By Stephen Kangal
April 24, 2012
During the recent visit made to her ancestral homeland, Bihari village of Bhelupur PM Persad-Bissessar issued a most profound, conclusive, unnoticed and defining statement on her nature and nurturing en route to becoming Prime Minister. She confessed quite categorically to the Bhelupuris gathered that “…whatever I am today is because Bihar is in my DNA and whatever my ancestors taught me…”.
I do not think that the PM was pandering to a Bihari audience by being diplomatically correct. On the face of the statement she would appear to exclude the indigenous T&T impact or socialisation on the moulding/shaping of her personality that contributed to her successful rise to becoming the Prime Minister of T&T. But having confessed that India was grand-mother she reasserted the determining role of her ancestral cultural links in moulding her attributes. I think that the PM developed her political prowess exclusively here.
Hers is a deliberate reversal of the 1962 politically limited statement made by late PM Dr. Eric Williams relating to the exclusive concept of Mother T&T. Dr. Williams stymied by his limited sociological knowledge, attempted not only to erase our several ancestral memory and heritage but to place all the ancestral ethnic ties on the same racio-cultural plane/intensity-the “all ah we is one”, melting pot misrepresentation.
How can our PM reasonably and categorically lay claim to have the all-pervasive DNA of Bihar (culture transmitted genetically) in her personality when she was in fact born, socialized and schooled in T&T/Jamaica and therefore susceptible to the principle of the territorial imperative? The answer lies in the concept of cultural persistence/genetic cultural transmission that is the pivot of her complex Indo-Trinbagonian personality. That is to say that 167 years spent in T&T host environment cannot eradicate/replace the 6,000 years of acculturation/ genetic cultural transmission to which the Indo-T&T community has been exposed and which they reinforced orally and via the tenets of Hinduism/Islam.
The PM would have closed an unknown long and nagging chapter in her socio-cultural life having satisfied her longing to know from where in India and Bihar her great grand-father Mishra came. The homing instinct is all powerful. The visit generated in her an overwhelming emotional catharsis. Meeting with her relatives after returning as a successful “nabob” would have overwhelmed them emotionally seeing the tears on all sides.
The Prime Minister appears to have gone through a process of socio-cultural cleansing, purification and reassertion of her Indo-T&T personality that will increase her confidence levels thanks to the warm adulation she received on her Indian safari. Thank you Madame PM for the tectonic and paradigm shift in the tone, tenour and qualitative leap in TT/India relations.
http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2012-04-28/pm’s-sister-travelled-first-class-india Yep , I agree that hands down ,dis is the greatest regional PM since slice bread. She make Iron Lady Eugenia Charles , and Margaret Thatcher look like political pirates. What is a lil bit o nepotism folks, even if it cost the state close to quarter million to go and see the Taj Mahal, and drink some HOLY ,special water ,from the world famous ,Ganges River?
Give it a rest you bias, and or disgruntled , PNM folks ,for where were you bozos ,when Basdeo’s close , nepotistic arch rival ,Patrick Manning ,had his equally clueless wife Hazel ,running around, all over the country , and the globe , stinking up the joint- at our desperate citizen’s expense,one might add?
What’s that , dis was not the changes you voted for, when you kicked out that Sando egomaniac Patrick, and replaced him with Siparia’s own, in Her Majesty ,Queen K ?
Well, too bad, so grin and bear with it for another 3 years, while De Rott,Dr Rowley ,try and win his more important lawsuit, against COP UPSTART ,Ag Rammy. How can we hate this country! One might stay away from this site for 8 months , then return, and nada has change – same old monkey pants.
Yes, but why was the “travelling companion” not disclosed by the PM herself?
Why did the media and the Opposition have to uncover this arrangement?
If the PM wanted to replace her personal aide to which I believe she is entitled, with her sister, she should have formalized the position and made it public. Although the rationale here is that a “civil servant” would have been more expensive, the optics here does not help the image of the PM and raises questions about her modus operandus.
The bigger question regarding this trip to India is why did the PM need such a large entourage?
Arrogance , and the side effects of that destructive aphrodisiac, referred to as POWER, T-Man.
It unfortunately , affects women, to the same degree as men, irrespective to what ‘some oh dem well known (unmentionable) clueless, rabid /neo feminist ,fellow,cyber yappers,’like to think.
The movie Iron Lady, on Margret Thatcher, highlighted this quite clearly.
What they failed to recognize is the fact that this country is not the same one , that they inherited from Bozo Patrick,the egomaniac, life time nepotist.
Our people are less tolerant of self serving political bums, who tries to pull wool over their eyes,under the guise of culture, and fake rights.
In the mean time , the stupidity continues,as other Caribbean people, and the world at large , look at Trinis as the dummies of the entire region.
They continue to ‘pee on our legs ,and tell us it’s raining,’ from Calcutta , to Bridgetown, Georgetown ,to Washington,Beijing and beyond.
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/OIL_FEUD-149394145.html
The audacity of these Grenadians!
Changes we can believe in , huh?
The question here is what cultural exchange has she import or export to establish economic growth from each side. Personally i think it’s all the reason for diplomatc trips. It’s notting new to the phase, “now you see it, now you don’t” she could’ve came down to more recent era as to say desentant and not ancestors, most of her development was in the enviroment of the western hemisphere, and not the eastern. And, most of us know the nature of the genes – i’ll be your friend and they’ll turn there face from you in an instance (two faces). That’s the nature and nuture of it all.