…and going
While we’re literally just across the river from Suriname, because of our common British rule, most of us, from very early on, became much more familiar with Trinidad – don’t know about Tobago!! And, rather intriguingly, this greater familiarity continued even after Burnham’s dictatorship pushed so many of our friends and relatives to move to Suriname. Backtracking to Suriname – or Venezuela, for that matter – was like dropping into a Black Hole -unlike the easy backing-and-forthing that went on between us, TT and the other islands.
To cut to the chase, we became aware that while Trinidad had the same racial mix like us, the relations between their different groups were not as polarized as ours. And to a large extent, this was because their politics was never as divisive by their politicians, like what took place here. Well, one of those politicians – Basdeo Panday – who had been involved in politics since the sixties – just passed away at the ripe old age of 90. It might be useful for some of our local politicians to find out how “Bas” – as he was known to old and young – did it, and perchance they can apply some of the lessons here.
To begin with, Bas started out dirt poor in TT’s sugar belt – just like our Cheddi Jagan – so he knew from his lived experience the struggles of the poor. He took to education as a way out, and went up to England to study – starting out rather uniquely in drama!! He did finish up as a lawyer, and – returning to TT in the mid-sixties – got into politics with CLR James and a bunch of trade unionists, who were taking on Eric Williams with a new “Farmers and Workers Party”. While they didn’t even garner a seat, Bas was bitten by the political bug!! And the important thing to note is that even though he was very much grounded in “Indian Culture”, he couldn’t be successfully pigeon-holed as a partisan one – but one focused on “labour”.
And he maintained this reputation throughout his long political career. Eventually his political vehicle became the UNC – but on the way, he was consistently involved with coalition building across the racial divide. He was also a firm supporter of women’s empowerment – appointing a female canecutter as a Senator in 1976. But even though, in one instance, one leader who benefitted from his national vision shafted him in the 1980s, he didn’t allow himself to become embittered. Upon winning the national elections in 1995 – to become the first “Indian” PM of TT — he facilitated the poor to enter UW, and gave Shouter Baptists a holiday!
Next Tuesday, his state funeral will be the first to be performed according to Hindu rites.
…and spinning
In what’s gotta be an embarrassment for our Government, a pic has surfaced on social media that shows St Vincent’s PM, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, his Foreign Affairs Minister and two Venezuelan officials skinning their teeth over a map created by Venezuela that includes our Essequibo!! Now, our Foreign Affairs Minister has indicated that the is pic from 2022, but they’ve asked Gonsalves for an explanation.
Your Eyewitness would be very interested in this “explanation”!! That the pic was from 2022 doesn’t change a darned thing. Mad Maduro’s been beating his chest with increasing fervour over Essequibo since 2015, when Exxon struck oil. He’d rejected the ICJ’s jurisdiction in 2018, after we invoked the Geneva Agreement. In fact, in 2022, his VP Delcy Rodriguiz told that to the ICJ!! And your Eyewitness can’t help pointing out that it was the same year, 2022, that Mad Maduro wrote off St Vincent’s US$79M PetroCaribe oil debt and sent them free urea and asphalt!!
Maybe there’s no connection…but was the pic from then??
