By Stephen Kangal
November 29, 2013
The problem relating to the legitimate refusal of 13 Jamaicans entry into T&T by our Immigration officials took place at Piarco. The documentation/personnel/ and Minister Griffith responsible for the interviewing process are here. Foreign Affairs is a ceremonial conduit in this matter. Why then is Minister Dookeran being summoned and voluntarily escorted/handcuffed to Kingston by the resident Jamaican High Commissioner with his tail between his legs and the blessings of his Prime Minister? They must appreciate the bigger underpinnings and enormity of this unregulated influx of Jamaicans into T&T. It presents wider and deeper challenges to T&T for national security concerns, crime reduction, the illicit drug scourge, education and social services? Our Parliament had no say on this matter.
Foreign Minister Nicholson of Jamaica should have sought a meeting in POS with both Ministers Griffith and Dookeran where the problem originated, still exists and can be resolved. As it is now perceived by the man in the street in POS, Minister Dookeran is acting on and being coerced by the undiplomatic and crass ultimatum issued previously by Minister Nicholson. The latter chooses to address a narrow limited resolution in Kingston to pander exclusively to and assuage domestic Jamaican political concerns, unreasonable outrage and interests.
T&T must approach and identify the problem holistically. It must include the number of Jamaicans held at the Immigration Detention Centre awaiting deportation and the obligation of the Jamaican government to fund their return. We must put to Minister Nicholson the 17,000 illegal Jamaicans living in T&T- the drain it places on our social services, health, education, employment, the escalating crime pandemic to say nothing of the proliferation of the illegal drug trade originating from Kingston.
Minister Dookeran cannot undertake any diplomatic demarche with Jamaica that diminishes and blemishes the national psyche and makes us proud and nationalistic Trinbagonians look as spineless weaklings without any self-worth. Please Winston insulate the diplomatic image of T&T from the negative fallout, embarrassment and disrepute in the eyes of the witnessing international and resident diplomatic community by your creative approach to treating with this immigration imbroglio mushrooming with our Caricom partner.
The Jamis had it in for Trinis and Bajans for sometime. Jamis are daily sent back from various parts of the world to Jamaica. From the US, UK and Canada, thousands are rejected each year. So why all the fuss about TnT???
Judging from the Jamaican comments this issue has morphed into a trade war. Jamaica is a relatively poor nation and poor people at times when they feel humiliated tend to misbehave. The Jamaican dollar is $40 to $1 US, the TnT dollar is $6 to $1 US. In addition TnT have a strong, robust manufacturing economy that has exports to Jamaica to the tune of $1 billion US per year, Jamaican exports to TnT is $60 million US. A trade imbalance that annoys the average Jamaican.
Hence it is easy to see why the proud Jamaicans are misbehaving when it comes to a few Jamaicans not allowed entry into TnT. They are now exporting their citizens to TnT and how dare the TnT government stop this export. Trinidad is seen as wealthy, and a place where they can plant new roots. The PNM embraced thousands of islanders and created an illegal voter base giving them ID cards and telling them to vote PNM. Today there are over a 100,000 mainly PNM supporters wanting HDC housing, once they enter they don’t pay anything.
Dookeran will be told that Caricom should allow free movement of people meaning no criterion for entering TnT according to the treaty of Chagaramas. As Jamaicans seek to push their export of people into TnT that billion dollar trade deficit will become the trump card. TnT have a good health care system, people can live freely in HDC housing etc..
The people who should complain about poor treatment by Trinidad immigration is the Guyanese. During the 60s onward Guyanese were treated very badly by TnT immigration under the PNM as thousand fled a Burnham lead government. They were “persona non grata”, the PNM embraced islanders from Grenada, st. Vincent, Antigua, Barbados… TnT must not buckle to the Jamaican demand of free entry into TnT and they should ask the Jamaican government to take back the 17,000 illegals.
Mamoo says ‘The Jamaican dollar is $40 to $1 US’. Mamoo, a where you get this information?
Today’s rate is $105. Jamaican to $1 US.
“The PNM embraced thousands of islanders and created an illegal voter base giving them ID cards and telling them to vote PNM. Today there are over a 100,000 mainly PNM supporters wanting HDC housing, once they enter they don’t pay anything.”………Mamoo
“During the 60s onward Guyanese were treated very badly by TnT immigration under the PNM as thousand fled a Burnham lead government. They were “persona non grata”, the PNM embraced islanders from Grenada, st. Vincent, Antigua, Barbados…” …..Mamoo
I hate being so blunt but this is classic Trinidad hindu propaganda. On one hand it how bad Trinidad foreign policy is when it is viewed by hindus as being lenient with “small islanders” and with the same breath extols the brilliance of Kamla’s foreign policy when it prevents Jamaicans from entering Trinidad. When shall we be a country of laws that respects no race, color or creed? It is alarming how this administration in particular is so conscious in interpreting this country’s laws with a racial vision.
The Indian is always the victim. The perpetrator is always the PNM. Lets clarify symbols here Guyanese means Indians and small islanders or Jamaicans mean Africans. It is no wonder Kamla had no compunction in addressing Caricom (less Guyana) members by letting them know that Trinidad is “not an ATM”. The code words that we so frequently read in the media is that Africans are lazy and Indians bright and industrious. We cannot become a truly independent nation if we are to be forever inundated with those kinds of accusations. It is often put forward by bloggers of the hindu religion that Manning’s big corruption was Calder Hart, the church on the hill and Penia. Wow! wow! compare that to Kamla’s mess and we can see a litany of government lapses too numerous to mention. I’m sure by the time this blogs reaches the public a new scandal would have been emerged. It is vexing how callous the administration, media and some hindu writers have consistently used the PNM to denitrify with racial hatred for Indians. Enough of this crap is enough. Let us all try to adults ion this puerile world of politics. Let us act and think like grown-ups and talk problems through and come up with the best solutions. There are just too many Mamoos out there!
“used the PNM to denitrify with racial hatred for Indians.”
correction: “used the PNM to identify with racial hatred for Indians.” “Let us all try to adults ion this puerile world of politics.” correction: “Let us all try to be adults in this puerile world of politics.”
Jamaica is not as poor as you think. Jamaicans no matter race or creed do not have the same stereotypes as Trinidadians. I am of Indian decent and I am Jamaican. My visit to Trinidad although brief made me realize that Trinidad is “backwards” and the people are racist. I do not think Trinidad needs any help with crime from Jamaicans as they have a long standing hate for each other stemming from racial bias. You could learn a few things from the Jamaicans out of many we are one people.
Was Uganda ‘forward’ during Idi Amin reign in regards to indians in the 70s? How did Jomo Kenyatta handled the same aspect when he referred to indians as being commercially oriented and can play a role in segmental development in Kenya? I have many Jamaican friends but I do take umbrage when you refer to us Trinis as racists.
Well said …we in the Caribbean are just more of the same and are treated as such in North America. We in the Caribbean need to wake up and smell the coffee. At that Blue Mountain coffee is arguably the best in the world but do Jamaicans benefit…no. Our leaders do like the white man before him and keep us all enslaved. We need to fight our own civil war and obtain our own freedom. Its about time. I remember the man who said “one from ten leaves nought”. He cared of self only. And in the case of of C.L.R. James he was public enemy number one. We were left out in the rain since then. Haiti was destroyed by who?
Thank you for your excellent observation and comment. In Trinidad, race takes precedence over nationality, unlike Jamaica which is so sad.
In Trinidad, the East Indian population exceeds 500,000 from a population of 1,400,000. In Jamaica, the East Indian population is approximately 60,000 from a population of 2,800,000.
In Trinidad, East Indians consider themselves Indians while Afro/Blacks are viewed as Trinidadians. East Indian Trinidadians adhere to their Indian culture, religion, customs and traditions. In fact, I can recall instances of the Indian Cricket Team playing against the West Indies Cricket team at the Queens Park Oval in Trinidad, and East Indian Trinidadians fully supporting the Indian Cricket team.
Conversely, Jamaicans are very nationalistic regardless of race. In Jamaica, people of Chinese, Indian, Syrian and Europeans, through assimilation, have formed a unique Jamaican identity. From experience, I have encountered Jamaicans of Afro/Black, Chinese and Indian origins that are Jamaicans and nothing else. In fact, Jamaicans of Chinese or Indian origins feel insulted if they are referred to as Chinese or Indians.
That is how the Indians in Jamaica have been stripped out of their ancestral memory and now they are regarded as neither fish nor fowl and treated with disrespect having been culturally marginalised and isolated to abandon their cultural moorings brought by their parents and grand-parents.
There is one thing that is constant in Life and that is change.
By your description, if truth be told, your past is marginalizing your progression into the future and the inherent changes present a mental handicap by your earnest clutching to the past. In your “mental-world” Trinidad is defined by Indian vs. Other.
Your misunderstanding or mental block in comprehending beyond the socio-cultural box that you have confined yourself for years is that “Jamaica” is a synthesis/evolution of cultural heritage (out of many one people)with a unique self-identity as a nation. Jamaica, and Jamaicans fully appreciate their Heritage/roots, but they are intelligent enough to recognize that in Unity there is strength and hypocritical biases of the past (which may have been relevant to the past environment/nation) which serve to segregate a modern nation is an exercise in futility, subverts creativity and innovation – “No Man is an island” and the human race having evolved should be intelligent enough to be able to co-exist in harmony.
The Politics of Mental slavery serves to divide for its own selfish objectives, but good conquers evil, love conquers all. We may all have differing Past, but an undeniable fact remains that we are all the same – human beings…unless you have detected that your unique biology renders you deviant in accepted classification.
Regardless of how they try, they will not succeed in creating little Fijis in the Caribbean. I am glad that the Jamaicans are beginning to see the nasty underbelly of Hindu Prejudice operating out of T&T and Guyana. They want to create a little India in either T&T or Guyana, but the more they try, the more obvious it becomes, and the tolerance to ignore it will soon fade away and Caribbean Africans will reach that point where they will just respond with a “kiss me where the sun do not shine”.
Obama , using FBI planes, drops off illegal and convicted Jamaicans by the hundreds quite frequently. T&T is trying to do likewise.
I wonder if Obama is a Hindu?
Are you saying all Jamaicans are criminals?
Countries including T&T have something called Immigration laws. Those who violate these laws will obviously be dealt with.
There seems to be a disproportionate number of Jamaicans in violation of laws in the USA, England, Canada and now T&T. Also, Jamaicans have made valuable contributions to every aspect of life and culture in these countries.
TMan, unlike your ‘Her Royal Highness’ here in Trinidad O’Bama has to follow policy, whether he likes it or not, until the law changes, he has to follow the immigration laws. Well! Hindu law is ….?????? whatever……
That is precisely what the immigration officers were doing when they rejected the Jamaicans who seemed to be trying to enter illegally.
There are over 17,000 illegal Jamaicans in T&T according to the Minister of National Security, Gary Griffiths.
If mistakes were made by these immigration officers, then an apology should be made.
Barbados has been refusing admission to certain Jamaicans for years; however, there were no accusations of discrimination made against the Barbados government. A Jamaican national was stripped searched by immigration and she sued the Barbados government and won her case on appeal to the CCJ.You people are too quick to criticize without knowing all the facts. And yes, T&T is not the ATM for the Caribbean.
Your obstinate hatred of Indians have been repeated on this website quite frequently.
Your understanding of the cultural mix in T&T is discolored by your prejudice which is so deeply entrenched that it is futile to have a civilized discussion with people like you. Thank God you do not reside between us in T&T.
You limit yourself to a single idea about Indians over and over and over….you seem to be capable of much more.
This comment was directed to Rodwell.
The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade took place across the Atlantic Ocean from the 16th through to the 19th centuries. The vast majority of slaves transported to the New World were Africans from the central and western parts of the continent, sold by Africans to European slave traders who then transported them to North and South America.
INDIANS have kept their heritage strong by observing religious times in their culture ,through their naming process they have maintained an identity with their mother land.Chinese have done the same.
AFRICAN in the caribbean need to reach this point in their existences .Where they identify with the African side.
MOST AFRICAN has as their middle name another “white-man” name.
The caribbean does not belong to AFRICAN ,INDIAN,OR CHINESE.
COLUMBUS destroyed most of the indigenous people.
The Arawak people are one of the tribes of indigenous peoples of the Caribbean
i honestly do not believe Indians are trying to create little India in Trinidad or Guyana because of upholding their culture.
then if this is your opinion Africans should try and create little Africa in the Caribbean.
PLEASE USE YOUR SPACE TO PROVIDE SOME FORM OF KNOWLEDGE.
Division got us further from development.
Division destroyed Families .
we should embrace each other and thank God we can co-exist so peacefully.
Next time you meet and African Male or Female ask if their name
relates to Africa and if not Y..remember our identity begins with our NAME
The author of this article asserts that the Jamaican Indian is “stripped out of their ancestral memory and now they are regarded as neither fish nor fowl “. This is his description of the Indians who want to be associated and identified with the land of his birth. If the land of your birth is less than the land associated with your ancestry then we do have a serious problem. According to him it means that you become culturally marginalized because, according to him you have abandoned your cultural moorings brought by your parent and grand-parents. Wow! great stuff!. His assertions have crystalized what the non-Indian Trinidadian have always thought – Indians like this author does not have the interests of the islands known as Trinidad and Tobago when he gets to join in public discourse about who and what we are. His allegiance is to Mother India and all that it stands for. The oil riches produced by Pointe a Pierre is for the benefit of mother India, the asphalt grown by the lake in La Brea is for the benefit of mother India, the (past) cane fields of Caroni is for mother India, the fishes of the sea surrounding Trinidad and Tobago is for mother India, the hard work performed by the African slaves to build our foundations is for mother India, when we go to the parliament and make laws it is for mother India. Yes, this writer is astounded that an Indian would be proud enough to be associated with the likes of a united Caribbean. To do so is to be “stripped out of their ancestral memory”. How much more arrogant can one individual get? India is the land of the monarchy where anywhere its descendants live “I am monarch of all I survey, my right there is none to dispute”. Yes, this is the arrogance and foolhardiness of our dear writer. God bless Jamaica, because it has produced a people who are intent on being Jamaicans first and foremost. This is the goal of nationhood. This is where every body who work towards a nationality want to be. This is what the laws and regulations are for, this is why we work and put so much effort to establish laws, customs, behavior, communities, towns, villages, cities and institutions for – to create a nation. Is the writer asserting that this government that he professes to support work toward an ‘India of Trinidad and Tobago’? His professed senses do point in that direction and since he puts his thoughts to be absorbed for public discussion, we must examine why he would be so dispassionately abhorrent to someone who believes that whether you are African, Indian, Chinese, Syrian, English, French or Creole, as long as we share a piece of land together we should be nationalistic enough to call it ours and no one else’s. When you share such diabolic sentiments, you are asking for no respect from those who disagree with you.
” If the land of your birth is less than the land associated with your ancestry then we do have a serious problem”.(KIAN)
Do Caribbean immigrants to the USA abandon their cultural habits and Caribbean roots to fully adopt American culture?
Is it not possible to strike a comfortable balance without denying one’s roots?
Indians in the Caribbean have been frequently criticized for striving to maintain their culture, language, and religion. They have struggled for centuries in the face of adversity, to preserve their ancestry. At the same time they have become proud Trinbogonians. A visit to India reinforces the appreciation of being a Trini.
However, it was Marcus Garvey who correctly stated that “a people without the knowledge of their past history, origin, language and culture is like a tree without roots”.
“Is it not possible to strike a comfortable balance without denying one’s roots?”. …….TMan
The answer to that question is an undeniable ‘yes’ and I cannot be against one who is very aware of his or her background and reflects it in his behavior but to deny one’s current nationality is another matter. How can one become culturally marginalized if he adheres to the culture of his homeland? This aspect of the author’s assertion is what I was responding to. Another author by the name Tidasingh asserted that the Afro Trinidadian cannot consider himself ‘native’ to Trinidad and should consider himself an immigrant. Even if this assertion is taken literally it would not be completely true, why? The African consciousness of self was wiped clean by the white man. Even if he somehow remembered, it was physically beaten out of his memory. When he entered the western world it was never with his consent or acquiescence
, he was brought against his will and treated inhumanely. If he was lucky enough to have a blood relative close to him, he or they would be taken away, so they could be no continuity in lineage or culture. The Indian, as an immigrant came here of his own volition and free will, so the term ‘immigrant’ is definitely appropriate. He arrived with culture in tact and free to practice it. Unlike the African who, by nature of his forced entry and lost background had to form a culture based soley on what he learned in the new world. He could not be called an ‘immigrant’ because he was denied free will to emigrate. So he was forced to become ‘native’ to wherever he found himself. The Indians have ‘free will’ to be East Indian or West Indian. The West Indian in the USA, Canada or UK finds solace in his West Indian ancestry because the European culture in these countries is not conducive to his way of life. Not so much that it is foreign but the West Indian experience embraces a culture that is diversified in his nature and is easily relatable. On the other hand the European behavior and culture remain to this day one of ‘conqueror’ and headman. The West Indian is more palatable to ‘live and let live’. But the word ‘balance’ is very appropriate and that is what this blog is addressing.
Trinidad and Tobago was able to establish that the period 2010 to 2013, a total of 56,324 Jamaica nationals sought entry into TT of whom 54,362 or 96 percent were admitted.(Trinidad Express)
To the destabilisers on this website: Know your facts before making racist accusations against the government of T&T.
Minister Dookeran went to Kingston ostensibly to solve the immigration impasse but came back admitting just easing the tension while the immigration problem with Jamaica remains unsolved.
That is diplomacy for your money.
Why has Minister Dookeran agreed without Cabinet’s approval with Senator AJ Nicholson to link immigration of Jamaicans to T&T with T&T’s trading relations with Jamaica? This is utter madness because you are trying to reshape and alter geography in the interest of the Jamaicans who retain the benefits geography has conferred on them while denying the same to his homeland T&T. This is a betrayal of his homeland and complete and utter submission to the whims and fancies of the Jamaican agenda of which he is a victim. Why do we have a separate bilateral agreement on trade and immigration outside of the CSME with Jamaica. I have repeatedly held that Dookeran should not be going to Jamaica without ground preparation by an advance team of technocrats to shape the agenda .Additionally the problem arose in T&T and not in Jamaica and should have been addressed here where advisers are available and Cabinet near by for consultations.
When will we learn that people like duck and run should not represent us anywhere in the world. Our lessons learnt data base should reflect the happenings of 1990. This man just do not cut it and do not live up to want we want in leadership. Can we please remove him and lets move on?….Controversy be it 1990, central bank key issues, income tax recovery methods, COP affairs etc. just follows him. His leadership qualities lacks…
Please, do not link T&T with Barbados in terms of the Jamaicans attitude. The Jamaicans attitude towards T&T is linked to the discernment of the ethnic preferential disposition of the current regime and its sycophants. They know you, have heard from you, and see you for what you are.
In time the entire Caribbean will awaken to the attempts to Indianize T&T and Guyana by some Indians for whom power can mean only one thing. Total domination of any black population that exist in the geography.
Black people open their arms in welcome to all groups regardless of their origin. It is the unique trait that over the centuries have worked to our disadvantage, since we soon discovered that those to whom we opened our arms and welcomed into our midst, usually, as soon as their numbers become significant and they get their hands on power, begin postulating the notion that they are superior and we are inferior. Whether it is Fiji, T&T, Guyana, and even in many parts of Africa, the Indian nexus to the motherland comes with all of the historical prejudiced baggage that has been part of the social stratification of that nation for centuries.
The screwed up pattern of thinking proposes that any objection by Africans to accept the downward stratification that allows Indians to assume the role vacated by baccra, amounts to racism against them. Well that is the concept of reverse racism dreamed up by right wing forces in the US, so the shared strategy should inform us more about the shared attitude of the two human components.
I am not one for mincing words, and I have long rejected the notion that the divisions in T&T are the product of black intolerance. The division in T&T, in Guyana, in Fiji is a product of the same attitudes that molded and shaped the stratification of India, and renders it acceptable to many that some people are inferior because they are dark, or have woolly hair, or whatever. It was the one trait the white man sought in introducing another set of dark skinned peoples to the territories, and unwilling to act to his own detriment by bringing a population that would automatically empathize with his former slaves, and join them in opposing him.