Health Minister Dr. Fuad Khan: Sextuplets’ parents ungrateful

‘UNGRATEFUL’

By Anna Ramdass
May 09, 2013

Health Minister Dr Fuad KhanThe sextuplets’ parents are ungrateful and owe the Government, the Prime Minister and the taxpayers of this country a “thank you” for all that was done to ensure that mother and babies had the best care possible, Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan said yesterday.

The March 4 birth of the sextuplets to parents Petra Lee Foon, a teacher, and Kieron Cummings, a bank employee, was a first for Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean.

Extensive plans were put into place at the Mt Hope Women’s Hospital to ensure a smooth Caesarian-section delivery of the babies, and close to $5 million was spent to purchase equipment for the babies’ aftercare at the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Two of the babies—the youngest and eldest—have since died.
Full Article : trinidadexpress.com

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Sextuplets dad: I should have gone abroad

Anika Gumbs-Sandiford
Thursday, May 9, 2013

Keron Cummings, the father of the country’s first sextuplets, has one regret. He wished he had listened to the advice of some doctors and relatives and sent his wife overseas to give birth. “If I could do it all over again I would have sent my wife abroad,” Cummings told T&T Guardian as he broke his silence yesterday, expressing concern over the aftercare given to his babies.

And while both Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan and chairman of the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) Dr Shehenaz Mohammed claimed everything possible was done to prepare for the babies’ arrival, hospital sources told the T&T Guardian conflict surrounded the consent form for the caesarean-section surgery. While the consent form is normal procedure for patients undergoing surgery, the T&T Guardian learned that one was drafted specially to distance the NCRHA from any potential medical-negligence lawsuit.
Full Article : guardian.co.tt

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MILLION DOLLAR BABIES
$5m spent on sextuplets at Mt Hope hospital

By Anna Ramdass
Story Created: May 7, 2013 at 9:08 PM ECT
Story Updated: May 9, 2013 at 6:48 AM ECT

Close to $5 million was spent to purchase equipment for the special care of Trinidad and Tobago’s first sextuplets at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the Mt Hope Women’s hospital.

The Express obtained a copy of the expenditure incurred for the delivery of the sextuplets, which totalled $4,943,758.19.

Among the list of equipment purchased were 12 radiant warmers costing $2.6 million, and 12 incubators at $1.3 million.
Full Article : trinidadexpress.com

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More Govt help for sextuplet parents

By Anna Ramdass
May 10, 2013 at 9:55 PM ECT trinidadexpress.com

To ease the financial woes of the parents of Trinidad and Tobago’s first sextuplets, grants have been made available to them through the Ministry of the People and Social Development.

Minister of the People Dr Glenn Ramdharsingh told the Express yesterday the Ministry’s “people’s unit” has been in contact with the family and has made available grants and food cards to ease their financial strain.

Ramdharsingh said the family received a funeral grant from the ministry for the burial of the first baby—Kaelon Cummings Lee Foon.

Ramdharsingh said the pharmaceuticals grants of $2,500 every six months was also made available to the parents.

Ramadharsingh added that the ministry was also planning to give the babies a “nest egg” in the form of units from the Unit Trust.

On Thursday, Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan criticised Cummings, who said he regretted not taking his wife abroad for treatment as he took issue with the NICU’s after care of the babies.

Khan said the parents were ungrateful and owe the Government, Prime Minister and people of this country for all that has been given to them.

He also stressed that the babies were conceived through the use of a fertility drug, Clomid, which comes with a number of risks to the babies and therefore it was wrong of the parents to criticise the hard-working staff of the NICU who have been caring for the babies.
Full Article : trinidadexpress.com

30 thoughts on “Health Minister Dr. Fuad Khan: Sextuplets’ parents ungrateful”

  1. I don’t. He did not do them a favour for them to be grateful or thankful to the Prime Minister. A job was done and they were not satisfied with it, and they are entitled to complain or speak out. We all know the state of the Health System in the country.
    If, however, the Minister is saying that the man should be grateful that his wife did not die like the other women who had C-Sections done at the hospitals, then count me in that 70%.

  2. ‘Unfortunate’
    “Very unfortunate” was how chairman of the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) Dr Shehenaz Mohammed described comments from father of sextuplets Kieron Cummings about the babies being sent abroad for delivery and care.

    Dr Carmanee Latchman, head of the Neonatal ICU said the parents were grieving and there were other factors involved. “While we do not expect gratitude for what we do there needs to be recognition that everything that could have been done has been done.”

  3. The mentality of this couple fits with the recent trends pervading T&T. Everyone has great expectations from this government.Contractors are knocking at the door for payback. Unions are demanding and striking for more ridiculous pay hikes after yesrs of pay freezes.Teachers, police and outdoor workers are demanding more pay also after years of pay freezes and no demands on the previous government. Generally, union leaders, most of them PNM supporters were encouraged to toe the line and not make waves under the previous administration. Actually the last head of the PSA is an active member of the PNM.

    After spending 5 million on the required medical equipment and providing a house for this family who indulged in fertility drugs, they should at least say, “thank you”. Even in developed countries, the survival rate for multiple births is not satisfactory.

  4. The father is right he and this woman he fornicated (they are not married) with should have been given a one way ticket to a nation who would accept them. That way they could have receive the help needed to take care of this young brood. My understanding is more women are now trying to be like them the perks are enormous, free house, free meds etc.

    The Health Minister have a right to be annoyed.

  5. “Everyone has great expectations from this Government.” Shouldn’t they?
    “No demands on the previous Government.” Wage demands only started 2010, boy oh boy!!
    “5 Million on the required medical equipment.” I take it that no Government of T&T has ever spent 5 million on anything, and that this ‘medical equipment’ is now the property of this couple.
    “Free house.” Only certain people in T&T gets a free house, namely, Prime Ministers and politicians.
    “Free Meds.” What is so special about this? Doesn’t everyone get free medical attention in T&T?

    I see you guys are really on top of your game on this topic.


  6. Saying she considers the sextuplets a beautiful gift to the nation and an opportunity for the public health system to establish best-practice protocol in dealing with all pregnancies, St Rose-Greaves said Khan is responsible for setting a negative tone for public discussion about the babies. “I didn’t want this to be a street fight. The minister has squandered the goodwill about these children, just like the Government squandered the goodwill of the 2010 general election.”—Guardian. Aunty Verna still suffering from election tabanca. The Health Minister is allowed to correct perception on the Health delivery system and it is his duty to give an accounting to tax payers. That is all he was doing ….

    1. Once again here here we go with Mamoo and TMan, both share the concept of polls and numbers – they live by it and die by it, but we have a perceptual, cultural, constitutional,moral and ethical misconception of what it means to be government and what it means to be citizenry. Without taking into consideration our responsibilities based on who we are at any given time, Khan may appear to be within his construct to utter his famous “ungrateful” remarks. But when we ask “what kind of governmental system we operate under?” – then we have to say democracy, not a theocracy, not a kleptocracy (but then again sometimes we have reason to question if it is one),
      we do not have a monarchy, we do not have a plutocracy nor do we have an oligarchy. Other than a democracy – Khan will be within his rights to say what the hell he likes to ordinary citizens. Bur under our constitutional guarantees he is morally and ethically wrong to utter such nonsensical statements to someone whom he in his position of power believes is his inferior. If, per chance Khan was doing all of this as a private citizen, a goodly doctor, a good samaritan or just a do-gooder, then I cannot find anything wrong with his statement. By using the title “Minister of Health”, you are to be identified (maybe) as an elected official, definite public servant, and one operating with the trust of an elected government to serve the people. If the latter is true then he is well out of place to behave as a bully. I have read many blogs where those with the ability to say something castigates the father of the sextuplets for venting his feelings because he lost his two little loved ones. While one can surmise that his choice of words may not be congratulatory he by reason of his constitutional rights can say that with impunity. That is what is guaranteed under our system of government. I know that there are places in the world which call themselves “democratic” yet operate under practices that can be identified as oligarchic. They simply bow, worship, praise, admit and accept those in power AS HAVING POWER OVER THEM or bosses of the under achievers. And this is where I believe the criticism of the father is coming from. Khan really dont care are about the parents, he cared about getting the fame for the delivery and history making event that would accompany the occasion, and naturally so, one should feel a sense accomplishment in taking part in such a momentous medical practice. There are other reasons to be proud. Having been successful in this delivery, confidence is gathered in the population for our medical practitioners that they have leaped into achieving some technological edge as an institution and having the know-how and skills to practice this kind of surgery for other cases (if they should need it). Success would signal to other regional countries that they dont have to go to Europe or the U.S. for such highly skilled practice. The hospital in effect becomes a laboratory of sorts when this practice is applied, because it can be used for educational and training of future and current medical personnel. The father is aware that this kind of practice is common-place in the U.S and Europe, so heart-broken and suffering the loss of two of his children, we should allow the right to grieve for his kith and kin as anyone would feel in such circumstances. It is cheap political demagoguery that allows the followers to criticize this young man just because he made a statement that is not complimentary of the medical profession in this country. There are times when we have to leave politics out of our lives and this is one of them. To use this man’s tragedy to beat him further in his misery is nothing short of political grandstanding and those who engage in this practice should be ashamed of themselves.

  7. Verna returns fire on Fuad

    By Dr Sheila Rampersad
    Sunday, May 12, 2013 – guardian.co.tt

    Nasty, ugly, callous, egotistical and unbecoming of a minister and medical practitioner. Those were some of the adjectives used by former government minister, social worker and friend of the sextuplets’ family, Verna St Rose-Greaves, as she fired back at Health Minister Fuad Khan’s statements that the babies’ father, Kieron Cummings, was ungrateful.

    Following revelations in a T&T Guardian exclusive story last week that doctors at Mt Hope had recommended overseas treatment for the mother, Petra Lee Foon, Cummings told the T&T Guardian that he wished they had sought medical treatment abroad. He said he was not satisfied with the aftercare for his children, two of whom (the youngest, Paeton Christopher and the eldest, Kaelon Nasir) have died. A third, Persia Meleigh, is still hospitalised.

    “We’re now hearing that they (the parents) are ungrateful,” said St Rose-Greaves during an interview on Friday. “We’ve heard from the minister that it was not a real pregnancy, not a real birth. “That behaviour is very unbecoming for a minister, far more from a medical practitioner. This is all about ego. The minister’s interest in having the children born here was about him wanting to look good. He didn’t think further than that and he should have.

    “We have a young mother who will obviously be having post-partum challenges, who had a trying pregnancy, parents who have lost two children in two weeks, worrying about a third, and have three at home to care for as new parents—and no one paying attention to that.”

    Saying she considers the sextuplets a beautiful gift to the nation and an opportunity for the public health system to establish best-practice protocol in dealing with all pregnancies, St Rose-Greaves said Khan is responsible for setting a negative tone for public discussion about the babies. “I didn’t want this to be a street fight. The minister has squandered the goodwill about these children, just like the Government squandered the goodwill of the 2010 general election.”

    Gratitude

    She said the family has been and remains grateful to the doctors, nurses, consultants and ancillary staff at the Mt Hope Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and knows that they all did their best. “Even the people cleaning the wards and serving the food were thrilled by the expected delivery. They treated the couple very well and we could not help but admire them. That has not changed.

    “We didn’t have the equipment but we got some of that—but if you didn’t have the experience then you cannot expect the expertise. From very early the doctors admitted they did not have the experience. The challenge is that you cannot get out of something what is not there. “The couple didn’t get up one morning and decide they wanted to go away; it was on the advice of people in the health system itself. If he didn’t want to carry them abroad, why not bring in specialists?”

    The head midwife at the hospital told I95.5FM on Friday that she and the nurses were hurt by Cummings’ statement. “Why are they and the minister taking this so personally? What is their hurt, compared to the parents’ pain of losing their children?” asked St Rose-Greaves.

    HDC house

    She said Khan’s comments about the couple being “given” an HDC home showed he did not understand the rights of citizenship. “The Government didn’t give them a house. They have to pay $375,000 for it. They are citizens, they qualify for a home, they submitted their application years ago, and every citizen has a right to apply for and be considered to own a home. “Is he saying that because they were good to the couple, if they (the couple) are not comfortable with something, they should shut up and not express that?”

    Money

    On the money expended on the sextuplets, St Rose-Greaves said she wanted Khan to quantify the cost of a child’s life. “Seeing that he is quantifying how much money was spent on the delivery and care, what is the price of a child’s life? “This is not a case of the equipment brought in and they went home with it or threw it away.

    “The equipment was needed in the system. Perhaps the minister can give the public an outline of when the equipment was bought, when it arrived and how it was utilised for the children. Let him answer that. “He makes me wonder how much of a priority children are.

    Nearly $1 million a month spent in rental of One Alexandra Place for the past three years and no one has occupied that building because it’s seen as belonging to a political party. How do these children compare to $10 million to bring Shaq, to the millions spent on PR gimmicks and fancy functions with food and drinks?

    “Let him release the figures spent on (Patrick) Manning and (Justice Wendell) Kangaloo (who was injured in a car accident on May 20 and flown to Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, and then to the Rehabilitation Institute in Chicago). “The Children’s Authority cannot get the money it needs because of quibbling over rent because the building allegedly belongs to the wrong people…people are flying to see the world on taxpayers’ money.”

    Ethics and fertility treatment

    She questioned the ethics of Khan publicly revealing details of Lee Foon’s medical records. “The fact that he was willing to go public with the girl’s private medical information said a lot about him. It is not his place to be so confrontational. But perhaps I am expecting from him what he does not have to give.

    “How does a medical practitioner not understand the ethics of sharing confidential information? He keeps talking about fertility drugs to bamboozle the public that this girl went looking to have six children, and he knows the truth and he knew it from day one.”

    Confidence in health system

    “How could we have confidence when our maternal and infant mortality rates are so astounding? We all know about women going in (to hospitals) healthy to have babies and coming out dead, without their wombs, or without their babies. Delivery rooms have turned into morgues. So it’s not about not having confidence; it’s dealing with our reality.

    “If he saying we don’t have confidence in the system, why do ministers and leaders leave for care elsewhere? If they have confidence in the system, I am challenging them to go through what people go through daily. Go sit down in the hospitals and scrub bench like other people. We have young, good, caring doctors in the system but with mentors like Fuad, they will become jaded, callous, cold, uncaring, selfish, and egotistical. I trust the minister puts his business in place while he’s a minister because when he is no longer he will see how it’s not easy for people who don’t have.”

    Care plan and counselling

    Answering statements by Khan and Dr Shehenaz Mohammed (chairman of the North Central Regional Health Authority) that deaths among multiple-birth babies are not uncommon, St Rose-Greaves said she was flabbergasted that that was the only standard to which they were aspiring. “So we only want to conform to statistics on deaths? We don’t want to set a higher standard? And what about the multiple births where all the children are alive and well? Octomom had eight and they’re all alive.

    Khan, she pointed out, “talked about congenital malformation in the children. Where is his proof of that? Were post-mortems done to determine cause of death?” She said the nursing council was to devise a care plan for the babies. “Where is that plan? When was Dr Mohammed put in charge and when did they go into full gear? Let him talk about that, since he is so free with information.

    “The couple is grieving; what has been done to help them with their grief and loss? What was the plan for the counselling? Who did it? What was their area of expertise? How many sessions? Which family members were counselled? What were the objectives and the outcomes of the counselling? Let him tell me that.”

    Saying that she and the family will not be intimidated by Khan, St Rose-Greaves said aggression among young people is condemned but the two parents, who are gentle and soft, are being verbally beaten up because they are not aggressive. “I heard the midwife say on I95.5FM that Kieron is being misguided.

    The minister seems to think that Kieron is my nephew. I want him to know he doesn’t have to worry about Kieron being my nephew. I have nephews and nieces all over Trinidad. They serve meals in the Diplomatic Centre, they are in the coast guard, army, police, among the Prime Minister’s security, in every institution and community in this country. So Kieron should be the least of his worries.”

    Source: http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2013-05-12/verna-returns-fire-fuad

  8. She is right. For a Doctor to exhibit this kind of venom is frightening. But then again, we are seeing an enculteration of primitive perspectives becoming the norm in T&T.

    There are certain occupations in which the practitioners have to take an oath that place a serious burden on them in terms of conduct. This Minister has demonstrated that while he might qualify academically for his position, he lacks the class, the psychological decorum, and the kind of civilized values one expects to see in a Doctor. When his oath charges that a Doctor should ‘First do no harm’, it is not only in contemplation of the physical harm they could wreak from careless and thought less performance in delivering medical services to patients. It also includes the psychological harm they could cause based on injudicious and egotistical enunciations.

    This reminds me of the Republican Presidential Primary Debate when the candidates and the partisan crowd jeered a man who had a health condition but no health coverage. Again, there is a strain of similarity that binds the PP, its supporters and sycophants, to the rabid right wing cheering group in the US. They tend to display the same lack of protocol to measure what to say and when to say it. A medical doctor labeling patients ungrateful because in grief they said they should have exercised another option is probably the most poignant example of how backward our nation has become over the past couple of years.

    1. There are times when one must agree with an adversary and this is one of those times. After carefully reviewing the facts and getting more complete information on the grieving couple, your comment is right on.

    2. Paton you are obviously out of touch with reality. The Minister is accountable to the people for money spent in the health care system. He was giving an accounting as to the amount spent in looking after these children. This is nothing new, when Nadia Suleman had her 8 children through fertility treatment the public was outraged because throughout America everyone knew this was a welfare case.

      Understandably the father is under a lot of stress having to take care of these children when the lights go dim. But the hospital did its best and made every effort at accommodating their situation. And yes with babies that tiny there will be complications. They are severely underweight. The hospital and doctors could have done a better job at preparing them for this…

      Would the Cubans have done a better job at caring for these babies? No one knows. Human life is fragile.

      1. Mamoo, the Minister spent the people’s money on the people, and then called the people ungrateful because the people made ‘negative’ comments about the service.
        The people should be thankful to the Prime Minister because the people’s money was spent on the people.

        Did I forget to mention that two of our citizens (people) died under this same Health Care System after C-Sections were performed? This System is creating single parent fathers (people).

        Who is really out of touch Mamoo, you or the people?

  9. When an elected official says these words ‘ungrateful’ then it underpins the fallen standards of decorum. A Minister represents the public and although it is difficult to satisfy everyone it is in the interest to deliver according to the portfolio expectations. In this case it would have been appropriate to tell the Media that the hospital, staff and the resources we have were the best that was afforded at the time. The response from the Minister in this case is in sync with what we may hear from the average citizen on the streets i.e. venting personal opinions.

  10. The man is a doctor. The oath he took commands his behaviour beyond his ministerial or other role:

    Excerpt: I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death

    Hippocratic Oath (Modern version)

    I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

    I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

    I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.

    I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug.

    I will not be ashamed to say “I know not,” nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient’s recovery.

    I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

    I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person’s family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

    I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

    I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

    If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

  11. Mamoo was born a couple of centuries too late. His every output suggest a neanderthal like lack of understanding of the civilized mores that govern human behavior. That is why we have such conflict in societies. When you have people whose base thinking have not evolved from their cave man ancestor standards, and they are propelled into positions where they command issues dealing with the well being and livlihood of others, society retrogresses. Mamoo and Khan are living examples of those kinds of people.

  12. T&T’s only neonatologist: Care of sextuplets not handled right

    By Kalifa Clyne
    Tuesday, May 14, 2013

    The country’s only trained neonatologist, Dr Petronella Manning-Alleyne, said yesterday health care professionals mishandled the treatment of the country’s first sextuplets, who were born to Kieron Cummings, 29, and Petra Lee Foon, 28, on March 4. A neonatologist is trained specifically in the medical care of babies before and up to 28 days after birth.
    Full Article : guardian.co.tt

  13. No back to the idiots who could find nothing wrong with the ignorant postulations of the Health Minister. I suppose now they will say that someone who, academically and professionally, is heads and shoulder above the Minister in terms of medically dealing with new borns is not competent to pronounce on the issue.

    When a Doctor displays the kind of Hubris displayed by Khan one need to question his or her ability to fullfill their professional obligations. It is quite obvious from hius reaction that he is a very petty, very narrow minded, very bigotted. “How dare these poor people express dissatisfaction over treatment their tax dollars pay for”? Because that is in effect what drives the hubris he displays.

  14. There are two sides to every story in T&T depending very often on race and politics. This is unfortunate and I caution those who are attempting to make this a race issue to proceed with care.
    The Health Minister was wrong and he should offer an apology. Our energy should be directed towards the University of the West Indies and the quality of graduates which they are producing in medicine and every other field.

  15. This issue with the minister is not about race. Bigots come in all forms, and the worse are those who because of their positions look down on those who are less fortunate and become indignant if the dare to speak up. That is why I classified Khan as a bigot, and I clearly provided comments to indicate where my thoughts were in terms of his bigotry.

    I would bet you that if the persons involved were not common folk, and were rich hoity toity folks in the upper social strata, his response would not have been so acerbic. That is what makes him a bigot.

  16. I would like a break down as a tax paying citizen of where the monies went. The goodly doctor is not going to play me for a fool. Whose pockets did it go into?

    1. I am often suspicious of these surveys especially considering the source, an American publication.
      Could it that respondents in western countries know how to give the politically correct and dishonest answers? The anecdotal record of racism experiences tell a different story in the USA and Britain in particular.
      People in less developed areas will be more frank and honest in their answers.Hong Kong tops the list; again this is surprising considering that visitors rank it as one of the most exciting and friendliest places to visit.If I lived in crowded Hong Kong and India I would object to any more neighbors of any kind! The Chinese make great neighbors; that’s my personal experience.
      By posting this article the contributor is obviously trying to make a link between Indians in T&T and India.I am not sure that this link is valid or reliable because of the vast cultural differences between the two places and those who reside there, Indians included.I suggest you give it up Rodwell and find a new preoccupation.

  17. Give me a break. Indians leave the motherland and travel to nations all over the world to settle. Go through the Bronx in New York and you will discover Indians flocking to open business in communities in which they have no significant neighbourhood residence. The same obtains for Africa and islands across the Caribbean. Imagine the hubris in your expression that it is ok for you to impose yourselves in the neighbourhood of others, but rational for you to object to others doing the same in your neighbourhoods.

    The extent of the supremacist privilege you guys believe that you are entitled to underscores the divisions that are found in the Fijis, the T&Ts, the Guyanas, and other geographies where an influx of Indians have resulted in tensions with indigenous or prior established communities. And it explains and gives understanding to the findings in the survey.

    The question is why minorites, especially those of African descent, in nations where Indians might have a majority, or control political power, all encounter the same generalized racist experiences. The answer is simple. The religious and cultural ethnic and racial ego fulfilling doctrine of supremacy based on one’s position on the continuum of color and race is so deeply rooted in the psyche of some Indians that challenges to it becomes irrational to them.

    I am always struck by the absolute hubris exhibited by the boast from some of what they have accomplished in the US and other parts of this world. I will argue that if you stand one side as spectators while there is a fierce struggle over resources that will benefit you in a society, when that battle is won you will be the only one left unscathe from that strugle, and better equipped to take advantage of it. And your boasts about the quality and quantity of the proceeds you reap from this struggle presents an image of a cowardly user, not unlike the predatory disposition of the Heyena which wait until the Lion kills a prey to try to fiest on it, unwilling to be in the vanguard of a struggle to break down obstacles and barriers that inhibit progress, but greedily enthusiastic about reaping its benefits. And that conjours up an image that require deep reflections

  18. As believers turn to the bible wherein is written ask god and you shall receive. Seek and toil without rest.this is the blessing which a couple must go after.
    In the bible by sacrifice we receive.christ never asked for revenge or material thing.he humbly lay in poverty.
    prayers and give thanks that one day my children will be of god no other gift is greater
    I remrmber one day alady who was infertile praued to conveive and so did she
    Joy oberwhelmed her as she hug her newborn.let god be in charge.

  19. Vast Cultural differences when the Prime Minister after she was elected went to India and participated in historical rituals. TMan makes my effort to demonstrate the connection quite easy. His convenient associations and dis-associations when it comes to connections between mother India and Diaspora Indians is really pathetic.

    No I will not give it up, and none of us who discern the pathological prejudice that infuse the perspective of people like you will ever give it up. To the same effect that many before us took this path to expose those in other geographies who sought to have their cake and eatb it too, that is to say, practise obscene anti black racism while attempting to deflect attention from their attitudes by placing blacks on guilt trips.

    Being the descendants of those who have gone through the holocaustic ordeal and tribulation of chattel slavery, and laboring under the effects of being forcibly separated from cultural and historical connections that other groups take for granted, Africans are acutely sensitive about racism and its evil. So much so that they frequently become targets of dastardly efforts by some of the most racist mindsets to guilt trip them into silence over attitudes that Africans have been dealing with for centuries. But, to the same effect that Jews are not questioned or challenged on their ability to detect and condemn anti-semitism based on their experience with it, Africans need to exercise the same prerogative to ignore challenges and questions that seek to render their experiences irrelevant.

    Racism is a product of cultural and religious belief systems that either argues that some people are born superior while others are born inferior, or is interpreted by some to mean exactly that. Racism in T&T has a long and unbroken history. It was introduced by the slave master to control and benefit from the indigenous and African populations. Knowing that control would vanish when he could no longer hold Africans in slavery, and unwilling to allow their numbers to naturally grow and develop into political and economic power, he imported what he felt was a cushion against that. His experience with the Indian Caste system convinced him that religiously and culturally Indians brought to the Caribbean would harbor some of the same beliefs about Africans that he did. Yes he was rolling the dice here, because if he was wrong he would be subjecting himself to a coalition of forces that would effectively end his power in these parts. History has proven that he was very intuitive in his choice. And when one reads and parses the comments and perspective of the TMan and some others on this site, it is like deja vu reminiscence of the so called objective examinations of race relations in the US offered up by white pundits during the civil rights era.

    What are the odds that these parallels would just be concidental?

  20. Mr. Khan should instead concentrate on what is the make up of fillings that go into the T&T mouths by the Dentists there who are as arrogant as him. For instance ‘Are they still using mercury or lead or other heavy metals that eventually do serious damage over time to our brains?’. I am suggesting he concentrates on this research rather than write about foolish non issues like this.

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