Exposing Racism in the Medical Fraternity, Government and Media

By A. Hotep
July 01, 2007

AfricansThere have been many complaints over the years from the public that the medical fraternity discriminates against Africans who seek to become doctors. The response was a generalization that Africans were not applying themselves for entry into the medical fraternity. Many of us knew that was not true, but those in charge did not feel inclined to investigate the racism in many of the learning institutions, including the University of the West Indies. Now that Professor Bartholomew appears to be making a similar claim, suddenly it is being taken seriously.

In a strongly-worded letter to Minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education and copied to the Prime Minister, Patrick Manning; John Rahael, Minister of Health; and the Dean of the Medical Faculty, Dr Phyllis Pitt-Miller; Prof Courtenay Bartholomew, Emeritus Professor Medicine (UWI), has criticised the admissions policy of students for entry into medical school in Mt Hope.

“Over the years I have received many complaints of alleged discriminatory or preferential admission practices in the selection of certain students for entry into medical school here, several of which I am sure are not valid. However, I could not personally verify any of these until it was experienced in a most glaring way by two members of my competent and dedicated staff of the Medical Research Foundation, who in addition to their A-Levels had BScs from very reputable universities in the USA and impressive extracurricular health-related activities while there.
(See: Prof hits admission policy of Mt Hope medical school)

Perhaps having recognized that there may be validity to the claims of racism, Louis Lee Sing (a staunch PNM member and beneficiary of PNM largess), called in to the Umbala program on his radio station i95.5 FM and attempted to distort the intent of those who genuinely lobby for more African awareness before he attacked an opposition member of parliament and the medical fraternity (which is also seen as an arm of the opposition party) for discrimination against Africans.

An audio clip of Louis Lee Sing’s comment on i95.5 FM during Umbala’s show on the morning of July 01, 2007

[audio:LouisLeeSing010707.mp3]

The preamble to Louis Lee Sing’s politically motivated support for the claims made by Professor Bartholomew is a distortion at best, while clearly showing the abject contempt he holds for African culture and African people.

Louis Lee Sing said:

…We are about a better Trinidad and Tobago. We are not about a better Africa or a better India; we leave that for people who live far away from here and are no doubt catching their times. In this place however, people are so happy they want to take us back to that place where people are catching their behinds and crawling on their bellies and bottoms and we will not permit that to happen in this society…

Successive governments, starting with the PNM, have all contributed to the racism that exists in society by continually denying that racism exists in many quarters except during political hustling. They have all suppressed efforts to develop awareness from the African point of view to help redress the colonial brainwashing that fuels racism against Africans, and from the racism that is part of the Brahminical Hindu caste system.

It has been a common banal tactic of certain PNM members to claim that African cultural awareness programs have been about trying to take people back to an imagined Africa, ‘a backward Africa where people crawl on their bellies’. In the years that the political organization the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) was politically active, PNM members told the public that if NJAC won the elections people would be forced to change their names and wear dashikis. The idea of African names and dashikis was offensive to people who were colonized to feel that associating with Africa, African history and cultures was degrading. Of course, the degrading colonization worked and NJAC never got many votes in any elections although they fielded some of the more informed candidates.

One must remember that it was Louis Lee Sing who said that African historical and cultural programs on the radio would bring the nation to another Bosnia and Sarajevo. He stated this, on the first anniversary of Power 102 FM while he was a partner there, when asked why he does not support African programs on the airways.

Louis Lee Sing was in charge of the state media and for many years, even during his reign, the state media hosted daily Indian cultural programs. The state media called on members of the Indian community to put together cultural programs which they hosted. This was never extended to the African community except around Emancipation holidays when they allowed fifteen-minute segments of African information. The common argument was that the state media would not get sponsorship for such programs (a stupid excuse to start with), but this was proven not to be the real reason when I publicly lobbied and challenged the station to host my program, ‘Dialogue’, which I also sponsored. However, the popular program ended, and when callers enquired as to the reason they were told that there were not sponsors to continue it. However, several persons including myself publicly stated that in actuality our funds were refused. One business person stated that he was told by the stations program director to save his funds for some other program because they were restructuring the radio station and were not continuing the program, ‘Dialogue’, at this time.

Unaddressed racism is the reason there were not ongoing African cultural programs on the state media and is also the reason that in this country where there are so many privately owned media institutions, not one is dedicated to the African perspective.

The constant uninformed attacks from the highest echelons in society toward those who are urgently addressing racism, and seek to further do so through the media, contribute to the low level of interest in African-focused radio and television stations. Many have seen the evidence that the state would not endorse such stations, and the public, who by and large are mostly not sensitive to the value of an African cultural format, would not assist and defend such a venture.

While some people could now be less opposed to admitting that racism is taking place in the medical fraternity (even if only for their own partisan political motives), for years some Africans have been expressing similar sentiments and have been denied space in the media to expand on the many aspects of institutional racism as they exist. We have been denied space in the local media to assist in addressing racism through increasing African cultural awareness that could help remove some of the negative stereotypes, while raising self-esteem. So while some are calling on the government to investigate the medical fraternity, I would like to see those same ones acknowledge the role of the media in sustaining racism.

17 thoughts on “Exposing Racism in the Medical Fraternity, Government and Media”

  1. I find Mr. Lee Sing’s statements to be not only quite racist and stupid but in fact contradictory. As Mr. Hotep rightly said it has always been the silly claim by many with unaddressed racism to say that discussing African issues means taking us “back to Africa” (although I never understood why that was a bad thing, considering West Indians who migrate for all sorts of reasons are quite cool with always seeing themselves as Caribbean and are seen by foreigners as holding on to their Caribbean roots, and people are quite fine with that). Mr. Lee Sing then had to take it a step further by seeming to insinuate that all Africans are “catching their behinds….crawling on their bellies and bottoms” as he put it. In other words, why on earth would anyone want to identify with those unfortunate, degraded people? This is not only an insipid generalization but speaks to his view of African people on the continent, as low creatures who exist in a world of uniform degradation and backwardness. This is unsurprising. Mr. Lee Sing’s comments on National Service, some time ago also speaks to his unaddressed and unreasoned issues.

    His comments in the above clip are quite contradictory. It seems as though he could not resist sticking in his own personal ideas about people who call for addressing African issues whether or not it was relevant to the issue. While he begins his statement by lashing out at those who call for addressing African issues by speaking of continental Africans in a very insulting manner, he goes on to show just why these unaddressed issues lead to so many social problems. He says that now that it was Mr. Bartholomew and not Mr. Cudjoe or Mr. Umbala or many ordinary African people that raised the issue of racism in UWI’s Medical School, then maybe Prime Minister Manning will do something about it. This statement in itself shows that the views of so called ordinary Africans are not only not respected and regarded by the authorities, but that clearly Africans are not given enough air space to deal with those issues most closely affecting African people in the media that their own taxes pay for, the State media. Certainly with adequate media space to address African issues it would have been much harder to ignore the pleas of so many African students and parents who have made this claim, like many of the claims of racism in the health sector such as those made by African women suffering in the nations hospital through maltreatment by Indian doctors who attempt to convince them to opt for sterilization.

    Indeed, the calls for investigations into the admission practices at Mt Hope have been around for some time. I am also personally acquainted with some post A’Level students admitted to undergraduate study at UWI who were advised by Indian academic advisors to opt for the Humanities instead of Sciences en route to Medical School because the field is “very competitive”. I am aware of the present government giving scholarships for Trinidadians to study medicine at St. George’s University in Grenada and I personally know of a few young Africans whom many felt were quite qualified for admittance to Mt Hope but were refused and then took up government scholarships to study in Grenada. Now, I have heard some people link this to a possible move by the government to circumvent UWI’s biased admission policies and train much-needed, qualified doctors. If this is indeed so, then one must ask why the government chose to try to address this imbalance in such a covert manner? Is there an unwillingness to openly challenge anti-African biases by Indians who dominate the medical fraternity at Mt Hope for political purposes? Or could it be that UWI is a law unto itself? Certainly there are Africans who are qualified enough to attend several medical school’s abroad in the United States, the United Kingdom as well as St. George’s Grenada.

    Mr. Lee Sing may have his own ideas about the need for African space in the mainstream media, and the need to address racism and promote African cultural awareness, but his own statement invalidated whatever point he was trying to make by inserting that diatribe. The issue of discrimination against African students in UWI Mt. Hope’s admission policies is yet another manifestation of a lack of African cultural awareness and unaddressed anti-African racism, contributed to in no small part by a biased and prejudiced mainstream media.

  2. The more you keep lingering this Race talk the more it would be magnified. Based on how it is made to be recognised it sneakingly manifests itself into the peoples minds.

    There are many in Africa and India who arent wealthy, this doesnt mean that we are better than them if we have more. They may actually be more happy than us many times.

    I for one never knew that this was the extent people segregated themselves.

    I remember once someone said he was planning to apply for housing in trinidad but he was ‘stopped in his tracks’ by another who told him he wont find a place there, he was Indian!!

    I was shocked at that. This appears to be headed at Afro Trinis too, as in the above scenario.

    These trends are mainly the works of the Politicians in my view.

  3. Senior Postulates
    The more you keep lingering this Race talk the more it would be magnified. Based on how it is made to be recognised it sneakingly manifests itself into the peoples minds.

    How come you do not take the same position when the race talk comes from Indians. It is like I defined it in another response to your discernible deceitful and facetious attempts to silence debate whenever it addressed anti African racism. And like I said in the other thread, it disturbs that comfort level you and others culturally married to the Brahminical Hindu caste system have grown to expect as a matter of course.

    Africans hear me! Do not allow these conniving bastards to silence your voices raised against oppression. They are involved in a conspiracy to create a paradigm in the Caribbean for discussions on race that shelters and obscures the centuries old prejudices inherent in their social order. Speak long and speak loud, and let our voices be clarion calls to our bretheren all the Caribbean and the Americas to be alert to the machinations of the “nuevo slave master aspirants”. We must seek understanding, peace and inter group tolerance among all of the people of the world in general and the Caribbean in particular. But we must never do so at the expense of our pride, our dignity, or the future environment our children will have to live in. “Fire bun dem rass man”

  4. What’s interesting about Ahotep commentary is that he, in his anti-PNM rant choice to attack Mr. Lee Sing, who in my view, is more patriotic that Ahotep could ever be. I listen to what Mr. Lee Sing said and how could anyone draw the conclusion that A. Hotep drew is beyond me. But then again that’s a reflection of A. Hotep anti-PNM position. Instead of dealing with the issue which is a ligitimate one and directing his critisism at the people that has shown utter contempt for the african population in Trinidad and Tobago, namely the Sat Maharaj and the Panday and all these other interlectual bigots, he choses to attack Mr. Lee Sing. Shame on you, you so called africanist.

  5. One must remember that it was Louis Lee Sing who said that African historical and cultural programs on the radio would bring the nation to another Bosnia and Sarajevo. He stated this, on the first anniversary of Power 102 FM while he was a partner there, when asked why he does not support African programs on the airways.

    My question is, what do you think Lee Sing was inferring with this comment. Especially since from time immemorial there have been Indian programming on television and radio and he never saw that as an ignition point for furor. Is he contending that the presence of African Programming will elicit the kind of resentment that would lead to racial strife,

    The biggest obstacle to Africans asserting themselves with the same cultural fervour of others is the compromising attitude among our leadership who are prepared to accept some form of intolerance as a means to an end. I say they should be as critical of the nothern racism of the Le Sing’s as they are about about the bottom feeding and primitive antipathy of the Sat Maharajs and the Pandays. In toto, Africans comprise an overwhelming majority of the peoples of the Caribbean, and we should pander to and kowtow to no one. Let them do their worse, and we must do our best by holding together across the seas, and completely ignoring those who evidence a dislike for us.

  6. This is an important issue which to my mind is lacking in the minds of the Afro-intelligensia. As a boy(I’M 68), I have always noticed that Afro-Trinidadians of other West Indian parentage are always more serious about racism against the African than Afro-Trinidadian of Trinidadian parentage. The Afro-Trinidadian (Trinidad) mantra is almost always “let’s us all get along” in the face of serious challenges and charges of racism from ourIndian counterparts. One need not look far but in our rumshops, factories, CEPEP, URP to see how the African has prospered under a so callede “African” government. Then look at the medical fraternity (represented mainly by MPATT), the Law Association, the so-called “religious” fraternity represented byh Sat and others, the Main contractors (govt),
    the business associations are represented almost exclusively by one race. One only needs to open your eyes and see that these same people are always crying “discrimination”.

    African man wake up and see that you are not only being discrinated against but you are always not taken seriously by your own people when it is glaring that you are way behind everyone else in the scheme of things in Trinidad and Tobago. Are we waiting for the other people to form the next government to find that out?

    My friends, there are no one lower down the ladder than our Afro brothers and sisters but we need to start the upward mobility with our children. We need to teach them manners, gentleness, respect, history, community and a host of educational mannerisms before we can be on the road to recovery.

  7. Logan has hit the mark! Too many Afro-trinis seem to forget that sixty years ago, most of us had a barefoot grandmother, and we moved up from that, but moving up meant moving away. While children are being “poorly taught” in schools, those older grandparent substitutes(educated retirees) for the most part,do not get involved. We are no longer our neighbours’ keepers. We fear them bad chirren. We tell horror stories about school and do not ask what we can do about it until one parent goes in and threatens to buss heads. Then their is an uproar.
    Twenty some years ago, when my sister taught at Barataria Senior Comprehensive School, there was a math teacher there who divided the clas into India and Africa. He said he was ony teaching India, because Africa had no behaviour. He sent the African children out to count the number of toilets in the building, and such nonsense.

    My sister reported it over and over, but the math teacher and the principal were drinking buddies. Nothing changed. The math teacher threatened her for reporting him, but she was an Edwards, and unafraid.

    She failed in one way, she should have taken it directly to the parents of the African children, but she came late to the techniques of vigilance in education, of the village raising the cildren.
    Teachers of African ancestry need to be vigilant in schools to see that our children are equally taught. They need to get on the school committees, retirees need to get on the school boards and be proactive for all children,especially our own.

    Too many teachers have allowed the media to paint a portrait of mayhem in the schools where Afro children are in the majority. When there are reports in the media of big money pasing to get children into certain schools(The ASJA girls and boys colleges, and Barrackpore Comprehensive were mentioned in yesterday’s newspapers), there is little public comemnt on that, but the picture of the barefoot sister of Jack Warner was repeatedly covered. African teachers and parents must use their internet access to bring more positive news of our people into their children’s lives. We leave too much of our children’s education up to others; who cannot be trusted to do right by them.

    I know what I am talking about. I have visited this issue before. What I say here is backed by combined teaching experience of ninety-one years, between my sister Jestina Edwards Guerra, and myself. Our aunt and great-aunt were teachers before us.

  8. I have always seen Louis Lee Sing as a political hustler riding black people back for riches. He plays a carrot and stick game with the PNM licks one minute and praise the next because the PNM is weak in the media and glad for any little showing from the private media. The PNM paid a high political price trying to help him out. Lee Sing is not sympathetic to the bulk of his listenership which are Africans. He feels he can talk down to them and patronize them. He does not take them seriously just like Tony and Dale. He is letting the complaint run because Jerome and George are supporting it but left to him he would cloud the issues with a lot of double talk and hope it dies a natural death.

  9. KILL OR CURE
    Tuesday, July 17 2007

    Head of the Medical Board of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Neil Singh, has asserted that Government’s proposed amendment to the Medical Board Act will put all Board appointments in the hands of the Health Minister. If this is so, it is completely unacceptable.

    At present, the Medical Board is made up entirely of doctors appointed by doctors and is entirely funded by members’ fees. The proposed amendment broadens the composition of the MBTT to include the Chief Medical Officer (a government employee), two doctors appointed from the Health Ministry, four doctors appointed by the Board, another doctor recommended by the University of the West Indies, and three laypersons.

    On the face of it, there is little to fault with this formula. It is certainly worthwhile to have persons outside the medical field on the Board, since the danger of any organisation made up of persons from the same background is that only one perspective is brought to bear on issues. This invariably reduces the chances of reaching correct decisions on any save the most narrow technical issues, and the MBTT does not deal with narrow technical matters, but the far more complex challenges of malpractice by doctors.

    It is also desirable that the Government have some say in the composition of the Board, since health is a national issue and the Health Ministry has the largest input into the sector in this country in terms of resources and personnel. But, if this happens, then the Government must help fund the MBTT. Even so, this does not mean that such representation must be so lopsided, with seven of the 11 Board members being government appointees. And, if Dr Singh’s interpretation is correct, even the remaining four doctors must be approved by the Health Minister.

    The dangers here are obvious. Politicians do not, as a general rule, tailor their actions according to technical and ethical criteria. Instead, political decision-making is often determined by populism and the desire to retain (or attain) office. We have already had the case of doctors being accused of political partisanship when they have taken industrial action or made certain criticisms about the Government. Additionally, such accusations have been tacked on to talk of racial bias, because the majority of doctors in TT are Indo-Trinidadian. The fact that Indians are over-represented in the medical profession in many other societies makes no impact on this perception, to the extent where we now have the Tertiary Education Minister asserting that even the admissions policy at the Mount Hope Medical Complex is biased — an accusation that Mr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid felt comfortable making even as he admitted to having nothing but anecdotal “evidence” for his opinion.

    These political predilections will only be worsened if the Government is allowed to have the final say on who is appointed to the Medical Board. It will surely be the case that appointees will either be, or be perceived as, political hacks. This means that, any time action is taken against a doctor, suspicions of political victimisation will be raised, and no decision taken by the Board will be trusted.

    The consequences are obvious, and it is revealing that the Government still wants to press ahead with this absurd amendment. If the PNM regime is really interested in improving the performance of doctors, and ensuring that incompetent ones are weeded out, it will ensure that its amendments create a Board whose members are professional and impartial, and which has sufficient funding and the will necessary to pursue all actions necessary to maintain the integrity of the medical profession.

    http://www.newsday.co.tt/editorial/0,60743.html

  10. UNC Senator warns of mass doctor exodus

    There will be a mass exodus of doctors from this country if Health Minister John Rahael is given the power to appoint the majority of members on the Medical Board, says temporary Opposition Senator Dr Neil Singh.

    “If you want to give the Minister the whip to discipline doctors like grandfathers and grandchildren, you are contributing to a mass exodus,” Singh said during his contribution to the Medical Board (Amendment) Bill at yesterday’s Senate sitting at the Red House, Port of Spain.

    Singh, who is also secretary of the council of the Medical Board, argued that the Amendment to the Medical Board Act serves only to give the Minister more power and “it is an insult to tell me and my colleagues that we are not capable of self regulation”.

    He said the Medical Board does not want to be overshadowed by the Minister, but wants independence like that of the Law Association, which elects its members from among its peers.
    Full Article : trinidadexpress.com

  11. Quoted from the letter from the above article:
    “….who in addition to their A-Levels had BScs from very reputable universities in the USA….”

    Yet we are not told of what subjects were done for A levels, what marks were obtained and from what universities. There are many, many universities in the USA, many of which you can get degrees with the click of a mouse. Competition into mt. hope is ridculously high. I have many east indian friends who were refused addmission with 3As (out of 4) and 6 1s and 2 2s (for CAPE). Addmision is only gaurenteed with full A’s. You need four As or if cape 8 1s. It is not race. Its a pure case of ability.

    I also have a brillian friend who is attending mt. hope who is african. And from what I have heard from my friends is that he topped his year! Fantastic. There is no discrimination in the system. The system is simple. Classes can only be so large. Only a certain amount of students can get in. Therefore only the best of the best get in.

    You all are complaining about discrimination in the medical service? I laugh at this outright. The government treats the doctors like trash. Poorly funded hospitals with limited supplies. You should be bowing before the current doctors who do so much service with so much devotion yet face so much antagonism from this government.

    The problem lies with not the intake process but the education of the youth. Look at the scholarship winners. Few are african. Are you all going to accuse the entire government of discrimination because there are few african scholarship winners? No you cant. If you look at the marks of students it is simple. The scholarships are awarded fairly to those with the highest marks.

    By extrapolation, then the problem must lie even further back. If you want to blame people blame the crappy government for having crappy public secondary schools. But it is not fair to blame the teachers either. While there may be poor teachers, the problem most of the time is those who run the school. Principles who are given jobs because their friend or family is in d minisitry of eductation.

    But even so. The entire culture of trinidad and tobago is one of corruption. Postions, power and duties are assigned to you depending on your connections to friend and family. But lets say that you live in a country where the culture is evil and the school is not top notch. There is another party that I havent allocated blame yet. The blame lie on YOU! The african community. Though I dont believe one should make a habit of outlining racial or religious differences, I cant help but make one. Other races put much more emphasis on education than africans. Where do you all put your emphasis? Carnival perhaps? big fetes? Sports? While sports is exceedingly important to overall development I know of no east indian or chinese who will put it above their education.

    Alas, focusing the blame on the parents is where I’ll end my rant. For even if submerged in a non-productive culture, being the parent you can mould your children to live lives above and beyond it. It is not easy being a student and being a parent and ensuring that your children apply their fullest to their education.

    While you all ponder and hate all those poor east indian students who are training to be doctors, know this: what you sow, so shall you reap. In life you get what you deserve. Karma dictates this and even if you dont believe in any eastern religion, why would Jesus or his Father deny what is right fully yours? Those students who you all are enviously hating, they have all made great sacrifices and suffered through school to get where they are. Yes I used to word suffering. Hitting the books, while it is not physically demanding, is very, very hard work.

    Thank you and think about this.

    1. ‘Though I dont believe one should make a habit of outlining racial or religious differences, I cant help but make one. Other races put much more emphasis on education than africans. Where do you all put your emphasis? Carnival perhaps? big fetes? Sports? While sports is exceedingly important to overall development I know of no east indian or chinese who will put it above their education.’

      Scooby does not seem to realise that this rant glaring reveals his racist way of thinking. Especially with his use of ‘you all’. I know a lot of East Indians who subscribe to this ‘us and them’ separatist mentality and it is very sad and disturbing

      I attended a ‘prestige’ school which for a very long time only had one sport-volleyball (which I always deeply lamented because I find it unbalanced).The school focused heavily on academics and when I went home it was the same thing from my parents. Education was and still is very important to them.

      What are Scooby’s qualifications to outline such ‘racial or religious differences?’ Since when is Afro-Trinidadians putting more emphasis on carnival and sports a proven, established and understood racial difference? Where do I fit in? No, it is just a dangerous and unfair generalization. It is no better than Sat Maharaj’s assertion that while Indian children were beating books, African children were beating pan (I say again, where do I fit in? I played piano and recorder. Still do not know how to play the national instrument which I agree is not a good thing
      ) and Sat Maharaj is not respected by a lot of people including some Indo-Trinidadians who made sure to inform us in letters to the editor of the newspapers that Sat Maharaj does not speak for all Indo-Trinis.

      Like Mr. Ruels Daniels posted earlier there is always an attempt to silence prejudice against Afro-Trinis and blacks in general yet all day long in the media as well as on the street I must hear complaints of discrimination from Indos as if theirs is the most oppressed race in Trinidadian history. It’s almost as if they are competing for most victimised. But I am starting to generalise like Scooby. Not all Indians cry discrimination and not all Indians are well off, own businesses and are doctors though it may seem so to some African eyes.

      So why these efforts to stamp down African assertion and subtle statements putting one race over another? That Africans are lesser whether in ability or behaviour. As a young afro-trinidadian am I to believe that all ‘my people’ are lazy, unambitious, unwilling to learn (maybe unable to?), uneducated sports and carnival lovers? Do we know that this is affecting the younger generations or is it deliberate? Does anyone care? Will the mental scars of slavery ever be erased?

      Going back to education,I am not impressed by this generation of ‘scholars’ anyway. As most teachers (my mother being one) lament, it is now all about regurgitation of the material taught and trying to paraphrase or wholesale cutting and pasting of material from the internet. There is a lack of critical thinking and discussion. UWI is no longer the place it used to be where students were concerned about national issues. The discussions on the way to class and in free time is about what they to plan to wear to pier one that night(I have heard it myself, but I guess another generalisation)They are taking longer to mature past high school behaviour and are more concerned about material things.

      Scooby, stereotypes abound in this world but should not be attached to important issues and debates like this one. It will only make an already emotional issue(racism), even more emotional. I mean, if I wanted to be really nasty I could say that the reason other races ‘beat books’ so much is that they have a much higher love of money and status (thus always studying law and medicine and that the reason they (Indos) excel over others is that they do anything to get ahead including tear the the pages out of the books in the library, sometimes hide the books, sleep with the lecturers etc. In others words Indians are less ethical. Of course it would be wrong of me to assert that and seeing it in 100 people of that ethnicity (which is a lot for 1 person)still would not give the right to believe it of the entire race.

      It is statements like Scooby’s circling around which prevent from seeing and treating as individuals first and not a race.

      Concerning medicine, what Prof Courtenay Bartholomew was trying to say is that there should be a balance. Even if the top student scorers are the ones gaining admissions it does not ensure that we get the best doctors because being a good doctor is not just about academic knowledge and experience but bedside manner, problem solving and a good emotional quotient. The hospitals are in a mess NOT ONLY because of the government and examples of corruption are coming to light so I don’t think any one race should be beating their chests about having the most members.

    2. Quick question.

      In a field dominated currently by Indo-Trinidadians, if the rules were to be bent for someone to be allowed admission into that field, who would they be bent for?

      You said:”The entire culture of trinidad and tobago is one of corruption. Postions, power and duties are assigned to you depending on your connections to friend and family.”

      So while the Afro-Trinidadian dominated gov’t will use its connections to give crappy teachers jobs, it seems that you think the other racial communities of Trinidad are above these kinds of tactics.

      While i wouldnt call what happens in the selection process at UWI (and a lot of other places) racism, i would call it nepotism. But when we live in a country where in 2010, both Indo and Afro Trinidadian people raise objections to interracial relationships, (now i’m not saying these relationships don’t exist, but that people still disagree with them) an Indo Trinidadian in a position of power will help his family out, and his family will be Indo Trinidadian.

      Thank you and think about that.

  12. Can we have a reprint of the Prof. letter..

    seems to have disappeared from the Express archive.

  13. Prof hits admission policy of Mt Hope medical school
    Sunday, July 1st 2007

    In a strongly-worded letter to Minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education and copied to the Prime Minister, Patrick Manning; John Rahael, Minister of Health; and the Dean of the Medical Faculty, Dr Phyllis Pitt-Miller; Prof Courtenay Bartholomew, Emeritus Professor Medicine (UWI), has criticised the admissions policy of students for entry into medical school in Mt Hope.

    “Over the years I have received many complaints of alleged discriminatory or preferential admission practices in the selection of certain students for entry into medical school here, several of which I am sure are not valid. However, I could not personally verify any of these until it was experienced in a most glaring way by two members of my competent and dedicated staff of the Medical Research Foundation, who in addition to their A-Levels had BScs from very reputable universities in the USA and impressive extracurricular health-related activities while there.

    “They were rejected by the Dean and her special admissions committee in favour of numerous 18-19 year old applicants ‘fresh’ out of college. Needless to say, they were readily accepted by the Faculty of Medicine in Jamaica,” Prof Bartholomew said.

    He insisted that the time had come for “the immediate appointment of a Commission of Enquiry, not only into the entry requirements, questionable scoring assessment and the composition of the Dean’s selection panel, but also an enquiry into the numerous complaints” he had received “about certain cliquishness and recruitment policies in all the hospitals.

    “There should be no dilly-dallying about it as, for example, with the long-awaited passing of a new Medical Board Act”, Bartholomew said.

    http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161170034

    Click here for a snapshot of the original article, “Prof hits admission policy of Mt Hope medical school”

  14. I think people in Trinidad should take allegations of racism more seriously. There should be bigger penalties and any allegation of racism in a public domain should prompt a quick and serious minded investigation.

    On the flip side, if one make allegations of racism with no hard evidence to back oneself up, the laws should allow for these people to be charged and fined for wasting taxpayer resources (from the ensuing investigations, of course!)

    Personally, i hate to make judgements on the existence or lack thereof of racism because, personally, i have very little evidence on which to make a judgement.

    To categorically reject or accept a call of racism based on your ethnic background, your personal experiences and/or the ethnic group the allegations are made by or against is a move that will only take us backwards.

    REALISE THAT YOU DO NOT HAVE A UNIVERSALLY ENLIGHTENED PERSPECTIVE.

    Realise that most cases of real racism are unreported and left to die quietly in a corner.

    Realise that for someone who comes into the public domain and points the finger of discrimination must feel VERY STRONGLY about the matter.

    Realise that by automatically rejecting an accusation of racism you are unfairly rejecting a person’s opinion and you hurt people’s feelings.

    So let’s get ourselves in a gear to seriously, quickly and effectively deal with these things and stop playing racism tennis.

    P.S Yes i realise that not every call of racism is not a real one, and alot of people may do it for attention or to divide and conquer. This does not mean that all allegations of racism are unfounded. Investigate first and then deal with the guilty party, be it the accused for their crimes, or the accusers for their slander and scare tactics.

  15. Once Madame K becomes PM , we can expect another layer of government bureaucracy to be introduced into Sweet T&T aka Rainbow Country . It would be the Ministry of Racism. Anyone suspected of holding a racially prejudicial thought would be hunted down and dragged before the court to feel the full brunt of the law. Sorry however , for unfavorable legal opinions will remain that way, for this is the only matter that victims cannot seek redress via appeals to the much beloved British Privy Council. As a matter of fact , to prove that she is her own woman , Madame K would deviate from her mentor , and finally recognize the Caribbean Court of Appeal, as we the idiots of the Caribbean possess the Head Quarters, and foot almost the entire bill of the entire budget since it’s inception .

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