By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 29, 2017
PART 2
Sooner rather than later I am going to ask Reggie Dumas to take the Trinidad and Tobago Government (T&T G) to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for their wanton destruction of historic sites in our country. In September of last year the ICC sentenced Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi to nine years in prison for “‘intentionally directing’ attacks on nine Timbuktu’s mausoleums and the centuries-old door of its Sidi mosque in 2012.” The judge hoped such a stiff punishment “will deter other attacks on heritage sites around the world.” (London Guardian, September 27, 2016)
The T&T G, it seems, has little respect or concern for protecting our heritage sites. To them, they are places where some insane persons lived or foolish buildings housed inconsequential offices. In June 2015, Martin Terry Rondon, chairman of the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation, called on the T&T G to demolish the old Post Office and the old Fire Station in his borough. Two years later, they were demolished with Rondon’s stern admonition: “Everyone wanted the historic buildings to be saved and restored, but not a single person offered a cent to make it happen despite years of talk.” (Express, April 25, 2017)
It never occurred to him or his government that they have a responsibility to future citizens to preserve these historical and cultural treasures.
The national sacrilege gets worse.
Two weeks ago, as a part of its National Clean-Up Campaign, the T&T G demolished the house in Arouca where Sylvester Williams and George Padmore fathers of Pan-Africanism and African Emancipation respectively, lived. It hurt my soul to its core. There was not a murmur from the community. After all, who cares about these decrepit black men; what use are their memories to us.
But fate is a tricky thing.
On March 1, 2017 I received an invitation from the Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation Conference on “The Pan-African Pantheon” scheduled to take place at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, from 16-18 June 2017. It read in part: “Thirty prominent African and Diaspora scholars from the continent, the Caribbean, the United States (US), and Europe have been invited to present papers…on carefully selected topics on the pioneers of Pan-Africanism.”
It continued: “This conference represents a concrete initiative to contribute substantively to the University of Johannesburg and other South African universities’ efforts to decolonize the academic curriculum, and to ensure that the epistemology of these universities’ syllabi reflect their African contexts.”
I was asked to make a 20-minute presentation and write a 5,000-word essay on C. L. R. James. I was delighted to participate. I will talk about James’s enormous contribution to Pan-African intellectual thought. It then occurred to me that a year ago the owners of the house in which James wrote his famous Beyond a Boundary was demolished in the name of progress. No blame here on the T&T G but I wonder when we will understand the tremendous literary and cultural heritage that we have in our country and when we will make concrete plans to preserve and promote it.
I was lucky. I possess a photograph of that house. About three years ago I brought down Richard Howard, a documentary photographer from Boston, to Trinidad to photograph several historic cultural sites of the Tacarigua-Tunapuna-Arouca area. Howard, whose work has appeared in Smithsonian, Time, People, Der Spiegel and the New York Times Magazine, learned his craft under Gordon Parks, the famous African-American photographer. The ten days he spent in the area cost about $50,000, which I paid out of my own pocket.
When I heard that my namesake, Shamfa Cudjoe (she has to be family) and Daryl Smith had burned through $150,000 in six days, I realized how much I could have accomplished with that money in terms of documenting those sites and buildings. I have the photographs and have done the research. I couldn’t help but wonder what a marvelous book I can produce with the funds they wasted and the boom it can be for our touristic, cultural and educational endeavors. After all, each year two million people visit the Louvre in France, the Vatican and the Coliseum in Rome.
Williams, Padmore and James can be of enormous value to our tourist industry. Williams convened the first Pan-African conference in London in 1900. At the height of his glory, Padmore joined Joseph Stalin, Vyacheslav Molotov and other Russians leaders as they reviewed the Soviet troops while James and Jamaican Dudley Thompson “put together the legal defense team that defended Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta from charges of being an instigator of the Mau Mau rebellion against British colonial rule in 1952” (“Concept Note” to Pan-African Conference.)
Modern T&T can show some respect for our homebred international heroes or we can continue to Brek-UP and Brek-DOWN our precious cultural jewels. In The Adventure of English Melvyn Bragg cautioned: “One way to destroy a personality is to cut out memory: one way to destroy a state is to cut out its history.”
We must be careful. It might be “we time now” but the Brek-UP, Brek-DOWN crew is gaining ground rapidly.
Beware: The Barbarians are at our gates.
Dr C,as an intellectual your message will fall on death ears, you see,Africans in Trinidad views him/her self as, living in an all inclusive society at the moment, assimilation is the motto enacted in his psyche presently, not recognizing his past or who he is Unless one is an activist, no one would know of these giants of the last century, men of great international repute who worked tirelessly in elevating the consciousness of the African at home and abroad, coming out of slavery and colonialism.We have a tremendous lack of respect for ourselves, so it is no accident that these buildings are demolished.Giants like MR Padmore and MR Williams i never met, but as a very young member of OWTU’ general council in the 1980’CLR would lecture whenever he visited.It is very troubling to see the condition of my people, the materialism that he willing to die for, has made him the laughing stock of this present society, he/she boycotts nothing ,participates in everything, practically working in his own demise.The African in Trinidad consumes more bara and channa than any other group, not withstanding the high level of cholesterol it entails,not respecting or cherishing his own,he continues to be left wanting.Peter Minshall practically destroyed carnival the way it use to be when Mc Donald Bailey was alive and a band leader, his portrayal of African history and culture lifted our consciousness as young kids growing up in the late 60′ and early 70′, today, the young women are nothing but a piece of meat , diminishing themselves into callousness never ever seen in carnival past.Personality is dead, memory is but a vision and presently, history is lacking.Hotep.
“It is very troubling to see the condition of my people, the materialism that he willing to die for, has made him the laughing stock of this present society, he/she boycotts nothing ,participates in everything, practically working in his own demise.The African in Trinidad consumes more bara and channa than any other group, not withstanding the high level of cholesterol it entails,not respecting or cherishing his own,he continues to be left wanting.”……. Cooper
Cooper, you elevated my sensibilities with that statement!
The demise of the African (in Trinidad) is so transparent, that it makes him an empty vessel of values and hope. Is it any wonder why crime and promiscuity is so abundant in our communities? Historically, Woodbrook has been the epitome of the black working or middle class of the urban neighborhoods. When Martin Daly and friends introduced ‘pan in the neighborhood’ some years ago, I saw it as a good
cultural occasion for the residents (of Woodbrook) to use as a reason to get together and use as a means of bettering our neighborhood. Never did I anticipate that it would become ‘the red light district’ of Port Of Spain. ‘The Avenue’ as it is affectionately called, has become a cesspit of wine, women, song, dance and filth’. The most reliable clients of this behavior, is our young and spendthrift African youths. Martin Daly brought with him, the affluent, culture conscious and the entrepreneur minded. As the gatherings grew larger and larger, the fete seekers and spendthrifts of lesser means replaced the cultural seekers.
Today, ‘The Avenue’ has become the nastiest place in town on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. During the week is not much better. But still is the place to seek a fete and ah wine.
The clientele consist mainly of young black males and females. With beers in hand, as a signature of manhood, they cluster the streets to loud music booming in the heads of residents trying to get a good night rest, after a hard day’s work. The booms come over as thunder in our restless ears as the revellers echo the lyrics of their sound boxes. Their appetite for fete, unlimited desire to consume liquor that they did not sell and food they did not prepare for sale grew, as the noises they make continue throughout the night. They litter our streets with bottles, glass, plastic, paper, pee and at times excrement, the drive with which they consume cuisine not prepared at home such as doubles, hamburgers, hotdogs and gyros is never ending.
This process is repeated endlessly, every day and every night by our African youths. The residents quietly frown upon the endless and uncontrolled feting which enriches the non-African, but fulfills his desire to have a good time, no time limit for this kind of activity set by the City, thereby creating a deteriorating neighborhood, which will eventually fall to standards not intended by the proprietors.
These activities have winners and losers. The winners are always the businessmen. The evident losers are the homeowners and the African is left with the memory of having ‘a good time’. The City abdicates its responsibility to protect the property owners, by failing to illicit beginning time and ending times for these activities. The businessmen pay no extra taxes for his gains, the streets deteriorate and smell with the continuous littering of food and decay. In the end, local government suffers because ongoing activities make the neighborhood less desirable as a place to live, work and grow.
With the African youths’ incessant pursuit of pleasure and self aggrandizement, a neighborhood is destroyed, values lost, tax base depleted and because of ineffective government monitoring, discipline is never installed and nobody is better off in the end.
Government must be responsible to protect us from ourselves.
The Avenue is rife with happy revellers and happy profiteers but is left with unhappy residents who yearn for some sense of discipline and control of our properties. I suggest that the City get into the business of limiting times to fete, thereby respecting homeowners’ desire for rest and peace. There MUST BE A STANDARD TIME TO START AND A TIME TO END these activities, thereby instilling some discipline and respect for those who spend so much to maintain our neighborhoods.
Cooper,
Like Kian I laud your sentiments. And I laud Bro. Cudjoe for pictorially documenting some of that not-so-ancient history. Each generation ought to be schooled in what went before. The proper telling of OurStory — as distinct from HisStory — is critical to maintaining a link with the past.
Nevertheless there is a problem, in fact several…
The first is that the historical link has been broken. We don’t know who we are. We are not amorphously “African”. We the “Negro”, so-called, are African, in fact BaNtu. But not all African are Negro/Bantu. The Negro/Bantu are Israelite of the seed. Our forefathers were selectively kidnapped and enslaved by other black Africans, in particular black Hamites, black Hebrew Edomites, and black Ishmaelites (Arabs). These perpetrated the inland portion of the slave trade. They sold us to white Hebrew Edomite so-called (but not in fact) “Jews”, who conducted the trans-Atlantic portion of the slave trade. Therefore, to conceive of ourselves as amorphously “African” is to preclude the possibility of restoring the broken chain of OurStory as it actually happened. The designation “Negro” in these parts is actually more denotationally precise and therefore more accurate, and a better basis on which to reclaim knowledge of our past.
Since you use “Hotep” (= peace, in Kemetic Egyptian) as benediction, I gather you think that we the Negro are of Ham, through Kemet, aka Mizraim. Let me therefore attempt to correct that error of classification. According to the Zondervan Bible Dictionary, Ham is described as follows:
“Ham: The youngest son of Noah, born probably about 96 years before the Flood; and one of eight persons to live through the Flood. He became the progenitor of the dark races; not the Negroes, but the Egyptians, Ethiopians, Libyans and Canaanites.”
We the Negro are in fact of Shem, not of Ham. The Shemites also were a dark-skinned, woolly-haired people in the beginning. In any case, Y-DNA analysis confirms a distinction between Hamitic Africans and Bantu/Negro Africans. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAGfW0DtNZY for a good breakdown of the DNA evidence.
For myself, I find Holy Scripture more persuasive than DNA evidence, and Zondervan is indeed consistent with Holy Scripture.
As we seek to reforge the broken links with our past, this foundational question of identity needs to be addressed.
Second, I resist the canonization of our elders. Yes we must give them their due, and yes, we must give them the respect of remembering them and their struggle. But they are not the last word. They too were coming up out from under multiple veils of HisStory, well designed to cover up OurStory. This was prophesied:
“For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee: The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes…”
So, it is no accident that we the Negro/Bantu people would be confused as to who we are. It is a HisStorical conspiracy.
One of the intellectual giants that Bro. Cudjoe has written about is in fact one of my own ancestors, John Jacob Thomas, the author of Froudacity (1889), which is undergoing a resurgence of interest and popularity. In it he takes apart James Anthony Froude, and his racist postulations in the latter’s The English in the West Indies. One of his trenchant and instructive objections to Froude was:
“we protest against your right, or that of any other created worm, to formulate for the special behoof of
Negroes any sort of artificial creed unbelieved
in by yourself,…”
Those who are a party to the conspiracy against the Negro/Bantu people ever make it their business to control the very thought of the Negro/Bantu. Convincing us to call ourselves African, thereby separating us from our status as the holy seed of the Most High, is one of those elements of the conspiracy. Almost the entire edifice of New Testament (so-called) Christianity has been constructed with the specific purpose of seeking to render profane what the Most High declared to be holy, namely those of the seed of Israel, in particular the Negro/Bantu (however misnomered) of Africa.
“For thou art an holy people unto Yahweh thy Elohim: Yahweh thy Elohim hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.” (Deuteronomy 7:6)
That is the Most High speaking, not I. Gentile Christianity has sought to substitute a new Israel — the Church, considered now spiritual Israel — in place of seedline Israel. The Edomites, converted to something called “Judaism”, offer themselves as “Jew” having that same dispensation of holiness unto Yahweh. Their Khazar and Sephardic allies in Judaism likewise. The Ishmaelites in their Qur’an take up a foundational chapter excoriating the errors and waywardness of the true Israelites (since misnomered Negro/Bantu people), and essentially offering themselves up as a better choice of holiness — submission to the will of Elohim/Allah — for the Most High to accept in substitution for Israel. Certainly we have been a wayward and disobedient people, which is precisely why we were scattered out and indeed enslaved, and in a manner precisely as prophesied; Deuteronomy 28:68, elsewhere. Even the Edomite Brahminist Hindus put themselves forward as a holy people, drawn from the head of Brahman (Abraham), in substitution of the children of Israel, to whom, alone, the Most High gave the privilege of being the holy seed.
Even in our disobedience, we alone remain the holy seed. We alone have suffered the curses, and we alone will be redeemed, albeit only a righteous remnant, and raised back up to rule; Daniel 7:18, elsewhere.
That is why it is important for all our enemies, confederate against us, –Alyssa called them the straight-hair alliance, — to try to control what we think. Any misdirection will suffice. In fact, the more, the merrier. “African” identity is one such misdirection. “Hotep” thinking (that we are Ham) is another. But these are as nothing compared to catholic (universal as opposed to holy) christian doctrine, that seeks to undo the holiness the Most High conferred upon the Negro/Bantu, on pain even of slavery.
Third, I offer to you and Kian the prophecy of Isaiah 51, which rather precisely fits the condition of our people today. Its contemplation can only but strengthen faith in the Most High and His Holy Scripture.
“Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of Yahweh the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out. There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up. These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort thee? Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of Yahweh, the rebuke of thy Elohim.” (Isaiah 51:17-20)
Our sons are indeed “like wild bulls caught in a net”, without guidance. Yes indeed, we must seek to guide them. Yes indeed the intellectual giants of the past can be of some help. But alas, without clear understanding of the identity question — pan-African, or Negro — of the who-we-are-remembrance from which we were deliberately cut off, canonizing the intellectual giants of the past may not serve the purpose either. The best thing I can do to and for my own warrior ancestor, J. J. Thomas, is to stand upon his shoulder, not put him upon a pedestal to gaze upon, let alone bow down to and worship. To stand upon the shoulder of a giant is to see even further than he can. To kneel at his feet is to see nothing.
I had some other thoughts as well, but I will stop here for space.
Shalom.
“Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine: Thus saith thy Lord Yahweh, and thy Elohim 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 51:21-23)
The PNM economic policy is slowly obliterating the middle class (the people who spend money) and creating the poor and rich classes. Just today 160 people were given pink slips and sent home. That means a 160 people in one day without sufficient disposable income to keep the businesses they patronize from afloat.
The loss of jobs is as a result of a shrinking economic platform and low oil prices along with expanding global markets that are becoming insular in their thinking. For instance the US sign a deal for LNG with China, Canada is in train to produce LNG. Just as an example the global markets that was once there will soon disappear as the big players with cash overload invest in products that they see a future in.
The hope for TNT is to explore Latin American markets as the present Prime Minister is doing. The North American markets are changing but the Latin American markets are emerging and rising.
It is the curse of power, that money gets spent and wasted in this excercise of extravagance. All governments suffer from monetary anemia once in power. They spend, over spent, tax and give their family power and position as they enjoy riding the tiger. In the Congo, President Joseph Kabila employs his family and close friends in every State enterprise. They drink and stagger like a drunkard with the chalice of power. Kickbacks is an expected business handshake whilst the poor masses are abandoned to the beggarly elements of the world to fend for themselves. In Ontario, the current Leader of the Liberal party around election time sit with unionized members and give them huge increases from a depleted treasury. Power at all cost.
So what about the future of TNT. In Tobago they are saying hotels are sitting near empty. In Trinidad contracts are not being renewed and social programs are getting slashed. The mental psychosis created by these uncertainties along with a draconian tax regime means unimaginable suffering. Let us hope these 5 years go by quickly.
Mamma,did you read the article published by Dr Cudjoe?you are so far off point, you come across as a social media crack head. you have responded to nothing pertaining to the topic being discussed, so it is very cantankerous of you manipulating and twisting the topic, very devious.You don’t seemed to be an Internationalist, or know History, you flow like a male never ending, Mamoo, you are part of the problem currently being experience in T&T presently, are you aware of that? some of us believe that we are intelligent, only to continue in making fools of ourselves, you are all over the place.The topic is Brek-up Brek-down society, stick to it.Hotep.
Yes I know and understand the history of struggles and the need to end the colonial factoids in our education system. I have visited many historical sites during my lifetime. To Dr.Cudjoe point there is no impetus to preserve history. History does not fit well into the Trini psyche. The under 40 generation does not care about it. My son said to me history is about dead people I don’t care about that. I care about the living.
As the world moves along and learning becomes instant, history will soon be confined to the electronic storage systems.
As for preservation the government aka minister of culture must be the one to see value in restoration and preservation of buildings. If that person does not have the inner inklings of preservation vested in their DNA nothing is going to happen. Until that happens and this nation decides to map its own historical view of its most treasured past we will lost generations of archetectural marvel. Confided to the memory of the elderly.
“One way to destroy a personality is to cut out memory: one way to destroy a state is to cut out its history.” Totally concur with the sentiments expressed by the author for our misplaced, misguided and misdirected historic values. To further add to this expression, ‘to know where you are going to you need to know where you are coming from’.
If one look at the current mindset of the average Trinidadian they lack the word ‘maintenance’ in their vocabulary, especially preventative maintenance, this seems to transcend right up to Board level. I read the article of the island ferries and the lack of maintenance of the vessels that are leading to frequent breakdowns, the pathologist who is ready to pack up and go etc. If one fails ‘(brek up society’) to appreciate a historical site and the artefacts thereon are left to get into a decrepit state then the absence of maintaining in the first place will lead to the easy decision to ‘brek down’. I have seen first hand when a temporary fix is employed in a manufacturing setting and is literally left as permanent fix until ‘brek down time’. Amazingly preventative maintenance is normally budgeted for in most annual budgets, why does not hind sight ensue foresight. In this scenario the appreciation of heritage is totally absent.
Because we lack the basic fundamentals of civility as a society, our appreciation for and understanding of how things should be done become distorted, especially when action is to be taken on issues of importance. These fundamentals can be:
A smile
Greetings
Importance of a Name
Conversational Boundaries
Team work
The one subject that allows these fundamentals to formulate how we do and VALUE things is HISTORY. When observed and respected, History determines how we treat with the present. This is where our society and the black masses in particular have fallen short.
Whereas Indians, since the end of indentureship have used education to further their development, the Africans have no fixed path towards development. There are two distinct paths that prevent this from happening. One is intellectual in nature and the other is instinctual. The intellectual and instinctual paths are NOT complementary to each and may prevent the African mindset to settle on any given path. For example, in terms of values and speech, there is a big difference between Ivor Archie (whom I would call an intellectual) and Watson Duke (whom I would call qn instinctual). Cooper recognizes this in his blog, when he said to Dr. Cudjoe “Dr C,as an intellectual your message will fall on death ears”. This is so, because the conversational boundaries and importance of a name needed for team work prevents both to be in accord.
A hallmark of African tradition is the respect for elders. The intellectual might pay homage to this practice, but the instinctual does not see it as a practice necessary in forming or maintaining his identity. The Labour movement remembers and commemorates the “1937 fires in Fyzabad” because it was an important event in recognizing the importance of ‘labour’ in the work ethic for oil workers. While the participants of the events might have been mostly instinctuals, the ones who preserve the memory would be the intellectuals. This, to me is the dichotomy that prevents the African mindset from achieving cohesive team work and expectations.
It comes as no surprise that while Woodford Square should be synonymous with the aspirations of Dr. Eric
Williams, there is no public outcry for some kind of commemorative gesture to institutionalize his name in our memory. This might be in the form of a statue or informational literature stating the importance of Woodford Square to Dr. Williams. The OWTU recognizes the importance of its struggles to respect and reward labor, so they commemorate this by building a monument of it’s famous leader Tubal Uriah Buzz Butler with related documentaries.
The Indian’s mindset for development, regardless of social standing or wealth is through education. It is a path that every Indian will agree with and have penchant for. The culture and traditions of the Indian, make such goals easily pursued and attainable. He maintains all fundamentals of civility to maintain this achievement without any obstructionist activity.
Among some of the instinctuals in the African community, there is no priority to pursue this path and it is what is keeping us back from achieving higher standards. If we are mindful of what worked for us in the past and be respectful of the players who made it possible, I am sure we can return to civility, where we honor those who strove before our coming. Such appreciation can make us a better people if we try.
I want to comment on the Chief Justice matter in the context of this theme of the Brek-up Brek-down society, if the Moderator would kindly permit. I don’t see a thread dedicated to this matter.
The matter is so murky that the only thing clear is that there is more in the mortar than the pestle. There seems to be enough blame to make two passes round the table as it is shared out, and still have some left over. In that situation, a commentator situated well away from this matter, and not at all connected either with the legal community, nor the political, may at best see through a very tinted glass. Nevertheless, as a member of the community at large, there is much I have at stake, and on that basis I venture to comment.
Raff suggested some few articles ago, quoting Yeats’ famous poem, that the “centre cannot hold… mere anarchy is loosed upon the world” (I quote loosely from memory). In the case of present-day T&T, it is not anarchy that is loosed upon our fair country, but a seditious insurrection, prosecuted using every means available, some merely “targets of opportunity”. It is in that context that I wish to comment.
The CJ matter is a target of opportunity. It is clear that the CJ and the JLSC committed a faux-pas, an ADMINISTRATIVE mix-up. That was unfortunate. The exploitation of that faux-pas was to turn it into a target of opportunity in pursuit of the Indian Policyagenda item #1: “make the country ungovernable!”. Hence, to mix a metaphor, we have a mountain made of a faux-pas.
What ought the CJ to do? Well, that is up to him. One does not have to resign over an administrative faux-pas. There is not an organization in the world, public or private, that would have any staff left if there were such a requirement. Obtiously, this is neither a legal requirement, nor a moral one.
Neither does the CJ have to apologise. To whom and what for? Certainly not to Mrs. Marcia Ayres-Caesar. She must shoulder some of the blame that may be passed around. Therefore, she cannot feel aggrieved sufficient to require or expect an apology.
Nor ought a third party to step in to demand of the CJ that he apologize. Again, to whom and what for? Certainly not to a third party such as the Law Association. Such a demand is impertinent. A third party, –even if politically multiplied by 500 in invidious association,– cannot claim to know all else that’s in the mortar besides the pestle, only that which has been put before the public, which certainly is not enough to put the monkey-pants on the CJ for anything other than an administrative error of judgment. The way the matter subsequently was spun proves only that he has few friends in the media… and that it is difficult for one in the lofty position of CJ to defend themselves in the glare of media spotlight while maintaining all necessary judicial decorum and dignity.
Therefore those who tread in that direction — Martin Daly and the Law Association — are at the least assuming the parlous cloak of the holier-than-thou, or, at the worst, party to a plot, either as unwitting dupe, or as scurrilous participant.
This so-called “no-confidence” vote of the Law Association may actually be a contempt of court. Not the outcome, mind you, but the vote itself.
But who am I to argue with the 500-odd luminaries of the Law. As a concerned citizen, I see clearly that this sledge-hammer is not the tool to use to kill a pesky mosquito on the forehead of the body-politic.
The fact is that in any command organization, the underling is ALWAYS sacrificed to spare the chief. If the underling fights the chief, the underling ALWAYS loses. That is just the nature of command organizations. In such a situation, it is for the underling to tuck tail and take it, that they might live to fight another day. If the fight is escalated, as appears here to be the case, it is of course possible to “kill the king” as it were, but only with huge collateral damage. The African proverb comes to mind: when elephants fight, the grass suffers.
When one sets out to kill a king, it must be that either one cares nothing for the cost to the body politic; or that one has only contempt for the king, despite his lofty office; or both.
Hence this unholy alliance of the seditious and the holier-than-thou.
I for one, as a member of the suffering body-politic, must register my disgust.
This matter obviously ramifies beyond the CJ and the JLSC.
The Prime Minister is constitutionally well in crease to speak of a “Chinese Wall” separating the Executive arm from the Judicial arm. Nevertheless, he must be well aware of Item #1 of the Indian Policy. If he is, as a good general tasked to defend the state, he must recognize that the Judiciary protects his flank. (Not his personally, but of loyal Government as such).
In the matter of the Elections Petition, two of the Appeal Court Justices offered opinions giving Petitioner the UNC/PP Leave to Proceed that were so flimsy as to have been motivated only by political or “ideological” bias. I will not relitigate that matter here. Suffice it to say, that if the CJ should fall, the Prime Minister and his government would have to try to govern with a huge breach in that Chinese wall, with the hordes of Gog and Magog, which that wall was built to keep out, well then able to surge across.
Therefore, the PM, while maintaining constitutional decorum in the matter, ought better be well seized of the threat, not only to the body-politic, but to his loyal Government that is yet to show any departure from their constitutional oath to serve the people among others without sectarian bias. As I have opined before, the Executive is duty-bound under oath to discharge their office(s) without fear or favour, etc. Where a seditious insurrection is afoot, the Executive is not only well advised, for reasons of its own survival, to be well seized of the matter, but also duty-bound, under its sworn oath to uphold the law, to beat down such an insurrection.
Yes, a *loyal* Opposition is entitled to use every means that is not illegal or immoral to bring down a seated Government. But it is only a *disloyal* Opposition that would use seditious means, insurrection, and sabotage to do so.
Sedition is AGAINST THE LAW, let us not forget. The Indian Policy is actionably seditious. Furthermore, there is evidence internal to that document that points directly to the Maha Sabha. I cannot believe that the security apparatus of the State is unable to make necessary links sufficient at the very least to put this seditious insurrection in serious check, or even check-mate.
Sedition is objectionable enough in itself. But when that sedition is accompanied by voiced threats of the disloyal Opposition to “make blood flow”, the Government is failing in its duty to secure the state, if this sort of seditious utterance is allowed to pass unremarked.
Further, if there is CLEAR evidence of a program of repeated SABOTAGE that’s afoot, disturbing the peace and tranquility of the citizenry, the Executive would be derelict in its first duty — that to secure the Republic — if it chose not to act.
We have as a National Security Minister a general with decades of military experience and training. Surely he understands the military necessity of protecting one’s flank. Here we have a disloyal Opposition in full frontal assault, leading one to wonder whether the centre cannot hold. Now it is combined with flanking attacks (note: plural) against the Judiciary, the seizure of which by this disloyal Opposition would render the centre certainly unable to hold. What must our general do in response?
One does not have to be Sun Tzu or von Clausewitz to know the answer to that question. Ironically, the Panday doctrine provides an answer: “do dem fuss!”. That is actually serious tactical, and strategic, doctrine. Here is General George S. Patton:
In other words, Patton was so much always on the offensive, that in that way the enemy had no chance to attack his flanks, rather their own flanks and their own centre!
Well here we are in insouciant T&T. We’re talking about whether the centre cannot hold, the flanks are ready to crumble, and our Executive shows no sign that it’s even seized of the fact that it is under seditious, and insurrectionist, attack.
Meantime, the enemy has tipped its hand, and there is actual physical evidence of sabotage afoot in the land. I sure hope our security apparatus use the abundant means available to it to stop this insurrection DEAD in its tracks! I don’t want nor need to know what those methods are. But one or two of the underlings, and perhaps even ring-leaders, put in jail without bail, would put a stop to this nonsense, I’m sure.
In the meantime, I pray that the CJ confess his failures before the Most High in this matter. Like King David, he has sinned if at all only against the Most High. He and the Most High will know in what way. May the Most High forgive his transgressions. And may He put a hand, that the country be spared the predations of the disloyal and ungrateful ones who seek to make the country ungovernable and the blood to flow.
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)
Your racist mindset seem to obscure rational thought. Your interpretation of the judicial crisis as a simple “faux-pas” is naïve and apologetic, motivated by your inability to see beyond your contrived “sedition” theory.
You lament the failure of your African counterparts to recognize and eliminate the “Indian sedition” which apparently is crystal clear to you and a few distorted others.
Your divisiveness is seditious and dangerous to any inclusive and diverse nation. What is particularly alarming is your intentional effort to couch your biases in religious quotes and hyperbole.
TMan:
To speak of race, is not ipso facto to be racist.
The true racists are the ones who authored the Indian Policy, and their enablers, who object to it being put under the spotlight.
Well, in that case, dear TMan, do give us the benefit of your better and less naïve analysis.
As the Chinese say, following Confucius, it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
But I know you by now well enough not to hold my breath waiting.
What the body-politic has to worry about is not my divisiveness, but that of the Indian Policy.
I am not the one who authored, neither fabricated that document. I would have nothing to say about it if I thought it somebody’s idea of a sick joke, representing no threat that the body-politic need take seriously. I take it seriously because it rings real, not hollow. It aligns with some of what we see ACTUALLY happening in the society, and indeed have been seeing for DECADES.
One is duty-bound to sound the alarm, if one sees a threat coming while one’s fellow-soldiers are asleep in the camp. That is scriptural.
Therefore, I put myself in the gap, even if it may put me in harm’s way. I come from a line of volunteer soldiers, and I am sworn as an army cadet. Somebody has to stand up, if only to help give necessary backbone to our elected leaders of the moment.
I am glad you are alarmed. It suggests the seditionists and insurrectionists likewise may be alarmed. The BLOOD their leader recklessly, and seditiously, talks about may be theirs.
This is serious business. I would not undertake it without appeal first to, and guidance from, the Highest Court.
From you and your ilk I withhold my peace, 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)