warner’s Sunshine newspaper, there is every likelihood that the UNC would have fooled enough of the majority to squeak back in.

          Regardless, the Most High is in charge, and your plans will come to nought. That is guaranteed. Quite simply, Esau’s time is now up, and it is Israel’s time to rise. As it is written, so shall it be; hear or forebear. The only question is whether mercy may be triggered under the condition implicit in:

          “If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.” (Jeremiah 18:8)

          May the Most High view this scurrilous Indian Policy with the indignation that it deserves, frustrate the miscreants who have concocted it and are working it day-to-day, and give to those anointed to lead us in this perilous time the brains, the backbone, and the belly to meet the challenge fearlessly, as their oath of office requires.

          I continue to withhold my peace from you, but to others I say

          Shalom.

          “For thus saith Yahweh of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.
          For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that Yahweh of hosts hath sent me.” (Zechariah 2:8-9)

  9. “They confuse political India with cultural India in their ignoramus.At the same time the celebration of Motherland Africa continues and continues unabated.”

    Stephen Kangal, you need to stop..
    It’s a reason that in 2017 Africans are still crying out for access to the airwaves in T&T (under a PNM government)… Yet 13 radio stations for ‘Indian’ programming…
    Trinbago cannot handle this world story told from an African perspective, Stephen… It’s all about economics Stephen..

    Now, if the mod will permit me to talk in street lingo…..

    1. RamK:

      You quote Stephen Kangal saying: “They confuse political India with cultural India in their ignoramus.”

      Yes he needs to stop… especially considering that he proves himself an ignoramus, when he misuses the word “ignoramus”.

      He thinks the East Indian more sinned against than sinning.

      It is a strange psychology that perceives and dwells upon racial “humiliations”. One cannot doubt his subjective perception, precisely because subjective.

      But it seems to me far more likely that the humiliations suffered were class driven in a class-conscious society, rather than race driven. Yes the “coolie” would have suffered that kind of class-driven humiliation. I do not condone it, but the “Negro” coming out of slavery would have suffered in that regard equally or worse.

      Come to think of it, there were actually free “Negroes” who were themselves slave holders. This was and in many ways still is a highly class-conscious society. It was a slave society and a colonial society after all.

      The new Indian arrivals were far more class, and caste, conscious even than the British. The problem in their encounter with the “Negro” was that they expected, based on skin colour and other physiognomic ascription, that the “Negro” of whatever status or social position, would goar laghay to the coolie. Obviously, that was never going to happen.

      Decades later, they still want it to happen. And we the “Negro”, in our insouciance, mostly don’t know of that subjective humiliation that still burns in the gut of the erstwhile coolie in this land. That’s why they want to “make the niggah their slave”. They want thereby to erase the stain of those decades-old “humiliations”.

      I pray they will find another way to erase that stain, but I don’t see it going away soon, sadly. The blood that their leader calls for may well be seen as the only solvent that will do the job. I doubt however it will work well for them. Certainly, they have more to lose.

      Ironically, as you mention their 13 radio stations… the genocide in Rwanda was sparked by a Hutu radio station nursing Hutu grievances over humiliations they suffered at the hands of the Tutsi during the colonial period. There appears to be a parallel here in T&T.

      May the Most High bless this land that the disloyal program of sedition, sabotage and insurrection be made to stop, that we may have peace and tranquility in the land.

      Shalom.

      “Deliver me, O Most High, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man; 2 Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war. 3 They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. Selah.” (Psalm 140:1-3)

  10. Our UNC Indentured co-inhabittants of Trinidad have declared War on on prime minister Rowley, it seems that they are attacking on all cylinders, first, he was too black, presently the judiciary is being used politically with faces in certain places of what should be an esteemed wing of national governance, if not checked, Trinidad will be on unpaved roads to mayhem.

    1. Cooper:

      Exactly.

      Isn’t it interesting that the former AG sequestered about a billion dollars of the people’s money in the form of bogus and inflated legal fees paid to his pals. Having thus fattened the war chest, here now he comes, with dirty hands before the courts, seeking JUSTICE. But the only justice he seeks is such as would make the now-incumbent Government unable to govern.

      They must take us for fools!

      But then again, if we put up with this nonsense in the name of constitutional government, then we are.

      Purely as a matter of the Art of War, my advice in the War Council would be to take off the gloves.

      The adversary has lots of weak flanks to attack. We should see a blizzard of charges being brought against all the corrupt former ministers.

      We should see also a frontal counter-assault, using the constitutional provision for calling a STATE OF EMERGENCY… obviously not on the grounds that the adversary is (ab)using the courts, but on the grounds of SABOTAGE, linked to and animated by SEDITION; see the Indian Policy.

      Then, under such STATE OF EMERGENCY, find the likely ring-leaders, and lock their a$$es up!

      Let them then wail to the international community. I don’t think that would get them anywhere. Even the BJP Government in India would be hard put to expose themselves and put a hand.

      Such action would put the leadership of our troublesome sectarian minority in check.

      If the underlings continue with the obstructionist mayhem, let the SOE continue indefinitely, dissolve the damn Parliament, suspend the Constitution, and rule by decree, until they boil the hell down like bhaji.

      No more Mr. Nice Guy! Let the wajang and the Rottwelier, loose!

      And if the newspapers want to kick up a fuss, shut those down too! Or at the least take a page from Eric Williams, go direct to the people in Woodford Square, and symbolically bu’n dem! They are clearly in league with the insurrectionists. And shut down the Maha Sabha radio stations also!

      FIRE, or turn, or misdirect suspected spies also. Two can play the game of espionage and Spy vs Spy. It is clear, according to the seditious game plan, that they have numberless willing spies, within the Ministries and other organs of the state and public enterprises, “assiduously” gathering information to feed to the “personnels” of this seditious, anti-democratic movement. Foil or destroy the espionage capability of this seditious movement.

      The adversary is conducting their war in a manner contemptuous of the social CONTRACT that is the Constitution. That, under natural law, renders the social contract void, at least until such time as the country can rout out the nest of vipers that are fomenting not only sedition, but insurrection and sabotage.

      It would be foolish of the Government to fight with one hand tied behind the back, observing the Constitutional and legalistic niceties, when the adversary is treating that same Constitution with seditious and insurrectionist contempt.

      Take a page from Duterte’s (President of the Philippines) book, and fight fire with fire!

      Otherwise, we will have to go from bending over backward to appease those who refuse to be appeased, to bending over forward to satisfy their desire to “make the niggahs your slaves!”

      There comes a time when the body-politic must take strong and bitter medicine to eject the worms eating away from inside. The Constitution in its wisdom allows for such bitter medicine in the form of SOE.

      The previous Government used it with slight provocation to lock up 4,000 knee-gahs likened at the time to inmates at a “zoo”. Today, we face not merely a threat, but an ongoing state of war engaged in by a disloyal Opposition. In no way have they been wronged. Not even in the slightest. That state of war has grown out of a SEDITIOUS plan, the aforesaid Indian Policy. It has now morphed into physical and legalistic SABOTAGE aimed at rendering the elected Government unable to govern. The provocation is clear, real, and IN YOUR FACE. The veils of deniability are too flimsy to provide credible cover to their nefarious and traitorous activity.

      ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!

      I am not a member of the PNM, and carry no brief for the Prime Minister. I speak as a patriot.

      Shalom.

      “Deliver me, O Most High, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man; Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. Selah.” (Psalm 140:1-3)

      1. This post more than any other proves that you are an idiot….a dangerous vermin who should be in jail!

    2. Rowley’s incompetence is more dangerous than his blackness. I am sure the judiciary can withstand any legal assault.

      1. TMan:

        (1) “Only one problem with you reasoning….you will lose!”

        Whether we “will lose” or not is for the Most High to determine. What I can guarantee is that your Indian Policy is an affront both to the Most High and man.

        Therefore, in the larger scheme, you have lost already! For you invite Scriptural condemnation as “…the people against whom Yahweh hath indignation for ever.”

        The only chance you have in the larger scheme is as given by: “If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.” (Jeremiah 18:8)

        Word to the wise.

        (2) “This post more than any other proves that you are an idiot….a dangerous vermin who should be in jail!”

        Under what charge may I ask?

        Actually those who deserve to have their a$$es locked up are those behind the Indian Policy. This is an affront to the Constitution. It is an actionable SEDITION. It clearly has inspired actionable SABOTAGE, and therefore INSURRECTION, against the lawful authority of the state.

        I will not rest until the ring-leaders are locked up.

        (3) “Rowley’s incompetence is more dangerous than his blackness. I am sure the judiciary can withstand any legal assault.”

        Huh!? Now it comes out. Rowley the Rawan’s “blackness” is in itself “dangerous”.

        This is the kind of nonsense that drove George Speight in Fiji to armed revolt against the “Indian” government that rose there to power.

        I will do everything in my power to ensure that the UNC never again rise to political office in this land. That inadvertent admission of yours is the reason why.

        The international community will consider the matter if and when the time comes… For the ring-leaders of SEDITION and SABOTAGE are high political leaders of the sectarian minority. Why are they behaving this way?… will be the question. Here you have inadvertently given the reason. It was the same in Fiji, which is why there was no international call to restore Chaudhury to office. You object, viscerally, to Rowley because of his “blackness”. The Indians in Fiji objected to the native Fijians for the same reason.

        You expose yourself inadvertently as a party to the Indian Policy, item #3 of which is to “make the niggahs our slaves”, where niggah=blackie=chamar in your simple-minded bigotry.

        I am here to tell you that the time for that is past. Esau’s (Edom’s) dominion was for the limited time of a “time, times and a half”. (The indo-Aryan hindu is a branch of the Edomite family tree.) That is why and how, as a stranger in this land, you could rise high above the Negro host. That was one of the curses upon the Israelite (notably the “Negro”) of the seed; Deu 28:43. Your time is now up.

        True Israel and specifically the “Negro”, in all our “blackness”, is to rise to rule. Some of the curses under which we have suffered will now rest upon those who have afflicted, or sought to, afflict us. That is written:

        “Thus saith Yahweh, …that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again: But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.” (Isaiah 51:22-23)

        Your belief or otherwise in Holy Scripture is not required. The Book has been fulfilled as written; it will be fulfilled as written.

        It will not be the first time that not just black, but coal-black, people have ruled on this planet. Prestige then attached to black skin, just as today it attaches to white skin. It is meaningless in itself. Only idiots and/or the undiscerning attach significance to it.

        May the Most High continue to expose the wicked ones who are either leaders or enablers of this cancer upon the body politic that is the Indian Policy. And may He give PM Rowley and his team the brains, the belly and the back-bone to deal fearlessly with the threat that it poses, in fulfillment of their oath of office.

        I withhold my peace from you, and those of your ilk, but to others I say

        Shalom.

        “Deliver me, O Most High, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man; Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. Selah.” (Psalm 140:1-3)

        1. Please do not evoke God in your suggestions of violence and insurrection.
          How can you use a quote like this and also promote your violent hatred, spread propaganda and advocate destruction as you did previously.

          “Deliver me, O Most High, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man;

          It is the height of hypocrisy!

          1. This is laughable.

            I did not write the Indian Policy calling on the East Indian to “make the country ungovernable”, to “make the niggahs our slaves”, and more.

            That is actionable SEDITION.

            That sedition is moreover now morphed into SABOTAGE. I so accuse. I know you deny it. But it suffices that the EVIDENCE speaks for itself. It ought not to take much police work to make the matter conclusive.

            Sabotage of inter-island ferries is potentially life-threatening. Sabotage of the Brian Lara Stadium clearly was designed to embarrass the Government, and in pursuit of the objective to “make the country ungovernable”.

            SABOTAGE is criminally actionable.

            SEDITION + SABOTAGE = INSURRECTION.

            INSURRECTION is criminally actionable. I continue to think that the proper response of a government to such challenge is to lock dey a$$es up! Without bail. As relevant statute mandates.

            All of this is combined with the (ab)use of the courts in a cockamamie manner obviously designed to aid in the aim to “make the country ungovernable”, and to remove a knee-gah Chief Justice who does not cooperate with UNC nonsense like the Elections Petition.

            All of that is part of the EVIDENTIARY picture.

            In none of that am I an advocate nor perpetrator of actionable contempt of the Law or Constitution.

            However, I do remind you of that which is historically undeniable: Constitutional rights and protections afforded a minority group that turns SECTARIAN, SEDITIOUS, and INSURRECTIONIST cannot be relied upon. When such a sectarian minority persists in misbehaviour and contempt of the host, they tend to wear out their welcome. In such a situation, the Constitution provides no protection. That is natural law.

            Let those who advocate SECTARIAN SEDITION, SABOTAGE, and INSURRECTION, consider the matter carefully.

            Such collectvely are the “evil man”. A prayer to the Most High to be delivered from them is certainly not inappropriate.

            As to VIOLENCE per se, the Hebrew Israelites were formed as a warrior nation. The idea that the Most High condemns all violence is clearly false. David used violence against Goliath, or have you forgotten the story. And for his courage in putting himself on the line to confront Goliath’s impertinent challenge, he was praised as the “apple of the Most High’s eye”. Violence is entirely appropriate in certain circumstances, in particular when a people are being aggressed upon, whether overtly, or in a cowardly covert manner, as here.

            Take that however you like, but it is no hypocrisy in the sight of the Most High. Quite the opposite, I am required to rebuke my brother caught in misdeed:

            “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.” (Leviticus 19:17)

            If you persist in your evil, despite the warning and rebuke, then we shall see how the Most High will bring the peace.

            I withhold my peace from you, but to others as usual I say,

            Shalom.

            “Deliver me, O Most High, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man; Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. Selah.” (Psalm 140:1-3)

  11. Personally it is sad that in Trinidad that some consider themselves as Indians from India and Africans from Africa. The fact is that we are Indians from Trinidad and Africans from Trinidad.

    Not saying to deny culture and to leave the wrongs of history uncorrected. However, it must be realized that our ancestors either voluntarily came here or were forced into migration and after generations there were changes in culture and identity.

    Fact is that after 3,4 or five generations of being in this land it should be realized that burying our navel string in “the motherland” makes absolutely no sense. And that the continuous manifestations of racism only serves to benefit the parasitic oligarchy.If it is that we cannot see humanity in all citizens and that which we see is race first then indeed we haven’t learnt anything from human history or Trinidadian history.

    1. Well said. Through the generations there have evolved mixed races and their motherland is Trinidad. Amazingly, the inciting of racial intolerance by some on this blogging site bears ignorance to the hilt. Worse, is when the Creator is brought into the conversations becomes no different as to ISIS quoting Islamic sentiments and proclaiming it is a holy war.

    2. It would appear on the surface that the comments made by Musa is patriotic and well meaning. It would be the ideal if in reality what is going on in the country is seeking idealism and and patriotic citizenry. One would be foolish to close one’s eyes and in the interest of peace and love not notice the blatant sectarianism that is encouraged, promulgated and broadcast in the name of race in Trinidad and Tobago. One group owns or dominate at lease thirteen radio stations in this little country of 1.3M people. If the contents that they broadcast were peace, love and country, I would be the first to say “I’m with you my brothers and sisters”. Does Musa think that this is the case or maybe he does not yet have the time to examine the contents of the broadcasts?

      I know and share the ideals to which he refers but at the same time we should allow ourselves to be made fools of. I love my dear departed mother but there is one thing she always tried to instill in me that I did not agree with and that is giving up my rights for the sake of peace. The best way to deal with what WE KNOW and recognize as the racial problem, is to acknowledge them, treat them as divisive elemental schisms and look for ways in which to minimize them. BUT AS OF NOW, NO ONE HAS TAKEN UP THAT MANTLE AND I WOULD BE DAMNED IF I WERE TO ALLOW MYSELF TO PLAY DEAD AND HAVE PEOPLE TRAMPLE ALL OVER ME.

      1. Kian:

        Check out this video talking about evicting Hindus from Bhutan of all places: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tSrz7gb9kU

        The Hindutva mind-set is obviously to blame, although the white Aussie(?) presenter seems to have been misled as to what really caused it.

        From this Bhutanese commenter’s remark on the blog, it is clear that some cookie-cutter Hindutva crap was going on:

        Hello excuse me .. how the hell can you just blame on us and out country.. Our kings were kind enough to let you people stay in our country. and when we kindly asked you to leave our country Rather then Agreeing you guys revolted against us. Damaging the schools . Destorying the Hospitals…etc and etc.. Why are you acting as if you guys where the viticm we too are. for you info you guys to made the birtish run away and we too did the same in order to protect our countries identity . You can used point on us saying we were harsh. India and Bhutan have been working together in many ways. we have been there for one another .. We are know for our friendship. Please dont try to make a war. The world have enough bullshits. i am not talking as a Bhutanese citizen but a citizen of the world

        There it is again: SEDITION, SABOTAGE, and INSURRECTION. I’m sure if Alyssa were here she could point us to a GOPIO playbook, the tactics seem so familiar from what we have been WITNESSING here in T&T.

        The Bhutanese indignation is palpable, as is yours in local context, and with which I entirely concur.

        I make this post also for the benefit of our East Indian/indo-Trinidadian brethren — it is their choice as to how they see themselves — that they may see a concrete example of the point I made earlier:

        If they continue to hold the Constitution in criminal contempt through actionable SEDITION, SABOTAGE and INSURRECTION; as well as make of it a pappy-show through LEGAL ABUSE of its provisions, moreover with the apparent connivance of co-ethnics within the Judiciary, tben there may well come a time when the Constitution will offer them no protection, whatever the “inalienable rights” it otherwise offers.

        Idi Amin was made out to be a mad-man, and they drove George Speight in Fiji mad (look at some of the youtube tapes).

        Now here, in India’s backyard, the Bhutanese have obviously had enough!

        Btw the video talks deceptively, albeit perhaps unintentionally, about “Nepali-speakers” when most of the evicted Nepali are apparently ethnic Indian Hindu. The same have taken over Nepal also, from the native Nepali who look like Tibetans, not indo-Aryan brahminist Hindus, like the “Nepali” Prime Minister.

        The point for those caught up in Hindutva here in T&T, pushing a rank racist agenda articulated in the href=https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Indian%20Policy%20%20Trinidad>Indian Policy, is that they might end up kicked out of a “big house” (that is a quote from the old Indian lady in the video) with nothing except the clothes on their back, living in a refugee camp, lamenting the brutality and unfairness of the host country Bhutanese that finally had had ENOUGH.

        The Bhutanese appear to be the gentlest of Buddhist people. The brahminists probably thought they would lie down and submit to their Hindutva agenda there, too.

        Consider that a warning. Even the most laid-back and insouciant people can get to that point of righteous indignation where they say, ENOUGH is ENOUGH!!!

        Shalom.

        “Deliver me, O Most High, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man; Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. Selah.” (Psalm 140:1-3)

        1. Yoruba, Stephen Kangal appears to be saying that he alone is an authority to speak on race because he is “different”. He uses words interchangeably to mean the same thing. I remember when Black Stalin sang his mega hit “Caribbean Man”, it created indignation in the Indian community because, in their minds this Caribbean man that Stalin was singing about did not have the same characteristics as the one they contemplated
          stall’s song envisaged. I believe that it is still a sore spot in their minds because that song continues to be popular worldwide. In theory it means that if an Indian (from the Caribbean) were to be confronted abroad with identifying as a Caribbean man, he would have difficulty in explaining. In their reasoning, Stalin’s song is not descriptive enough to include them as being or identifying as “a Caribbean man”.

          Technically, this is the same argument that we are discussing with regards to their objections to the Chief Justice, the make up of the JLSC Committee, the swearing of these two judges and of course the newly passed marriage act. They use subtle arguments to disguise intent. But when pressed, they always resort to their favorite charge that we are being “racist”.
          Notwithstanding the fact that they are pushing the issue from a racial perspective, they do not expect us to decipher their intent. It’s like Stephen saying that I don’t like old white men in the privy council, when in fact I am saying that Indians are not satisfied with the local court rulings when it is not in their favor, but they will accept the same verdict if the old white men in the privy council passes it. I am sure you do understand what I mean.

          It is a mind game that we too must play in exposing this age-old manipulation to always make themselves ‘the victim’. We must stop that kind of manipulation and expose its evil intent.

Comments are closed.