By Stephen Kangal
Devember 02, 2006
The PNM’s damage control machinery went into overdrive to mitigate the adverse political fall out arising from the instantly minted, state-sponsored “mixed communities” philosophy and policy as divulged at Waterloo High by PM Manning. In all my 66 years in T&T since the advent of the PNM in 1956 I have never heard nor read of the “mixed communities” policy. That is another ploy for creating a vote bank in Central. The nearest they came to this policy is their policy of ethno-nationalism that is based on a process of cultural assimilation and the sharing of rewards exclusively amongst its followers.
Why does the use of the word “douglarisation” evoke so much “sensationalism” and is so sensitive in the psyche of the PNM when the very Editor-In-Chief of the Guardian is a “dougla” and is responsible for the Sunday Guardian headline?
This PNM damage control outfit must be on duty 24/7 having regard to the propensity and frequency with which PM Manning is so embarrassingly and naively unaware of both the gravity and far-reaching implications of his flippant, trivialising and thoughtless pronouncements. This is a further embarrassment to all of us in T&T and a blemish on our international image.
Why does Narace think that he can hoodwink us into believing that he can explain more accurately and convincingly what PM Manning said and meant when the latter should be the only one to complain and seek an unnecessary apology from the Guardian? This is not a party matter. It involves the Head of Government who is elaborating Government’s new policy. The PNM cannot separate the state of T&T from the party because: “L’Etat c’est PNM.”
PRO Narace reminds me of the pathetic attempt of Minister Imbert recently in trying to justify the Mannings’ joy ride on the Bombardier Luxury Jet to Antigua. That was another example of damage control.
When PM Manning used the term “mixed development” in respect to the allocation of the lands of Caroni, he was convinced, unlike Narace, that the 7500 former Caroni workers did not adequately meet his peculiar diversity criteria in Caroni. He had to add 11,000 more residents, most of whom will be PNM supporters, being relocated to tilt the electoral balance in Couva North on top of the HDC’s Edinburgh 500 Housing Scheme. This is balance PNM-style. The PNM has already succeeded in upsetting the delicate electoral balance in the marginals through the HDC’s “non-mixed” philosophy, policy and practice. The HDC will not be involved in administering the lot allocation process of the 11,000 additional lots of Caroni for housing.
So that we have a non-mixed policy in the towns and the East-West Corridor and a mixed policy in Caroni. Both has the same electoral agenda – votes.
But PM Manning also referred to “communities that emerge as a consequence…” Douglarisation will be the natural consequence of an artificial, state-engineered programme of “mixed communities” effected via ethnic quotas. The Guardian has nothing to apologise for and must stand by its editorial judgement and independence irrespective of state advertising revenues and the veiled threats of reprisals issued by Narace.
The question is, having regard to the prevailing anarchic law of the jungle conduct taking place across T&T in spite of the rural-urban ethnic divide, how do you protect the physically weak, non-violent mind-set and the docile from the aggressive and the collateral damages associated with imported gang/turf warfare in a new “mixed communities” theatre? People have an inalienable right to choose the communities in which they wish to live and to defend their cultural life style and not to be deprived of that right by the façade of a policy really designed to give lands for party political purposes. Indians are both mentally, religiously docile and physically weak to defend themselves as they must in mixed communities.
Who’s Narace fooling but himself when he states that HDC’s houses went to “all classes, ethnic groups… and all political affiliations”. For the PNM the resources of the state of T&T belong to them by divine right/dictate. Rowley refused to disclose the ethnicity of the successful applicants for all HDC’s houses although the names will clearly indicate the range of the imbalanced ethnic mix that is totally inconsistent with Manning’s “mixed communities” philosophy.
Having live abroad for a while around many different nationalities and social classes I can only come up with one comment for your article – you sir are a racist
Well written…it is high time that someone recognize and put on display the eternal ploy of the PNM to erase the Indian community….
Mr. Kangal said “People have an inalienable right to choose the communities in which they wish to live and to defend their cultural life style……”
No truer words have been said on the subject cousin SK. One would expect no less from a society that claims to be democratic and adheres to the basic tenets of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as laid out by the United Nations many moons ago.
As a former long standing member of our Foreign Service fraternity you too might still remember Article 25.(1) which states as follows: – “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, “housing” and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”
It is unfortunate that you good sir believes that folks of all races are being moved from the Trinidadian urban shantytowns and ‘Brazilian -like Favelas,’ to more habitable areas where underutilized state lands are primarily as a political ruse to win votes.
Diplomatic double speak will serve us no useful purpose my friend in this day and age when so much is at stake . Time to adopt my adoring Grandmother’s maxim of “plain talk , bad manners.”
In light of that , do you care to translate your under mentioned commentary please :
“Indians are both mentally, religiously docile and physically weak to defend themselves as they must in mixed communities.”
My interpretation to that is simply that Africans in our country are mostly criminals , vagabonds ,and immoral overpowering , unconscionable sub -humans , that should be kept away from the more cultured and gentle law abiding , industrious, family orient folks you’ve just mentioned.
I could be wrong in my opinion of you Mr. K ,but since I have been following your writings for approximately one year now , and think otherwise. You simply need to reappraise this myopic view you fervently possess about your country and some of it’s people , if your ‘end game’ is what I suspect it is.
It was Henry Emerson Fosdick who said that “hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat.”
Time for a new political play book Mr. K . The desperate masses on both sides of the ‘so – called divide’ are observing , learning , and in search for answers and direction. Let’s leave tribalism where it belongs -outside of Trinidad and Tobago for places like Sudan, Sri Lanka , Gaza,Yugoslavia,Nigeria, 1947 partitioned India , and 1994 Rwanda.
For the record, our people for all their occasional frivolousness ,have collectively and repeatedly shown that they are sophisticated , conscious , well informed folks ,that can make prudent social and political decisions where warranted . If not ,Backer the Muslim wannabe ,and Ex cop, with his tugs and harems would be running the country with Murmur Quadaffi’s help, and tactic support of local business and political traitors.Our people denounced such disgraceful stupidity as occured in 1990 in our country.
The PNM Mr. K could not have succeeded in the polls as it did since 1956 to present ,if they did not appeal to , and or received broad based support from across the nation beyond race , and ethnic origins.
I fervently believe that we all have a moral responsibility to hold the government and it’s agent’s symbolic ‘hands to the fire,’ when we think they have erred . In like manner, we should not be timid or hesitant to point out deficiencies of our vast Oppositions , and nudge them where possible into the formulation of new, cogent policies, as well as adoption of modern strategies that can bring about more favorable results that can benefit respective parties , and by extension , people of our nation as a whole.
I wish you well.
Neal,
I guess that you are euther too young to remember, or have not lived in T&T for a while to recognize the deplorable state to which the PNM has brought our country.
Allow me to respond to the roiginal author’s comment as stated below…
The PNM Mr. K could not have succeeded in the polls as it did since 1956 to present ,if they did not appeal to , and or received broad based support from across the nation beyond race , and ethnic origins.
“Indians are both mentally, religiously docile and physically weak to defend themselves as they must in mixed communities.”
WHEN IN 1956 THE DLP WAS HOLDING A MEETING AT THE QUEEN’S PARK SAVANNAH AND WAS BEING ADDRESSED BY DR. CAPILDEO, THE SUPPORTERS OF THE DLP WERE “TAPPED UP” AND BULLIED AND THEIR TORCHES(THE SYMBOL OF THE PARTY) WERE THROWN AWAY. THIS WAS DONE BY MEMBERS OF THE PNM AND THE POLICE FORCE!!!
The housing where the PNM promises equal oportunity are given to people whose last names do not sound like Singh, Persad or Maharaj. I have a friend who got a house because his name did not sound East Indian.
I live abroad and each time I visit I weep for my the people of the country because they are living under such deplorable conditions. The PNM do not have the common sense (or heart)to even provide the basic necessities to the people. Imagine…there is no running water for people who live next to the Navet Dam…potholes are everywhere..(do we have a pitchlake???.
The CPEP program is a joke..TEN people to cut some grass (2 to hold a blanket, 1 to whistle if a car is coming, 2 to carry water, 2 to rake the grass…..give m a break !!
Allow me to educate you Neal since you seem view the plight of our people through rose coloured glasses…
When the NAR won election in 1986..they found 62 BILLION US DOLLARS missing from the treasury..(enough money to give every man, woman and child ONE MILLION US DOLLARS, A BENZ, A HOUSE and LAND).
Not to mention the tens of skyscrapers the former PNM parliamentarians have in Canada and other parts of the world.
We still have the money to help the people but we continue to try to impress the world with 3 million dollar drapes while children go to school barefooted and without food.
Did you know that we provide 70% of the USA’s natural gas needs???
Open your eyes … the country has the means to provide a better standard of living for the people but who cares ??? Let the PNM rule forever just as long as an Indian is not at the helm. People rather eat grass and suffer ….
but then what ??? it is now accepted as a way of life for all….
There is a strong feeling in T&T that the Indian majority is being supressed by a government which is predominantly African.
I wonder how true that is? When I visit I see no evidence of that.
Cousin T-bone, you are making a serious mistake if you somehow believe that you are trying to communicate with a fellow neighbor from the Winnipeg Kiwanis Club. No sir. While you were still trying to figure out if Carl Jacob of Shandeleer fame was the singer of the song Trini 2 de bone or Pavarotti, I was living and dealing with matters that pertains to dreadful realities in my country.
As a young hard working 20 year old underpaid public servant living in one of our numerous Brazilian like post slavery favelas, I knew the realities to which you can only dream of. Each time the rain fell, I needed the help of local bandits and other good folks , to help me push my car from the blocked roads to get to work, from a house on a dangerously steep hill , in a neighborhood with deficient /non existent infrastructure , so as to serve my people. In the mean time you were constructing your fifth house on the 100 acres estate your family inherited at the hands of your loving British colonial masters.
There is a fundamental problem you are having along with numerous of our elite leaders across this country. It is the sole explanation as to why the PNM will never loose another election in this country. You tend to believe in Magic T-bone, and are trying to perform the impossible of “having your cake and eat it.”
It ain’t happening in your life time my friend. Such lunacy is tantamount to a tourtoise trying to fly without wings ,or a chickland native planting flags , in the distortd notion that such actions alone can make them wealthy.
You expect to miraculously witness fundamental social , economic ,and political progress in Trinidad and Tobago, but want to firmly hold on selectively to certain colonial vestiges, and historical gained largesse , while speaking deliberate falsehoods, because you feel it would further your interest, domestically and internationally.
Do not speak to me about anything that transpired in my country in 1956,as I have absolutely no interest as to what our savage colonial masters were doing to my country 6 years before Independence. Talk to me about long delayed land reforms, and much needed equitable distribution of this our resources – especially now that our sugar and rice industry is dead.
That so called docile trait that Mr. K spoke about has nothing to do with religion, or alleged weakness of our Indian friends as he claimed. It is merely a convenient ploy that is trotted out when confronted with others that they believe are superior to them ,as they believe that some unknown advantage can accrue as a result. However, when in the company of others that they despise or in turn fell superior to, then ‘it’s a horse of a different color.’ Ah lie?
If you think so then do your data surveys in Kenya, South Africa , Fiji, Guyana , and Trinidad and Tobago , then juxtapose them with your much beloved Europe , USA , Canada, New Zealand , Australia , or similar places where Indo migrations took place as a result of the destructive works of British savages ,then get back to me if you dare.
You lamented that “The housing where the PNM promises equal opportunity are given to people whose last names do not sound like Singh, Persad or Maharaj.”
If Singh, Persad, Maharaj , Chin , Lee, Gomes, Hart , Stollmeyer, and, De Gaines are still demanding houses in La Houquetta, Edinburgh 500, Maloney, and Bon Air West housing estate in addition to the 15 room mansions they all possess , it’s because they have inculcated what I like to refer to as the obsessively greedy , selfish “ dog in the bone syndrome.” We know fully well what happened to that foolish dog, don’t we?
I know all about “the tens of skyscrapers the former PNM parliamentarians have in Canada and other parts of the world.” Not only that ,I know about for lifetime Minister of Energy Errol Mahabir Japanese Garden , Kamal ADB loans Agricultural Ponzi schemes that made Aranguez and El Soccoro farmers into millionaires ,as well as his Ministry of Health shakedowns that benefited many with names such as Singh , Persad , and Maharaj , when in charge and deputy of the party. I know about Gilman Hussain , houses before horses , and the recent former PM Airport bribes. Many of these may have occured during the PNM reign but another unmentionable yet obvious thread runs throughout.
The PNM will rule forever if you allow nepotistic, out of touch political dinosaurs that still lay claims to be modern leaders to control the opposition forever. Take note that in your much beloved big brother USA, millionaire political elite from Arizona was kept out of power, because visionaries and progressives were prepared to come forward and serve.
You, the opposition spokesman, and other political agents can scream ‘until the cows come home,’ but show me the evidence that Indo Trinis have suffered unduly in my country due to the alleged racially tinged PNM”S political stewardship, or that Afro Trinis somehow gained some monumental, unknown advantage due to the fact that misdirected, socially unconscious leaders that appear to look like them held reigned for such a long time.
None so blind…..